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PREFACE.

COULD our martyred Reformers revisit now the scenes of their labours and sufferings, how would they be shocked to behold the present position of this backsliding nation!

Their time, their treasures, their life-all were given to rescue their Church from superstition, their country from slavery, their posterity from degradation and ruin.

Yet now where are we? Centuries have passed; and instead of pushing onward, to secure and extend the blessings they procured, we have gone backward.

Ignorant of Popery, or fearing to grapple with it-our statesmen have sought to form an alliance with the very system that seeks our overthrow.

Whilst our theologians, as a body, who should be the watchmen for our Zion, give no note of alarm, or do it with so uncertain a sound, that they who hear the trumpet hesitate to prepare for the battle.

Some there are, indeed and we bless God for them-who, with a boldness exceeded only by their faith, and their faith by their love, have pointed out the imminent danger to individual Christians, to Churches, families, and nations, from union with Rome. There are others, however-wily artificers of errorskilled to make the worse appear the better reason, who throw

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the veil of infidelity, which they call charity, over the corruptions of Popery, and lead many aside from that which forms the real ground of the contest, to unimportant matters.

We trust that our Readers will investigate the subject for themselves, and in these times of conflict, be enabled by a true and living faith, to embrace and hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life purchased for us through our Saviour, the Lord Jesus. Oh! let them remember that mere numbers cannot change the nature of truth. Acts of Parliament cannot alter it. Consent of multitudes can never make that to be right which is unscriptural, nor render it consistent with our duty to support what the Spirit of love and truth and wisdom has pointed out, as destined to destruction.

To our literary contributors, we can only proffer our warmest thanks, and re-assure them, that any future communication will be at all times gladly received and highly valued by us.

December, 1846.

THE

PROTESTANT MAGAZINE.

JANUARY, 1846.

THE APPROACHING ELECTION.

THE period cannot be very distant when a general election must take place. We trust that, come when it may, every true-hearted Protestant will be prepared to act his part well. Most unwillingly should we incur the charge, however unjustly, of entering needlessly upon the noisy and unsatisfactory arena of party politics. We feel happy that we are not called upon to do So. We look forward to the period when principle will be placed above party; when questions, involving the best interests of mankind, will no longer be regarded as mere stepping-stones, by which vain and ambitious sciolists may climb to power; nor as mere instruments which politicians may use, to fight the battle of personal pique, or personal aggrandizement and ambition.

We rejoice to witness this change. The growing intelligence and the growing piety of the age cast too strong a light upon the acts of statesmen to permit the veil of office to hide them from public gaze and scrutiny. And if knowledge had been more advanced, and piety had kept pace with knowledge, we should fear little either from the intrigues of Popery and Jesuitism on the one hand—or the open avowals of infidelity and democracy on the other.

The present times certainly appear more fraught with great and important matters than any recorded in the page of history; and in the disruption of parties, in the breaking up of long-established boundary-marks, and the repudiation of long-cherished and oftenavowed principles by statesmen and politicians of the present day, we have supplied a lesson, the moral of which is instructive, and ought not to be forgotten. Whilst it shows how the crafty can make use of the simple, the honest, and confiding, to suit their purposes, and then betray the confidence they have acquired; and, by thus instructing us in the littleness of great men, the folly of the wise, and the uncertainty of terrestrial objects, it should lead all to repose their trust in Him whom earthly change affects not. What will be the future course of events, it is not for us to know. Let it be enough for us to VOL. VIII.-January, 1846. B New Series, No. 1.

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