EVANGELICAL REFORMER, AND YOUNG MAN'S GUIDE. BY JOSEPH BARKER.' Published every Saturday.- Price One Penny, or in Monthly Parts, price Four pence half-penny. No. 1. SATURDAY, APRIL 6, 1839. VOL. III. TO MY READERS. I WOULD once more, at the commencement of another volume, express my gratitude to God, and to my friendly readers, for the encouragement which I have received in the publication of this work. Both the circulation of the work and the pecuniary returns, have been beyond what I expected. I calculated at first, that the publication of the work for one year, would cost me, for the time, fifty or sixty pounds more than it would bring me in; and that at the end of the year, I should be obliged to discontinue the publication. Instead of this, the pamphlet has not only paid its way, but furnished me with an addition of means for placing useful knowledge within the reach of my young friends. I have already published four sermons, and a second edition of the first, and if I should be favoured with health and leisure, and be able to get my printers forward, I expect to be able, during the present year, to publish several other sermons, as well as some larger works. It is my purpose not to appropriate one farthing of the profits arising from my publications, either to myself or to my family. I have consecrated the whole to the cause of truth and human happiness, and to that cause I hope to apply it without reserve. I have also reason to be thankful for the reception with which the sentiments advocated in this work have met. I have paid respect to no authority, but that of Jesus Christ; I have followed no creed but the sacred Scriptures; I have consulted no interests, but the interests of truth and piety. I have, in consequence, left unwritten many things which bigotry would have had me to write, and I have written many things which bigotry would have had me to leave unwritten. To follow, in the present state of things, this course, without provoking the wrath of unthinking and interested men, would be impossible. I therefore calculated on opposition and persecution, and I have not been altogether disappointed. Some few have attempted persecution openly, and many have persecuted secretly; yet neither have I nor my little work been seriously injured. Though I have published not less than one hundred and fifty articles, only one has been publicly objected to; and even in that case, the objectors never attempted to prove the article erroneous. No public censure has been passed on any other article, and no private individual, that I am aware of, has publicly called in question any of my sentiments. It is my intention to pursue the same course for the time to come, that I have pursued for the time past. I shall endeavour in all things, to lay before my readers, the truth as it is taught in the Gospel. Whatever Christ and his Apostles teach, I hope to teach also. The teachings of Christ and his Apostles may not be in exact accordance with the prevailing creeds and customs of the professing world, but they are in strictest accordance with truth, and that is enough. Whatever is built upon error, must expect to be shaken; whatever is opposed to Christ, must prepare to be destroyed. The day cometh that will try all notions, and all practices, and nothing will stand the trial but unmixed truth and godliness. It is my desire to write nothing but what will bear the severest test, and to conceal nothing that is adapted to benefit the souls of men. The authors and publishers of many periodicals act on the principle of accommodating the tastes and prejudices of the public. They write to please, and not to reform. Their object is to procure readers, and not to make their readers wise and good. They write for a party, and truth is made to give way to party interests. The prin ciple on which I consider myself bound to proceed, is of a very different nature. With me truth is every thing, and every thing must give way to truth. I do not wish to offend my readers, I had rather please them; but I dare not attempt to please them at the expense of truth. I would gladly please all men, for their good, to edification. I consider myself bound to reprove all sin, and to enforce all duty. Sin may be profitable and pleasant, it may be fashionable and of long standing,-it may have the patronage of the rich, the licence of government, and the sanction of professors of religion; but these things are nothing with me. If it be sin,-if it be opposed to the spirit and teachings of Christ, whatever favour others may show it, I cannot show it any. I therefore calculate upon giving offence. So long as there are men on earth whose deeds are evil, there will be men who will hate the truth, and who will quarrel with those that teach and inculcate the truth. Men will not allow their established habits, their earthly interests, or other carnal inclinations, to be attacked, without showing some signs of displeasure. Even professors of religion will feel uneasy, when they find the truth reproving sentiments and customs of their own. And as there are so many objectionable notions and practices prevailing in society, and in some measure polluting the churches of Christ, I hardly expect to write a single pamphlet that will not give offence to some one of my readers. What shall I do in those circumstances? I know no other course, but to unburden my own mind, and leave the result with God. I have many readers, I believe, who prefer the truth to all things, and who are wishful to know in every thing what is the will of God. It is to those principally that I shall address myself in the following pages. I shall endeavour, as far as God shall give me life and ability, to .assist in making the way of truth and duty plain. I shall not dictate,-I have no wish to be a lord over men's faith, my only desire is to be the servant of their souls, and the helper of their joy. I would not have any person to believe a thing because I say it; I would servant, and lived with his mistress on terms of the most vicious intimacy. He formed an intimate acquaintance with a music master, who was very kind to him, and he vowed perpetual faithfulness to him. They went on a journey to Lyons together, where, the music master being seized with a fit in the streets, Rousseau ran away and left Lyons, abandoning his friend, and never seeing or hearing from him more. He then tells how he went to visit a woman of bad character, at Venice, and left her in disgust. He afterwards engaged a young girl as his housekeeper, by whom he had five children, all of which he cast out into the street, either to perish in cold, or to be worried by dogs, or trampled to death, or to be taken to the foundling hospital. Much more is told in his Confessions, of a character too indecent to publish. How he should write such a book can be accounted for on no other principle than this, that the enemies of truth are at length given over to " a reprobate mind;" rendered incapable of discerning what is right and decent, from what is filthy and unseemly. Rousseau, as many other infidels have done, seems to glory in declaring that, which would cover any undebauched or uncorrupted man with shame. Rousseau became very melancholy as he advanced in life; it would have been strange if his numerous and hideous deeds had not made him melancholy. His friends tried to please him by taking him from place to place; but their labour was unavailing. He went into Prussia, to the Island of St. Pierre, but still his horrible melancholy overshadowed his soul. At length he came with the infidel Hume to England, his friends still entertaining a hope that change of place and company might ease the agonies of his polluted and blood-stained mind. But no; their hopes were again cruelly disappointed. How could change of place undo the filthy, the dishonest, and the inhuman deeds of his past life? And he was too far gone, it would seem, to humble himself, and sue for mercy before God. His melancholy appears to have increased in England. He went to London, where the king gave him a pension, |