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us, are looking forward to, and are being prepared for, the ministerial work, pending their arrival at the age when they will be eligible for adoption upon the Conference funds as recognized students.

These, we trust, will be but the firstfruits of a harvest now so greatly needed, and it is hoped that much of the anxiety as to the sources from which are to come the ministers for our vacant pulpits may be set at rest by the confidence that they may be looked for at the New Church College.

The earnest participation of all New Churchmen in this excellent work is hopefully relied on.

There are now 47 boys in the school, and one student in residence. Our friends may help us either by increasing these numbers, or by, in their generous moments, not forgetting the claims of the College.

A NEW EDITION OF THE "ARCANA."

THE CABINET EDITION.

THE Swedenborg Society's Committee at their last meeting came to a very important resolution, and one which we hope will accomplish some excellent results.

It was resolved unanimously to bring out an edition of Swedenborg's great work in eight volumes, corresponding to the eight in which it was published by him. It will be published in two-monthly volumes: the time of commencement not yet fixed.

This edition will not interfere with the present library edition, but in size will be similar to Motley's Dutch Republic, that is, small 8vo, beautiful paper, print, and binding, and at the price of 3s. per vol. It is intended to be especially attractive to young people, and induce them to read through this inestimable work once at least.

All the quaint old readings of half a century ago that have often repelled the readers of the present day will be turned into ordinary English, and thus it is hoped that thousands who have felt it dry and hard to try to master the principles so incessantly and needlessly introduced, the propriums, and all and singular the things, will be interested in the wondrous treasures of Divine knowledge this marvellous book contains.

Citations from Scripture will be made in the language of the English Bible, where the spiritual sense does not require a different translation.

It is hoped that all our friends will aid this effort to accomplish a great use, and that bringing this mass of wisdom into more familiar' possession in the Church will constitute a new stage of progress. The Sunday School Union is respectfully urged to second this great effort so far as the young friends are concerned, and all the friends, we trust, will do their best to canvass, so that as fully as possible this heavenly treasure may become the common property of the Christian world. The Committee hopes to be encouraged to print a first edition of two thousand of each volume.

J. B.

Reviews.

THE SUPREMACY OF MAN: a Suggestive Enquiry respecting the Philosophy and Theology of the Future. London: Hamilton, Adams, & Co.

THIS is a remarkable book. The anonymous, though not perhaps unknown, author is evidently well acquainted with Swedenborg, although we cannot call him a Swedenborgian, by which we mean a receiver of the doctrines of the New Church pure and simple. We can fancy the sources whence he has drawn some of his inspiration. But he is too independent a thinker to slavishly follow where his own judgment does not approve, and has too deep a reverence for the Scrip tures to accept spiritual views on any lower authority. We shall take the author's own statement of the object and nature of the work.

"The object which this series of papers keeps in view is to show that nature, Scripture, or man, are but different manifestations and approximate expressions of the same Eternal Unity, of which Humanity is the most complete realization." The author presumes and argues throughout his book that the universality of creation is the Original Unity showing itself in multiplicity, and that this universality finally converges and gathers itself up in man. It is the character of the First Energy which makes the last crowning result. If the First Cause were not Personal, neither could the last effect. But if the universe consummates itself in a thinking personal unity, then clearly it is an evolution from One Personal intelligence. Apart from an Eternal Being no being could be; and apart from an Eternal Person nothing could be willed, ordered, or made to arise. The denial of a personal God, therefore, is not only the denial of everything, but the denial of the possibility of there being anything." Speaking of the distinction in the unity of this Being, the author says:

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"Whether we call the distinction by the term Trinity or not, a threefold distinction in God is just as inevitable as His existence. The ground of a thing, and its manifestation, are surely distinct. The ground of everything is the hiddenness which underlies its form or manifestation. Neither can be without the other. Whether you call the ground or hiddenness of God the Father or not, God must of necessity have His own ground or hiddenness. And whether you call the form, brightness, and glory of God the Son or not, God must have in Himself both ground and manifestation. But everything that exists has not only its ground and manifestation, but also its quality or qualities, and an effluence or operation according to its qualities. And of necessity there must be, both from

