a temporal kingdom, and their contending among themselves which should be the greatest in it, reveal the worldliness of their notions and desires, the extent of which is brought out strikingly in the conduct of the apostles, and of Peter in particular, in the concluding events of the Lord's life. The earnestness and perfect sincerity with which they declared they would not forsake or deny Him, even though they should die with Him, how faithfully does it depict the character of the yet untried Christian disciple, full of confidence in his own strength, but whose self-confidence is exactly proportionate to his inexperience, and consequent ignorance of himself! No one can truly know what he is, until he knows it experimentally; no one can tell how he will act under circumstances in which he is altogether untried, until the day of trial comes. We know not of the evils that lurk in the secret recesses of our own hearts, till they are appealed to and excited by some unwonted event in life. And if before this we should be told of our character, and forewarned of our frailty, we should refuse to believe that we could be betrayed into such an exhibition of weakness or wickedness as we should make, in act or in feeling. The apostles did not think themselves capable of denying or forsaking their Master in the hour of danger, and did not believe when warned that they would do so; they no doubt supposed that they were incapable of so base an act.

And so is it still with us all as Christian disciples. There are many things which we do not know, and which we will not believe, respecting ourselves, until we have seen and been convinced of them by experience. We continue to read in the Sacred Volume, that the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; but although we doubt not the divine declaration, it makes but a slight impression on the mind till the day of trial reveals to our consciousness the humiliating reality. It is to convert this faith of the head into a faith of the heart, that the Lord permits us to be tried in such wise as to give us a practical knowledge of ourselves, and lead us to repentance and humiliation. In some of the trials of life we acquire this knowledge through the bitter experience of yielding to the temptation that assails us, and yielding on that very point on which we flattered ourselves we were strongest. When the principles we profess have as yet no deep root in the heart, a sudden and powerful appeal to some sinful propensity may draw us aside from the path of rectitude, and make us practically forsake the Lord and even deny Him. "But though the righteous fall, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholdeth him with His hand." Yes, where there is the principle of sincere righteousness within, however imperfectly developed, it will not only survive the shock of temp.

tation, but will come forth purified from the fiery trial. "The sin that humbles is better than the virtue that exalts." But we must be careful to avoid the error that we may go on in sin that grace may abound. The sins into which the righteous are betrayed are essentially different from those into which the unrighteous rush. The unrighteous "frame mischief by a law;" the righteous have a law that condemns mischief, though through the weakness of sinful flesh it cannot always and altogether resist or prevent it. Peter was overcome; but though his conscience was overawed, it was not destroyed. When the cock crew, his sin was brought vividly to his remembrance. The Lord's words, which the tried apostle seems for the time to have forgotten, returned in all their power, and his conscience was awakened to a deep sense of his guilt; and the look of tender reproof which his injured Master cast upon him, entered into his soul, and overwhelmed him with shame and humbled him with remorse. He went out, and wept bitterly. These were indeed the tears of repentance-a repentance so deep and sincere that he could soon after say to Jesus, whom he had denied, when demanded if he loved Him-"Yea, Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee."

And so is it still with the inexperienced but too confident disciple, when he falls into the snare which Satan has laid for him. When the night of temptation is succeeded by the dawn of a new day, and its influence awakens better thoughts in the mind, the voice of truth brings our sin to our remembrance, and reveals to us our folly and iniquity. And how must our sense of sin be deepened, if we realise that which Peter must have felt when the Lord turned and looked upon the fallen Apostle! If we can see the Lord, who searches the heart and tries the reins, penetrating into our inmost souls, and laying them open even to our own sight,-so far as we can discover them,-how bitter must be the repentance in which a real conscience exists, how much soever it may have been overshadowed in the hour of trial. But how blessed is the fruit of this bitter experience when it is followed by real conversion, as it was in the case of Peter! Satan may have us for a moment; but it is only by the Lord's permission, that he may sift us as wheat. And if by this winnowing the chaff is carried away, leaving the wheat behind, it is only because we have the Lord Jesus as our Husbandman, who regulates our needful share of trial, and is ever present in His perfected Humanity to support us under it, and bring us successfully through it.

M.

THE GOOD OF LIFE.

As the young and uninstructed readers of the works of Swedenborg frequently meet with expressions which appear difficult of comprehension to them, it may not be without advantage to endeavour to explain some of them occasionally.

