gave this as a deep and stirring point in the religious life in England, and as there was a levelling and a disturbance, there must be an advance of something to occupy the ground. And although they were a small body, yet they formed an advance-guard, and the advance-guard of an army was not large, but it was composed of soldiers foremost in skill and energy, furnished with the best artillery. The Swedenborg Society certainly at present possessed the virtues necessary to such an advanceguard. It had intellect, wealth and energy, and it was strong in its operations. It was as it were the advance-guard of the army that had to come in and occupy the ground to be left after the disappearance of the churches and creeds of the present day. With regard to the large donation of £1000, he might mention how pleased he was to see it noticed in the daily papers, and the very fact of its being published so widely by the newspapers throughout the land was good; it called attention to the fact that there was such a man as Swedenborg, and that there were those who believed in his mission and were prepared to give largely to the Society for publishing his works. Here was the first early evidence of good resulting from that noble bequest. They saw how the money had been spent, or was to be utilized, and he might suggest that there were several institutions he was personally acquainted with which would be glad to accept the works. He had introduced them in the Union Society at Oxford, and he would never forget the astonishment which the offer of this Society some five years ago caused in the University of Oxford. It was first of all well to send such works as best answered the demands and inquiries of the thinking portion of the community. There must be a ascent of truth from the intellect, as well as a descent (of truth) from the heart; and sending out the works to the various religious societies and theological institutions would produce a very great amount of good, and satisfy many wants. He mentioned that a beautiful free library had been opened at Coventry, and he thought an offer of the works to that institution would be gladly accepted. There were a few volumes already in the library, and whilst residing in Coventry he had been able to make use of them, but he thought a complete set could be most advantageously presented. The Society had at their last Annual Meeting talked together on the subject of the Athanasian Creed, which was then very widely canvassed, and Mr. Clissold had dealt with the question with great power of language in his admirable treatise, "Athanasius, Sabellius and Swedenborg." They heard now that the disuse of that Creed was one of the moot points to be discussed in the House of Lords, and perhaps a clause would be incorporated in the Archbishop of Canterbury's Bill for the regulation of the Ceremonials of the Church, enacting that disuse of the Creed should be thereby legalized. It was sometimes difficult to know Swedenborg's opinion upon this Creed, regarding it altogether. He (Swedenborg) certainly admired some parts of it; where it spoke, e.g., of the Divinity and Humanity of Christ, or where He is equal to the Father as touching His Godhead, but inferior as touch ing His Manhood, or where it was declared that the Godhead in Christ is, as the body and soul, inseparable. He might say indeed that Swedenborg went to all who loved the Creed, and interpreted it in a more Christian way than it could be interpreted without Swedenborg. The disuse of the Creed would be an offence to many in the Church, because they did not understand the good things in it, and they clung to the uncharitable opinions expressed in the Creed. He had lent the "True Christian Religion" to a clerical friend of his, and he said, "How can you object to recite the Creed when Swedenborg utters such expressions with regard to it as I find in this work?" Swedenborg seemed to him (Mr. Colley) an universal theologian. There was one little work he would like the Society to take in hand, which he admired exceedingly, and which he thought would be of great service to evangelical clergymen, and that was the minor work on the "Sacred Scriptures." Many persons on reading that book would look upon Swedenborg with much more charity and more impartiality, and feel a degree of love in their hearts for him. He would therefore suggest that this book should be published and advertised with the gift of the "True Christian Religion." (Applause.) The meeting was subsequently engaged in making alterations in the rules. The altered rules, which were adopted after considerable discussion, consisted chiefly in substituting voting-papers for proxies, and limiting each member to one vote, irrespective of the amount of his subscription. The voting-papers must be filled up by the subscribers individually, and forwarded to the secretary. By the rule as it now stands every subscriber in the United Kingdom will be able to exercise his choice in the election of the committee. The new rules do not interfere with the privileges of the present life-subscribers, who continue to have a vote for every five pounds subscribed-no subscriber having, however, more than ten votes. Mr. Watson was reappointed treasurer, and the following were announced as the members of the committee: Mr. Bateman. Mr. T. H. Elliott. Mr. R. Jobson. Dr. Stocker. Rev. R. L. Tafel. Mr. H. R. Williams. A closing resolution was proposed by the Rev. Dr. Bayley, and seconded by Mr. Bateman, but the lateness of the hour prevented these gentlemen speaking upon it. It was moved and seconded and carried unanimously "That this meeting gratefully recognises the hand of Divine Providence in the progressive increase of the Society's operations, and trusts that the Divine blessing of the Lord may continue to be manifest in a wider circulation of the great truths contained in the valuable writings of Swedenborg." A vote of thanks to the chairman was passed unanimously, which he acknowledged, and the meeting was closed with the Lord's Prayer. Miscellaneous, and a ruined man." In another cathedral city in the northern part of Italy, a priest expressed his earnest desire to have a Bible suitably edited for circulation in his parish, and he begged us to use our best efforts to provide it. These, I think, are hopeful signs." BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY. —After detailing most encouraging signs of progress in the work of this noble institution in many parts of the world, the report says, "The receipts from ordinary sources for the year ending March 31, 1874, amounted to the sum of £220,766, including £119,751, applicable to the general purposes of the OLD CATHOLIC CONGRESS AND THE Society, and £101,015, receipts for BIBLE.