66 66 the of negative reasoning? In like manner, in the incipient or the infant state of our religious life, when we begin to learn Divine Truth, milk of the Word is presented for our spiritual nourishment and growth. (1 Pet. ii. 2.) To the mind thus affirmatively employed in reading the Scriptures, the volume of revelation gradually unfolds its "dark sayings ;" and if we do its teaching, we shall verily "know that its doctrine is of God." The things which are of the spirit of God are foolishness to the natural man, but not to the spiritual man, for they are spiritually discerned." The negative principle of reasoning concerning divine things, or the things revealed in the Word, leads to all scepticism and folly; but the affirmative principle leads to all intelligence and wisdom. (See A. C. 2568, 2588.) To think negatively concerning the things of the Word, is to think à posteriori, that is, to think from the impressions received on the senses, and not to understand any thing but what may be comprehended by way of the senses, or by the sensual mind. In this way to enter the kingdom of spiritual truth is as impossible as for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. But to think affirmatively is to think à priori, or from principles, as stated above, which as axioms belong not to the senses, but to the rational and spiritual mind. The book before us is one of the numerous proofs and illustrations that " now is the end of the church." It has its mission to fulfil, which is that of entirely breaking up the old creeds and orthodoxes of Christendom, and of preparing the way for a new development of Christianity, from entirely new views of God's Word, and of the system of its interpretation. We could have adduced many extracts which, from the boldness of the attacks upon the authenticity of the Word by a negative scepticism, would shock our readers; but as the work may be easily procured, we cannot afford space for quotations. We are reminded, in the perusal of this book, of that utter desolation of the church which is depicted in the following prophecy of Isaiah :-"The cities shall be wasted without an inhabitant, and the houses without a man, and the land shall be utterly desolate." (Chap. vi. 11.) SCRUTATOR. THE GREEK CHURCH AND THE APOCALYPSE. Ir has been a subject of remark by more than one student of the writings of Swedenborg, that throughout his explication of the Last Judgment, as prefigured in the Apocalypse, he nowhere specifically alludes to the fate of the Greek Church. This must certainly appear to those who seriously reflect on it a singular omission, when it is considered how large a portion of Christendom that church constitutes, and how important a part it has fulfilled in the history of Christianity. The difficulty consists in this,-Swedenborg, in describing the Last Judgment, speaks of it as executed upon entire Christendom; and yet he treats only of Papists and Protestants. What, then, were his views of the Greek Church, which has always kept itself distinct from both of those great opposing parties? Did he regard it as being intrinsically identical with one of them, although thus nominally distinct? Or did he really overlook the fact of its existence altogether? If the latter, of course his interpretation of the Apocalypse must be admitted to be to that extent inaccurate and incomplete; whilst, if we adopt the former alternative, it then remains with us to show upon what ground we adopt it, and with which party that great section of Christendom is to be identified. Perhaps it may afford some clue to the unravelment of the difficulty, if we bear sufficiently in mind that Swedenborg does not profess to describe that tremendous and fearful epoch as it was to be ultimated on earth; but simply,-so far as natural language would permit,-as it had then already been accomplished in the spiritual world. If we could even approximately realize a perception of the immense considerations involved in this distinction,-would it not tend to clear away much darkness and confusion on many points, in our practical applications of what he has been the means of revealing? Alas! if we could really see with the eye of the understanding, as in the light of Heaven, what had thus transpired in the Sphere of Causes; if we could truly comprehend what those spiritual realities and mutations actually were, which Swedenborg saw, and more or less explicitly described to us,how many present difficulties should we then see through; how much that is now mere "palpable obscurity" would become a very pathway of light, translucent and radiant as the street of the Holy City! If what Swedenborg describes actually occurred, as he positively asserts, then, of course, the value of his description to each of us will be exactly proportional to the clearness with which we realize from it a perception of the intrinsic Facts to which he thus refers. In the precise degree that we attain this, the description will be intelligible and successful in its aim; in the degree that we miss this, any description, however perfect in itself, must be for us illusory and barren. Surely these truisms will be admitted by every one. And yet how of us are there who can pretend to have realized, as we should have done, from Swedenborg's description of the Last Judgment, as it has already many occurred in the spiritual world, -any clear, practical, and comprehensive view of the spiritual Causes which have since been working with everincreasing momentum in this our world of Effects? Too often have mere verbal parallelisms swallowed up every deeper thought of the utter distinctness yet inseparable dependence of those two Immensities of conscious activity," the Spiritual and Natural worlds." The very difficulty which has suggested these reflections,-does it not derive all its perplexity from this source? Swedenborg speaks of certain associated spirits as belonging to "the Roman Catholic religion," and of others as belonging to "the church of the Reformed;" and immediately our thoughts turn to the more promiscuous assemblages so named on earth, as if the primary fact lay in the identity of a verbal designation. But Swedenborg was speaking of congregated spirits, not of mere aggregated bodies. He was speak. ing of the kindred ruling loves which bind soul with soul in one common sympathy, wheresoever they exist; and he mentions the two great conflicting parties of fallen Christendom, not because of their institutional or their numerical importance on earth; but