Short Sermon. Christ's body. Ask yourselves, What are the duties that have to discharge? What sick person have I visited? (Matt. xxv. 36.) Whom have I endeavoured to comfort in their trouble? (Jam. i. 27.) Do I make any effort to instruct the ignorant? What help am I giving to extend the ministrations of the Church? What distinctively Christian work am I engaged in? Every Christian pastor sets his communicants to work; all who come to the Holy Table (so long as they can walk and see) should outwardly manifest their diligence in helping the vigour and efficiency of Christ's mystical body. Go and read the Bible by the side of that sufferer, and then kneel down and pray. Can you not do this? Teach a class in the Sunday-school. - Do you not feel capable for such work? It may be that you have travelled, and have collected some photographs; cannot you take these to the bedside of a sick neighbour and show them to him, so as to bring sunshine into his dark room? 3. The pastor hath himself to visit the sick. It is one of the happy arrangements of the English Church that the whole country is parcelled out under the care of one or other of God's duly-commissioned ministers. There is not any one who may be overtaken with calamity, who may be in sickness or in sorrow, but there is an appointed pastor whose duty it is to go to that sufferer's home, and to say as he enters it, 'Peace be to this house, and to all that dwell in it!' and to kneel down by the sufferer's bedside and to ask for the mercy of God, and to sit and read out of God's comfortable Book the sufferer's chapter (Heb. xii.); and to remind him of the great verities of our faith, and to lead him with holy David to say, 'In Thee, O Lord, have I put my trust; let me never be put to confusion: but rid me and deliver me in Thy righteousness : incline Thine ear unto me, and save me.' Wherever there may be trouble or suffering there is the pastor's place. He hath, if he rightly seek it from above, comfort to dispense to the sufferer: comfort which he himself hath received from God, through the mercy of our Redeemer. 4. The pastor is sent by lawful authority in our Master's Name, to be a pattern to all that are around him; to do what he can to set forward quietness, peace, and love among all Christian people. He must be careful to frame his life according to the teaching and example of Christ. He is to be diligent in prayer and in reading Holy Scripture. He is to feed the flock, and to seek after those that are astray, and to do all that lieth in him, according to his bounden duty, to bring all such as are, or shall be, committed to his charge, unto that agreement in the faith and knowledge of God, and to that ripeness and perfectness of age in Christ, that there be no place left among us either for error in religion or for viciousness in life. A high commission, a weighty responsibility! The treasure is stored in earthen vessels. Ministers have all the weakness and temptations that man is heir to, and from their special calling ministers have special difficulties wherewith to contend. Ministers have no strength or sufficiency in themselves, but their strength and sufficiency is of God. Their faithfulness, their vigour, their perseverance, very much depend upon the faithfulness and prayers of the people. When the people are earnest in prayer on behalf of their pastor, and when the people are occupied in making it their great business to set forward Christ's work among themselves, then God rewards that faithful and diligent people by setting over them a faithful and diligent pastor DURSLEY-continued. CHURCH REGISTER. BAPTISMS. July 2-Catharine, daughter of Henry and Harriet French. 4-(Privately) Oliver Ralph, son of Arthur and Eliza Emily Vinton. 11-Louisa Witherstone, daughter of Herbert Edward and 23-William Alfred, son of Elijah and Elizabeth French. وو 99 -Catharine, daughter of Edward and Eunice O'More. -Fanny Lockley, daughter of James and Mary Clayton. -Alfred Henry, son of Stanley William and Frances Bendall. MARRIAGES. July 1-Thomas Alfred Lance to Rose Elizabeth Pearce. 3-Thomas Chandler to Mary Jane Hill. 00 KING-STANLEY. The Magazine readers in this parish will, we are sure, be glad to have again among them their old friend, the Vicar of St. Philip's, Clerkenwell, who arrived here on the 27th July, to take charge of the parish for three weeks during the absence of the Parochial Clergy. Mr. Clutterbuck will preach the sermons for the Diocesan Association on Sunday, August 15th, when collections will be made at each service in aid of the Association's funds. The Sunday School teachers were hospitably entertained at the Rectory on Saturday, July 17th. The Day Schools are at present closed for the holidays, and will be re-opened on Monday, August 16th. The Quarterly Collections on Sunday, July 4th, for the Churchwarden's expenses amounted to £2. 5s. 6d. CHURCH REGISTER. BAPTISMS. July 4-Julia Martha, daughter of William and Elizabeth Earl, Middle Yard. 99 -Walter John, son of Henry and Jane Young, Bubble Lane. ,,-Elizabeth, daughter of Henry and Elizabeth Lathem, 18-William (adult), son of Jephtha and Sarah Young, The Barrocks. ,,-Frederick (adult), son of ditto. 