The

intercourse with the spiritual world. He called attention to his distinctive mission and the truth he was the medium of communicating to the world, concluding with the social and domestic life of this most remarkable man. annual tea-meeting and entertainment of the Society was held in the Athenæum Room, the programme consisting of anthems, songs, recitations, and a dramatic entertainment. In addition to the choir a considerable number of young persons took part in the proceedings, and acquitted themselves well in their several parts. The chairman on each occasion was the leader of the Society.

PAISLEY.-At the usual meeting of the Mutual Improvement Society, held in the hall of the church on Monday, April 4th, Mr. J. M'Lauchlan, vicepresident, in the chair, Mr. James Alexander, the president, read a paper on "True Decoration, and its Beauties." At the outset he showed the great love the Greeks, the Persians, and the Egyptians of the olden times had for that which was true and noble in decoration; and to the people belonging to those three countries we were greatly indebted for many ideas regarding art. Decora

tion, the essayist said, emboldens the mind and enlarges our ideas. Decoration, too, is an art that adorns as well as creates. As we adorn our minds with thoughts of a true character, so should we also have our houses adorned with more or less ornamentation and colour. He then described the many beautiful tints and hues that can be formed by the three principal or primary colours— red, yellow, and blue-with certain quantities of black and white to weaken their brilliancy. He afterwards dwelt at some length on the way those colours ought to be used, showing also their true value, use, and power. He then showed the great necessity for all having some knowledge of the principles of decorative art, so that we might be enabled to comprehend true art when placed before us, and the great beauties of nature. After having dwelt at some length on the beauties of true decoration, he concluded by urging upon one and all to acquire some knowledge of the principles of decorative art; and having done so, they will commence to feel that they had been benefited greatly in mind, body, and purse. The paper was illus

trated by various drawings and designs, and was afterwards criticised by a number of the members, and the essayist having replied, a very hearty vote of thanks was awarded him for his excellent paper.

SNODLAND.-The Kent Messenger of April 2nd contains the following brief notice of this Society: "At the annual meeting of the New Church Society held in the Sunday Schoolroom, on Wednesday the 23rd of March, it was resolved to erect a handsome edifice as a church, capable of meeting the increasing requirements of the Society in Snodland and its neigbourhood. The Misses Hook promised to give a suitable piece of ground for the building. Donations to the building fund of £500 from Colonel Holland, and £500 from Mrs. and the Misses Hook were also promised. At the same meeting the resignation of the Rev. T. L. Marsden, owing to impaired health, was accepted. Mr. Marsden has been the New Church minister at Snodland for fourteen years, and is much respected and esteemed.' There are doubtless many who will regret the retirement of Mr. Marsden from the work of the ministry, but advancing years and enfeebled health rendered this a necessity. It will be a source of pleasant reflection to him that the close of his ministry should be distinguished by a new and extended effort of usefulness on the part of those who have so long sustained him in his work. The Society of which he has been the pastor is the fruit of the Christian efforts of the family who are now taking active measures to crown their work with a fitting house of worship. To the late Charles Townshend Hook, Esq., the Society is indebted for much fostering care and for the endowment to aid in providing a stipend for their minister; and it is on the part of the members of his family and others with whom they are associated an evidence of their zeal in the New Church and a graceful memento to his memory to thus provide for the continuance and extension of the work in which he took so lively an interest.

Obituary.

Rev. ABIEL SILVER.-A correspondent has sent us a cutting from the Boston Weekly Journal of March 31st, from which we extract the following painful particulars of the departure by

drowning of this aged minister of the New Church in America. Mr. Silver is well known in this country by his writings, and our readers will learn with pain of his sudden and afflictive mode of departure, and will sympathize with his widow and daughter in their sorrowful bereavement. The following, slightly abbreviated, is the account sent

us:

"The Rev. Abiel Silver, the aged pastor of the New Jerusalem Church on Regent Street at the Highlands, was drowned, Sunday evening, in Charles River, thus unhappily terminating a long career of usefulness, and bringing a pang to hundreds of hearts.

"At about half-past eight o'clock, Sunday evening, James Shea, the drawtender at the Prison Point bridge of the Boston and Maine Railroad, while in his house on the bridge, heard the noise of a person struggling in the dark water under him. He at once made his way to the spot nearest to the unfortunate person, and speedily descried a man struggling in the current.

Mr.

Shea, dropping his lantern, caught a loose board from the bridge, and extended it to the nearly exhausted man, who caught it. He then gently pulled the board toward him, but just as the drowning man was within reach his strength failed and he let go.

The

board was at once extended again, and again it was clutched, but with far feebler effort, and before the strong hand of rescue could be put forth the fingers loosened their grasp and the body floated away toward the neighbouring bridge of the Eastern Railroad. Mr. Shea set at work with grapplingirons and a boat to recover the body. In the meantime Mr. N. E. Story, the draw-tender on the Eastern Railroad bridge, who has participated in twenty such scenes, had heard the noise and come out on his bridge. His lantern soon revealed the object of search, and in a few minutes the body was taken from the water.

