Page images
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

SWEDENBORG SOCIETY.-The following is a copy of a circular about to be issued by the Committee to the clergy and ministers of the United Kingdom. It is expected that the response will be worthy of the spirit of free inquiry which characterizes the present day. The Committee hopes to supply every applicant, and has made the best arrangements the funds will permit to do so. But if only one half of the clergy and ministers of the United Kingdom were to apply, the demand could not be met with out additional funds. The offers, therefore, will have to be limited according to the proportion of the applications, unless the friends of the Society, more particularly those who are not yet subscribers, will come forward and lend a helping hand to this noble enterprise. Another BENJAMIN ATTWOOD, and the work is done.

"The Committee of the Society for printing and publishing the Theological Writings of the Hon. Emanuel Swedenborg have resolved to present to every clergyman and minister in the United Kingdom, who is willing to receive it, a copy of that author's work, entitled The Apocalypse Revealed.'

"The distinctive character of this interpretation of the Book of Revelation may be judged of by the following extract from the author's preface :

"Not a few have laboured at the exposition of the Apocalypse, but, as the spiritual sense of the Word has hitherto been unknown, they could not discern the arcana which it contains, for these can only be unfolded by the spiritual sense. Expositors have, therefore, formed various conjectures respecting it, in many instances applying its contents to the states of empires, blending them, at the same time, with ecclesiastical matters. The Apocalypse, however, like the rest of the Word, in its spiritual sense treats not of mundane, but of heavenly things; thus, not of empires and kingdoms, but of heaven and the Church.'

[ocr errors]

"A clergyman of the Church of England speaks thus of the Work :

"The Apocalypse Revealed, which was published in 1766, has now (1851) been for upwards of eighty years before the

world; in the course of which time numerous works on the Apocalypse have appeared and many disappeared; some of them meeting at first with extensive reception, then as gradually declining in reputation, and not a few finally sinking into oblivion. The contrary has been the case with Swedenborg's Apocalypse Revealed. Beginning only with a small circulation, it has been gradually extending its sphere of reception; instead of sailing down for a time with the stream of popular favour, it has always been sailing up against it; and by the innate force of its statements, has made its way in the minds of thousands through every opposition, gathering fresh strength the further it goes."

[ocr errors]

"The same writer gives the following outline of the subject-matter of the Book of Revelation, as explained in The Apocalypse Revealed:

666

:

First, that before the First Advent all things had fallen into disorder; that our Lord became incarnate that by redemption He might reduce all things to order; that this was effected by a process of Judgment and Creation, constituting that árakepadalwois or gathering together into one, in the fulness of times, which was spoken of by the Apostle Paul in Eph. i. 10; the result of which was the making of all things new at the First Advent, such as a New Heaven, a New Earth, and a New Church.

666 Secondly; that after this reduction to order the Church fell again into disorder, till, having lost its unity, it lost its being; that this was foretold by our Lord in Matthew xxiv., in which chapter He likewise promised to come again in clouds, and a second time to restore all things to order; or, in other words, in the fulness of times again to gather them together into one or under one head; so that the Apocalypse relates to an ȧvakepaλaiwois of the same kind as that mentioned in Eph. i. 10. Hence,

"Thirdly: that this second άvakeḍa. Maiwois was in like manner a process of Judgment and Creation, and that it is in reference to this that our Lord assumes the title of the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the Ending, the First and the Last.

[blocks in formation]

The progress

Second Advent of the Word or of evening's entertainment. Divine Wisdom coming in clouds of made thus far by the Brisbane Society has glory, which are those of the Scriptures; led some of our members to consider the and which imply a new manifestation advisability of our combining with the sister Societies in Australia, to secure the services of could spend a portion of each year in each an ordained minister, who colony.

or revelation of Divine Wisdom.

666

Fifthly: that the scene of the ȧvakepalaiwois at the Second Advent, in the Apocalypse, lies primarily in the spiritual world and subordinately in the natural; in like manner also as at the First Advent.

"And lastly: that the result of the whole process of judgment and creation are New Heavens, a New Earth, a New Age or Economy, and a New Church, called in the Apocalypse the New Jeru

salem.'

"All applications, with name and address, to be made to Mr. Speirs, the Society's Agent, 36 Bloomsbury Street, W.C.. Sent also by post, on receipt of one shilling in stamps.'

