Died, March 6th, 1850, Miss Mary Wood, of Hull, aged 73 years. She retained the vigour of a strong mind to the last. Relative to the subject of this memoir, I have received the following account from Mr. David Middlemist, of Hull, who was a most worthy and intelligent member of the society of the New Church whilst I was the minister at Hull. 'I have made (says Mr. M.) the inquiries relative to our late respected friend Miss Wood, and from information which may be relied on from those who knew her, I find that she was brought up by her parents as a Particular Baptist, and attended their place of worship till about the year 1815. She was never satisfied with the doctrines preached, particularly with that on the Trinity. She was afterwards led to attend the Unitarian chapel in this town, and although admiring the eloquence of some of their talented ministers, in their discourses on the intellectual and moral capacity of man, they made nothing of his hereditary and fallen condition, and the change necessary for his restoration, so that here she was also dissatisfied. In 1823 curiosity, as she said, more than any other motive, induced her to hear Mr. F. M. Hodson, who was at that time the minister of the New Church in Hull. She was soon convinced of the superior views of truth she there heard, over those of every other denomination, and continued stedfast in them to the close of her life. Soon after you left Hull the chapel fell into other hands; after which time, from my confined way of life, I saw but little of Miss Wood. I had, however, the pleasure of meeting with her again under the ministry of Mr. Pulsford. I saw her but three times during her long illness, and she always expressed herself deeply thankful that she had been led by the Lord's Providence to a reception of the pure truths of His Word. There was an honesty of heart, a love of truth, and a hatred of all seeming to be, such as I never saw superior in any one. "I went to be the minister of the chapel in Hull in 1829. Miss Wood was so kind as to entertain me at her house, without any charge, till it was convenient for my family to join me, who were then at Leeds. When she received the rite of baptism, as administered in the New Church, she retained so much of her early prejudice in favour of immersion that she would have gladly preferred it to sprinkling, though satisfied it was a non-essential of the ordinance. Her attachment to the doctrines I found to be constant and unshaken, though many eircumstances occurred in connection with the New Church in Hull, calculated to try her attachment. The extent of her knowledge of the New Church doctrines was considerable, and sufficient to enable her to take a deep interest in the hearing of them from the pulpit. She was the invariable advocate of what she deemed goodness, and those whom she believed to practise it might calculate upon her as a friend. Of anything like disinterested kindness to her she had a quick sensibility, and she delighted in the opportunity of returning good for good, if it came within her humble means to do so. She had a small patrimony which furnished her with a sufficiency during life. Having been a cripple from her childhood, she required the assiduous attention of a faithful domestic, whom she found, for many years, to the time of her death, in her excellent servant Ellen, to whom she has bequeathed a handsome annuity. Her heart was full of kindness and gratitude to all who had rendered her any kind of service. She was impressed with the heavenly idea that the true love of the neighbour manifests itself chiefly in the faithful performance of duty one to another, in our various callings of life. And to testify her regard for this principle, she has left various small legacies to those who, as tradespeople, she had every reason to believe had faithfully served her. Her kindness in this respect is especially manifested to her respected pastor, the Rev. Mr. Pulsford, and also to the writer of this memorial. She had always been ready to assist, by her liberal contributions, every attempt to promote the spread and the reception of the doctrines of the New Church, and nothing gratified her more than to hear that those doctrines were being received by mankind. So great was the consolation she experienced, even during the trying period of a long and painful illness, in the clear light of the truths of the Holy Word as made known in the doctrines of the New Jerusalem, that her earthly career was marked by resignation, patience, and serenity of mind, and her end by that peace which the world can neither give nor take away. Ardwick. J. B. Cave and Sever, Printers, 18, St. Ann's-streel, Manchester. In the talented periodical called the "Prospective Review," there appears, in the number for May, an article on Emanuel Swedenborg. This article, consisting of nearly fifty pages, on a subject which, by so many periodicals and writers of a former generation, was passed over either with silence or with a contemptuous sneer, is worthy of the improving state of the age, and of that candour and enlarged and liberal mode of thought which is now beginning, as one of the good signs of a better time, to appear in the mental horizon. During the last ten years the thinking mind has been disposed to re-consider the statements and conclusions which the superficial reviewers of the generation now passing away have pronounced upon the men and the works of a former age. It is useful and profitable to retrace our steps, and to take our stand upon a point from which we can calmly contemplate the men who, in the last century, so lived and acted as to have produced an impression which appears to deepen and extend with the higher and more extended culture of our common humanity. When in the physical world extraordinary phenomena appear, all eyes are, for the moment, attracted to the scene. Many solutions are propounded, and many theories are formed, to bring the phenomena within the sphere of our rational intuition. But it rarely occurs that these efforts are successful in the generation when the phenomena appear. It remains for a following age to give the proper solution. The case is similar in the scientific world. When a Copernicus, or a Gallileo, or a Columbus, or a Newton appears as the phenomenon of the age, they N. S. NO. 127.-VOL. XI. T attract by their astounding declarations and discoveries the eyes ef many, not of the ignorant, but of the educated and scientific, who, instead of calmly considering the wonderful scientific results which these distinguished minds have brought to light, are actuated by their long-cherished prejudices in favour of ancient modes of thinking, and reject with scorn, and even with persecution, the proffered boon from the treasury of science. The generation has yet to come when the merits of these extraordinary minds can be understood and appreciated. But the age does come when the names of these men, who in their own generation were treated with contempt and contumely, and were even cast into prison, become the brightest constellations in the horizon of science, and the guiding stars to other intellectual triumphs. 