which are removing the errors of false creeds have their source and centre, and these could only be found in those heavenly doctrines which the Lord has revealed to His Church at this the time of the Second Coming. Mr. Tilson concluded his report by earnestly impressing upon the members the necessity of regular and punctual attendance at worship and at the meetings of the Society, not being content to be once-a-day attendants, or late comers; desired all the officers to be most particular in attending to their appointments, and most earnestly asking all the members to be more heedful of the Divine command, "This do, in remembrance of Me;" he said that to steady perseverance, and patient persistence in well-doing, success must follow as a sure reward.

The report of the secretary, Mr. James Plastow, alluded to the pleasant duty the members had enjoyed in entertaining the Conference last August, and stated that since the last annual meeting seven members had been added to the roll, while five had been removed by death to a higher sphere of usefulness in the spiritual world. Special reference was made to the loss the Society had sustained by the death of Mr. G. Pixton, who so long and earnestly laboured for the good of the Church.

The report of the treasurer, Mr. Horn, showed in a clear and concise manner the financial position of the Society.

The reports of the secretary of the Sunday school, the secretary of the Junior Members' Society, the librarians, and the collector all showed active work and useful results.

Permission was given to the Sundayschool committee to invite the "New Church Sunday-School Union " to hold its Conference for 1882 in Liverpool. It was also resolved that anniversary services should be held during the coming summer.

One of the chief matters of interest at this meeting was the report of the trustees concerning the renewal of the lease or the making freehold of the building. After some discussion it was unanimously resolved that the trustees be desired to take steps to make the church freehold property,

and that the cost, which it was stated would be about £400, should be paid by the raising of debentures among the members of the congregation.

The Mutual Improvement Society connected with this church brought a most interesting session to a close on Friday, April 29th, by a conversazione. There was a large gathering of the members and friends of the Society, who seemed thoroughly to enjoy the social character of the meeting, and the agreeable entertainment kindly afforded by a number of friends. A number of valuable philosophical instruments and books of engravings kindly lent and attended to by Messrs. Edmund and Harold Swift, assisted by several of their scientific friends, greatly delighted the company with their revelations of nature's wonders.

The proceedings were agreeably varied by music, vocal and instrumental, kindly contributed by Miss Augusta Hetherington, Miss Craigie, Miss Taylor, Miss Kewley, and Mrs. Skeaf. The president of the Society, Mr. Tilson, was as usual the life of the meeting. During the evening he called upon the secretary, Mr. J. Poston, who gave a brief verbal report of the proceedings of the session, which, he said, had been of a most interesting and instructive character, and gave much hope and encouragement for the future of the Society.

In addition to eight ordinary meetings, at which papers on interesting subjects were read by members, a course of eight lectures was given by some able lecturers on most important subjects, and two concerts were given, one by Mr. Hignett, the organist, and the choir of the church, and the other by Mr. and Mrs. Skeaf and a number of their professional friends.

LONGTON. The small but earnest Society established at this mission church determined to make increased effort to attract the attention of the general public to the anniversary of their Sunday school. The Town Hall was rented for the services, which were publicly announced by private circulars, public placards, and other means of publication. The children had been taught a number of appropriate hymns, which they sung in a very pleasing manner. The services, which were held

on Easter Sunday, were conducted by the Rev. R. Storry, the superintendent of the mission. Although the large hall was by no means filled, a larger number of persons assembled than could possibly have been accommodated in the mission-room in Wharf Street. The entire proceedings were extremely interesting, and seemed to render great delight to those who were present.

The

The

NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE.-On Wednesday evening, May 4, an eloquent and impressive lecture was given in the Temperance-Room, Nun Street, by the Rev. T. Mackereth, F. R.A.S. attendants numbered about sixty. greatest attention was given by all present, who seemed much interested throughout. The meeting commenced by singing and prayer, the Rev. W. Ray presiding, who in a brief address introduced Mr. Mackereth of Bolton, who delivered a well-sustained and valued discourse on "The Evidences that Man continues to live after Natural Decease. A vote of thanks was given to the lecturer, the seconder of the same putting the question as to Swedenborg's idea on "the origin of matter, etc., to which Mr. Mackereth gave a satisfactory reply.

