It is just forty years ago since the TEACHER'S OFFERING was first published; and some of the young people who read it then are now grey-headed men and women. Many of the writers who used to contribute to these pages have passed away to their long rest ;-many of the little boys who read the stories in the TEACHER'S OFFERING years and years ago, have become great men; some have become writers themselves; some have been working, and are working hard, to make the world happier and wiser; and their names will live when our names perhaps will be forgotten. Some of the little girls, in whose eyes the tears glistened when they sat beside their mother, and heard the monthly tales, are middle-aged ladies, and in their turn read the tales which are published now, to their own little children. Well, these are great changes; yet with all the changes of forty long years the TEACHER'S OFFERING still exists. But times are very different now, to times forty years ago. Then there were very few magazines for young people, and now there are so many, that the wonder is where young people are to be found to read them. Then a magazine could ensure a very large circulation, but now there is far greater difficulty, because new publications come to push the old ones out of the way. This brings me to the question, "Shall the TEACHER'S OFFERING, which has existed so long, cease to exist ?" You, my friends, must decide the question. If you will continue to take it in, try to persuade your friends to read it, and with the new year do all you can to get new subscribers; then there is no reason why the TEACHER'S OFFERING should not continue to be your home and school friend, and no efforts shall be spared to make it interesting and useful to you. And now let me tell you some of the arrangements for the new year. One contributor, whose stories have often interested you, has kindly promised to write a series of "Historical Sketches;" another contributor will give you some "Notes of Travel"-papers like those about the Arabs ; another will tell you something about God's glory in the Heavens, and explain to you some of the wonders of Astronomy. "Old Merry" hopes to have some lively gossips with his young friends again, and proposes to write " Queer Discourses on Queer Proverbs." Beside all this, there will be interesting and instructive tales; and one page will continue to be devoted to Music. A small space will be reserved occasionally for "Questions to Puzzle you," and those who send in the best answers, shall have them printed in the following number. Another small space will be allotted to "Our Correspondents." For this object: suppose you find difficulties in the Scriptures, which you cannot get over, and have no opportunity of settling, write a letter, addressed "To the Editor of the TEACHER'S OFFERING, 27, Paternoster Row," and if your questions are really difficulties, the Editor will try his best to help you out of them. This is the programme, and very heartily I hope it may please you, and that God will give His blessing with every number, so that we may not merely find pleasure, but real profit in this work. Let me take this opportunity to thank very cordially those kind friends who have so generously contributed to this Magazine during the past year, and to express the hope that they will not "grow weary in welldoing," but in the new year continue those services which have been so valuable in the past. Yours very truly, December 1st, 1863. THE EDITOR. |