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 The Duties of ^Churclnvardens and of 
 Parishioners. 
 
 -A. CHARGE 
 
 DELIVERED TO THE 
 
 CHURCHWARDENS $ SIDESMEN 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ARCHDEACONRY of MAIDSTONE, 
 
 lit tto ®^itoa*iy: ^Tisitatixxn; 
 
 IN APEIL & MAY, MDCCCLXXVL, 
 
 BY 
 
 BENJAMIN HARRISON, MA. 
 
 ARCHDEACON OF MAIDSTONE. 
 
 REPRINTED FROM THE " KENTISH GAZETTE.
 
 -A. GHA.I?,0-E. 
 
 It is not my intention, on the present 
 occasion, to detain, by an address of any length, my 
 brethren of the Laity whom I have the satisfaction of 
 seeing before me, cited by due authority to make 
 their reports, embodied in their presentments, or 
 otherwise, on the matters which come under their 
 cognizance as churchwardens of the several parishes; 
 or to make the declaration which will qualify them to 
 execute the office of Churchwarden or of Sidesman. 
 At the same time there are one or two topics on 
 which I think it may be useful, under present 
 circumstances, to say a few words ; or in regard 
 to which the churchwardens elect may be o-lad to 
 have their hands strengthened, it may be, in some 
 degree for the more satisfactory discharge, anion «• 
 their fellow parishioners, of the duties devolving upon 
 tnem. 
 
 I would express, in the first place, in regard to the 
 office of churchwarden — an office highly important 
 and of great utility to the Church — the satisfaction 
 and thankfulness which I feel that we have, thus far, 
 experienced in so slight a degree the difficulty which 
 might have been anticipated, under the altered cir- 
 cumstances of late years, i,n finding men willing to
 
 undertake the office, with the trouble, and sometimes 
 the annoyance, attending it. Our most Reverend 
 Diocesan, at the opening of his Primary Visitation 
 at Maidstone, four years ago, in the first of the seven 
 Addresses which he delivered, in the course of that 
 Visitation, to the clergy and churchwardens of his 
 diocese, expressed his desire " to press upon the lay- 
 men who were" then " present," how truly import- 
 ant their duties as churchwardens were ; and that, 
 "if there ever was a time when" those duties "were 
 important, they are so now. There is," said his 
 Grace " in some respects more difficulty than there 
 was formerly in obtaining persons to hold the office 
 of churchwarden, because the secular advantages 
 which the administration of the public property 
 conferred have disappeared." " We are thrown more 
 than we were formerly," his Grace went on to say, 
 " upon our own resources, in other words, we are 
 thrown more than we were upon the loyalty of those 
 who desire the welfare of the Church and of Christ's 
 people ; and we feel," said the Archbishop, " that we 
 ghall not look to them in vain to discharge those 
 duties which belong to their office, though circum- 
 stances have made them much more difficult to per- 
 form, and less attractive. I trust, therefore, that the 
 churchwardens of this diocese will answer freely to 
 the call that is made upon them ; and that no one 
 will ever think of refusing the office, when he feels 
 that it is a means of doing good for Christ's sake and 
 Christ's people." In another Visitation Address, 
 delivered at Canterbury to the Rural Deaneries 
 of Canterbury, Ospringe, Westbere, and Sitting- 
 bourne, the Archbishop observed, " As to my 
 brethren the churchwardens, some of them have 
 stated that they have great difficulty in 
 performing their duty; and that, in consequence of 
 recent legislation which has altered the right of 
 collecting money from church-rates, their churches 
 are not in the good order in which they desire to see 
 them. Let me impress upon them," said his Grace, 
 " the absolute necessity of their taking some steps 
 
