PREFACE. IND READERS,-Throughout another year you have sustained the magazine; and as very many of you have expressed your satisfaction, and few, if any, have favoured me with a complaint, I feel encouraged to believe that you have been pleased with my monthly issues. It was once observed in my hearing by a friend who wished to account for my fulfilment of numerous duties, that, as for the magazine, it was a merely nominal thing to be the editor, for few editors ever saw their magazines till they were in print. However this may be as a rule, it does not contain a spark of truth in my case, for I have personally superintended every page, and I do not think a single line of the magazine has passed through the press without having been read by Whether I succeed or not, I certainly do not delegate my task to others. If I had more leisure I am sure I could do better, and it is with unfeigned satisfaction that I find my subscribers contented with what I can procure for them. me. The SWORD AND TROWEL has been the happy means of uniting in gracious service a band of gracious givers and workers, who now for these 17 years have joined to aid the institutions which, though they locally surround the Tabernacle, are really the offspring of a congregation which is found scattered throughout all lands. By means of this warm-hearted brotherhood the Pastors' College has been sustained from year to year, until some six hundred ministers have been educated in it, the most of whom are still faithfully preaching the old-fashioned gospel in which they have been trained. In connection with this enterprise three brethren have been supported as evangelists, and their itinerant labours have been signally successful. Testimonies that churches have been aroused, and sinners converted by their means, have been plentifully sent in, and these pages have been increased in interest thereby. Hundreds of thousands have heard the gospel through this instrumentality. The Stockwell Orphanage originated through an article in this magazine, and from time to time its support has been mainly supplied by its readers. During the past year the houses for the girls' side have been completed and partly furnished; and at the present time the first detachment of little ones has entered into occupation. More remains to be done by way of furniture for other houses, and the further contracts for the infirmary, baths, and outbuildings have to be met, but it is a great comfort to have seen the project so far in progress, and to feel assured that all that is yet required will be forthcoming in its season. The Bazaar which is so soon to be held will, we hope, secure the amount needed to bring the enterprise up to the next stage, and then we may lay our plan for the final outlay on the chapel of the Orphanage, and a few other necessaries. All that has been done has been accomplished without personal solicitation, or the allotment of votes, or the dissemination of heartrending appeals: it has sufficed to lay the case before the Lord in prayer, and then to mention it to his people in plain and earnest terms, and the funds have come in with marvellous regularity, the larger amounts having been timed to meet the hour of need as exactly as if the whole went by clockwork. The hand of the Lord is in this thing, and to him be glory. That this institution has brought honour to God is plain enough, for many a time those who would have abused our ministry have admitted that a good work has been wrought, and have had no heart to revile. There is a something about orphan work which wins the sympathy of the most careless, and none can tell till the last great day how many have been by this means led to think well of the gospel, and next to hear it and experience its power. The Colportage Association has held on its most useful course. It has been sustained with difficulty, for somehow it does not chime in with the tastes and views of large donors, but its influence for good is second to no existing agency. Where there are not enough Dissenters to support a minister, or where ministers are unable to cover large and scattered districts, the colporteur makes his way with his pack, and speaks a word for Jesus at every door, either by personal conversation or by leaving a tract. Besides this, he preaches by the roadside or in village chapels, gets up temperance meetings, visits the sick, and above all sells good books. This society, and several other useful works, report themselves in these pages, and enlist good friends thereby. It Mrs. Spurgeon's Book Fund quietly pursues its beneficent course. is putting sound theology just now upon the shelves of many a poor curate and ill-paid minister, and this it does so largely that it would be a miracle of a strange sort if it did not greatly affect the ministry of the day. That the sermons distributed and the "Treasury of David " furnish material for preachers is saying very little: that they have evangelized the tone of many has been confessed in numerous instances, and is true of far more. Brethren and sisters, you have aided me so far in a benevolent enterprise of no small dimensions, and I hope I have in no degree lost your loving confidence. Continue, then, to bear me up in your prayers, and to sustain me by your contributions. More can be done, and more should be done. Every living work is capable