Class No.__ Book No. 
 
 Library of the 
 
 Meadville Theological School 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF ILLINOIS 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 280 
 
 Evl4v 
 

 
 
The Evangelical Alliance does not hold itself 
 responsible for the opinions expressed in the papers 
 or addresses in this volume. 
 
VITAL QUESTIONS. 
 
 THE DISCUSSIONS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 GENERAL CHRISTIAN CONFEREN 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 HELD IN 
 
 MONTREAL, QUE., CANADA, 
 
 October 22nd to 25th, 1888, 
 
 UNDER THE AUSPICES AND DIRECTION OF THE 
 
 Montreal Branch of the Evangelical Alliance. 
 
 MONTREAL: 
 
 WILLIAM DRYSDALE & CO., PUBLISHERS. 
 
 1889. 
 
Entered, according to Act of Parliament of Dominion of Canada, in the year 1889, by 
 Wm. Drysdale & Co., in the Office of the Minister of Agriculture at Ottawa. 
 
 “ Witness ” printing House, 
 Montreal. 
 
£80 
 fi v \^\v 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The Conference, of which this volume contains the proceedings, 
 was first mentioned in the Report of a Committee appointed to 
 consider the more efficient working of the Montreal Branch of 
 the Evangelical Alliance in October, 1885. The first formal 
 resolution relating to the Conference was passed on the 7th day 
 of February, 1887, when a Committee was appointed to consider 
 the matter and report. A special meeting was called to consider 
 the report of this Committee in May, 1887, when the Alliance 
 determined to let the matter hinge upon the Parent Alliance 
 sending a Deputation to take part in the Conference. The reply 
 from London being that it would be impossible to send the 
 Deputation that year, but promising to do so at the earliest 
 possible period, the matter was dropped for the time being. In 
 October, 1887, the question of the Conference was resumed, and 
 a Committee was appointed to prepare an. outline programme. 
 After considerable correspondence and much careful thought, 
 the Conference was called for October, 1888, and the programme 
 published. Arrangements were made to bring the Conference 
 before all the Annual Meetings of the various Ecclesiastical 
 bodies, by whom it was very generally and heartily endorsed. 
 
 One hundred and fifteen delegates responded to the invitation 
 of the Montreal Branch of the Alliance, representing all Evan¬ 
 gelical Denominations, and all parts of the Dominion. 
 
 The Executive of the Montreal Branch feels greatly indebted 
 to the Trustees of the Crescent Street, the American Presbyterian, 
 and the Dominion Square Methodist Churches, for kindly placing 
 these churches at their disposal, for the meetings of the Confer¬ 
 ence ; also to the gentlemen who so efficiently served on the 
 various Committees, as well as to the citizens who cordially 
 extended their hospitality to delegates and invited speakers. 
 
 607799 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 MONDAY, Opening Session. 
 
 Chairman’s Address: Sir Wm. Dawson,C. M.G., LL.D., F. R. S.,Montreal. 
 Address of Welcome : Rev. Prof. Shaw, LL.D., Montreal. 
 
 Response : Rev. R. F. Burns, D.D., Halifax, N.S. 
 
 Response: W. E. Dodge, Esq., New York, President of the Evangelical 
 Alliance in the United States. 
 
 Response : Rev. J. Wilkie, Presbyterian Missionary, from India. 
 Conversazione. 
 
 TUESDAY, Morning Session. Topic: Current Unbelief. . 
 
 Chairman’s Address : Rev. D. Macrae, D.D., St. John, N.B. 
 
 Paper : Rev. N. Burwash, S.T.D., Chancellor Victoria University, 
 Cobourg, Ont. 
 
 Address : Rev. H. J. Van Dyke, D.D., New York. 
 
 Address : Rev. Prof. J. B. Thomas, D.D., Newton Centre, Mass. 
 Discussion. 
 
 TUESDAY, Afternoon Session. Topic: Capital and Labor . 
 
 Chairman’s Address : Rev. C. Hole, D.D., Halifax, N.S. 
 
 Paper : Rev. Washington Gladden, D.D., New York. 
 
 Address : Hon. Senator Macdonald, Toronto. 
 
 Address : G. Hague, Esq., Montreal. 
 
 Discussion. 
 
 TUESDAY, Evening Session. Topic : National Perils . 
 
 Chairman’s Address : Veil. Archdeacon Evans, M.A., Montreal. 
 Address : Rev John Hall, D.D., New York. 
 
 Address : Right Rev. Bishop Fallows, D.D., Chicago. 
 
 Address : Rev. J. Robertson, D.D., Supt. Presbyterian Missions in 
 the North-West. 
 
 WEDNESDAY, Morning Session. 
 
 Topic : Roman Catholicism in Canada . 
 
 Chairman’s Address : Rev. Principal Barbour, D.D., Montreal. 
 
 Paper : Rev. D. H. MacVicar, D.D., LLD., Montreal. 
 
 Address : Rev. E. B. Ryckman, D.D., London, Ont. 
 
 Address : Rev. S. N. Jackson, M.D., Kingston, Ont. 
 
 Discussion. 
 
 Communion Service in Dominion Square Methodist Church. 
 
 WEDNESDAY, Afternoon Session. 
 
 Topic : Romanisjn in relation to Education . 
 
 Chairman’s Address : Rev. T. Lafleur, Montreal. 
 
 Paper : Rev. James M. King, D.D., New York. 
 
 Address : Rev. P. S. Moxom, D.D., Boston, Mass. 
 
 Address : Rev. Dr. Saunders, Halifax, N.S. 
 
 Discussion. 
 
 PAGES. 
 
 1-24 
 
 25-52 
 
 53-83 
 
 84-111 
 
 112-144 
 
 145-147 
 
 148-187 
 
viii TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 WEDNESDAY, Evening Session. Topic : Romish Dogma a Source 
 
 of Religious, Social, and National Peril . 
 
 Chairman’s Address: Rev. J. A. Williams, D.D., Gen. Supt. Methodist 
 Church. 
 
 Address : Rev. G. M. Milligan, B.A., Toronto. 
 
 Address : Rev. John Lathern, D.D., Halifax, N.S. 
 
 Address : Rev. C. Hole, D.D., Halifax, N.S. 
 
 THURSDAY, Morning Session. 
 
 Topic : The Dominion Evangelical Alliance . 
 
 Business Session of the Conference. 
 
 Paper : Rev. W. Jackson, Montreal. 
 
 THURSDAY, Afternoon Session. 
 
 Topic : Co-operation in Christian Work . 
 
 Chairman’s Address : Hon. Judge McDonald, Brockville, Ont. 
 
 Paper : Rev. Josiah Strong, D.D., New York. 
 
 Paper : Rev. F. Russell, D.D., New York. 
 
 Address : Rev. John Potts, D.D., Toronto, Ont. 
 
 Resolutions re Jesuits’ Estates Act. 
 
 THURSDAY, Evening Session. Topic : The Church in its relation 
 
 to the Evangelization of the World . 
 
 Chairman : Hon. Senator Macdonald, Toronto, Ont. 
 
 Address : Rev. S. J. Macpherson, D.D., Chicago. 
 
 Paper : Rev. Principal Sheraton, D.D., Toronto, Ont. 
 
 Address : Rev. Chancellor Sims, D.D., Syracuse, N.Y. 
 
 Address : Rev. W. Burgess, Wesleyan Missionary, from India. 
 
 Appendix I. Paper by A. J. Arnold, Esq. . . 
 
 Appendix II. Petition re Jesuits’ Estates Bill.... 
 
 Index.. .. 
 
 188-204 
 
 205-213 
 
 214-244 
 
 245-276 
 
 277-283 
 
 284-287 
 
 289 
 
VITAL QUESTIONS. 
 
 Evangelical Alliance Conference. 
 
 MONDAY, 22nd OCTOBER, 1888. 
 
 OPENING SESSION. 
 
 The Conference met in Crescent Street Presbyterian Church 
 at half-past seven o’clock, p.m. 
 
 Sir William Dawson, President of the Montreal Branch of the 
 Alliance, occupied the chair, and among those on the platform 
 were :—Rev. Dr. Burns (Halifax), Rev. Dr. Hole (Halifax), Rev. 
 Dr. Shaw (Montreal), Mr. W. E. Dodge (of New York, President 
 of the United States Evangelical Alliance), Right Rev. Bishop 
 Ussher, Mr. John Paton (New York), Rev. Dr. Antliff, Rev. J. 
 Wilkie (Presbyterian Missionary from India), Rev. J. B. Saer (St. 
 John, N.B.), Rev. Dr. Ryckrpan (London), Rev. Dr. Williams 
 (Toronto), Rev. Dr. Barnes (Sherbrooke), Rev W. Jackson (Secre¬ 
 tary of the Montreal Alliance), ReV. L. H. Jordan, Rev. Principal 
 MacVicar, Rev. Dr. Barbour, Rev. F. M. Dewey, Rev. E. M. Hill, 
 Rev. J. Fleck, Rev. A. B. Mackay, Rev. W. S. Blackstock (Toronto), 
 Rev. T. G. Williams, Rev. Prof. Scrimger, and the Rev. F. H. 
 Marling'. 
 
 The proceedings opened by singing the iooth Psalm, after 
 which the Rt. Rev. Bishop Ussher, Reformed Episcopal Church, 
 Montreal, read a selection of Scripture. Rev. F. H. Marling, of 
 Emmanuel Church, Montreal, led in prayer. 
 
 Rev. W. Jackson, Secretary, of the Montreal Branch of the 
 Evangelical Alliance, read letters from A. J. Arnold, Esq., Secre¬ 
 tary of the Parent Alliance, relating to Sir Robert Phayre, K.C.B., 
 as their deputation to this Confawnce ; from Sir Robert, regret¬ 
 ting that owing to illness he had been unable to be present; from 
 
2 
 
 chairman’s address. 
 
 Right Rev. Bishop Baldwin, explaining the reasons which pre¬ 
 vented him taking his place among his brethren in the Lord. It 
 was a matter of regret that Mr. Arnold had not longer notice 
 of Sir R. Phayre’s failure, so that he might have been at this Con¬ 
 ference. The Secretary alluded to several eminent men who had 
 been invited to take part in the Conference, but who, from 
 a variety of reasons, had found it impossible to accede to the 
 request of the Programme Committee ; among whom were Rt. 
 Rev. Bishop Bond, Rev. W. M. Taylor, D.D., Rev. Dr. Duryea, 
 Rev. Dr. Pierson, of Philadelphia, and others. 
 
 CHAIRMAN’S ADDRESS. 
 
 Sir William Dawson, C.M.G., Montreal. 
 
 The Montreal Branch has ventured to take the responsibility 
 of this Conference, because the last Canadian Convention of the 
 Alliance was held in this city in 1874, and because here, as in an 
 outpost of Protestantism, the need of a Dominion Alliance is 
 most acutely felt. The great end of the promoters of this Con¬ 
 ference is the reorganization of the Dominion Alliance, and to 
 give a new impetus to the general religious movement on the 
 part of Protestants. 
 
 In such a meeting it becomes us in the first place, like the 
 Israelites when Samuel gathered them at Mizpah, to confess our 
 past shortcomings and want of efficiency, and to humble our¬ 
 selves before God. We have certainly failed in duty in our long 
 inaction in the matter of the Evangelical Alliance. It is our next 
 business to consider with care the best means of united action 
 against the evils of the time, and this in a spirit of love to all and 
 enmity to none. Our weapons must be spiritual rather than 
 ■carnal, and we must contend against evil principles and systems 
 .and not against persons. With reference to the former, whether 
 they are infidel or anti-Christian, it is necessary to bear in mind 
 that, however diverse in operation, they are one in aim. The 
 men who deny God and disparage divine revelation are practi¬ 
 cally on the same side with those who supersede God and Christ 
 by other rulers and mediators, and who withhold the Bible from 
 the people. Nothing is more obvious in our time than that the 
 ■emissaries of the powers symbolized in Scripture by the “Dragon, 
 ithe Beast and the Praise Prophet,” are all employed in gathering 
 
ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 
 
 3 
 
 the nations to one great struggle against God and His Christ. 
 We should also bear in mind that the end of these evil systems 
 is near. The Kingdom of the Prince of this World is approach¬ 
 ing a critical period, for the fated termination of the reign of Anti¬ 
 christ and of the “ times of the Gentiles ” are alike near at hand. 
 Satan is active because he knows better than we do that his time 
 is short; and it is a serious question whether Christians will be 
 in a position to meet the responsibilities soon to be thrown on 
 them, to present a united front in the crisis of the final struggle, 
 and to manifest that holy unity which becomes the Bride of the 
 Coming Lord. Let us pray that under God’s blessing, under the 
 leadership of Christ and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, such 
 ends may be promoted by the present Conference. 
 
 With this session of the Conference the special function of the 
 Montreal Branch terminates, except in so far as local details and 
 expenses are concerned ; and it is the hope of the Branch that a 
 working constitution may be matured for an efficient Dominion 
 Alliance, whose next place of meeting should probably be in 
 some of the greater centres of our Protestant population rather 
 than in Montreal. 
 
 ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 
 
 Rev. Dr. Shaw, Montreal. 
 
 It devolves upon me, at the request of the Montreal Branch of 
 the Evangelical Alliance, to extend to Delegates, Speakers, and 
 all friends from a distance, a most cordial welcome to this Chris¬ 
 tian Conference. The best qualification I can claim for the dis¬ 
 charge of such a duty is that I earnestly desire that my words, 
 though few, should be warm and strong in voicing the cordial 
 greeting which I know the Evangelical churches of this city all 
 desire to extend to our distinguished visitors. Brethren, in the 
 name of the Lord we greet you, in the name of a common heri¬ 
 tage of faith, in the name of Christian truth, in the name of kin¬ 
 dred ties which make, us the heirs of all the ages, the inheritors 
 not of empty traditions but of the records and inspiration of 
 noblest Christian heroism, in the name of our common Chris¬ 
 tianity we bid you welcome to our city, to our homes and to this 
 Conference of the Evangelical Alliance. Here prayerfully and 
 humbly waiting upon God, assembled in one place and with one 
 
4 
 
 ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 
 
 accord, I trust upon us may descend pentecostal influence and 
 power to fit us for better service for Christ and humanity. 
 
 There are some objects we certainly have not had in view in 
 convening this Conference. In the first place, it is not designed 
 to weaken attachment to our respective churches and ecclesias¬ 
 tical systems, if such attachment be a matter of intelligent con¬ 
 viction. If I utter any word that would offend the convictions 
 of any brother here as to tenets or church polity, I would violate 
 one of the simplest principles of Christian courtesy and fraternal 
 regard. We know each other’s views and we are here to respect 
 them. Strong convictions are not incompatible with the broadest 
 catholicity. Indeed my observation emboldens me to say that 
 extreme elasticity and variableness of religious opinion are often 
 joined with haughty intolerance. I do not plead for greater im¬ 
 portance attaching to our ecclesiastical systems than intrinsically 
 belongs to them. Granting all that may be claimed for the 
 divine institution of the Ministry, sacramental ordinances, Chris¬ 
 tian fellowship and ecclesiastical organization, yet, at best, even 
 these are only the scaffolding of the spiritual temple that is being 
 built founded upon the atonement of Christ, and through the 
 mists and clouds of life’s cares and sins rising high in the great 
 spiritual realm of God, eternal in the Heavens. As Tennyson 
 has it:— 
 
 “ Our little systems have their clay, 
 
 They have their day and cease to be ; 
 
 They are but broken lights of thee, 
 
 But thou, O Lord, art more than they.” 
 
 Creeds, like the Sabbath, were made for man and not man for 
 creeds. And yet conscientious divergences of opinion about our 
 different systems must be respected, and nowhere do they com¬ 
 mand more respect than in the Evangelical Alliance. 
 
 Again, we are not here to waste time in an interdenominational 
 exchange of empty compliments. Men, Christian men, are look¬ 
 ing at us whose souls eagerly pant for what I believe would be 
 far from an unmixed blessing, namely, the organic union of all 
 branches of the Church: Greek, Latin, Lutheran, Reformed, 
 Anglican, Baptist, Independent, Methodist, and a score of others. 
 Still, this to them is the highest aspiration of their Christian life, 
 and frequently they point to such assemblies as the present and 
 belittle them as an empty show in which sectaries unite for a 
 time with loud professions of friendship only to be followed by 
 more bitter antagonisms. Brethren, let us keep our record clear 
 in this regard, by proving to the world that we love in deed and 
 truth as well as in word. Let us in thought make way for the 
 
ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 
 
 5 
 
 venerable Apostle John, to be carried through our assembly, say¬ 
 ing, “ Little children, love one another.” Keble in his “ Christian 
 Year,” thus voices this longing for unity:— 
 
 “ So is it with true Christian hearts, 
 
 Their mutual share in Jesus’ blood 
 An everlasting bond imparts, 
 
 Of holiest brotherhood. 
 
 Oh ! might we all our homage prove, 
 
 Live and forgive, do good and love, 
 
 By soft endearment in kind strife, 
 
 Lightening the load of daily life.” 
 
 One of the main objects positively of this gathering is that set 
 forth in the constitution of the Parent Society in England, “ to 
 manifest and increase the spirit of unity among Christians.” We 
 wish to realize the answer to the Saviour’s prayer, “ That they 
 all may be one,” accepting the interpretation of these divine 
 words given by Dean Alford, “ This unity has its true and only 
 ground in faith in Christ through the word of God as delivered 
 by the Apostles, and is therefore no mere outward uniformity, 
 nor can such uniformity produce it.” These catholic utterances 
 of this great scholar deserve to be enshrined both in the records 
 and in the hearts of all members of this Alliance. Our motto is 
 the words of Scripture rendered into Latin by St. Jerome in his 
 cloister at Bethlehem, 1500 years ago: Unum corpus siinius in 
 Christo. At the same time catholicity of spirit, like every other 
 subjective excellence, is to be valued only as it leads to practical 
 beneficial results, especially in the way of removing denomina¬ 
 tional friction and antagonisms. Brethren from other lands, we 
 may inform or remind you that in this direction probably more 
 has been done in Canada than in any other country in Christen¬ 
 dom. The various branches of Methodism in this country have 
 been unified and are now together in the van of Christian progress. 
 The different Presbyterian churches are also united and represent 
 one of the best types of intelligent and progressive Christianity 
 in all the Empire of Christ. These United bodies have again in 
 turn been approached with the olive branch of union by a Church 
 which every intelligent Christian must regard with the greatest 
 veneration and honor, the grand old Church of England. I 
 believe in no country in the world is there more of the spirit of 
 Christian union than in this Dominion. This may be partly 
 owing to the fact that with a country almost as large as Europe 
 we have but a small population of five millions. The hearts of 
 our patriotic youth are fired by the oft repeated prediction that 
 this vast Dominion shall tremble beneath the tread of coming 
 
6 
 
 RESPONSE TO ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 
 
 millions. If these millions come, as come they must, we desire 
 that they shall come to a country whose foundations are laid in 
 Christian truth and temperance and righteousness, and to one free 
 from the blight of narrow intolerance and bigotry. 
 
 Again, we have arranged for this Conference with the hope 
 that it may lead to some worthy practical results and be an 
 inspiring benediction to all our Churches. We have invited to the 
 gathering successful, wise and experienced Christian workers 
 and thinkers, men known and beloved in all our borders, and we 
 are confident that with the divine blessing their words of wisdom 
 and power will carry us beyond the limits of fruitless theorizing 
 and will lead to most earnest effort to solve the difficult problems 
 of social science, to rescue the drunkard, to check the assump¬ 
 tions of an intolerant hierarchy, and to save the mind and heart 
 and character and destiny of men from the awful shadow of 
 infidelity and from the terrible blight of confirmed antagonism to 
 God and truth. We are met to glorify God and to seek to save 
 souls. Brethren, you have come to aid us in discussing these 
 great and living' issues which press upon our attention and upon 
 our hearts and consciences, and which call for much wisdom and 
 prayer. In coming to us on this errand of love we most cordially 
 greet you. You come to a city where Evangelical Churches are 
 bound together in Christian sympathy to an unusual degree. 
 Driven together by common foes and common fears, sharing the 
 same trials and the same triumphs, the Protestant Churches of 
 this city represented in this Branch of the Evangelical Alliance 
 bid you welcome in the name of the Lord. 
 
 RESPONSE TO ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 
 
 Rev. Dr. Burns, Halifax. 
 
 \ • 
 
 Our honored chairman has referred in appropriate terms to the 
 present and coming struggle between Christ and Belial, and the 
 assurance of ultimate victory. It is indeed no “sham fight” such 
 as that which was witnessed a short time since in the beautiful 
 city by the sea, whence I come. It is a stern reality. It is the 
 “Great battle of God Almighty.” We wrestle not against flesh 
 and blood, merely or mainly, “but against principalities and 
 powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, and 
 spiritual wickedness in high places.” We have gathered together 
 
RESPONSE TO ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 
 
 7 
 
 here, as representatives of the Sacramental Host, to contemplate 
 the field and the forces, to hear how goes the fight, to burnish our 
 armor, to sharpen our weapons and to consider what tactics we 
 should adopt in the further prosecution of the contest. On such 
 an occasion, therefore, we should remember what our Profession is ; 
 “ chosen to be a soldier ” is Paul’s way of putting it. Over the 
 significant symbols of dying love we have sworn fealty to the 
 Captain of Salvation. We are therefore expected to “ war a good 
 warfare,” to “endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ,”—- 
 not to please ourselves, but to please Him under whose blood- 
 sprinkled Banner we have enlisted. He has not sent us this war¬ 
 fare on our own charges. He has given us the requisite accoutre¬ 
 ments. They are given for use and must not be allowed to rust. 
 They are not toys to be played with, or to make a feint of fighting. 
 
 Our Captain calls to arms. To what end is the Discipline He 
 enforces, are the exercises in which He summons us to engage? 
 “Exercise thyself unto Godliness,” in other words, “ Go through 
 your drill.” “Put on the whole armour of God that you may be 
 able to stand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” 
 What does that mean if you are to stand all the day idle, if your 
 life is to be a holiday, a series of reviews ? Why talk of truce 
 when a world that knew not when He came, even God’s 
 Eternal Son, is up in arms against Him? Why dream of coming 
 to terms with a foe that gives no quarter to Christ and His cause? 
 “What hast thou to do with peace; ”—surely Jehu’s question is 
 as pertinent as it is pointed, when the “Son of God goes forth to 
 war,” “ A kingly crown to gain,” “Quit yourselves like men, be 
 strong,” “ Go ye up and possess the land, as there remaineth yet 
 very much to be possessed for Him whose right it is,” “ Go ye into 
 all the world.” These are among his marching orders. 
 
 How many, in these compromising times, instead of manfully 
 combating error, talk of charity and tolerance. For whom is the 
 much misused cloak of charity ? Is it to be the cerement of 
 corruption ? Is it to become a cloak of maliciousness ? Is it to 
 be the 'thinly woven guise, the subtle mask beneath which our 
 modern Judases may betray the Son of Man with a kiss, and our 
 modern Jacobs come up to the fair form of Christianity, saying 
 softly “art thou in health?” and then stab it to the heart.—No 
 marvel—when Satan changes himself into an angel of light. In 
 these days of seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, fitted to 
 deceive, if itwere possible, the very elect, the advice of the Apostle 
 of Love is more than ever needed : “ Little children, let no man 
 deceive you.” When an advance along the whole line is being 
 ordered, and an unconditional surrender is demanded, the enticing 
 
8 
 
 RESPONSE TO ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 
 
 words of our modern Sanballats and Tobiahs,—“Comedown to 
 us, that we may talk with you,” should not for a moment be 
 listened to, but met only with Nehemiah’s response, “ I am doing 
 a great work and cannot come down.” More especially when we 
 consider that the enemies are at the gate. Remembering that 
 when there are great fundamental principles in common, “Union 
 is Strength, ” recalling the sad calamities that overtook Jerusalem 
 and Rome when rent by intestine strife at the moment their foes 
 girdled them,—let us be “ at peace among ourselves ” and study 
 the things that make for peace and things whereby one may edify 
 another. Let us fraternize to the full with one another, but not 
 with the foe. What though our regimental facings vary ? The 
 Captain and the cause are one. 
 
 “ One army of the living God, 
 
 To His command we bow.” 
 
 Let us increasingly endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in 
 the bond of peace, and to draw a fresh inspiration from our 
 connection with the Grand Army of our Christian Republic 
 scattered over the world’s great field of battle, and the cavalry of 
 God, the riders on the white horses, at head-quarters. 
 
 The day before “Trafalgar” Nelson took Rotheram and 
 Collingwood, two of his captains who were estranged, in sight of 
 the enemy’s fleet, and significantly said :—“ Yonder’s the enemy, 
 shake hands and be friends like good Englishmen.” If, as detach¬ 
 ments of the common army, partakers each of the “ common 
 Salvation,” we be disposed in the least to “ fall out by the way,” 
 this should cause “all bitterness, and wrath, and clamor, and evil 
 speaking to be put away from us,—with all malice.” “ Yonder’s 
 the enemy”—some, attempting to sap Zion’s foundations, others, 
 to scale her walls, others again, to seduce her citizens. See the 
 mighty Host advancing, Satan leading on. Romanism and 
 Rationalism, the believers in everything and in nothing, like Pilate 
 and Herod, have become friends to plot against the Lord and 
 his Anointed. Therefore, let us shake hands and be friends like 
 good Christians. 
 
