Assimilation to God, Moral

11

Atheistic Philosophy, Various Aspects of 76, 93, 101, 120

Austria and Rome

279

317

270

380

...

30

169

...

259, 312

356

88

...

319

Word of Advice to

Letter to

340

...

354

42

64

Home Education, Rules for

Infidelity, British and the Old Testament

Infidels, a Night with the Glasgow

Infidel Neophyte, Dilemmas of an 297, 334, 344, 365, 393

Infidel Curiosity, an

...

...

::

322

332

383, 397

363

188

181

376, 399
33

135

387

...

6

97

Nuggets from the Golden Remains' of John Hales 4, 34,

50, 113, 129

Pulpit, Literature of

THE

BIBLE DEFENDER:

A PENNY WEEKLY ORGAN

OF RELIGIOUS, SOCIAL, AND POLITICAL INFORMATION,

No. 1.

AND DISCUSSION ON POINTS OF DIFFICULTY AND INTEREST.

• Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.'-BIBLE.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 5, 1856.

PRICE 1d.

CONTENTS.

We do not hesitate to avow it as an article of our creed, that God's hand
may be seen in human history. We do not mean that divine action inter-
feres with human agency; but that, leaving man free to choose for himself,
God uses him as an instrument for carrying out a pre-arranged and perfect
plan. He does not cause the crimes of princes, nor the corruption of peo
ples, but He often uses them for the effectuation of great and beneficent
ends. It is thus that we may discern God in history, and see its events
pregnant with moral instruction, if not preludes of a brighter day. As it is
part of our plan to review, from a Christian stand-point, the events of each
week, which may be regarded as keys to the interpretation of the divine
arrangement. We must, in our first number, briefly glance at the leading
cecurrences of 1855.

The curtain is falling on another year-one of the most eventful of the

century, full of change and of significance, if not of promise. There are

portents of wider revolutions than the world has yet seen, and the eye of

taith may discern light for the nations deepening on the distant mountain

tops. It found us at war; and it leaves us without any satisfactory hope

of peace.

Diplomacy had done its best to avert a struggle with Russia, but

in vain. The schemes of Catherine, and the will of Peter the Great, did

not slumber in the archives of St. Petersburg, but found their exponent in

each successive Czar; and, in Nicholas, found one who watched the favour-

able moment for carrying them to a successful issue. For years, secretly,

in the yards of Nicolaieff and the docks of Sebastopol, he had prepared the

instruments for the subjugation of Turkey. With the central powers of

Europe at his feet, England and France viewing each other with somewhat

of their old suspicion, the dispute about the Holy Places seemed to have

No. 1, Vol. I.