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FEBRUARY.
Miss Frances Power Cobbe, London
Bev. T. R. Elliott, Hunslet......................
Mr. William Whitworth, Newton Moor...
Mr. Robert Till, Hull................................
Rev. Goodwyn Barmby, Wakefield..........
A Lady, Wakefield ................................
Mr. Peter Reed, Wakefield ................. .
Mr. John Till, Fairburn ........................
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HOW TO JOIN THE BAND OF FAITH.
The Band of Faith is a Brotherhood and Sisterhood—a
religious Order of men and women, consisting of two
ranks—Associates and Members. Those who agree in
the statements of its faith and in the missionary objects
and ecclesiastical organization in which it is engaged, can
easily become Associates by sending their names and a
fee of one shilling, which must be renewed every year, to
its office. They will then not only be in the way of
/ assisting a society in the general principles of which they
agree, but of acquiring the knowledge and developing the
gifts which will enable them to become active members.
The rank of Members in the Order is not so easily
attained. We need active members, who will show forth
their faith by their works, preachers who will go readily
where they are sent, men of business who will labour at
our board meetings for the success of the Society,
women who will form sewing societies for its sales of
work, singers and readers who will exercise self-sacrifice
in promoting its services of worship, doorkeepers who
will esteem any menial service in the sanctuary of God,
honourable, and all these not only to be bound together with
each other, but bound also to God, by solemn vow, which
as the exercise of the will in dedication to Him is the
truest initiatory rite of religion. Except by special dis
pensation, the members of the Order must take publicly
on their admission the following Covenant, which is em-
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MESSENGER.
bodied in a service for the purpose, by joining in it or
responding to it, while receiving the right hand of fellow
ship from the officiant. The Covenant thus reads :—
“We covenant to do all in our power for the honour
and worship of the one and only God, and in making
known His absolute Holiness, perfect Wisdom, and Uni
versal Love and Mercy. And may God of His goodness
enable us to keep this covenant, and to live ever for His
service. Amen.”
It is desirable that friends should become first Associ
ates, and remain such for a year at least before consider
ing themselves eligible for Membership.
Associates form the constituencies of local societies,
and by the payment of their annual fee of one shilling
each, and the registration of their names and addresses
in the Index of the Order, are distinguished as avowed
and recognised friends, from the occasional attendants,
who in common with themselves contribute to the offer
tory.
From Covenanted Members, the various degrees of
Superintendents will naturally be appointed (District,
Provincial, and Metropolitan), in the course of the orga
nisation of the Order. Preachers should especially be
come Covenanted Members, not only for their own benefit
through the consecrating act, but that they may set an
example of holy vowing and public confession to the
general brotherhood and sisterhood. From members also
the Board of Trustees, consisting of twenty-four Elders,
will be formed.
The future, however, holds these things, and for the
present we principally ask for Associates. Let scattered
friends and sympathising attendants upon our services,
at once become Associates and definitely strengthen our
forces. The fees of Associates are now due for the pre
sent year, and, where there is a Local Superintendent,
should be now paid to him, or otherwise transmitted
directly to head quarters. Cards of Companionship for
the year will be forwarded on the receipt of these fees.
Organization will gradually show the measure of our
ability. It is at once the secret of success-and the proof
of power. It is only through Organization that the
�FEBRUARY.
H>
Broad Church of the Future can supplant the narrow
churches of the past and present. All efforts for the es
tablishment of Universal Ideas will prove weak and
abortive, unless authority, order and discipline are freely
chosen by their adherents.
FINALITY IN KELIGION.
By Goodwyx Barmby.
There is no finality in religion, as a whole. Ever fresh,
developments spring forth from it-—a constant evolution
goes on beneath its inspiration. But to every special
process there may be allowed an end, in the sense of accom
plishment and consummation ; and such process remains
one of the great factors of the past in the eternal progress
of the future. It is in this sense that the Messianic Idea
is exhausted when it is completely realised, while the
Divine Idea is for ever inexhaustible. While a dispen
sation may be perfected, 'while a mission may be accom
plished, while a special process may be so fully realised
that it may be considered final and need not be attempted
again, there is no finality in religion itself.
The evidences of the divinity of religion lie in the facts
that it produces. The proof of a good field is in its
ability of producing. It was by his 'works that Jesus
showed fulfilment of his Messianic mission. It was He
that should come to make known the Fatherly Spirit of
God, and to show forth in himself, the filial spirit to the
All-Father and the fraternal spirit to his human family.
The imperfect ever gives way to the more perfect. In
the struggle for existence the stronger conquers. In
natural selection the imperfect disappears, while every
beauty and advantage is perpetuated. It is as in a large
curve however that these truths can only be fully recog
nized. Little minds take little methods, and fail as liter
ally as they literally regard things. Except through a
wide sweep of events, we cannot assign its character or
destiny to a dispensation. Things that swiftest grow,
swiftest disappear. Perpetuity is the sign of perfection,
and the noblest name of God is--The Eternal 1
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MESSENGER.
The influence of Jesus has borne the test of experience
and acquired the proof of perpetuity. Corrupt accretions
have gathered around it, misapplying to themselves the
honour of a holy name; but it has thrown them off, and
is still throwing them off. It has not been povertystricken by bare walls, nor smothered by the rich robes
of its ritualists. Beneath all guises it has equally
touched hearts—beneath the leathern coat of George
Fox or the Episcopal cope of St. Augustine. It has
leavened literature, and directed imagination to choicer
types of character, and to sweeter and brighter results,
than Roman poet or Greek tragedian ever chose or found.
It has ennobled benevolence and forgiveness, as the
highest virtue; and it more especially works, by giving
the light of knowledge to the blind in mind, by causing
the deaf to wisdom to hear the word of truth, by raising
the dead in trespasses and sins to a new life of holiness,
by cleansing the leprosy of selfishness from the heart,
and by causing the lame in effort and infirm of faith to
walk cheerfully and courageously upon the road of
righteousness.
Jesus was He then that should come as the fruits
prove the nature of the tree. He was the Ideal Man
and we look not for another. The spirit of his life covers
all that is humanly good-—all that is divinely human.
I will not be bound to the records of his life, either by
believers or unbelievers. The Spirit of Truth frees the
mind from all such slavery to the letter. When two
people cannot give the same account of facts happening
in the next street, we cannot receive details of historical
testimony as things of greatest moment. The general
features of Jesus have been burned by the sun-rays of
Truth upon the glass of Humanity, and this photograph
is a truer likeness than the portraits of special artists.
The universal truth respecting him is all-sufficient for us.
