It cannot but be expected that an Incumbent on first coming into a parish should find some things which he would prefer otherwise. The special hobbies, so to speak, of his predecessor may not be his. His energies may not be put forth on exactly the same lines as those of the Incumbent whom he succeeds. And then sometimes the staunch friends of the former ministry may look coldly and askant upon the new Rector's labours and think that his very efforts in fresh and hitherto untried fields are reflections upon the past. It should not be so. All men are not cast in the same mould. One branch of ministerial work may be more congenial to one parish priest than another, and it is only natural that he should be more devoted to that particular portion of work in which he seems to be most successful. But changes are not synonymous with reflections upon a former _regime_. A man should not be made an offender for a word. A 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.