child. "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Charity "condescends to men of low estate."

CCXCII.

The last, best fruit which comes to perfection, even in the kindliest soil, is-tenderness towards the hard; forbearance towards the unforbearing; warmth of heart towards the cold; philanthropy towards the misanthropic."-(Richter.)

CCXCIII.

At the end of a church, what is called faith or belief, is, in general, nothing more than a blind or interested, and therefore a merely external, adhesion to a particular party of religionists. It has nothing in common with a conscientiously and rationally formed conviction of the truth.

CCXCIV.

If religion means the outward worship of God, with a view to happiness hereafter, there is much religion in the world; but if religion means goodness, and goodness implies the unceasing effort to perfect the principles which properly constitute a man, then there is but little religion in the world.

CCXCV.

True religion embraces, first, the duty of piety; and, secondly, the duty of charity, commonly called moral duty. Those who attend to the duty of piety only, are hypocrites, and in a greater or less degree according to the extent of their neglect of moral duty. Those who attend to the duty of charity or morality only, are not servants of God, and are not laying up treasure in heaven. But those who unite the duties of piety and charity, making the former a means to the latter, are truly, because entirely, religious.

CCXCVI.

Few are aware that, in reading or hearkening to moral counsel, they are very liable to resemble the description in Ezek. xxxiii. 32. For want of attending to our Lord's commands, "Take heed how ye hear;" and, "Take heed what ye hear;" moral counsel, instead of being substantially realized, passes away like "a very lovely song." Due commendation being bestowed, there is an end of the matter. Food swallowed without mastication cannot be well digested. The remark is applicable, doubtless, to some readers of these sentences. reader "Take heed."

CCXCVII.

Let every

Sincerity in religion has its degrees. The sincere doctrinal Christian occasionally reverts to the great truth of God's omniscience.

The

spiritual man has an abiding, solemn sense of God's presence, as his Inspector and Judge. The celestial man has a delightful sense of the Divine presence, while he looks to the Lord with serene joy and confidence, as his Heavenly Father, who is graciously leading him continually. Few realize the latter state, because few give themselves up so entirely to the Lord's leading, by continually "taking heed according to His Word," as to find their highest joy in the thought—“ the Lord is leading me."

CCXCVIII.

Nothing is more worthy of attention, and nothing more contributes to man's good when attended to, than the wondrous truth, that the Lord continually leads every man without exception-every one according to his state. The meek-the self-renouncing-He leads effectually in justice and judgment; but should they for a time, longer or shorter, refrain from giving themselves up to His leading, then the Lord's effectual leading intermits, and to some extent they fall under the conditions of the rebellious, who can only be led by the Lord away from evil, so far as consists with freedom. They are effectually led only while they "keep the channel open." (See No. CCL.)*

CCXCIX.

Wisdom is a state of mental development, a development of the will and understanding conjointly. When a wise man records the conclusions of his wisdom, and these are received by another, in him, they are not wisdom; but they become mere knowledge or science; they become a part of those great rules of life and thought, by the right use of which the mind may become wise, or receive that development which is properly called-wisdom.

CCC.

"I think," says one who disapproves of another's conduct, "that he ought not to have so acted." Now the word "ought" always implies the existence of an acknowledged law by which what "ought" to be done is determined. The supposed disapprover not being able to refer to such a law, must be held to be nothing more than the tyrannical enunciator of the arbitrary decree of his own self-will. If it is only meant to say that another course would have been more expedient,— inasmuch as expediency relates not to a law absolutely, but to the mode of carrying it out,—no one should use the word "ought" on such an

* So important to the well-being of THE CHURCH do I consider this sentiment, that I have taken these words for a motto. When the members of the Church, by attention to it, receive the Divine influences in much power, the "waters of life" will flow through them, and carry all obstructions before them.-CONTRIBUTOR.

occasion, but he might suggest a question, commencing, "Might it not have been better," &c.

CCCI.

If a fire of anger break out near us, and we cannot succeed in extinguishing it by the waters of truth and good counsel; or in suffocating it by manifestations of kindness; shall we, therefore, add fuel to it, by heaping burning words upon burning words?

CCCII.

It is a mark of the perfection of the male conjugial principle, to be able to contemplate simply with sorrow and pity, and without any lower emotions, the beauty of a female who is undignified by moral wisdom, and in whom, therefore, there is everything to call forth in the opposite sex the baser feelings, and nothing to awaken the higher sentiments.

CCCIII.

Interior Christians united in church association, constitute a kind of hospital for spiritual healing, in which each goes through his stages of spiritual disease, and where the comfort of each and of all requires, that each, in passing through his paroxysms, should keep himself, as far as possible, spiritually clean and inoffensive to others.

CCCIV.

The difference between religion and religious doctrine may thus be described :-Doctrine is received by the proud man proudly, and by the meek man meekly; if the former can be said to have any religion at all, it is a proud religion, which is a contradiction in terms; whence it follows, that only the meek man can be truly religious, or possess what is properly called religion.