-In his speech at the Annual Bibles and Testaments. To this must Meeting of the British and Foreign be added £90 dividends on stock in- Bible Society, the Dean of Chester gave vested for the China Fund; and £107 on the following account of his visit to this account of Lieut.-Col. Roxburgh's Fund Congress: "Last year I was at the Confor Colportage in India; making a grand gress at Constance, and as very few total of £220,964. The ordinary pay- Englishmen were there, I shall probably ments amounted to £208,618; and add be the more readily excused for troubling ing the sums paid on account of the you with a few of my impressions with special funds, the total expenditure of reference to that meeting in its bearings the year has been £210,183. The upon the publication and circulation of society is under engagements to the ex- the Bible. In conversation with a laytent of £134,041. The issues of the man, a man of science, a medical man society for the year are as follows:- of large practice in one of the most popFrom the depot at home, 1,467,278; ulous towns of Germany, he told me from depots abroad, 1,186,802; total, 2,654,080 copies of Bibles, Testaments and portions. The total issues of the society now amount to 71,131,111 copies." that he had lately, though not a very young man, been learning Hebrew, in order that, in the interstices of his time, he might obtain greater freshness and more instruction in the study of the Prominence was given at the meeting Bible. This was one of the leading Old to Italy and to the general action of Catholics. I never in my life was Roman Catholicism in its relation to the brought in contact with a body of men Word. In Italy the prospect is encour- who struck me as possessed of so much aging, and allusions were made to it by intellectual and moral force as these more than one speaker. The Dean of leaders of the Old Catholic movement. Chester said: "I was present at a very I allude to two of them especially-Von remarkable meeting in a cathedral city Schulte, who for three years has been of Northern Italy, with about a dozen the chairman of the congresses of these Roman Catholic priests more or less Old Catholics, and Bishop Reinkens. interested in the question of Church Von Schulte, on this occasion, alluded Reform, and priests with whom I had to his own early education. He belongs the great happiness of joining in prayer. to the higher ranks of society, is most We all knelt down and used an Italian eminent as a writer on jurisprudence, version of one of those prayers for unity and has had large experience as a judge. contained in our Prayer-book. One of He said he was educated religiously in those men spoke to me privately of one schools of high distinction, and did not great distress which weighed upon his say a word to imply that his teachers mind. He was a most energetic young were otherwise than men of mark and man, and a professor in the Ecclesiasti- high character; but he said, 'Though I cal seminary. He expressed his great was several years in one school and sevegrief that the training in the seminary ral in another, I never in either of them was casuistical and not biblical. What had a lesson in the Bible.' Bishop he craved for was a training for the young Reinkens, in a remarkable speech at the priests in the Bible, but he said, "If I Conference, said the fact was very often say this to my colleagues, not one of questioned in regard to Roman Catholic them agree with me. I am a marked conntries, whether the people were refused permission to read their Bible freely. He said speaking publicly and under great responsibility, that it was a fact, and one which was becoming more and more conspicuous. He alluded to an archbishop who had said very shortly before that time, that to read the Bible with notes under the guidance of your confessor might be well, but to read it otherwise was a sin. He said he wished to ascertain how it was that the Roman Curia had come to the conclusion that it was well to keep the Bible from the people, and so referred to a book published by Cardinal Wiseman, who, he said, thoroughly understood the spirit of the Roman Curia, and acted throughout his life on thoroughly Roman principles. The first argument he quoted from the Cardinal's writings was this, That it is evident from the Scriptures themselves that they were not intended for all; and next, That the Christian Church has the instinctive feeling that it is not safe to put the Bible into the hands of all. Bishop Reinkens replied that this must be a mistake, for in the early Christian centuries, until the hierarchy laid its hand upon the treasury of the Gospel, the Bible was regarded as the most precious jewel which the Church possessed; it was everywhere read in the congregations, and to them it was thoroughly welcome. The Cardinal had also said that the apostles were sent forth to communicate not written teaching but oral teaching. To this Bishop Reinkens replied, in a certain sense this is quite true, but when the apostles did write, transcripts were made of their epistles, and were sent from Church to Church, and no one ever thought they were intended as a confidential communication to a few. But then he said with regard to this Bible-this Bible is the very thing that does give us the oral teachings of Christ and His apostles, and we cannot get it anywhere else." A BIBLE SOCIETY'S ANNUAL MEETING SIXTY YEARS AGO.