How far these Discourses have been beneficial in adding to our numbers we leave time to unfold, but as to the present state of the Church we trust that they have done much good, by strengthening us one and all to persevere in those Heavenly Doctines which alone are calculated to bring peace on earth and good will towards man. I trust that I can say, in the name of the Society, that we have been edified and inspired (by the visits which have been made to us from time to time by our friends Mr. Noble and Mr. Mason) with a desire on our part to communicate those precious truths which are the safe conductors to the mansion of wisdom, to those who have come within our sphere; and though the Church here, is, to appearance, in a very obscure state, yet we hope through the exertions of its members and Missionary visits, we shall, through the Divine Providence, be able to emerge from this state into a more exalted one, but as the I ord alone knows the times and the seasons, we desire to commit it into his bands. When we look back and reflect upon the state of the Society only four years back and compare it with its present state we have cause to rejoice. N. WEST HOUGHTON. On Sunday, August 6th, 1826; the Rev. D. G. Goyder, of Liverpool, preached the annual charity sermon in aid of the West Houghton Sunday school, belonging to the New Church. The place of worship was crouded almost to suffocation. There were present several churchmen, methodists, and quakers, likewise many of our own friends from the neighbouring societies and several of our missionary ministers-the Rev. preacher spoke from Matt. xviii. 5; “Whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me." In the exordium, he feelingly lamented that while so many missionaries of all denominations are sent to convert the heathen, so little is done to convert our own countrymen, and provide for the future welfare of the rising generation. He then opened the spiritual sense of the passage, and exhorted his hearers to receive, protect and instruct the objects of innocence and truth, then before them, which would secure to them a portion of that divine love, peace, and blessing, which remains for the children of God, and also perfect them in that innocence which continually emanates from our glorified Redeemer, and which alone can fit us for the enjoyment of heaven. "The Rev. gentleman's address to the Sunday scholars was particularly animated and impressive, and as there are no doubt many juvenile readers of your excellent magazine, I send you the conclusion of the same as far as I was enabled to follow the speaker. "Though moving in an humble sphere you my dear children have duties to perform, you may hear of titles and of riches and honour, but you may not be born to possess them in this world, nor would it be for your happiness if you were; your heavenly Father loves you so well, that he gives you whatever is good for you, and if you seek his help, he will enable you to perform the duties of the station in which he has placed you; and what, think you, are those duties? as children you know little or nothing, therefore you must be diligent to learn-grateful to your instructorsgentle when you are reproved, and humble in your own hearts. As born to poverty you must honour those whom providence blesses with the means of assisting you. "Be content with such things as ye have," and never seek to change your situation by dishonest means. Above all things remember that you have nothing which you can properly call your own; nothing but what is entrusted to you for a time, to be accounted for hereafter; all is the gift of your Father which is in heaven, and all is to be employed in his service your health and your talents-your learning and your time your friends and benefactors all are sent to you by God-you must be grateful that they are bestowed upon you, you must improve them while you are thus blessed, and resign them cheerfully when they are recalled. Whenever you are in trouble-whenever you are afflicted, pray to Jesus Christ, and he who said,' suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not,' will not fail to answer your sincere prayers: but may little children indeed go to him, and will he bless them with his love? will he listen to the prayers and save them from all danger-will he watch over them in the night and save them in the day time, when they are in sorrow will he comfort them, and in sickness will be give them strength? he can indeed do all these things for he his King of kings and Lord of lords; "Go to him then for he is thy father, pray to him-he is thy preserver-worship him he is thy God-love him-he is thy Saviour-fear him, he will be thy judge." The attention of the congregation was undivided throughout the service; several hymns were sung by the scholars, and the collection amounted to £4.. 12 .. 6; a small sum certainly, but when the pressure of the times is considered, it was by no means trifling. Several remarks were made by the hearers, one challenged the term honour, which the preacher exhorted the children to cultivate, and above all, to honour those teachers who were incessant in their labours of love towards them: except this I heard no remark but such as were to the credit of the preacher and the doctrines he advocated. Indeed one gentlemen (belonging to the established church) said, it was the best sermon he ever heard. DUBLIN. The few recipients who reside in Dublin, the Capital of the sister kingdom, conduct themselves with all that zeal and prudence which the CAUSE they have espoused so pre-eminently requires: they have often wished to be visited by some able minister of the new dispensation. The committee acting in behalf of the Manchester Missionary Institution, made choice of the Rev. David Howarth, for this important work: be arrived in Dublin late in August last, and