tice would rebuke the folly of the child of light who had forgotten to observe how "the Divine Providence concurs with the use of natural means of external amelioration. Tell the sanitary reformer that he must be born again if he would see the kingdom of God, you tell him a truth that is indeed momentous. Tell him that those he seeks to serve by his reforms stand equally in need of regeneration, you preach a doctrine also unspeakably important. But to teach him that if he and they become born again there will be no further need for his pipes, traps, and ventilators, his physical cleansings of house and home, of surface and subsoil, of air and water, and the rest of it,-what would this be but to deprive regeneration itself of some of the most valuable of its merely external consequences?

I hope it is now not hard to understand how it can be true, both (as theology declares) that regeneration is the indispensable remedy for the world's physical evils, and (as common sense teaches) that these evils require for their removal all available applications of external resources. In other words, that whilst the inside of the world's "cup and platter" must be cleansed by regeneration, the outside will still need a good deal of merely mechanical scouring and scrubbing. What I have now to insist upon is this, that the mere fact that it is now given to men to see how to cleanse the outside, and to will to undertake the troublesome job for the general good, is a proof that already so much regeneration has been done here or elsewhere inside the cup and platter as warrants and justifies the earnest and hopeful effort to, set to work on the outside with new zeal; as, for instance, to accomplish the various sanitary and other enterprises of secular philanthropy. These are some of the excellent external results of the Second Coming and of the regeneration already thence ensuing; and their mission is to prepare still further the way of the Lord, by abolishing the noxious external conditions which must be removed before human life in the world can be made to correspond externally with the order of heaven. The science to recognise those conditions, and the will to combine for their abolition, could never have come amongst men so long as the state of the spiritual world were such as to render that science useless and that goodwill a forlorn and hopeless thing. Nunc licet, not only "to inquire into the mysteries of faith," but also into those of filth and insalubrity; and men are now moved by spiritual impulses to band themselves together to make human life wholesome in its outward conditions, and all this is the best possible and the all-sufficing proof that the time has come for hopeful and successful working in that field. Let us only do our parts, and the Divine Providence is doubtless fully ready to concur.

In one of the able and entertaining letters of Rev. J. F. Potts in Morning Light (Letter xxii. pp. 433, 434) I observe the following passage ::

During the whole time I was in America I saw only two drunken men. The Americans keep their evils more out of sight than we do. I more than suspect that what is called the social evil prevails there in secret to a fearful extent, far more even than it does in this country. America is the great stronghold of teetotalism, but I greatly doubt that it is any better for it. Mere teetotalism is but a washing of the outside of the cup and of the platter. Without regeneration the evil still remains within and finds some other outlet.

A hasty reader might learn, from this, lessons which I for one should very indignantly be sorry for. First, for example, that if one sees only two drunken men in a country, this proves not that drunkenness is rare, but that concealment is abundant. Second, that a fearful prevalence of the "social evil," so called, comes not, as we know it does vastly, from customs and practices which

weaken self-control and inflame the blood, but comes, in horrible and incredible fact, from total abstinence from intoxicants Third, that America, the great stronghold of teetotalism, is none the better for its superior abstinence from drinks, to the consumption of which in our own country our judges on the bench attribute at least three-fourths of the crime that comes before them! Fourth, that if the inside of the cup and platter get washed, the outside may be left dirty with impunity. Fifth, that no washing of the inside has already been done anywhere to justify any effort to make clean the outside anywhere else. And sixth, that nothing is good for anything, either in getting rid of dirt, or disease, or self-poisoning, or needless perils from ignorance of natural science, or any other external evil, save regeneration pure and simple, and devoid of all extraneous aids. To all which conclusions I should demur, they being all unfounded, irrelevant, and uncalled for. Letting America alone, I affirm, for our own country, that "teetotalism" has already averted cruel mental and physical distresses and individual and family wretchedness and ruin from tens of thousands of men, women, and innocent children; for doing which I, for one, give it my hearty blessing. I believe that none of this good could have come to these people, and to the society they form parts of, but for a great deal of spiritual regeneration already accomplished somewhere; but it is certain that the temporal blessings thus secured have spread far and wide both amongst and beyond the individuals who have been regenerating; and for this extension we praise God none the less, even though it has reached also many persons who have not yet earnestly begun the work of regeneration. Of the many noble self-denying men and women (amongst whom I am not worthy to stand) who lavish time, strength, and money in diffusing the blessings of teetotalism amongst the good and the evil, the just and the unjust, I will only say here, and I do it with devout thankfulness, that manifestly the Divine Providence has concurred and is still concurring, with their faithful use of the most effectual natural means of extinguishing intemperance. And to our good friend who, coming back from America, has somehow got for a moment his head in a fog, I have nothing further to say now, except by way of earnest and respectful request, that he will not help those who deem everything remedial to be necessarily bad unless it bears obviously on its forefront the one sole and sacred name of spiritual regeneration.