BRISBANE, Queensland. The annual meeting of the members of the Brisbane Society of the New Church was held on the 4th of April, when the various reports were brought forward and adopted, and office-bearers elected for the ensuing year. The resignation of the leadership by Mr. Diggles having been read and accepted, Mr. John Garsden (who has been indefatigable in his work for the advancement of this Society) was unanimously elected as Leader. Quoting from the Secretary's Report, it appears that the affairs of the Society are in a flourishing condition: "We have now nearly forty members on the roll." Services have been held in the town-hall on Sunday morning and evening for two years without intermission; the average attendance in the morning being about twenty, and in the evening fifty. We have a Sunday-School, but in this department of our work I regret to say that we have made no progress, so far as regards number of children attending. We have

Not

BATH.-The Society of the New Church in this city was favoured with a visit by Mr. Gunton, the national Missionary, who delivered two discourses on Sunday, July 11th, a lecture on Tuesday evening, July 13th, and also attended a social meeting of the Society on Monday, the 12th. only the attendance was good, but the attention was all that could be wished, and no less than 100 copies of the "Silent Missionaries" were sold. An earnest desire was expressed' that the Society might be again visited by Mr. Gunton.

BLACKBURN.-The second anniversary of the opening of the present church in this town, was celebrated on the 13th of June, when the venerable Rev. In the morning he delivered an earnest E. Madeley, of Birmingham, officiated. and interesting address to the scholars and teachers of the Sunday-school; in which he inculcated the duty of punctuality and obedience to the young; and an earnest, attentive and diligent preparation on the part of the selfsacrificing, useful teacher, without which their labours could not be crowned with that success which every one desired. The afternoon's sermon was on "That disciple whom Jesus loved" (John xxi. 20). The discourse feelingly portrayed the leading characteristics of the great, distinguished, and good Apostle John; from his first becoming a disciple to his crowning work of receiving the divine Revelation at Patmos; and, no doubt many of the interesting incidents of John's chequered life will be long and affectionately remembered by all who had the pleasure of hearing this discourse. The evening's sermon was from the tenth chapter of Numbers and 29th verse, and was a vivid description of the trials and changes which the Christian experiences before his triumphant and glorious victory over the enemies of his own household, and before the Lord Jesus can give him the

also a free library, containing nearly 200 volumes of New Church literature, which we find an invaluable auxiliary. With reference to the financial position of the Society, a favourable report was given last year--the debts of the Society were £23, they are now about £13. With the increase in the number of members, we look with some confidence to having a balance on hand at our next annual meeting. On the 26th April we held our anniversary tea meeting. Owing to unfavourable weather, only about sixty-five members and friends good land flowing with heavenly milk of the Society were present. Some read- and honey. Both discourses were attenings relating to the New Church, inter- tively listened to, but the unpropitious spersed with music, afforded a pleasant state of the weather, no doubt, pre

vented some from attending. The collections realised £14, 3s. 3d. The choir had prepared and sung a varied and choice selection of music for the occasion, which was well rendered, particularly in the evening. On the Monday evening, June 14th, Mr. Madeley attended the weekly meeting (which has been in operation for several months) for the purpose of reading and studying the works of Swedenborg, where he met with several of the younger members of the Blackburn Society, and imparted to them some important and interesting facts relative to the interpretation of the Scriptures, as revealed by Swedenborg's glorious and perfect system of analogy. A very cordial and enthusiastic vote of thanks was accorded to Mr. Madeley at the close of the interesting meeting; and it is not too much to say, that his visit will be long remembered with interest and delight by all who came in contact with him in the social circle, at church, or at the Monday's meeting.

HULL.-On Sunday, July 25th, the consecration service of the church erected in this town was conducted by the Rev. Dr. Bayley, of London, assisted by Mr. W. H. Bastow, the resident minister. Sermons were preached by the Rev. Dr. Bayley, morning and evening, and in the afternoon by the Rev. W. M. Hatham, minister of the Congregational Church, Anlaby Road, Hull. All the services were well attended, the church being very full in the evening, when the people occupied the aisles as well as the pews. All were highly delighted with the services. On Monday evening a lecture was delivered by Dr. Bayley: subject-"The Word of God, a Ladder, a Lamp, a Sword, and a Hammer." The attendance was again good. On Sunday, August 1st, sermons were preached morning and evening by Mr. Rodgers, of Birmingham, and in the afternoon by the Rev. L. B. Brown, Baptist minister, of South Street Church, Hull. On Monday a lecture was delivered by Mr. Rodgers on "Heaven; its locality, and the life that leads to it." These services were also well attended, and seemed to yield pleasure and satisfaction to the hearers. On Sunday, August 8th, sermons were preached by R. Gunton, Esq., of London, morning and evening, and in the afternoon by Mr. H. Bastow. The morning attendance was not so good, the weather being unfavourable, but in the evening the church was full. The strangers who attended the services seemed of a respectable and intelligent class, and many expressions were made of satisfaction with

[blocks in formation]

