DRAL MUSIC.

I was extremely pleased in reading your last, by the admirable remarks of your correspondent S., replete as they were with good sense and with good feeling. I trust the worthy friend who had, I fear without due consideration, penned his paper advocating the Old Church and Cathedral music as more advisable to be followed than the New Church with its heartfelt but simpler melody, will be led to ask himself if he does wisely to resist the Divine call"Come out of her, my people, and be not partakers of her plagues," because of Cathedral music. I have from time to time had the opportunity of seeing our Cathedrals, and listening to Cathedral music, and just now I have had such an opportunity. I am a great admirer of music, and wish to see it minister as much as possible to the pure, sublime, and holy things of religion; but I must confess to a sense of dissatisfaction at every Cathedral service I have ever witnessed. I feel the sense of hireling service, not of heartfelt praise, in these performances. The performers are notoriously men for the most part with no reverence for the sacred things of which they sing. Their want of piety is often so manifest as to offend even a very ordinary sense of devotion. The other day I happened to be placed so near a man chorister that I could not avoid seeing he was scribbling on paper while singing the most solemn language; his prayer book even had its margin with evident marks of a busy pencil. These parties are said not seldom to have parodies of the psalms which they sing, and frequently they talk to each other in their music. The lives of these Cathedral functionaries, often including the clergy, bear witness to the utter failure of Cathedral music to win the soul from sensuality to heaven. And is it for a New Churchman to despise the sincere and truthful prayer directed to the God of his salvation, the God in whose hand his life is, and the Fountain of all his blessings, for the mere[Enl. Series.-No. 65, vol. vi.]

it for a New Churchman, to whom the Divine Word is opened, and who feels his need of its saving power to strengthen, to elevate, and to cheer him, to forego these, and the opportunity of forwarding the truth by a faithful testimony openly in its favour, if perchance he can have Cathedral music? Assuredly not. Let us all get first the music of the heart and the understanding, and then, if the Lord will give it us, the enrichment of external song. But whether we have the latter or not, let us labour with all our hearts for the former.

B.

[In order to obviate the necessity of any further remarks in reply upon this subject, which we are certain would not be agreeable to our readers, we will only add that, as everything is liable to abuse, "Cathedral Music" is not exempt, as our respected Correspondent has shewn in the above remarks, from this perversion. We must not, however, argue from the abuse of Cathedral music against its legitimate and devotional application, which is the only point contemplated by the originator of this discussion.—ED.]

WORSHIP IN THE NEW CHURCH. To the Editor.

Dear Sir, I know from experience the difficulties undergone by Editors of Periodicals, in their attempts to "keep down the matter standing over" from their numerous correspondents; but nevertheless, for the sake of truth, I hope you will allow me space in your next number for a rejoinder to the letter sent by "J. S.," entitled "Worship in the New Church," &c.

In the first place, that writer, commenting on my letter, says-" If any one adopts so unwise a course as to neglect or forsake the services of the Church of the New Jerusalem on that account (chanting) only, it is evident that such an one does not exhibit a right spirit for its welfare. then, should the New Church be slighted in her religious services? Is it not, I would ask, because the Old Church

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Why,

has more worldly attractions,-that more of the great of this world attend there, and on these accounts the New Church, in the estimation of the worldly-minded, ranks only secondary?"

Now, I must confess that I think this remark is unjustifiable, as it perverts (though doubtless unintentionally) the whole tone and argument of my letter. For my ideal character was an earnest Christian, who attended the services of the Church of England for the sole purpose of increasing his adoration of God and love to his neighbour. Cannot "J. S." see the difference between this motive and that which actuates the sensualist to attend the house of God for the sake of the chanting only; or what, perhaps, is worse, the motive which actuates the worldly-minded man to attend church for the sake of appearances, for the sake of being seen in the society of the great of this world? Does not "J. S." recollect the doctrine so strongly inculcated by Swedenborg, that "the end and the cause (from which anything is done) render the works either good or bad?" (See A.R. 76, and numerous other passages throughout the writings.) Though strongly convinced of the truth of your remarks with regard to the New Church not being a sect, yet, Sir, I am sadly afraid that some of its members are, individually, rather sectarian.

As to another point, namely, about Mr. Clowes, I think "J. S." is again mistaken, as his remarks are in opposition to those of Mr. Clowes himself. For we find "J. S." saying"There cannot be a doubt that Mr. Clowes heartily dissented from many portions of the services of the Church of England. He seldom or never, I understand, for a considerable time previous to his leaving Manchester, read the Prayers, from which it would seem that, with his enlightened views, he could not heartily do so."

While we find Mr. Clowes, in a letter to a friend, (see p. 172 of his Memoirs) saying "I come now to the contents of your second letter, and shall begin by satisfying the curiosity of your society in their desire to know how I perform the liturgy of the Old Church, &c., by informing them that I never do perform it; but the reason is, not that I have any scruples of conscience about per

forming it, but that I am prevented by a nervous complaint, which for several years past has attacked me in reading the lessons appointed by the Church, but yet allows me to preach."

