THE circumstances attending the completion of our fourth volume powerfully remind us of the professions with which we commenced our labours. Devoting our pages to support the principles of our forefathers, we designed to cherish no other spirit than that of love for the truth's sake. The acceptance which our endeavours have met with we attribute to the estimation in which those principles are held by the mass of our people; and we wish to record it with humble gratitude and cheerful hope, that the hand of the Lord has been evidently with us. We have received very gratifying assurances from various quarters, that the feeble-minded have been enabled to go on their way-the zeal which had almost expired has been kindled to new activity-and not a few have been comforted when encountering the last enemy-by the contents of our pages. Thus our prayers have been accepted of Him who is the giver of every good and perfect gift,

In our attempts to honour him and promote the welfare of his people, God has given us favour in the eyes of our brethren. They have accepted with kindness the use of a medium long, wanted, to gather what was scattered abroad, and by the affection and confidence increased by intercourse, to unite the energies which were spending their strength alone. More than a century had elapsed since a General Meeting of the Baptist's had been held in the metropolis. The assembling of a great proportion of the pastors of our churches, with their messengers, in the summer of the past year, to lay the foundation of a General Union of the denomination, afforded a high gratification to many; and we recorded with pleasure the first expressions of their affection and zeal-the affection of BRETHREN IN THE LORD, and zeal inspired by the enjoyment of is presence and

reliance upon

his promise. We regard these as the precursors of blessings of no small magnitude to all the branches of our zion; of which it will be our care to make a faithful report.

The security and extension of the Religious Privileges which we enjoy in this highly favoured Island, afford ground of grateful acknowledgment to Him from whom the shields of the earth derive wisdom and strength. But we are not to rest here. Such a state of things loudly announce to us the will of our heavenly Father. If we possess the savour of the knowledge of Christ, it is that we may spread it around us far and near. If we are comforted in all our tribulations through the testimony of God concerning his Son, it is that we may comfort others with the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. Our enlarged privileges are not intended to shut us up in safety that we may slumber in peace; they are a call to labour, not to repose: they open a door for new and greater exertions in all the confidence of hope. Let us work the works of God while the day is with us.

The recent accessions to our stated contributors render it almost unnecessary to advert to the contemplated improvement of our work. From their hands our readers know what to anticipate. Our Mission in the east, which is manifestly rising in extent and importance, will firruisti par department of Religious Intelligence.with many interesting articles; and when our limits wilt perittit, it is intended to pay a summary attention to the labours of our brethren of other denominations. :..:

We earnestly solicit the continuance of that aid with which we have hitherto been favoured, and the influence of our friends in drawing others to the improvement of our work; above all, we request a place in their petitions before the throne of the Most High, that an abundant supply of the spirit of Christ, may be afforded to its contributors and conductors, that it may flow through our churches as a stream from that river which makes glad the city of God.

BAPTIST MAGAZINE.

JANUARY, 1812.

"Whatever is designed to fit every thing will fit nothing well." DR. JOHNSON. "Names are intended to distinguish Things." Our Work is called The BAPTIST MAGAZINE, because it is intended to be a Repository for the Baptists' use.

An Address to Young Persons.

More particularly to those who have had the advantages of a religious education; suggested by the commencement of the New Year.

Dear young people,

ANOTHER year of your mortal existence has clapsed! another year with all its opportunities, with all its privileges, with all the expostulations of ministers, with all the prayers of friends! It is gone, never more to be recalled! A new year has commenced, attended with blessings equal in variety and importance, to that which has so imperceptibly gli ded away. At such an interesting period, while we are endea vouring to arouse you to thankfulness; we entreat you to ima gine the great God stooping from his throne, and with looks of awful sweetness, accosting you in the language of the prophet Wilt thou not from this time,,ery unto me, My Father, thou art the guide of my youth? Feeling ourselves deeply impressed with the solemnity of this enquiry, we urge you to an attentive review of your past years.

There is nothing to which a reflective mind is more inclined than to an interesting survey of past events. Should this survey not only include the circle in which a man may have individually moved, but extend to the infinite variety of events which have transpired on the face of the world since the years

Vol. IV.

