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Into what fields of knowledge unsurpassed
Securely hast thou led my happy feet,
Around me bloom a thousand lovely flowers
Of hues most exquisite and scent most sweet.

By sparkling waters I have sat me down

Fatigued and wearied, heart and mind oppressed, Have quenched my thirst at those celestial streams, Then felt a sense of sweet and perfect rest.

Amid the mansions of my Father's house

With noiseless steps my reverent feet have trod, I've heard the softly-swelling harmonies

Of those blest souls made kings and priests to God.

What landscapes glorious have met my gaze

Of mountain, valley, hill, or wooded plain, Containing each within its beauteous self

Some meaning for the seeking soul to gain!

And thou didst cleanse the tablet of my mind
From lowering, commonplace, material thought,
Graving instead in fairest characters

Most righteous truths by the great Master taught.

For thou hast led me ever to adore
Jehovah-Jesus as my Lord alone,
Divinely human, humanly Divine,

Suffering no other God to share His throne.

So when I kneel before the Infinite,

The Lord of heaven, and earth, and air, and sea, Acknowledging His rich and varied gifts,

I thank Him more especially for thee.

It may be that in those celestial climes

I shall be introduced, dear friend, to thee, Then will I offer my heart's most fervent thanks For all the joy that thou hast been to me.

Meantime within my mind and in my life
Let me embody all thy noblest thought,
That sweetest blossoms and the fairest fruit
May mark the lessons by thy wisdom taught.

L. T.

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Miscellaneous.

sumed was logically that of the Papacy; and the movement had in it, therefore, a strong and natural tendency to Rome. "A pamphlet recently printed enumerates about three thousand. Of these several hundreds were clergymen, and persons of title are also numerous.' The converts to Romanism are not all from the Tractarian party. "Some are from the Evangelical party, others from Presbyterianism, and the merest handful from Nonconformity." It is a remarkable circumstance that three out of the four sons of Mr. Wilberforce should have gone over to the Church of Rome.

Into Mr. Gladstone's discussion of the causes which have led to these results we cannot enter. The causes enumerated do not reach to the interior spiritual causes which are active in all religious movements. In Mr. Gladstone's conclusion members of the New Church will heartily unite: "It is a blessed thing to think that behind the blurred aspect of that cause, which we see as in a glass darkly, there is the eye of One to whom all is light, and who subdues to His own high and comprehensive, and perhaps for that reason remote, purposes all the partial and transitory phenomena with which we are so sorely perplexed."

EVANGELICALISM; ITS TENDENCY AND ISSUES.-The origin and progress of what is called the Evangelical revival in England have of late engaged considerable attention. The Reformation was a protest against the intolerable corruptions of the Papacy. It gave a temporary earnestness to religious thought, but its sun went down ere it was day. The Puritanism which succeeded the first efforts of the Reformation was overshadowed by the widespread scepticism which gave rise to the well-known words of Bishop Butler, inserted in the advertisement of his "Analogy." The state of deadness in the Church continued with little change until the rise of Methodism, and in still more recent times the Evangelical and Tractarian movements. The Evangelical revival was distinguished by its Calvinism, the Tractarian by the setting up of the Church, which has led the way to Rome. An exaggerated estimate of the extent and influence of the Evangelical movement, made by Mr. Lecky in his "History of England in the Eighteenth Century," has led Mr. Gladstone to devote a paper in the British Quarterly to the Evangelical Movement; its Parentage, Progress, and Issue." Until the close of the reign of George III. the Evangelical clergy probably did not exceed one in twenty of the whole clerical body. They were distinguished by their zeal and fer- DOUBT IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.— vour, and, says Mr. Gladstone, "far out- One of the most recent conversions to weighed the heroes of the ballroom and the Church of Rome is that of the the hunting-field, or the inert, half-ani- Rev. Orby Shipley, M.A., who, at mated minds and perfunctory performers the request of the editor of the Nineof a minimum of stipulated duty, who teenth Century, has given some supplied so considerable a number of the his reasons for change of ecclesiastical clerical host. On the other hand, it must obedience in a paper under the title of be remembered that the massive learning, an Apology for Doubt in the Church which never wholly deserted the Church, of England.' The reasons assigned for and the prepondering share of purely change of community are various, but in intellectual force were never theirs, and Mr. Shipley's opinion the change results perhaps were not in all cases adequately from two principal causes. The first of valued by them." It is a singular circum- these is the objections and difficulties which stance that the Tractarian movement, exist in the ecclesiastical position of the which has exerted so powerful an influ- Church of England; and the second ence on the most recent history of the the manifold ways and means by which Church, is clearly traceable in some of God's Holy Spirit is pleased to influence its beginnings to the Evangelicals. This the human mind, to perceive these diffiwas confessedly the case with Dr., culties, and to realize these objections. now Cardinal, Newman. The distinctive The measure of these difficulties and speech of the Tractarians was of Church objections is their relation to the Church and Priesthood, of Sacraments and Services, of Rome. The infallibility of the Papacy as "the vesture under the varied folds of is quietly assumed throughout the paper. which the form of the Divine Redeemer The Church is an inspired community, the was to be exhibited to the world, in a way infallible expounder of the truth; and her capable of, and suited for, transmission members having relinquished all claim to by a collective body, from generation to the exercise of their own judgment, or to generation." The ground they thus as- the guidance of the Word apart from the

