seen by him as so much material for his own profitable reflection and religious improvement.

We say nothing about the opportunities which are afforded by Sunday Schools, for teachers to specially prepare themselves for their teaching duties. This is a point well understood, and every one knows that it is attended with much advantage to mental culture if properly attended to. We therefore purposely pass over this to notice the opportunities for improvement which these institutions afford, by providing for the friendly association, and mental intercourse of the teachers among themselves. We think it is almost impossible that such parties, if they are at all influenced by an intelligent piety, can associate together without the interchange of sentiments, and the cultivation of social affection, which must be highly beneficial to their mental and moral improvement. Such results, from those means, are well known to have been the experience of many; with some they have been the commencement of imperishable friendships, of a true reverence for religion, of marriage connections, of happy homes, of virtuous lives, and hopeful deaths. Institutions, then, which afford the opportunity for such results, are of the utmost importance to the church, and they deserve the careful attention and liberal encouragement of every Christian.

In this field of labour, we feel assured that the most gifted will find numerous opportunities presented for increasing his gifts. can conscientiously enter upon the valuable uses, which those institutions afford to teachers the opportunity of performing, without securing to himself very much practical knowledge of human character and wants, together with much information concerning divine revelation, the remedies which it proposes for human ills, and the paths which it marks out for the security of human happiness.

It will, therefore, be admitted upon all hands, that Sunday Schools are well calculated to stimulate the reflection of the teachers; to induce those who really love their duties, to study that they may efficiently perform them; and this, we think, ought to be regarded by the qualified young people of the church, as a sufficient inducement to volunteer their services in so important a work; for at the same time that they will thereby be performing uses to others, they will also be promoting their own welfare, and thus realize the spiritual law, that the doers of Good are sure to be among the recipients of it.

But the mere increase of knowledge respecting the Scriptures, the doctrines of the church, and professional tact for successful teaching, is not to be confounded with religious improvement; for it is well

known that much cleverness in all these respects may exist, apart from the real possession of any true religion. Thus it is possible to be men of the church, without being men in the religion of the church. The church is one thing; religion is another: the church is so called from doctrine; but religion is so called from life according to doctrine. All the doctrine of the church is called truth, and even the good of doctrine is truth because it only teaches; but life, according to the true things which doctrine teaches, is called good, and this is the distinction between the church and its religion. Still, however well the doctrines of the church may be known, if those who know them are not in the life of doctrine, there is properly no church with them, because doctrine regards life as one with itself; and thus a church implies a religion, and a religion displays a church. It is on this account we are so pointedly informed, "that all religion has relation to life, and the life of religion is to do good." And it is in consequence of the relationship subsisting between religion and a good life, that religion is the inmost thing with men- -that they enter in to the life of their religion after death, and that heaven itself is nothing else but the life of the highest, the purest, and holiest religion.

When, then, we speak of Sunday Schools affording to teachers the opportunity for religious improvement, we do not simply mean their improvement in a rational understanding of the doctrines of the church, nor even an improvement in the intellectual discernment of their truth and certainty. We indeed include these things; but we also mean their improvement in the life; and by life we would not be understood to speak merely of external conduct, but of internal love, for love is the life of man; and that which is his interior life and love, is also the real nature and quality of his religion.

Now it is presumed that no teacher supposes he has perfected his religion, but that every one is not only sensible of deficiencies in this respect, but also of the necessity for improvement. To improve the nature and quality of our love for the performance of use, is to improve the nature and quality of our religion. And we say that Sunday School operations afford to teachers the opportunity for this. The work of teaching is not all roses and velvet, and the difficulties experienced are not always counterbalanced by the pleasures of success. The incidents which are continually occurring present the occasions for selfexamination—for making observation on the ebullition of the temper— for noting more particularly the motives by which they have been influenced to undertake the labour-for restraining the temptations to abandon it, which sometimes occur—for scrutinizing the desires which

they are wishful to gratify, and thus to mark the character of their loves, and so to bring their religion under the discipline of truth. And therefore it is evident that those institutions afford frequent occasions for teachers to acquire a better knowledge of themselves; for selfobservation and culture, and thus for gradually putting away whatsoever is calculated to disturb and injure, and to successfully develope what is modest and pure, and gentle and peaceable, and lovely-qualities which are essential to the successful issue of the education of the young. The possessor of those excellencies is sure to make himself felt and loved by the members of his class, for they are realities which belong to the spiritual man, and there emanates from them a sphere which attracts, delights, and instructs-instructs by underlaying the information which is taught with an admiration and love of the goodness, kindness, forbearance, patience, and religion of the teacher.

