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VOL. FIFTY-FIVE, FROM THE COMMENCEMENT.

BODI

ODLEL

LONDON: WILLIAM COOKE,

EDITOR AND BOOK-STEWARD,

METHODIST NEW CONNEXION BOOK-ROOM,`
No. 3, ALBANY CRESCENT, ALBANY ROAD, OLD KENT ROAD.

PREFACE.

IN committing to the hands of our friends the closing number of another volume of the Magazine, we are reminded of our mortality, of our duties and responsibilities. Another year has taken its rapid flight, and so much of the brief period of our probation has passed away. Thus we swiftly approach the end of life and the solemn hour of judgment. Many who commenced the year with us have entered the eternal world. Some gifted minds that used to enrich these pages with their thoughts have gone to their everlasting home. Amid these mutations, how forcible the admonition, "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." The venerable Wesley justly observes, "I am a creature of a day, passing through life as an arrow through the air. I am a spirit come from God, and returning to God: just hovering over the great gulph, till a few moments hence I am no more seen. I drop into an unchangeable eternity. I want to know one thing, the way to heaven; how to land safe on that happy shore." If the pages of our periodical have contributed to point out that way to the anxious inquirer, to restore to that way the unhappy wanderer, and to preserve in that way the endangered traveller, our most important designs and aims. have been accomplished. In such results we shall feel a holy satisfaction that, though deprived the opportunity of labouring, as formerly, in the pulpit, we have not lived in vain.

The existence of a Connexional periodical is, in the present day, essential to our Connexional existence. Indeed, without one we should have no suitable chronicle of our operations, no memorial of departed worth, no organ to express our sentiments, to expound and defend our principles, to stimulate to intellectual action, to rouse to Christian enterprize and zeal. Numerous as are the periodicals which in the present day are thrown forth on the surface of society, it is certain that no one, however excellent, would be adapted to answer the special and peculiar purposes of our own. On this ground, therefore, it stands foremost in its claims to the support of all true friends of the Connexion which it represents.

The Editor feels it a duty to present his cordial thanks to those ministers and friends whose productions have helped to enrich our pages, and to interest and edify our readers. Thanks are also due to

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