ence. Of the sermons at Peter Street, Manchester, we are enabled to supply a brief abstract. On Sunday, August 7, the Rev. Dr. Bayley preached in the morning, and the Rev. Mr. Ashby in the evening. The morning discourse was based upon Deut. xxxiii. 27, 28, "The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms and He shall thrust out the enemy from before thee; and shall say, Destroy," etc. The preacher referred, in the first place, to the solemn circumstances surrounding the text. The forty years' training and discipline of the Israelites were ended. Moses, the great leader of the people, was about to be taken from them. It was one of those supreme moments in the history of a nation, or a dispensation, on which whole centuries depend. The Promised Land was in sight, but as yet occupied with deadly and daring enemies. A formidable city fortified and bristling with foes was over against their encampment on the plains of Moab. Everything foreboded the fiercest resistance and the bitterest warfare when Moses uttered the grand words of the text, containing the truth which has sustained every great reformer and true servant of the Lord, "The eternal God is thy refuge." Trust in the Lord as our refuge and strength was strongly inculcated by the Doctor in its application to nations, dispensations, and individuals, as the deep and true source of courage and of consolation to all who are striving to spread the knowledge and practice of the Divine will on earth. God, who is love itself, was not a distant and unapproachable Being; but His Divine arms of love and wisdom manifested themselves on earth, reaching down to all the minutiæ of existence. In the case of the individual the Divine influx made manifest man's inner evils, and when co-operating with the Lord he was assisted to destroy them. The spiritual blessings which followed conquered sin were drawn from the sublime language of the text. As to the latter part of it, Israel dwelling in safety alone meant the safety and peace of the spiritual man when evils were subdued. The fountain of Jacob was the Word in its letter when the spirit was seen rising out of and flowing from it. The land of corn and wine was a state in which goodness and truth were abundant. The heavens dropping down dew meant the internal man, in which truth and peace were constantly descending and blessing the whole soul. The text for the evening sermon was taken from Ps. xci. 1, "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." Mr. Ashby observed that it was an inquiry of utmost importance where man spiritually dwelt, or in other words, what state of mind was confirmed by him. The secret place of the Most High was a state of supreme safety and blessedness. When man was in a condition of freedom his natural dwelling-place was determined by his love, and so also his spiritual dwelling-place was determined by his love. Man dwells in the secret place of the Most High when he confirms himself in holy principles and virtues which come from the Lord. The Lord's dwelling-place in man was in the internal of the mind, where the Lord stores up the germs of goodness and truth, by means of which man is enabled to become rational, and thus to be truly a man. The internal man, the preacher pointed out, was not to be understood as meaning the interior man; the latter was the soul or spirit, an organized substance adjoined to the body during man's abode in the world, and it was this which lived after death. The internal man was in the interior when mutual love was there. Those, therefore, who lived in mutual love, and who made it a principle of action, the guiding and governing principle of life, dwelt in the secret place of the Most High, and abode under the shadow of the Almighty. There was a large and attentive audience at both services, and after each service the Holy Supper was administered. On Tuesday evening the annual Conference sermon was preached by the Rev. Mr. Deans, and followed by the sacrament of the Holy Supper. The attendance was large at both the services. The sermon will appear in our October number. On Sunday, August 14th, the pulpit was occupied in the morning by the Rev. R. R. Rodgers of Birmingham, and in the evening by the Rev. Laurence Allbutt, B.A., of Paisley. Mr. Rodgers' text was John i. 9, "This was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." Mr. Rodgers first referred to the need there was of spiritual light to counteract the materialistic tendency of modern science. He showed that people were afraid to progress, lest they might drift they knew not where, and adopt the creed whose first article was to disbelieve everything. He then went on to show how and in what the Lord was the true Light, and proved His identity with the one and only God. He instanced the analogy between the Lord as the Sun of light spiritual, and the natural sun as the universal source of light natural, and showed that as the natural sun gave light to the savage and the first Christian poet alike, so the Lord as the spiritual sun gave light to every man born. He then showed the influence and power of the Lord's overshining presence in the thought and life of the age; that what was necessary to be known was known to all; that the Lord left no nation, no age, and no individual in utter darkness of Himself; that He gave light to each one according to his needs; that He was the true Light of all men; and that in every part of the world there were some reflections of the universal Word. Speaking of ourselves, he said that although we possessed more light than many others, yet we had no more than we required, and others had no less. It was now permitted men to enter intellectually into the mysteries of faith. This greater light was the necessity of our age, and in this the Lord manifested the force of the words, "He was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." which ought to be manifested not being manifested. How many pages in our own histories do not bear a lasting record of faculties that we possess being suffered to remain inactive, energies that are latent within us not being permitted to be called forth? Still the Lord gives every one the opportunity of escaping from this state. "We read in the Gospel that it was on the Sabbath-day when the Lord cured the man with the withered hand, and so spiritually there is always a Sabbath-day set apart by the Lord for us, on which we may, if we will, come into His Presence, and be loosed by Him from our infirmity. The Sabbath-day, as being the day of rest, symbolizes that state into which we are brought when elevating thoughts of a holy character make their influence felt upon us. The Lord provides that every