been to him a labour of love, and when a man did what he liked because he liked doing it, he did not think there was much cause for praise. He thanked them for their very handsome and pleasing gift, which would be to him an incentive to further work, and he assured them that his best services were always at their disposal. (Applause.)

On a silver plate was inscribed, "Presented to Henry Antonie, by the congregation of the Manchester New Church. December, 1864." Various amusements were provided, and at a late hour all separated with seasonable greetings, and a wish for "A happy New-year."

MANCHESTER. Sunday Afternoon Classes - Presentation. The annual party of the children attending these classes, and their parents, was held in the schoolroom, Peter-street, on Christmas Eve. These classes were commenced some four or five years ago, by Mr. E. J. Broadfield. There was, and is, connected with the church, an efficient Sundayschool, but the attendance there consists mainly of the children of strangers living in the neighbourhood; but for various reasons the children of the members of the society did not attend. Mr. E. J. Broadfield seeing this, thought that if a Sunday afternoon class or classes were established for the children of the members, much good might result to them and to the society. He mentioned it to two or three friends;- -an announcement was made from the pulpit that such a class would be commenced, and a general invitation given to the members to send their children. This met with a warm response, and since their establishment the classes have grown in favour, and their great use to the society is now acknowledged by all. Children, who would otherwise have grown up strangers have been brought into association with each other; and having able and affectionate teachers, now feel a delight in the classes and an interest in the society that would not otherwise have been matured. To the guidance-under Divine Providence-of Mr. E. J. Broadfield, this result has been mainly attributable; and as his acceptance of the office of minister to the society at Accrington would sever outwardly his connection with the classes, the teachers and children felt they could not allow such an opportunity as this to pass without expressing to him their feelings towards him.

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At the close of the distribution of prizes to those scholars who had been successful at the examination, Mr. Scotson, the present superintendent, on behalf of the teachers and scholars, begged the acceptance, by Mr. E. J. Broadfield, of a silver inkstand, as an expression of their personal love for himself, and as some slight acknowledgment of services rendered. The inkstand bore the following inscription:-"Presented to Mr. E. J. Broadfield, B. A., by the teachers and scholars of the New Church Sunday afternoon classes, Peter-street, Manchester, as a slight token of their love and esteem for him as their conductor and friend." The teachers of the Sunday-school, who had been kindly invited to be present, supplemented this by pressing upon Mr. E. J. Broadfield his acceptance of a gold pen and pencil-case, as a slight mark of their affection for him.

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Mr. E. J. Broadfield, who was taken quite by surprise, in the course of a feeling speech, thanked all present for these manifestations of love for himself. felt that he did not deserve all the kind things that had been said of him, and was sure that had it not been for the hearty and kind coöperation of the dear friends surrounding him, the classes would not be what they then were; and he left them, feeling assured that with the present staff of officers that success would be maintained.

LIVERPOOL, BEDFORD-STREET.-Another effort has been made by the members of this society to reduce the debt upon their church. It will be remembered that their first move in this direction was made in 1862, when they determined to hold a Christmas tree, in aid of the building fund. The claims of the Lancashire distressed operatives, however, pressing very heavily upon the whole community, it was thought only right to do something for their suffering brethren in their corporate capacity, and the proceeds, amounting to £50., were handed over to the local secretary. 1863, they made an appeal to the church at large, and succeeded in getting up a very handsome bazaar on a small scale, which, together with money subscriptions, realised a sum of upwards of £130. Last year they decided on making private effort among themselves in a similar manner, and on December 28th, held a bazaar and Christmas tree. Several personal friends of the members kindly

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assisted them on this occasion also, both with money and articles, all of whom are hereby again thanked for their valuable aid. £44. were realised, which it is expected will be made up to £50. A legacy of £250., left to the society last year, has also fallen in; and thus, in less than eighteen months, the heavy debt of £900. has been reduced by nearly one-half. The society has great cause for thankfulness on this score, and its members are encouraged to persevere in their work of ridding the building of its pecuniary burdens, and of propagating the doctrines of the New Jerusalem, that the church in its external form, even, may become a praise and a blessing in the land, to the glory of our Saviour God.