That which all are agreed upon will be the truest
representation of him. All are not agreed upon his
miraculous birth, upon his supernatural character, upon
his personality in the God-head, or even upon his Christhood as the fulfiller of the Jewish Messianic prophecies;
but all are agreed that /. : was the pious son of God and
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the loving brother of Man, that in his love and goodness
there was brightest revelation of God’s mercy and holi
ness, and that he showed forth the perfect Human Ideal
in his filial love to God and fraternal benevolence to
human kind. What can be a more perfect human ideal
than that of a devout son of God and loving brother of
man. For the same spirit which makes a good son and
a good brother, a pious worshipper and a beneficent
friend and counsellor, is good for all the relationships of
life. The great duties of human life apply to all its
relationships, and are not bi-sexual but are the common
law for woman and man. The light of the great prin
ciples which Jesus personified casts its ladiance on all
the details of private and social life. Religion and
benevolence are the true crown and robe of our lives.
To be clothed in them is to be clothed in Christ. To
follow out the ideal of Jesus, according to the surround
ings of our own age, is to attain its highest human
standard. Some people, while in their false pride, scorn
ing the idea of the ascent of man from the monkey, would
make monkeys of men. But it is into no mimicry that
we ought to descend. The true imitation of Jesus is the
participation in the same holy spirit which Jesus pos
sessed. His spirit of love to God and of benevolence to
man, is the perfect—the all-sufficient ideal of human
life.
We look not then for another. The Messianic Idea
Bas been ever attended by temptation and danger, as
even in the early career of Jesus. It presents the idea
of self-pre-eminence to the mind—the kingdoms of this
world and the glory of them. It is connected with the
conception of man-worship when God alone ought to be
.adored. Jesus survived all this and rose above it, and
was more glorious in what he became, than in what he
attempted—when instead of the son of man of Daniel’s
prophecy, he grew to the son of God’s own heart. The
spirit of our age is with us, in asking for no new Messiah.
Its tendency is democratic and social. It wants none
head-high above their fellows. It needs measures rather
than men, and values principles above persons. As
knowledge is more generally diffused there is no need of
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MESSENGER.
such preeminent wisdom. As virtue enters into the
moral life of society, there is no excuse for the exceptional
austerity of the anchorite, or plea for the denunciations
of the prophet. It is of more importance that the Many
should become good, than that One should appear who
is extraordinary. The tendancy of our age is to lift up
the many to where the few have stood, to work out the
principles which approve themselves good, to extend the
process of education until all are enlightened ; and not
to encourage personal illusions or expect miraculous
exceptions, but to act upon the methods of common
sense and of a sound rnind.
While there is no finality in religion as a whole then,
there is one process perfect in the religious development
of human kind. Jesus furnishes us with a perfect ideal
of human life. His exceptional personification of holy
principles is all-sufficient for that end. In his spirit we
may discern the love of God for us, and in his character
the true life for men. He has taught us to call no man
Master, but to acknowledge God as our only Lord. And
we want no other Lords to reign over us, and Him alone
will we serve.
We must never forget, however, the great truth, that
in its wholeness, there is no finality in religion. The
personal embodiment of religion in Jesus, is sufficient in
its sphere of example : but as it accomplishes its work
by inspiring the welcoming of a like dwelling of the
Divine Spirit in each human soul, it gives up its kingdom
to the Father, that God may be all in all. The most
perfect human impersonation of religion, is after all, im
perfect. Finite perfection is not infinite perfection. It
is hence that Jesus is represented as teaching, that it
was expedient for him to go away, as if he went not away
the Spirit of Truth would not come to his followers.
Unless he were removed from his disciples personally,
they would not give heed to truth, for its own sake.
Unless they valued truth, not from his own lips only,
but in the entirety of its essence, its holy spirit—the
blessed Paraclete—would not lead them to all truth.
Such, indeed, is the true progress of religion—from the
authority of the teacher, to its own authority in the
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soul—from its reception as a personal teaching, to life in
it as an essential principle. The teacher of truth, perfect
as he may be in his special mission, is succeeded by the
Spirit of Truth, which leads unto all truth. There is
then, no religious finality. As occasion arises, there will
ever be further development in Divine Knowledge, and
new forms of religious life in which it will be embodied.
The Divine Idea is universal and everlasting, and every
acquirement in science will augment our knowledge of it,
will raise our veneration for it, and give us fresh inspiration to lead wise, and holy, and loving lives.
As the different religious dispensations, also, move
onward in their conceptions of the true human life, they
will attain to the Ideal of Humanity which was set forth
by Jesus, and converging together will form that Divine
Universal Church which shall be the glory of human
kind and the salvation of society. We must each of us
realize this divine drama of history, in our own personal
experience, in the life of our own souls, by living after
the human ideal of Jesus, and going on as the Spirit of
Truth leads us to all truth—adding to our faith, know
ledge, and all excellent things, and acquiring from the
revelations of thought and science, ever greater love and
devouter reverence for God. By promoting this, the
Band of Faith would prepare for the practical establish
ment of the Universal Church of God, which is the body
of which true Universalism is the inspiring soul.
NEW LECTIONABY.
Chap. I.—From the Vedic Writings.
Who is the God to whom we shall offer our sacrifice ?
He who gives life, He who gives strength ; whose com
mands the highest revere j whose light is immortality,
whose shadow is death.
Who is the God to whom we shall offer our sacrifice ?
He who through his power is the one king of the
breathing and awakening world j he who governs all,
man and beast.
Who is the God to whom we shall offer our sacrifice ?
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MESSENGER.
He whose greatness the mountains, whose greatness
the sea proclaims ; He whose regions they are.
Who is the God to whom we shall offer our sacrifice ?
He through whom the sky is bright and the earth firm ;
He through whom the heaven was stablished—nay, the
highest heaven ; He who measured out the light in the air.
Who is the God to whom we shall offer our sacrifice ?
He to whom heaven and earth standing firm by his
will, look up trembling inwardly.
Leave us not to ourselves, 0 God. Let us not yet enter
into the house of clay.
Have mercy, Almighty—have mercy.
If we go along trembling like clouds driven by the
wind.
Have mercy, Almighty—have mercy.
Through want of strength and light, 0 God, Thou all
strong and all bright Being, have we alone gone wrong.
Have mercy, Almighty—have mercy.
Let not one sin after another, difficult to be conquered,
overcome us; may it depart together with the desire for it.
Create the light which we long for.
May we find for ourselves offspring, food, and a dwell
ing with running waters.
Speak out for ever with thy voice to praise the Lord,
of prayer, who is like a friend—the Bright One.
Fashion a hymn in thy mouth ! Expand like a cloud !
Sing a song of praise !
Chap. II.—From, the Brahmin Scriptures.