RAMSBOTTOM.-The annual Charity sermons were preached in the church at this place in the afternoon and evening of Sunday, May 8th, by the Rev. J. Presland. The texts, 66 Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given me," etc. (Isa. viii. 18), and "Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?" (John vi. 5, 6,) were treated with the preacher's usual clearness, force, and eloquence, and were heard by large and appreciative congregations. In the morning Mr. John Johnson of Wigan conducted a scholars' service, and gave a suitable and interesting address. The collections amounted to £51, 7s. 10d.

BAZAARS.-Quite recently a number of these "fancy fairs" have been held in connection with the New Church. Oldham, Failsworth, Southport, have availed themselves of this means of raising funds to aid in the extra requirements of their churches. The Huddersfield Chronicle gives quite a lengthened report of a bazaar at

"A short time since we recorded the fact that a new organ had been added to the New Church, Dalton. To clear off a debt of about £100 which exists upon the organ fund a bazaar was opened on Easter Monday morning in the commodious schoolroom attached to the church. For some time past preparations for the event have been going on, the ladies of the congregation and the teachers and scholars of the Sunday school holding periodical sewing meetings. With the product of these meetings, and of the catholic generosity of many friends outside the congregation, a very attractive display of fancy and useful articles was made, and the schoolroom, which has the merit of being well lighted, looked very charming with its well-laden stalls, its white lace curtained windows, its platform ornamented with hothouse plants from Ravensknowle, and from the greenhouse of Mr. J. Turner; its walls hung with pictures lent by members and friends, and its two dozen rustic fern-baskets pendant from the ceiling, made for the occasion by Mr. G. Roberts.

"A large company assembled for the opening ceremony, which was performed by Alfred Hirst, Esq., of Dalton Lodge. That gentleman, accompanied by the Revs. E. Whitehead, J. T. Stannard, J. J. Bynner, J. R. Rendell of Bradford, and Mr. R. H. Armitage, took up a position on the platform over which was displayed a banner bearing Swedenborg's beautiful motto, All religion has relation to life, and the life of religion is to do good.' The well-known hymn beginning ‘All people that on earth do dwell' having been sung,

"Mr. Alfred Hirst addressed those present, saying that he took that position out of gratitude to the able man who was their minister, for many favours which he had received at his hands, and also out of gratitude as a resident of Dalton, to that place which had for so many years accomplished so much good in that district. He was no theologian, but he always enjoyed the New Church services whenever he was able to attend. He was thankful that there was in Dalton such a chapel as that such a centre of light and

knowledge-such a Sunday school for the young people to be gathered into. Having complimented the congregation upon the heartiness of their singing, Mr. Hirst said that a very pleasant feature in connection with this bazaar was the very cheerful help which had been rendered by Churchmen and Dissenters alike throughout the district in aid of the organ fund; and not the least pleasant feature was the kindness which had been exhibited by the ladies and gentlemen of the Parish Church choir and others who came down and gave what he understood was a most excellent concert. He concluded by expressing the hope that the bazaar would result in a clearance of the debt.

"The Revs. Mr. Stannard, Independent, and J. R. Rendell having briefly addressed the meeting, Mr. Hirst declared the bazaar open. The good attendance with which the sale commenced was continued during the day.

"The financial results were £128."

INQUIRY WHETHER THE WORD IN ALL ITS INTEGRITY, THOUGH PRESERVED, AT PRESENT EXISTS IN ANY INDIVIDUAL COPY. By the Rev. SAMUEL NOBLE. Pp. xii. and 103.

The publication of this small but important pamphlet is most opportune. The publication of the revised New Testament, and of the Greek copy adopted by the revisers, naturally excites the attention of thoughtful readers of the Scriptures to the subject. Members of the New Church cannot stand aloof as uninterested spectators of the ferment and manifestation of increased attention to the letter of the Word of God. Nor can we fail to see the movement of Divine Providence in the extended inquiries and learned investigations that have of late years taken place in relation to the Word of God. There is a science of the letter as well as a science whereby the spiritual sense is to be interpreted from the letter. And the more correctly we become acquainted with the structure of the letter, and with the various incidents and particulars to which the letter refers, the more correctly shall we be able to interpret the spiritual sense.