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authoritative teaching of the Church, have entered into peace. Mental conflict is at an end, doubt is banished, and the soul reposes on the authority of men as fallible as themselves, and in a community whose history shows an utter departure from the teaching of the Word and the example of the Saviour. The teaching and ritualistic practices of an advanced party in the Established Church has certainly led to a good deal of coquetting with the Church of Rome. The very name of Protestant is abhorred by large numbers of the clergy of the Established Church. 66 English imitation [of Rome] reaches from the highest dogma of faith to the humblest ceremonial detail. It includes within the limits of the English Church, Roman customs, Roman devotions, Roman phraseology, Roman practices, Roman dress. It extends from the office of Benediction to the shape of a priest's collar, or the buckle on his shoes; from the system of holding Retreats to the mode of administering the Holy Communion to laymen; from the use of the Canonical Hours to the use of a light before the altar.' One of the consequences of this devotion to Roman practices is an atmosphere of doubt in the Anglican community. The ablest parish priests and the most zealous laity sooner or later become the victims of doubt. They doubt the catholicity of the Church to which they belong, the efficacy of its Sacraments, and its authority to teach. The effect of this doubt and distress of mind, according to Mr. Shipley, is a large departure to Rome and a steady preparation for the continuance and increase of this exodus. What can save the Church from this perversion of her members? Only sound doctrine from the Word of God and the sober practice of the duty and discipline to which it leads.

CONVOCATION.-Discussions extending over a week have occupied the time and attention of the two Houses of the Southern Convocation on what the Guardian, the organ of the High Church party, calls the trifling subject of the minister's dress." After occupying the Houses separately the subject was at length settled by a compromise obtained by a conference of the two Houses. The final form which the question assumed was the following addition to what is called the Ornaments' Rubric: "In saying public prayers, or ministering the Sacraments or other rites of the Church, every priest and deacon shall wear a surplice, with a stole or scarf and the hood of his degree; and in preaching he shall wear a surplice with a stole or scarf and the hood of his degree, or, if he think fit, a gown with hood and scarf; and no other ornament shall at any time be used by him contrary to the monition of the Bishop of

the diocese; provided always that this rubric shall not be understood to repeal the 24th, 25th, and 58th Canons of 1604.” Another question which has occupied the attention of Convocation in the revision of the rubrics has been the Athanasian Creed. On the addition to the rubric in this case the Times in a leader says: "The new rubric proposed by Convocation to be attached to the Athanasian Creed asserts, what is not asserted, except by_being tacitly taken for granted in the Prayer Book, that the Creed only says what Scripture does, with the implication that they who complain of it have first to settle their account with Scripture itself. The assertion itself is a very strong one, for its proof requires that the words, or in default of the very words, the things meant by the words are to be found in Scripture. Some of the terms are the terms of current philosophies, and the proposed explanatory rubric assumes that the writers of the New Testament and the ordinary Christians of the present day were and are familiar with the proper signification of these philosophical terms. When one reflects on the controversies and errors that have gathered round the words Catholic, Trinity, Persons, Substance, and Incomprehensible, how little they are understood, and what strange ideas they suggest to the vast mass who think it hopeless ever to understand them, it seems rather hardy to rest the Creed upon Scripture, which it is now proposed to do for the first time in the Prayer Book.

