climax of our redemption by the passion and crucifixion of our Divine Redeemer, advantage might be taken of some portion of the after part of the day to thoughtfully consider the events in their relation to the New Church, and New Church theology and progress, during the wonderful century that has last transpired. And are there not many important and very practical subjects to which the attention of intelligent, pious, and ear. nest New Churchmen, might on such an occasion be very profitably directed? Are not our societies capable of a closer, wiser, and more united action in the effort to build up the Church in their midst, and to promote the development and growth of the spiritual life in their several households? Are not the uses of our public institutions capable of great expansion, and might they not be sustained by a more general and lively sympathy on the part of the members and societies of the Church? How manifold are the uses which might be accomplished by our Missionary, Tract, and Printing Societies, if vigorously and sympathetically sustained by the Church? How numerous are the small and struggling societies which need the sunshine of brotherly sympathy and the helping hand of Christian benevolence and of Christian labour? And how large the store of unused possible helpfulness which the Great Head of the Church, our merciful Father in the heavens, has imparted to His children. Let us place before our minds the example of Swedenborg, and ask ourselves whether we have with equal diligence applied to the service of the Lord the gifts we have received from Him available for the service of the Church. Have we thus employed our mental possessions and our worldly wealth? And if this inquiry remind us of neglected duties, let us with renewed diligence apply ourselves to the Christian culture of our households, to the building up of the Church as a means of grace and a channel of usefulness and good in the world. PRESENTATION OF THE WRITINGS OF SWEDENBORG TO THE LIBRARY OF THE WESLEYAN COLLEGE AT DIDSBURY, NEAR MANCHESTER. Our esteemed friend, Mr Oxley of Manchester, with his usual zeal in the cause of truth, has generously presented to the above college a set of Swedenborg's works, in 28 vols. The offer of the works was unanimously accepted at their minister's meeting, and courteously acknowledged by the Principal of the College. The following extract from Mr. Oxley's letter will show the spirit in which the works are offereda spirit apparently reciprocated in their acceptance. We do not ourselves see the necessity to repudiate "Swedenborgianism." Few, perhaps no intelligent, New Churchmen would accept the title. If it is meant to indicate narrow sectarianism, we hope that no such feeling is prevalent amongst us. The name was raised by the enemies of Swedenborg, and he himself says respecting it, "What they call Swedenbor gianism, I call true Christianity." "I make this offer," says Mr. O., "in no unfair or improper spirit; but in these days of Scepticism, doubt, and so called Rationalism, the preachers of Divine truth ought to be armed at all points, and if these works contain a view of truth which will silence all cavillers, it were a pity that they should not be placed within the reach of those who believe themselves called by God to expound His Holy Word, and to proclaim His Truth. Identifying myself for the moment with the New Church, but not with Swedenborgianism, we, along with yourselves, acknowledge and teach the inspiration of the Sacred Scriptures, and that they alone contain God's revelation of His will and wisdom to mankind, so that to us, the Truth as it is in Jesus, is the great subject of our solicitude. I doubt not you will allow me to think, that with yourself, and with all who love the Lord in sincerity and truth, the Divine Truth is above all human ecclesiasticisms, and that while these are subject to change, as the result of human infirmity and imperfection, that (the Divine Truth) will continue for ever, as it always was, unchanged and unchangeable." AID TO THE SCANDINAVIAN MISSION. -In reply to the appeal to aid the Rev. A. Boyesen in Copenhagen, until the American friends can resume their promised assistance and support, I have the pleasure to announce that I have received the following sums, and transmitted £50. The acknowledgment and reply of Mr. Boyesen, which I have no doubt your readers will peruse with interest, I subjoin. Still further aid will be required during the year, and it is hoped that many more of our friends will remember the worthy missionary for Denmark and Norway in his lonely post during his day of small things. J. BAYLEY. Received from Dr. Tafel, containing chiefly collection at Kersley £17 7 6 Subscriptions in London— Lady Bethune Mr. William Mather Subscriptions in Manchester, forwarded per Rev. J. Hyde, to the extent of £20. Mr. Meek Mr. Oxley Mr. Broadfield Mr. Hughes Mr. Brotherton Mr. T. Parkinson Mr. F. Smith Mr. W. Twiss Mrs. J. Richardson Mr. Paus Rev. S. M. Warren 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 2 20 2 1 0 1 