had assisted in getting up the entertain- assist their brethren. To render this assistance efficient and useful, there must ment. PRESTON. 11th, sermons were preached in this church by the Rev. R. Storry, and collections made on behalf of the Ministers' Aid and Sustentation Fund. The attendance at both services was good, the church in the evening being comfortably filled. The subject of discourse in the morning was the sending forth of the Apostles, selected from the second lesson (Mark vi. 7, 8). In the evening the discourse was on the royalty and priesthood of the Lord's disciples, from Revelation i. 5, 6. In both discourses the preacher dwelt upon the value of the Christian ministry as a divine appointment adapted to the wants of the Church. In relation to the temporal support of the ministry, he said that to take neither scrip, nor bread, nor money in their purse was to depend entirely on the providence of the Lord; and it involved a promise that He would provide. How then did the Lord provide for the teachers He sent forth? Not by any miracle, but by those who were benefited by their teaching. His instruction was: 66 In what place soever ye enter into an house, there abide till ye depart from that place." The same law obtains to-day. Christianity is of no time, but is adapted to the condition and circumstances of all time. The method of providing for the wants of the ministry at the first preaching of the gospel was suited to the then state of the world. The teachers entered the families of the saints, and shared their temporal things, while they ministered to their spiritual wants. This mode of providing for the ministry would be unsuited to the condition of modern society. It would, moreover, throw upon a few what should be the duty and privilege of all. With the growth and establishment of Churches, therefore, the law given by the Saviour is observed in a manner suited to the altered condition of the world. All are called upon to contribute to the support of the Church and the maintenance of the ministry. Nor is this great duty confined to individual societies. The Church is one, and it is to be knit together by mutual uses and mutual sympathy and helpful On Sunday, February be system and mutual co-operation. And for the attainment of these in the Church there must be a central and representative body. Such a body is the General Conference, which has strongly recommended this subject to all the Societies and members of the Church. Our first duty is to purify our motives, that whatever we do may be done from an intelligent and fervent love of the Lord, and a sincere desire to build up His Church and kingdom in the world. Acting from these motives, we are to make no parsimonious effort for the support of the Church and the promulgation of its teaching. "God loveth a cheerful giver.' ness. The strong are to help the weak; and the weak are to put forth effort that they may become strong and able to "The liberal deviseth liberal things." All our earthly treasures are the Lord's gifts; and we best show our gratitude to the Giver of all good when we devote of our substance to the wants of His Church. And to what higher use can we contribute, than to provide for the constant ministry of the Word? Earthly things fade away; the Word of the Lord abideth for ever. STOCK PORT.-A New Church Society has existed in this large town for fifty years; but probably no Society in the Church has made so little progress in so long a time, and in so promising a centre of operations. The principal cause of this want of success has been the loss of active members by removal to other towns. For many years past the Society has occupied an unsuitable room. Some fourteen years ago subscriptions were raised amongst the members, and an appeal made to the Church at large; but the distress consequent on the cotton famine led to the emigration of the leading members, and the sums subscribed were returned, the Society relapsing into its former obscurity. The members have determined to alter this state of things. They feel that Stockport should be one of the most important centres of New Church effort and influence, and they are resolved to make every possible effort to place the Church on a substantial basis. They have succeeded in collecting about £60; they are raising amongst each other by subscription another £60, and all are busily engaged in forwarding the work of the Bazaar Committee, and hope by Christmas, with the aid of more fortunately placed Societies, to realize a sufficient sum to justify them in commencing building operations at once. The committee propose issuing to Societies, and to individuals taking an interest in the work, collecting books, in which all contributions should be entered, and copies of such entries returned to the Secretary month by month, to enable an accurate account of their progress to be obtained, and recorded on the wrapper of the Intellectual Repository. We doubt not there are to be found in every Society of the Church throughout Britain members whose leisure would enable them to take up this labour of love, and secure very good results with comparatively moderate efforts. Obituary. Removed to the spiritual world, on the 5th of February 1877, Mrs. Wilcock, wife of Mr. John Wilcock, of Broome House, Levenshulme, in the 59th year of her age. She was the daughter of the late Mr. John Barge, of Irwell House, Lower Broughton, and grand-daughter of the Mr. Barge who, in conjunction with the late Mr. Francis Goadsby, was chiefly instrumental in building the New Jerusalem Temple, Salford. Deceased was a member of the Salford Society, having been connected therewith from her childhood. Between three and four years ago she was attacked with paralysis, and since then other diseases laid a firm hold upon her enfeebled frame, and the last stages of her illness were attended with the very extreme of bodily pain and suffering. She was kind and affectionate in her demeanour, and was largely endowed with a sweetness and amiability of temper, which gained for her the tender regard and esteem of all her friends. She leaves behind her a family and a wide circle of friends in the Society to which she belonged, by whom her many excellences of character will be lovingly remembered, and her memory fondly revered and cherished. At Headingley, near Leeds, on Thurs day, January 25th, Mrs. Mary Ann Deans was removed into the spiritual world, in the 58th year of her age. Mrs. Deans had been for many years a member of the church in Albion Walk, Leeds, and was esteemed by her fellow-members. She has passed through much affliction, having many years since lost her husband, and recently seen her daughters in the bloom of life removed to their higher home. She has now herself departed to join those who have gone before, and to enter into associations which will never end. Removed to the spiritual world on February 3rd, 1877, Elizabeth, wife of Mr. John Latham, of Miry Lane, Wigan, aged 38 years. Departed into the spiritual world, January 24th, Mary Ann, the beloved wife of Thomas Plummer of Islington. Mr. and Mrs. Plummer received the doctrines about the year 1840, through the instrumentality of her eldest brother, Mr. Richard Gunton. They were married in 1844 by the Rev. S. Noble, at Cross Street, Hatton Garden, and from that time have been members of the same Society. Mrs. Plummer was affectionately attached to the Church, was of a retiring disposition, meek and humble in suffering, of which she endured much previous to her departure, and was most loved by those who knew her best. She has left four sons and two daughters, who deeply feel their loss. Her sorrowing husband patiently awaits the Father's summons to rejoin her, comforted meanwhile by the clear and consoling doctrines of our Church. I. G. Charles Townsend Hook, Esq. of Snodland, Kent. Just as we are going to press, we are informed of the sudden departure into the spiritual world of this esteemed member of the New Church. We sympathize with his family and friends in their loss, and with the little church he has so long and so generously fostered. We hope in our next to furnish a suitable obituary notice. "And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth."