The Fourth Volume of the Herald closes with the current number. In reminding the reader of this fact, I have the satisfaction of being able to add, that its position is not worse than it was a year ago; though the increase of its circulation falls far short of what its friends acknowledge to be its merits. I do not think that its increase has exceeded twenty subscribers; which, however, is better than none and discontinuances to boot, which has been its fortune in former times.

A book is cheap or otherwise according to the importance and excellence of its contents. This is not the rule, however, by which booksellers and the unenlightened, judge. These estimate a volume by the number of its pages, the thickness of the book, and the character of the binding! But we do not set forth the Herald with such unenlightening claims as these; we base its value upon the substantial and Scriptural aliment it presents for the mind seeking to know what the truth revealed in the Bible is, whereby a man may attain to an inheritance in the kingdom of God. Its success in extracting honey from Paradise is acknowledged by its friends; some of whom assure me that they consider it a cheap publication, because of the preciousness of the instruction they derive from it.

But notwithstanding this, it appears to me that they are too well satisfied with their own individual enjoyment; that is, they do not exert sufficiently what influence they may have for the extension of its circulation, and making it self-supporting. To sustain a periodical that advocates a system of truth repudiated by nearly all the world, is an expensive undertaking; and were the Herald left to depend upon the revenue supplied by the single copies subscribed for by individuals in this country, the present number would of necessity be the last. By scanning our receipts it will be seen, that a few of its friends (to particularise whom might appear invidious) by more considerateness than others, being more liberal of their surplus funds, are the helpers by which its continuance has been made possible. Will those who do nothing but subscribe for a single copy, and yet acknowledge the value of the Herald, see if they cannot increase its list? Its editor is not parsimonious of his endeavours to bring out "all the counsel of God." He does not keep it back, saying to his readers, "I have some very important information in my head, which I will print for your benefit if you will raise my subscription list to 10,000!" No; he brings it out as it comes up, whether he shall receive enough for the year’s expenses or not; and one article is frequently acknowledged to be worth the price of the whole volume. Is this reciprocity? Is it cooperation? Still we persevere.

Many thanks, however, to those whose promptitude has furnished supplies for carrying on the work from month to month, which come and go with astounding rapidity. January will soon be here, and with it the first number of Volume Fifth. Thenceforth we shall be visiting the Post Office for orders and remittances with considerable regularity, always in hope of finding some of the needful to pay the printer, who never looks so sweet and pleasant as when he beholds us cash in hand.

To my friend, Mr. R. Robinson, in England, the Herald is under more obligation than I am able to express; if all its subscribers were Robertson, Lemmon & Co, the Herald would have nothing to do, but to thank God, and go-a-head; but under the present economy it has to do this not seldom dubious of results. Adieu, then, to 1854, and all its literary labours, anxieties, and fears! 1855 is hard upon us, and who knows what its future may produce? We shall see; and in the meantime we wish our friends much pleasure in the contemplation and anticipation of the Age to Come.

EDITOR.

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