this respect many of the instructions are admirable, and well calculated to inspire those who at no very distant time will take their places among the leading classes in England, with sentiments of truthfulness and honour. Texts of Scripture are selected, and moral reflections suggested by them carefully drawn out; but the author seems on no occasion to have reached the interior wisdom of the spiritual sense of the Word. The following, which we select from the sermon on "Risking our Influence," is a fair specimen of the general character of the author's teaching: "It is the power of personal influence which is the best gift that God gives in smaller measure, or in larger, to every one. It is our power of personal influence which we throw away too lightly, as temper, or fancy, or the whim of the moment leads; it is the personal influence of our friends which we support, all too little and too feebly in our vanity, as if a laugh at a friend's expense, a sneer at a friend's foible, or a slight disparagement of his consistency, were no loss to him, and for ourselves perhaps might slightly magnify the opinion of our unbiassed discernment and our frank expression " (pp. 56, 57). Chronicle of New Church Events. BALLARAT, NEW SOUTH WALES.We have received a copy of the Ballarat Star of August 23, which contains a report of a lecture on the Writings of Swedenborg, given in the Mechanics' Institution in that place. The lecturer introduced a variety of topics, which he expounded according to the teaching of the New Church. In this manner the Godhead, the internal sense of Scripture, the Mosaic account of the creation, were sively expounded. At the close the lecturer was subjected to questioning, the service ending with an exhortation to his hearers to study the subjects he had brought before them. succes BESSES, NEAR MANCHESTER.-The new church which has been for some time in course of construction at this place, is now completed, and was opened by a dedication service on Wednesday, October 3. This service was conducted by Revs. J. Boys, R. Storry, and J. Tausley, the sermon being preached by Mr. Tausley, the resident minister. The services were continued on the following Sabbath, when two sermons were preached by Rev. R. R. Rodgers of Birmingham. All the services were well attended by deeply interested audiences. The reconstruction of the church has ended in a singularly neat and commodious place of worship, and there is every prospect that its nicely. appointed sittings will be occupied by a worshipping congregation. LEEDS. The Society at this place has at length succeeded in disposing of their chapel in Albion Walk; and at a meeting of the members, which was attended by Rev. R. Storry, Mr. Gunthe Conference, an eligible site for a ton, and Dr. Goyder, on behalf of new church was determined upon, and steps taken for its purchase. may reasonably hope, therefore, before the close of next year, to see the Society in possession of an eligible and well-situated place of worship, and prepared to make a new start in Christian labour and usefulness. We LINCOLN.-Two lectures were given in this city on the evenings of October 10 and 11, by Mr. Gunton, the agent of the National Missionary Society. The audiences were not large, but were interested in the subjects discussedThe Holy Trinity, and Redemption and Atonement. On the following evening, October 12, Mr. Gunton lectured at Donnington, and on Sunday the 14th occupied the pulpit at Horncastle. LONGTON.-This Society has been recently visited by Mr. Henshall and Rev. J. Deans. The attendance at the services at both visits was good, and the congregations interested in the services. The visit of Mr. Gunton seems to have attracted attention to the church, and although the services at both these visits were held in the ordinary meeting-room of the Society, which is not conveniently situated for such services, they were yet successful in exciting considerable interest, and leaving behind a good, and we trust lasting, impression. MANCHESTER AND SALFORD MISSIONARY SOCIETY.-A general meeting of the members of this Society was held in the schoolroom, Peter Street, Manchester, on Tuesday evening, September 25. The meeting was called by circular, and was well attended. The object of the committee in calling it was to secure increased sympathy and aid in the Society's work. The chair was occupied by William Hughes, Esq., the president of the Society, who in his opening remarks said: "It has long been apparent that the delivery of lectures on theological subjects has no special attraction for the great mass of the present generation. The extraordinary activity which displays itself in the mental development of the people, runs in channels which are unfavourable to the serious examination of dogmatic theology; and the most successful, indeed almost the only successful, preachers are those who dwell much more largely upon the application of religious truth to the duties of life, than upon topics which have interest mainly for philosophical and abstract reasoners. It is useless to disguise the fact that the delivery of lectures has in recent years been productive of very little result." In this supposed failure of the public lecture, the president says: "What I would suggest, then, is that the aim of the committee of this Society should be to establish a large number of reading centres-in schools where quite convenient and practical but still better in private houses; that ministers and missionaries should be detailed to conduct the readings, to guide the conversation, and to answer the difficulties of those who assemble. The success of such a plan would depend largely upon the personal co-operation of each member of the Church; whereas, lectures require little more than a money contribution-the lowest and most worthless contribution that can be made towards spread. ing the doctrines of the Church. Every household, if properly appealed to, would, I am sure, open its best or most suitable room for such a reading centre, and would invite a few friends or neighbours to come and partake in the conversation; and the habit, now also fallen into desuetude, might again revive of reading Swedenborg, with the view of understanding the great principles that run through his Writings, in order to apply them to the elucidation and explanation of the Word." A resolution in agreement with the suggestion of the president was proposed by Rev. Mr. Christien, and after a lengthened discussion adopted by the meeting. This resolution, however, recommended the committee "to render assistance in the delivery of public lectures, where circumstances seem to require." gress, and there exists the completest harmony between the pastor and his congregation, and it was felt, in consequence of domestic affliction, that it was thus graceful to commemorate his first year at Southport. Marriage. On 5th September, at Palace Gardens Church, Kensington, by the Rev. Dr. Bayley, grandfather of the bride, Dr. Parkes, of Soho Hill, Birmingham, to Mary Constance, third daughter of J. Clowes Bayley, Esq., 26 Ladbroke Gardens, Kensington Park Road, W. Obituary. Departed this life, July 6th, 1883, Jane, widow of the late Mr. Richard Riley, of Accrington, aged 75 years, after a lingering illness patiently endured. Deceased had been connected