 i u,uc V
 
 for the full performance of their duties. It is the 
 condition of all of us from time to time " — I continue 
 my quotation from the Archbishop's address — "to 
 find ourselves in a new position in consequence of 
 alterations of the law. Our business is, of course, as 
 soon as possible, to adapt ourselves to that changed 
 state of things, and to find some substitute for what 
 has passed away. Now with regard to the main- 
 tenance of our services and churches in proper order, 
 two modes," said the Archbishop, "may be suggested : 
 one is to levy a voluntary rate, which no doubt will 
 readily be paid ; and the other is to have offertories 
 in the churches, appropriated to the purposes which 
 church-rates formerly served. It will not do to say 
 that the law is altered, and therefore that everything 
 must take care of itself. That the law is altered, this 
 is the very reason why we should exert ourselves, and 
 see that some substitute is provided for that which, 
 by the action of the law, has been taken away from 
 us. I thoroughly believe," the Archbishop proceeded 
 to say, "that the laity of the Church of England are 
 determined not to allow their churches to fall into 
 ruins, or their worship to be conducted in a slovenly 
 manner. Before another Visitation," said his Grace, 
 — and I wish to call special attention to this statement 
 or anticipation, — " some mode will be found which, by 
 appeal to the voluntary allegiance of those who love 
 their Church, and are ready to advance its interests, 
 will fully supply the lack of that which has disap- 
 peared. The duties of the churchwardens in this 
 matter are plain ; and they are important; and they 
 bear very much upon the maintenance of religion. 
 Without these outside signs that our religion is 
 flourishing, inward and spiritual religion will suffer 
 ■loss. I fear that the heart of religion will bt> 
 injured, if injury befal the churches which 
 are the enduring ornaments of our land." 
 I have thought it well to recall to mind to my 
 brethren a-»d-the church wai'dens of my archdeaconry, 
 these utterances of the Diocesan at his Primary 
 Visitation, because the time is come round, with this
 
 year, when the Arohhis'iop, inhibiting for the time 
 the exercise of the jurisdiction belonging to the 
 subordinate and concurrent Ordinary (the Archdea- 
 con) takes into his own nands, at his Visitation, the 
 plenary authority and duty of inquiring into these 
 matters. And it would be well, iu view of this, and 
 in order that the Diocesan's dealings with these 
 questions may be the more satisfactory, that the 
 churchwardens, in their sevei'al deaneries and parishes, 
 should be prepared to make such representations as 
 they may think fit in regard to difficulties which they 
 may have met with, and to offer such suggestions, or 
 express such opinions as they have formed, in respect 
 both to the obstacles which stand in the way of the 
 full performance of their office and the remedies to 
 be found for existing evils. With reference only to 
 one trifling item of parochial liability which I may 
 specify in this connexion — I mean the fees customarily 
 paid at the Visitation — and I may well call it a trifling 
 item, since it amounts in this diocese only to ten 
 shillings, I may observe that I have before now 
 heard it stated, as a reason for nonpayment by some 
 parish or other, that the churchwardens have '* no 
 funds." As regards this particular point, you are 
 aware, probably, that there is a Bill now before the 
 House of Lords, brought in by the Archbishop of Can- 
 terbury, intituled the " Ecclesiastical Offices and Fees 
 Bill," which, I hope, may load to some adjustment, 
 and put an end to all dissatisfaction and unplea- 
 santness on this subject. The Bill was referred, upon 
 the second reading, to a Select Committee ; and a 
 considerable amount of evidence has been given by 
 very competent witnesses. If, by the substitution of 
 fixed salaries to be paid to the legal officers concerned, 
 in place of fees, or by a system of stamps, the door is 
 closed upon any question arising at the Visitation, I, for 
 one, shall be heartily glad. But I earnestly hope that 
 the Bill, when it comes from the Select Committee, 
 will contain no such provision as it contained when 
 it went thither, for a fee of five shillings to be paid 
 by every churchwarden on the certificate of his
 
 election by the vestry — a payment for which he was 
 to be personally liable, an I which he was to be left 
 to recover from the parish. I have before now ex- 
 plained that it is an entire misapprehension to regard 
 these customary payments from the several parishes 
 as fees payable by the new churchwardens in order 
 to their admission to their office. That idea is, I 
 must repeat, an entire mistake. The newly-elected 
 churchwarden is presumed to have no knowledge 
 whatever of parish accounts, and no responsibility 
 in regard to them. The payment is one that is by 
 custom, and now bylaw, due from the parish, for the 
 remuneration, mainly, of the legal functionaries acting 
 as registrars, or others, for the services they render 
 in reference to matters of law and the business of 
 the Visitation, such as the issuing of notices, filing of 
 parochial registers, and the like ; and it would be in 
 fact stereotyping a common error, and throwing an 
 additional difficulty in the way of men's undertaking 
 the office of churchwarden, if they were now for the 
 first time charged with this payment, for which they 
 are to be made personally liable, and look to the 
 parish for reimbursement. Such legal officers there must 
 be, as the Archbishop stated in the House of Lords ; 
 there must be a regular system of registration of 
 legal acts and procedures; if there is to be any disci- 
 pline in the Church, in its complex relations with the 
 whole system and order of the country on which, as 
 Englishmen in general strongly feel, the Church of 
 Christ, established by God's good providence within 
 the borders of our land, confers so great and mani- 
 fold blessings. I may venture to add also, that I 
 heartily trust that no propositions will be adopted, in 
 regard to the mode of admission of churchwardens 
 to their office, which will disturb or set aside 
 the ancient arrangements, still in force, in 
 connection with the ordinary Visitation. Questions 
 oftentimes arise out of proceedings at parish vestries, 
 contested elections, and the like, which would be far 
 more likely to perpetuate strife and party feeling, if 
 they were to be fought out, " to the bitter end," in
 
