investigate and examine all things of earth and sky. These, then, are what are called into life on the fifth day, and represent a late stage in the great work of regeneration. In the previous stages every act of man was more or less mixed up with man's proprium or selfhood; "but now" (to quote again from Swedenborg) "that he is vivified by love and faith, and believeth that the Lord produceth all the good that he does and all the truth which he speaks, he is compared, first, to the creeping things of the water and to the birds which fly above the earth. . Whatsoever things are from the Lord contain life in themselves, because they contain faith towards Him, and are here signified by the creature that has life, and they have also a species of body, here signified by what moveth itself or creepeth. These things, however, are at the present day mysteries (arcana) to man" (A. C. 39, 41). We need not stop to dwell on the command given to these newly-created things to "be fruitful and multiply," as we may justly conclude that whatever receives life from the Lord, whether it be corporeal or spiritual, must needs fructify and multiply itself immensely. We pass on, therefore, to the last stage of the regenerate life, the sixth day, as it is termed in Scripture language. On the previous day it was the living things of the waters and of the air that were called into existence. We come now to the living things of the earth. "The beast of the earth after his kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind." This represents a much higher stage, as the things here enumerated have reference to the affections of the will, whereas the former corresponded solely to the intellect or understanding. This may appear a somewhat vague statement until it is understood that man's spiritual nature consists in the complex solely of these two parts, and, therefore, that throughout the whole of the Divine Word everything is written with reference to one or other of these faculties. This accounts for the frequent apparent repetitions of the same idea in the Scriptures, synonymous expressions and terms being coupled together with no very evident object. This is strikingly the case in the Book of Psalms, where almost every verse contains its matter in duplicate. In no case, however, are such expressions really synonymous, but refer the one to the will and the other to the understanding, or rather, to the two great principles of goodness and truth (already alluded to at some length), of which these two faculties are respectively the receptacles. Reverting, therefore, to the words of our text, we quote again from our author: "The things belonging to the will are signified here by the living soul which the earth produceth, and by beast and creeping thing, and also by the wild beast of that earth. Such was the method of representing the things relating to the understanding and the will with those who lived in the most ancient times; hence amongst the prophets, and constantly in the Word of the Old Testament, the like things are represented by different kinds of animals." The final act of man's spiritual creation is described in the subsequent verses of our chapter, beginning, "And God said, Let us make man in our own image," etc. To epitomize all the various arcana included in this description is impossible. The author already quoted explains that in the earliest times the term man had a different signification from that now used, and referred to the Lord alone, or to such things as were derived from Him. The ancients, therefore, did not call themselves men except in so far as they became images of the Divine goodness and truth. It was from this reason that in the prophets by Man and Son of Man is meant in the supreme sense the Lord. When, therefore, it is said, "Let us make man in our own image," it does not allude to the mere creation of man as an organic being, but to the time or state when, having become regenerate, he might fitly be called a true spiritual man, an image and likeness of God Himself. It was in this sense that Jeremiah used the word man in a passage already quoted. "I beheld," says he, "and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of heaven had fled" (chap. iv. 25); also in Isaiah, where by man is meant a regenerate person, and in the highest sense the Lord Himself (chap. xlv. II, 13). At the conclusion of this great work, when man is said to have been created in God's image, and when God had further blessed him and given all things under heaven. into his keeping and dominion, it is added, "And God saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very good." Here it is called very good, where before it was only good. This is on account of the work being perfected. Prior to this it was in an incomplete stage, "for in his unregenerate state man is not really man, and hath nothing of man about him; but as he advances in the regeneration he acquireth by little and little that which constituteth him a man, until he attaineth to the sixth day, in which he becometh an image and likeness of God" (A. C. 62). "In the meanwhile the Lord fighteth continually for him against evils and falsities, and by such combats confirmeth him in truth and goodness: the time of combat (or temptation) is the time of the Lord's operation. Wherefore a regenerate person is called by the prophets the work of the fingers of God; nor doth the Lord cease to work until the principle of love has become the chief agent, and then the combat is over" (A. C. 62, 63). Our With this quotation we