 Our programme for this conference is taken up mainly with 
 these two,—Superstition and Skepticism. Like the mightiest 
 spirit in the Southern Confederacy, our Captain is being fired at 
 by his own men. It was not an enemy that did it, else we might 
 have borne it. They are the foes most to be dreaded who profess 
 to be friends. Recent assaults on our most holy faith owe almost 
 everything to the quarter whence they come. They have the force 
 of a masked battery. 
 
RESPONSE TO ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 
 
 9 
 
 Strange, passing strange, to find so-called Professors of 
 Theology filling the scorner’s chair, and the armor of an effete 
 and exploded Infidelity glittering through Academic robes and 
 prelatic vestments. This recent rising against the truth,—which 
 is but the fulfilment of ancient prophecy, that “ in the last days 
 there shall arise scoffers,” receives its chief momentum from those 
 who seem to be religious, and is more dangerous than if it were 
 a stand up fight, a hand to hand grapple between truth and error, 
 between the foes and friends of the Gospel. A clever woman has 
 lately been following in the wake of several mediocre men, 
 mothering what she terms a “ New Brotherhood of Christ,” but, 
 even the enemies themselves being judges, “ the old is better;” 
 nor will it be long till many of those whom the “ will o’ the wisp” 
 of her genius has drawn aside into the yielding morass, will be 
 sighing for the old paths, and crying as they flounder and sink, 
 “ where is the good way, that we may walk therein,—and that we 
 may obtain rest unto our souls.” 
 
 At such a time when Zion’s glory and Christ’s honor are 
 menaced, when the Bible’s very being and true religious well-being 
 are at stake, supineness is a sin, cowardice is a crime, neutrality is 
 treache’ry, and a rallying of the scattered forces for mutual con¬ 
 sultation to the end that we may come the better up to the help 
 of the Lord against the mighty, seems to be at once our interest 
 and our duty. As our chairman has said, we can be in no doubt 
 as to the result. The Captain of the Lord’s Host is in the way 
 with the drawn sword in His hand. The enemies of Christ and 
 His cause may be many and mighty, they may seem strongly 
 entrenched and some hearts may fail for fear ; there may be 
 some trembling for the ark of God, but no weapon formed against 
 Him or His can ever prosper. He has fought and felled foes 
 mightier than this before. Himself leads the assault. He that 
 is on our side is far greater than all that can be against us.—“The 
 Lord of Hosts is with us,—the Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord 
 mighty in battle.”— 
 
 “ From victory unto victory 
 His army shall He lead, 
 
 Till every foe is vanquished, 
 
 And Christ is Lord indeed.” 
 
 We meet under the auspices of the Evangelical Alliance, whose 
 warm welcome so gracefully tendered, with that of this Royal 
 city, we cordially accept. The Alliance, since its formal organiza¬ 
 tion in London over 42 years ago, has played no unimportant 
 part in this Holy War. Bickersteth, Bunting, Pratt, Waugh, 
 Leifchild, Haldane, Stewart, King, Bulmer, Chalmers, Cavendish, 
 
IO 
 
 RESPONSE TO ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 
 
 Alder, Harris, Cox, James Hamilton, Angell James, Baptist Noel, 
 Isaac Taylor, and others like minded, stood by its cradle. By 
 successors of kindred faith and fortitude on whom their mantle 
 fell, it was fostered into strength. To its sweetly persuasive 
 influence is largely owing the fact that Churches before standing 
 apart have been brought together, and that Christians generally 
 have their love abounding yet more and more in knowledge and 
 in all goodness, approving the things that are excellent, and 
 while proving all things, holding fast that which is good. 
 
 Union to the Saviour is at the foundation of this communion 
 of saints. We all who are true members of this Evangelical 
 Alliance, beholding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, by the 
 chemistry of the Spirit,—by a process of spiritual photography, 
 standing in the light of the Sun of Righteousness, are changed into 
 the same image, and so remember and reflect the words of the Lord 
 Jesus, how he said : “ The glory which thou gavest me I have 
 given them; that they may be one> even as we are one: I in them and 
 thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one , and that the 
 world may know that thou hast sent me.” (John, 17 ; 22-3.) 
 
 This Alliance is thoroughly Evangelical, as its constitution 
 shows. Its favorite formula is: “ In essentials, unity; in non- 
 essentials, liberty; in all, charity.” It rests on the Pauline 
 principle: “Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus mind¬ 
 ed: and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal 
 even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereto we have already 
 attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.” 
 (Phil, iii., 15-16.) Yet, is it essentially an orthodox union,—for the 
 very source of it is the Spirit of Truth, whose province it is to 
 guide into all truth. 
 
 It sympathises not with that so-called liberal Christianity which 
 is liberal only with what is not its own,—a liberality that would 
 hoard with niggard hand its own petty, pitiable peculiarities, but 
 freely sacrifice what is the property of God. It insists on buying 
 the truth and selling it not, yet, on points of secondary and sub¬ 
 ordinate importance, the adjuncts and circumstantials of the faith, 
 not the things most sincerely believed amongst us, forming the 
 faith once delivered unto the saints. This Alliance not less 
 clearly shows that “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” 
 We have done ample justice to our differences. For their sake we 
 have broken up the visible unityof the Church and filled the page 
 of history, and covered the face of Christendom with angry con¬ 
 tentions. The Alliance therefore feels that it is “ time now to pay 
 respect to our agreements and by a fellowship of which truth is 
 the foundation and love the impulse, and beneficence the employ- 
 
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 ment, to dry the tears of weeping charity and heal the wounds of 
 a bleeding church.” Nor is it a mere Mutual Admiration Society, 
 a scene of handshaking, an occasion for interesting, but impracti¬ 
 cal, talk, and for having what is commonly called a “ good time.” 
 It feels that the best way of provoking to love is to provoke to 
 good works, and that the charity which spends itself in hortatory 
 platitudes, in sentimental sighs, and sugared interchanges, would 
 be but a spasm and a sham. 
 
 The Alliance early gave itself to work. Hence, in addition to 
 smoothing the asperities of controversy, and lending an impulse 
 to every loving and liberal sentiment, it has initiated movements 
 that have widened the circle of Missionary effort, strengthened the 
 fence a divine hand has reared round the Christian Sabbath, and 
 rebuked and restrained intolerance and oppression in many lands. 
 We meet beneath a broad banner of love, to stir one another up 
 by way of remembrance of our dangers and duties, and to “Crown 
 Jesus Lord of All.” 
 
 We meet at a good time. 1888 is a year fragrant with historic 
 memories. 1588 witnessed the utter destruction of the Spanish 
 Armada, and extinguished Sextus Fifth’s expectation of supplant¬ 
 ing Queen Elizabeth by Philip II., and the true order of Jesus by 
 the false. “Thou did’st blow with Thy wind and the sea covered 
 them ; they sank like lead in the mighty waters.” 
 
 1688 was fruitful of blessing to our beloved Fatherland when 
 the wind that detained James at Harwich, wafted William to 
 Torbay, and the gloomy “ Hanging Time,” as it was called, of 
 eight and twenty years, was followed by a glorious Revolution. 
 Three centuries ago God’s wind kept from us an imminent dan¬ 
 ger. Two centuries ago that wind brought to us an immense 
 deliverance. Let us catch the influence of both these movements. 
 A century thereafter the blossoms and fruit which the Revolution 
 bore were nipped by the frosts of a gloomy winter that came 
 back again. It was the iron age of the Church of Scotland, when, 
 on the floor of her General Assembly, foreign missions were voted 
 down. Could contrast greater be conceived than between the 
 scene in Edinburgh then and that in London during the past 
 summer ? The echoes of the three “ Pans ” yet linger in our 
 ears. The Pan-Missionary, the Pan-Anglican and the Pan-Pres¬ 
 byterian Councils. May we drink in somewhat of their meek¬ 
 ness of wisdom and noble enthusiasm ! We meet in a good place. 
 We recall with delight the Convention of fourteen years ago and 
 the thrilling words of McCosh, Fraser, Munro Gibson, Thane 
 Miller, Henry Varley, and Black, of Inverness; Cramp, Court, 
 Governor Wilmot, Sir Daniel Wilson, Senator Ferrier, Dr. Wilkes, 
 
12 
 
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 General Burrows, Earl Cavan, and a host of others, some of whom 
 have fallen asleep, while others remain unto this present and are 
 here with us to-night—not forgetting the indefatigable Secretary, 
 our old friend Gavin Lang, who was the very soul of the 1874 
 gathering,and whose friendly hand we should love to have clasped 
 on this platform at this second Dominion Convention. We 
 rejoice to meet again our beloved President, laden with fresh 
 honors since then, whose presence is ever a benediction and whose 
 praise is not merely in all the religious but in all the scientific 
 world as well. 
 
 We are glad to come back again to this great city of which we 
 retain many precious memories, and to accept in name of dele¬ 
 gates we represent, what we know from experience, to be ever an 
 unstinted and munificent hospitality. Above all, let us fervently 
 claim what we can believingly count on—the abiding presence 
 and abounding blessing of Him who in “ all things must have the 
 pre-eminence,” who hath said, “ Lo ! I am with you alway,” and 
 to whom our words reverently ascribe “ the Kingdom, the Power 
 and the Glory.” 
 
 Fronting St. Peter’s at Rome, stands an obelisk of Egyptian 
 granite, brought 2,000 years ago from the banks of the Nile, on 
 which is the inscription : 
 
 Christus Vincit, 
 
 Christus Regnat, 
 
 Christus Imperat, 
 
 Christus ab omni Malo, 
 
 Plebem Suam, 
 
 Defendat. 
 
 This is our comfort and inspiration in meeting here close to 
 another St. Peter’s, and amid forces and fortifications connected 
 therewith, in view of the coming struggle to which we have already 
 referred. 
 
 Christ is more than a match for “many anti-christs.” Christ, 
 who eyes the conflict with interest, and says to each faithful and 
 true witness here, “ I know thy works and where thou dwellest, 
 even where Satan’s seat is, and thou holdest fast My name and 
 hast not denied My faith.” When disposed to doubts and mis¬ 
 givings as to the issue of the conflict, let us turn our eyes to that 
 ancient inscription that foreshadows victories, that cast those em¬ 
 blazoned on the Trojan column over against it into the shade, 
 and read for our encouragement: 
 
 Christ Conquers, 
 
 Christ Reigns, 
 
 Christ commands, and from every evil, 
 
 Christ will defend His people. 
 
RESPONSE TO ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 
 
 13 
 
 And now let me give place to the distinguished representative 
 from the United States, the President of its Evangelical Alliance, 
 Mr. Dodge, saying as I do so, from the depths of my heart, “ Let 
 there be no strife between me and thee, and between my herds¬ 
 men and thy herdsmen, for we be brethren.” I feel satisfied that 
 the cords of his heart vibrate, as do ours, in unison with the sen¬ 
 timent embodied in the lines of “ one of his own poets 
 
 “Though Ages long have passed, 
 
 Since our Fathers left their Home, 
 
 Their Pilot in the blast, 
 
 O’er untrodden Seas to roam, 
 
 Still lives the blood of England 
 In our Veins, 
 
 And shall we not proclaim, 
 
 This blood of honest Fame, 
 
 Which no tyranny can tame 
 By its Chains. 
 
 While the Manners, while the Arts, 
 Which mould a Nation’s soul, 
 
 Still cling around our Hearts, 
 Between, let Oceans roll, 
 
 Our blessed Communion breaking 
 With the Sun, 
 
 Yet, still from either beach, 
 
 The Voice of Blood will reach, 
 
 More audible than speech, 
 
 We are one, we are one” 
 
 RESPONSE TO ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 
 
 Mr. W. E. Dodge, New York. 
 
 Mr. Chairman , Ladies and Gentlemen :—I like the bugle blast 
 with which this meeting has commenced. It is not merely to 
 be a conference, but a council of war, and I feel greatly honored 
 to be permitted to be present. I can assure you, my dear 
 brethren, that not only in my heart, but in every Christian 
 heart in America, there beats only the deepest affection and the 
 warmest love for Canada, and to all the Christian brethren in 
 the land I bring the very heartiest greetings of the Officers of 
 the Evangelical Alliance for the United States. They feel 
 greatly honored, and they appreciate most deeply your kindness 
 and courtesy in asking them to take part in your deliberations. 
 We feel that, in the very highest sense, we are brothers—one in 
 
14 RESPONSE TO ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 
 
 blood, one in traditions, one in language, one in literature, one 
 in the Bible, our guide, one in the Church, as children of a dear 
 Father, and above all in these times, one in a glorious work 
 which the dear Lord has for us to do. Brethren, as you meet 
 here to settle the conditions for the fulfilment of your grand 
 •work, and to press on that work and assume its responsibili¬ 
 ties, I want you to feel how nearly we in these two nations are 
 alike, in what God calls us to do in these great times. We 
 both have nearly completed one hundred years of our history. 
 They have been years of growth and settlement and adjust¬ 
 ment. We both have great areas of fertile fields, magnificent 
 rivers and lakes, forests and mines and untold riches, such 
 as God has scarcely given to nations before, and in these 
 later days we have added the new resources of civilization ; 
 great lines of railways stretching from ocean to ocean, and 
 bringing close together all the people. We have both great 
 cities, where population is massing in great manufacturing 
 centres; we have farms cultivated and tilled, and we have 
 all the possibilities of a magnificent future. God has given 
 us a population strong and vigorous. With the immigration 
 that has come to us has come the very muscle and life and 
 earnestness of the old world, and we have great opportunities for 
 advancing ; but we have both great evils and dangers to contend 
 with. With our honored Chairman to-night, I believe that the 
 world is growing better, and faster and faster is coming the day 
 when Satan will be subdued and Christ, our great Captain, will 
 reign. But just now we are in the shadow and in the fight. In 
 both countries we have immigration coming in quantities so 
 rapidly that we can scarcely assimilate or bring it into our 
 national life. In both we have foreign religions, where, notwith¬ 
 standing the charity and the kindness, and all that we can 
 admire and love in individuals, we have still a menace and a 
 danger because their first allegiance is to a foreign country. We 
 have the same saloon power fully organized, greater in cost 
 than a standing army, crowding our cities, invading our homes, 
 and cursing our whole people. We have infidelity, scepticism, 
 materialism and all the thousand evils that come with them. 
 Worse than all, we have with our growing prosperity an “indif- 
 ferentism” on the part of many good people—the most dangerous 
 lethargy that can come to a great nation, for behind it the 
 powers of evil can entrench themselves beyond our power to 
 attack and overcome them. 
 
 Now, you brethren in Canada have met together, just as 
 we met together last year in Washington, to consider what 
 
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 15 
 
 your duties and your responsibilities are. May God give you 
 grace and courage and great wisdom. This is the time 
 for an aggressive advance of the Christian Church. We 
 cannot afford to stand still, for if we do we will drift back. We 
 must, with all our responsibilities and opportunities, stand 
 shoulder to shoulder, as the Hosts of the Lord, and march for¬ 
 ward to the victory which He has in store for us, if we are- 
 faithful. 
 
 Perhaps I may be forgiven if I tell you in a few words some 
 of our experience in the States, as it may help you here. We 
 came together representing all sections of our country, all 
 denominations and all branches of the Church of Christ, and we 
 studied :—First, What were the perils and dangers of our 
 country ? When we placed them before us as they were in all their 
 hideousness and nakedness, we were frightened and startled ; 
 but then we followed that up by what the Church of Christ was 
 doing, and what it was prepared to do. There were the latent 
 resources of the Church—an immense power which has never 
 been used. These must be magnetized into life until the dead 
 bones arise. We studied whether, in view of our great respon¬ 
 sibilities, an earnest co-operation among all Christian people 
 was not the wisest and best thing, and if so, how it could be best 
 accomplished. We considered the individual responsibility of 
 every Christian, and I am sure that every one who remained 
 through that Convention at Washington went away pierced to 
 the very soul with the sense of his own responsibility before God. 
 
 I do not know how it is with you in this country, but 
 with us, in the haste to be rich, in the rush and turmoil of 
 modern life, in all the pleasures and show of life, we have, some¬ 
 how or other, in many of our Churches, left the religious work 
 to be done by the clergyman, just as we have left the singing to 
 be done by paid singers. I think the time is past when a 
 Christian layman can feel that his whole duty is done when he 
 comes to the Church of God and reverently listens to a sermon 
 on a Sunday morning, or attends a single service during the 
 week, and allows his pastor and a few working men of the 
 Church do whatever has to be done. We never can succeed in this 
 great fight in that way. What would you think of those who 
 sleep when the enemy is at the gate? Yet that is what many 
 in the Church of Christ are doing, and doing very largely with 
 us. I hope and believe that it is not so here. There is just now 
 a feeling that the whole Church of Christ needs to be united for 
 a steady advance all along the line against the powers of evil. 
 I believe that every clergyman who attended that convention at 
 
1 6 RESPONSE TO ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 
 
 Washington went home with the feeling that “his parish was 
 not a 'field' to work in, but a force to work with.” I believe 
 that every layman went home feeling that his present duty to 
 the Master who died for him and the Lord who loved him, was 
 just as great as his pastor’s. I believe that we went home—all 
 of us—feeling that if those who were nominally members of the 
 Church of Christ in the United States were only banded together 
 in this grand movement—which does not touch form of doctrine 
 or Church government—every reform could be accomplished, 
 every desire could be carried through, and the country could be 
 saved for Christ. That is what we want to do. 
 
 It is very well for us as an Alliance to come together and speak 
 kindly words of each other ; but we want more than that. We 
 want our armor burnished up to fight together for our common 
 Lord. Let me tell you what was the result of our deliberations. 
 We determined, God helping us, as far as we could, to go to our 
 homes in different parts of the country and gladly and thought¬ 
 fully try and come together in every state, locality and city, to 
 consider as Christian men what were the peculiar problems and 
 needs and conditions of each locality. Then when we found 
 what was needed we should try to get the good people of that 
 locality banded together to meet those necessities, to care for the 
 young churches who needed help, and to advance the cause of 
 Christ. In towns of 15,000 or 20,000 inhabitants the clergymen 
 state what the peculiar necessities of the place are. They call 
 to their aid Christian laymen, they organize bands of volunteers, 
 so that a sufficient number of laymen and ladies are brought 
 together who are willing to visit the whole city, and find out the 
 condition of the people. If they find a Baptist, or Presbyterian, 
 or Episcopalian, they do not interfere with his religious belief, 
 but put him in connection with friends of the Church to which 
 he belongs. Thousands have been brought into the Churches, 
 and into Christian activity by this means, and often the whole 
 religious atmosphere of the town has been changed. No one 
 denomination has been injured, but the work of all has been 
 advanced. A clergyman came to our office a short time 
 since and stated that this system of visitation in his city had 
 brought to his individual Church forty-six families, all of whom 
 had not been known before, but who belonged directly or 
 indirectly to his denomination. I merely instance this as some 
 practical work. 
 
 Something must be done by the Church of Christ to show 
 we are in earnest for the Master who died for us, and that 
 we are willing to sacrifice ourselves for Him. I love your 
 
RESPONSE TO ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 17 
 
 beautiful city, and I can say that some of the best influences 
 of my life came from Montreal. 
 
 I attended, in 1867, a great Convention held by the Young 
 Men’s Association. There came on the platform old General 
 Russell, who was then Commander-in-Chief of the forces 
 in Canada, the son of General Havelock was on his staff 
 at the time. I was struck with the appearance of General 
 Russell. He was asked to say a word at the meeting. 
 He had never spoken at a meeting before, but he stood 
 up, drew himself to his full height, a magnificent specimen of 
 the veteran soldier, grown bronzed and gray under the suns of 
 India. He simply said this:—“ I am here to-night because, if, from 
 my peculiar position in this part of Her Majesty’s Dominions, 
 I have any influence, I want to have the whole of that influ¬ 
 ence on the side of Christ.” That is the power. We should all 
 want to have the whole of our influence on the side of Christ. 
 Let me give you another instance of this spirit on the part of a 
 dear friend, whom some of you knew here. Sometimes in the 
 summer months when I can get away from New York, I go 
 down to a little village on the Metapedia River near the head of 
 Baie de Chaleur in this Dominion. There is a little Church 
 there, in which we have service. I was asked to become a 
 lay preacher there once, and a good many old Scotch people 
 were there, and a good many of their dogs came along. 
 (Laughter.) I noticed as something peculiar that a number of 
 Indians, of the Roman Catholic Mission some distance off, were 
 present, and after the service I spoke to one of them and asked 
 him how it happened. In his quaint language he told me that 
 last year- there had come an old gentleman from Montreal with 
 his niece, who wanted very much to kill a salmon, and finally 
 she persuaded the old gentleman to get some Indians to take 
 them up the Restigouche River, so that they might have a 
 chance to fish. They were told it was no use trying, as no fish 
 could be caught, and gentlemen from Quebec and Halifax, and 
 other places could catch none just then. But they went, and 
 during a long, hot day, the canoes were poled against the 
 current. Late in the evening they pitched their tents, and 
 although weary and wanting rest, the old gentleman called the 
 chief and the Indians together, and said, “ I always read some 
 of God’s Word before I go to rest, and ask Him to take care of 
 me during the night. I wish you would call the men in.” The 
 Indians came to the tent, and the old gentleman knelt by the 
 firelight and prayed God to take care of them all. Early in the 
 morning light, when they were getting ready to fish, he called 
 
1 8 RESPONSE TO ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 
 
 the Indians again, and said, “ I always begin the day by asking 
 God’s blessing and reading a little of the Word !” The Indians 
 were a little frightened then, for they had travelled with Bishops 
 and Ministers, and all sorts of good people, but nobody ever 
 had done that before, but they knelt down and prayed. When 
 they went to fish, there seemed to be a magic about the flies of 
 the old gentleman and his niece, for they caught more fish than 
 had been caught on the river for two weeks previously. The 
 Indian with whom I was speaking told me in the most solemn 
 way that the old chief brought them together as he was dying, 
 and told them all to worship the God of that good man who 
 came there last year, because He would always give them fish. 
 That old gentleman who showed this good example was Mr. 
 Joseph Mackay. The example of that good man taking his 
 religion with him into the woods impressed that whole tribe of 
 Indians as no other religion had for fifty years before. Dear 
 brethren, we want to carry Christ and our Christian life always 
 with us, and then the power of the united Church will be irresisti¬ 
 ble. I do not think that perfect unity will soon come, but we 
 can co-operate together most heartily. God opens a glorious 
 possibility to all of us. All we have to do is to put our trust in 
 Him, and we shall triumph in a perfect realization of all these 
 things we so devoutly wish for His sake. 
 
 RESPONSE TO ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 
 
 Rev. J. Wilkie, Presbyterian Missionary, India. 
 
 I recognize the fact that I appear before you this evening 
 because of my being a returned missionary, and as such I 
 shall try to speak to you, and I see in the kind opportunity 
 thus afforded me the interest of the Evangelical Alliance in 
 the great work of the Church of Christ in foreign lands,— 
 a work that never before presented at the same time such 
 claims and such encouragements to the followers of the crucified 
 Saviour. You will pardon my referring to the field with 
 which I have been more immediately associated,—India, only 
 because I am better acquainted with it than with any other. 
 
 India is naturally one of the richest countries in the world,its his¬ 
 tory being an account of one invading horde after another, drawn 
 thither by its material wealth, its accumulated treasures,—how- 
 
RESPONSE TO ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 
 
 19 
 
 ever, but ministering to man’s rapacious selfishness and haughty 
 tyranny, and so preparing the way for a succeeding conqueror ; 
 a land covered with the mournful ruins of intellectual greatness, 
 manual dexterity, or pious zeal, that even in their unmatched 
 beauty cannot banish from view the weary hands and aching 
 hearts of the slaves of despotic power or fanatical zeal by whom 
 they were formed; a land supporting a teeming population almost 
 as great per square mile as that of England, without, however, 
 England’s manufacturing centres ;—a people of the same great 
 family, possessing the same natural abilities, as capable of doing 
 great things and influencing the world’s history as we, if they but 
 had in their hands that power which has made us what we are,— 
 the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For generations they 
 have been trooping on towards the unknown and to them unknow¬ 
 able future, sons learning the simple, rude arts of the fathers, 
 patiently submitting to the tyranny and robbery of those stronger 
 than they, and in turn, seeking to practise the arts just learned ; 
 but always in adversity seeking consolation in their fatalistic 
 pantheism. Khoda ki marzi hozven , ham kya par sakem. (Let 
 God’s will be done, what can we do) : every natural impulse to 
 inquire or improve being promptly restrained, if not destroyed, by 
 fresh dogmas or increased ritualistic burdens. 
 
 Their religious systems, for they are not by any means one, if 
 we leave out of view some of the later developments, the result 
 of Christian influence such as the Brahmo-Somajh, are among the 
 worst the world has seen, each succeeding development being 
 more depraving than that whose place it usurped, the whole being 
 framed by different groups of scheming, unscrupulous, greedy, 
 sensual priests, whose one object seemed to be to gain the gifts of 
 the people, and who therefore sought to build up their system by 
 gratifying men’s evil desires, contradicting and anathematizing 
 one another, manifesting for the most part neither consistency, 
 morality nor purity, often childish and silly in the extreme, their 
 stories being unworthy of the dignity of man, and still less so of 
 God, and all tending to brutalize and degrade man; the gods 
 being pictures of their own evil hearts, whose worship only tended 
 to develop the worst impulses of our nature. 
 
