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ffito Jt ♦ 4r ♦ 4 ^£6?<9/?Z? OF CHRISTIAN WORK AMONG THE Calvinistic Methodists or Presbyterians of Wales. Vol. II. No. 12.] DECEMBER, 1886. [Price One Penny. litotes anb ©omments. In our present issue will be found the Paper on our Connexional Literature which the Rev. Ed. Jerman read at the Llandudno Conference, and though the strictures are somewhat severe, we are quite ready to believe that, in the tenderness of his heart, Mr. Jerman has kept back more than he has told, and that were the whole contents of the letters received made public, we should probably find that our grave delinquencies and shortcomings have vexed many a righteous soul among us, aod that Mr. Henry Lewis, Bangor, is not alone in re¬ commending a "happy despatch" to all such efforts as ours, which we are told only tend to pamper our inordinate pride and conceit as a Connexion. But our good friend Mr. Jerman has kindly spared us this time, and, instead of threatening him with legal proceedings, we ought to feel very grateful. But in all these expressions of opinion nothing strange or unexpected has hap¬ pened to us. When we undertook to bring out The Monthly Tidings, we fully expected that we should have " more kicks than ha'pence," and what has sur¬ prised as hitherto is that though we have not had many of the latter we have had so few of the former. And now let us look at the budget of pub¬ lished criticisms. In the first place we are told that we have too many advertise¬ ments, especially of patent medicines. Well, we ourselves have no particular predilection for medicines of any kind, whether patent or otherwise, and, valu¬ able though they are, did we attempt to compel any of our highly-cultured and delicately-constituted readers to purchase these medicines, and then to swallow them, we could understand this hue and cry; but how their being advertised merely can so grievously offend the weak¬ est amongst us is beyond oar compre¬ hension. And, strange to say, such ad¬ vertisements abound in those very period¬ icals that are set up as model for us to follow, and even in that newest venture of all—the British Weekly, which has been specially started as a high-class paper, such advertisements are to be found, and that in a prominent position. The real reason, however, why advertise¬ ments appear at all is, that they help materially to meet the printers' bills. But if our friends are willing to have a paper of twelve pages instead of sixteen, and at the same time will guarantee us double our present circulation, then we might be able to dispense with our advertisement pages. Until then, however, we see no other course open to us, and at the same time steer clear of bankruptcy court. In the second place, politics must be abjured. Now, though we are free to confess that our sympathies are entirely with the Grladstonian section of the Liberal party, we have carefully refrained from writing a word upon politics on our editorial page. True, we have allowed a few short paragraphs to appear from time to time in Chit-Chat, but they are not to be regarded as editorial, and what¬ ever appears under that title is open for free discussion, and everyone is at liberty, as far as our limited space will allow, to controvert the statements of John Chat¬ terbox on any subject he may treat upon. Then comes the desire for more mission¬ ary news, and in this we fully concur, and we intend devoting more space to this subject than we have hitherto done. We hope to have two or three columns monthly of interesting items from our own missionary fields, in addition to general missionary news. The next criticism is, that we should have more articles from our leading men, while the two following criticisms are to the effect that our paper should be more like Tit-Bits and more anecdotical, for the reason that folks have not the patience to l-ead dry articles. Here we get a little nervous —and the picture of the man and his donkey rises up before us—for how are we to combine these desiderata to¬ gether ? Are our leading men to come down to the level of Tit-Bits, and to make their articles lively by a liberal supply of anecdotes ? We hope not, and though we have no room for very long articles, we trust that our leading men—and they are a goodly array—who have already promised us contributions for the coming year will not pare down their articles into mere tit-bits. But as to the "paltry pennyworth " criticism, all we have to say is that our circulation proves that that is not the verdict of the many, and that all the facts of the case could not have been before the critic when he penned his sweeping letter. So much in self-defence. And in closing this notice we must be allowed to say that there is no one who is more conscious of the failings and shortcomings of our paper than we ourselves; but we have done the |best we could under the cir¬ cumstances, and we hope to do still better next year ; and we look with con¬ fidence for the sympathy and co-operation of our English and Welsh Churches, to enable us, in this way, to serve the Con¬ nexion which we have dearly loved from the days of our childhood, and which, with all her faults, we love still. A strong effort is now being made to bring about the fusion of the various sections of Wesleyan Methodists in Great Britain. It has been more or less spoken about ever since the Wesleyan Confer- ference opened its barred gates to laymen —which for many years had been the chief bone of contention—but it has re¬ cently been revived by the powerful advocacy of the Rev. Hugh Price Hughes in the pages of his able paper, The Meth¬ odist Times, and a fresh impetus has been given to the movement by a letter signed by four ex-presidents of the Conference, who strongly advise this fusion, and recommend the Meth¬ odist New Connexion as the first which should be approached with this obj ect in view.