may thankfully regard and accept fermented wine in its widest acceptation as a gift of God to man, and yet, although admitting temperance and self-command to be in the highest place, adopt the lower plane of total abstinence for the sake of the weak, avoiding at the same time judgment of those who, in accordance with conscience, judgment, and reason, adopt another course as not calculated to promote their own happy usefulness." In what sense can this be considered as an "attack" on total abstinence? It puts forth the opposite view,. and gives reasons for holding it; but surely nothing could be more temperate in its tone or more friendly in its feeling. This called forth replies from Mr. Deans and from " 'H.," which were at once admitted. Whether both these replies were equally temperate, we leave our readers to decide. But the matter, not the manner, is the principal point. Our correspondent "S. T." grounded his views on the correspondence of fermentation. Our correspondent "H." endeavoured to show that fermentation was an evil, and could not have a good correspondence. Believing that the doctrines of the New Church are those contained in the Word, and explained in the Writings of Swedenborg, the principal object of our remarks in the May number was to show what his teaching on the analogy of fermentation is, and that it is true. Mr. Deans says that "the remarks in the Intellectual Repository on the correspondence of fermentation are, in my opinion, outside the real question." Why, then, was the subject introduced? Our remarks were made to remove an objection to the soundness of Swedenborg's teaching on the subject. And we think they have established this, that while the ferment has a bad correspondence, fermentation has a good correspondence, and so therefore has the juice of the grape which is fermented.

Our friend is also of opinion that Swedenborg's practice of taking wine does not any more than his practice of taking snuff establish a principle. We think it does establish a very important principle, the principle of liberty. Swedenborg knew of no principle that required him to take either wine or snuff; on the other hand, he knew of no principle that required him to abstain from them; but he knew of a principle that left him at liberty to take them or to abstain from them as he chose. And this is the principle which both his teaching and example should commend to the members of the New Church. This principle of liberty is also a principle of toleration. The liberty which every one has a right to claim for himself, he is bound to award to his brother. Mr. Deans hopes that good may result from the ventilation of this subject in the pages of the Magazine. The discussion will not have been in vain if it establish the principle that, in the matter of choosing or refusing, every man has a right to judge for himself, but no man has a right to judge his brother. There are some, at least, who think that temperance is not only the right principle, but the best example. If others think that total abstinence is the best or the only hopeful means of reproving the world of the sin of drunkenness, let them adopt it, and use all legitimate means to bring others over to their views and practice.-ED.]

Miscellaneous.

for the publication of translations of the Word, and thus elementary teaching and Bible reading go hand in hand with foreign missions. Among the most interesting, therefore, of these meetings is that of the

British and Foreign Bible Society.The report of this Society, among other interesting particulars, stated that in France, and Paris in particular, the circulating work had been eminently successful. At the Exhibition of this year 110,000 copies of the Scripture were given away, and 1700 sold. In Germany 354,000 parts of Scripture have been in different ways distributed, of which as many as 100,000 were entire copies, by the sixty-five colporteurs employed by Mr. Davies for the Society. To the Russian army the large number of nearly half a million books had been circulated at a cost of at least £24,000. The free income of the Society for the year ending March 1879 has amounted to £96,426, whilst the sum received for Scriptures sold, both at home and abroad, has reached £106,168, which, with £136 received on account of a special fund for Indian colportage, £399 for work at the Paris Exhibition, and £10,180 in response to the committee's special appeal, makes a total of £213,811. The expenditure had amounted to £223,476, being £4389 less than last year.

