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not be confounded with o@ovva, which denoted some kind of Syrian herbaceous plant, perhaps a composite (Pliny xxvii. 85).

St. Luke's first word for the shroud, σwdwv, seems to point, etymologically, to India. It is found in classical Greek, as in the Antigone of Sophocles (1222), and is the term applied to the shroud both by Matthew and Mark (xxvii. 59, xv. 46). St. Mark had already employed it in the narrative in ch. xiv. 51, 52, where the Authorized Version says 66 a linen cloth."

Lastly, in 1 Kings x. 28, and 2 Chron. i. 16, where the Authorized Version gives "linen yarn," the words represent the Hebrew mikveh or mikve, and have been adopted in deference to ancient commentators; while in Leviticus xix. 19, rendered "linen" by the Authorized Version, the original word shahatnez or sha'athnetz, a compound term, appears to denote a fabric manufactured partly of linen thread and partly of wool, or, as we say in English, "linsey-woolsey."

The scriptural correspondences of white linen clothing are obvious. Whatever pertains to purity and fair appearances is bound up with the idea of snowy apparel. Flax, in itself, as an object of farm-cultivation, goes along with ideas of industry, and man's dependence upon the Almighty for every blessing he enjoys, temporal as well as spiritual.

WESLEY AND SWEDENBORG.1

THE name of John Wesley and the work he accomplished in the world continue to attract the attention of thoughtful and inquiring minds. Exposed to rude and violent opposition in his lifetime, he is now regarded with respect by all classes of the people. The religious movement which he commenced continues, though divested of much of its original enthusiasm and aggressiveness. His successors have adapted themselves to the better age which has followed his labours, and to which these labours have largely contributed. The bishops and insest pastors of the Church which resented his teaching, and cast him out of its community, deplore the conduct of their predecessors, and regard the separation of his followers from the Establishment as a source of weakness and matter of regret. Many efforts have been made to promote the reunion of the Wesleyan body with the Church of which their founder was a minister, but with little prospect of success. The citations from his works show that these works are in the libraries of the clergy, and read by them.

It is much to be regretted that in the published works of Wesley should have been inserted his hasty and ill-considered reflections on Swedenborg. His writings exercise a great influence on the minds of his followers, and they perpetuate a prejudice discreditable to Wesley

1 "Wesley and Swedenborg: A Review of the Rev. John Wesley's 'Thoughts on the Writings of Baron Swedenborg. By the Rev. William Bruce, author of "Commentary on the Gospel according to Matthew," etc.

anism and injurious to the truth. While they continue to be widely circulated and extensively read, it is important that correct information should be supplied respecting this portion of their teaching. And this is especially desirable in the case of the Wesleyan ministers. They are the guides and teachers of the people; and they are required by the rules of their Conference to make their founder's writings a special study. This little brochure is intended to supply this needed information, especially to the ministers. The circumstances under which it has been prepared, and the means adopted to bring it under the attention of Wesleyan ministers, are described in the letter of the publisher, Mr. Isaac Pitman, which appeared in our last issue. The work itself is a model of controversial writing. There is no bitterness, no unwillingness to acknowledge the eminence and excellence of Mr. Wesley, no effort to take advantage of any stray expression to create a prejudice or turn the reader aside from the question at issue. Mr. Wesley's position, as one of the providential agents for advancing the state of preparation for the new age, is distinctly recognized :—

"Signs of the commencement of the Lord's new and spiritual reign are not wanting. Wesley himself was moved by it though he knew it not, and was instrumental, under the Lord, in helping it forward, even while he intellectually strove against it. He who casts out devils in the Lord's name, whatever his own ecclesiastical name may be, helps the kingdom of the Lord to come nigh unto men."

The several objections urged by Mr. Wesley are stated in his own. words, and the reply is a lucid exposition of Swedenborg's teaching on the subject. As a specimen of the work we give the objection arising from one of the memorable relations, and the reply which follows:

"To confound all Trinitarians at a stroke, he adds this memorable relation:- In the spiritual world (which lies in the midst between heaven and hell, having heaven above and hell below) are climates and zones as in the natural. The frigid zones are the habitation of those first spirits who, while on earth, were lazy and indolent. Having once a desire to visit them, I was carried in the spirit to a region covered with snow.' (Remember, this was in the other world!) It was on the Sabbath day; and I saw a number of men, that is, human spirits, who had their heads covered with lions' skins, by reason of the cold;' (or who knows but the poor spirits might be frozen to death?) their bodies with the skins of leopards, and their legs and feet with bears' skins.' I also observed several riding in chariots, made in the shape of dragons with horns. They were drawn by small horses without tails, which ran with the impetuosity of terrible, fierce beasts. They were all flocking towards a church, in which hung a tablet inscribed, 'A Divine Being, consisting of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in essence one, but in person three.'