of growth; every work which has God's blessing upon it is under necessity to advance. Our watchword still is FORWARD. Possibly we cry forward more often than pleases those who lag behind. Some time ago I asked for men and means to send evangelists to India; one man only offered, and that one man was sent. Up till now I have had sufficient money, and I believe that when more men offer I shall have larger funds; but here is room for prayerful uplooking to the Lord. Brethren, pray for us. I would fain live to the utmost of my own life, and I would draw out from all my brethren more and more for God's glory by the propagation of the gospel, the alleviation of suffering, and the arousing of the church. Thanks to all helpers, and a thousand blessings, From their hearty friend, C. H. SPURGEON. December, 1881. INDEX. Books, Notices of-Ada, 87; Adventures of Books, Notices of (continued)- Quinet, 530; Edith's Probation, 413; Educa- Garden Graith, 624; Garden Oracle, 142; Giles's Half-hearted Churchmen, 576; Happiness of Con- Labourers Together with God, 351; Lakes of Books, Notices of (continued)— INDEX. Through the Living One, 189; Light and Rest, 483; Light and Shade, 481; Lilian Mortimer, 414; Little Amy's Work, 485; Little Folks, 142, 417; Little Gleaner, 142; Little Prisoner, 40; Little Redcap, 532; Lizzie Sydenham, 240; London Almanack, 39; Lord's Prayer and the Church, 36; Lord that Healeth Thee, The, McIlvaine, Memorials of, 623; Maggie's White Hands, 527; Manual of Devotion, 144; Map of Palestine, 87; Marion's Story, 238; Martyrs' Tree, 240; Maude and Mercy, 240; Memorial of Rev. J. Marshall, 41; "Men of Light and Leading," 234; Mercy to Animals, 285; Messiah the Prince, 575; Messianic Pro- phecies, 288; Methodism in Jamaica, 481; Methodist Family, 142; Methodist Pioneer, 529; Methodist Temperance Annual, 145; Me- tropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, 83; Meyer's Commentary, 146; Miller Manning, 414; Mi- nister's Pocket Diary, 37; Missionary Herald, 40; Missionary News, 142, 527; Missionary Series, 284; Missionary Work, 87; Miss Mar- garet's Stories, 87; Misunderstood Texts, 92; Modern Scottish Pulpit, 83; Monaco, 414, 577; Nature, 526; Neglected Things, 36; New Name, 480; Never Say "Die," 190; New Basis of Belief, 352; New Lines and the Old, 284; New Zealand, 190; Nobody Cares, 287; Nobody's Lad, 40; Non-Alcoholic Treatment of Disease, 145; Noon Day Meditations, 83; "No Place Like Home," 485; Notes on Zechariah, 350; Offerings to Friendship, 233; Oiled Feather, 190; Old Bristol, 238; Old Jonathan, 142; Old Miller and his Mill, 482; One Thing, The, 530; On the Doorsteps, 238; Onward, 142; Our Christian Classics, 482; Our Daughters, 193; Our Folks, 39; Our Own Magazine, 142; Our Sister May, 240; Outlines of the Life of Christ, Panoply, The, 85; Papal Infallibility, 578; Papers on Health, 189; Parables of Our Lord, 194; Partridge's Magazines, 37; Penfold, 238: Philip Gainsford's Profit and Loss, 238; Phi- losophy of Prayer, 583; Pic-nics and Parties, 145; Picture Library of Animals, 192; Pictures for Scrap Books, 191; Pilgrim Lays, 191; Pilgrim's Progress, 141, 351, 483; Plain Living, etc., 416; Plain Words on Temperance, 532; Plucked from the Burning, 485; Plutarch's Lives, 578 Poems and Hymns, 86; Poets, Painters, and Players, 577; Popery and Patronage, 531; Popery and Puseyism, 90; Popular Guide to Baptism, 37; Popular Recreation, 288; Prayer Meeting, The, 91; Preachers' Monthly, 92, 417; Preaching, 91; Progress of Baptist Prin- ciples, 234; Prophet Jonah, 89; Protestant, The, 83; Province of Law, 289; Pulpit Com- mentary, 36, 237, 284, 349; Punshon, Life of Quiver, The, 41, 625; Reedyford, 147; Reminis- Books, Notices of (continued) -- Singers, 86; Speaker's Commentary, 350; Spurgeon's Álmanack, 574; Stephen Grellett, 233; Story of a Dew Drop, 193; Story of Jesus, 194; Story of Nan and Jack, 35; Story of the Covenant, 529; Story of the Years, 190; Stoughton's History, 484; Strength in Weak- ness, 349; Studies in Matthew, 481; Studies in Music Worship, 86; Suburban Homes, 352; Sunbeams, 625; Sunday, 90; Sunday at Home and Leisure Hour, 39; Sunlight and Shadow, 483; Sunny Memories, 41; Sunnyside School, 234; Summer Days, 238; Swan's Nest, 287; Tale of the Grampians, 482; Teacher's Store- house, 193; Temperance Annual, 145; Tem- perance Handbooks, 531; Temperance League's Annual, 145; Temperance Mottoes and Texts, 39; Temperance Readings, 145; Temperance Songs, 190; Tempter Behind, 145; Text Cards, 146; The Christ, 351; Theistic Problems, 235; This Life and the Life to Come, 286; Thirty- nine Articles, 578; Thoughtful Joe, 482; Three Naturalists, 88; Thornton Hall, 234; Thrift Lessons, 191; Tour in Brittany, 288; Tract Magazine, 581; Treasure Book of Consolation, 40; Truth of Scripture, 146; Turn to the Una's Crusade, 235; Under the Pillow, 529; What Aileth Thee? 236: What Church? 85; What do I Believe? 234; Whitaker's Almanack, 146; Wife's Secret, 240; Wilds of Florida, 287; Wilfred, 287; Winter Pictures, 625; Wise Man of Whittleburg, 413; Witton's Main, 40; Wives and Husbands, 285; Word About Work, 192; Words of Christ, 581; Words of Comfort, 83; Words of Friendly Counsel, 193; Work and Prayer, 286; Worthies of the World, 577, 625. Year after Year, 42; Young Crossing Sweepers, 102, 152, 199, 248, 300, 360, 428, 492, 540, 592, 632 554 Peter Waldo |