Father had ordained it otherwise; her health for some time past had not been in a satisfactory state, but she made light of it, till just before their removal into the country in the beginning of May last, when at her husband's urgent request she consented to have the opinion of her medical adviser, who at once pronounced her case as hopeless and fatal; she heard his opinion with composure and resignation; and though her bodily sufferings were of the most excruciating nature, she bore them without a murmur; at times when they were unusually severe she would exclaim, "I hope I may have patience, I pray for it." About a fortnight before her death, she, together with her husband and the Rev. D. Howarth, received the sacrament at the hands of her minister, the Rev. I. H. Smithson, and for which she afterwards frequently expressed her thankfulness on account of the peace and consolation it afforded her. She was the mother of eight children, six of whom died young, a seventh a promising daughter, died when she had just completed her nineteenth year (see Intellec. Repos. for May 1836); she has therefore left her bereaved partner with an only daughter, whom the Lord, in his infinite mercy, grant may live to be the comfort aud solace of his declining years. In her were happily united the inestimable virtues of the faithful christian, the affectionate wife, the tender mother, the indulgent mistress, and the sincere friend; and though her widowed partner keenly feels her loss, yet he trusts that he sorrows not as one without hope, feeling fully assured that ere long he shall again meet her in that world where "the wicked cease from troubling and where the weary are at rest." C. B. On the 18th January last, Mr. JAMES WYNN, of Darnall, aged 31 years. He was a faithful receiver of the New Church doctrines, with which, through the instrumentality of his grandfather, the late Thomas Wynn, he had been impressed from early youth. He was very zealous in promoting and ardent in defending them, and his greatest delight was in conversing on them, and, as nearly as we can judge of man, he was one of those, who, having received the truth, reduced it to practice, and thus became an example of genuine Christianity. He was so desirous that the doctrines should be propagated, that he was accustomed to go to the distance of several miles, distributing tracts in the surrounding villages, hoping thereby to make others partakers of the happiness he had experienced from their teachings. So salutary was the impression his conduct made on those who knew him, whether professors of Christianity or not, that they were constrained to admire his exemplary life. During his protracted affliction he was always tranquil and happy in his mind; yet within a few weeks of his death his disease had encroached so rapidly upon him, that he was unable to converse with his friends, who still had the pleasure to observe that his countenance bespoke an internal and heavenly composure. About half-an-hour before he departed this life, his friends approached his bedside, who, seeing him on the eve of eternity, were affected to tears, upon which the deceased made signs which seemed to say, "Weep not for me; I shall soon be freed from these pains and shall awake in a happier world," where, there is no doubt, he has gone, to receive the reward of his labour. -"The memory of the just is blessed." On the 1st February, ELIZABETH, the wife of Mr. Samuel Wynn, of Darnall, aged 53 years, mother to the above Mr. James Wynn; thus mother and son were taken out of time into eternity in the short space of two weeks. In her afflictions, which she endured for more than twenty years, she was never heard to repine, or say that God was unjustly afflicting her, but always bore them with exemplary patience and Christian fortitude. She had been an affectionate receiver of the heavenly doctrines for many years, and was ever thankful that she had been led to partake of those inestimable treasures which afforded her so much consolation and comfort under the most excruciating pains. She used to state that she could not express her delight when reading the Rev. J. Clowes' Works, and the "Rev. W. Mason's Help to Family and Private Devotion." She was possessed with those heavenly virtues and truths that enabled her to pass through the vicissitudes and troubles of this world with the greatest composure and cheerfulness. A. W. ERRATA IN MARCH NUMBER.-Page 105, line 26 from top, for " on myself" read "in myself." 