 They, however, have awakened to a sense of their powers and 
 possibilities, and with the energy begotten by their newly found 
 powers, are seeking to free themselves from their political, social, 
 and religious fetters. Already we have seen three Hindoos 
 knocking at the door of the English House of Commons, and 
 though not yet admitted, their earnestness and recognized ability 
 indicates what we may expect. The “National Congress” may be 
 
20 
 
 RESPONSE TO ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 
 
 infantile in its movements in the minds of some, and schoolboy- 
 like, may spread itself over too vast a territory to accomplish 
 much. It is, however, a healthy growth that indicates a latent 
 power that in the fully developed man will shake to its foundations 
 the political tyranny or autocratic governments of the past; and 
 she deserves our earnest sympathy in her efforts for freedom. 
 
 It may be partly true that India suffers most from wrongs she 
 has brought upon herself. It is also true that many of her sons 
 are bravely seeking to remove those social inequalities and 
 burdens, so many of which refer to the place of women in the 
 social economy. Widow re-marriage opposition, and infant 
 marriage, are, with the growth of moral courage, seen to be as 
 much opposed to Hindoo sentiment as to ours, and heavy are the 
 blows aimed at these by manly self-sacrificing reformers from 
 amongst India’s own sons ; and caste, that great bulwark of 
 Hinduism of the past, the shielder of social enormities, the 
 destroyer of social or national unity, though more determinedly 
 than ever demanding a slavish obedience to its behests, and mak¬ 
 ing its threats and pains correspond with the earnestness of its 
 demands, yet shows but the energy,—yes, desperate energy—of 
 hopelessness which, having lost the moral support of its more 
 important followers, seeks to form a seeming obedience by the 
 influence of the more ignorant and superstitious of their number ; 
 but it only gets a seeming obedience that decreases in proportion to 
 the growth of moral courage, and soon will be under the farce that 
 we see played in all its cities, of men openly breaking the caste 
 rules in their intercourse with men, and yet in their homes in the 
 orthodox fashion in obedience to petticoat government, conform¬ 
 ing to the same. 
 
 To us as Christians, special interest centres in their efforts to 
 free themselves from the spiritual bondage of the ages past. 
 Good Christians at home have often been discouraged with regard 
 to India’s Missionary efforts. Is not the Gospel of Christ the 
 power of God unto Salvation, in India as in other heathen lands ? 
 Why, then, if the Gospel is faithfully presented, do we not hear 
 of like results ? Why are there so few Christians there after so 
 many years of work by such a large staff of workers ? And the 
 methods are examined into, this one or that one being set aside 
 according to the critical spirit or natural inclinations of those 
 making the examination. Here, too much time has been given 
 to the educational, there, it is too much neglected ; and occasion¬ 
 ally one or two men sent out from the Home Church have, after 
 a few weeks’ examination, been able to upset departments of work 
 established and carried on after much weary, anxious labor by 
 
RESPONSE TO ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 
 
 21 
 
 men as fully consecrated to the Master’s cause and probably as 
 thoroughly acquainted with the needs of the fields as their judges, 
 even though sent out from home with the full confidence of the 
 churches. Mistakes in this connection have been made, and 
 hence we find societies that a few years ago closed their Mission 
 schools now forced to re-establish these same institutions. The 
 reason of the mistake is, however, easily seen. So long as Mission 
 results are only judged of by counting heads, so long will such 
 mistakes be made, and the more thoroughly we realize that the 
 whole cause is God’s cause, and have faith to follow Him, sowing 
 or reaping as may be His wish, preferring the reaping to the sow¬ 
 ing—for Missionaries, in the face of the overpowering influence 
 of heathenism desire this far more than those at home possibly 
 can, but prepared faithfully to do that work which He opens out 
 before us, Educational, Evangelistic, Medical or Literary, as He 
 indicates, the more fully will we be sustained in the fight, what¬ 
 ever our sphere may be at home or abroad. 
 
 We have in India a religious system, built up with all the 
 cunning and ingenuity of man, that for thousands of years has 
 enslaved, literally enslaved its followers, forbidding all enquiry, 
 encouraging ignorance and blind superstition, giving comfort in 
 all doubtful matters by fatalism’s charm, that both excuses all 
 mistakes, and yet strangely in the lottery of life, seizing on the 
 hopeful and conceited side of our nature, leads us to always expect 
 the best. That system whose chains have been forged strongly 
 and well, was not to be overthrown in a single day. The people, 
 whilst deeply religious by nature, are extremely conservative, and 
 so when once led to doubt regarding that religious faith in which 
 their fathers had lived and died, around which all their dearest 
 memories and their brightest hopes clung, would not readily 
 substitute for it a new faith, introduced by a foreigner and he of 
 the dominant race. Nor would a ready acceptance of the new 
 faith be a matter for great rejoicing, those who readily change 
 from one faith to another, not usually being very reliable in any. 
 And above all else this new religion demanded the abandonment 
 of those longings and practices so dear to the natural heart, that 
 the old faith had encouraged. And yet in this, the most civilised 
 of those dark lands, in the face of difficulties unequalled in any 
 Mission field, the Gospel has made progress that would have been 
 simply marvellous in the old apostolic days, even with their special 
 apostolic powers, and to-day we can only look on and wonder 
 at the work in some of India’s fields where for such long periods 
 the seed was patiently and faithfully sown without any fruit, but 
 where now in thousands, literally, the people are flocking into the 
 
22 RESPONSE TO ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 
 
 Christian Church. The methods used have not been to blame 
 nor has there been any want of faithful, earnest, devoted men. 
 The fact is that we cannot, even if we would, conform the work 
 to what may be even the desires of those who support the work 
 at home and yet be always true to the Master’s cause. It is not 
 our work but His, and He has in His own way been slowly but 
 none the less surely, preparing the way for, not the gathering 
 in of a few hundreds, or even thousands, but for the overthrow of 
 Hinduism. The high caste people have been largely driven from 
 the old fortifications of Hinduism, and hence a Madras Brahmin 
 can write thus : “ Hinduism is a corpse out of which the life has 
 
 fled.The dense ignorance of the masses will melt away 
 
 before the spread of education.The fate of Hinduism is 
 
 therefore sealed.” Or, again, Mr. Vaman Abajee Modak, B.A., 
 Principal of the Elphinstone High School, Bombay, in a public 
 address can say: “ All these elements of the old religious life 
 
 have been gradually disappearing.The temples of the gods 
 
 have become more or less empty ; the Purans , (their religious 
 
 books), are left only to old women.The more or less 
 
 ignorant priesthood has ceased to exercise any spiritualizing 
 influence on the minds and hearts of the people.” 
 
 These advanced Hindoos—a rapidly increasing class—are in 
 many cases seeking refuge in the general principles of natural 
 religion, and speaking of God as the Father of all men, who are 
 thus one great family, and therefore, brothers, and resting their 
 hopes for the future on God’s mercy. They are called by different 
 names, but practically are all the same, having all alike obtained 
 their creed and hope from the Christian faith. There is nothing 
 settled or fixed in these new faiths, in fact, one finds almost as 
 many phases of belief as there are men ; but each advance is 
 towards Christianity, not without here and there a fight or even, 
 for the time, a return to the old ways, as their national pride or 
 natural conceit is able to assert its “power, but still a steady 
 advance, each new conception being moulded more and more in 
 harmony with Christianity. There are also many in the ranks of 
 Hinduism to-day, who are looking to Jesus Christ as their only 
 hope, though lacking in that moral courage that is needed to 
 completely break its yoke, and there are among our most faith¬ 
 ful Christian workers, not a few from the ranks of the highest 
 castes in the land. 
 
 Amongst the low and out caste people we find still more 
 encouraging results. In all parts of India where attention is 
 specially given to them, we find them in thousands flocking into 
 the fold, and as they come under the power of the Gospel of 
 
RESPONSE TO ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 
 
 Christ they rise in influence and power in the social scale and so 
 to a greater degree influence those with whom they come in 
 contact. In the Siapote district we read of nearly 2,000 being 
 brought into the Church of Scotland Mission in two years, after 
 30 years of faithful, but almost fruitless work, and nearly 7,000 
 in the same field in connection with the United Presbyterian 
 Mission of the United States. Take up the papers casually and 
 we read, “ Rev. Dr. Wilson, of Budaon, has baptized over 160 per¬ 
 sons since February last,” (in five months), or “ Rev. A. Campbell, 
 of the Free Church of Scotland Mission, in South Alestan, baptized 
 41 persons from nine families on Sunday, July 22nd. Five families 
 more have appeared for baptism, and travelled a long way through 
 the jungle to make known this request,” etc. 
 
 There are now over one million converts (not proselytes as some 
 would call them) in India, and the numbers are increasing in 
 geometrical progression. 
 
 Even the orthodox section of the community bear testimony 
 to the great religious movement there. The following is a trans¬ 
 lation of a tract published by this Orthodox section of the 
 community :—“ How many hundreds of thousands have these 
 Padris (Missionaries) turned to Christianity, and keep on turning ? 
 How many hundreds of thousands of dear children have they 
 swallowed up ? On how many more have they cast their nets ? 
 How much evil is yet to come upon us by their means? If we 
 sleep, as heretofore, in a short time they will turn all to Chris¬ 
 tianity, without exception, and our temples will be turned into 
 churches. Do you suppose these Padris to be mild and gentle ? 
 Do you think they are excellent teachers ? Are you ignorant of 
 the fact that Hinduism is daily decreasing and Christianity 
 increasing ? How long can a lake last that has an outlet and no 
 inlet? So if, as we see, no converts are coming into Hinduism, 
 and every year multitudes on multitudes are going over to Chris¬ 
 tianity, there will not be a single Hindoo left. Then what will 
 become of caste, what of the Shivite or Vishnuvite faith ? What 
 of our temples and sacred tanks ? We shall see no monastery, or 
 even footprint of a Hindoo. When Christianity has laid waste 
 the land, will a blade of Hinduism grow there? 
 
 “ Now, who cares or speaks about these things. When the 
 flood rushes over our heads it will be too late. It is because of 
 your carelessness that these strangers insult our gods in the open 
 streets during our festivals. Is there no learned pundit to be 
 secured for money who will crush out these Christians ?” 
 
 Making all due allowance for Oriental exaggeration, there are 
 statements here, the meaning of which we cannot fail to grasp. 
 
24 
 
 RESPONSE TO ADDRESS OE WELCOME. 
 
 In this struggle the priests are not idle. Their bread and butter 
 is not going to be taken from them if they can hinder it, and 
 with the terrible energy of drowning men, who grasp at straws, 
 they are seeking, not so much to uphold their old faith, as to 
 counteract the new, and what Hinduism has failed to do, Infidelity 
 must try to accomplish. Money is freely poured forth, the country 
 is flooded by infidel literature, and an army of noisy, unscrupulous, 
 irreligious orators are to be met with in all the crowded centres. 
 
 In the Revolution, social, political and religious, in that great 
 land, anything is possible, and if we but faithfully can follow our 
 Lord and Master, there is no reason why Christ should not there 
 speedily reign. 
 
 Hinduism and Caste have lost their hold in the advanced 
 classes, and are speedily becoming a dead power amongst all ; the 
 Missionaries have the confidence of the people as no other class 
 has ; on every side we find wide open doors into which we are 
 invited to enter ; thousands have already entered the Christian 
 fold and a great multitude are pressing onward towards its portals. 
 What though an enemy, determined and strong, oppose, though 
 the seige has been long and discouraging, since God is for us, 
 who can be against us? In His name we must triumph, and in 
 faith shall we not push on, expecting soon to hear the crash of 
 that old citadel of Satan, as to its very foundations it is overthrown, 
 and rejoicing to plant in its stead the blood stained banner of 
 Jesus, that in so many a hard fought field has always won the day. 
 
 The warm hearted hospitality of the Montreal homes, and the 
 earnest efforts of the Alliance, presided over by our Lord and 
 Master, led by the fathers and heroes of the Church of Christ, 
 whose experience and victories in the past have taught them the 
 wisdom we all need, will enable us all the better to fight our 
 great common enemy, and unitedly to pray that we may all be 
 one in Christ and with Christ, to His glory. Amen. 
 
 The Chairman regretted the absence of Sir Robert Phayre who 
 was to have delivered an address. 
 
 The benediction was pronounced and the meeting ended. 
 
 A Conversazione followed, in the lecture-hall of the Church, 
 which was attended by the delegates, their hosts, and hostesses, 
 the members of the Montreal Evangelical Alliance, and a 
 number of the leading Christian people of the city. Refresh¬ 
 ments were served and a very pleasant hour was spent. 
 
TUESDAY, 23rd OCTOBER, 1888. 
 
 MORNING SESSION. 
 
 The Conference of the Evangelical Alliance assembled at 
 10 a.m., in the American Presbyterian Church. 
 
 Rev. D. Macrae, D.D., St. John, N.B., occupied the chair. 
 
 The proceedings opened with the singing of hymn (No. 5) 
 “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty.” The Rev. Jno. 
 Lathern, D.D., of Halifax, led in prayer. 
 
 TOPIC : CURRENT UNBELIEF. 
 
 CHAIRMAN’S ADDRESS. 
 
 Rev. D. Macrae, D.D., St. John, N.B. 
 
 The Chairman read Nehemiah iv. and Psalms xi., xiii. and 
 xx., after which he said :— 
 
 May I be permitted to regard this passage as setting forth 
 figuratively the work in which we are engaged ;—the hole in 
 particular, the rubbish, the manner in which the work was done, 
 and the blessing of the Lord God the result. Doubtless, some 
 of the rubbish may have been due to the corrosion of time, or 
 the destructive efforts of foes. Some of the rubbish may have 
 been due of old, as it is due to-day, to the labors of those who 
 are constructing—the labors of the workmen. As to the confu¬ 
 sion, it will surely be admitted that current unbelief is represented 
 by the other enemies that Israel had of old to encounter. We 
 venture to regard the result in the case before us in this chapter 
 as prophetic of the work in which we are engaged. It would be 
 presumptuous in me to detain you with any lengthened remarks 
 in view of the fact that a paper on the subject has been prepared 
 with great thought and care. That subject is “current unbelief,” 
 and it is a mournful fact that it is “current.” Twenty years ago 
 it was my privilege to listen to a great statesman, afterwards 
 Lord Beaconsfield, delivering his Lord Rector’s address to the 
 students of the University of Glasgow, in Scotland. No part of 
 
2 6 
 
 CURRENT UNBELIEF. 
 
 that address was listened to with more breathless interest than 
 when he spoke of the deadly influence of Atheism rising like a 
 mournful wind throughout Europe, and presaged the time when 
 by possibility large portions of the whole of Europe would be 
 divided into two camps—both hostile to the truth—Romanism 
 and Infidelity. Three or four months ago, we saw Gladstone, 
 the life-long antagonist of the statesman referred to, descending 
 to the arena to discuss the very same question with an American 
 citizen. Unbelief at one time timid and retiring, has in our day 
 become arrogant and dogmatic. It has assumed ten thousand 
 disguises, now masking itself behind the batteries of scientific 
 speculation, now skirmishing in various periodicals, now arraying 
 itself for holiday parade in the garb of our light literature, now it 
 has begun to sound its trumpet in our streets, (at any rate, in the 
 streets of places in the Maritime Provinces, and, no doubt, else¬ 
 where,) at the lips of lecturers, hired to gather recruits to its 
 ghastly ranks ; now (taking up sometimes the attitude of a 
 proud humility) it pities the weakness of those who still retain 
 what they term the superstition of faith, and it sheds the tears 
 of agnosticism over the sins and sorrows of that humanity which 
 it deifies as being the measure of all things and degrades it 
 to the level of the brute, and beneath it. Of such charac¬ 
 teristics I make no doubt we shall be this morning clearly and 
 fully informed. Let me venture to surmise at this point, that 
 to whatever secondary causes this spread of unbelief may be 
 traced, whether to the character of the scientific speculations of 
 our age, or to the fierce, competitive spirit that has entered into 
 the pursuit of riches, or to the selfish proclivities of our age, or 
 to the faults, theological and practical, of the churches ; let me 
 surmise that a certain old sage, who wrote at a time when flabbi¬ 
 ness of thought was not confounded with robustness of intellec¬ 
 tual character, would characterize all such speculations in the 
 same terse terms which have lived down through the centuries, 
 “ The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God.” Despite 
 that curious philosophy, in defiance of every sound principle of 
 casualty, which dreams of manufacturing conscious being, and 
 creating the personal by the designing craft of the impersonal, 
 this same sage would still retain the conviction taught by Paul 
 when he wrote Romans i., 20: “ For the invisible things of Him 
 from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood 
 by the things that are made, even His eternal power and God¬ 
 head ; so that they are without excuse.” We only experience 
 the certainty, proven on many a battlefield of a similar character, 
 that every assault made on our faith but results — in the 
 
REV. CHANCELLOR BURWASH. 
 
 2/ 
 
 wondrous providence of our God in Christ—in bringing forth 
 fresh armor from the great armory that He has provided, in 
 rendering the weapons sharper and more effective, and in 
 redounding to the benefit of His cause on earth. I will not 
 detain you further than to introduce Rev. Principal Burwash, 
 who will shed light on the topic before us. 
 
 CURRENT UNBELIEF: WHAT IT IS AND 
 
 HOW TO MEET IT. 
 
 Rev. Chancellor Burwash, Coburg. 
 
 What is this current unbelief? The very name used to dis¬ 
 tinguish it; “current unbelief ” points out its specific character¬ 
 istic. It is the unbelief which is generally diffused, that which 
 is most common among the men of our time. 
 
 Is there such an unbelief? Is it a fact that religious difficulties 
 and doubts exist very generally among the thoughtful men of 
 our age? Have these doubts and difficulties in any large 
 number of cases assumed the more serious form of unbelief? 
 If so, what is the nature of these doubts ? and what is their 
 cause ? and what influences have developed them into the 
 chronic form of unbelief? The consideration of these questions 
 under our first head will prepare us for the second and more 
 practical part of our subject. 
 
 In answering our first question,—“Does the phenomenon of 
 religious doubt and difficulty exist to such an extent as to be 
 characteristic of our age ? ”—we must not exaggerate or yield to 
 an unnecessary alarm. Thoughtful men of all ages have asked 
 for a reason of their faith and hope. The question, “ Why do I 
 believe thus, and so?” is but the just prerogative of our intellectual 
 manhood ; and every man who rises to the plane of higher 
 thought must ask the question, and the higher the level to which 
 he rises the more profound and searching will be the questioning, 
 or, if you will, the scepticism. This spirit of doubting inquiry is 
 but the ploughshare which prepares for the harvest of a higher and 
 more perfect knowledge. The old verdure of the pasture-field 
 or prairie undisturbed for ages disappears for a little season, but 
 only to give place to the richer verdure of the new springing 
 seed with its harvest of golden grain. If, therefore, the spirit of 
 questioning is more prominent in our age than in some others, 
 it is not by any means an evil thing. It is the symptom of 
 
28 
 
 CURRENT UNBELIEF. 
 
 intellectual life. Such a spirit has been characteristic of every 
 age of intellectual awakening in the world’s history. We can 
 trace its influence in the Buddhism and Confucianism of the far 
 East. It has clearly left its mark upon the books of Job and 
 Ecclesiastes and upon many of the Psalms in the Hebrew 
 religious life. It accompanied the great philosophic develop¬ 
 ment of Greece. It ran parallel with the first centuries of 
 Christianity itself. Nay more, we may say that it touched the 
 very origin of Christianity. Our Lord taught the world to ques¬ 
 tion the old superstitions and traditions of the Scribes, that he 
 might lift the world to a more intelligent faith. The mighty 
 intellectual movement of the scholastic age had its doubt ; and 
 Protestantism itself was the outcome of a most revolutionary 
 and fundamental process of questioning. And since the great 
 Protestant Revolution in the world of thought each century has 
 had its form of doubt and questioning, side by side with its own 
 great intellectual movement. In the seventeenth century Herbert 
 and Hobbes stand beside Milton, Locke, and Newton. In the 
 eighteenth, Bolingbroke, Hume, and Priestly stand beside Pope, 
 Halley, Butler, Franklin, and Watt. What wonder, then, that 
 our age should be as pre-eminent in its range of doubt and 
 questioning as it is in its range and magnitude of intellectual 
 movement. And if the characteristic of our age is the intellec¬ 
 tual quickening of the masses, we must expect the spirit of 
 questioning to disturb them likewise. And that such is actually 
 the case no one can doubt, who, on the one hand, takes a careful 
 survey of our modern literature, or who, on the other hand, con¬ 
 verses with the better educated working-men, or takes a look at 
 the books and periodicals which they read. There is in our 
 age a widespread questioning of traditional beliefs, affecting a 
 majority of the men and not a few women. And this question¬ 
 ing does result in a certain, though not very large percentage of 
 cases, in loss of religious faith. With another and perhaps 
 somewhat larger class it has introduced confusion and weakness 
 into the foundations of religious life. Both these are deplorable 
 results and require our careful consideration. Why are these 
 things so ? Why should the awakening of our intellectual life, 
 which is a good thing, ever result in detriment to our religious 
 life ? If the foundations of our religious life are in immutable 
 truth, then no increase of light can harm them. The works of 
 truth only seek the light that they may be made manifest that 
 they are wrought in God. It is our boast that the Christian 
 religion courts the fullest investigation. Why should inquiry or 
 doubt ever result in detriment to or loss of religious faith ? The 
 
REV. CHANCELLOR BURWASH. 
 
 29 
 
 reason lies in three important facts. While our age is an age of 
 very wide intelligence, it is, (1.) An intellectually superficial age. 
 We skim an immense surface and gather, as we suppose, the 
 cream of all knowledge. We especially delight in encyclopedias 
 and handy summaries of the results of investigation. And we 
 are quite forgetful of the fact that the vast mass of this so-called 
 knowledge is exceedingly modern. It has not yet passed through 
 the threshing and winnowing of the centuries. It is still very 
 largely chaff and straw. That which was propounded and 
 accepted as truth three thousand years ago, which stood the test 
 of the subtle Greek mind of twenty-three hundred years since, 
 which passed through the fires of Pagan scepticism and of the 
 young pure Christian faith of eighteen hundred years ago, which 
 survived the Middle Age night and was distilled in the intellec¬ 
 tual alembics of the schoolmen, which lived through the Protes¬ 
 tant revolution and entered into its new foundations, and has 
 not been seriously harmed by the testings of the past three 
 hundred years, is a very different intellectual material from the 
 exceedingly pulpy theories and hasty inductions and generaliza¬ 
 tions of modern science, especially in the form in which it drifts 
 out into the great popular mind of the day. When I lay this 
 charge of an intellectual indiscriminate superficiality at the door 
 of our age, I would by no means discredit our modern men of 
 science. It is not that they are less thorough in their work than 
 were the ancients, or discriminate less clearly between the true 
 and the false. The scientific discernment of truth was never 
 clearer or more faithful to its apprehension of truth than it is 
 to-day. But it lacks the sifting of age. We have only to read 
 a page of Plato to see how few' and how precious are the golden 
 grains of truth which he handed down to us, and how inter¬ 
 mingled in his own day with a vast mass of sand. And so 
 future ages of discriminating review will purify our modern 
 science, and reduce our huge libraries of modern theories down 
 to the simplicity of golden truth. No one understands this 
 better than the man who has given his life to painstaking 
 scientific research. But meantime the necessities of the public 
 mind demand a theory. An ounce of fact immediately becomes 
 a ton of theory for popular use. Last week, in the rearrangement 
 of our College library, I picked up a volume on the geography 
 of Central Africa. Baker, Speke, and Livingstone had dis¬ 
 covered two or three new facts as to the interior of that great 
 continent. And here the man who had never set foot on the 
 shore of Africa, constructed a map, and wrote a volume on the 
 physical geography of that continent which to-day is utterly 
 
30 
 
 CURRENT UNBELIEF. 
 
 ridiculous in the light of modem discoveries. It requires time 
 to sift and verify results and to add even a very little to the sum 
 total of our assured knowledge. The wisdom of fifteen hundred 
 years of Hebrew life has been condensed for us into a compara¬ 
 tively small volume. That of five hundred years of Greek life, if 
 equally condensed, would make a second. The early Christian 
 age gave us a third. And the sum total of our modern age, equally 
 condensed, will only make a fourth. The first volume was the Law 
 of Right ; the second, the Law of Mind ; the third, the Law of 
 Love ; the fourth, the Law of Motion. It would be strange 
 indeed if this law of motion should supersede all other laws. The 
 investigation of this law has indeed been the most brilliant 
 achievement of our age. And to those who have not drunk 
 deeply from the historic fountains of human thought, the vast 
 extent of our modern studies in material philosophy produces 
 the impression that these constitute almost the sum total of 
 human knowledge. They forget that the work of our age has 
 yet to be distilled and concentrated by the criticism of one 
 or two millenniums before it can be exactly estimated. In 
 these circumstances a superficial intellectualism is peculiarly 
 dangerous because— 
 
 (2). The fact that our modern studies have been so largely in 
 the world of matter, tends to give a materialistic trend to this 
 superficial popular thought. This appears both in the subject 
 matter and in the method of our modern thought. (1.) The sub¬ 
 ject matter, especially that which interests and has largely taken 
 hold of the popular mind, is drawn from the material world. (2.) 
 The method, even when the subject matter rises into the historical 
 field of human interest, or into the still higher field of purely 
 spiritual phenomena, is that of observation and induction of facts. 
 As a result, we have in our age as never before the development 
 of the faculties of observation. The pragmatic and practical 
 dominate our intellectual life. Even our theories, so popular and 
 as we have just seen in universal demand, represent not so much 
 an apprehension of inner spiritual forces, as a conception of the 
 method of working of those forces, theories of the kind of motion, 
 for motion is the philosopher’s stone reducing all things to intel¬ 
 lectual simplicity and perfection. Even in our studies of history 
 this pragmatic tendency dominates, and that wonderful product of 
 the nineteenth century, the historical novel, and the almost equally 
 wonderful science of historical criticism, are the highest and most 
 learned outcome of this tendency. The commercial and industrial 
 spirit of the age has tended to the development of the same 
 practical spirit in our modern thought. There everything is 
 
REV. CHANCELLOR BURWASH. 
 