But, indeed, I had scarcely thought it worth while to commence this paper if this had really been the mistake requiring amendment. requiring amendment. But Mr. Potts does not really make this wide mistake. He has heard how from all sides, for years past, it has been urged again and again that philanthropy is foolishness if it is not wholly and solely regeneration; and he fails to note that, all the while, the urgers of the objection avail themselves of a hundred natural means against natural evils, equally apart from philanthropy and regeneration. It is this which is the really provoking thing, that regeneration shall be used freely as a weapon to smite anything that is disliked, but shall be conveniently and quietly and most unfairly let drop on all other equally relevant occasions. If it will help to paralyze and defeat this or that effort of unpleasant self-denial or distasteful philanthropy, it is brandished at once; but none of its brandishers dream of using it consistently all round.

When Swedenborg says (N. J. H. D. 312) that "it is impossible that order can be maintained in the world" without governors vigilantly to observe and swift to reward and punish, and that but for such action "the human race would inevitably perish," these kind friends

never throw at Swedenborg's head the great truth we all believe in, that civil law with its external rewards and punishments is a sorry substitute for regeneration. Poor as it is, yet the human race would " inevitably perish" without it. And so long as it is deemed right and found useful to aim at the suppression or prevention of vice and crime, of disease and calamity, by external means; so long as we seek to deter from or to abate thefts, manslaughters, and murders by a resort to penal law; so long as we employ the engineer to avert floods, or the fireman to extinguish fires, all of which are spiritual in their origin; so long as we send not for the clergyman but for the medical man to treat a fever or an inflammation; and again, so long as we are justified in putting down nuisances, and keeping typhus and typhoid at bay by physical means; so long shall we be right in deeming it wise to do all we can by suasion and by law to abate and prevent drunkenness and its physical occasions and provocatives, without confining our attention to its spiritual causes. H. S. SUTTON.

He is particularly commanded to feed Christ's lambs as well as to care for the sheep. In the normal development of Christian character the Sunday school is the great feeder and supplier of the Church; and as the water from the mountain spring seeks the basin of the placid lake, so the Christian child in the Sunday school should find his place naturally, and by the law of "the fitness there is in things," in the Church. But it is often said, "The minister has so many miscellaneous branches of work to attend to that he ought not to be expected to have the care of the Sunday school." All this is true enough; but while it is not necessary that he should be absorbed in the routine work, or the technique of the superintendent, it is necessary that he should have his hand upon the pulse of his Sunday school, and be able to distinguish that which is spiritual life from that which is merely the mechanical expression of life.

I have before my mind now a school for boys which is the result of one holy man's influence extending into the character of his teachers, and in a great measure into that of the boys. That master influences his teachers, and the teachers influence the scholars, and in this way the genius and the impulse of the head and central will is felt in every portion of the school. There is no show of centralization of power. There is no officiousness, no interference. Everything goes on like clockwork; but then, like a clock, the face is seen while the works are hidden; like the steamer's machinery, it is the buried Ishaft which causes the motion. We are very apt to mistake the show of power for power. We see men around us continually who are here and there and everywhere upon the flywheel of activity, and think they must be the centre of things because they happen to be at everything's circumference.

I remember well as a boy wondering about a great noble-hearted bishop, who I thought never had anything to do because he was never in a hurry. Yet he knew every church and society and institution, and weighed in the accurate scales of his judgment the character of every clergyman in his large diocese, and under every

phase of church life in all that great field there were found the hands of this living man.

