Charity, True and False, 68 542 433 517 5, 49, 98, 274, 320, 375, 424, 576 167 84 Clarksburg Convention, Address to the, Conversational Improvement, DECLINE of Partyism, Demonology, Difficulties in Churches, EASTERN Lights, Elegant Extracts, Eternal Union of Friends, Finney's Substitute for Baptism, D an Address delivered at Clarksburg, Virginia, by Miss Sedgwick, HEAVEN, nothing true but, E G GENIUS of Christianity, H F FAMILY Culture-Conversations at the Carleton House, 31, 73, 104 141 540 241 384 457, 580 419 K KNOWLEDGE indispensable to Religion, L 509 28, 480, 593 433 273 187 591 540 224, 286, 327 48, 95 335 172 175 85 71 141 95 206 541 MATERNAL Influence, Heads and Horns of, Methodist Press, Modern Proselytism, Moral Philosophy-Is it an Inductive Science? Order, Origin of the Puritans, M PASSOVER and the Lord's Supper, Practice better than Theory, QUERY and Answer, N 532 NATURE of the Christian Organization, 0 OBITUARY, 189 428 596 P R REFORMATION, Meetings, Romans, ch. v. 12 to 18 verses, an Exposition of, Shannon James, Inaugural Address of, Discussion of the Influence of, 92 230 531 93 432 245, 304 337 204 309, 310, 504, 506 586 81 3 336 427 419 594 170, 227, 324 384 547 S 541 SANCTIFICATION of the Lord's Day, 556 126, 149 496 490 309, 504 83, 111, 199, 404 335 PREFATORY REMARKS. We now commence the nineteenth year of our editorial labors and the thirty-first of our public ministrations in the cause of religion.— Not to have committed errors in so long a time, in so many and so various efforts, and in so many conflicts with infidels and sectarians, would be an exemption from the present conditions of humanity-to which we neither can, nor will, make any pretensions. Touching these errors, whether they respect persons or things, be they few or many, we humbly ask the forgiveness of the heavenly Father, as we forgive from the heart all that have trespassed against us in word or deed. It is difficult to engage in controversy and not to be actuated, or at least appear to be actuated, by the feeling of enmity or the spirit of rivalry. To avoid this, both in reality and in appearance, I have found it necessary never to contemplate an opponent in the light of an enemy, or of a rival; and therefore I have not in my mind the idea of a rival or an enemy in the person of any living man, friend or alien.I feel it my solemn duty to expose and oppose the opinions, claims, and pretensions of men, in whatever attitude they may stand to me, just so far as I think them injurious to the cause of truth, piety, and humanity, without any unkind feeling to their persons, or any other desire than that of their personal holiness and happiness. It is admitted on all hands, that we have brethren that have gone astray as preachers, as teachers, and as editors; and if they have done much good, they have also done much injury to the cause of reformation. All claim equal freedom of speech, and of writing what they please; and, perhaps, with equally good intentions and equally selfapproving motives: still it follows not that all are equally competent to instruct, equally free from error and equally worthy of public confidence. Yet in reference to such persons a difficulty arises of no easy decision, viz.-Whether it is better to suffer every one to do all the good and all the injury he can, or timously indicate the evil and admonish him of it. The former is suffered at the risk of much public injury-the latter, at the hazard of the private friendship of the errorist. From a retrospect of all our publications, I have learned that some men can assume the chair of the critic and the seat of the censor with singular good grace and good fortune, who cannot endure a hint with that graceful ease and cheerful acquiescence with which they administer their own rebukes to others. There needs a censor of the Reformation Press just as much as a church needs a bishop, a family a head, or the literature of England and Scotland the London and Edinburg Reviews. But he that would aspire to the invidious chair, besides a large annual tax of public and private censure, would have to incur the risk and hazard of losing the esteem and affection of some worthy brethren, to whom a single censure or reproof would be more intolerable than a hundred plaudits.Long, then, as I have seen the need of this, I dared not to assume the ungrateful office. True, indeed, I experimented a little in one or two cases; but the parties soon engaged the sympathies of a few whom they beguiled to cry out, Proscription and the fear of a rival! It is curious and interesting to enumerate and retrospect the periodicals that have, since our commencement, arisen to plead the cause of reformation. To trace their characters and fortunes, and to compare them with one another, would, but for the ungrateful task, be profitable to all concerned. I will, however, mention their names, and leave their characters and fortunes for other times and for other hands. In the United States we have had The Christian Messenger, The Christian Preacher, The Christian Reformer, The Christian Publisher, The Christian Panoplist, The Christian, and The Primitive Christian. We have had The Inquirer, The Evangelist, The Apostolic Advocate, The Gospel Advocate, The Disciple, The Berean, The Morning Watch, The Heretic Detector, The Highway of Holiness, and The Journal of Christianity. In Nova Scotia we have had The Christian Gleaner; in Upper Canada, The Gospel Vindicator; and now we have in New Brunswick The Christian. In Old England we have had The Millennial Harbinger, and have now The Christian Messenger. These, added to The Christian Baptist and The Millennial Harbinger, make our periodicals, living and dead, equal the twelve Patriarchs and twelve Apostles in number, only that while the former arose at intervals during eighteen centuries, the latter occupied not quite as many years. Now that there has been amongst these a very great harmony in many important points, is most true; but it must frankly be confessed that it would be very difficult from some of them to ascertain what are the clear and distinctive attributes of that reformation for which, as a party, we contend; and that far from aiding that cause, some of them have been a serious injury to it, must, in all candor, be acknowledged. Yet when we consider the facility with which, in this age of improvement, any one may appear before the public as a teacher or a writer, it is a matter of wonder and of thankfulness that so much good, with so little harm, appears to have been achieved. Two-thirds of the whole number have indeed completed their testimony, finished their labors, and gone to rest. In the present volume some points claim our special attention: such as, the necessity of a more conciliatory spirit towards the more evangelical professors-the necesstty and practicability of the enjoyment of larger measures of spiritual influence-education in all its branches, domestic, scholastic, and ecclesiastic-and especially the coming of the Lord. To promise little and do much, is the true philosophy of a prudent editorial course. Having much on hand, and much in purpose, we only promise our determination to be as useful and interesting as possible to all our readers. A happy new year to all our readers, happier and more prolific of good to the world than the last, is the prayer of their sincere friend the Editor. A. CAMPBELL, |
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