passed a most delightful and happy evening.

On Sabbath evening last, the attendance at the New Church (which now holds its meetings in the large room adjoining the Rose and Crown) was 170! and between twenty and thirty were refused admission, owing to the crowded state of the room. The Rev. Mr. Storry, by his able and interesting lectures, delivered last quarter, increased our numbers so materially, that we were driven from our first place of meeting; and it appears that the Rev. Mr. Edleston will drive us from our present place! Had we a room capable of holding 300 persons, there would be no difficulty in filling it every Sabbath evening; for there is evidently a strong and growing desire for New Church truths, and we are continually hearing of persons leaving the old way for the heavenly doctrines of the New Jerusalem. Yours faithfully,

JOSEPH PITMAN.

LEEDS BAZAAR. The committee for conducting the bazaar have great pleasure in announcing, that a favourable opportunity has occurred for purchasing Albion Chapel, Leeds, for the use of the New Church, and they conceive that it is their duty to use every proper exertion to accomplish that object. They feel deeply grateful to the generous donor of a gift equal to £600., and also thankfully acknowledge the kindness of those friends who have already promised their aid; and again respectfully solicit the assistance of others. The cause which the bazaar is intended to benefit, and the little time there is before holding it, must be the apology of the committee for venturing to suggest every exertion. They confidently hope for the generous coöperation of all friends of the church, and also beg to solicit the active exercise of their influence amongst their friends. The committee take the liberty of suggesting the following as a list desirable articles :

of

1. Articles of general utility. 2. Articles of British and foreign manufacture.

3. Articles of British and foreign merchandise (not manufactured.) 4. Needle and other fancy work. 5. Books, maps, and other publications. 6. Specimens of coins, minerals, birds, insects, and curiosities.

7. Paintings, engravings, drawings, designs, &c.

8. Music and musical instruments.
9. Flowers, fruits (British and foreign),
roots, plants, &c.

10. Confectioneries, &c.
11. Pecuniary contributions.

Those ladies and gentlemen who feel disposed to aid by contributions in money or work, are respectfully requested to transmit the same to any of the following ladies, with the prices attached, on or before the first week in April, 1849.

Mrs. Edleston, 1, Elmwood-place, Leeds.
Mrs. Lowry, Albion-place, Leeds.
Mrs. Singleton, Fenton-street, Leeds.
Mrs. Schofield, 5, Commercial-row,
Holbeck.

Mrs. Washington.

Mrs. Coupe, 5, Lower Brunswick-street, Leeds.

Miss Davies, Woodhouse-lane.

The bazaar will take place on Wednesday and Thursday, the 4th and 5th of April, and it is requested that all contributions will be sent on or before the 2nd of April, 1849.

Leeds, February 15th, 1849.

NEW EDITION OF THE INDEX TO THE ARCANA CELESTIA.

We are requested to state that a new edition of this most useful work is about to be prepared for the press. As the value and usefulness of this Index will chiefly depend upon its copiousness and completeness, all our readers who may have discovered omissions or imperfections in the volume, will greatly oblige by sending a notice of the same to H. Bateman, Esq., 6, Islington Green, London.

NEW CHURCH REMEMBRANCER AND

GUIDE TO MEETINGS, 1849.

We call our readers' attention to the New Church Almanack and Remembrancer as being a very useful sheet, not only for the officers connected with the various institutions, but to every member of the Church-particularly in London-as a guide to prevent meetings clashing with each other, and to keep them all in view.

To friends coming to London it will serve to regulate their time, so as to attend any of the meetings during their stay, for it has long been the case that they come and go without its being known beyond the particular party they may visit.

We understand that it is not expected that the sale will realize the cost: it is

Died, on the 13th of January last, at Islington, near London, whither he had removed from East Sheen, near Richmond, on the death of his wife in the preceding March, Mr. John Grayson, formerly of Featherstone-buildings, London, in the 72nd year of his age. On various accounts this gentleman deserves a somewhat extended memoir. Mr. Grayson was a native of Barnsley, in Yorkshire, and was there apprenticed to the business of a tailor, but, being in his youth of an adventurous disposition, at the age of 17 he quitted his home and his master and went to sea. This was at the commencement of the war arising out of the first French revolution, and he served for some time in the royal navy. By the society into which he thus fell he was led into some irregularities, and was frequently in the way of hearing ribald jests and blasphemies uttered against the Scriptures, by disciples of the infidel Paine, whose writings were then in the zenith of their influence; but his faith in the Word of God, and the respect for religion which had previously been implanted in his mind, were not, however, altogether overthrown. Having obtained his discharge from the service, he settled in London, and resumed the exercise of his business. He thus became connected with a German of the name of Dietz, still remembered by some of the older members of the New Church in London as a worthy man, and a zealous receiver of the heavenly doctrines. By him those doctrines were introduced to Mr. Grayson, who, in consequence, began to attend at York-street Chapel, at or soon after its being opened by the Rev. Mr. Proud, in the year 1799, when he soon became a decided receiver of the truths of the New Church. A few years later he married a young woman who also was an affectionate receiver of them, and who eventually became, under the discipline of severe bodily suffering, a very interior subject of their regenerating influence. He united with that branch of the York-street society which, under the ministry of Dr. Hodson, and, after his decease. of Dr. Churchill, worshipped in Dudley Chapel from 1805 to 1815, and which then, at Lisle-street, re-united with the other branch of the original Cross-street and York-street Society. That society never had two more attached members than