All this, it seems to me, should be the relationship of every earnest-minded minister to his school; the double influence of personal influence on the teacher and the taught.

First, to the teachers: How much help the pastor can give to the school by his knowledge of the teachers; by the fitting of the teacher to the taught; by a gentle word of encouragement; by a hint here and a word of sympathy there; by dropping into the class now and then to ask a kind question about some sick scholar, or to answer some hard, puzzling question which has disturbed the minds of the youthful learners; by inquiring after the condition of families through the representative child; and by encouraging the teacher in the art of visiting as a deputy the families represented by the scholars; by the teachers' meeting and the study of the lesson in the informal circle of the teachers' Bible Class.

Secondly, to the scholars: I believe the minister stands bound by the threefold tie of teacher, pastor, friend. He reaches them by the social, educational, and spiritual sides of their being. Children unconsciously imitate those who affect them favourably in any way.

And where is there such a field for the impress of character as in the minister's threefold relationship to his school-as teacher, pastor, friend? Yet how seldom it happens that he is friend and teacher and pastor to the young! How frequently he is banished by custom to what is considered his own peculiar sphere in the pulpit, so that many a zealous teacher is compelled to act as a mediator between the soul of some timid youthful seeker of the truth and the stately, unapproachable minister. "I felt just as if I had been reported to the principal," was the confession of the boy who was sent to see the minister. "It seemed to me just like going to the dentist's," was the answer of a shy and timid girl as she gave her experience in going to the minister's study.

I plead, then, for that social nearness and sympathy which will make the minister in some degree that friend and helper which the teacher is. For before he can begin successfully to preach to the young he must in some degree know and be known by them, so that this sense of sympathy may cast out the bondage of fear. -Christian Age.

BOOK NOTICE.

The Sayings of the Lord Jesus concerning the Life to come, by Rev. E. P. Lowry (S. W. Partridge & Co.), is a useful little book. Our Lord's words have been carefully collated, and the author has endeavoured to determine by careful comparison their full weight and meaning. The Universalists and Annihilationists are fairly criticised. We have also some of Wesley's thoughts, which are interesting, especially the following on the fierce old doctrine of predestination: "If, indeed, God had decreed before the foundation of the world that millions of men should dwell in everlasting burning because Adam sinned hundreds or thousands of years before they had a being, I know not who could thank Him for this, unless the devil and his angels; seeing on this supposition all those millions of unhappy spirits would be plunged into hell by Adam's sin without any possible advantage from it. But, blessed be God, this is not the case. Such a decree never existed, On the contrary, every one born of a woman may be an unspeakable gainer thereby, and none ever was or can be a loser but by his own choice."

TRUE RELIGION.-"To love God and all mankind, to shun evil and do good, to go through life with clean hands and pure hearts, rejoicing in hopes of everlasting blessedness, was all they cared about. This was their religion, their theology, their all." Such is Joseph Barker's description of the religion of his parents, a religion far more earnest and truthful and soul-satisfying than all the creeds in Christendom.

EAN Stanley has recently written a letter on the subject of "The Nationalization of the Church," in which he states what will be news to most people, i.e. that under existing laws it is quite permissible for Nonconforming communities to make use of parish churches for their services at such hours as would not interfere with the regular services.

The Dean also draws attention to the fact that seems to have been largely lost sight of in connection with the Declaration of Conformity. The Declaration that drove out the Nonconforming ministers in 1662 no longer exists. Instead of it ministers are required to give a brief assent to the "doctrine" of the Church of England as contained in the Book of Common Prayer and the Articles, i.e. to the general doctrine and not to any particular opinions set forth in the Articles and Prayer-Book.

The Trades Union Congress held this year in Dublin was generally considered to be a very successful meeting. We were somewhat struck with the report of a discussion upon the question of Apprenticeship, which bore upon the face of it conclusive evidence that the "Congress though much devoted to "Free Trade" as a general principle does not regard the Free-Trade theory to be justly applicable in the labour market. It is very desirable that boys should learn their trades well; and so far as apprenticeship is necessary to secure efficiency, so far it is wise to advocate a more general return to the old system. But if boys (or men) can learn to be efficient workmen without serving seven years, they ought to be recognised as competent men.