The question raised in this work is

not, however, the science of the letter, but the integrity of the MSS. in which the Word has come down to us. This question in its relation to the New Church is thus clearly put by Mr. Bruce in the short preface he has written to the work.

66

'Swedenborg repeatedly speaks of the sacred text as having been providentially preserved entire even as to every jot and tittle, and this, in regard to the Old Testament, by the labours of the Masorites; and there is no reason to doubt that he understood this care to have extended to, and to have secured accuracy in, existing individual copies, if indeed his attention had ever been turned to the subject of various readings at all. How is this difficulty to

be solved? Our learned and esteemed friend Dr. Tafel is of opinion that the Word is or has been 'preserved entire' in those texts which have been collated by the Masorites, and that by a comparison of these various texts they have been able to restore the genuine reading in all those cases where a knowledge of the internal sense was not required; that in those few cases, however, where their knowledge was not sufficient, their labours have been supplemented by Swedenborg, the Lord's servant, through whose instrumentality He effected His Second Coming.

6

"The knot which Dr. Tafel thus attempts boldly to cut, Mr. Noble proceeds patiently to untie. No New Church writer has, I venture to say, treated this difficulty, and the whole subject with which it is connected, with such wise discrimination and sound impartial judgment as the author of the Appeal' in the papers which are now submitted to the New Church public. He shows, I think on grounds that cannot be gainsayed, and can hardly be disputed, that Swedenborg's illumination gave him the power of spiritual discernment, but not the knowledge of natural facts; that the science knowledge of things that belong to the natural world, including that of the letter of the Word itself, was learned by him, as it must be by every one else, through the outward and ordinary means and channels of education; or, as Mr. Clissold expresses it, "The inspiration of Swedenborg was an inspiration of him only as an interpreter.' Swedenborg's statement regarding the

or

preservation of the Word by the labours of the Masorites was therefore founded upon information he acquired on earth, and not the result of any revelation he received from heaven, and thus, in fact, only expresses the knowledge which existed in the learned world at the time be lived and wrote.

The work itself is the republication in a neat and convenient form of a series of papers published by Mr. Noble in the pages of the Intellectual Repository during the year 1823, at which time he was the principal editor of this work. The circumstances out of which they arose are described by the editor, and the work is as far as possible divested of its controversial character. The subject is discussed with the masterly ability and fulness of knowledge which distinguish the works of the learned author. After an ingenious illustration of the way in which the errors in the several manuscripts may be corrected by the integrity of others, Mr. Noble proceeds:

"Some errors, of greater or less magnitude, have crept into all the copies which are known; but the mistakes do not universally occur in the same places; and though some of them run through a great number of copies, yet other copies are found which contain in those places the true reading. Nothing then, it appears to us, can be more certainly true, judicious, and reasonable than the sentiment so well expressed by Dr. Bentley, that the real text of the sacred writers does not now (since the originals have been so long lost) lie in any single manuscript or edition, but is dispersed in them all:' the word all here refers to copies actually existing, and accessible to the learned inquirer: of course such dispersion is equivalent to preservation, and affords the means, at the Lord's time, of restoration. And if the fact of the existence at present of no absolutely perfect copy is unquestionable, as we shall show in the sequel, then the assertion of Swedenborg upon the subject must be understood as we have already explained it. 'Under this view,' we say, 'it is hoped that the existence of Various Readings must be seen to be not inconsistent with his assertion that the Word, by the special care of Providence, has been preserved entire on account of its containing a

spiritual sense in every expression. In what copy it has been preserved entire he does not state; but certainly the assertion is true, if among all the copies the true readings are somewhere preserved."