MAY MEETINGS.-The month of May is distinguished by the holding of the annual Assemblies of the great philanthropic and Christian institutions of this country. Not fewer than a hundred of these anniversaries are held during this and the adjoining months in the large halls and other public buildings of the metropolis. Reports and speeches of various degrees of length and excellence are given, and large numbers of interested and often enthusiastic supporters assemble to learn the results of their efforts and the prospects of their continued labours. Amid some movements that are pretentious and of questionable utility, there is much in which is combined strong religious feeling with enlightened Christian sentiment. Nearly all these institutions have sprung into existence since the middle of the last century. They rose amidst the darkness which then overspread the Church, and were cradled in the tempest of resentful hostility, by which they were received by the ungodly and the unwise. Many of them were protests against the selfishness and crime of the age in which they arose, and others, looking afar over the widespread desolation, organized institutions which were to disseminate the living truths of the Word of God to the ends of the earth. In this sublime mission the great missionary societies cooperate with that noblest of all modern The total issues of the Society institutions, the British and Foreign for the year amounted to 3,340,995 Bible Society. However mistaken the copies of Bibles, Testaments, and creeds of the Churches from which the portions, of which number 1,415,219 missionaries proceed, they soon discover were from the depôt at home, and that their work among the heathen 1,925,781 from the foreign depôt. The necessitates the translation and diffusion total issues of the Society from its comof the written Word of God. "The mencement now amount to 85,388,057 Bible," it has been said, "is the reli- copies. More than eight and a half mil gion of the Protestants.' Without it lions sterling have been spent by it in the Protestant missions attain no permanent work of translating, revising, printing, establishment in any part of the earth. and disseminating the Scriptures. There No sooner is the work of foreign is hardly a country in the globe which missions rooted among any people has not felt the influence of the Society. than attention is directed to a transla- Not only does it possess agents and tion of the Scriptures into the native correspondents, colporteurs and depôts language, and the establishment of in every part of Europe, but it is workschools to teach the art of reading and ing as the handmaid of all the great other elementary branches of education. missionary societies among the most The aid of the British and Foreign distant nations of the earth. Syrians Bible Society is always willingly given and Persians, Indians and Chinese,

Wesleyan Missionary Society. — A very brief abstract of the report of this Society was read by the secretary, from which it appeared that the total home receipts had been £124,350, and receipts from mission districts £8974. The expenditure was £157,217, thus leaving the Society considerably in debt. One

Abyssinians and Kaffirs, the islanders but they would not that the Church of Madagascar, New Zealand, and the Missionary Society should lag beSouth Seas, Mexicans and Esquimaux, hind." with many others, can say that through its means they hear in their own tongues the wonderful works of God. The average issues from the London depôts alone are about 5000 volumes a day, and from the various foreign depôts, taken together, the issues are still greater. Printing-presses are employed by the Society not only in London, of the principal scenes of labour of this Oxford, and Cambridge, but also at Society is Fiji, and the Society was Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Berlin, fortunate in securing the presence at Cologne, Frankfort, Leipsic, Vienna, their anniversary of the Hon. Sir A, Rome, Madrid, Lisbon, Copenhagen, Gordon, the Governor of Fiji. His Stockholm, St. Petersburg, Constanti- testimony to the use of the Wesleyan nople, Beyrout, Bombay, Madras, Cal- Mission is most emphatic: “Before this cutta, Shanghai, Cape Town, Sydney, mission, in the memory of living men, and other centres of activity. the condition of the people was that of perpetual tribal wars, cannibalism, infanticide, murder of widows, every kind of evil and wickedness perpetuated universally. Now, out of a population of something like 120,000, more than 102,000 are regular attendants at Wesleyan churches, and the remaining 18,000 are not heathen but for the most part members of other Christian Churches. Those who have not made open profession of Christianity are but a few old men here and there who are not to be considered or thought of when speaking of the Fijians as a people. The people of Fiji are now a Christian people. No doubt in some cases the profession of Christianity will be but slight and external. No doubt also, in many cases, their ideas of theology may be different from our own. I daresay that many Fijians habitually use words and expressions which we use, attaching to then very different meanings and ideas from those which are associated with them in our minds; but still the lives and hearts of thousands among them are really swayed and guided by Christian principles. Out of sixty-two ordained ministers, over fifty are natives. I have never yet been in a house in Fiji, and I have been in hundreds, in which I have not heard family worship carried on."