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"No doubt such an account of the other world and of the people who are there must be very extraordinary, and may seem very absurd, to those who think of human souls as the superstitious think of ghosts, and of the spiritual world as the cloud-land of phantoms. But why should they be of this unsubstantial nature? The spiritual world is nearer to God than the natural, and ought to be more substantial. It is one of the benefits we derive from the 'open vision' which the author of this account enjoyed,

that we are able to know that the eternal world is more real than the temporal; and that the soul is there more substantial than the body is here. In that world there is this peculiarity, that all outward things are the exact emblems of the inward states of the people who live there. In heaven everything is in harmony with the inward innocence, love, and peace of its angelic inhabitants. Literally, everlasting spring abides there, with all the freshness, beauty, and fruitfulness that belong to it. In hell all is dark, and dismal, and barren, ay, and cold-except in the outbursts of the fire of their demoniacal passions, that sometimes smoulder but are never quenched. But the scene of this singular gathering is neither heaven nor hell, but what our author calls the world of spirits, the intermediate state, where all enter at death, and where they remain so long as their state is intermediate. For death itself produces no change of state. This takes place gradually; and when whatever is incongruous with their essential state of good or evil is removed, souls pass as a necessary result into their final and eternal abode. It is but natural, therefore, that souls newly departed from the natural world should display, for a time, all their leading mental characteristics, almost as if they were still in the natural world. The climate was emblematic of their own state. These cold regions are the resort and habitation of those who, in the natural world, have brought a lethargy on their understandings, in consequence of an indolent disinclination to think on spiritual subjects, attended with a laziness in the execution of any useful purpose. The outward appearances were the images of their inward states. They were people who had been accustomed to be religious on the Sabbath day, and had allowed and paid the clergymen to think, so far as he himself dared to think, for them. As the rain of His truth, which the Heavenly Father sends on the unjust, descended in gentle showers into their minds, the coldness of their hearts had frozen it into snow; and even what knowledge of truth they had retained in their memory was congealed into ice; and the little vital heat they possessed they sought to preserve by such outward means as their own animal appetites and passions, like the leopard and bear skins, could supply. The diminutive but fierce horses were emblems of their stunted but disputatious intellects, and their dragon-shaped chariots represented their false doctrines. The preacher was suitable to the congregation. He fed them with mysteries. Besides the mystery of the Trinity, he discoursed on the mysteries of imputation and election, maintaining the utter absence of freewill in spiritual things; and, that these mysteries might not disturb their thoughts, he counselled his hearers to keep their understandings in obedience to faith. "Now what is there in this that is absurd? Wesley fears the poor spirits might be frozen to death. The thought does not seem to have occurred to him that poor spirits cast into a lake of fire might be burnt to death. But the frozen zone, on which Wesley displays a pleasant wit, is not unlike a region which Milton places in the nether world:

"Beyond this flood a frozen continent

Lies dark and wild, beat with perpetual storms
Of whirlwind, and dire hail, which on firm land
Thaws not, but gathers heap, and ruin seemis
Of ancient pile; all else deep snow and ice,
A gulf profound as that Serbonian bog
Betwixt Damiata and Mount Casius old,
Where armies whole have sunk: the parching air
Burns frore, and cold performs the effect of fire.
Thither, by harpy-footed furies haled,

At certain revolutions, all the damned

Are brought; and feel by turns the bitter change

Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce!
From beds of raging fire to starve in ice
Their soft ethereal warmth, and there to pine
Immovable, infixed, and frozen round

Periods of time; thence hurried back to fire.'

This is admired as a poetical conception; but when something very much like it is related in sober prose as a simple fact it becomes at once a subject of ridicule. There is one rather important difference indeed between the creation of the poet and the relation of the seer. The icy region of Milton, as alternate with the burning lake, is an arrangement devised by the wisdom of a benevolent Deity for intensifying the torments of the damned; while the frozen zone of the seer is the effect and image of the state of the spirits themselves who sojourn for a time in the middle state."

