WE close our Year's labours with this Number of the Harbinger-a year signally marked with judgments and mercies, with trials and successes, both in the world and in the church of Christ. These events, whether painful or joyous, have been chronicled by numerous Periodicals, too many of which are, alas! of injurious tendencies; yet, others with great ability and piety have happily circulated the antidote. Each section of the Christian community has employed its own organ, and these have done good service to the general cause, by opposing infidelity and superstition; while they have kept together their own particular regiment in the holy crusade. It is evident, indeed, that every distinctive body of professors must have its own Periodical, if it would be alive and active. Silence is death. In the confusion of tongues we must give utterance to thought in our own language, or do nothing extensively in showing unto men the way of salvation. We have reason to believe that our own unassuming work has proved a Harbinger of good to some individuals, and to our community at large: in addition to papers on general topics, which we know have been read with interest by many, it has been a kind of ENCYCLICAL LETTER, conveying to our readers Connexional Intelligence has cherished brotherly union and co-operationreported our African missionary proceedings-and, by showing what we ought to be as a Connexion, has mutually provoked to love and good works. Our earnest prayer is, that with a partial renewal of the Trust, there may be re-animation and a return to first principles and early love; so that we may have more to announce of home proceedings which shall in a measure emulate those of days that are past. The Magazine must speak for itself; but the conductors of it presume, that their self-denying efforts to make it subserve its purpose, will be recognized as forming a claim on the approval, the contributions, and the recommendation of our ministers and congregations with this aid a future volume will appear to advantage, and be self-supporting; and, with that gracious influence, "without which nothing is strong, nothing is holy," God will be glorified, and saving good achieved. EDITOR, Christian Temperance..... Coming of Christ, The PAGE. PAGE. 177 New Hymn Book, The 84. 19, 29 13, 141 45, 75 17 157 19 313 15i ... 57 306, 307, 332. 265, 295, 318 Original Sin 175, 227 122 Parental Encouragement Christianity and its Diffusion......................................................... College in Utopia, The. Confession of Original Sin, On the Ashborne, 55, Ashford, 27, 109, 127, 139, 165, Countess of Huntingdon's Missionary Society 244 Notices 27, 55, 83, 110, 111, 168, 222, 251, 280, Prospects of the Year 1854, The ....... Public Recognition of Baptized Infants......... 260 The Cheering Presence... Eines written in Affliction Lines from the Children of a Sabbath School The Bishop of Exeter's Last Manifesto...... The Case of the Manchester Educationists Early Closing Evenings with the Prophets Is it Possible to make the best of both Legendary and Poetic Remains of J. Roby Peace in Life and in Death Portraiture of the Rev. W. Jay. By Rev. 223 251 196 224 280 308 84 308 84 84 262 189 103 131 76 133 51 329 19 302 77 159 161 51 THE HARBINGER. JANUARY, 1854. THE PROSPECTS OF THE YEAR 1854. WITHOUT pretending to the political sagacity that perceives "something looming in the distance,' or to that species of necromancy which seeks knowledge by rapping tables, or to sympathise with better men, who persuade themselves that they can minutely decipher the hieroglyphics of prophecy, we naturally at this period stand on the margin of the year and ask, what we expect its waxing and waning moons shall witness. There are, indeed, some events which cast their shadows before them, and which past experience, reasoning from analogy, enables us so to interpret, as to form some judgment of their probable character. Knowing indeed the wonders of a single day, we may well stand in trembling hope at the produc tion of a year! We are assured that seed time and harvest, summer and winter, shall not fail; and, with their return, the ten thousand concomitants of these seasons. What a multitude of pleasurable and painful thoughts crowd the mind at the mention of these terms! We travel in our prospective view from the smallest change of matter to the revolution of planets: from reflections on instinctive appetite, to the power which convulses either the social, the intellectual, or the moral world. In the ordinary course of human existence, there will be upwards of thirty millions of births; and nearly as many immortal spirits will be called into eternity! What a rush into a state of probation-into the presence of God, the Judge of all!all too in one year! Those who are least political foresee that the year must bring on a crisis, to some considerable extent, in the conflict