RAMSBOTTOM.-A course of four lectures has been delivered here by the Rev. J. B. Kennerley, of Salford. The first of the course was delivered on Tuesday, November 29th: subject-"The Church: What is the Rock upon which it is founded? Who is Peter? What are the Keys?" The second, on Monday, Dec. 5th: subject "The Trinity: How can Three Persons be One God?" The third, on Tuesday, December 13th: subject"Baptism: What is the Use of Baptism?" And the last of the course, on Monday, December 19th: subject-"Prayer: Does it move God, or change Man?" These lectures were delivered in an affectionate and earnest manner to large audiences. We are sorry that there was no one present who could take verbatim reports of these lectures for the press.

SHIELDS.-On Tuesday evening, January 3rd, the members and friends of this society assembled in the Oddfellows' Hall, Rudyerd-street, North Shields, to hold their annual soirée; and we are glad to be able to state that this was the most interesting social gathering ever enjoyed by this society. About fifty sat down to tea, among whom were several of the friends from the Newcastle society. The chair was taken by the leader of the society at half-past six. The programme for the evening, after tea, consisted of an anthem and an address alternately, with a short interval for general conversation. The friends separated with a stronger determination than ever not only to spread the heavenly doctrines and thus increase the external

church, but especially to labour for their individual regeneration by the application of those doctrines to the daily life, through the grace and mercy of our most adorable Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

CARLISLE.-On Sunday, the 19th ult., this society had a visit from the Rev. Mr. Ray, of Newcastle, who preached two sermons in the Temperance Hall, Caldewgate, to attentive audiences. After the evening service Mr. Ray administered the Lord's Supper. The subject which was discoursed upon in the evening was— "Was Noah's flood of water or of wickedness?" The preacher proved, as he advanced in his subject, that the flood was wickedness and not water. This is the second visit we have had from Mr. Ray. On his first visit to us he drew our attention to the devotional work by the late Mr. Mason, which resulted in the purchase of twelve copies, which are also doing their good work. Mr. Mc. Lagan has also paid us several very instructive visits, and we are deeply indebted to Mr. R. Catcheside for the untiring attention he has given our society. The members and friends have also to thank the Missionary Society and the Manchester Tract Society for their timely assistance. A good field is open in Carlisle, but since Mr. Ray's visit the society has changed its place of meeting. The Temperance Hall is a good room, but out of the way, and the society now meet for worship in Slack's-court, Milburn-street, where visitors will find a neat but small room dedicated to the service of the Lord Jesus as the only true God.

ISLINGTON.-On the 22nd November, Mr. W. Bateman delivered, in the schoolroom of the society, an instructive lecture upon the " Taeping Rebellion," which attracted a large number of New Church friends. The lecture was very fully illustrated by diagrams, maps, &c., and excited considerable interest.

LONDON, ARGYLE-SQUARE.-It has long been the wish of many members of the New Church in London to establish a good day school in connection with the church; but from lack of funds, and the difficulty of obtaining a suitable site, the wish has remained ungratified. All those who feel the importance of impressing the heavenly doctrines of the New Jeru

salem on the minds of the rising generation, will learn with much satisfaction that the committee of the Argyle-square Society have at length secured a suitable building for the purpose, which with moderate alteration, will accommodate between four and five hundred children. One kind friend has already subscribed £150., and two others have each promised £100. towards this holy, benevolent object; so that we have reason to hope that the Argyle-square Society will shortly have the necessary funds to enable them to open a thorough good school, for the benefit of the poor and populous neighbourhood surrounding their church.

NORTHAMPTON. Our very esteemed friend the Rev. D. G. Goyder, of London, has paid us another visit, under the auspices of the National Missionary Society. On Thursday evening, January 5th, he lectured from-" Ye shall keep My statutes;" (Levit. xix. 19.) on Friday evening-"Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind;" on Monday evening "Thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed;" on Tuesday evening "Neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woollen come upon thee." By the request of the friends, Dr. Goyder delivered a lecture on Wednesday evening, on-"The Progress of the Human Mind during the last half century, with special reference to Phrenology." On Sunday, the 7th instant, the rev. gentleman preached two discourses, and administered the Holy Supper to twenty-three communicants. The audiences increased on each occasion; the delight and interest of the hearers became greater from evening to evening; and the series was terminated by a unanimous vote of thanks to Mr. Goyder for his very acceptable and valued lecture. On behalf of our society, we tender our best thanks to the National Missionary Institution for granting us the services of so valuable a servant of the Lord's New Church.

THE POPE'S ENCYCLICAL LETTER.-If the Roman Catholic Church had a thoroughly good cause, no body of men could manifest greater firmness in maintaining it, nor more untiring zeal in advancing its interests. If the pure doctrines of primitive Christianity had come down to the time of the Papacy, none could have been more conservative of the truth than the church of Rome.