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the hidden ground of God and from His manifestation, a proceeding effluence and spirit of operation. Now, whether you call this third distinction the Holy Spirit or not, you will grant that there must be such a distinction in the Divine Nature. For the best of reasons, therefore, namely, that it cannot be otherwise, the Scriptures and the Church teach that even one God is in Himself Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. If you make this threefold distinction grotesque and self-contradictory, the folly is your own, and neither chargeable to the nature of the case nor to the Scriptures. The Father, or first distinction of God, is inconceivable; but in the second distinction of His nature, or, in other words, in His Son, He is manifested, brought out to view; while in the third distinction, or the Holy Spirit, we have the communicativeness of God, or the possibility of fellowship between Him and His creatures." The whole of this chapter is an excellent demonstration and description of the Esse, Existere, and Divinum procedens of the writings. But the author's purpose in stating this doctrine at the outset is to show that, as the Son is the Form of God, and as all things are created by the Son, or by the Father through the Son, therefore this first Form is the Prototype and Creator of all forms. This is opposed to "the Pantheistic or impersonal idea of God, as of a universal gaseous diffusion, or a force spread out in every direction to immensity." "The universe is a series of ascending forms, from the lowest and rudest to the purer and higher, and from these to the purest and highest; while far above all reigns and shines the infinitely perfect all-forming Form. If the Son of God were not the absolutely ideal Form, there would be no final organon of form. Indeed, if the universe were under a formless Essence, and not under the Supreme Form, our sense of the beautiful, as exceeding all given manifestations, would be useless and unaccountable. If the Son of God be not the Prototype of the human form, man must of necessity lose that form, since his destiny is to approximate towards the Divine image. The true blood and spirit of humanity are not from Adam or any fleshly form of our nature, but from the One and only Divine Man, 'the Lord from heaven.' . . The great secret of Christ's power over men lies in the fact that His Humanity is Divine. On the ground of His Supreme Humanity, nothing is more natural than that He should say, 'I will draw all men unto Me.' His assumption of our fallen nature and image has not changed the intrinsic character of His relationship to man. His drawing power was always in principle the same; I will draw them with the cords of a man. By coming in the flesh and glorifying it, He has simply clothed His attraction with new power." The author, in a hypothetical enquiry whether God shall make His human creation "principled in freedom or in necessity of nature," comes to the conclusion that man shall be made free. "With the full and clear knowledge of the obscuration of His own name, and of all the evil which would be consequent, God decided in favour of personal, creaturely wills, and their freedom of choice and action. Whatever be the consequence, He must have children who are strictly and absolutely persons-persons who shall have scope and power to oppose Himself, to institute changes in their own nature and surrounding nature, and to introduce methods and operations which are contrary to Himself." But the ultimate good which God will bring out of this state of sorrow and ruin will be far greater than that which would have been secured by making beings incapable of sin. "To construct, in patience, out of enmities, rebellions, vices, wrongs, ruin, horrors, a universe, the strength of which shall be in the consenting affection of His children, will be a greater work, and every way more worthy of God, than any imaginably fair and faultless creation which could not go wrong. After the victory of Divine love over every possible form of evil, the great order of the creation will be more stable, and its glory of a far higher character, than were possible under the negative condition of innocence, beauty, and inexperience. After the universal Father proved His adequacy to meet the whole difficulty of creaturely freedom, and to subordinate all contrariety of working to greater good and a fuller joy, the end will return into the beginning, the desire of His Fatherly love will be fulfilled, and the good order and joy of the universe be steadfast for ever.

"None of us live sufficiently apart from the whirl and strife both of elemental and human nature, to be conscious of the inner motions and operations of God as

He is ceaselessly working at the reconstruction of the universe. Under Him, and in Him, 'all things,' both visible and invisible, however contrary they may be to each other, are working together, not for a partial good end, but for a wholly good, an eternally good, end. The final order of universal being cannot suddenly be constructed and perfected; but the eternal harmony of the Divine Nature will crown itself with victory at last in the completed harmonies of all wills, all creatures, and all elements."

The author then proceeds to show how this universal restoration is to be effected; but want of space compels us to reserve this for another notice.

THE DELUSIONS AND ERRORS OF SWEDENBORG. Pp. 76. By the Rev.
SAMUEL SIMPSON, Wesleyan Minister.

THAT zealous body of Christians, the Methodists, in all their various branches, has yielded thousands and tens of thousands of earnest Christians, and been one great symptom of the new life of the New Dispensation.

Some of the best New Churchmen have previously been Methodists: witness the two Hindmarshes (father and son), Smith, Hawkins, and others, down to the Rev. Mr. Keyes, of America, so fervent and useful at the present day. A really good Methodist is a heavenly-minded Christian, and is charmed at the clearer light upon doctrinal matters and on the Word which is presented in the Church of the New Jerusalem.

This has been the case lately at Swanston Abbott, in Norfolk, where quite a number of Methodists have received the light of the New Church, and formed a Society giving every sign of spiritual-mindedness and progress. Instead of rejoicing at this, the Rev. Mr. Simpson, lately in that district, but now removed to Yorkshire, lectured against the new movement, and has printed the substance of his lectures in the pamphlet named above.

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It is abundantly evident that he knows very little upon the subject. mises and supposes on almost every point; he does not know this and he does not know that, which is very evident. He has skimmed over a portion of the True Christian Religion, given a little from the index of the Apocalypse Revealed, slightly glanced at Heaven and Hell (Giles' Spiritual World), and Who are these New Church People? but evidently given no deep thought to any part of what he touches; and one can only wonder at his taking so much trouble to prove how little he knows.

