THE

ECCLESIOLOGIST,

N.S. 1211

(NEW SERIES VOLUME XII)

44

Surge igitur et fac et erit Dominus tecum"

PUBLISHED UNDER THE SUPERINTENDENCE OF THE

ECCLESIOLOGICAL LATE CAMBRIDGE CAMDEN SOCIETY

VOLUME XV

LONDON

JOSEPH MASTERS ALDERSGATE STREET

AND NEW BOND STREET

MDCCCLIV

THE

ECCLESIOLOGIST.

"Surge igitur et fac: et erit Dominus tecum.”

No. C.-FEBRUARY, 1854.

(NEW SERIES, NO. LXIV.)

OUR CENTENARY NUMBER.

ALL institutions delight in their centenary. Religion has its jubilees old heathenism sung its secular hymn: the hearth celebrates its silver and its golden weddings: why should not the "Ecclesiologist," which has reached so round and full a cycle of literary existence, follow a custom as general as becoming in marking its hundredth recurrence as an occasion for more than ordinary greeting to its readers? Stages such as this are natural resting-places in a sustained course: and we only avail ourselves of a common dictate of humanity in availing ourselves of it. The moralist and preacher warn us of the duty of periodical self-examination: the tradesman has his annual stock-taking: the merchant reviews his ledger the Minister gives in the balance-sheet of the revenue the annual progress of the nation: once in ten years we number the people in all its aspects, social, religious, economical, and physical; and once in a hundred numbers the "Ecelesiologist" may be pardoned for reviewing the past and anticipating the future.

:

It is just nine years since we launched the "Ecclesiologist" as a free cruiser. Previous to assuming our independent position, we had been chartered by the Cambridge Camden Society for three voyages. What in either capacity we have done is before the world. Our future may be calculated we trust by our past. What that past has been we may now without incurring the charge of affectation or egotism say.