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AND MAY BE HAD OF THE BOOKSELLERS IN ANY PART OF ENGLAND,
IRELAND, SCOTLAND, AND WALES.

NOTTINGHAM:

THOMAS KIRK, PRINTER, SAINT PETER'S GATE

PREFACE.

BEING called upon to introduce the work of another year, we have been intently revolving our duties and our responsibilities. We have concluded to unite two things which are commonly separate, by giving preface and introduction in one view. The objects which we have distinctly before us are the following:

I. To furnish the brightest developments of ancient Christianity. For the accomplishment of this, our main object, we are by the good providence of God, richly provided. We have in possession a great number of essays, discourses, and epistles, expressly devoted to the subject, remarkable in all the attributes which command attention. They are profound in thought, masculine in argument, chaste and forcible in style, select in diction, Christian and catholic in spirit. And these articles have not been written by men who dream in the cabinet of things never to be realized, or indulge in splendid visions of romance for the enjoyment of mental luxury-but by men of sober verity and habitual action. For many years they have stood in the light of the eternal world, leading on a reformation, or pleading for a restoration, which in simplicity of plan and magnitude of result, has no parallel in our age. This is an immense advantage. The men are not indulging in conjecture or speaking at random, but having embodied their convictions in deliberate action, tested their principles in a fiery furnace, and stamped their impress on living society-like the Apostles whom they reverently follow, they can speak of what they have seen, and heard, and felt, as well as of what they believe.

II. To stir up the brethren to make their spiritual position conformable to their knowledge. This is a serious matter. Many say to us, if not verbally, as follows, yet in substance, Well, you have restored the framework of the ancient order, the skeleton seems almost perfect, but you have not given it flesh and blood, nor animated it with a living soul. We

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