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each to twenty-four chapels, a number the many observations I had already which has long since been erected.

SIGNS OF THE TIMES. "There are periods of comparative calm and stagnation, and then times of gradual swelling and upheaving of the deep, till some great billow slowly rears its crest above the surface, higher and still higher, to the last; when, with a mighty convulsion, amid foam and spray, and 'noise of many waters,' it topples over and bursts in thunder upon the beach, bearing the flood-line higher than before. In the eyes of those who have watched intelligently the signs of the times it seems that some such wave as this is even now gathering beneath us, a deeper and broader wave than has ever yet arisen. No partial and temporary rippling of the surface is it now, but a whole mass of living thought seems steadily and slowly upheaved, and the ocean is moved to its depths." These words of Miss Cobbe are quoted by Dr. Carpenter as an introduction to a lecture on the "Psychology of Belief;" and he continues the subject by remarking"The experience of the last ten years has so fully justified this grave warning, that it duly becomes all who truly care for their own and their children's welfare to look well to the foundations of their beliefs, which are likely soon to be tested by such a wave as has never before tried their solidity. New methods of research, new bodies of facts, new modes of interpretation, new orders of ideas, are concurring to drive onward a flood which will bear with unprecedented force against our whole fabric of doctrine; and no edifice is safe against its undermining power that is not firmly bedded on the solid rock of truth."

jotted down as to the state of religious feeling in Spain; and I could not help reflecting with how much truth might both the educated and uneducated Spaniard of to-day say with the poor boatman, 'My religion is broken down.""

The decay of religious faith is shown by conversation in the social circles of Spain, especially among the more ardent of the Republicans. There are three different nanies by which Republican Spain calls her sons-atheists, those indifferent to religion at all, and freethinkers. The creed of the atheist is something of this nature. A man reads little, prays little, thinks a good deal, and observes a good deal. He come to the conclusion that to sin is according to nature, and therefore that He who has proclaimed that to sin is worthy of blame, and shall be punished, cannot be the Author of Nature. The position of the indifferent is less defined, and more common. It is a state of heart and mind which does not care at all for religion; yet would, and does saunter into church and listen to the music, and to the sermon if at all a striking one. There is one reason why the clergy of Spain have so completely lost their hold on the minds of men; their sermons never fairly meet a doubt, seldom indicate the moral teaching of Christ. The freethinker is one who chooses to think for himself, and embrace that creed which he believes best for his temporal and external welfare. It denotes what is called in England, Broad Churchism.' This freedom of religious thought, which came in with the Republic, is the type of the modern statesman, orator, and literary man of Spain. The population of Spain is sixteen millions, and twelve millions are unable either to read or write. The state of religious feeling among the uneducated, in the towns of the interior, in the fishing villages of the coast, in the vineyard or the olive press, may be summed up in three words: superstition, carelessness, blind discontent. "My religion has broken down." "If it be true," says this writer, "as Such was the hopeless sentiment-a has often been asserted, that when, dursentiment rendered doubly mournful by ing the great French Revolution, Sundays the simplicity of the language, and the were abolished, and every day of the seven position of the speaker-expressed to was a working-day-if it be true that me a few nights since by a poor Spanish the abolishing of the prescribed day of boatman. The train of thought which rest, and the incessant strain of work these bitter words led to, urged me to caused by it, led to disease of mind, and throw together into a connected form in many cases to lunacy, one can but

SPAIN. A writer in Macmillan's Magazine has contributed a series of interesting articles on the political and social condition of this country. The last of these articles treats of the " Decay of Faith in Spain." It opens thus:

tremble for this country, for it seems sterling. It had established itself in that Sunday is often wholly, and the the United States of America, Canada, Feast-days partially ignored. The aspect New Zealand, Australia, Western and of the Church herself is wholly stagnant, Southern Africa." with her 42,000 clergy, whose charges are fearfully demoralized, and in the interior, utterly ignorant, men who are joyless, religionless, mindless; one looks in vain for tidings of the newly endowed home, the fresh school walls, the congress, or the midnight mission. The faded dresses, and in many cases the worn and sad countenances of the clergy, all point not to life, but to a slow decay."

