Fifthly, The single prayers are of moderate length, so as to avoid weariness.

Sixthly, The entire service, though varied, edifying and impressive, is in each case about the length that can be borne without a feeling of fatigue. This is a great desideratum. Though containing many excellencies, the undue length of the Morning Service of the Church of England, from having three services joined into one, and from frequent repetitions, is often lamented over in this respect.

Seventhly, The general adoption of the New Liturgy, shewing that it has already commended itself to the great majority of the societies, gives rise to the hope that the remaining ones may adopt it, and for very many years the needs of the Church in worship may be fully met. It would be a great matter for rejoicing if this object could be accomplished; and should there be any friends who from habit, or for some slight preferences of individual words or phrases, would hesitate to change the old single service for the new and varied one, let us hope that the weighty considerations we have indicated, and their love for the brethren, may induce them to unite with the other societies in the new and, we believe, greatly improved form.

But, in addition to the New Liturgy, the revised edition of the Book of Psalms, ordered by the last Conference, min. 86, is now published, and perfectly ready. The revision has been carefully completed by the gentlemen to whom it was committed, and the excellent Musical Committee of Messrs. Alvey, J. C. Bayley, King Hale, C. Whittington and T. Willson, have adopted an admirable system of pointing for chanting, and carefully supervised the work as it passed through the press. It is now a great improvement on the common version both for CHURCH AND HOME. The more deeply we reverence the Divine Word the more we shall surely desire to have it pure from human mistakes.

A large number of the corrections will commend themselves at once to the New Churchman and the scholar.

The word HEATHEN, which is a term of contempt, ought never to have been used for NATIONS in the original, and is in the new version correctly rendered. Jehovah, though only once used in the common version, Psalm lxxxiii. 18, it is well-known occurs hundreds of times in the original, and now appears in this New Church version where it ought. And when we recollect that the DIVINE LOVE specifically is meant by that term, we must feel that it ought not to be obscured by the use of any other, by which the discrimination of its signification from that of other names of the Lord does not appear. How much more clear and weighty is the rendering, "Jehovah said to my

Lord," Psalm cx. 1, than "The LORD said unto my Lord," of the common English version.

Hill, and hills, very often appear in the common version, when MOUNTAIN and MOUNTAINS are in the original; in the new version they are correctly rendered. Sometimes the omission of a small word quite distinct in the original prevents the perception of a truth of great importance, which would otherwise shine out very clearly. Such for instance as the omission of SELF in Psalm viii., "That thou mightest still the enemy and the self-avenger," where the leaving out of self hides the important truth that our sorrows flow mainly from our sins. In the same Psalm, verse 5, the word ANGELS occurs instead of GOD. The phrase, very early, which frequently occurs in the common version, is not so forcible, or so beautiful as the term in the original, which it should represent, the DAWN of the morning. All these are properly rendered in the new version. It must be a great help to have the word as nearly brought before us as the most correct rendering can yield. Many passages in the common version are so very imperfectly expressed that it is difficult to make any sense of them at all (see Psalm lxviii. 30; Psalm cxxxix. 16). In the new version they are clear enough.

Some worthy friends have shrunk from new translations of Scripture from a fear of scaring people away from the New Church, by a dread that we were making a Bible of our own. But this scarcely applies to the Book of Psalms. The Church of England has always used a version in the public service different from the version of the common Bible. Surely, what they may do, we may do. But there would still be this difference, that the Church of England uses a version of the Psalms much worse than that of the common Bible, and the New Church would be using one that is much better.

We trust then that our friends generally will adopt the new version, whose cost is only 1s. 6d. per copy, whether they read or chant the Psalms in their public service; and that those friends who have not yet procured it for private reading, will not hesitate to take the labours of their friends, who have sought to promote their edification and their piety. J. BAYLEY.

SHORT LESSONS FOR SIMPLE MINDS.-No. VIII.

LUKE xiii. 11-13.

WE have here described a form of bodily weakness or disease, differing from any that have previously come under our notice.

The woman spoken of is said to have such a spirit of infirmity as to be unable to lift up herself. As we advance in years, many of us feel that difficulty, and know how constantly our eyes are directed towards the ground when such is the case. It is easy to imagine from this circumstance what state of the soul is intended to be represented by the bodily infirmity of this poor woman. Evidently that which is most surely produced by allowing the affections to dwell on earthly things; so that, instead of giving the Lord and His holy Word the first place in our affections and thoughts, they are so bent down towards selfish and worldly loves as to be incapable of elevation towards heaven. Most of us know how difficult we have found it, when, after allowing ourselves to indulge too freely in works of fiction, we endeavour to turn to more profitable reading; the plain truths which are our guide in every-day life are as unpalatable to the mind as wholesome nourishment is to the stomach which has been accustomed to highly-seasoned dishes. Both, when used without moderation, are injurious to the health of mind and body. Every occupation and enjoyment which has not use to the Church or to our neighbour for its end, is a weight which draws the soul down to earth, and the only means by which we can be elevated out of this state, is by coming to the Lord in worship, and allowing Him to impart to us those heavenly affections which will give new life to our souls, represented by the Lord's calling the woman to Him, and by His laying His hands upon her and thus healing her. The laying on of hands has been used from the earliest days of the Church as a symbol of the imparting of power, and by such means many miraculous cures were wrought by the Apostles.

The Lord is ever waiting to give us similar blessings if we will but come to Him. He says, "All the day long have I stretched forth my hand to a rebellious and gainsaying people."

