Here you will find an archive of historical magazines dating back to 1846. Some of the magazines, especially the earlier ones are presented only as image files. Others are available as searchable PDFs. We hope you enjoy browsing the interesting history of our denomination.
The Voice in the Wilderness was commenced in January 1846 in the interest of the principles maintained by the PCEA upon its formation later that year. It was edited by Rev. William McIntyre of Maitland.
A magazine edited by the Rev. Arthur Paul, East St Kilda Free Presbyterian Church.
The Free Church Quarterly was the Magazine of the Free Presbyterian Church of Victoria It was edited by Rev. John Sinclair of Geelong, and was succeeded by the Australian Free Presbyterian 1913-24, which was also edited by Mr Sinclair.
Rev. William McDonald of the PCEA Sydney commenced The Free Presbyterian Magazine in August 1905. It was renamed the Australian Free Presbyterian Magazine in 1911. It was issued irregularly for a total of 16 issues.
The Port Phillip Christian Herald was commenced in January 1846 as the first Christian magazine in what is now Victoria. It was edited by Rev. James Forbes who formed the Free Presbyterian Church of Australia Felix (afterwards Victoria) later that year in parallel with the PCEA.
Please Note: Archives of this magazine are in .doc format. Whilst readable, the original pages are somewhat deteriorated. The files here are not searchable.
The Testimony was edited by Rev William McIntyre and was a monthly commenced in October 1865 in the interest of that part of the PCEA which remained outside the union which produced the Presbyterian Church of New South Wales on 8 September 1865. It ceased with the February 1870 issue shortly prior to McIntyre's death. It was succeeded by a weekly newspaper edited by Rev George Sutherland which was published 1874-86 but is not available on this website.
Archivist’s note October 2015: This file is scanned from the only copy known but issues 17 (pages 153-174) and 47 (pages 485-496)are missing. No evidence of publication beyond March 1854 has been located. The next PCEA magazine was edited by Rev. William McIntyre which was issued in 1856 of which only two issues survive in the Mitchell Library, Sydney.
The Free Presbyterian was published quarterly by the Free Presbyterian Church of South Australia 1875-81 edited by Rev. James Benny (1826-1910) of Morphett Vale.
Rev. James Forbes (1813-51) was Melbourne's first Christian minister settled as such, and Victoria's first Public educationist (see also the Port Phillip Christian Herald archive). Forbes was the minister of The Scots' Church, Melbourne and withdrew in 1846 to found the Free Presbyterian Church of Victoria, and also what is now Scotch College in the year of his death. The four available issues of Vol. 5 of the Victorian Christian Herald are provided here in .doc format.
This was the first national magazine replacing NSW and Victorian magazines. Indexed.
Edited (in chronological order) by Rev. I. L Graham, Rev. J.C. Robinson, Rev. Arthur Allen, Rev. S.N. Ramsay, Rev. Alex D. Campbell and Rev. R.W. Murray