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ceeds of the offertory on the three Sundays immediately prior to Mr. Barlow's arrival to pay the outstanding balance of the Building Fund account, £11, 14s. 1d. This healthy condition of the Society's finances was manifestly due to a systematic increase in the members' subscriptions, and also to their equally systematic support of the weekly offertory. Reports were then read of the Sunday school, the theological class, the junior members' class, the library, and the Band of Hope and Temperance Society by officials of those institutions. These all evinced the performance of steady and useful work.

SALISBURY.-January 5th.-The halfyearly general meeting took place, at which fourteen new members were admitted into the Church by signing the "Declaration of Faith." The financial report was also presented, and considered in the highest degree satisfactory.

January 11th.-Mr. R. Gunton, by special request, again visited the Society. His morning discourse was on "The Announcement of the Lord's Birth to the Shepherds" (Luke ii. 14, 15). After this service the Sacrament was administered to twelve communicants. In the evening the subject chosen was "The Widow's Oil" (2 Kings iv.); and Mr. Gunton's eloquent treatment of this interesting miracle was attentively listened to by an audience of about eighty persons, the largest number that has assembled in the church now occupied in Salisbury.

On the 12th an extremely pleasant and successful tea-meeting took place. Mr. Gunton, with a few suitable and amusing remarks, opened an entertainment of a varied character, which at its termination appeared to have given the greatest satisfaction to the whole assembly. Before delivering the benediction, with which the evening closed, Mr. Gunton took the opportunity of expressing his delight at the promising aspect of the Society, and made some valuable suggestions connected with its future government.

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On the 13th Mr. Gunton lectured on the subject of "Where the Millions who have died now are and what they do.' The attendance, owing to the inclemency of the weather, was not large, though consisting for the main part of strangers.

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HUNGARY.-The following letter (translated) from the capital of Hungary will be read with interest, and we hope will result in something being done to assist the friends there in their good work. It will commend itself to the Foreign Missions Committee, who will be able to render assistance without waiting till the next meeting of Conference. The Swedenborg Society will no doubt contribute towards the expense of translating and printing the treatise on Heaven and Hell; but its constitution forbids it, we believe, from spending any of its funds in printing "Letters to a Man of the World." The Committee will, however, we may be sure, make arrangements for receiving and transmitting subscriptions in aid :—

"REV. W. BRUCE,

"BUDAPEST, "15th February 1880.

"We, 'Friends of the New Church at Budapest,' who for the last seven years have held regular Sunday domestic devotions, with readings from Swedenborg's works and the Holy Scripture, and have also provided a small number of children with Sunday school and afternoon Divine service, ventured last year to notify progress by applying to the Royal Hungarian Government for permission to constitute an independent Society. We received a reply with a clause to the effect that it was not within the competence of the Ministry of Worship to grant such permission to a new sect (!), and that we must therefore address ourselves to the Royal Hungarian Parliament. We have made our preparations to adopt this course next session. But before making this earnest endeavour to gain our object, we venture to convey to you a statement

touching our means. By weekly contributions we keep up a small hall and possess three sets of Swedenborg's works. We take the Boten and Neukirchenblätter. We have, moreover, in the course of time, come to the conviction that there is a total want of diffusion of the works of Swedenborg in the Hungarian national language. Desirous of benefiting our fellow-men, we therefore resolved to begin by translations of these works, and at once determined to translate into Hungarian, as a first work, Le Boy de Guay's 'Letters to a Man of the World.' This was no small undertaking, and a professor of the Latin and Greek languages undertook the translation for the moderate fee of fifty florins. This approved translation we have had in our hands since last July. But how get it sent to press?

We addressed

ourselves to the New Church Society in Germany, which proposed that we should surrender the MS. unconditionally. This, however, would be of no service to our little Society, without means, as it is. We wish to have the work printed at a moderate price and the proceeds to go to the Society. We further applied to the Rev. A. O. Brickmann (America), who gave us his advice in recommending us to address yourself, whose name is familiar to us from the Boten.

"We therefore beg you, rev. sir, to use, if possible, your New Church influence with the Committee for Foreign Missions to bring before the next meeting our prayer for some support towards the furtherance and diffusion of the work referred to. As a second work we have already decided on the translation of 'Heaven and Hell.'

"We hope among the fifteen million inhabitants of Hungary, seven million of them Magyars, to be able to afford an opportunity of proceeding with a cheap work to diffuse our splendid spiritual undreamt of treasures, and to be enabled by the results to undertake their further diffusion.

"We may lastly mention that we have placed two sets of Swedenborg's works (in German) in Laüffer's bookshop and circulating library, and are able to rely upon his literary influence. And we indulge the hope and the pleasing expectation of obtaining a favourable result from your representation to the

Conference Committee for Foreign Missions. We entreat the blessing of Heaven, and convey our friendly brotherly greeting, and may God bless your endeavours for the benefit of all mankind on this sinful material earth, and the Lord bless us all spiritually in the new birth.