WESLEYANISM.-At a meeting of the Wesleyan Lay Home Mission, Lord Shaftesbury, who was in the chair, is reported to have said:"He was glad they were not going to incorporate themselves with any other institution. So satisfied was he with the operations of the Wesleyan body, and the good they were doing and would do if they maintained their Protestant independence, that he advised them to keep independent. Some spoke of the Wesleyans as a body joining the Church of England. His advice to them was, 'Do no such thing. He saw the necessity of having the Church of England kept in check and control by such a body as the Wesleyans were. He was certain that a vast number of people (and they had not reached by any means the lower strata of society) scarcely ever came out of the street in which they were born, and they could only be reached by diving into the recesses in which they lived." In a lecture recently delivered at Batley, on "Methodism and its Heroes," the Rev. J. F. Moody said that "Methodism had in England 7000 chapels, built at a cost of over £12,000,000; 1300 ordained ministers; 3500 local preachers; between 300,000 and 400,000 church members, upwards of a million attending its ministry; over 600,000 Sunday scholars, and 120,000 day-scholars in first-class educational establishments." At the laying of the corner-stone of a Primitive Methodist Chapel in the Keighley First Circuit, the Rev. J. Dodsworth said that "the Primitive Methodists were a Society which numbered, sixty years ago, only ten persons, but had now 160,000 members, 1000 ministers, 14,000 lay preachers, 300,000 scholars, 6000 preaching places, and church property valued at nearly a million and a quarter pounds

BIBLICAL PSYCHOLOGY.-The Rev. J. B. Heard, M. A., Caius Coll., Cambridge, in an ably written paper on the "Psychology of the Old Testament," published in the Bible Educator, part 8, pp. 126-131, after commenting upon the Hebraic view of the relation between soul and body, and stating that Tertullian and some other of the Fathers opined "that soul and body are related as form and essence, and that even out of the body the soul retained a filmy shadowy form corresponding to that with which it was clothed upon when in the body," says: "In this point of view the soul was the formative principle of the body-an opinion which the younger Fichte has revived and to which Swedenborg also inclined. . . . The lines of Spenser express the same thought—

For of the soul the body form doth take, For soul is form and doth the body make.' This doctrine of correspondence may not be the whole truth on a subject con. fessedly mysterious and beyond our grasp at present, but it, at least, does not contradict any higher truth. The end of Revelation being practical, not speculative, it left the mourner at the door of the sepulchre; it did not roll away the stone which was very great. On the other hand it would not let him quench the lamp of hope or allow that death was a perpetual sleep."

W. S.

nected with the laying of a memorial GIVING. At a public meeting constone at Burnt Ash Congregational Church, Lee, Kent, the Rev. David Thomas, of Bristol, is reported to have said, "In Bristol they had a way of not that they were richer than in other opening chapels without debt. It was places, but their standard of giving had been raised. Those who were in the habit of giving a guinea now gave notes. Many of the most liberal contributors would not be regarded in London as rich

men.

would be diffused throughout London, He trusted that a similar spirit and that it would be productive of great results.

FOREIGN AND COLONIAL MISSIONS.The Committee appointed by minutes

lated, in fervid and poetical language, the many applications of its protean powers; and then traced its correspondence in Scripture, confirming the truths of the spiritual representation from the uses in the lower plane of nature. The peroration carried the subject into the body politic from the initiaments of the family through the nation out into the whole world.

The discussion that ensued was perhaps more than usually varied and interesting. The deeply-seated truths of the doctrine of correspondences were seen vividly, and traced through many a varied ramification of form and use; and all present felt that they left richer in understanding than they had come.

147 and 148 of the last General Conference to procure the aid needed by our foreign brethren met and organized, with Dr. Bayley as Chairman. Mr. Elliott, Secretary of the Swedenborg Society, Mr. Coster, Vice-Consul for Sweden in London, and Messrs. A. Gallico and Jos. Gallico were proposed as additional members of the Committee, and Mr. Watson was appointed Treasurer. Mr. Watson reported that on February 3d he sent a remittance to Mr. Boyesen in Copenhagen of £15, 8s. 10d., of which £11, 8s. 10d. was the balance of the Lancashire Distress Fund in his hands, and £3, 10s.-the balance of the Chicago Relief Fund in the hands of the Rev. R. L. Tafel. Resolved, that the Treasurer be instructed to make these two remittances the first items in his account. SWEDENBORG SOCIETY. - Notice of Resolved also, that £10, received from an intention to propose the following Dr. Jackson in Portland, Oregon, for alteration of the rules, at the annual the Italian Mission, be transferred to the meeting of the Society to be held in general account in favour of Italy. Dr. June 1874, has been forwarded to the Bayley reported £110, 17s. as received Committee:-"First, That rule 5 he. by him for the Scandinavian and Italian rescinded, and that the following be rule Missions, which sum was transferred 5, At all general meetings, every life by him to the Treasurer of the Foreign and Colonial Mission Fund. The separate items of which this sum consists are acknowledged on the wrapper of the Repository under the heading of "Foreign and Colonial Mission Fund." It was resolved that the two Missions in Denmark and Italy be encouraged during the present year to the extent of £50; and that Conference be requested to continue this grant for three years, the amount to be raised by special subscriptions. Resolved, that Dr. Bayley prepare a sketch of regulations for the government of the Foreign and Colonial Missions Committee for the consideration of Conference, in agreement with minute 147.-R. L. TAFEL, Secretary.