was received with a most cheering welcome by our friends, who were delighted with the opportunity thus afforded them to promulgate those glorious principles which led to the practical fulfilment of all that is taught in the Holy Word. The streets were placarded with an Advertisement of which the following is a copy LECTURES illustrative of the Doctrines of the New Church; signified by the New Jerusalem in the Revelation,-chap. xxi. The admirers of the Theological writings of the Hon. Emanuel Swedenborg, residing in Dublin, respectfully announce to their fellow citizens and the public, that the Rev. D. Howarth, minister of the New Jerusalem Church, Manchester, intends to deliver Lectures in the Weavers' Hall, on the Coomb, on the following important subjects of Christian Doctrine and Life: viz. On the Great work of Redemption, shewing in what it consisted. Wednesday evening, 6th September. On Charity, Faith, and Good Works, Friday evening, the 8th September. On the Sole and exclusive Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Sunday morning, the 10th September. On the Sacred Scriptures, shewing that they contain a spiritual sense, and that they are written according to the correspondence subsisting between natural things and spiritual, Sunday evening 10th September. Concerning Man's Free Will, in spiritual things. Monday evening, the 11th September. And on Tuesday evening, the 12th, Concerning the second coming of the Lord. Service to commence each evening at 7 o'clock, and on Sunday morning at twelve. N. B. As the expenses of these lectures are defrayed by a society of gentlemen, there will not be any collections. Dublin, Sept. 5, 1826, The attendance on the course, kept on the increase till the conclusion, and the beneficial results will, we doubt, not go down to posterity. KIRKHAM. MR. John Sager preacher to the Society at Blackburn, during a short excursion to Lathan, a watering place of increasing popularity, at the junction of the Ribble with the sea, took occasion to visit the friends at Kirkham, situate about six miles distant. For many years there has been a number of readers at this place, and it is one of the towns at which the venerable and Rev. J. Clowes has formerly lectured. On Sunday the 30th of July, Mr. Sager preached three times to an audience in a private house. But the company being more numerous than could be accommodated in one room, two different apartments were appropriated to their reception, and Mr. S. addressed them from the door-place between both, very much to the satisfaction of the friends and strangers present. The readers at this place are far distant from all our other Societies, and not much known except to some friends of the most northerly Societies in Lancashire. It is considered that a number of tracts might here be usefully distributed, and perhaps a grant of books from the London Printing Society would not be ill bestowed. Old Mr. John Singleton takes an active part in conducting their religious reading meetings, two of which meetings are held each sabbath. ANNIVERSARY SERMONS. PETER STREET, MANCHESTER. ON Sunday the 13th of August, the Charity Sermon in support of the Sunday School belonging to the New Jerusalem Church Peter Street, Manchester, was preached by the Rev. S. Noble, of London; many friends from Societies (distant from 6 to 10 miles) attended; the collection amounted to £34. BOLTON STREET, SALFORD. The Annual Sermon for the promotion of the Heavenly Doctrines of the New Jerusalem, in the Temple, Bolton Street, Salford, Manchester, was delivered by the Rev. David Howarth, in the afternoon of Sunday, the 17th of September; being the thirteenth anniversary since the opening of the said Temple, when the collection amounted to 14. BLACKBURN. The Anniversary of the Society at Blackburn took place on the 27th of August, on which occasion the Rev. T. Pilkington delivered two discourses illustrative of the doctrines of the New Jerusalem Church, with his usual ability, to a respectable auditory. CONDUCT. VARIETIES. To do evil is more within the reach of every man, in public as well as in private life, than to do good. FALSEHOOD. If the habit of falsehood be once contracted, the whole moral system is immediately endangered. Lying supplies those who are addicted to it with a plausable apology for every crime, and with a supposed shelter from every punishment, It tempts them to rush into danger from the mere expectation of impunity; and, when practised with frequent success, it teaches them to confound the gradations of guilt, from the effects of which there is, in their imaginations at least, one sure and common protection. It corrupts the early simplicity of youth; it blasts the fairest blossoms of genius; and will most assuredly counteract every effort by which we may hope to improve the talents and mature the virtues of those whom it infects. THE TRANSLATOR. He that would make a translation agreeable, or even intelligible, must spend many a weary hour in preparing for common minds those passages on which the strength of uncommon intellects has been again and again employed: he must investigate what is deep, to recommend what is plain. COTTON SEED GAS. It has been recently discovered in America, that Cotton Seed produces a beautiful gas almost equal to Oil Gas. One pound of this seed, which has been hitherto laid aside as useless, wil produce a hogshead of gas. Lapland to the 55th deg., 1300; in THE JACK TREE. Ir is a singular circumstance respecting this tree, which is, perhaps, not generally known, that it produces its fruit at the same time from the boughs and the stem, and from that part of the trunk which is under ground, where the natives find it upon digging. The fruit dug up in this way is reckoned the best, and the time of its maturity is known, from the ground over it cracking and