We cannot leave this subject of our contributors without alluding to the satisfaction with which we have received the support of several fresh writers during the past year, and expressing a hope that they may continue to occupy a space in our columns, and that many others may be led in the coming year to follow their example.

The cry for help which we felt bound to utter last year has brought to light some thoughtful compositions, and we hope that our Editorial needs, if not their intrinsic literary excellences, will in the coming year cause a tide of MSS. to flow into our alas often empty and paperless Editorial drawer. To the diffident and unpractised writer we would wish to say that, if desired, Editorial censorship shall, when needful, be faithfully exercised, whether in the shape of addition, excision, or rejection.

Turning now to our subscribers, for whom we have anxiously desired profitably to cater, and between whom and ourselves a fresh chord to an invisible bond seems year by year to be added; a tie which though greatly strengthened as individual acquaintance enlarges, is in no wise dependent upon personal acquaintanceship for its existing force. Thirty-two numbers of the Friends' Examiner have now appeared, in each of which we have had something to say publicly to this wide-spreading circle of auditors, as well as a good deal in private correspondence to not a few of them.

Remembering that "time" is a talent which can only be used at the season when it is afforded, and that its waste in the past can never be recalled, it would be useless here to record the many ways in which an Editor feels that if he had "his time over again" he could less unworthily fill the post, and more earnestly, and with clearer clarion-sound, call upon his friends and comrades to prepare themselves for the battle-the battle against sin and wrong. But the battle-cry remains still as of old, "Come up to the help of the Lord; to the help of the Lord against the mighty;" and if the Editor has from diffidence or from unworthy fears given to the trumpet a too uncertain sound in the past, and too feebly raised the banner of the good old Gospel truths as professed by our forefathers, he would earnestly desire, with redoubled energy, not merely to publish his own thoughts, but to give to the readers of the Friends' Examiner the stronger and loftier tones of fellow-labourers and fellow-members, and to incite others to a mightier energy for good; a more ceaseless warfare against evil; a bolder confession of Christ everywhere and at all times, and a quieter and fuller abiding trust in Him as the object and aim of all our beings and doings.

How blessed is the testimony of the Apostle Paul to the Ephesians, where he calls them to witness that he is pure from the blood of all men, and that he had not shunned to declare unto them all the counsel of God: Already, since the commencement of this publication, some hundreds of its readers have passed away, and although an Editorial relationship does not involve anything comparable to that of being "his brother's keeper," yet it will often raise the anxious question, Have we done all we might, or all we should, to tell unto others how great things the Lord does for them that love Him, and who trust to His divine

inward teaching, and to the government of His Holy Spirit?

Over the many readers from whom the gulf of time now separates us, and over those who, since the commencement of last year,

and whose names have been recorded in the Friend's obituaries, we cannot but mourn under a feeling of repeated bereavement. The names of some of these will often rise unbidden before the mind, inducing at times an undefined and irrepressible sadness, from which it is in vain that we attempt to turn our thoughts.

The wider the circle of acquaintance the more frequent must our bereavements necessarily be, and as we advance towards mature age, each year seems increasingly to strip us of beloved companions, upon whom we have fondly leaned; the number of those "beyond the river" is ever swelling, whilst the ranks upon this side are diminishing with accelerated speed. year—

And so, upon the opening of this new-born yeara year in which it is certain that some even of those who read these lines will not live to see its end-we would enter solemnly, trustfully, and hopefully as under our Heavenly Father's hand. In the beautiful lines of a former contributor we cannot but remember that

*

"Round those we love most tenderly, stern Death his grasp may fling,

And treasured joys may fade, to which our hearts most wildly cling.

*Friends' Examiner, No. V., p. 8.

'Tis dark, all dark! we strain our eyes but see no gleam of

light,

And shudder as around us rise the spectres of the night.

Like a young child that stands in dread before a darkened

room,

And fearful, shrinks from entering for the silence and the gloom

Until it holds its father's hand! then, though all still be drear,

It enters with glad confidence and knows no thought of fear ; So we upon the threshold halt, of this new year, to-night, Fearing to enter in alone, wanting a guide, a light;

Till Jesus comes and takes our hand, and holds it in His

own:

"I will go in with thee, my child; thou shalt not walk alone,

For I will go before thee; whate'er the darkness be

My light shall shine upon thy steps; fear not, and follow Me."

And shall we fear while holding to the hand of such a Guide?

With childlike trust we'll cling, and press more closely to His side.

He knows it all; our New Year's path is all mapped out above,

Planned with a wisdom infinite, with tender watchful love.
Our God's eternal purpose shall ever rule our way,
Till darkness ends for ever in the light of perfect day."

We have also been accustomed, at this time, to chronicle something of the past year's history of our religious Society. Notably amongst these records we would place the First-day School Conference, held at Darlington in the autumn. Many of its details have already been recorded in our pages, and our reason for again alluding to it at this time is because we believe.

it was an occasion of no small import to the future wellbeing of our Body, and that the ground then occupied and the seed then sown is destined to bring forth fruit after its kind. It touched upon some of the most vital points of our organic action, and we look forward hopefully, though somewhat anxiously, for the development of these questions during the coming year.

The Conference on the subject of the Queries has also been an important feature of the year that is past. Whatever may be the immediate result of its labours, we feel that the Queries in their present stereotype form cannot endure through the many sweeping changes which are being made around us. It will be in vain for some well-concerned Friends to maintain that the reading of these same words periodically and the answering of them in set words is accompanied with life to the hearers. The "tendency of the age" is against it, and the voice of the Society pronounces it to be inefficacious, and a prolonged occupation of time which might be more profitably spent. In our apprehension the doom of the Queries was sealed when the legal minds amongst our predecessors resolved that all answers to the Queries should be couched, as far as possible, in the same words, and each Query should be virtually repeated in every answer from every meeting.

All well-wishers to our Society must feel the great importance of the questions asked; and had meetings been left at liberty to reply to them in the way they felt would best convey a true knowledge of their condition to the superior meetings, the deadness induced by reiteration and the vagueness of indefinite words might have been avoided, and instead of weighing verbal niceties we should have had a valuable summary of what each meeting felt to be its religious state in relation to the various subjects alluded to.

We trust, however, that when the day arrives in