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"LIGHT! more light still," is breaking on the minds of all sincere seekers after truth. It is almost impossible to take up a book or periodical without finding some beautiful New Church truth. And what is more encouraging still, the truth is hailed with delight. There is generally no argument about it. It is simply stated. Its own inherent beauty and reasonableness are quite sufficient to recommend it to every lover of truth. It often seems to have no author, to belong to no class; and on this account it encounters no prejudices, and is received by sincere minds with affection. Such sentiments as the following are frequently met with in newspapers and cheap periodicals :

Two in Heaven.-" You have two children," said I. "I have four," was the reply: "two on earth and two in heaven." There spoke the mother! Still hers! only gone before! Still remembered, loved, and cherished by the hearth and at the board; their places not yet filled; even though their successors draw life from the same faithful breast where their dying heads were pillowed. "Two in heaven!" Safely housed from storm and tempest; no sickness there: no drooping head, nor fading eye, nor weary feet. By the green pastures, tended by the Good Shepherd, linger the little lambs of the heavenly fold. "Two in heaven!" Earth less attractive! Eternity nearer! Invisible cords drawing the maternal soul upward. "Still, small voices," ever whispering Come! to the world-weary spirits. "Two in heaven!" Mother of angels! walk softly! holy eyes watch thy footsteps! cherub forms bend to listen! Keep thy spirit free from earthly stain ; so shalt thou " go to them," though "they may not return to thee." What a vast improvement this is upon the doctrine which supposes that some children are predestined to hell! Upon that which casts a N. S. No. 163.-VOL. XIV.

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doubt upon the salvation of unbaptised infants! Upon that which teaches that the souls of all who have departed this life, both infants and adults, are not yet risen, but are still in the cold grave, where they will remain in a state of unconsciousness until the general resurrection! We have reason to be thankful that such scraps of truth are permitted to circulate, for they will considerably assist in dispelling the dense darkness which has prevailed in the world so long. I do not know who the writer of the above paragraph is; we were struck with the resemblance to one of our own which was published some years ago :

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"If (it is there said) the mother can invest the soul and eternity with the idea of something substantial, though of a spiritual kind, she will arrive nearer the truth, and at the same time find herself much reconciled to her apparent loss. She will still be able to count her children as heretofore, and say, "I have so many on earth and so many in heaven;" and she will think of them all as equally living, real, and conscious."-Infants in Heaven.

It is probable that the truth has presented itself in this form to several writers, each of whom will be surprised to find others in possession of it.

Charity is a theme which is much more frequently dwelt upon than formerly. Dr. Campbell and his class may "hope" as long as they please, that Christian preachers will not preach the doctrine of love in his day but he must die soon if he expects to have his hopes realized, for the doctrine is taught, and notwithstanding all deficiencies, the world is beginning to be actuated by it as a principle. The general disinclination for war; the efforts to break the chains of the slave; the exertions to elevate the poor to independence and plenty; the inclination of our legislators to legislate justly for all parties, are evidences of the existence of a love of man for man, which did not formerly exist. Narrow creeds are disappearing. Men are beginning to meet each other as friends and brothers, notwithstanding the differences of religious sentiments. It is yet only early morning, but we are at the beginning of a glorious day. A religion of love is seen to be more practical than a religion of faith. Faith alone is less heard in pulpits, and less seen in print, than it used to be. Even bishops suppose that men of other creeds may be right and themselves wrong, and that others, who are not of their fold, may be saved as well as themselves! and hence that a spirit of charity should prevail towards all. The Bishop of Manchester, in a sermon at the consecration of a new church in the neighbourhood of Preston, uttered the following truly Christian sentiments :—