The Church Missionary Society.From the report of this Society we learn that the general expenditure during the year has been £189,598; the expenditure on account of the Victoria Nyanza Mission, much of it unexpected, but occasioned by the sad disaster at Ukerewe, £13,839; and on account of the East African Mission Fund, £748; making the total expenditure during the year £204,186, and leaving an excess of expenditure over income for the year of £16,951. In connection with the year's receipts, the committee have to record with thankfulness a second munificent gift from Mr. William Charles Jones, of Warrington, of £35,000, deposited in trust for the development of an evangelistic native agency in connection with the native Churches of India. The Church Missionary Society is supported chiefly by the evangelical section of the Church. The committee sympathize more with other evangelical bodies than members of the High Church. On this subject the report says: "The new missionfields opening up before the Society in Africa, in Central Asia, in China, make the committee feel as if in those great continents, with their teeming millions, the Church of Christ has yet done little more than obtain a footing, and that the real earnest attack must now begin. The committee rejoice that other societies are awaking to this and making organized efforts to share in the work. They rejoice greatly in these efforts; they desire, as far as possible, to co-operate with the authors of them;

SWEDENBORG SOCIETY.-The sixtyninth annual meeting of this Society will be held at 36 Bloomsbury Street, London, W.C., on Tuesday evening, June 17, 1879. The chair will be taken by the Rev. Dr. Tafel at seven o'clock precisely. The report of the committee

and the treasurer's account will be sub- the 30th of June form the fund available mitted to the members, and the officers for the following year, which is the for the ensuing year elected. A hand- second particular requiring attention. some marble bust of Swedenborg, exe- If the collection of this fund is neglected cuted for the Society by Preston Powers by the local committees, the means (son of the late Hiram Powers) of available for its use next year will be Florence, is expected to arrive in London wanting; and those who are now aided and in sufficient time to be unveiled at the encouraged by it will be deprived of its above meeting. The bust is the joint gift advantages. We cannot, therefore, too of the Rev. A. Clissold and Miss Clissold, earnestly call the attention of those who and its presentation furnishes additional are appointed to collect this sum in our evidence, were it needed, of the unfalter several Societies to the importance of ing interest Mr. Clissold and his sister immediate action. The eminent usetake in the Society's prosperity. The com- fulness of this fund must, we think, be mittee have much pleasure in stating that admitted by all thoughtful inquirers. Mr. Clissold has promised, if his health There is quite a number of our Societies permit, to be present on the occasion, and who are aided by it; and the worldly to prepare a short paper upon a subject position of several of the ministers, of interest to the members, to be read though far from what the best friends of before them. Invitations to address the the Church desire, is yet thereby very meeting have been issued to several sensibly improved. There are difficulties gentlemen not directly connected with this year, arising from general commercial the New Church, but whose sympathies depression and other causes, in the way are with its principles; and every effort of collecting this and other benevolent will be made to make the meeting both funds. But these difficulties are not interesting and useful. The committee greater in the New Church than in other therefore hope that members and friends Christian communities; and it is a will by their presence heartily respond remarkable sign of the times that so to the efforts which will be made to general a feeling has prevailed that in strengthen the Society's position in the the midst of straitness, the Church shall religious world. Subscriptions which not be crippled in her action. have not been paid to the collectors ligion, at all times essential to the should now be sent without delay to the wellbeing of man, is not less necessary agent, Mr. J. Speirs, 36 Bloomsbury in the periods of adversity. The Free Street, London, W.C., otherwise mem- Church of Scotland, with which a fund bers will not be entitled to vote. of this kind had its beginning, was reported in April to have received for ten months the sum of £133,615. In the corresponding period of the previous year the receipts amounted to £138,302. There was, therefore, a falling off, but considering the scenes of pecuniary anxiety through which so many people in Scotland have been passing, it speaks volumes for the religious faith and earnestness of the people that the decline should have been so comparatively small. A Sustentation Fund was established a few years ago among the Wesleyans. Its object was to augment the stipends of ministers in poor circuits, and, as far as possible, to secure to each of the ministers in full connection a minimum amount of £140. The income of this fund during the past year in the manufacturing districts of Lancashire and Yorkshire seems to have been pretty well kept up, and there are few, if any, of the ministers in these districts whose stipends will fall below the