member of the age of twenty shall be entitled to vote when and so soon as the donation conferring such vote on him or her shall have been paid for the period of three calendar months; and every annual subscriber of 10s. and upwards, of the age of twenty, shall be entitled to vote when and so soon as the first payment of the subscription conferring such vote on him or her shall have been made for the like period, provided always, as regards every life member and annual subscriber becoming such after the passing of these rules, that his or her name and address shall have been reported to the Committee, and entered on the minutes of a meeting of the Committee for the like period of three calendar months. Provided also, that no member shall be SWEDENBORG READING SOCIETY, 36 entitled to more than one vote except Bloomsbury Street.-At the fifth general those who as life members have prior meeting for the present session, on the to this date, June 1874, acquired the 19th February, Mr. Appelbee read a right of more votes than one by a prevaluable and instructive paper on the vious rule of the Society. In reference "Hand and its Correspondences." He to all such, their right of using the referred first to its anatomical structure, number of votes they have so acquired and the wonderful and beautiful manner shall continue.' Second, That rule 7 in which the Divine Wisdom was shown be rescinded, and that rule 8 be made in its adaptation to every variety of use rule 7, and so on throughout. Third, and exertion of power. He showed how That the present rule 19 be rescinded, its delicate sensibility of touch rendered and that the following become according it capable of supplying, in case of need, to the new numbering rule 18, The the absence of eye or ear. He recapitu- mode of the election of the Committee

shall be by voting payers containing the names of all members who are eligible. Every member qualified to vote, wherever residing, whose address is known to the secretary, shall have sent to him or her by the secretary one of the voting papers, at least one week before the meeting for such election, and such member may vote for twelve persons on such list by placing a mark against the name of each, and signing his or her name at the bottom of the paper (if a life member before June 1874, stating how many votes are claimed). The voting paper may then either be sent by post to the secretary, or delivered by hand at the meeting to the scrutineers appointed, or given to a friend for that purpose. The scrutineers shall then examine, verify, and cast up the number of votes, and report the result to the Chairman, by whom it shall be declared to the meeting. If more than twelve names are marked the voting paper will be invalid." The notice is signed by E. H. Bayley, T. H. Elliott, Thomas Watson, John Presland, R. Gunton.

ACCRINGTON NEW JERUSALEM CHURCH MISSIONARY AND COLPORTAGE REPORT FOR THE YEAR 1873.-We have received a copy of this report, which we transfer almost entire to our pages. We regret that any circumstance should have been permitted to interrupt the progress and labours of so promising an organization, and cannot but hope that means will be supplied to continue and extend its usefulness :

"The labours of the Association during the past year," says the report, "both as regards the Missionary and Colportage branches, have been carried on with vigour, and have been attended with gratifying results. Blackburn, Darwen, Heywood, Burnley, and Padiham have been again visited by our Colporteur, and in addition to this, he has opened up new ground for the dissemination of the New Church doctrines in several places. The Colporteur has paid visits to Ribchester, Langho, Whalley, Clitheroe, and Sabden, and has taken advantage of every oppor tunity offered by these visits of selling books and distributing tracts. At each of these places, too, meetings have been held for the purpose of reading and conversing upon the doctrines of the New Church, our Colporteur

having taken an active part in them, and been the means, we trust, of awakening in many an interest in, and a love for, the heavenly doctrines of the New Church, which will, under Divine Providence, bear a rich harvest of good fruit. The issue by the Swedenborg Society of 'The True Christian Religion' at the trifling cost of 2s. per copy has enabled our Colporteur to dispose of over 120 copies of this invaluable work. addition to The True Christian Religion,' 75 vols. of the Arcana Coelestia,' 84 vols. of the Apocalypse Explained,' and over 100 other works by Swedenborg, have been disposed of. To these must be added 1630 collateral New Church Works by various authors, making a total of books sold during the past year of over 2000 volumes."

