TO THE READERS OF THE MAGAZINE.

We have to say to our readers that it is in contemplation to change somewhat the character of the Magazine; to occupy a little more fully the entire field of missionary labor.

When new exigencies arise in the prosecution of any enterprise, new means must be employed to meet them. Since 1836, when the Magazine became strictly a missionary work, its pages have been devoted chiefly to the communication of missionary intelligence. Perhaps nothing more has been called for than to keep the friends of missions informed of the actual progress of the work. Nothing more was necessary, certainly, if regard were had only to the procurement of the requisite funds. Our condition, however, has become changed. We are now exceedingly straitened for the want of the requisite pecuniary means.

In the infancy of missions, while the missionaries are acquiring the languages of the heathen, and are making translations of the scriptures, the necessary expenses are limited; but when the languages are acquired, and the scriptures translated, the missions are prepared for extension, and the expenses must be greatly augmented. The scriptures must be printed, and additional laborers called in to circulate them and instruct the people out of them; to establish schools and organize churches; and, by an endless variety of means, endeavor to evangelize the people.

The origin of the foreign missionary enterprise among the Baptists of the United States, had much in it that was peculiar. The suddenness with which the plan was developed, and communicated to all our churches, and the success that attended the undertaking;—a success almost without a parallel in the history of missions;-gave to it much of the air of romance, and secured to it, in an uncommon degree, the popular favor. The conception was so grand, and the realization so certain and near, that not only the pious, those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and truth, but all, however slightly they may have been attached to our congregations, were loud in their praise of the undertaking, and were ready to contribute liberally of their substance to sustain it. The age of romance is now past, and the labor, if accomplished at all, must be performed by the tried friends of missions. They, impelled by the constraining love of Christ, must stand fast, and be associated together in still stronger alliances.

The labor of carrying on foreign missions is naturally divided into two departments-the home and the foreign. The one furnishes the necessary means for prosecuting the mission; and the other applies them. The Board has a supervision of both these fields; and in saying that it is intended to modify the character of the Magazine, we mean to say that it is in contemplation to speak through its pages the sentiments, and express the feelings of the Board, with a view of rendering, if possible, our means more effective. Our labors abroad must be graded exactly by the supplies furnished at home; and the Board feel the need, in an especial manner at the present time, of the sympathy and the coöperation of all the friends of missions. We beg that you will give to what we have to say, a candid hearing. And may we not ask the kind offices of our readers in every place to enlarge the present list of subscribers? We ask for access to the people through the columns of the Magazine; we desire that our missionaries may converse with them as laborers in a common cause; and the Board especially desire this intercourse with those, of the riches of whose liberality to the heathen they are but the almoners. Biographical sketches of our departed missionaries, and of distinguished fellow-laborers, will be inserted; and we hope that many of our brethren who are accustomed to write for the press, will be moved with a desire to speak through our columns in such forms as they may deem most subservient to the sacred cause of missions.