"Surely." says he, "every medicine is an innovation, and he that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; FOR TIME IS THE GREATEST INNOVATOR: and if time of course alter things to the worse, and wisdom and counsel shall not alter them to the better, WHAT SHALL BE THE END? What is settled by custom, though not good, is fit, and might be retained, if time stood still; which contrariwise, mov. eth so round, that a froward retention of custom is as turbulent a thing as an innovation; and they that reverence too much old times are but a scorn to the new. It were good therefore, that men in their innovations would follow the example of time itself, which innovateth greatly, but quietly, and by degrees scarce to be perceived. It is good also not to try experiments in states, except the necessity be urgent, or the ability evident; and well to beware that it be the reformation that draweth on the change, and not the desire of change that pretendeth the reforma. tion."-Essay on Innovations.

But the necessity was urgent, and the utility evident to others, if not to herself. The Church of England, more than the others, pretended "to stand on the ancient ways," when she did not. Of this they were all distinctly warned, and a longer reprieve was granted, that they might be fully tried before they were removed as cumber ers of the ground. Had the Anglican church been wise then, and taken the initiative in this great and therefore gradual work of Reform, such from her position, was her influence with Protestant nations, that they might have followed her example, and thus have averted the dire calamities which followed her refusal.

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But how did they greet the messenger, and what was the welcome accorded to his warnings and instructions? The soldiers of an earthly monarch know right well that if they would save themselves and defend their country, they must keep pace with improvements in strat egy and tactics, and avail themselves of more efficient weapons when offered, When the soil is losing its fertility, the harvest blighted and the vintage dwindling under the ravages of insects, it is the a wise tenant to adopt a better system of husbandry, if he would increase the fruits of the earth, and shield them from their enemies. How widely different was the conduct of these spiritual warriors and husbandmen! "What!" said they, "shall a prophet arise in Galilee? And shall our brethren on the banks of the Rhine, or in the sunny South, above all, shall we in this happy isle of the west, change our rule of faith and duty at the bidding of a man from the dark and fro zen regions of the North, and he not one of our sacred order, but a layman! who moreover has been buried half his life in mines and workshops, and now comes to tell us that we are all in the wrong, and that we must retrace our steps?" He will have it that we have lost the art of cultivating our fields aright, and that if we accept not his new method which he pretends to bring from the Lord of the Soil, it is because we care not for the increase of the corn, and wine, and oil, so there be enough left for us. It must be owned that the fruits of the earth have sadly declined of late, both in quantity and quality, and we cannot wholly stifle or be deaf to the cries of the sufferers from famine. Our brethren over the water, moreover, testify to yet greater dearth there, and louder complaints. It cannot be that the soil is exhausted, or the seed degenerated. This is the same which our fathers have sowed for generations, and which therefore must be

the same in kind with that which was received in the beginning. Is it not rather that their laborers are not properly subordinated, as with us? Some of them we know have too much authority, and others too little, and hence are their efforts relaxed or misdirected. Come what may, we must listen to no novelties, but let each in his several farm observe the time-honored routine, in hope that this storm will blow over, the destroying vermin pass away, the fields once more look green, and the accustomed tribute be brought to our barns. Meantime should any of the sufferers turn their eyes to the quarter from whence relief is promised, we must endeavor to avert them by all the means now left us, and especially by the cry which has so often. proved successful, "Have any of the rulers or Pharisees believed on him."

N. F. C.

ARTICLE V.

FREE DISCUSSION IS IT TO BE FROWNED UPON IN THE NEW CHURCH? DEAR SIR:-The opening of the subject of Slavery for a candid and dispassionate consideration, in the pages of your periodical, was one, to me, of great interest. Still, in common with yourself and readers generally, I had much doubt as to the manner in which it would be received by your friends in the South. But though I anticipated a rather cold reception of the subject on the ground of expediency, I was not prepared for so strong an expression of almost unqualified disapprobation, and so absolute a closing of the lips to all and anything that may be advanced upon the subject, as appears to be aimed at in the communications published in your June No. What can be calculated to fill the mind with more concern than this? There is a corpse in our midst, which shall remain there; its odor is exceedingly offensive to our neighbors, yet it shall neither be removed or investigated, nor its character or uses discussed. Truly this is a fearful thing, and sad and sorrowful are the reflections which the reading of the several letters, so antagonistic to a freedom of even the most christian expression upon the subject, excite, that the conclusion comes irresistibly, that not only is there physical but spiritual slavery; a slavery of the soul as well as the body.

