and we give thee glory for every good word or thought which has been suggested for our edification. Glory be to Thee O Father, Son, and Holy Ghost-three persons and one God, for all thy goodness towards us, in bearing our infirmities-in helping our weakness-in instructing our ignorance—and in imparting the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, and of his mighty salvation. We earnestly beseech thee to accompany with thy blessing every good word which has now been put forth amongst us, and so inform our minds, and affect our hearts, that nothing which has been consistent with thy truth may have been spoken in vain. Grant that each of us may receive every portion of thy truth, in the love of it, and may shew forth our increased knowledge and grace, by increased diligence in thy service, and holiness of life. We commit ourselves to thy compassionate kindness during the remainder of this day. Watch over us continually renew each of us hourly by the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us, and strengthening us in the inner man; that in all our intercourse as brethren one with another, we may glorify the name of thy dear Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN. : THE PAMPHLET SOCIETY. IN these days, when opinions of all kinds are rife, and when dangerous inroads are made upon essential truth, by the rapid machinery of the periodical press, before quiet country Pastors are aware of what is going on, it becomes a serious duty for those who are set as watchmen to be diligent in making themselves acquainted with the progress of the multiform movement by which spiritual religion is openly or covertly attacked. It is no easy or inexpensive matter to do this: for though the books and pamphlets, by means of which the movement is generally carried on, are individually of small size and price, yet, collectively, they call for much time and money; and to know but half the question in each case is to be open to the snares of error. There is also an inconvenience in taking in those periodicals that put forth opinions of which an individual clergyman disapproves; for, besides the direct encouragement given by promoting the sale, so many persons are weak enough to classify people according to the periodicals they habitually read, that a pastor may thus unwittingly cause some weak brother to stumble over an apparent inconsistency, by taking in the organs of those erroneous opinions which he opposes, but with which he ought nevertheless to be acquainted, in order that he may guard against them. In more than one neighbourhood an arrangement has been made to obviate these difficulties, and to enable a number of clergymen to know what is passing, by means of the periodicals. of all shades of opinion, at a moderate expense, and without compromising their own views in the minds of even the weakest. Seven or eight persons, joining together as a Pamphlet Society, and acting upon the following Rules, may receive, at convenient times, all the various publications of present interest; and as the Volumes of all the periodicals commence with the new year, it is suggested that this season be taken as the occasion for establishing such Pamphlet Societies; which may be conducted according to these RULES. 1. Subscribers to pay £1. per annum. 2 The following periodicals to be regularly taken in :—viz. The Quarterly Review.-Edinburgh Review.-British Critic.British Magazine.-Churchman's Monthly Review.- Dublin Review. Christian Observer. &c. 3. Any member may send an order to the Treasurer for any Pamphlet the price of which does not exceed 2s. 6d. This order will be executed if the Treasurer has any funds in his hands: if not, he will inform the member who has sent the order. 4. The first issue of the Periodicals, as they come out, shall be sent to all the members in rotation; so that each member in succession shall have the first reading of some periodical each time. Each member shall forward the Periodicals and Pamphlets he receives to the next in rotation on the list. In order to facilitate this arrangement, the members names shall be placed on the list in the order in which their residences stand one after another. 5. Pamphlets not periodicals are to be sent first to the person ordering them, and then to follow in the rotation from him. 6. A notice of the time each is to be kept by a member will be placed on each pamphlet; and a fine of 6d. a week must be paid for every pamphlet delayed. 7. Mr. Bookseller, of procure the Pamphlets. to be the Treasurer, and to 8. The Pamphlets are to be kept by the Treasurer for refer ence by the Members, until they have accumulated to such a number as may make it advisable that they should be sold. MY CHURCH-YARD, No. VII. SINCE finishing the account of poor Mary Norton's death, I have walked over my church-yard at least a dozen times, with the view to fix upon another, whose parting passage from this world I should think over again as it occurred, in order to relate it for the glory of God, and the good of His Church still militant here on earth but it is most difficult to decide which to choose. To a pastor's heart the interest of every case is stirring; and the recollections called up by one grave supercede, for a time, those drawn forth by the contemplation of the previous one and then, too, in so many cases the very essence of the interest is sacred, and must be entombed in the pastor's mind as permanently as the body is buried in the earth; so that, after lingering at one grave-stone, and sighing at another,—after losing some half-hours by the side of each, enwrapped in the vivid reacting of past realities, mysteriously combined with almost equally vivid foreshadowings of future realities connected with the same individuals, I almost gave up the task of selection. One Saturday morning, however, as I stood at the window of my study, gazing at the beautiful tower of my dear little church, the perpetual sight of which never tires, the bell began to toll. Ah! it is the old clerk's knell;' and the first sound of it, calling my attention to the preparing funeral, echoed on my heart, creating that sort of half spasm of feeling which in a child produces tears. There was a more than ordinary seriousness of tone upon me all day, which was mellowed into deep feeling by three o'clock, when I was informed that the funeral approached, and I went to the church to put on my surplice and meet it. In such a tone of feeling