 31 
 
 measured by results, and all results are estimated in dollars. 
 What can it do ? What is it worth ? is the universal question. 
 As a result, the mind of this age stands open to conviction only 
 on the pragmatic side. Seeing is believing. The unseen and the 
 invisible is for this mind hard to be believed. The old mystic 
 spirit, spending its days and nights in an agony of prayer or in 
 rapture of contemplation, penetrating by its inner vision to the 
 unseen, making that unseen a living presence in the soul, pro¬ 
 ducing a depth of emotion that not unfrequently overpowered the 
 material body; all this is to our age a strange thing. It is not 
 practical. The result is that our grasp as an age upon the most 
 profound spiritual truth is not as strong as it should be. This 
 tendency makes itself felt in our very religious life, both for good 
 and for evil. Our religious work takes practical forms. Never 
 before was the great Christian world so alive to all good work. 
 This is good and has a mighty influence in maintaining the hold 
 of religion upon this practical age. But it tends also to cast our 
 inner spiritual life into brief commercial formularies. “ Believe 
 that you are saved and you are saved.” We are in too great haste 
 to wait for the deeper work of the Holy Spirit, the profound 
 inward revelation of sin, the struggles and travail of the penitent, 
 out of which God will in His due time bring the light of His 
 countenance, the joys of salvation, and the mighty baptism of the 
 Holy Ghost. We sometimes fear that in consequence of this busy, 
 outward, material, pragmatic tendency of our age even the Church 
 of to-day has not that clear vision of the holy, out of which 
 prophets spake and apostles preached, and by means of which 
 the holiest men of all ages have seen God. Such seem to us the 
 circumstances out of which our current unbelief takes its rise. 
 
 As to the unbelief itself, it takes one or other of three forms. 
 The first and by far the most widespread is that of doubts result¬ 
 ing in a practical neglect of spiritual religion. These doubts, 
 while not sufficient to build up an active anti-religious system, are 
 sufficient to fortify the worldly and irreligious tendency of our 
 fallen nature, and to stifle the voice of the Spirit in the conscience 
 as it speaks of better things. These doubts are very seldom the 
 honest difficulties which the man himself has encountered as he 
 has sought after God. They are generally received at second¬ 
 hand. One man, like Col. Ingersoll, with the gift of ready utter¬ 
 ance, with a keen, practical wit, and with a nature perfectly in 
 sympathy with the tendencies of the age of which we have spoken, 
 may sow the seeds of doubt in millions of minds. The ground is 
 but too well prepared, and the circumstances are but too favour¬ 
 able to its reception. Such doubt cannot properly be called 
 
32 
 
 CURRENT UNBELIEF. 
 
 honest doubt. It has been accepted without any deep sense of 
 responsibility for our beliefs,without any careful, honest investiga¬ 
 tion, without even an effort to prepare the mind for honest, candid, 
 intelligent judgment of the great question. It has come as a 
 wandering visitor, and it is carelessly allowed to remain as a per¬ 
 manent resident; but none the less with the most baleful influence 
 over the inner religious life, and perhaps over the moral life and 
 conduct as well. This form of unbelief is especially mischievous: 
 (i), because widely current; (2), as undermining the very 
 foundations of spiritual life. Only by a most extraordinary 
 influence of God’s Word, God’s Providence, and God’s Spirit, is 
 such a man likely to be awakened to a profound sense of sin 
 issuing in evangelical religion. This form of unbelief may be 
 called sluggish. It is merely the unbelief of the sponge which 
 only absorbs that which comes in its way. 
 
 The second form of current unbelief is much more active. It 
 takes a positive character, and attempts to build up a religion or 
 at least a moral system of its own, known as secularism. It is 
 essentially a gospel of this life. Its absolute end of being is this 
 worldliness. Its highest moral motive is regard for humanity. 
 Its ethical philosophy is utilitarianism. It boasts of its essentially 
 practical character and spirit. It seeks to increase its influence 
 by allying itself with political and social movements of a radical 
 or even revolutionary character. It attacks the Christian Church 
 as being the ally and support of what it is pleased to designate as 
 the tyranny and injustice of existing institutions. Notwithstand¬ 
 ing the pretensions of a small party of secularists, that it is purely 
 positive in its character, that it seeks only to further the well-being 
 of man in this life, and that while it does not court the aid of 
 Christianity,it does not necessarily attack that system,there grows 
 out of this very political and social character of secularism an 
 opposition to Christianity. In so far as our existing institutions 
 are founded upon the Bible, the Christian church and the Chris¬ 
 tian religion are their mainstay. They are intrenched in the 
 religious convictions of the great body of a Christian people. 
 They can be overturned only with the overthrow of those 
 religious convictions. It is impossible, therefore, for the secular¬ 
 ist to carry on even the positive part of his campaign without 
 assuming an aggressive antagonism to Christianity. Meantime 
 the covert character of his opposition, the veil by which he seeks 
 to hide his atheism, the loud profession of high, philanthropic 
 motives, all these make the secularist the most dangerous enemy 
 of the Christian faith. He makes an easy prey of those unfortu¬ 
 nate souls who have imbibed the spirit of doubt, who are naturally 
 
REV. CHANCELLOR BURWASH. 
 
 disposed to glorify the sufficiency of their own reason, who are 
 restive under the severe moral discipline of Christianity, and yet 
 who are unable to quiet their conscience without at least a pretext 
 for a positive substitute. 
 
 For these reasons we are disposed to regard secularism as the 
 most dangerous, as it is the most wide-spread organized form of 
 unbelief in England and Canada, and perhaps also in the United 
 States. Side by side with the Secularist, properly so called, who 
 belongs to a secular society professedly, we find, especially in 
 the United States, a large class who belong only to social, political, 
 or industrial organizations, but whose principles are nearly, if not 
 quite identical with those of the Secularist. They too are one 
 with the Secularist. They may call themselves Anarchists, Inter¬ 
 nationalists, or Communists, or they may even take the more 
 innocent form of Knights of Labor. They do indeed con¬ 
 stitute but a small part of the membership of those societies, 
 but under these guises they instil the spirit of antagonism 
 to religion. They use societies founded for what may be 
 objects lawful and right as the medium of their atheistical 
 propagandism, and again become the most dangerous of 
 enemies to the Christian faith. I think it not improbable that 
 the number of this class in the Province of Ontario may reach 
 to over two thousand. In the United States the same class have 
 been estimated at over two hundred thousand; and in England 
 Prof. Flint regards this as the most popular and “prevalent form 
 of unbelief among the manual workers.” It is therefore a form 
 which deserves the most serious attention of the Christian world. 
 
 (3.) The remaining form pf current unbelief is the philosophical 
 and scientific. We use these terms in the sense of an unbelief 
 based upon philosophical or scientific theories. This form of 
 unbelief is not in itself of serious importance. It can scarcely be 
 said to be current. Philosophical or scientific speculations are 
 possible only to the small minority. And of this minority, the 
 minority again are, I think, seriously affected as to religious faith. 
 The majority of them, I presume, have had their honest doubts. 
 They can scarcely rise to the level of philosophic or scientific 
 thought without meeting with doubts. But they are mainly 
 honest doubts. They are not mere scepticisms lazily absorbed. 
 They are questions honestly raised and honestly investigated. 
 And as such they are in, I think, at least the majority of cases, 
 satisfactorily answered. There may be a process of transition 
 from a mere traditional to a rational faith. But the faith is none 
 the less clear and living and spiritual for the transition. The 
 struggle with doubt has been to them not a loss but a great gain. 
 
34 
 
 CURRENT UNBELIEF. 
 
 But in this great spiritual transition, through which all our 
 young men of true higher culture are called to pass, some fail in 
 religious faith. In an acquaintance with college life on the part 
 of the writer, extending over nearly twenty-five years, and includ¬ 
 ing a somewhat intimate knowledge of the spiritual life of nearly 
 400 University graduates, I think not more than fifty have at all 
 lost in Christian faith. Of these, the majority have regained 
 their lost ground after a very few years. But why do even these 
 few fail ? Why do any men of scientific candour and philosophic 
 earnestness fail to find the truth? We answer: (1) Because of 
 rashness : (2) For lack of balance. 
 
 Our young scientist or philosopher conceives an ardent passion 
 for his specialty. It is to him the golden crown of all the sciences. 
 The very inner temple of all truth. Even though a graduate 
 he has not yet learned to be a sophomore. He has unbounded 
 confidence in his particular method, and in his individual power 
 to apply that method and carry it to its utmost conclusion of 
 final truth. For such, a humbling experience of years of self-delu¬ 
 sion may be the only cure. It is not strange that they should 
 stumble and fall for a time, if not finally. But along with this, 
 the second cause is not less operative. Our young philosophers, 
 especially, forget the importance of preserving the balance of 
 their spiritual nature. Their method, whether logical, intuitional, 
 or historical, whether inductive or deductive, is very likely one¬ 
 sided. And it is especially liable in the midst of their intellectual 
 life to be forgetful of the importance of the religious feeling, and 
 of the moral feeling in the pursuit of truth. The Shekinah is 
 found only in the Holiest place, and is approached unto only 
 with the blood of Atonement. The intuition of the Divine is 
 found only in the inner temple of highest worship. You must 
 have the profound reverence if you would have the profound 
 moral insight of an Isaiah, a Paul, or even a Socrates, or a Kant, 
 or a Newton. The seeker after God must be a worshipper “ in 
 spirit and in truth.” To preserve his balance, the scientific or 
 philosophic investigator of these great questions should be as 
 profound in his spirituality as he is strong in intellectual power. 
 
 It is not surprising, therefore, that we find some men of scien¬ 
 tific or philosophic power in antagonism to religious truth. The 
 unbelief of these men is of importance, we think, not so much from 
 its currency, as from the fact that it supplies the material by which 
 the other classes live. Some of these men by the combined 
 influence of their vanity and pugnacity, fanned into full flame 
 by the glorification of their followers, and the often indiscreet 
 .•opposition of the orthodox, become permanent fountain heads 
 
REV. CHANCELLOR BURWASH. 35 
 
 of Scepticism and Atheism. A dozen such are quite enough for 
 our whole civilized world in one generation. 
 
 You will already have anticipated very much of what might 
 be advanced under my second head : How shall we meet this 
 current unbelief? 
 
 (1) In the present temper of the human mind and in the 
 presence of the present irrepressible, universal questioning of the 
 human intellect, it is useless, nay, it is worse than useless to ignore 
 the demand made upon us for the reason of our faith. We must 
 recognize the legitimate demands of rationalism. In Biblical 
 study we must recognize the literary, the human, the historical, 
 the common-sense character of the Word of God. We must 
 acknowledge that like the Incarnate word, it is perfect man, z>., 
 perfectly human, as well as perfect God, i.e ., perfectly divine. 
 We must allow the scientist and the historical critic to pursue 
 their independent search for truth, only demanding from them 
 freedom from an anti-Christian bias, which is quite as inimical 
 to the true scientific spirit as any dogmatic prejudgment. But 
 we must not provoke this anti-Christian bias by hurling our 
 thunderbolts at every new position which they may advance 
 at seeming variance with our preconceptions. We must seek and 
 wish only for truth. Let us have the truth though half of our 
 theological heavens fall. “ Magna est veritas etprevalebit” And 
 I believe that we can afford to do this. “ The Word of our God,” 
 when once it is severed from all our short-sighted misreadings 
 and misconceptions, “ endureth for ever.” In systematic theology 
 also, the church must meet the demands of the age for a perfected 
 Theistic philosophy. We, must not weakly shield ourselves 
 behind a claim of mystery and incomprehensibility. The mys¬ 
 teries of religion are not more incomprehensible than those of 
 nature, and it is our duty to make the scientific exposition of 
 religious truth, the peer, if not the leader of all other sciences. 
 It can be done, it must be done. From the professors in our 
 most advanced theological seminaries, down to the humblest 
 Sabbath-school teacher, we must aim at more scientific methods 
 of Biblical study, and at a more perfect presentation of Christian 
 truth. These words are not written in any spirit of depreciation, 
 for in every direction we see gratifying indications of progress in 
 this direction. 
 
 (2) The whole Church must seek stronger faith, clearer vision 
 of God, more perfect intuition of the truth, the fuller revealing 
 of the Holy Ghost. This will be the sheet-anchor of the young 
 Christian when tossed by the billows of doubt. This faith of 
 the Church will conquer the unbelief of the world. 
 
36 
 
 CURRENT UNBELIEF. 
 
 Pardon a personal reference. When about twenty-two years 
 of age the writer entered fully into the conflict of modern doubt. 
 Just beginning his ministry to a congregation in which were 
 several young men infected with the then popular scepticism of 
 Colenso and Parker, he felt obliged to read their books that he 
 might help them. He soon found that he had a task on hand far 
 beyond his powers and resources. Watson, Paley, and Butler, 
 the staple text-books of his college course, were useless in the 
 face of the critical and philosophical problems here presented for 
 solution. Again and again, in reading these works, all solid 
 ground of certainty seemed to be taken away and a fathomless 
 abyss of doubt and despair seemed yawning underneath. Nine 
 years before he had experienced a clear consciousness of the 
 Divine love. That consciousness was with him still and was 
 now his help. Again and again, in the distress of doubt, he be¬ 
 took himself to prayer. He prayed until the present consciousness 
 of God’s love dispelled all doubt. The assurance thus gained, 
 that there was a God, the hearer and answerer of prayer through 
 the mediation of Jesus Christ, was unmistakable. It took seven 
 or eight years of earnest study to settle the questions raised 
 along the intellectual line. But meantime the witness of the 
 Holy Spirit within was a present ground of faith. God, Christ, 
 sin, holiness, salvation as presented in Scripture, were all so un¬ 
 mistakably revealed that of the fundamental verities there could 
 be no doubt. On minor questions of the nature and extent of 
 inspiration, the relation of the natural law to the supernatural— 
 the historical relations of the Word of God—and a score of 
 critical and philosophical difficulties raised, I could afford to wait 
 and investigate, resting meantime surely on personal experience 
 of the verity of fundamental Christian truth. And this mighty 
 power of inward conviction is useful not alone to the Church 
 herself, and especially to her younger members ; it is felt by the 
 world as well. “He,” (the Spirit of Truth) “ when he is come, will 
 convict the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.” 
 
 In the world’s present crisis, in the presence of perishing souls, 
 we cannot afford to wait for the slow building up of a perfect 
 philosophy. We must sweep away all doubt by the mighty 
 force of the Divine certainty in our own souls. 
 
REV. DR. VAN DYKE. 
 
 37 
 
 THE HISTORIC CHRIST; THE ANSWER 
 
 TO UNBELIEF. 
 
 Rev. Dr. Henry van Dyke, New York. 
 
 Seventy years ago, a young and gifted English poet, wander¬ 
 ing beneath the awful shadow of Mont Blanc, came into the inn 
 at Montanvert, and wrote his name in the register: “P. B. Shelley, 
 philanthropist, democrat and atheist.” Twenty years ago'another 
 English poet, no less gifted, wandering also among the Alps, 
 wrote these lines,— 
 
 “ While we believed, on earth he went, 
 
 And open stood his grave, 
 
 Men called from chamber, church, and tent, 
 
 And Christ was by to save. 
 
 “ Now he is dead ! Far hence he lies 
 In the lorn Syrian town ; 
 
 And on his grave, with shining eyes, 
 
 The Syrian stars look down— 
 
 “ Alone, self-poised, henceforward man 
 Must labour !—must resign 
 His all to human creeds, and scan 
 Simply the way divine.” 
 
 The difference between the strident defiance of Shelley’s 
 “ atheist ” and the gentle regret of Arnold’s verses, marks the 
 change from old-fashioned infidelity to current unbelief, and may 
 serve .as a starting point for a few remarks upon the qualities of 
 modern scepticism. 
 
 (i.) The unbelief of to-day is current; that is to say, it flows. 
 It is not a solid and definite body of doctrines. It is rather a 
 tide of thought and sentiment, which is sweeping through the 
 intellectual world. There have been other periods of history 
 when unbelief was certainly more prevalent, and probably more 
 potent in the suppression of Christian thought and the paralysis 
 of Christian action : for instance, the Italian Renaissance, and the 
 French Revolution. But there never has been a period when it 
 was so fluid, or so pervasive. There are certain seasons of the 
 year in which the Gulf Stream forsakes its invisible bounds and 
 spreads out over the ocean in a broad superficial drift. This is 
 what has happened to unbelief. It has lost intensity, but it has 
 gained extension. It has abandoned many of its old traditions 
 and refuses to be contained within a fixed channel. It has new, 
 and varied, and swiftly changing forms. It may be less deep, 
 less vigorous, less distinct, but it covers a vastly wider area, and 
 
CURRENT UNBELIEF. 
 
 38 
 
 the direction of its smooth, easy tide is steadily towards the 
 Arctic regions, where the soul of man must dwell without the 
 light of a personal God or the warmth of a personal Saviour. 
 
 (2.) Current unbelief is for the most part negative; that is to say, 
 it is unbelief rather than disbelief. Thomas Paine has one suc¬ 
 cessor who has fallen heir to his master’s scornful vigor of denuncia¬ 
 tion ; but the men of real influence in the world of thought speak 
 another language, milder and more judicial, and the sum of their 
 scepticism is expressed by saying “ Religion is not proven. We 
 do not know and therefore we cannot believe.” They have not 
 given us a new creed, but simply a new word. The Agnostic is 
 the residium of belief in solution. 
 
 (3.) Current unbelief is profoundly melancholy. Its philosophy 
 declares, with Hartmann, that this is the best of all possible worlds, 
 but still worse than none at all. Its science shows us, with 
 Helmholtz,that the eye is so full of defects, that if a modern work¬ 
 man should bring such a poor instrument to an oculist he would 
 be dismissed as incompetent. Its autobiography tells us with W. 
 E. Greg, that “the pursuit of truth is a daily martyrdom,—how 
 hard and bitter, let the martyr tell.” Its victim lifts upon us the 
 haggard, tear-stained face of Robert Elsmere, and cries with 
 pathetic inconsistence, “ God help me ! I must face it through !” 
 
 (4.) Current unbelief is strenuously ethical. It does not desire 
 to destroy moral law but rather to lay a new foundation for it by 
 insisting upon the self-sufficiency of its sanctions, and the dis¬ 
 interestedness of its motives : in short, to supply the place of all 
 that has been lost in the discarded religion, by teaching men to 
 care and labour, and even, in some strange sense, to pray for the 
 doubtful destiny of a race begotten by a blind force and doomed 
 to ultimate extinction. The best illustration of this temper of 
 mind is to be found in George Eliot. “I remember,” says an 
 English writer, “ how, at Cambridge, I walked with her once in the 
 Fellows’ garden of Trinity, on an evening of rainy May; and she, 
 stirred somewhat beyond her wont, and taking as her text the 
 three words which have been used so often as the inspiring 
 trumpet calls of men,—the words, God, Immortality , Duty, —pro¬ 
 nounced with terrible earnestness, how inconceivable was the first, 
 how unbelievable was the second, and yet how peremptory and 
 absolute the third. Never, perhaps, had sterner accents affirmed 
 the sovereignty of impersonal and unrecompensing law. I listen¬ 
 ed, and night fell: her grave, majestic countenance turned towards 
 me like a Sibyl’s in the gloom ; it was as though she withdrew 
 from my grasp, one by one, the two scrolls of promise, and left 
 me the third scroll only, awful with inevitable fate.” 
 
REV. DR. VAN DYKE. 
 
 39 
 
 Unbelief like this is not to be met either with sneers or with 
 vituperation. The “ short and easy method with Deists ” is out 
 of date, and language such as that which Calvin used against 
 Bolsec, and Luther against Henry VIII, harms the church more 
 than the heretic. Nor is the scepticism of our age to be finally 
 dislodged by direct assault upon the popular, philosophic and 
 scientific theories which it embraces from time to time, with an 
 impartial though fickle affection. Much good maybe done by 
 men whose exceptional ability and special training have fitted 
 them to detect and expose the technical errors in these theories. 
 But we must remember that there are few who are qualified for 
 this task, and for those who are unqualified to attempt it is to 
 invite defeat, We must remember also that it is more than pos¬ 
 sible to misinterpret the bearing of alleged discoveries in science 
 and to waste strength in attacking them as hostile when they are 
 really friendly to Christianity. The church made this mistake in 
 regard to the rotundity of the earth, and she may repeat it in 
 regard to the origin of species. We must remember also that 
 these theories are so numerous and so various that unbelief when 
 persecuted in one of them can easily flee into another, and thus 
 the task of subjugation becomes endless and hopeless. 
 
 Suffer me then to pass by all these modes of meeting unbelief, 
 the best of which have been so well expounded here to-day, and 
 to say that there is another and a more excellent way,—the simple, 
 straightforward preaching and proof of the personal, historical, 
 divine Lord Jesus. On the evidence which makes Him known 
 to us^ we may concentrate our best intellectual efforts ; on the 
 ethical significance of His character and teachings we may lay all 
 the stress of our moral nature; on the exposition of His life and 
 influence we may expend our best powers of description ; on His 
 testimony to Himself we may base our fundamental argument ; 
 and on the work of persuading men to put confidence in Him we 
 may rest our hopes of doing much for the advance of the faith. 
 For Christianity begins by inviting the world not to accept a pro¬ 
 position, but to receive a person. God’s answer to unbelief is 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 Observe now the four qualities in which this answer corresponds 
 to the scepticism of our age and race:— 
 
 (i.) It offers a fixed point amid the shifting and varied currents 
 of human thought. There is no region in which the changeable¬ 
 ness of unbelief may be more clearly seen than that which lies 
 about the historic person of Christ. It has been found impossible 
 to deny that His life was a fact. But the attempt to explain it 
 upon a merely human basis has resulted only in a succession of 
 
40 
 
 CURRENT UNBELIEF. 
 
 conflicting and mutually destructive theories, not one of which has 
 been consistent with itself, or strong enough to endure beyond the 
 life time of the man who invented it. Celsus and Socinus, 
 Voltaire and Paine, Strauss and Schenkel and Renan have 
 demolished each other. Each in turn has brought forth his theory 
 only to be made ridiculous and antiquated by his successors. The 
 man who built the ship is the only one who thinks it seaworthy; and 
 when he dies it is abandoned to join the great company of derelict 
 lives of Christ, which go drifting on the tide of current unbelief. 
 Meanwhile, the faith that Jesus Christ was divine has remained 
 unshaken, coherent and complete amid the confusion. It is sub¬ 
 stantially the same to-day as it was in the first century. Other 
 things in Christianity may have changed, but not the central point 
 of the faith. Gladstone says, “ It was not impeached by the 
 questioning mind of the 13th century. The scientific revolution 
 which opened to us the antipodes and the solar system did not 
 shake it. The more subtle dangers of the Renaissance were 
 dangers to Christianity as a whole, but not to this great element 
 of Christianity as a part. And when the terrible struggles of the 
 Reformation stirred every coarse human passion as well as every 
 fond religious interest into fury, even then the Nicene belief sat 
 undisturbed in a region above the controversies of the time.” 
 This is the fixed point in the world’s thought, the fixed point in 
 Christianity itself, and it was intended to be the centre of Christian 
 preaching and defence. For whenPeter said—“ Thou art the 
 Christ, the Son of the Living God,” Jesus answered, “ Upon this 
 rock will I build my Church.” 
 
 (2.) This answer meets current unbelief because it is positive. 
 This means more than can be stated in this address. For one 
 thing, it means that the personal Jesus Christ is a fact, and a fact 
 is the most positive of all things. Some satisfactory account of 
 Him must be given, and none has been given apart from His 
 Divinity. For another thing, it means that the historic evidence 
 of His superhuman character and action is of such a nature as to 
 create a moral obligation to believe. It is a maxim of law that 
 positive testimony outweighs negative. We have the testimony of 
 many witnesses to the fact that He lived a sinless life, that He 
 claimed to be the Eternal Son of God, and that He produced an 
 effect upon their spirits which confirmed this claim. Against 
 this testimony, the objections of those who say that they have 
 never seen a sinless man, or that such a one could not assert 
 divinity, or that they have had no experience to confirm the 
 claim, simply falls to the ground as irrelevant. We have the 
 contemporary records of eye-witnesses who saw Christ after the 
 
REV. DR. VAN DYKE. 
 
 41 
 
 resurrection, and this would not be affected in any way if a million 
 men should testify to-day that they had never seen any one 
 raised from the dead. When that famous “ History of Testi¬ 
 mony/’ which plays so prominent a part in a recent novel, really 
 comes to be written, it will appear that never fact in history was 
 so indubitably attested by evidence of the highest quality as that 
 the claim of divinity was made by Christ, substantiated by His 
 resurrection, and accepted as a new life by His followers. The 
 Gospel, therefore, comes to those who are in a state of suspended 
 belief and seeks to precipitate their faith upon a person. It shows 
 them the fullest possible proofs of its claim—not a mathematical 
 demonstration, but a moral certainty — and then it invites to 
 action. Nor is there, to my knowledge, any other cure for the 
 paralysis of doubt than that which is to be found in Christ’s 
 “ Follow Me.” 
 
