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THE

METHODIST NEW CONNEXION

MAGAZINE,

AND

EVANGELICAL REPOSITORY,

FOR THE YEAR 1860.

VOL. XXVIII.-THIRD SERIES.

VOL. SIXTY-THREE FROM THE COMMENCEMENT.

LONDON: WILLIAM COOKE,

EDITOR AND BOOK-STEWARD,

METHODIST NEW CONNEXION BOOK-ROOM,

21, WARWICK-LANE, PATERNOSTER-ROW.

LONDON:

PETTER AND GALPIN, BELLE SAUVAGE PRINTING WORKS

LUDGATE HILL, E. C.

PREFACE.

WE close this, the Twelfth Volume issued under our administration, with the gratification of having a circulation higher than at any former period in our Connexional history, and above 1,000 more than at the time of our appointment to the Editorial office. If this is not an evidence of universal approval, it is an evidence of something that may legitimately afford a modicum of satisfaction. Very diversified indeed, are the views entertained as to the province of a Magazine, and the standard of its excellence. Some would exclude memoirs and Connexional intelligence from its pages, and transform it into a Review, or fill its columns with theological and scientific essays; and others would make it an omnium gatherum of miscellaneous scraps. To adopt such a course would be to sacrifice utility to pedantry, in the one case, and to folly in the other. To dispense with our "BIOGRAPHY" would be to do injustice to both the living and the dead, by allowing departed worth to sink into oblivion, and by depriving piety of one of its most healthy and invigorating stimulants. To dispense with our "CONNEXIONAL DEPARTMENT" would be to ignore our own operations, and make an irreparable chasm in our history; to exclude the delightful intercommunion of ardent and benevolent minds in reference to exciting facts of general interest, and thereby to loosen the bonds of Connexional sympathy, and withdraw a powerful and ever-acting incentive to religious enterprise. The Conference itself, many years gone by, adopted a wise and judicious course in determining that our larger Periodical should be thoroughly Connexional in its scope and character; and though this may limit the range for its display of literary merit, it secures for it a sphere of far more extended usefulness, by providing an efficient medium for fostering personal piety, and promoting denominational interests.

So far, indeed, as our limited space will allow, we are always glad to introduce essays and discourses on theological and scientific subjects, as well as facts and anecdotes tending to illustrate truth and promote experimental holiness and practical usefulness; and such articles occupy a considerable space in every number of the Magazine. Most of these are original, supplied by ourselves and our own ministers and friends, whilst short pieces are mostly borrowed

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