THE SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE REQUISITE TO A RIGHT UNDERSTANDING OF ITS LITERAL SENSE.*

“THAT Some higher understanding of the sacred Scriptures, and some better interpretation of them than is now in current use, is needed in the modern circumstances in which the church is placed, seems to us quite evident. The church at large requires some further key to the meaning of the divine oracles than she now possesses, both for her own satisfaction and for her security. She needs it in order that her own children and separated branches may come to some common agreement among themselves on fundamental doctrines. She needs it both for light and for life; to correct the enthusiasms and delusions that arise in her own pale from a misunderstanding of the declarations of prophecy; to defend the Scriptures themselves from the attacks of scientific objectors; and to minister to the new moral and philosophical requirements of the human mind.

*This paper is extracted from an able work on the "Phenomena of Modern Spiritualism," by the Rev. W. B. Hayden, Minister of the New Jerusalem at Portland, Maine. In this work, consisting of five Lectures, the author clearly explains the difference between a spurious spiritualism and a genuine Revelation, such as is contained in the Word of God, and the writings of the New Church, which unfold its true meaning and its genuine doctrines. The author, therefore, guards his readers against the delusions of Modern Spiritualism. We sincerely recommend these lectures to the attention of our readers.

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Objections to the teachings and records of the Scriptures more numerous than ever before, presented from entirely new points of view, are gravely and persistently urged by naturalists, by spiritualists, by rationalists. And so far as the literal sense merely is concerned, many of these are rightly urged. Without a different mode of interpreting than has heretofore prevailed, the rational decision must be, in many instances, against the old record, and in favour of the new discoveries. Now, in the New Church system all these difficulties are rationally met and explained. We here have all the freedom of thought, and more, we have all the spiritual science, and more, all the deep philosophy of man and of nature, and more, all the vast fields of newly opened inquiry, and more, that are presented to the mind in spiritualism, in rationalism, or in any system of philosophy. And in addition to all this, we have a Biblical science which breaks open the shell of divine truth, and lets forth its interior light, takes off the rind of the fruit, distributing the wholesome meat within for the nutriment of the nations. It preserves intact both the soul and the body of the former revelation, only clearing away and stripping off the heavy clothing of dogmas and fallacies and vain conceits, with which the officious and speculating mind of the centuries has encumbered it.

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Now that a system fully providing for these wants of the church should present itself to the world in such an age as this, that it should have made its appearance at least half a century before the main exigencies had arisen, so that the books containing it might be generally distributed through Christendom, ready to take the new movement in its incipient stages, and rise into notice with it, shows that there is something particularly providential in it; and, connected with the claim it makes, is to our mind a very strong evidence in favour of its divine origin.

"A very common misconception which persons form on first approaching the system of the New Church, and hearing the doctrine of a spiritual sense taught, is, that it is something that is to do away with the literal sense; that it is an interpretation which is to be substituted for the plain and direct meaning of the Scriptures. And the impression thus made upon many minds is, that this mode of understanding the Scriptures is without fixedness; something unstable; something too figurative, and too far removed from common apprehension to be rendered practically useful. The feeling is, that by means of it the Scriptures are likely to be interpreted according to the imagination, the meaning rendered indefinite, and the whole mind be thrown into the realm of uncertainty in regard to it.

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"As these various impressions are incorrect, it is therefore important that something should be done to remove them.

"The spiritual sense does not come to take the place of the literal sense; it does not overthrow it; does not destroy its authority; it leaves the literal sense just as complete as it found it. The two senses are entirely distinct from each other. The one refers to visible things, to affairs and relations existing in this world; the other refers to invisible things, to affairs and relations which exist in the spiritual world. The literal sense is designed for the use of men on earth, and the spiritual sense is for the angels in heaven. Men could not write a book which would be so adapted. All the powers of all the human intellects that ever existed, combined together, could not produce a single page of such a work. Herein lies the reality of its divine origin and inspiration. According to the divine law by which the universe is created, natural things are so made that they symbolize and image forth spiritual things. Natural events so happen and flow on, that they correspond to and represent changes and varieties of spiritual state and experience; while circumstances and conditions exist in this world which correspond to states and circumstances in the other world, and which, therefore, may be used to represent and describe them. This law of correspondence between the spiritual world and the natural is known in its origin and essence to the Creator alone; it is a law and operation of His own mind and thought. He alone could first know the principles and the applications of this law, and therefore He alone could utter a Word which, while it should be for ever established in heaven, would also serve for truth to all generations on earth. He alone could cause to be written a book which, while it should instruct, elevate, and guide men in the sacred truths of religion, should at the same time serve as a medium by which angels are instructed, enlightened, and perfected, with respect to the same themes.

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Now, in making known these things to the world, the New Church revelation does not impair the literal sense of the Word: men will still continue to understand the Scriptures naturally, as heretofore. But let us glance a moment at some of the uses which are performed by the revelation of the fact we have set forth. In the first place, by it is shown the divinity of the Word. If we cannot ourselves get a full perception of the spiritual meaning, and understand it as the angels do, yet we can here and there get a few glimpses of it; we can clearly see that the Scripture has more in it than we formerly supposed it had, and as it is far above our entire comprehension, we can see that there is a superhuman element in it; we can clearly perceive that it is beyond