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PREFACE.

THE end of the year suggests a review not of our own labours merely, but of the general history of the year as well. The last twelve months have left a mark on the world too deep and bright to be ever effaced or forgotten. Few, if any, among us realise the greatness of the fact that the close of the American civil war finds four millions of men in freedom who, at its commencement were in bondage, and few realise the greatness of the revolution which the abolition of slavery involves in the social condition of America, or the greatness of the consequences to America and the world which are wrapped up in this revolution. We are too near the event in which we so much rejoice, to see its true magnitude. It will be the happiness of generations to come to look back, and, as they read the story of the four years' war, to see the hand of God more clearly and to trace the vast streams of blessing to mankind that flow from the troubled fountain of that war. The historians of the "decisive battles" of the world's history will find none more worthy of record than that which consummated the freedom of a nation of bondsmen in America, and introduced a new era in the social and moral life of one of the mightiest empires of the earth. Verily "God maketh the wrath of man to praise Him, and restraineth the remainder thereof."

Every month's history of our own land has had its interest, but it has been the interest mainly of a quiet onward progress of events. One great change in our political condition demands special mention. Our foremost man, the Queen's Prime Minister, has been suddenly removed by death. And his removal is something more to the country than the mere loss of a useful and honoured servant. The peculiar position occupied by Lord Palmerston can be taken by no one else. And human foresight fails to discover what changes. may trace their origin to the day which numbered our aged Premier with the statesman of the past. But we feel no manner of doubt that "our God, our fathers' God," has work for England to do in the world's great future.

Coming to ourselves and the past of our brief editorial life, we feel that we have much reason to thank God and take courage. Our endeavour to serve the Churches with which it is our happiness.to be associated, has been received

and appreciated in the kindliest spirit. The brethren who promised literary assistance have faithfully fulfilled their promise. Our pages contain original contributions from the pens of the Revs. T. Binney, E. Mannering, Dr. G. Smith, Dr. Ferguson, Dr. Spence, A. Thomson, M.A., E. Mellor, M.A., J. G. Rogers, B.A., S. A. Browning, J. S. Pearsall, J. Pillans, T. W. Aveling, Joseph Beazley, R. Brindley (now removed to higher service), F. S. Williams, John Curwen, John Corbin, R. Robinson, W. H. Fuller, John Hallett, R. S. Ashton, B.A., James Kennedy, M.A., J. H. Budden, J. Hiles Hitchens, H. T. Robjohns, B.A., J. Key (now of St. Petersburgh), S. Goodall, A. Mackennal, B.A., W. Dorling, Newman Hall, LL.B., W. Hardie, B.A., G. W. Conder, and others. Four ladies have contributed to our pages, but they prefer to be unknown. We have thus gathered around us such a host of truehearted auxiliaries, that we anticipate the coming year with great confidence that we shall be able to minister month by month the very best and most wholesome food that periodical literature can supply. We have done our best, as we promised, to adapt this Magazine to the requirements of all classes in our Churches and in our households; to keep before our mind continually the tendencies of the age towards rationalism on the one hand, and toward a superstitious sacerdotalism on the other; and to study the common every-day spiritual wants of Christian people. All this we still hope to do, and, with the advantages arising from a twelve months' experience, we trust we shall be able through God's blessing to make the Christian Witness still more worthy of the acceptance of the Churches to which it belongs.

JOHN KENNEDY.

STEPNEY.

CONTENTS.

421

Bethel, 172

Bernard, Rev. T. Dehany, M.A., Christ in the

To a Family, 168

Bibles, Paragraph, 257

Binney, Rev. T., Ananias and Sapphira, 45
"Man does not live by bread alone," 57

Bishop, The Primitive, 159

Book Notices, Jan., 53-54. Feb., 107-110
- March, 164-165. April, 219-223
May, 276-279. June, 329-330

-July, 390-391. August, 444-447

Sep., 501-503. Oct., 558-559

Esquimaux, 372

Draw-Net, The Parable of, 192, 267
Eastern Tale in English Rhyme, 22
Ebenezer, 617

Ecclesiastical Questions in the Last Parliament,
548

Editor off the Line, Good Words from an, 475
Egypt, Miss Whateley in, 139

Ellis, Obituary of the Rev. Samuel, 387
Episcopacy, Presbytery, and Independency,

48

Ephraem Syrus and Clement of Alexandria

as Hymnists, 363

Erasmus, The New Testament of, &c., 207
Esquimaux, Life and Death among, 372
Evangelists, and Our Home Missions, 155
Fables in Sermons, 535

Faith, One-sided views of, 213

Declaration of, American, 496

Faith's Victory;-a Visit to Kaiserswerth, 488
Father Oakley's Journey from England to
Rome, 203

Fatherliness and Atonement, 449

Fawkes, Guy, a History and Biography, 573

Ferguson, Dr. R., "He humbled Himself," 461

Fidelity in Little Things, 81

Fuller, Rev. W. H., Dr. Robert South, on the

Prayers of Dissenters, 98

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Last Words of Samuel Rutherford, 202
"Let Him own Himself," 188

Life and Death amongst the Esquimaux, 372
and Holiness through Faith in Christ, 228

Little Things, Fidelity in, 81

Live, Man does not, by bread alone, 57

Lord's Prayer, 112

Lord's Table, Thoughts for:

Let a Man examine himself.-1 Cor. xi.

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