this offering, to be genuine and true, must be a spiritual offering. All our offerings must be made spiritual, by devoting them to the Lord and His service. But why may we not "bring an offering" in a literal sense as well as a spiritual one, and make the literal offering spiritual, the outward, internal, by devoting it to the Lord; and contribute of our means from a sense of duty, and in obedience to the command of the Lord?

We have had worship in our Temple every Sabbath the past year, without the interruption of a single Sabbath. It has so happened that the Pastor has not been absent a Sabbath, unless some other clergyman was here to officiate in his place. Rev. B. F. Barrett preached for us two Sabbaths, and Rev. F. Sewall two, in the months of July and August last. At other times, the Pastor has officiated every Sabbath during the year. The congregation has been larger at the regular service, than at any season since the Church was established in Bath. We have reason to be thankful that the congregation is so large, and the Society, on the whole, so prosperous and flourishing. The house is well filled in good weather, and nearly all the pews are occupied.

The Pastor gave a course of Sunday evening lectures last winter in the Temple. The audiences were constantly large. These lectures were on the Resurrection, Last Judgment, and Spiritual World.

The Sabbath-school has been continued during the year, with the excep tion of a vacation in the months of July and August. It has been quite as large as during any previous year. There are ten classes and ten teachers, in addition to the superintendent. The Pastor has acted as the superintendent. We have made some changes in the method of conducting the school. We have no infant class, and no adult classes in the school. All the classes commit the same lesson. This lesson is given out the previous Sabbath, and is usually the lesson in the "N. J. Messenger" the previous week. This lesson is committed by the older pupils, and such portions of it by the younger ones, as they are able to learn. About twenty minutes are occupied by the school in worship. The next twenty minutes are occupied by the teachers of the several classes in hearing the recitation of the lesson, and making such remarks, and asking such questions, as are adapted to the pupils composing each class. The last twenty minutes are occupied by the Pastor in remarks to the whole school on the lesson of the day. Its literal and spiritual meaning are briefly explained, and such suggestions and applications are made as occur at the time. After this a collection is taken up from the pupils and teachers for the purpose of keeping the Sabbath-school library in good condition, and also for the payment of the Little Messenger." The school is closed with singing a chant.

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Our Sabbath-school library is quite large, and in good condition. It is kept in a little room out of the vestibule. The Sabbath-school is in the Temple at 3 o'clock, P.M., in summer, and at 2, P.M., in the winter. It is in the place of, and at the same time as the afternoon service in the churches of the city.

We also take a collection of about $75 near Christmas, for the purpose of making additions of new books to our library. We have just added about $50 worth of new books.

The Pastor has made Missionary visits to a few places within this State, and also preached one Sabbath in Providence, R. I.

DOCUMENT No. 5. Report of the Portland Society.

To the Maine Association of the New Church in session at Bath, September, 1871:

DEAR BRETHREN, -According to custom, we communicate to you the changes which have occurred with us during the year. There have been seventeen (17) baptisms eleven adults and six children. Fourteen (14) persons have received confirmation, viz. : Mr. and Mrs. Aaron A. Haskell, Mrs. Martha A. Coffin, Miss Justina Rea, Miss Elizabeth Stickney, Mr. and Mrs. Elliot P. Vose, Mrs. Elizabeth Presseley, Mrs. Gage, Miss Almira T. Blake, of Bridgton, Mrs. Elizabeth G. Dow, Miss Sophia K. Perkins, Mrs. S. B. Bedloe, and Mrs. Abby L. North, of Yarmouth.

The above fourteen have all become members of our society, in addition to whom there have been also the following admissions, by rule, of persons previously confirmed, viz.: Wm. Senter Lowell, Henry Harrison Lowell, Mrs. Alice Scott Raymond, Mr. and Mrs. Charles M. Thomas, Mrs. Margaret T. W. Merrill, Mr. and Mrs. Henry A. Berry, Mr. Charles H. Lamson, Ella Hay, and Mary A. L. Burton-eleven; making twenty-five admissions in all. These, added to our previous number (126), make our present membership one hundred and fifty-one (151).

The pastor has officiated at eight marriages during the year, and at six funerals.

No essential change has taken place in our Sabbath-school, which still remains under the efficient superintendence of Judge Kingsbury. The number of those belonging to it has increased since last year, reaching now about 180; but the average attendance remains about the same as before, running from 110 to 130.

The only feature in our exercises that we will mention, is the custom of giving out a prominent word each Sunday, the members of the school finding and committing to memory a verse each from sacred Scripture, in which the word occurs, some one being appointed each time to write a short paper on the word, giving its correspondence or spiritual meaning. This has been found a very interesting and instructive exercise. For a singing-book our school uses Mr. Root's "Chapel Gems."

A few Sundays ago we enjoyed a visit from Mr. F. A. Dewson, of Boston, Superintendent of their Sabbath-school, and President of the American New Church Sunday-school Union, who came down to see our school, to confer with our teachers, and give us a word of encouragement. We all derived much pleasure, and, we trust, as much benefit, from his visit.

Our pastor took a long vacation this summer of three months, during which the usual services were conducted in the Temple very acceptably by

Judge Kingsbury. Our worship has not been suspended for a single Sabbath, and the audiences throughout the summer have been well maintained. While other churches were closed, numbers of strangers frequently attended our services.

Our average attendance at communion is from fifty-five to sixty.

The debt remaining on our Temple, which we reported last year at $14,000, has been reduced about $1,000 the past year, being now not more than $13,000.

Dr. S. E. Sylvestre, licentiate, has preached for us, and in the vicinity, a number of times this year. He has also attended the Theological School in Waltham about two months, delivering there, while pursuing his studies, a course of lectures to the students and others on anatomy and physiology, and preaching, on the Sabbaths, in a number of the New Church pulpits in Massachusetts.

