SIMPKIN, MARSHALL & Co.; SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION, 60, PATERNOSTER-ROW; JOSEPH GILLETT, MANCHESTER; ROBERTSON, DUBLIN; GALL AND SON, EDINBURGH. SIMPKIN, MARSHALL & Co.; SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION, 60, PATERNOSTER-ROW; JOSEPH GILLETT, MANCHESTER; ROBERTSON, DUBLIN; GALL AND SON, EDINBURGH. MDCCCXLIII. PREFACE. In the review of the year which is now so fast running out, the Editor desires to express his gratitude for the favour with which his labours have been cheered by man, and the usefulness with which they have been crowned by God. The year 1843 will ever be memorable; alarming was the peril, and merciful the preservation of our Sunday Schools. The invasion threatened, has, we believe, been productive of immense good. Public attention has been roused, and public sympathy excited towards them. And now it is for the Churches of Christ to justify the sturdy resistance they made to the late Government measure, by thoroughly training up the young in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. We believe the capabilities of Sabbath Schools have yet to be developed. The good they have effected has been quite proportionate to the instrumentality employed, and the time employed in tuition. But a higher order of means must be engaged on the Sabbath, while through the week the rising race must be effectually drilled in a liberal secular education. The Church of God must take the Sabbath School into its bosom. The immediate conversion and the public consecration of our youth to Christ must be regarded as its most solemn duty, its must gracious privilege. Not satisfied with preparing materials out of which a future generation may erect a spiritual temple, the Church of God must so labour and so pray, as to render youthful conversion certain, adult conversion rare and almost needless. In reference to his future course, the Editor makes no vain promises. To the prosperity of our Sabbath Schools, he is ready to devote his life. He believes they are full of promise for earth and heaven. His own experience through the year confirms his faith in them. In every way it is his first-born desire to promote their interests. The press is a powerful engine; one portion of it he guides; may he be divinely qualified for his work; and now in behalf of the Sunday School population of this kingdom, he solicits the kind assistance of his numerous friends, in still further enriching the pages, and enlarging he circulation of the Sunday School Magazine. Manchester, December 1st, 1843. |