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to bear upon the mind of youth in its search for the miracles of nature enfolded in the lap of mother earth, cherished and protected there as gifts to the diligent and devoutly-purposed student of God's grand creation. He adverted to the desirableness of extended effort in the department of natural collections, reminding his hearers of the excitement and delight of those gleeful hours when he himself was a "butterfly-hunter," and of the immensely increased veneration induced upon his mind by the exalting character of the studies of other things, upon which he chanced in his pursuit of the gilded prey.

Mr. Appelbee referred to the pleasant days when, “laying aside the majesty of the pedagogue, he became again a boy among the boys," searching for geological rarities among the profitable fields of such research in Derbyshire, and of the ennobling tastes, as well as food for reverent thought, acquired in such holiday expeditions.

Too much importance can scarcely be attached to the remarks that fell from the Rev. Mr. Hayden while moving the adoption of the reports. Many (he said) not only thought, but declared, that it was of little importance under whose teaching the truths of science are acquired so long as they are acquired; and since the New Church has not within its province the same advantages for the acquisition of such knowledge as are to be found elsewhere, it is urged by the same persons that learners should not hesitate to place themselves under the tuition of the best scientific instructors of the day, whatever their religious or non-religious creed. To such a view the speaker took entire exception, and forcibly illustrated the correctness of his objection by calling the attention of the audience to the correspondence of the fishes swimming in the water, the ocean representing the field of scientific truth, the fish, living creatures moving therein, the living principles which find their home and their subsistence in the world of scientific thought. But, the speaker urged, it matters very much through what medium the facts of science come, for every teacher, whatever his creed, must inevitably tinge his facts with the tint prevailing in the avenues of his mind through which he views them; and there is constant danger, in these days of a fallen Church, of giving a wrong direction to the teachings of science, and thereby causing them to militate against the revelations of spiritual truth. The scales of the fish representing those particular truths that protect and fortify the creature, they signify the truths of science which should protect and fortify the efforts of a well-ordered research. These scales are put on the fish in the order of creation, inclining from the head towards the tail, and contribute, being thus arranged, to ease of motion and facility of enjoyment. But if they be inverted, how all this is changed! The scales reversed become only impediments, and the creature is moreover laid open to every danger of attack or accident. It would live in pain and die of distress. And precisely a similar condition of things exists in the mind that does not clothe itself with the teachings of science aright. It is but impeded and hampered by its knowledge, and is never likely to arrive at that blissful end of its existence to which science Divinely directed was designed to lead it. "Therefore," said the speaker, "let science be learned under New Church auspices. If you support the institutions of the Church, they in return will do well what now they can do but imperfectly, and you will create a centre of light which shall gradually illumine the whole field of scientific investigation with its rays."

The winter course of lectures was reported to have been not only most interesting, but better attended than ever. Including among its lecturers such names as the Rev. Dr. Bayley, the Rev. J. Presland, Mr. Bateman, this is a result to be fairly anticipated; but as these meetings are free, the

Council will be happy to report a still more satisfactory attendance at their next annual gathering.

Altogether, the progress of the College was declared to be very gratifying, and with the expression of the warmest hopes that it may be more abundantly blessed, and a more fruitful source of blessing in the time to come, the meeting was brought to a close by a vote of thanks to the Chairman.

Reviews.

REV. JOSEPH COOK'S MONDAY LECTURES.

Street, London.

Charles Higham, Farringdon

MR. COOK is a lecturer who has somewhat suddenly appeared in Boston, America, and has as suddenly acquired great popularity. But when we say popularity we must not be understood to mean the kind of popularity which Moody, who is also in Boston, has won for himself. These lectures are, indeed, on Christian themes, but they are theological, and are intended to win men to religion by showing them the logic of Christianity. They are brilliant productions, and are well worth reading, as they have proved worth hearing by highly intellectual audiences. Although he contends for the old creeds, he presents them in a new light; and if he does not make them something else than they really are, at least he makes them appear something else than they are generally understood to be. We regret that the space at our command this month prevents us from helping our readers to form an opinion for themselves of the character of these lectures. This we

shall endeavour to do in a longer notice next month. Meanwhile, we promise readers of the lectures much that is excellent, though not without alloy, on, among other subjects, human responsibility, permanence of state, the doctrine of the Trinity.

