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MISCELLANEOUS.

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"THE HAWKSTONE MEETING."-This meeting, which was instituted more than half a century ago by the "Venerable Clowes," is a sort of annual reunion for those readers of the writings of the New Church who did not think it wise to come out of the other churches with which they had been associated. During Mr. Clowes's lifetime it was a vigorous and useful assembly; it published annually, by advertisements in some of the leading newspapers and otherwise, some of the principal doctrines of the church; but since his decease it has fallen away in numbers and diminished in its interest. For some years it has indeed published a report which, though always amiable in tone, seldom presented any very distinctive features of action. This year the meeting took place in the third week of August, and consisted of only eight persons, two of whom were ladies; three were representatives of the separation church, the other five were intelligent readers and receivers of the Heavenly Doctrine. The meetings were continued from Tuesday to Saturday morning, and were influenced by a pleasant and profitable spirit. Two hours each day were devoted to the reading of the Word, conversation thereon, and the consideration of the subject determined on at the last meeting, which was "Worship." That for the next year is "Charity." It was decidedly a happy, and to the people then assembled, a useful gathering. The report this year may perhaps be a little more lively than usual. Could not these meetings be revived, so as to carry out more efficiently than at present the original intention of their venerable founder?

Married

On the 28th of August, at the New Jerusalem Church, Brightlingsea, Mr. George Gilders to Miss Sarah Elizabeth Dines, both of the above-named village.

Obituary.

479

By the decease of Mr. Stephen King, on Sunday, August 6th, at a very advanced age, the small society at Ipswich has lost one of its oldest and most zealous supporters. He was introduced into the church late in life through the reading of Noble's ". Appeal," and for upwards of twenty years the principles of the New Jerusalem were the joy and rejoicing of his heart. His attachment to the principles of the church, and his pleasure in hearing them expounded, were so great, that when upwards of seventy years of age, and in feeble health, no kind of weather was sufficient to keep him from his place in the little congregration. In a note now lying before us the writer says:-"Having been professionally engaged by the New Church committee (of which the deceased was a member) to design the present place of worship, after its opening, in 1847, I became personally acquainted with Mr. King, which led to my reading the Heaven and Hell,' attending upon the services of the church, and subsequently connecting myself therewith as a member.

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Your long acquaintance with him, and appreciation of his attachment to the heavenly doctrines of the New Jerusalem (as he was wont to call them), will enable you to speak of his many virtues and deep solicitude for the extension of those truths, which were the guide of his life and delight of his mind." To the above I need only add that on the occasion of my visit to Ipswich, subsequent to the decease of our friend, I addressed the little flock there on his favourite theme, the Divine Humanity of the Lord, and accompanied the argument with such words of consolation and encouragement as seemed to be in harmony with the occasion, and greatly to refresh the listeners. Norwich.

J. S.

Mr. William Leach, of Norwich, was removed to the spiritual world on the 21st of August, at the age of 73 years, after a long affliction. As the introduction of our departed friend to the doctrines of the church was associated with events which are peculiarly interesting to the church at large, from the fact of their having been instrumental in furnishing one of the most useful polemical works of the New Dispensation, it may not be out of place very briefly to

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record some of the leading circumstances to which we refer. The Norwich New Church Society had its origin in the meeting of a few friends, in October, 1818, called together by the late Mr. Joseph Clover. In May of the following year, the Rev. E. Madeley, then of Derby, preached in Norwich, in the chapel of the Rev. G. Beaumont, a minister of the New Connexion Methodists, the use of which Mr. Beaumont had very kindly offered for the occasion. Though the minutes of the Norwich Society give a very full and interesting narrative of its early history, which we cannot but think deserving of a permanent record in some of the Conference publications, it does not very clearly appear what induced Mr. Beaumont to adopt a course which in the present day would certainly call forth some expressions of astonishment. Be that as it may, the Rev. gentleman, it is pretty clear, soon saw reason to regret the fruits of his liberality. Some of his members received the new truths greedily, amongst the rest our departed friend, Mr. Leach, who, with several others, was baptized on the occasion of Mr. Noble's visit to the city, in July, 1823. A month later, the Rev. G. Beaumont-alarmed for his flock, or, as was then very generally thought, irritated by the frequent insinuations that he was well nigh a Swedenborgian himself-delivered a public lecture in denunciation of the doctrines, and shortly afterwards