 the parish, than if the question is referred, as at pre- 
 sent, to the Archdeacon and his visitation court, and 
 therebv, as instances have not bean -wanting among 
 ourselves, quietly adjusted in due course, and peace 
 and good will preserved among fellow parishioners. 
 There are, moreover, I need hardly remind you, 
 questions constantly occurring, in regard to which it 
 is highly important — if we are to prevent " the begin- 
 ning of strife" which, as the Wise 3Ian tells us, " is 
 as when one letteth out water" — that there should 
 be duly constituted authorities, with the means and 
 appliances of professional knowledge available, to pre- 
 vent false steps being taken which may, perhaps, not 
 easily be retraced. I trust that the result of the 
 measures now under consideration may be such a 
 union and distribution of ecclesiastical offices, and 
 such arrangements for their due remuneration, as 
 may secure efficiency, and not simply effect destruc- 
 tion ; providing, indeed, as is desirable, for the aboli- 
 tion of any useless offices, or a needless division of labour, 
 but taking care, at the same time, not to cure one evil, 
 as is sometimes done, by creating a greater ; devising-, 
 machinery which will not work, or crippling that 
 which needed, rather, strengthening and completing. 
 I trust, also, that no provision to be made for legal 
 functionaries of whatever degree, may operate in the 
 way of trenching upon funds at the disposal of the 
 Ecclesiastical Commissioners, available for their 
 general purposes, the increase of small livings. The 
 whole matter will, I doubt not, be very fully and 
 carefully considered by the select committee of the 
 House of Lords, of which the Archbishop has been 
 chosen Chairman. 
 
 The payment, however, of fees to diocesan officers 
 even as it exists among us at present, forms, 
 as I have said, but a small item, comparatively, of the 
 amount which by some means or other, ought, as our 
 Diocesan has told us to be provided in the several pari- 
 shes for the repair of the fabric, and the maintenance 
 of divine service. It can never be regarded by any 
 "body of parishioners as fair or just when the matter 
 is brought fully and clearly before them, that a
 
 churchwarden should be called upon to expend money 
 out of his own pocket, while his fellow parishioners 
 stand by and look on selfishly or carelessly. It is 
 surely enough that the churchwarden should 
 gratuitously bestow his time and trouble, in 
 administering the funds to be contributed by the 
 whole parish, or, at least, by faithful members of the 
 Church. And therefore it is, that, under this 
 conviction of the substantial right feeling and good 
 sense of Englishmen, when properly appealed to, I 
 am desirous, having in mind the Archbishop's words, 
 at his Primary Visitation, which I have with this view 
 distinctly referred to, that before he comes among us 
 on his second Visitation, the churchwardens elected 
 and to be admitted now to their office, should take 
 counsel one with the other, if need be, in their 
 several parishes, and also with the clergyman, and 
 take steps to obtain, if necessary, the effectual 
 establishment of some satisfactory and adequate 
 provision. In the majority of the pai'ishes in this 
 archdeaconry, I believe, a voluntary church-rate is 
 made ; but I have reason to think, there is in many 
 cases a difficulty in collecting it. There is, now, as 
 you are aware, no power of enforcement — no 
 provision for compelling an unwilling parishioner to 
 pay. This is simply what the law has done — it was an 
 act for the abolition of compulsory church-rate. It 
 did not abolish church-rate — a point which the late 
 lamented Earl of Roniney took occasion often to point 
 out : it simply prevented a churchwarden from bring- 
 ing a reluctant parishioner before the magistrates, 
 and obtaining a distraint on his goods. And this 
 was, indeed, practically so obnoxious a proceeding, 
 that, if the churchwardens of the present time 
 are entitled to our sympathy in having no 
 compulsory powers to call in, they are, on the other 
 hand, spared the risk of incurring great unpopularity, 
 and being placed in a very painful position. But it 
 becomes none the less the plain duty of the Church- 
 men of the parish — and it is a duty which I am per- 
 suaded, when put properly before them, they will
 
