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although the term is an ill-sounding one, and we use it not of others, nor like it of ourselves, we are willing, if it be so wished, to own ourselves a sect, but we ask that the logical inferences of the definition be duly observed, and that it be at the same time candidly allowed that since we are a portion of the Church,' none others, without us, can claim to be the whole; that they too who apply the term to us, must, as parts only of the Church of Christ, appropriate the same designation to themselves, and that every trace of reproach be henceforth banished from the term when it fall, from their lips.

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Churches of the present organization of any one, however influential. The only comprehension it is permitted us to attempt is a comprehension in which all faithful Churches of Christ shall stand upon a brotherly equality, in which varieties of organization shall be frankly recognised, and in which full liberty is conceded to each Church to follow out those modes of action which it has found to be most suited to its own position and abilities."

THE CREED OF THE NEW CHURCH.

The Society at Birmingham has had its attention directed to a revision of the Creed with a view to its introduction into the public worship of the Church. A lengthened discussion ended in the adoption of a resolution for revision only, the following revised form being recommended for adoption :

:

I believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is the

only God of heaven and earth; the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in a glorified human form; a Being of infinite love, wisdom, and power; my Creator, Redeemer, and Regenerator, who came on earth by taking upon Himself our human nature, through which He combated the powers of evil, and having conquered them, He keeps them in subjection, and man thereby in spiritual freedom, thus making salvation possible to all.

I believe that the Sacred Scripture is the Word of God, or Divine Truth itself, which is the fountain of wisdom to angels and men. I must shun all evils as sins against God, and I believe that if I would become an angel, live in obedience to His commandments; and that He is ever present to enable me to do this if I pray to and trust in Him.

Adopting this view of the relation of Christian communities to each other, it is obvious that the speaker could not regard diversity as schism. "Diversities," he says, "of Church life and of Church order are not schisms in the body of Christ. There is not schism in the family because the features and frames of our sons are not those of our daughters. There is not schism in God's beauteous garden because the stately palm is not as the delicate myrtle, the rose is not as the lily. There is not schism in our bodies because the foot is not shaped as the head and the eye is not as the hand. No; diversity is not schism. It is, in fact, an element essential to the truest union. It is not permissible simply; it is ordained. It is not a thing to be endured; it is a thing to be desired. It is not an evil to be shunned; it is a gift to be hailed as contributing to the advantage and the joy of all." Entertaining these sentiments the Professor does not look to the union of Christendom by the absorption of the several sects in any one community, but in the cordial acknowledgment by each community of the ecclesiastical position of the others. "The union,' says Dr. Newth, "which alone it is worthy of Christian men to seek, and upon which alone it is right for them to fix their thoughts and hopes, is a union, not of MANCHESTER PRINTING AND TRACT external forms, but of mutual affection SOCIETY.-The annual meeting of this and sympathy, of common interests and society was held in the schoolroom, aims-the union of a common participa- Peter Street, Manchester, on Tuesday tion in the same redemption, a common evening, May 11th, Francis Smith, Esq., call to the same service, a common in the chair. The chairman in opening expectation of the same glorious issues, the meeting stated that he had to and a common submission to the same apologise for the absence of several Master and Lord. The outward mani- ministers and others who were expected festation of such a union is not to be to be present, but had been unavoidsecured by the imposition upon all ably prevented. He referred briefly to

I believe that I am

an immortal spirit

clothed with a material body, which at death I shall leave for ever; I shall then be judged by my life on earth; if it has been good, I shall live for ever with angels in heaven; but if evil, wicked like myself.

I shall seek an abode with those who are

I believe that the Second Advent of the Lord

is a coming, not in person, but in spirit, by revealing the spiritual sense of His Holy Word, whereby He commenced a new outpouring of light and love into the minds of men.

some of the items of the report, which he called upon the secretary to read.

The report stated that in the sale of books and tracts, and the acceptance of books by subscribers, there has been a marked increase over last year, the sale of books being greater by 270, and of tracts 1689, and subscribers having received 256 more books. During the year an effort has been made to circulate the tracts in the neighbourhood of several of the Lancashire New Church Societies, but so far without any marked effect. Grants for circulation in the Societies had been made amounting to 10,290. Other grants had been made amounting to 5256. The treasurer's report showed a balance in favour of the society.

