into closer contact with each other. In a paper read to the Oxford University branch of the English Church Union at Oxford, by the Rev. J. Oakley, the cause of the rise of not a small amount of dissent is very plainly stated. "When we reflect," he says, "that the noble group of hymns with which we have just been marking the octave of All Saints Who are these like stars appearing? What are these in robes of light?' 'How bright those glorious spirits shine!' 'Let saints on earth in concert sing-are the compositions of men of whom the Church of England was not worthy, and whom she practically cast out; and when we reflect that these sublime songs were written and given to a generation whose best spirits were hungering and thirsting after righteousness,' while the ordained clergy were too frequently to be seen in the hunting-field and the tavern, or angling for promotion in the anterooms of dissolute peers, and while our prelates were loftily denouncing enthusiasm, we shall hardly wonder at the survival of a deep distrust of us and all our ways and works, and we shall feel that the only answer to the bitterness of much Nonconformist enmity is the silent and steadfast manifestation of a very different type of Christian energy and ministerial activity." This the Church is now doing; and, in the estimation of Mr. Oakley, Church and Dissent have practically changed places. Dissent, which in its beginning preached the Gospel to the poor, has now generally become the religion of the middle classes. The Church, awakened from her slumbers, has risen to a sense of her responsibilities in her relation to the

poor.

This subject is introduced by the Bishop of Manchester into his recent charge to the clergy. After expressing regret at the hostility between Church and Dissent, and his warm admiration of the address of the Nonconformists of Leicester to the Church Congress, he goes on to remark :

"A correspondence, which appears recently to have occupied a good deal of space in one of our Manchester newspapers, but which I should not have seen but for the attention of persons who cut it out from the columns in which it appeared, and sent it to me for perusal from time to time, and in which my

doings and misdoings were the object of a good deal of long-pent-up, but at last exploding, indignation, charges me with what, in the eyes of the writers, seems almost a deadly sin-with thinking not unkindly, and speaking not unfavourably, of Dissenters. I do not confess to love Dissent, as such; but I have received innumerable kindnesses from Dissenters, and amid our differences, which I regret, I desire to recognise the bonds of that common Christianity which, in spite of those differences, make our hearts beat in unison, as men engaged in the same great cause. Why should I abuse them? Why should I call them hard names? Why should I not try to discern in them, as in other Christian men, whatever there is of devotion to duty, of zeal for God and for righteousness, of spiritualmindedness and fervency? The Church of England has no monopoly of these graces, nor would desire to claim one. Remembering how Nonconformity was made-no doubt sometimes by self-will and pride and prejudice, and even by ignorance, but far, far more by the Church's own supineness, neglect, and intolerance, in days long gone by, of which we have not yet paid the full penalty-though, as I have said, I love not the thing, I cannot speak harshly of it; I will not refuse to recognise and thank God for its virtues and excellences and works done for Christ wherever I see them. At any rate it is in this spirit, and not in the spirit of estrangement, isolation, or exclusiveness, that I am disposed both to pray and to labour for the reunion of the Churches."

INDIAN THEISTIC REFORMERS.

(From the Times.)

At the first meeting of the Royal Asiatic Society for the session 1880-81, a paper was read by Professor Monier Williams on Indian Theistic Reformers. He said that the first Theistic Church, founded by Rammohun Roy-a highcaste Brahman-exactly half a century ago, marked the dawn of the greatest change that has ever passed over the Hindu mind; for no other reformation has resulted in the same way from the influence of Christian ideas. Yet Rammohun Roy's attitude towards his national religion continued that of a friendly reformer to the end. He tried

to bring back his countrymen to the monotheistic doctrine underlying the Vedic hymns and Upanishads. His Theism was eclectic; but at heart he was a Unitarian Christian. Yet he never wholly gave up either his Brahmanism or his caste. He was succeeded by Debendra-nath Tagore, who founded the Adi Brahma Samaj, and moulded his Church on much the same lines. It was reserved for Keshub Chundar Sen to break away entirely from Brahmanism and caste. His Theistic Church, called the Brahma Samaj of India, was founded in 1866. His great ability and eloquence have always secured him numerous adherents. In a late sermon he declared that it is Christ who rules British India, and not the British Government. England has sent out a tremendous moral force in the life and character of that mighty Prophet to conquer and hold this vast empire." In fact, he astonished his hearers by calling on them to accept Christianity, commending it to them not as a new system, but as an advanced phase of Hinduism. He has recently given great offence by abandoning his own principles of social reform and allowing his daughter, before she was fourteen, to marry the young Maharaja of Kuch Behar. Hence a schism has taken place in his society, and a new Theistic Church has been founded, called the Sadharana Brahma Samaj, or the Catholic Church of the one God.