CCCV.

If the force of the following words of James were felt, dissensions amongst Christians would cease:—" If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, that man's religion is vain." The Apostle then proceeds to declare that “pure and undefiled religion before God," consists in the religious discharge of the duties of charity and moral purity. So far only as this is felt, can "brotherly love continue."

CCCVI.

Some plants when they become too weak to flower, shew more than ordinary vigour in the production of leaves. May it not be the case, that when more than ordinary intellectual activity is manifested, it sometimes arises from the comparative weakness of the affections of the will?

CCCVII.

It is an indispensable property in the regenerate state, to have no desire to have one's own way, because it is one's own way. The regenerate man desires to have no way but the Lord's way,-the way of love and peace.

66

CCCVIII.

The right, in this world, needs right handling." The best ends are worthy of the best means. Many a worthy object is defeated by the adoption of means unworthy of it. Many a good cause is injured because its advocate, however well-intentioned, is deficient in practical wisdom. (To be continued.)

ON REMAINS, AND THE FORMATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF STATES CONNECTED THEREWITH.

THE doctrine of Remains is so beautiful in itself, and so adapted to the state, and so adequate to the requirements of fallen human nature, that it will ever form one of the clearest internal evidences of the heavenly origin of the principles of the New Jerusalem. It is so worthy of God, that it never could have been devised by man. It opens up the mystery of the Divine economy, by which man is raised from a state of hereditary ruin, to the capacity, at least, of restoration to a state of order; and thus solves the problem, how man, in his nature wholly evil, can turn from himself to God. Let us listen to its declaration of man's deep natural corruption, and of the way in which the Lord implants in his mind the germs of celestial life :

"Man, at his birth, hath not the smallest portion of good of or from himself, being totally and entirely defiled with hereditary evil; but all good enters by influx, as the good of love towards parents, nurses, and playmates, and this by virtue of innocence: these are the things which flow in from the Lord, through the heaven of innocence and peace, which is the inmost heaven." (A. C. 1906.)

"These states, with their goodnesses and truths impressed on the memory, are called remains, which remains are preserved in man by the Lord, and are stored up in his internal man, while he is altogether ignorant of it." (A. C. 561.)

“When man is about to be regenerated, these states are the beginnings of regeneration, for the Lord operates by remains." (A. C. 1050.)

We thus see how tender a care is exercised over us, and what a marvellous work is effected in us, during that portion of our lives when we are least able to care or do any thing for ourselves, from any view to present or future usefulness. While we seem to be spending the years of our protracted childhood in the development of our physical and

mental powers, the Divine love and wisdom are unceasingly operating to dispose the interiors of the mind to the form of heaven, a work in which the whole company of angels are engaged as ministering spirits. When, therefore, we have arrived at the age of reason, we have within us the rudiments of the heavenly life, which the Lord will form and perfect, if we will but coöperate with him in carrying forward the work.

The storing up of Remains, like every other divine work, is effected according to the gradations of a most perfect order, there being successively formed in the mind the germs of the various principles and states which are attainable in after life. It may perhaps assist us in acquiring a distinct view of the progressive order in which these states are formed and developed, to consider the formation of the Church individually, as seen in its corresponding work, the formation of the Church universally. The parallel is thus stated in the "Apocalypse Explained":

"If we take a view of the successive states of the Church on our earth, it is evident that they have been similar to the successive states of man who is regenerated, in that, with a view to his becoming spiritual, he is first conceived, afterwards born, grows up, and is then led on further and further into intelligence and wisdom. The Church, from the most ancient time even to the end of the Jewish Church, increased as a man who is conceived, born, grows up, and is then instructed and taught; but the successive states of the Church, after the end of the Jewish Church, or from the time of the Lord to the present day, have been as those of a man who grows in intelligence and wisdom, or is regenerated; for which end the interior things of the Word, of the Church, and of Worship, were revealed by the Lord when he came into the world, and now, at length, things still more interior are made known; and in proportion as things interior are revealed, in the same proportion man may become wiser; for to become interior is to become wise, and to become wise is to become interior." (641.)

The history of man in general and of man in particular having such a resemblance, the Word, which, in its internal historical sense, describes the successive states of the Church, in its spiritual sense must describe the successive states of the regenerate life. The particulars of that description and analogy are known to the Lord alone. We intend only to point out what appears to us a general resemblance between the several dispensations of the Church which have existed on the earth, and the several states of the regenerate life, as they succeed each other from man's birth to the end of his life.

In the passage which has been cited, the author divides the history of the Church into two great periods, the one previous and the other subsequent to the Lord's incarnation; the former answering to the age of man from birth to manhood, which precedes and is preparatory to regeneration, and the latter to that in which regeneration actually takes place. For, although regeneration does not commence actually till man