1 you and our dear noble friends through you for their interest in the Scandina vian mission. I hope that in a year our American friends will be able to support the mission themselves, and that there will be no necessity for my closing my labours; that would be the worst that could happen. Therefore I hope that the Lord mercifully will sustain the great work. It is very much 500 needed. Our public worship is regularly 100 attended by thirty to forty persons, and 300 many have commenced to read the doc2 0 0 trines, but there is, as you know, great 1 0 0 darkness in men's minds. Some cannot see anything in the light of truth; and some others can at once see the beauty of the divine order as soon as it is revealed to them; but these are few. Therefore it is very much encouraging when such a case occurs. Some time ago a peasant came to me, after having 5 0 0 been one Sunday at our place of wor0 ship. He told me that he had not been 0 in any church for ten years; he had 00 only read the word in prayer to the 0 0 Lord because he saw that the Church 1 0 O was in such a state that the world must 1 0 0 be lost if the Lord did not do something 100 to save it from condemnation.' He 00 could not find any spiritual food for him00 self in any church." About the end of 0 0 the last year he felt very uneasy because 00 of his being so far from Copenhagen. 0 Therefore he resolved to go to the city 0 in the hope to find what the Spirit had 0 promised him: the light that he was 0 longing for.' He went to Copenhagen, and finding among the list of the 0 10 0 churches the name of the New Jerusa0 10 0 lem, he came to our place of worship. 0 10 0 When he had heard the sermon, he con0 10 0 cluded that the Lord really had come 0 50 spiritually to save the world. Our very 0 50 intelligent and spiritually minded friend 0 5 0 asked me now to explain to him the 50 fundamental doctrines of the New Jeru0 5 0 salem. With great pleasure I did so; 050 and after having answered his questions, 050 why the Lord prayed to the Father, 50 why the Lord spoke of the Father as of O another person, and why He exclaimed, 'My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me'-he said, I cannot say a single word against what you have explained to me. I see it must be so. I see that it is divine truth from the Lord, and that His New Jerusalem has descended on earth. 1 would feel exceedingly glad to be baptized as soon 1 as possible.' He has now been baptized, and gone into business here in the city. If you, dear doctor, will put this into good English in the Intellectual Repository, you will oblige me very much. There are also some other persons who wish to be baptized. Thus you see, dear doctor, that by and by some are to be added to our society. I have corrected iny wrong statement about the £20. With kindest regards to your dear wife and other friends,-I am yours, affectionately, A. BOYESEN." CHICAGO FUND FOR THE RELIEF OF THE SUFFERING NEW CHURCH FRIENDS IN THAT CITY.-Sir,-I beg to report that I have received the following additional sums for this fund : Kersley Society, additional Mr. Horn, Waterford £1 1 30 such a manner as, in the writer's judg ment, must have conveyed conviction to every unprejudiced person present. The chairman (Capt. Buffham) in introducing the lecturer to the audience remarked, that the New Church was the only one which satisfied the soul in its yearnings after the spiritual truths of sacred writ, and asserted it to be the legitimate right of every man when arrived at maturity to review the creed in which he has been educated, to see for himself whether it was or was not according to reason and Scripture; that the accident of being born and trained in the belief of the Mahomedan, the Roman Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, or any other doctrine, did not make it true. And that as every one must give an account of himself to God, it behoved 1 0 him in a matter where the soul's salva0 tion is at stake, that we should call no 00 man master, but prayerfully seek the 10 truth for ourselves from its true source. At the conclusion of the last lecture he 6 (the chairman) said, "The scientific and 6 rational arguments of the lecture were very strong, but the scriptural argu0 ments were still stronger, and he thought every one would feel relieved in 89 17 7 his mind to know that neither Scripture nor reason requires us to believe that this beautiful world will be burnt up and destroyed." The lecturer was received with enthusiasm on his first appearance, and at the close a cordial vote of thanks was carried by acclamation, with a strong desire that he should again visit Barnsley. Mr. Hyde always secures a numerous attendance Barnsley. 1 1 1 0 2 £5 11 7 Total £95 8 H. R. Williams, Treasurer, 183 Camden Road, London, N. W. BARNSLEY.