without interruption. If so, and we make it eminently worthy of patronage, we may perhaps reckon upon some more encouragement from our English brethren. If we could be authorized to send fifty copies to you, it would aid us materially." I trust, then, that the members of the church will take this matter into their favourable consideration, so that I may be enabled to comply with the wishes of Mr. Bush, by giving him an order for at least the quantity he asks.

Yours, &c.,

JAS. S. HODSON.

TO OUR WESLEYAN CORRESPONDENT.

The writer of "Outlines of My Mental History" denies none of the phenomena of what the Wesleyans term conversion. The following is from a statement by Dr. Adam Clarke of his own belief:-He

says, Article xvii., "Justification, or the pardon of sin, is an instantaneous act of God's mercy in behalf of a penitent sinner, trusting only in the merits of Jesus Christ;

and this act is absolute in reference to all past sin, all being forgiven where any is forgiven; gradual pardon, or progressive justification, being unscriptural and absurd.'

Now, though the Wesleyans do say that we must obey as well as believe, yet their doctrine on this head is decidedly in opposition to that just quoted. The inconsistency of one doctrine with the other is the grand evil. It is characteristic of all false doctrine to be full of self-contradictions. If we are to "trust only in the merits of Christ," of course no works

of our own can be of any importance, and the man who feels inclined to give way to temptation will, by this doctrine, be inevitably seduced into compliance by the secret whisper, "Christ's merits are allsufficient."

FALSE WITNESS IN MANGNALL'S

HISTORICAL QUESTIONS.

This extensively used school-book gives the following account of Swedenborg. How false the portions are that are printed in italics, we need not say. No doubt some of our little friends are occasionally twitted by their schoolfellows with the absurdity of the belief thus attributed to their relatives. Let New Church parents look to this circumstance. Children are apt to be much impressed with what they find printed in their

school-books. Mr. Mangnall is pleased to give the following statement :-(Edition 1842, published by Longman and Co.)

66

Swedenborg, a Swedish philosopher, born at Stockholm, 1689; died 1772. He was Master of the Mint of Sweden; but a frenzy-fever having weakened his intellect, he imagined that he was favoured with supernatural visions and revelations, published his strange conceptions, and founded a new sect, called the New Jerusalem Church. His followers, at one time numerous, are gradually diminishing."

We trust that the Messrs Longman will have, in the next edition of this work, these gross errors removed. The "Penny Cyclopædia" affords abundant means for a correct statement respecting Swedenborg, and his claims to attention.

WIVENHOE.-A new place for the public worship of the Lord, agreeably to the doctrines of the New Church, was opened in this village on the 7th December last, by the Rev. D. G. Goyder, from Ipswich;

who delivered two most instructive discourses, to crowded and attentive audiences; that in the afternoon on the "Supreme Divinity of the Lord," and in the evening, on the "Last Judgment actually accomplished:" both discourses were very generally and highly approved. Arrangements have since been made to the valued services of that gentleman. obtain for us monthly, on the Friday, Public service is now performed twice on the Lord's Day. On the occasion of the opening, some friends came a considerable distance in order to be present.

J. T.

GENERAL CONFERENCE.-By the rules of Conference it is required that three months' notice be given to the secretary of any proposed alteration in the rules of Conference, or of any intended application for ordination; and by the 1st of June, of an intention to apply for a society to be received into connection with Conference; in order that they may be mentioned in the secretary's circular. Such notices to be addressed to Mr. Butter, 48, Cloudesley-terrace, Islington, London.Subscriptions to conference, or sums of money due for minutes, that may yet be unpaid, should be remitted as early as convenient, by post-office order or otherwise, to the treasurer, Mr. Thomas Frederick Salter, Aldgate, London.

VEGETARIAN MOVEMENT.-Those who are disposed to connect the name of Swedenborg with this movement, and there are some such, are referred to the following passage:-"Uses for the sustaining of man's body, have respect to its nourishment, clothing, habitation, recreation and delight, protection and preservation of state. The uses created for the nourishment of the body, are all things of the vegetable kingdom which are for meat and drink; also all things of the animal kingdom which are eaten, as oxen, cows, calves, deer, sheep, kids, goats, lambs, and milk from them; also fowls and fishes of many kinds." (D. L. W. 331.) It appears from this passage, that although the most ancient people did not eat flesh (as Swedenborg informs us), the Creator, foreseeing the time when it would be useful and proper for men to eat flesh, created the animals named above for the very purpose (so it is said) of meeting this want when it should arise. Has this necessity ceased? Why has it ceased? Let him who can justly claim kindred with an unfallen race, if the fall it was that called for this creative provision (although the creation of these animals for the purpose stated took place before the fall), stand forward and establish his claim, for this must be established before Swedenborg can be made an apostle in the vegetarian cause. Whether the vegetarian cause be sound or unsound, it is useless to attempt to make our author a supporter of it by partial quotations from his writings, while so conclusive a passage as that above quoted can be found there. FAIR DEALER.