"On behalf of the friends in Budapest (Hungary), FRANCIS KNUPKA.

"IX. Räkasgasse, No. 4,

"Budapest, Hungary."

Marriage.

On February 10th, at the New Jerusalem Church, Southport, by the Rev. Thomas Mackereth, F.R.A.S., assisted by the Rev. W. A. Bates, William Holden Horrocks, of Bolton, to Elizabeth Gee, of Oxford Road, Birkdale.

Obituary.

MR. ROBERT THOMAS OF OXFORD.There are many receivers of the heavenly doctrines unfolded in the Writings of Swedenborg, in whom the intelligence of the passing into the spirit world of Mr. Robert Thomas will awaken kind and sympathetic feelings towards a dear and much esteemed friend, and bring back memories of much pleasant and profitable intercourse passed with him in affectionate communion upon the Divine truths set forth in those Writings, which he had so long and so intelligently studied, and which he loved so well.

Our dear friend was called, and peacefully passed into the higher life, on the 30th of January last, after some years of suffering, arising from the gradual decay of his bodily powers; but his mind was singularly clear and bright until the last, and his spirit, supported by an earnest faith in the infinite love and wisdom of his Lord and Saviour, accepted patiently and without murmur the dispensations of the Divine Providence, which he knew were filled with love and goodness for him.

He was born at Chalford, in Gloucestershire, and was one of four brothers, all men of unusual ability, and who with but slender means of education, by their own unaided efforts and perse verance, attained to very considerable proficiency and eminence in several departments both of science and art. One of the brothers, William Thomas, emi

grated many years since to Canada, and lived in Toronto, where he became a successful architect, and acquired considerable fame; and another brother, John Thomas, was well known in London as a distinguished sculptor, to whom was entrusted, and who carried out, the beautiful decorative work of the new Houses of Parliament and many other well-known works.

The subject of our notice was born in the year 1806, and was therefore in his seventy-fourth year at the time of his departure. He was distinguished through life for the ability, diligence, and conscientiousness with which, arising from a genuine love of use, all his business relations and duties were discharged; but he was especially remarkable for his deep and sensitive love of nature, and of the beautiful in nature and art, in which he ever loved to trace the work of God manifested in evervarying yet united forms of infinite love and wisdom, and filled with spiritual meaning and heavenly uses, which it was his great delight, guided by the enlightened doctrines he held so firmly, to draw out, both for the elevation and improvement of his own life, and that he might be enabled to set them forth for the benefit of others, which he was always most pleased and ready to do whenever an opportunity occurred and a mind open to receive could be found.

Drawn by an irresistible love of science and art, and at a time when such studies were but little thought of or appreciated, and the means of following them open to one in his position were indeed few and difficult to be obtained, he acquired, by patient work pursued in every spare hour he could get, a very considerable knowledge indeed of both.

His lectures, gratuitously given, on Light, Heat, Magnetism, and Electricity, beautifully illustrated as they were with experiments, all the instruments for which were made by his own hands, were listened to with delight and profit, not only by the general public, but by many advanced students in science even in Oxford, where he lived; the latter often expressing the gratification and surprise they felt on witnessing the experiments and observing the thorough knowledge of his subject acquired by this modest and self-taught student. In addition to his scientific attainments he was, too, a musician of great excellence. As a

player on the flute and flageolet, both of which instruments he taught himself, he was probably not excelled by any amateur of his own day, and for many years he held the position of first flute player at the Oxford concerts.

It may easily be understood how unsatisfactory and impossible of belief the old so-called evangelical doctrines commonly taught as Christianity at the time when our friend was a young man must have been to a mind like his. And although his keen appreciation of the goodness and wisdom shown forth in all the works of creation made it impossible for him at any time to sink down to the mental blank of atheism, yet he has told the writer of this notice that for some years previous to 1840, when the works of Swedenborg were providentially brought to his notice, he had become so dissatisfied with and unable to receive the old theology that he had come into a state of utter despair as to the possibility of receiving anything whatever as revealed religion. In or about the year above named he was, however, by the Lord's good providence, induced to read the first volume of Swedenborg's "Arcana," and at once a new light and life filled his whole mind. The previous difficulties as to the creation of the world and man which had seemed so insurmountable vanished like mist before the morning sun; and from that time he became not only a most diligent and intelligent reader and student, but a firm and devout receiver of the doctrines of the Lord's New Church. And in a long life eminent for the conscientious discharge of all duty and for love of use, resting upon a deep consciousness of entire dependence upon an all-merciful Lord and Saviour, these Divine doctrines pro duced the fruit they can never fail to bring forth when thus honestly and intelligently received.

