mines opened and explored, temples built, and we are destitute of their history. The papyri of Manetho are probably lost forever; nor have we much hope ever to acquire the books of Hermes. Yet what we have learned, all points, whether we will have it so or not, in the precise direction indicated by the scribe of the New Church. And in spite of all efforts to make these historical reminiscences seem fabulous, it is worth a notice that whenever in cotemporary nations a reference is made to Egyptian annals, it never contradicts, but confirms the statements made by the fragments of Egyptian records now extant. Is it not more than probable that the origin of the Hebrew race is traceable to the people of the Nile? Abraham was a Chaldean and Chaldea was an Egyptian colony. The first chapters of Genesis follow an Egyptian model. The Noatic flood, fifteen cubits above the highest mountains, resembles a Nilotic inundation which rose above its usual height, and exceeded its usual extent. The names also indicate a copying from Egyptian records. But we forbear conjecturing. We hope that as future explorations are made, more confirmatory evidences may be found; though it is impossible to convince a wilful skeptic. But for the weak in faith, whose honesty is great, but perceptions feeble-for them would we write and speak. It is a charity to feed them, and to afford them confirmations which will serve them as a defence against antagonistic spirits. And we regard it as of the Divine Providence that at the present time a series of explorations are going on in the countries of remotest antiquity, the results of which are to confirm the testimony of Heaven's chosen seer. A. W. PROF. BUSH, CORRESPONDENCE. JEFFERSONVILLE, INDIANA, Nov. 16th, 1851. IN a back No. of the N. C. Repository for this year is an editorial item on Spiritual Manifestations, or, the opening of the interior sight, and an invitation given to any in possession of facts on this subject, to offer them. When I read the article I thought of a leaf in my diary which recorded something of the kind, and which occurred in my early life before I ever heard of a New Church. I have copied it just as I then wrote it down, word for word; if it may serve any use in making up the article you speak of, I offer it freely. I was in my seventeenth year, engaged in teaching a small school in the country district where I was brought up, when I was taken suddenly sick with a fever, and my thoughts was arrested to think on death. I felt unprepared to enter a world of spirits, and I sought earnestly for mercy at the hand of God. I knew that I had not been "born again," and I cried constantly to the Lord that I might be born of the Spirit, and my sins forgiven. Fierce disease was preying upon my body, the development of a moral malady which lay festering within. The streams of life My were poisoned with hereditary evil, and they broke forth from their heart-prison, and soul and body I saw and felt to be one mass of vileness and depravity. little world of mind, that I had thought so wise and good, was as a nest of unclean birds, an unsightly field of iniquity, where were evils and plagues, and roots of bitterness. I murmured against my God, while I called upon him for mercy, and in my pain I could not be patient, for evil tempers and feelings ruled over me, and I had no more innocence or love or peace. The more I cried unto God, the farther did he seem removed from me. Inmostly I wished to do right, but there was a deadly strife within, an armed power, that resisted every effort at self-control, and I groaned more desperately under the thraldom of sin, than the long and painfully protracted sufferings of the body. All my soul became a void and thick darkness, yet the mercy of Jehovah brooded over the abyss. Of all the world I felt myself most wretched and depraved. For weeks and months I fluctuated between life and death, for when the fever-crisis past, dangerous pulmonary symptoms appeared. However, my constitution triumphed, and I slowly recovered. The turbulence of my wayward passions also, in a measure, subsided; but I found not the peace I sought, and a settled gloom gathered over my soul! Penitence, tears, and prayer, were my only relief or solace. My form was bowed together, and my food was as the taste of ashes and wormwood. I said there is no ransom for my soul, and despair planted its deadly fangs within me, and I seemed gradually sinking into a pit, to be forever lost. The promises of the Word were not for me, and darkly died within me every ray of hope and light, which had hitherto sustained me above the dread abyss. I was alone in my grief and woe, and there was none to deliver. Thus did I sink in the deep waters. "The weeds were wrapped about my headthe earth with its bars was around me forever." Yet there was a voice within me, crying as did David, "Oh, Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul." I But I continued steadily reading the Word and religious tracts. One day the name Jesus attracted my attention. It seemed to brighten and glitter as I looked upon it. I mentally exclaimed, "I will supplicate Jesus." I entered a room alone, and fastened the door. I fell upon my face, and cried, "Lord Jesus, have mercy on me!! Oh, help me, or I perish. But here will I lie till