NEW EDITION OF INDEX TO THE ARCANA CŒLESTIA.-Mr. Bateman begs to ac knowledge communications from Mr. Knight, of London, Mr. Bragge, of Clifton, and Mr. Smith, of Poole, containing information respecting errors in the Index to the "Arcana Cœlestia," and would feel obliged by the transmission of any corrections which other members of the church may have made, to No. 6, Islington green, London.

NEW EDITION OF LETTERS TO A MAN OF THE WORLD.

Our readers will remember a notice of this work in our number for October, as being a gem in New Church literature, especially useful to certain persons who have been wavering and unfixed as to their religious belief. Mr. Hodson, we find, has published a new and handsome edition of this useful work, of which we are glad to apprise our readers and correspondents. This work has sold extensively in America, and when we consider its uses we trust the sale of it will not be less extensive in this country,

SUBSCRIPTIONS TOWARDS THE ERECTION OF A SUNDAY SCHOOL AT IPSWICH. s. d. Mr. J. W. Faussett, Hammersmith 5 0 A Friend, per ditto 5 0

Subscriptions to enable the society to accomplish this desirable object will be gratefully received and acknowledged by David George Goyder, 3, Norwich-road, Ipswich, Suffolk.

cause of spiritual truth, and ready to sacrifice all earthly prospects to a sense of duty and the promotion of spiritual good. With these feelings, and surrounded by about a dozen men, mostly young and of an intelligent character (several of whom were of university education), and about the same number of intelligent females, who were all, though possessed of but little worldly wealth, very deeply impressed with a sense of the importance of organization, regular worship, and instruction in spiritual truth, as paramount to all other considerations, they unitedly determined to "seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness," and to divide with their pastor their living, not doubting that the good providence of the Lord would bless their personal exertions, and supply adequately all their wants. To assume this position at that time, in a city and country of the strangest religious predilections, they were obliged to give up all anxiety for respectability of "caste," and meet the brunt of popular odium. They took their stand; and how has the Lord preserved them in it, until "a little one has become a thousand!" Before the period of thirty years is brought to a close, we are permitted to see the once timid, young, but firm and resolute pastor, labouring contentedly in his vocation, with his frugal wife and very small worldly provision, gradually advanced to enlarged and elevated circumstances and position, possessing one of the most beautiful, spacious, and best filled temples for worship in the city; and, as a minister, not only presiding over a society of the church numbering about 330, but experiencing such a change of public sentiment as to be called to preside over meetings of the whole body of some seventy clergymen of the city, associated for the purpose of restraining vice, and improving the public morals. In all his progressive work, the wife and mother was no less important to the pastor, her husband, than he was to his society and the church at large. Though eminently devoted to her domestic cares, she was always ready, with a face beaming with spiritual intelligence and love, to meet, in a remarkable manner, the states of all ranks and conditions, soothing, comforting, instructing, and helping them to bend without breaking their worldly and selfish affections, which the sterner announcement of truth by a masculine mind might have repelled or entirely