who could have restrained tears upon seeing a long continuous line of orderly mourners, all instinctively marshalled into pairs for the procession, from all parts of the parish, of all classes and ages, drawn together by a heartresponse to a simple invitation I had publicly put forth, grounded upon the tie of Church-relationship and domestic association? All the parish seemed to have recognized the claim; and dele-. gates from almost every family made their appearance in mourning of look, if not of attire; and though, when they all took their seats in the church, the assembly did not seem so black as when the members of a large family have each been shewn to mourn by cloaks and hat-bands; yet there was a present sense of the reality of serious sorrow, which could not be hindered by the motlied appearance of the congregation all dotted with white round-frocks and red cloaks. I never remember to have had a congregation at a funeral respecting which I was impressed with such a conviction of their harmony in solemn feeling. It was a rare occasion for the practical application of the Gospel :-not so much of its precious doctrines, with which being already acquainted, the action of the heart was at such a moment just opening to let in their personal power, through the influence of feeling. I would not have lost the opportunity for an empire. So after the Lesson I gave out a text from it; and, with a short prayer for the Holy Spirit to descend upon us, I preached to them for ten minutes;-no more a sentence too much might have overstrained the rivetted attention of some one soul amongst them. It was more the expression of feeling than anything else; vented in earnest appeals to the living, to shew how he who was dead yet spoke to them by his death. It was not a sermon which produced weeping: there was a silence and stillness in the church like that of absolute solitude. I look for much fruit hereafter from that sermon. We went to the grave and proceeded with the service. Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust;-the people looked up; -nobody spoke: but you could see that every body felt that it was not the old clerk that cast the handfuls on the coffin :what a painful strangeness there was in seeing that significant act performed by a young man who was not the clerk! I said nothing after the service to any body;-the people saw that I could not but walking quietly into the Church, I escaped through my garden gate while the crowd was gradually dispersing. : When I got into my study, I determined that the little notice and invitation I had sent round the parish upon this occasion should form the next number of my Church-yard :—so here it is. one. A WORD FROM THE PASTOR TO HIS FLOCK. We have received in the parish a voice from the Lord, which ought to be heard by all of us as having no uncertain sound. It is calculated, in an unusual manner, to affect us, as being connected, in some degree, with the domestic associations of every An officer of the Church has been suddenly taken from us. He was but a servant of the servant of the Lord: but in his humble office, he bore a part in the most interesting circumstances in the lives of each of us: whether in the baptism of our infants in the marriage of ourselves, our children, or our friends—or in the last solemn service, when the dust of a departed one, dear to the hearts of some at least amongst us, has been committed to the ground. The parish clerk has been a participator in the arrangements of our joy or our sorrow;—a prominent actor, whose person and whose voice are recalled to our memories when we think of the scene that took place upon each occasion. Specially in the matter of death ;—not a passing bell has tolled, but it has been the hand of William Hatcher that has given this solemn warning to the parish;-not a group of mourners round the grave, but the first three handfuls of earth, which called forth the thrilling hollow sound that echoed from some heart, and made it faint under the feeling of natural affection, were cast by the hand of William Hatcher. Surely every one in the parish feels that they have lost a relation,—a domestic link-a something that belonged to us of the parish-now that William Hatcher is taken from us! It cannot be altogether useless to ascertain how far this small link in the chain of Church-fellowship has extended throughout the parish; and this can easily be traced by means of the Church Registers. William Hatcher was in his 65th year; and he was appointed clerk in the year 1807, about thirty-five years and a half ago. During that time he has been present at 169 marriages, and at the baptism of 760 infants. This is about the whole present number of the inhabitants of the parish; and more than the number of married couples now living in it. Besides this he has dug the graves which contain the bodies of 406 immortal souls. He has been the porter that has stood at the gate of the grave— he has opened the earthy door, and closed it again with those great clods which have blocked up the way of return, never to be cleared again until the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ shall loosen the earth once more, and let out the bodies to meet again their former souls. (John v. 28, 29.) And now he has passed through himself, and gone to Christ, and met so many of those souls!-How many? None dare reply to this question, for it relates to those who are gone: but there is another question, to which each may reply in his own conscience-Who will meet him, of those who shall follow him through that gate of the grave -following him as he followed Christ? His death is a striking call to get ready, in order to follow him in this way. There was not a moment allowed him for preparation, though there were three days of agony, without the power to think from excess of pain; so that this little time may be said to have been given— not to him, but to the parish-tò awaken their sympathies, and quicken their feelings, and arouse their attention to the fact that he was taken for death-and then dead! His groans in pain, with just a word of Christ now and then, and only a word-that precious word Christ-may be said to be as though he were tolling his own passing bell; and he, being dead, yet speaketh this important sentence-" To-day, while it is called to-day, harden not your hearts:" or again this-Settle your hopes in Christ while you are strong; when pain and weakness come you will |