thou dost make me whole. If I perish, I will perish at thy feet. Night closed in upon my prostrate form. continued crying till my soul was spent. There was not another word in my mouth to speak. Still and hushed as that silence which reigned in heaven was all within me! I knew not what had befallen me! I thought "How dreadful is this place,"would it were the gate of heaven to me. Slowly I raised my body from its prostration, and my soul, in its humiliation, rested in the "God-man." For thirty-eight hours was I kept in this profoundly still and quiet state, until the Sabbath morning came. I went to church for the first time since my illness. I went through the morning service, with my open book of prayer, and when the sermon commenced, 1 bowed my head upon the slip in front of me, that I might listen undisturbed, and instantly I lost my outer consciousness! My spiritual sight was opened! Lo! I saw the Lord. With great wonder and astonishment I exclaimed-it is Jesus! Jesus! "Thou art the fairest among ten thousand, and the one altogether lovely." Oh, that countenance! That celestial body! In form a man, in feature God! gazed intently upon the Divine, just above me, a little at the right, a voice, as of an angel, was heard in mine ear, saying-" as far as the east is from the west, so far is thy sins separated from thee." As I I seemed As I still wondered and adored, from this form divine proceeded rays of light flowing down, and infilling my soul. No language can describe the sensations that pervaded me. My soul and body seemed all wrought into light and life-clear, luminous, crystal-like and without weight. When I returned to consciousness, they were leaving church. I rose to follow, but felt no floor or ground. gliding above the earth, and love unutterable filled me full. I reached home. I entered my room. I took up my Bible. I opened it. But lo! from between its leaves there issued a dazzling flame, like as of the finest particles of pure gold! It so glittered that I closed my eyes, and then the book, and pressed it to my heart and worshiped! Again I opened it, curious to understand the great phenomenon, and lo! its glittering was like rays of light, shining like burnished silver. In profound and deep acknowledgment again I bowed' and worshiped and adored! Surely this Those were happy, happy days, near, all ye that fear the Lord, There is but one God, and his was a heavenly revelation, and from the Lord alone. A.G. AN ERROR CORRECTED. BATH, Dec. 1851. MR. EDITOR :-Will you allow a small space in your columns to be occupied for the purpose of correcting an erroneous representation which has been sent forth to the New Church public, and reiterated inadvertently, we conclude, by one of your correspondents? In an article, a second part of which appeared in the February number of the Repository, on Mr. De Charms' "Report on the Trine in the Ministry," over the signature of "A. W." we notice the following paragraph, viz: "The 12th Convention was held in Philadelphia. This was the last time the Church in this quarter ever went into the motion of making rules of order for the New Church in this country." "The Bath Society in Maine reported their Institution on the Boston conjugial plan, by Mr. T. Worcester." Mr. De Charms objects to this mode of doing business, because, first, an ordaining minister has no more right to do so than a distinguished personage had to offer the kingdoms of this world to the Lord if he would fall down and worship him; secondly, because the rule is devised by Mr. Thomas Worcester, as our law-giver, without reference to the Word, or the writings of Swedenborg; thirdly, it is contrary to the Lord's way of forming Societies of the New Church. They come into such forms as from themselves.' There is just as much need of ordaining ministers to institute flocks of birds, or herds of cattle." On turning to the report in question, we find that the quotations here indicated, are correctly made, and the whole paragraph seems to be a fair representation, as far as it goes, of the contents of about seven pages of that report, which are occupied to prove the prevalence here of a mysterious conjugial theory, and "the episcopal tendency in the measures of our Eastern brethren." Speaking of the "peculiar" manner in which the formation of the Bath Society was conducted, the author of the report says: "There is no question in our mind that it flows direct from the conjugial theory, whether the originator of that theory and the devisor of this order [Mr. Thomas Worcester] thought so or not.”—P. 239. The formation of the Boston Society is alluded to as "a transaction somewhat similar," but let it be remembered that that transaction took place about eleven years earlier, and, a considerable time, we believe, before the conjugial theory, so called, was agitated, and by the aid of the Rev. Mr. Carll, who would not have been likely to have favored any such theory, at that time. But the author of the report goes on to say; "Here, therefore, in the Institution of the Boston Society, the principle, first came into form and into sight. A similar transaction in first forming a Society of the N. Church, in England or in this country, had never, we believe, occurred before. It took its rise with those who originated the theory of a conjugial relation between a pastor and his society. It germinated and sprung up in the same soil, and almost simultaneously with the first sprouts of that theory which we saw. We have not the least doubt that it was a sucker from that theory, as a bulb or root, and we therefore aver, that the existence of this principle in the Rules of Order of the General Convention now, is proof that the conjugial theory is still carried out as existing in the constitution of that body-all the verbal renunciations of that theory by the originator of it himself, and all the official disclaimers of its existence or operation in the Convention, which may have been made by his minions, to the contrary notwithstanding."