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The report expresses "deep sorrow in having to record the removal into the spiritual world of the late James Grimshaw, Esq., who, ever since the commencement of the Association, has taken a deep interest in its welfare, and both by liberal pecuniary help and by other means, has been indefatigable in promoting its success.

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After this statement of the valuable services rendered by this Association, our readers will read with pain the concluding paragraph of this report, which is as follows:-"Considering that this Association has been entirely supported by the private subscriptions of a few, and that our late lamented friend [Mr. Grimshaw] was such a generous contributor, the loss seems irreparable, and we are' reluctantly compelled to draw labours to a close, not without a hope, however, that the good work may be still more efficiently carried on by others; the past labours of this Association having abundantly proved that there is a wide field of usefulness, which, hitherto, has been left almost untouched by the New Church, and which is seems a pity to neglect.'

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The amount of work performed during the year 1873 is thus summarized :260 days spent in Missionary and Colportage work.

48 Sermons preached.

52 Reading and Conversational Meetings held.

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The contributions to the society are by four contributors, and amount to £100, 3s. 2d. The total income, arising from these subscriptions, sale of books, and a small balance, was £186, 0s. 8d. The Society appears to have an unexhausted stock of books of the value of £14, 12s. 6d.

BLACKBURN-Testimonial to J. H. Moore, Esq.-Mr. Moore, who removed a few months ago to Leeds, after a sojourn of upwards of three years at Blackburn, was presented, in February, with a very excellent portrait in oil of himself, by the New Church Society and Sunday scholars, among whom he has performed many valuable uses, and worthily won their sincerest respect. The artist chosen to paint the portrait was Mr. John Gilder of Bradford, Yorkshire, who is a New Churchman, which enhances the value of the picture. In reply to the letter which accompanied the picture and expressed the sentiments of the Society, Mr. Moore returned a lengthened reply, from which we give the following extract :

"The portrait I shall cherish as one of the most valued of the several tokens of kindly feeling which I have at different times received during the last fifteen years and this not only for its value as a work of art, which is considerable, but because of the evident sincerity and depth of feeling on your part, which has prompted you to give it. I rejoice to know that during the three years of my residence at Blackburn, I have been by Divine mercy enabled to perform uses of many kinds amongst you, and that the humble and imperfect services which I have rendered have generally proved acceptable. I am not exempt from the liability to err; but in all that I did among you, I was actuated by a sincere desire for the prosperity of the Church and school; and I am glad to learn that the leading principles by which my conduct was guided are so far acceptable to the Society, that you continue to govern yourselves by the same rules. So long as you do this, I have no fear as regards the future of the Church. She may again and again pass through seasons of storm and trouble, but will never be seriously shaken; on the contrary, her seasons of trial will be sanctified to her purification. I have often thought and sometimes said, that if only we could as New Church people, be

thoroughly in earnest, actuated by an ardent love for the Lord and the Church, a love so ardent as to predominate over all other loves, we should be so strong that we should carry all before us. I am afraid that the best and wisest of us do little more than understand in theory the faith which can remove mountains. As a church we are sadly wanting in enthusiasm-I do not mean enthusiasm of the noisy, declamatory sort, but that quiet, unobtrusive earnestness which will command success when louder demonstrations fail. I would like to see our enthusiasm showing itself, first, in urging us to a regular and punctual attendance upon public worship, and that not from a selfish motive. It often appears to me that our motive in attending church is imperfect. We go, as we think, to get good, to receive spiritual food; but it appears to me that we should also go with the express purpose of doing good. Our presence at worship is distinctly a help and encouragement to others who are there. Every worshipper contributes something to improve and strengthen the sphere. Consequently every one who is absent from his or her place deteriorates or detracts from it. There is nothing so chilling as a thin and scattered congregation; those who compose it feel dispirited, and, as it were, frozen. We should therefore attend worship for the sake of our neighbour, just as much as for our own good, and we shall find that in consulting the good and happiness of others, we best secure our own.'

CHESTER.-A course of lectures has been arranged at this city. They are delivered in the Town Hall, which will seat about five hundred people. Over two hundred and fifty persons attended the first lecture, which was given by Mr. Ramage. At the time of giving the lecture it was not known that any reporters were present, although several persons were observed to be taking notes. But on the Saturday following the following notice appeared in the Chester Chronicle :

"Christian Philosophy. Whether Christ was myth, man, or the supreme God,' was the subject of a most eloquent address by Mr. Ramage, of Kersley, at the Town Hall, on Thursday evening. Starting with the assertion that all modern religious beliefs were centred round

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