The Islington friends intend (D.V.) to hold a tea meeting in their schoolroom, on Tuesday, the 22nd April, for the purpose of adding to a small fund already commenced, towards assisting the New Church College in the erection of the chapel. The entire proceeds will be handed over to the Treasurer for the building fund. The tickets for the tea will be 1s. each, and can be obtained at the New Church booksellers, as well as at the College, in Devonshire-street.

As the original institution of the College was on the 29th April, 1845, this

tea meeting will be regarded as the general celebration of its seventeenth anniversary. The meeting, however, for business-at which the election of the officers will take place-will be held on the Tuesday following, (the 29th April,) at the College, to commence at seven o'clock in the evening precisely.

After Aprll, it is intended to hold the monthly meetings of the Governors on the last Thursday in each month, at eight p.m. HENRY BATEMAN.

MEMOIR AND LETTERS OF THE
REV. J. CLOWES.

The Rev. D. G. Goyder begs respectfully to call the attention of the readers of the Magazine, to the advertisement which appeared on the wrapper of the number for February, relative to the "Memoir and Letters of the late Rev. J. Clowes." He trusts every minister in the New Church will feel it his duty to subscribe; and also bring the matter before his congregation, that a list of names may be sent to Mr. Compton (who is admirably fitted to edit the MSS.), sufficient to testify their respect for that deeply loved and eminently useful servant of the Lord, who may be styled one of the principal fathers of the church.

To the Editor.

FOREIGN. GERMANY.

My dear Sir,-Again I take the liberty of informing you of some important. changes which have taken place on the Continent in the past and in the present year. As to the past, the Concordate with the Pope, signed by our former head of ecclesiastical and educational affairs, was entirely rejected by the Second Chamber of our Diet as not being in agreement with the rights of the crown and with religious liberty; and instead of it. the present head of this department of the Government proposed a law which gives more security, and leaves the inferior clergy and the laity of the Roman Catholic Church less under the arbitrary power of the bishop. This complex of laws was also debated, and as to its essentials adopted, not only by a great majority in the Second Chamber, but even by a sufficient majority in the first.

Another advance has been made in the past year towards general religious liberty in this Kingdom of Würtemberg.

The fundamental rights of the Germans (Grundrechte), decreed by the German parliament of 1848, which were first proclaimed but afterwards abrogated by the German governments, contained an article, according to which the rights of the Germans in the States are independent of their religious profession, and new religious societies may be formed. But in the constitution of this kingdom, established in 1819, which, after the reaction, was again destroyed, those political rights became again dependent on the profession of one of the three privileged forms of belief, viz., the Catholic, the Lutheran, and the Reformed or Calvinistic. Now it must be premised that the former head of the ecclesiastical department had already, in connexion with his defence of the Concordate, announced the proposal of a law, according to which political rights are independent of religious profession: but it was reserved for his successor to effect this change in our present constitution, for which purpose two-thirds of the votes of each Chamber were necessary, and happily it was adopted in the Second Chamber, if I remember rightly, with but one dissentient voice, and in the first afterwards by 24 against 12.

But much more important appears the interesting news given in the Journal des Débats, of Paris, from an original correspondence of M. Taxurry, and in other periodicals, concerning the great schism in the Roman Catholic Church. There is now an association in Naples, consisting already of 600 priests of the inferior clergy, and of 4,000 laymen,* who receive more and more members in Italy, and have in view not only a national Italian church, but a reformation of the Catholic church at large; wherefore the French journals, even those in opposition, are at present actively occupied with this matter. As I have not yet found any New Church periodical in which this change for the better is reported, I think it would be useful to the readers of the Repository to communicate to them a translation of the " programma," or "credo," as I

*The Gazette of Cologne, and the National

Gazette of Berlin, of 24th Jan. have only 400 laymen. But even the Universal Gazette of Augsburg, of 2nd Feb, says that there is a committee of clergymen at Milan who wish a national

church independent of the Pope, but that they have suffered a great loss by the death of two canons, Bignami and Bongeri, their leaders.

found it yesterday in the New Frankfort Gazette ("Neue Frankfurter Zeitung"), and even in the Suabian Mercury, ("Schwäbischer Merkur") of 24th of January; also in the Gazette of Cologne, and in the National Gazette of Berlin, of 24th January, as to essentials, and in the Carlsruhe Gazette of 24th January. The articles of the creed are the following.

