made to you of presenting 2000 volumes of the "True Christian Religion" free amongst clergymen and ministers of any denomination on their application, as I think that would be likely to produce a very good effect; and even if some few of such volumes should happen to fall into the hands of secondhand booksellers, they would not be entirely lost there, for the people who buy books of second-hand booksellers are always readers of books, and the reading of that one work would in many cases cause a demand by purchase for other works of the author, and some of the seed sown in that way would fall upon good ground and bring forth much good fruit in due season.--Believe me, my dear sir, yours very faithfully,

"B. ATTWOOD.

"J. J. G. WILKINSON, ESQ., M.D., "76 Wimpole St., Cavendish Sq.

"P.S.—I should much desire that any money I may contribute for the use of the Society should be entered in any publication of their proceedings as received anonymously, and not in my name."

66

and punishments. The usual passages cited in relation to this question are introduced and remarked upon, and the conclusion drawn from them is thus summarized:

"Thus the witness of the Old Testa

ment, when taken in a purely scien
tific manner, clearly taught: 1. That
the human soul continued to live when
the body died. 2. That the soul at
death went into Sheol or the invisible
world, the descriptions given of this
world being generally suggestive of
3. That it was well
gloom and terror.
the character of their earthly life. 4.
or ill with men after death according to
That obedience to God's commands was
tantamount to immortality. 5. That
God would eventually bring both the
quick and the dead into judgment
before Him. 6. That the terminus of

human history would be the absolute
catastrophe of evil, the complete triumph
and ascendancy of the moral govern
ment of God, and the perfect and ever-
lasting bliss of all holy creatures."

We refer to this lecture, however, not with the intention of tracing the argument for man's immortality from the critical examination of the Old Testaable remarks of the lecturer on the ment, but to present the just and valunature of this earlier portion of the Word when read and interpreted in the light of the Gospel.

"The Old Testament," said the RELATION OF THE OLD TO THE NEW lecturer, "was not a book of purely TESTAMENT.-One of the recent insti- human character. How did Christ and tutions of Wesleyan Methodism is an his Apostle regard it? With them it annual Theological Lecture, called the was a supernatural book, having a superFernley Lecture." The last of these natural significance, comprehensible only Lectures was by the Rev. J. D. Geden. through supernatural organs and instru The subject selected by the lecturer was ments. Not only was it all true, as any "The Doctrine of a Future Life as con- simply human composition might be: tained in the Old Testament Scriptures. ." its writers spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Its facts were parable and allegory. Its personages were emblems, types and symbols. Its institutions were sermons; its prophecy wrapped up in the everlasting counsels of God. Who had not remarked again and again how the New Testament found Christ in the Old where He was not obvious?-how after a fashion of its own it recast and beautified the ancient record? . . . On this assumption that the Old Testament was an inspired book, written for spiritual ends, the New Testament was at once intelligible; and might not Christ and the whole system

"The importance of the subject," said the lecturer, "was heightened at the present moment by the general agreement and positive assertion on the part of contemporary Biblical criticism, that the Old Testament either did not contain the doctrine of a future life at all, or that that doctrine was only found there under pitiful proportions, and with infinite haziness and uncertainty of outline."

The aim of the lecture is to adduce evidences from the Old Testament Scrip. tures of the immortality of the soul and the existence of a future life of rewards