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As this unhappily was not the case, but as, on the contrary, the Romish Church sprung from the corruptions of the Christian faith, those very qualities that would have made her a conservator of the truth, have made her the conservator of error, while the evil of the human heart, which error does not condemn, but is ever ready to justify, has made her not unscrupulous of the means to be used in securing her ends. The claim of infallibility, which gives her at all times the authority to declare, and in doubtful or disputed points, to decide, what the truth is, places her in an unfavourable position under the changed circumstances of the times. Unknown to her, as indeed to Christendom generally, old things have passed away and all things are become new. A new dispensation of truth has commenced. Its influence is making itself felt; its light is being diffused. Its action is not confined to one church, nor to the priesthood of any, but extends to the minds of men universally, and is producing a change as gradually but as irresistibly as the slow geological changes in the condition of the earth, movements which raised some of the mountain chains to their present elevation. This new influence will change for the better whatever yields to it, but will break in pieces that which persistently resists it. In churches which lay no claim to infallibility, but consider it not inconsistent with the conservatism of the truth to concede the right of private judgment, allow their views to become modified, or grant toleration for difference of opinion. They do not shut their eyes to the signs of the times, but, however unwillingly, are wise enough to offer no unavailing resistance to them. In this respect the Church of Rome differs from all others. It has not indeed always resisted absolutely, but it has always resisted, and is determined to resist to the utmost, everything that savours of aught that would question its pretensions to perfectibility. Anything of human progress that threatens to set aside any of her dogmas or limit her powers, is held to be a backward movement, or one that is instigated by the power of evil. Nothing could be a clearer evidence of this than the Encyclical Letter which his Holiness has just issued to the faithful. Our readers generally have read, perhaps not without amazement, this authoritative document of

the holy father. Happily, in this Protestant country, men can look at it without alarm; nor can it at this day produce, even in Catholic countries, the submission or terror which such a document would once have inspired.

As members of the New Church, who know the true cause of the forward movement at which the Church of Rome herself feels alarmed, and whose progress she vainly endeavours to arrest, we look at this Letter simply as a portrait of Rome, drawn by Rome herself, and as such we shall consider it. In the Catalogue of Errors appended to the Encyclical Letter, extending from Atheism to modern Literalism, there is of course much that every one who believes in the Scriptures will at once agree with. It is not, however, a question with us that much of the existing infidelity and naturalism has been produced by the errors and tyranny of the church which raises her voice against it, and that the licentiousness of freedom is to be distinguished from freedom itself. But even admitting that in denouncing Pantheism, and every other form of positive infidelity, the Church of Rome may be condemning what is false and dangerous, she cannot be justified in her assumption of the right of forcibly repressing them; for it is one of the errors condemned-" That the church has not the power of availing herself of force, or any direct or indirect temporal power." We know what use has been made of this power in former times; and we have no cause to regret that it can never again be revived. To what purpose it has been used we know from history, and on whom it would still be exercised we learn from the Letter before us. It is an error-"That the church has not the power of defining dogmatically that the religion of the Catholic Church is the only true religion." This of course sets reason and even Scripture aside, and makes the church the only authority on which men are to chose between truth and error. They are not to be at liberty to believe what their understanding and conscience approve, but what the church declares. This indeed is asserted in this list of errors. It is an error that—"Every man is free to embrace and profess the religion he shall believe to be true, guided by the light of reason." This does not condemn those who follow the light of reason without the teaching of Scripture, for Protestant

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ism is included in the category to which this applies; but it condemns the use of reason in the study of Scripture as inconsistent with the dogmatic defining of truth by the church. It is an error, therefore, that "Men who have embraced any religion may find and obtain eternal salvation;" and another thatAt least the eternal salvation may be hoped for of all who have never been in the true church." Not only is it false that men may be saved in any religion but that of the Catholic Church, but it is an error to suppose that there can be even any hope for them. Sir George Bowyer, a member of the Catholic Church, has objected to the inference drawn from this, and the condemnation pronounced upon it by Protestant critics;—he maintains that the last article only denies the error that the salvation may be hoped for of all who have never been in the Catholic Church, as if it only denied the doctrine of universal salvation, and retorts upon the Church of England that she equally denies salvation to all who are beyond her pale. The first is a mistake; the second is not quite just. The Pope is not denying the doctrine of Universalism; and although the form of the Church of England may express herself in much the same way as the church of Rome, the spirit and intention of the two churches are certainly very different. However, two blacks do not make a white; and it is but a poor vindication of one's principles or conduct to be able to prove that there is another as bad as ourselves. It is certain, however, that not only on this point, but on most others, the Church of Rome not only means what she says, but has behind her words the will, though she may not have the power, of dealing with heretics in a way which no section of the Protestant Church claims or even desires to follow.