AUGMENTATION FUND.-One of the rules adopted by the Conference for the management of this fund is the following: 264. The financial year shall begin on the 1st day of July and end on the 30th day of June ensuing, and the moneys received in the interim of these dates shall constitute the fund available for distribution during the following year." This rule involves two particulars which require the thoughtful attention of members of the New Church. The first is the time of closing the account of the year's subscriptions. Societies are so apt to regard the assembling of the Conference as a convenient time of paying subscriptions to the treasurer, that they may easily overlook the requirements of this rule. And if the rule is to be strictly carried out, it is most important that the subscriptions should be collected in good time. The subscriptions received on or before

Re

minimum amount. The inquiries of the General Conference of the New Church showed that it would not be possible at present to reach the minimum adopted by the larger Christian communities. Ministers of the New Church have had, and will still have to practise great self denial. A minimum of £120 it was Joped might be raised, and the effort made by the several Societies is to accomplish this object. It cannot, at present, be uniformly attained, but something is being done towards it; and by a more general and earnest support of the fund the first proposal of the Conference may be accomplished, and the Church prepared to raise its standard of ministerial remuneration. The accomplishment of this purpose is quite as much in the interest of the lay members of the Church as of the ministers. There is no surer evidence of our interest in an institution than our willingness to practise self-denial in its support. And there is no greater assurance that we have profited by the work of the ministry, and have learned to rightly estimate its importance and value, than the fact that we are prepared to cheerfully contribute of our worldly substance for the support of the preachers. This fund affords a ready means of doing this. While it accepts the offering of the poor it appeals especially to the rich. Those to whom the great Head of the Church has given largely of this world's goods, can in no way better show their gratitude for His Divine gifts than by their contributions to the exalted use of keeping open the sanctuaries of New Church worship, and preaching the Gospel of the Second Advent to the world. We appeal, therefore, to all the members and friends of the New Church to aid this important fund, and to do so quickly.

MANCHESTER PRINTING AND TRACT SOCIETY.-The annual meeting of this Society was held in the schoolroom, Irwell Street, Salford, on Tuesday evening, May 11th. A numerous party sat down to tea, and at seven in the evening the chair was taken by James Fletcher, Esq. of Kearsley. The first business was the reading of the report, which stated that 5851 tracts had been issued during the year to subscribers, 2211 sold, and 7157 distributed in grants. Of the circulation of books, 587 had gone to subscribers, 528 were sold, 557 issued in

66

grants. These issues give a total of 15,219 tracts and 1672 books. These totals are, in the Tract department, less than last year, when the issues reached 18,650; in the Book department there is a small increase, the issues last year were 1295. Grants of books have been made to the Free Libraries of Manchester and Salford. Two of the tracts have been reprinted, and one new tract, entitled Eternal Hope," has been published. This has also been published in pamphlet form, and offered gratuitously to the clergy through some of the more popular religious newspapers. One hundred and eighty applications were made and complied with. From the treasurer's report it appeared that the subscriptions had amounted to £61, 8s. 6d. The income from all sources was £165, 13s. 9d., and the expenditure £155, 14s. 1d. At the close of the reading of the report, the chairman addressed the meeting. “I have accepted," he said, "my present position with considerable reluctance, being to some extent unacquainted with the practical working of this Society. Its name, however, sufficiently indicates its purpose; and is suggestive, too, of some peculiarities in New Church history and organization, to which I would briefly refer. When we glance at the history of the religious bodies around us, we find that they have mostly originated in the labours of great preachers; who, travelling from place to place, have organized small bands of followers, which in some instances (as in the case of the Wesleyans) have become a power in the land. The New Church has its beginning in writings-the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg. But for these we should have no existence as a distinct body. This peculiarity still adheres to When we speak of any one who is favourably inclined to us, we say, 'He is reading our works!' Other bodies, equally true to their traditions, speak of their expected converts as attending their chapel. We are, therefore, following in the old path, when we meet to forward the interest and extend the usefulness of a Printing and Tract Society in connection with the New Jerusalem Church. If men are to be strong and useful members of this Church, they must become readers of its literature. When we circulate these books and tracts, we are scattering the seeds of

us.