4thly, As a means of improving cur spiritual condition in the things of charity and love.

5thly, As a means of mutual help, in which we may, from the Lord, give to each other encouragement and sympathy, by which our drooping spirits may be restored and our thoughts directed towards the constant love of the Lord.

6thly, As a testimony to the world of our faith in the Lord, and our desire to be guided by Him during the whole of the great journey of life.

These uses are by no means of a trivial character, and demand from us careful attention, for none can reach that high spiritual state in which he can afford to neglect an institution of such great value, for, in the words of Swedenborg, "It is a law of the Divine Providence, that a man should be led and taught from the Lord out of heaven by the Word, and by teaching and preaching from the Word."

With these truths so clearly and distinctly placed before us-truths that a little reflection must tend to confirm to every thinking mind—we might suppose that such an all-important institution would be prized as a great boon, and that all men conscious of their need of the aid of an Almighty God, would cast all minor things aside and hasten to avail themselves of a privilege whose uses testify to its Divine origin. But we are too prone to neglect great things for little ones-eternal things for temporal ones—and to despise the means which an Allwise and All-merciful Providence have given us for our welfare.

The attendance of the members of New Church societies at public worship is far from satisfactory. That which should be regarded as a duty and a privilege, is by some looked upon as an irksome task, by others as a thing to be attended to when they have nothing else to do, and by others as quite unnecessary. Doubtless the same may be said in regard to the members of other religious communities; but, if their practice is wrong, it forms no excuse for our adoption of it, but rather augments our responsibility as members of that Church in which all things shall be made new. If attendance upon public worship is a duty, let our first concern be, not with the practices of other people, but with our own, that "letting our light shine before men they may see our good works, and glorify our Father who is in heaven."

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With a large number of persons, anything seems to be regarded as a valid excuse for non-attendance at the services of the church. "The weather was threatening;" "it was so very fine;" "it was so hot;” “it was

so cold;""felt too tired;" "had a cold;" "wanted a walk;" "went to see a friend;"” “had friends to tea;" "felt low spirited;" "don't like the minister;" and many similar excuses are made to do duty in answer to the question "Why were you not at church on Sunday?" But these are not the answers that will satisfy earnest minds. Not one of them, or as many of them as can be put together, can be considered as a reason by those who really feel that public worship is a duty, and that we should attend the services of the church for the purpose of worshipping the Lord, and improving the state of our own minds. They are all excuses of the most paltry kind; and yet they form the substance of those by which the great bulk of irregular attendants at public worship seek to justify their conduct. Let all such ponder well over the testimony of Swedenborg, and examine the recital of the uses which we have alleged may be derived from external worship.

Another class of persons with whom we are familiar, seem to require constant prompting in regard to the performance of their duty in this matter. If a friend calls upon them at the hour for going to church, or, the minister gives them a reminder during the week, they will probably be found in their places at service time, but not otherwise. These seem to think that it is quite as much as they need do, to go when they are asked, and regard their attendance mainly as a compliment to the minister or the friend who invited them. This is surely a wrong frame of mind to be in. The object of our church-going should be to worship the Lord; and we ought not to regard this as a task; we should value it as a high privilege, and undertake it as a pleasing duty.

In regard to the two classes of people whom we have been speaking of, viz., those who attend church only when they have nothing else to do, and those who attend only when they are specially invited—we believe that they come into such states chiefly from the neglect of serious reflection concerning their duty in the matter. Most of them would frankly acknowledge, as a matter of belief, that public worship was attended with many advantages; but we think that such acknowledgment is generally more a matter of sentiment than of real heartfelt appreciation.

But besides these, there are a number of professed New Churchmen who attempt by reasoning to justify irregular attendance at public worship. It is not our province to judge the motives of individuals, but we fear that too often these reasonings are not the result of judgment but of inclination. That which the conscience of a man tells

him is a duty, but which he has no desire to perform, is generally disposed of sooner or later by specious arguments originating in the natural will; and it is but a waste of time and energy to endeavour to reason against such arguments. Still, it is worth while to examine them, and by showing their fallacy, prevent those who seek to know their duty from being led away by their apparent weight.

The pith of these objections may be summarized under the three heads :-Public Worship won't make a man good. Public Worship is unnecesary in the New Church. A man can get to heaven without public worship!

