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has been commenced. We extract the following account from the "Royal Cornwall Gazette:"

S. HILARY NEW CHURCH.

OUR readers will remember that the Church of S. Hilary was, with the sole exception of its tower and spire, entirely destroyed by an accidental fire, on Good Friday last, the 25th of March; and will be glad to learn that at length the donations having reached an amount that warranted immediate procedure with the building, the ceremonial of laying the corner stone took place on Wednesday, the 23rd of November.

The procession having arrived at the site, the Vicar of S. Hilary, evidently with much emotion, proceeded to address the assemblage. He said :

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'My Brethren,—I feel assured that I shall meet with every indulgence in rising to address this great assemblage before me, when it is borne in mind that I have arrived at the latter portion of the last decade of the days of the life of man, according to the Psalmist's computation,—the 'three-score years and ten.' I stand before you in the fortieth year of my incumbency; and what changes have taken place among us in that great lapse of time! A generation has passed away! In the graves around me the bodies of well-nigh two thousand persons, laid there within that period, are awaiting the hour when the souls which once tenanted them shall be called from their separate resting-place, again to be united to those bodies, now rendered immortal, to stand with all the myriads of mankind—from the first man who stood upon the earth to the last that shall be found alive at His coming-before the judgment-seat of CHRIST. When I call to mind how much has been left undone by me which I should have done, and how much has been done by me which should have been left undone, I can only intreat your prayers that He, our merciful FATHER, Who knoweth whereof we are made and remembereth that we are but dust, will graciously pardon the shortcomings and negligences, and forgive the iniquities, of His most unworthy servant, for His dear Son's sake.—We have met, my Christian friends, on a most remarkable—an unprecedented occasion, I am sure, in the personal knowledge of any one of you now before me. When I entered on my ministerial

duties in the summer of 1814, there stood then, and there stood in the early part of this year, a house of GOD, venerable for its antiquity, a portion of it raised as long ago as the days of the Plantagenets (which happily is still spared to us)-the tower and spire. This building had survived the days of the ruthless despoiler, Henry, and his innocent but ill-fated son Edward VI., and the disastrous period of the Great Rebellion; though the axe, the sword, and the hammer had grievously mutilated and broken down much of the ornaments and carvings of the sanctuary through those dreary periods of rapine and violence." After relating the destruction of the late Church, he recalled to their minds two of the verses of the 102nd Psalm, "which formed part of last Sunday morning's service, and which conveyed comfort inexpressible to my mind, as they unexpectedly met my eye, and probably to the hearts of some of you, my parishioners, who listened to their soothing strains :-" Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion; for it is time that Thou have mercy upon her; yea, the time is come. And why? Thy servants think upon her stones; and it pitieth them to see her in the dust.' Verily, my brethren, I felt at that moment the applicability of those gracious promises to our own condition; for who, but the great Disposer of the hearts of men, had put it into the hearts of our fellow Christians, in so many different quarters, many of them so wholly unconnected by birth or property with this parish, to come forward so liberally with their offerings, and enable us, so utterly unable ourselves if unassisted, to begin as on this day, to raise up the house of GOD, our Zion, from the dust, with a good prospect of carrying it forward to its completion; where, to use the language of our address, prayer shall again be made, thanksgiving offered, GOD's Holy Word read and preached, and the blessed Sacraments, ordained by CHRIST Himself, administered, to the sustentation and salvation of our souls.' We are this day about to lay a corner-stone; a stone, we believe, free from flaw or defect of any kind, fit emblem of the Great Corner-stone, JESUS CHRIST. On this stone now to be laid the future edifice will be raised, composed indeed of separate stones, but resting together on that stone, until it grow up, as we trust, to one perfect temple consecrated to GOD's worship, and hallowed with His

Presence. In that building so raised may nothing wilfully impure or defiled ever find a resting-place. My Christian friends, suffer me to call to your recollections that each one of you is a Temple of the HOLY GHOST. In Holy Baptism the SPIRIT of GOD entered in; may it be the heartfelt prayer and labour of your life that this Temple of GOD, which your bodies are, be not defiled, lest you be destroyed. May you be daily striving to purify yourselves even as He is pure. To assist you in that great work, may you diligently avail yourselves of all the means of grace, more especially in that blessed Sacrament in which CHRIST gives you spiritually to feed on His Body and Blood, to the strengthening and refreshing of your souls! Thus may you dwell in Him, and He in you. Thus, though individually temples, may you be built up one temple in Him, your Great Head, the Chief Corner-stone, your Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the Ending, which was, and which is, and which is to come- -the ALMIGHTY!”