There are plenty of those unamiable words in the pamphlet which all thoughtful persons now judge to be as contrary to good sense and good manners as they are to a spirit of meekness; but there is in reality nothing worthy of refutation, and we can only commend to his serious reflection the words of another Methodist preacher, who took the wiser course of reading and thinking more deeply before he spoke:-"During the three years which have elapsed since I severed my ecclesiastical connection with Methodism, I have experienced so sensibly the advantages which may be derived from the study of that remarkable system of Christian doctrine and spiritual philosophy first given to the world in the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, that I can do no less than commend this system to all whose candid attention I can secure. I cherish, too, a peculiar regard for the ministry and members of the Methodist Church. It was in no spirit of unkindness that I withdrew from their fellowship, but rather with deep regret that with my new views of Christian doctrine I could not consistently remain with them. I still hold them, therefore, in grateful remembrance, and shall ever deem myself a debtor to Methodism for unspeakable spiritual benefits, as well as for many genial and generous friends. I know of no more suitable way of recognizing these obligations than to direct my former associates, if I can, to that precious heritage of spiritual truth which is found in the writings of the New Church."-KEYES' Wesley and Swedenborg.

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Miscellaneous.

Mr.

what he regarded as efforts at proselytizing in his congregation. Mr. Pitman's letter is a reply to this note, giving the history of his connection with Mr. Tarrant, and of the circumstances which have caused annoyance. Tarrant had sent Wesley's account of Swedenborg to one of the persons interested as a means of checking further enquiry and reading, and Mr. Pitman's letter is largely occupied with a refutation of Mr. Wesley's charges; hence its title. This refutation he gives in a longextract from Noble's "Appeal." Ina brief statement of the duty of addressing our prayers to the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Mr. Pitman gives the following pertinent extract from Deau Alford :-"A large proportion of the prayers (in his Year of Prayer") will be found to be addressed to our Blessed Lord. It seems to me that there is no remedy likely to be so efficacious for the cold-heartedness and decline of faith in our time as more humble devotion, and more ardent personal love towards our great and merciful High Priest, the Divine Hearer and Answerer of Prayer." The publication of the letter will doubtless attract attention to the New Church in Bath, where Mr. Child is prosecuting

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THE WESTMINSTER REVIEW ON SWEDENBORG AND THE NEW CHURCH.-The October number of this Review contains a notice of Professor Parson's Outlines of Swedenborg's Religion and Philosophy, in which the writer combines with a respectful notice of Swedenborg an unqualified condemnation of this able and interesting publication, and a very gratuitous assumption of the decadence of the New Church as an external organization, and the ignorance of its teachers. A writer who has read so carelessly as to mistake throughout his notice the publisher for the author might at least have expressed himself with modesty. His acquaintance with the New Church is evidently not such as to entitle him to speak with autho. rity respecting it. Its progress, though slow, is assured and steady; its reception and teaching of the truths expounded by Swedenborg, of which the reviewer supposes "that the Swedenborgian Church has caught but a very faint echo... and a mere shadow," earnest and sincere. It is becoming the fashion with some to laud Swedenborg, while they speak of the New Church with unmeasured abuse. The members of the New Church may at least claim to have been the first to discover the inestimable an earnest ministry. value of the writings of this great man, and to have been the most earnest in making the truth he has taught the inheritance of the world. Without the labours of the New Church, would these writers themselves, or those who adopt their tone, have known anything of Swedenborg or his writings?

WESLEY AND SWEDENBORG.-Under this title Mr. Isaac Pitman has published a letter to the Rev. H. Tarrant. During a short attendance at Argyle Chapel, under the ministry of Mr. Tarrant, Mr. Pitman had entered into conversation with other members of the Church respecting the writings of Swedenborg. The acceptance of some of the leading doctrines of the New Church by members of his congregation seems to have annoyed the minister, and he returned some books presented to him by Mr. l'itman with a letter complaining of

SWEDENBORG'S VISIONS OF OTHER WORLDS.-The article under this heading contributed by Mr. R. A. Procter to Belgravia Magazine for September was deemed by many newspaper editors sufficiently interesting to deserve quotations. The Nonconformist and Public Opinion inserted in a subsequent issue a letter from "Auxiliary drawing attention to Mr. Mackereth's forthcoming reply, and in the meantime deprecating a too hasty acceptance of Mr. Procter's ipse dixit.

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DR. SEXTON.-The Christian Globe of November 10th gives the following account of one of Dr. Sexton's sermons in the Augustine Independent Church :

"In the month of September last, Dr. Sexton, who for more than twenty years held a conspicuous position in the ranks of the body known as Free

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