The meeting was addressed by Revs. T. Mackereth, J. Boys, R. Storry, P. Ramage, C. H. Wilkins, W. Westall, and other members of the society. The attendance was not numerous, but those present were very evidently interested in the welfare and extended usefulness of the society.

SWEDENBORG SOCIETY.-The seventieth annual meeting of this society will be held at 36 Bloomsbury Street, London, W.C., on Tuesday evening, June 15, 1880. The chair will be taken by Dr. Stocker at seven o'clock precisely. The report of the committee and the treasurer's account will be submitted to the members, and the officers for the ensuing year elected. Much has been done during the past year to promote the great end for which the society exists; and the committee trust that the members and friends will manifest their continued interest in the work, which every year embraces a wider field, by being present on this occasion.

Subscriptions which have not been paid to the collectors should now be sent without delay to the agent, Mr. Speirs, 36 Bloomsbury Street, London, W.C., otherwise members will not be entitled to vote.

LONDON ASSOCIATION OF THE NEW CHURCH. The quarterly meeting was held on Monday, April 26th, at Camberwell. Tea having been served, the chair was taken by Mr. T. H. Elliott at seven o'clock. Prayer was offered by the Rev. W. C. Barlow, M.A., and the minutes of the last meeting

were read and signed. The appointment of officers for the ensuing year followed. It was reported that the fund for circulating copies of Morning Light was nearly exhausted, and it was arranged to alter the method of distribution. It was resolved that an Almanac for 1881 be printed, and that Mr. Austin be requested to continue his services as editor. The sub-committee appointed to prepare a report of the proceedings of the Association since its commencement stated that the document would shortly appear. A sub-committee was appointed to arrange the details of week-evening lectures to be delivered during next winter in the various London churches. Mr. Higham then introduced a subject of which he had given notice, viz. the desirability of providing the nucleus of a fund, the interest or principal of which—at the option of the donors-should be devoted to systematic missionary work in the metropolis, with a view, ultimately, to the provision of the salary for a missionary to labour solely in the London district. Several of the details sketched were criticised by subsequent speakers, but the discussion closed with the appointment of a sub-committee to present the idea in a tangible shape.

ADELAIDE, SOUTH AUSTRALIA RECEPTION TO MR. JACOB PITMAN.Mr. Jacob Pitman, the founder of the Adelaide Society of the New Church, having determined to come again to Adelaide, it was arranged by the committee to hold a social meeting of the members and friends of the Society to welcome him and Mrs. Pitman on their return to reside amongst us. The meeting took place in the church, Hanson Street, and was held on Monday evening, January 12th. There was a numerous attendance, and the gathering was a very successful one. During the evening, Mr. W. Holden, one of the original members of the Society, on behalf of the members generally, presented an address of welcome to Mr. Pitman, and in doing so referred in a brief speech to the first meeting for Divine worship, which was held in Mr. Pitman's house on Sunday the 7th of July 1844, and was attended by four adult persons, all of whom are still living, two being present that evening, He remarked that he was sure that all

who remembered Mr. Pitman were very pleased to see him again. Mr. Pitman replied in a few feeling sentences, and gave a brief reminiscence of the first establishment of the church, remarking that he thought the Society had progressed wonderfully well, and expressed a hope that its members would still continue to persevere in extending a knowledge of the Heavenly Doctrines. The Rev. E. G. Day also gave a short history of the progress of the church since his leadership, extending over upwards of twenty years. He referred to the small building in Carrington Street, in which the members met for worship previous to their entering into the commodious chureh in which they were then assembled, and to the efforts which had been and were still being made in the cause of the Truth. The Society, he remarked, was in possession of a very valuable freehold piece of land, and a substantial and creditable church, and the only amount owing was £200 on the building. To meet this debt an amount was subscribed weekly to a building society, so that in a very short time they would be in a position in which no other church in Adelaide wasentirely free from debt. A small but rough painting of the old building in Carrington Street had just been hung up in the vestry, which was a faithful representation of the old house they had left, and to which he directed their attention, and would ask them to "look on that picture and then on this," and see what progress had been made. Mr. John Rendall, another old member of the Society, and other friends briefly spoke, expressing their great pleasure at again seeing Mr. Pitman. Several anthems, solos, and pieces of music were given during the evening by the organist and choir, and at an interval in the proceedings an adjournment was made into the vestry, where tea and coffee, cake, fruit, etc., were partaken of, and a very pleasant evening was spent. The following is a copy of the address: "To Mr. Jacob Pitman. Dear Sir,We, the undersigned office-bearers of the Adelaide Society of the New Church, on behalf of the members of the Society and of the congregation, gladly avail ourselves of this opportunity of welcoming you with Mrs. Pitman to Adelaide. We congratulate you on the circumstance of your having been privileged