close our remarks. endeavour has been to give, as briefly as possible, a general outline of the six days or stages of man's recreation from the period when his mind is "without form and void" to the blessed time when, having passed through the combats of temptation and through much tribulation, he becomes at length "an image and likeness of God." It is impossible in so short a compass to do more than glance rapidly at the various particulars enumerated in the chapter which we have been considering; but to those of our readers who desire to study the subject more in detail, we would strongly recommend a careful perusal of the work from which we have so frequently quoted-Swedenborg's "Arcana Coelestia." In this is unfolded the spiritual sense of the books of Genesis and Exodus, from which a key to the whole of the Divine Word may be obtained. In our third and last lecture we shall consider the particulars contained in the second chapter of Genesis, which describe a still higher development of man's nature, viz. the celestial. F. A. ON SOME OF THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PRESENT AGE. III. AN AGE OF RELIGION. HE last characteristic of this age which we shall notice is that it is a religious age. It would avail us little that this is an age of free-thought or that it is a scientific age, if it were not also a religious age; for however much free-thought or science may enrich and satisfy the intellect and improve man's worldly condition, they can never satisfy the heart; and, after all, it is the heart, those spiritual longings and desires which are man's chief distinction, and which separate him, by an impassable gulf, from all animals lower in the scale. Nature may hold and enthral man for a time, but sooner or later he will turn to that spiritual world from whence he came, as flowers turn to the sun, or as waters rise to their source. To our natural minds earth has many seductions, as Wordsworth finely expresses it— "Earth fills her lap with pleasures of her own, The homely nurse doth all she can To make her foster-child, her inmate man, And that imperial palace whence he came." But earth and all its belongings cannot fully satisfy the heart, for as St. Augustine says, "Thou madest us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless until they find Thee." But some one may say, How can you call this a religious age? is there not a general loosening of men's belief? is infidelity not being sown broadcast through the land? can we take up a newspaper or a magazine without seeing doubt thrown on some belief in which we have been wont implicitly to trust? can that be a religious age which questions almost every doctrine looked upon as religious? And yet I firmly believe that perhaps the chiefest characteristic of this age is that it is a religious age. We see little now of that bold and defiant spirit which characterized the last century, when men like Tom Paine and Voltaire did not only sneer at revealed religion, but sneered at that goodness and truth on which religion itself is built. They had no belief themselves, and they laughed at the belief of others. They seemed to think that the best service they could do man was to rob him of every belief in which he trusted, to leave him without God and without hope in the world, and thus to leave him a prey to falsehood, selfishness, and sin. Their infidelity was the infidelity of the heart, which is a deadly thing. The infidelity of the head may also be dangerous, but it may be remedied, and often cures itself, being often a mere temporary process which some minds pass through on their way to higher beliefs and truer views of God's character; but the infidelity of the heart, that infidelity that sneers at goodness and truth itself, is like some deadly cancer eating into the vitals of the soul itself. The spirit of the present age is in striking contrast with all this. Even those men who now differ from us in our beliefs do so in a kindly and tender spirit; they follow boldly wherever their convictions lead them, but they do not sneer at those who hold to beliefs altogether different from their own; they are men, very many of them of great singleness of aim, following what they believe to be true with a patient persistency; and, above all, they are animated by a broad spirit of charity, and when they are reviled in controversy they revile not again. It is customary to speak of John Stuart Mill, Professors Huxley and Tyndall, as infidels, but I would not dare to brand such men with such a name. However much their theological beliefs differ from our own, if indeed they have any theological beliefs, one cannot read any of their books without perceiving that these are men who set before themselves high ideals and lofty purposes in life, having such a strict reverence for truth that, as W. Tyndall remarked in the preface to his Belfast address, the only fear he permitted to act on his mind was the "fear of uttering a single word in which he could not take his stand either in this or any other world." These men's intellectual beliefs err through probably being constituted with an excess of the scientific intellect, and so they exclude from their vision all that cannot be proved by the methods of science, and so they give the go-by to all the great truths of religion; it is not that they do not want to believe them, but apparently they cannot believe them, but in this matter I believe their hearts are truer than their heads. It would be hard to call any man an infidel who, though perplexed in faith