struggle, disappointment, humiliation, all lightened and glorified as they were around him by the sunshine of such faith as can remove mountains, the true gold was purified seven times in the fire, till the very stroke of death itself, which overthrew at last all his cherished visions, even in that overthrow lost its terrors; for having truly lived unto the Lord, he felt, as his last utterance expressed, that dying he could but die unto the Lord, and so "Amen."

His life thus presents a two-fold lesson to all who can read it aright: First, as to the fatal and bewildering influences of that materialistic spirit which desires to find and fix even its God in the outer world of sensuous perception, (forgetful of the inevitable result; for when thus sought and found, what did man do with his God but crucify Him?) as contrasted with the elevating influences of that spiritual truth which teaches that we must suffer the Lord to transform us into His likeness instead of striving to drag Him down to ours: but Secondly, as to the blessed truth that pure heart-faith in the Lord, like that of this our brother, wildered though it may be for a season in the mists of error, the clouds of sense, can never really deceive or betray; for should it even, as in his case, be set on some consummation impossible here, the Lord has His Heaven ever open as its refuge, where the aspirations of all purified hearts attain to everlasting fruition.

M. C. H.

ON THE OBSERVANCE OF GOOD FRIDAY IN THE

NEW CHURCH.

In the New Church "all things are to be made new." Not only are the doctrines and principles of the church to be new, but its forms and observances, being thence derived, should be new also; as the soul of the church is new, so its body, or system of outward forms, should, in order to correspond to its soul, be also new. We should, therefore, not introduce into the New Church any of the forms or customs of the Old, without careful examination, lest there be contained therein some hidden root of falsity, from which they may have sprung. The Lord prophesied that "not one stone would be left upon another," by which was signified that, in the course of time, the Christian Church would be so corrupted that, not one genuine truth would be left remaining in it. This, as Swedenborg shows, has already come to pass. All the doctrines of genuine Christianity have become falsified; and as the outward springs from the inward, the form from the essence, hence very many of the forms and observances of the Old Church are contrary to order, partaking naturally of the falsities from which they have sprung.

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The observance of Good Friday is one of these, and a very prominent The marked attention paid to that day is the consequence of its representing a grand fundamental doctrine of the Old Church, viz., that in the Passion of the Cross consisted the very act of Redemption. On this point hear Swedenborg :

"That the Passion of the Cross is believed to have been Redemption itself, is a fundamental error of the church; and this error, together with the error concerning three Divine Persons from eternity, has perverted the whole church, so that nothing spiritual is left remaining in it. What at this day more fills and crams the books of orthodoxy, or what is more zealously taught and inculcated in the schools, and more frequently preached and proclaimed from the pulpits, than that God the Father, being enraged against the human race, not only removed it from Himself, but also concluded it under a universal damnation, and thus excommunicated it; but, because He is gracious, that He persuaded or excited His Son to descend and take upon Himself the determined damnation, and thus appease the anger of the Father; and that thus, and not otherwise, He could look upon men with some favour? Then that this also was done by the Son, who in taking upon Himself the damnation of the human race, suffered Himself to be scourged by the Jews, to be spit upon in the face, and then to be crucified as the accursed of God;' (Deut. xxi. 23.) and that the Father, after this was done, became propitiated, and from love towards His Son cancelled the sentence of damnation, but only in respect to those for whom He should intercede; and that He thus became a Mediator in presence of His Father for ever. These and similar things, at this day, sound in temples, and reverberate from the walls, like an echo from the woods, and fill the ears of all there. But cannot any one whose reason is enlightened and made sound by the Word, see that God is love and pity itself, because He is Love itself and Good itself, and that those are His essence; and that hence it is a contradiction to say that Mercy itself or Goodness itself can look upon man with anger, and decree his damnation, and still continue to be His own Divine essence? Such things are scarcely ever ascribed to a good man or an angel of heaven, but only to a wicked man or to a spirit of hell; wherefore it is abominable to ascribe them to God. But, if the cause be investigated, it is this, that they have taken the passion of the cross for redemption itself: thence have flowed those opinions, as, from one falsity falses flow in a continued series, for from established principle theorems of the same sort are deduced; they are included in it, and proceed from it one after another; and from this, concerning the passion of the cross, that it is redemption, still many more things, scandalous and dishonourable to God, may be derived, until it come to pass as Isaiah says 'The priests and the prophets err through strong drink; they stumble in judgment; all the tables are full of vomit.' (xxviii. 7, 8.)

"From this idea concerning God and concerning redemption, all theology has, from spiritual, become to the lowest degree natural; which is the case, because merely natural properties are attributed to God; and yet on the idea of God, and on the idea of redemption, which make one with salvation, everything of the church depends. For that idea is like the head, from which all the parts of the body are derived; wherefore, when that is spiritual, all things of the church become spiritual, and when that is natural, all things of the church become natural; hence, because the idea concerning God and concerning redemption has

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become merely natural, that is, sensual and corporeal, therefore all things which the heads and the members of the church have delivered and still deliver, in their dogmatical theology, are merely natural. The reason why nothing but falses can be derived thence, is, because the natural man continually acts against the spiritual, and thence he regards spiritual things as ghosts and phantoms of the air. Wherefore it may be said that, on account of that sensual idea concerning redemption, and thence concerning God, the ways to heaven, which are ways to the Lord God and Saviour, are beset with thieves and robbers. (John x.) That this idea concerning redemption and concerning God, pervades the faith of the present age, is known; for that faith is, that man should pray to God the Father that He would remit their sins for the sake of the cross and blood of His Son; and to God the Son, that He would pray and intercede for them; and to God the Holy Ghost, that He would justify and sanctify them. And what else is this, than to make supplication to three Gods in their order?" (T. C. R. 132, 133.) Such, then, is the doctrine which expresses of Good Friday. It is the grand fundamental falsity that the passion of the cross was redemption itself, which causes the Old Church in this country to pay so much regard to the observance of that day. Business is suspended, the shops are shut, the bells toll, and all crowd to the places of worship to hear proclaimed what is supposed to be the great fundamental truth of Christianity.