of Christian verity follow as a necessary writer we have cited, "unfeignedly sequence? Now it was on this very honour Mr. Johnson for holding these principle that the New Testament pro- sentiments, but we are not quite sure ceeded in its interpretation of the Old. that he is on the right tack. The Its authors claimed, on irrefragable patriarchal relation between masters and evidence, to speak by inspiration of the inen is, we fear, somewhat out of date. same Spirit who dictated the ancient So far as it can be naturally and unconScripture. They declared authoritatively strainedly cultivated, let it, by all what that Scripture meant. And this means, be so. But we cannot profess to put a new aspect upon the doctrine of a hope much from it. A modern workfuture life as well as upon other teach- man, who has learned to read, who has ings of the Old Testament. The doc- his Carlyle, his Mill, and his daily trine might be present where it was not newspaper, who takes part in electing conspicuous, nay, where we should not one House of the Legislature, does not expect to find it. 'I am the God of want to be patted on the head, or taken Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob: by the hand, by a patriarchal employer. did this teach the resurrection of the We fancy that Perthes felt the way in dead? Yes. God is not the God of which, as a bookseller, he could best the dead, but of the living.' Thus the discharge his duties as citizen and as doctrine swelled to new and almost man to be simply this,-to sell good indefinitely large proportions. The words books. If he did that, he might keep of the documents became the index of a his mind easy as to other things, for a broader, clearer, and more spiritual good book has manifold and priceless knowledge of the life to come than any virtues. Cotton goods for the clothing which a strictly scientific exposition of the body are not such precious, would determine." miracle-working things as true books; but yet we have a strong persuasion that the Manchester manufacturers will strike more practically into the road of duty by making it their ambition to produce supremely excellent cotton goods than by attempting to realise patriarchal ideals in their intercourse with their men. Mr. Johnson, we are glad to say, does not overlook this important part of the subject. Whatever,' he said, 'was sold or manufactured must be not merely of apparently sufficient goodness; it must be really fit for the purpose for which it was intended.' There is a terrible misgiving in some quarters that the thoroughness, the workmanlike finish and strength, which used to be the characteristics of English manufacturers, distinguish them less than formerly. If every master and every man took for his motto, 'Good work or death,' each would, in his proportion, do for England what Perthes did for Germany."

DUTIES OF TRADE.--The Christian World, in commenting on a talk in the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, says: "Mr. Johnson dwelt principally upon the duties of trade. Selecting as his exemplar-a better could not be found -the German bookseller Perthes, he called upon the manufacturers of Manchester to consider the standard which he had set up for himself. 'How can I,' Perthes asked himself in his youth, a bookseller, as a bookseller, promote in every best way the independence, the progress, the well-being of Germany? How can I, a bookseller, as a bookseller, promote to the utmost the cause of true art, of true literature, of true religion? How can I, not in addition to, but by virtue of my profession, be in my own measure perfect as a citizen and as a man?" Mr. Johnson, in the estimation of the writer, does not appreciate the simple means whereby Perthes was to accomplish his noble purpose. He (Mr. Johnson) speaks of English manufacturers becoming "captains of an industrial movement which had taken the place of the warlike energy of their forefathers," and of establishing a kind of "patriarchal relation, according to which the employer was bound to look after the comfort and morals and intelligence of the employed." We," says the

REV. J. E. BRUCE.-The following letter, which we extract from the Messenger, gives a picture of the state of mind of many of the preachers and leaders in the large religious communities. The old is departing from their minds, and the new is not disclosed to their mental perception. They linger amid old and valued associations, striving

with more or less success to adapt them to their wants, and in the end quietly submit to the inevitable or break the bonds in which they are held. The letter is addressed to the Committee on Fellowship of the Massachusetts Universalist Convention, and is first published in the Universalist :

and Shadow' and 'Secret of Swedenborg.' I have tried faithfully, as many co-workers will testify, to build, in each of the liberal bodies, the Church on this ground. But in both instances my work ended in the most signal failures. And perhaps the saddest feature of the whole affair is the fact that the failures "Brethren, I have seen many sad in both instances are due to the fidelity days of late, but this, on which I lay of the people with whom I had to deal. down at once my ministerial fellowship The event proved that they had welland my membership in the Universalist defined opinions with which it was not Church, is the saddest of them all. I possible for them to part. And their have been a Universalist from my child- faith, such as it is, I have to testify hood, and a preacher of that faith for that they stood unswervingly by that. thirty years. I entertain a lively hope, That settled it. I do not make, and and have not the slightest doubt, that I have never made, any pretence of holdshall die as I have lived, in that faith. ing that motley mixture of ancient Of existing churches the Universalist is Pelagianism and modern Rationalism the only one with which, as an honest (of the Priestly and Paleyan type) man, I could have an hour's connection; which, with a slight veneer of Scripture yet to-day, honesty with myself and texts, makes up the stock belief of the truth towards you, both alike require average Unitarian and Universalist layme to lay down my fellowship as a min- man. I say layman, for I am quite ister and to cease at the same time to well aware of the various phases of be, in any ecclesiastical sense, a Uni- divergence between the clerical and the versalist. The pain of this hour is not lay mind in this respect. Well, as I sudden. Seven years ago I wrote a said, this settled it. The people would letter, and had it ready to send, separat. have none of my notions. My methods ing myself, as I do now, from the startled them. One poor man set the Church and the ministry, but was in- whole truth in a phrase when, without duced to withhold it. Later, after any conception of the sweep or force of several conferences with Dr. Patterson his words, he gave as the reason why and a few other brethren, I decided to my Unitarian parish turned back, that take service again in the Unitarian or praying was not the Unitarian thing.' Universalist communions, and it seemed It is a homely saying, but it goes home to me at the time nearly indifferent to the heart of the whole matter. which body I worked in. Providence lays bare the stone of stumbling and opened me a door among the Unitarians, the rock of offence in the path of all and I entered it. Six months sufficed to show me that there was no place for me, my opinions, my faith, or my methods, in that body. I then took a parish in the Universalist communion, and two years have brought me round to to-day, wherein I stand convinced that I have, if possible, less place in the Church of my childhood than perhaps in any other. But, in quitting the ark, I face only the flood. I have profound faith in the Church. I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. With certain modifications, inevitable to modern men, I accept Swedenborg's doctrine of the Lord.' My body of divinity is intimated, if not outlined, in the books of Edmund H. Sears. The ground of my doctrine of the Church I find very fairly laid down in the writings of Mr. Henry James, and notably in his 'Substance