published it, with some additions, under
the title of "Anti-Swedenborg." On the
Sunday following the lecture twenty-
seven of his members resigned in a body.
In June, 1825, Mr. Noble gave a course
of lectures in Norwich in reply, and these
lectures-extended and annotated-ap-
peared in print early in 1826 as the
"Appeal," a book which yet maintains
its position as the best defensive work
which the church possesses. For the
long period of forty-two years our dear
departed friend found in the heavenly
doctrines of the New Jerusalem his great
solace and delight. He exemplified his
faith in all the relations of life, and the
Divine Word was his constant companion
in the long illness which preceded his
departure. On Sunday, September 3rd,
Mr. Spilling made the event an oppor-
tunity for an admirable discourse on
the nature of the future life, and the
only means of securing an eternity of
blessedness.
E. D. R.

Departed this life, on the 29th of August, after a few hours' illness, at Alfred-street, Bedford-square, London, in her 58th year, Catherine, relict of the late Rev. John Henry Smithson, of Manchester. She worked long and lovingly with her late husband in the cause of the New Dispensation, and has now gone to meet him in that happy abode where the Lord Jesus Christ is ever mindful of his own.

TO READERS AND CORRESPONDENTS.

All communications to be sent to the Editor, the Rev. W. BRUCE, 43, Kensington Gardens Square, London, W. To ensure insertion in the forthcoming Number, communications must be received not later than the 15th of the month, except recent intelligence, which will be received till the 18th.

The Committee of the National Missionary Institution, and the Students and Ministers' Aid Fund, meet at Bloomsbury-street, on the fourth Monday of each month, at 6-30 p.m.

Now that three pages of the Miscellaneous department are to be occupied monthly with notes on passing events, our correspondents must observe brevity. M. Cöster will feel obliged to the editors of other New Church periodicals, if they will insert his letter which appeared in our last number. Subscriptions received by Thomas Watson, Esq., 4, Highbury-crescent, Islington, London, W. We have occasion to state that Marriages, to entitle them to announcement in the Repository, must be celebrated according to the rites of the New Church, except where the circumstances do not admit of it.

T. C. next month. Received: J. L., A. D. Hockley too late.

Erratum. The last word on page 418 should be "Kardec."

CAVE AND SEVER, Printers by Steam Power, Hunt's Bank, Manchester.

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AMONG all the known religions of antiquity, the temple has ever been the most salient object, and, if we may use the expression, the summary representative emblem. Uniformity of plan, amidst considerable variety in the external construction, pervades all these edifices in different countries. In Egypt grand and massive, and seeming to prerealise the "expressive silence" of the poet. Among the Assyrians glowing," like their cohorts, "with purple and gold," and other brilliant colours, and metals emblazoning the mystic heraldry of Magism. In Greece embodying the highest principles of harmony, order, and proportion, in combination with the ideal beauty of their statues. Barbaric, yet ornate, in Scandinavia and Germany, and rich in the symbolism of a wild but grand and significant mythology. And lastly, among the Celtic nations, who "found a fane in every sacred grove," symbolising in its interior cheerful glade, the inner, higher, and happier circle of humanity.* All, we say, preserved more or less distinctly, amidst all this diversity of outward aspect, a unity of design, which, like all unity of antiquity, resolved itself into a triplicity; for in these structures we can trace, more or less clearly, a threefold division, corresponding and having reference to the three degrees which con*See for the religious ideas of these several nations an article entitled "Primeval Wisdom," in the Repository for June, 1862.

