our heads wisdom from the Lord ruling and blessing our whole soul.

Take another instance of the conjoining property of salt. In the manufactures of soap, so extensively carried on in this town, the two principal ingredients employed are fat, or oil, and water. Now oil and water, of themselves, cannot be made to unite; it is impossible. Introduce a salt-potash, and they will mix with the greatest readiness, and form soap, an article so essential for cleanliness and comfort. In this case, as in the former, salt is the conjoining medium. Fat and oil correspond to good, and water to truth. And as oil and water cannot be united without a medium-salt, so also good and truth cannot form a one, so as to be the means of purifying our hearts, unless they be united with a heavenly salt-a holy desire. We may have what the world calls goodness; we may have truths in abundance; but unless we have this spiritual desire-this desire of good and truth, and thus unite truth in the understanding with good in the will, we shall remain unwashed and unprepared for heaven: while on the other hand, if good and truth be united by the salt of desire, then we shall stand at the last with those who have washed their robes-who have purified their hearts. Again; the salt of holy desire not only conjoins the principles of good and of truth in the minds of individuals, but it is also the grand connecting medium by which Christians are united together in church-fellowship. Without this salt, we may assemble together in the same place, join externally in the same prayers and praises, hear the same sermons, be called by the same name, profess the same faith, and still be internally disunited. We may profess to believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only God of heaven and earth, see the errors of the Old Church, and be able to vindicate the doctrines of the New Dispensation; but if we have no desire to live the life of truth-to put on the beautiful garments of Jerusalem, by uniting the acknowledgement of truth in the mind with the love of God and of our neighbour in the heart,' how can we be truly members of the New Jerusalem?

A mere profession of truth will never unite a man with his brother: there must be the desire of truth and of good; especially should this affection be in activity when assembled in holy worship. The Word of the Lord is imperative,-" Every oblation of thy meat-offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat-offering. With all thy offerings thou shalt offer salt." And if we obey this command, there will then be no separations, no divisions, no contention, no ill-feeling,

no party-spirit, no jealousy; but the "brethren will dwell together in unity:" having "salt in ourselves," we shall be at peace one with

another.

Again. The existence of this spiritual salt in our minds, will give efficiency to all our aim at usefulness. Certain metals, copper, zinc, for instance, and leather, placed in water, will produce a galvanic effect; but it will be very feeble. Dissolve a salt in the water; introduce nitric acid, or the acetous acid, and the effect will be very powerful. Just so it is in spiritual things. If we have salt in ourselves, although our numbers may be few and our means limited, we shall produce the best of ends, with the most powerful effects. Our works will be labours of charity-deeds of love, and we shall operate powerfully on all those 'whose hearts God hath stirred up.' Again, By this holy medium all the inhabitants of all the heavens form a One; the inhabitatants of heaven are all closely united together. What is it that conjoins them? It is the salt of pure desire. One heart, one soul pervades all the angelic host. There no one lives to himself; there separate interests are unknown; but each believes and acts upon the principle that it is more blessed to give than to receive.' Thus desire, like salt, has a conjoining principle.

4. Salt excites the appetite by making food savoury. If food be eaten. without salt, without a relish, an appetite for it, it does not so fully give its nutritious properties, or incorporate with the body. The same is true spiritually. If the good and truth of the holy Word be received without relish or savour—without the salt of desire, it cannot be incorporated with the life; because nothing can live in a man but what he loves-but what he receives with affection, with spiritual relish and savour.

Lest this paper should be extended to a wearisome length, I would merely observe—

5. Salt has a purifying quality. This is well known to refiners of metals, &c. &c. So it is with the desire of truth for good.

6. Salt has a fiery principle. And what is desire? The very fire of love.

Thus it is very evident that salt corresponds to desire for as salt has a preserving principle; a fructifying principle, a conjoining principle, a purifying principle, and a fiery principle, and also renders food savoury; so also desire. By desire, the truth and the good in our minds are preserved from corruption; we are fruitful in every good work; the heavenly marriage of good and truth is celebrated; and we are adorned with the rings, the jewels, the beautiful crown of wisdom, love, and

use. We enjoy the pleasant sight of brethren dwelling together in unity; we extend the sphere of the New Jerusalem; the truths of the holy Word become incorporated in our life; we are refined from all unholy loves; we are saved from lukewarmness, and burn with holy heavenly love. "Have salt in yourselves." Birmingham.

J. SIDNEY.

HEAR THE CHURCH.