with the New Church Society at Accrington for fifty years. THE little Society of the New Church at Wincanton has recently lost, by departure into the other life, one of its oldest and most earnest members. Mr. Edmund Read was formerly connected with the Established Church, and was, we believe, organist at the parish church at Hensbridge, Somerset. In the month of September 1876, when a few friends met together for the purpose of making themselves acquainted with the Writings of the New Church, our friend, to the surprise of all, made known to us that he was in sympathy with us, and became a member of what was known as "The Wincanton Mutual Improvement and New Church Enquiry Society," on the 20th of October in that year. We ascertained that our friend had been reading Noble's Appeal, which a friend had given him. From that time Mr. Read was very constant at our meetings for improvement and for worship. He was our first harmoniumist, and presided at that instrument every Sunday morning. When the Society was organized on November 19 last, he became one of the members. His departure was very sudden, but the summons doubtless found him watching. The writer knows no one who could more truthfully be described as "an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile.' ON Thursday, 4th October 1883, at Harrogate, Mrs. Eliza H. Brotherton, relict of Joseph H. Brotherton, of Manchester, departed this life at the age of 65 years. She was well known to the Church at large, but will be specially remembered by her devotion to the Italian Mission, and the interest she took in Professor Scocia, and the admirable way in which she has laboured for several years with so much earnestness, intelligence, and self-sacrifice for the spread of the Doctrines of the Church. Her lectures on Pompeii and Herculaneum, which were so full of interest, and so well delivered, will not soon be forgotten by those who had the privilege and pleasure of listening to them. She laboured with great intelligence and zeal for the good of others, and it may be well said of her, "She hath done what she could." THE Bristol Society have sustained an apparent loss by the demise of Mr. William Palmer, their oldest member, and president of the Society, who entered the spiritual world on Saturday, September 22, at the age of sixty-one. Mr. Palmer has been an earnest and zealous member of the New Church in Bristol from early manhood. Gifted with a thinking mind, he felt, as soon as he began to think for himself, that he must break away from the old moorings of the orthodox faith, and there seemed nothing between that and atheism. In this state of mind the Doctrines of the New Church were providentially presented to and heartily embraced by him. He became an earnest and devoted member of the New Church, and aided as he was best able the small Society at Bristol. He was a man of gentle and kindly character, a most punctual attendant on public worship, and so much esteemed and trusted by his brethren, that he was called to hold several offices in connection with the Society, of which he was president at the time of his death. NEW CHURCH MAGAZINE. CENTENARY OF THE NEW CHURCH. It is a common practice to speak of the flight of time. To the aspiring, who are impatiently looking forward, its progress is often slow; to the satisfied, its passage is rapid. The youth is impatient of the restraints of pupilage, and thinks the time long before he attains the freedom of manhood. The octogenarian, as he looks back upon the vanished periods of life, is apt to say with Jacob, "Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been." Time cannot pass, however, without leaving its impress upon those who have been moving on its current. For good or for evil, all are more or less affected by its flight and inflrenced by its manifold changes. It is with societies and institutions as with individuals. There is no resting in present conditions. The passage of time is but the consequence of changes of state. The history of the Church is the record of its ever-varying states of advancing glory or deepening decline; and the study of its history finds its highest use in the lessons it presents of admonition or of guidance of truths to be accepted or of errors to be avoided. The New Church has completed its first century, and it is natural for those who rejoice in its light, to desire to commemorate the event. The New Dispensation dates from the execution of the General Judgment in the Spiritual World in the year 1757. Of the execution of this judgment we are informed by Swedenborg, who for providential purposes was permitted to be an eye-witness of its execution. This great event rolled back the clouds of darkness and the dense masses of evil which had settled as a nightmare on the mind and life of the Church. Light, which is sown for the righteous, again VOL. II. NO. XXIV.-DECEMBER 1883. 2 N broke forth upon the path of the Church, and liberty, which had been lost in the overwhelming floods of ungodly men, was restored to the experience of the upright in heart. From this period has arisen, first the inception and next the realization, of those social and religious changes, which have preeminently distinguished the history of the past hundred years. But while the Dispensation commenced in the middle of the last century, the beginning of the New Church, as an external organization, was not before the year 1783. Individual reception of the Heavenly Doctrines, as disclosed in the Writings of Swedenborg, the messenger of the Lord's Second Coming, there had been; and some of his smaller works and a portion of the Arcana Calestia had been published in English. But no effort had been made to collect the few receivers of the Doctrines together, and to unite their efforts in a common endeavour to institute a social worship and to extend to others the knowledge of the truth. At length, towards the close of the year 1783, Mr. Hindmarsh, who, in one whole year after his reception of the Doctrines, had found only three or four individuals in London with whom he could hold a friendly intercourse on subjects contained in them, inserted an advertisement in the public papers, inviting all friends and readers of the Writings to meet on the 5th of December at the London Coffee-House, Ludgate Hill. The purpose of this meeting, writes Mr. Hindmarsh, was, "first, that we might become better acquainted with each other; and, secondly, to unite our forces and make known to the world what we could no longer in conscience conceal from their notice." At this meeting only five persons assembled. One other person called after the party had removed to a more convenient place of meeting. Thus six persons responded to the advertisement, although only five took part in this first public assembly of recognised receivers of the Heavenly Doctrines. In his description of this meeting, Mr. Hindmarsh says:— "After our mutual congratulations, and the reading of some letters from absent individuals, who resided in the country, we began to consult on the best means of making known the new Doctrines and enlarging our Society. It was agreed that we should meet again at the same time and place on the Thursday following, unless a more convenient situation could in the meantime be procured. Our spirits were elated by the meeting. |