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aging Sign," in the number for December 23d, thus describes the opening prospects of the Church:

"At the present moment we have, as we never had before, both the disposition and the means to pursue a more active policy. We have men, most of whom are recent accessions to our ranks, who possess the ability to go out and address the people; we have writers who write books and tracts much better adapted than any we have yet had for the instruction of beginners; and the Lord has blessed us with the disposal of money to an extent hitherto denied us. We are, it is true, making much less use of these advantages than we ought, but the work has begun, the missionary spirit has been kindled, and its flame cannot fail to burn stronger and stronger. As we gain wisdom by experience, and as the contagion of example spreads, it may confidently be expected that the whole American New Church will become a great Missionary Institution, as well as a domestic one, and bestow upon the spiritual orphans of the land the care she has, so far, mainly confined to her own recognised children. As soon as this takes place, it is not too much to hope that results will follow in the increase of numbers, such as have never heretofore been seen.

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JERSEY.-Report of the Missionary, Mr. Gunton, to the Committee of the "National Missionary Institution"—In the magazine of November last, a brief account is given of the effort in progress to pay off the debt on the Church at St. Heliers. This effort was to raise £300, and its success will appear from the following report and list of contributions. Feeling the truth of Swedenborg's statement, that charity and faith are merely mental and perishable things unless they are determined to works, whenever it is practicable, and co-exist in them," I thought it judicious to visit Jersey again in December, to complete, if possible, the work begun in June last. Accordingly, I left London on the 4th of December, and reached Jersey in safety after a very stormy passage. I remained over three Sunday's, and during my stay gave two week-evening lectures, and attended two Church meetings; administered the sacrament after the morning service of the last Sabbath, and paid a short visit to the Sunday

School. The attendance upon the services was very satisfactory: the numbers gradually increased, and on the last Sabbath, the Temple was well filled both morning and evening, the numbers present being in the morning about 100, and in the evening 140. The friends who have so long borne the burden of the Church were doubtless much encouraged and strengthened by this visit; and they manifested their appreciation of the pecuniary aid of the English friends and my own services in a very acceptable Testimonial, being a resolution, handsomely engrossed on vellum, as follows:

"Copy of a Resolution, passed on the 17th day of December 1868, in the New Jerusalem Temple, Victoria Street, St. Heliers, Jersey; moved by the Secretary, seconded by F. Tennyson, Esq., and unanimously resolved: That a vote of thanks be tendered to R. Gunton, Esq., of the National Missionary Institution, London, for his Christian devotedness in endeavouring to disseminate the glorious truths of the Lord's New Church in Jersey; and also for his untiring exertions amongst our friends in England, who have nobly assisted him in clearing off nearly the whole of the debt with which it was encumbered, and thereby placing the Jersey Society in a better position than it had hitherto held; and that a copy of this resolution be engrossed and presented to him. TITUS BROWN, Leader. "PHILIP BINET, Secy."

The list of Contributions shall now be given, and I trust that those who have helped will ever be ready to help, according to their means, and that their number will be increased tenfold.

I am satisfied, from my own observation and experience, that the harvest is abundant, or, in other words, that very many minds are prepared for the new seeds of truth; but instrumentalities are needed which it is man's privilege to furnish. Alas! that a much greater number do not see it to be a privilege to give much more of the abundance they have from the Lord. If done from heavenly motives, they would find it an exchange of earthly treasure, which moth aud rust doth corrupt. The following contributions, then, are gratefully acknowledged by the Society, especially those which have been contributed in England:—

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From the foregoing, it will be seen that the effort thus far has been most satisfactory. Our good friend, Mr. Le Cras, having some time ago left in his will a legacy for the like purpose, has deferred the payment of his promised subscription of £50 until he has executed a codicil to cancel that legacy, which can only be done with safety in England under the Act 24 and 25 Vict. ch. 114, and which he hopes to accomplish next summer. When that is done, other friends will make up the deficiency, and clear off the whole debt. This, it is hopped, will lead to the engagement of a permanent minister for the island. Their present leader, Mr. Titus Brown, who is in his 70th year, has worked on steadily, firmly, and lovingly for the truth for more than thirty years, and now desires to see a younger man put on the harness which he is prepared to put off. The excellencies of his character are written on the memories of those to whom he is best known. R. GUNTON.

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composed of members of the Church who are situated in the same locality, and seem to follow the order of the political divisions of the country. The Messenger of October 28 contains brief notices of the meeting of the Illinois and Maryland Associations. The former assembled at Chicago. The report of the superintendent stated that the resolution adopted at the previous meeting of the Association, desiring missionaries and ministers to take up contributions each Sunday for the support of the gospel, had been carried out as far as practicable. "Experience," we are told, "shows it to be a good plan, but subject to exceptions. The subject of offering a portion of our substance to the Lord, as a part of each one's Sabbath morning worship, has considerably engaged the attention of the ministers, and the idea has been received with much favour. Another question submitted to this meeting was

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'a plan for dividing the State into circuits for regular preaching by missionaries." "The executive committee reported that, in the opinion of the committee, the circuit system recommended by Mr. Hibbard was indispensable for the growth and development of the Church; that they ought to get as many missionaries and ministers to occupy circuits as they could get and support. The matter was referred back for further consideration, and will again, therefore, be brought under the attention of the Association.