We would point out the following printer's errors that they may be corrected in a future edition :-Page 50, last line, the words natural and spiritual should be transposed; and page 53, col. 1, line 14, become should be became; and in line 38 of the same column the negative is omitted. R. S.

PASTORAL ADVICE.

BY THE LATE E. D. RENDELL.

In order that our public worship of the Lord may be serviceable to our spiritual life, and prove attractive and profitable to all who attend it, permit me earnestly and affectionately to press upon your attention the following considerations:

Be Punctual.-Make it a matter of conscience to be in your place at church in good time, so as to secure a few moments for interior and serious reflection. This will aid you in feeling the devotion, and profiting by the instruction. If you live at a distance from the church, start a little earlier. If you have domestic duties to be attended to, push them forward; a few minutes in commencing these duties will make all the difference between being soon and late. Slovenly Christianity loses many spiritual advantages. Be Regular.-The want of regularity interrupts religious progress; to be present one Sunday and to be absent the next, and perhaps the next, has in it the danger of begetting indifference. If health and Providence permit, never neglect an opportunity; regard it as a privilege, and take heed lest An absent member has you miss some special message for your instruction.

a depressing effect on those who may be present. A hearing people stimulates the earnest preacher.

Be Devotional.-Your purpose in attending church should not be simply to hear sermons, but to worship the Lord. Throw into each part of the service your best thoughts and affection. "Sing unto the Lord with the voice of thanksgiving;" pray unto Him with a humble and believing heart. Listen to the reading of His Word with piety and care; attend to the sermon with a disposition to learn what is true and good. The "honest and good heart, having heard the Word, keeps it, and brings forth fruit with patience. Be Social.-Cultivate Christian sympathy and affectionate interest with all who worship with you, and show those graces by the brightness of your countenance and demeanour. The church is no place in which to show worldly distinctions. Before God and in His House all are equal. Be cour

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teous to strangers. Oblige them, so far as possible, with seats and books, and speak to them politely of the service and the things of the church; if convenient, present them with a tract. Intelligent piety should be attractive. Urbanity and kindness will always be on the alert to be useful.

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Be Liberal.-"The liberal deviseth liberal things; and by liberal things shall he stand.' Bear your own fair proportion of the expenses of the church. Every one should have a sitting that he could speak of as his own. According to your ability "cast into the treasury;" aid the various institutions of the church as God has prospered you; encourage benevolent undertakings. "God looketh upon the heart." "Charity never faileth."

Be Useful.-Be always ready to do any good work for the church which you are qualified to do. Do not wait to be urged to do it, but regard it as a duty, and attend to it as a privilege. It is not right to stand aside and let others do by themselves what you can assist them in doing. Take your share in the uses which have to be performed; it will give you pleasure, it will give others pleasure, because it will be an act of charity. Be Prayerful.-Remember that “ every good and perfect gift is from above." To receive heavenly blessings, they must be asked for with a believing heart. Earnest prayer prepares the mind to accept the spiritual influences of truth and goodness, which are always ready to flow into it. A good life is an unceasing prayer; but this includes good thoughts and good words. The united prayer of a congregation is a great advantage to them. It aids piety and creates a sphere of holiness and mutual love. They who rightly pray for blessings will endeavour to obtain them by observing the laws and duties through which they come. Let the Sabbath be a day of prayer by your remembering to keep it holy.

Correspondence.

(To the Editor of the Intellectual Magazine.)

IN "Selections from the Talmud," by H. Polano (Frederick Warne & Co.), p. 39, "Biblical History," the following statement occurs :— "And both Abram and Charan were brought before the King, and in the presence of all the inhabitants their robes were removed from them, their hands and feet were bound, and they were cast into the flaming furnace." Is this so?

All that we can have to say about Abraham and his brother Haran being thrown into the flaming furnace, is that the Talmud undeniably often either states that, or speaks as assuming it. But what is called the Haggada, or tradition and legend of Jewish story, IS FULL OF Such embellishments of our simple narrative in the Biblical text, embellishments which not only lack every kind of confirmatory evidence in the Bible, or in other ancient history, but which are often monstrously extravagant travesties of anything that could possibly be true. This story of Abraham in the furnace not only occurs in the Talmud, but has also gone from Jews into the Koran (Sus. xxi.). An instructive book could be written on the Haggadic distortions of the Word, in our opinion a book very discreditable to the Jewish mind. An English reader may, we believe, find evidence of this in "Gould's Medieval Legends," we say, we believe, because we have not read the book, but have only seen reviews of it.

J. N.

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