yet pure in deeds, is in a humble spirit earnestly seeking truth, who is daily trying to overcome that selfishness of which we are all the victims, and which is the root of all evil, who is disinterested in his actions, and continually sacrificing himself for the welfare of others. It may probably be found in the future that these men are nearer the kingdom of heaven than what we or even themselves imagined; and although they did not say, "Lord," "Lord," yet still, inasmuch as they strove for the welfare of men, they did it unto Him who is not ashamed to call men His brethren. The real infidel, however, who is truly dangerous to society, and who may be found in every Church in the land, is he who glories in his creed yet is blind to the spiritual life which that creed expresses, who while making a strong profession of belief yet shows by his life that he has no reverence for goodness and truth, whose life is full of low aims and selfish purposes, and who believes in one being, that is to say, himself. That is a deep form of infidelity, the infidelity of the heart which closes the soul against goodness, truth, and every heavenly influence, and leaves the man with only the name of life, while in reality he is dead. While putting in a plea for the scientific men of the present day, who, being greatly misunderstood, are unnecessarily condemned, I would be careful to say I do not agree with them. The best spirit, I hold, is that which does not dogmatize, which gives to creeds their due place and value as merely human interpretations of truth, but yet holds truly to all the great doctrines of revelation; and, above all, takes one great life for its model, that only life of perfect manhood which has yet been lived on the earth. We might say with Tennyson "Our little systems have their day, They have their day and cease to be, The highest, holiest, manhood Thou, It is because this sincerity of spirit is abroad at the present day, that spirit that may hold creeds loosely but yet cleaves to that inward spirit of religion without which creeds are sounding brass and tinkling cymbals, that I venture to call this a religious age. When, for instance, was there ever such a wide recognition of the two great truths on which religion itself is built-the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of man? when was the Christian law of self-sacrifice for the good of others so insisted on and more practised than now? Are men not now more and more awaking to the fact that every man is his brother's keeper; that as physical nature is one, so also human nature is one and indivisible; and that, in a Christian spirit, to work for the general good is the highest function of man? was there ever such a widespread philanthropy, so many agencies employed to meet and overcome evil, so much ferment in politics, such a horror of war as letting loose the worst and basest passions of mankind ?— these and a thousand other proofs bear witness that this is a religious age, and that, having grasped the essential spirit of religion, it will continue to move forward "along the path of order and of good." I have said nothing of the evil characteristics of he age, not that they do not exist, or that I do not believe in them, but that space will not permit. They exist in abundance, hideous in their foul deformity, and it would be a good subject for any writer who may wish to point them out. Only a few of them, however, are characteristic of the age; they exist more as an evil legacy from the past, but without shutting our eyes to the evils of the present, I think them small in comparison with the ever-increasing spirit of good. There is a slow, patient, but infallible Providence overruling all things, bringing good out of evil and making the errors of one age the warning of the next, making the very wrath of man to praise Him, and guiding man himself forward towards a great and glorious destiny. D. GENTLE. SWEDENBORG AND THE SO-CALLED SEX HE Editor informs me that it is now time to bring to a close the interesting discussion of this question. I will therefore briefly review the position as it now stands in relation to the arguments advanced in my article of August 17th, which inaugurated the discussion of this question in Morning Light. The first thing I have to say is that those arguments remain entirely unanswered. They are not only unanswered-they are untouched. The plant-father of the common pea, which I asked to have shown to us, has never so much as been heard of. The reason is obvious, not only to scientific botanists, but to the people I wrote for, and that is all the readers of Morning Light. The reason is that there is no plant-father. The only plant-father that exists is a part of the plant-mother. This is an absurdity so egregious that no one would have the courage to face it, and that is the obvious reason why no one has ventured to touch the point that I then made. That being the case, the whole theory-no, I will not say the whole theory, for there isn't one, but the whole talk about the sex of plants -is in my opinion completely exploded. I shall not, therefore, enter any further into the subject. Others have done so with far greater knowledge of its technical details than I can lay claim to. I am sincerely glad that this discussion has taken place, if it were only on account of its having been the means of calling forth the splendid article of Mr. Gardiner, who is both a scientific botanist of recognised authority and a careful student of Swedenborg. I think that as time goes on it will