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The Maryland Association assembled at Baltimore. A prominent feature in their meeting was a gathering in the temple of the three New Church Sabbath schools of the city, with their scholars, teachers, and superintendents. Many of the people not connected with the schools were present also. To this assemblage reports were made or read from the different Sabbath schools, or their superintendents, of the Maryland Association, all of which were very interesting, showing the general good state and progress of these schools. Besides the above reports, a report or statement from the Wilmington 'mission' school was presented, and the good such a school may be hoped to effect, set forth by Mr. Mercer, the manager." This latter item makes us acquainted with a new mode of missionary labour-the institution of Sabbath

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schools in outlying districts, and the teaching of the doctrines to the young. This is a work in which many New Churchmen could take part, and which would be well adapted to the wants of many parts of our own country.

NEW CHURCH EFFORT IN INDIA.Our readers are aware that a New Church Society has existed for a great many years in Mauritius; and, in connection with it, they have heard of the Right Rev. Bishop Bugnion. From a brief statement by himself, drawn from him by inquiry in a Madras newspaper, we learn that this dignitary is a born Swiss, and was a naturalized Russian, but that he is at the present time a naturalized British subject. We learn further that, after passing through several gradations of ecclesiastical rank, he was, in 1862, created Right Reverend by his nomination to the office of General-Vicar for the Caucasus, the Daghestan, and Cossakenland, by the Viceroy of the Caucasus and the imperial consistory of Moscow; and that he was afterwards elected Bishop by the New Churches of Bourbon and the Mauritius. It appears that after the bishop had exercised his function for a few years in Mauritius, the friends in that island were led to make some provision for the Christianizing of India. A committee was formed; and, after a year of reflection and prayer, an invitation was given to Bishop Bugnion to proceed to India, in order that he might lay some station of the New Church, which invitation he accepted.

After repairing to the scene of his labours, the bishop issued an "address to the inhabitants of India." That address begins, "Natives of India,—In establishing ourselves upon the soil trodden by the thousands of generations that have succeeded each other, from your first fathers down to yourselves, and in doing so at the very moment when you await the last incarnation of Vishnu, and that in name of a religious principle not yet represented in this country-that of the Church of the Lord, or New Church, of which the basis is love to God and love to the neighbour, with faith in Jehovah, our only Parabrahma or Bhagavat, sole source of this love, and who took, in assuming the human form in this world for its salvation, the name of Jesus

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The writer then inquires into the causes which have hitherto operated so greatly to retard the progress of Christianity in India; and he arrives at the conclusion that "the ill-success of modern missions proceeds not so much from the missionaries themselves, many of whom enjoy a certain reputation for zeal and even self-denial, as from the nature of the Christianity which they preach, different from that preached by the Apostle Thomas and his successors, until the first Council of Nice; because, in fact, all modern missionaries admit the definition of a Tripersonality in God, although, until then, the Trinity had only been known such as the Bible teaches it, and such also as our Church receives it, with the theology which flows from this dogma, a theology which teaches the perfect unity of God."

He then proceeds to show that while the Scriptures teach the absolute unity of God, they teach also that this one God became incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ. The people of India are told that our Church admits the antiquity of their race and of their religious rites, and that the general principles of their religion, in its purity, offer the same characteristics as the general principles that constitute the life of Christianity, attesting the fact that Truth, anciently the same for all, became obliterated in the lapse of time, by reason of self-love and the love of the world. These loves have brought man to change the glory of the incorruptible God into images which represent corruptible man, birds, four-footed beasts, and reptiles (Rom. i. 2, 3); whence it is that these figures, formerly representative of the attributes of the Divinity, or sometimes of the human heart, having lost their first significance, are now become absolute idols. For example, the bull is an emblem of the natural man; hence the bull Naudi, mounted by Siva, represents the natural man subjected to the spirit of God. The four ages of the word, recognised alike by them and by us-the Satiayouga or golden age; the Tiza-youga or silver age; Darva par youga or brazen age; and Kali-youga or iron age-descriptive emblematically of man's decline

