be acknowledged, that these GOD has indeed vouchsafed to honour! "The Editors," it was also said in the original Preface, "voluntarily renounce all pecuniary reward, and hope the profit, arising from the sale of the work, will enable them to alleviate the distresses of many widows and orphans of God's dear and faithful servants." Such an expectation might then be deemed presumptuous; for the good-will of authors, who devote the contingent profits of their works to charitable purposes, fails much oftener than it succeeds; but it has pleased God to realize the hope so expressed, by enabling the conductors of this Magazine to distribute out of the annual profits, from its commencement, for the relief of the widows and children of pious ministers of every religious denomination above mentioned, above 10,000Z.; beside nearly 1000l. to other charitable purposes; among which was a recent grant of Five Hundred Pounds to the (London) Missionary Society, in aid of its funds, and with a special view to an object perfectly congenial with the original design of its founders -the relief of the indigent Widows and Orphans of the Missionaries connected with that society. Yet, while the expenses of publication have enormously increased, the price of this work has been resolutely kept down to the very low rate at which it was originally fixed, in order that the humblest readers might reap the benefit of it, and that its circulation might be rendered as extensive as possible. These purposes have not been frustrated. At times, 22,000 copies have been sold: and notwithstanding the present number and diversity of religious Magazines, he sale of 20,000 continues. So wide a circulation presents advantages for advertising, that were cer

tain not to be neglected: but much caution has been needful to exclude such advertisements as might be pernicious to health or morals, whatever they could have added to the immediate profits.

A variety of motives may reasonably be supposed to have prompted so many thousands of readers to purchase this Magazine. Many may have sought in it chiefly their own spiritual edification; an object which its conductors have never willingly neglected. Many have, undoubtedly, searched it to learn the progress of Christianity in the world," stirring up the gift that is in them" by the animating example and success of others. Some of us can well recollect when it was considered by many as a kind of test of the zeal and liberality of a Christian family, to find them possessed of the Evangelical Magazine. Some, we know, who might otherwise obtain the principal information it conveys, who apprehend that they can in no other way apply the small monthly pittance that it demands so usefully, both to the temporal and the spiritual interests of mankind. The generation that have risen with this work are known, in very numerous instances, to have derived spiritual impressions from it. An eminently pious minister has recorded his testimonial to its utility, in exciting him to a due concern for his own salvation and that of his hearers. What may we not hope hereafter to discover, of benefits arising from the perusal of 200,000 numbers of such a publication annually! Blessed be God for the good that is known to have been accomplished! To His grace and truth we cheerfully commit what remains to be completed; to Him ascribing the kingdom, the glory, and the power, through Jesus Christ our Lord, for ever. Amen.

for missionaries and others who were engaged in the propagation of the Gospel. Not long before his death, which took place about two years ago, he said to a friend, that he had been spending two hours in his closet praying for all the missionaries of the several Societies, by name; and on his deathbed, he said to his son, I have been a praying missionary." Would to God we had thousands of such potent auxiliaries!

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We are not favoured with any particulars of the early piety of Mr. Owen, but it is probable that his strong inclination toward the Christian ministry might induce his father to send him to St. Paul's School, where he obtained the rudiments of a classical education. From hence he proceeded to Cambridge, where he obtained several prizes, and was chosen Fellow of Corpus Christi College. Soon after he was ordained he was distinguished as a preacher. The Rev. Mr. Dealtry, who preached his funeral sermon, and who was at the University at the same time, observes, "That it was impossible to listen to his sermons without being impressed with the persuasion, that he was a man of no common abilities, and of no ordinary character;" and he intimates "that for many succeeding years the manner in which he discharged the duties of a parochial minister warranted the expectation, that had he continued in such a situation with competent leisure, he would have stood in the first rank among his brethren. It appears to have been the discovery of these excellent qualifications which attracted the notice of Bishop Porteus, under whose patronage he accepted the curacy of Fulham, and who continued his warm friend to the end of his life.