* Jer. iii. *.

A

of his own remembrance; what a crowd of impressive images would fix his attention," awaken his astonishment, soften him to grief, or elevate him to joy.

Since you began to live, how many new existences have been introduced to this world; some to share the honours and titles of the great, others to contend with the rigours of penury; some to bathe in indolence and luxury, others to groan beneath the pressure of care; some to bless and adorn society, others to degrade not only their own character, but even that of their species.

From the moment in which you began to live, how many terrifying circumstances have occurred to awaken your surprise; you have lived in a time of unparalleled revolutions; the earth has been covered with contending armies; the occan has been reddened with human blood; the firmest thrones have...” been shaken, and the most superb monarchs have been precipitated into the depths of adversity and ignominious suffering.

Within your remembrance what dessolations have been made in the earth by the king of terrors! No nation has escaped his wrath-no family has evaded his arrows! The hoary sire, and the weeping infant; the busy and anxious father, and the amiable and intelligent youth, have alike bowed to his irresistible mandate! But observe, however interesting these reflections may appear, they are far inferior in their consequences to those which you may make on yourselves, and on some parti cular circumstances which have tended to form your character, or which have placed you under a dreadful responsibility.

Some persons are conversant with almost every thing but their own hearts; they have studied languages, history, philo sophy, &c. but never employed a single hour in retiring into: their own bosoms they talk of crimes but never think on their own; they gorcere that piety has a claim on all but themselves, and instead of crying, :from: a contemplation of their own advantages, My. Father, thon at the guide of my youth; they exclaim, We know not the Lord,neither will we obey his

voice.

Accompany us then, dear young people, in our reflections: on those momentous instances of your lives which seem to have so strong a claim on your submission to your divine Benefactor.

Review the providential distinctions, which many of you have enjoyed. Are you destined to lodge without clothing, to be wet with the showers of the mountains, and to embrace the rock for want of a shelter? Are you shivering at the door

of frozen benevolence, or wounding the ear of humanity with the relation of your distresses? Are you tortured on a bed of pain, or numbered among the dying and the lost? No, far from this, most of you enjoy the vigour of youth and the bloom of health, you are screened from the cold by suitable clothing, and from the dreary night by a comfortable dwelling. Some of you are blessed with affectionate parents, and those of you who have been bereaved are favoured with friends, of whose kind and generous advice you may at any time avail yourselves.. You have been protected and guided by a gracious Providence. Trace all that you enjoy to the benevolence of God: your comforts will be endeared to you in proportion as you contemplate the majesty of the Being from whom you receive them. Behold him on a throne of glory, controlling the events of the world; weighing the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance this is the august Being who watched over your in-. fant years; he laid you in the bosom of a tender mother; he covered your limbs with clothing; he provided food for your bodies; when diseases attacked you, he has removed them. Do you not hear a voice from each of these merciful providences, Wilt thou not from this time say unto me, My Father, thou art the guide of my youth?

Let us direct your attention to your superior opportunities of religious instruction. In what a desolate state is a very large part of the moral world. Savages instruct their youth in arts of brutal cruelty-to point the arrow, and to scalp the enemy. Heathens of a more refined cast, if they do not wholly neglect the improvement of the youthful mind, associate with their instructions, notices the most superstitions and absurd. They point to the sun, to the skies, to a block of stone, and say, behold your god! Contemplate the polite classes in christian. countries; they take the utmost pains to polish and refine the minds of their children; but for the most part neglect their souls. Reflect on those who move in the circles of wretchedness; their youth are generally trained up to profligacy and low impiety. We congratulate you, children of religious parents-you are not the offspring of untutored savages, of bewildered heathens, of the dissipated rich, or of the abandoned and wandering sons of misery. The lines are fallen to you in pleasant places, you have a goodly heritage.

You have enjoyed the advantages of a Christian ministry.. Jesus Christ commissioned his disciples to preach the Gospel, to every creature, because its truths are accommodated to in-.