Then was said the Collect, “Prevent us, O LORD, in all our doings," followed by the LORD's Prayer.

The usual proceedings on laying the foundation-stone of a Church were then gone through. The workmen, about twenty in number, were provided with a good substantial dinner by the liberality of the Vicar.

The Church of S. Mary, Amesbury, Wilts, has been restored, and fitted with free open sittings, at an expense of something more than £4000, £500 of which was raised by the parish, and the remainder given by Sir Edmund Antrobus, Bart. There was a very large gathering of Clergy and laity to celebrate the opening..

We are glad to learn that an association for the practice of plain song, with the Bishop of the diocese as patron, has been formed in the University of Oxford. A goodly number of members is already enrolled, and we hope the time may yet come, when the Clergy will be, as they are required to be, " moderately learned" in plain song, and the tones of the Church will take the place of the inflexions of the "popular reader." Why should

not the musical professors in our Universities occupy the ground now left to voluntary associations?

Among the Christmas books, we have a new and considerably enlarged edition of that interesting work, "The Unseen World; Communications with it, Real or Imaginary, including Apparitions, Warnings, Haunted Places, Prophecies, Aerial Visions, Astrology, &c. 'But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of GOD, and there shall no torment touch them.'" (Masters.) From the preface we are told that

"The following little book makes no pretence at being a systematic treatise on the subject of which it treats; its aim is to set forth Christian views on a point of popular belief which writers have generally considered worthy of ridicule or pity, or at least susceptible of a natural explanation.

"He ought, perhaps, to state, that he never saw Mr. Dendy's very interesting Philosophy of Mystery till he had almost concluded his own work. He has inserted, in different places, a few striking relations from it."

And we cannot do better than quote the concluding remarks of the learned author ::

"SOPHRON. The writers of the sixteenth century on apparitions, endeavoured to show that the spirits of the departed faithful have just as much liberty of motion, and of appearing to whom they please, that we in the flesh possess. I do not think it. I do not believe that, if they retain their earthly affection that animated them here, they could refrain from visiting those whom they have loved, and from whom they are now separated. It would rather seem that some strict law of the unknown state forbids such apparitions, unless especially permitted. Doubtless, well for us it is so.

"EUPEITHES. How it would alter the whole course of human existence, if such apparitions constantly took place! Whether they lost, or whether they still retained their terror, it would hardly be compatible with worldly business that they should be permitted.

"THEODORA. In all such stories, a superintending Provi

dence seems most clearly manifest. These strange visitants tell just what they were commissioned to tell, and nothing more; they have a message to deliver, and they deliver it: of their own state, of the manner in which they were judged, of their employments, of their associates, they say nothing.

"SOPHRON. To that conclusion of a superintending, and a most minutely superintending Providence, our whole discussion, I trust, has been calculated to lead us. The intercommunion of the world of spirits with our own must needs be a most elevating, and ought to be a most consoling, belief. To have those whom we have loved best locally near us, to believe that we are assisted by them in dangers, to remember that they are witnesses of our temptations, and rejoicers in our victory, is one of the most encouraging and inspiriting thoughts that a Christian man can possess. All the ideas, then, that have been raised in our minds, of holy thoughts suggested, unseen evils warded off, space or time annihilated, for the safety of one in peril; courage renovated, ways directed by the ministrations of spiritual beings : all these things ought to fill our hearts with gratitude, when we express our belief in the Communion of Saints."

Notices to Correspondents.

Novus is thanked; but his verses are scarcely up to our standard. A CHURCHWOMAN, and constant subscriber, acted in our opinion with great judgment and discrimination. To have done otherwise in such a case would have been quite unjustifiable.

ALPHA will find an answer to her question in the Churchman's Diary, which we commended in our last number. The Sertum Ecclesiæ contains much useful information on the question of flowers. The various colours for the altar-cloths are white, red, violet, black, green. The days for which they are appropriate will be found in the Diary. The feast would take precedence.

With reference to the question of Sponsors proposed in our last, we would recommend with especial commendation the work of the Rev. G. Hill, published by Rivingtons.

Received, too late for insertion:-"Trinity Sunday at the Cape of Good Hope."

Will a "Subscriber from the beginning" favour us with his name and address? We have no space for so long a reply.

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