Sir Noel Paton has especially shown his fitness to deal with this high subject, by the simplicity as well as beauty with which he has treated it? Contrasting diametrically with the hard and repulsive conventionality of ancient Egypt, he has adopted in this most real picture a strict adhesion to the science of correspondence. Everything is severely significative, while blended with the most exquisite art. The garments of the Lord are purely symbolical; the inner robe being red, denoting (as explained in the description presented to the visitor) celestial love; and the outer one blue, signifying spiritual love. All the accessories are of the same chaste and telling nature. The rescued lamb, bearing the marks of its sorrows from its wanderings in the wilderness, but now nestling in the bosom of the Saviour, and resting its weary head on his shoulder (as described by Isaiah), forms at once a key to the subject. But no description can express the ineffable tenderness of compassion depicted in the countenance of the Lord. It is love itself gushing out in eyes and mouth, and every muscle of that glorious Face. To sustain the allegory the stigmata are faintly indicated; and the crown of thorns 1 (painted, I understand, from a specimen from Palestine sent the artist by a friend celebrated in Art) is chastely wrought into the glory around the head.

There is another feature in this fine painting by which I was greatly impressed. I allude to the inexpressible tenderness in the pressure of the hands, so finely illustrating the beautiful words of the Lord, "They shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand."

I have said enough, I think, to show that it is somewhat incumbent on the members of the New Church (if there are any social duties connected with the culture of Art), to mark their appreciation of this noble work, and lend some support to the spirited gentleman who is doing his best to make this most instructive and lovely picture a household possession. We must conclude from the apposite remarks of the President of Conference, that he intended to assert that the culture of Art is a distinguishing feature of the New Church. Can we assist this high culture better than by placing in our families copies of such rare productions? Works of an inferior object may be both beautiful and useful in their place; but the great work of education, as understood especially in the New Church, is to call forth a delight in the beauty of things spiritual and divine. The æsthetic faculty, like every other, is both earthly and heavenly; and, like every other, it is developed by careful culture. It should be a special feature of education, whether in music, in poetry, or in art. At the present day, if we do not thus cultivate the love of true Art, we must, of necessity, from the very character of the age in which we live, run the risk of developing a taste for the display of tawdry and random elegancies, not calculated

1 I am aware that it is a somewhat critical question whether the wreath placed on the Lord's head was really one of spines, intended to inflict torture, or whether it was a mere harmless wreath designed simply for mockery. The popular idea seems to give point to the intense significance of the allegory.

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to refine the mind, or exalt the character. a thing of beauty is a joy for ever; how true must it be the more we unveil the interior beauty of the soul! We have the highest authority for not neglecting to foster, by education, this faculty of spiritual æsthetics. Swedenborg says, the arts are in their utmost perfection in the heavens, having their very origin in the endless and lovely developments of TRUTH AS THE FORM OF GOOD.

Let us endeavour in this, as in all other matters, to do justice to the light given us, and not rest satisfied with a common and idle eulogy of excellencies we neither understand nor care for.

ROBERT ABBOTT.

NEW CHURCH BIBLE SOCIETY.

THE Church is built upon the Word, and sincere Christians of every denomination will acknowledge the importance of having the Word faithfully translated. But the idea of what constitutes a faithSome would consider that a correct rendering into good idiomatic English of the meaning which a thorough scholar believed to be contained in the original languages of the Bible was the best translation.

ful translation naturally varies.

Others would prefer a more literal rendering; one which would retain the Hebrew idioms expressed in English words, however unlike the form might be to the ordinary English language.

The Authorized Version of the Scriptures has evidently been rendered by men possessing different ideas of translation. Sometimes it is strictly literal, at others it is more freely rendered. Sometimes the proper names of God are translated, at others they are given as proper names. Sometimes the symbols employed in the Hebrew are rendered by their equivalent form in English, at others their real or supposed meaning is given in their stead.

All this makes it impossible for a reader of the Authorized Version of the Bible who is unacquainted with the languages in which the original Scriptures were given to know precisely what they mean. This presents an especial difficulty for the New Church student, and a still greater difficulty for the New Church preacher. He can never be quite certain of the spiritual sense, because he is necessarily uncertain about the letter on which it is based. The foundation, to which he has access, instead of being a rock on which he can build with confidence, is to him at best partly rock and partly sand. And "if the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?"

I was struck with a consciousness of these difficulties more than thirty years ago, and having communicated my thoughts on the subject to some other friends, and particularly to the present Mrs. Watson, we agreed to endeavour to remove them. For this purpose we determined to subscribe funds towards the commencement of a New Church Bible Society, to lay down certain laws for its guidance, and to call a

meeting of New Church friends to consider those laws and to constitute the Society.

This was done in April 1845, at Argyle Square, under the presidency of the Rev. T. C. Shaw. The first law gave the name of the Society, the second declared its object, and the third declared the principle of translation.

The primary object of the Society was declared "to be to procure the most faithful translation possible into the English language of the Word of God, in order that the Divine Wisdom may be clothed in our mother tongue with such expressions as would have been made use of, so far as we can discover, had the Word been originally given in our own language."

It was further declared "that in making the translation, the Authorized Version be taken as the basis. That in all cases where Swedenborg has given a version of passages of the Word, that version be respectfully considered even when not implicitly followed; and that in all doubtful cases, whether arising from various readings, or from the use of words of dubious import, the doctrine of correspondences be employed as a means of aiding the judgment."

The state of the New Church was not perhaps then ripe enough to foster this Society. Other objects were certainly thus more immediately pressing. And therefore but little was added to the sum of £100 (one hundred pounds) originally subscribed, and only one book, a translation of the Prophet Nahum, was published.