be found that that article has virtually settled the question for ever; but however that may be, this fact has been incontestably proved, namely, that Swedenborg hasn't got all the scientific botanists against him. While that is the case it must further be obvious to all that to assert that Swedenborg has in this particular advanced a false doctrine is a highly dangerous procedure. Bruce. I, like Mr. Gardiner, have not found it pleasant to my feelings to attack anything that has been said by Mr. But the fact is, I attacked Mr. Bruce's statement that Swedenborg had taught false doctrine just because it was Mr. Bruce's statement. If that statement had been made by anybody of less weight than Mr. Bruce, I should, to quote his own native language, have "let the jaw gae bye." Mr. Bruce says he has no interest in making Swedenborg wrong. Certainly not. none of us, I hope, any interest to serve but that of the truth. Still, in the heat of discussion, especially with a leviathan like Dr. Tafel, ill-considered statements may be made by the wisest finite creatures, and I think this is one of them. Mr. Bruce undoubtedly stated the case rightly when he said that Swedenborg's doctrine was involved in this question. Swedenborg's assertion as to We have the male sex of plants is no mere passing allusion, but a deliberate and formally stated doctrine, which he paused in his general argument to deliver at length. To charge Swedenborg with being in error in this case, therefore, is not merely to charge him with being in error, but it is to charge him also with intolerable presumption. It is to make Swedenborg out to be capable of mounting the high horse, and heralding forth in an authoritative manner a doctrine that he was himself ignorant about, and that he didn't know he was ignorant about. It is to make him out to be capable of going out of his way to lecture the world on a subject he wasn't properly qualified to speak about. That I can never believe. If Swedenborg hadn't known most thoroughly well that all plants, as "subjects of the vegetable kingdom," i.e. as plants, are male, he would never have said so. If he hadn't known it as he knew everything else, i.e. from heavenly light and instruction, he would never have broached the subject at all. What a conception must we form of that great and wise man to suppose him capable of such, I say it again, of such intolerable annoyance and presumption ! Let Swedenborg's doctrine be taken as it stands, let him not be forced to say anything he never did say, and then it will be found that there isn't the least conflict between him and modern science (I don't say modern theories) in any respect. My dear friend Mr. Bruce has written a subsequent article in Morning Light of November 9, which, like everything else that proceeds from his pen, is in many respects pleasant to read and profitable to meditate upon. But what is the main argument of that article based upon? Why, upon a complete misconception of Swedenborg's doctrine as to the sex of the earth. Mr. Gardiner has shown this in his reply of December 7th, where he points out that what Swedenborg really does say is that the earth is as it were a female (sicut fœmina) (T. C. R. 585). To this allow me to add another very interesting proof from the T. C. R., that Mr. Gardiner is right in this position also. It is found in section 308 in connection with Swedenborg's exposition of the commandment "Honour thy father and thy mother:" "That the Lord might operate into inanimate things, He created the sun, which is as it were a father in the natural world, and the earth, which is as it were a mother, and from the marriage of which all the generations exist that adorn the surface of the planet.' I quote this passage, which precedes the famous one that is in question, to prove that when Swedenborg said the earth was "as it were a female," he didn't mean, as Mr. Bruce has argued, that it is actually the wife of plants. This being so, the whole of Mr. Bruce's argument, based on that interpretation of Swedenborg's meaning, falls to the ground. As an argument against Swedenborg's doctrine, it is, as Mr. Gardiner says, of no application. And now to bring this long, but not unprofitable, discussion to a close, I will give here a literal, exact, and reverent translation of the whole of the now celebrated passage where Swedenborg formulates his doctrine of the (male) sex of plants. I daresay it will be nearly all new to many, even of those who have entered into discussion, whether publicly or privately, about it. In these calm, majestic, and beautifully clear words; in this carefully chosen and precisely accurate language, I hear the voice of heavenly wisdom speaking. I hear the voice of profound knowledge, of sagacious and ripe experience of Divine Truth, and of real science. If some there are who cannot hear it, I am sorry, but it is enough for me at present to say that I hear it, and that I hope many others will now be able to do the same: "That the vegetations, not only of this, but also of all shrubs, correspond to the prolifications of men, has been propounded by means of the learned, wherefore, by way of appendix, I will add something about it. In trees and in all other subjects of the vegetable kingdom there are not two sexes, male and female, but every one of them is male; the earth alone, or the ground, is the common mother, thus is as it were a female; for she receives the seeds of all plants, opens them up, gestates them as it were in the womb, and then nourishes them and brings them forth, that