man's soul and life; or there is no salvation. It is a favourite and oft-repeated thought of his that the one design of God known to us-for the sake of which all creation exists-is to form a heaven, or heavenly kingdom, out of the race of man, the human family; which seems like an immediate deduction from God being wisdom and love, or goodness and truth, and man being the highest work of God in His image. For the accomplishment of this design God descended into our humanity. In His own clear, terse language, the Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah, came into the world that He might subdue the hells and glorify His Humanity; without Him no flesh could have been saved, and all will be saved who believe in Him.' Swedenborg, firmly maintaining the free determination of man, by no means admits that evil has its origin with us. To him, as to Paul, the spiritual, invisible world is as real as the visible. He has said that there is a correspondence between the two; he now teaches that both are so intimately connected that nothing takes place in either without an influence in the other. Hence to those numerous expressions of Scripture-that we 'war not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual wickedness, or wicked spirits in the heavens ;' that the 'devil goeth about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour,' which modern materialism criticises into nothing,-to them he gives intense solemnity; and the Saviour's temptation and conflict with evil, which the same criticism fritters away into meaningless imagination, in the hands of Swedenborg rises up before the mind in that mingled awe and grandeur which one might expect if it be a real fact that the supreme God is banishing a fatal enemy from His heavenly kingdom. In passing, it were well for mankind if the scorn directed against this thought could be turned a little more towards lessening the innumerable woes with which some devil afflicts humanity. On the 21st of September the thirteenth anniversary services were held in the Lorne Street Hall. In the evening service, from the text "Behold, I make all things new" (Rev. xxi. 5), Mr. Edger discoursed on "The New Church that will be." An appropriate introduction leads to a discussion of the question of Church organization and of the agencies which are shaping the mind of the future. A mind of enlightened thought and Christian culture must often be painfully affected by much that prevails in modern Church organization and action. Mr. Edger seems to have been affected in this manner, and hence to have lost faith in Church organizations. On this subject he says: "We believe that the true religion belongs equally to everything in life; that the true temple is formed of a man's actions; that the indwelling spirit is the divinely unselfish principle that is rooted in the soul, and governs the entire man, down to the minutest thing of his thought and life. There cannot be a moment's doubt that this is as difficult to attain as it is comprehensive and exalted in conception. It is far easier to apply religion to a small part of life than to the whole of it, to build a temple of bricks or wood than of holy actions and pure thoughts, to get devout worship into an ecclesiastical structure than into the counting-house, exchange, and store. But what then? Our choice lies between them; to accept one is to reject the other. The question for us is, whether in accepting the former we do not set aside that entire view of religion that alone to us renders it valuable? It is morally certain that in choosing the easiest of two courses because it is the easiest we shall certainly not retain the most difficult. "But to many this seems to say that we disparage and discard all organization. They may point to the things of this visible universe and ask with truth, Are they not all organized? Is not that at once their beauty and their worth? Should the more highly complicated beings reject the principle? Has not all society needed organic structure? Does it not more so when it becomes religious? Shall we, then, believe that religion will go on in the future without religious organization? "These are serious questions, to which I wish to supply some answer. Nothing seems to me more unwise than it would be to deprecate organization. It is the highest expression of the Divine intelligence. We seem to see more elaborate skill and more profound wisdom as creation becomes more intensely and intricately organic. It would be folly not to see that the same principle must apply to human things. But two questions at least arise on which everything depends: Who shall organize? and on what principle, or to what end shall it proceed? Because around us there is no organization at random, or without clear design and authority. My answer is explicit. God alone, or the Divine Providence, can organize a true Church. And the principle on which it must proceed, or the end contemplated, is not self-interest, but the good of mankind. The organization I object to is that which men think they are competent and have a right to bring about, and which exists for the sake of those who constitute it." to the office of