 (3.) This answer meets current unbelief because it is hopeful 
 and joyful. It responds to the cry of the ages for a personal 
 knowledge of God and a definite assurance of immortality. It 
 not only sheds the light of God’s countenance upon the face of 
 nature and the history of man, but it reaches out to every one of 
 us through the fierce storms and torpid calms, the confused 
 clamours and the awful silences, the wild excitements and the 
 weary languors of this inexplicable existence, the hand of a 
 divine sympathy and help, and “ clothes eternal love with breath¬ 
 ing life.” To pass from the close, fetid atmosphere of a great 
 hospital, which some sudden and incurable plague has crammed 
 with pain and death, into the clear air and bright sunshine of the 
 open fields, is a blessed experience ; but infinitely sweeter is it 
 to turn from the pages of sceptical literature to that Gospel 
 where light and immortality are brought to light. For beings 
 framed to feel as well as to think, happiness is an argument. It 
 may not turn the scale against truth, but it may turn the scale 
 with truth. And if the balance were even, as the sceptics claim, 
 you and I would have the right to choose “ the joy of living” 
 with Him who says “ Come unto Me and I will give you rest.” 
 
 (4.) The answer meets current unbelief because it supplies a 
 ground, a support, and a rational end for the highest morality. 
 Holiness is a personal quality. If the great first cause is not a 
 Person, it is impossible to show how holiness comes into existence, 
 or why it is binding upon us. It is the faith in an Almighty 
 Father whose will is good, and a divine Saviour who is God’s 
 remedy for sin, and an eternal Spirit who works for righteousness, 
 that gives strength and significance to our efforts to be good. It 
 is the faith in an immortal life where everything that is good shall 
 
42 
 
 CURRENT UNBELIEF. 
 
 be perpetuated, enlarged, perfected and crowned, that makes the 
 universe intelligible to the moral sense. No one can deny that 
 faith in the Christ has actually been the cause of the finest and 
 largest moral effects in the world. What unbelief is now trying 
 to do is to eliminate the cause and to save the effects. It reminds 
 me of the old story of an insane man who conceived the idea 
 that he could cut out the heart from a living body without destroy¬ 
 ing the life. The story described him bending over his victim, 
 cutting with infinite pains and skill, doing his best to sustain the 
 fluttering life, and fancying, as his knife drew nearer and nearer 
 to the fatal stroke, that he was about to triumph. Even so we 
 can see the anxious unbelief of to-day bending above the Gospel 
 with pitiful care, with sighs and tears of real distress, striving to 
 keep its moral power alive, but cutting, cutting at the Heart of 
 God, incarnate in the flesh. “ It will live,” they cry, “ that beauti¬ 
 ful form of human love and purity and self-sacrifice will live when 
 he whom men ignorantly worshipped is taken from them.” Ah, 
 no ! It will live only while He lives. For the spring of all true 
 goodness is this —if God so loved vs, we ought also to love one 
 another. And therefore we hold up before the world burdened 
 with sin and troubled with doubt, the crucified and risen Christ, 
 in His humanity, in His divinity, in His integrity. We place 
 Him, not here or there among our human systems, not in this or 
 that altar niche of the great cathedral of Christendom, lit by the 
 dim lamp which pious hands have swung before Him, but high 
 over all, in the clear splendour of God. And we say to every one 
 who feels the darkness and the pain of evil, to every one who longs 
 and strives after goodness, to every one who desires to be saved, 
 “ This is the Christ, your Maker, your Redeemer, your God. 
 Believe on the Lord Jesus and you shall be saved.” 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 Rev. Prof. J. B. Thomas, D.D., Newton Centre, Mass. 
 
 After listening to the very comprehensive and thorough dis¬ 
 cussion given you in the paper, and the trenchant and eloquent 
 words that have followed, I scarcely know whether to rejoice or 
 be disconcerted by the fact that I have made no formal prepara¬ 
 tion on this occasion ; for had I written anything, I should have 
 been sure to have said far less wisely and less brilliantly much 
 
REV. DR. THOMAS. 
 
 43 
 
 of what they have said, and having written nothing, I find that 
 they have so thoroughly canvassed the territory that I am left to 
 be a humble gleaner, perhaps to bring you only chaff after all. 
 That current unbelief grows out of the peculiarly materialistic 
 tendencies of our time is often alleged ; but strictly speaking 
 this attitude of mind is perennial. As long ago as in the days 
 of Athens as, you remember, a mountebank calling the people 
 together unto the public place to tell them their deepest thought, 
 assured them that they were “thinking where they could buy cheap 
 and sell dear.” We attribute to the Jews of to-day pre-eminently a 
 desire to secure earthly wealth. One of them, when a missionary 
 of New York was holding the Messiah before him, said, “The 
 Messiah ! why do I want the Messiah ? I have a brown-stone 
 house.” We should however remember that the Jews are the 
 children of the thrifty Jacob, and that Jacob had discovered long 
 ago the secret of the “ variation of animals under domestication,” 
 and shrewdly used it to his own account in his dealings with 
 Laban. The truth is that the human spirit lies like wick in the 
 oil of earthiness and is continually tending to be drawn down¬ 
 wards and to have the pure light extinguished. But materialistic 
 tendency is not so much a provocative of unbelief as of stupidity 
 and dullness of soul. Unbelief and disbelief both alike imply a 
 certain activity of intellect, while materialism stagnates. Those 
 who have to do with the great temperance problem must recog¬ 
 nize the fact that while their methods change and while they 
 make spasmodic assaults on the great evil, yet, as a matter of 
 fact, they are contending against a certain unchanging and 
 deep lying animal appetite as steadfast as the flow of the sewage 
 beneath great cities. This tide of sensualism and animalism 
 sets on in a world long flood and cannot be safely treated as 
 ephemeral, or met with casual devices. The like is true as to 
 the moral aspect. The set of the carnal heart against the truth 
 of God is a perennial fact. We will not come to Him that 
 we may have life. The very phrasing of the theme itself will 
 indicate that we are considering the intellectual questions 
 rather than those that affect the moral or material. That 
 there should be in our time a certain restlessness, a certain 
 breaking up of the old, is not to be marvelled at. Remember 
 that we are in the full tide of the swiftest era of human progress, 
 and that we are at the West where the tide confronts us most 
 powerfully. Away yonder is the cradle of the world, and here 
 we find manhood in its strength. Early in the world’s history 
 the infant scrambled over into Hindustan and China and stag¬ 
 nated there. In moving westward the people have come more 
 
44 
 
 CURRENT UNBELIEF. 
 
 swiftly. This flow of human life becomes more intense, and as 
 the years go on, more impatient. One hundred years ago they 
 had Quarterly Reviews, and they travelled in stage coaches at 
 a dignified pace. Now we are not satisfied wdthout a daily 
 paper or an hourly bulletin ; we cannot stop to write now, we 
 must correspond by the telegraphic tick, and we speak through 
 the telephone, too eager to wait even for that. The pulse-beat 
 of the age is feverish in its swiftness. As there has been an 
 intensifying of human life and a restlessness characteristic of this 
 era, so there has been a breaking up of the old forms. With 
 the opening of the Reformation came a great change, men were 
 no longer born into a church without choice ; they were no 
 longer the mere subjects in the hands of those who were to do 
 the thinking and the organizing, but the Bible being put into 
 their hands they were bidden to think for themselves. The 
 difference between the subsequent ages and those preceding, is 
 the difference between the man who no longer believes because 
 he is told to, but who believes because he has investigated and 
 found the statements to be true. There has been imposed upon 
 the Christian of these later ages the duty and responsibility of 
 enquiring. He has to come to the Book of God, and he has 
 been assured that he must voluntarily and intelligently for him¬ 
 self accept the truth as it is in Jesus, and that he must submit 
 himself to the ordinances that the Lord himself has pointed out, 
 and become intelligently a man. If ever there come unity again 
 in the Christian Church it will be no longer the unity of the 
 barrel held together by hoops outside, but the unity of the tree 
 held together by vital forces ; it will not be the unity of the 
 turtle who carries his backbone outside his body, but the unity 
 of the perfect man held together by the vertebrae from within. 
 If the Christian Church is lawfully broken into sections and 
 those sections are lawfully busy in canvassing the lines of truth, 
 and if the world has caught that spirit of enquiry and asked 
 itself the question as to the origin of Christianity, if it has only 
 caught the inspiration for enquiry, and men to-day are enquiring 
 not simply because of a perverse determination not to believe, 
 but because of a longing to know the truth : in so far as this 
 spirit extends it is to be recognized not as by any means a 
 hopeless or discouraging one. In so far as it is an unbelief 
 rather than a disbelief, it is a hopeful element in the intellectual 
 history of the time, and one to be recognised as conveying a 
 promise of good for the future. That there is, that there has 
 been, and that there will be stolid Atheism, no one can doubt. 
 That man through being sodden with materialism will simply 
 
REV. DR. THOMAS. 
 
 45 
 
 put away all questioning, that man being hardened in nature 
 against God will refuse to accept the most cogent evidences, is 
 true ; and against this form of antagonism to the truth we have 
 no weapon save prayer to God for his spirit which convinces all, 
 and which will break through those hardened walls of hatred 
 and of unreason by which men seal themselves against the 
 pressure of the truth. 
 
 If God send light into the world man may close the eye, 
 though he cannot abolish the sun. If man will be hardened 
 against God and hide himself in the depths of sensualism from 
 the power of that light, we may not be able to dislodge him. 
 But in so far as this state of mind is one of hesitating enquiry, 
 in so far as men repeat in Montaigne’s motto, honestly :—“ I 
 don’t understand,” “ I pause,” “ I examine in so far as their 
 ignorance is not invincible, that boasts itself superior to the 
 wisdom of other men, but humble and ready to learn, it is by 
 no means to be despised or put away. We ask ourselves how 
 we shall deal with the current unbelief of the time ? I suggest, 
 first of all, that we should discriminate between this hesitating 
 and ephemeral unbelief and that habit of scepticism which blocks 
 up all channels through which truth may come. It seems an im¬ 
 pertinence for Herbert Spencer to argue the question of creative 
 design, after having by his theory obliterated the very idea of 
 design itself. If we be simply the creatures of the exterior 
 world, if our thoughts be the mere shadow of passing environ¬ 
 ment, and we ourselves in all our conscious being, a mere thread 
 of dust blown at the tail end of a cyclone of cumulative in¬ 
 heritance, if we have ho wish, no thought, no personality, whence 
 comes the conception of design itself? If there be no mind in 
 man it is fruitless to enquire if there be mind in the universe. 
 Whep men obliterate the preliminary axioms on which alone 
 discussion can be based, then it is impossible to reason with 
 them. If we can show to those who have begun to doubt 
 because of difficulties which have arisen in connection with fact, 
 or historic statement as to Christ, the difference between this 
 doubt which uses the reason, and that doubt which of itself repu¬ 
 diates reason, we shall have made one step towards removing 
 difficulties. It is well for us to observe regarding the Word of 
 God ; this book of books, with what absolute candour it records 
 the doubts and questionings of the early times. Observe with 
 what frankness and boldness, John, while declaring that he wrote 
 his gospel that men might believe Jesus the Son of God, yet 
 recorded the doubt of Thomas, which precisely anticipates 
 Hume as to sufficiency of evidence for miracles. Thomas says, 
 
46 
 
 CURRENT UNBELIEF. 
 
 notwithstanding their report of the appearance of the risen Lord, 
 that he must have verification by personal observation, and 
 must thrust his finger into the very print of the nails. Thus 
 the very test wanted by the scientific doubter of to-day, is 
 stated in all its fullness in the Bible. In many other instances 
 we have such doubting anticipated. 
 
 DISCUSSION. 
 
 Rev. Dyson Hague, Brockville. 
 
 I trust it will be pardoned in one so young, if I say a few words 
 on this all important topic. I wish to address but a few brief 
 sentences in connection with the subject, and on one aspect which 
 it presents to me. I would ask whether the theoretical impression 
 on the public mind as to Christian life is not the cause of current 
 unbelief, and whether what we ought to grapple with is, not current 
 unbelief among Atheists, but current unbelief among Christians, 
 among Ministers, among us who profess to be apostolic, yet who 
 in our lives have such unapostolic tendencies, and who set forth 
 in our teaching, our living, and our whole Christian being, a vast 
 and immeasurable gap between ourselves and the apostles. I 
 hold that the idea of the world in regard to the Church and in 
 regard to the Christian Ministry, is, in the main, correct. “What 
 is a Minister ?” Ask the world, and the answer is, “ A man who 
 wears a long black coat and preaches on Sunday.” “ What is 
 a Christian ?” “ A Christian is a man who thinks he is sure of 
 
 Heaven and manages to live very comfortably here below.” The 
 world wants to see the difference between a Christian Minister 
 and a philosopher, or a rhetorician, or an essayist. They want to 
 see the man whose whole life is an exhibition of Christ—not the 
 man who can give a very beautiful discourse, or who can grapple 
 with false and abstruse theories,—another man can do that as well 
 as a Minister,—but a man who is prepared to live like Christ, and 
 who is living specially for those whom Christ lived and associated 
 with—the publicans and the sinners. I believe we spend too 
 much of our time in our studies and too little in the slums, too 
 much time preparing sermons, and too little preparing sinners 
 for the road to Christ. That, I think, is the real reason of current 
 unbelief. I should like that every Minister should read and 
 
DISCUSSION. 
 
 47 
 
 digest a work called “Modern Christianity and Civilized Heathen¬ 
 ism.” A dear friend of mine said to me, “ that book is all stuff 
 and nonsense.” I said, “ I don’t believe it is, it hits too hard to be 
 nonsense.” Whether we admit it or not, it lays its finger on a 
 very sore spot in the Christian ministry. “ What are Ministers ?” 
 “ Comfortable men.” “ What were the Apostles ?” “ Uncomfort¬ 
 able men.” “What are Christians?” “A form of believers.” 
 “ What were Christians ?” “ Followers of Christ.” Unfortunately 
 there is much truth in that. We want to see Christians now-a- 
 days who cannot sit at ease in a fine church like this and remember 
 that poor brethren in the next lane or alley-way are not as com¬ 
 fortable as themselves, and do not listen to such a beautiful 
 Gospel as they do. It is all well to have a good sermon in 
 church. The ladies will say, “ how beautiful, how nice, there was 
 a lot of thought about it.” Why, any man who has been three 
 years at a Theological College can, or ought to be able to, think 
 a little. What the people of to-day want is not so much thought; 
 they want life; they want to see Christ. I feel this more and 
 more every day. I want my people not to think of me as a 
 clever man, or even as a man who can preach the Gospel well, 
 (though I like to) but I want to be thought of as a man who 
 preaches Christ, in his every day life and actions. It is all very 
 well to preach sermons at infidels. I never did preach for an 
 infidel but once, and after I preached the sermon a man came to 
 me and said, “ that is a fine sermon, but it went away over their 
 heads.” What will win the infidel far more than a discourse on 
 the Being of God, is a life lived daily for Jesus Christ, a people 
 less desirous of comfort, thinking less how much spiritual pabu¬ 
 lum they can get to digest, and thinking more how much they 
 can go among the people and win them for Jesus. I do not say 
 that infidels will be convinced in this way, for only God’s grace 
 can convert anyone, but I do say that the whole public will have 
 an elevated opinion of Christian life, and say, “ here are Chris¬ 
 tians indeed.” As Luther said, “ What am I beside those great 
 doers ? I am a mere talker.” I feel every day more and more 
 that what we want is “doers,” “ workers,” to win souls for Jesus, 
 and not talkers. Pardon me if I give expression to the thought 
 which is in me, that we ought to be more earnest in trying to 
 win men for Christ. Do not let us have the bugbear of infidelity 
 around us all the time. Let us go right to their hearts. I believe 
 that the paralysis of doubt is explained by the paralysis of the 
 Christian Church. If the Christian Church had never been dead, 
 infidelity would never have been alive. 
 
48 
 
 CURRENT UNBELIEF. 
 
 Rev. Dr. Wardrope, Guelph. 
 
 I must say that I very thoroughly appreciate all the discourses 
 that we have heard this morning. They are a great intellectual 
 treat and a source of great enjoyment, and I wish to declare that 
 I am heart and soul, in every fibre of my nature and my life, 
 with the last speaker. He is a young brother that I never saw 
 before and I am old now in the work of the ministry. I am 
 clearly convinced that he has told us things that we ought all to lay 
 to heart, and things which if we remember and act upon will 
 benefit us during our remaining days. What we need is a more 
 really spiritual life in ourselves, and a more really spiritual life 
 in our churches. If this great gathering, in which I so truly 
 rejoice, shall tend in any way to the raising of us to a higher 
 platform of life in Christ, we shall have reason to go home bless¬ 
 ing God for having brought us hither. 
 
 Rev. Dr. Potts, Toronto. 
 
 My object now is to give an incident in my Ministerial life in 
 Toronto. A gentleman came to my study one morning, and 
 said to me:—“ I am feeling a deep interest in the subject of 
 religion, and I think, to be honest with you, that I ought to tell 
 you I cannot quite receive your view of the divinity of Jesus 
 Christ.” I knew he was an honest man, and therefore I gave 
 par value to every word he uttered ; so thinking and praying for 
 a moment, I thought as to how I ought best to deal with him. I 
 said to him :—“ I would rather not discuss with you just now, the 
 subject of the divinity of Christ. Take my advice, accept Christ 
 as your Friend and as your Saviour as best you can, and after a 
 while we will discuss the subject of His divinity. Shortly after¬ 
 wards we had a missionary anniversary, and I asked the congre¬ 
 gation to give more than double what they had ever given for 
 missions. On the afternoon of that day, just a little before the 
 evening service, this same gentleman handed me a note with a 
 special thank-offering, in addition to his regular annual subscrip¬ 
 tion, and in that note he said :—“ I have no doubt now about the 
 divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ.” It struck me very forcibly 
 that if I had gone into a dogmatic disputation on the divinity of 
 Jesus Christ with that gentleman, in that particular juncture of 
 his moral experience, I might not have convinced him. He told 
 me afterwards how thoroughly he believed in the glorious truth 
 of the divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
DISCUSSION. 
 
 49 
 
 Rev. Dr. John Hall, D.D., New York. 
 
 I shall be a little afraid that some may thoughtlessly carry away 
 the impression from the admirable statements to which we have 
 listened, that Christianity is reluctantly and comparatively very 
 weak at the present time. That would be a discouraging impres¬ 
 sion, and, I venture to think, an impression not at all warranted in 
 the actual facts of the case. There never were so many Chris¬ 
 tians, and I venture to say there never were so many devoted 
 Christians on the globe as there are at present. And, further, 
 there never was such Christian activity as there is just now. 
 Heavenly forces are vigorously at work, and, in the nature of 
 things, Biblical scoffers will be found putting forth a correspond¬ 
 ing activity. 
 
 If Nehemiahand his people had not moved, Sanballat and his 
 company would not have been as stirring as they were. I venture 
 to say another thing. Many of our people, particularly the 
 younger men, get the notion that the forms of current unbelief 
 are comparatively new,—a part of the wonderful advance of the 
 age, and among the modern triumphs of thought. It is a long 
 time since I went through a class in philosophy, but, if I am not 
 mistaken, I have this impression on my mind on just and adequate 
 grounds, that there is hardly one of the phases of thought, which 
 are now given such high sounding names, that you do not find in 
 the philosophy before the Christian era. Idealism, materialism, 
 agnosticism, pantheism, and the numerous other “ isms ” with their 
 sonorous titles, can be quoted again and again in connection with 
 the names of the distinguished Greek philosophers. Not only 
 that, but the theories of modern psychology will be found to have 
 flourished centuries before the Christian era. But when the 
 apostles came and spoke of the Spirit of God “ the Jews look for 
 a sign, and the Greeks seek wisdom. But we preach Christ 
 crucified, the power of God and the wisdom of God.” We need 
 not be afraid in view of the signs and the movements of the times. 
 It is the exceptional that makes news for the newspapers, and 
 accordingly the exceptional unbeliever gets undue prominence. 
 Sometimes Christians advertise those silly unbelievers by the 
 undue notice they give them. Let us preach Christ, and we need 
 not be afraid of a triumphant issue in the struggle in which we 
 are engaged. 
 
 Rev. Dr. Hole, Halifax, N.S. 
 
 I have been exceedingly delighted to hear the short speech of 
 the Rev. Dr. Hall, because it struck me too, that we were going on 
 
 D 
 
50 
 
 CURRENT UNBELIEF. 
 
 rather discouraging lines. I was glad also to listen to the extra¬ 
 ordinarily able and eloquent lectures we have heard, but it seemed 
 to me that we were looking at the thing in rather a one-sided 
 view,—perhaps not taking into account the most dangerous form 
 of unbelief we have to deal with. We have heard about Herbert 
 Spencer and those who advocate agnosticism, and I think we 
 may put that aside as a great danger generally. They are 
 philosophers in their way, they are the Greeks to whom reference 
 has been made, but they will have very little influence, I think, 
 upon the moral conscience of the world. There is in the heart 
 of man an instinctive longing for God that will rebel against 
 this sad and gloomy phase of life. I think we have a danger 
 that is to be encountered among ourselves, that exists in our 
 own churches, and the existence of this danger explains the 
 strictures which Mr. Hague has not unjustly given utterance 
 to. There is too much of what might be called this broad 
 churchism, that is leaving Jesus Christ as the great moral example 
 which, of course He is, but not coming to the point of the human 
 heart, namely, how sin may be blotted out and pardoned in the 
 sight of a holy and of a just God. I have found in my ex¬ 
 perience that this often leads to unbelief of the worst kind, and 
 to a general state of scepticism, the foundation of which is often 
 laid from the pulpit itself. I am firmly persuaded that we need 
 to be strong and true, and emphatic, regarding both the Divinity 
 of the Lord Jesus Christ and the atoning sacrifice which he 
 offered on the altar of Calvary. That is what I think will meet 
 human needs and have a great effect in regard to this scepticism. 
 I can give one experience in my ministerial career which will 
 illustrate this. When I was in South Africa, I was accustomed 
 to preach a sermon once a month, at a certain place. On one 
 occasion a gentleman told me there was a young man he wished 
 me to have an interview with, telling me he was an unbeliever, 
 and hardly believed in God. I said, I would be happy to see the 
 young man, if I thought I could do him any good. I thought 
 if he was one of those young men who had high ideas of his own 
 attainments, and who only set out with the object of cornering 
 the clergyman, that there would be no use for an interview. I 
 saw the young man, and as I had a Bible on the table beside me, 
 he said, “ in this discussion you must not use this book, because 
 I do not accept its authority at all.” I said, “ very well, we will 
 talk without it.” He said to me, “ you must acknowledge that 
 as intellect advances and knowledge makes progress, the number 
 of unbelievers in that book increases.” I said, “ you will admit 
 that this is an old book, and that its newest part is nearly two 
 
DISCUSSION. 
 
 51 
 
 thousand years old.” He said “yes.” I opened it at the third 
 chapter of the second of Timothy, and said, listen to this. It 
 says, “ that in the last days there shall be perilous times, men 
 shall be highminded, lovers of pleasure more than God, having a 
 form of Godliness but denying the power thereof.” He said, 
 “ that exactly describes the present condition of the civilized 
 world.” I said, “ it does, and that which you count an objection 
 to that book is confirmation.” Strong of my faith, I told him I 
 could quote incidents of this kind for a week, and he might be 
 just as far away from God as he was at that moment. I reminded 
 him that when those friends he thought so valuable, dropped 
 away in adversity, he would feel the need of something that this 
 world could not bring, and turn to Christ as the truest and best 
 friend. That young man was afterwards taken ill in the 
 diamond-fields, and I am glad to think that the light came to 
 him and he found peace. This is an illustration to show that 
 if we preach the fulness and faithfulness of God, this unbelief 
 will disappear. 
 
 Rev. J. Cooper Antliff, D.D., Montreal. 
 