25-Emily, daughter of Frank and Mary Anne Cook, Stanley St. Leonard's. BURIAL. July 8-Elizabeth Lathem, aged 2 years. :0 STINCHCOMBE. The annual services in commemoration of the Re-consecration of the Parish Church in 1855, were held on St James's Day, Sunday, July the 25th. The sermon in the morning was preached by a late Curate of this Parish, the Rev. John Arthur Rawlins, now Curate of Bisley, who also intoned the service in the necessary absence of the Rev. H. Williams, who had taken his duty at Bisley. Both Mr. Rawlins and the choir were glad to find themselves once more in communication one with another, and both choir and congregation listened with great attention to his sermon, in the course of which he reminded the singers that they were bound to be an example to the rest of the Parish of reverent behaviour, and devout attention in the services of the Church, but that it was the duty of the whole congregation to endeavour continually (with prayer to God for His help) to sing and to pray both with the understanding and the spirit. The Offertory which is applied to the expenses of the Choir amounted to £19. 4s. 4d., a sum rather less than last year, but the decrease, which was not quite £1. 7s., is fully accounted for by the fact, that in consequence of repairs done to the organ it was found necessary to have an Offertory to meet those expenses in the month of April, when £10. 18s. 3d. was raised. The sermon in the afternoon was preached by the Rev. C. Chapman Browne, Rector of Uley, who referred to the re-opening of the Church in 1855, when it was re-consecrated by Bishop Monk, and the sermons were preached by Bishop Wilberforce and John Keble, all of whom were now passed away from amongst us, but not without having done their work in their generation. He spoke also very earnestly of the duty incumbent on every Christian in these days to maintain religious education. The Offertory applicable to the annual support of the Parish School amounted to £20. 18s. 4d. (the preacher having said that it appeared that about £20 would be required), which sum is more than £2 in advance of the amount collected last year. This increase will be very acceptable, as heavy expenses come upon the School fund for fittings and additional teachers, partly in consequence of the increase of the Schools. The School Feast was held on the following Tuesday, the 27th, beginning with morning service at 11, at which two hymns were sung, and a short address was given by the Vicar. The Sunday Scholars, to the number of 69, then had a meal of meat and rice puddings. Tea, cake, and bread and butter were afterwards supplied to all attending the School on Sundays or Week-days to the number of 128. The prizes were distributed to those who had the most marks, and had behaved the best throughout the year. There was an evening service with a hymn at 6 30, but cricket was kept up as long as day light lasted, and the day concluded with the gathering of the choir round their former Curate, and the singing of the National Anthem, "God save the Queen." -00 ULEY cum OWLPEN Sermons were preached on Sunday the 25th, in aid of the Diocesan Association, the Collections were: Of this sum 5/- was marked as specially given for the fund for Diocesan Inspection. Our readers will be glad to hear that the Rev. Rowland Bateman is going to pay us his promised visit on August 4th. Those who were present and heard the account of the Narowal Mission given by Major Browne, will be glad of the opportunity of seeing Mr. Bateman. He will be accompanied by one of the Native Christian boys from Narowal. It is a disappointment that Mr. Bateman cannot give us a Sunday and preach for Foreign Missions, but as this cannot be avoided, there will be a Meeting in the School-room on Wednesday evening, August 4th. The Parishioners are asked to take notice, that any one wishing to erect monuments or tomb-stones in the Churchyard, must first submit a drawing with exact measurements complete to the Rector for his approval. This applies also to any iron railings or stone borders to be placed round any tomb. No inscription of any kind can be put on any old or new tomb without first having been shown to the Rector. Those possessing tombs in the Church or Churchyard, must remember, that, unless they keep them in repair and proper order, they are liable to have them removed. There is a very untidy monument to a person of the name of Bernard, date 1822, near the Chancel. Does any one know who is responsible for the care of the same? As the Dursley flower show seems to have come to an end, could we not have a village flower show in Uley? The Rector would be glad to hear of any who would take an interest in this scheme for next year, which he thinks one likely to increase the beauty of the Uley cottage gardens and the goodness of the vegetables grown therein. CHURCH REGISTER. BAPTISM. July 11-Clara Lillian, daughter of Isaac and Ann Toms, of Frilsham, Berks. BURIAL. July 12-Rachel Ricketts, Fairy Lane, Uley, aged 74 years. BURIAL OWLPEN. July 8-Charles Norris, Mutteral, Uley, aged 79 years. a good Character. Apply to Mrs. Ch. Ch. Browne, Uley Rectory, Dursley. WHITMORE, STEAM PRINTER, STAMP OFFICE, LONG STREET, DURSLEY. |