soul shall, unless altogether confirmed in evil, have its seasons of peace and tranquillity, when thoughts and desires of an interior order shall be presented to it for its acceptance. If during such seasons we prefer the higher affections peculiar to them to the lower affections which hitherto we have permitted to influence us, then the Lord Himself as Lord of the Sabbath will be revealed. He will draw near for the purpose of healing us. He will say, 'Stretch forth thine hand;' in other words, 'Make an effort through the strength I will impart to bring your activities into proper play. Let not your energies lie dormant any longer, but relying upon Me, let them henceforth all be utilized.' Happy shall we be when we have performed this command; when we have brought into activity through His strength all our powers, our will and intellect being united for the one purpose of doing what is righteous and Our life-work will in this way be successfully wrought out, and we shall find ourselves built up into His image, and transformed into His likeness. And whose will be the praise and merit for this blessed termination to our labours? Whose will it be but His-His alone through whom the miracle of healing having been first wrought on our behalf, we were enabled to have new life communicated to us whereby we could serve Him and execute His precepts with all diligence." true. SOCIAL MEETING IN THE CONCERT HALL. Among the many pleasant opportunities of friendly reunion and social enjoyment provided by the recent session of the Conference, one of the most warmly appreciated was this meeting on the Wednesday evening. Four hundred persons took tea in the schoolroom, and these were afterwards joined by an equal number in the large and elegant Concert Hall. Not fewer than eight hundred persons were present during the evening. The committee of arrangements had made the most ample provision for the comfort and enjoyment of every one of this large party. A choice selection of vocal and instrumental music was performed. Opportunity was afforded for friendly recognition and social conversation. The Rev. C. H. Wilkins, in the name of the church in Peter Street, in happily chosen language, heartily welcomed the visitors who were present. This welcome was warmly responded to by the VicePresident and the President of the Conference, who expressed their admiration of the arrangements made for the Conference, and their sense, which was shared by every member of the Conference, of the warmth and cordiality with which the Conference had been received. Every one present seemed to share the general joy which pervaded the assembly. Refreshments were provided in a separate room. sense as his children, and he should try to deal impartially with them. Each speaker would be restricted to fifteen minutes. These were the stipulations, and he would see that they were rigidly carried out. All the speakers had to say must be said in that time, and it would be quite sufficient to say all that was worth hearing. He considered that this meeting of Conference very properly succeeded the grand soiree held in the Concert Hall on the previous evening, and to him this present annual meeting was the crowning meeting of Conference. At the social meeting they had amusement and healthy recreation, but now they were convened to enjoy subjects of even a happier and higher character. وو In The Rev. W. O'Mant was called upon to address them on the Triune God. The word Triune, he said, grated on the ears of some. He himself was not fond of the word, though it conveyed to his mind a perfectly intelligible meaning; he believed a better word could be used. There were many persons in the Christian Church who regarded the subject as a profound mystery. They employed the word mystery as though it was a something which no one could understand. the Epistles, however, the word was not so used, for there we read of "understanding all mysteries." We might banish, therefore, from our minds for ever the thought that this subject was a mystery which no mortal could understand. In the New Dispensation it is permitted to enter intellectually into the mysteries of faith. He was not surprised, however, that so many regarded the subject of the Trinity as a profound mystery, because certain expressions in the Athanasian Creed tended greatly to mystify it. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were there represented as being incomprehensible, and the advocates of that Creed contended that this originated in the effort to place the subject before the people in as clear a light as possible. The use of words was to convey thoughts, though it was often found that words did not do this. Twenty years ago there was a great man, who was a member of the Church of England, and who delivered a series of eight lectures at Oxtord called the Bampton Lectures, and what did he say? Why, with all his combined wisdom, philosophy, and ability he set forth the impossibility of knowing God. The statement, however, was antichristian, for the Scriptures said, "It is life eternal to know Thee, the only true God.' God did not mock us. It was possible to understand Him. He did not mean, however, to assert that we could understand God fully, but only partially, just in the same way as we could only understand many of the things God had made. The Divine was infinite and everywhere present, in Him we lived and moved and had our being; and, as the writings of the New Church taught us, the Lord was the inmost of everything, and the essential life. The word Triune did not mean that there were three distinct personalities. It was utterly impossible that there could be more than one God. Some persons argued that if it was good to have one God, it was three times better to have three. But a true idea of God excluded entirely the idea of three, and the truth proclaimed that all the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily in the single person of Jesus Christ. It was conducive to our acts of devotion to think only of one God. If we thought of three, the mind was in a state of doubt which of the three it ought to worship; but when the mind was concentrated upon one there was perfect tranquillity and peace. thought of the Trinity as being in the Lord Jesus, and regarded Him as being at once the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, our minds would never be disturbed. There was but one God, the Lord, who was infinite life and light, and the all-pervading power dwelling in the heart, the mind, and the life. If we A duet and chorus followed, after which the Rev. Dr. Tafel spoke on "Man the Image and Likeness of God." The image and likeness of God, he