PREFACE. IN presenting our readers with the first volume of the CHURCHMAN'S COMPANION, we cannot but express a hope, that we have fulfilled the promises made in our Prospectus. Our object has been to present a magazine free from all controversial bias, and yet firmly maintaining the doctrines of the Church; a magazine devoted to the interest of all, as members of the same Body, and in which rich and poor, young and old, might find rational amusement and instruction. To what extent we have succeeded in this our earnest wish, must be left for our readers to decide. It is our pleasing duty to thank many warm-hearted friends for the kindly interest they have taken, and the strenuous exertions they have made to bring the magazine into notice. But at the same time, we must respectfully but earnestly entreat every one of our readers to use his utmost exertions to obtain at least one additional subscriber. A magazine such as this cannot be established but by a very large circulation; and that circulation cannot be attained but by the greatest efforts. In an age when cheap publications of an irreligious tendency command so extensive a sale, it is much to be hoped, |