discouraged. Thus, all who came to her house were not only delighted with her affable manners, kindness, and hospitality, but instructed by her discourse, which always flowed most freely, as from a perception of the states of those she met, and with an air of such sweetness and disinterested benevolence, that it reached the heart, and was long remembered. While she was prompted to open her ample mansion, and hospitable but frugal board, to receivers who might visit the city from any distance, she was ready also to make it the home of the sick and afflicted, whenever by such means she could hope to comfort, relieve, or benefit. Thus, with true feminine grace and dignity, with a steady, practical disregard to all personal gratification of sense and self, with a matronly care of her own family, and for the whole rising generation of the society, and a lively interest in all that concerned the church at large, but especially her hurband's charge, she was continued in her course to a maturity, and to a point of progress, beyond which it seems to be the good pleasure of her heavenly Father she should pursue it in a condition of emancipation from earthly incumbrance, that she might be a more effective medium of use to others, especially those to whom she has long been closely allied upon earth. In fine, she was a woman of rare excellence, of liberal character, and of even more rare devotedness of all her powers to the good of others, and she was called to a very important post of duty. If the example of Roman matrons should be preserved to arouse their successors to meritorious exertion, why should not that of those who are of our own age and church? After lingering for more than a year, and gradually declining in physical strength, under pulmonary disease, but with a faith ever firm and bright, she was at length released from her fleshly tabernacle, leaving her husband, children, and a large circle of spiritual relations, so deeply penetrated, I believe, with a sense of the Divine mercy to her and to them, as to say from the depths of their hearts, "THY will be done."

doctrines of the New Church about thirtyfive years. His affection for the truth induced him to employ every effort to make them known in the town and neighbourhood of Preston. About 1818 the late Rev. Robert Hindmarsh was induced, chiefly by the solicitation of Mr. Parkinson and a few other zealous receivers of the New Church doctrines, to go and deliver some lectures at Preston; so great, however, was the opposition to the attempt on the part of the authorities at that period, especially in the church, that the lecturer, we believe, was constrained either to remove from the locality engaged for the purpose, or to give up the design altogether. Our departed friend, however, lived to see other and brighter days for the cause of truth in Preston. At an early period of his reception of the doctrines of the New Church he was deeply impressed with the necessity of reducing the doctrines of Christianity he had embraced to practice. He well knew that their precious worth could only be realized in reducing them to what Swedenborg so often refers to as the "good of life;" for truth has no other basis, and no other home, but in a life of holiness and charity corresponding to the heavenly purity of its dictates. In order to counteract as far as in him lay, the wide spread evil of drunkenness, he of his own accord, many years before the temperance movement commenced, resolved to abstain from fermented liquors of every kind; and thus by the influence of his example he strove to counteract this deadly evil, and by the Lord's mercy, he kept his vow of abstinence to the day of his death. When, about five years since, a church was erected through the munificent liberality of Hugh Becconsall, Esq., at Preston,* Mr. Parkinson saw his long-cherished wish realized, the existence of a church in Preston dedicated to the worship of the Lord according to the doctrines of the New Jerusalem. No one took a deeper interest in this event, and no one was more ready to assist, or more regular and exemplary in worship than Mr. Parkinson. During the latter part of his life, he had to encounter many severe trials and temptations, which bore very heavily upon him. We doubt not, however, that these very severe trials were * See this Periodical for 1844, page 149.

made subservient to greater depths of humiliation, and consequently to a fuller reception of divine mercy, wisdom, and happiness to all eternity. "He that overcometh shall inherit all things." (Rev. xxi. 7.)

66

Died, on the 18th February, in the 74th year of her age, Mrs. Jane Dougall, widow of the late Capt. Dougall, whose obituary appeared in the Intellectual Repository some four years since. She had for many years been a consistent and intelligent member of the Russell-street Society, Liverpool. Although for several years past suffering great bodily pain and weakness, and deprived of the organ of natural sight, she was, nevertheless, a pattern of patient endurance, of implicit trust and confidence in the divine wisdom and goodness, and of Christian fortitude under severe affliction. It is written, Our conversation (freedom, citizenship) is in heaven ;" and this is truly applicable to the prepared state of the departed. In reading portions of the Word to her, especially the Psalms, her mind penetrated through the clouds of the letter, and fastened upon spiritual realities; at which times she felt great comfort and joy of heart. In her conversation, she would soar with freedom of mind, and in pleasing contemplation, into the regions of happy spirits, and would expatiate with delight on the heavenly employments and consummate felicities that await the righteous. With calm composure she would often speak of her departure, as of one going to her heavenly home; and this from rational conviction, sober and collected thought, and a well-grounded, Scriptural hope, "full of immortality.” Such was the case up to the last interview I had with her, which was the day previous to her departure; at all times her judicious Christian remarks were truly edifying and cheering, perfectly free from all gloomy forebodings as to the eternal future. And such was her state of mind even to the last, when, on the Lord's Day, conscious of the near approach of her dissolution, she calmly resigned her spirit, and entered upon that Sabbath of rest" which remaineth for the people of God." "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them." J. C.