PREFACE. SEVENTY-TWO years have elapsed since the appearance of the first number of the CHRISTIAN OBSERVER. We have no intention of furnishing an historical retrospect of the condition of the times when our periodical first came into existence. The chief facts must be familiar to well informed students. We must content ourselves with remarking, that subsequently to the fierce struggles which distinguished the first part of the present century, there has been political and social progress unexampled since the period of the Reformation, such too as has rarely been witnessed at any time in the history of the world. We are still too intimately mixed up with these wonderful events, to be able rightly to appreciate the astonishing importance of them. They throng in so upon the imagination, that surprise ceases to be felt; and marvels which would once have been the theme of ponderous tomes, and have roused the interest of nations, barely do more now than receive passing notice in the columns of a newspaper, or occupy the attention of some learned society devoted to a special study of such questions. So far, therefore, as material, and political, and social progress are concerned, it would not be easy to exaggerate the vast difference which exists between our own days and those of our fathers. We may add, too, that in despite of many drawbacks, and evils that may well be deplored, there is much on which the philanthropist, and the wise in worldly wisdom, may justly congratulate themselves. Much that was rude and barbarous in manners and customs has yielded before increasing knowledge and enlightenment; much ignorance has been dispelled, and more rational views are entertained. There has been improve |