because essentially in their then perverted condition, they embodied the completest manifestation of the two fundamental loves of what is evil and of what is false, and thus typified the extremest profanations of all good and truth of which the human mind is capable. The ruling love and distinguishing aim of the one being to enslave and thus selfishly tyrannize over the consciences of all; that of the other being the barren pride of individual self-intelligence. These two fundamental evil loves, according to Swedenborg, include and give life to all others that can possibly exist; and are the last consummation of social and of individual iniquity. It is to the living manifestation of these two loves, as seen by him in the spiritual world, that he primarily refers when he speaks of Papists and of Protestants; not to any heterogeneous gathering that may happen to be so named on earth, which at its worst can be but a loose and indefinite approximation to its spiritual ideal. So that it would appear that these designations, as used by him, apply spiritually rather than naturally; embracing the individuals calling themselves by the name of either party, only in the degree that they are actuated by the ruling love or life-aim of which their church is taken as the type. And further, that all those whether professedly of the Roman Catholic Church, of the Greek Church, or of any of the multifarious churches of the Protestants,whose life-aim is to rule over the consciences of others, and thus make them subservient to their own selfish aggrandisement, are referred to by Swedenborg in general terms under the category of the Roman Catholics, simply because that church manifests such aim most thoroughly and most palpably. And on the other hand, and in like manner, all whose highest actuating principle is the mere barren pride of their own fancied intelligence, to whatever community they may nominally belong, are referred to under the generic title of Protestants. To conclude these brief remarks, which are intended simply to suggest inquiry into the questions at issue, it must be evident that in order to apply Swedenborg's principles to any existing community, whether the Greek Church or any other, it will be necessary in all cases first to ascertain what are the life aims which hold them together, and have called them into existence. If this can be satisfactorily determined, all other difficulties may with some certainty be removed; but until this is done, all attempts to classify the various existing denominations of Christendom intelligibly and correctly, so that his interpretations may be brought to some practical bearing, must necessarily prove illusory and abortive. May we not hope that some clear light will yet be thrown on this dark and certainly not uninteresting inquiry! H. L. CHURCH MUSIC. I READ with great interest, in last month's Repository, an article on Church Music." I lament with the writer that so much nauseous "bellowing," "rolling," and "trembling," should exist in places set apart for peaceful praise. This evidently springs from ignorance, and the only way to remedy it is for every member in each congregation to take upon him, or herself, as a duty to themselves and society, to practise at least once a week in a general class in some spacious room, under the superintendence of an efficient leader. Thus far I have scarcely differed from the Editor's note at the end of E. F.'s valuable remarks; but with all due reverence to him I must beg to differ as to the system under which these choirs or classes ought to be conducted. Dr. Mainzer's plan may be very good in many respects under the old system (I use the word old in the same manner as we are accustomed to speak of the old church in comparison with the new), but I have another name to introduce to the reader's notice, which is as new to the musical world as the name of Swedenborg is to the theological world. It is that of the Rev. John Curwen, whose system, called the tonic solfa notation, only requires a slight amount of observation to see its superiority over N. S. No. 147.-VOL. XIII. the old method. It was first of all invented by Miss Glover of Norwich, who has carried on a most successful course of singing tuition for some time, to the delight of every listener But Mr. Curwen has both improved upon it and brought it out more extensively to the world. The advantages of Curwen's system are these. It defines rhythm more clearly, characterizes each interval of the key, marks the scale, expresses the relationship (generally) existing between keys where "modulation" [transition] occurs, renders transposition perfectly easy, and furnishes a set of syllables favourable to good intonation; the tendency of such notation being to lead the pupils to sing better in tune, and sooner at sight, and to imbibe more correct notions of the theory of music. The notes, instead of being in a staff and in the usual forms, are substituted by small letters; thus d for doh, r for ray, m for me, and so on, so that the tune of the "Old Hundredth" would appear thus: : Old Hundredth, L. M. Key B flat. The The upper line in each brace is the air, and the lower the bass. lines and dots between the letters indicate the rhythm of the tune; for instance, there is one rhythm in a chant and another in a solemn tune like the above, and so on through all different metres; and those letters after the perpendicular lines are sung with more stress than those after the dots, thus producing a marked and grateful change throughout, instead of the continuous shouting we are unhappily obliged to hear so often. The small 1 at the bottom of the first t in the air, and under all the bass letters, denotes that it is below the octave, so that the singer will sing that note one degree lower than the d. (the starting note) instead of a seventh above, as it would be if that mark were not there. The octave runs thus: doh, ray, me, fah, soh, lah, te, doh, (somewhat different to Hullah's; but good reasons can be given for alterations) so that all replicates under or above are marked with the little I either under or above, as circumstances require. Another great improvement in this system is, that all tunes have doh for the key note, the pitch being understood from the key the tune is written in; for instance, the 'Old Hundredth" is written in B flat, which any correct instrument or tuning fork will furnish; thus we have a universal name for the key note, let the tunes be in whatever pitch they may. Now, they differ ་ |