Churchwarden should be prepared in all good faith to transfer his
allegiance, if called upon so to do, from one Incumbent to another. It
is no disloyalty to do so. The "King is dead; long live the King" is
loyalty alike to the past and to the newly reigning Sovereign. If old
customs are changed, old practices discontinued, the Churchwarden should
find out by private inquiry from his Rector the why and the wherefore,
and if the change is for the better he should not let love of existing
practice be stereotyped into a desire of a never changing system, which
may perchance easily slide into lethargy and somnolent repose. In these
days it does not do merely

"Stare super antiquas vias."

Some persons I know are so constituted that they suspect the existence of
a snake under every blade of grass. It is not a happy disposition either
for the person who is possessed with this idiosyncrasy, or in its reflex
action upon others. True charity thinketh no evil. It is far better to
be over sanguine in our charitable estimate of other men's motives, even
if we do sometimes ultimately find that our estimate was wrong, than to
be constantly living in an atmosphere of suspicion. Suspicion and
consequent mistrust often produce the very effects which otherwise would
never have had any existence at all.

I have ventured to say these few words because I feel very strongly how
much the ecclesiastical peace of a parish depends upon the harmonious
action of the Incumbent and Churchwardens. It is not often that the case
is otherwise. Generally speaking they work zealously and actively
together, ready as occasion may arise to adopt, if necessary, new methods
of warfare in the conflict against sin and evil as fellow-workers with
the Clergy in the great work of the Church on earth.

Let me then state, as briefly as I can, some of a Churchwarden's duties.

I suppose him to be duly elected, and to have taken the declaration at
the visitation either of the Bishop, the Chancellor, or the Archdeacon.
It would be well that the first step should be to look to the fences of
the Churchyard and the general state of the fabric of the Church--the
roof, the tiles, the tower or spire, and the general fittings of the
Church. If any of these are found to be seriously out of order, counsel
should be at once taken with the Incumbent as to the proper course to be
adopted. In these matters a stitch in time often saves nine, and though
we have now