RAMSBOTTOM.-The opening and consecration of the new place of worship erected in this town took place on Wednesday afternoon, August 4th, when Revs. Dr. Bayley, of London, R. Storry, of Heywood, and S. Pilkington, were the offici ating ministers. The estimated cost of the building, together with the architect's fees, legal documents, and other unthis sum there has been raised by subavoidable expenses, is £3100. Towards scriptions obtained from the Society and friends, £995; by collections in the Sunday. schools, proceeds of entertainments, special services, and donation boxes, £257; by a loan which has been made without interest, on condition that 10 per cent. per annum be refunded, £300; received on mortgage on old and new premises, £1000; leaving a deficit of £547. The buildings are decharacter. The length of the church is signed in the Gothic style of early English 62 ft. by 29 ft. 6 in. in width, the height being 20 ft. to the wall-plate and 44 ft. from floor to ridge. The roof is in one span, open timbered, and of pitch pine, as are also the pewing, pulpit, and all internal woodwork. The entrance is approached by a broad flight of stone steps, which lead into the porch, from which are staircases to the gallery and down to the school. At the opposite end to the entrance is the organ and singers' gallery, under which is the minister's vestry, with separate entrance from the street. The church is seated for 400 persons. The school-room is under the church, and has the same dimensions as regards length and breadth, and is 14 ft. in clear height. It is well lighted and ventilated, all the windows being above the street level, and there are good entrances from the street and also from the church.

The Society first originated with a few persons who became converts to the new doctrines through lectures delivered in the neighbourhood by some of the earliest and most eminent advocates of the views and principles of Emanuel Swedenborg. One of the most zealous and active of these pioneers of the New Church in this county was the Rev. John Clowes, M.A., who delivered periodical lectures in different parts of Lancashire and the neighbouring counties. Holcombe Brook, in the immediate neighbourhood of Ramsbottom, was one of the places he frequently visited for this purpose, and he became the means of introducing the Writings of Swedenborg to a number of intelligent and admiring readers. The Rev. Joseph Proud also lectured at Holcombe Brook with such acceptance that on one occasion (1816) the

room was crowded with 500 persons, and several hundreds who were not able to gain admission were addressed by Mr. George Haworth, of Accrington, an able expounder of the new views. A small Society of the readers of Swedenborg was formed at this place in 1803, and ten years later the

members removed to Ramsbottom. Here a Society was formed which was visited by Mr. George Haworth, of Accrington, Rev. T. Pilkington, Rev. R. Hind, Marsh, and other early advocates of the doctrines. Among the leaders of the Society have been Mr. Jesse Holden, Mr. Charles Coffey, and Mr. John Berry. The Society for a long time received considerable assistance from the missionaries, but when they had reduced the debt incurred by the erection of the church which was opened in 1831, and by alterations and additions that were made from time to time, they felt themselves able to secure the services of a resident minister. After careful consideration as to the necessary means, and inquiries into the character and ability of several gentlemen most likely to suit them, they invited their present minister, the Rev. S. Pilkington, who at that time was a student at the Owens College. Mr. Pilkington commenced his ministry at Ramsbottom on the first Sunday in January 1867, and was ordained as a recognised minister of the New Church in September 1869, by the Revs. Dr. Bayley and W. Woodman. Since then the remaining debt has been cleared from their old premises, and during the last three or four years the utmost efforts have been made to raise the necessary funds for the erection of a new church and school. This work was commenced in February 1874, and the church was opened and consecrated to religious uses as stated. The sermon by the Rev. Dr. Bayley was founded on Ex. xxvii. 20, and the chief point of his discourse was that religion does not need the light of science to prove its advantages; it is its own light, and it receives its light from love and the affection of truth, just as the flame of a lamp receives its illuminating power from the oil which feeds it. The Rev. R. Storry preached in the evening from St. John xiii. 14-17. The last verse was mainly dwelt upon: "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them."

SALFORD.-The Sunday-School Anniversary Services of this Society were held on Whit-Sunday, May 16th, when two serinons were preached by the Rev. Dr. Bayley of London. For his morn ing sermon the Rev. Dr. took for his text Jer. v. 1, and for his evening

The congrega

sermon Deut. xi. 12.
tion, both morning and evening, was
unusually numerous, and the discourses
on both occasions were listened to with
the deepest attention, and evidently
afforded those preseut very great plea-
A selection of hymns and
anthems had been made by Mr. Parkin-
son, and were admirably sung under his
direction by a number of the scholars,
kindly assisted by the church choir.

sure.

Obituary.

To the Editor of the "Intellectual
Repository."

Mr. Elihu Rich.-Sir,-Although the memory of one who has passed is so dearly cherished by those who knew him that they need no reminder of his worth, it was with some regret that I saw so bare a notice of the late Elihu Rich in the organ of the body to which he was attached. Perhaps you will allow me, although not a Swedenborgian, in the capacity of one of his intimate friends, and at the request of several Swedenborgians, to supply you with some further details of bis life.

