"The chapel stands, with a certain quiet dignity, in the very centre of the square, which is surrounded on all sides with decent, sober-looking houses. It is a neat brick building, simple in its structure, and without much pretensions to architectural beauty. Yet the ample enclosure in which it stands, with its iron railing and green sward and double row of lime trees (the same species of tree, I observed, that lines the avenue to Shakspere's tomb at Stratford), sets off the building well, and gives it an air of neatness and even of elegance. The church is surmounted with a small belfry, above which is a lion, crowned and holding a shield, on which are delineated the Swedish arms. The same are also seen on the iron gate. Two trees stand near the outer gate, guarding as it were the entrance, and two also at the inner: the latter, as our conductor (an honestlooking Swede) informed us, are about sixty years old, and the building itself is a hundred and sixty, so that there is an air of moderate antiquity about the place. Within a second railing, and close around the chapel, are a few plain tomb-stones. recording names, strange to English ears, of native Swedes, who, like Swedenborg, have died in this foreign land. "We entered the chapel. The interior was very plain-fitted up with pews, and evidently intended but for a small congregation, yet doubtless sufficient for the few Swedes that are to be found even in this great city: for the Swedes are not often wanderers from their own land, comparatively cold and sterile as it is. On the left were a plain pulpit and desk, and not far off was the ambassador's pew, distinguished from the rest by its superior size and elegance. From the centre of the ceiling was suspended an antique brass chandelier, with the date '1770' inscribed upon it. On the wall, upon the left side of the chapel, hangs the Swedish escutcheon, bearing the motto-Spes Mea in Deo, 'My hope is in God'— a noble national motto. At the east end, over the altar, is a painting of the Lord's Supper, and, above it, a dove with an olive branch in its mouth; and still above that, the emblem of worship-an ascending flame. We were next conducted into the vestry, a neat room, hung round with portraits of former pastors, and one or two engravings of Swedish kings. "As we returned from the vestry, the sacristan, stepping in front of the altar, and setting his foot down firmly on the stone floor, exclaimed-' Underneath here is Swedenborg buried-just about here.' Close by, was a stone with an iron ring in it, which gives entrance to the vaults below, but which was then sealed up, and had not been lifted for many years. None but ministers of the chapel, Swedish ambassadors, and other persons of distinction, are here interred, the ordinary burying-place being on the outside of the building. We felt some inclination to descend into the vaults, and look with our own eyes upon the tomb, and, if possible, on the coffin which held Swedenborg's remains; but the entrance being closed up, our wish could not be gratified. * * "I could have wished there had been some tablet or inscription, to mark the spot where the body of this distinguished man lies.* The sight of his name on the stone would call up interesting associations. It would remind us that in this very place of worship Swedenborg had sat (for here, as one of his biographers informs us, he was in the habit of worshiping, at least occasionally), that his eyes had looked repeatedly on these very objects that were now before us-this altar, this * This want has since been supplied, a handsome marble tablet having been placed in the church. painting of the Lord's Supper, the dove with its olive branch, and the ascending flame. It would, moreover, assist our natural thoughts to realise that the 'fleshly tabernacle' in which he had dwelt on earth-the mortal frame in which he had walked during his eighty years' pilgrimage below-the head which had been his organ of thought-the very hand which had penned those immortal works-were all now near us, deposited beneath the very stone on which we were standing." Poetry. By the late F. O. FINCH. OUR SOCIAL STATE. We live as in a shadow bleak and cold, That hides the blessed sun. But some are bold And done as in the Heavens,-men will see CHARITY. Long hast thou trod the thorny ways of earth, One called Religion fills, whose alien birth Of Christian brotherhood; and hence the cheat And earth through thee her golden age regain! 84 MISCELLANEOUS. GENERAL CHURCH INTELLIGENCE, that the author has given two really INQUIRIES WITH ANSWERS. A correspondent writes-"In A. C. 10,355, the Israelitish dispensation is identified with the brazen or copper age, whereas in A. E. 411, we are told that 'by the belly and thighs (of Nebuchadnezzar's dream image), which were of brass, is signified the church which succeeded the ancient spiritual church;' and that by the legs and feet, which were part iron and part clay, is signified the Israelitish and Jewish church.' In this case there is a difference, amounting apparently to a contradiction, an explanation of which will doubless prove interesting to all the readers of the Intellectual Repository, especially so to 'A Student of the Writings.'' The difficulty forms a part, or arises out of two different explanations of the image of Nebuchadnezzar's dream. According to one of these explanations, the head of gold, the breast of silver, the belly and thighs of brass, and the legs and feet of iron, represent the church which has existed on this earth, as consisting of the most ancient, the ancient, the Hebrew, and the Israelitish dispensations; while according to the second explanation, the four parts of the image represent the church as consisting of the most ancient, the ancient, the Israelitish, and the Christian dispensations. If we take the two isolated passages cited by our correspondent, written at the distance of several years, and occurring in two separate works, it might seem at the first