BIBLE CHRISTIAN MAGAZINE, FOR THE YEAR 1870. BEING A CONTINUATION OF THE ARMINIAN MAGAZINE. VOL. VI. OF THE FOURTH SERIES. THECA •BIBL VOL. FORTY-NINTH FROM THE COMMENCEMENT. LONDON: BIBLE CHRISTIAN BOOK ROOM, 57, FAIRBANK STREET, EAST ROAD. SOLD BY ALL THE ITINERANT PREACHERS. MDCCCLXX, PREFACE. THE words of cheer, and generous appreciation, which many kind friends have addressed to us lately, ought to be sufficient to inspire us with energy and hope. To labour more devotedly in the future than in the past is not more our duty than it is our determination. We are impelled to this course, less by the deep consciousness of past imperfection and failure than by the expectation of a richer blessing and greater success. We are desirous that the Volume now completed should be regarded as the promise of what the succeeding Volume may be rather than the standard of what it will be. If we could only realize our own ideal, it would be much improved; each number would bear the marks of greater care, of purer taste, of increased literary power, and, above all, of an intenser spiritual fervour, that the Magazine may be a greater blessing in the families of our people, and more largely extend the credit and usefulness of the Denomination. To our Brethren in the ministry we must mainly trust for hearty co-operation in our endeavours to make the next year's issues more worthy of the Denomination, and to our church members, and especially to our office-bearers, for needful encouragement and reward in a substantial increase to the circulation. We press these points principally because we are anxious that the Denomination should do its full share of honest Christian work in the world, and thus accelerate, if in ever so humble a measure, the final triumph of the Saviour. Our aims are not changed, but we are anxious to pursue them more steadily; or, if changed, we desire that our labours should be more intensely spiritual, more directly practical. An occasional glance at the progress of other denominations, with whom it is our duty to cherish the most fraternal feelings and the closest possible fellowship, may sometimes be useful in stirring up our own slumbering zeal, but for that purpose only. We cannot be |