Whatsoever hath been made, God made. Whatsoever
is to be made, God will make. Whatsoever is, God maketh. Then why do any of you afflict yourselves ?
Thou, 0 God, art the Author of all things which have
been made, and from Thee will come all things which are
to be made. Thou art the Maker and the Cause of all
things made. There is none other but Thee.
He is my God who maketh all things perfect. Medi
tate upon Him, in whose hands are life and death.
I believe that God made man and that he maketh
everything. He is my friend.
Let faith in God characterise all your thoughts, words,
�FEBRUARY.
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and actions. He who serveth God places confidence in
nothing else.
If the remembrance of God be in your hearts ye will
be able to accomplish that which would be else imprac
ticable.
0 foolish one ! God is not far from you : He is near
you. You are ignorant, but He knoweth everything.
Care can avail nothing; it devoureth life: for those
things shall happen which God shall direct.
Remember God, for he endued your body with life:
remember that Beloved One, who placed you in the womb,
reared and nourished you.
Preserve God in your hearts, and put faith in your
minds, so that by God’s power your expectations may be
realized.
In order that He may spread happiness God becometh
the servant of all; and although the knowledge of this
is in the hearts of the foolish, yet will they not praise
His Name.
0 God, Thou art, indeed, exceeding riches; thy laws
are without compare; Thou art the Chief of every world
yet remainest invisible.
He that partaketh of but one grain of the Love of God,
shall be released from the sinfulness of all his doubts and
actions.
What hope can those have elsewhere, even if they wan
dered over the whole earth, who abandon God ?
All things are exceeding sweet to those who love God:
they would never call them bitter.
Adversity is good, if on account of God ; but it is use
less to pain the body. Without God the comforts of
wealth are unprofitable.
Whatever is to be, will be ; therefore long not for grief
nor for joy ; because in seeking the one, you may find the
other. Forget not to praise God.
Do unto me 0 God, as thou thinkest best: I am obe
dient to Thee. Behold no other God; go nowhere but
to Him.
Condemn none of those things which the Creator hath
made. Those are his holy servants, who are satisfied
with them.
■>
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MESSENGER.
God is my clothing and my dwelling : He is my ruler,
my body and my soul.
God ever fostereth his creatures, even as a mother
cares for her child and keepeth it from harm.
0 God, Thou who art the Truth, grant me content
ment, love, devotion, and faith. Thy servant prayeth
for true patience, and that he may be devoted, to Thee.
He, that formed the mind, made it a temple for Him
self to dwell in; for God liveth in the mind and none
other but God.
0 my friend, recognize that Being with whom thou art
so intimately connected ; think not that God is distant,
but believe that like thy own shadow, He is ever near
thee.
Receive that which is perfect into your hearts, and shut
out all besides ; abandon all things for the love of God,
for this is the true devotion.
If you call upon God you can subdue your imperfec
tions and the evil inclinations of your mind will depart
from you, but they will return to you again, if you cease
to call upon him.
Chap. III.—From, the Buddhist Writings.
He who is your friend in meaning and not in word
alone is he who prevents you from taking life, or doing
any other evil; he urges you to almsgiving and other
good deeds; he informs you of that which you did not
previously know; and he tells you what is to be done in
order that you may enter the true paths.
As the bee, without destroying the colour or perfume
of the flower, gathers the sweetness with its mouth and
wings, so the riches of the true friend gradually accu
mulate ; and the increase will be regularly continued,
like the constant additions which are made to the hill
formed by the white ant.
Our parents, who have assisted us in our infancy, are
to be regarded as the east • our teachers, as being worthy
to receive assistance, are to be regarded as the south;
our children, as those by whom we are afterwards to be
assisted, are to be regarded as the west; our servants
and retainers, as being under our authority, are to be as
�FEBRUARY.
27
the underside; and our religious advisers, as assisting us
to put away that which is evil, are to be regarded as the
upperside.
As the wise man whose head is on fire tries to put the
flame out quickly, so the wise man seeing the shortness
of life, hastens to secure the destruction of evil desire.
As the jessamine is the chief among flowers and as the
rice is the chief amid all descriptions of grain, so is he
who is free from evil desire the chief among the wise.
The waggoner who leaves the right path and enters
into the untrodden wilderness, will bring about the des
truction of his waggons and endure much sorrow; so also
will he who leaves the appointed path and enters upon a
course of evil, come to destruction and sorrow.
The unwise man cannot discover the difference between
that which is evil and that which is good, as a childknows not the value of a coin that is placed before it.
■ As the man who has only one son is careful of that
son, as he who has only one eye takes great pains to pre
serve that eye ; so ought the wise man continually to
exercise thought, lest he break any of the precepts.
When acts are done under the influence of favor, envy,
ignorance, or the fear of those having authority, he who
performs them will be like the waning moon; but he who
is free from these influences, or avoids them, will be like
the moon approaching to its fulness.
When the seed of any species of fruit that is bitter is
sown in moist ground, it gathers to itself the virtue of
the water and the earth, but because of the nature of the
original seed, all this virtue is turned into bitterness, as
will be seen in the fruit of the tree which it produces;
and in like manner all that the unwise man does is an
increase to his misery, because of his ignorance.
On the other hand, when the sugar cane, or rice, or
the vine, is set in proper ground, it gathers to itself the
virtue of the water and the earth, and all is converted
into sweetness, because of the sweetness of the original;
and in like manner all the acts of the wise man tend to
his happiness and prosperity, because of his wisdom.
The door of the eye must be kept shut. When the
outer gates of the city are left open, though the door of every
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MESSENGER.
separate house or store be closed, the robber will enter
the city and steal the goods; and in like manner though
all the observances be kept, if the eye be permitted to
wander, evil desire will be produced.
This advice was given by Budha: He who would
attain Nirwana must not trust to others, but exercise
heroically and perseveringly his own judgment.
Chap. IV.—From the Druid Proverbs.
There is no seeing but in reflection; there is no reflec
tion but in fortitude—fortitude is only where the object
is clear.
There is no perspicuity but in light; there is no light
but in the understanding; there is no understanding but
of conscience; conscience is none other than the eye of
God in the soul of man.
There is none good but the godly ; there is none godly
but the religious ; there is no religion but in believing ;
there must be no belief but in truth; there is no truth
but in being manifest. Nothing is manifest but light.
Nothing is light but God; therefore there is no good
but of light, no godliness but of light, no religion but of
light; there is no light but in seeing God.
A word expresses—expression shows—showing reflects
—reflection instructs—instruction causes to think—
thought reasons—reason understands—understanding
proceeds to know—knowledge will exert—exertion will
be able to effect; ability will effect desire; desire will
act—action will attain the end.
The end of everything is the right; right is everything
in life ; right life is life eternal; life eternal is to be in
perfection ; to be in perfection is to be in God.