One of the speakers at the Congress strongly urged that the trades should organize and accumulate funds, and then if the employers sought to introduce too many boys they would be able to offer resistance. Nobody, however, seems to have tried to grapple with the question, What is to be done with the boys whose introduction is resisted?

Certain believers in Apostolic Succession have been troubled at the thought that the new Bishop of Liverpool has no faith in his powers to make persons successors of the apostles by the mere rite of ordination. To add to this enormity in belief, the Bishop has had three wives. The question, therefore, naturally arose, Could the new Bishop confer a valid ordination? A celebrated High Church authority has decided the question in the negative! And yet the spread of High Churchism is sometimes spoken of as a revival of religion!

A report having gone the round of the daily and other papers that the Rev. Stopford Brooke had left the Church of England and gone over to the Unitarians, that gentleman has written to the papers to say that though he has left the Church of England he has not joined the Unitarians nor announced his intention of joining any body of Nonconformists. Hearing that his name had been joined with that of Mr. Voysey, Mr. Brooke desired to disclaim sympathy with the antiChristian views proclaimed by Mr. Voysey, and he wishes it to be known that his position is not only Theistic but also Christian.

Mr. Brooke gives the reason for the step he has taken in an address issued to the members of his congregation, in which he states that since accepting the charge of Bedford Chapel his opinions on several important matters have undergone a vital change. He had

arrived at conclusions equivalent to a denial of miracles, including that of the Incarnation, and could no longer accept the Bible as an exclusive authority. Holding these views, he felt that he could no longer with truth to himself or loyalty to the Church of England remain its minister, and that it was his duty to pass out of an atmosphere which had become impossible to breathe, because he was supposed, however he might assert the contrary, to believe all the doctrines of the Church of England in the way the Church confessed them.

Differing widely, as we do, from Mr. Brooke's doctrinal conclusions, we congratulate him upon having had the courage of his convictions.

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We had intended drawing the attention of our readers to a case analogous to the letters on "Spiritual Beauty," in which the "spirit" of Sir Humphrey Davy was good enough to "communicate" an address on the subject of Explosions in Coal Mines and the Use of the Davy Lamp," which had previously appeared in a leading article in the Family Herald. Instead of doing this, however, we print the following from the Daily Telegraph of September 27th:—

A letter, of which the following is a copy, has been addressed by W. Chapman, a well-known "spirit medium," to the secretary of the British National Association of Spiritualists: "Dear Madam, --I beg to acknowledge receipt of yours of the 16th inst. requesting funds to carry on the Association, with the alternative of dissolving should not help be speedily forthcoming. In answer, I write to say I honestly think it would be a good thing were the Association closed. For instance, actually in the rooms of the B. N. A. S. there are certain objects shown as genuine manifestations of spirit power, which I know to be gross impositions. I do not for one moment say, or think even, that the majority of the council of the B.N.A.S. have been aware of this, or that they have ever led any single person astray; but were it not for the powerful assistance of such bodies, persons insolently claiming to possess all sorts of abnormal powers would not be in a position to defraud innocent and good-hearted dupes. Having been in a prominent position relative to Spiritualism recently, I found not what I expected and hoped for, but that which has forced upon me the conclusion that the practice of modern Spiritualism is dangerous to a degree and a thing to be avoided. I took that position before-mentioned actuated by pure and honest intentions, but the profession of a medium so disgusted me that I have in very shame avoided having anything further to do with Spiritualism, and it is this which now compels me to formally withdraw my name from the B. N. A. S. as a member, and the atonement I offer for ever having been a spiritualist and a medium is to offer any service to Mr. J. C. Cumberland, who has done so much to expose the delusion of the craft, and thereby to show as far as I am able the frauds committed by unscrupulous mediums and attributed to the agency of disembodied spirits.-(Signed) WM. CHAPMAN.—— Sept. 24, 1880."

The date of the second annual Local Scripture Examination, open to all Sunday scholars of the New Church, is fixed for April 25, 1881. The subjects are "The Journey from Egypt to Sinai" (Exod. xiii. to xx., both inclusive), and "The Parables of the Lord," recorded in Matthew xiii., for scholars under twenty years of age. Scholars over twenty years of age to be examined in the chapters on Conscience, Repentance, and the Resurrection in "The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine."

