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LONDON:

J. RIDER, PRINTER, 14, BARTHOLOMEW CLOSE.

PREFACE.

THE First Volume of "THE BIBLE CLASS MAGAZINE" is now in the reader's hands. It was commenced to supply what had long been felt a deficiency in our periodical literature. Amongst the stores of religious and instructive works emanating monthly from the press, not one was to be found exactly adapted to the senior scholars and junior teachers of our Sunday schools, with the rising youth of our congregations. A few very excellent periodicals for youth were in the market, but the price of some, the denominational character of others, and the absence of the exact features needed for this particular class, from all, prevented their general adoption. A work was needed which should be at once instructive and entertaining, religious and unsectarian, attractive and cheap. The Committee of the Sunday School Union observed the deficiency, and resolved, if possible, to supply it. Some of our country unions urged them to the enterprise, and they at last ventured to enter on it. A prospectus, detailing their resolution, was prepared and put in circulation amongst the friends and guardians of our youth. All hailed it with pleasure, and now the reader has in his hands the first year's attempt to realise the expectations their prospectus gave rise to. In how far it supplies the defect deplored, and meets the end desired, he must determine. To the Committee who projected, and have hitherto sustained, and to the Editor who has so far conducted the work, it has been no small reward to find it meet with such general approval; while a monthly circulation of FIFTEEN THOUSAND Copies has served fully to attest its acceptance with the class it has sought to benefit.

Most devoutly would they express their grateful feeling towards Him to whom whatever of fitness, acceptability, and usefulness the work may have exhibited must be traced. At every step they have sought his Divine direction, and now that he has, in some degree, given them success, they would unite in saying, "Not unto us, not unto us, O Lord! but unto thy name be glory!"

A large number of kind and efficient contributors demand also their grateful notice. The productions of many of these enrich their pages, while those that have not been deemed suitable for publication are still held as kind expressions of deep interest in the work, and hearty desires to promote its ends. To "Old Alan Gray," (the much honoured and beloved "Old Humphrey,") the Rev. Dr. Hewlett, **, J. A., Dr. Huie, Mrs. Drummond, Ann Jane, Miss H. D. of D., John M'L., and many others, their best thanks are tendered, with the earnest solicitation, that, in the forthcoming year, their kind assistance will still be rendered.

The Committee and Editor cheerfully pledge themselves, should they be spared through another year, to spare no pains to make the work all it ought to be as THE MAGAZINE FOR OUR RISING YOUTH, but they must still look to their friends throughout the country to aid them in the effort. To them and to the youth of our congregations and our schools, they commend their labours; while they crave a place in their interests, their sympathies, and their prayers. May the Giver of all good smile upon, and crown their past and coming labours with enlarged success!

THE

BIBLE CLASS MAGAZINE.

Miscellaneous Papers.

A WORD FOR OURSELVES.

BELOVED READER, here is the first page of a work designed especially to promote your good. Be you senior scholar, junior teacher, or simply one of our rising youth, you will find in it something exactly adapted to your state. It is not a work for children, nor for those who have reached maturity; but for you whose childhood is past, and whose manhood fast approaches.

You are objects of anxious solicitude to all the godly of the land. Nursed as you have been in our families, trained in our churches, or taught in our schools; the subjects of many prayers, important privileges, and we fain would hope religious impressions, you cannot be other than objects of anxious and affectionate solicitude. Removed, though you may be, in some measure, from the immediate influence of much that has hitherto curbed and guided you, those who have prayed over you, and laboured for you, cannot and will not view you with unconcern.

You are the hope of the church. To you she looks to perfect the work she has begun for the conversion of sinners and the glory of Christ. Very soon, and we who now occupy her offices will have filled up the measure of our days, and passed from our labours to our rest. To you our posts will fall. You must become in time the members of our societies, the pastors in our pulpits, and the teachers in our schools. We have seen something of the triumphs of the cross in our day; but we believe if you act your parts aright and attain the characters you may, far holier, brighter scenes are in reserve for you. On the character you now form, and the conduct you now pursue, however, all will depend. Be they right, and the church's glory is all but sure. Be they wrong, and your own ruin and the ruin of others is all but certain.

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