the mother of the gentleman above named, formed themselves into a society; and from the beginning of the year 1810 its regular organization may be dated. About this time Mr. Parker delivered a course of lectures on the doctrines, and in 1814 the late Mr. Robert Hindmarsh visited them, and preached the doctrines to numerous and attentive congregations. In these measures, and many more, which it is not here necessary to enumerate, Mr. Mackie was a principal supporter, and the stability of the church in this city is, under Providence, in a great degree owing to him. He was at one time in highly prosperous circumstances; but the extreme benevolence of his disposition led him very frequently to be imposed upon. For a con.. siderable period he subscribed largely, purchased most of the works of New Church authors, attended Conferences at his own expense, and entertained ministers who visited the society as missionaries. He was a most active, indefatigable, and generous-minded man. Mr. Mackie was one of the most regular and exemplary members in attendance upon public worship that the society of Glasgow contained. So long as he was able to walk to the church, his pew was never empty. He trained his family to the same regularity; and now that they are all members they do not depart from their parent's example. About four years since, he had a slight attack of paralysis, owing, as was supposed, to a determination of blood to the head. From this attack he gradually but slowly recovered; but about a year and a half ago he had a second attack, which deprived him of speech and of the use of his limbs on the right side of his body. In this trying situation his mind lost none of its innocent gaiety and cheerfulness. Chained as his soul appeared to a body, half living, half dead, deprived of one of the greatest of all natural benefits, speech, and of the means of a free interchange of thought and affection with his amiable and sympathizing family, he yet manifested a cheerfulness and resignation above all praise. There appeared a composure and self-renouncement about him which filled all persons who visited him with admiration. The writer of this notice has observed very often to his own family, after returning from a weekly or fortnightly visit to his suffering friend, that it was a sight which all discontented persons ought to see, a living lesson of obedience to the divine words, "In patience possess thy soul;" and truly in patience did he wait all the days of his appointed time, till his change came. He received all his visitors with a quiet and benignant smile; sometimes a few tears accompanied that smile; they were tears of thankfulness for the mercies he still enjoyed, and not of repining for those of which he had been deprived. During the long period of his sufferings he was perfectly sensible; his hearing was not impaired, and his affectionate wife and amiable daughters (four of whom remain, one the widow of the late Mr. John Isbister, late of Pittsburg, U. S., but formerly a member of the Glasgow New Church Society), beguiled the tedium of his solitary hours, by reading to him such useful books as were best adapted for the condition in which he was placed. Never was man more affectionately and indefatigably attended, and never was man more deserving such attention, for his exemplary patience and submission to the divine will. By the removal of Mr. Mackie into eternity, his wife has sustained the loss of a devoted and affectionate husband, his family a tender and indulgent parent, and, let it not be thought affectation in the writer, when he asserts that he has lost a valued and attached friend. But all these losses are swallowed up in the great gain of the departed himself, who now, we may humbly trust, rejoices in the fullness of spiritual satisfaction and enjoyment in that happy land where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest. O may we die the death of the righteous, may our last end be like his and may we sink into the arms of our redeeming Lord with as much quietness and tranquility as he did! D. G. GOYDER. THE INTELLECTUAL REPOSITORY AND New Jerusalem Magazine. No. 27. MARCH, 1842. EXTRACT FROM A REVIEW OF SWEDENBORG'S POEMS, IN THE MONTHLY MAGAZINE FOR 1841, BY FRANCIS BARHAM, ESQ. In order to give our readers some idea of the nature of these poems, we shall translate, or rather paraphrase, those that please us most. By far the finest in the collection, is, to our thinking, the first, entitled, "Festivus applausus in victoriam quam celsissimus comes Magnus Stenbock de Danis ad Helsingburgam 1710, Mart. reportavit." Swedenborg was at this time twenty-two years of age. Charles XII., the glorious monarch of Sweden, after having reduced the Danes to obedience, had attacked the Russians, and after the disastrous battle of Pultowa, was inclosed in Bender, the sport of Turkish intrigues. At this crisis of his fate, the King of Denmark determined to avenge his past disgraces on the Swedes. He made a descent on Schonen, and took the town of Helsingburg. The Swedes, however, remained firm, and the disasters of their king rather inflamed their loyalty and patriotism, than dispirited them. An army under Stenbock, partly consisting of undisciplined peasants, gave the Danes a bloody defeat, and forced the survivors to quit the country with precipitation. Such was the occasion of Swedenborg's triumphal ode to Stenbock, on the defeat of the Danes. It begins thus: Conticeant strepitus et bella parumper et arma Succedant plausus jubila, vota, lyra, Lætitiæ resonet, feriat qui sidera clamor Ferveat ut sonitu quilibet inde locus. The following paraphrase may give the reader some idea of its spirit and sentiment. Lulled be the dissonance of war, the crash Of blood stained arms; and let us listen now, NEW SERIES. NO. 27.-VOL. 3. M To sweetest songs of jubilee. From harp Let Europe boast of Sweden-in the North, While Jove the Thunderer sanctions his decree, Never to let the hyperborean bear, Sink in the all o'erwhelming ocean stream: For when in the wave he bathes his giant limbs, 'Tis but to rise more proudly. Even now, The fertile Scandia wreathes her brow with flowers, Both it and thee, inseparably link'd. In thee the genius of the north expands, Illustrates thee. Chief of our gallant chiefs; Numerous as Denmark's sands they came ;-how few Repulsed with scorn, while shuddering horror hung To illume the crescent of the Ottomans. Thy people's hearts, and bid them not despair. So much for Swedenborg's song of triumph. Alas! his hero Charles was not fated to return. His story is too truly told in the most poetic lines Dr. Johnson ever wrote. "A frame of adamant, a soul of fire, No dangers fright him, and no labours tire. O'er love and fear extends his wide domain, To point a moral and adorn a tale." There is one pretty little epigram, "In puellam dictam Victoriam,” which, in honour of her most gracious Majesty, we will not fail to repeat.-Voici. Lux tibi natalis dedit Victoria nomen; Arma licet capias nusquam, Victoria victrix; charms: You were called Victoria even from your birthday: But you must in turn be conquered by love. Here follows one," In libellum suum dictum Dædalus Hyperboreus." Quos sibi Rex Minos struxit in orbe dolos; Atque dolos ride quos tibi turba struit. The ancient Dædalus in triumph soared, Scorned Minos' labyrinth and his tower of bricks: Laughs at his foes, and all their dirty tricks. "In parentis effigiem æneam, quæ non liquefacta est in domus ejus incendio." Thy statue, father, of inviolate fame, Emerges brighter from the insulting flame; So let thy soul in purer splendors glow, When heaven's last fires consume the world below. |