In the evening a public meeting was held in the church, which was numerously attended. The Rev. Mr. Westall presided, and addresses were given by several of the ministers and laymen who were present. The Rev. T. Mackereth said that he had been a teacher in the Sunday school for thirty-five years, and in the course of his experience he found that the greatest benefits were to be derived from the study of the writings of Swedenborg. He had been led to the study of nature, in which he so much delighted, from the great light which Swedenborg threw upon such subjects, as well as upon the Divine Word, and he was convinced that the more a man studied that Word in the light of New Church writings, the more would he love God, and take pleasure in His works. He advocated not only the teaching of the Word of God in the schools, but also the writings of Swedenborg. The Rev. G. Smith said that the work in which they were engaged was one of the noblest works in which they could be engaged, and upon which the Divine blessing would surely rest. They had to deal with young and plastic minds, and if they were diligent and earnest in doing the Lord's work in His way it would ultimately prosper. What was required was a great quickening, and if they loved the work the humblest teacher would be enabled to tell of the love of the heavenly Father, and impart instruction which would be invaluable to the scholars. They had to teach the science of heaven and build up an angelic character in the children. The Rev. J. R. Tilson added his testimony to what had been said by Mr. Mackereth. They should be careful to pay much attention to the literal sense of the Word. The Church wanted a more practical faith, and there was no doubt that if they were devoted and more diligent in their work the time would come when the "kingdoms of this world would become the kingdoms of God and His Christ." Mr. T. Potts said he had been connected with the Union for about forty years, and he was not altogether satisfied with the progress which the Church was making. They ought to throw more zeal into their work and endeavour to devise some means to retain their scholars. All children were born in ignorance, and as man was made by instruction, much depended upon the quality of the instruction which he received. They ought especially to teach that God was one, and to enforce the necessity of keeping His commandments. LONDON (Camberwell).-From the Camberwell New Church Chronicle, a quarterly manual for attendants at the New Jerusalem Church, Flodden Road, Camberwell, for July-September, we learn that an 66 auxiliary committee of young men has been formed, at the invitation of the church committee, to originate and carry out any useful effort in furtherance of the work of the Society. It thus arranged to distribute the bills for Dr. Bayley's lecture. The same committee, through the willing service of Mr. Elphick, jun., announces every week, by large bill, the subjects of forthcoming discourses. Also by it the selection and distribution of suitable tracts to visitors will be attended to from week to week. To aid in this, it would be well for subscribers to the Missionary and Tract Society to give to Mr. Elphick the vouchers which entitle them to receive tracts from the publishing agent." The lecture by Dr. Bayley alluded to in this notice was one on the question, "Is it really true that the world is to come to an end?" The lecture was one of a course of week-night doctrinal lectures. The attendance was large, and all present were evidently interested in the treatment, at once able and popular, of the interesting question. In preparation for this lecture nearly two thousand handbills were distributed in the neighbourhood by the young men of the congregation. The meetings of the theological class, we are told, "keep up their interest better than their attendance. The largest gathering (about forty) was on May 31, when Mr. Barlow read a paper, which is now published in the Homiletic Quarterly (July 1881, price 2s.), on 'The Lord's Supper.' This paper is one of a series by clergymen of all denominations, and is of some importance as presenting at once the doctrine of the New Church on the Lord's Supper and related subjects to above five thousand clerical readers in England and America. There was no meeting of the class on June 21, because on that evening was held the anniversary meeting of the Swedenborg Society, and, bound by a previous engagement, Mr. Barlow was taking part in a meeting on the occasion of the laying the memorial stone of the Avondale Road Unitarian Chapel, Peckham." The Society congratulates itself, and not without reason, on the success of its Sunday school in the examination instituted by the Sunday School Union. The school presented twentytwo pupils for examination, and obtained in all six prizes and thirteen certificates. This result cannot fail to be eminently satisfactory, not only by comparison with other schools. In prize-taking Birmingham has excelled us with thirteen, and Edinburgh equals us with six; Birmingham receives thirty-two certificates, and Manchester, like Camberwell, sixteen; but also as to quality of papers, Manchester, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Liverpool, Brightlingsea, and Camberwell have sent in the best papers, and Derby, Heywood, and Camberwell the 'second best.' Such success will be an incentive to the teachers, and may fitly be taken as a reason for