66 "No man having drunk old wine straightway desireth new, for he saith, the old is better,"-this divine declaration involves a great truth, in reference to the formation and culture of the mind. For when the mind has been formed and imbued with principles of thought, either in science or in theology, peculiar to the age, and confirmed by ancestral traditions, it becomes averse and even hostile to any new propositions which may disturb its self-complacency, or in the least tend to convince it of fallacy and error. And this is evidently the case in respect to religious principles and dogmas, especially when confirmed by ancient creeds and traditions, and when dignified with the insignia of orthodoxy, and declared by the voice of the State to be the only way to preferments, honours, emoluments, and a respectable standing with the fashions of the world. He that hath imbibed the "old wine" of these traditional principles, so diguified with every thing that the natural man can desire, does not straightway desire the new, for he saith, the old is better." The time, however, will come when this "old wine" of traditional theology (engendered, for the most part, in the dark ages, and having as little relation with the pure truths of God's Word, as the Ptolemaic fallacies of astronomical science have with the pure truths of astronomy itself,)—when this "old wine" will turn sour or bitter upon the palates of those who drink it, and the "new wine" of a higher and purer truth, drawn from the Scriptures with a more enlightened and spiritual discernment, will be desired and received with a thankfulness and joy corresponding to the degree in which truth is loved for the sake of the spiritual and eternal blessings to which it leads. And that this "old wine" is now turning sour or bitter to the taste of very many in every denomination of Christians, is abundantly evident to those who observe the signs of the times. Now what Copernicus, Gallileo, and Newton were to astronomy, Swedenborg, we verily believe, and we have long and deeply studied the subject, was to theology, and generally to spiritual science, and especially to the true mode of interpreting the Word of God, and of expounding its pure truths, separated from the traditions and additions of men. It was not to be expected that so extraordinary a phenomenon could at once be understood and appreciated by the many. Swedenborg himself well knew this; but he at the same time knew that other generations were coming who would judge of his works without favour and without prejudice, and who would be in a state to appreciate a higher perception of spiritual and revealed truth, and thus be enabled to enter into a purer and higher sphere of ideas respecting every thing spiritual and divine. And is not such a state most desirable? Is it not most worthy of divine Providence to promote and accomplish? Can the human race become really improved and elevated from the low condition in which they now are, without more elevated ideas of truth? Can a purer and more glorious Christianity arise and be established amongst us, which is now the ardent desideratum of the good of all nations, without new developments of Truth from the Word of God? It is admitted that the knowledge, the love, and the practice of Truth are the only means of human culture, as well as the only means of establishing the church and the salvation of God in the hearts and lives of men. It will consequently follow, that the purer and the more enlarged our views of Divine Truth become, the more our minds are supplied with the means of becoming regenerate, spiritual, and blessed. To confine our ideas of Truth to the age of Luther and Calvin, and to say that we cannot improve upon their orthodoxy, is as absurd as it is to assert that our views of science, and of civilization and literature, cannot advance beyond the period when they flourished. The truth of God's Word is, indeed, like its Author, unchangeable; but our views of Truth, and the mode in which we understand it, do and ought to change. Our intelligence and wisdom, and consequently our growth in grace and godliness, can only advance as we have clearer ideas of Truth, and become more interiorly receptive of its divine influence, and as we love and practise it with a purer and holier affection. Now it would be very easy to shew that the thoughtful and the devout of every age have ardently desired a merciful vouchsafement from God to clear up innumerable mysteries which still shroud His Word, and which still hang over the great principles of Christianity; not one of which is settled by the prevailing theology. Even the great fundamental principle of all, that GOD IS ONE, is utterly subverted in the minds of ninety-nine hundredths of the people by the doctrine of three divine Persons in the Trinity, "each for himself," as expressed in the Athanasian creed, "being God and Lord." How utterly impossible it is for the multitudes who worship in our churches and chapels to avoid entertaining in their spirits, whatever they may orally confess, an idea of three gods, when under the influence of this almost all-dominant creed !* Let the possibility be granted, that clearer and superior views of divine Truth, by a more enlightened interpretation of God's Word, can be obtained, (and we do not see how this possibility can be denied) we will proceed to inquire how it may be obtained. Human learning has well-nigh done its best to interpret to us the letter of God's Word. Whatever philology, achaiology, history, &c. can contribute to this desirable end has, especially through the labours of the learned Germans, been brought into the service of truth. We must not, therefore, look from without for a clearer and a spiritual discernment of truth; the light which irradiated the countenance of Moses, came from within, not from without; and in like manner the light which shall open our understandings and irradiate our minds, that we may have clearer and more enlarged ideas of God's Word, and of its divine truth, must first come from within, or from above, and not from without, or from the world. But how can this light be brought to bear upon our rational mind, and enlighten its perceptive faculties, so as to enable us to see the wondrous things of God's Word? It can only be communicated by a medium; that is, some mind must receive the light into itself, and by a rational statement of its perceptions, communicate it to others. All truth, whether it be natural or spiritual, is objective; our minds, or our subjective state, was divinely intended to be in the same relation to truth as the eye is to the pure light of the sun, with this difference, that the mind is so formed as to become receptive of a higher and a higher degree of light to all eternity. "Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." The spirit of truth operates within us * It would be too prolix here to mention the many instances of devout and intelligent minds who in their aspirations for clearer views on nearly every doctrinal subject, have implored God's mercy to send them an enlightened messenger to teach them how these things can be more clearly understood. See Watts' "Solemn address to the ever blessed God in respect to the Trinity," &c. See also "The Hulsean Prize Essay," Cambridge, 1827, where are these words at p. xix. :- "A man is still wanting with the powers of a Bacon, joined to the humility of a Newton and a Butler," Ito clear up the mysteries which hang over the Word of God and the principles of Christianity.] |