There is another lesson taught us from the narrative of this miraculous cure. The poor woman was in the synagogue on the Sabbath day. Many of us do not like to exhibit our bodily infirmities to our fellow-creatures, and rather than do so, deprive ourselves of the privilege of joining in the public worship of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. With her there was no such false shame, and we see how great was the benefit she derived from it. The Lord saw her and

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called her to Him, and loosed her from her infirmity. He, who is still the Lord of the Sabbath, calls us to Him to receive a similar cure to our spiritual diseases.

Oh, what a blessing it is to be delivered from all those evils which keep our thoughts and affections fixed on earthly things! We can never get to heaven, unless we cherish heavenly desires and feelings whilst we live in this world.

If we are constantly thinking about the health and comfort of our bodies, or our food and clothing, and if the desire to be served by others comes before the wish to do them good, we are like the woman we have been reading of, and are in nowise able to lift up ourselves. But shall it always be so? How soon, and how suddenly we may be called upon to leave this world and to give an account of the use we have made of our "talents" none of us can tell.

One thing we do know, that God has commanded us to "seek first His kingdom and righteousness," and to "set our affections on things. above;" and instead of obeying Him, we have thought only of present gratification; have indulged perhaps in lawful pleasures in an unlawful degree, or in those which are unlawful, and bring disease to the body and death to the soul, forgetting that we were created to the noble destiny of being "temples of the living God."

Let us then, like Jonah, when we feel as if "the earth with her bars were about us for ever," look towards the holy temple of the Lord's Divine Humanity, and pray that our lives may be delivered from such corrupting influences, and knowing that "they that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy," seek to elevate our thoughts and affections to those things which are worthy of our regard. Let each Sabbathday find us devout worshippers and attentive hearers of the Word of God, and of the instruction to be derived from it; then we may hope, with certainty, that the Lord will also look upon us, and incline us to hear His call and to come to Him, that He may impart to us that power which will loose us from our infirmity and enable us to glorify Him by uprightness of life. M. S. B.

Review.

RELIGION AND SCIENCE: THEIR RELATIONS TO EACH OTHER AT THE PRESENT DAY. BY STANLEY B. JOBSON, Rector of Sandon, in Essex, and late Fellow of Queen's College, Cambridge. London: Longmans, Green, & Co. 1875.

(Second Notice.)

THE à priori argument for the existence of God, originated by Anselm and

adopted by Descartes, need not detain us long. The argument is this man has the idea of God, and as he cannot have an idea of what does not exist, the existence of the idea proves the existence of God. We confess to the opinion that there is not much force in the argument. Man has no connate ideas: how then can he have any intuitive knowledge of God? The idea of God has been derived from Revelation-not only from that which we possess, but from one prior to it which is mentioned in it. Man has faculties for knowing God, and he receives light from "the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world," which enables him to see the truth of God's existence when revealed. This light is that which Swedenborg speaks of as a universal influx into the minds of men, that there is a God, and that He is one." But he who teaches this inflowing light also says that all knowledge of God comes by Revelation. The inflowing light does not reveal truth, but only enables us to see it when revealed, as light enables us to see the objects which reflect it. Nature affords confirmation of revealed truth, but she does not teach it, and the natural man cannot originate it.

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The second essay is on the argument from miracles. We may save time and trouble by at once admitting, or rather maintaining, that miracles can be no argument for the truth of Christianity. If they prove anything, they prove the claim of him who performs them to be heard; but belief in what he says must be produced by the light of inward discernment, not by the force of an outward act. Miracles can be no certain evidence that he who performs them is a true prophet; for they have been, and, according to the warning testimony of the Lord Himself, can be performed by false as well as by true teachers. So far from being done by our Lord to produce faith, faith was required for their performance. We know the negative argument that has been drawn from this. It has been maintained that the miracle owed its existence to the credulity of those who beheld or experienced it. The scientific naturalist denies the possibility of miracles, as being contrary to the order of nature, which is governed by fixed laws. We admit the reign of law, and yet we believe in miracles. Miracles are as much according to law as the ordinary operations of nature. The laws of miraculous operation are not opposed to the natural laws. Nor does the performance of a miracle require or imply the suspension of any law of nature, which we regard as impossible. But the laws of nature originate in higher laws, or the laws of a higher sphere of existence, and these higher laws are within the natural laws as the soul is within the body. The scientific naturalist will not admit either that there is a higher sphere of existence or that the soul is anything distinct from the body. We derive this knowledge from Revelation, which he does not accept. All we can do is to present the subject to him as we understand it, and leave him to form his own conclusion. The nearest approach to the truth on the subject, put forth on scientific grounds, is that in the work entitled "The Unseen Universe." "The present visible universe is supposed to have been produced out of an invisible universe. The connection is not thought of as strictly that of antecedent and consequent. Rather the invisible universe is the contemporary as well as the parent of the visible. Energy, it is thought, may be transferred to our material universe from the unseen universe with which it is connected. The supernatural events alleged in connection with the origin of Christianity are accounted for by the coming in of powers of the invisible universe." The authors of the "Unseen Universe" acknowledge their acquaintance with the writings of Swedenborg; and it may be admitted that this statement of their theory is a pretty accurate representation of his views, or rather of his account, of the invisible world. According to him there are two worlds or universes, one spiritual, the other natural. God, as the great First Cause, created the spiritual universe, and through it the natural. The relation of the created universe to the Creator is this, the natural universe is the body, the spiritual is the soul, God is the life. We must not however confound this with pantheism. God is a Divine Person distinct from creation. The natural universe exists and lives immediately from the spiritual, the spiritual immediately from God. The phenomena of the natural universe are the results of the noumena of the spiritual world. As the