DOCUMENT No. 6. ·Report of the Gardiner Society.

We can report no advance, or anything hopeful, for the past year. Mr. Stearns has officiated several Sabbaths, administered the Holy Supper twice, attended one funeral (Mrs. James R. Byram), and married one couple not connected with our society. There have been no admissions, no confirmations, and only one baptism, viz.: Mary Certrude, infant daughter of William C. and Nancy S. Stewart. There are but ten resident members of our society left, viz.: four males and six females. Of the male members one is over fourscore years old, two exceeding seventy years, and the other will complete that period of life in a few months; and of the female members, one is upwards of seventy years of age, and three over sixty. It is thus apparent that but little active usefulness in the cause of the Church can be expected of us, and there are but one or two young people members of the families of the society whom we can expect will fill our places. Of the ten members, but five of them can be relied upon for the payment of contributions, but we occasionally receive small sums of others friendly to the Church.

We have a building fund of $3,300 invested. What is best to be done with it is questionable. If we build, and the society runs out, the building would be of little use or value. It has seemed to me that it might be expedient to make the Association trustee of the fund, in which case it could only be done by the Association becoming a legal body, which I suppose is not the case now.

While Rev. Mr. Stearns has acted as Missionary for the Association, we have paid him $326.67, being our proportion of his salary for the services he has performed. Unfortunately there is no suitable building here to be obtained for public worship, except occasionally, when we can have the Universalist Church, which, on several occasions, they have kindly permitted us to use.

Before we can have any hope of a resuscitation of our Society, we must acquire an access of some working members, in whom the life of the Church manifests their abiding faith in the supreme importance of its teachings. The Lord will provide in His own good time. Our present duty seems to demand of us a more devoted labor in bringing our own lives into submission to His will, waiting with submission the manifestations of His grace in Truly your brother,

us.

Gardiner, Sept. 29, 1871.

H. B. HOSKINS.

DOCUMENT No. 7.

Bangor, Sept. 25, 1871.

REV. SAMUEL F. DIKE,

President of the Maine Association of the New Jerusalem Church: DEAR SIR: I herewith enclose to you twenty-five dollars - the balance due from me on account of my subscription of fifty dollars for the year 1871, in aid of Missionary Work in Maine — which please hand to the Treasurer of the Association.

I regret to be obliged to say that the lack of health and strength will prevent the attendance of myself and wife at the meeting this week. I also regret that I am unable to send an encouraging word in regard to the state of the New Church in Bangor.

We had a visit last fall from Rev. Geo. F. Stearns, of which his report will inform the Association.

I presume you have noticed in the papers the recent removal to the spiritual world of Henry K. Adams, Esq., formerly of Williamsburg, and also that of Mrs. Delia Cushing, wife of Andre Cushing, Esq., of St. John, N. B. They were full receivers of our doctrines, and were well known to many of the Association. Their children were all (five) baptized into the Church by yourself. Of Mrs. Cushing, would that I had words to speak befittingly of her many excellences as a wife, mother, and neighbor. Mrs. H. Strickland proposed to be at the meeting of the Association; probably no others from Bangor.

Respectfully yours,

ISAAC S. WHITMAN.

CONSTITUTION.

ARTICLE I.

This Association shall be known and designated as the MAINE ASSOCIATION OF THE NEW JERUSALEM CHURCH; and the several Societies and the Isolated Receivers in this State, and in the adjoining parts of the British

Provinces, shall be admitted as members, on the basis of representation in Art. II., Sects. 2, 3, 4, 5.

ARTICLE II.

SECTION 1. The Permanent Officers of the Association shall be a President, Secretary, Corresponding Secretary, Treasurer, and an Executive Committee, to be chosen annually; who shall be members by virtue of their office.

SECT. 2. Every regularly formed Society of Receivers of the Heavenly Doctrines, numbering fifty members or under, shall be entitled to four delegates, and to one delegate for every twenty-five additional members.

SECT. 3. Small circles of receivers, in places where no society has been formed, may be represented in this Association by one delegate, who shall, upon a special vote of the Association, be admitted to a full seat in this body, with power to vote on all questions.

SECT. 4. In order to give Isolated Receivers in this State, and the contiguous provinces, an opportunity of coming into more intimate relations with the Church, any person of good moral character, who acknowledges the doctrines of the New Church, as taught in the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, or the Three Essentials of the Church as laid down in No. 259 of the Treatise on the Divine Providence, has been baptized and confirmed, and residing in a place where no local society has been formed, and not attached to any other society of the Church, may become a member of this Association, and enjoy with it the various privileges of the Church, except that of voting in the meetings of the Association, by signing the constitution on the book of the Secretary, or by causing his or her name to be placed there; and those who desire this connection with us, are cordially invited to do so. Application may be made to either of the following officers of the Association: the President, Secretary, Treasurer, or Standing Executive Committee.

SECT. 5. This Association regards the payment of a part of the income of each member for the advancement of the uses of the Church, as a fitting and orderly acknowledgment that we receive every blessing, both of spiritual and natural good, from the Lord; and recommends, therefore, to all its members to contribute to the funds of the Association, according to the means intrusted to their keeping by Divine Providence.

SECT. 6. One-fifth of the members present may call for a record of the yeas and nays on the vote upon any question.

ARTICLE III.

The Executive Committee shall consist of the President, the Ministers of the Association, the Secretary, Treasurer, and one member from each society. And in addition to the above members, there shall be appointed on this Committee one or two delegates each year, as the Association shall from time to time determine, from among the Isolated Receivers, that their