THE RESURRECTION BODY.

HE following quaint notice of the death of a minister, written in 1854, and published some little time ago in the Hampstead and Highgate Express, illustrates very clearly the manner in which some people imagine that the decayed materials of the earthly house of this tabernacle will be utilized in the construction of the "resurrection body:"

MY DEAR BROTHER JONES,-Providence has laid upon me the duty to inform you of the departure of the spirit of our old friend, James Castleden. It evidently has been tired of its habitation for

some considerable time. The fact is that the old house has been out of order, and getting worse and worse for some years, until at last it could stand no longer. The tenant has left, and the tottering building is taken down. I believe it is the intention of the owner to rebuild it some day; indeed, the plan is already made, and the order given. The old materials are to be used; the site of the erection is to be changed; but the identity of the old building is to be strictly preserved, yet without its original defects and deformities. The understanding is that it is to be "a glorious house, eternal in the heavens. I have learned that there is somewhere in existence an old deed, which the good old-fashioned folks used to call an everlasting covenant," which secures possession of the new house, with all its appurtenances and conveniences, to the old tenant. What James Castleden will say when he gets into it I cannot tell; but I shrewdly guess it will be something like this, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain," etc.

As the friends are ignorant as to the time when the Great Master will require the old materials for its re-erection, they propose, D. V., removing it out of the way to a convenient spot in Hampstead Churchyard on Monday next, the 12th inst., at three o'clock P.M.

The deacons of the church request me to say that as you knew the old building and its tenant so long they would like you to be a witness on the occasion. Can you, and will you, be there? An early answer will oblige yours fraternally, RICHARD WARE.

ANTIQUITIES OF THE EAST IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW CHURCH.

I

No. XI.

N the eleventh "Conversation" on Antiquities, held Apri 26th, the Rev. W. H. Benade continued his remarks on the religious condition of the Egyptians.

The Egyptians, as had been stated, embodied all their religious ideas in external forms. They made them objective, and represented Divine things proceeding from the Lord in human forms.

They embodied in stone, clay, marble, gold, etc., not only their ideas concerning the Lord, but also concerning the operation of the Divine Providence with man. Although the Lord was known by His name Jehovah, the only trace of this knowledge as yet discovered is in Joh, the name of the moon, which is supposed to be derived from the name Jehovah.

The great difficulty in getting at the true ideas of the Ancient Church in Egypt by means of the monuments still existing arises in great part from the introduction of the falsities and perversions of the corrupt ages.

Still, by the light we have from the Writings of the New Church enough is left for us in the Egyptian monuments to trace the doctrines of the Ancient Church.

After reviewing the divinities given in the last "Conversation," Mr. Benade proceeded to the remaining important ones.

Osiris or Asra signifies the dwelling of Ra or of the sun, the dwelling of the Divine Love. He is generally represented as wearing on his head the atef, i.e. a single crown (that of Lower Egypt), with a feather on each side of it, and a uræus or serpent in front. Sometimes he wears ram's horns and other symbols. As depicted on the walls, he is clad in a light-green robe, covering his arms and descending to his feet, thus resembling Ptah in his mummy-like garment. His arms are crossed on his breast. In one hand he holds a flail, and in the other a crook. Sometimes he wears a long platted beard, and holds a staff in front of him. Under the name of Ra Amenti he was the judge of the other world. "He is the judge in the hall of the two truths, (where are) openings into heaven and into hell." This hall is also called the world of spirits. The "two truths no doubt are intended to express the celestial and spiritual things of the Divine judgment.

The worship of Osiris is extremely ancient. He is called Neber-jer (Lord over All), Nebua (Only One), Rotamenti (Judge of the Other World), and other names. His white crown signifies wisdom governing; feather, spiritual truth; staff, power; the flail or flagellum, separation of the evil from the good, that is, judgment; crook, conjunction of the good with the Lord; his throne, judgment, government, and heaven.

disc between the horns of a cow. Most frequently she is seated with the child Horus in her lap. Indeed, these figures are so common as to suggest an Egyptian origin of the Catholic Madonna and Child. The symbol of Hes is an egg, or the segment of a circle, always a feminine symbol. Concerning the egg, our doctrines say that the man who is born again passes through several ages, each of which is the egg of the preceding one. Sister

Hes, as we have seen, was the wife and sister of Asra. signifies intellectual truth, the affection of good, and truth in the natural man. Wife signifies celestial truth, also truth called forth or elevated from the natural into the rational, and there conjoined with good.