considering the advisability of a mid-winter examination of our own school on the lessons of, say, September, October, and November. Such an examination would tend to make our Sunday-school work even more solid and substantial than it now is. During the month of July the minister, the Rev. W. C. Barlow, M.A., is delivering a course of Sabbath-evening lectures on the Revised Version of the Lord's Prayer. These will deal not only with revision but with the doctrines taught in this Divine form of prayer. The lectures are extensively advertised, and it is hoped will be well attended and productive of good results. of the quarterly meetings, and if accepted, shall be admitted as a junior member at the next quarterly meeting, and shall sign the following declaration in a book kept for the purpose: 'I desire to be so instructed in the doctrines of the Lord's New Church as to be taught more fully my relation to Him, and the duties He requires at my hands; and it is my wish to acknowledge and worship Him as the only wise God my Saviour.' Several vacancies having occurred in the trusteeship of the church property, it has recently been deemed advisable to have these vacancies filled up. Accordingly Mr. R. M. Paterson, Mr. David Nicol, and Mr. James Murray have been elected trustees in room of Mr. David Speirs (deceased), Mr. David Black (deceased), and Mr. David Fleming (who has ceased to be a member of the Society). At the administration of the Lord's Supper on Sunday, July 3, the communicants numbered forty-five. There has not been such a large attendance for several years. The average for the past year has been forty-one. Though our average attendance at worship does not seem to increase, it is gratifying to record that for the last five years at least there has been a steady increase in the number of communicants. It is to be hoped that the importance of this divinely-instituted sacrament will never fail to be remembered by us. The Paisley Society suffers much from migration. During the last eighteen months eight of our members have left this town to reside in Glasgow, some joining the Glasgow Society, but others preferring to remain in connection with Paisley. One has gone to Toker, near Renfrew; one to Kilmalcolm; two to Creil, near Paris; and one to Sydney in Australia. Mr. James Wilson, the one who went to Sydney, has been lately enrolled as a member of that Society. The vacant places, however, seem to be filled up, though only just filled, as time goes on. What with losses as against gains this year we are able to report an increase of but one. Still we know that the Lord will hasten His work in His own good time. Meanwhile may we all do what in us lies for the advancement of His kingdom. Births. On June 17, at 27 Oxford Terrace, Exeter, the wife of Francis Morrish Eyles of a son, Charles Henry. On Sunday, July 3, at 122 Holland Road, Kensington, the wife of J. A, Bayley of a daughter. Obituary. 66 On the 19th of June, at the house of her brother, J. J. Lee, Esq. of Cheetham Hill, near Manchester, Miss Mary Ann Lee of Heywood, aged forty-six years. The deceased was a warmlyattached member of the New Church, with which she has been connected from early life. She was a lady of intense energy of character, and has taken a lively interest in the various projects for the establishment and prosperity of the Church. In worldly affairs she fulfilled the apostolic maxim, Diligent in business." In matters connected with the Church, whatever she set her hand to she pursued with unfaltering perseverance and energy. Of late she has taken a very active part in connection with the bazaars which have been held in her neighbourhood for the removal of chapel debts and other church uses. The last work of this kind in which she was engaged was the bazaar now preparing in her own Society at Heywood, of which she was one of the earliest and most active promoters. With this work she was actively and unweariedly engaged to the end of her earthly life; and the committee feel that in her departure they have lost one of their most earnest workers and liberal supporters. This was, however, neither her only nor her principal use in con. nection with the church. She was assiduous in inquiries respecting the ailing and sick, and sought to provide for them the consolation and comfort they needed. For many years she has been a subject of bodily weakness, which has for short periods restrained her efforts and activity. Her departure was followed by a general expression among her numerous friends of affectionate regard and painful regret. At Oldham, July 2, Mr. James Collinge, in the thirty-sixth year of his age. In our departed friend there was much to command our esteem and to lead us to desire his continuance on earth. He had scarcely reached middle life, was surrounded by an attached family that needed his care, was industriously and usefully employed in a most honourable occupation, and was devoting no small attention and energy to the church of which he was a member. And his life, notwithstanding the infirmities common to humanity, was throughout exemplary and worthy of imitation. Mr. Collinge entered the New Church Sunday and day schools at Heywood at a very early age; and he made his way through the several classes with the esteem of his teachers. In the day school he served an apprenticeship as a pupil-teacher. From the day school he passed to College; and at the close of his College course was appointed