THE ENGLISH PRESBYTERIAN MESSENGER. VOL. IV.-NEW SERIES. LONDON: HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO., PATERNOSTER ROW; JAMES NISBET AND CO., BERNERS STREET; AND TO BE HAD OF ALL BOOKSELLERS. PREFACE. THE present number concludes the seventh volume of the " English Presbyterian Messenger;" and in taking leave of our friends and readers for another year, it is not our intention to weary them with editorial complaints or compliments. These are seldom profitable, and as we have no special inducement to indulge in them, we leave the task to those whose course, during the past year, has been less of an "even tenor" than our own. Like other labourers in the vineyard of Christ, we are conscious that many defects have attended our efforts; but we are also willing to encourage the hope that to the Presbyterian Church in England we have rendered an essential, though imperfect service. We say essential, being assured that to no other religious denomination in England is a monthly periodical, as a medium of intelligence, so indispensable to healthy and progressive action. Independent and Baptist "Churches," from their isolated position, may suffer little through ignorance of each other's proceedings; but such information must, in great measure, be necessary to intelligent membership in a Presbyterian Church, which is governed by the same Supreme Court, and regulated by the same Ecclesiastical laws; and this, more especially, when, as in our own case, the congregations are so widely separated from each other. And it is to be expected that in proportion to the extent to which this intelligence is diffused amongst our members, will be the amount of practical sympathy manifested, on behalf of the important missionary enterprises in which, as a Church, we are engaged. Those who know little of the Church's work will not be mindful of her necessities. Nor is it believed that these labours are altogether of a temporary character. The future historian of the revival of Presbyterianism in England will probably find in our pages the only permanent record of its progress, when, amid the changes and misfortunes of life, minute-books and other documents have passed away among the things that were. Had our English Presbyterian Fathers possessed such a record, and a British Museum in which to deposit it, a continuous history of their proceedings-now so much desired-might easily have been written; but, in present circumstances, it is almost impossible. |