by the Divine Providence to lay the foundation of the first altar erected in the southern hemisphere to the worship of the Lord Jesus Christ in His Divine Humanity as the only God. We trust that the long interval that has elapsed since you left Adelaide has not weakened the bonds of affection between you and those who remember you as the first minister of the Society, and we sincerely pray that you may be long spared to aid our endeavours to extend the kingdom of our Lord."

On Sunday, January 18th, in accordance with notice previously given, special sermons were delivered on behalf of the Adelaide Children's Hospital. In the morning Mr. W. Holden delivered an excellent discourse on the words contained in the eighteenth chapter of Matthew, fourteenth verse, "It is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish." In the evening the Rev. E. G. Day preached an admirable sermon from the words contained in Mark x. verses 13 to 16, "And they brought young children to Him, that He should touch them: and His disciples rebuked those that brought them. But when Jesus saw it, He was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. And He took them up in His arms, put His hands upon them, and blessed them." The congregation on each occasion was good, the freewill-offerings amounting, with a small addition from the Benevolent Fund, to £5. So far as the Adelaide Society is aware, theirs was the first attempt to inaugurate a Hospital Sunday, and it is intended to make the attempt an annual one. The charitable fund above referred to consists of the Sacramental offerings, which are collected at the administration of the ordinance on the first Sunday of each month. This is the only collection which is made in the church, all other expenses being met by the voluntary contributions of the congregation on Sundays. At the annual meeting of the Society, held in January, the sum of £5 also was voted to the Irish Relief Fund from the charitable fund, so that the members

of the church have been doing some thing to bring the name of the Society before the attention of the public.

received, containing the annual address of the Conference to this Society. This address was read from the desk, and a reply will be forwarded to the next General Conference to be held in August.”

The above interesting account of proceedings in this distant Society is accompanied by the printed report of the Society for the past year. The Society VIENNA To the Editor of the Inhas completed the erection of a vestry tellectual Repository.-Your readers will at the rear of their church. The Society be grieved to learn that the Rev. Herhas also incurred another large expendi- mann Peisker, who at the unanimous ture in the purchase of an organ, which request of the Vienna Society of the it was thought would improve the musi- New Church was ordained in 1871 by the cal services of the church. The follow- authority of the General Conference of ing items have relation to the internal the New Church in Great Britain, died life of the Society:on April 7th, as his father-in-law ex"Public worship has been regularly pressed himself, "of a broken heart," held morning and evening on the fifty- induced by the prospect of want and two Sundays in the year, and on the starvation staring him in the face. mornings of Good Friday and Christmas Mr. Peisker, it seems, when he Day, these 106 services having been entered in 1871 upon his duties at attended by congregations averaging Vienna, was possessed of a small forty-seven adults and nine children. fortune, enabling him to serve the The sacrament of the Lord's Supper has Society at a merely nominal stipend. been administered twelve times during Owing to unfortunate investments his the year, giving an average of nearly capital, however, part of the time retwenty-one communicants at each ad- mained unproductive, so that in order ministration. Ten infants have been to maintain his increasing family he baptized, ten marriages solemnized, and had to live for several years on a portion four funerals attended during the year. of his capital. This compelled him at The Scripture class has been held twenty-three times, with an average attendance of fourteen pupils and two teachers. Since the completion of the vestry, our minister has attended on Monday and Friday afternoons to answer any inquiries that might be made The remnant of Mr. Peisker's fortune by strangers or friends respecting the was absorbed in 1879 by the bankwritings, and has held every Wednes- ruptcy of a commercial house in which day evening for an hour after the choir it was invested; and then in order to practice a meeting for reading and con- obtain a livelihood for his family he versation, principally to enable the opened a school for instruction in penjunior members of the Society to ac- manship, his father-in-law, who lived quire some knowledge of the writings on a small pension, becoming his of Emanuel Swedenborg; but the at- security. This school did not prove tendance has not been quite so numer- successful. ous nor so regular as could have been Meanwhile the Committee of Foreign wished. Still there has seldom been and Colonial Missions, which was not fewer than from nine to a dozen. A acquainted then with the state of Mr. series of six lectures was delivered on Peisker's private affairs, hoped to effect Sunday evenings in July, August, and a reconciliation between Mr. Peisker September, principally with a view to and the Vienna Society; and in case its meet spiritualistic and free-thought ob- efforts should not be crowned with jections to the Sacred Scriptures as the success, it had intended to try to enable Word of God. All the lectures were Mr. Peisker, under the law of domestic well attended, that given on the 3rd of worship, to institute public worship August received a full and favourable with those of the friends in Vienna who report in the South Australian Register were dissatisfied with the ruling of the the next morning. Twenty-five copies standing committee.