-The Rev. Mr. Hyde delivered two lectures in the Mechanics' Hall in this town on Wednesday and Thursday the 7th and 8th of February 1872. The subjects were on Wednesday evening, "If God is infinite love, why is there a hell?" and on Thursday evening, "Will God destroy the world or moral evil out of the world." The lectures were exceedingly instructive and interesting, and listened to by appreciative audiences, which numbered about 350 at the first lecture, and 400 at the last. The arguments used in support of the doctrine advocated in the last lecture were scientific, rational, scriptural. These three points he took up in their order and handled them in in BIRMINGHAM (SUMMER LANE),-The annual meeting of the above society was held on the evening of February 5th, 1872, at which the report of the committee for the past year was read, together with the reports of other officers and of the various institutions connected with the Society, and we are favoured with the following extract from the treasurer's report, which may be interesting to those who are noticing the progress of the various societies of the Church. "At the end of the year, which has witnessed the completion of our £1000 effort, it may not be out of place to take a retrospect of the last six years, that being the time during which our present minister has been among us. At the beginning of the year 1866 the Society was liable in mortgages, notes of hand, and current debt to the extent of £2625. Of these liabilities there now remains only £1218, shewing as the result of the Society's labours during the above period in the reduction of debt alone, no less a sum than £1407, and if to this there be added the amount now in hand of our school-building fund, viz. upwards of 4609, we increase the sum raised to requirements during our earthly pilgrim£2016. "Again, the balance-sheet of the Society, to December 1866, shews the total income from its then current sources to be £255; the balance sheet ending December 1871 gives the income from the same sources to be £368, shewing an increase in six years of £113 in the annual income, and this seems more likely to increase than to diminish. To recapitulate, the Society has, during the last six years, paid off debt to the amount of £1407, increased its annual income by the sum of £113, and raised a sum of 2609 towards the completion of its School-rooms. In conclusion your treasurer hopes that the facts which he has laid before you may be useful in shewing that every step which we have taken has brought us a step nearer to the goal of our ambition -the total removal of our debt. Let us then be thankful for the progress we have made up our toilsome and difficult road, and, having taken a needful rest, be again prepared for another effort onwards and upwards, and He who has helped us hitherto will neither fail nor forsake us in the future." opened to his mind important truths and exercised a salutary influence on his life. The Dewsbury Reporter gave a report of nearly half a column, of which the following is the concluding portion:“The body is merely a material organism created to subserve a temporary purpose in the economy of human life. It is the earthly house of this tabernacle,' which is adapted to our manifold DEWSBURY.-The earnest little society formed at this place was visited on the 17th and 18th of January by the Rev. R. Storry, who gave two lectures in the Temperance Room. The subject of the first of these lectures was the Resurrection and entrance on future life; that of the second, the nature of Heaven and the employments and joys of its inhabitants. The lectures were attended by about one hundred persons, most of whom seemed warmly interested in the subjects discussed. At the close of the first lecture a gentlemen in the audience rose to express his approval of the lecture, and, as he went on to say, his grateful remembrance of the benefit he had received from former services of the lecturer in that neighbourhood, which were given many years ago. These had age, but is destined when we depart hence, to be superseded by the spiritual body, which is a more perfect and abiding structure, described as our house from heaven.' The resurrection, therefore is our sensible entrance upon a world which is spiritual. And this resurrection takes place at the time of natural death. The natural body which has fulfilled the purpose of its creation, passes into other forms of natural existence. The soul, which is the true man, enters in a spiritual body a higher state of being, and enjoys through all future ages a more perfect existence. This doctrine the lecturer sought to sustain by an examination of the teaching of the Bible on the subject of the resurrection. The Bible nowhere speaks of the resurrection of dead bodies, but of the dead of those who are dead to us, though alive to the angels. The Bible treats only of a present resurrection. The dead are raised, not will be raised. They are raised as they depart out of this life; and hence the evidence of the resurrection given by the Lord in his answer to the Sadducees, was the actual resurrection, and living state of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The form in which this resurrection takes place is given by the apostle Paul as the Spiritual Body.On Thursday evening, the rev. gentleman continued his