blush as if there might be an accidental discrepancy between them. But we find that the two explanations occur with sufficient frequency in the writings to make it evident that they were both quite familiar to the author's mind, in which they must have co-existed in perfect agreement with each other. The explanation given in 10,355 is found in other places, as in A. C. 9406, A. E. 176; while that given in A. E. 411 occurs also in several pas sages, as in T. C. R. 760, Coronis 2-4, A. R. 913. In one of these numbers (A. C. 9106), we find both of these explanations together; for after stating that the lowest part of the image represented the Israelitish church, the author remarks that a similar state of the church exists at this day. We do not suppose that our correspondent has any suspicion conflicting explanatious of the same passage of Scripture; but it is well to see from the author's own testimony that this cannot have been the case, and that there must have been a method in this apparent divarication. This is rendered still more certain by the fact that these two are not the only explanations of the king's dream given by the author in his writings. In A. C. 10,030, the image is said to signify the Grand Man, and in 2162 the signification is extended not only to the church on earth, but to its individual members. After explaining what principles are meant by the several parts of the image, from the head downwards, the author remarks that "this also is the order of their succession in the Lord's kingdom in the heavens, and in the church, which is the Lord's kingdom on earth; and also in every individual person who is a kingdom of the Lord." In other places, as A. C. 1837, 3021, the different parts of the image are explained to mean the successive states of each particular church, which we are informed in the Coronis are four; and each particular church, like the universal church, in its beginning is celestial,then becomes spiritual, and afterwards becomes natural. In several places, as in A. R. 717, the image is explained to mean the church called Babylon, in general and in particular; and the successive states of this church, or heresy, are meant by the several parts of the image, from the head of gold down to its toes of iron and clay. It appears, therefore, that there are at least six different explanations given, in the writings, of the image of Nebuchadnezzar's dream. It signifies: 1. The Grand Man, or the church in heaven; 2. The church on earth, from the beginning of the Adamic to the end of the Christian church; 3. The church from the Adamic to the end of the Israelitish church; 4. Each of these churches, from its beginning to its end; 5. The church or heresy which has arisen in each of these, called Babylon; 6. The church in the individual man, especially the man who becomes a spiritual Babylonian. We have spoken of these as different explanations, but they are only different applications of the same explanation; and these applications might be greatly MISCELLANEOUS. extended, for wherever there are analogous or homologous subjects the same principle and explanation applies to all. For example, the image signifies the Word, its head of gold the celestial sense, its breast of silver the spiritual sense, its belly and thighs of brass the internal historical sense, and its legs and feet of iron the literal sense; its real and apparent truths being the iron and clay, which mix but do not unite. These several explanations, therefore, which occur in the writings, are not differences, but varieties; and, so far from detracting from the unity and harmony of truth, but tend to increase them. We now come to consider more particularly the point which contains or forms our correspondent's difficulty. The Israelitish church is explained at one time as being meant by the brass, and at another time as being meant by the iron, of the image. When the image represents the church which closed at the Lord's first advent, the four dispensations which constitute it are the Adamic, the Noetic, the Hebrew, and the Israelitish; but when it represents the church which closed at the Lord's second coming, the four dispensations are the Adamic, the Noetic, the Israelitish, and the Christian. In this last series the Hebrew church is omitted, and the Israelitish is shifted back into its place, and puts on its representation, while the Christian church takes the place and puts on the representation of the Israelitish. On what principle is this, and how is it to be explained? When the dispensations which existed before the Lord's first advent are considered as forming one church, the Adamic and Noetic dispensations constitute its internal, and the Hebrew and Israelitish constitute its external-the Hebrew its external as to good, and the Israelitish its external as to truth-the one is then represented by the brass and the other by the iron of the image. But what are called the Hebrew and the Israelitish churches were not separated from each other by a discrete degree, like the most ancient and ancient churches, or like the celestial and spiritual heavens, but were only distinct from each other like the two classes of spirits called celestial-natural and spiritual-natural, who, though characteristically distinct, form but one heaven, the common basis of the other two; when, therefore, the image comes to 85 represent the church which ended at the time of the Lord's second advent, and the Christian church is included in the representation, the Hebrew church, as we observed, is omitted, and the Israelitish church takes its place and its signification. The reason, we apprehend, why the Hebrew church, rather than the Israelitish, is left out is, that the Israelitish being the ultimate in which the Hebrew church closed, it, as the last, includes the other, and stands for both. It is by no means uncommon, when a series is altered, for the individuals who compose it to change their signification with their change of