immaterial and the material. And it seems, in the nature of things, very fitting that it should be so; that this mysterious agent which baffles every attempt to investigate its nature,this which in its very essence seems to hold a middle place between the material and the immaterial,-should indeed be the medium of their action and reaction on each other. This opens a wide field for analogical reasoning and inference. For example :-If electricity in the human body is the inseparable companion of intelligent spirit, can it be supposed that all the other electricity in the world is destitute of it? The hair of animals is highly electric; is it through this that they make those communications to each other of which there are undoubted proofs in the records of animal instinct? An interesting, and we think not irrelevant, example occurred under our own observation within the last few months. There were two cats in one house in the predicament of the two women who came to Solomon for judgment,-one was the mother of a dead, the other of a living, kitten. The bereaved one tried once and again to steal a visit to the little nursling, which was about ten days old; but she was driven off by the rightful mother, Patch, or Cross-patch, so called from her bad temper. Soon after such a repulse, we saw her gently go up to Patch, who was about four feet from the kitten, and make strange-looking passes with her head about hers. It was not close rubbing; but there must have been a perfect contact of whiskers for several seconds, first on one side, then on the other. It was a bargain. Straightway she passed on to the kitten, and, lying down on her side, drew it to a close embrace, while Patch stood by consenting. We did not observe how soon the little thing appreciated the invitation to take nourishment from her, but from that day the two cats nursed the one kitten in perfect harmony. Then, what of the electricity of the thunder cloud? Will science lead us back to the beliefs of our nursery, and make us little children again? Or will she revive in a modified form the beautiful mythology of the Greeks, which peopled all nature with gods? Will some savant at a future day feel persuaded that the great Creator has committed the elements of the globe to subordinate intelligence, to be wielded according to his will, this all-pervading electricity being the medium by which their powers are brought to bear on inert matter? Will any future commentator conjecture it to be in this sense that He maketh His angels spirits, and His ministers' (Anglicè His messengers ghosts, and His servants') 'a flame of fire? Will science herself one day turn round on her votaries, and shiver to atoms their doctrine of invariable sequences, by assuring them that this all Connexion of Electricity with Spirit. 187 pervading element is the immediate agent of self-determining intelligence? It is satisfactory, at least, to find that those who now lead the van in experimental science manifest no disposition to assert that electricity is itself life or spirit, but only deem it to be its constant accompaniment; and that Mr. Owen's theory of the spiritual body supposes it to be not controlling, but controlled by the immaterial principle, and by it carried whithersoever it will. This is illustrated by some touching narratives of dying mothers going off in spirit to see their children at a distance; the apparition being visible to those who were with the children, while those who watched the flesh and blood deemed that it slept, and were informed, when consciousness returned, that the children had been visited. It seems a sad pity that Mr. Owen's ghost-lore, which is for the most part very harmless in its tendencies, should be laid by himself as a foundation for the wicked delusions connected with rapping; that after demonstrating, to his own satisfaction at least, a vehicle of electroid character, subject to an immortal, heaven-born spirit, dwelling with it in the body, and travelling with it out of the body, he should lead his readers to suppose that this spiritual body with its master can be compelled to come and sojourn in a table at the bidding of any set of idle boys and girls that choose to place their fingers on the leaf, and that it must answer all their silly questions. It is no wonder that Mr. Owen found some difficulty in pointing out the connexion between ghost-lore and spiritrapping; and so concluded his work with the ghosts, speculating on the character and uses of their intermediate state. If we could for a moment entertain the idea of table-rapping being a means of communication with departed spirits, we must denounce it as that sin of witchcraft which all laws, human and Divine, have represented as rebellion against Heaven. The most particular account we have in Scripture, of a witch's proceedings, is in 1 Samuel xxviii., where we are told that when the Lord departed from Saul, and answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets,' he resorted to a witch, and required her to bring up, not an evil spirit, but that of the holy Prophet Samuel, who was displeased at the disturbance. Some have striven to show that the witch only pretended to bring up ghosts, and was herself terrified at the sight of Samuel. The obvious bearing of the whole passage, however, conveys rather that her alarm arose from the sudden discovery that her visitor was the King who had been wont to punish witches, and she supposed herself caught in a snare. When reassured by Saul, she described the ghost, which he at once identified, but, as it seems, did not himself see; and the conversation proceeded, either directly, or through the witch as medium. Although the former seems most literally on the face of the narrative, yet one would infer that as Saul did not see, neither did he hear, the Prophet. Let this narrative be compared with 1 Samuel xv. 23, and Isaiah viii. 19, and no one can doubt for a moment that to attempt to elicit communications from spirit of the dead is a most presumptuous sin. On this subject Mr. Owen says, that God protects His own mysteries, and has rendered it impossible to overpass the limits of permitted inquiry. If God has closed the way, man cannot pass thereon; but if He has left open the path, who shall forbid its entrance?' This will not do for argument with the Bible in our hands. Did Mr. Owen forget— 'Man's first disobedience, and the fruit, Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste 3 The