"His lordship alluded to the pleasure of meeting in such a sanctuary, and said how happy it would be if all who acknowledged the name of God agreed in the

interpretation of His Word, and upon the same form of discipline and worship. Unhappily, this was not the case; but in the existence of these very differences, the spirit of Christian charity found a province peculiarly its own. God had placed in man different degrees of intelligence and capacity, so that they did not think alike upon such subjects. Even from God's own Word man drew different conclusions, and all could not be equally true. He had given us the liberty of judging for ourselves according to our consciences. Liberty belonged to us as moral men. If any man, or body of men, were to attempt to deprive them of it, or they were to deprive others of it, it would be irrational and tyrannical. If you constrained a man to what he did not believe, he would not be a sound Christian; he would be an unmeaning echo or a hypocrite. Where there was no personal conviction there was no real faith. As respected their interference from compulsion by their fellow-men, God had given them the liberty and right of judging for themselves. But for this liberty and right they were responsible for their right use, as they were for every other gift. If in forming the judgment a man was only actuated by the love of truth; if he modestly and humbly availed himself of all the means of instruction within his reach: if he prayed for the guidance of the Holy Spirit, then we might humbly trust that God would favourably regard our well-meant endeavours, and if we fell into a mistake, that he would make allowance for the errors of the understanding. Not so, however, if in judging of divine things, a man suffered himself to be carried away with self-confidence, or warped by prejudice, or influenced by worldly motives, or for a mere shew of independence or other such motive kept up dissension, or on any account by want of Christian humility showed a disregard of Christian unity. But they were not to judge of the motives of others; they could not see into their hearts. Each man must judge himself according to his own conscience. They were to prove all things; hold fast that which is good.' After some observations on the exercise of charity to those who differed from them in opinion, the right rev. prelate said, that whose opinions were right and whose wrong in the many points of difference that divided the Christian world, however strong their convictions might be, man, liable to err, could not pronounce with absolute certainty. He who was rancorous to those he disagreed with, who dealt sentences of divine wrath round the world, whatever else he might have, had not charity, and was therefore only as 'sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.'" May such sentiments prevail among all classes and creeds! What a contrast there is between the Athanasian creed, and the creed of the bishop!

"Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the catholic faith; which faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly."—Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria.

"He who was rancorous to those he disagreed with, who dealt sentences of divine wrath round the world, whatever else he might have, had not charity, and was therefore only as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal."-Lee, Bishop of Manchester.

How much more is true religion and good sense on the side of the bishop of our times, than on that of the factious one of Alexandria !

We lately met with Archbishop Whately's sermon on the Marriage of Cana in Gallilee, and were surprised and pleased to find that his view of the Scriptures was so much like that of the New Church. After showing that the first and second objects of the Lord's miracles were "to prove His divine authority, by manifesting power more than human;" and to give "immediate relief or benefit to the persons for whom they were wrought," he says,—

"The third object of almost all our Lord's miracles was to convey some figurative representation of His character and office-exhibit some emblem or token of the Gospel and its effects;-in short, as I may say, to act as a parable. Most of the miracles are explained by Him as having this instructive meaning. And you should remenber that an interpretation of actions as symbolical, i. e., as conveying an instructive meaning, is, (in Scripture,) so far from being a fanciful departure from the plain literal sense of what we find there, that it is, in fact, keeping to the established meaning of the language ordinarily employed by the sacred writers."

He then gives numerous examples, and proceeds:—

"Now the first miracle our Lord performed might be expected more especially to answer this purpose in a high degree, and to have a more extensive and important signification than any of the rest. Not that this mystical meaning was expected or intended by Him to be understood at the time, by those who were witnesses of the miracle, but that the truth might afterwards break upon them, when they should come to perceive the true nature and design of His office."

One of his arguments in favour of a spiritual sense is derived from "the several seemingly minute particulars of the transactions recorded." He supposes, with John, "that there were many other things which Jesus did, which, if they should be written every one, I suppose the world itself could not contain the books which should be written;" and he infers, that many of those things which Jesus did and said, which are not in the Gospels, must be much more important than those trifling particulars, if those particulars do not contain some deeper meaning than that which appears on the surface; and therefore, if a mere memoir of Christ was only intended, those important things should have been preferred. But as it was otherwise, he concludes that some important instruction is involved, in those apparently trifling things, which renders them of far more consequence than the knowledge of the most important external event, without this "mystical" meaning, could be. He says that the Gospels consist of "very scanty and brief selections of the Lord's discourses, of His miracles, and of all the transactions of His life;" but that these have been so arranged by the Holy Spirit as to convey deep and holy lessons of wisdom. "Every