The name of Horus or Har is probably allied to the Hebrew Or (light). Horus was the son of Asra and Hes, and was called the Saviour. He is represented as a man with a hawk's head, on which there sometimes is a solar disc. Sometimes he wears a double crown with the uræus. In one hand he usually has a sceptre, in the other the sign of life. It is said of him that "from his right eye all things were created." The numerous "eyes of Horus," found among Egyptian remains, were probably intended to represent the Divine creative wisdom. Thus Horus is also called Creator, and as such his name is Horus Ra. As Redeemer his name is Horus Smeb (the Protector of Souls).

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It is said of Horus that he introduces spirits of men into the hall of the two truths, and transfers to those who enter the spiritual world the good offices which he performed for his father Asra. He is called "The Only-Begotten of His Father,' 'God Creating Him. self," "Justifier of the Just," "Eternal One,” "Well Beloved of the Father.' The kings of Egypt were considered as representatives of Horus as well as of Ra, hence one of the two royal ovals contains the name of Horus.

Horus is sometimes represented with his finger in his mouth. Again he appears with a dart, with which he transfixes the enemies of his father. His symbol is a hawk, perhaps originally an eagle. In the so-called myth or story of Asra (the dwelling of the sun) we probably have a prophetical representation of the assumption of Humanity by the Lord.

Seth was the adversary of Asra, and having destroyed him, was in turn conquered by Horus, the son of Asra. Seth signifies the earth, the lowest, on which man treads. His head is that of an animal, apparently carnivorous, but which no one has yet been able to determine. Seth probably signified the external man averted from the internal man; also heresy, particularly the heresy of faith alone.

The story of Osiris as given by ancient writers is difficult to arrange in an orderly series. It has not yet been found among the Egyptian records, though references to it are sometimes made in them. A version of it may be found in Eber's novel, "The Daughter of an Egyptian King." Plutarch's version is about as follows: At the birth of Osiris a voice was heard saying that the Lord of all things had come to life, born of Ra and Nout. During his reign he changed and greatly improved the condition of men. He taught agriculture, gave laws, introduced Divine worship, and instructed the people. While Osiris was absent from the capital on this work Seth (his brother), although ambitious, kept quiet, since Isis governed the kingdom and exercised great power. On the return of Osiris Seth conspired with seventy-two others. He took the measure of the body of Osiris, and having made a beautiful chest, he brought it to a feast, and promised to present it to the one whom it would fit. All tried it, but in vain, until at length Osiris entered it. Scarcely had he done so when the conspirators closed the chest, covered it with molten lead, and threw it into the river Nile, by which it was carried through the eastern branch to the coast of Palestine. Isis or Hes, learning what had been done, cut off a lock of her hair, and went in search of the chest. Some children told her that they had seen it float through the mouth of the Nile into the sea, and soon after she heard that it had been cast ashore near Biblos and Phoenicia, close by an erica (a species of heath), which by a rapid growth had covered and hidden it from the eyes of men. The King of Phoenicia, admiring the plant, had it cut down and placed as a support to the roof of his palace. Isis, informed of this, went to Biblos, and, dressed in the garb of a beggar, sat down and wept by a fountain. She would speak to none but the maidens of the queen, whose hair she plaited, infusing into it a wonderful odour. The queen, hearing of this, sent for the goddess, received her kindly, and made her the nurse of her child. Isis nursed the child by putting her finger into its mouth. At night she burned the mortal parts of its body, intending to make it immortal. But the queen, coming upon her unexpectedly, took the child away from Isis, and so prevented her design. At night Isis changed herself into a swallow and flew around the column. At length she revealed herself to the queen, and the column was given to her. She then cast herself upon the chest, and wept so bitterly that the younger son of the queen died from sympathy. The older son took Isis and the chest to Egypt. Returning to Buto, in Egypt, where Horus her son was, she hid the coffin containing the body of Asra. Seth one time, hunting by

