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especially the Missionary Institution, whose claims we at present are advocating, we concentrate our individual efforts, and our activity in the good cause is far more effective in promoting the work we have to accomplish.

"The uses of this institution have now for nearly thirty years been very considerable, although the sphere of operation has not been so extended as we could wish. The societies of the New Church in Lancashire and its neighbour hood have, from time to time, been greatly assisted by means of this institution, and its operations have rendered an effective service, through the divine blessing, to the holy cause which it is our privilege to advocate. We have, indeed, great cause for thankfulness, that so much has been already done. For new societies have been formed through the agency of this institution, which, as new centres, have again propagated the light of truth in their immediate neighbourhood. The good, however, which we can accomplish is but very small compared with what might be done, if our hands were strengthened with more abundant When we consider the great number of places throughout the kingdom, in which the doctrines of the New Church have never been made known, and in which vast multitudes of people are languishing in spiritual darkness, we find it to be our most urgent and imperative duty to impress the claims of this institution upon the attention of our brethren in every part of the kingdom. We have missionaries able and willing to deliver lectures on the principal doctrines of the New Church; but we have not means to send them. In the language

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of the apostle, we may consequently say, 'How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard, and how shall they hear without a preacher, and how shall they preach except they be sent ?'

"Another important reason why the Missionary Institution has, at the present time, very strong claims upon our zea

lous efforts, arises from its connexion with the Tract Society. These are two kindred institutions, and they mutually assist each other. Indeed, the Missionary Society may be considered as the principal organ for carrying out the objects of the Tract Society; since missionaries can distribute tracts with advantage on their excursions, or after they have delivered lectures, when the minds of people are more disposed to read concerning the subject they have heard. Thus the labours of our missionaries will become far more effective, being aided by the Tract Society, than they ever were at any former period. And this fact we must particularly urge upon the attention of our brethren as a great inducement for more strenuous exertions in behalf of this institution.

"It should also be remembered that Manchester is the centre of a vast population, and that the facilities for travelling are now so great and convenient that missionaries can easily, and without personal inconvenience, proceed from place to place to preach the glad tidings of the everlasting gospel of peace. Such facilities of travelling could not be thought of at the commencement of this society. Thus a merciful Providence is, in different ways, facilitating the intercoure between man and man, and, in this manner, eminently preparing the way for the propagation and reception of truth. This is another powerful inducement why we should exert ourselves at the present time in supporting the uses of this institution.

"The committee have, during the past year, made an appeal, by circular, to the Church at large, in order to extend the sphere of its operations, and to render its uses more effective and permanent. The answers returned to this appeal are highly gratifying, as expressive of the cordial approbation and co-operation of the different societies addressed."

N.B. Subscriptions will be thankfully received by Mr. J. Broadfield, Treasurer, Cateaton Street, Manchester.

ERRATUM IN OUR LAST No.-In the Elegy on Mrs. Coulson the 3rd line of the 2nd stanza should be— Spurn, O my soul, the tragic gloom!

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ON THE COMPARATIVE INEFFICACY OF THE GOOD OF THE EXTERNAL MAN.

WE know that there are both an internal and an external in the church; and that the former consists of the internal things of faith and love, and the latter, of the external things of worship and obedience. Internal members of the church, are those who are principled in internal things, and thence in external; external members are those who regard externals only, although doctrinally they may express a respect for internal things. So long as there exist in the church internal men, external men take or borrow a kind of internal influence from those who are internal, whereby their external worship is kept in some degree alive; but when the genuine internal things of the church cease to be at all regarded, and internal men in consequence pass away, external men, for the most part, lapse into a state of merely external worship, separate from the internal worship of faith and love, and which is, viewed essentially, hypocritical worship; while those who should have been internal men, (from having the capacity to become so,) become more deeply confirmed than others in dense falsehood and evil.

Hence it appears, how essential it is to the perpetuity of a church, that it should possess internal men, who chiefly cultivate internal principles, and thence external things corresponding with them; because external observances without internal principles, are dead; and those who exclusively cultivate them, do not receive divine influx in such a manner and degree, as to constitute them, by themselves, a true and living church, that is, an efficient medium of conjoining heaven with earth, and of consociating angels with men.

Internal men possess essentially active principles, for of this character are faith and love; but external men, even at the best, are rather passive in their character than active; and their good, consequently, is rather negative than positive, for it consists in a relatively imperfect NEW SERIES. NO. 35.-VOL. 3.

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negation of evil, (imperfect for want of a genuine internal,) rather than a positive, animated, intelligent, and constant determination towards good, such as distinguishes truly internal men. There are, however, two classes of external men, and both sincerely religious, but in different degrees; those who practise abstinence from evil willingly, or desire to do so; and those who practise it reluctantly, without desiring to do better:-the former class pass on to the reception of internal good, but the latter do not.

External men, whose external worship is grounded in some general but conscientious doctrinal convictions, and who have a reverential though somewhat superficial respect towards internal principles, are a respectable portion of the true church; but, neverthless, their nega tive state of mind, arising from the feebleness and poverty of the interior rational principle, involves so much of spiritual impotency, that a church composed only of such members, could not possibly abide, but must soon pass away. Such characters as these, are by no means those who are called by the Lord, "the salt of the earth."

