themselves and heaven, by living on earth the life their Master taught by word and deed, make that church catholic and indivisible against which the gates of hell prevail not. We too frequently associate with the idea of a church organisations, hierarchies, priesthoods, and ministries, gradations of rank among them, set forms, times and places for worship; and we measure too often the strength of a church by the number and wealth of its members, and the means at command for the promotion of its special objects. Let all such accessories and accidents be dissociated from that idea. The church stands on the earth here as the common ground on which heaven and the world may meet, and, after what is infernal in the world has been conquered, enter into consociation, on the basis of the submission of the world to heaven. Now, since heaven is the love of doing good for God's sake and man's, the wisdom whereby that desire gets expression, and the uses that come of the union of these two, it exists first in the individual man, meets and conquers the world there, and there, if at all, heaven and the world enter into consociation. It has, therefore, no essential connection with ecclesiastical organisations, forces, and equipments; or if heaven—that is, the church in its love and faith-is present in any human organisation, it is because it is first present with the human unit. We must clearly recognise that the unitary church in individual men gives quality to that universal church which is but the association of units. Where true doctrine lights the pathway to a righteous life, there the church is, and is no more dependent for its existence upon ecclesiastical organisations than is the individual man for his existence upon given forms of political or social order.

And each man is charged, in a certain sense, with the construction of his own dwelling in the city of God. Within the compass of the mansion of his own mind he can powerfully affect the general quality of the spiritual kingdom of which he is a subject. For within those limits he has full power; in his own soul he can sanctify the world by subjecting it to the government of heaven; there the priestly love can ever minister in the sacrifices of life-worship; there the kingly truth can bear an unlimited rule over all his thoughts and affections. And as each man's nature when good and true reaches inward to the heaven with which his spiritual affinity unites him; and as, on the outside of him he is associated with the world, men, and affairs; so does he, in his measure, bring heaven and the world together, and shed upon the gloom of the mundane sphere something of the light and beauty of heaven. But while each is responsible for that mansion of the city of

God, his own soul, he has nothing to do with the plan of the whole, nor is it necessary that every part of that city should be built in the precise manner that best suits his taste and judgment. Providence, infinitely good and wise, will take care that out of the labours of each a whole of symmetry and strength shall be produced. Let him do well his part, ceasing to do evil, learning to do well, and enriching his mind with all wisdom. And God, who can alone know the whole design of that great city, in the light of which the nations are to walk, will give to each part its own fitting place, and so arrange the whole as best to utilise the parts, and the parts as best to serve the whole. True charity will lead us to look for likeness in our differences, and will often help us to see that as a new variety of truth which in our days of narrowness we condemned as detestable error. The church, if it is to be the earthly image of the heaven we hope for, must be everywhere various. And the sharp distinctness of quality and form which marks off individual from individual, family from family, and nation from nation among mankind, is a rebuke delivered by the work of God to that narrow spirit which demands in the Church, the kingdom of God on earth, a dead and rigid uniformity. The love of God is powerful to bind together, and the wisdom of God to shape into a whole of beauty, these atomic parts of the grand man of heaven and the church. And as each man worships God in spirit and in truth, by life at one with faith, while not omitting the pious service of praise and prayer, so shall the whole great body live with all the vital energy of goodness, breathe freely the atmosphere of truth, and through the whole system, from the heart to the minutest capillary vessel, shall course the life-blood of pure affections.

It is, then, upon the rock of united charity and faith in the human unit that the church must be built, if the gates of hell are not to prevail against it, not upon men, money, power, or any political foundation. Their presence is the life and strength of the church, their absence is decay and death. Numbers, wealth, hierarchies, priesthoods, a magnificent ceremonial, exclusive political privileges, all will fail to galvanize into the semblance of life a church whose units know not charity and faith. Let it be our care to look to the growth of knowledge, intelligence, and goodness, to be abstinent from all evil as sinful in the sight of God, to do the good that lies in our way, and to worship Him every day by a blameless and useful life.

And when the church is thus built upon a sure foundation, let us not hope, in this world, for perfect rest and peace. In the best there

are impurities to be removed, weak parts to be strengthened; and even when the spirit is strongest, its strength does not the less need to be confirmed. Temptations are still permitted to assail the church, individual and general. The gates of hell are again and again opened by the force of evil, eager to invade and destroy the kingdom of God in the world. For where evil is hell is, and that whereby evil gets expression, whether in wicked words or deeds, is the gate-way whereby hell issues to the world. And as goodness uses truth to attain its purposes, so evil finds in the congenial false the gate whereby it may rush outward to destroy.

But the assaults of hell are permitted that so the latent evils of the man of the church may be made visible, and when seen, shunned and hated. They are permitted in order to reveal to him that not yet is every part defended on which infernals can find a foot-hold, and that the strength he has can only be maintained by dependence on the Lord and humble effort to do His will. Or if the spirit is strong enough to resist unimpaired every assault, then are these attacks permitted that by calling forth active resistance from the opposite principle of good, that principle may be strengthened by the exertion of its own force. But against the church thus founded upon a rock we are assured that the gates of hell shall not prevail. For he who is a true church is conjoined with heaven and the Lord, the angels of God encamp about him, the omnipotence of the Highest shields him, truth like a sword turning every way defends him, and though serried ranks of spiritual foes may issue from the gates of hell and advance to destroy him, they are scattered like seafoam against the granite cliff, and upon their own heads is rolled back the evil they intend.

