although this may be the immediate result of outward pressure, it must, as in the case of Johan, lead to a voluntary departure from the ignorant and unprofitable isolation in which the largest nation in the world has so long dwelt. There are other instances that might be mentioned of progress in the same direction. They will keep pace with the progress of the mind; and it is not desirable that it should advance more rapidly. Men must be prepared for liberty before they can rightly or profitably use it. Civil liberty is There can be But our desire for, and our joy at, the progress of civil liberty, is not entirely nor even principally for its own sake. the forerunner and the foundation of religious liberty. no great religious advancement without what is called liberty of conscience. Civil rulers seem to think there can be no security for the stability of the State unless it rests on some venerable system of religious belief, supported by a powerful hierarchy. There can be no stability for a state without religion. But the religion that does not rest upon freedom can only afford security to the State while the human mind receives it on enforced authority and not on unfettered conviction; and that kind of authority indicates an external condition of mind unfavourable to the spirit and power of religion, however much it may keep men in the letter of the law and in the form of godliness. Such a state of things must sooner or later pass away. The spirit and the power that are to make all things new are slowly but surely working out a freer and better state of the human mind, which will make the kingdoms of this world become, in their essential character, the kingdoms of our Lord; and the more they come under the Divine government, the more will they be amenable to enlightened human rule. If this inward invisible cause, seconded by the co-operation of outward visible means, is changing for the better the civil condition of the world, it must also be improving its spiritual state. Nothing indeed has been more visible or more generally recognised than the changed state of religious thought and tone of religious feeling which have been going on, with increasing force and accelerating speed, during the last century, since the date of that event in the spiritual world which brought the first Christian dispensation to an end, and of the Second Advent, which formed the commencement of the second dispensation, under which all things are to be renewed, still more in spirit than in form. It is not, therefore, by the increase and advancement alone of those who have learned and accepted the Lord's new message to the Churches that the progress of the Lord's cause is to be estimated. Those who have been providentially brought to acknowledge and enjoy the New, should, like the Lord's first disciples, labour to extend the knowledge they possess to the world around them. Still we have the satisfaction of knowing that, while a visible Church is necessary as a centre from which the knowledge of the truth is to be diffused, its use does not depend upon its numbers, although, of course, by an increase of numbers its usefulness is increased. One most important agency, which to a considerable extent supplies the personal exertions of the Lord's first disciples, is that of the press. This, as a missionary agency, has borne good fruits. The Writings which contain the doctrines of the Church have been translated into several different languages; and some progress has been made in the work which will bring about another Pentecost, in which men of every nation will read them in their own tongue wherein they were born. To the German, French, and Italian we now hope soon to see added one, at least, of the languages of India, employed as a means of conveying to the natives a knowledge of the Christian religion in a form more suited to their receptivity, and more calculated to improve their spiritual condition, than the doctrines which are now propagated amongst them as the teaching of the Gospel. By means of the press a learned and intelligent Hindu, Rao Bahadur Dadoba Pandurung, has become a cordial recipient of the doctrines of the New Church, and his modestly offered agency has been at once and gratefully accepted, to aid and superintend a work, the beginning of which will be an epoch in the religious history of India, and a means, we hope, of her spiritual regeneration. There are other topics which we should willingly have dwelt upon as marking the difference between the old and the new. The advancement of science is so obvious and striking that there is the less need to point it out; but we may nevertheless allude to it as one of the effects of that spiritual cause which seeks to enlighten and benefit mankind through everything that concerns them, whether of the body, the mind, or the soul. If science seems in some instances to be irreligious, it must be the fault either of the religion or of the science. Between true religion and true science there can be no disagreement; and we may rest assured that the advancement of one I will ever be the advancement of both. We wish it might have been our good fortune to point, among the other signs of progress, to a decided advancement, especially among Christians, of the principles and practice of peace. There is now, it is true, peace where recently there was war; but there is now also war where recently there was peace. We cannot expect that in the present state of religion in Christendom war will soon entirely cease; although, from considerations apart from those of religion, nations might see that a peace policy is their truest interest, and that they would all gain immensely by agreeing among themselves to form a council of peace, to settle national differences on the principles of justice, or even on views of expediency, rather than by the bloody arbitrament of the sword. The time