Editor’s Table: Close of the First Volume

CLOSE OF THE FIRST VOLUME. This number of the Era closes the first volume of our magazine. In looking over the achievements of this first year of the Era's existence a sense of gratification is experienced, because we feel that all and more than all that v/as

proposed in its establishment has been accomplished. Every number of the Era has been in the hands of subscribers on the first of every month. We promised at the outset a magazine of sixty-four pages per number; we have published one of eighty pages per number, with the exception of the first. We started at first, and with some misgivings, to publish a five thousand edition. We increased the issue to seven thousand, and had to reprint the first three numbers. We expected at the commencement to publish a magazine of great value to the members of the Improvement Associations at home, but in addition to that, through the liberal patronage on the part of the young men of the church, and the generosity of the Era's friends who assisted in so noble a purpose, upon the solicitation of the Editor and Manager of the Era, we have supplied between sixteen and seventeen hundred missionaries abroad with the magazine free, and have by this means, in the first year of the magazine's existence, made it widely known in all parts of the world, especially wherever the English language is spoken; and a number of its choicest articles have been translated and published in the languages of continental Europe, by church publications there. Increasing the size of the magazine enabled us not only to publish more matter, but a greater variety of it. Sending it free to missionaries removed it from the position of being a merely local magazine, to one of general interest and world wide circulation. The developments attendant upon its first year's existence, has wonderfully increased its value as an advertising medium, and our advertising patrons have received much more than was promised in their contracts. The realization of its achievements has been so far beyond anything that was anticipated for it at the commencement, that it is not only with a feeling of gratification, but also of astonishment that we review the first year's existence of the Era; and it is with a sense of gratitude for the blessings of Almighty God upon this enterprise that we see this last issue of the first volume go to press.