 8 
 
 generally acknowledge — to supply what is wanted to 
 enable their brother parishioners who fill the office of 
 churchwarden to perform their duty by the Church, 
 and save their parish from shame and reproach. I 
 have said that it cannot in reason be expected of a 
 churchwarden that he should himself find the funds 
 for the repair of the chnrch and the carrying on of 
 its services; and I may add, neither can it be ex- 
 pected of the clergyman. A great deal, indeed, has, 
 as matter of fact, in the last 20 or 30 yeai*s, been done 
 by the clergy in contributing and raising funds for 
 repair and restoration of their churches — oftentimes, 
 indeed I may say, very generally, including essential 
 repair of the body of the church, such as would 
 naturally have devolved upon the parish ; and of the 
 church furniture, which, in like manner, the parish 
 was bound to find, how much has been supplied, as 
 a labour of love, by the clergyman's family and 
 friends. I speak not of this, let me say, as though I 
 thought the lay members of the flock were insensible 
 to the fact or regardless of it ; far from it : there has 
 been a union of hearts and hands in many a paiish, 
 of the parsonage with the squire's house and the 
 principal families of the yeomanry — nay, of rich and 
 poor, young and old together. But I think it is im- 
 portant that it should be borne in mind to how great 
 an extent parochial church rates, even voluntary 
 rates, have been relieved of what was, in the eye 
 of the law, their proper burden. 
 
 Let me briefly remind you, my brethren, what are 
 the charges to which in the view of the law, 
 the parish is liable, and for which the parishioners, in 
 whatever mode they prefer, are bound to find the 
 means. Among "things appertaining to churches," 
 as stated in the Canons, it is ordered that " the 
 churchwarden or questman of every church and 
 chapel shall, at the cost of the parish, provide the 
 Book of Common Prayer." "And if any parish be yet 
 unfurnished of the Bible of the largest volume, or," 
 it is added, " of the Books of Homilies allowed by 
 authority" copies of which accordingly may still be
 
 9 
 
 found in some old churches — " the said churchwardens 
 shall within convenient time provide the same at the 
 like charge of the parish." So again in regard to 
 " convenient and decent Tables " to be " provided and 
 placed for the celebration of the Holy Communion," 
 the same tables from time to time to be kept and re- 
 paired in sufficient and seemly manner, and covered, 
 in time of Divine service, with a carpet of silk or 
 other decent stuff, thought meet by the Ordinary of 
 the place, if any question be made of it, and with a 
 fair linen cloth, at the time of the ministration, as 
 becometh that table;" and other like provisions, 
 "all these," it is said, " to be done at the charge of the 
 parish." So again it is ordered that " the 
 churchwardens or questmen, at the common charge of 
 the parishioners in every church, shall provide a comely 
 and decent pulpit, to be set in a convenient place 
 within the same, by the discretion of the Ordinary of 
 the place, if any question do arise, and to be there 
 seemly kept for the preaching of God's Word." 
 I might specify, in like manner, the duty laid by 
 the rubric on the churchwardens, in conjunction with 
 the clergyman, to provide the sacred elements for the 
 Holy Communion " at the charges of the parish; " as 
 also the surplice for the minister ; and so again the 
 provision to be made, not only for the repair of the 
 church, but also for its orderly and decent keeping- 
 free from " dust or any thing that may be either 
 noisome or unseemly, and as best beseeraeth the 
 house of G-od " ; in order to which, of course, there 
 must be some one employed for the purpose, and paid 
 for duty done. Again, there are the books to be pro- 
 vided to register baptisms and burials ; and parch- 
 ments for the duplicate copies to be kept in the 
 Diocesan Registry ; a matter in which the interests of in- 
 dividuals and families are often deeply concerned. 
 