Dean and Archdeacon of Natal, under the episcopal authority of Bishop Colenso, has led to no small commotion in Church of England circles. It will be within the recollec tion of many of our readers that Mr. Colley at one period of his life was openly connected with the New Church, and adopted as one of the students for our ministry. Circumstances, to which it is not necessary to refer, led to his adoption of the ministry of the Established Church. We have never concealed, nor wished to conceal, that the readers and admirers of the Writings of Swedenborg divide themselves into two classes-those who prefer the liberty, the social advantages, and, as they think, the opportunities of extended There are, in the estimation of Mr. usefulness afforded by a separate Church Edger, "three essential elements that organization, and those who prefer, from must constitute a true Church of Christ: reasons that are satisfactory to their Purity of doctrine; spirituality, un- own minds, to remain in connection worldliness, which necessarily means with the several Christian communities unselfishness of character; universality in which are their early associations. of authority or influence; all of these Among these are not a few who essentially involving absolute catholi- have occupied the pulpits of some city." Purity of doctrine he finds in Swe- of these communities. The proba denborg, and thinks that spirituality of bility is, therefore, that Mr. Colley's character is represented in spiritualism, appointment would have passed over and universality of influence in Roman without remark had it not been in Catholicism. This must, we think, connection with the episcopate of Bishop appear to most persons as a curious Colenso, and the, apparently, not very combination of very diverse systems of prudent publication by the newly-apreligious thought and practice. The pointed Dean of the sanction and good great lessons involved in the systems wishes of the Archbishop of Canterbury thus introduced, so far as they are and the Bishops of Exeter and Worcesapplicable to the wants of the present ter. The Archbishop has been assailed, or of the coming ages of the Church, not in the most courteous manner, for will doubtless remain as the inherit- his action in the matter, and he has ance of the Church of the future, promptly and properly declined to enter though probably not in the manner into explanations on the subject. From the wisest of the present generation the Guardian newspaper, the organ of anticipate. Doubtless the Church is the High Church party, we learn that the Lord's, and He will work out His Mr. Colley applied to the Archbishop benevolent purposes respecting it; but for a Lambeth degree, which was rein this, as in all the movements of His fused, with probably the expression of Providence, He will employ the agency goodwill and good wishes for the suc of His children. Our duty in the cess of his work at Natal. Be this, organization of the Church is to follow the leading of His Providence, to have patience with the infirmities of our fellow-creatures, and to use as we have opportunity all orderly means for the good of mankind and the establishment of the Lord's kingdom in the world. REV. T. COLLEY. The appointment of this gentleman however, as it may, the question has now been urged on the attention of the Church in England by a letter from the metropolitan of South Africa to the secretary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, in which he described the alarm and anxiety of the Church of South Africa, and stated that he had also addressed the Archbishop of Canterbury on the subject. The Standing Committee of the Society thereupon SWEDENBORG SOCIETY. gave notice of the following resolution: but in the colony, we may be models of "Whereas it has been alleged that a Christian deportment and gentlemanly person in holy orders has recently gone feeling." out from England with the intention of acting ministerially under the authority of Dr. Colenso as Bishop within the colony of Natal, and has publicly made The secretary has received a letter a statement as to the sanction given to from Dr. Jackson of Oregon, dated such intention: the Society hereby December 18th, 1879, from which solemnly reaffirms the several resolu- the following is an extract: "Entions by which it ceased to recognise closed I send you another draft the episcopal authority of Dr. J. W. for £100. This makes the third. Colenso, and records its firm determination to uphold and maintain, so far as lies in its power, the sole episcopal authority of Bishop Macrorie within the colony of Natal, as committed to him by the Church in South Africa." As soon as I learn of its safe arrival I will mail you another for a like amount. I purpose sending you, and keep on till I make, an amount say of These drafts I wish to be in vested for a specific use, viz. the inTo this motion notices of two amend- terest only to be used for translating, ments were given. One, by Rev. B. printing, and publishing the theological Compton, proposed a new preamble works of E. Swedenborg into the giving a detailed account of the former living and spoken foreign languages of