THE NEW CHURCH FROM A UNITARIAN STANDPOINT.

(From the Messenger.)

The Rev. John Williams, pastor of the Church of the Messiah (Unitarian) of New Orleans, has recently preached a sermon on "The New Church, her Place and her Chief Danger." After an introduction, in which he defines the difference between advancement by continuous progress and advancement by distinct steps, the speaker continued :

"Now, without accepting as a whole a system of religion so suspiciously complete as that which has emanated from Emanuel Swedenborg, I do not hesitate to say that this system, which is commonly called Swedenborgianism, but which his followers more rightly call the New Church,' is one of, if not the newest and most radical step

above, the distinct lines of modern Christianity which has yet been taken. There is no branch of the Christian Church which has been so little understood. It has been strangely confounded with Spiritualism, or more properly Spiritism. Yet the New Church has less in common with that materialistic modern phenomenon than she has with any Church or system of belief, or indeed of unbelief. With Spiritualism, as understood by mediums and séances and spirit-rappings, the New Church has no sympathy either in principle or practice.

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Many men who ought to know better have associated what they choose to call Swedenborgianism with the vague dreamy mysticisms of the German theology of the last century, while in reality the fundamental principle of the New Church is, that all religion has relation to life, and that the life of religion is to do good.'

With her [the New Church] Swedenborg is no more the author of the New Church than Newton the author of the solar system. Her adherents, however, do claim for Swedenborg what no other body of Christians have ventured to claim for their leaders. They implicitly believe that he was the divinely appointed instrument for communicating this peculiar system of spiritual truth to men. They further believe that Swedenborg has thus rendered humanity the greatest service in the power of man to perform. Nevertheless, the New Church, they claim, is larger than Swedenborg, larger than any one man, larger than any society of men, as the ocean of light is broader and deeper than any plant or forest can embody, than earth or ocean can reflect.'

The following is Mr. Williams' closing tribute to the New Church :

Before the days of Copernicus men looked at the heavens from the earth, and formed their conclusions from appearances. The earth was their point of view. But Copernicus took the centre of the solar system for his point of view, and all the apparent contradictions in the motions of the planets were reconciled. Order sprang out of chaos. Astronomical science today, from this point of view, not only gives a rational solution to every problem of the heavenly bodies, but also

accounts for all the mistakes which men had made who had formed their conclusions from the earth's point of view.

"Just so the New Church, following the principles laid down by Swedenborg to them the Copernicus of spiritual truth-takes her position in the centre of spiritual truth. She takes her point of view 'in the spirit.' From that point of view she claims to look down upon the world and upon men, and thus see nature and spirit in their true relations.

"If I were asked, then, what place I give to the New Church in the history of spiritual progress, I should not hesitate to say that it is a new and distinct step from nature to spirit. She makes 'spirit the unit of measure, the criterion of her judgment.' Just so long as her point of view is from the centre of spiritual truth, she will take her observations correctly; she will draw none but spiritual conclusions; she will construct none but spiritual doctrines. Her place in the Churches of Christ and in the history of spiritual progress is undoubtedly an exalted one. She marks one of those new eras in the history of religious thought. From the only point of view from which spirit can be discerned she is teaching humanity that spirit is the real man; that the only substantial, the permanent, the organizer in the universe is spirit; that the theatre of all causes, the centre of human activities, is spirit. She alone solves the problem from her point of view, which in the final issue determines all human destinies, simply because from that point of view the spirit world is the real world. Spirit is substance, the mould of all formsmineral, plant, and animal-up to the Divine, which alone is spirit. From her point of view this world is the shadow, the spirit world the substance; this the temporary, that the eternal. The New Church is Unitarian and Trinitarian, Catholic, Evangelical, Liberal, and Rationalistic. In short, she is the Universal Church so long as she resists the temptation to be numbered;' she takes her place in the history of spiritual progress as the Church most suited to man's needs in heaven and on earth; ex

actly adapted to all his spiritual wants, solving for him every problem of life, and leading him by the surest path to the attainment of the highest good.