The weapon of the wise is reason ; the weapon of the
fool is steel; the weapon of the wise is in his heart.
He that loves fame, let him love what deserves it! He
that sows thistles will not reap wheat.
He that imparts his wish to every one will be late be
fore he obtains it. He that shall be far from his good
shall be near to his harm.
He that knows more than is necessary of another,
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knows less than he ought of himself. He that would
have a good word let him not give a bad one.
The abundance of a miser is poverty to him. He that
loves will correct.
Noble descent is the least thing in the world in the
court of wisdom. Little is the seed of the contentious
and less the wisdom that sows it.
It is early with every one when he rises. He that has
one eye is a king among the blind. A small, injury to
another is a great one to thyself.
Hated will be he that importunes. Remembrance of
the good will excite goodness.
Profound is the expression of the heart. Good is every
country that produces wise men.
Every fool is wise while he holds his tongue. Better
is one that takes care than ten who contrive.
The best gold mine is a dunghill. The best dancing tune
is the song of the lark. The best shield is righteousness.
The best revenge is to show the injury and forgive it.
Three things will not be had without every one its
companion : day without night; idleness without hunger;
and wisdom without respect.
Three things which are not easily counted : the parti
cles of light, the words of a talkative woman, and the de
vices of a miser.
The three charities to the age which follows-—planting
of trees, improvement of science, and the education of
children in virtue.
Three persons who ought to have pity shown them__
the stranger, the widow and the orphan.
The three ornaments of a country—a barn, the shop of
an artist, and a -school.
There is no Druid but in name. None can be a Druid,
but God.
PROGRESSIVENESS OF RELIGION.
Religion is a progressive work, inwardly in the soul—
outwardly m society. Goodness is development—onward
and upward—is pure progression.
“Nature,” says
Goethe, “ has attached a curse to /wzse.”
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MESSENGER.
To have Life, we must have growth; not the growth
of the fungus, which springs up in a morning and attains
to no further development than mere increase of sizej
not the growth of the ephemeris, hatched by a warm sun
beam and perishing in the evening dew ; not the growth
of the parasite, established upon the existence of a life as
dependent as its own—but rather the growth of the tree |
not swift and evanescent, but steady and enduring; its
roots firmly fixed in nature—each year developing a new
ring in its trunk, an increase in its girth ; each year see
ing it constantly, and therefore apparently unconsciously
aspire higher and higher toward the skies.
See that sapling oak ! Its sap’s blood freely courses
through the fibrous pores of its green young heart.
Spring shines on its clear brown bark, and its fresh glazy
leaves. Autumn comes and its leaves fall. But it is not
dead. It only sleeps, as true men sleep, to gather new
growth and increased strength for the waking hour.
Another spring and its leaves are green again. Another
autumn and it sheds its acorns. Other springs and.
autumns revolve over it, and year by year it puts forth
new leaves, new twigs, new branches, and more benefi
cently showers around upon its mother earth—the har
vest of its seeds. Year by year its bole is bigger; and
within its girth is calendered by a fresh ring, like a con
scious mark of progress in the soul. Year by year its
umbrage is more shady and more generously offers its
green coolness for the nests and songs of birds, for the
shelter of cattle, or for the solace of the children in the
summer heat. Year by year its leafy branches spread
about its bole—its trunk increased in girth, ascends also
in height—spiring upward to the sky, and on its topmost
twig, gilt by a sunray, we see and hear a sweet songbird
carolling its hymn to heaven.
Such then is the growth of life we want—a growth
steady and enduring—a growth implanted like a living
principle rooted deeply in our natures; a growth fixed
in the ground of things—not parasitic—not depen
dent upon the degree of vitality manifested by others,
but derived from the spiritual soil and fostered by the
immediate agencies of the Author of life and Giver of
�FEBRUARY.
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growth himself. Such is the growth of life we want—a
growth not of a day, but one of perennial progress ; a
growth not niggardly, but a generous growth, increasing
not only in circumference, but in elevation; generously
distributing around it the fruits of each harvest, and at
the same time continually ascending and constantly de
veloping itself towards the higher—the nobler—the purer
—the more heavenly.
“ The new birth into righteousness,” is a development
of the divine—a growth of grace ! It is a winter of
decay and suspended animation passed over, and it is a
spring of new vitality, new vigour and new increase
arisen. But this growth must be continuous, this grace
should be constant—not the flower of a season but a
perennial plant. The progress to perfection is a per
petual path. It is ever before us, and we are ever to
attain it. On every morning we find that a new sun has
arisen—that new dews have been distilled. In each new
morning of every soul, we should see anew the golden
sunshine and the crystal dews of the spirit.
It is not only one new birth, but many new births,
that we require.
It is not only one new life, but many
new lives, that we must have. Daily, we should become
dead to some sin, we should relinquish some selfishness,
we should leave off some bad habit, we should abandon
some vice, we should strive and clear our minds of some
error—we should thus endeavour to die daily. Daily.,
we should become alive to some virtue, we should develope some loving sentiment, we should perform some
good action, we should endeavour to attain to the per
ception of some truth—we should strive to live a new
life, daily—to daily grow in grace.
All goodness is in the soul. The human spirit is
created good by God. Its fall—its error, is to be attri
buted to the accidents of its development in the outward,
serving it for experience and trial, but it is in itself
good—it has all goodness as the basis of its growth, and.
perpetual progress to perfection as its destiny. The
growth of grace is thus developed from within. It is a,
spiritual process of progression. As the soul grows
greater in goodness, as the spiritual increases in power,.
�32
MESSENGER.
as the development towards the divine is higher, stronger,
more inward and central in the spirit: the accidents of
the outward, the external circumstances of existence,
have less influence over it, are subordinated to it, and
the Human Being takes its right place as the Crown of
Creation—the overseer of the universe !
In relation to the attributes of goodness, the growth of
grace is the soul’s sum of addition. We should add to a
new birth of belief in those first principles which are the
oracles of God—a new birth of power over evil, a new
birth of disinterested action—a new life of sincerity, a
new life of love—a new ability of innocence, a new power
of purity. Such are some of the ascensive additions of
the soul!
In fact all grace is a growth, all goodness is a growth,
all practical Divinity consists in the process of develop
ment—piety should be ever progressive. We can never
be too good. That which does not progress, ceases to be
good. That which is right to-day, if not improved upon
to-morrow, becomes vice, not virtue. Stand-still religion,
is no religion at all. The human spirit is not like an
animal form, which grows to a certain age, and then
ceases; but goodness and grace are eternal growths,
and piety an infinite progress.