is, puts them forth into the day, and afterwards clothes them and sustains them. When the earth first opens the seed, she begins from the root, which is like a heart, and from that she sends forth and circulates the sap, which is as it were the blood. Thus she forms as it were a body furnished with members, the stem itself being the plant's body, and the branches and their twigs its members. The leaves, which she puts forth immediately after the birth, are in place of a lung; for as a heart without a lung does not produce motion or sense and thus vivify a man, so a root does not cause vegetation in a tree or shrub without leaves. The flowers which precede the fruit are the means of decanting its blood, the sap, and of separating the coarser from the purer parts of it. For the influx of these purer parts into their bosom the flowers are also the means of forming a new little stalk, through which the decanted sap may flow in, and thus initiate and successively give conformation to the fruit, which may be compared to a testicle in which the seeds are brought to perfection. The vegetative soul or prolific essence of the sap, which reigns inmostly in every particle of it, is from no other source than the heat of the spiritual world, which, being from the spiritual sun there, breathes nothing else but generation, and by that a continuation of creation; and since it breathes essentially the generation of man, therefore upon whatever it generates it induces some likeness of a man. Lest any one should wonder at its being said that the subjects of the vegetable kingdom are nothing but males, and that the earth or ground alone is as it were a common mother, or as it were a female, this shall be illustrated by a similar thing in the case of bees. With them, according to the testimony of Swammerdam in his Biblia Natura, there is only one common mother, from whom all the progeny of the whole hive is produced. If these little animals have If these little animals have only one common mother, why not all plants? That the earth is a common mother may also be spiritually illustrated by this, that the earth in the Word signifies the Church, and the Church is the common mother, as also she is called in the Word. But the reason why the earth or ground is able to enter into the inmost of the seed even to its prolific [essence], and to draw it forth and set it free, is because every grain of dust or earthy particle exhales from its essence a subtle somewhat like an effluvium which penetrates [the seed]. This is done by means of the active force of the heat from the spiritual world." JOHN FAULKNER POTTS. THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. HE columns of the Rock have for some time past contained frequent references to the subject of the existence of an intermediate state, the editor of that paper maintaining that such a state must of necessity exist. The Wiltshire Protestant Beacon was immediately ignited with indignation at the idea of such a doctrine being taught by a Protestant paper, and felt bound to show a light to warn the unwary of the dangerous Rock ahead. The result is a characteristic article in the Rock of November 8th, where both sides of the controversy are indicated with sufficient fulness to give the reader a general idea of the sapient manner in which these worthy brethren deal with the subject. The editor of the Beacon urges his readers not to receive the doctrine of an intermediate state "unless they are prepared for a leap into Purgatory," and mildly suggests that the sentiments of the Rock are "abominable trash," and that "the editor is surely gone 'off his head,' or the enemy has got him safely in his trap." The editor of the R solemnly protests that he never misses an opportunity of denouncing the blasphemous, though lucrative, doctrine of the Romish Church. We sympathize with the Rock in its protest, for as far as we can make it out the Rock's idea of the intermediate state possesses many traces of originality. "Hades ... is situated in the centre of the earth; . . . there is doubtless an ocean of liquid fire at a certain depth below the earth's surface, and jets from this break forth here and there into volcanoes. The mass of earth has been carefully weighed, and all the latest experiments go to prove that there is a great interior cavity. It is here that departed spirits find a temporary resting-place, under conditions which it is scarcely possible for us to conceive." We quite agree with the Rock that it is scarcely possible to conceive under what conditions existence could be endurable, nay more, it is absolutely impossible. The editor of the Rock, in reply to the Beacon, proceeds to defend this view of the location of Hades by contending that the doctrine of the resurrection "necessarily implies, as regards departed spirits, an intermediate state-neither on earth or in heaven-where the spirits are detained for awhile, waiting, as the case may be, for their perfect consummation of misery or of bliss. But if this temporary abode be neither in the heaven above, or on the earth below, it must needs be in the centre of our planet!" We are assured by the Rock that a belief of this kind is the only alternative in view of the results of modern scientific research. A correspondent having raised the question of the capacity of the "central cavity," the editor suggests that "this difficulty may be solved as Milton solved it when he represented all the millions of fallen spirits squeezing themselves into Pandemonium." And the editor of the Beacon