employers. In one house the doctor called every morning in case any one was ill; in others there were lectures, classes, and amusements, and great care taken in the selection of books. The special American correspondent of the Nonconformist and Independent has devoted his letter of June 21st to the "Andover Professors and their Creed." "Out of the last monthly meeting of the Boston Club," he writes, "has sprung considerable excitement in the wide area compressed within Boston Congregationalism. Some of the professors of Andover Theological Seminary were present by invitation, and were asked to speak. They took the opportunity of vindicating themselves from a charge, freely brought against them of late, of a departure from the old and stringent Creed of the foundation, to which each professor is required every five years to declare his adhesion. This Creed is of great length, and its theological meshes were woven as closely as possible in order to secure, so far as human ingenuity and orthodoxy could do this, a rigid adhesion to the Westminster Standards. Yet it is confidently stated that there has been, on the part of the present Andover professors, what is currently styled 'a new departure' in theology on such questions as the Atonement, Inspiration, and Future Retribution." At this meeting, Dr. Egbert C. Smith, on behalf of Andover, after stating that the preacher, in order to be fitted for his work, must have more than a mechanical training, said: "This something which makes all the difference between a preacher and an echo, cannot be had save by earnest protracted personal investigation, conducted under a full, untrammelled conviction that the real thing to be sought is the truth. It is a professor's duty to preside over and direct such study. He must face difficulties. He cannot shirk and evade troublesome questions. That there is a widespread and irresistible movement in theology, working everywhere, confined to no particular school, impossible of exclusion by or from any seminary, seems as clear to me as that we live in these closing decades of our century. It influences its stoutest opponents. There is not a minister of our denomination who preaches as men preached fifty years ago. No article of faith is surrendered, but there is a different tone, a varied emphasis, less rigidity here, more humaneness there. In a word, preaching is more This The efforts for some time made to increase the order of public worship in England has also extended to Scotland. Twenty years since the "Church Service Society" was formed ' in connection with the Established Church of Scotland. Its object is to foster an interest in the history and literature of public worship, to consider the practice of other denominations, and to adopt means to promote improvement in the public worship of the Church. A recent writer, Rev. D. B. Bannerman, of Perth, openly advocates the preparation of an optional liturgy under the authority of the Presbyterian Church. A people that has been accustomed for two hundred years to free prayer, will not readily adopt a fixed form of public devotion. It is admitted, however, that there is a growing feeling among the Dissenting clergy in Scotland, as well as those of the Established Church, for reform in the mode of conducting the public worship of the churches. This feeling may in the end issue in the adoption of some elastic form of liturgical service. H GENERAL CONFERENCE. THE Seventy-seventh Annual Meeting of the General Conference is appointed to be held in the New Jerusalem Church, Wretham Road, Soho Hill, Birmingham, and to commence its sittings on Monday the eleventh instant, at seven o'clock in the evening. In addition to the business mentioned in the Secretary's circular, the attention of Conference will be called to the following subjects, viz. : The New Church Sunday School Union applies for a grant of £75 from the Education Fund towards the expenses of local examinations in Scripture, and in New Church doctrine. The widow of Mr. J. W. Hancock applies for a grant from the Pension Fund. Mr. E. Pratt of Leamington resigns his office as one of the Trustees of Conference. The Society at Edinburgh applies for the proceeds of the Tuting Bequest. The Rev. J. Deans intends to move that the Creed of the New Church be printed in future editions of the Liturgy. The Secretary desires to call attention to an error in Notice of Motion No. 6, in the circular calling the next Session of Conference. Substitute the words "National Missionary Institution" for the words "Augmentation Fund." E. WHITEHEAD, Secretary. To this notice we append the following letter from C. B. Bragg, Esq., the Hon. Secretary of the Reception Committee: DEAR SIR,-As it is possible there may be friends from a distance visiting Birmingham during the Conference week to whom information respecting hotel accommodation or rooms would be acceptable, I wish to say through the medium of your magazine that I shall be pleased to render any assistance in my power upon receiving particulars as to the nature of the accommodation required.