Are goodness and truth local? Is there one doctrine of truth for the free States, and another for the slave States? Or are goodness

and truth universal? If they are, what have habits, customs, or prejudices to do in the matter? Right and wrong in principle is everywhere the same, and every good man will alike acknowledge their precepts and influence, and should desire to be guided by them.

But it is urged that this subject is a very peculiar one, and may not be classed with ordinary evils, but is an "institution," a "domestic system" of our own that no one else has any business with, and no

one among us shall say anything about, nor any one at a distance, if we can possibly help it! But this is no more right than it would be for a man to keep an alleged nuisance on his farm, affecting the atmosphere around, and breeding animals which migrated into his neighbors' property, and swarmed the public thoroughfares; and then say, "You have no business with it; if it is a nuisance it is our own, and we regard all that you may say upon the subject as an impertinent interference!" And even though the effects of this evil were actually confined to the owner's own property, even then the good of our neighbor requires that if others (not within its influence) see its injurious and spiritually deleterious effects, they should, as brethren, in the exercise of love to their neighbor, kindly and truthfully endeavor to open their eyes to its demoralizing influences; and the party addressed, instead of being restive, irritated, and excited thereby, should be willing to listen in the same spirit, and to be ame nable to just reason and argument, however severely it may try his local feelings, his acquired habits of thinking, or his personal or selfish loves.

The very fact of feeling so uneasy whenever this subject is touched upon, proves it to be a sore; a healthy social condition would not feel so; and if a sore, what can be more unreasonable than that it should be nourished as such, rather than made well! How few slaveholders seem to be aware of the effect which the habitual command of slaves has upon their own life. It induces a tone of authority, of absolutism, which the freeman feels so intolerable, that he cannot and will not submit to it; and amongst equals in station, how often does it lead to quarrels, and strife, and death! But again I would ask, are the remarks made by you on this subject, true, or are they not? If they are, cannot a Newchurchman bear to hear them? If not, how can he expect that the collective Christian world should hear him, when he opens and exposes its evils and falses?

And yet are not these time-honored usages and doctrines as dear to the professing Christian, as a comparatively modern and domestic institution can be to the Southerner? or was not Luther obnoxious to the same objection, when he laid bare the evils of the Church of Rome? or what would our Southern brethren say, if, in the vicissi tudes of life, a number of Newchurchmen should be scattered over the territory of Utah, and the editor of the "Repository" should publish a series of articles on the evils of polygamy and concubinage? Would they say that the tongue and the pen must alike be sealed, because this was their "peculiar institution," or their idol? And would not the same argument be equally true against idolatry, immolations, infanticide, parricide, or any other general or national evils? Is it not seized upon by the distiller, the drunkard-maker, and the drunkard, the men who go about with a smoking chimney in their mouth, polluting the common air which others are obliged to breathe? Yes, it is the same argument, or rather the same selfishness, which overlooks all other considerations than their own. Is this New Churchman like? or are such the principles or precepts of the New Jerusa lem? Alas, no, and it is most wonderful to witness the facilities of

self-deception. Men of talent even of exalted talent, seeing all else so plainly, yet living in this atmosphere they cannot see this! Is slavery an evil? It is affirmed that it is, it can be demonstrated that it is, it is even admitted that it is, and with the standing and prominent doctrine of the church before him, that all evils should be shunned as sins against God, this is claimed as an exception! Or it is utterly vain and futile even to hope to gain a hearing on the subject! Newchurchmen themselves will not hear! O, how sad is such a thought, how humiliating such a fact! Are there slaves in heaven? if not, should there be on earth? for if there should, how can earth be like heaven, or how can the Lord's will be done on earth as it is in heaven? I have not essayed to investigate any of the positions or assumptions of your correspondents, though to me they seemed feeble indeed, so feeble, that they clearly manifested they were rather struggling to draw a veil over the subject, than to justify it, and your own review, though not touching all the points, clearly unfolds their char

acter.

