AN ADDRESS TO OUR READERS.

IN crossing the threshold of another year, we desire to meet our readers with the words uttered by Boaz to his reapers, "The Lord be with you" (Ruth ii. 4), since we are assured in our heart that no better portion can we either desire for our readers or crave for ourselves; for if this God (the God of Jacob) is our God, we have a true and an all-sufficient Friend who will never be found wanting in mercy and goodness to those "who think upon His name," and "choose the things that please Him" (see Mal. iii. 16; Isa. lvi. 4).

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We may now, as we enter upon 1882, reflect upon the fact that another year has sped its course, and another page is added to our life's short history below. Many of our friends have finished their course since we penned our last New Year's Address, and concerning some, we feel certain that they have proved the blessedness of being "absent from the body and present with the Lord." We are still, in mercy, spared, and have great cause to be thankful for the goodness which our covenant God has caused to pass before us thus far in our journey through life. personal trials, afflictions, and sorrows which we may have known during the past year are over and gone, never more to return; and, if manifold sins of omission and commission, heart backslidings from God, spiritual sloth and unfruitfulness, are now before our eyes as a black list, and pain our hearts as we remember them, let us also consider how great that mercy has been which, notwithstanding our ill-deserts, has followed us through every varied circumstance of our experience; and may the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of all grace, fill us with that "godly sorrow which worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of;" and may we be led afresh by Him to the fountain of Jesus' blood, opened for guilty and unclean ones who are afflicted by, and mourn over, sin, there to feel the sweets of pardoning love and heavenly peace; and, looking up to Him who loved, and lived, and died, may we thus receive from the Fountain-head rich supplies of grace and strength, to renew and encourage us in the race that is set before us, as we onward urge our way toward the prize, "looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith."

In noticing the current of general events, we do not wish to waste time nor to foster a party spirit by even seeming to encourage among the disciples of Christ a desire to participate No. 37, NEW SERIES, JANUARY, 1882.

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in the angry strivings of worldly men. But we do not think we act wisely to close our eyes to, or manifest a spirit of indifference respecting, those things which concern our peace as citizens and our privileges as Christians. Therefore, while we deprecate that spirit which gives politics the precedence over every other moral consideration, and manifests itself in acerbity and unkindness toward those who differ from the views of its possessors, we, nevertheless, wish to see those who fear God and love Zion awake to the evils which are fast growing among us, to the danger of the rising race, the constitution of our country, and the peace of the Church of God. Can we look with unconcern upon the spread of infidelity and its accompanying evils, called Socialism and Nihilism? These have already borne deadly fruits abroad, and signs are not wanting of this leaven existing in our own beloved land. May God, in mercy, frustrate the designs of those who would give its advocates a place among the legislators of our nation; and may the power of the Holy Ghost so attend the spread of the divine Word that this offshoot of Satan may be effectually driven back and put to shame. Or is the spread of Popery to be looked upon by us with indifference? This foe to our faith and liberties is energetically seeking to obtain deep root in our once Reformation-loving country, where Rome would gladly again enslave the freed sons and daughters of Britain by bringing us under her dominant authority, and reducing us to the level of poor priest-ridden Ireland.

Some of the Papal dignitaries in that land have of late professed a want of sympathy with the extreme measures of the Land League; but, judging from their previous conduct, there is little doubt but they secretly encouraged that spirit of insubordination which has manifested itself openly in the "no rent' policy and the cowardly and cruel work of the assassin; and, had there been any reasonable probability of success, these same characters would most likely have been found among the leading spirits in a rebellious uprising of the people against good and wholesome authority. Popery is opposed to the best interests of men, civil and religious; and, while we live, we hope we shall never cease to oppose her, by informing the minds of the young as to her true character, and spreading abroad that truth which comes from God, and which is opposed to darkness and error. We hope that all lovers of the Gospel may be inclined to give their prayerful and earnest attention to this work, even though it may entail some sacrifice of substance and ease, lest our slothfulness should give the enemy an advantage over us. Oh, that the Spirit may be poured out from on high upon Zion, to melt and unite in love the hearts of those who are called with a holy calling; for not only is there thick gloom in the professing

world around us, but there is also cause for lamentation and humility before God respecting the state of what we believe to be the Zion of the Most High.

Ritualism is working like an eating cancer in the Church of England, where law-breakers are petted and promoted by some of our law-makers; and, on the other hand, the general sections of Nonconformists are going farther and farther from the simplicity of Christ, and it now appears that some, who perhaps are disappointed at not having received what they expected from the revisers of the New Testament in support of their errors, are daringly calling in question the inspiration of one or more books thereof. This, however, may naturally be expected where a kind of Rationalism is, taught in so many pulpits, and is the ignis-fatuus followed by so many worldly-wise professors. But we may at least be thankful that, after the whole of that blessed Book has undergone a crucial test at the hands of a number of the ablest scholars of our time, every doctrine therein revealed, and dear to us, remains unimpaired and clear; and, however some of the alterations made may be objected to as rendering the new inferior in order and sublimity to the old version, yet we have the satisfaction of knowing that the old version (which we ourselves decidedly prefer) is acknowledged by the ablest critics of the time to be a faithful counterpart of the original text, as far as each part of divine truth is concerned; therefore, we may still cling to our old and beautiful version of the New Testament without any fear that it is likely to be supplanted by this late outcome of scholarly criticism. This, after all, is worth knowing, for however much degenerate professors may cavil at the doctrines of the Gospel, we are now assured that before the honest, though strictest, test of human learning they will ever stand inviolable. Here, then, we have a banner which is proved to be what we confess we have received-"the truth as it is in Jesus"—and we need not fear to display it, for the Author of truth has declared, My Word that goeth forth out of My mouth shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it."

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And now, dear friends, having briefly noticed some things of an uninviting character, we wish to say that our object in doing so is to remind parents and friends of the young, of the great need of being alive to their interests; and especially should those who fear God ever be careful as to the kind of influence under which their children are allowed to come, for the snares that beset their path are many, and it therefore becomes us to be firm in the face of the foe, that we may not have to reflect when too late that the steps of those under our care were not sufficiently watched over in the time of weakness and danger. It is true we cannot give