THE MANCHESTER FRIEND—We read in th®
Manchester Friend, 11 The Band of Faith Tracts and
Messenger, issued by Goodwyn Barmby, of Wakefield,
often touch a very true chord.” The Manchester Friend
is the monthly organ of the liberal portion of the Society
of Friends. It contains articles of great literary ability,
which put forth those broad views of religion which are
akin to the Theism of Jesus, and will help to constitute
the Universal Church of the Future.
BAND OF FAITH BAZAAR.—Our Annual Bazaar
will be held at Wakefield, probably in Easter week.
Contributions of work or goods will be thankfully received.
BARNSLEY.—We hope soon to announce that-W
have a new sanctuary in this town.
�MESSENGER.
159
appointments, by which they could fill the widening
openings of official service in civil or military ranks ; and
as a result the social leaders of the people are intensely
prejudiced and opposed to change or improvement. None
are more so than the Mahomedan Nawabs. By having
a Turkish officer of high rank at our seats of Government,
a man entering into our progressive ideas, wearing as they
do European dress, eating freely with us at our tables,
joining as they would in many acts of social life, and,
above all, representing in a palpable living form the prin
ciple of our friendship with the head of their faith in
distant Roum, we think a new political force might be
set at work, and much good might result.
Turkey to-day can supply dozens of such men in her
civil and military service, many of them fairly accom
plished and wide in their grasp of religious views. Why
not have them amongst us ? Our interests as nations
are identical in the East, and a great moral influence
would affect the bigotted population ; above all it would
show that the Sultan was our friend—and how many
Indian Mahomedans know that to-day, probably not a
hundred? A second phase of the subject is with refer
ence to the action of oui- missionary societies. It is
matter of surprise that the Unitarian organizations in
England have never bethought themselves of work
amongst the “ Unitarians ” of the East, as the Mahome
dans would fain call themselves. No reason exists why
men teaching such doctrines should not act with good
effect upon the Mussulman people. To-day the one-God
principle is so strongly implanted in the Mahomedan
heart, that the mere mention of plurality excites him
to frenzy. The narrow prejudices, too, of half-educated
missionaries who refuse to see in Mahomed a great re
former and one of the ablest statesmen, offends them to
a great degree. But every Mahomedan draws close to
those whose views are Unitarian ; and as a creed Islam
is quite capable of having a new church party developed
in its midst, for no creed has less officialism, less sacer
dotal tyranny in it, or a simpler code of church economy
than it has.
�BAND OF FAITH
160
A body of Christian teachers who would measure Ma
homed at his true worth and join on modem civilized
views to the ancient dogmatic basis of the creed, would
be a well-spring of good to our rule in India. No doubt
the truncheon and the bayonet can keep these warlike Mus
sulman races of India in subjection, and force them to
sullen obedience ; but an empire founded by the sword,
and trusting solely to it will perish in the end by the
means that gave it birth.
At the tomb of Ali, around whose gilded sepulchre
many thousand Indian Mahomedans dwell, a traveller
recently met a well-taught, indeed thoroughly educated
Indian Mussulman, well read and widely informed. He
was a pilgrim from India. He saw around him the ill
effects of an administration, whose aim is not always
the public good. He made flattering allusion to what
we have done in this country for the people, but in his
praises there lay a sting. “ Yes,” said he, “ I know all
you have done for India—good roads, perfect order, a
rule fairly just and striving to be more so. But what is
all that ? Whoever governs us—Russians or whoever
else—they would be better than you ; they would give us
sympathy. It is sympathy we need. You English are
a hard race.” He may, must have thought wrongly ; but
so he and probably many of his class do think. It is a
pity when such men brood over thoughts like this. We
trust too much to perfect codes and elaborate procedures;
and neglect the little things which all can see and
appreciate. The two proposals we mention above might
tend to some great improvements.
J. E. SMITH AND HIS WRITINGS.
The Coming Man, by the Rev. James Smith, M.A. 2 vols.
London: Strahan & Co., 1873.
This is a posthumous publication—the work of a very
wonderful mind. Its author is James Elishama SmithJames by baptism and Elishama by circumcision, although
in his later literary works the Israelitish prenomen is
dispensed with from the title-page. He was bom at
�MESSENGER.
161
Glasgow, 22 November, 1801, and died in the same
place, at the house of his friend, Dr. Herle, '-?9 January,
1857. He was a licentiate of the Kirk of Scotland, but
relinquished its duties a few years after his ordination.
In youth he was a companion of Robert Pollock, and
claimed the suggestion of an eminent line in his poem
“ The Course of Time.” It is to be regretted that so few
biographical particulars are given of him in the admirable
preface to his posthumous work. His outward was, how
ever, of less moment than his inward life. As an Organ
izer he was weak. As a Speculator alone was he strong.
There was a romance of a peculiar kind in connection
with his early life. On leaving the Scotch Kirk, he
joined for a while that branch of Southcottians, called
Christian Israelites, who were under thesupposedprophetic
leadership of John Wroe. When these people had their
New Jerusalem, at Ashton-under-Lyne, he lived with them
as their Hebrew Schoolmaster, and many interesting par
ticulars of the Christian Israelitish Community, which
are given in the pages of “ The Coming Man,” would be
derived from this singular experience. For Joanna
Southcott and the Church of the Woman, as he termed
the believers in her supernatural mission, he ever pro
fessed to entertain much respect and sympathy. He
knew all their prophets and visited women, and especially
entertained a high opinion of Mrs. Marshall, who has
comparatively lately assumed the further office of a
Spiritist medium. His connection in early life with the
Southcottians, must not, however, mislead in the opinion
of him. One of the most universal of men, at least in
the spheres of critical and analytic speculation, he
came in contact also with Rationalists of the Richard
Carlisle school, with mystics of the James Pierrepoint
Greaves school, with disciples of Robert Owen, and more
importantly still, with the writings of St. Simon and his
followers, which contained the germs of many of the
ideas which he afterwards elaborated or counterparted by
analogical developments of his own, in those more im
portant studies of his later life, which will yet make him
eminent as thinker and writer. In fact to St. Simon, his
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BAND OF FAITH
successor Father Enfantin and others of his school, was
due the initiation of the great Socialist Movement of our
days, which must end in the inauguration of a new
general societary state, the heir and successor of an im
perfect civilization ; and which includes more or less in
its ranks, all who recognize the divineness of humanity,
and who regard religion as a practical thing, and look
upon it as the renewer of society, and who consider
history as the revelation of Providence, as J. E. Smith
has done throughout his writings, and especially in his
interpretation of the coming Fifth Act of the Divine
Drama of society.
