members of the Church on the list at the beginning of the year 1839, is 174.

.

It will be very useful to know how these members of the Church are distributed in the parish. There are in all 149 different families, great and small, living in different houses or tenements. Sixty-four heads of families are communicants; and in the case of forty-seven of them, every member of the family of proper age also communicates. In seventeen other families the wives are communicants; and in nine other families, where neither of the heads join the communion, there are some other inferior members of the family who are communicants.

To make this statement really useful, we must see what this leaves on the other side of the account. There are fifty-nine whole families in the parish who refuse Communion with the Church. In nine more there are living witnesses that every other member of the family might partake of the benefit if they chose; and in seventeen more, such witnesses are found in the wife and mother. (See 1 Cor. vii. 14.)

The next point that it will be important to consider is the frequency of the attendance of the members in Communion; and in this respect, the account is much more satisfactory than that of former years. May God grant that the improvement may be always increasing.

There were thirteen Communions in the year 1838, and three more at the festivals, to enable all the members of a family to communicate at those seasons; in all sixteen Communions.

From this it would appear that 121 persons were exact in complying with the rules of the Church, which require that "every parishioner shall communicate at the least three times in the year;" and that fifty-three persons have fallen short of that rule. This however is not quite the case of these last, no less than twenty-six persons were admitted to the Communion at so late a period of the year, as hardly (if at all) to afford them the opportunity of communicating three times; so that this number ought in fairness to be taken from the last number, and added to the first. The truth therefore is, that 147 members have complied with the rules of the Church, and twenty-seven have been deficient; seventeen of these having communicated twice, and ten only once.

The average number of persons upon each of the seasons of Communion, was seventy-two; and at the three great festivals, the numbers were 109 at Easter; 93 at Whitsuntide; and 125 at Christmas.

There are many subjects for serious consideration which arise out of the particulars of this account. Your Pastor recommends every one of you to think the whole account well over, and make it a matter for self-examination. He will afterwards endeavour, at another time, to assist this

work of self-examination, by giving some statements on the opposite side of the Account.

CHURCH COMMUNION ACCOUNT.

Number of grown-up members in Communion last month 175

137 Total number at the Table at Christmas, 1838.

The money collected at the offertory on both days, amounted to two pounds five shillings and ten pence halfpenny; the whole of which is given by the Minister and Churchwardens to the Friendly Help Society.'

XIII.

A WORD FROM THE PASTOR TO HIS

FLOCK.

31 May, 1840.

No special occasion has occurred, since the beginning of the year, for addressing a word from the Pastor to his flock; but he cannot allow the season of Whitsuntide to arrive again, without a word of warning to those who are really sincere in their profession of religion. Many persons go on quietly enough; and, as it seems, satisfactorily for a long while, during a time when no particular temptation lies in their way to lead them astray; but some occasion returns, and they give to themselves, and to others, abundant proof how false was the hopefulness of the quiet and uninterrupted time. The season of Whitsuntide is usually made one of worldliness and excess; and not unfrequently the sinfulness of a great many is made the excuse for the inconsistencies of the few whose profession of religion makes them ashamed of their falls. Year after year a word of warning has been given you, and you are now referred to those "words." May God give you all a blessing in reading them again.

There is one subject, however, which lies very heavily upon the heart of your Pastor, and which this present season seems to be a fitting occasion to put before you. The members in communion with the Church are but 158 out of the 400 grownup people in the parish. This is sad enough when we think of the 242 persons that remain; and especially when we consider that fifty-eight of them have drawn back from communion with the Church, after having, at one time, joined the Lord's table. But the heaviest burthen on the Pastor's heart, concerning this part of his charge, arises from the luke

warmness which many of these 158 Communicants manifest regarding their Christian privileges. A lively sense of the importance of that help, which the Lord Jesus Christ is pleased to give to those who remember Him in His appointed way, should induce the members of the Church to be much more constant in their attendance at the Lord's table; so that if they were uuder the influence of lively spiritual feelings, scarcely any would be absent upon each communion; and all would look forward to the communion day as the season of a blessing not to be neglected. But what is the real state of the case?—There have been six opportunities of communion this year; and out of the 158 members of the Church, the average number of attendants has only been sixtyeight at each communion. Upon an average, nineteen persons have been prevented upon each occasion by sickness, by absence, or by necessary duties: when these are added it makes only eighty-seven at each communion; which even then, leaves an average of seventy-one communicants who have each time kept themselves away from the privilege and blessing of shewing forth the Lord's death in that holy Sacrament, which He has ordained and commanded to all the members of His Church-a Sacrament "generally necessary to salvation." What a fearful symptom this is of coldness and deadness in the general body of the professing Church in this parish! Whence does it arise? and how can it be remedied? It is not difficult to answer these questions: but the object to be attained is, that each member of the Church should ask himself the question, how far he is concerned in producing this symptom ?-how many communions he has attended? how many neglected? why he has neglected any? and what the neglect shews in his own particular case? If these questions were honestly put by every one to his own heart, and persevered in with diligent self-examination, the evil would, under the blessing of God, be speedily remedied;