ancient skill and power.

The problem seems

to be yet unsolved whether the world is gaining upon the Church, or the Church gaining upon the world. Here we have a wave of worldliness, and there a wave of scepticism, which threaten to engulf much that is sacred and precious, essential to the best interests of men, and the true prosperity of the nations. Discussions respecting the best form of Government, the rights of Capital and Labour, the relations of Church and State, are becoming not alarmingly, but instructively, frequent in all quarters even in our own country. Who ought to be able so profitably and hopefully to take a leading part in these discussions as intelligent, educated Christian men?

The closing year has not been one of unmixed sadness and gloom. Peace between France and Germany, after one of the bloodiest conflicts on record, has been concluded; Christian men might surely so use their influence as to make another such war absolutely impossible. The Treaty of Washington will, we hope, prove to be a landmark in the history of nations, which shall be again and again quoted as a precedent until it shall acquire the force 'and majesty of a law, which no civilized nation will think of setting at nought.

Our own little Zion is making strenuous efforts to strengthen her foundations, and raise her walls, and increase her beauty and usefulness. In this work, we hope to take our part, and if correspondents be ready to render needful literary assistance and a whole people determined to support their own Magazine that part shall be a nobler one than heretofore.

London, November 15th, 1871.

THE

Bible Christian Magazine,

JANUARY, 1871.

A. D., 1870.

A. D., how profoundly significant! Twice, at least, last year was this matter referred to in our pages. Once in these words: "Instead of dating our letters and papers and all other documents Anno Mundi, it is 'In the year of our Lord,' as though man first began to live when Jesus walked in Jewry." And again in these words: "We write 1870-and how few of us think what it means-1870 years since what? Since the time that the two Judean peasants found no room for them at the inn, and were forced to lodge in a stable, and Jesus was born." How eloquent and convincing an argument that Christ has done and that Christ is doing for the race what the teachers, statesmen, and patriots of all ages have wholly failed to accomplish, and that, to take the lowest ground, His religion is, by general consent, one of the mightiest forces and influences in human society. What an impulse has Christianity given to art and science, to freedom and commerce, to refinement and morality, or, in one word, to the whole of our modern civilization. An open Bible and a pure Gospel, the freer from all taint of corruption and superstition the better, are essential elements of a nation's strength, security, and life. A nation is powerful in proportion as the Bible is carefully studied and faithfully obeyed, and the Gospel is intelligently and lovingly believed and accepted by all classes of the community. England and her Colonies, the United States of America, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, to name no other countries, afford sufficient, yea, incontrovertible evidence, though widely different in degree and kind, of the truth of this proposition.

And yet no retrospect of the past year is possible without deep, and sad, and bitter regrets that the voice of Reason has been so often silenced by brute force, the rights of Conscience so utterly disregarded by those who should be its guardians and protectors, and JANUARY, 1871. B

especially that the power of Christianity has been so madly, wickedly resisted and set at nought, by individuals to their own personal loss, by families to their social injury and confusion, and by nations to their destruction and ruin. This remark answers in part by anticipation the question so frequently asked, If Christianity be from God, sustained by His omnipotent energy, directed by His infinite wisdom, and inspired by His eternal love, why has it not done more in nineteen centuries to assuage the woes and destroy the evils that burden and afflict the race? Why are its victories still incomplete, its dominions still limited! True there are cultivated garden spots, which have been reclaimed from heathenism and sin, but there are vast tracts of country, almost entire continents and islands, still given over to the curse. True there are flowers of beauty which charm the eye, and scent the air, and gratify the imagination, but weeds of vice and misery still thrive in rank luxuriance, polluting the air and scattering wide the seeds of death. True there are harvests of blessedness sometimes reaped, but harvests of woe are still commoner events, of daily and hourly occurrence even. It must not be forgotten that because Christianity is from God, it does not interfere with man's freedom, or destroy his responsibility, and that time must be granted it for it to win a final and complete victory. Its slow, yet stately and onward march is in perfect harmony with all that is known of the divine method both in Nature and Providence. These reflections, as our readers will not fail to discover, have been shaped and coloured by the startling and significant events of the past year. Spread out before us, we find written therein, as on the roll of the prophet, "lamentations, and mourning, and woe." That is not the only writing, but it overshadows and hides almost all besides. In one respect, as the year sadly testifies, the victories of War are greater than those of Peace. Greater efforts and sacrifices, much greater efforts and sacrifices, have been made to slaughter men than to save them. The church, if such figurative language is allowable, has gained no such victory as that of Sedan, and no fortresses as proud and strong as those of Strasburg and Metz, have been won from the enemy by holy persistency and courage. And the plan apparently has not yet been devised by which the Capital of Profligacy and Fashion shall be successfully besieged by the

armies of Immanuel.

We are wandering, however, far from our purpose; but even our wanderings show clearly enough the first and foremost event of the year. Let us, however, no longer forget, that our intention in this paper was to recapitulate, necessarily in a brief and imperfect manner, the principal events of 1870.

On New Year's Day the Emperor Napoleon expressed a confident hope that Peace would be preserved; so little could he foresee the immediate future, or so much the worse for his political sincerity. A miserable dispute arising out of the nomination of a Prince of the house of Hohenzollern as the future King of Spain was permitted to involve France and Germany in a fierce and an unprecedentedly bloody war. That, however, was only the occasion, not the real cause of war. Whatever concealment of their motives and objects the principal actors may have attempted, it is a conspicuous and