66 106," 11 " 66 for "By regarding" read "Regarding." ON THE CORRESPONDENCE OF RAIN, SNOW, DEW, AND HAIL. BETWEEN the Word of God and the works of God, in the material world, there is an exact and a beautiful correspondence. Indeed such a correspondence cannot but exist; for the works of outward nature were created by our Lord Jesus Christ, through His Holy Word. The wonderful operations of Providence, as seen in the various changes of the atmosphere, are often mentioned in the Sacred Scriptures; and in each instance they signify states of mind; they refer— they correspond to changes which are constantly taking place in man's mental atmosphere-the world within. Rain, if it be gentle and fructifying, corresponds to the descent of Divine Truth upon the human mind; but if it be violent and desolating, it denotes doctrines that are false. Stormy weather corresponds to temptations-to influences from hell; while soft breezes, and also a calm, denote the gentle influences of heaven a state of holy peace and serenity. The warmth of summer represents the perceptions of good—a state of heavenly love; and in its opposite sense, the sensations of evil loves-the love of self, of the world, of sin. And the winter's cold denotes the absence of love. Cold is the absence of heat. Cold converts water into ice; so the water of truth received without the love of truth is ice-hard, unyielding, harsh, severe, cutting, cruel. Ice softens and melts when exposed to the sun's rays; so truth in the understanding becomes soft, submissive, gentle, and yielding when it is under the influence of the beams of holy love and charity. Clouds represent the obscuration of goodness and truth-the literal sense of the Sacred Scriptures; and the bright shining of the sun corresponds to the beams of heavenly love, mercy, and truth from the Lord, as especially seen in the internal sense of His Holy Word. Lightning and thunder are, spiritually, manifestations of God's love and truth; and in the opposite sense, when destructive and terrifying, they denote the influences of hell operating powerfully on the soul of man. The earth is rendered fruitful by these various changes; so man's mind is rendered fruitful by the spiritual operations which these changes represent. That the various phenomena of the atmosphere have a spiritual meaning when mentioned in God's Holy Book, is evident from each of the passages in which they occur. Take one instance (Deut. xxxii. 2.): "My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass." Here Divine Truths are compared to Rain and to Dew: these are not mere comparisons-mere figures of speech, but they are real correspondences; that is, the natural rain and the natural dew in their nature, and also in their uses, are the effects of spiritual Rain and spiritual Dew: as the effect corresponds to the cause, so the natural rain and dew, together with their influences upon the vegetable kingdom, correspond to the doctrines of Divine Truth and to their influences upon man's heart and life. The truth of these observations will appear evident on a consideration of Rain, Snow, Dew, and Hail, in reference to their nature, their source, and their effects. 1. The nature of Rain, Dew, Hail, and Snow.-Each of these descents from the clouds is water, though in a very different state; and as water corresponds to truth, therefore these different aqueous descents correspond to different kinds of truth,-to truth in the understanding, to truth received in the love thereof, to truth merely in the memory, also to truth perverted and rendered false. Rain corresponds to spiritual truth flowing from the Lord Jesus, out of heaven, through His Word, into the soul. With this view of the meaning of the term rain, when it occurs in the Sacred Page, how full of instruction are the following texts-how full of reproof, how full of comfort: "The land whither thou goest to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt from whence ye came out, where thou sowest thy seed and waterest it with thy foot. But the land whither ye go to possess it, is a land of mountains and valleys, and drinketh the waters of the rain of heaven. And I will give the rain of your land in its season, the early and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather thy corn, and thy wine, and thy oil. But if ye shall serve other gods, and not walk in my statutes, the anger of Jehovah shall enkindle against you: He shall shut heaven, that there be no rain, and the land shall not yield her produce." (Deut. xi. 10— 17.) Thou, O Christian, hast entered upon a new state, widely different to thy former natural, carnal, worldly state-" the land of Egypt from whence you came out," "where thou sowest thy seed," where all thy good intentions, desires, and actions, were nourished and cherished by low, natural, external, scientific knowledges; "thou waterest them with thy foot." But the state of regeneration upon which you are entering the Church-the land of Canaan, " is a land of mountains and valleys" of high internal things of the spiritual mind, and also of external things-the