contains noble and liberal sentiments, exhibits very strikingly the beauty and excellency of the Christian spirit, and reflects true honour to the heads and hearts of the writers. We have seen this letter, and regret that we have no authority to publish it. We are, however, permitted to state that the gentlemen who conduct the school think that it would not be consistent under all circumstances for him to accept the office of teacher, for (they write) "your employment as a teacher with us would not conduce either to your own comfort or to ours. We trust, however, that although we cannot unite as teachers, our intercourse as friends may long continue: and commending you to God and the Word of His Grace, which is able to build you up, and give you an inheritance amongst them that are sanctified, "We remain sincerely yours, NEW JERUSALEM CHURCH, WATERLOO ROAD. It is now ascertained that this neat place of worship will not be ready for consecration, nor will it be sufficiently dry for the purposes of public worship until the month of March. We hope in our next to be able to state the day of opening, and to give the names of the ministers who are to be engaged in the consecration and opening services. 9th 10th 12th 19th 26th MEETINGS IN FEBRUARY. Monthly Meeting for general information on Church matters and mutual improvement, at Friar Street Chapel, at 7 o'clock in the evening. Visiting Committee, connected with the Society of the New Church, Waterloo Road, London, at the house of Mrs. Steed, No. 6, John Street, Cornwall Road. To assemble to tea at half-past five o'clock in the evening. Subject—Rev. ii. l—7. Coffee Meeting at 15, Cross Street, Hatton Garden, at 6 o'clock in the evening. Union Coffee Meeting at 15, Cross Street, Hatton Garden, at 6 o'Clock in the evening. Coffee Meeting at ditto. VARIETIES. HISTORICAL, PHILOSOPHICAL, SCIENTIFIC, AND LITERARY. A new island called OOALAN was visited last year by Captain Lutkè, commander of the Russian squadron of Discovery, of which Dr. Martens botanist to the expedition, gives the following account.-"We had the pleasure of becoming acquainted with a people in the purest state of nature, who were wholly unacquainted with Europeans, and who differed even in language from the other inhabitants of the Caroline Islands, (an extensive group near the equator in the North Pacific Ocean,) who have hitherto lived in such patriarchal simplicity, that not a single weapon, nor any thing resembling a weapon was met with in the whole island. Their complexion is of a light brown, the arms and thighs tatooed; their hair is worn in a bunch braided and adorned with flowers. Every thing proved that they did not know what bostility meant; which is the more remarkable, as the island is divided into between forty and fifty districts, each of which contains several villages, and belongs to a chief. Several of these chiefs live on a small island separated from the rest of the inhabitants. One of them was treated with peculiar reverence, and might be considered as King. We could not discover how he came to enjoy this honour; it certainly was not for his wealth; for his majesty possessed only two villages, while another chief had eight. The Oolanese are distinguished from the other Carolines by being entirely free from the propensity to steal. They treat their women with great kindness and affection." Dr. Marten adds "We could not obtain any clear notions of the religion of this new variety of the human family." DESTRUCTION OF THE WORLD. It is calculated by the celebrated astronomer ENCKE, that the Comet now moving within the solar system will be likely to destroy the world in the year of our Lord 219,001,829 !!! CRUSTACEOUS FISH. In all crustaceous fish the gills are as fit to perform the functions of respiratory organs iu the atmospheric air as in water; but when the gills become dry by evaporation, the fish dies. In land-crabs there is a contrivance of nature to absorb and keep in reserve the quantity of water necessary to maintain the lungs in a proper hydrometrical state, Obituary. DIED on the 2nd July last, at Charlton Row, near Manchester, in the 26th year of her age, CAROLINE, eldest daughter of Mr. GEO. OLLIVANT, after a short but severe illness endured with great fortitude. Thus in the bloom of her youth, with calm resignation to the will of heaven, this young lady put off her frail and mortal part; and with a mind well stored with truths united with humble and heavenly affections, was translated into a higher and better world, where she will fully realize the benediction pronounced in the following words, "I heard a voice from heaven, saying, write, blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, &c." Rev, xiv. 13. On the 10th of November, after a few days illness, at Stamford, aged 55 years, MISS SHARPE, a celebrated teacher of music in that town. Her parents died young, leaving a family unprovided, of whom she was the eldest; and by her extraordinary activity and industry, she not only brought up the younger branches of the family, but assisted in the support of some of their children. About twenty years she had been a reader of the heavenly doctrines of the New Jerusalem. ON November 16th 1828, at her residence, Grays Inn Lane, in the 63rd year of her age, Mrs. Ellenor Peacock, wife of Mr. Bartholomew Peacock, a cordial and well known recipient of the doctrines of the New Church. Mrs. P. first became acquainted with the heavenly doctrines through the instrumentality of a near relation, who took her to hear Mr. Proud in York Street Chapel, and so convinced was she of the truth, that she immediately renounced her former religious opinions, and gave her mind up to the study of those holy truths, which are able to form the mind after the image of heaven. She was of modest and retired habits, consequently had not many intimate friends in the Church; she was, however, known to many by her punctual attendance on divine worship at York Street Chapel, and enlivened the worship by the sweet melody of her own and eldest daughter's singing. Her distinguishing characteristic