ST. PAUL, LUTHER, AND WESLEY.

By the Rev. R. GOLDSACK. London : James Speirs.

WE have only space to mention and recommend this pamphlet. The first of the lectures appeared in the Repository last month, and gives an idea of what the others are.

IS THERE A PERSONAL DEVIL? A Lecture by the Rev. JOHN PRESLAND. [Reported and published by Mr. A. J. ROBERTS with the Lecturer's permission.] London: T. W. Grattan. Manchester: John Heywood. SHORTHAND notes of the lecture, which formed one of a course given at Holloway, London, under the auspices of the London Missionary Society, were taken by Mr. Roberts for his own edification; but he was so impressed with it that he subsequently obtained Mr. Presland's permission, and now issues the lecture in pamphlet form at his own risk and expense. As Mr. Roberts is not a New Churchman, his action in the matter is the more noteworthy.

The lecture itself bears the impress of that thoughtful study, easy exposition, and command of language which mark all Mr. Presland's discourses, and explain his success as a lecturer.

Those who were fortunate enough to hear the lecture delivered will be glad to have it in type, while those who did not hear it will find in this pamphlet an able exposition of New Church doctrine on an important subject.

340

Miscellaneous.

RELIGION AND PATRIOTISM.-It is a As to the question of sympathy, its

golden statement of Swedenborg's that "all religion has relation to life, and that the life of religion is to do good." This statement furnishes a test of the accuracy of professedly religious claims. True religion is a spirit of life in all secular conduct. It directs all human effort to the one sublime purpose of promoting the good of others; and it is confined in its action to no one department of human life, but extends to every engagement whereby man can minister use to his fellow-man.

The connection of religion and politics has of late occupied a good deal of public attention. Ecclesiastical questions have given it marked prominence. The discussions that have ensued have manifested the usual features of political party. In the Contemporary Review for June, Rev. Dr. Littledale discusses the question of religion and patriotism in a more calm and philosophical spirit. He enters into the discussion of the opinions entertained respecting patriotism, and the varied manifestations of human conduct in relation to it. Like all other virtues it is capable of perversion and abuse. The effort to gain selfish advantages has led to cruel and disastrous wars, and ended in defeating its intention. Christianity widens our sympathies, and lays down the broad principle that in it there is "neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free." This grand conception of the unity of the race, and of the duty and blessedness of love and labour for all, has been very imperfectly manifested in the history of the Church, and its full realization is still the hope of the future. Two entirely diverse forms of Christianity have been hostile to true patriotism.

"One is that which is chiefly, but not by any means peculiarly, embodied in Calvinism, namely, that Christianity is simply a contrivance for rescuing an infinitesimal minority of human beings from endless torture, and for lodging them in abodes of endless bliss, quite apart from moral considerations; balloting them, so to speak, into a most exclusive club, and black balling the whole remainder of mankind.

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treatment is admirably summed up in
the three famous resolutions of the
Pilgrim Fathers, when they were pre-
paring to take the lands of the Red Men
from them by violence: Resolved-
1. That the earth is the Lord's, and the
fulness thereof. 2. That the Lord has
given the earth to the saints. 3. That
we are the saints.' This principle,
though rarely, if ever, expressed with
such charming simplicity and directness,
has yet been very generally acted on by
those who accepted it, in the form of
rigid intolerance when they were the
ruling power, and of unscrupulous re-
sistance to authority when subjects.'
The other unpatriotic development of
Christianity is Ultramontanism.
"The
reason why Ultramontanism has failed
in all civil relations everywhere is that
it has narrowed, materialized, and coar-
sened the idea of a kingdom of Christ,
a brotherhood of ransomed humanity,
by identifying it with Papal monarchy;
treated it all along, at any rate from the
days of Nicholas I., as a temporal much
more than a spiritual domain.
The
consolidation and aggrandizement of
this monarchy, rather than the promo-
tion of righteousness, has been the con-
sistent aim of its ablest servants for
several centuries; a fact curiously illus-
trated by the great abundance of canonists
and ecclesiastical lawyers produced by
the local Church of Rome, contrasted
with its almost complete barrenness of
theologians of respectable mark, of whom
it cannot cite one for each century of
its existence."