any

itself in the observance

Now, this doctrine we of the New Church know to be not a truth, but a deadly falsity, which has corrupted the very life of religion, and, as Swedenborg remarks, has from spiritual made it grossly natural. Does it become us, then, to unite in, or give countenance to, an observance which has so false a foundation? Does it not rather become us to testify our dissent by taking no part in such observance-by abstaining from the form as we object to the essence, by refraining from meeting for such celebration, founded as it is on a prominent falsity? But it may be said—" We do not open our churches on Good Friday to proclaim the false view, but to declare the true view of the subject." But I ask, Why open them at all on that day, unless it be in imitation of the Old Church? The true view of the crucifixion is, that it was one (though indeed the last and severest one) of the temptations which the Lord endured, and therefore that it contributed to our redemption only as one of long series of struggles, by which the Lord overcame the hells and glorified His Humanity. And, therefore, we might with equal propriety meet on a week-day to celebrate the anniversary of any other of the Lord's temptations, as that in the Garden of Gethsemane, or those of the forty days in the wilderness, or, indeed, any other of the Lord's acts; for they all contributed towards man's redemption. And such reasoning carried out would bring back again the whole series of feast-days observed in the Roman Catholic Church, of which this observance of Good Friday is merely a relic. Old men remember the time

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when Ash-Wednesday was almost as much observed as Good Friday; but the observance has, with advancing light, in great part died out; and as the light advances, and the genuine truth becomes known, the observance of Good Friday will die out also; and the New Church, which is now in possession of the genuine truth, should set the example.

Indeed, where the forms of Roman Catholicism have been extinguished, as in Scotland and America, no notice whatever is taken of Good Friday, except among a few Episcopalians. But the English Established Church was never more than half converted from Catholicism; it retains a great portion of her forms and observances, and, among them, the celebration of Ash-Wednesday, Holy Thursday, and Good Friday. The good Protestants of England little think, that while so devoutly engaged in paying observance to these days, and to the season of Lent also, they are merely obeying the behests of Popes and Roman Catholic Councils.

The truth is, the observance of days or anniversaries, in connection with the things of religion, is altogether natural and external, not spiritual. We have no command to meet together for public worship on any other day than the Lord's Day,-the Sabbath; and, in fact, it is impliedly forbidden that we should do so. The words are-" Ye shall not add to the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish from it." Now what is the command? It is-" Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." Here it is commanded that we should labour six days, and keep the seventh holy. If, then, we turn a day of work into a day of worship, we are disobeying a Divine command as much as if we turn the day of worship into one of work. The Lord, in His wisdom, saw, doubtless, that it was necessary for the support and bodily comfort of the great mass of the community, that they should pay attention for six days to their worldly business. And hence you find that where this command is disobeyed, as in Roman Catholic countries, where feast-days abound, idleness and poverty abound also. It is probable that no inconsiderable part of the wretchedness of Ireland is attributable to this cause. Any one who has travelled in that country, and seen the people idling and lounging about on these worship-days of mere human appointment, when they ought to be working, must have been convinced of this. And the same result follows, in a greater or less degree, wherever this abuse exists. On Good Friday, for instance, in England, the shops being shut and business suspended, millions lose the profits of this day's labour, which profits are, in numerous cases, needed for the support of their families.

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This is one injurious effect. Then, on the other hand, thousands more, who cannot work and will not worship, spend the day in idleness or dissipation. All this comes of adding to the Divine commandments, and appointing a day for worship which God never appointed. "Behold, saith the Lord, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams." (1 Samuel, xv. 22.)

From all these considerations, we are of opinion that Good Friday, or any other (so called) religious day of man's appointment, should not be observed by the New Church, but that we should rather take a stand against such observance. If we wish to call attention to the true meaning and purpose of the crucifixion, let it be done on the Sabbath preceding or following the anniversary of that event. But a more spiritual view is, not to regard anniversaries at all in the things of religion. Days and times are nothing in regard to such matters. The ministers of the New Church should, from time to time, without reference to days or seasons, set forth the true doctrine upon this and all other religious subjects, as the instruction of their people may require. And it may be added, that while the Old Church looks to the Lord crucified, the New Church looks rather to the Lord glorified, and reigning now in His Divine Humanity, "God over all, blessed for ever." London.

O. P. H.

THE GROUND OF AN HONEST AND GOOD HEART.

THE beautiful Essay on "Paradise," by that gifted writer Theophilus Parsons, suggests that we should each attempt to carry out for himself the endless correspondences presented by the cultivation and productions of the garden. As the culture of our mental garden should be the object of our life, no suggestion, however simple, that may tend to root out a weed, or remove a stone, or in any way to improve the soil, can be without its use. The soil itself is that to which we would at present turn our attention. What is that "ground of an honest and good heart,” in which alone the heaven-sown seed can take root, and produce, "some an hundred-fold, some sixty, some thirty"? If our original nature is altogether evil, whence is the good ground in which we can receive the precious seed? May we not find an answer in the means and processes by which the Creator produces a vegetable soil in the outer world, that living mirror in which the Lord pictures His saving operations in the human mind?

What and whence is the soil by which a luxuriant and fruitful vegetation is supported? Not the hard and solid rock, nor the loose and