It was a great satisfaction and comfort to our friend that his old and muchloved friend, Dr. Bayley, was able a few days before his departure to pay him a visit and administer the Lord's Supper to him and the members of his family and to the latter, almost with his last breath, when the consciousness of earthly things was fast closing, and the spiritual consciousness was doubtless being opened upon the nobler scenes of spirit life, he murmured earnestly the words, "Beautiful! beautiful!"-a foretaste,

we may rest assured, of the better life in store, and then opening up by the Lord's mercy for him for evermore.

At Derby, on 23rd January, in her sixty-sixth year, Emma, the beloved wife of Thomas Austin, mother of Mr. Edward Austin of South London. The departed was one of the oldest receivers of the New Church doctrines in the town. Like Mary and Joanna and Lydia, and other women of New Testament times, she was not afraid to identify herself with the early members of a community which believed that a New Dispensation had begun upon earth. She was connected with the cause in Derby for nearly half a century, and was one of the last survivors of the ministry of the late Mr. James Knight. When the Society commenced its operations at Babington Lane, in 1846, she undertook with earnest-heartedness and untiring zeal to superintend the social gatherings, tea-meetings, and the various entertainments of that nature held in connection with the Church. She was also visitor of the sick, and in this capacity she will long be remembered by those who were privileged to receive her kind and thoughtful ministrations. Her private life was characterized by a faithful devotedness to duty; and after a long and painful illness, during which the teachings of the Church proved unspeakably precious, she was called to her eternal home, there to enjoy the beatitudes promised to those who are faithful unto the end.

At Embsay, January 31st, Mrs. Ann Phillip, of Crown Cottage, Embsay, aged fifty-seven years. The deceased was trained from childhood in connection with the Society of the New Church at Embsay, and always manifested a warm interest in whatever related to the progress of the Church. Her life was spent in the quiet and unostentatious discharge of her domestic duties, and her departure leaves a blank in the minds of her family and friends. She has

passed away in the midst of active duty and from the presence of loving friends. She enters the higher life to join the fellowship of those who have gone before, and to enter on the engagements and delights for which her earthly life have best prepared her.

Departed this life on Saturday, Janu ary 3rd, at Grove Street, Derby, in the seventy-third year of her age, Maria, the beloved wife of Robert Ward. The deceased was a most sincere and humbleminded Christian. Throughout her whole life she set an example of uprightness, integrity, and patient forbearance. For nearly fifty years she was a devoted and faithful wife, the comforter and consoler of her husband. To her children she was a loving and tender mother, ever striving with all diligence to lead them to trust in and to serve the Saviour, in whose goodness and love she reposed with childlike faith and confidence. We may truly say her end was peace.

At Embsay, near Skipton, September 27, 1879, Mr. John Wilson, aged forty-eight years. Mr. Wilson was one

of the most active and useful members of the Society of the New Church at this place. His heart was in the Church and in its services; and no effort he could make to promote its prosperity was too great. He has finished a life of active usefulness in the Church on earth at a comparatively early age, and he will doubtless find a sphere of still higher usefulness awaiting him in the world to which he has removed.

February 8th, after a long illness At Acre Grove, Birkdale, Southport, sustained with Christian fortitude, Mrs. Betsy Richardson, relict of Samuel Richardson, Esq., of Heywood, Lancashire, aged fifty-two years.

Died suddenly on the 23rd of December, at his residence, Brooks's Bar, Manchester, in the fifty-eighth year of his age, Henry Charles Lowe, dispensing chemist.

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Suggested by the Letters of John Ruskin, D.C.L., to the Clergy, which appeared in the Contemporary Review for December 1879.

THE Soul's sorrows and aspirations find their first deep utterance in earnest, fervent prayer. Like the first wail of the infant, the first prayer of the Christian is at once a cry of anguish and a sign of life. The child is taught and accustomed to say his prayers, but his is but the embryonic stage of devotional, because of spiritual, life. prayer is coexistent with a consciousness of immortality and a sense of sin. The beginning of this state is a kind of new birth; it introduces us into a new world of thoughts and feelings, hopes and fears. It brings us into a new state of relationship with God as the Author of eternal life. And while it gives us a higher idea of our nature and destiny, it gives us a deeper sense of our own helplessness, and the need we have of God's cherishing love, His guiding wisdom, His sustaining power. This state, though not peculiarly, is eminently Christian, because, life and immortality having been brought to light by the Gospel, the Christian has the outward light which gives distinctness to inward perception.

The Jews had but a dim notion of immortality, and a superficial knowledge of sin, and yet their Scriptures supply many striking examples of true and earnest prayer. What can better express the soul's deepest sorrows and highest aspirations than the penitential cry,

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