But the claim of the Pope to declare what is truth and error is not confined to matters of opinion, nor confined to religion. The Papal authority extends to civil government, and to all departments of human knowledge; to morals, to science, to education. All must be subject to his decrees, or must not transgress them. On the subject of science, the allocution sets out by asserting it to be an error that" The decrees of the apostolic see and of the Roman congregation fetter the free progress of science; but it proceeds to say that it is also an error that-" Philo

sophy must be studied without regard to supernatural revelation." That is to say, that it is not to be studied without reference to the interpretations of Scripture which the church may dictate. It is well that the authority which this allocution of the Pope's asserts, is now limited in its exercise. Happy is it that it will become more and more so. The understanding and the truth cannot now be bound by the power of any church; and every attempt to do so will only expose the weakness and defeat the purpose of those who attempt it.

"THE NEW JERUSALEM."-In the February number of the Repository was inserted a paragraph from the Freeman, the sentiments of which, respecting the nature of the 66 The New Jerusalem," were strikingly similar to those of the New Church. I have since met with an article on "The New Jerusalem," from the pen of the Rev. S. G. Green, B.A., in the Baptist Magazine for January, in which the same views are more fully developed. From this article I make the following extracts :

"In [the Apocalypse] xvii. 1, we read, 'There came one of the seven angels who had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying, Come hither; I will show thee the judgment of the great harlot that sitteth upon many waters.' In xxi. 9, we read 'There came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither; I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.' It is plain from the identity of phrase that a direct contrast is intended. On the one side is the harlot, on the other the bride; on the one side Babylon, on the other Jerusalem. Again, to behold the former, the prophet is 'carried away in the spirit into the wilderness;' (xvii. 3.) to contemplate the latter, he is carried away in the spirit to a great and high mountain.' (xxi. 10.) These parallels betoken close analogy. Babylon is undoubtedly the emblem, not of a city or a place, but of some great form of spiritual evil, exemplified in the union of false belief with unprincipled secular power, and essentially antagonistic to the church of Christ. Is it not, then, at least probable that the Jerusalem of the contrasted delineation was intended, in general, as the type of that church.

"Further, there are particulars in the

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vision which show that the New Jerusalem is still closely related to a terrestrial state. 'The kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.' Through the ever-open gates, it is receiving constant accessions. In the words (xxi. 24,) 'the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it,' the phrase we have marked with italics should, according to all the best critics, be omitted. 'The nations' (and this word ever denotes those who are without the pale of the church, as the Gentiles in distinction from the Jews) shall walk in its light.' And more strikingly still, we are expressly told (xxii. 2.) of the tree of life which grows in the midst of the street of the city, not only that its fruit is for the refreshment of the saved, but that its leaves are for the healing of the nations. The language plainly requires us to apply the vision, in part at least, to the present state, as it shows that even round about the New Jerusalem there are nations that require to be healed, and therefore of the sinful and the miserable.

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"We conclude, then, that in the delineation of the heavenly Jerusalem, we have THE IDEAL OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. To this city of the living God,' as the Epistle to the Hebrews assures us, the faithful have already 'come.' The spiritual Sion is here among us now; and as, notwithstanding grievous failure and sin, Jehovah delighted of old in the chosen city, so now, notwithstanding all earthly imperfection and defilement, do the Lord God and the Lamb condescend to dwell in the community of saints.

The 'gates of pearl,' and the 'street of gold,' the wall great and high,' and 'the foundations garnished with all manner of precious stones,' the 'river of water of life clear as crystal,' and 'the tree of life which bears twelve manner of fruits,' belong not to a fair dream, sentimental and almost sensuous, of a paradise far beyond the resurrection, but to the realities of our present condition as part of the great invisible church of God. Babylon, no doubt, is here on earth, with its malice and meretricious craft. As surely is the New Jerusalem here, with its indwelling God and Saviour. The names of the old foes in Old Testament story do but set forth to us the deeper spiritual antagonisms of the New. False worship, moral darkness, inevitable