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THE GENERAL

BAPTIST MAGAZINE,

REPOSITORY,

AND

MISSIONARY OBSERVER.

VOL. V, NEW SERIES.

1858.

LONDON:

PUBLISHED BY SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, AND Co.,

STATIONERS' HALL COURT.

LOUGHBOROUGH: JOHN HENRY GRAY.

LOUGHBOROUGH :

JOHN HENRY GRAY, PRINTER,

MARKET-PLACE.

PREFACE,

THE preface to the volume of the General Baptist Magazine for 1858 should be properly a programme for that of 1859. Perhaps the most suitable will consist of a few sentences from the address published when the Magazine was put in its present position.

The Editor, while he is thankful for the promises of help, and the assurances of kindly sympathy, already received, would take the present opportunity of offering a few suggestions to those who are disposed to render assistance, as well as to the general reader. He purposes to enlarge the essay department, and invites his talented brethren to furnish papers written in a spirit of true catholicity, on any of the questions which occupy the public mind in reference to religious truth; and he faithfully promises them, that, while his guiding line shall be a strict adherence to revealed truth, and to the great and broad principles "which are most sure believed among us," he will give free play to every earnest brother who is anxious to stir up the soul to its utmost depths, either in the discovery, the elucidation, or the enforcement of the knowledge which enlightens and sanctifies the soul, and guides to the realms of eternal light and love.

As to controversy, if personalities and religious rancour be avoided, he will give a more liberal space to it than heretofore, so that his pages may be the means of arriving at healthy and just conclusions on matters of debate. He would, however, just hint, in passing, that a very wise and sagacious friend of his, now in heaven, once said:"When you read a controversy you need not always follow the combatants to their last pamphlet or article, The first papers usually contain the full sense of each, and from these you may best judge on which side the truth lies. The replies, rejoinders, and explanations being for the most part mere logomachies and strife about words."

There may be papers forwarded which contain suggestions open to controversy. If these are inserted among the "Correspondence," instead of among the Leading Articles, as matters open to debate, there will be no violation of charity to the writers; but other friends, whose views may differ from them, will have a legitimate opportunity of controverting them. It is always understood that the endorsement of the Editor is

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