proceedings of the Society in the case of other nations." Dr. Jackson's health is Bishop Colenso; and the other, by in such a state as to give his friends Archdeacon Denison, directed attention great anxiety, and he was quite unable to the action of the Archbishop and to write the letter which accompanied Bishops, and amounted to a vote of censure on these dignitaries of the Church. A stormy meeting ended in the adoption of the resolution proposed by the committee. The Dean of Westminster seems to have been the only speaker who expressed sympathy with Mr. Colley and the Bishop of Natal. Notwithstanding the "shouts of ridicule and laughter" with which he was received, the Dean, with his characteristic generosity, said, "Nevertheless, with regard to Mr. Colley, whose name has caused so much ridicule, I am proud to say that any support or any encouragement which I can render- (The rest of the sentence was lost in loud cries of "Shame!" and "Order!"). Meanwhile the Dean has entered on the duties of his office, and at a meeting of the clergy over which he presided, is reported to have said: "It will be my study to mediate between any differences of opinion that may occur; for as there are many men, so there must be many minds. We ought to hold our differences of opinion with charity and forbearance one to the other, expressing ourselves in the amiable and courteous way which ever become Christian gentlemen and Churchmen having at heart the best wishes of the Church of which we are proud to be members, and that reports of our meeting getting abroad, not only in the city, 66 the draft. The secretary has also received the donation of nineteen guineas left to the Society by the late Mr. Frederick Allen. The following is the inscription on the table presented to the Society by the late Mr. Watson: Swedenborg's table used by him while living at Shearsmith's, 25 Great Bath Street, Clerkenwell, London. Was purchased by John Barge, Esq., of Broughton, Manchester, at a sale of some portion of Shearsmith's furniture. Purchased of the daughter of John Barge, Esq., through the Rev. J. B. Kennerley, by Thomas Watson." The committee are advertising the "True Christian Religion" in the Times. Sufficient time has not yet elapsed to ascertain whether the results will repay the outlay. Advertisements have also been inserted in the "Congregational YearBook," the " Baptist Handbook," the "Protestant Dissenters' Almanac," the " "Vegetarian Almanac," and one or two other annuals. The editor of the last-named work offered to insert a page advertisement and take works as an equivalent instead of money, an offer which was gladly accepted by the committee. Applications for the "True Christian Religion" and the "Apocalypse Revealed' are occasionally made by students at the Nonconformist colleges, which the committee deem it wise to grant. The thirty copies of the Intellectual specify what particular errors in docRepository granted to the Auxiliary trine or practice may coexist with such Society by the Conference for distribu- a faith, without neutralizing it, or distion will have inserted in them this year copies of the "Annotated Catalogue.' EVANGELICALISM. qualifying the subject to bear rightly the epithet Evangelical. I fear you will think this somewhat unsatisfactory; but I am conscious of a growing dissatisfaction with, and disapproval of, the nice distinctions drawn for one The Indian Evangelical Review, a another by Christian men, in proporquarterly periodical, published in Bom- tion as I am conscious of drawing nearer bay, and devoted to missionary subjects, to the borders of the other world, where with the view to elicit an expression of all such distinctions will be forgotten, opinion with regard to certain points, and all who truly believe in the Lord considered fundamental in Christian Jesus Christ will truly, as now, but belief, from some leading Indian mis- also visibly-as not always now-be one sionaries, European and native, repre- in Him.” sentative of various sections of the Christian Church, prepared and circulated the following questions: "1. What constitutes Evangelical doctrine? 2. What views is it necessary that a man should hold on the doctrines of the Atonement and Future Punishment, on Ritualism and Catholicism, and on Current and Scientific Speculations, in order to be considered an Evangelical man?” The questions were sent to thirty-seven gentlemen. Of these fourteen returned answers. SERVICES IN NEW CHURCH BATH.