-P. 240. Now, we shall not presume to deny to the writer of said report, the possession of that deep penetration which is capable of scanning the first springs of action in others, and of judging more correctly of their motives and purposes, than they can do themselves; nor are we at all concerned to disprove the existence of the "conju gial theory" in the Convention. But we are concerned to promote the prevalence of truth and charity, and we feel it to be a duty to object to those statements quoted from the report, so far as they go to impute to Mr. Thomas Worcester and others, from the Boston Society, who assisted and participated on the occasion of constituting the Receivers in Bath, a regular society of the N. Church, according to any "Boston conjugial plan" or "device." We object to all this as gross misrepresentation, and we deprecate the whole tenor and apparent aim of it and its context, as injurious aspersion, being apparently designed and calculated to place one section of the Receivers in this country in an offensive and disadvantageous light before their brethren in this and other countries, and a manifest departure from the Divine rule of estimating others by the conformity of their lives to the commandments of the Lord, Now, we know that the method of procedure adopted at Bath did not in any material point originate with Mr. Worcester, or any member of the Boston Society, and we are entirely satisfied that no idea of any thing which may be called a conjugial theory, entered the thought, or influenced the conduct of the Bath receivers on this occasion. Our present object is not to vindicate Mr. Worcester, and our other Boston brethren, nor shall we attempt to refute the assumption that the Bath Society was instituted according to a conjugial theory or principle. We trust that the laws peculiar to the marriage of good and truth might have had some influence over the transaction in question, well knowing that those laws are most interior and universal, and that, on their prevalence, the order and happiness of the very heavens depend. When the paragraph quoted from the Repository first arrested our attention, we thought it unworthy of notice or refutation, concluding that it would soon pass into oblivion; but meeting lately another aspersion against the Eastern brethren of the N. Church, and especially those of Boston, which, on glancing at the above Report, was found to have originated there, and which we must regard as neither according to truth or charity, we realized more than before that a great majority of the Receivers at this time are liable to be imposed on by erroneous representations made of transactions, purposes, and motives existing in the Church 20 or 30 years back, and that charity may demand some effort for their protection; for we have had occasion, repeatedly, to deprecate the manifestation in the same quarter, of an apparent disposition to place in an offensive light the Receivers in New England, and we have been not a little astonished at the power which a determined purpose of gaining a particular point has seemed to give to an individual to twist and turn incidents, having no real bearing upon it, to his aim, evincing a degree of apparent insanity and blindness to the real truth, which renders the subject of them, wherever met with, most truly, an object of pity. With regard to any manifest disposition on the part of any of our ministers to become "law-givers," or "devisers" of rules for the government of others, subsequent to the period to which we are about to refer, we have nothing to say, but that the author of the Report appears to have evinced a full share. In the year 1829, the small number of Receivers in Bath, very nearly, if not all, members of Congregational Calvinistic Churches, and hereditarily, as well as by education, very free of any Episcopal tendencies-perhaps five men more so could hardly be met with than were the five males of this nucleus-had long been struggling to rise above their own doctrinal prepossessions, with a strong sphere of bitter opposition around them, such as is hardly any where to be met with now, while but very few Receivers existed in the State, or even in New England, to sympathize with them, and but one organized Society to extend to them countenance and support. They at length found themselves so far liberated and united, and resolute, trusting in the Lord, as to withdraw from their old connexions, and decide on opening a meeting for religious Sabbath worship, and the enjoyment of the ordinances, in que time, of a Society of the N. J. Church. Free as