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THE PROFITS OF THIS WORK ARE DEVOTED TO MISSIONARY PURPOSES.

BOSTON:

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED

BY JAMES LORING, AND LINGOLN & EDMANDS.

1821.

Baptist

THE NEW YORK
PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS. 1897.

DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS, to wit:

District Clerk's Office.

BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the twenty-second day of January, A. D. 1817, and in the Forty-first Year of the Independence of the United States of America, the Trustees of the Baptist Missionary Society of Massachusetts, of the said District, have deposited in this Office the Title of a Book, the Right whereof they claim as Proprietors in the words following, to wit:

"THE AMERICAN BAPTIST MAGAZINE, AND MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCER. NEW SERIES. One Lord, one faith, one baptism....Paul." That they all may be One...ammin Jesus.

In Conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, "An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by securing the Copies of Maps, Charts and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of such Copies, during the Times therein mentioned; and also to an Act entitled, " An Act supplementary to an Act, entitled, An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by securing the Copies of Maps, Charts and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of such Copies during the times therein mentioned; and extending the Benefits thereof to the Arts of Designing, Engraving and Etching Historical and other Prints."

JOHN W. DAVIS,

Clerk of the District of Maslacbuseth.

INTRODUCTION.

THE Editors of this Periodical Work, on commencing another volume, would express their gratitude to the "Father of Lights and the Giver of every good and perfect gift," for the degree of success which he has granted to their labours. When they published the first Number of the New Series, they ventured, as an experiment, to print six thousand. Such, however, was the increasing demand for this publication, that in little more than a year, there were ten thousand subscribers, and it was found expedient to issue a second edition of some of the early Numbers of the work. The editors do not state these facts in a spirit of boasting, but as reasons why they think they should thank God and take courage.

Our thanks are also due to our respected Correspondents whose valuable and pious labours have so frequently en. riched the pages of the Magazine. We would avail ourselves of this opportunity, earnestly to solicit a continuation of their favours. Without referring to other important considerations, we hope it will be sufficient to remind them that our hands have been weakened by the lamented decease of one who was associated with us in editorial labours. Such was the deep interest which Mr. Winchell felt for the prosperity of this work, that he recorded the following resolution in his diary: "My time has become very precious to me. I resolve as much as possible not to walk the streets, or any other place, without thinking upon some subject that will be of use to me or some one else. When I have no particular object in view, I will try to think of some thing for the assistance of the Baptist cause, and offer it for the Magazine." But alas! while forming such pure and zealous resolutions, he was cut off; and we shall derive no more assistance from the labours of his pen. May

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this affecting event excite us, and our respected Correspondents, to work while the day lasts, for the night cometh in which no man can work.

As we have on former occasions distinctly stated the nature and design of this publication, we conceive that any farther explanation is unnecessary. We indulge a hope, that the spirit and manner in which this work has hitherto been conducted, have justified the expectations, and secured the confidence of its patrons. We desire that the general character of the preceding volumes, may be considered as a specimen or earnest of what may be expected in future. We arrogate no claims to infallibility, and can make no promise that our future Numbers will not be marked with many imperfections; yet, as we trust it will be our prevailing desire through this work, to promote the cause of pure and undefiled religion, we shall confidently rely on the candour and charity of our numerous readers.

We shall endeavour to make the Magazine a register of departed piety and worth, a repository of doctrinal and "practical truths, and a medium through which important missionary and religious intelligence may be diffused. The Ordination of Ministers, the Constitution of Churches, and the Opening of New Meeting-houses, with many other interesting facts, will here be preserved, which otherwise might be irrecoverably lost.

It may perhaps give our readers pleasure, to be informed that in the month of May last, five hundred dollars, as the profits of this work, were devoted to missionary purposes. And a much larger sum will soon be appropriated to the same object, if they are punctual in performing their obligations to their respective agents.

We now humbly commend ourselves, and our numerous readers, to God, and to the word of his grace, who is able to build us up, and to give us an inheritance among them that are sanctified. To him be glory throughout all ages. Amen.

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BOAST NOT THYSELF OF TO-MORROW, FOR THOU KNOWEST NOT WHAT A DAY MAY BRING FORTH. Prov. xxvii. 4.

In human hearts what bolder thoughts can rise,
Than man's presumption on to-morrow's dawn?
Where is to-morrow? in another world?

For numbers this is certain; the reverse is sure to none;
And yet, on this perhaps, this peradventure, infamous for lies,
We build our mountain hopes! Spin out eternal schemes!
And, big with life's futurities, expire.
YOUNG.

AS we have usually at the commencement of a New Year, addressed our readers on some subject which was suggested by the rapid flight of time, we shall on the present occasion caution them against a spirit of vain confidence in relation to the future. Perhaps it may be proper to remark, that the injunction, "Boast not thyself of to-morrow," does not forbid all thought of to-morrow. Neither does it require, that our attention to secular affairs should have no relation to a future day. This would produce general disorder, or occasion a general stagnation in the concerns of life. We may have made important engage ments which we ought to fulfil on the morrow; it is therefore highly proper, that to-day, we should make such arrangements as to meet our obligations to-morrow. If we do not, our characters as men of truth, and as christians, will suffer by our neglect.

The husbandman acts in relation to a future day, when he purchases seed, breaks up his ground, and covers the precious

grain with the earth; and yet no one thinks him worthy of blame, because this is the process, which a kind Providence has appointed for supplying us with the staff of life. The merchant who freights his vessel with a valuable cargo, and sends her to a foreign port-and the parent who is at the expense of educating his children, act in relation to a future day. The former hopes for a prosperous return of his vessel; and the latter that his children will derive future advantage from the instructions they receive. In both these cases, the course pursu ed may be reasonable and proper.

The evil against which we would caution our readers, is, a spirit of self confidence, a forgetfulness of their entire dependence upon God, which lead men to act as though they were certain of tomorrow, and as though they were certain their plans would succeed, without any reference to the directing and controlling hand of divine Providence. Our caution is directed against the presumptuous and worldly calculations of weak, ignorant man, whose origin is the

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