 I think in this discussion we should distinguish between the 
 infidelity of the heart and the infidelity of the head. There are 
 some whose unbelief is the result of bad morals rather than of 
 intellectual difficulties. They hope that there may be no God, so 
 that the)/ may go unpunished for their sins, and what ardently 
 they wish they soon believe. While, on the one hand, unbelief 
 tends to immorality, for, as the Psalmist truly declares, “ the fool 
 hath said in his heart there is no God, corrupt are they and have 
 done abominable iniquity ; ” on the other hand, immorality tends 
 to unbelief. I am inclined to think a good deal of current 
 unbelief may be attributed to this cause. Unbelievers as a class 
 are far from models of morality. I remember hearing Joseph 
 Barker after his conversion to Christianity from secularism say, 
 that from his knowledge of the private life of sceptics, the best 
 of them are infinitely worse than the worst professing Christians. 
 To cure this scepticism we must bring to bear on its subjects the 
 Gospel of Jesus Christ in its sanctifying power. If, by any means 
 we can get them to love truth and purity, we shall dissipate much 
 of their difficulty in accepting the Christian faith. But while 
 there are many of this class, there are those who may be fairly 
 described as honest doubters. In common with other ministers, 
 I have met with young men who stumbled at certain articles of 
 the Christian faith. In this they did not take a foolish pride, as 
 
52 
 
 CURRENT UNBELIEF. 
 
 if doubt were the mark of a superior intelligence, (and I think 
 there are some actuated by this spirit,) but rather were pained by 
 their inability to receive the doctrines which they perceive others 
 accept with such evident comfort and blessing. Now how can 
 these intellectual difficulties be prevented or removed ? I would 
 suggest that more attention be paid to the instruction of our 
 young people in the evidences of Christianity. In England there 
 is a society called “ The Christian Evidence Society/' which aims 
 at spreading the best literature on apologetics, and it also adopts 
 the plan of offering prizes to such as undergo a satisfactory 
 examination in certain prescribed text books. Though it may 
 not be practicable for us in Canada to adopt this plan, yet in our 
 Bible Classes we might have short courses of reading either in the 
 text books recommended by the English Society, or in other 
 suitable books as might be determined on. I am persuaded this 
 would be a salutary arrangement, because in our warehouses and 
 other places of business there are to be found sceptical young men 
 who are better read on the negative side than our Christian young 
 men are on the positive side, and, consequently, those who in 
 reality have the better side in the discussion appear to dis¬ 
 advantage. Now, if our young men had some drilling in Christ¬ 
 ian evidence, they would be prepared when attacked, not only to 
 take the defensive but the offensive. In this discussion it has 
 been well said that we should preach Christ, for this is the great 
 need ; yet we must bear in mind that there are many who do not 
 come to our Churches to hear Christ preached, and we need to 
 consider how we can reach them to overcome their unbelief. The 
 plan I am recommending would make our young people defend¬ 
 ers of the faith, and when attacked by unbelievers, instead of being 
 put to silence, if not positively injured, they could be ready to give 
 an answer to every man that asked them, a reason of the hope 
 that is in them, with meekness and fear ; and further, we might 
 hope they would help doubting ones back to the faith. What I 
 desire to emphasize is the importance of giving our young people 
 instruction on the evidences of the Christian faith, that they may 
 not be endangered by current unbelief; for to be forewarned is 
 to be forearmed. Let them feel they are not standing on sand, 
 but on the eternal rock of truth. The longer I live the more I 
 feel that the doctrines of our religion will bear the closest investi¬ 
 gation. We have every advantage over the unbeliever from an 
 intellectual as well as moral standpoint, and we ought to take full 
 advantage of our position. 
 
 The Doxology was sung, and the session closed with the 
 Benediction. 
 
TUESDAY, 23rd OCTOBER, 1888. 
 
 AFTERNOON SESSION. 
 
 The Conference re-assembled at three o’clock. 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Hole, of Halifax, N.S., occupied the chair. 
 
 The proceedings opened with the singing of hymn, “ Jesus, 
 Master, whom I serve and Rev. Mr. Stobo, of Quebec, led in 
 prayer. 
 
 The Chairman read the first Epistle to the Thessalonians, 
 iv. chapter, verses 9 and 12 ; second Thessalonians, verses 6 and 
 12 ; and third Colossians, verse 22. 
 
 TOPIC : CAPITAL AND LABOR. 
 
 CHAIRMAN’S ADDRESS. 
 
 Rev. Dr. Hole, Halifax, N.S. 
 
 Brethren .—We have met together this afternoon to consider 
 one of the most important, if not the most important, social 
 questions that demand our interest and consideration in the 
 present day. From the passages of Scripture I have read to you 
 now, you will observe that there is nothing at all in the Gospel 
 of the Lord Jesus Christ to encourage idleness. What the Lord 
 did, was to rehabilitate labor, as it were, and to ennoble it. We 
 cannot forget what was the position of the people before the 
 time of Christ,—how heathenism degraded the whole of 
 humanity ; how degraded idolatry beset it, and how, in conse¬ 
 quence, the moral nature of man was so thoroughly degraded 
 that those classes which now find honorable employment in 
 certain spheres of life, were given to minister to the most 
 baneful and unnatural passions and vices of sinful men. The 
 Lord Jesus Christ raised those classes so as to make them 
 honest, industrial laborers, and producers for the benefit of 
 mankind as well as for their own. You and I have seen a 
 great many instances where those given over to a life of vice, 
 those under the slavery of intemperance, having revealed to them 
 
54 
 
 CAPITAL AND LABOR. 
 
 the new life in Christ have stood up free men in Christ Jesus, 
 and have overcome the power of the evil habit. This is the 
 most difficult of all slaveries from which to get emancipated— 
 but they have done it—and have spent their lives in faithful, 
 self-respectful, honest work. So is it ever with Christ toward 
 those who are influenced by Him. There is in the Bible no 
 kind of encouragement for those levelling methods which would 
 make men equal, and there must be some other remedy dis¬ 
 covered for the present state of things, which we must all admit 
 is greatly to be deplored. Not one of us will admit that the 
 present relations of employers and employed, are either satisfac¬ 
 tory or final, any more than the feudal system of other days was 
 final. The fact is that the influence of the spread of Christianity 
 is causing the world to progress, but because man’s will is so 
 perverse, and the giant of selfishness so strong in the human 
 heart, the progress is very gradual. Hence you see to-day 
 a terrible state of things. On the one side is enormous wealth 
 concentrated in a very few hands, and on the other you see 
 want and degradation and misery. You see so unequal a 
 distribution of the necessaries (not to speak of the luxuries) of 
 life, as to present one of the most startling perplexities of the 
 human mind. I do not wonder, when men have not the light of 
 Christian faith, that they stumble, and that they turn, as it were, 
 upon society and show a disposition to violence. 
 
 We know that the most neglected waif who runs about in 
 these great cities, starving, or being trained up in vice to save 
 him from starving, has an immortal soul, and a moral nature 
 which, under right training and nourishing, might be equal to the 
 most favored and most gifted among us. The heart of man 
 naturally asks “ how is it that those things are so unequal ? ” 
 And its own unregenerate reply is to accuse God, and to say that 
 His ways are unequal and unjust. We, of course, know that 
 this is wrong, and that it is not only sinful but unreasonable, 
 simply upon the ground that the responsibility must rest upon 
 man by virtue of the fact that He has created us with that 
 mysterious power, free-will ; and, as a consequence, responsi¬ 
 bility goes with it. I am not acquainted with the subject as 
 a specialist, but if what we read is true, men acquire wealth 
 and concentrate it in their own hand by adopting means which 
 have the effect of casting out of employment thousands of in¬ 
 dustrious men and women who are anxious to work. These men 
 influence the markets—especially the markets of produce—and 
 raise the price of bread, so that people thrown out of employ¬ 
 ment cannot get the necessaries of life. We can all see that 
 
chairman’s address. 
 
 55 
 
 acts like these must have their origin in the most intense selfish¬ 
 ness. For people uninfluenced by the power of the Gospel, but 
 knowing their sufferings, and having some idea of the cause, is 
 it to be wondered at that thoughts of resistance, thoughts of 
 that force which they find out they do possess, fill their minds ? 
 I believe that if some remedy is not found for this, we shall go 
 on until there is a tremendous upheaval, in which all the forces 
 for good will seem to be overthrown for the time, and the awful 
 result of a conflict will come upon the great cities of the world. 
 The question is : “ What is the remedy for this ? ” Obviously, 
 force is no remedy. Many of those poor people of whom I 
 speak, would bear their hardships peaceably, were it not for the 
 agitators who, instead of being disturbers and idlers, should rely 
 more upon a good example to their own class. The people are 
 provoked and irritated, and then comes the consciousness of 
 their own terrible sufferings and apparent powerlessness under 
 the might of those men who are giants in the possession of 
 wealth, and giants in the possession of that peculiar genius which 
 some seem to have for money-making ; but though gifted thus 
 as giants, forgetting that it is well to have a giant’s strength, 
 but to use it like a giant is hard and cruel. The remedy for this 
 is simply in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. That ennobles 
 labor, but it does not level classes. We know well that the very 
 genius of Christianity was to offer the Gospel to the social fabric 
 as it stood, while it had within it those principles which were 
 sure to overthrow and destroy the license and abuses which were 
 connected with society. I think this is a part of the great 
 question of the brotherhood of man in Christ Jesus. Recognize 
 this and these evils will be overthrown, and as this enlightened 
 and Christian principle makes itself felt the strong will become 
 ashamed to take unfair advantage of their weak neighbours. 
 This is clear to us who know that the great principle of 
 Christianity is unselfishness. Christ came to embody it in 
 himself, and we owe salvation to that blessed fact. He says 
 to his disciples, “ If you will be mine, you must take up your 
 cross, deny yourselves, and follow me.” And the root of 
 those evils to which I have referred is selfishness. Therefore 
 if the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is received, the solution of 
 the difficulties can be reached. Capitalists, men with this power 
 in their hands, tremendous for evil if selfishly used, can make 
 it powerful for good if they use it with a sense of their respon¬ 
 sibility and stewardship before God. When this latter principle 
 is acted upon we shall have justice done ; evils which are con¬ 
 stantly increasing, and which men, although they do not express 
 
56 
 
 CAPITAL AND LABOR. 
 
 it, continually fear, will be avoided, and we shall have some¬ 
 thing like peace among the classes. The final aspiration is 
 after that blessed time (not to come in this dispensation), “ when 
 the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the 
 waters cover the sea,” and men and women, round the glorified 
 Redeemer, will be all willing to rejoice and recognize themselves 
 as brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus. 
 
 THE APPLICATION OF THE GOSPEL TO 
 EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYED. 
 
 Rev. Washington Gladden, D.D., New York. 
 
 The application of the gospel to employers and employed is a 
 very simple matter, and nothing new can be said about it. The 
 gospel is the message of forgiveness and sympathy and help which 
 comes to men burdened with guilt and infirmity and trouble. 
 Employers and employed stand in equal need of it ; the preacher 
 can make no distinction among men in the proclamation of its 
 glad tidings. It is not, I think, in strictness, the gospel of Christ, 
 whose application to these two great classes we are considering to¬ 
 day, but the Law of Christ ; Christianity as an ethical and not as 
 a remedial system. We accept Christ as a Saviour from sin, but 
 we acknowledge Him also as a teacher of righteousness. By the 
 principles He has announced, by the laws He has declared, all life 
 must be governed ; every relation of men in society is defined, 
 implicitly if not explicitly, in His commandments. Beyond, per- 
 adventure, we shall find that the relations of men as employers 
 and employed are covered by His legislation. 
 
 I suppose that most of our captains of industry, and most of 
 the rank and file, as well, would admit at once, that Christianity 
 has something to say about this great interest of life. But the 
 prevalent notion would be that when Christ speaks on this matter 
 it is rather by sufferance than with authority:—that His counsels 
 are uttered with hesitant speech and bated breath as one who 
 intrudes into a realm in which He has no jurisdiction : that the 
 master word of industrial society is not spoken by Christ at all, but 
 by that potentate whom He calls Mammon. Christian counsels 
 may come in, to some extent, to mitigate the severity of trade, as 
 a gentle embrocation for the bruises suffered in the collisions of 
 
REV. DR. GLADDEN. 
 
 57 
 
 self-interest; but the principles and laws of the business-world 
 are wholly independent of Christianity. This is the common 
 understanding. This has been, for many years, one of the 
 unquestioned assumptions of the leading school of political 
 economy. In the name of this science Christian moralists have 
 been warned off the premises of industrial exchange. Sometimes 
 they have been told that moral forces were absolutely powerless 
 to affect the working of social laws : sometimes they have been 
 censured for trying to interfere with those economic harmonies 
 under which pure egoism, if only let alone, will work out universal 
 blessedness. If the traders have believed what the economists 
 have taught them, we cannot wonder. And thus it has come to 
 be generally confessed that Christian morality has no standing in 
 the high court of trade and commerce ; that the Christian moral¬ 
 ist ought not to meddle with business at all ; that the uniform 
 law of all this realm is the law of supply and demand ; and that 
 he who permits this law to have the freest possible operation 
 fulfils all righteousness. If this were, indeed, the right conception; 
 if Christianity were only the kind old grandmother who sits in the 
 chimney-corner and speaks soothing words to the combatants in 
 the pauses of their strife, but knows nothing of what is going on 
 “ in the world’s broad field of battle,” then it would be evident 
 that Christianity has no valid claim upon the attention of grown 
 men. Matthew Arnold’s well-worn dictum tells us that conduct 
 is three-fourths of life ; it is equally true of Anglo-Saxon men, at 
 any rate, that three-fourths of what Arnold calls conduct has to 
 do more or less directly with business relations of life,—with the 
 buying and selling of commodities and services. The major por¬ 
 tion of life comes within the purview of economic law. Now, if 
 conduct within this realm is not under Christian legislation, then 
 Christ is not in any true sense King of men, and can never be : 
 and the rather disrespectful and even supercilious attitude which 
 men of the world sometimes assume when His claims are urged 
 upon them, is abundantly justified. If Christ had no decisive 
 word to speak concerning the principles on which industry must 
 be organized and trade must be carried on ; if His counsel about 
 this matter were not wiser and more practical for this day and 
 generation than that of any other counsellor, from Adam Smith 
 down to Karl Marx, then I, for one, would waste no time in claim¬ 
 ing for him the allegiance of men. He who cannot give to 
 industry and trade the organizing law, cannot sit upon the throne 
 of Empire in this nineteenth century. 
 
 I am well aware that many of those who esteem themselves to 
 be loyal to Christ are content to preach Him as one whose grace 
 
58 
 
 CAPITAL AND LABOR. 
 
 suffices only to forgive the sins and comfort the sorrows of 
 believers in this world, and to take them out of this world to 
 heaven when they die ; but that, as I understand it, is far from 
 being the extent of His mission to this world ; he came also, and 
 chiefly, to establish here the kingdom of heaven; He came to fill 
 this earth with a regenerated society ; he has taught us to pray 
 every day to our father in heaven :—“ Thy kingdom come, Thy 
 will be clone, as in heaven, so on earth ; ” and the vision with 
 which the Revelation closes, of the city of God coming down out 
 of heaven to earth is but the fulfilment and completion of the 
 work that Christ began. If this is what He came to do, and if 
 this work has been going on steadily and mightily and 
 triumphantly ever since He came,then it is certain that the master- 
 word of the realm of industry and trade, as of every other realm 
 of human interest, must be His word, and that the attempt to 
 organize these great departments of life without attending to 
 what He has to say is not only a bad kind of disloyalty, but, on 
 the part of those who profess to be His disciples, a sort of social 
 solecism. 
 
 The application of Christianity to employers and employed, as 
 well as to every other class of buyers and sellers, of producers 
 and consumers, of lenders and borrowers, of leaders and followers, 
 is, then, part of the high calling of the Christian teacher : if he 
 finds industry and trade organized on principles that are 
 unchristian or anti-christian, he must point out the fault and 
 show the more excellent way. 
 
 What, then, is the authoritative word spoken by Christianity 
 to employers and employed ? 
 
 (i.) Its first clear utterance is aptly conveyed in the terms of that 
 remonstrance spoken by the great law-giver of Israel to the two 
 Hebrews whom he found fighting : “ Sirs, ye are brethren ; why 
 do ye wrong one to another.” That employers and workmen are 
 members of one family, vitally and indissolubly bound together, 
 and that controversy and strife between them is not only injurious 
 but unnatural, is the fact which it emphasizes. The Divine 
 Fatherhood implies the human brotherhood, and the “ new 
 commandment ” of Christ covers all the relations of human life. 
 Not merely to the church, but to the human race as well, does 
 the Apostle’s metaphor of the body apply: “Ye are members 
 one of another.” And it would be just as rational for the right 
 hand and the left hand to fly at each other, and beat and bruise 
 each other till the one or the other was disabled, as it is for the 
 employer and the employed to fall into contention and 
 controversy. This great truth of the absolute unity of human 
 
REV. DR. GLADDEN. 
 
 59 
 
 interests, which involves the impossibility that any social class 
 should rise by depressing another class, which implies that if one 
 member of the social organism suffers all the other members 
 must suffer with it, is the foundation stone of Christian social 
 science. Very slowly does the world move toward the realization 
 of this truth, it is but a small section even of the Christian Church 
 that comprehends it ; the sects proceed upon the theory that 
 rivalry, and not co-operation, is the basis on which neighbouring 
 churches co-exist ; if they should make their creeds correspond 
 with their deeds, they would profess their faith not in the 
 communion of saints, but in the competition of saints. The 
 suggestion that churches dwelling in the same neighbourhood 
 should govern themselves by the Christian law in their relations 
 with one another, is often sneered at by Christian leaders as 
 visionary and impractical. “ That may come to pass in the 
 Millennium,” it is said, “but you cannot make it work in our day.” 
 When the churches themselves thus flatly repudiate the Christian 
 law, it is scarcely to be wondered at that the factories spurn it. 
 Yet it is the law of the church and of the factory, a law that rests 
 not merely on the authoritative word of Christ, but which can be 
 abundantly verified by centuries of experience. Out of all the 
 turmoil and confusion of warring centuries steadily emerges this 
 truth, that it is not by strife and warfare but by unity and 
 co-operation that humanity advances. The way of welfare is the 
 way of peace. History, as well as Christian morality, makes it 
 plain that we cannot mount to power and happiness upon the 
 ruin of our fellows. This law of the unity of human interests is 
 not true because God taught it: He taught it because it is true. 
 It is the fundamental fact of human society ; any adequate 
 induction of human experience will verify it. Men have doubted 
 it, denied it, fought against it, through all the ages, even the 
 church has never half believed it, but it is true, and every century 
 that passes brings it into clearer light. 
 
 When Moses chid his contending countrymen, saying, “ Sirs, 
 ye are brethren, why do ye wrong one to another,” the one most 
 deeply in the wrong thrust him away, saying, “ Who made thee 
 a ruler and a judge over us ? ” That has always been the answer 
 of human brutality and aggressiveness when the fact of the 
 brotherhood of man has been asserted. But every year brings 
 us a little nearer to the recognition of this principle, and we shall 
 see by-and-bye that it governs the relations of men in industrial 
 society as well as in the church, and the family, and the State. 
 
 “ Sirs, ye are brethren ! ” You cannot obliterate that fact. 
 You cannot afford to ignore it. In all your strikes and your 
 
6o 
 
 CAPITAL AND LABOR. 
 
 lock-outs, your black-listing and your boycotting, your com¬ 
 binations of capital to hold labor down, and of labor to defy 
 capital, remember that the law of your being is not conflict but 
 co-operation, and that while you are fighting one another you are 
 fighting against the stars in their courses, against the Ruler of 
 the universe ; that you are doing not only a wicked but an 
 absurd, an unnatural, a monstrous thing. 
 
 (2.) Christianity teaches that the employer and the employed 
 are not only brethren, but that they are also partners in business. 
 You think immediately of the counsels of Paul addressed to 
 masters and servants. This, you will say, is the relation 
 recognised by the Christian ethics. Masters and servants are not 
 business partners. I do not forget these words, nor do I fail to 
 remember that these servants to whom Paul writes were bond 
 servants or slaves, not even employees, but chattels of their 
 employer. It will not be claimed that this is the relation which 
 Christianity wishes to establish. 
 
 That Christ and His Apostles recognized slavery as existing, 
 and did not set themselves against it to overthrow it by direct 
 onset, is most true ; but it will be readily admitted that they 
 established principles of morality which inevitably undermined 
 it, and that they sought to guide industrial society toward a very 
 different form of organization from that which is involved in 
 slavery. That very principle of the brotherhood of man of which 
 we have been speaking is the logical antithesis of slavery. That 
 the time must certainly arrive when this institution should pass 
 away, when the master should cease to be the owner of the 
 workman, and the laborer should cease to be the chattel of his 
 employer, was as certain as that the Kingdom of God should 
 come. 
 
 To slavery and serfdom the wage system has succeeded. 
 Shall we say that this is the final form of industrial society ? 
 That is by no means clear, for though Christianity may recognize 
 the wage system as it recognized slavery, and may not only 
 refuse to make war upon it, but may even endeavour to persuade 
 both employers and employed to behave justly and kindly toward 
 one another while in this relation ; still, I have no doubt that the 
 logic of Christianity must lead on to a higher and more equitable 
 relation between them than that which is established by the wage 
 system. 
 
 It is not necessary to use any extravagant language with 
 regard to the condition of the wage-laborer. We sometimes 
 hear him called a slave, and doubtless this seems, to those of us 
 who know the degree of independence and comfort to which 
 
REV. DR. GLADDEN. 
 
 61 
 
 many of our workingmen in England and America have 
 attained, an exaggerated and even preposterous assertion. Yet 
 the fact cannot be denied that the tendency of the large system 
 of competitive industry is to divorce the working class both from 
 the land and from capital. And it is as certain as fate that a 
 working-class thus practically separated from land and capital— 
 having, as a rule, no possession or control of the natural re¬ 
 sources of the earth or the instruments of industry,—will be a 
 dependent class. That this is the tendency of the wage-system 
 can scarcely be doubted. The tendency was allowed free play 
 in England during the first part of this century, and the degra¬ 
 dation of labor was horrible. It has been checked, since that 
 time, partly by the intervention of good-will in the form of 
 Factory Legislation, partly by the combination of the laborers 
 themselves. Doubtless the labor organizations have been the 
 more efficient cause. And it is a palpable fact that, under a 
 competitive wage-system, labor can only preserve itself from 
 practical enslavement by the maintenance of a standing army. 
 That, in effect, is exactly what the labor organizations amount 
 to. They are the standing army of labor, maintained at great 
 cost, to prevent the subjugation of labor by associated capital. 
 
 Now I do not think that Christianity contemplates the main¬ 
 tenance of standing armies of any sort. Whatever the poli¬ 
 ticians and economists may mean, the advent of Christ meant 
 “ Peace on earth, and good-will to men,” and the coming of his 
 Kingdom is signalized by the beating of swords into plough¬ 
 shares *and of spears into pruning-hooks. Therefore I am sure 
 that Christianity must have something better in store for us 
 than a system which involves organized conflict. Therefore it 
 seems probable that the effect of Christianity must be the 
 modification, to some extent, of the wage-system, and the in¬ 
 corporation with it of certain elements which shall tend to 
 identify, more perfectly and obviously, the interests of the em¬ 
 ployer and the employed. Some form of business partnership 
 between capital and labor is involved, as I believe, in the proper 
 adjustment of the labor question. 
 
 In making this adjustment it will not be necessary that any¬ 
 body should trample on economic laws, or ignore the facts of 
 human nature. The employer who recognizes his workmen as 
 his partners in production simply recognizes a fact. His 
 partners they are. No clear economical analysis can make any¬ 
 thing else of them. I could multiply quotations on this subject 
 from the teachers of this science, but two will suffice. The first 
 
62 
 
 CAPITAL AND LABOR. 
 
 is a short extract from an essay designed to show the futility of 
 Profit Sharing:— 
 
 “ What is the nature of wages? A capitalist and some laborers enter into an agree¬ 
 ment for the purpose of production. Of the product, the capitalist is entitled to re¬ 
 tain a certain share, and the laborers a certain share.” * 
 
 This is a clear statement, and it is the exact economical truth. 
 The second testimony is no less explicit. It is from Mr. 
 McLeod’s “ Elements of Economics.” In speaking of “ opera¬ 
 tives, miners, and artizans,” he says :— 
 
 “Their labor may justly be styled co-operative with that of the master: they are 
 really quasi-partners with the capitalist in obtaining the profits.” f 
 
 Now if this is a fact, the sooner we make our organizations of 
 industry frankly conform to it, the sooner we shall have peace 
 and prosperity. It is quite useless to fight against facts. 
 
 The truth which the economists derive from their analysis of 
 production is, then, the same truth that the Christian moralist 
 deduces from the law of Christ : That all producers are 
 partners in the corollary of the doctrine of human brother¬ 
 hood. If all men are brethren, the relation of the workman to 
 the organizer of work cannot be permanently that of slave and 
 master, or of dependent and patron, but must be that of co¬ 
 operation and partnership. This is the logic of Christianity. 
 This is the ideal which the Christian ethics lifts up before us. 
 This is the result to which all the overturnings in human society 
 are steadily leading on. And although, as I have said, Chris¬ 
 tianity never proposes any violent assault upon the existing 
 social order, but counsels all men to behave as Christians, with 
 whatever social machinery they may be called to work, yet it 
 tends steadily and powerfully towards the purification of social 
 ideals, and the reconstruction of society according to its own law. 
 
 A man may be a Christian who is a master or a slave, but the 
 logic of Christianity is liberty. A . man may be a Christian who 
 is an aristocrat or a plebeian, but the logic of Christianity is de¬ 
 mocracy, A man may be a Christian who is a capitalist- 
 employer or a wage-laborer, but the logic of Christianity is co¬ 
 operation. 
 
 That the outcome of evolution in the political sphere is 
 democracy seems to be tolerably clear. Carlyle admitted it 
 long ago, with many deplorings ; the political soothsayers of the 
 period find no other sign in their horoscope. Some of the fore¬ 
 most nations have reached that level already, the rest are follow¬ 
 ing fast. That political power is to be widely distributed admits 
 of no doubt. Now I submit that the political enfranchisement 
 
 * Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. I., 234. 
 
 + Quarterly Journal©! Economics, Vol. II., 205. 
 
REV. DR. GLADDEN. 
 