ROMAN DOCTRINE.-One of the present aspects of the Church of England, as intimated in previous articles, is the persistent effort of many of her preachers to restore Roman doctrine to the Church. This is especially the case with the Association which has been formed under the title of the "Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament." At the recent anniversary of this confraternity the Rev. A. H. Mackonochie preached from John vi. 55, "For My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed." They had great cause for thankfulness, he said, that the Church had preserved the feast of Corpus Christi through so many centuries, a feast held in honour of the Blessed Sacrament. Jesus Christ was truly present in the Eucharist. was not the priest, but God the Holy Ghost, who made the elements of bread and wine the body and blood of the Lord Jesus. By the power of the Holy Ghost the Virgin Mary conceived the body of Jesus; by the power of the Holy Ghost that body was raised from the dead after the crucifixion; by the same power it was taken up to heaven on Ascension Day; and by the power of the Holy Ghost that same body which was born of the Virgin

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Mary, raised from the dead, and ascended into heaven, was now brought down from heaven and was present on a thousand altars at the same time. This was indeed a greater humiliation of our blessed Saviour than was His life and death nineteen centuries ago. What a wonderful thought that, at the moment of consecration, the Holy Ghost rested on the elements of bread and wine, and made them truly, really, and substantially the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ-that is, Jesus Christ Himself, the living God! "And then, brethren," continued the preacher, "your God and Saviour enters your bodies under the forms of bread and wine when you receive the blessed Eucharist. And so God is in you of a truth."

SWEDENBORG ON CONJUGIAL AND SCORTATORY LOVE.-One of the most frequent objections to the teaching of Swedenborg is raised against certain portions of his treatise on this subject. Persons who have examined the subject superficially, or have been misinformed respecting it, have formed the most mistaken opinions of the Author's teaching. They have failed to discriminate between his doctrine of Conjugial Love, which is spiritual in its nature, and thence pure, chaste, and holy, and the disorderly indulgences of merely sexual connection. The subject was made a topic of discussion at a meeting of the ministers of the New Church in America, and their report is a statement of their understanding of the Author's teaching. This report, which is a lucid statement of the general teaching of Swedenborg, was unanimously adopted, and ends with the following conclusions: (1) That the Lord provides for all who will receive it, "holy, pure, and clean," conjugial love, and that this alone is according to the Divine Order; (2) That any departure from this is evil and not in the direct order of the Lord's Providence; (3) That the Divine Providence is in the constant endeavour to restrain evil and to lead men out of evil into goodness; (4) That there are degrees of evil greater and less; and that when it is impossible to lead men at once wholly out of evil into what is good and orderly, it is the effort of the Divine Providence to lead from the greater to the less evils; (5) That fornication, pellicacy, and concubinage of every kind and degree are evil in the sight of the Lord, but are permitted as a temporary means of escape from worse evils, according to the laws stated above, by which the Lord seeks to restrain men from evils of every kind and to lead them to good. And in this way those who could not otherwise be restrained may be kept in a state in which they can be reformed; (6)

That one is in the full life of the Church only so far as he is in pure conjugial love and shuns and abominates all extra conjugial loves; since the life of the Church is spiritual and according to Divine order."

GENERAL CONVENTION OF THE NEW CHURCH IN AMERICA.-The annual meeting of this large and influential assembly was this year held in the city of New York.

At the commencement of the session a resolution was adopted heartily welcoming the Rev. J. F. Potts and Mr. Willson as the representatives from the English Conference. All the members of the Convention who had been in England seem to have spoken very cordially in support of this resolution, which was acknowledged in appropriate terms by the members of the deputation.

The Messenger of June 11th is devoted to a condensed report of its proceedings, which appear to have been of an exceedingly interesting kind. From the report we learn that the Convention was one of the largest that has ever been held. Forty-seven ministers and one hundred and twenty delegates were present, making a total membership of one hundred and sixty-eight. Business of great importance to the growth and extended usefulness of the Church occupied the attention of the members, and led to thoughtful discussions. "The most important resolution," says the Messenger "was that which appointed a committee of gentlemen who were authorized to form a corporation for the management of our publishing interest. The objection that this action would make that interest independent of the Convention was shown to be without foundation." The change thus indicated seems to have been partly rendered necessary for the more convenient holding and management of trust property, and partly for the more efficient promotion of the important uses performed by the Convention in the circulation of its numerous publications. The arrangement will somewhat assimilate the action of the Church in America to that of the Church in this kingdom, with, however, an important difference. In England the Swedenborg Society, which is our publishing Society, is not at all subject to the control of the General Conference; in America, under the new arrangements, the corporation is to be subject to the Convention so far at least as this can be legally accomplished.

