THE SCOTTISH CONGREGATIONAL MAGAZINE. NEW SERIES.-VOL. V. GLASGOW: JAMES MACLEHOSE, 83 BUCHANAN STREET. PREFACE. COURTEOUS READER,-This is the age of PRODUCTION. By endlessly diversified invention labour is facilitated, the cost of production is diminished, and the supply of all that is contributive to human comfort, improvement, and happiness, is amply provided. It is a truth, but not the whole truth, that THE DEMAND CREATES THE SUPPLY. In certain circumstances it is as unquestionably true that THE SUPPLY CREATES THE DEMAND. It frequently occurs that wants are not formed, because there is no prospect of their being supplied. Not until the means of gratification are presented, is the desire indulged, that was formerly repressed-does the craving that was dumb acquire voice. The light of hope newly let in reveals discomforts and defects, which were contentedly tolerated, until the remedy was within reach. The application of mechanical power to the diffusion of knowledge is at this moment proceeding at a rate of marvellous progress. Religious literature has happily not escaped the beneficial impulse. The means of spiritual intelligence are no longer confined even to cheap Bibles and catechisms; but every kind of religious nutriment is supplied cheaper than it ever was before, thus reaching to, and calling out into the class of readers, of supporters, and votaries of religious literature, many who were hitherto shut up in the degrading serfdom of ignorance. With this movement the SCOTTISH CONGREGATIONAL MAGAZINE has honourably kept pace. Not cheaper in price than the other religious Monthlies of Scotland, it has been equal in quantity of matter; and in the quality of paper, typography, and general appearance, superior to most. It has, therefore, been always a CHEAP MAGAZINE ;-and greatly to its credit. The number of the churches to which it mainly addresses itself is comparatively small: the number of members in each is not generally large; this successful competition with the organs of larger denominations therefore proves, either that the management of it has yielded little or no profit; or that this periodical has received the support of a pro |