last to ask the Vienna Society to increase his meagre stipend, which never amounted to more than £25. The Society were unwilling to make any effort, and the result was a separation between it and Mr. Peisker.

of the Minutes of the General Confer- While these plans were being ence of the New Church have been matured, the news arrived of Mr.

Peisker's sudden death. After his decease also the particulars respecting his private affairs came to the knowledge of the Committee on Foreign Missions; whereby they learned that while trying to open a new field of usefulness in the Church for Mr. Peisker, he and his wife and four children were actually perishing of want and starvation.

By the Lord's divine mercy the officers of the committee were enabled at once to forward to the widow £15, being the second half of the £30 which Conference at its last session had requested them to raise, if possible, for the assistance of Mr. Peisker. At its meeting on the 27th of April the committee resolved further to grant £30 for a fund whereby Mr. Jantschowitsch, Mrs. Peisker's father, was to be relieved from the liabilities which he had incurred in order to enable his son-inlaw to open his school.

The net sun required for this purpose is £52; yet the committee hope, with the aid of the friends of the New Church in Great Britain, to raise £100 or more for the widow of Mr. Peisker, as a token of the respect and esteem in which her husband was held in England.

For the satisfaction of the contributors, it is proper to mention that Dr. Bayley, Dr. Tafel, Mr. Jobson, and Mr. Gunton have been nominated as a committee to see to the wise application of the contributions.

All contributions will be thankfully received by Mr. R. Gunton, Treasurer of Conference, 205 Tufnell Park Road, London, N. By order of the Committee on Colonial and Foreign Missions. R. L. Tafel, Secretary.

The list of contributions thus far will be seen on the cover of the Magazine.

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In the evening collection there was put upon the plate an envelope with these words outside, "For the new machine,' and within the envelope was a cheque for £25. The donor was a gentleman from a distance connected with the Congregational body, and who being on a visit to one of our friends attended the services, and learned that the want was for a new musical instrument, to lead the school singing, in place of the wornout one now used. His pleasure in the singing of the children and in the whole services of the church led him to make this handsome donation. The other portion of the day's collection was about £27, making £52 total.

The

LONDON (Camberwell).-The ordinary proceedings of the Sunday school were suspended on the afternoon of Sunday, May 16th, and instead thereof the scholars and their parents, together with other members of the Society, were invited to witness the formal presentation of the prizes and certificates won by the school in the recent Scripture examination instituted by the New Church Sunday-School Union. chair was taken by the superintendent, Mr. S. Lewin, who explained the circumstances under which the examination had been held, and congratulated both teachers and scholars upon the results of their united labours. Fifteen scholars competed, of whose papers seven were marked "excellent," earning a prize and certificate, and seven "good," earning a certificate. Rev. Mr. Barlow and others connected with the school gave encouraging and interesting addresses.

MIDDLETON.-On Saturday, May 1st, a tea party and reception meeting was held in the New Jerusalem Temple, Middleton, to welcome the Rev. W. BIRMINGHAM (Wretham Road Church). Westall to the pastorate of the Society. —A pleasing incident occurred at the There was a good attendance. The annual sermons on behalf of the Sunday Rev. R. Storry of Heywood presided, schools, which were preached by the and he was supported on the platform Rev. R. R. Rodgers on the 9th May. by several other ministers. After an His subject in the morning was, "Sow- appropriate introduction and address ing bountifully and Reaping bounti- from the chairman, Mr. Holt rose and fully." At the close of the discourse on behalf of the Society said: "We Mr. Rodgers alluded to the costs of have met to-day to give a kindly and what might be termed the machinery of a hearty welcome to our respected education, and said he was informed minister, the Rev. William Westall, that just now a new machine was wanted on his acceptance of the pastorate of the which would involve an outlay of £25. Middleton Society of the New Church.

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