In answer to to the first of these public worship won't make a man good-we neither believe the statement nor the conclusion drawn from it. We might with just as much reason affirm that prayer won't make a man good, that reading the Word won't make a man good, that receiving the doctrines of the Church intellectually won't make a man good, and so on. But, though none of these things of themselves are capable of transforming bad men into good ones, few people will deny that they are essential to the progress of the regenerate life, and that united with the performance of certain other duties they will help on that progress to a considerable extent. So it is with public worship; if man trusts to it as an external act alone for the working out of his salvation, he will expect what he will not get; but, if he enters upon it in the sincere desire to be instructed and led by the Lord, it will become a medium of great use to him. Public worship should be, and when real is, the expression of the trust and dependence that a community feels in God, and like every other outward act receives its quality according to the nature of the motive which prompts it. Besides, we must remember, that if public worship won't make a man good, neither will staying at home, and we can give but one answer to the query, which is most likely to be productive of good?

We may best reply to the second objection-public worship is unnecessary for New Churchmen-by referring to the teachings of the Herald of the New Church. In the quotation which we have cited from the A. C., he recites certain uses which external worship is designed to premote; and it appears to us that a New Churchman can never reach the point at which public worship will be unnecessary for him. Will he ever attain a condition of perfection in which the influx of heaven will be of no use to him? Can he ever afford to treat with indifference the states of heavenly sanctity given by the

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Lord? Can he ever reach that height of wisdom in which he can no longer receive instruction from the Word of God?

It is a mistake to speak of public worship as a mere form, and then argue that it may be dispensed with because the new age is an age more of realities than of forms. Public worship, in accordance with the teachings of the Word of God and the writings of Swedenborg, is not a mere form, but a form containing an essence of a most important character. Therefore it is not a thing to be lightly dispensed with by members of the New Church-it cannot be unnecessary for New Churchmen here, for it exists among the angels of heaven.

This brings us to the last of the objections:-We can get to heaven without Public Worship. Even were this true-if what we have previously advanced be correct, public worship may be made of great use in preparing us for that kingdom, and may, by leading us to higher states of sanctity, fit us for the enjoyment of a more complete state of happiness there. This is the manifest teaching of the writings of the church-that public worship, as a medium of communing with the Lord whom we worship, moulds us more conformably to His image and likeness, and thus renders us more fitted for heaven.

Our aim should not be ever to seek out what we can manage to dispense with; we should not balance arguments pro and con to see if we cannot manage to get to heaven without this, or that; we ought not to try to do without all those things which some suppose may be put aside,—as if anxious not to do too much, and desirous to make our state just one degree above that of the lost, coming within the conditions laid down as essential to a life in heaven by as little as will do and only just do! Yet this appears to be one of the great objects many people have in view during the whole course of their life—as if knowing that they were to be weighed in a balance, they were determined that they would only just draw down the scale and would give the Lord no more than they could possibly help.

We need none of us be frightened of becoming too good, or too heavenly.

The question for us to decide, is not, Can we manage without public worship? but, Can we do better with it? It requires but little reflection to see that engaging upon earth in an act which the angels perform in heaven, cannot fail to prepare us more fully for joining them in the realms of eternal felicity when our life here has been brought to a close.

We have noted down these few thoughts concerning attendance at

Public Worship in the hope that they may be useful. The present defect in the observance of this duty, can only be remedied by each one striving to do his best to make all lesser things give place to its performance, by a regular and punctual attendance at the sanctuary of God. When men not only see, but feel the importance of the duty, we think they cannot fail, as earnest members of the Lord's Church, to avail themselves as frequently as possible of its high uses-uses which stamp deeply upon the soul lines of beauty that can never be effaced. JOSEPH DEANS.

PROSPECTUS OF AN INTERLINEAR TRANSLATION OF THE SACRED SCRIPTURES, BY DR. LEONARD TAFEL. WE cordially greet any signs that our generation is awaking to the appreciation of its vital interest in the study of the original languages in which the Word of God has been uttered to man. The alternations of zeal for this study are in intimate correspondence with those of ardour for religious truth and for every kind of intellectual light. The reformation owed so much to Luther's ability to exhibit the Bible in a vernacular translation made directly from the original text, and that whole period was so saturated with a fervid interest in the very words of Divine truth, that the philological study of the Bible became a distinguishing feature of the religious movement, and of the time itself. This zeal, however, gradually subsided, in the general stagnation that followed that event; and England, that had produced the scholars to whom we owe Walton's Polyglott, in the Protectorate of Cromwell, hardly possessed an orientalist of acknowledged European fame, until Sir William Jones marked the beginning of the new era which has, ever since, gone on shining more and more to the brightness of our present forenoon.

The study of Hebrew has partaken of the great revival of all linguistic and all scientific knowledge which distinguishes the age we live in. Men of most eminent abilities, and of unpredecented range of view over divers families of language-such as Gesenius, Ewald, and their numerous pupils-devoted their best energies to base the philological knowledge of the language on principles of such depth and precision as were not even imagined by the men of Walton's time. Their Grammars, Lexicons, and Commentaries furnish an adequate