An

Elihu Rich was born in 1819 of Swedenborgian parents. He was early engaged in business, and was emphatically a selfmade man. That untiring energy which characterized him through life, provided him at the age of twenty-four with a classical education of which no university man need have been ashamed. About that time he left business and started a school. Ignorant of the mathematics, he determined to acquire them, and added the usual university knowledge of the science to the stock-in-trade needed in his new profession. He then turned his attention to literature, writing his first few articles for Chambers' Journal. This was the commencement of an indefatigable literary career. earlier and most laborious work was that digest of "The Arcana Celestia," his wellknown index. The patient and untiring exactness that characterized that work was no less to be remarked in every labour that he undertook. The exigencies of a large and increasing family gave Mr. Rich over to the mercies of the publishers. In nearly every work they suppressed his name. A name attached to good work enables the author to demand a higher price. It is natural to business men to pay as little as possible. It was natural to the publishers therefore to make Mr. Rich their hack. It was natural to Mr. Rich, as to Coleridge, to "consider his work its own exceeding great reward." This is the reason that many valuable

works do not bear his name. I was much surprised the other day to discover in the British Museum that the well-known "Occult Sciences" was edited, and threefourths of it written, by him. The editorship is hinted at, the names of the three scholars who did the least portion of the work are placed before his. His enthusiasm was too great, his desire to do good work was too powerful to let a want of appreciation hinder him. And so a man of whom (though I have been fortunate in a knowledge of men of no mean ability) I can safely assert that I never met one so intellectually ACTIVE, passed through life, known to the literary world indeed as a clever and conscientious man of letters, but with no other tribute than the appreciation of his immediate and devoted friends. He was the editor of many valuable periodicals, and the author of nearly 100 works. Such was his literary activity, that immediately before his last illness he was contemplating a work on the old dramatists, and commenced the reading of Herbert Spencer, preparatory to a great Swedenborgian and philosophical work, which it had been his dream through life to produce. He was about to commence the dissection of the human brain for the same purpose. His last work was an essay on "perception," read before the Swedenborg Society. His last wish, so characteristic of the man, was to be taken to the seabeach; and by its waves he died, on June 10, of an imperfectly nourished body and an overtaxed brain.

Mr. Rich was an earnest student of philosophy and a scholar. He was to the the end an ardent Swedenborgian, although he was not in communion with any of its churches. Mysticism was for him a science, he was profoundly acquainted with occult lore, but it is untrue that he had anything in common with the modern Spiritualist.

Some reflection of a mind to which "nothing human was indifferent" must always remain, for a gentle spirit is like a great thought; its influence spreads like the ripples on the water. And so if men forget his name; if he never reached a high rank of fame, there is for him "monumentum aere perennius." WILLIAM BOULTING.

Rev. John Hyde.-As the present number is passing through the press we have received the painful intelligence of the departure of this esteemed minister into the spiritual world. His place will be sorely missed; but we bow with sub

mission to the will of our heavenly Father, knowing that He doeth all things well. In our next we hope to give an extended notice of this able advocate of the truths of the New Dispensation.

He

He

Mr. James Harding, Chester. - This worthy and useful, though isolated member of the Church, passed from earth to his eternal home on the morning of June 22, aged 62. Mr. Harding, with his brother, were Sunday scholars in the Temple school, Salford, and the Rev. Dr. Bayley was his teacher more than fifty years ago. imbibed a warm affection for the principles of the New Church, and when his family removed to Liverpool, while he was still a very young man, he sought out the then infant Society, and offered his services to commence a Sunday-School, which though small was useful. Removed after a time from Liverpool by railway engagements. he continued to exhibit the New Church in his life, and diffuse its doctrines whenever he had the opportunity. He was constantly buying and presenting on all suitable occasions, the tracts which he believed calculated to foster the good cause. He promoted social reform and public improvement so far as he was able, and esteemed very highly the total abstinence movement in its various forms. was never weary of well-doing; and it was very pleasant to his friends to hear a clergyman, not of his own church, but who knew him well, in a short address at his grave side say, "He was one of those we can ill spare. One who, if seen taking part in a meeting, was an assurance that the meeting had for its object not only the good of the country, but also that of the inhabitants of the good old town which he loved so well, and of which he was an ornament. Was benevolence the object, he was present to assist in person and purse. Let his belief have been as peculiar as it may, he was the full standard of a man." Mr. Harding always kept up his connection with the Society at Liverpool, and occasionally visited it for worship. He was especially delighted when New Church lectures were delivered in Chester. His illness gradually undermined his strength, but his faith shone brightly in a peaceful happy reliance upon the Lord, whom he had so long followed, and who had promised to welcome such as he with the sacred words, "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."

« PreviousContinue »