It would be quite impossible in the space at our command to give anything approaching an adequate description of the important and interesting contents of this work. And it is the less needful to do so as the form in which it appears puts it within easy reach of all our readers, to whom we commend its careful study. The following extract will give an idea of the author's general treatment of his subject :

"The first that we shall offer is Gen. ii. 24, where we read, "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh.' Whether there are any Jewish copies which read this clause differently, we are not aware; but the Samaritan copy has, and they Two shall be one flesh.' It is the same in the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate Versions. The literal sense, though not absolutely requiring it, is certainly improved by it. And every one finds something more full and satisfactory in reading the amended clause; which arises from its affording an unbroken channel for the conveyance of the Divine influx, and containing the spiri tual sense uninterrupted and complete. And doubtless the word 'two,' though it has long since vanished from the received Hebrew text, was anciently read in it; for the Lord says, 'Have ye not read, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they TWAIN shall be one flesh?' [Matt. xix. 4, 5.] Now neither the Samaritan copy nor the Septuagint version was ever then read by the Jews of Judæa, but the Hebrew text, which was translated extemporaneously by the scribes to the people; thus we here have the testimony of the Lord Himself to the true reading of the Hebrew text at that time, which proves the omission of the word for two or twain, in the present copies, to be an error. This, then, is an instance of mistake which appears to us to be completely indubitable. It is one, likewise, which affords a palpable proof of the assertion of Swedenborg, that 'the internal sense

is of such content that a single expression, however small, cannot be omitted without an interruption of the series;' for surely every one must feel an interruption of some kind, though he might not be able to say of what, who reads this text with the omission. And as, though the common copies have here dropped a word, the Samaritan text and the ancient versions, which have so providentially come down to us, afford the means of restoring it, the example corroborates the other assertion of Swedenborg, that 'by the Divine Providence of the Lord it hath been effected, that the Word hath been preserved, as to every iota and apex, from the time in which it was written.' It shows, indeed, that we are not to look for this perfection in any individual copy; but the hand of Providence becomes visible indeed, when by the multiplication of the channels through which the Divine Word is conveyed to us, provision is made for the correction of mistakes which, if we were left dependent on one source alone, might have been made perpetual.”

Births.

On May 2, at 182 Camberwell New Road, S. E., the wife of T. H. Langford, of a son.

At 9 Stevenson Street, Paisley, on the morning of May 11, the wife of the Rev. Laurence Allbutt, of a son.

May 14, at 237 Upper Parliament Street, Liverpool, the wife of the Rev. R. Goldsack, of a son.

Obituary.

Departed this life at Far Headingly, near Leeds, September 19, 1880, aged sixty-four years, Margaret, wife of Mr. George Drake. The deceased was a

consistent member of the New Church for more than forty years, and was ever ready to help its progress in whatever way she was able. As a member of the Society of the New Church meeting for worship in Albion Chapel, Leeds, she was respected by all her fellowmembers, who feel that by her departure they have lost from outward presence a beloved friend and useful helper.

Passed into the spiritual world on April 8, Mr. Nicholas Howarth of

Kersal, near Manchester. The deceased was well known in Lancashire for the interest he took in the welfare of the New Church. Formerly he was a member of the Accrington Society. He took an important part in the establishment of the Clayton-le-Moors Society, and contributed very liberally not only to the building fund for that church, but also, for several years after he had ceased to be a member of the Society, to the fund for carrying on the work of the Church there. On removing to Manchester he became a member of the Salford Society and one of its chief supporters. When the Augmentation Fund was inaugurated he showed his appreciation of that important institution by contributing handsomely to its funds. Latterly he manifested a warm interest in the Besses Society, and was anxious to help and encourage it by his presence and support. He had been suffering for some time with a painful and wasting disease. He was, however, very hopeful of ultimate recovery, but the severe east winds which prevailed a few weeks before his death acted seriously upon his already weakened constitution, and at length, after a brief confinement to his bed, he passed peacefully away into the spiritual world.

Departed this life on April 15, at Highfield House, Westgate, Newcastleon-Tyne, the residence of her nephew, Miss Jane Reed, at the advanced age of eighty-five years. She was one of the oldest members of the New Church in the north, having regularly attended the services from 1820. Notwithstanding the vicissitudes of the Society, she remained true to the doctrines and principles of the New Jerusalem Church. "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. ever regarded the Rev. D. G. Goyder with much respect, having obtained much good by his ministry. Miss Reed, as also her sister and brother, well remembered the valuable service, of Revs. Messrs. Hodson Proud, Hindmarsh, and Bradley. Her end was

peace.

She

On Tuesday morning, April 19, in her home at Rock Ferry, near Liverpool, Catharine, the beloved wife of George Johnson, passed into the other world in the fifty-fifth year of her age.