I may say in conclusion, that whatever may be thought of these remarks, they nevertheless come from a slaveholding State, and from one whose whole life in this world will probably be continued in it: but to me I confess it makes no difference where a man lives, or by what influences surrounded; he has a standard and a measure for his actions far above all local interests, or domestic policy; and if there is no slavery in the New Jerusalem now descending from God out of heaven, there should be none in the New Jerusalem upon the earth. And if our Southern brethren should say to you, as I already foresee they will, "Stop the Repository! for if I cannot prevent your writing in it on this forbidden topic, I can at least refuse to look at it :" should they do so, I still hope you may not be discouraged, but ever continue steadfast in your convictions of truth and justice, and your antagonists must at least admire at a distance, an integrity which as yet they themselves are unable to appreciate.

Yours in "freedom according to reason," in the light of the New Jerusalem,

F.

ARTICLE VI.

THE EXTERNAL LAWS OF ORDER.

THE material universe is the ultimate of two distinct spiritual principles; for all that is in heaven and in hell has its continent or basis in the external universe. Heaven is the real man, and hell the shadow; but the existence of both the one and the other is dependent upon the material body, and an absolute and perfect order is preserved in both. This is the order of the human form, and while the order of heaven is a living, breathing, beautiful, humanity, that of hell is a dead, distorted reflex of the human form.

This shadow can never be annihilated, and lacking as it does an indwelling principle of life, it is ruled solely by the living man, and

holds its position in exact accordance with the positions or states of its living type. The church upon earth, when it declines from its erect, upright, heaven-aspiring state, and lies prone and incumbent upon the ground, coheres to its own cold, dark shadow, but as it elevates itself, and rises towards the Lord, the shadow recedes, and when the Divine sun shall have attained the meridian altitude of an eternal day, then the shadow will be projected directly beneath the feet of the man of the church, and will no longer stretch its huge distor tions forever before him. With his face to the Lord, man forgets the shadow, but the least side-glance earthward, and the giant deformity vexes and annoys him.

Thus it is with the church at the present day. The glorious sun of heaven has arisen upon the glad morning of her new birth, but the morning shadows are cast long and dim, and will grow more distinct and defined, more dark and disagreeable, until she treads them under her feet. Until this time comes, we must walk hopefully on, laboring cheerfully to preserve the living humanity, although that too preserves the shadow.

The

The moral shadows thus linked to the glorious beauties of the church often strike painfully upon us, but we cannot mar even the order of hell; we must wait the ascension of the Divine sun. providence of God can alone overrule the shadow. We see the children of the church united in marriage with those who are out of the church. We know that this is wrong, but the laws of external order are absolute, and must be fulfilled in every tittle, and the external marriage union must be preserved, as the type of that eternal union of Divine good and Divine truth. If the external order is violated, the internal is hurt. Man must perform his whole duty in the most perfect manner of which he is capable, in whatever state the Divine Providence commences the work of his regeneration, for this regene ration is of the internal man, and is often begun in circumstances and situations calculated to develope all the evils of man's will. But he is to make his inclinations and desires bend to pure principles of charity, and justice flowing from charity. The spiritual-minded husband is not exonerated from duties to a worldly-minded wife. The justice that is due to her, should rule in him, and not his taste or inclination, which would lead him to repudiate her, and cast the stain of dishonor upon her. The New Church child is bound to respect and honor the most worldly-minded parent. Perceptions of interior truth cannot free him from any external law of order, no more than can the soul, weary of an outside disordered body, cast it off at its own good pleasure. No, it must undergo a painful regeneration in a disordered tenement, and in adverse circumstances. It is these very things which overcome the intense self-will of man. The children of Israel were forever surrounded by the false and evil, that they might not forget to war.

Freedom is heavenly order, slavery is the order of hell; but if a slave receives the doctrine of the New Church, he is still bound by the external order into which he has been born, that in it his regene ration might commence. While his external remains the same, his