It

modern men. John Tyndall, and not Jesus Christ, is the pattern of faith in the nineteenth century. Science and not philosophy, physics and not faiththis is the rising cry which is borne in upon us by the winds which blow from every quarter of the globe. On this angry sea of doubt the Church has parted into fragments. The ark of God is nowhere found save in the broken bits of the wreck. And still the storm increases, and the sea runs higher and wilder as the days and nights go over us. It is a limitless expanse, with the darkness about us, and the hungry sea for our only resting-place. The Catholic Church is drifted far down the tide, and only the music which the ages have breathed through its mighty soul, touched and intensified by the savour of its sounds, is left. Every hope of Pro

Thus

testantism is hopelessly lost. The liberal first Sunday of this year, it is intended laity have long ago deliberately decided to hold regular Sabbath services. to quit the ship and entrust themselves it is hoped he may succeed in forming and their all to the long boat' of an "Italian New Church Society," the much money-getting, a little religion nucleus of which exists already in the for a Sunday decency, and just enough little band of English and American conventional morality to make up the receivers of the New Church under the sham respectability required to pass Rev. Mr. Ford's ministry. The subcurrent in the shoddy social life of the scription to the Nuova Epoca is 8s. times. For myself, I have no faith in a year, and for this the Magazine will be any of the fragments of the Catholic sent post free to any address in the or orthodox wreck that are yet afloat, United Kingdom. The undersigned and I do not think it worth the trouble will be happy to receive subscriptions any longer to help to man the liberal and donations, being empowered to do so long boat. So, unless the Lord comes by Professor Scocia.-JOSEPH GALLICO, miraculously to the rescue in the raising 4 Lawford Road, Kentish Town, London. up of some new free Christian Church, I have decided, like Peter, to entrust myself to waves, and, if faith fail, to go down alone. So please accept my letter of fellowship as a minister, and my membership in the Universalist Church, both which I now lay down together. J. E. BRUCE."

ITALY.-With the present year the Nuova Epoca enters on the fourth year of its existence. Whilst gratefully acknowledging the favourable reception which, under Divine Providence, it has so far received, all lovers of the New Church are reminded that this excellent Magazine is still in its "day of small things." It has many difficulties to contend with, and, consequently, assistance is much needed. The Nuova Epoca, as stated on a former occasion, is an eloquent expositor of the grand teachings of the New Church. Pro

fessor Scocia, its able editor, and translator of several of Swedenborg's works into Italian, has set to himself the task of unfolding therein the Truths in a manner most suited to the Italian mind, interspersing not unfrequently the philosophical and theological essays with historical sketches illustrating the teachings of the former, besides giving short notices of such events of general interest to the New Church readers which might otherwise escape their attention. It is therefore earnestly hoped that the friends in England will not withhold their support to the work. It may be interesting to the New Church in England to learn that Professor Scocia has just hired a suitable hall in a central part of Florence, which he is converting into a "New Church Reading and Lecture Room," wherein, commencing from the

