Vice-Presidents. HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF NEW- | SIR HENRY SMYTH, BART., M.P. CASTLE. W. S. BLACKSTONE, M.P. RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF HENRY BLANSHARD. WINCHILSEA. COLONEL BRUEN, M.P. THE CHISHOLM. JOHN HARDY, M.P. MAJOR-GENERAL MʻINNES. 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 |