"The identification of the remains was easily accomplished. The body was that of an aged man, tall, and clad in broadcloth and doeskin. The left

arm was gone. In the pockets were a silver watch (stili in motion), a small amount of money, and several letters addressed to the Rev. Abiel Silver. manuscript sermon was also found in the inner coat-pocket. The manu

A

script, when examined later in the evening, was found to be written in a remarkably legible hand, and to be a discourse on Brotherly Love,' based on these words from Psalm cxxxiii., Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!'

"The police of Division 15 were summoned, and the body was borne to the station-house and thence to the Morgue on North Grove Street, where it arrived simultaneously with Medical Examiner Harris.

"Mr. Silver was the beloved and honoured pastor of the Church of the New Jerusalem at the Highlands, whose elegant edifice is one of the gems of Boston architecture. He was born in New Hampshire eighty-three years ago. Coming to Boston in 1867, he at once threw himself into the effort of building up the Society which had called him; and that he succeeded is proven not only by the sanctuary which he was largely instrumental in building, but by the large and growing membership of the church and congregation, and the interest which attended his pulpit ministrations. A course of lectures expository of the doctrines of Swedenborg, which he delivered a year ago on successive Sundays, attracted much attention for their scholarly character and the completeness with which they covered the subject. In personal character the deceased clergyman was blameless, and his genial temperament and catholic views made him a favourite not only with those of his own faith, but with clergymen and members of other denominations. resided in the parsonage attached to the church, on the corner of Regent and Cliff Streets, and there he leaves a widow and a daughter.

He

"Inquiry at Salem shows that the Rev. Mr. Silver, who was drowned at Prison Point on Sunday evening, preached on Sunday morning at the New Jerusalem Church on Essex Street, Salem. He stated that he had finished the sermon he was about to deliver on the preceding evening, that he would be eighty-four years old next Sabbath, and that the sermon prepared was the last one composed for his eighty-third year. Appropriate reference was made to that fact in connection with the subject of 'Brotherly Love.' The sermon was spe

cially arranged for the next Sabbath's services at his own church in Boston Highlands, but he honoured his former parish in Salem with the first delivery. Mr. Silver appeared to be in excellent health. He made five or six calls on old friends during the afternoon. At 6.30 P.M. he called upon Dr. S. M. Cate and wife of Washington Street, and left the house about 6.45, with the expressed intention of going to the station to take the 7.5 train for Boston, which he undoubtedly did.

It is said that Eastern Railroad officials have discovered that Mr. Silver stepped from the train at Prison Point, thinking that it was the Boston station, and that he dropped directly into the water. A small satchel or carpet-bag belonging to him was found on Monday morning on the railroad wharf, where it was dropped when the deceased fell overboard."

ABRAHAM EDGE, Esq., Manchester. -In our last we briefly noticed the departure of this esteemed member of the New Church. The following sketch of his life is from the pen of one to whom he was long and most intimately known:

"Mr. Edge became acquainted with the doctrines in early life. For a short time he was connected with the Salford Society, and his love of music led him to join the choir. Removing afterwards from Manchester, he was providentially led to the struggling infant Society worshipping at Failsworth, of which he soon became an active member and valued supporter. Being possessed of considerable musical ability, and having a correct knowledge of the laws of harmony, he was gladly welcomed as instructor in singing and leader by the children and teachers of the Sunday school, and the success which attended his unwearied efforts was very marked. For some years he devoted himself heart and soul to the work, selecting and arranging appropriate pieces to be sung at festive seasons or Sunday services, composing anthems and hymn-tunes of a most pleasing kind, and copying out the whole himself. It was work done for the Church, and truly a labour of love. But while thus engaged he was performing another use for the truehearted but then uncultured friends, young and old, among whom he moved; he was the, perhaps unconscious,

medium of to some extent civilizing the language and manners of those around him. His genial disposition, affability, and kindness, and his cheerful and generous hospitality, in which his dear partner ever lent willing aid, endeared him to the Failsworth friends, and made his name a household word. Circumstances arose, however, which induced him to remove again to Manchester, thus severing the happy connection which had been formed; but his love for the friends he had known and served in chamber, meeting-room, and unpretentious church remained strong as ever. He now joined the Peter St. congregation as a worshipper and member, and attended service with great regularity and punctuality as long as his strength would permit, although he never took a prominent part in the conduct and affairs of the Society as he had done at Failsworth. But he loved the Church and its holy truths wherever his lot was cast. Plain and unobtrusive, yet his heart was very tender-tender as a woman's while tending those in painful affliction, and tender in all manliness also to the appeals of truth. On the occasion of the Rev. C. Giles' first visit to this country, after hearing one of his calm, clear, and lucid expositions of Scripture, our friend was deeply moved, and he said, with tearful eyes, It is not eloquence that touches me; it is the truth.

"His life-work is now done here, Peaceful and honourable was his career; swift at last, but sweet as a child's slumber, was his departure; but he is only gone to receive at his Master's hands 'length of days for ever and

ever.

Departed this life, at Heywood, March 17, Mrs. Alice Taylor, aged sixty years. Mrs. Taylor was the youngest daughter of Mr. James Ashworth, in whose house the doctrines of the New Church were first preached in Heywood. She has been through life steadily attached to the Church, though of late years prevented, first by distant residence and next by broken health, from constant attendance on public worship. She has closed a life on earth of unobtrusive usefulness, and has joined the fellowship of those who have gone before, whom she will doubtless join in the higher uses of the world to come.