the teacher of the day school connected with the Argyle Square Church in London, then under the pastoral charge of the Rev. Dr. Bayley. Here he remained for some time discharging the duties of his office, and entering heartily into the uses of the Church. A relaxed state of health led him to seek a place of labour in his native county, and he was fortunate in finding one near the home of his childhood. He settled as the master of the New Church Day School at Oldham, where he has continued until the time of his departure. At Oldham, in addition to his duties in the school, he has assisted in conducting the public worship of the church. His services in the pulpit were conducted in a thoughtful and impressive manner, and were always well received by those to whom he ministered. Although his name was not placed on the list of missionary preachers of the Manchester and Salford Missionary Society, he yet rendered occasional aid in supplying the pulpits of the Societies without ministers, and of ministers in their absence. esteem in which he was held by his pupils and their parents was manifested by the large attendance at the funeral sermon, preached by the Rev. R. Storry at the church at Oldham the Sunday evening after his interment. His active and useful life in this world has closed amid the general esteem of his friends and neighbours. He has passed from the uses of earth to the higher uses for which his earthly experiences have prepared him. His departure to him is gain. To his bereaved family, his pupils, and his friends it is an apparent loss. They mourn his departure, the angels welcome his arrival. The ADDRESS FROM THE GENERAL CONFERENCE ASSEMBLED AT MANCHESTER, AUGUST 1881, TO THE MEMBERS OF THE NEW CHURCH IN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. BELOVED BRETHREN,—In rising from their various labours and considerations for the good and prosperity of the Church, the Conference desires to remind itself, and to place before all the members and friends of the New Jerusalem descending from God out of heaven, the important truth that the END of their labours is the attainment of a state of active goodness and interior peace. In the bustle of business, in the turmoil of a restless world, in the effort even to spread more rational views of religion, we sometimes overlook too long the calm tranquillity of a mind in harmony with itself, the rest of the soul, the peace of God which the Lord imparts to those who follow Him in loving obedience to the truth, asking and receiving from Him the LIGHT OF LIFE. Yet this state of heartfelt content, of inmost tranquillity, is what the Lord desires to impart to every one of us. "These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace" (John xvi. 33). The inestimable importance of this hidden treasure of the soul, this jewel of holiest and highest value, will be manifest if we regard the way in which it is mentioned in the Word. "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace," the angels sang when the Lord was entering on the Divine work of Redemption. When He sent the seventy forth to preach, He bade them say on entering every house, "Peace be to this house;" and when the risen Saviour entered the room where the eleven were assembled, He uttered the tender salutation, "Peace be unto you" (John xx. 19). In the Old Testament the same supreme position is given to the possession of interior peace. When the patriarchs inquired respecting the wellbeing of any one they said, "Hath he peace?" "Mark the perfect man," it is written, "and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace" (Ps. xxxvii. 37). "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee" (Isa. xxvi. 3). "My people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting-places" (Isa. xxxii. 18). The acknowledged illustrations of peace all manifest its value. It is like a land smiling in plenty, rejoicing in genial industry, with no foe to alarm and disturb. It is like a sweet morning in spring, all calm and bright. It is like the tranquillity at the top of a mountain. "The mountains shall bring peace" (Ps. lxxii. 3). The yearning for peace animates every soul; but too many, alas! seek it in a false way, and where it cannot possibly be found. The heart's deepest yearning universally is for peace, thus evincing that our heavenly Father has placed that inmost desire in each human being as a sacred instinct, which it is His Divine will to satisfy. The warrior is seeking peace in his fearful struggles; but he imagines it can only be attained by the destruction, or at least the subjugation, of his foes. The commercial man is seeking peace when he is labouring for a prosperity so complete and gigantic that no vicissitude can shake it, or reduce his dignity or grandeur. Other men are seeking peace by the satisfaction of the craving of external desires, which grows by what they feed upon, and never has enough. These are the ways in which the worldlings seek for peace, but seek in vain. Peace fled from man when he departed from order. When selfishness began to reign, there was a profound disturbance in human nature. The natural mind strove against the spiritual mind. The affections became passions. The senses insisted that they were not servants, but the truest of all teachers. Men's yearnings became lusts ever condemned by the conscience, but ever rushing madly forward, and often to diabolical excesses, Thus enmity on all sides came to |