-REV. xiv. 13. WHEN mention is made of dying, we most naturally think of that event which is the closing scene of earthly life. But there is another kind of dying than this. A man may lose his life long before he ceases to be an inhabitant of this world. He may lose it. "for the Lord's sake" (Matt. x. 39), and in that case we know that the Lord has promised he shall find it. New Churchmen are well aware that love is the life of man. The love that is the life of the unregenerate man is self-love. When any one loses that love, he loses his life, and, by no mere figure of speech, dies. There may be "bliss" in it, The act of dying separates us Dying is not a pleasant operation. but that bliss is mingled with pain. from long-loved friends. It robs us at one stroke of all our natural possessions. Our hardly-accumulated riches, our earthly homes, and honours, and position, our worldly learning and cultivation, are, in a moment, lost. We take nothing with us to the place we are going to but our works. These follow with us there, and these alone. Only what a man has done goes with him into that new state of existence. It is quite natural, therefore, that we should regard the act of dying K with mixed feelings. The loss of our bodily lives must always be a serious and difficult operation. And as it is with the losing of our body's life, so is it also with the losing of the first natural life of our spirits. It is not easy to die as to the life of self-love. Within the activities of that life are embraced most of our first dearest friends and possessions. Foremost among these stands our own dear self— that well-beloved object of the natural man's deepest affections. He who dies in the Lord has to face the stern necessity of parting with that dear friend for ever. There is in this case no question of parting only to meet again. The parting is to be eternal. Self, the long-constituted centre of our loving regard and attention, is to be removed from his throne in the kingdom of the soul. The entire mental life is to be revolutionized. The face of the old friend is to be exchanged for the faces of friends whom we know not, whom we never saw, and of whose power to fill our affections we have had no experience. What wonder that we hesitate? Self is a well-known darling, and the pleasure of loving him is as old as we can remember. But as for those new friends, we have no assurance of their superiority beyond that which is given to us by Divine revelation, beyond that which is contained in the Word of the Lord. It must be confessed that it is a cold plunge that we are asked to take. To cease from the love of self is to cease from our very life. It is actually to die. "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth." This is a new gospel sent down from a Heaven that is new. Long have we known that it is blessed to live. Henceforth the blessedness of being dead is proclaimed to us all. "Blessed are the dead," says the voice from the New Heaven. "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord." But a man must be in the Lord before he can die in Him. No blessing is pronounced by the heavenly voice for those who die anywhere else. Outside the Lord a man may live, outside the Lord a man may die, but not to such goes forth the proclamation of the text. Whatever blessings may be assured to us thereby we still remain devoid of, until we not only get into the Lord, but also die in Him. To be "in the Lord" is in everybody's mouth. As far as talking is concerned, men are in the Lord every day. They live in the Lord; they die in the Lord; they labour in the Lord; they are our brethren in the Lord; they are our right reverend fathers in God. But if we ask them to explain to us how they got into Him, that is another matter. Blank stares of surprise are our most probable answer. And shrewd suspicions thereby arise that they are using words which have even for themselves no definite meaning; that, to speak plainly, they don't know what they are talking about. That, however, is a condition of the intellectual faculties which can hardly satisfy us. The expression is of no human origin. It was coined by One who never uses words devoid of meaning. Over and over again He spoke to His disciples of being in Him. He knew what He was talking about. No dim haze of meaninglessness filled His mind when He spoke. Precision itself is the characteristic of all Divine speech. A voice from heaven is a voice from God. To die in the Lord means something most clear to Him who utters it; and, for that very reason, it may, and ought to, mean something most clear to us. The Lord's words are spirit and they are life. In a material sense no one can be in the Lord, much less can any one die in Him. The material sense being thus impossible, what is the spiritual sense? This question leads at once to another. If we are asked, What do you mean by being in the Lord the first thing we must do is to see whether our questioner knows what the Lord is. For possibly He may attach merely natural ideas to the expression "Lord." He may think of the word "Lord" as conveying a notion only of physical form and substance. It is quite true that the Lord is a Divine Man. Literally, He is a man. In that form He appears to the angels. In that form He has always appeared to men. But this is the merely literal sense of the Word. And in that sense no one can ever understand what it is to be in the Lord. Most necessary therefore is the first preliminary inquiry, What, in the spiritual sense, is signified by the word "Lord ?" What, in fact, is the Lord in spirit? What is He? We reply, Goodness and truth. Goodness itself, and truth itself. These are the two essential constituents of Divinity. Take absolute and complete goodness, add thereto absolute and complete truth, embody them in the human form, that is the Lord. This conception of the Lord is the only possible one. Any other conception whatever falls to pieces the moment it is critically examined. But if that is the case, it is clear that the Lord as to His Spirit, as to His internal constitution, is, as we have stated, goodness and truth. To be in the Lord, therefore, in the spiritual sense, is to be in a state of goodness and truth. And conversely, to be in a state of goodness and truth is to be in the Lord, for there is no goodness and truth but what proceeds from Him, and is Himself. |