THE EVANGELICAL MAGAZINE FOR THE YEAR 1802. THE Profits ARISING FROM THE SALE OF THIS MAGAZINE, are applied to the Relief of THE WIDOWS OF GOSPEL MINISTERS, PREFACE. WHEN the Evangelical Magazine was first in contemplation, the minds of many began to be agitated by political speculations; but our country still enjoyed the calm of peace. While our arrangements were making, hostilities with France commenced; and the political effervescence among ourselves considerably increased. The evils, foreign and domestic, that ensued, are too well known to be here recited. Through the blessing of God, we have carefully steered our little Bark over the troubled waters, without deviating, in a single instance, from the track we proposed. No political sentiment, from any quarter, has ever obtained admission into our publication. On the contrary, it has been our invariable study, to direct our readers to higher objects, and matters of superior consideration; and to allay the intemperance of political disquisition, among serious people, by withdrawing their attention from the things which are seen and temporal, and fixing it on the things which are unseen and eternal. By Divine assistance, we shall always pursue the same course. Very beneficial consequences have evidently resulted from the prudent and peaceable method we were led to adopt. Several of the plans suggested in our Magazine, for extending the kingdom of Christ, have been so cordially approved, and so zealously acted upon by vast numbers of our fellow-christians, as to leave them but little leisure, or inclination, to think on the inferior concerns of worldly politics. Amidst great difficulties and dis'couragements, occasioned by the pressure of the times, and other circumstances, unusual efforts have been made by them to spread the Gospel at home and abroad. But while the good that hath been already accomplished ought to fill us with gratitude, the prospects before us VOL. X, B ale |