opening. This tree which is one of the most beautiful and useful in the universe, has not been long known to European botanists. Its foliage is very close and shady, and the leaf bears some resemblance to the laurel. The fruit is of a most extraordinary size, and conceals a wholesome and sweet pulp, interspersed with small kernels called jack nuts, of an exquisite flavour and nutritious quality. The natives of some of the hills of India use these kernels as bread. THE DRIPPING TREE. In Cockburn's voyages we find the following account of a dripping tree, near the mountain of Fera Pag, in America. "On the morning of the fourth day we came out on a large plain where were great numbers of fine deer; and in the middle stood a tree of unusual size, spreading its branches over a vast compass of ground. Curiosity led us up to it. We had perceived, at some distance off, the ground about it to be wet, at which we began to be somewhat surprised, well knowing there bad fallen no rain for near six months past, according to the certain course of the season in that latitude. At last to our great astonishmeut as well as joy, we saw water dripping, or as it were, distilling, first-from the end of every leaf of this wonderful (nor had it been amiss if I had said miraculous) tree at least it was so with respect to us, who had been labouring four days through extreme heat, without receiving the least moisture, and were now almost expiring for the want of it. We could not help looking on this as liquor sent from heaven to comfort us under our extremity. We catched what we could of it in our hands, and drank very plentifully of it; and liked it so well, that we could hardly prevail upon ourselves to give over. A matter of this nature could not but incite us to make the strictest observations concerning it; and accordingly we staid under the tree near three hours, and found we could not fathom its body in five times." THE CHATODON ROSTRATUS. This fish is a native of the fresh waters of India, and is celebrated for the extraordinary manner in which it takes its prey, which principally consists of the smaller kind of flying insects. When it observes one of these, either hovering over the water, or seated on some aquatic plant, it shoots against it, from its tubular snout, a drop of water, with so sure an aim as generally to lay it dead, or at least stupified on the surface. In shooting at a sitting insect, it is commonly observed to approach within the distance of from six to four feet, before it explodes the water. When kept in a state of confinement in a large vessel of water, it is said to afford high entertainment by its dexterity in this exercise, since if a fly or other insect be fastened to the edge of the vessel, the fish immediately perceives it, and continues to shoot at it, with such admirable skill as very rarely to miss the mark. URIM AND THUMMIM. There was a remarkable imitation of this sacred ornament among the Egyptians; for we learn from Diodorus (lib. i. p 68. ed. Rhod. ) and from hian (Var. Hist. Z. xiv. c. 34) that "their chief priest, who was also their supreme judge in civil matters, wore about his neck, by a golden chain, an ornament of precious stones, called TRUTH, and that a cause was not opened till the supreme judge had put on this ornament." THE MOOSE DEER. The perfect head, (with the horns attached and twelve teeth perfect in each jaw,) and other bones of a Moose Deer, have very lately been dug out of the bog at Killinew, in the county of Meath, Ireland. The famous astronomer Piazzi, Director of the Observatories at Naples and Palermo, and the discoverer of the planet Ceres, died at Naples on the 22d of July, at the age of eighty years. LITERARY NOVELTIES. mirable work upon that bitherto nearly unknown quarter of the globe will appear, we understand, in the course of the present month, in 8vo. M. Larrey, the well-known French surgeon, lately presented to the Academy of medicine in Paris, the heart of a man who, in a fit of derangement produced by grief, stabbed Major Denham, the enterprising himself with a watchmaker's file. and successful explorer of Central After having penetrated several Africa, has arrived in Paris from Viinches, the instrument broke off enna. A second edition of his adlevel with the skin. The unhappy being was conveyed to an hospital, where it was determined that no operation could be attempted. He survived for twenty-one days, in but little pain, and without feeling any difficulty in changing his position. On opening the body, it was seen with surprise that the file had not only pierced the pericardium, and one of the coats of the heart, but that, entering that organ at three inches from the point, it had passed obliquely, from the left to the right, and from the lower to the higher part; crossing the left cavity, the middle membrane, and the right cavity! MAGNETISM. M. Poisson, the mathematician, has been lately engaged in studying the nature of the magnetic fluids. He has established, that, besides the effects produced in the interior of bodies by the magnetic fluids (austral and boreal) when they are at rest, there are others which are pro The MSS. left by the late Mr. Jefferson in a condition prepared for publication, are said to be a Memoir of his own Life and Times, three volumes of Anas, and twelve or fifteen volumes of Correspondence. The Rev. John Mitford has nearly ready for publication a volume of devotional poetry, entitled, Sacred Specimens, selected from the early English Poets, with prefatory Verses. The work will contain extracts on religious subjects from many scarce publications, commencing from the year 1565. NEW PUBLICATIONS. A Sermon occasioned by the decease of the Rev. J. Proud, 8vo. Is. Fyfe's Manual of Chemistry, 7s. Bekker's Plato, with variorum Notes, 11 vols. £10 10s. bds. Newton on the Prophecies, 14s. |