from the highest heavenly to the lowest earthly state. The Bhagavat or Parabrahma of the Indians is the Jehovah of the Bible, both being uncreated, immutable, invisible, directing all things, penetrating the most secret thoughts. It was when man had sunk into this low state that Jehovah became incarnate to save him-a truth which the ancestors of those whom he addresses wished to represent in speaking of the manifestation of Parabrahma under the name of Vishnu; and the different forms they have lent to Vishnu, until that in which he becomes the good Pastor Krishna, and the aged Boudha, are an allegory of the different prophetic manifestations of Jehovah, until he became by incarnation the real Krishna, or good shepherd (John x.), because he leads his flock and gives his life for it. It is thus he vanquishes the real Kausa, that is, the devil, whom he called the prince of darkness. The second advent of Christ, too, finds its expression in the last incarnation of Vishnu, for which the Indians are now looking; and this coming of the Lord is to be attended by a revelation and understanding of the spiritual sense of the Word. This is described in the Christian Scriptures by the Lord at His second coming, riding on a white horse, the horse being an emblem of the understanding, and therefore it was given to represent the horse Kali as the last incarnation of Vishnu. Their sacred books speak also to the Indians of regeneration; and to join themselves to God, they teach the necessity of chastity, and all the other virtues : while Christianity, which teaches the same, shows from whom such virtues come, and to whom they should be returned.

While the natives of India are thus taught that they may see true revelation and true Christianity dimly reflected in their own sacred books and in their own religion, the offer is made to instruct them in the sublime truths of the new Christian religion by one who has come amongst them for that purpose.

The address seems to have created some little sensation in the East. Several journals and individuals have noticed it; some favourably, some unfavourably, one telling the bishop that he has yet much to learn respecting

Hinduism, and a clergyman accusing him of bringing in damnable here

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This is, we believe, the first public appeal that has ever been made to the inhabitants of Hindustan in behalf of the New Church. Every good and great work must have a beginning, and it may be a small one. Whether any results have yet appeared we are not able to say, but the effort deserves our prayers and encouragement.

NEW ZEALAND.

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We have received a copy of "the Weekly Press October 17, published at Christ-church, Canterbury, New Zealand, containing lengthened notices of the reception of the doctrines of the New Church by the Rev. J. Tyerman, formerly pastor of the Independent Methodist Church, Montreal Street. The first notice is the report of a lecture by Mr. Tyerman from which we make the following extract :

"It was especially necessary that if a person holding intelligent views on the subject of religion saw fit to change them, he should be able to give a reason for so doing; and having changed his opinions on some of the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith, he was now prepared to give his reasons for doing so, and hoped to obtain an attentive hearing. Some of his opinions had been misrepresented, his motives impugned, and calumnies heaped upon him. He would reply to these first, and afterwards make a short statement about the New Church, which though much abused, he believed to be founded upon the Word of God, to be elevating in its nature, and calculated to exert a salutary influence upon the world at large. When he had informed them that he had been revolving the matter in his mind for four years, they would see that it was no sudden step he had taken. The Swedenborgian doctrines were first introduced to his notice about that period by Mr. Rowley and Mr. Hawley, whose acquaintance he made soon after his arrival in New Zealand. These gentlemen furnished him with books, and he had frequent conversations with them, while he was in correspondence with Mr. Hawley on the subject nearly three years ago. had been brought up as a Methodist, had been trained and was then officiating

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as a Methodist minister, so that his sympathies were decidedly in favour of Methodist doctrines, and for a long time he rejected some parts of Swedenborg's teaching. He was, however, willing to investigate, and was open to conviction. From the first, there was much in the teaching of the New Church that he liked, especially the fine spirit of charity and tolerance it breathes, its exceedingly practical tendency, its harmony with the laws of nature, and with the Word of God. Still he hesitated to accept its fundamental doctrines; but some months before his conversion, his intercourse with Mr. Rowley and Mr. Hawley became closer, and little by little his mind gave way. It was not, however, until two months ago, when circumstances occurred which gave an impluse to his investigations, that the question "What is truth?" which had been for years breathed up to Heaven was sent up with a tenfold desire. It was to him a time of great mental strife. The doctrines of the Trinity, the atonement, and justification by faith only were passing away in the ruins of a broken creed, and yet he hesitated to receive the new one. mental conflict and anguish which he endured during these few days were known only to God, but peace and satisfaction grew up as the evidence of the doctrines of the New Church became clearer, and he at last found himself a believer in the heavenly doctrines of Emanuel Swedenborg. The conversation of his two friends was much strengthened by the reading of Swedenborgian works, amongst others,"White's Life of Swedenborg," "Hindmarsh's Essays," "The Intellectual Repository," "Swedenborg's Four Leading Doctrines of the New Church," and Noble's Appeal on behalf of the views of the New Church." His mind being made up, there were only two courses open to him; either to play the hypocrite, and profess to be a Methodist, whilst in reality he believed in the New Church, or to come out in his true colours. The first was not to be thought of, and he at once determined to make known his changed views. He knew the prejudices that existed against the doctrines of Swedenborg, but supported by the Spirit of God, he was prepared to brave prejudice and live the scandal down. He, never

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