-At the recent annual meeting of this Society, the Rev. Dr. Halley gave the following reminiscence of an anniversary meeting which he attended about the year 1812. He said: At this late hour I will detain you only for a minute or two. I should like just to picture to you an anniversary of this society which I attended, think, in 1812, before the greater part of you were born. The chair was occupied by the first President of the Society, Lord Teignmouth. Around him were men in various dresses, for in those times people generally wore uniforms. Mili tary men appeared in scarlet, and naval men in blue and yellow. Clergymen were all distinguished by their canonicals. Even Quakers wore uniforms in those days, for they dressed all alike, with hats of great magnitude, and coats of a curious colour. As I said, Lord Teignmouth took the chair, and read the report himself. Then there arose from the chair on his right hand a fine, tall, noble, military man, clothed in general's uniform, to move the adoption of the report. He was the Duke of Kent, the father of Her present Majesty. I think I never can forget the speech he made. He referred to the wish of his father, that not a cottage in the country might be without a Bible, and not a child that could not read it; and he added his own desire that not only should the children read it, but trust its truth and observe its precepts. Immediately after him the Duke of Sussex, the Queen's uncle, rose to second the resolution. He spoke like a ready man; he knew something about his Bible, and was a great collector of old and curious editions and old copies of the Book. Lord Gambier, the Earl of Harrowby, Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, and others, having spoken, a little man somehow skipped from the back of the platform to the front, and began speaking about the Bible, twisting his arms about him in the strangest way, moving every limb in his body, as if every bone and muscle were in sympathy with the warm and loving feelings of his heart. That was William Wilberforce. that time slavery was sustained by all the Governments of Europe, and he bore a noble protest against it. Such was a meeting of the Bible Society sixty years ago. At REFORMED EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN AMERICA.- In our February number we gave a brief notice of the formation of this communion. The Messenger of May 27th, gives the following account of its progress and present state:-"The Reformed Episcopal Church is making steady progress, and bids fair to be the most formidable schism in the Episcopal Church in modern times. It has gone boldly to work to revise the Prayer Book, which is the stronghold of Epis- fusion, to restore the remnant of Israel copalianism. They are reforming all and to reign on Mount Zion. A period expressions which teach the doctrine of of great happiness and glory would follow baptismal regeneration and the apostolic this event, during which Satan would be succession, and generally those passages bound, and the nations of the earth which give countenance to the grosser would come up to Jerusalem to worship; forms of ritualism. The reformers are a period, however, of comparative but not breaking down the walls between the perfect holiness, at the close of which evil Episcopal and the other sects of the would again break out." It will be long, Christian Church. There is no essential we imagine, before these crude notions change in doctrine. The reform consists of prophecy will obtain acceptance among principally in rejecting some of the old intelligent and thoughtful persons. Conedicts of the Catholic Church, and in ferences may be held and stirring apfreeing its members from the restraints peals made to excite attention, but of a rigid ecclesiasticism. It is not a these efforts are doomed to disappointgreat step in itself, but it is in the right ment, and can only end in weakening direction, and will lead to something the public faith in this important portion better. It is the first step which of the Word of God. Prophecy is rarely costs,' and though it may not seem to understood until the time of its fulfil be important in itself, it may be much ment. It is the event which interprets more difficult to take than the more the prophecy. The great subject of important ones which must sooner or prophecy is the restoration of the church later follow." after a period of spiritual affliction and sorrow, of darkness and desolation. This restoration is spiritual, and can only be accomplished after a spiritual manner. UNFULFILLED PROPHECY.-The papers inform us that a Conference was held at St. James's Hall, on Monday and Tuesday, May 16th and 17th, for the discussion of unfulfilled prophecy, its best mode of interpretation, and its bearing on Christian character. "Rules," we are told, "were laid down for the interpretation of prophecy, such as the importance of seeking a literal fulfilment; and of duly distinguishing between the promises which belong to Israel, and will have their literal fulfilment in the future of that nation, and those promises which belong to the Church of Christ." We might reasonably have hoped that the time had come for the students of prophecy to discern that the prophecies relating to Israel relate to the spiritual Israel, which is the Church of Christ. On the prophecies relating to the Second Coming of Christ, the chairman, the Earl of Shaftesbury, was reported to have said, that he believed that the expectation of the Church was the speedy and sudden return of the Lord Jesus in person, no intermediate event being intended to make this appeal distant. Very stirring appeals were made to the Church to cherish most warmly the hope of the personal advent of our Lord Jesus Christ. "The Lord," it was asserted, was to return both for His saints and with them, to manifest Himself to the world in a state of anarchy and con NEW JERUSALEM CHURCH MISSIONARY AND TRACT SOCIETY.—We extract the following from the Holloway Press of May 30th:-"The little band of able and devout followers of the New Church who assembled together last Wednesday evening, to celebrate the fifty-third anniversary of their Missionary Society, at Dr. Tafel's church, in the Camdenroad, have every reason to feel satisfied with the results which have attended the labours of those earnestly and energetically spreading the truths of the new religion. The meeting was presided over by Mr. H. R. Williams, and the reading of the annual report and other formal business was the first stage in the evening's proceedings. Mr. Williams dwelt upon the length of time the Society had been established, and said that during fifty-three years, what it had accomplished could be known only to God. Although we did not know what its effects had been upon the world, we did know that few now received orthodox dogmas as was the custom a century ago. It was the aim of the society to agitate men's minds in order that a spirit of inquiry might not be stifled. Its only object was to spread the truth, and by the truth to lead men to goodness. Mr. Williams then pictured with skill Y |