London on the 29th September, and preached on Sunday morning, Oct. 3rd, at Cross-street Church, Hatton Garden, to a goodly congregation of about 150 persons, and in the evening at Argylesquare Church, to a full house. It is several years since I preached in London, and the great pleasure I enjoyed in mingling with my friends there can be much better felt than described. I dined with the Rev. S. Noble, at his residence in Kentish Town, and spent a few hours with him most pleasantly, but was much grieved to witness the bodily affliction of our much-esteemed and tried friend. May the Lord in his mercy bless the remainder of his days here. From London I went to attend the anniversary of the opening of our church at Tiverton, near Bath, where I preached twice on Sunday, October 10th, and in the afternoon I baptized five adults and four infants. On Monday, Oct. 11th, was the anniversary meeting, when 85 attended at tea, and about 130 afterwards. After I had finished my opening address, on the present state and future prospects of our cause in that place, the meeting was addressed by the Rev. J. W. Barnes, Messrs. Pitman, Beale, and Bush. Several pieces were sung in the course of the evening. Much harmony and heavenly feeling prevailed, and our church here seems to be on the increase. While in this locality, I visited several of our friends in Bath. On Friday, October 15th, I went to Bristol, where on Sunday, the 17th, I preached twice to most attentive congregations; and all that is to be regretted here is the small and very contracted place of worship in which our people meet. On Monday, the 18th, was the anniversary, when forty-five attended at tea. This number, with a few others, quite filled the place. We had a most intellectual meeting, when, in addition to my opening address, the company was gratified by the addresses of the Rev. J. W. Barnes, Messrs. Bragge, Dimmock, Beedle, and others. The society here is on the increase, and nothing is wanted but a more commodious place. On Tuesday evening, Oct. the 19th (the very day that the Millerites had fixed for the burning of the world), I gave a lecture explanatory of our doctrines, after which there was a general conversation on the subjects. Some strangers were present, and several questions put and answered, which threw a lively animating spirit into the meeting. Upon the whole, this was a most delightful time, and I am sure that nothing but good to our heavenly cause can be the result. During my absence from home, the Chalford society was visited by the Rev. D. T. Dyke, Messrs. Dimmock, Larkin, and Keene, by whose discourses the little flock in the vale was nourished and refreshed.-Yours truly, THOMAS GOYDER. Chalford, Oct. 29. REPORT OF THE NEW CHURCH SOCIETY The annual social meeting of this society was held on Wednesday, 8th Sept., 1847, at the Temperance Coffee House, Conway-street, when forty members and friends of the church took tea together. The evening was devoted to mutual edification. The 14th chapter of the Gospel according to John having been read, the doctrines of the Divine Trinity-the Glorification of the Lord-Redemption-Regeneration and Salvation, as deducible therefrom, formed the substance of the speeches addressed to the meeting. All appeared interested with the exposition of the Holy Word on these important subjects, and to render the meeting still more agreeable, hymns and anthems were sung at intervals. The 18th chapter of the Prophet Jeremiah was chosen for the consideration at the next anniversary, and the meeting reluctantly separated at ten o'clock. On the 17th of October, 1847, the above-named society held its annual general church meeting in their place of worship, and from the report then read by the Secretary, it appears that the society is gradually increasing in numbers, several worthy natives of Jersey having recently received the doctrines, and now regularly attend divine worship. This circumstance affords joy of heart to those who love Jerusalem, inasmuch as to all human appearance the future stability and increase, and consequently the usefulness of this society, will be effected in proportion as the doctrines are received by those who are fixed inhabitants of the island. On this occasion it was decided upon to resume the public weekly meetings during the winter season; and Mr. A. J. Le Cras kindly offered to give publicity to them, by inserting gratuitously the subject of each meeting in his valuable and widelycirculated journal, the Guernsey and Jersey News. May this effort be blessed with success to the glory of our Saviour God! THE CONVERSION OF THE JEWS. To the Editor of the Intellectual Repository. SIR, A lady having solicited me to contribute to the funds of the Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews, I took time to consider the matter, and wrote to her as follows: 66 MADAM, I return you, with many thanks, the 35th report of the London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews, and am sorry that domestic affliction and severe indisposition have caused me to keep it so long. "I have read the