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THE

CHRISTIAN HERALD

FOR

1815,

A PERIODICAL MONTHLY PUBLICATION;

INTENDED AS A

REPOSITORY OF EVANGELICAL TRUTH,

AND

Intelligence,

RESPECTING

THE PROGRESS OF THE GOSPEL,

THROUGHOUT THE WORLD.

Go

ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that
believeth and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not, shall
be damned.-Mark xvi. 15, 16.

WHATEVER CLEAR PROFITS may arise frOM THE SALE OF THIS
PUBLICATION, WILL BE DEVOTED TO THE DIFFUSION OF
THE GOSPEL IN SCOTLAND.

VOL. II.

EDINBURGH:

Printed by A. & J. Aikman, High Street,

FOR GUTHRIE AND TAIT, J. OGLE, AND A. JOHNSTONE,

EDINBURGH.

1815,

OTHE

PREFACE.

WHILE the EDITORS of the CHRISTIAN HERALD rejoice with heartfelt joy in contemplating the rapid increase of the Redeemer's Kingdom during the past year, they issue the Second Volume of their Work to the public in circumstances highly auspicious to its further extension; thus, they can cast their eyes backward with delight, and forward with exultation. Britain is at peace with all the world! This is an event which few historians of the present reign have had to record, and it is now recorded with feelings of animated gratitude to HIM to whose merciful providence the happy event is to be ascribed. "Bless the Lord our souls ; and all that is within us bless his holy name." "He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder: he burneth the chariot in the fire." The temporal calamities which war entails upon a nation, and the world at large, may well lead us to rejoice when God hushes the tumults of the people; it is not, however, on

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this account only, nor chiefly, that the EDITORS of the CHRISTIAN HERALD Congratulate their Readers on the establishment of a general peace. They are especially thankful for this event, because it affords facilities which have seldom been enjoyed before, for the employment of those means which God will ultimately bless for the universal diffusion of the gospel of his grace. They cannot but hope then, that their future numbers, if they should be spared to continue their labours, will recount more signal triumphs over ignorance, and superstition, and guilt, and sin, than any which have as yet been achieved In this prospect they could expatiate with delight, but they must leave it to time to complete the picture, which could at best be only very imperfectly drawn with a pencil, guided by imagination and conjecture.

At the close of the last Number of this Magazine, the EDITORS have recorded the proceedings of a meeting held in London on account of the persecutions of the French Protestants; since that article went to press, they have received from the Committee an authenticated statement of their sufferings, which they will lay before their Readers in the next Number They feel that it would be unnecessary to request in their behalf, the sympathy and prayers of Christians in this country. We are too deeply sensible of the value of civil and religious li

berty, to see either of them endangered, without earnestly imploring God to avert the threatened calamity.

In these eventful times, when all the ends of the earth are brought to see the salvation of our God, we are all naturally anxious to enjoy the repast which the Religious Intelligence of the month provides, as soon as possible after it is supplied. To gratify this very laudable desire, the day of publishing the HERALD will be altered from the Third to the Second Monday in the month. And, as the EDITORS have adopted measures for obtaining the intelligence contained in the English Magazines in time for their Publication, they may venture to promise their Readers the earliest repast that can be enjoyed in Scotland, at the same expence.

The EDITORS cannot conclude without expressing their best thanks to their Correspondents, for the assistance they have afforded them in conducting the Work, and their earnest request for the continuance of their favours. They beg also the fervent prayers of the Readers of the HERALD, that God would render it an instrument of promoting in an eminent degree his Kingdom in the world.

EDINBURGH, Dec. 18, 1815.

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