moonlight, came upon the body, cut it into fourteen parts, which he scattered over the country. Isis when she heard of the deed searched in the marshes for the fourteen parts, and wherever she found one built a tomb. Then Osiris returned from the other world to his son Horus, and prepared him for his combat with Seth, asking him what thing he considered most beautiful, Horus replied, "To avenge a wrong done to father or mother." Osiris then asked what animal he deemed most useful in war? "The horse," answered Horus. "Why not the lion?" "The lion," was the reply, "is useful to one who is in need of assistance, but with the horse one can pursue the enemy." Osiris rejoiced that Horus had answered so well. The conflict between Horus and Seth then began, and lasted a long time, until at length Horus captured Seth and gave him to Isis, who, however, restored him to liberty. Horus, enraged at this, tore off the crown from Isis' head, whereupon Thoth replaced it by a helmet in the form of a cow's head. Horus again attacked Seth, and overcame him in two battles. Then Seth was confined, and Horus reigned as the chief deity in Egypt, and was worshipped as Horus Ra.

Considering the different divinities in the representative character ascribed to them above, it is probable that this story is representative of the opposition of falsity from evil (Seth) to the government of truth from good (Osiris). This opposition required a combat, which accordingly was waged by God in a human form until Osiris was slain, reappearing as Horus, who was called "The Avenger of his Father," and in this form overcoming Seth. This indicates an idea of the assumption of the Human by the Lord, of the combat with hell and final victory over it, of His appearance in a human form, and of His reigning in heaven and on earth. All the good offices He does for His Father He does for every one, as the Divine Human does for the man who follows the Lord in the regeneration. the Redeemer and Saviour.

THE

THE CHURCH CONGRESS.

He is

HE twentieth session of the Church Congress commenced its sittings at Leicester on the 27th September. The opening address was given by the Bishop of Peterborough, who dealt with the question of the advantages and disadvantages of such annual assemblies. Church Congresses were an attempt to find a place where the laity might be represented in their distinctive character as Christians and Churchmen. The great disadvantage of the Church Congresses was that, not being in any way legislative, their discussions were not steadied and weighted by the sense of responsibility attached to words which might become laws. Yet there was a great and important work for them to do, for round about church and chapel-impartially indifferent or impartially hostile to bothlay the masses of our great town populations, the scattered units in our country parishes, for whom life had no higher, no better meaning than that of a daily struggle for the means of a joyless existence uncheered by the hope of a happier hereafter, undignified by the consciousness of their Divine descent and heirship of immortality. What could the Church of England do for these? Here lay the one supremely urgent question for which they had to find an answer, and that speedily. The Church of England had been learning of late the lesson not to "put her trust in princes," not in the favour of statesmen or politicians, but in the hearts of the people, in the affections of the multitude whom her Master was calling her to win and to serve Him. It was to learn how far she was doing this, and how she might better do it in future, that they were gathered there that day. From the toilers in the streets of our great cities, from the pastor of the country parish, from zealous laymen, and from our statesmen and legislators, they looked for words of guidance and encouragement. Congresses might, pass away, but after all it was the spirit and heart of the workers that told most in all work for God. Those who succeeded them would learn from their failures and profit by their mistakes; but this at least they should say of that generation of Churchmen, that with all its faults it was one which strove honestly and manfully to understand and grapple with the evils and dangers of its day.

At the Wednesday evening session of the Congress the subject of "Church and Dissent was introduced by the Rev. Professor Plumptree, whose principal point seemed to be that the position and responsibilities of the Church towards Dissent was analogous to those of England towards Ireland, but that to give the Dissenters Home Rule in the form of Disestablishment would not in the slightest degree tend to cement a friendly union.

