like that which suggests it, though without form." To what then does this conception of the First Cause extend? To its essence? No: I do not know it absolutely, as it may be known to itself; I only know it, if one may say so, as indefinitely relative; know it by what I know of myself. Nor is my thought of it a thought proper, but only "a normal affection of the intellect "- -an unconditioned consciousness. What is this intrinsically a consciousness of? Indefinite existence. But has this indefinite existence no marks indicating a given nature? No, except that of persistence. But what is it that persists? Why, the consciousness. But this is reasoning in a circle. Has this consciousness no quality or character? Does not the very name imply that it is feeling? Yes, of course. Moreover, is not this consciousness translatable as thought? No doubt, by the very constitution of the question. Then this consciousness of existence persists as indefinite feeling and indefinite thought? Clearly, but what then? We know all this. And this indefinite feeling and thought "is in substance like that which suggests it?" Yes. Then what is the quality or character of "that which suggests it?" Is it not-is there any escape?—is it not, so far as we can know it, feeling and thought? But this which suggests it being the First Cause, the First Cause is actually known in consciousness as Feeling and Thought, indefinite no doubt, but real! And this unconditioned consciousness being a consciousness of the Unconditioned, the Unconditioned exists (for us at least) as Feeling and Thought,-for it is present "not as a nothing but as a something!" Again; this consciousness is the "raw material" of our definite states or essential human properties; but this consciousness is also "like that which suggests it;" therefore "that which suggests" this consciousness "is in substance like" our essential human properties: two things that are "like" the same thing "like "" each other! And the First Cause is thereby proved to be (to us at least) essential Feeling and Thought, and to possess essential human properties. True, we may not know the spiritual chemistry and mechanics by which the Unconditioned resolves Itself, and descends through degrees of apprehensibleness into conditions of human consciousness, therein appearing as human properties; but this analysis reveals the truth of the common instinct that so it is. If, in brief, this First Cause" is in substance like that which it suggests" in us, and what it suggests are feelings and thoughts, does it not follow "" as the night the day" that we, not by the laws of our being only, must, but in strictest truth, should, ascribe human elements,

are

in whatsoever transcendent degree and proportion, to that Unconditioned Cause of us, and which we are like? And these elements, what are they but the moral and intellectual facts of human nature, Love and Wisdom, arising in Will and Intelligence?

We agree with Spencer that this is properly a psychological question; and psychology answers it and verifies the common belief. Nor do we confound Form and Substance in taking this attitude, any more than Spencer himself. We do not in anywise mean that we can conceive God's nature as it is known to Himself any more than Spencer means that our conception of the First Cause is absolute. These so-called "attributes" of Will and Wisdom are mere symbols for us of something "essentially like" but transcendently unlike the moral and intellectual facts of human agents; and in this statement we conceive the harmony of conflicting theories to lie. Of the Infinite and Eternal,—of Essential God, we profess no knowledge; but of the First Cause, conceived as God, as He has conditioned HIMSELF for our relative apprehension of Him in nature and the human mind, we do know something, and that something is what Himself has revealed. It is but a Form of God of which we profess any knowledge the Form of Himself, presented by Himself, adapted to our human conceptions. Altogether a mistake is it to suppose that true Theism (there is a charlatan Theism) professes a knowledge of the Unknowable. That remains the One, Eternal, Infinite, Absolute, Inscrutable Substance behind all Forms, unrevealed and unrevealable. Whosoever therefore admits the knowledge of Nature to be essentially a knowledge ab extra of the Unconditioned as presenting Itself and working in material forms, thereby admits the possibility and conceivability of Theism (its whole demand in fact) as the doctrine of God, as presented, conditioned and known in the spiritual forms of Will and Wisdom, i.e. of Personality. How do we destroy the integrity of the First Cause by insisting that it is capable of being symbolically conceived from the moral and intellectual facts of human nature, on the ground of the necessary likeness between the Caused and the Cause as given in consciousness? The psychological legitimacy of such a conception is as integral and unimpeachable as the psychological legitimacy of Spencer's conception of the Infinite, and is merely a development of it; and the purely logical argument that destroys the one, destroys the other with it. But no such argument is possible: the logic of facts will "persist," and Theism remain.

But here you have stolen back, without proof, the ideas of selfexistence and Personality, in attributing moral and intellectual facts to the First Cause. No, truly; we have not. Our argument demands no more than the facts themselves; but this is a case of the fallacy already pointed out, of supposing that certain ideas come from a thought because in a thought. Our contention is for these moral and intellectual facts solely, leaving the rest for the mind itself to accomplish. And this it does. Given these facts, and by a necessity of

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our constitution we cannot avoid predicating personality of their subject; given these facts in the Caused, and we cannot avoid" the conclusion that they come from the Cause, and are in It; given these facts in a First Cause, we "cannot avoid" the further attribution of self-existence to such Moral and Intellectual Cause. All we do is, to point out that this Moral and Intellectual Cause is conceivable symbolically from the facts of human nature; and if, by a necessity of our thought, we are compelled to add to the conception the ideas of Personality (which has never been held impossible) and self-existence (which we have proved conceivable), we, while entirely repudiating the assumption as an integral part of this argument, shall not repudiate the necessity of so thinking, but shall gladly accept the welcome sweet constraint.