-Believe me, dear sir, yours faithfully, CHARLES B. BRAGG. 12 NORTHAMPTON STREET, BIRMINGHAM. In connection with the General Conference, we have also received from Mr. Isaac Best a reprint of the minutes of some of the early Conferences, which it is intended to present to each member of the forthcoming Conference. Mr. Best, in his letter to us, says:— "I hope with your help to obtain subscriptions to pay the cost of a facsimile reprint of the early minutes, with the hope of augmenting by their sale the Students' Aid Fund." We hope that in this laudable purpose our zealous friend will not be disappointed. NEW CHURCH PERIODICAL LITERATURE. AT the recent session of the General Convention in Philadelphia, this subject was brought under review. The editor of the Messenger made some remarks which are as apposite to the New Church Magazine as to the Messenger. Last year the editor of the Magazine was supplied with a small fund for the payment of writers. This year this fund is almost nil. Our circulation also, with very little effort on the part of our friends, might easily be very much extended. We commend to the attention of the members of the New Church in England the following remarks of our American brother, the Rev. C. H. Mann, the editor of the Messenger: "Mr. Mann said he wished to call attention to the fact that the energy that has been poured into the publication business has been put into books. The same energy and wealth ought to go into the maintenance of a periodical, a worthy medium by which we can speak to the world. We should have a periodical supported as well as our publication houses. We do not expect the publication of New Church books to be pecuniarily profitable. We do not get back even the cost of the plates. But with our periodicals we seem to expect otherwise, and we feel that they must be made to pay. But they can no more be made to pay than our books can be made to pay. If the publication of New Church books had been conducted on the expectation that they should be made to pay, where we have a hundred thousand books, we should not have had one thousand. Yet the principle that has been abandoned in all other publications, we fasten upon the Messenger. It must be dropped. The Messenger must be established because of our duty to publish the truths of the New Jerusalem to the world. New Church worship costs more than worship in any other body. If we are willing to pay more than others in order to support our worship, why not expect to support with similar self-sacrifice our periodicals? The truths of the New Church give a value to everything they are in, placing it beyond all money estimation. Putting the commercial imprint upon the Messenger has been its great burden. Let us make it what it ought to be, without reference to its being self-sustaining. The Messenger, that it may express the voice of the New Church to the world at the present age, should contain the best thought of the best men of the Church. It should be improved in the variety of the topics which it considers, and so address a greater variety of minds. It needs to be enlarged, and should have a better external dress, worthy of the body it represents. We need talent and interest, but we must have money. Articles from persons whom we would wish to write for us must be paid for. The Messenger should not be obliged to pass the hat for intellectual contributions. He honestly believed we could profitably spend ten thousand dollars a year in this use. It will not be well, however, to make a temporary forward movement, but what is done must be permanent. The question remains with the members of the Church of the country whether this paper shall have its hands tied through lack of means." MISSIONARY WORK OF THE NEW CHURCH THE report of our earnest friend, Professor Scocia, for the year 1883-84, reaches us only in time for a brief and hasty notice. The report opens with a notice of the publication of the second volume of the True Christian Religion. "The translation and printing of the two volumes," says the Professor, have entailed on me four years of the most patient and careful labour, owing to the very numerous quotations from the Sacred Scriptures, which I have verified one by one, and, where necessary, corrected." The work, which appears in two elegant octavo volumes, is now on sale, and will also be presented to the public libraries. The completion of this work prepares the way for one of still greater magnitude. "I think," writes the Professor, "the time has now arrived in which to set about the translation and publication of the Arcana Calestia, and thus to open to my fellow-countrymen this vast sacred encyclopedia of spiritual knowledges." This is a great undertaking, but the Professor enters upon it with great earnestness, and will not, we trust, lack the aid of those who are interested in the work and able to assist. |