The Bishop of Liverpool, in the course of an able paper on the same subject, attributed English Dissent to the narrow intolerance of the Church in the days of the Stuarts, and to the utter deadness and apathy of the Church in the last century. Church apathy had created English Nonconformity, and he had not the slightest sympathy with those who regarded Dissent as an evil, and only evil, and would hand Nonconformists over to the "uncovenanted mercies" of God. He should never hesitate to declare his conviction that Dissenters had done an immense amount of spiritual good; they

had brought to Christ myriads who would have died in ignorance and sin; they had supplied the Church's "lack of service; they had taught the elements of Christianity to multitudes who would have died without God and without hope; and he could not forget the words of the Master as recorded in Mark ix. 39, 40. On the other hand, he believed that many inconveniences and evils sprang from English Dissent in the form of divisions and contentions, which supplied the infidel with an argument which was extremely difficult to refute. He advocate the treatment of Dissenters with kindness, courtesy, and consideration, and urged that Churchmen should cooperate with Dissenters whenever possible.

MODERN SPIRITISM AND ITS CHARACTERISTICS.

AT the Wednesday evening meeting for theological discussion held

in connection with the New Church Society at Kensington, September 15, the subject of "Modern Spiritism and its Characteristics was brought forward. There was a good attendance.

Dr. Bayley introduced the question by showing that the universe is not a vacuum, but is peopled by angels and spirits who exist in an inner element; that from the Lord down to man there is an orderly arrangement of spiritual beings; that with the unregenerate man the spirit nearest a man is the spirit likest him; that the Lord regulates this proximity of spirits to man, and whilst they act on him keeps them in check, there being no knowledge either with the man or with the spirit of the individuality of either. When men determined to seek communications from the world of spirits they broke a distinct law of God (Deut. xviii. 9-13), and found their own fallacies given back to them through the means by which they sought direction, and evils and disorders of all kinds followed, on which account the Canaanites were to be destroyed, and the Jews were commanded to stone to death those who had dealings with familiar spirits and with the dead. This seeking for communication with the spirit world is quite distinct from seeking after the laws of the spiritual kingdom of God, by which to regulate our own hearts and inclinations, and conform them to the will of God by endeavouring to "do justly, to love mercy, and walk humbly before Him."

Mr. Spalding pointed out that as there were strong points of analogy between Spiritism and the teaching of the New Church, it was necessary to know the distinction between their teachings. Not to enlarge on the doubtful character of those called Mediums, we assume that real intercourse with spirits can be secured by them. However we may differ as to this being a desirable thing or not, our object is to see what the teaching of Swedenborg is on this point. First, it is quite possible to think that if the Lord qualified Swedenborg to give a knowledge of the spiritual world He may have been willing to supplement it by similar communications to others. Next, we have to inquire what use there is in Spiritism. Again, it may be held a very proper and reasonable thing to hold intercourse with the friends who have passed away. But what if we see this to be impossible? For it all rests on this, whether any identification is possible. Now Swedenborg tells us that spirits can enter into the corporeal memory of a man and tell us all the man knows. If that is true, it is perfectly impossible for a man to know he is com. municating with any special spirit. The spirit communicating may even derive his information from some other spirit in the spirit world. We cannot, then, be certain as to the source of such information. Another motive for seeking such communication would be for the information to be derived in this way. This information consists, first, of descriptions of the appearance of the spirit world, and these, no doubt, do correspond in a remarkable degree with those found in the writings of Swedenborg. Now of what use is such a confirmation? Almost valueless; for a mere knowledge of the appearance of the spiritual world does not change a man. The most it can do is to show, by analogy, how every man, by fashioning his own spirit and mind whilst in this state of probation on earth, is making his own heaven or his own hell in the hereafter. Such communications may also be advantageous in making a mere materialist believe in the existence of the spirit world. But, secondly, information may be sought on various questions of religion and morality. But all such questions have been fully explained to us by Swedenborg. A spirit is no wiser as a spirit than he was as a man. To believe a spirit because he is a spirit, divested of his earthly body, is like believing a man because he has taken his coat off! If, then, we are all agreed that (1) to take any information coming from the spirit world as certain must be illusory, and (2) that all the information we can desire has been already given, what motive can we have for desiring to communicate with the spirit world? We cannot wish to be in communication with evil spirits; for they are associated with hell, and are really devils, and if they knew they were near man they would desire to destroy him. On the other hand, the ministrations of good spirits or angels are ordered by the Lord, who desires to employ them thus, whilst they delight in such work; and because they are in every thought moved