Mr. and the first Mrs. Grayson. While the society was at Hanover-street Chapel, under the ministry of Mr. Noble, in the year 1827, our present place, which was the original New Church place of worship, and which was then occupied as the Caledonian Church, was offered for sale; and Mr. Grayson was the first person who conceived the idea of re-purchasing it for the New Church. He introduced the subject at the next meeting of the committee, but his words seemed to the majority as those of an idle dreamer. Others, however, soon took up the measure, and so well succeeded in demonstrating its practicability, that first the committee, and then the whole society, came unanimously into it. Mr. Grayson was one of the friends who raised the noble subscription of £1,200. towards the object, to which he contributed a donation of £50. Other large sums falling most opportunely and providentially into the hands of the society about the same time, the purchase was completed, though not without incurring a debt of nearly £2,000. A year later, on the society's coming into possession of the building in front, which had been occupied as the Caledonian Asylum, a plan was formed for converting it into two dwelling-houses; to do which, it would be necessary to raise on mortgage another sum of £1,000. On the matter being talked over at Mr. Grayson's, in the presence of the first Mrs. G. (who died in 1830), the latter said to him, "Can't You do it, Grayson ?" He eventually advanced the amount. A few years afterwards, it is known that he made a will, leaving the whole sum to the Crossstreet Society. He did the same in a will made by him in August, 1846, and again, even added the residue (if any) in the last will made by him before the decease of the second Mrs. Grayson, in which it is known that she entirely concurred; and in his last will of all, dated the 16th of March last, with its codicil of the 18th, he again gives the amount of the mortgage to the Cross-street Society. He has also divided £200. among the four general institutions of the New Church, the London Printing Society, Missionary and Tract Society, Free School Society, and the General Conference. Having no children nor any near relations, he disposed of the rest of his property in legacies to his personal friends, and some relations by

marriage or otherwise. Mr. Grayson was long severely afflicted with asthma; but after residing a few years in the country, this distressing complaint almost entirely disappeared. In March or April, 1843, however, he had a sharp attack of paralysis, from which he recovered without its leaving any very severe permanent results. But it returned every spring till 1847; and after the visitation which he then experienced, he never regained his full powers either of body or of mind. For a long time afterwards, he suffered from mental states of the most distressing kind, and which can only be understood from the truths opened to the New Church on the nature of temptations, and the influence which, in them, evil spirits are permitted to exercise. The evils which he confessed to his religious friends, during the states of mental suffering, with such emotions of horror and expressions of self-condemnation, were light in comparison with what many fall into without ever feeling remorse, were incurred also before his rational faculty had come to maturity, and were utterly forsaken and abandoned soon afterwards, especially from the time of his reception of the religion of the New Church, and moreover his whole subsequent course of life had been marked by pure morals and strict rectitude, governed by genuine religious principle. Yet when reminded of all this, though he confirmed it most emphatically, it gave him no consolation. When he sought for comfort in the Word of God, he could appropriate nothing of the kind. The most shocking scandals were continually poured into his thoughts against the Word, and against the Lord himself. He felt as if he did not believe a syllable that he read, especially about the Lord. All the ribald speeches and blasphemous revilings that ever he had heard now came up in his thoughts as the dictates of his own mind; and though these states were sometimes suspended, through the conversation of friends who perceived their true nature, by devotional exercises, and by the reception of the Holy Supper, yet, for a period of many months they continued to return. The death of his wife, whom latterly he seemed almost to idolize, in the March of last year, affected him severely. During the last few months he felt more peace, and read the Word, and the writings of the

was

New Church, without those painful feelings, and frequently with much satisfaction. His general debility increased, and consequently his sense of bodily discomfort, till, on the 29th of December, a new touch of paralysis prostrated him once again, and though he partially revived, he afterwards rapidly sunk. Though for the last few days he scarcely spoke, he responded to the religious consolations addressed to him by pressing the hand of the speaker; and, on the day above mentioned, he peacefully, and almost imperceptibly, breathed his last. Thus passed into eternity one of the most devoted friends that the New Church in externals has ever had, and one whose regard for her outward welfare was doubtless rooted in an internal ground, He was one whose internal man capable of being opened, and it was unquestionably to effect this, and to remove all that was uncongenial in his external, that such severe spiritual temptations and bodily afflictions were permitted to visit him. As to the latter, also, he had great alleviations, in the tenderness of an affectionate wife during the severest of his sufferings, and in the fidelity of a trusty servant, who ministered to his infirmities with the most watchful and unwearied assiduity till the last. There cannot be a doubt that he is now released from suffering for ever. And what an important lesson do his spiritual sufferings read to all, and to the young in particular, warning them to guard against giving into such practices, indulging such thoughts, and listening to such profane or otherwise wicked conversation, as will form in the mind a basis for the influx of evil spirits, and which, if ever they are saved, will at some time or other be made sensible to them in the most painful manner. No otherwise can evil or false principles once admitted into the mind be thoroughly removed. How necessary, then, to shun their intrusion, and, if ever admitted, early and earnestly to seek their removal. It is for the sake of conveying this lesson that this notice of the spiritual trials through which Mr. Grayson, in his latter days, was called to pass, and which so exactly answer to the description in the chapter on temptation, in the work of the New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine, is here recorded. S. N.