path to it was open, and it was a 'tree of knowledge,' 'a tree to be desired to make one wise;' yet God said, 'Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it.' But we have already said, that there is neither reason nor common sense in supposing this table-spinning to be connected with ultra-mundane intercourse. It is not only inconsequent in itself, but contrary to all tradition, sacred and profane, that spirits of the dead should be commanded by mere human power, exercised by mechanical means. It has ever been held that such control is obtained only through the prince of darkness, and by those who have renounced their allegiance to heaven, and leagued themselves with the powers of evil; and herein the very essence of the sin of necromancy has always been considered to lie. It can of course be imputed only in a very modified degree to those who think they can summon the spirits without any one's leave. It would be as unjust to charge them with the sin, as it is impossible to believe that they enjoy its powers without committing it. The most serious part of this matter, after all, is its religious aspect; and Mr. Owen has given us too clearly to perceive it. His chief boast is, that he has obviated the necessity for regarding the ultra-mundane as in the proper sense miraculous. There can be no objection to this position in itself; but he avows his disbelief in miracles as incredible, inconsistent with the progress of our present knowledge, and at variance with the teaching of modern science.' He alleges the impossibility of any occurrence being deemed a miracle, because, for aught we know, it may be quite in accordance with some law of Hymns and Hymn-Books. 189 nature as yet unknown to us. Indeed, he prefers the idea of change-bearing laws, on the plan of Babbage's calculating machine, to the admission of a miracle. Too plainly he has set down the miracles of the Saviour and His Apostles as premature exhibitions of the modern arts of mesmerism, clairvoyance, &c.; for he speaks of the mistake as to their character' which was made by the people who witnessed them; which mistake, however, he adds, may have been ordained by Providence for the advancement of Christianity. That is, in plainer terms, the Messiah performed feats of mesmerism, which the people were intended and encouraged to mistake for miraculous proofs of a Divine mission. As a natural consequence, our author believes the Bible in a very modified sense. There is no Gospel in his religion. He scorns the idea of a salvation procured for man by any vicarious work; and as he does not consider that any one dies good enough for heaven or bad enough for hell, he regards the Hades state as a sort of substitute for purgatory, where good men learn to become better, and bad ones grow worse if they do not repent and amend. From this he thinks it harsh to preclude them, having adduced the case of a murderer's ghost, who during a whole year visited a lady almost daily for prayer and instruction! It is to be feared that little more religion has been gained by any of those who are said to have been converted by spirit-rapping. They have not been turned to God in Christ, but have only renounced mere atheism, and learned to believe in a future state of retribution, and whatever else is revealed by the ghosts with which they converse. For the present this seems to be the highest reward of those who have been teaching men to despise a religion based on past events, and to seek one elaborated from present facts. We earnestly hope that the reaction may not be into the darkest infidelity. ART. VIII.-1. Original Titles of the Hymns sung in the Wesleyan Methodist Congregations; and the Names of the Authors. By the REV. JOHN KIRK. 18mo. London. 1854. 2. Charles Wesley, the Poet of Methodism: a Lecture. By the REV. JOHN KIRK. 18mo. Third Thousand.. London: Hamilton, Adams, and Co. 1860. 3. The Penny Hymn Book; containing One Hundred and Twentytwo Hymns, Selected for Public and Private Use. With a General Index. By JOHN ALLEN, M.A., Archdeacon of Salop, &c. 24mo. London: Routledge and Co. 4. Psalms and Hymns for Public Worship and Private Devotion. New Selection. One Penny. 24mo. London: Religious Tract Society. 1859. AMIDST the crowd of steeples which strike the eye in crossing from Southwark to London, or still more, in traversing the silent highway' to Westminster, there is, we believe, but one which terminates in a composite capital, as though it were a column; and readers of architectural taste will probably regret that there should be that one to disfigure a substantial and well proportioned erection. The building to which it is attached dates from the great fire, or soon after, and is the fourth church which in succession has stood on that site since Londou became a Christian city. The spot is invested with peculiar interest by one circumstance. It is the birth-place of English congregational singing. Here, for the first time, as far as we can ascertain, our fathers enjoyed the great privilege of lifting up their voices to God with one accord in strains of sacred music,-a privilege now so prized that we are apt to wonder how they could have forborne it so long. But let us be thankful that it was not our lot to live in the days of that capricious changeling, Henry, or of his gloomy and superstitious daughter who succeeded him. The time was favourable for the introduction of the practice. Elizabeth's accession had been waited for with a natural * Among the Select Poems published by the Parker Society is part of 'A Compendious Register in Metre, conteigning the Names and Pacient Suffryngs of the Membres of Iesus Christ; and the tormented and cruelly burned within England since the death of our famous Kyng of immortall memory Edward the Sixte; to the entrance and beginnyng of the raign of our Soueraigne and derest Lady Elizabeth of England Frauuce and Irelande, Quene, &c., &c.' This singular and affecting document is a rhyming abridgment of the Book of Martyrs, exhibiting considerable ingenuity in the construction of the verse. Every stanza concludes with the same line as the following: "When John Davy and eke his brother When these at Bury were put to death, We wished for our Elizabeth.' All true-hearted Protestants will believe their wishes to have been sincere, and the prayer for the Queen that follows no less so. We give the concluding stanza, and have modernized the spelling in both. Pray we therefore both night and day, |