nches of work in
which they are engaged, and to make such regulations as may be found
necessary or expedient. I hear also of the formation of Parochial
Associations of Lay Helpers which hold monthly or occasional meetings of
a desirable character. The executive committee of the Association is
appointed yearly by the Bishop.

The work to be done is various. At all the meetings which I have
attended I have found the principal stress laid upon house-to-house
visitation and mission-house services. It has been found that the poor
have a reluctance to attend the church, but they will attend a
mission-house service, and to preach and pray at such place lay help is
urgently required. Other subjects specified are teaching in
Sunday-schools and getting children to attend, conducting Bible-classes,
tract distribution, seeking out the unbaptized and unconfirmed,
encouraging the newly confirmed to come to Holy Communion, and inducing
the poor to attend church. Under the head of week-evening work such
subjects are indicated as teaching in night and ragged schools,
management of working-men's clubs and youths' institutes, assistance at
popular lectures, penny readings, and other means of recreation,
attendance at penny banks, clothing funds, and school and parochial
libraries, visiting the poor, assisting in church services. Day work is
much the same. Other subjects not already mentioned are superintending
the distribution of relief, reading and speaking to working men on
religious subjects in workshops; collecting and canvassing for funds for
parochial and mission purposes, and acting as secretaries to parochial
institutions and religious and charitable societies. Especial stress is
laid upon the clergy being relieved of their secular duties as relieving
officers. It is felt that clergy laden with an infinity of secular work,
essential to the good of the parish and the carrying out of their plans,
are thus more or less incapacitated for the performance of the higher
functions of their office. When we think what are the manifold duties of
the clergy, it is no wonder that sermons made to represent original
compositions, and which may be read as such, meet with a ready sale.
Parochially London has grown wonderfully of late. The census of 1861,
for instance, enumerates twenty-three parochial districts as formed out
of the old parish of Kensington. Bishop Blomfield consecrated in all no
less than 198 churches during the twent