for calling such sentiments "abominable trash" is rewarded with the following crushing reply: "Surely even the Wiltshire Beacon would not maintain that a disembodied spirit requires as much space as the same spirit in its covering of clay. Still the objection as to space we regard as entirely preposterous. It was calculated a few years ago that England and Wales would supply standing room for our resurrection bodies placed as closely together as people in an ordinary crowd. But the interior of the earth-if the same be hollow-must furnish room for a thousand times that number." The Rock is quite right in asserting that the Scriptures teach the existence of an intermediate state, but gets into error in supposing that none of those who have passed away from earth have entered upon their final reward. The Beacon is right in supposing that the saints have already entered upon the rest in heaven, but wrong in imagining that this can have been done without passing through an intermediate state. The primary cause of error upon this subject is connected with the belief of the future resurrection of dead bodies, and the consequent failure to realize that "the spirits of just men made perfect" cannot need to reassume the cast-off garments of mortality. It is pure materialism to speak of the space required for "disembodied spirits," a phrase that has no Scripture warrant. The Apostle speaks of a spiritual body, but never of a spirit without a body. And the idea that "Hades" is a cavity in the centre of the earth is more akin to the spirit of the "Arabian Nights" than to this plain common-sense teaching of the Scriptures. Such conceptions are of the earth, earthy. SEDAN. THE THE PRINCESS ALICE. HE Grand Duchess of Hesse, the Princess Alice, the second daughter of our beloved Queen, passed away into the spiritual world on Saturday, the 14th of December, in the thirty-sixth year of her age. Known to the nation as the devoted nurse of the late Prince Consort, and of her brother the Prince of Wales, the Princess was generally esteemed and loved for her many kindly qualities; and we feel sure that there will be but one feeling present in the minds of Englishmen of every shade of political and religious creed-a feeling of deep sympathy with those who have been bereaved. May the God of all comfort be with those who now mourn. SPARKBROOK NEW CHURCH MISSION. SPECIAL SERVICES. 'HE following is a fuller notice of the special services held on Sunday the 24th November at the New Church Mission-Room, Sparkbrook, near Birmingham. The attendances, both morning and evening, were exceedingly good, notwithstanding the inclement state of the weather, which served, however, as an excellent test of the estimation in which the effort is held by the friends around. The subject of the morning's discourse, treated by Mr. J. W. Tonks, was the statement of our Lord (Rev. xxi. 5), "Behold, I make all things new!" Showing that the Lord was, by the infinite newness and variety of nature, man, and the scenes of life, ever making “all things new," he then explained the text as a prophecy of the Second Coming of the Lord. Referring to the locality, it would be interesting to note that Dr. Priestley computed the date of His coming to be the year 1757. The wonderful newness of intellectual, moral, social, and national life since that period was shown; and then the religious evidences that the Lord was indeed coming in the power and glory of His Word. Speaking of the present active state of religious thought, he asked his hearers to give their aid to the grand object of bringing about a newer and better state of things, when, as declared of old, "the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. He gave, as his opinion, that it is through the Sunday-schools that this is to be done; for by the culture of the rising generation, and not merely by books, was the great change to be effected. In the evening Mr. J. T. Freeth, speaking on the text (Jer. iii. 4) "My Father, Thou art the guide of my youth," enlarged upon the necessity for children to learn what the Lord is and does before they can really acknowledge Him as their "Guide," and therefore it is of the highest importance that they should be taught in an orderly and Christian-like manner; this can only be done by their being as it were schooled. The period of youth is the springtime of existence. As nature then puts forth tender green leaves, giving promise of a ripe fruitfulness to follow, so is it with the young. Youth has all the loveliness of spring, but, like that season, has also its dangers and perils. With frost and the icy breath of the wind the early beauty of nature vanishes as a dream. In like manner, if the young, with their wealth of affection and their vivid fancy, are taught carelessly, and if, through the neglect of parents or teachers, they choose the deadly guidance of sin, true spiritual life will be choked within them. The Lord Jesus, as the Truth, is the true, the only Guide who will lead to happiness, and to parents and teachers is intrusted the holy work of training children to choose aright as to whom they will serve. The Mission-Room, itself, is progressing most favourably. An adult class has been formed for the purpose of aiding those who are inquiring after the grand truths of our Church. This already consists of eight or nine regular attendants, and is frequently swelled by chance comers, who, it is to be hoped, find some modicum of good from what they may hear. The spirits of old and young who have any connection with the effort, seem to be all working in the same direction, and therefore in unity and good feeling. This being one of the most necessary states to ensure success, with it and the truths we have to communicate we hope ultimately to form a flourishing and, as far as man permits, a perfect Society. DERBY NEW CHURCH. ANNIVERSARY SERVICES. HE anniversary services in connection with this place of worship were held on Sunday, December 8th. The Rev. J. Ashby, the resident minister, was the preacher on the occasion. There was a good attendance both morning and evening. In the evening the rev. gentleman chose for his subject "The Life-giving Waters which issued from under the Threshold of the Sanctuary" (Ezek. xlvii. 