place. We have repeated instances of this in the case of the sons and tribes of Israel, whom we find arranged in many different orders, each presenting some difference in their signification. One of the changes in the signification of objects generally, mentioned in the Word, is that from truth to good and from good to truth. This does not of itself involve any fundamental change; for when a truth is named or signified the good also of that truth is understood; and so when a good is named, its truth is understood. When, therefore, the Israelitish church, with its change of place in the series of parts of which the image consisted, changes its signification from truth to good, or its denomination from iron to brass, it only presents the brazen instead of the iron side of the shield; and we have but to examine both sides to see that it contains both metals, or includes both the principles signified by them. But there is another point. When the Israelitish church takes the place of the Hebrew church, the Christian church takes the place of the Israelitish. The Christian church then assumes that place in the series actually which the Israelitish church had only occupied representatively. The Israelitish was not truly a church, but was only the representative of a church. It did not actually form the feet of the spiritual man whom the image represented, nor the iron of which they were composed; it only represented them. Iron represents Divine Truth in ultimates, which is Divine Truth in its fulness and power. The Lord at His coming was the truth itself in ultimates, and therefore in its power; and in the Christian church there exists actually all that existed in the Israelitish church representatively. The Christian church took the place of the Israelitish, as the substance that of the shadow-as the thing itself takes the place of the type which prefigured it. But the Lord Himself, as the Divine Truth, was the stone that smote the image on its feet, and brake it in pieces. This was fulfilled at His first coming by ending all representative worship, and establishing true spiritual worship in its place; and it was fulfilled at His second coming by overturning all the falsifications of His truth, which had brought the final Christian church to an end. And now it is that the prediction is to receive its complete fulfilment, and the stone that smote the image is to become a great mountain, and fill the whole earth; and now also it is that the man child is to rule all nations with a rod of iron. Our correspondent's second inquiry must stand over till another occasion. "J. B." will find Mark xii. 25-"In the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage"-explained in "Congugial Love," No. 41, and the whole subject examined in Noble's "Appeal," p. 306, stereotype edition. PRIZE ESSAY. The arbiters selected to carry out the kind intentions of "Philalethes," as given on the wrapper of our last, beg to submit to those gentlemen who may become competitors to assist in promoting the great good contemplated by the donor of the prizes the conditions following: 1. That the extent of the Essay shall be equal to the matter of from 200 to 300 of the single pages of this periodical. 2. That the Essays shall be sent to the Editor of this periodical on or before January 1st, 1864. 3. That the arbiters shall be the Editor and the Rev. Dr. Bayley; and in case of difference of opinion between these gentlemen on the merits of any Essay, they shall invite the Rev. Aug. Clissold to decide, whose decision shall be final. 4. The two arbiters shall have the right of withholding the prizes, if in their judgment none of the Essays sent in are worthy of publication. 5. The copyright of the two Essays adjudged worthy of the prizes shall remain in the hands of the arbiters, for the donor of the prizes, should he desire to publish them for the public good. In case he should decline, then for such party as may, in the judgment of the arbiters, be most likely to promote the use intended most largely. BIRMINGHAM.-HOCKLEY-STREET The annnal meeting of this society was held on Monday, December 29th, 1862, when about seventy adults took tea in the school room. After tea, an eloquent and earnest address was delivered by Mr. J. R. Lee, on "The Object of Christian Societies, and the best means of carrying out that object." "Taking Christ as our pattern, we are," says Mr. Lee, "told in the annunciation that His mission was to 'save His people from their sins.' When about to leave His disciples, He bade them 'preach the Gospel to every creature.' Hence we infer that our great aim should be to turn men from the error of their ways, and thus assist in bringing about a knowledge of God, and the salvation and regeneration of mankind. "The means are various; but every Christian society should become a centre, from which light and influence should proceed, for the propagation of Divine Truth, and for the increased knowledge and love of God, to the keeping of His commandments." Dwelling somewhat lengthily on the examples of God-loving men in past history, who have made it their whole duty to increase the knowledge of God, and to improve the condition of men, he concluded with an earnest appeal to each individual to unite personal effort, to join heart to heart and hand to hand, not fearing personal sacrifice when a good work is to be done, but keeping in constant view the examples of such men as the two Wesleys, who in early years (believing in its necessity) laid down the strictest rules of life to enable them to carry out their work, never swerving therefrom, until, at an advanced age, death called upon them to cease from their labours, as Swedenborg, who, when he became convinced that a Divine mission was given him, sacrificed every other calling, only ceasing here when taken to continue his labours in another and a higher sphere. After Mr. Lee's address, the strain was continued in a most earnest manner by the Rev. Mr. Ray, of Nottingham, |