REVIEWS.

SERMONS ON THE APOCALYPSE, by the Rev. T. CHALKLEN. London: C. P. Alvey. Vol. I., pp. 364.

THE Apocalypse is eminently-we may almost say exclusively-a book for the New Church. It describes spiritual states and events which the New Church only can understand, in language and by imagery which she alone can interpret. Some of the states and events which it describes belong indeed to the first dispensation of the Christian church, but they belong to a period of her history when she had neither the will nor the ability to see herself as she, in her true

character, is there pourtrayed. Yet it is remarkble how earnestly her clergy have desired, and how zealously laboured, to open the seals and decipher the writing of that mysterious volume. How have they succeeded? Christian writers have done with the prophet of the New Testament as the Jewish did with the prophets of the Old. The Jews saw in the lofty predictions of their prophets splendid visions of their own national greatness, and the peaceful enjoyment of their earthly inheritance, a sad contrast to which is presented in the actual experience of a people who have no national existence, and are scattered over the face of the globe, in some parts still despised, oppressed, and persecuted. However, they are so far consistent with themselves, they still look forward to the advent of their Messiah, who is to lead them in triumph to the Holy Land. Christians have generally seen in the Apocalypse visions of the outward sufferings and glory of their church, connected with events rather of a political than of a moral or religious character. They also, like the Jews, look, some for a personal reign of Christ upon the earth, others for His appearance in the clouds of heaven, and all for the end of the world, a general resurrection, and the last judgment. In the "Apocalypse Revealed and Explained" all these illusions are dispelled. The interior state of the first Christian church at the time of its end, and the state of the second Christian church at the time of its beginning, are shown to be the subjects treated of in the Apocalyptic vision. Old things have passed away, and all things have become new.

In these immortal works the church possesses a mine of wealth, in which every succeeding generation will dig deeper than that which preceded it, and find more precious and abundant treasures. They are not written for the hour, and therefore are not accommodated to any one of the conventional and temporary modes of religious thought or literary taste. Their unpopular style and direct mode of teaching make them uninviting to some and difficult to others. For such, it is desirable that those who dig in these mines should bring some of their wealth to the surface, ready for the common use. This Mr. Chalklen has done in the work before us; and we have no doubt that many will find it serviceable as an introduction to the study of the works from which his materials are derived. As a specimen of the work we give a portion of the sermon on the Opening of the Seals, as described in chap. vi. 1-8. (Page 204, 205.)

"When the Lamb had opened the first seals, there was heard one of the four beasts, saying, as with a voice of thunder-' Come and see.' By the first of the

four beasts-the one which was like a lion-is denoted the divine power of truth guarding and protecting the things of heaven and the church. His voice, like thunder, saying-'Come and see,' denotes the urgency of a strong affection excited in the minds of men, of such as John represented, leading them to inquire and examine into the true state of things in the Christian church in reference to the power and efficacy of Divine truth. By his seeing and beholding a white horse, is signified their coming to the perception that the understanding of truth, or the intellectual principle of man in reference to the Word, was, in the first state of the church, unmixed with the errors that have since prevailed; for in the establishment of the Christian church the doctrines of truth as taught by the Lord were received in simplicity and with an obedient heart. The Word as received by them, and which is represented by him who sat on the horse, to the authority and direction of which their understandings were submissive, was therefore powerful in them to the removal of fallacies and the subduing the evil propensities of their natures.

"The rider on the white horse had a bow. The bow signifies the doctrine of charity and faith derived from the Word. The Word itself, unless explained by doctrines, and which it can be seen to teach, could not be understood, neither effectually made use of in combating against evil and false principles; neither can true doctrines be derived from any other source than from the Word. He who sits upon the horse cannot go forth conquering and to conquer, if he be not armed for the purpose. The instrument he has is the bow; for by its flexibility the sharpened arrows can be suitably directed, and by its elasticity be made to fly with certain execution. So doctrine from the Word, being a suitable form of instruction, can be brought to bear directly upon the evils that pollute the heart and the life, and upon the false notions which the unregenerated man is prone to believe. That kind of teaching which enables a man to make a direct application of the truths of the Word to his own case for his purification from evils and errors, is represented by a bow; the truths of the Word being represented by the arrows for which the bow is used.

"While the understanding of Divine truth is of this unperverted kind, and its instructions as applicable to the life made use of, then the Word of God proceeds effectually in combating with the unrighteousnesses and evil lusts that war against the soul; it can then go forth to pull down the strongholds of sin and Satan, and to spread its conquering power; overturning the works of the enemy, dislodging them from their unlawful abodes, and scattering them; and as it takes possession of the liberated regions of the mind, peoples them with the truths and charities of heaven, as worthy of the crown of victory, and goes forth conquering and to conquer. "By the opening of the first seal, the ability is given to men to see that the early conquests of Christianity are to be thus accounted for. The undefiled purity and simplicity of its doctrine or teaching, accompanied by that saving power which always attends the honest reception of unsophisticated truth, naturally produced such effects-fed naturally to conquest over hell's dominion, and accessions of human territory to the kingdom of the Saviour. It is highly requisite that the Lord's New Church, at its commencement, should be led by its earnest desire for genuine truth, to behold this rider on the white horse, armed with his bow, going forth crowned with victory, conquering and to conquer, lest a more dreadful peril should await it than befel the first Christian church, after having begun well. The