THE PRESBYTERIAN MAGAZINE. EDITED BY C. VAN RENSSELAER. "Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and VOLUME IV.-1854. PHILADELPHIA: OFFICE 265 CHESTNUT STREET. PREFACE. THE importance of a MONTHLY RELIGIOUS MAGAZINE, in affording means of instruction and of information to the families of our Church, is felt by the Editor more and more every year. Nothing but this conviction induces him to retain his connection with the Magazine, amidst other responsibilities of a pressing nature. Deeply sensible of the imperfections of the work, and pleading for all suitable indulgence from subscribers and friends, the undersigned will endeavour, with God's blessing, to make the Magazine useful to the general cause of religion and learning. PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 7, 1854. CORTLANDT VAN RENSSELAER. As this periodical professes to issue from a Presbyterian source, and to be devoted more particularly to the prosperity and extension of the Presbyterian Church, it is important to mark the distinction between an attachment to one's own church and an offensive sectarianism. Is it wrong to love the particular denominations of Christians with which we have intelligently and conscientiously thought proper to connect ourselves? Is it wrong to take counsel, and labour, and make sacrifices for its enlargement and prosperity? Surely an opinion so manifestly erroneous will scarcely be deliberately maintained. In countries in which there is an established religion, those religious bodies which separate from the establishment, and form distinct denominations, are called sects, and those who belong to them sectaries. But in countries where there is no established religion, as in our happy land, in which all denominations, in the eye of the law, are on a level, there can be no sectaries or dissenters in the technical sense of those words. All denominations are equally sects, i. e. separate divisions or departments in the great family of nominal Christians. And, of course, when we speak of the Episcopal sect, This article has never been before published. When a Magazine, similar in general plan to the present Magazine, was projected in 1846, Dr. Miller, of Princeton, kindly consented to write an introductory article for the first number. The work, relinquished at that time, was afterwards commenced in the form of "The Presbyterian Magazine;" and this communication, (accidentally mislaid) from the pen of the venerable servant of Christ, who is now removed from earth, will be read with additional interest by all who love his C. V. R. memory. |