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The defect in negative good, is seen in the inability of external Christians to undertake all their duties actively, zealously, and wisely; such as to advise in difficulty; to teach and lead their neighbours in the way of truth and goodness; and especially to train up their children intelligently, and so that they can firmly grasp, and truly estimate principles, which, indeed, such parents are little solicitous about forming in themselves; and hence, they are content with giving their children the benefit of their own outward example, leaving them to follow it up by the mere force of imitation, irrespective of the proper principles of faith and love, from which the internal Christian is accustomed to act, and which alone, gives to the outward conduct the genuine stamp of consistency and heavenly beauty.

At the present day, there exists a lamentable ignorance of sound principles, both from the cause assigned above, and from the universal neglect of every thing approaching to a sound, mental, and moral philosophy. Hence it is, that, in the sections of the Old Christian Church, which, at the best, consists of sincere external men, while the bulk consists, on the one hand, of mere professors, and on the other, of confirmed lovers of the false, who have succeeded the extinct internal men. There is a sad falling away from the wise and virtuous training of children, who are now expected to follow the example of the outwardly virtuous, without any just idea what virtue is internally, and thus what it really is. Such an unreasonable expectation cannot of course, be realized. As well might the fruits of the earth be

expected to be yielded, without first sowing the seed in the prepared ground, as to expect consistent morality without a previous insemination of sound moral truths. Moral men whose good is only external and negative, obtain no uniform and efficient power over the wills and understandings of their children, and therefore, so soon as the wills and understandings of the latter take a decided bias towards the world and self-will, by the kindling of their selfish propensities and passions at mature age, the parents no longer retain a hold upon them, and all the habits formed by the young people's attendance on worship, because it furnished nothing definite and abiding to their understandings and affections, become dissipated, like a body bereft of its soul.

This declension in the education of children in the Old Church, is the necessary result, first, of the defective public teaching of those who are not in internal good, because not principled in genuine truth; and, secondly, of the absence of the inculcation of sound principles by parents, owing to their being themselves only in external worship without internal, or else in good, which, having no positive existence, through the want of an interior active principle of goodness and truth, is only of a negative character; or else they are confirmed in dense falses.

But how is the case with our own friends, who are avowedly members of the New Church?

First in regard to our own preaching, and in reference to the case of parents among our hearers, who are only in external and negative good, and thus are in no adequate power to lead their children to genuine principles, and thence habits. "Is the preaching amongst us, it may be asked, so generally adapted to the capacities of children, in whole or in part, as at all to supply the deficiency of parental culture ?" Whether the preaching be of this simple and practical character or not, it seems very desirable that it should be.

In the beginning of a church whose genius is of an ascending kind, and whose destiny it is to commence from winter, and gradually advance to spring, without any possibility of winter ever overtaking it again, there must necessarily be found many members who are as yet external men, and whose good is therefore negative, rather than positive, passive, rather than active; being of the nature of external habit and imitation, (though taking its form, in some measure, from outward doctrinal impressions,) rather than of faith internally, living from, and working by, the impulse of vital love. Such persons may set a good example in a general way, to their children, but it is formed (though

not void of religious sincerity) more after the world's pattern than that heavenly one which is only first seen clearly, when it is revealed to the interior perceptions of truth, joined with, and originating in, the pure affections of goodness. This defect in parental example, is soon discovered by children, who, when they see the parental devotion balanced, as it were, between the law as laid down in "respectable society," and the law of God as contained in the Word, will be naturally prompted by their yet selfish state, to prefer the former, and take it up for their law, and along with it, it is to be feared, they will borrow from the world's example, certain attendant defects, which the parent's regard to the law of God caused to be cast aside.

Decision in religion, is the only ground of a religious decision of character; and decision in religion includes, first, a determination to attain a clear and certain definition of what religion really is in all its particulars; and, secondly, a determination to conform to it invariably. These two things united, alone constitute a determined devotion of the understanding and will to the Lord; and this is the only groundwork of an internal Christian, the basis of internal, spiritual, active, and intelligent GOOD.

The defect above described, as adhering to external but sincere Christians, can only be cured, or guarded against, by the cultivation of decision of character in religious respects; in first ascertaining to the full what is right and best, and then, adhering to it in practice, with conscientious determination. With characters not thus formed, it requires but little attraction in another direction to lead them away from the rugged path of duty, a path always rugged in the view of the spiritually indolent. Easily can they arrive at the conclusion, that the practice of a duty insisted on by those who are internal men, is not of so much consequence to be performed as those persons suppose, and therefore that it is of no great consequence if it be left undone. And thus the loose cords of conscience are allowed to relax themselves, and flap about with the wind of inclination, tightening a little now and then, under the immediate influence of some painful dispensation of Providence,-only, alas! to become, when the impression on the surface of the character has passed away, looser than ever! But the worst result is to the children of these negatively good parents. And what can be done for them? Certainly, nothing effectual, without the parent's concurrence. And how is this to be obtained? Seeing no defect in their own management, they are likely enough to regard advisers, however kind and prudent, as intruders, perhaps, even, as impertinent intruders. If any thing can be

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