But this is anthropomorphous ? Even Spencer makes the charge. "It seems somewhat strange that men should suppose the highest worship to lie in assimilating the object of their worship to themselves;" and he speaks of "attributes" of the First Cause as not elevations but degradations." So they would be, if they were meant to express the Unrevealed Divine, or to level Him at all with us. But the whole point is, has He conditioned Himself or not? If so, it is those who make the charge who degrade the Divine Nature and belie the human. We do not level Him to ourselves, but we say that we desire to rise to the Highest we know—Him to wit, as He has revealed Himself. These Revelations (in nature and ourselves, not to speak of another) are not of us, but of Him; and only at all anthropomorphous because first Divine. But, indeed, this is a glory, not a shame, both of the Divine and Human-that He has refracted one ray from Himself in which we may see Him and live. Man desires to be Man-like, because that, for us, is the Divinely appointed way of becoming Divine in our measure. What we are and know is from Him, but what we know is not the all of Him. The facts, then, anent God, are anthropomorphous, how can the ideas be otherwise? "In the likeness of God made He him." Does not Spencer say the same in his own way"Our consciousness is in substance like that which suggests it?”—“ I thank thee, Jew, for teaching me that word."

If all this be so, will a consequence not follow of more than our bond? Must not a horse think of God as a horse? Well, if you choose "not the elevation but the degradation," and can prove that a horse thinks of God at all-so he should, and rightly; but we thought it was the conceptive faculty whose imperative condition of conceivability it was we had to satisfy and if a horse thinks of God as a horse, must not man think of God as a Man? And this it is we have aimed at, to justify to the conceptive faculty the theistic doctrine of a Personal God. Spencer's lion would devour this poor mouse; but it happens sometimes that the profoundest-seeming hindrance becomes the profoundest help-that out of the eater comes forth meat, and out of the strong sweetness. THOMAS CHILD.

DEATH OF THE REV. E. D. RENDELL.

An event which it was known for some time past could not be far distant has come at last. Mr. Rendell has exchanged his earthly for his heavenly home. He passed peacefully away on the morning of Saturday, the 20th of May, about 2 o'clock. The death, however long expected, of one so well known and so highly esteemed as a preacher, an administrator, and an author, cannot fail to produce a profound feeling of sorrow throughout the whole Church. Yes, his labours amongst us are ended! Yet we have reason to be thankful that they have been so greatly prolonged, as they have been eminently useful; and that we enjoy their fruits when he has gone to receive their reward. Gathered as a ripe sheaf into the garner of the Divine Husbandman, we may even expect that the immense increase of principles, by multiplication and fructification, which takes place in the other life, while it enriches him, will also benefit us; [for the Church on earth has, in one respect, its roots in the Church in heaven. But we must pause. This is not intended to be a notice, but an announcement. And in announcing the departure of our beloved friend, we may, in the name of the whole Church, express the deepest sympathy with his bereaved and sorrowing wife and family.

APOCALYPSE REVEALED.

SWEDENBORG SOCIETY, BRITISH AND FOREIGN, 36 Bloomsbury St., London, May 12, 1876. DEAR FRIENDS,―The great success which attended the presentation of "The True Christian Religion" last year to the clergy and ministers of the different sections of the Christian Church, has induced the Committee to make a similar effort this year, with that important work "The Apocalypse Revealed."

An edition, carefully revised by the Rev. W. Bruce, has been printed and bound in one handsome vol. 8vo, of 920 pages.

A circular has been issued, and is continuing to be issued, containing the Rev. A. Clissold's concise outline of the subjects treated upon, and offering the work gratuitously to the clergy and ministers of every denomination in the United Kingdom, on payment of the postage.

The applications come in so rapidly, and are so numerous,—200

having arrived in one instance, in a single day, and the entire number applied for from the middle of March to the present time having amounted to over 3000,-that the Committee perceive the necessity of additional funds to carry out their intentions fully. £500 will be required.

The class they address numbers over 40,000 persons, and a very considerable proportion is evidently interested in the religious questions on which Swedenborg pours streams of light.

The letters received last year respecting "The True Christian Religion" were full of thankfulness for the gift, and of appreciation of the new discoveries of wisdom thrown on theology by Swedenborg.

The fields are indeed white unto harvest; and a harvest gathered from amongst those who are the religious teachers of the Church, and whose influence on such subjects extends far and wide, must be a rich one. Their influence is not oral only, but is visible in the numerous religious publications, which already give tokens of darkness disappearing, and a new morning breaking over the world.

The Committee earnestly solicits donations and subscriptions from all who appreciate the treasures of wisdom from the Holy Word contained in the Writings, the diffusion of which, we are convinced, is so important for the establishment of faith, and the spread of charity and goodness among mankind.

Signed on behalf of the Committee,

H. R. WILLIAMS, Chairman.
T. H. ELLIOTT, Secretary.

Subscriptions and donations to be forwarded to the Treasurer, Thomas Watson, 19 Highbury Crescent, London,