 These references may suffice to remind you what the 
 rule and order of the Church is. It does not define 
 in what way the requisite funds shall be provided ; it 
 does not peremptorily require that it shall be done by 
 this mode or that ; it leaves this to the discretion of
 
 in 
 
 the parties concerned: but it is a question for the 
 parishioners, and one which ought to be brought in a 
 distinct and business-like way before them. It is the 
 churchwarden's duty to prepare a careful and 
 reasonable estimate of the amount required : it is 
 the duty of the parishioners to supply the funds. In 
 some place?, the offertory may fitly and without incon- 
 venience lend its aid. It must at the same time be 
 borne in mind that in the view of the Church, and 
 by the provisions of the Prayer Book, the main ob- 
 jects contemplated in the offertory are the relief of 
 poverty, of the sick members of the Church, and 
 those that wait at the altar. " After the Divine 
 service ended," says the Rubric, " the money given 
 at the offertory shall be disposed of to such pious and 
 charitable uses as the minister and churchwardens 
 shall think fit, wherein if they disagree it shall be 
 disposed of as the ordinary shall appoint." uSTot- 
 withstanding the provisions of the Poor-law — which 
 must have more or less the nature of a " hard and 
 fast rule " — there is ample room left for the freewill 
 offering, and the special blessing whieh attends it, of 
 him " that provideth for the sick and needy;" to say 
 nothing of the claims of religious objects both, with- 
 in and beyond the sphere of the particular parish, 
 as e.g.. the maintenance of the school, the claims of 
 the Diocesan Societies for Education and Church 
 Building, under the pastoral letters of the Diocesan 
 from year to year, or the cause of our countrymeu 
 scattered abroad in the colonies of England, or of 
 the heathen in the vast dominions subject to the 
 British Crown. There are many parishes, doubtless, 
 so circumstanced that these several claims can be 
 satisfied without injury done to any. But it is im- 
 portant to bear in mind that the ancient system of 
 church-rate was grounded on the principle, that the 
 property of the parish was chargeable with the neces- 
 sary cost of the repair of the church and churchyard, 
 and the supply of all things requisite for Divine 
 service ; that all property has been bought and sold 
 subject to this charge ; and that the abrogation of a
 
 11 
 
 power of enforcing payment leaves the moral and 
 religious duty precisely where it was before. Church- 
 wardens, undertaking an office involving cost of time 
 and trouble, have a right to expect at the hands of 
 their fellow parishioners that, when a moderate and 
 well considered estimate has been laid before them of 
 what is required for the decencies of public worship, 
 for the house of their God and for the offices 
 thereof, there shall be some guarantee against 
 personal liability for that which the parish 
 ought to find, and not the churchwarden. In 
 these days of earnest zeal and love in individual 
 hearts, ready to respond with their free will* offer- 
 ings, this or that gift for the service of the sanctuary 
 will, I am persuaded, be constantly found forthcom- 
 ing ; but the parish should, as a body, feel itself res- 
 ponsible, and not throw upon the churchwarden's 
 office an unfair and obnoxious burden. 
 
 It was customary, formerly, in the year when the 
 Archbishop was to visit his Diocese, to defer the admis- 
 sion of the new churchwardens till the time of the 
 Archbishop's Visitation. There was this inconvenience 
 resulting, that when the Archbishop visited in the 
 Autumn, one set of churchwardens had to continue 
 in office a year and a half, while their successors had 
 to serve for only half a year. It has, therefore, been 
 arranged of late years that the churchwardens should 
 make their presentments at the Visitation of the 
 Archdeacon at the usual time, soon after Easter, and 
 the newly elected church wardens admitted then. The 
 new churchwardens are thereby qualified to act, and 
 have time before them to see that all things are 
 in order by the time the Archbishop comes. I need 
 not inform those at least who were in office at his 
 Grace's Primary Visitation, and were cognizant of the 
 returns required of the clergy, in the several parishes, 
 as well as of the inquiries made at the Visitation, 
 that it was no merely formal perfunctory proceeding ; 
 but that the papers sent in engaged the careful at- 
 tention of the Diocesan in the months following the 
 Visitation. I have no doubt there will be every
 
 .-- , 12 
 
 desire felt, and every effort made, to give a satisfac- 
 factory report on all matters at the ensuing Visitation 
 of the Archbishop. 
 