The following is the writer's concluding paragraph :-The conclusions to be drawn from a survey of the whole evidence are that so far as Christianity is really in conflict with something called patriotism, that patriotism is not genuine and a virtue, but merely national selfishness and vanity; and so far as patriotism is in conflict with something called Christianity, that Christianity is not genuine and Divine, but a misleading and sectarian gloss; while true Christianity and true patriotism harmonize perfectly, the latter being simply the local expression of the former in its relation to civil life, into which it necessarily in

fuses that intensity of existence, that Ultramontanists, who refuse it to me, enforcement of duty as the first requisite but I am at the antipodes of those conof morality, and that quickened interest in the welfare of others which distinguish Christianity not merely from the classical Paganism which it supplanted, but from all later Pantheistic and Agnostic systems, and most of all from the serene selfishness of modern æsthetic Hedonism-a cult which may breed pigs for Epicurus' sty, but will never rear citizens to save a nation in time of need, or guide it wisely and bravely at any time whatever.

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PERE HYACINTHE. This distin guished Frenchınan has recently given a series of lectures to his countrymen in the city of Paris, in the course of the first of which, in a passing allusion to himself, he contrasted an honest conversion, though branded as apostasy, with cynical hypocrisy. He said that thirty years ago, while walking with a young man on the enchanted banks of the Lago Maggiore, they met the great philosopher Rosmini. His companion, whose name was Montalembert, said, "Oh, how I sigh after truth!" Rosmini said, "Young man, you can never get it without martyrdom." Although there were not now, and never would be again, martyrs in the old sense of the term, and the lover of truth had not to fear the scaffold, the stake, or the rack, they must be prepared for the scorn of relations and dear old friends, and the calumny of the world; and as regards this moral martyrdom, the words of Rosmini were true.

In a letter written to a friend, and which has found its way to the public press, Father Hyacinthe_defines his ecclesiastical position. He clings to the Catholic Church, though rejected by it. He fails to see the impossibility of its reformation, and does not appear to unite himself with the "Old Catholic" movement. "I have continued," he says, "in the straight path, taking no account of the obstacles put in my way by Rome. It thus happens that I, who was of the Extreme Left in the bosom of the Roman Church, am now naturally of the Extreme Right among the religious men separated from Rome. There is nothing common in my ideas with what authoritative radicalism is striving to realize in some quarters; not only do I desire liberty for all, even for the

ventionally called Free Thinkers. The Christ whom I preach to-day is the same that I formerly preached at Notre Dame, not a simple mortal, nor a prophet, nor even a demi-god, but the Logos, or the Eternal Reason of the Father made personally manifest in the real Man Jesus, in whom I believe and whom I worship. It has been alleged that I was personally and too exclusively committed to the marriage of priests. It is true that I consider this point a central and decisive one in the new reform. With the abolition of forced celibacy would disappear the terrible abuses of an institution very old, and, if you will, very salutaryconfession; an institution which I seek not to abolish, but to reform. I also insist on the necessity of disseminating the Holy Scriptures, which are the common basis of Christian belief, and of celebrating Divine worship in a language understood by the people."

BODY AND SPIRIT.-A writer in the Literary World, in a review of Mr. Lewes' new work on Matter and Mind, thus expresses his opinion on this subject:-" We do not conceive of the body as a separate self, but as an organism, by means of which the real self communicates with the external world. We are conscious neither of body nor of spirit; but the activity of our senses teaches us that we possess bodies, and the activity of our thoughts teaches us that we are spirits. No doubt, in loose parlance, we may say that we have a soul, as we say that we have a body, but such random talk signifies nothing.