 63 
 
 of the masses of the people implies and requires their industrial 
 enfranchisement. To make men rulers, by their votes, of the 
 nation who have no rights in the land and no control of the 
 the capital of the nation is a political absurdity. The men who 
 rule the state must have some larger stake in the commonwealth 
 than a day’s stipend, else they will rule carelessly, and, mayhap, 
 maliciously. Those who are endowed with political power must 
 be allied in interest with those who control the material resources 
 of the state. To this complexion it must come at last. The 
 only question is how we shall achieve this social readjustment. 
 It may come as the issue of social conflicts and agrarian wars ; 
 it may come and ought to come as the slowly ripening fruit of 
 Christian sentiments in the hearts of employers and employed. 
 To this end it is needful that all Christians, whether employers 
 or employees, should understand the logic of Christianity and 
 be ready to follow in the path of its principles. All the move¬ 
 ments in the direction of profit-sharing, of industrial partner¬ 
 ship, of joint-stock ownership,—like that at Oldham,—of 
 co-operation, show the healthy outworking of the Christian law 
 in the industrial realm. 
 
 This is the way we are going. How fast we shall go is a 
 question of expediency. Doubtless we might go too rapidly. 
 Employers might offer the privileges of partnership to men who 
 would abuse them. That there are laborers in the field of the world 
 to-day who are only fit for slavery—to whom bondage would be 
 the best regimen—may be true. That there are many others 
 who are only fit to be wage-receivers is undoubtedly true. 
 They could not co-operate. They lack the mental and moral 
 qualities that would fit them for associative effort. But there 
 are many, I am sure, who are quite prepared to enter into 
 industrial partnership with their employers. That in most cases 
 the interests of all would be subserved by making this only a 
 qualified partnership, and keeping the direction of the business 
 in the hands that now control it is not to be doubted. The one 
 thing needful is to identify, as speedily as possible, and as 
 completely as possible, the interests of the men who do the work 
 with those of the men who direct the work. 
 
 “ A question arises here,” wrote Carlyle, forty-five years ago, 
 “ whether in some ulterior, perhaps some not far-distant stage of 
 this ‘ Chivalry of Labour ’ your master-worker may not find it 
 possible, and needful, to grant his workers permanent interest in 
 his enterprise and theirs ? So that it becomes, in practical result, 
 what in essential fact and justice it ever is, a joint enterprise ; 
 all men, from the chief master down to the lowest overseer and 
 
64 
 
 CAPITAL AND LABOR. 
 
 operative, economically as well as loyally concerned for it ? ” 
 Carlyle answered his own question rather dubiously. No man 
 could answer it confidently whose detestation of democracy was 
 as cordial as his. But to some of us it seems that the very 
 terms in which his question is proposed contain the answer. If 
 “ in essential fact and justice ” every industrial enterprise “ ever 
 is a joint enterprise ” then it is certain in due season, to become 
 so. The essential fact and justice are going to get themselves 
 recognized and established here in the world by and by. And 
 the business of every Christian is to discern the essential fact 
 and justice, to make his own conduct conform to it, and strive 
 to get it recognized and established here in the world as speedily 
 as may be. 
 
 If we can only get these essential principles of Christianity 
 rooted in the convictions of all classes, we may safely leave them 
 to work out their own results. But it may be helpful to deduce 
 a few inferential maxims of practical application. Let us first 
 address ourselves to employers :— 
 
 (i.) It must not be forgotten that the large system of 
 industry involves the association of men as capitalists and 
 laborers —social organization, in fact; and that all forms of 
 social organization call for a large infusion of the altruistic 
 element. Society cannot be built upon the basis of commercial 
 contract. You who gather men together for these great indus¬ 
 tries have constant need to remember these words of Carlyle :— 
 “ Love of men cannot be bought by cash payment ; and with¬ 
 out love men cannot endure to be together.” Somehow you 
 must manage to supply that cement to the industrial society 
 which you have organized. 
 
 (2.) The old maxim, noblesse oblige , is binding upon the 
 captains of industry. Because they have the superior intelli¬ 
 gence and the natural gifts of leadership they must take the 
 initiative in all plans for the re-organization of industry. Hear 
 Carlyle again :—“ The main substance of this immense problem 
 of Organizing Labour, and first of all of managing the working 
 classes will, it is very clear, have to be solved by those who 
 stand practically in the middle of it ; by those who themselves 
 work and preside over work.” 
 
 (3.) In the working out of these plans it will be necessary to 
 use great patience, to take your workmen into your confidence, 
 and to explain very fully the nature of the propositions you are 
 making to them, and the conditions upon which success in your 
 joint undertaking is possible. Read the story of Jean Godin 
 and his Familistere at Guise, and learn how this great-hearted 
 
REV. DR. GLADDEN. 
 
 65 
 
 employer met his workmen night after night for weeks, laying 
 before them his plans for their welfare, discussing all the details, 
 answering their questions, allaying their suspicions, and finally 
 winning their consent to become partners with him in the great 
 industry of which they will soon be the sole proprietors. These 
 industrial partnerships have sometimes failed,—not often, how¬ 
 ever ; for the history of this form of industrial organization is a 
 record of brilliant successes ; but when they have failed the 
 cause has sometimes been the utter failure of the employers to 
 come to a good understanding with their workmen. The whole 
 business has been managed at arm’s length ; the concession was 
 rather surlily offered at the beginning, and rather suspiciously 
 accepted ; there was fear on both sides of bad faith and 
 over-reaching. No partnership will thrive in such an atmos¬ 
 phere. But those who approach the problem in the spirit and 
 temper of Jean Godin, will generally find that the solution is not 
 difficult. 
 
 (4.) The greatest opportunities of this generation—the oppor¬ 
 tunities of Christian leadership, of Christian statesmanship— 
 are offered to the employers of labor. They are called to mor¬ 
 alize the industrial realm whose ruling law has hitherto been 
 pagan. They are called to lead in that peaceful reconstruction 
 of our industries, by which labor and capital shall be identified in 
 interest and feeling, and peace shall be established among men. 
 I believe that many of them have heard the call and are rising to 
 their opportunity. Knightlier work can no man do than some of 
 our captains of industry are doing to-day. May God fill them 
 with wisdom and courage and patience and love. 
 
 A few words now to the workingmen :— 
 
 (1.) You must not suppose that by any arrangements you can 
 make, industrial, economical, or political, you can circumvent 
 the eternal laws. Men are not all alike. They differ vastly in 
 endowment and in attainment. The services that some men 
 render to society are far greater than those rendered by others. 
 Their reward ought to be and will be proportionately greater. 
 It is a great service that any man renders to society who 
 organizes and successfully manages a great industry. It is a 
 great service to the men employed ; probably not one in five of 
 them, working as his own master, could secure as large a reward 
 for his labor as he receives under the direction of this master. 
 It is a great service to the community at large to have the 
 aggregate product enlarged and cheapened. “ The function of 
 the man of business,” says one of the later economists, “ is 
 essentially that of co-ordinating the factors and processes of the 
 
 E 
 
66 
 
 CAPITAL AND LABOR. 
 
 economic world,—labor, capital, invention and superintendence 
 in the factory, supply and demand in the market. 
 
 Throughout organic nature, and no less in human society, the 
 co-ordinating function is useful and costly compared with the 
 mere expenditure of energy in direct and simple ways. ” * 
 It is useful and it is costly. Great services deserve great 
 rewards. That is one of the eternal laws. You must make 
 provision for it in all your calculations. Any socialistic 
 scheme that ignores it will come to grief. Co-operation 
 is industrial democracy, but democracy is not communism ; it 
 implies leadership ; it argues that when factitious distinctions are 
 swept away the natural leaders will come to the front. Shake 
 apples in a basket and the biggest ones will rise to the top. 
 That is the law of nature, and it will get itself enforced. “All 
 flesh is not the same flesh,” and all brains are not of the same size. 
 And brains will tell. In all your thoughts about the new regime 
 of industry keep this in mind. 
 
 (2») You must not imagine that any arrangement can ever be 
 effected that will cancel the natural penalties of ignorance and 
 indolence and improvidence. A very large share of the mis¬ 
 fortunes of the working classes arise from these sources. I 
 know, for I have been working with them and for them for thirty 
 years. And I know, also, that one of the serious impediments 
 in the way of employers of good will, who would be glad to help 
 their workingmen forward, is the misgiving that an increase of 
 their income would often be no addition to their welfare. What¬ 
 ever the form of the industrial organization, it will always be 
 true that for many workingmen reform must begin at home, in 
 improved habits of industry and thrift and sobriety. 
 
 (3.) “ Co-operation,” it has been truly said, “ awaits the advent 
 of the co-operative man.” He is coming, but you can hasten 
 his coming by cultivating a spirit of candor, moderation, and 
 sweet reasonableness. “A man that hath friends must show 
 himself friendly.” Workingmen who would like to enter into 
 partnership with their employer would do well to let him see 
 that their temper is such as to promise pleasant and profitable 
 relations. 
 
 And now a final word that applies with equal force to employers 
 and employed. Whether your place is in the counting-room or 
 at the lathe you are bound to consider, not your individual 
 interest alone, nor merely that of the Corporation whose agent 
 you are, nor that of the trades union to which you belong, but 
 
 * “ The Modern Distributive Process,” p. 68. 
 
HON. SENATOR MACDONALD. 
 
 67 
 
 also and always the interest of the whole community. “ No man 
 liveth to himself.” How much truer that is to-day than when it 
 was written ? “ Modern production is not an individualistic 
 
 process, it is the act of society as a whole,” says a recent writer. 
 We are all bound together in interest and welfare: whether we 
 will or no, the law of our civilization is, “ Each for all and all for 
 each.” Every industrial war injures the whole commonwealth. 
 We must learn to think of these minute and far-reaching effects 
 of our conduct. It will not do for us, men and brethren, to get 
 into the habit of saying, “ This business is mine, and I propose 
 to manage it to suit myself ; ” or to get into the habit of thinking 
 that the little group of workers to which we belong are the only 
 ones whose welfare is to be considered. We are members one of 
 another, and each must think and act for the interest of all. 
 That is the Christian way of thinking and acting, and when we 
 all learn that way we shall have reached the end of our centuries 
 of strife, and have come to the beginning of the thousand years of 
 peace. 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 Hon. Senator Macdonald, Toronto. 
 
 To bring into harmony the two forces of capital and labor so 
 often in antagonism ; to adjust them so that they become forces 
 for good—forces by which the comfort and happiness, the peace 
 and welfare of the race may be secured—is an object worthy the 
 attention of the noblest minds, the achievement of which would 
 entitle the worker to rank among the greatest of the world’s 
 benefactors. 
 
 Capital, whether acquired by accident or skill, by labor or in¬ 
 heritance, by strictly honest or questionable means, invests the 
 possessor with power to employ labor ; and makes it possible 
 for him to fill the homes of his fellow-men with sunshine and 
 gladness. There is much that wealth can do : it can enable a 
 man to build a fine house, to live in costly style, to travel in dis¬ 
 tant lands, to indulge in expensive tastes, and to be—if that be 
 deemed advisable—the envy of his fellows. 
 
 But there is much, happily, that it cannot do. It cannot 
 render a man independent of the men or the women who have 
 nothing but their labor to offer. For the rightful and profitable 
 employment of his capital he needs and must have the service * 
 
68 
 
 CAPITAL AND LABOR. 
 
 of the laborer. Is he a manufacturer ? He must have labor, 
 and he must, if his operations are extensive, have labor on a 
 very large scale. 
 
 True, he may through the skill of the inventor in the wonder¬ 
 fully perfect machinery of our day, succeed in doing away with 
 much of manual labor which might otherwise be needed. A 
 manufacturer, for example, in speaking of his mill, said to me 
 that the machinery in it wrought as though it were invested with 
 intelligence. He stated that upon a receiver being filled with 
 wool and the machine being set in motion, a number of steel 
 arms were at once set to work to put into separate bins the 
 various qualities found in the wool, from the very finest to the 
 very coarsest ; that each arm, or hand more properly, was so 
 finely adjusted that it could take up no quality but the one for 
 which it was specially adapted, and that it could not by any 
 possibility put it into any bin but the one intended to receive it; 
 that it could not make a mistake ; that it wrought with absolute 
 certainty, and, unlike many other hands, never got drunk and 
 did not strike. But even when such perfection is reached, much 
 will remain which no hand of steel can do, and no hand behind 
 which there is not a brain and a will. 
 
 This is in keeping with that law of compensation which marks 
 God’s dispensation everywhere ; and the man who, although he 
 may have but little silver or gold, but who nevertheless has a 
 sound mind in a sound body, and who has his labor to offer, is 
 in the first place a man whose sources of happiness, to him at 
 least, may be as many as are the sources of happiness which are 
 possessed by the wealthy man. But certain it is that he, the 
 humble man, in his labor possesses that which his wealthy 
 neighbor cannot do without, and to that extent at least is depen¬ 
 dent upon him. 
 
 I met somewhere recently with this sentiment in reference to 
 the distribution of wealth. The writer said, “ Do not divide the 
 wealth of the world evenly, but give by some process to every 
 family the comfort which is represented by, from $800 to a $1,000 
 per annum in our Canadian cities. Let this distribution prevail 
 the world over and the masses will be Christian in a year.” 
 There is no doubt the writer was quite sincere in giving utterance 
 to these thoughts, but I am equally clear that they are contrary 
 to all well-understood principles which govern thoughtful and 
 kind-hearted employers of labor ; that they are contrary to the 
 express declaration of God’s Word, which says, if any would 
 not work neither should he eat—2. Thes. iii., 10—and that if 
 carried out in the light in which the writer presents them would 
 
HON. SENATOR MACDONALD. 
 
 69 
 
 be fraught with incalculable evil. If he means that the average 
 is to be extended to families without reference to ability, skill or 
 industry, then no words of mine are needed to point out how 
 unwise such an arrangement would be. If he means that the 
 most generous treatment of employees would be the best for the 
 employer and employed, I am one with him, and believe that 
 such a mode of treatment would be better far than all the cheap 
 counsel, than all the specious words which one could offer ; but 
 if this be his meaning, his language is unfortunate, for nothing 
 could be more unfair than by some such arrangement, in order 
 to secure a system of average, that the indolent and industrious, 
 the sober and intemperate, the skilled and the ignorant, should 
 be placed on the same level. It is to the Word of God that we 
 must come to learn the right relationship between master 
 and servant, that we may learn rightly the duties which pertain 
 to each in connection with that relationship. It is from the 
 Word of God alone that we can learn what the safeguards are 
 against wrongdoing, and what the means of securing a spirit of 
 confidence in each other—the true antidote to that spirit which 
 finds its development in dissatisfaction and in strikes. Through¬ 
 out the Word of God consideration for the servant is enjoined 
 upon the master, as fidelity to the master is enjoined upon the 
 servant. “ The wages of him that is hired shall not abide with 
 thee all night until the morning.”—Lev. xix., 13. “ Thou shalt 
 
 not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy, whether he 
 be of thy brethren or of thy strangers that are in thy land 
 within thy gates.—At his day thou shalt give him his hire, for 
 he is poor and setteth his heart upon it, lest he cry against thee 
 unto the Lord and it be sin unto thee.”—Deut. xxiv., 14-15. 
 “ And I will come near you to judgment, and I will be a swift 
 witness against the sorcerers and against the adulterers, and 
 against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling 
 in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, and that turn aside 
 the stranger from his right, and that fear not me, saith the Lord 
 of Hosts.”—Mai. iii., 5. And in James v., 4 :—“ Behold the hire 
 of the laborers who have reaped down your fields which is of 
 you kept back by fraud crieth, and the cries of them which have 
 reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.” 
 
 Whole volumes might be written as to the relations between 
 master and servant, and as to the duties which the one owes the 
 other. And yet they are all summed up in two short verses, 
 “ Servants obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, 
 not with eye service as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, 
 fearing God,”—Col. iii., 22-23. “ Masters give unto your servants 
 
7 o 
 
 CAPITAL AND LABOR. 
 
 that which is just and equal, knowing that ye have a Master in 
 Heaven,”—Col. iv., I. No one can fully estimate what the effect 
 would be upon society, provided the Word of God were taken as 
 the standard by which all the relations between master and 
 servant were acted upon. Let us see what we should have on the 
 part of the servant :— 
 
 (i.) Obedience in all things. Where there is no obedience 
 there is insubordination, and where there is insubordination 
 there can only be confusion and loss instead of order and profit. 
 
 (2.) We should have fidelity—fidelity, too, in its best form, 
 divested of eye-service, rendered not from a selfish standpoint, 
 but rendered from a sense of duty. 
 
 (3.) We should have men influenced by the fear of God, 
 exhibiting in all they did singleness of heart without dissimula¬ 
 tion. Every word could be relied upon, every piece of work 
 could be guaranteed, everything would be done in its time and 
 in its place, contracts could be undertaken with confidence, and 
 when completed would not be disappointing to contractor or 
 customer. 
 
 The man would become a necessity to his master, the maid to 
 her mistress ; certain work and certain wages, based upon the 
 qualities of obedience, fidelity and the fear of God, manifesting 
 itself in singleness of heart and bringing forth the fruits of con¬ 
 fidence and respect. From such men, it may safely be affirmed, 
 do none of those obstructive tactics which derange and destroy 
 business proceed. Such servants will always do their work 
 honestly, and such servants will always be able to obtain employ¬ 
 ment steady and remunerative. Agitators are not men whose 
 labor is rendered from the standpoint of God’s Word. I have 
 said that it would be impossible to estimate the effect upon 
 society, if all servants were to act as they are enjoined to do in 
 the Word of God. No one can take the position, that his in¬ 
 difference cannot affect the well-working of the establishment in 
 which he is engaged, simply because his position is an obscure 
 one. The breaking of one cog in a wheel will endanger not only 
 the wheel itself, but the well-working of the entire machinery ; 
 and the lack of fidelity in a very obscure employee may be 
 fraught with danger which it is impossible to over-estimate. To 
 some it may seem but a small matter for a railroad point to be 
 neglected, to disregard an insignificant leak in a vessel because 
 it appears insignificant, to loiter when one is hastily despatched 
 for a surgeon, but who can estimate what the consequences 
 of neglect might be in any one of these cases, or in any one of 
 the thousands of cases occurring every day, involving ruin and 
 
HON. SENATOR MACDONALD. 
 
 7 1 
 
 misery and suffering, all as the result of the disregard of the 
 admonitions of God’s Word as to the spirit in which service is 
 to be rendered. From these causes we have disasters on rail¬ 
 roads, ships going down at sea, accidents in mines, all involving 
 frightful loss of life and property, while we have derangement 
 and loss in business and confusion and trouble in the household. 
 
 What would we have on the part of the master? First, an 
 intelligent conception of his duty. The observance of a rule 
 laid down for his dealing with his servant interpreted not from a 
 selfish standpoint, but with strict reference to that Word which is 
 righteousness and truth, the standard of duty being that he 
 should give to his servant that which is just and equal. He is to 
 do this knowing that he also has a Master in Heaven. If the 
 obligation rests upon the servant to render faithful service, not 
 one whit less does the obligation to render a remuneration to the 
 servant that would be just and equal rest upon the master. The 
 sense in which the word equal is used is not the sense in which 
 it is synonymous with just. It means, I take it, that there is to 
 be a consistency between the remuneration paid and the work 
 performed. It means that advantage is not to be taken of the 
 servant’s circumstances, condition or ignorance. That a man, 
 for example, who is in a position of confidence, who is a necessity 
 to the concern, is to be paid in keeping with the responsibility of 
 his duties and not as one unfitted to do his work. That, be it 
 remembered, is the teaching of the Gospel; that is what it en¬ 
 joins on the employer towards the employee. 
 
 Then as to trade. - The Word of God sets before all so 
 engaged a standard, which, if observed, would revolutionize the 
 business operations of the whole world. Hear it :—“ Ye shall do 
 no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard, in weight or in 
 measure. Just balances, just weights, a just ephah and a just 
 hin shall ye have. I am the Lord your God, which brought you 
 out of the land of Egypt.”—Lev. xix., 35-36. “ Give and it 
 
 shall be given unto you. Good measure, pressed down and 
 shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your 
 bosom, for with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be 
 measured to you again.”—Luke vi., 38. When therefore the 
 employer has paid his servant that which is just and equal, he is 
 not by any means done with him ; he has not by any means 
 done all towards him that it is his duty to do ; he must see to it 
 that that servant is not asked to do anything that will wound 
 his conscience; that he is not asked to do unrighteousness in 
 judgment, in meteyard, in weight or in measure ; that he is not 
 asked to diminish the weight or to curtail the length of goods ; 
 
72 
 
 CAPITAL AND LABOR. 
 
 that he is not asked to adulterate the quality of the goods ; that 
 he is not asked to label goods as being what they are not ; that 
 he is not asked to take an order for a standard article and sub¬ 
 stitute an inferior one ; in one word, he is in duty bound to set 
 before his servant as that which is to guide him that golden rule 
 which enjoins that “Whatsoever ye would that men should do 
 to you do ye even so to them, for this is the law and the 
 prophets.”—Matt, vii., 12. He is to see to it that the atmos¬ 
 phere in which he asks his servant to labor is untainted by 
 profanity. He is to see that within the walls or within the limits 
 of his sphere of labor neither drunkenness nor any species of 
 immorality is tolerated. He is to see to it that his servant 
 enjoys the peace and the rest of the Sabbath day, and that no 
 consideration should lead him—the master—to call for labor on 
 the Sabbath day for any cause other than that which can be 
 justified upon the ground of either mercy or necessity. “ In all 
 things showing himself a pattern of good works.”—Titus ii., 7. 
 His first duty is to render unto him that which is just and equal, 
 and until that is done everything in the way of good advice, 
 patronizing talk, the giving of tracts, books, the establishment of 
 coffee-rooms or reading-rooms or benefit societies,even the making 
 of visits to the dwellings of employees, having reference to their 
 comfort, is out of place, is instantly understood by those most 
 interested and is estimated at its full value. No class of persons 
 is more observant, or can more readily understand what is 
 implied by having rendered unto them that which is just and 
 equal, or will more readily show their appreciation of that which 
 comes up to this high standard, or will as speedily comprehend 
 all that falls short of it. What kind of service can a man expect 
 from the servant whom he allows to work in an atmosphere of 
 profanity ?—in an atmosphere where God’s name is dishonored, 
 where lying and cheating are winked at, where drunkenness and 
 immorality are developed ? What kind of service can he expect 
 when the servant is instructed to brand goods with labels which 
 in themselves are glaring untruths, and where things are sold for 
 what they are not ? What kind of service should he expect but 
 that he should have meted out to him by his servant the same 
 kind of duplicity which he metes out to others ? 
 
 I have been speaking of employees in manufacturing concerns, 
 in commercial houses. But do these remarks not apply with 
 equal force to every calling in life where relations exist between 
 employer and employed ? Do they not apply to that class of 
 falsehood which fashion has not only exempted from the ordinary 
 class of lies, but positively classed among the virtues, which per- 
 
HON. SENATOR MACDONALD. 
 
 73 
 
 mits my lady to say to her caller when it suits her, that she is not 
 at home, which message the truthful young girl, fresh from some 
 Godly home, where she has been taught to love God’s Word, is 
 asked to deliver, and who is simple enough to believe that that 
 which would be a lie in her humble home cannot be aught else 
 in a city mansion ? Asked to do this too by a mistress who 
 presents herself at the Lord’s table. 
 
 I know I shall be met by the statement that this is a society 
 phrase, and that in society it is perfectly understood. Perfectly, 
 no doubt, but by whom ? By that young girl who hearing it for 
 the first time, wonders whether or not she can believe her ears ; 
 but hearing it too often, begins herself to practise the duplicity 
 which she abhors. Would it not be better a thousand times to 
 tell the truth ? If one were ill, to say so ? If one were engaged, 
 to say so? If one found it necessary to express regret that they 
 could not see their visitor, to say so ? And to do all this in the 
 most courteous and most considerate way, rather than to wound 
 one’s conscience, rather than to be the instrument of doing aught 
 which would have the tendency of leading one, for the time being 
 thrown upon their protection, upon a downward course. 
 
 Think of it, you who have homes and who have servants who 
 look to your conduct and who imitate your example. Is such a 
 custom, foolish and harmful as it is, when all is said that can be 
 said in its favor, calculated to strengthen such young girls when 
 called upon to meet those temptations which they assuredly will 
 have to encounter, or calculated to fit them for rendering unto 
 you that obedient and faithful service for which you engaged 
 them, and which you look to them to render? Let me say, by 
 way of summarizing, that the Word of God is the only safe text¬ 
 book in which the relations of employer and employed are clearly 
 defined—the only text-book which can be safely followed. Enjoin¬ 
 ing upon the servant obedient and faithful service, divested of all 
 eye service, and rendered in the fear of God. Upon the master 
 the giving that which is just and equal for services rendered, 
 remembering that he also has a Master in Heaven. Cases there 
 doubtless will be where employers find places more to help some 
 needy one than to fill any want which exists in their own con¬ 
 cern, and, where judged by those ignorant of the facts, the remun¬ 
 eration given might not appear to be up to the standard enjoined. 
 It is the spirit of the command which is conscientiously and con¬ 
 stantly to be kept in mind, and where this is the honest purpose 
 of every employer, I venture to say he will not fail in fulfilling 
 the letter. 
 