THE watchword of the day in the clerical world, appears to be, "Hear the church." To the definite article a strong emphasis is given, and the words are pronounced with an elevation of voice, and sometimes with a gravity of tone, by lips ecclesiastic, which, as it passes reverberant in lines of reflection from point to point of the sacred edifice, seems to say in babbling echoes, "The Church,-the Church of England." The words, the church, from frequent repetition, are become so familiar to the ear, whether read from the gospels, epistles, or the sermon, that, with the idea of exclusiveness so often taught to be annexed thereto, the mind roves not beyond the pale of this contracted sphere. But should we concede to the postulatum of its apostolicity*, still it would be but a comparatively small branch. Yet, greater stress could not be laid upon the words even if Paul or Peter had addressed an epistle exclusively to the Church of England by name. Alas for the orthodox! It was not in being. But now it is "divided against itself." Their contentions respecting Peter, or Paul, as to which is the patron saint, or Primitive Primate, is of little importance:-some incline to Peter only; others to both. It would be well if such as cry, Hear the Church," in the restricted sense above named, would hear Peter with attention, where he says, "There were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in dangerous heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them." "And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you." (The epistle is general.) Let such as incline to both, as

*If the full and entire meaning of the term episcopal succession were, that since the time of the apostles there have existed an uninterrupted series of men called bishops, this would be a true statement. Still, it must be remembered that in this sense, the fact of a presbyterial deaconical succession would be quite as capable of proof as episcopal succession." Hints for the Revival of Scripture Principles in the Anglican Church. By the Rev. George Bird, Rector of Cumberworth. (A recent work.)

having equal share in founding the Church in England, hear Paul also;-"Be not HIGHMINDED, but fear: for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them." The last state of the first Christian Church and the beginning of the new, is predicted by our Lord in the 24th chapter of Matthew throughout. It is indeed said in the 22nd verse, "Except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." Yet, upwards of seventeen centuries elapsed between the prediction, and the last judgment in the spiritual world; on the accomplishment of which, the new heaven was formed by the Lord. But as in the divine idea there is no time,-as 66 one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day;" therefore the idea is transfered from time, to state; and the state of that church, with the absolute certainty of its dissolution is involved in the words. And now we "Hear the Church," Sabbath after Sabbath, unconsciously sounding its own funeral knell:-not indeed by publishing "that which is noted in the scriptures of truth," but by sounding in the mind's ear those doctrines and dogmas, as necessary to salvation, which the scriptures disclaim.

Where then (it may be asked) is THE Church, i. e. the True Christian Church,-or, the Lord's New Church? The earth is its basis: the whole world, its circumference: its descent, from heaven. It is not therefore confined to one particular country, or kingdom, or empire, or people. The church universal, is, in the sight of the Lord, as one man. That which constitutes heaven, constitutes the church in man; for," the kingdom of God is within you." Herein is the very internal essence of the church: the church in its vitality, or spiritual life; and how consistent, how harmonious, and attractive, it then appears, when brought forth into the ultimates of order, or established in an external form also.* This has been done in England, Scotland, France, and especially in the western hemisphere, and we have occasionally the glad tidings of its progress wafted across the Atlantic.

*"Those who worship from obedience and faith, constitute the external church. To desire and love truth and goodness, and to act under that influence, is the internal of the church. In order that a man may become a church, his external must act in unity with his internal." E. S.

But we rejoice to know that the doctrines of the True Christian Religion are received in other countries in Europe as well as in many parts of Great Britain, where the New Church has not, at present, assumed an external form. Nor is the African quarter of the globe to be omitted. Even there, where neither Peter nor Paul had preached, -even there,—not on its shores, but in a more central position, the church exists, in its internal quality. There the new revelation of genuine truth has long been imbibed, and retained, and is preserved, and nourished, by the perpetual descent of genial influences from heaven. The ministring spirit of an Augustine from the world of departed spirits, as one of the mediums adapted to the peculiar states and genius of that people, has been one of the conveyancers of spiritual influences to them from the angelic heavens, derived through those heavens from the Lord. Of good spirits attendant on man, it is written, "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to them that shall be heirs of salvation?" These heavenly influences, like the rays of heaven's sun, replete with light and life, passing through incumbent clouds of mental darkness spread like a veil over this nether world, finds, as it were, its local point where those of Africa's sons are unprejudiced and glad recipients of its spiritual light and heat; and from that point, by continuity, gradually widens its circumference as the wheels of time roll on.

Is not then the church universal? In this sense it is catholic, but not in the now disreputable sense of the word, made so by its misapplication to those churches which are based on truths perverted, and doctrines drawn from thence. And if the term orthodoxy means "soundness in opinion and doctrine," then is the New Church orthodox also. The whole world is its locality,-yea, worlds. In reference to this earth, "Its sound is gone forth into all lands, and its words unto the end of the world." It has described a wider circle than did the first christian church in the same given period of time. Who shall then calculate its numbers? Its true members are known only to the Lord. Or who can say what its numbers may be in the year 3618,

* Augustine, Bishop of Hippoo in Africa, embraced Christianity when in the thirtythird year of his age, or in the sixty-second year after the council of Nice, when by endeavouring to steer clear of the Scylla-rock of Arianism, they fell into the Charybdis-gulph of Tri-personalism. Thus he embraced Christianity as he found it, viz., in its corrupted form; after which he lived forty-three years. He wrote in defence of the doctrine of predestination, drawn from a few passages of Paul's Epistles misunderstood. But after his decease (A.D. 430), it would appear from the manner in which he is mentioned by E. S., that, like Luther and others, he had abandoned these errors of the understanding; and as good in the will had the ascendency over the mind, he ultimately received the essential truths and doctrines of the New Dispensation of Christianity.