long to enter into the details of the various plans proposed, but one thing seems to be strongly felt—If the clergy give the laity work, they must also give them a voice as to the way in which that work is to be carried on. Theoretically the Vestry represents the voice of the laity, but no one will contend that it is an adequate representation, nor does it touch the particular points, on which an earnest lay-worker would wish to take counsel with his spiritual pastor. What we want (it seems to me) is a sort of Council of Communicants—a kind of Kirk-session in fact—to interchange thoughts and take counsel with the pastor. I am convinced that, until we have some organization of this kind, we shall have a constant repetition of those mistakes, which are often unwittingly made by the clergy from a non-appreciation of the honest difficulties of the laity. I cannot do more than touch this point, but I may perhaps be permitted to say that I pray to see the day, when the Bishop shall take counsel with his Presbyters in Diocesan Synod, and when each parish shall have its own little synod of communicants gathering around the parish priest. Then we shall have less jarring, and fewer mistakes. I must now consider shortly how we can draw out Lay-help. The best way to draw it out is simply to state why we want it. Beyond the claims which God’s work must make upon the heart and conscience of every Christian man, “is there not a cause?” Take the large parish of Lambeth. “The census of 1851 gives the population as 139,325; the church accommodation as 22,589; that of dissent 11,586; but this includes the wealthier districts of Kennington, Norwood, Brixton, and Stockwell. Exclude these parts of the parish, and the provision for the teaching of the people is comparatively reduced, whilst the attendance is in an inverse ratio to the wealth. The poorer the place, the fewer the people who enter any place of worship . . . The census returns for Lambeth give one-third of the sittings as always empty; it would be more than this in the poorer parts of the parish.” For this statement I am indebted to Canon Gregory, {11a} and I can only say, “Is there not a cause?” “In Southwark,” says Dr. Hume, “there are 68 per cent. who attend no place of worship; in Lambeth 60½.” This evidence was tendered on oath before the Lords’ Committee on Church-rates. {11b} Lord Shaftesbury again calculates “that only about 2 in every 100 of the working _men_ are found to attend any place of worship.” I say again, looking at these awful facts, “Is there not a cause?”