The providence of God, which

overrules the pursuits of men, was employed to qualify Mr. Owen for the office which he afterwards sustained in the Bible Society, by leading him to the knowledge of modern (as well as ancient) languages; and by his travels abroad enabled him to acquire a useful acquaintance with the customs and manners of different nations of the continent. This was of great use in the affairs of a Society which necessarily corresponded with foreigners, and among whom he was to be an accredited representative. How well qualified he was for both these purposes is well known to all who are acquainted with the history of the Society, or who have read his letters from the Continent, written in the year 1819. Indeed, "his intercourse with society, in all its gradations, had given him that knowledge of the world, that readiness of communication, and that delicacy and propriety of manner and expression which social intercourse alone can impart." *

Mr. Dealtry, anticipating a complete description of Mr. Owen's character and talents by afuture biographer, says, "He will have much to tell of the fertility of his imagination; of the quickness of his perception; of his lively and innocent wit; of the soundness of his judgment; of his almost intuitive knowledge of character; of his extemporaneous and commanding eloquence; of the facility with which he could turn his mind to any subject proposed to him; of his unwearied diligence and unconquerable resolution: and particularly of that cheerfulness of disposition, and that frankness, candour and urbanity, which seemed to be interwoven with his nature."

*The Rev. Mr. Smith's Speech at Sheffield, Oct. 22, 1822.

+ Report says that Mr. Dealtry will perform that honourable task, and we shall be happy to see it from his able pen.

The great ability with which he conducted that portion of the correspondence of the Society which fell to his lot, is sufficiently apparent from the letters which have been already referred to; but the splendour of his talents was more generally known to the world in consequence of his frequent engagements at Bible Meetings in London, and in all parts of the country. Numerous, indeed, and exceedingly laborious, were the journeys which he (with his respected colleagues) took for the establishment or encouragement of auxiliary societies; it was in those crowded assemblies that "he poured forth, frequently to the astonishment and delight of multitudes, the treasures of his powerful mind."

"And here," says Mr. Smith, "the singular delicacy of the departed Secretary is worthy of especial commendation; for it led him, as by a peculiar tact, or by a sixth sense, to avoid those topics on which the members of the Society were divided, and on which they may differ without impairing their harmony as members of this Society. When circumstances compelled him to touch on these topics, it was not to exasperate, but soften, the feelings to which these differences might give rise. While he possessed the most decided attachment also to his own communion, and expressed that attachment on other occasions, in a way that those might not expect who knew him only in the Bible Society; he had such a dignity and propriety of feeling, and such just notions of Christian liberty, as prevented him from obtruding such subjects on the attention of a promiscuous meeting, assembled for the sole purpose of circulating the Bible. Thus his example may have done much to diminish the questionable practice of individuals avowing their

attachment to a particular communion, and then defending the consistency of their attachment to the Bible Society-an example that has only to be imitated by all the members of the Society to turn its meetings into an arena of contention.”

The religious public ought to know, that Mr. Owen, by devoting eighteen of the best years of his life, gratuitously, to the services of the Society, made many great sacrifices. Dr. Steinkopff, in a speech delivered at Hampstead in October last, relates, that at one time Mr. Owen came to him, and said, "I really do not know what to do. I have pupils; and my pupils necessarily confine me and consume my time. Either I must give up my pupils or the Society." He gave them up. I shall never forget his noble, disinterested conduct; and I pray that a special blessing may rest upon his family."

In reference to his disinterested conduct, Mr. Hughes asks, "What was the prize that nerved and recompensed him ?—Not stipendiary emolument; not patronage; among a numerous class of his ecclesiastical brethren, not an atom of favour. When he identified himself with the British and Foreign Bible Society, he laid on the Divine altar the first of those sacrifices, which he repeated (I had almost said, day by day, continually) till the exhaustion, both of body and mind, forbade him to repeat them any longer.

Mr. Hughes adds, "Had he, then, reason to lament that he had devoted himself to a cause which, in certain connexions brought upon him displeasure and reproach, and in serving which he undermined his health, and, it is probable, accelerated his dissolution? No; it never cost him, as far as evidence