-The Rev. Mr. Child, the able and esteemed pastor of the New Church in this city, closed the year with two lectures, given on the two last Sabbath evenings, on "Hell and the Doctrine of Future Punishments," and "Heaven, Where is it? and what will it be like for us?" The attendance was large, chairs having to be placed in the aisles for the The Christian World gives a con- accommodation of the worshippers. Very densed summary of the several answers full reports of these lectures are pubto these questions, which are published lished in the Bath Argus. From the in the Review. From this summary it report of the second lecture we give appears evident that the missionaries the following extract. After an have made less theological changes than appropriate introduction, Mr. Child their brethren in the ministry at home. took up the question, Where is heaven? Many state in a dogmatic and self-con- In the discussion of this question he refident manner the doctrine on the sub- marked: "Now where are we to find it? ject of the inquiries as they must have Those who have held a belief about learned it from catechisms in their heaven hitherto, have held the notion youth. There is, however, one excep- of its being up in the sky, and the man tion; and we think, with the writer in who will know before he believes, who the Christian World, that the senti- will understand before he assents, says, ments expressed in the following letter Just tell me what you mean by this in reply to these two questions will heaven in the sky? The atmosphere commend themselves to all our readers surrounding the different planets may for their wise thoughtfulness and beau- be slightly varied, a little more water in tiful charity, as well as for their modest one atmosphere than in another or somereticence. The writer is the Rev. J. H. thing of that sort; if this is your conBudden of the London Missionary ception of heaven I must say I think Society, who went out to India as long you would not be wise to try to find it; ago as 1841, and who thus speaks with this conception is simply an exploded the weight of long experience. Mr. notion. I cannot conceive such a thing, Budden says: "In a general way I think or believe myself going in the air to any man is entitled to be called Evan- heaven when I die.' And so, because gelical (if he wishes to be so called) who the common Christian is wrong in his believes in salvation through Christ notion of the whereabouts of heaven, alone. I do not feel able or inclined to the man comes to the conclusiondefine the matter more clearly, or to irrelevantly I think-that there is no ་ movements do not take place in the material atmosphere. Where then do they take place? It is merely an DERBY.-The anniversary services in connection with this Society were held On heaven to believe in at all, and the less he dabbles in such matters the better. Scepticism is thus produced by some of the very beliefs which are held about assumption to tell us that mind is the this thing. Now we of the New Church result of organization. We have, as do not believe that heaven is up in the a matter of fact, two distinct worlds skies; you may go up there to any ex- within ourselves; for one we know we tent, and yet be no nearer heaven at all. have an external counterpart, for the Where is it then? Why, heaven is other I demand an external counterpart where the mind is 'the kingdom of too, and the external counterpart for the heaven is within you.' Heaven is where other is this spiritual world in which the mind is, and hell is where the mind Christians believe and of which the Bible is. Heaven and hell, then, are both sub- speaks and teaches." jective things; things in the mind primarily, and things in outward life secondarily. Heaven is where we are ourselves now, and therefore we are in on Sunday, December 21st; they were two worlds, one within the other-the one simply enclosed as it were within the other; the one the spiritual, that is, the heavenly side of it; the other the material side of it. But you say, 'Where is the evidence for that, we know the truth of the evidence as to the material world, but what of the spiritual world which you say will be for me a heaven? If you have any evidence of this, how different life will be for me; nay, how different death will be for me: what an assurance of rest and comfort I should have in looking forward to that time of nothingness and decay and corruption!' O my friend, just think a moment; your mind is here, it is yourself, but your mind is not affected by space, nor by material conditions around you. Your mind may travel in consciousness through space, and yet all the while you can sit perfectly still. The movements of the mind are spiritual movements, and subject to spiritual laws, the movements of matter are material, 'mechanical movements, and subject to natural laws. We have reached, then, this point-that we have, so to speak, two different worlds within ourselves, the inner, spiritual, mental world; and the outer, mechanical, material world. Your material world-that of the body has again an external world in which to disport itself, in which to walk about, to live, to move, and have its being. Where is that? Why, the world about us. This is meant for the perambulations of our material world. We are fitted to it, it is fitted to us, and is the proper world for the body to move about in. Will there be no corresponding world for the movements of feelings, of thought, emotion? You have seen that these G conducted by the minister, the Rev. On Wednesday evening, January 14th, a special social tea meeting was held, to bid farewell to Mr. W. J. Clemson, who for nearly four years had presided at the organ belonging to this church, and who is now proceeding to Cambridge in order to complete his preparation for a literary career. About seventy of the members and friends of the Society |