was strong affection, and she laboured by precept and example to rear her children in the way they should go. The Word was her only source of consolation in her last illness, particularly about a dozen psalms, which she had herself selected, and which she desired might be read to her every day. A protracted illness much reduced her frame, till at last without a groan or sigh she quitted this world of care, and entered upon an eternal scene. ON December the 4th at her son's at Epping, Mrs. ELIZABETH MCNAB, aged 85 years. This lady had for many years been a sincere recipient of the doctrines of Emanuel Swedenborg. ON the 22nd of December, aged 35 years, at her father's house, Camden Town, near London, Miss EMILY RHODES. At the age of 14 years, this young lady, who then promised to be a model of every thing that is attractive in her sex, was seized with a complaint, brought on by an accidental cause, from which the faculty unanimously pronounced recovery to be impossible. Yet, though almost by a miracle, after remaining above a twelvemonth on the brink between life and death, recover she did, though by very slow degrees, and with a permanent memorial of her severe visitation in a lameness in her knee. For some years past, however, she had been again : assailed by repeated attacks of indisposition, which latterly became so frequent, and so severe, as to render her earthly existence a course of most bitter suffering. Yet, amidst all, from first to last, never did she murmur at her afflictions, or repine at the disposals of an all-wise Providence and when, for some months before her removal, she began to look upon death as certain, nothing like regret on her own account seemed to cloud her mind: all that she saw terrible in it, was the affliction which she apprehended it would bring on her affectionate mother. She took great delight in those views of the Christian's entrance into eternity which are so beautifully delineated in the Treatise on Heaven and Hell, and regarded realizing of them as a delightful contrast with her life here of languishment and pain. At the last, after an effusion had taken place on the brain, under the effects of which she had lain in apparent unconsciousness for twenty-four hours, her spirit, for a moment, came down into her organs of speech to give her parents an assurance of the happiness of the change which she was about to experience; immediately after which, with two gentle sighs, it quitted its frail tenement for ever. ON Wednesday the 14th January, 1829, at his house in Stangate Street, Lambeth, after a long illness, in the 69th year of his age, Mr. JOHN AVERN. He had been a receiver of the doctrines of the New Jerusalem about nine years, and was a member of the society in Waterloo Road. He has left a wife and a numerous family of children, grand children, and great grand children, to lament his departure. POETRY. MORNING REFLECTIONS; OR, SUNRISE IN DECEMBER. NATURE has charms for me-her varied form's Kissing the flowrets as they pass, or storms Darken the frowning welkin, and the main Heaving his alpine billows high, alarms Th' adventurous mariner: or spring or winter reign, Creation's Volume! oft I turn to thee, To read the outworks of the Deity. 'Tis morn-to walk my wonted round I rise, Bursting his blushing curtain, now appears, Down on the erring Church I bend my view, Which long-taught custom round the heart entwine; Perverted truth's bewild'ring glare pursue, And own the midnight meteor light divine. Thoughtless they stray-their creed by mortals madeThus reason, scripture, languish in the shade. Ah, Faith Alone! thou tyrant of the mind, Thou reign'st the source of one long winter day. Yes! the wide waste where storms destructive howl, Yon orb majestic, undiminish'd, pours His glad❜ning radiance on this earthly sphere: His pregnant rays now other nations cheer, Hail, Fount of Life! now mental vision soars Where earth-freed man, the Great Supreme adores, There is another and a brighter Sun, The Source of all things! high in heavenly skies Beams He, Who, suffering, our salvation won; And Goodness, Truth, His heat and light comprise. Effulgent flows forth from the Eternal One, The stream of life that heav'n and earth supplies. In me-in all men-may his rays be join'd, I. J. THE NEW JERUSALEM MAGAZINE. MARCH, 1829. SECOND LETTER TO THE REV. REVEREND SIR, In my last letter to you, I promised in a few days to lay before you the doctrine of Atonement, as contained in the writings of the New Church. Circumstances over which I had no control, prevented me at that time from redeeming my promise, I now, therefore, take up my pen for the purpose of fulfilling it. Yet before I enter upon a statement of the doctrine, allow me to rebut a calumny which has been frequently urged against the followers of Swedenborg, and without any just or proper reason. It has been again and again asserted, that they altogether reject the Atonement of THE SAVIOUR: while yet, nothing can be more false,―nothing more unfounded, than such an assertion. So far from rejecting the great doctrine of Atonement, they look upon it as the very basis of heaven itself; without which, even the eternal mansions would not be secure! They raise it to a height far above that to which the generality of Christians exalt it. They view it as the connecting link which binds, not our world alone, but every earth in the universe, to its Creator; and which equally unites angels to GOD, and men to angels. They believe it to be the work, not of any Person in the Godhead, but of the whole Deity; and a work in which every attribute and perfection was put forth for the redemption of man. With these exalted and extensive views of the doctrine, you will judge with how much truth they are accused of rejecting it. But although they thus believe the Atonement to be the mean by which every blessing is received, both here, and hereafter, it must be confessed that their ideas of the subject differ widely from those of the generality of Christians. It will be necessary therefore, that I point out a few of the reasons on which this VOL. I.-No 3. I |