between the two great antagonistic elements, at work in the political and the religious worlds :between the Autocrat and the Democrat, the Pope and the Protestant. Russia, Austria, and Italy cannot long remain as they are; and Turkey, Hungary, Poland, and other nations will not abide in their present condition. There must be either reconciliation or the most deadly hostility: the scales of justice, or the sharpened sword, and garments rolled in blood. The machinations of the Vatican, and the plots of its pseudo-protestant, Anglican allies, will doubtless further develope themselves; and we trust that Biblical truths will be commended, and the spirit of the Reformation will be stirring in all who detect the treachery and hate the cruelty of the man of sin. Let us watch the signs of the times as they pass, and earnestly pray, that those who have been "bewitched" at home or abroad, may be restored to their right mind; and that those who have long been devoted to superstitions, may be brought into the glorious B liberty of the Children of God. Let Protestants, and especially dissenting Protestants, be aware of their twofold danger---Popery and Neological Infidelity, and see, that they display an unequivocal banner because of the truth--the truth which is mighty and shall prevail. 66 we Various parts of Africa, besides Sierra Leone, with its large island Madagascar,-our still growing Indian territories, and that world of wonders, China, are likely to be still more open to missionary exertions and triumphs. The past has been the year of Jubilee of their formation with many large Christian Societies, will hope and pray, that the present may be a year of Jubilee, respecting the effects of their operations---especially in the field of Missions. The great trumpet shall be blown by an increased number of heralds, and they shall come which are ready to perish" -not from Assyria to Egypt only; but the outcasts of every land shall echo the grateful note-"Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound." "Fly abroad, thou mighty Gospel;" ye million of Chinese Holy Scriptures, carry the news of a Saviour to the disciples of Confucius, and "shake a thousand blessings from your balmy wings," on that wonderful empire. And, O! thou who did'st once and again descend like a dove, graciously visit the people now bleeding through civil discord; and, pricked to the heart by that which wounds for the purpose of giving health, let them keep a Christian Pentecost, and add millions to such as shall be saved. This year, too, we trust, while we may be called still to drop tears for Tahiti, we shall have to exult over Madagascar, with the faithful of its long-tried saints, and witness the yoke of idolatry destroyed because of the anointing; and the Idol utterly abolished; or, at least, famishing to death. May the overturnings of nations yearly taking place, introduce the Messiah "whose right it is to reign." Vapours press upon the Hill of 18 an Zion the ecclesiastical prospects are far from cloudless, and we know not how "the dew" may be converted into a "blessing;" yet, we know that the King of Zion has commanded it to rest there---" even life for evermore." We are, indeed, in a strange position: the worst form of Christianity is better than Mahommedanism, and yet justice and humanity demand our good wishes for the Turk. Popery is preferable to heathenism; and yet, who can behold the usurpations of France in the Pacific, and not feel indignation? The vest of the Anglican, "close buttoned to the chin,' improvement on a gay, fox-hunting generation of reverends in buckskin and scarlet; and yet who can see our superior youth corrupted with Romanism at our Universities by professors; our candidates for orders strengthened in semi-Popish avowals, by bishops; the colonies abroad and parishes at home increasingly under the influence of the same doctrines; the infatuation of so many of the higher members of society, with the pomp and circumstance of worship, the assumptions of the priesthood, and the soothing power of absolution: who can behold all this and more, and not say --"Surely the year must come when this pernicious leaven shall be purged out of every professor's chair in our Colleges, and every episcopal throne in our Cathedrals: when the Protestantism of our country shall not be trifled with either at Oxford, at Exeter, or at Frome :-surely there will come a period, when all men of sound judgment and honest heart will turn with disgust from the sophistries of Tractarianism, and the iniquity of a Protestant Church feeding a Catholic priesthood, and clothing the servants of error with the livery of truth. If, indeed, our ecclesiastical courts have been called an Augean stable, what shall we term some of our ecclesiastical halls and temples ?--- Create in us clean hearts, O God, and renew right spirits within us.' 999 O that no prophetic burthen press |