INDEX TO THE SIGNATURES. USED BY THE WRITERS IN THE NINTH VOLUME OF THE PANOPLIST. Friend to Liberality 70, 405 224 448 H. Ar the commencement of a new volume, it is expected that an address shall appear embracing those topics which relate peculiarly to the connexion between our readers and ourselves. As previous addresses of this kind, however, have occupied the principal subjects appropriate to the occasion, the present article will be short. It is to be noticed with devout gratitude, that the present is the era of Christian exertion. Never before were so many persons, in regions so remote from each other, and with views so enlarged and benevolent, engaged to make the Gospel known in all the world, and to prepare the way for the universal prevalence of its heavenly doctrines. Never before did the whole Christian church look forward with such confident anticipations of the approach of that happy period, when love and peace shall reign in the hearts of men, and all oppression, fraud, violence, and war, all infidelity, hypocrisy, and opposition to true religion, shall be effectually and permanently subdued by the Prince of Peace. Preceding ages have desired and prayed for the period alluded to; but for the present age was reserved the honor of taking efficient measures, on a large scale, with a direct view to evangelize the whole human race; measures which seem admirably calculated, with the divine blessing, to accomplish the purpose for which they are taken. Should it be said, that the wars, commotions, and unexampled revolutions of the present day, seem to portend every thing but the peaceful event so much desired, the answer is ready: Precisely such a scene of revolution, tumult, and blood, as we have beheld for a few years past, was foretold, as preparatory to the great and lasting pacification usually called the millennium. The furious wars which have raged above twenty years on the continent of Europe, so far from furnishing an argument against indulging hopes of the kind above specified, are in fact among the most convincing proofs that such hopes are well founded. Let the pious and the benevolent proceed, then, with increased alacrity and zeal; if inclined to despond, at times, let them revive their fainting spirits by studying the prophetic page; and, while laboring and striving to disseminate the seed of Divine truth, let them comfort their hearts with the reflection, that the world shall speedily reap the joyful and abundant harvest. VOL. IX. 1 |