"The good of life" is one of the class referred to, though more easily understood than some others. We are told (A. C. 2388, 3324), that " all the good of life, in general and particular, is comprehended in charity." But we must remember that each truth has its own good, and the fulfilment of that good is called the good of life, and is one of the essentials of that charity which goes to make a perfect man. The good of life in its first form is the love of parents; a child who is sincerely desirous to obey the truth which inculcates that love, seeks to please them by all his actions, and for this end, studies their expressed wishes, and delights in sharing their burdens and lessening their anxieties; this is the filial "good of life." But there is the social "good of life," beginning with members of the same family, who, in fulfilling it, strive to promote each other's happiness, to share the favourite toy or book, and rejoice in the progress made by each in their varied pursuits, ever ready to deny themselves some anticipated gratification or pleasure that others may enjoy it. As manhood approaches, this "good of life" finds its expression in the performance of the various professional or mercantile engagements from a love of benefiting others, making gain the secondary and not the primary object. As the work of regeneration advances, and love to the Lord becomes the ruling love, the "good of life" is manifested in increasing efforts to overcome every form of evil, to repress vicious inclinations, and exercise virtuous ones; to act at all times with unswerving integrity and consistency of conduct; exhibiting under all circumstances a sincere resignation to the Divine Will, and thus becoming "a living epistle of Christ Jesus, known and read of all men.”

THE RESTORATION OF THE JEWS.

No. I.

M. B.

THE Word of God, in its genuine sense, is everywhere spiritual and divine; and in that sense it treats only of spiritual and divine things, as the church and heaven and the Lord Himself. But this spiritual sense, in many parts of the Divine Word, is hidden, and expresses itself, in the letter of Scripture, by mere natural types and images.

Thus the Sacred Scriptures are written in a style peculiar to themselves; and unless that style is understood, and it is seen that the literal sense is in many parts merely figurative and representative of spiritual things, there will be danger of drawing from that literal sense many mistaken conclusions and erroneous opinions.

Thus the Jews, for instance, forming their opinions from the mere letter of their Scriptural prophecies, and thus misunderstanding them, looked for a Messiah to come, who was to be a great Ruler over Israel,— a great King and Conqueror, who was to overcome their enemies, and gather in His people from all lands, and establish their nation anew, and make them "a name and a praise among the people of the earth.” In like manner, many of the Christians, though they see the error of the Jews, yet have fallen into a similar mistake themselves; and basing their opinions on the mere letter of Scripture, and so misunderstanding it, are looking for the Lord's Second Coming, in Person, in the visible clouds of the sky; and, following the same letter, have attempted to make calculations as to the time of His coming; and also have fallen into the belief that, at that Coming, the earth is to be literally burned up.

But what is still more remarkable, many, and most, of the Christian sects, though declaring that the Jews were in error, and that the prophecies which speak of the Messiah as a King and Conqueror, are not to be taken literally, but that they foretell the coming of Jesus Christ, to be a spiritual Leader and Head of the Church-nevertheless, with singular inconsistency, hold to a part of the literal prophecy, and still believe in the actual restoration of the Jewish people to the land of Canaan.

Our first point, in treating this subject, will be to show, both from reason and Scripture itself, that the prophecies in regard to the restoration of the Jewish nation cannot be literally understood; and, in the second place, to consider what is meant by the restoration of the Jews, in the true spiritual sense.

And, first of all, it is to be kept in mind that, if a prophecy be taken according to the letter, it must be wholly taken; we cannot receive a part, and reject a part, at pleasure. With this understanding, let us examine these prophecies. In the first place, the prophecies affirm that not only the Jews that happen to be living at the time of the supposed restoration, will be brought back, but all that have ever lived; that all the dead will be raised up out of their graves, and brought into the land of Israel. Thus in the prophecy of Ezekiel (xxxvii. 11 to 15):— "Then He said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel; behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost;

we are cut off for our parts. Therefore, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, and shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live; and I shall place you in your own land." Now it may be shown that, at the very least calculation, there must have lived, even since the time of Moses, more than 300,000,000 of Jews (or Israelites). This great number, then-equal to about one-third the present population of the globe, are to be crowded into that small territory of Canaan, an area of 16,000 square miles,about twice the size of the state of New Jersey or the principality of Wales. This reckoning would give a population of about 18,000 to a square mile over the whole country. Now when we consider that the population of England, dense as it is, numbers only between two and three hundred to the square mile, we are left to imagine what would be the state of things with such a population as that just mentioned. The whole land would be one vast city, and under such circumstances they would indeed again need (as formerly in the wilderness) to be fed from heaven, for surely there would be no room to raise food out of the earth.

But this is not all: the whole prophecy has not yet been declared. The prophecies go on to affirm, that not only the past, but all future generations to eternity are to dwell in the same land. In the same chapter of Ezekiel, after declaring that the children of Israel should be gathered in from every side, and brought into their own land," it is added, in the 25th verse-" And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt ; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children, for ever; and my servant David shall be their prince for ever." Now, can this possibly be understood according to the letter? Is any land but heaven capable of holding all the generations of men, of any nation, that will exist to eternity? But if it should be said, that they need not be confined within the borders of that land strictly, but may spread forth from it, as from a centre, then it may be asked, What must follow? Why, plainly, that they must push out and exterminate gradually all other nations, till the whole earth would be inhabited by Jews-and Jews alone! Are we prepared to believe and expect this? Yet this result must follow, if the prophecies are to be literally fulfilled. We cannot adopt so absurd an alternative. Hence we must conclude that the prophecies in regard to the restora