1. The Roman Church shall, of her own free will and without restraint, relieve herself of the burthen of temporal power, and become again the humble follower of the Lord in poverty, and the legitimate heir of the fisher-apostle.

2. Her bishop shall be content with the simple, honorary, primary, and superior rank which Christian antiquity has conceded to him. On the contrary, the national churches shall maintain in their precepts of worship and ecclesiastical discipline their primitive apostolical autonomy; but, in mutual cooperation, for the unity in faith, hope, and charity, shall acknowledge the Bishop of Rome as the arranging centre of their Catholic unity.

3. The church shall again resume her representative, confederate constitution.

4. The priestly, diocesan, provincial, and national convocations, possessing perfect liberty of discussion, shall be again introduced.

5. In the national conference, deputies of the national churches shall be elected as their representatives in the centre of Christianity.

6. The bishop and the primate can resolve nothing in the interest of their provincial and national churches without the consent of the conferences alluded to. Likewise, the Bishop of Rome must accommodate himself, in all questions of Catholic interest, to the resolutions of the supreme conference, which will meet at Rome, under the title of the Supreme Senate.

7. The Catholic ritual shall be purified from all superstitious and heathenish extravagances, of the worship of the virgin and of the saints.

8. The language of the liturgy shall be that of the people, in order that God may be really adored and worshipped in spirit and in truth.

9. Theological science shall be reconciled with natural science.

10. The right of matrimonial legislation appertains to the state, as it was acknowledged by the primitive church.

11. All matters of ecclesiastical discipline which have hitherto produced collisions between the church and the state, shall be arranged in agreement with the rational requirements of a national government founded in liberty, and the harmony between both powers shall be restored.

12. To the priest a fatherland shall be given, by again allowing him the chaste and peaceful delights of domestic life.

13. All religious orders of both sexes shall be abolished without distinction, except those which pursue a truly humane end.

14. All ecclesiastical possessions shall be collected to form a national religious treasury. This will be administered by a commission, consisting of priests and laymen, and shall pay all church expenses, and furnish the members of the clergy with an income suitable to their rank, in order that furthermore all clerical functions may be performed disinterestedly and gratuitously.

If we add, that the church should be penetrated by true doctrine from the Word, and led into a life according to it, it will be nearly all we can wish for them. Some time ago I had also a visit of a distinguished prelate of the Romish Church, who expressed his intention to read all the works of Swedenborg; and, in case he should be persuaded of their truth, to endeavour to introduce them into the Romish Church, in order that she may be reformed by it. At that time, however, he could not yet see the falsity of the doctrine of their visible church and of Peter's having been commissioned with the keys of heaven. He said that nobody can deny that Peter's confession of faith was addressed to a personal object, consequently, also the Lord's answer, in which He spake of a person, must concern a person, not a mere abstraction. To which I answered, that the divine influence of faith is not abstract, but concrete; and that in the highest sense by Peter is to be understood the person he represented, viz., the Lord himself, as the Fountain of faith. As to the visibility of the church, he quoted especially the parable of the Lord, in which the kingdom of heaven is compared to a net, in which are gathered fish, both good and bad, (Matt. xiii. 47.) wherefore He meant a visible church, containing

good and bad members; to which, however, we can reply, that if we more closely consider the manner in which the parables of the Lord are introduced, the kingdom of heaven is not compared to the next subject He mentions, but to the whole contents of the parable; and it is enough that the bad fishes are rejected, whilst, in another parable, only the good seed is declared to be "the children of the kingdom," (xiii. 38.) that is of the Lord's church, which is invisible according to His express saying, (Luke xvii. 20-23; xxi. 8: Matt. xxiv. 23-27: Mark xiii. 21-23.) and to the undeniable truth, that only "the Lord knoweth them that are His." (2 Tim. ii. 19.)

