THE METHODIST NEW CONNEXION MAGAZINE, AND EVANGELICAL REPOSITORY, FOR THE YEAR 1854. VOL. XXII.-THIRD SERIES. VOL. FIFTY-SEVEN, FROM THE COMMENCEMENT. LONDON: WILLIAM COOKE, EDITOR AND BOOK-STEWARD, METHODIST NEW CONNEXION BOOK-ROOM, No. 3, ALBANY CRESCENT, ALBANY ROAD, OLD KENt road. PREFACE. A YEAR of remarkable vicissitude is now closing upon us. We may sing of mercy and of judgment. An abundant harvest has been graciously given; but the pestilence has swept away multitudes of mankind;—war has widely spread desolation and death over the earth-shipwrecks, fires, and railway accidents have added to our calamities, and augmented the victims of the fell destroyer. While conflicts and catastrophes have thus agitated the world, large sections of the church have been torn and convulsed by internal dissensions. How suggestive these events!-how admonitory to the church of God! They rebuke our worldliness and apathy; they summon us to repentance, to prayer, to increased spirituality, earnestness, and zeal. God has evidently a controversy with the nations of the earth, and he utters a loud reproof to his unfaithful church. As the conductors of our periodical, we have felt it a duty to lay these facts before our friends, and inculcate from time to time the admonitory lessons they teach. The various doctrines and duties of our holy religion have been asserted, the biography of our departed friends, and the movements of our religious denomination, have been stated, for the edification of our readers; yet we deeply feel how inadequately this has been done, compared with the solemnities of the times and the responsibility of our position. Yet have we cause for gratitude and encouragement. We have peace, consolidation, and union in our body, to which, we trust, the pages of our magazine have contributed. We are thankful to God for the measure of health which has enabled us to prosecute our labours to the close of another year, and the opportunities afforded of being in any degree useful in one sphere, when physical |