bishop's sermon * with much pleasure, and admire it, but I am not convinced by it. I think that there is much more need of a society for promoting righteousness among Christians, than for promoting Christianity among the Jews, and am really so little interested in their conversion from their ancient faith to the faith now prevalent in Christendom, that I would not give one penny to accomplish it. I am satisfied that Christians, as a body, are not so good a people as the North American Indians * Charles James, London, on Rom. xi. 1. were before Christians robbed them of their land and poisoned them with their vices; nor are they so good as the Mexicans and Peruvians of the times of Pizarro and Cortez, before Christians murdered them by thousands, pillaged them without shadow of mercy, and planted, by most atrocious conquest, a horrid and corrupt civilization among the descendants of a purer and simpler race; nor are they so good as the Negroes were before Christians bought and sold them as slaves, and slaughtered tens of thousands after tens of thousands by the filthy suffocation of the middle passage. "I am satisfied that there are abominations as foul and vices as rank and universal among Christians as are any where to be found on the face of the earth, and as all this is plainly traceable to the fact that our preachers teach a faith in Christ which is not based upon the keeping of his commandments, and as this faith is what is meant by Christianity now-a-days, you will not wonder, perhaps, that I feel as I do about the conversion of the Jews. "Allow me to repeat my thanks for your kind loan of the " Report," and to subscribe myself, madam, Obituary. Died, January 31st, 1841, at Berbice, British Guiano, aged 70 years, Miss Martha Piggott, a native of Barbadoes, who received the doctrines of the New Church from Mr. Abraham Blatchley, about the year 1801, while in a state of deep mental affliction, occasioned by the loss of several of her relatives, to whom she was warmly attached. She was a "Your faithful servant, "H." INDEX. ESSAYS, &c. &c. Adam and Eve, Correspondence of, 209 Adult Baptism, the respective uses of, 361 Brethren, Unity of the, 1 Behmen, Jacob, and Mr. Hindmarsh, 328 Behmen, Jacob, 385 Canaan and Egypt, the Lands of, 419 Christmas Day, the Lord manifested, 13 Colours, on the Hyacinth, &c., 30 Corruption of the Jews, 67 Common Perception in Human Minds that Man rises immediately after Death, &c., 139 Christian World, Causes in the, why Men Charity, Life of, in Man, 143 Mind, 52 Music, as applied to the Science of Cor- Culture, Materials for Moral, 57, 134, Moral and Religious Training of Children, 211, 295, 407 Christian Martyrdom, 166 Children, Training of, 218, 257, 340 Church Music, 173 Chamber of Imagery, 401 Educational Discrimination, &c., 41 Emerson R. W., Esq., Great Claims of Extracts from Swedenborg's Diary, 109, Fall of Adam and Eve, 209 Fall of Man, 127 Fasting, the Day of, 161 Fasting, the Spiritual Meaning of, 224 Faculties of the Mind, 372 How Man is Saved, or Spiritual Life Ac- Human Freedom, 93 Hints, Friendly, to Choirs, 22 Inconsistency of Modern Expositors of In your Patience possess ye your Souls, Infant Baptism, the Respective Uses of, Imparting Instruction, the best Modes of, Imagery, the Chamber of, 401 Infidelity, the Safeguard against, 411 Jews, Corruption of the, 67 Lord's the, Reply to Herod's Message, 380 Mammon of Unrighteousness, 121 or hints to Parents and Teachers, Man's Connexion with the Spiritual Metaphor derived from Correspondence, New Church, Perpetuity of, 5 Suggestions for the Exten- sion of, 102 Passages of the Word Explained, 215 Practice perfected by Prayer, 470 Remarks on the Science of Correspond- Remarks on Matthew x. 5, 6, 25 Roman Catholics and Swedenborg, 97, Rending of the Vail in the Temple, 185 School, its efficiency in promoting the Science of Correspondence, as applied to Singing with the Understanding, 248 Sunday well spent, 241 Swedenborg's Spiritual Diary, Extracts Swedenborg's Claims upon the attention Thoughts of Pascal on the Word, 191 True System of interpreting God's Word, 411 Materials for Moral Culture, 57, 134, What is Prayer? 384 211, 295, 407 What is Life? 281 Annual Meeting of the New Church So- Lectures on Swedenborg, by G. Dawson, cieties in Scotland, 399 Announcement Bills, 438 A Sketch of the Progress of New Church Baptism, a Difficulty Explained, 156 Church of England Weighed in the Dawson's, George, Lectures on Sweden- Examination of the Day Schools of the New Church in Manchester, 237 Founders of Infant Schools, 437 Inquiry respecting the Increase of the Intelligence from Manchester, 197 66 66 Hull, 198 80, 110 London New Church Junior Mutual Im- provement Association, 277 Man the Recipient and Channel of Divine Manchester and London Tracts, 319 Meeting of the General Convention in Melbourne Society, 158 the, 475 Opening of the New Jerusalem Place of Quarterly Tea Meeting of the Salford Report of the Labours of the Rev. T. O. Report of the West of England Branch Report of the New Church Society at St. Helier, Jersey, 476 |