The development of his views was gradual. He shed
every drop of his intellectual blood, and gave all his life
for them. At first, their appearance was crude. The
acid, according to the order of nature, was developed
before the sweet. After leaving Ashton-un der-Lyne, he
delivered in London, a course of extraordinary lectures,
very negative, but containing the germs of his subse
quent positive views. These lectures he published in the
year 1833, under the following title : “ The Antichrist,
or Christianity Reformed: in which is demonstrated from
the Scriptures, in opposition to the Prevailing Opinion of
the Whole Religious World, that Evil and Good are from
One Source ; Devil and God One Spirit; and that the
one is merely manifested to make perfect the other, by
the Rev. J. E. Smith, A.M.” The sub-title of this re
markable book is “ The Antichrist or Christianity Re
formed : its morals preserved, and its doctrines cast into
its own furnace. He sets the sheep on his right hand and
the goats on his left.” The literary work of this production
is rough and rude. Its parodoxes approach blasphemy.
Not very long after its production it was suppressed by
the author and the remainder of the copies destroyed.
It is now a very rare book.
A more important publication followed—“ The Shep
herd” ; a London weekly periodical, illustrating the prin
ciples of Universal Science, Edited by the Rev. J. E.
Smith, A.M. It reached 3 volumes, and was published
in 1834-5. In this work he produced a system of nature.
�MESSENGER.
163
and developed his love of analogical illustration. It was
a great improvement upon the Antichrist—in various
ways, better written, far more affirmative, containing
choice extracts, collecting around it interesting contri
butors. Among the contributors to the Shepherd, were
Oxenford, the dramatist and critic, Charles Lane, a deep
mystic and editor of the Price Courant, Etienne Vieusseaux, author of the New Sanctuary of Thought and.
Science, and a Dr. de Prati, the exponent of some mag
netical system of Pantheism. As the editor of this pub
lication, J. E. Smith is more generally known in
London as Shepherd Smith. Disgusted at the stupidity
with which the public regarded his teachings, he con
cluded it by threatening to bring out The Swineherd.
A translation of St. Simon’s “ New Christianity a
collection of “ Legends and Miracles”; a strange essay
at prophetical calculation, called “ The Little Book, or
Momentous Crisis of 1840” ; a small work, named “ The
World Within,” setting forth the proposition that the
interior of the globe was inhabited; “ Pope’s Essay on
Man,” with an admirable introductory commentary, and
“ The Universal Chart, containing the Elements of
Universal Faith, Universal Analogy and Moral Govern
ment, 1840,” appeared in quick succession.
By his next publication, he was destined to become
very popular, although remaining unknown personally.
He was the originator and editor of the famous Family
Herald, a periodical known to all, a particular pet of
Leigh Hunt, and a literary organ which, although selling
only for a penny, and largely filled with tales, has exercised,
a pure influence upon a very extensive scale. It was first
published by B. D. Cousins, of Lincoln’s Inn Fields, who
passed it over to John Biggs, of the Strand, whose facili
ties in the publishing system were greater, who made it
a, lucrative investment, and who at his death, bequeathed
liberally to those who had started the periodical, and
been the means of his connection with it. In the Family
Herald, J. E. Smith largely improved his literary style,
and prepared his mind for the production of very far
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BAND OF FAITH
more important works than he had yet issued—“The
Divine Drama ” and “ The Coming Man.” His Family
Herald articles would make several volumes of important
essays, on a large multiplicity of subjects. They deserve
to be published in that form. In his notices to corres
pondents also, he established a kind of confessional upon
a rational system. It is astonishing to notice the infini
tude of subjects upon which he was consulted, and to
which he returned admirable answers, and not less so
to remark the delicate nature of the confidences which
were made to him. No one person, it was held at that
time, could possibly be the author of all these answers.
Whether they were written by man or woman, was a sub
ject also of frequent controversy. J. E. Smith really did
it all, and a wonderful work it was. It was certainly
“ unique in popular literature.” He edited the Family
TZera/cZ,'at least from December 17, 1842, to February 14,
1857,—that is to say after his death—the papers he left
behind him being used as the leading articles. Little did
his readers know of the quiet student life and deeply phi
losophical mind, which week by week had ministered to
their instruction and amusement.
“The Divine Drama of History and Civilization” was
published in 1854, about two years before its authors
death. It was his great work of art—the crowning effort
of his genius. At its appearance, it met with but scant
notice, but yet with an audience, not unworthy from a
few. It is now a rare book, and will become acknow
ledged as a great work, of a period in which great
works are not scarce. It is a great work in its leading
idea, and in the general principles applied to its illustra
tion. Its details cannot all be endorsed. He had the
scientific spirit, but was deficient in scientific method.
He was paradoxical, and gloried in it, and has thus ob
tained a niche in De Morgan’s book of Paradoxes. The
moment he got a glimpse of an analogy, he hunted it to
the remotest nooks and corners, and ran it to the death.
His analogies, however, are superior to Swedenborg’s
correspondencies. They are broader, and have more of
natural foundation in them. Of present advances in
�MESSENGER.
165
biblical criticism, he appears to have had little knowledge.
He explored more ancient mines of theology. Any text
which he could twist into harmony with his thought at
the time was acceptable to him. He used the same kind
of alchemy with regard to the doctrines of obscure sects,
ancient and modern. He found some truth in them all.
All was fish which came to his net. His scriptural inter
pretation is largely vicious and worthless; his religious
expression, although often true and beautiful, descends at
length into the obscure, but his general idea of development
in history, and of the direction under Divine Providence of
the whole social life of man, is fine and noble, and adds
a grand contribution to the systematic study of the sub
ject on which he treats. The leading idea of his Divine
Drama, is the development of human history in analogy
with the providential character and five-fold aspect of the
ordinary Drama. Under the terms of divisional and
unitary, he recognizes throughout it the critical and or
ganic epochs of St. Simon. His specialty indeed, is the
five-fold analogy. With him, history is a pentalogue—a
play in five acts, of which the Supreme Being is the ma
nager. While his setting forth of history is arbitrary,
and does not begin at the beginning, and while other
analogies might be found for its illustration in the course
of its progress, and the various social states in their logi
cal sequences be held to be true stages, and more real
factors in the development of the human race than the
national missions which arise among them, the five-fold
theory of our author is interesting and suggestive, and is
certainly a part of the universal system in which all
numbers have their relative functions. His first act of
the Divine Drama is the Hebrew Mission; the second
act, the Greek Mission; the third act, the Roman Mis
sion. These three acts comprise the Mediterranean Mis
sion. There the Pontifex Maximus—the great bridge
maker is obtained. The Atlantic Mission follows with
the next two acts. Act four shows the Mission of the
North-Western Nations, and is analytical. Act five is the
Universal Mission, in which the leading part is played by
the British Islands, and which is organic and final. We
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BAND OF FAITH
have already sufficiently criticized this theory of histori
cal evolution. It is put forth with much power. It is
adorned with many passages of striking eloquence and
beauty. Its author has grown to be a proficient with
the pen. There is fine word-painting in the scenery he
gives to each act of his historical drama. It is his great
work—the work by which he will be known—the Bible
of his system.
