PROSPECTUS FOR VOL. IX. '(Beebe)

We propose to issue the first number of our NINTH VOLUME on the first day of January next.

We are making arrangements for a NEW FONT OF TYPE, by which the appearance of our sheet will be very much improved. We shall also present our next volume on as good a quality of paper as we can procure, and the workmanship of the mechanical part of our labors shall be executed in the neatest style.

We have provided for the next volume a choice selection of Magazines and other Old School periodicals, from which we shall make interesting and instructing extracts, as we may have room without crowding our original matter of more vital importance.

One of the most important objects of our publication has hitherto been, and shall still be, to afford a cheap and convenient facility for a general correspondence among the Old Fashioned Baptists throughout our country. In these times of trial and opposition to the truth, the saints have duly appreciated the value of a vehicle by which they can speak often one to another, from the extreme parts of our land. Our paper now circulates, we believe, as extensively as any religious periodical in the United States, and consequently gives a more extensive circulation to the communications of our correspondents than what is usual. Communications for our columns will also be forthcoming from a larger range of country, and will embrace information from brethren, churches and associations, in all the states and territories of our country.

In conducting the forthcoming volume, we pledge ourself to avoid all subjects of a political consideration. We shall oppose whatever we consider of a religious nature, calculated to produce an union of church and state, or church and world, and leave our brethren in the free exercise of their own judgment to manage the political affairs of our place and nation. What appeared in the nineteenth number of the now closing volume, was inserted with the best of motives, and we trust will be useful to us, at least, in hereafter avoiding any useless cause of exciting the feelings of our brethren.

Our original prospectus is still the index of our faith, and of what we shall stand pledged to support for the succeeding volumes of the Signs of the Times. Our terms, notwithstanding our contemplated improvement, to be made at considerable expense, will be the same as formerly, viz: ONE DOLLAR for each copy per annum, if paid in advance, and ONE DOLLAR AND FIFTY CENTS for each copy per annum, if not paid in advance. Five dollars, paid in advance, or coming from constant subscribers, will pay for six copies for one year. We shall issue our papers on or about the first and fifteenth days of each month.

We wish to tender our grateful acknowledgments to our agents and subscribers who have thus far so essentially aided us in the prosecution of our labors. Nor would we forget our correspondents, by whose epistles of love our columns have been enriched. We feel indebted to all, for the kindness, with which they have received our services, overlooking all the imperfections of our best performances; and it shall be our constant care and labor to secure their co-operation and fellowship in our subsequent progress.

Such hints as our brethren may feel disposed to give in relation to the improvement of our paper, having in view the glory of God and the edification and general welfare of his children will always be received with gratitude.

To such of our subscribers as are in arrears with us, we would hint that such are our present pecuniary embarrassments; and such the expense of providing for the improvement and more extensive usefulness of our paper, that we shall need the immediate remittance of those sums, which, however small, will in the aggregate, be of great service to us.

Those who intend to discontinue their subscriptions are requested to give early notice thereof to our agents or to us, bearing in mind the importance of balancing their accounts at the same time.

In conclusion we would say to our brethren and friends. The enemy is still in the field; the man of sin, the son of perdition, is still in hostile array against the cause, the truth and the people of the Living God:—and shall we retreat or break our ranks? We trust not. May the Lord enable us to gird on the whole armour of righteousness, and press towards the mark. Let us dispute every inch of the ground with our common foe, and with the assurance that the saints shall eventually triumph over all their enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil; over all the powers of darkness, the hidden things of dishonesty, through the blood of the Lamb, and the word of our testimony—let us take courage from the proclamation, “Happy art thou O Israel, who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help and who is the sword of thy excellency, and thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee, and thou shalt tread on their high places. Truly the God of Jeshurun, rideth upon the heavens in our help and in his excellency on the sky.”