The money, however, was not wasted. It was put out to interest, and the interest re-invested, and it gradually accumulated, so that at the present moment the Society possesses upwards of five hundred pounds.

The majority of the members of the New Church Bible Society have passed into the spiritual world; but the founders remain. An interest, also, is springing up in the minds of the men of the Church on the subject of Scripture translation, which betokens a revival of the work which has been so long suspended.

Our Transatlantic brethren are getting anxious to have such a translation as we have contemplated. Twelve of the American New Church Ministers, with the Rev. W. H. Benade as their chairman, have been constituted a committee on the translation of the Sacred Scriptures. A meeting has been held in London, at which Mr. Benade met some of the survivors of the New Church Bible Society. At this meeting the history of the Institution was reviewed, and a survey made of the indications existing of its being called into speedy action by the conscious necessities of the Church both here and in America.

It is believed that there may be a useful plan of action mutually agreed upon, which will serve, under the Divine blessing, the object of our Society within this generation. It is intended to call another meeting of the New Church Bible Society, after due notice to each surviving member in this country whose address is known, and to

propose a scheme for enlarging the constituency and placing it on a broader basis.

Now that our College is actively working and fairly prospering by the Divine mercy of the Lord, under the auspices of the Conference,

may hope to see this sister institution, approved alike by Conference and Convention, performing its special use, and presenting to the English reader the very images employed in the Word of God, as they were dictated by the Holy Spirit to the inspired penmen. HENRY BATEMAN.

MR. BRUCE'S COMMENTARY ON THE REVELATION.1 THE different methods of accommodating the teachings of the New Church to the requirements of those who are not likely to study them as they are given in the works of Swedenborg, may be classified under three heads, Abridgment, Compendium, and Commentary. These may all be, have all been, indeed, very useful, and our readers will readily call to mind admirable examples of every one of them. Opinions will differ, of course, about the wisdom of endeavouring to omit passages which are likely to shock or mystify the novitiate, and of striving to make a treatise presentable by depriving it of the more prominent of its supernatural characteristics. Such a plan is not, however, essential to the idea of abridgment, and some of the best known editions of the works are themselves, in a certain sense, abridgments. There are also several excellent compendiums, the best of which is unquestionably the admirable one lately published, compiled, and edited by the Rev. S. M. Warren, in which the theology and philosophy of the New Church are defined and explained in well-selected and judiciously graduated passages from Swedenborg's own works.

But the most popular, and at present, perhaps, the most necessary, of these methods is the third; and under the head of commentary we may include not only the great works of Clowes, Noble, Hindmarsh, and others, but the numerous volumes of sermons and the multitude of pamphlets, tracts, etc., which have been published since the beginning of the present century.

To this branch of literature few writers have proved more valuable contributors than the Rev. W. Bruce, for though his works are not numerous, they include several of the most useful treatises on what may be called applied theology. It is surprising, indeed, that we had to wait so long for such a book as the Commentary on the Gospel by Matthew, which was only published in 1867. Up to that time Mr. Bruce had confined his literary ventures to sermons and smaller works. He had long, however, been recognized as one of the most intellectual thinkers in the Church, as a close and careful reasoner, and as gifted

1 Commentary on the Revelation of St. John. By the Rev. WILLIAM BRUCE. James Speirs, 36 Bloomsbury Street, London. 1877.

with a remarkable power of illustration; his published sermons were models of clear and practical exposition, and when his first commentary was promised, gratification was not mingled with any doubt about the writer's qualifications. Of the success of this work and of that of its successor, the Commentary on John, we need say little. Both books are extremely valuable, and both met actual and pressing wants. Mr. Clowes' works on the Gospels, admirable of their kind, were intended mainly as illustrated translations of the text. Mr. Bruce's design was in several respects different, and his principal object was to illustrate the unity and continuity of the internal lessons of the Gospel narrative by demonstrating their practical application to every condition of the mental life of man. To his insight and experience as an expounder, and to his intimate knowledge of New Church theology, the result of more than fifty years' study, Mr. Bruce adds the advantage of a graceful and singularly pure style. His meaning is never obscure, and he avoids dryness on the one hand, and extravagance on the other. It is not too much to say, indeed, that no one else could have so well put important practical expository teaching in so attractive a form, and the New Church public in Great Britain and America were not slow to recognize the merits of the new book. Young preachers were never at a loss for a fund of suggestive illustration, and the readers of the commentary were never sorry when they had evidence in the sermons of their ministers that the work was doing good service in a specially useful sphere.

The Commentary on the Gospel by John was designed as a companion to the earlier work, and if the author's powers as a deep thinker and theologian were more conspicuously displayed, the prac tical features of its predecessor were not wanting in the second commentary. It was at first hoped that Mr. Bruce might be able to complete the exegetic series by writing commentaries on the second and third Gospels. But we believe he was well advised when he decided to make the Revelation of John the subject of his third commentary. The following passage from the preface to the new book explains at once the origin and character of the work. We violate no confidence when we inform our readers that "the revered friend" referred to is the late David Speirs of Paisley, one of the most gentle, the most generous, and wisest men it was ever anybody's privilege to call a friend :—

"A revered friend, now in heaven, whose counsel and encouragement have greatly lightened my labours, was of opinion with me that the Revelation, which is peculiarly a book for the New Church, was less studied by New Church people than its great importance demands. We thought that if the substance of the Apocalypse Revealed and the Apocalypse Explained were cast in a somewhat different mould, and presented in an accommodated form, a book might be produced that would serve as an introduction to the perusal and study of these great works. The present volume is the result of an attempt to effect this object. It has been my aim to draw out the practical lessons of the various incidents of this mysterious book more directly than it was consistent with Swedenborg's purpose