There was, we know, always a tendency in the churches to externals, and consequently to a visible church, not only amongst the Catholics but also amongst the Protestants, who also identify their privileged visible churches with the Lord's church, and show thereby a spirit of sectarianism. Something similar we see also amongst our socialists, who believe also that their external communism is the New Church; and whilst some of them begin to see the great defects and dangers in their doings, and have a desire to be better acquainted with true doctrine, and with the internal sense of the Word of God, others lose that desire more and more, and find in their " simplicity" a token of the celestial degree, whilst indeed they are remaining in, or falling into the natural. Now, we well understand that the Lord's church not only may consist of such as are in spiritual and in celestial good, but also of such as are only in the natural degree, but they should remain in humility, and not make their small affection for truth a rule to the church in general; nor judge others who have a desire to learn more and more the very contents of Holy Scripture, and to be led by them. They should rather remember that the church is to be built on the Word of God; that we have it only so far as we understand it; that we cannot understand it without doctrine and research; and that we have the true essentials of doctrine only in so far as we have its particulars, because the universal is nothing without its individuals; as Divine Providence is nothing without penetrating all things in particular. They should also remember that the love of the Divine Word, with the desire

to apply it to life, has the happiest consequences in the future life, and is highly esteemed by the Lord.

For such an increasing understanding of the Holy Word, the "Index Biblicus " is, doubtless, an inestimable means, and therefore, I have a strong desire to continue it. I am happy to say that I have now got the manuscript so far prepared, that the impression of the third volume, which is already begun, can be continued next month, when the second volume of the "Apocalypsis Explicata" will have left the press. Such a synopsis of all the explanations on every article of the various parts of Holy Scripture is, doubtless, a great want, which begins to be felt even by ladies. Thus, I received two letters from a Belgian lady, requesting nearly all the reprints of the Latin originals, as well as the editions of the posthumous works, and especially the "Index Biblicus," of which she had already two volumes; also two copies of the Hebrew Bible, together with the latin translation of Seb. Schmidius. It must, however, be observed that the "Index Biblicus" refers also to the Latin Bible of Tremellius, Junius, and Beza, although, in general, having in view that of Schmid.

With kind regards to all friends, I remain, my dear Sir, very truly and affectionately yours,

EMANUEL TAFEL. Tübingen, Jan. 27th, 1862.

Obituary.

Departed this life, in the 24th year of her age, Ruth Cartmell, second daughter of Mr. Edward Cartmell, leader of the Carlisle Society. Her conduct through life was of an industrious and blameless character, which derived its chief enjoyment from the faithful and unobtrusive discharge of the duties of her station, which endeared her to all who knew her. A zealous member of the New Church, and a great solace to her aged parent, she has been removed to a sphere of greater usefulness and joy; and our natural feelings must be submissive to the will of that Providence which ever rules all things for our own eternal good. A.

After

Departed into the spiritual world, February 9th, Mr. Richard Craik, aged 80 years. This worthy friend was for more than forty years a most exemplary member of the society in Peter-street, Manchester. He was a native of Dumfries, where he served his apprenticeship to a saddler and harness maker. the term of his apprenticeship he went to Liverpool, and soon found employment in his business. He was at that time about twenty-two years of age. Amongst his fellow workmen was a young man of the name of Mott, who was a reader of the works of Swedenborg. Mr. Craik observed the conduct of this young man, and was struck with pleasing surprise when he saw his equanimity and amiable temper under the taunts and gibes of his fellowworkmen, for reading the works of so extraordinary a man as Swedenborg. This exemplary Christian conduct led our departed friend to inquire into the doctrines of the New Church, and he asked Mr. Mott to lend him one of the books of Swedenborg. He accordingly lent him the "True Christian Religion," which Mr. Craik read with increasing attention and interest. He gradually saw the truth of the Heavenly Doctrines, and continued to the end of his life to be a devoted reader of the works of Swedenborg, and of other works written either in explanation or in vindication of the doctrines of the New Church. The chief reason why he so much delighted to read the writings of Swedenborg, was because they enabled him to understand and love the Word better than any books he had ever met with; and this, it must be confessed, is a most powerful reason for studying the works of that most enlightened author. After his sojourn at Liverpool, he went to Birmingham, and for some years attended the ministry of the late Mr. Proud, by which he was more and more confirmed in the truth of the New Church doctrines, and in their wonderful power of opening the understanding for the discernment of its truths, and for the edification of the mind in everything spiritual and heavenly. Mr. Craik came finally to settle in Manchester about 1822 or 1823, having previously spent some time in that town, as well as in Birmingham. About nine years ago, he was struck with paralysis, and became very infirm. From that time he could no longer attend with regularity to the