Whether intended to do so or not, “The Coming Man”
may serve as a commentary to the Divine Drama. It
commences in the form of a novel, and continues in this
style for several interesting chapters, but the thread of
the tale becomes at length lost in disquisitions. The
founder is confounded with his own image. His subject
reveals itself too largely for his art. That which gave
promise of being a love-tale concludes with an argument
in favour of astrology, and with tables of prophetical
arithmetic. The work indeed, is a small edition of nature
in its dramatic grandeur and comic absurdities. It is
more generally readable on this very account. Where a
hundred read the Divine Drama, a thousand will read
“ The Coming Man.” Some of the first scenes are equal
to any of the novel-writing of the day, and that is sayingvery much for them. The leading idea of the work, com
mencing with the contention that the ten tribes of Israel
are scattered but not lost, being incorporated with the
Gentiles, is that “ The Coming Man” is purified humanity,
which in the fifth act of the Divine Providential Drama,
will become perfected, and truly reign upon the earth.
Incidentally, a vast variety of subjects are treated. The
sketches of character interspersed are cleverly drawn, and
the disquisitions on morals and manners admirable. A
light is cast upon many obscure sects, and a word said for
many abstruse subjects. A very beautiful robe of charity
is the garb of the author’s thought, which, as of old,
covers a multitude of sins. The two volumes are as
amusing as they are instructive, and show a variety of
power and an encyclopaedic mind, very rarely equalled .in
literature.
A very excellent photographic portrait of J. E. Smith
�MESSENGER.
167
is prefixed to the “ Coming Man.” He was a man of
middle size, with fine broad brows, deep set eyes, and
pale student face, and in society, although of retiring
habits, quite capable of fun and humour.
During the later years of his life, his residence was in
New Palace Road, Lambeth, and there he had collected
around him a library of most unique and extraordinary
works, which were dispersed after his death. The es
sence of his library is preserved in his own writings. His
knowledge was encyclopaedic, and his genius will yet be
acknowledged. Although the exact path he indicated
may not be taken by humanity, his labours will have
tended to prepare it to take that path which Divine Pro
vidence itself shall counsel and control.
HYMN.
BY SIR JOHN BOWRING.
One ! One ! One I art Thou,
Judge and King and God alone :
Thee we worship, and allow
None to share Thy glory—none !
Great, great, great art Thou,
Undivided greatness Thine :
Other gods we disavow ;
None but Thee we own divine.
Wise, wise, wise art Thou ;
Wise beyond our highest thought:
Naught when at Thy throne we bow,
Shall distract our praises—naught!
. Good, good, good art Thou ;
Thou our God that reign’st alone ;
Consecrate Thy servant’s vow,
All-transcendent Gracious One.
�BAND OF FAITH
THE UNIVERSAL LAW.
BT JAMES WALKER, OF CARLISLE.
Onward, onward, ever onward,
Progress is the law of all;
Nothing with us, great or lowly,
But some higher motives call.
Daily to more perfect being,
Daily into greater light,
’Till at last in perfect beauty,
Great and lowly greet the sight.
In the wondrous world of Nature,
Ever since her work began,
Slowly, surely, and completely,
Has been aye her rule and plan ;
Nothing suddenly upspringing,
Perfect to the light of day,
All the end by gradual stages,
Gaining of their destined way.
In the greater world of spirit,
Doth this law as firmly hold,
Only by unswerving labour
Shall the good and true unfold
All their balm and all their wisdom
Unto oui’ repining hearts,
Sinfully in sloth repining,
’Till their energy departs.
If my earthly state is lowly,
Shall I lull my soul asleep,
Shall I fold my hands in quiet,
Or shall I sit down and weep
That the work I would be doing,
Seems to scorn all human strength,
That the road I am pursuing
Seems of hopeless, endless length ?
�MESSINGER.
0, my brother ! 0, my sister 1
Struggling with this evil thought,
Struggling, sinking, and despairing,
Listen to what God hath taught,
On the wondrous face of Nature,
On each part and on the whole—
“ Courage, faith, and perseverance,
Ever shall attain the goal.”
From the genesis of being,
Unto this imperfect day,
Has He shown how their endeavours
Clear all obstacles away ;
Be the worker poor and lowly,
Yet if poor in thought and deed,
H e, the Master worker, aids him,
Gives to him that he succeed.
Action, action, heavenly action
Ever is man’s wisest part,
Laws of God and laws of being,
Ignorance, sloth, and error thwart,
Paralyse, benumb the spirit,
Molehills into mountains raise,
And with misery, pain and error
Hedge us round in all our ways.
Whose example is unheeded ?
Whose good deeds are wholly lost ?
Stalwart warriors are they ever,
Each with an important post,
In the warfare waged with evil,
And, with all arch-angel might,
Win they ever in the contest,
Souls from darkness unto light.
As the ripple from the pebble,
Coming from a child’s weak hand,
Spreadeth o’er the sea’s wide surface,
Unto some far distant land;
�ITO
BAND OF FAITH
So thine efforts, humble worker,
Have an Influence far and wide,
Though to thee, for wisest purpose,
This to see may be denied.
Heed not what despair would teach thee,
Mark not the extent of ill,
Think not thou aid poor and lowly,
On with firmest heart and will;
In the smiling sky above thee—
This fair earth thou livest on,
See the auguries of conquest !
See the destiny of man !
Listen to the past’s deep teachings,
Telling all that has been done,
How by humble, patient labour,
Has our better age been won ;
And if on thou strivest ever,
Strivest as they did of yore,
Thou dost live, thou art God’s servant,
Thou art blessed for evermore.
WHICH OUGHT WE TO BELIEVE,—THAT WHICH
MEN SAY ABOUT JESUS, OR,
THAT WHICH JESUS SAID ABOUT HIMSELF?
BY
T.
R.
MASON.
Men tell us that Jesus is the second person in the God
head, and equal with “the Father;” but Jesus said,
distinctly, and without any qualification whatever, “ My
Father is greater than I.” (John xiv. 28).
Men affirm that Jesus was almighty, but he candidly
acknowledged that he could of himself do nothing.
(John v. 30).
Men teach that Jesus knew all things : but he stated
positively that he knew not when the day of judgment
would come. (Mark xiii. 32).
Men say that Jesus was and is from eternity to eter
�MESSENGER.