natural mind. These do not receive their verdure, their beauty, their fruitfulness from being "watered with thy foot," from mere external knowledges, no, but they are watched over, nourished, cherished, supported, made beautiful, lovely, and useful by the God of heaven: "the mountains and valleys" of thy soul, thy internal and external man, "drink in the waters of the rain of heaven." The true Christian passes through two principal states, a natural and a spiritual state; in each of which he receives the influences of Divine Truth. I will give the rain of your land in its season." When he is in a spiritual state of mind, he receives rain from heaven, "the early rain," "the morning rain;” and when he descends into a natural state, and performs the duties of his external worldly condition, then he receives rain from heaven, "the latter rain," "the evening rain." In each of thy various states, “Jehovah shall give rain to thy seed which thou sowest in thy land." "I will send down the rain in its season; these shall be rains of blessing;" and thou shalt increase in holy good and truth, "gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thy oil." But if men love false doctrines, "if ye serve other gods, then God will shut heaven that there be no rain, and the earth shall not yield her increase;" then no holy influences will be received, then there will be no growing in grace, or in the knowledge and love of God, but, on the contrary, barrenness and spiritual death. The Psalmist, speaking of the Lord's Second Advent and of the descent of the New Jerusalem, says, "He shall descend as the rain upon the meadow; in His days the just shall flourish." (lxii. 6, 7.) Hosea, foretelling the same event, says, "His going forth is prepared as the cloud. He shall come to us as the rain, as the latter rain that watereth the earth." (vi. 3.) In each of these passages, by the Lord descending as the rain, is meant His Second Advent, His coming to His Church in all the plenitude of His Divine Truth, Life, and Salvation. "As the rain and the snow descendeth out of heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth." (Isa. lv. 10, 11.) Here the Divine Truth is spoken of as rain and also as snow. Truth from heaven is rain, or it is snow, according to its reception in the human mind. SNOW in its first descent is the same as rain, small, imperceptibly small particles of water. A cloud of vapours descending in very minute particles, and meeting with a freezing air in their descent through a colder region, becomes frozen; each of the myriads of minute drops thus becomes crystallized, and shoots itself forth into several points: these in their continued descent, and in their waftage to and fro, become a little thawed, and blunted, and entangled, especially when they meet with intermitting gales of warmer air, and, being again frozen into clusters and entangled, fall down in what we call flakes of snow. That Snow is thus formed there can be no doubt, and also that it is formed in a low region of the atmosphere. A very cold stream of air admitted into a room in which the air is warm and loaded with vapour, will occasion the formation of snow. Dr. Robertson states, that in a crowded assembly at Petersburg, a stream of cold air was accidentally admitted into the room by a gentleman breaking a pane of glass, on which the vapour in the air was immediately congealed, and fell on the company in the form of flakes of snow. Thus sain and snow both come from the same source, and in their first desent from the clouds are the same in their nature, descending as rain or as snow, according as it passes through a warm or a cold atmosphere. So Truth is mental rain or mental snow, according to the state of mind in which it is received. If we apply the truths of heaven to our own state-if we live the truth, cherish it in the heart with the warmth of holy affection, then truth so received is the water of the rain of heaven; but if Truth be received only into the memory or into the understanding, then we are watered from heaven, but it is with In such a state we may have faith, but surely not "the faith which worketh by love" and purifies the heart. snow. It is true that there is some warmth in Snow. So there is some degree of warmth in our minds if truth exists only in the understanding; there is warmth, but it is the warmth of mere natural affection; and this compared with the affection of love to God, is cold, as cold as snow. Snow melts into rain-water when under the influence of the sun's rays. So the mental snow, when under heaven's sun, melts and becomes spiritual truth: turning our affections from self and the world to the sun of heaven, truth will no longer fall upon us as snow, but "God's doctrine shall drop as the rain, and His speech distil as the dew." |