they felt in this movement, all their sentiments prompted them to seek the sympathy, countenance, and co-operation of others, on the joyful occasion of their coming together, "as from themselves," to form a community desirous of attaining, both internally and externally, something of the order peculiar to the human form, and they were at the same time deeply impressed with a sense of the propriety of having the occasion solemnized in a religious manner, and by an ecclesiastical func tionary; and for these purposes they addressed a letter to the Boston Society, through their pastor, expressing their "desire to become constituted a Society of the New Jerusalem Church," and requesting their aid for such purpose. In compliance with this application, the Boston Society passed resolutions, requesting the Rev. Mr. Worcester, their pastor, to proceed to Bath, and elected delegates to accompany him for the purpose proposed. On arriving at Bath, Mr. Worcester was consulted respecting the manner in which he thought it would be proper to proceed on the occasion, to which he replied, as is very well remembered, in substance, that he had no plan or mode to propose, and in turn asked what ideas we entertained respecting it; when it was suggested as a natural and common sense course, that "inasmuch as a letter had been addressed by the Bath receivers to the Boston Society, and acted on by the latter, it might be well, on opening the meeting, first, to read that letter, and the consequent doings of the Boston Society; then that he should announce the presence of himself and delegates, for the purpose of complying, making inquiry if the Bath receivers were desirous and ready to proceed in the business of the occasion, which being signified by the candidates rising, and the record, in which were inscribed the articles of faith of the N. J. Church already signed, being handed to him, he should proceed to read those articles in the presence of the meeting, and on their being assented to by the Bath receivers, they should be pronounced "a regularly constituted society," &c. To this Mr. Worcester's reply was, that "he saw no objection; it seemed orderly, and if it suited us, as we had no precedent, it was well to adopt it," or to that effect. We distinctly remember being struck with the unassuming manner with which the subject was treated by him. Mr. Worcester, in conducting the meeting, accordingly having read the articles of faith, pronounced the following interrogations, viz: 1st, Do you believe in these Doctrines? "2d, Do you wish to live according to them? "3d, And, do you form yourselves into a society for that purpose?" So much for the agency of Mr. Worcester in "devising" the form of proceeding, and we are not aware that he had any more in any of the introductory movements. The five brethren who constituted the male portion of the Bath receivers, had no pretensions but to plain practical common sense, enlightened in some degree by the dawning light of the New Dispensation; but it may in truth be said of one of their number, and one of the earliest readers in this country, but now departed, that he possessed a nice discernment of external order, and had some experience in the practices which prevail with other fraternal communities as the effect of a common or general influx from the heavens, and the fact that these proceedings have been somewhat extensively approved and followed since, may, perhaps, be regarded as affording as much evidence that they were orderly and correct, as that they were from the arbitrary dictation of any individual, or the result of any preconceived theory, as the report labors to make it appear; but which we regard as preposterous and absurd, and even worse. In conclusion, we have only to add, for we have already much exceeded the limits we intended, that we deeply regret having had occasion to make some of the personal allusions we have done, but we have done it under a conviction that it is quite time a more full and frequent expression should be made of sentiments which are extensively prevalent in the Church, to rebuke that spirit of crimination and re-crimination-that, sitting in judgment upon, and condemning the personal, but unessential opinions and practices of others; and raking up, coloring, and sending forth to the world, as evidence of present states and views, the fruits of those which may have long since passed away-a spirit and practice which have too much prevailed in this country, though entirely repugnant to the genius of N. C. principles. Rather let us fulfil the true mission of the Newchurchman, by affirming that truth, in living according to it, and rejoicing that a diversity exists amongst us as tending to that variety which is the perfection of beauty, so long as in the main, the aim is right; for, if all stood on the same point of view, the compass of vision would be comparatively limited, and would contract still more in proportion to our tenacity of the imperfect appearances within the perview of our own personal range. Let us remember that good, and not truth, is the first essential of the Church-that without the former, the latter cannot exist, and that true charity affords the only soil in which a sound faith can germinate, live, and grow. AN ORIGINAL MEMBER OF THE BATH SOCIETY. |