 Addressing a body of well-affected and right minded 
 churchmen, such as those whom it is my privilege to 
 meet thus from year to year at the Primary Visitation, 
 or in going the circuit of the several parishes, or at 
 local Church gatherings, especially on the auspicious 
 occasions of laying the fouudation of new Churches, 
 consecrating the fabrics to their holy purposes* 
 or reopening them after repair or restoration, 
 I shall only, in conclusion, avail myself of the 
 opportunity of expressing that we have every reason 
 to encourage and strengthen one another, in our 
 several ministries and offices in that branch of the 
 Church of Christ, which is planted among us. The 
 anticipations, which I ventured last year to express, 
 of a less troublous and excited state of things than 
 some persons expected, from difficulties within, have, 
 I think, been confirmed thus far; and those who were 
 assaulting us fr^m without, and talking very 
 confidently of success, have not found things turn 
 out exactly as they hoped. Defeated in their general 
 campaign on the wide field of the question of Dises- 
 tablishment and disendowment, they resolved, 
 apparently, this year to concentrate their forces on a 
 point on which they could bring to bear a good deal 
 of personal feeling and sentiment, and determined to 
 make their special and united attack on the chosen 
 ground of Mr. Osborne Morgan's Burials Bill. It was 
 given out last year that there was to be a great 
 defalcation from the Parliamentary ranks of the 
 opponents of the Bill, and that there was nothing but 
 defeat before us. But the mind of the laity through- 
 out the land, fairly aroused by what they thought a 
 principle at stake, has shewn itself pretty plainly ; and 
 it has told upon the House of Commons. I may 
 mention that the last Parliamentary Eeport on 
 Petitions gives the number of petitions presented up 
 to April 7th, just before the Easter recess, as follows. 
 There have been presented in favour of Mr. Osborne
 
 13 
 
 Morgan's Bill, or rather Resolution, 13 petitions, with 
 1422 signatures; against it 1816 petitions, with 93,889 
 signatures. 
 
 It is, indeed, essentially a lay question, 
 and there aie tokens that our people feel it so. 
 The clergyman, has, it is true, a life interest 
 in the undisturbed tenure of the churchyard, his 
 freehold, however, held not for himself, but simply 
 vested in him in trust for the parishioners who 
 have the right of burial there. But to them, the 
 natives of the parish, with those that have gone 
 before them, " the rude forefathers of the hamlet " 
 laid there to "sleep," looking to be laid there them- 
 selves when their life's day of labour is over, and 
 their children and children's children after them, — to 
 them it is a matter of deep and personal concern, 
 whether that sacred and peaceful spot, " God's acre," 
 shall be sacred and peaceful still, or whether 
 it shall be liable to be made the scene of 
 discordant rites and rival creeds, — all with 
 equal claims of abstract right to what is 
 called "national property," — the battle ground 
 of faith and unbelief, or the cold dwelling place of a 
 cheerless materialism, an endless sleep of the soul 
 which knows no morning of the Resurrection, no 
 " sure and certain hope " in Him who brought life 
 and immortality to light by the Gospel. As regards 
 the clergy, the deliberations of the Convocation of the 
 Province of Canterbury have given proof — and the 
 question is still before them — of a disposition to meet 
 with tender charity the various difficulties of the case, 
 in the spirit of Christian kindness, short of attempt- 
 ing that which would make the Church's ministrations 
 unmeaning and valueless, or the occasion of a continu- 
 ally perplexing and painful exercise of a discretion 
 which the Church herself, in the largeness of her 
 charity, would, as a rule, shrink from. It is, indeed, 
 the comprehensive character of the Church's charity, 
 the wide stretching of her arms to all her children, 
 which constitutes the real difficulty of the question 
 affecting her, and the quarrel which is sought
 
 14 
 
 against her. She feels, and acknowledges in her 
 Prayer Book, the loss of aneie'it discipline ; and the 
 very language of her Courts of Visitation, specially of 
 those which have regard distinctively to her lay 
 members, bears witness to the trials which beset her. 
 But to complain of her too hopeful and charitable 
 language, and at the same time to endeavour, in a 
 vague liberalism, to break down the fences of her 
 vineyard, to sweep away the last remuants of her 
 discipline, and lay her borders open to the invasion of 
 every form and variety of error, is a sufficient 
 indication how hopeless and impossible is the problem 
 which our enemies would call upon us to solve. 
 