"It is for the reader to decide whether Mr. Lewes or we give the more correct account of the origin of that belief in the existence of a body and of a soul which is widely diffused. If soul and body constitute a dualism, it is not a dualism of will or of thought, for we cannot conceive matter as either willing or thinking; but we are justified in believing that matter is a reality apart from mind, its atoms and its organisms have an existence independent of the minds which think about them, and that the spirit is an entity separate from the body. This Mr. Lewes strenuously denies, and a host of philosophers agree with him in affirming that our know

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WESLEY AND SWEDENBORG. - The following circular has been issued by Mr. Isaac Pitman to the ministers and members of the New Church, and the "isolated receivers" of her doctrines. The work named is a closely-printed pamphlet of eighty pages, of which we hope to give further notice in our next. 66 The author's name is a sufficient guarantee of its suitableness to the purpose for which it is prepared.

66

My earliest religious life, to the age of nineteen, was cast, doctrinally, in the mould of Calvinism. I then began to read the arguments advanced by Calvin and by Arminius, to support the two opposing systems of theology that bear their names. I became a confirmed Arminian, and joined the Wesleyan Methodist portion of the Church. At the age of twenty-three I made acquaintance with the writings of Swedenborg, and of his defenders and expounders, Clowes, Noble, Hindmarsh, etc. I could not resist the eloquence of truth with which they spoke. I was then occasionally employed as a local preacher among the Methodists, and as I made no secret of my esteem for New Church literature, I was speedily cited before the tribunal of the Superintendent of the Circuit, that I might recant, or be expelled from the Connection. Nothing less than the signing of the following declaration, brought to the meeting by the Superintendent, would be accepted as a formal renunciation of my heresy:-'I will hold no opinions on the doctrines of the Trinity and the Atonement that differ from those in Mr. Wesley's Notes on the New Testament and his Sermons.' I declined to attach my signature to this document, and withdrew from the Connection.

"This bit of personal history may be excused as serving to introduce the subject of my letter. In consequence of my early religious discipline in the Methodist Church, I have continued to feel an affection for that branch of the Church, and wish to bring its members to see the light which has gladdened my own eyes. I think that if the superior views of spiritual truth which the New Church possesses could be brought to

Having, then, a desire to remove the erroneous ideas which the Methodist ministers receive from Mr. Wesley's misrepresentation of Swedenborg and his writings, I have printed the enclosed work, Wesley and Swedenborg, with the intention of posting a copy to every Methodist minister in the kingdom. It has been written for the purpose, at my request, by the Rev. W. Bruce, who has generously given the manuscript and the copyright of the work for the first edition of 12,000 copies.

66

I would extend the benefit which 1 think must follow the perusal of the work to all the Independent and Baptist ministers in the country. Their num bers are-Wesleyan Methodist Travelling Preachers, 2570; Primitive Methodist, 1080; Methodist Free Church, 384; Methodist New Connection, 140; Independent or Congregationalist, 2047; Baptist, 2324-Total, 8545.

66

My object in addressing you is to ask you kindly to interest yourself in the project I have laid before you so far as to read the book, to bring the subject before your Society, and to solicit contributions towards the expense; to be forwarded to me by P. O. order. With the aid of steam printing I am enabled to produce this book at the cost price of 1d., and it can be sent by post for

d.; 8540 copies will therefore cost £71. If the wealthy members of the New Church will subscribe this sum-the Bath Society of the New Church gives £10 towards it-the books shall be posted to the Methodist preachers in a few weeks, before the annual meetings of the Methodist Conferences, and to the others during the summer.

"If more than £71 be raised by this appeal, I propose to post a copy to the ministers of the Church of England as far as the funds extend. Indeed, I am not without hope, considering the value of the work, and the small expense in

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