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J. Bennett, D.D., London.

T. Binney, London.

J. Bulmer, Bristol.

H. F. Burder, D.D., Hackney.

J. Burder, M.A., Bristol.

J. Clayton, A. M., Worthing.
G. Clayton, Walworth.

T. Craig, Bocking.

S. Curwen, Reading.
T. East, Birmingham.
R. Elliott, Devizes.
W. Ellis, Hoddesdon.

R. Fletcher, Manchester.

J. J. Freeman, London.

J. Gilbert, Nottingham.

R. Halley, D.D., Manchester.

J. N. Goulty, Brighton.

J. Harris, D.D., Cheshunt College.

E. Henderson, D.D., Highbury.

J. Hunt, Brixton.

J. A. James, Birmingham.

W. Jay, Bath,

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Rev. T. Lewis, Islington.

C. Morris, London.

J. Morison, D.D., LL.D., Brompton.

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VOL. XXVII.-NEW SERIES.

LONDON:

PUBLISHED BY WARD AND CO.,

PATERNOSTER ROW.

LONDON:

REED AND PARDON, PRINTERS,

PATERNOSTER ROW.

PREFACE.

In reviewing our labours for the year 1849, we were never more conscious of an honest and earnest purpose to serve the cause of truth and righteousness. In no former year have we devoted so much time to the improvement of the work, and in none have we had ampler testimony to the acceptance of our willing and hearty service.

Irrespective, too, of our own close application in the Editorial department, we have enlisted the aid of a class of writers, who have supplied articles on various popular subjects, of the highest literary and theological merit. Had the same articles made their appearance in some of our Quarterly Reviews, they would have called forth a burst of public applause; but neither their importance nor their intrinsic value has been diminished by their publication in the pages of a cheap Monthly Magazine, which finds its way into the hands of thousands who never see the more expensive organs of our periodical litera

ture.

We may say, with truth, that the feeling of responsibility, as attached to our position, is every day becoming more oppressive to us. The times in which we live are highly critical. In many respects, indeed, they afford considerable promise; but there are features pertaining to them which demand, on the part of the Editor of a popular Religious Periodical, the exercise of an anxious and a sleepless observation of the events which are passing around him. He is "set for the defence of the gospel," and, in a most important sense, for the direction and wise adjustment of public opinion on matters of vital moment. We have seriously pondered our vocation in this respect, and have resolved, as our considerate and candid readers will perceive, to take our stand against new lights, of all kinds, which appear to us to partake more of the meteoric glare than of the steady and fixed character of a settled luminary. We have resolved, at least, that if certain speculative minds will suffer themselves to be warped by the plausible theories of German origin, it shall not be because they have not been warned of their pernicious tendency. We desire, at the same time, most fervently to love all good men, and to avoid all harshness and censoriousness in our modes of advocating Divine truth: for these are times in which the strength of the Religious Periodical Press must not be wasted in a series of petty warfares-but in contending earnestly for the

faith once delivered to the saints."

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