God. I
find it a heavy cross to visit the sick. Help me, Lord, to search
out the mourner, bind up broken hearts, and comfort the sorrowful.

_February 22nd_--[A Central Committee at York having, of behalf of the
various non-Episcopal denominations, deputed Rev. George Ryerson to
proceed to England to present petitions to the Imperial Parliament
against the claims of the Church of England in this Province,[18] the
Rev. William Ryerson was requested to write to his brother George on the
subject. In his letter he gave the following explanation of the sources
of information from which Archdeacon Strachan's Ecclesiastical Chart was
compiled. He said:--

It may be proper to apprise you that the Church of England has been
making an enquiry into the religious state of the Province, the result
of which they have sent home to the Imperial Parliament. And in order to
swell their numbers as much as possible, they have sent persons through
almost every part of the Province, who, when they come into a house,
enquire of the head of the family as to what Church he belongs. If he
says, to the Methodist, or any other body of dissenters, they next
enquire if their children belong to the same Church. If they say no,
they set the children as members of the Church of England! If they say
that neither themselves nor their children belong to any particular
Church, they set them all down as members of the Church of England! So
that should they make a parade of their numbers you can tell how they
got them.

The Report of the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, for
1821, gives the number of communicants in the Church of England here as
between 4,000 and 5,000. In the Chart, the Methodist communicants only
have been returned, which is about 9,000. The number of those who call
themselves Methodists, is, at least, four times that number, or 36,000.
This is the way in which almost all the other bodies estimate their
numbers, the Baptists excepted.

_Cobourg, Feb. 27th._--Dr. Ryerson's youngest brother, Edwy, who
remained at home, wrote from there on the 20th, in regard to his
Father's health and religious life. He says:--

I think there is no doubt but that he will, in a short time be able,
with the care and the mercy of Almighty God, to enjoy himself again at
the family altar. He says that, by the grace of God, the remainder of
his days shall be devoted to the service of God. He feels that he has
acceptance with God; t