The reports of the several Associations, which are confederations of Societies, following apparently the State divisions of the country, indicated a large amount of earnest labour and gave evidence of the continued advancement of the Church. The report of the Massachusetts Associa

tion stated that two of the oldest and most respected ministers of the Association, namely, the Revs. Thomas Worcester, D. D., and T. B. Heyward, had been removed to the spiritual world during the past year, and a resolution recognising the eminent uses of these distinguished ministers was passed by the Convention. The report of the Executive Committee contained several suggestions. One of these related to the mode of conducting the meetings of the Convention, and to the order of its proceedings. The committee suggested: (1) That the Committee of Arrangements be appointed at least six months before the meeting of Convention, that time may be given for the careful preparation of the addresses and sermons; (2) That the business sessions be made as short as possible, and that in those sessions all subjects giving rise to discussion of details be referred at once to appropriate committees; (3) That as large a part of the time of the Convention as possible be given to the hearing of carefullyprepared addresses and papers upon important subjects. These recommendations led to an important discussion, in which the leading members of the Convention took part. It is clear from these resolutions and from the discussion they excited that a feeling which is steadily rising in England has also taken possession of the Church in America. The feeling is that our Conferences are too much confined to the merely secular side of our Church life, and that we need to give more attention to the intellectual, which is the spiritual side of the Church. It is the growing desire of many earnest members of the New Church to make our Conferences the means of not only suggesting the best modes of external organization and labour, but also of quickening the zeal of the Church by an increased knowledge of its doctrines and a more intelligent acquaintance with the spiritual grounds on which the doctrines rest and the evidences by which they are sustained.

The Committee on Foreign Correspondence recommended the following resolutions, which were adopted by the Convention: (1) That the Board of Missions be requested to appropriate 150 dollars each to the support of Signor Loreto Scocia in the work of the Italian Mission, and to the Rev. A. Boyesen of Stockholm, Sweden, during the present year; (2) That this Convention desires to express its deep sympathy for our brethren in Vienna, Austria, who are suffering under the oppression of the religious laws of that Government; and that we bid them hold fast to the truth, trusting and praying that the Lord will, in His providence, bring them again to the enjoyment of the freedom of public worship, and enable them, after

their trial, to lift only the more bright and untarnished the pure lamp of the Lord's truth to shine amid the darkness of the world around them. The report of the Board of Missions led to a lengthened discussion, ending in the adoption of a resolution leaving the Associations to manage the missionary work within their own limits according to their own best judg ment, and directing the Board of Missions to conduct the missionary operations of the Convention in the portions of the country not within the bounds of any Association, and as far as possible in the direction of building up Societies of the Church or forming circuits which may soon become self-supporting. This resolution, which seemed to remove all action of the Board from missionary labour in the Associations, is explained by a subsequent resolution, which enacts that it is not to be so construed as to prevent the Board of Missions from aiding the Associations which need aid, but yet leaving them to manage the work within their own limits in their own way. While, therefore, the Convention is prepared to sustain the missionary operations in which it has hitherto been engaged, it is evidently resolved on entering upon new ground. The resolution had special relation to the South, which is said to be ready to receive the Heavenly Doctrines. "Some of the ablest men in the South," said Dr. Dyke,

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are New Church persons.". The Dr. also expressed an opinion that in some portions of the South a missionary circuit would become in a few years self-supporting. The plan, therefore, is not confined to the opening of new fields of labour, but extends to the appointment of mission circuits and the settlement of a missionary minister each. Speaking of the mode of missionary labour hitherto pursued, the Rev. Mr. Fox of Washington said: "We have a strong desire to help those missionaries who go about independently sowing the seed broadcast. He might call them 'vagrant' missionaries-though vagrant, they were very useful. He had recently read Mr. Field's new work on the History of the New Church.' It was deeply interesting. Mr. Field had been a vagrant, but a very useful missionary. Dr. Hibbard, in those old days when he lived in a buggy and went about with his wife from house to house, was a vagrant but useful missionary." In seeking to supersede this “vagrant" style of missionary work by one of steady persistent labour in a few places, thereby establishing and nursing Societies until they are able to walk alone, America is pointing the way to this country.

With our American brethren as with ourselves, the training of young men for our ministry is still the day of small

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