PREFACE. HE Editor of this Magazine has now to review the first year of his work. Modesty forbids more than a very slight allusion to what he has been able to do. He hopes that the imperfections of a comparative novice have been generously overlooked. In some respects the toil has certainly been much greater than he anticipated. It has comprised a very extensive correspondence, and, for the review department, an immense amount of reading. This latter item has sometimes smitten him with dismay, especially as many of the books which have had to come under his notice have required deliberate thought as well as careful perusal. The work of reviewing would often have been easier if more space had been at his command. At the commencement of the year he invited contributions from all friends of the Magazine who were capable of enriching its pages. That invitation has been so liberally responded to as to involve him in considerable perplexity. He has had to regret the necessity of keeping many articles waiting for insertion. This has prevailed to such an extent as to have deprived him of the opportunity of giving the ordinary items of denominational intelligence, and of condensing the news from those fields of missionary labour which are not worked by our own Society. He will use his best endeavours to overcome this difficulty in the ensuing year. In alluding to it thus, he must not be regarded as ungrateful to the writers who have so readily and kindly flocked to his help. They have his best thanks; but he begs them, and others who may be good enough to do likewise, to have patience with delays which may be inevitable. He ventures to infer that the papers which have appeared have been generally up to the mark from the testimonies to that effect which he has privately and publicly received. Scarcely a fortnight has passed without bringing to him words of kindly appreciation— often from some unexpected quarter-and these have encouraged him. He wishes he could popularise his pages without detracting from their solidity. He is not satisfied with his progress in that direction, and hopes to succeed better in time to come. Some good writers who could help him to do so decline to contribute to a "denominational periodical;" and of course they know their own interests best! The circulation might increase more rapidly if the true friends of the Magazine would bestir themselves a little on its behalf. They are earnestly urged to this effort for the coming year. The Editor has great pleasure in announcing that the January number will be adorned by a portrait of the late Dr. Samuel Manning. |