subject by a lecture on Heaven, in which he discussed at length the doctrine of the invisible world as understood by the members of the New Church and taught in the writings of Swedenborg. It was, he said, a world of light in which every object was the visible form of wisdom and love. It is not distant, but present, though museen; and just as the blind man, were his eyes opened, would see a world of beauty in the midst of which he lives, though he sees it not, so man, when he departs from the body, finds himself in the midst of spiritual scenery, and surrounded by spiritual beings who were present to him, though unseen, it arrived? during his earthly pilgrimage." DONCASTER. The following notice, extracted from the Doncaster Gazette of December 22d, was unavoidably omitted from our last issue. The interest excited by the efforts of Mr. Bastow, Captain Buffham, and others, seems likely to be of an abiding kind, and we hope that means will be found to cultivate this promising field of missionary labour. "Some few weeks ago, two sermons were preached and a lecture delivered in the Victoria Rooms, in furtherance of the doctrines held by the New Jerusalem or SwedenborgianChurch. The success attending these services and lecture induced those interested to hold other services and to give other lectures explanatory of the same creed. The latter services were held at the Guildhall, on Sunday last, when two excellent sermons were preached by Mr. William Oxley of Manchester, in the unavoidable absence of Mr. Wm. H. Bastow, of Leeds, who was announced to officiate on Sunday afternoon. At neither of the services was the congregation large, but at both, those present were most attentive listeners. On Monday evening Mr. Oxley delivered an address, the subject being "The New Church and the New Age. The lecture was characterised by profound thought, great eloquence, and refined language, and deserved a far larger audience.' How are we to be able to recognise it? The book was left unsealed, and yet the whole Church has proclaimed that it is sealed-that it is an insoluble mystery. Since the Book was written, eighteen centuries have passed, yet it is believed that no voice has been raised in the world, or in the Church, that could unlock the mysteries, or interpret the symbols of this wonderful Book. Surely He, who caused the Book to be written for our instruction, will also enable us understand it, and so to be instructed by it. I am here to affirm my deep conviction that the Book has been explained, that its meaning has been expounded, that it is a mystery no longer; nay more, that the last judgment has really taken place, that the new heavens and the new earth are being formed by the Lord, and that all men may have rational proof that these statements are true. In the year 1758, a work was published in London, entitled "An Account of the Last Judgment, and the Babylon Destroyed; shewing that all predictions in the Apocalypse are at this day fulfilled; being a relation of things heard and seen." The author of this extraordinary work was the Hon. Emauuel Swedenborg, a man of gentle mien, untiring energy, and prodigious industry, and withal, one of the first philo sophers of his day. He was devoted intensely to the object of the mission to which he believed himself to be specially appointed: shall I say, “a man The New Church and the New Age.- of whom the world was not worthy?" He The report of the above services in the did not live to see the fruits of his Doncaster Gazette, is continued by a brief gigantic labours. . . . From the year abstract of the discourse delivered on 1749, in which he published the first the Monday evening. This discourse volume of "The Arcana Coelestia," down Mr. Oxley has since published, under to 1771, in which he published his last the above title. It is founded on Rev. and crowning work, The True Chrisxxi. 1, 5, and is an able review of some tian Religion," there issued volume after of the prominent features of apocalyptic volume from his untiring pen, all of expositions, and of the changes which them bearing upon the internal meaning have taken place since the accomplish- of the Divine Word of God." To the disment of the last judgment, and as the course in its printed form, the author consequence of that event. The follow has appended an "Appeal to the Wesing is a specimen of the earnest and out- leyan Methodists," with which body spoken character of this discourse-"He he was formerly connected. In this [the apostle] concludes his work of appeal he points out that the New writing' by the admonition of the informing angel, "seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand; from which it follows, that the prophecies were to be fulfilled in the then coming time or age. But what was the then coming time or age? Has Church is not antagonistic to the first Christian dispensation, but is the new dispensation by which prophecy has announced that it will be superseded. In the words of the author,-"This New Dispensation of Divine Truth 'we term the New Church, in contradistinction to |