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fervently pray, that all those who edit our religious periodicals may be enabled to discharge their arduous duties under a deep sense of their responsibility to God and his church.

We will not, however, conceal the fact, that amidst the incessant competitions springing up on the right hand and on the left, there is danger of something like confusion or perplexity in the public mind: works that have done good service to the cause of religion are apt to be lost sight of; while others, too well established, and too highly valued to be permanently injured, experience a temporary vicissitude. We would not attempt to dictate to the religious public, nor would we utter a single insinuation against any of the contemporary publications of the day, new or old; but we venture to remind the friends of evangelical religion throughout the United Kingdom, and more especially the Congregationalists and Presbyterians, that they will be guilty of a great dereliction of duty and gratitude, if they suffer the Evangelical Magazine, which has served them faithfully for more than fifty years, to be so far depreciated in sale, as to be unable to meet the claims of One hundred and fifty of their widows, now receiving stated assistance from its funds, to an amount varying from Twelve to Fourteen hundred pounds per annum. We call on Pastors, Deacons, and Members of churches, to aid us in our anxious effort to preserve unimpaired this boon, for the widows of those servants of Christ who have entered into rest. They can secure this object if they will. It is but to say it shall be done, and it will be done. But this must not be the work of the few, but the many. All have an interest in it. Let all charge themselves with a becoming measure of responsibility. We suggest, as a parting thought a thought which we believe to be perfectly practicable, -THAT EVERY READER OF THE EVANGELICAL MAGAZINE WILL BEST TO SECURE ANOTHER FOR THE 1ST OF JANUARY, 1846.

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THE

EVANGELICAL MAGAZINE,

AND

MISSIONARY CHRONICLE.

FOR JANUARY, 1845.

ADDRESS TO THE UNCONVERTED ON THE NEW YEAR.

twilight of the morning and the shadows of the evening, the months as they pass and the seasons as they revolve, all say to man-Pause and consider, that you may perform present duty, and not be hurried into eternity unprepared. Yet how vast is the number of those on whom such considerations produce no lasting or beneficial effect! Day succeeds to day, year rolls on after year, and still they are found seeking good in the things of time, pleased with joys which cannot satisfy, and captivated with the fleeting pleasures of this earthly scene.

ANOTHER year is gone. How quickly has it passed! So apparently rapid has been its course, that we seem almost unable to realize the fact. Yet so it is. We have reached another station in our pilgrimage through this world; we have advanced another stage nearer eternity. How solemn is the truth! Days and weeks and months pass away without calling forth any particular notice, or exciting in us any unusual emotions; but when the last day of December closes upon us we are led as it were to imagine that time makes a pause,-that it stops in its progress onward to gain fresh energy for the race. It is true, this is an illusion—a mere fiction of the imagination, but it is an illusion of which we ought to take advantage for our own improvement. At this season, a point seems to be indicated for man to sit down and meditate on his destiny,—to examine the past and the present of his moral history and condition, and from his experience of the past to gather wisdom for the fu-bably you have had an ordinary measure ture. But although this period especially of enjoyment in your existence; but are speaks in tones which cannot be misun- you aware that you have lived to yourself, derstood, as to the importance of such and not to God? that you have, in fact, considerations on the part of man, the lived to no purpose, as far as regards whole course of nature and the divisions your prospect for another world? Since of time are arranged on the same prin- the commencement of the year which ciple, and teach the same lesson. The has just closed, many souls have been

VOL. XXIII,

Reader! we address you as one of this number, as one who has hitherto lent a deaf ear to the "still small voice" uttered by the lapse of time, urging you to prepare for eternity. In doing so, we would beseech you to reflect on the past, and would press on you the importance of asking yourself what you have been doing during the twelve months which are now gone. You have been spared, and pro

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gathered into heaven, and many sinners --some of whom, perhaps, you knowhave been led to cast from them the weapons of their warfare against God and to submit to his authority, while you are still persevering in your rebellion against him, and practically declaring that you will not have him to reign over you. Why is it so? Put the question seriously to yourself. Have you not enjoyed great and important privileges? Have you not been favoured with many signal blessings? Have you not been warned of the guilt and danger of your condition, and with affectionate earnestness besought to flee for safety to the only refuge set before you in the gospel? Yet, although pressed and plied with the invitations of mercy; although threatened with the denunciations of wrath,-you have continued unmoved and unchanged. You have been reasoned with, but you have not been convinced; motives have been set before you, but you have not been persuaded; your consciences have been appealed to, and though perhaps aroused for the time, you have settled down again in increased indifference to the truth as it is in Jesus. At the present moment you are without God and without hope, having no bright prospect for another world to cast back a glowing and a gladsome light on the trials and sorrows you have to meet with in this. The judgments of Jehovah have failed to subdue you, and his mercies have failed to melt you; his invitations have not drawn you, nor have his promises allured you. Melancholy thought! Is this, then, the record which the past year has carried into eternity regarding you-a record of neglected privileges, despised warnings, and abused blessings? Perhaps no open sin can be charged against you; but where have been your love and gratitude to God? You may not have arowed your hostility to the Saviour, but in your hearts has there not been a destructive indifference to his claims on your affection? You may have gone regularly to the "place of the holy," and have been exemplary in your attendance on the means of grace; but you

have neither improved these privileges, nor profited by them, and even now you remain in the congregation of the dead. Does not the very thought alarm you? Are you not ashamed and confounded when you review your past carelessness and obduracy? Mercy and forgiveness through the shed blood of a crucified Saviour have

been offered you, but you have refused to accept them. Life and good, death and evil, have been set before you, but in the blindness of your minds, and the hardness of your hearts, you have been manifesting your preference of the latter. How aggravated is your guilt, how great is your danger!

But turning from the past to the present, what is your intention now in reference to the interests of your soul? God has spared you to see the beginning of another year he has prolonged your existence, and thus lengthened the time of your visitation. He speaks to you at this season in a voice which you cannot misunderstand. By the close of one, and the commencement of another period of your existence, he urges you to pause, consider, and return unto himself. What, then, is your resolution now? Is the year on which you have entered to be spent as the past? Are the same privileges to be enjoyed and neglected the same admonitions to be received and disregarded-the same invitations, promises, and entreaties to prove ineffectual, in inducing you to turn and live? Though convinced in your mind that the path you have hitherto trodden is the path that leads to death, are you inclined to pursue it a little further, that you may enjoy its "stolen waters," and its forbidden pleasures? Oh! "stop and think." Perhaps, at the beginning of last year, you resolved to turn your attention to religion ere its close; but the last sun of eighteen hundred and fortyfour has set upon you, and still you are undecided. And, now, would you procrastinate even longer? If so, when do you purpose giving your thoughts to the things which belong unto your peace? If you say it is not now a convenient

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