"The New Church does not seek to proselytize. If she ever attempts that she will be untrue to her great principle that there is more breadth in one spiritual affection than in the diameter of the material universe.' But she throws new light on all our earthly conditions; she solves all our doubts, dispels our fears, utterly abolishes the name of death. So she gives us patience to wait and zeal to work, for from her lofty point of view she shows man the true relations between himself and nature, and man and God, the common Father of all. So she enlarges our freedom of action as she draws aside the veil and shows us the 'door opened in heaven,' revealing that new world which is, after all, far more real, far more substantial, far more glorious than even this beautiful world in which we live in the flesh. In short, the New Church is the 'new heavens and the new earth,' where 'the tabernacle of God is with men,' in which 'eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.' But He hath revealed them' unto His children from this new point of view by His Spirit,' for ‘the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.""

NEW BURIALS ACT.

From the Craven Pioneer of November 20th we extract the following: "On Sunday afternoon the first interment under the new Burials Act took place in the churchyard of Carleton (near Skipton), the funeral being that of Edith Wilson, the infant daughter of Mr. Joseph Wilson, late of Embsay. The father being a New Churchman, or what is commonly termed a Swedenborgian, was desirous that the Rev. Edward Jones, the minister of that denomination in the neighbouring village of Embsay, should conduct the service. When Mr. Wilson applied to the clergyman, the Rev. T. E. Morris, for permission to have the funeral on the Sunday, he was met with the utmost courtesy and kindness,

and assisted in the filling up of the formal notice. The anxiety of the good clergyman that there should be no demonstration was altogether needless. The Rev. E. Jones conducted the greater part of the simple and solemn service of the New Church in the dwelling-house. Mr. Jones dwelt upon the fact that when man passes from this natural world into the spiritual he takes with him all that belongs to him as a man, and that while we, in the obscurity of our natural state, mourn over the loss and departure of a loving child, the angels of heaven, who attended on the resurrection of every translated spirit, are welcoming its arrival in the mansions of eternity. When the funeral cortège came to the churchyard, they found it filled with a great part of the people of the village, who, midst a heavy downpour of rain, quietly watched the proceedings. For the first time in many years the sexton omitted the tolling of the bell, a matter, however, which did not trouble the mourners much, as they consider such tolling a remnant of Papal superstition. The mortal remains of the little one were committed to the earth quietly and solemnly, and after the usual prayer for consolation and comfort to the bereaved ones, without any reference to the fact that the service was the first of the kind under the new Act, the mourners were dismissed with the benediction."

DEAR SIR,-I desire to direct your attention to the following minutes passed by Conference during its last session in Liverpool :

"MINUTE 59.-The Committee on Colonial and Foreign Missions having reported the reception of a letter from Dr. G. Danieli and others imparting the interesting information of an association having been formed in Buda-Pesth, Hungary, for the translation and publication of the Writings of the New Church, and of introductory collateral works, into the Magyar language,Resolved, That the Conference recommends the cause of the friends in Hungary to the favourable consideration of the Foreign and Colonial Missions Com

mittee, as well as to the Swedenborg Society and the Missionary and Tract Society in London.

"MINUTE 60.-Resolved, That the Committee on Colonial and Foreign Missions be and is hereby authorized to grant the sum of £15 for the assistance of the Mission at Buda-Pesth.

"MINUTE 61.-Resolved, That the Conference is pleased to hear of the steady growth of the New Church in Sweden in general, and of Stockholm in particular, and instructs the Committee on Foreign and Colonial Missions to continue its support to the Rev. A. Boyesen.

MINUTE 62.-Resolved, That the Conference has heard with great pleasure of the movement instituted by the Rev. A. Schiwek for spreading the doctrines of the New Church in Poland, and recommends the case of the Polish Mission to the Foreign and Colonial Missions Committee."

The Rev. A. Boyesen writes that the attendance on their regular worship in Stockholm is slowly increasing, and that some new members have been added to their Society, but that public lectures have not been delivered in the capital during the past year for want of adequate means. He has, however, made missionary visits to various parts of the country, and delivered twentythree lectures in Gottenburg, Copenhagen, Carlscrona, Carlstorp, and Prinshaga.

wek writes that he was very ill during In his last report the Rev. Mr. Schithe winter, but that since his recovery he has assiduously fulfilled the duties of his office, administering the Communion to five groups of receivers, and preaching to them on Sundays. He is much disappointed at the police having stopped his sale of New Church books, on account of his not having a proper licence, which it is, however, too expensive for him to obtain from his personal resources. He is exceedingly grateful for the assistance he has hitherto received from the English brethren, and the Committee on Foreign and Colonial Missions sincerely hope that with your kind help they may be able to assist this worthy labourer in the Lord's vineyard during the ensuing year.

The friends in Buda-Pesth have put into press their Hungarian translation