SWEDENBORG SOCIETY.-On the 14th February, the number of copies of the True Christian Religion supplied to ministers was 3009. The following is an analysis of 19 applications made on the 4th of the same month, viz.:— Independents, 11; Methodists, 2; Baptists, 1; Church of England, 2; Church of Scotland, 1; unknown, 2. This, however, must not be taken as representing the actual proportions of the issue, which gives the Wesleyans the highest place. The steady continuance of the demand for this important work has determined the Committee to extend the offer to the end of the Society's year in June next. By that time there will have been few ministers in the United Kingdom but will have seen the advertisement in one or other of the newspapers. One clergyman saw the advertisement in the Church Times, in Australia, and made application for a copy. The rapid growth of public free libraries in important towns is matter for congratulation in all respects. “Reading," says Lord Bacon, "makes the full man," and if John Wesley was right in saying, that, having the theology of Swedenborg we may burn all other works on that subject, it is clear that no public free library should be without a set of the Theological Works. A circular offering them has been sent to all the recently established libraries, with the following satisfactory results:-Manchester, with its seven institutions, has applied for 283 volumes to complete the list in each of them, with the addition of all the works in Latin for the chief or reference library, -the librarian adding, "The English editions would be useful in the six branch Lending Libraries, where

The

Attention to the offer will be called by advertisements in the public papers. Dr. John Jackson of Oregon is liberally aiding the work in this country. In December last the Secretary received a second donation of £10 towards the expenses of translating and publishing a pocket edition of the Athanasian Creed, which is being prepared,—a portion of which will be sewed and sold at a low price, to enable subscribers and purchasers to use it extensively, now that the Creed is so prominently before the public mind.

the few volumes we already have are much ance of a wide circulation of the Theoloused and appreciated." The Committee gical works was strongly evidenced in of the Ramsbottom Free Library has the letters which came before the accepted "with great pleasure" a selec- Society. A similar movement, which tion of the works. The Committee of the gift of Mr. Attwood enabled the the Cambridge Free Library accepted Committee to effect in England, the offer "with thanks." Birmingham has been commenced in Italy. has had a set of the Theological Works, Rev. A. E. Ford and Professor Scocia and a selection of the Philosophical for have been authorized to offer gratui the Central Library, and the same for tously to the clergy of Italy, both each of the branches at Deritend and Catholic and Protestant, copies of the Gosta Green. Wolverhampton has re- Italian translations of the Heaven and ceived a similar grant, and the Literary Hell, Divine Providence, and the New Institute at Scarborough, and the Tod- Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine, morden Industrial and Co-operative on application or on payment of postage. Society Educational department-selections from both the Theological and Philosophical Works. With such liberal responses, it seems a pity to have to record anything to darken this fair picture, but the Committees of the Free Library in the cathedral city of Hereford, and the Christian Young Men's Association, London, declined the offers. During the late visit of Bishop Colenso to this country, the Rev. Mr. Marsden had an opportunity of asking his Lordship whether an offer of some of the works of Swedenborg would be acceptable to him. His Lordship replied in the affirmative, and promised to care- SWEDENBORG READING SOCIETY (36 fully study them, and in particular the Bloomsbury Street, London).-At the Conjugial Love, with the view of obtain- meetings of this Society in November ing some assistance in dealing with the and December 1874, Dr. Tafel read two difficult question of marriage among papers on the Inspiration of Swedenconverted Caffres. With his usual borg. The subject was treated in so liberality the Rev. A. Clissold gave elaborate a manner, and the works of permission to the Secretary to offer Swedenborg were so extensively quoted copies of all his works to his Lordship in support of the lecturer's views, that in addition. These were supplemented the papers exceeded the usual lengths to by a grant from the London Missionary such an extent as to leave time for but and Tract Society of its most important very few remarks from the members publications, so that his Lordship left present. Dr. Tafel therefore kindly England with ample means to become consented to give a brief résumé of the acquainted with the new and brighter main points of his arguments at the light of the New Church upon the letter meeting which took place on the 21st of the Sacred Scriptures, which to him January last, and thus allow time for is in some respects clouded with doubts discussion. His abstract, which was and difficulties. Much is to be hoped brief, recapitulated the principal points from the Christian spirit shown by the for which he contended; and the dis Bishop under trying circumstances while cussion upon them was interesting and in this country-for good ground is animated. The majority-in fact all always fruitful. The generous donor of but one speaker-demurred to the the £1000, who was no other than extreme views which the lecturer ap Benjamin Attwood, Esq., of Cheshunt, died rather suddenly in November last. His intention to supplement his handsome gift was well known, but leaving no will, any further expectations are cut off. His sense of the import

peared to take of the character of Swedenborg's inspiration, and which he briefly expressed in these words, after quoting several passages from the Writings:

"From this testimony of Sweden.