THE GENERAL BAPTIST REPOSITORY, AND MISSIONARY OBSERVER. VOL. V.-NEW SERIES. 1843. LONDON: PUBLISHED BY SHERWOOD, GILBERT, & PIPER, PATERNOSTER ROW. Ar the termination of another volume of this periodical, the Editor is desirous of tendering his best wishes to his readers, and to promise them his assiduous attention in in the course of the next year, to the advancement of the interest, respectability, and utility of this work. The success which may attend the prosecution of his labours, he is conscious will materially depend on the kindness of his brethren, to whose pen he is indebted for many valuable communications, and on those friends in the various Churches who furnish from time to time intelligence of the movements and progress of the Churches, and the various Institutions connected with them, for insertion in this Miscellany, and also on the agents and others who interest themselves in the extension of its sale. To them, one and all, he would now tender his cordial thanks, and he would most affectionately urge them to continue their labour of love. Many of our friends would be induced to take the periodical for themselves, if it were presented to their notice, and by that means would become more extensively acquainted with the Connexion, and more intensely interested in its progress and welfare. There is but little of denominational feeling existing in the minds of those who are unacquainted with the operations of the body, and what may exist, cannot be expected to be sustained, if the aliment supplied by a denominational periodical is not received. For the encouragement of our Correspondents and Essayists, it may also be remarked, that by very many readers, their labours are highly appreciated, and gratefully remembered. There are circumstances under which the favours of our Ministers, Correspondents, Agents, and friends are doubly welcome to the Editor, and these, to an unparalleled extent exist at the present time. The Editor therefore solicits them, on the principle of personal friendship, and of denominational preference, kindly to put forth their best efforts, that the character, utility, and sale of this, the only accredited periodical of the Connexion, may be advanced, and that every attempt to ruin or injure it, may be rendered abortive. For our own part we are render the work a worthy resolved to spare no pains to representative of the body for whose especial benefit it is published and sustained. The chief events of general importance which have occurred in our Churches, during the last forty years, and the biography of our Fathers and our guides, whose memory we piously venerate, are contained in the existing volumes of this work. Nor has the Repository been entirely unproductive to the Connexion, though pecuniary profit was not the main end of its existence. It would be a happy feature of this periodical, if from every Church, intelligence of all its additions, revivals, extraordinary meetings, its progress and prosperity, and notices of deaths, &c., expressed in as few words as possible to be explicit and comprehensive, were promptly forwarded to the Editor for insertion in the Intelligence department. There is no Church, the prosperity and progress of which, is not grateful to every friend of our Zion. Let this periodical be, in the completest sense of the term, a REPOSITORY of the sentiments, movements and progress of the New Connexion of General Baptists, as well as, of the names and character and deeds of those who have been its most honourable members and distinguished ornaments and supporters. Let its friends, and the friends of order and peace in the Connexion, firmly stand by their own periodical. It will then be invested with present usefulness, increasing interest, and permanent importance. That the God of all grace may preserve us from every evil work, and render our labours in this periodical a blessing to all our Churches is the earnest prayer of Leicester, Nov. 22, 1843. THE EDITOR. |