said, were not in man's body, but in his spirit. But where in man's spirit can we find God's image and likeness? So far as men's spirits manifest themselves in their bodies, we were bound to confess that there were few men and women in this world Godlike. The image and likeness of God are lost among men and women living in this world in the present day. The original image into which we read men in the beginning were created survives at the present day in the two faculties of freedom and rationality. By the orderly use of these Divine gifts in his spirit, a man, with the Divine help, may either restore in himself the full image and likeness of God, or, if he so chooses, he may utterly destroy them. As the image and likeness of God are preserved in a man's freedom and rationality, and the man's freedom is a faculty residing in the man's will, and his rationality inherent in his understanding, therefore the image of God resided in the man's understanding, and the likeness of God in his will. A man's understanding and will by nature are not created into the image and likeness of God; but the understanding, by virtue of the faculty of reason, becomes an image of God, and the man's will, by virtue of the faculty of freedom, is capable of becoming a likeness of God. But how was this development to take place? By imbuing each with a Divine quality and divesting them of what is merely natural. Hence we found in man a twofold nature-one in harmony with Divine order, the other opposed thereto. Experience teaches us that the quality of the human will and understanding is perverted, and that by nature man loves only himself, while his understanding prefers to dwell in the realm of nature instead of rising into the realm of spiritual and Divine truth. From this it followed that the quality of the will was by nature anything but a likeness of God, and the quality of the understanding anything but an image of Him, and yet the capacity of becoming such was inherent in these faculties. But as these two faculties are perverted in man, so also are his reason and freedom. Where, then, do the image and likeness of God reside? Man's will and understanding are twofold, and he has a lower or external will and understanding, and a higher or interior. Hence there are in him higher and interior affections and thoughts as well as lower and external. The man's capacity to become an image and likeness of God consisted in the fact that he possessed an internal spiritual man, which by nature is not perverted, and which is capable of receiving from God the inflowing life of goodness and truth. Man's capacity of becoming a likeness of God consists in the presence of God in the will faculty of his interior spiritual man, and of his becoming an image of God in the Divine presence in the intellectual faculty of his spiritual man. But the will and understanding of the external natural man must be imbued with Divine ingredients, and this shows that regeneration is the combined work of God and man. The Divine ingredients by which man, as of himself, may imbue the understanding of his external natural man were the truths of the Divine Word by which we are taught to love God and our neighbour. Man received in his understanding all those truths which inform him of the nature and quality of his heavenly Father, and all those impressions which stream into his understanding from the world around him. By this means faith was established in the understanding of his external natural man, and thereby it was imbued with Divine and heavenly ingredients. In order that these Divine ingredients might enter into the very vitals and substances of the external, the man must live according to these truths, which are the laws of order. When this takes place, then God Himself, from His habitation in the inmost spiritual man, is able to descend into the external natural man, to restore and establish there His image and likeness. From this it followed that the image and likeness of God were established in man when God was in him and he in God, and thus when the two were reciprocally and mutually conjoined. He The Rev. I. Tansley followed on the subject of "Redemption." defined it as meaning a series of Divine operations by which hell was brought into a state of order, and this was effected by the Incarnation of the Lord. Through the long vista of ages there had been philosophers and poets of unspeakable merit, but far above and infinitely superior to them all stood the Divine form of Christ. Before His time there was nothing but the blackest night, but since His redeeming work was completed the morning of righteousness had dawned upon us, and light had arisen out of mental obscurity. All the facts of history pointed to Christ and His redemption as the most wonderful and marvellous event that has ever transpired in the annals of the world. If we traced the results of redemption, and considered the history of evil prior to its accomplishment, the assertion would be found to be accurate. Through the deification of men and the multiplication of gods the greatest evils resulted, the baser passions of the heart were let loose, and a moral darkness prevailed which could be felt. But as ages rolled on light broke in upon the darkness, and mighty changes had been brought about. Christ, who was a hero amongst the mighty, and the mightiest amongst heroes, was now governing the ages. The burden of prophecy We was that He should come as a Redeemer, and accordingly He came down to the lowest condition of men in order to exalt them. Thus He was indeed the light of the world, and the resurrection and the life. There was a purity about His person which resolved itself into a holy mystery we could not penetrate. We could not get behind the finite so as to view the Divinity beyond. The Lord utilized matter by becoming incarnate to effect His will, and this was a proof of the power of His Divinity over it. could understand something of the Divine love from the words, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" Truly "in His love and in His pity He redeemed us." Hell, which the Lord conquered, was an assembly of bad men who had grown up in evil states while living in this world. Evil was the hell against which the Lord fought, enduring all temptation, but never succumbing to its authority. The last expiring agonies upon the Cross did not constitute the whole of Redemption, but were only the Lord's last conflict and final victory. Redemption in its entirety was a continual series of victories over the evil. By triumphing the Lord had restored to man moral and spiritual freedom, a fact which the record of the past well substantiated. The Day of Pentecost saw |