is coming, and we may hope is not very far distant, when the sword shall be turned into a ploughshare and the spear into a pruning-hook, and the nations shall not learn war any more. He who gave the promise is even now, by His spiritual advent into men's minds, and by the new revealing of His truth, working out its fulfilment. There is one reflection which we make in conclusion. When we look around us there are satisfactory evidences that old things are passing away and all things are becoming new. We must not forget to look within ourselves, and endeavour to ascertain whether we are putting off the old man and putting on the new. We must leave the things that are behind and press onward to those that are before. We have means of advancement that others do not possess. Our obligations are proportionately the greater. We must endeavour to be faithful to Him who has enriched us with such spiritual abundance, not only by dispensing of our wealth to others who are spiritually poor, but by striving ourselves to become rich toward God. If the passing away of the old year and the beginning of the new can do anything, either by the reflections they call up or the analogies they teach, to stimulate us to new exertion in our onward and upward course, let us by all means employ the season for promoting our improvement. EDITOR. THE DEATH OF PRINCESS ALICE, GRAND DUCHESS OF HESSE DARMSTADT.* DEATH enters alike into the palace and the cottage, and seems to take indiscriminately the high and the low, the old and the young, the husband from the wife and the wife from the husband, the children * Brief outline of a sermon from Jer. ix. 21, preached in the College Chapel, December 15. from the parents and the mother from the midst of her children. This last and great, if not greatest, domestic calamity has suddenly fallen upon an illustrious family in which we feel a national interest. The Princess Alice, second daughter of the Queen, and wife of the Grand Duke of Hesse Darmstadt, died yesterday morning. It was the anniversary of the death of her father, the Prince Consort, whose memory is dear to us, as that of an uncrowned king, whose wisdom and virtues have done much to make the reign of Victoria illustrious. But there is something much more interesting than this coincidence of the day of their death to connect the name and the memory of the father and the daughter. Princess Alice was her father's devoted nurse in his last illness; and there can be no doubt that the devotedness with which she attended her husband and children while they were suffering from a terrible and infectious disease contributed largely to make her its subject and its victim. The occurrence of the first death in her family on that day which the Queen annually makes a day of mourning, must have given additional intensity to her grief, for the loss of a daughter who was in all respects deserving of her love, and for the loss of a husband who would have shared and lightened her sorrow. Their These events, as they affect the great, are not necessarily more calamitous and trying to them than when they fall upon those who occupy a lower station. But public characters are objects of public interest, and their misfortunes call forth public sympathy. The rulers of nations and peoples are representative men and women. exalted station and high office give even their private life and personal experience an interest for us which they would not otherwise command. Their example, too, has a wider sphere and greater influence than those of private persons. And it is pleasing to be able to record that the Princess Alice was distinguished for those womanly as well as princely virtues that made her beloved and admired by all who knew her either in her private life or public character. : The Providence by which such a one is removed from her exalted and domestic sphere of usefulness is one that may cause us to reflect. We cannot find out the Almighty unto perfection, even in His dealing with the children of men. We know that Providence enters into all our concerns and cares for us with the minutest care. We know from the very nature of our heavenly Father that all His dealings towards us are prompted by infinite love and directed by infinite wisdom. We cannot, therefore, doubt that the removal of this devoted wife and mother has been the result of a purpose worthy of that Being who acts from eternal ends. We are instructed that the Lord takes His people away from the evils to come. He to whom all the future is present, who therefore sees the end from the beginning, does all things well. Knowing the minutest circumstances of the lives of all, He ever orders or permits according to what He sees is best for each and for all. LOVE'S NEW YEAR. "There is a love truly conjugial, having myriads of delights, scarce any of which are as yet known to the world; but they will be known when the Church betroths herself to her Lord, and is married."-The Virgins of the Fountain, Conjugial Love," No. 293. 66 O LOVE immortal! welling from the Source Unknown to change; pure as the crystal dew Refining souls. Where thorn and thistle grew, May once again in cot and palace dwell; And one deep faith in bosom-union prove How close to heaven man's chaste connubial bowers. JESMOND LODGE, MALTON. FROM LONDON TO TOLEDO AND BACK. NO. II. FROM PARIS TO MONTAUBAN AND BAYONNE, WITH NOTICES OF THE PRESENT STATE OF PROTESTANTISM AND OF ROMAN CATHOLICISM IN FRANCE. In my former paper we dwelt upon the leading features of the Paris Exhibition, but before we quit the description of that wonderful collection of worthy objects we must notice one feature of great significance, the Bible Society's pagoda. A little in front of the Trocadero entrance there was a depôt of Bibles, Testaments, and copies of single Gospels in French, Spanish, and other languages, but chiefly these. The Bibles and Testaments |