 The returns, meanwhile, which have been made to 
 Parliament, in conformity with Lord Hampton's 
 motion, and the results of which will, I think, have 
 caused some parties something of surprise, have re- 
 vealed an amount of bountiful contribution and out- 
 lay, during the last five and twenty years, upon our 
 churches alone, which tends to show that the spirit of 
 voluntary offering, in its best and purest sense, 
 flourishes, after all, most under the shadow of that 
 system under which our forefathers, in the early days 
 of our history, the individual lords of the soil, en- 
 couraged by kings and nobles, for the glory of God, 
 and the benefit of their people, built and endowed 
 churches throughout the land, planted clergy every- 
 where, and made every man a parishioner of some 
 parish. There has revived amongst us, happily, 
 through God's goodness, in these latter days, an 
 earnest desire, which is still actively and zealously at 
 work, to make the parochial system of the Church of 
 England really co-extensive with the enormous growth 
 of our population, and to provide for the spiritual 
 wants not only of our overgrown towns, but also of 
 our outlying hamlets and scattered cottagers, among 
 whom we find ourselves, in some cases, reviving the 
 ruins or the memories of old chapels. It has been 
 felt that the ancient endowments of the Church> 
 though made to the utmost available by improved 
 arrangements and careful management of her pro-
 
 15 
 
 perty, are, as might well be supposed, incapable of 
 supplying present needs, and require that her faith- 
 ful sons should do in their own day, in the cause of 
 God and of their brethren, what their fathers did in 
 theirs. And there has been, moreover, an earnest 
 endeavour — the source in some respects, perhaps un- 
 avoidably, of some difficulties which have arisen 
 amongst us — to lay hold more effectually of a class— 
 the young men, especially, of our middle orders — to 
 whom the Church had seemed to have comparatively 
 little access, and to attract them by inviting them to 
 take part in more hearty services, in choral develop- 
 ments of religious worship, and charitable work. These 
 efforts have been attended with no small measure 
 of success. It is one of the chief duties of the 
 churchwardens' office to promote the attendance of 
 their fellow parishioners at the public ordinances of 
 religion ; and the influence of wise and well affected 
 churchmen, respected for their character, and em- 
 powered by their office, may render valuable assistance 
 to the clergyman, in securing the benefits and avoid- 
 ing the dangers besetting the exercise of religious 
 zeal and devotion. I may refer also to the cause of 
 temperance as one which is just now enlisting in its 
 behalf the united efforts of clergy and laity ; in this 
 diocese I may mention particularly, by diocesan and 
 archidiaconal organization, under the sanction and 
 with the countenance of the leading noblemen and 
 magistrates of the county ; and it is a work in which 
 lay counsel and assistance in our several parishes, in 
 a matter requiring careful and considerate handling, 
 may render incalculable benefit. 
 
 I cannot more fitly conclude the words of brotherly 
 exhortation which I have addressed to you, my lay 
 brethen, in the belief that they would commend them- 
 selves to your kindly acceptance, than with the words 
 in which the holy Apostle addressed his brethren of 
 a Christian community which he had lately 
 planted, one of the first fruits of his ministry on the 
 continent of Europe, just opened to his apostolic 
 zeal. " And we beseech you, brethren," said he to
 
 16 
 
 the Thessalonians — and his words may suitably be 
 addressed to the heads and representatives of the 
 Christian laity in these days even as in'those— " we 
 beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour 
 among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish 
 you ; and to esteem them very highly in love for their 
 work's sake. And be at peace among yourselves. 
 Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are 
 unruly," or " disorderly," (as our margin has it), 
 ** comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak, be 
 patient towards all men. See that none render evil 
 for evil to any man ; but ever follow that which is 
 good, both among yourselves, and to all men." A 
 spirit of cheerful hope and thankfulness, in constant 
 dependance upon a higher power and a bettei wisdom 
 than man's, will best caiTy men through duties, it 
 may be, often trying and difficult. " Rejoice ever- 
 more," said the Apostle, " Pray without ceasing. In 
 every thing give thanks ; for this is the will of God 
 in Christ Jesus concerning you. Prove all things, 
 hold fast that which is good. And the very God of 
 peace sanctify you wholly, and I pray God your whole 
 spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto 
 the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." To whom in 
 His Church, through all its members, be all glory for 
 ever. Amen.