482

THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON.

stituted initiation in the ancient mysteries. This triple construction and significance is most obvious, and indeed most perfect in the Temple of Solomon, which has been regarded by some as the model and prototype of all religious architecture. But the observation made on a former occasion in reference to the resemblance between the Hebrew and Heathen religions, will apply equally to the similarity in their architecture, namely, that both derive in common from the fanes of the primitive people or Ancient Church. So that both the Mosaic tabernacle, and the Solyman temple were just a temporary and permanent reconstruction, under the Divine auspices, of "the Holy Tabernacle," which, according to the Book of Wisdom, was "set up from the beginning."

No where, we conceive, does the force and beauty of the law or science of correspondence appear more conspicuous than in the key which it affords to the wonderful series of truths involved in the construction of the temple of Solomon, and constituting, as it were, its ideal or archetype. And it is almost unnecessary to premise that the same observations apply both to the tabernacle and the temple, their construction and significance being identical, (1 Kings vi. vii.; Heb. viii. 5; Acts vii. 42—47.) and, of course, both are referred to under one designation in the following pages. We shall be able to pursue this great subject with most advantage by first unfolding the general idea implied in this divine structure, and then entering into particulars. The general idea of the temple is its threefold significance, referring at once to heaven, the Lord, and the church. Its reference to heaven is plainly taught in the Epistle to the Hebrews, where heaven is denominated the "true sanctuary;" and the "holy places," both of the tabernacle and temple, are styled "the patterns or types of things in the heavens." (Vide Heb. viii. 1, 2; x. 23, 24.) But, indeed, no careful reader of these two chapters can have any doubt on this head. Its reference to the Lord as to His body or humanity, is taught with equal clearness in John ii. 18, where he evidently regards the temple of Solomon as typifying the "temple of His body;" and of the New Jerusalem it is said that" God and the Lamb (i.e., the Divinity and Humanity of the Lord) Is (not are) the temple thereof." And that the temple also signified the church, or finite humanity, so far as it is regenerated, the apostle designates the church brought nigh unto God—a holy temple unto the Lord, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. (Eph. ii. 18-22. See also 2 Cor. vi. 19.)

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THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON.

483

. Having thus obtained from the Scriptures a general idea of the significance of the temple, let us see how far we can fill this idea with particulars. And first, with regard to heaven. It is almost unnecessary to inform those who "search the Scriptures" that always in the Old Testament, and mostly in the New, the word rendered heaven in English is plural in the original, and indeed the plural rendering is sometimes given in our translation, as for instance, in the passages quoted above from the 8th and 9th of Hebrews. Paul speaks of "the third heaven," which evidently implies a first and second, and the three compartments of the temple and tabernacle (which, as we have seen, expressly represented the heavens) determine the number of the blissful spheres. These are formed by the Divinity of the Lord, which is no other than the Eternal Word or Truth proceeding from and united with Love Divine. This, constantly flowing into perfectly receptive souls in the finite degree, constitutes the essential happiness, blessedness, or internal delight of heaven; while its reflections or terminations cause the ever-varying scenery and other external heavenly delights. As the divine principle is variously received (in consequence of the indefinite variety which, by a universal law of nature, pervades all recipient minds), these joys, both internal and external, thence arising, admit of innumerable degrees, which, however, may be summed in three universal degrees, constituting the three heavens, and typified by the three compartments of the sacred edifice. And the divine principle so constituting the heavens in its three degrees of reception was signified by what has been quaintly termed by old writers" the furniture of the temple;" and we shall find as we proceed, that this "furniture" further signified the two universal phases under which the divine principle presents itself to humanity; i.e., Love Divine, and the goods thence constantly flowing, and corresponding Truths, which are these goods in form, idea, or manifestation. These appear in union more intimate and universal as the series ascends. We are now prepared to enter into particulars still more minute. The construction of the temple was very simple, consisting of (1) the inner court; (2) the sanctuary; (3) the oracle, or Holy of Holies. These three compartments, with their respective intermediates, the porch and the vail, strictly constituted the temple, as in them alone was placed the "furniture," which, by conferring a symbolical value on the edifice, marked or mapped out the boundaries of its sacred character. The outer court, which was empty, was merely an entrance, and being formed of stone, denoted the mere natural or

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