I am very sorry that the expression I used, namely, "miserably conducted," when applied to some of the services of the New Church, should have given offence; all that I meant by the phrase was, that the services I had in view were devoid of all beauty of form. God forbid that I should treat them with contempt, or doubt that He is in the midst of these small companies of faithful men equally as with worshippers in splendid cathedrals; yet to some classes of minds (and to these classes I have been referring in both my letters) such New Church ser vices are not apparently conducive to growth in spiritual graces, though, as I stated in my former letter, they should nevertheless be attended, for the sake of forming a nucleus whereby the New Church may be increased. Permit me also to suggest that perhaps we have a clue to these minor differences of opinion amongst New Churchmen in the well-known axiom of Swedenborg, that "no two minds are ever exactly alike," and therefore of course no two people can see things from exactly the same point of view. In conclusion, I will quote a short extract from his work on the Divine Providence, which we should also bear in mind:"That celestial Man, which is heaven, in order that it may have all the corresponding parts of the natural man, cannot be composed of men all of one religion, but of men of different religions." This passage, in its most natural sense, would of course apply to the inhabitants of the world at large; but as natural organs are never exactly homogeneous throughout, would it not also imply that there would be slight differences of opinion in men of the same church?

I remain, yours very truly, CATHOLICUS. [Differences of opinion are not only inevitable but desirable, as varieties are necessary to constitute an harmonious one, such as Heaven is; but all these differences and varieties should arise from fundamental principles which are essentially true, as that God is One, and that the Lord Jesus Christ is that God, that the Divine Trinity is in Him, that

Hein His Divine Humanity or "Glorious Body" is the One only Object of worship, and that salvation consists in loving Him above all things, and in loving our neighbour as ourselves; and that to love Him is to keep His commandments. On these fundamental principles, and on several others that might be mentioned, there is to be no doubt and no dispute. But when differences of opinion arise from non-agreement as to these fundamental points of Christian Doctrine, varieties of opinion do not then terminate in harmony, but in discord, and union and peace are disturbed and frequently destroyed. The church as existing among the gentiles, to which Swedenborg alludes in the above extract from the "Divine Providence," depends also upon several fundamental points of belief, such as the acknowledgment of a God, the Creator and Preserver of all things, and the necessity of worshipping Him, and of keeping His commandments, which, both from Revelation and from a kind of instinctive perception, are known to all nations. Varieties of opinion, founded on these universal principles of belief, also harmonize with true Christian doctrine; and such from amongst the nations as have been in this belief, and from keeping God's commandments, have, whilst in the world, lived in charity one with another, are, after death, readily instructed by angels, and become inhabitants of the Grand Man, or of heaven.

In like manner as to worship;-this must, in order that there may be peace and harmony among the worshippers, be established and performed upon the same fundamental principles of Christian doctrine. Thus (not to mention other fundamental differences as to doctrine between the Old and the New Church) it is impossible that concord and harmony can exist when one part of the congregation worship according to the doctrine of Three Persons, and another according to the idea of One, as in the New Church. As to the late Rev. J. Clowes, he lived and laboured for many years when there was no New Church formed, and when it was impossible, until the New Doctrines could be known, to establish a system of worship in agreement therewith. His mission was to translate the works of Swedenborg, and to make them known through the press, in which he was engaged as a labour of love to his fellow

man, during the greater part of his life, and he ardently desired to see the day when a system of worship could be formed upon the principles which he so openly and so ably advocated. It would, therefore, be obviously unjust to his memory to take him as an example to be followed now as a precedent, without considering the circumstances in which he was placed, and the very infancy of the church, the growth and prosperity of which he had, from a deep conviction of the truth of its doctrines, so much at heart.-ED.]

CONFIRMATIONS OF THE STATEMENTS OF SWEDENBORG.

Africa. The following extracts from the Sarnia Observer and Lambton Advertiser, on the subject of Africa, will be read with interest by our readers. The friend who has kindly supplied it, refers to the remarks about abstract nouns, as corroborating the information relative to the Sichuana language in our papers on Africa:

"Learned and Wealthy Africans.Mr. Bowen, the returned African Mis sionary, in a lecture at New York, said that there were several libraries and a number of learned men in the heart of Africa. They knew a great deal more of us than we do about them. They asked, for instance, if the days of our weeks were not named so and so; and when answered affirmatively, replied that they had found it so in their books. The names of Abraham, David, Marianna, and Susannah are common in Central Africa. Mr. Bowen saw men with Roman noses, finely formed hands and feet, black skins, and wooly heads. They were called the black white men, and were deemed the most learned among the Africans. In Abeokuta there is a market two miles long. Dresses are sold there as high as sixty dollars a-piece. The lecturer knew an African intimately whose wealth was estimated at over two millions of dollars. The women do not work in the fields in the interior. The language has more abstract nouns than the English, which shows that Africans know how to think."

Effect of the Atmosphere and Breathing on Mental Operations. One of the physiological doctrines of Swedenborg is the influence mutually exerted by thought on the breathing, and by the breathing on thought. An illustra