171
nity, the all-wise God : yet he actually mistook John the
Baptist for Elias, and said of him, “ This is Elias which
was to come.” (Matthew si. 14). Whereas, when John
was asked, “ Art thou Elias 1” he said, emphatically, “ I
am not.” (John i. 21). Again, Jesus went seeking figs
on a tree before the proper season, and showed his wis
dom (?) by cursing the tree because it had not done that
which was utterly impossible under the circumstances.
Men assure us that Jesus was the all-merciful and
impartial God, notwithstanding that Jesus said to his
disciples, “To you it is given to know the mystery of the
kingdom of God; but unto them that are without, all
these things are done in parables, that seeing, they may
see and not perceive : and hearing, they may hear and
not understand: lest at any time they should be converted
and their sins should be forgiven them. (Mark iv. 11.12.)
Men declare that the miracles which are recorded of
Jesus prove that he was a divine being; but three im
portant considerations conclusively show that Jesus
neither held nor taught such a thing:—1st, Jesus ad
mitted that even his opponents could work miracles :
“ If I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your
sons cast them out? (Luke xi. 19.) 2nd. Jesus pro
mised that his disciples should do still greater works than
those he had done ; and 3rd.—The miracles of Jesus
depended largely upon the faith of the people who were
the subjects of them: “ And he could do there no mighty
work, save that he laid his hands on a few sick folk and
healed them. And he marvelled because of their un
belief.” (Matt. vi. 5. 6.) “ And he did not many mighty
works there, because of their unbelief.” (Matt. xiii. 58.)
Men assert that Jesus claimed equality with God when
he said “ I and my Father are one.” But the oneness
here spoken of was that to which all men may attain who
seek not to do their own will, but the will of God. It
was the oneness that the raindrop has in its relations to
the ocean, or that the perfect instrument has with the
worker, in relation to the work performed. It was the oneness
of derived nature and power; of likeness,, not of absolute
identity, and it was this oneness with God, or the assi
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BAND OF FAITH
milation of the human to the Divine Nature, that Jesus
besought his Father that his disciples might possess,
“ That they all may be one as Thou Father in me and I
in Thee, that they may be one in us.” (John xviii. 21.)
In conclusion, let every man be fully persuaded in his
own mind, and decide for himself, carefully and wisely
the important question, “ Jesus or God ? The Finite or
the Infinite ?”
NEW LECTIONARY.
Chap. XV.—William, Blake’s Proverbs.
The pride of the peacock is the glory of God : the lust
of the goat is the bounty of God : the wrath of the lion
is the wisdom of God.
The fox condemns the trap, not himself.
Joys impregnate : sorrows bring forth.
The bird a nest, the spider a web, man—friendship.
What is now proved was once only imagined.
The rat, the mouse, the fox, the rabbit watch the roots ;
the lion, the tiger, the horse, the elephant, watch the
fruits.
The cistern contains : the fountain overflows.
One thought fills immensity.
Always be ready to speak your mind, and a base man
will avoid you.
The eagle never lost so much time as when he sub
mitted to learn of the crow.
If the lion was advised by the fox he would be cunning.
Folly is the cloak of knavery : shame is pride’s cloak.
As the plough follows words, so God rewards prayers.
He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence.
If our footsteps slide in clay, how can we do otherwise
than fear and tremble ?
Think in the morning, act in the noon, eat in the
evening, sleep in the night.
Energy is eternal delight.
�MESSENGER.
173
fHnfe. XVI.—William Blake’s Song of Liberty.
The Eternal Female groaned ! It was heard over all
the earth.
Albion’s coast is sick—silent; the American meadows
faint.
Shadows of prophecy shiver along by the lakes and the
rivers and mutter across the ocean.
France rend down thy dungeon ; golden Spain burst
the barriers of old Rome.
Cast thy keys, 0 Rome, into the deep down falling,
even to eternity down falling ; and weep.
In her trembling hands she took the new-born Terror,
howling.
On those infinite mountains of light now barred out
by the Atlantic sea, the new-born fire stood before the
starry King!
Flagged with grey-browed snow and thunderous visages
the jealous wings waved over the deep.
The speary hand burned aloft, unbuckled was the
shield, forth went the hand of jealousy among the flaming
hair, and hurled the new-born wonder through the starry
night.
The fire I the fire ! is falling.
Look up, look up, 0 citizen of London ; enlarge thy
countenance !
0 Jew, leave counting gold : return to thy oil and
wine.
. 0 African, black African, come winged thought, widen
has forehead.
The fiery limbs, the flaming hair, shot like the sinking
sun into the western sea : waked from his eternal sleep,
the hoary element roaring fled away.
Down rushed beating his wings in vain, the jealous
king ; his grey-browed councillors, thunderous warriors,
curled veterans, among helms aud shields and chariots,
horses, elephants, castles, banners, slings and rocks;
falling—rushing—running—buried in the ruins in Urthona’s dens.
All night beneath the ruins, the sullen flames emerge
ground the gloomy King.
�174
BAND OF FAITH
With thunder and fire leading his starry host through
the waste wilderness, he promulgates his ten commands,
glancing his beaming eyelids over the deep in dark
dismay.
Then the Son of Fire in his eastern cloud, while the
morning plumes her golden breast, spurning the clouds
written with curses, stamps the stony law to dust, loosing
the- eternal horses from the dens of night, crying Empire
is no more ! and now the lion and the wolf shall cease.
Let the priests of the raven of dawn, no longer in
deadly black, with hoarse notes curse the sons of joy;
nor his accepted brethren, whom he calls free, lay the
bound or build the roof.
Every thing that lives is Holy.
SERIOUS AFFECTION.
BY RICHARD BEDINGFIELD.
0 love divine ! 0 perfect love !
0 smiting Hand Eternal !
We will not own Thy Orb above
Can shine on worlds infernal!
Yet, even here, the woe is long—
The pain makes mortals tearful !
O Spirit in my heart grow strong ;
And never weak and fearful !
I pluck a flower of life serene ;—
When plucked, it soon must languish ;
The amaranth, friend ! is all unseen ;
We feel it—to our anguish.
0 crown of thornes for every son
Of God ! 0 cross and passion !
Whatever we have lost or won,
Thank God in blessed fashion 1
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
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2018
Publisher
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
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Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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The band of faith messenger
Creator
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Barmby, John Goodwin (ed)
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [Wakefield]
Collation: p. 17-32 and 159-174 ; 19 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Editor, publisher and date taken from KVK.
Publisher
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[George Horridge]
Date
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[c.1870s]
Identifier
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G5720
Subject
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Unitarianism
Rights
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (The band of faith messenger), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
Format
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application/pdf
Type
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Text
Language
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English
Conway Tracts
Unitarianism