1). In his opening remarks he observed that God's revelation to mankind assumed many forms, now it took the form of history and narra. tive, then of prophecy and psalm, and again, of dreams and visions. All these methods being necessary to give fulness and completeness to the unfolding of Divine truth. The writings of the Prophet Ezekiel had been supposed by some to be the least interesting and instructive of the Old Testament records. But this vision of the holy waters, at all events, must be regarded as both interesting and instructive. An authority declared that "all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works." The preacher proceeded glorious temple, whence issued, from under the threshold of the to speak of the "house" which was beheld by the prophet as a door, a stream of water, which gradually increased to a mighty flowing river. This, he said, would doubtless image to the prophet's mind, who was then in captivity, the abundant blessing which might yet be realized by the faithful Jews. The stream ran from the temple, because this was the source of all their national prosperity. Every Israelite knew that if faithful to the rites of the temple all would be well. Jehovah, who there had His appointed dwelling-place, would bless them. They would be "blessed in the city and in the field, blessed in the increase of ground, of cattle, and of flocks of sheep." From the temple flowed, like this water in Ezekiel's vision, the stream of commercial prosperity, of agricultural fruitfulness, and of domestic, social, and national wellbeing. But the Divine teaching involved in this vision was grander and more universal than this. It was for those who "were not Jews according to the flesh, but according to the spirit, whose praise is not of men, but of God." The things of the Old Testament dispensation were symbolical of substantial realities. The blessings enjoyed by the Jews were "a shadow of good things to come." Their privileges and advantages were but as the small rivulet, which issued from under the door of the sanctuary, when compared with those of the true Christian dispensation, which were like the magnificent river whose waters ran through the country down into the sea. The waters issuing from the holy place denoted that all living and true things flowed from the Lord. Principles of love and wisdom descended from Him which filled the heavens with light and glory, and the Church on earth with life and fertility. The vision was further prophetic of the progress of Divine truth among men. The waters were said to proceed from the house, or the temple, because this was representative of the real dwelling-place of the Lord, which was the Church, being composed of all those who acknowledge the Word and sought to obey the Lord in all things. These, as Paul says, "are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone; in whom all the building, fitly framed together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord." "The forefront of the house stood toward the east to signify that the Church looked continually toward the Lord, who is "the dayspring, or the east from on high.' The "threshold" of the door of the house typified the lowest means provided for the admission of mankind unto the Lord's Church, even the human nature which Jehovah assumed in the world. The Lord Himself declared that He was "the door; if by Me any man enter in he shall be saved." Thus the waters coming from under the threshold were representatives of those lowest Divine truths which proceeded from the Lord, such as the commandments in the letter of the Word, of which it was said, "They are your life." As these waters caused "everything to live whithersoever they came," so did the waters of truth conserve and impart spiritual life. "The words I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life," said our Lord. The "living waters," so often spoken of in the Bible, were those truths which flowed from the Lord through the Church into the world, and which preserved therein all that which was truly living. The truth, existing in the minds of individuals filled with spiritual life, was the great healer of the world's "wounds and bruises and putrifying sores. This truth preserved and vivified governments, and was the soul of all great and noble institutions. It gave vitality to science, and to art, and to industries. This truth flowing down from the Lord through the Church was the means by which our heavenly Father could move the hearts and consciences of men to all that was good and wise in human life. They composed the heart of humanity, and were the vital force in society. Unless these truths were received and obeyed, all that which was sacred and holy and beautiful and truly great in the world would die. Hence the truths of the Church were life-giving waters, and everything |