PREFACE. OUR first year's labours terminate with this second volume. These labours have been pleasant as well as arduous. Many have encouraged us by their sympathies, while some have afforded us material assistance. To all who have aided in the good work, we beg to tender our most hearty thanks. We would gladly have addressed them individually, had time permitted. They will accept this general acknowledgment instead. In the commencement of our work, we knew the difficulty of sustaining a periodical of a purely unsectarian and undenominational character. We felt assured, too, that from sceptics generally, though they profess to be freethinkers, we should have little support. Fully anticipating all these difficulties, and yet feeling it imperative to fill up a felt want in our religious literature, we are all the more grateful that we have been enabled, by the blessing of God, and the help of our friends, to sustain our weekly work. At the close of the year we raise our Ebenezer,' and inscribe upon it, 'Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.' JO Our work has been carried on at intervals snatched from unavoidable engagements, and sometimes from sleep. In these circumstances we have. not been able to accomplish all that we had desiderated and planned. Weekly have we felt the pressure of our position, and have longed for a fuller breathing-time to do greater justice to the work. This we have never had; but have still laboured on in hope. If we have not reached the standard which we had set up for ourselves, we have, at least, had some cheering signs of success. From many young men, engaged in the workshops, the counting houses, and the places of business in our large towns, and have had the assurance that our WEEKLY has been a welcome visitor, and that they have derived information, satisfaction, and moral stimulus from our pages. Difficulties that appeared insuperable to some, have been removed; not only the truth and consistency, but the practical bearing of many 'dark passages' of Scripture, has been shown. Doubts that like dark clouds had gathered around some minds, have been dispelled: and some have been saved from the cold and barren regions of Scepticism. The discussion on Atheism which appears in almost every number of this volume, furnishes another proof, if proof were needed, of the audacity, the inconsistency, the bitterness, and the weakness, of the opponents of Christianity. Determined as they are in their efforts to pull it down, they do not so much as loosen one of its foundations. The truth has less to fear from them, so long as it is fairly defended, than the skies have from the artillery of earth. The influence of Secularism on the minds of the working classes is fast waning; and Christians have only to be true to their principles, and earnest in the exhibition of them, to prevent that or any other system of error from gaining permanent hold of the public mind. Although infidelity has now adopted another line of policy, and is again threatening to change its name; we must not suppose that it has abandoned its antagonism. It is therefore, our duty to keep an eye upon its movements, and sound the note of alarm wherever it appears. Moreover, the masses of the people require Christian instruction; and one of the most important modes of communicating it, is through the press. As the sagacious Arnold said, The people want articles on general subjects written in a Christian spirit. These are reasons for our continuance; and we are happy to inform our readers that with the new year, we shall somewhat change our position, and greatly widen our means of usefulness. Bible and the People,' edited by the Rev. Brewin Grant, and 'The Defender,' will henceforth appear in one, as a PENNY WEEKLY, under our joint superintendence. We have no doubt that it will thus attain greater efficiency and power, and be worthy of the support of the Christian public, and of all true freethinkers. Let all our readers order 'The THE BIBLE DFFENDER the first number of which we expect will be ready on New Year's Day, published by WARD AND Co., and HOULSTON AND STONEMAN, Paternoster Row, London. J. H. RUTHERFORD. い |