PREFACE.

THE present number of the Magazine concludes the second volume. From the beginning, the circulation has steadily increased, and now is very considerable. Fresh friends have been raised up to help us, and the love of none of our old ones has decayed; but rather, we are thankful to be able to say, we have received gratifying and encouraging testimonies in favor of the Magazine from many quarters, and have good reason to hope that our humble labors have not been altogether fruitless and in vain. We may therefore, here erect our Ebenezer, saying, like God's people of old, "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us."—(1 Samuel, vii. 12.)

In simplicity and godly sincerity, we have, we trust, endeavoured to fulfil our duty faithfully as to the Lord; and it has not been discharged without dependence upon His blessing, and prayers for His counsel and assistance. We hope, therefore, that we have so far been guided aright, as to have escaped any errors in fact, and have derived from Him who giveth wisdom liberally to them that ask Him, (James i. 5.) sufficient judgment and ability for the proper accomplishment of our undertaking. If so, we are content; not claiming or envying the wisdom of the world, but knowing that He has chosen its weak things to confound the wise, and that by our feeble instrumentality, if it please Him, He can expose His adversaries and ours.

Considerable difficulties and temptations sometimes beset us, and it may be that some of our friends have noticed more errors or mistakes than their kindness and indulgence allow them to make known. Let all such discoveries induce them to pray for us, and to remember how important a post ours is in these trying days, and how unfortunate and detrimental it would be, if we, to whom not a few in the country look for fidelity and advice, should fail in any part of our duty. If they consider this, they will, we hope, not fail to remember us at the Throne of Grace, whence alone we look for guidance and direction. "The beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it." -(Psalm x. 17.)

PROTESTANT MAGAZINE.

JANUARY 1, 1840.

THE ROYAL MARRIAGE.

In taking a review of the past year it is our bounden duty to express our thankfulness to the Supreme Giver of all Good for the unmerited mercies we have received, to be humbled for all the failures we have committed, and to pray for grace and strength and wisdom from above that we may be enabled to proceed with courage and without fainting, and be found sincere and faithful in defence of the righteous cause we desire to maintain, the cause of that pure and reformed Religion which under the Blessing of Almighty GoD has been planted and established in this our Native Land.

At the commencement of a New Year we enter upon a subject which will be universally allowed to be one of the highest interest and importance to the Nation at large. We would always bear in mind that Marriage in itself is declared in Scripture to be honorable in all; in all persons, and in all things. We cannot therefore but regard with the highest reverence an institution which was ordained by God himself (as our Church expresses it) in the time of man's innocence; which our blessed Lord whilst on earth honoured by His first miracle and His presence, and which was intended to signify the mystical union that subsists betwixt Christ and his Church. It is well known to be a Christian duty, on every occasion of the kind, to pray for the Divine Blessing on those among our friends in private life, who may be joined together in this Holy Ordinance. But, when the Head of the Nation, of all the families of the State, is about to contract the sacred obligations of matrimony, every faithful subject must feel an interest for the happiness of the Sovereign proportioned to the ardour of his Loyalty, and the purity of his Christian Patriotism. By the provisions of our inestimable Constitution, an indissoluble connection is established between the interests of the Sovereign and those of the people. And therefore the solemn and irreversible contract, in which she is about to be engaged, must be regarded as a transaction of the most momentous kind in a national point of view. We are fully aware of the reasons which may be adduced in favour of the marriage state in the case of a Queen Regnant. In that of our beloved Queen, it will undoubtedly be a great advantage, that she should be rescued, by the contemplated change in her condition, from future counsel and communication with a Prime Minister, who could present to his Royal Mistress VOL. II.-January, 1840.

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