 Sir Christopher Wren was not only able to set the workmen 
 
74 
 
 CAPITAL AND LABOR. 
 
 employed in the building of St Paul’s Cathedral, a good example 
 in his reverence for God’s name and God’s day and God’s house, 
 but he caused notices to be posted in various parts of the build¬ 
 ing “ that any workman taking God’s name in vain would be dis¬ 
 missed from the works.” Let us thank God that there are to-day 
 many like him, that there are thousands who carry on their busi¬ 
 ness on the principles which are laid down to govern them in the 
 New Testament; that there are thousands of Christian families, 
 in which the domestic who is happy enough to obtain employ¬ 
 ment, learns nothing but good. May we not hope that the 
 numbers of both may greatly increase, and that the day may 
 speedily come when in every place of business and in every home 
 the Word of God shall be taken as the only standard by which 
 the relations of the employer and the employed shall be deter¬ 
 mined ; when its beneficent teaching will not only be perfectly 
 understood but conscientiously acted upon ; when a sense of fair¬ 
 ness and righteousness will leaven the masses, based upon an 
 intelligent conception that the wages meted out to the laborer 
 are just and equal—meted out by masters who remember that 
 they also have a Master in Heaven, and that between master and 
 servant there shall be the manifestation of that spirit springing 
 from a consciousness of right-doing which will beget for each 
 other respect and confidence, which will lead each to have juster 
 views of his duty to his brother, which will give the true solution 
 of the difficulties which surround the problem of capital and 
 labor, and which will bring to thousands of homes in our land, in 
 every land, contentment and happiness. 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 Mr. George Hague, Montreal. 
 
 I am glad, Mr. Chairman, that although the topic is Labor and 
 Capital, the paper read has had reference to Employers and 
 Employed. The question of Labor and Capital has an economic 
 side, and in that respect is unsuitable for discussion here. We 
 might as well discuss the tariff. Labor and Capital, moreover, 
 are metaphysical terms, and susceptible of a variety of meanings. 
 
 Nothing has given rise to more misconception than the use of 
 abstract terms in discussing practical questions. Even in the 
 terms “laborers” and “capitalists” there is a want of clearness. 
 
MR. GEORGE HAGUE. 
 
 75 
 
 Many laborers are small capitalists, and many capitalists work 
 with their hands,—the whole of our farmers, for instance. But in 
 the words “employers” and “employed” we have definite terms. 
 
 Brought up in a manufacturing district of the north of England, 
 and living for thirty years in association with both manufacturers 
 and workmen, I have had practical opportunities of considering 
 the question. All my studies there, with the experience of thirty 
 years on this side the Atlantic, have convinced me of the wisdom of 
 the methods of Christianity on the subject, and the unwisdom of 
 all systems in relation to the question, which ignore Christianity. 
 
 In using the word “ Christianity,” I speak of it as revealed in 
 those inspired writings which Christians of all communions regard 
 as authoritative. 
 
 I do not care to have the question judged by Christianity as 
 developed in systems, still less by its development in individuals 
 called Christians by complaisance. This is not a fair method. 
 “To the law and to the testimony.” I would allow the same liberty 
 to those who would uphold opposing systems. They shall ap¬ 
 peal to the writings of their founders. So will I. 
 
 Nothing is more remarkable in the genesis of Christianity than 
 this, that while it aims at setting up a system of perfect righteous¬ 
 ness on the earth, in which all wrongs would be redressed, the 
 people being “ all righteous ,” the land being “ a land of upright¬ 
 ness^ it says not one word about the re-organization of society or 
 of governments. While denouncing vehemently certain wrongs, 
 neither the Founder of Christianity nor His Apostles ever de¬ 
 nounce tyrannical systems of government, or oppressive organiza¬ 
 tions in society. That such'existed is well known ; but Christ 
 and His Apostles with regard to them were silent. 
 
 I cannot enlarge upon this great negation, but simply call 
 attention to it as fundamental. 
 
 What, then, were the means by which Christianity sought to 
 effect its object of reforming the world ? I answer, it relied 
 wholly upon reforming the CHARACTER of each individual in it. 
 To every man, rich or poor, king or subject, employer or employed, 
 it begins at the foundation by saying,—“ Repent, turn, be born 
 again.” 
 
 And it supplied a power for the accomplishment of this 
 revolution. It aimed at the individual, and at all else through 
 the individual. If other systems say—re-organize society, re-con- 
 stitute government; Christianity says—re-organize and reconsti¬ 
 tute the character of every man, woman and child in it. For 
 Christianity takes equal note of the woman and the child, that it 
 does of the man. 
 
76 
 
 CAPITAL AND LABOR. 
 
 Other systems aim at the re-organization of society without 
 any definite aim at the character of individuals. 
 
 Christianity reforms society by re-organizing the character of 
 the units that compose it. 
 
 Which is philosophical and likely to succeed, and which is 
 unphilosophical and likely to fail, let every rational man judge. 
 
 In saying what I do, you will at once gather that I hold godli¬ 
 ness to be profitable for this life as well as for the life to come. 
 For the development spoken of is in this life. Righteousness 
 between man and man finds its sphere in this world. It argues 
 gross ignorance to say that Christianity ignores this life. 
 
 New Testament principles in the soul of man are intended to do 
 certain things:—To elevate him physically by sobriety and 
 chastity ; socially, by teaching every man to love his neighbor, 
 and by inculcating the sacredness of the family. They are 
 intended to give him a healthy body, a thoughtful mind, a peace¬ 
 ful home ; to make him an honest servant, a considerate employer, 
 a judicious user of this world’s goods if he gets them, and a patient 
 bearer of the contrary if he does not. 
 
 And what Christianity intends to do, it actually does with all 
 who yield to its influence. Notwithstanding certain nonsensical 
 diatribes of men, some of them accomplished scholars, but pro¬ 
 foundly ignorant on this subject, Christianity does this, as you 
 very well know. 
 
 In the writings of those who reject Christianity, in dilating on 
 this subject there is a striking absence of the citation of facts. 
 There is a plentiful assertion and exposition of supposed princi¬ 
 ples, but a want of that marshalling of facts which is a con¬ 
 spicuous feature in all scientific deduction. 
 
 When men bring forward results in natural science, they have 
 previously accumulated facts, the results of observation and 
 experience. 
 
 In the little I say on this subject, I will follow the same method. 
 
 My father, who worked at his trade in youth, like nearly all other 
 tradesmen in England at that time, afterwards settled in business 
 for himself, and became an employer of other men. When I was 
 old enough, I kept his accounts, and in doing so, spent many hours 
 in the shops where his men were working, paid them their wages, 
 and became intimately acquainted with them and their ways. 
 
 (i.) Amongst these men was one who was a good workman, 
 and much more. He was sober, industrious, and thoroughly to be 
 relied upon. He was always in his place in the shop, and I may 
 add always in his place in church on Sunday. Wages were not 
 high. Times were hard. Yet this man managed year by year to 
 
MR. GEORGE HAGUE. 
 
 77 
 
 save money. After a time he commenced business for himself. 
 When my father retired from business, this man bought out his 
 stock and goodwill, and paid cash for the whole of it; entering on 
 the premises which we left. 
 
 Nearly twenty years afterwards, revisiting England for the first 
 time, I found him in the same town, with a much enlarged business 
 and far better premises, a wealthy and prosperous man. What 
 made him what he was ? Character. 
 
 (2.) In the same shop at the same time, was another man. A 
 cleverer workman than the other; the cleverest workman my 
 father ever had. His handicraft was beautiful to see ; but char¬ 
 acter in this instance was wanting. He could, when he would, 
 earn higher wages than the other. But he was unsteady, unre¬ 
 liable, and fond of drink. He spent fully fifty per cent, of his 
 wages in luxuries :—drink and tobacco. Of course he saved 
 nothing, and in time he had to leave the shop. He led a wander¬ 
 ing life, and was well known over a wide district, as the cleverest, 
 but most unsteady man in the trade. 
 
 (3.) During the same visit to my native town, a person whom I 
 had known twenty years before as a workman accosted me. 
 Enquiring of his condition, he took me to a large manufactory 
 and told me that he was the head of it. In the office of this 
 establishment I met another who had been a workman in the 
 same shop with the other. These two men were now the sole 
 owners of this great factory. What was it that had made them 
 what they were ? Character. 
 
 (4.) Driving with a relative to the outskirts of the town, we 
 passed a fine old villa well known to me in former days. Enquir¬ 
 ing who lived there now, I was told Jack- “ You remember 
 
 him, a foreman in-shop ? “ Yes.” This quondam foreman 
 
 was now the owner of a large establishment, and his home was the 
 villa aforesaid. 
 
 These things took place in England more than thirty years ago. 
 None of these men earned such high wages as men do on this 
 side the Atlantic. And while working men they had no votes. 
 But they were reading men, thinking men, church-going men, men 
 of character ; and that made them what they became. And these 
 instances are typical. 
 
 (5.) Just before I left England, it was my lot in the position I 
 then filled, to have a visit from the Premier of Nova Scotia. I 
 introduced him to the Mayor of the town, one of our most prosper¬ 
 ous manufacturers. He took us over his works. On passing a 
 certain bench where a workman was busy, he stopped, and said, 
 “ That was where I used to work in former days.” What had made 
 
78 CAPITAL AND LABOR. 
 
 him what he was? All could be summed up in one word, Character. 
 
 All the working men of character in that district did not rise to 
 be employers. That would be an absurdity. I give the above as 
 instances of what was possible to some. 
 
 (6.) The same district was the centre of an organization for con¬ 
 trolling wages, which was carried out more rigidly and ruthlessly 
 than was known in any other part of England. The result, 
 after years of conflict, and enormous expenditure of money on the 
 part of artisans, was that such modes of improving the working¬ 
 man’s condition were found to cost more than they were worth. 
 
 Statistics have proved that up to a certain time, in England at 
 least, all measures of coercion had the same result. They cost more 
 than they were worth. I cannot speak of this side of the Atlantic 
 positively; but m}^ impression is that the same result will be 
 reached here when it has been tried long enough. 
 
 In the district just spoken of there were thousands of men, 
 skilful in handicraft, strong and hardy in constitution, but lacking 
 in moral fibre, and wholly destitute of religion ; never darkening 
 the door of a church, practical infidels, who made no progress in life, 
 living in miserable homes, saving no money, and ending their days 
 as poor as they began.—Why ? They were lacking in the char¬ 
 acter that Christianity would have given them. They regularly 
 spent in luxuries—drink, tobacco, etc., (I emphasize that etc.)— 
 some of them twenty per cent., some of them forty, and some of 
 them fifty per cent, of their earnings. Not only so, but many 
 workmen of this class rarely if ever laboured more than four or 
 five days in the week. Monday came to be called a Saint day. 
 They attended by thousands all the races and sporting events of 
 the district; cricket matches, pigeon shooting matches, and all 
 other sorts of matches, and they spent not only time but money. 
 Only a few of these men were absolute drunkards, but they all 
 had the habit of very free spending. 
 
 These men could declaim by the hour upon their political 
 grievances. Many of them were deeply imbued with socialistic 
 ideas ; and instead of blaming themselves and seeking to reform 
 their own character, they blamed the organization of society for 
 the low condition in which they lived at home. 
 
 I was at that time a bank clerk. If any man of my class had 
 thought of such a thing as spending 25 to 40 per cent of his 
 income in drink and tobacco, he would have been accounted 
 mad. And if he had kept Saint Monday even once, he would 
 have been in danger of dismissal. 
 
 Now for the contrary feature. In that same town there were 
 —1 speak of what I know—thousands of working men, God- 
 
MR. GEORGE HAGUE. 
 
 79 
 
 fearing, church attending, industrious, sober. The homes of these 
 men were places of comfort and respectability, where cleanliness 
 and order prevailed, where children were well brought up, and a 
 comfortable fireside and a neat bookshelf greeted them on their 
 return from work. They would ?iot live anywhere else. Many 
 of these men were members of churches which gave them an 
 equal part with their employers in managing the affairs of the 
 congregations they joined. I have mingled for years with this 
 class, and have seen how respectable and respected such men 
 were. Respected by all who knew them, their employers included, 
 although socially they were wage earning mechanics. 
 
 Eschewing the baneful luxuries of drink and tobacco, these 
 men had the real luxuries of good homes, a balance in the 
 savings bank, a place in the church, and a good prospect for 
 old age. 
 
 The secretary of a Village Preachers’ Society, of the town, was 
 a working man, and pretty dirty employment he had. But on 
 Sunday he appeared as the senior Deacon of the church ; and 
 when I left England, he signed my papers of transmission in the 
 absence of the pastor. 
 
 Some may sneer at all this and cry ‘ gabble.’ But it is not 
 gabble. I speak the things of truth and soberness. These are 
 not things I have read about in books, written by men who have 
 had no practical knowledge. I speak of what I know. I testify 
 to what I have seen. This is Christianity as I have seen it in its 
 outworking in the community in which I spent all the early years 
 of my life. 
 
 And the want of Christianity, the ignoring of Christianity, the 
 non-attendance upon the church (the centre of the influence of 
 Christianity), and the consequent absorption of the mind by the 
 world, the flesh, and the devil—I have seen that too, in its practical 
 influence upon working men. All which, with the added 
 experience of many years here, have convinced me that organ¬ 
 ized schemes for the betterment of the working man, based upon 
 the rejection or ignoring of Christianity, are a mockery, a 
 delusion, and a snare. They all fail when put to the test of 
 experiment They won’t work. 
 
 It may be possible for certain forms of organization, not necess¬ 
 arily antagonistic to Christianity, to increase the income of the 
 artisan. I do not argue this question, I simply say it is possible. 
 But those who promote them, sometimes ignore conditions of life 
 which are as fixed as the laws of nature. 
 
 (i.) Take Co-operative enterprises. The success of these 
 depends, not on the industry of the workman, but upon the sue- 
 
8 o 
 
 CAPITAL AND LABOR. 
 
 4 
 
 cessful management of the business head. The history of 
 co-operative enterprises shows that they partake the risks of other 
 commercial enterprises. Some of them succeed, some of them 
 fail, some of them bring profit, others of them loss. 
 
 Taking all such enterprises together, well managed and ill 
 managed, the final average net result will be found to be that the 
 working men of character, as a whole, would have done just as. 
 well without them as with them. , 
 
 (2.) Profit-sharmg has been spoken of, and is a favorite idea in 
 these times. But profit sharing, if in legal form, that is, profit to 
 which workmen would have a legal right, carries with it loss- 
 sharing, and responsibility to creditors. What that means, many 
 people in this very city can tell. Establishments which paid 
 every dollar of their wages to workmen, and very properly so, 
 were carried on with an ultimate loss of tens of thousands of 
 dollars to their owners or creditors. If the workmen had had to 
 bear their share of that loss, it would have landed them in an 
 extremity of debt and poverty. 
 
 (3.) Another favorite thought is, that a workman should have 
 a greater share in the results of his work. He is misled by 
 delusive, metaphysical formulae in demanding this. But it is well 
 for a workman that he is not remunerated on this principle. For 
 the results of a workman’s labor are often worth far less than he 
 gets for it. 
 
 I could give instances of this from my own experience. Every 
 year, workmen in Canada are paid large sums of money for things 
 which are worth less than they cost. Of course, some things are 
 worth more than they cost ; else all business would come to a 
 stand. But the effect of a system under which a workman should 
 be paid according to what his work realizes would be : First.—He 
 would never know what he was earning till its results were known. 
 This would take sometimes months, sometimes even years. Mean¬ 
 time, how could he live ? Second.—While some workmen were 
 receiving large wages, owing to their employer striking a lucky 
 line of goods, others, equally industrious and deserving, would 
 be receiving next to nothing for long periods together. 
 
 In the matter of great public works alone, if workmen had 
 been paid according to the value of their work, they would have 
 received at least twenty million dollars less in Canada than they 
 have. And if we extend the area over the United States, they 
 would have received a thousand million less at least. 
 
 These are practical points. 
 
 This, however, does not militate one jot against the profit- 
 sharing which a considerate employer will inaugurate at the end 
 
MR. GEORGE HAGUE. 
 
 81 
 
 of a successful year, by distributing considerate gifts amongst his 
 employees. Christianity will lead him to do this. Nor does it 
 militate against laudable enterprises for building houses and 
 cottages for their employees by owners of factories. All these 
 are strictly on the line of Christian effort, even if not done 
 directly in Christ’s name. 
 
 What I speak of as impracticable is a legalized system by which 
 the workmen will, as a right, be partners in gains and losses, 
 unless indeed they invest their savings in the shares of the manu¬ 
 factories. in which they work. That form of profit-sharing is 
 always open to them, and nothing can be more legitimate. 
 
 The truth is, the laws of life are as inexorable as the laws of 
 nature. And the laws of nature are very cruel at times. Gravi¬ 
 tation kills hundreds of people every year. So do the laws of 
 solids and fluids. • It is vain to kick against either ; and it is vain 
 to contend against the laws of life. It is, in some respects, a hard 
 world we live in, but Christianity teaches us how to live so as 
 to make the best of it, each man in his own sphere. 
 
 It is possible that organizations may raise the wages of the 
 working man, though I doubt it, as a net result after expenses 
 are paid. But I am very certain Christianity will better his 
 condition by introducing habits of self-denial, patient industry, 
 and economy. And Christianity along with all this, will make a 
 MAN of every man, for it will teach him that in doing his daily task, 
 he is serving a higher than any earthly master, and that he must 
 do his task in obedience to Him. No matter how hard his task, 
 this principle elevates and glorifies it. 
 
 This is no fancy sketch. There are numbers of working men 
 who labor in the spirit of the lines :— 
 
 “ Forth in Thy name, O Lord, I go, 
 
 My daily business to pursue, 
 
 The task thy wisdom has assigned, 
 O may I cheerfully fulfil, 
 
 Thee may I set at my right hand, 
 
 Whose eyes my inmost substance see, 
 
 And labor on at thy command, 
 
 And offer all my works to thee. 
 
 These lines were written largely with reference to working 
 men, by one who knew them well. 
 
 And Christianity as it affects the working man, affects the 
 employer also. It insists upon his being a considerate man, 
 reminding him that he has a Master too, to whom he is account- 
 
 F 
 
82 
 
 CAPITAL AND LABOR. 
 
 able, that he is bound to treat those under him with justice and 
 equity. This is the true elevation and glorification of labor. 
 Even equality is not obscurely hinted at. For Christianity teaches 
 that in the sight of God all men are equal. There is no respect 
 of persons with Him. The master is commanded to render unto 
 his servants that which is just and equal. This one verse alone, 
 if allowed fairly to operate, would tear up by the roots any 
 system of oppression in the world. It has done it; and will do 
 it again. 
 
 Under such influences as these, a workman will not shirk his 
 duty, will not be an “ eye servant ” or “ man pleaser,” idling the 
 moment the foreman’s eye is off him. He will do his work 
 heartily, and strive to be a good workman, and do good honest 
 work for Christ’s sake. A very satisfactory state of things in 
 any establishment. Give a master men like that, and depend 
 upon it, things will go smoothly. A master under this system 
 will not be greedy of gain at his workmen or workwomen’s ex¬ 
 pense. He will recognize that his men have rights as well as 
 he ; that his men are God’s workmen as well as his. And under 
 such a system there will be no need for strikes, for coercion, for 
 force, nor for the expenditure of money in such objects. 
 
 There will be no need for co-operation except for the relief of 
 sickness, distress, widowhood, and to meet cases of accident, and 
 death. And if disputes arise, both masters and men, will be 
 considerate towards each other. Meeting each other in a Christian 
 spirit they will soon settle details, and come to an understand¬ 
 ing of what is just and equitable for both parties at the time and 
 in the circumstances. 
 
 “ Happy the people who are in such a case, 
 
 Happy the community whose God is the Lord.” 
 
 And well assured am I, going back again to the foundation of 
 the business, that Christian teachers who labor strictly along the 
 lines of Christianity, eschewing all others, and aim at building 
 up a Christian character in individual souls, be they high or low, 
 are doing more for the true elevation of working men, than all the 
 organizations out of the Church of Christ that have ever existed. 
 
 But sometimes the church hardly does justice to Christianity. 
 Christianity, I mean, in its bearing and outlook on all sorts and 
 conditions of men. We do not often, I imagine, hear sermons 
 on the duties of employers and employed, though there are most 
 pertinent texts to preach from. 
 
 The Apostle lays upon Timothy a very solemn and serious 
 charge to rich men. That charge is not often brought forward 
 
MR. GEORGE HAGUE. 
 
 83 
 
 in these times, though it is just as applicable to rich capitalists 
 and manufacturers of the nineteenth century as to the rich men 
 of the first. Let us do our religion full justice, and the masses 
 will have no reason to say we care nothing for them. On the 
 contrary, I believe the masses will come to see that in Christianity 
 alone is to be found the cure for the ills of the present life, as 
 well as hope for the life to come. And then will they return to 
 the church, from which at present such numbers are estranged. 
 
 The Session closed with the singing of the Doxology and the 
 Benediction. 
 
TUESDAY, 23rd OCTOBER, 1888. 
 
 EVENING SESSION. 
 
 The Venerable Archdeacon Evans, M.A., Montreal, 
 occupied the chair. 
 
 Hymn, “ Onward Christian Soldiers ” was sung, after which 
 Rev. John Lathern, D.D., of Halifax, N.S., offered up prayer. 
 
 TOPIC : NATIONAL PERILS. 
 
 CHAIRMAN’S ADDRESS. 
 
 Ven. Archdeacon Evans, M.A., Montreal. 
 
 My Christian Brethren .—I very fully appreciate the high honor 
 which has been put upon me by the brethren of the Montreal 
 branch of the Evangelical Alliance, in asking me to preside at 
 this noble and all-important meeting to-night. I conceive, how¬ 
 ever, that the great requisites for an efficient chairman are that he 
 should look as wise and say as little as possible. On this line do 
 I purpose to endeavor to fill my position as chairman this evening. 
 Weighty and important subjects are before us this evening, and 
 glancing at names, we are thankful to say they rest in strong and 
 sufficient hands, and we believe at the outset that they will be dealt 
 with in a masterly and all-efficient manner. Let me say by way of 
 preface, we are dealing as Christian men and ministers with 
 national, and, what I may call, patriotic subjects, and we may lay 
 it down as a scriptural principle, that where true religion as it is in 
 Christ runs in the soul, then, by implication we may expect to find 
 the best and most loyal citizens in the highest and best of senses. 
 God has inseparably joined himself with the spirit of true patriot¬ 
 ism and national loyalty.— “ Fear God and honor the King.” In 
 this spirit I trust we shall approach the considerations of this 
 evening. We are, for the time being, as it were, in the position of 
 patriots and statesmen, in the truest and most loyal sense. We 
 are going to deal with the enemies of our country,—two of them, 
 —Sabbath Desecration and Intemperance—and you will readily 
 
REV. DR. JOHN HALL. 
 
 85 
 
 agree, the strongest chains the enemy of souls has forged for the 
 enslavement and destruction of humanity. Our prayer is, that, 
 guided by the Holy Spirit, there may be brought to bear upon 
 these all-important subjects to-night, the truth of God, the truth 
 as it is in Christ Jesus. We pray that in the meek and lowly 
 spirit of the crucified Redeemer, thoughts and ideas may come 
 before us so that every Christian man and every Christian woman 
 in this assembly may go away quickened and stimulated, and 
 resolve by the help of God, and in the spirit of consecration, which 
 well becomes the disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ and Him 
 crucified, that they will fight against the enemies of fatherland, 
 so that our land may become a Christian land, and our people a 
 people of God. The Rev. John Hall, of New York, who is to 
 deal with one of those subjects, needs no introduction to a 
 Canadian audience. 
 
 SABBATH DESECRATION. 
 
 Rev. John Hall, D.D., New York. 
 
 Brethren .—I do not intend to speak to-night in any oratorical 
 fulness. I wish to speak in a conversational way, suggesting 
 thoughts rather than illustrating them, and I have no doubt that 
 the gentlemen who have the management of the press in charge, 
 will be able to give the rhetorical finish. There are a few caution¬ 
 ary statements I would make at the beginning. I would not have 
 it supposed that the Sabbath has a lower place in the view of 
 Christendom than it used to have. Those who talk to you about 
 the old English and Scotch Sabbaths, and those who remember 
 descriptions of them may be easily tempted into that view. In 
 point of fact, there is a larger proportion of our race keeping the 
 Sabbath than at any former time, but we have real difficulties, and 
 we have to be put on our guard against them. Some years ago, 
 I was in a small country town not very far from Birmingham, in 
 England. An intelligent old inhabitant of the town took me to 
 what was the market place, and described to me what some of the 
 living residents remembered, when the people of the town and 
 neighborhood used to gather in the market-place on Sunday after¬ 
 noon and witness the bull fights. We have not yet gone so far 
 back as that, thank God, and I do not think we should be dis¬ 
 couraged. The other cautionary statement:—there is a tendency 
 in our time to divide, a tendency to offer and adopt an elective 
 
86 
 
 NATIONAL PERILS. 
 
 system of virtue and vice. Vice is divided among persons and 
 societies, and they take their particular vices and dwell upon them. 
 
 I dare say it is good that there should be a division of labor, but 
 I hope we shall not fall into that practice. Make the tree good 
 and the fruit will be good. We should live soberly, righteously, 
 and godly in all things. Let it not be said of any of us—“ He 
 has no religion in particular, but he is down upon the drink.” 
 “ He has not any religion particularly, but he is a great Sabba¬ 
 tarian.” We have to take virtue as a whole, and stand up for it 
 and promote it, and vice as a whole, and fight against it upon 
 God’s plan. Now, as to the Sabbath itself:— 
 
 If anything is to be carried in a great community it must have 
 a lodgment in the understanding of the people that make up the 
 community, and what I aim at doing to-night is to recall to those 
 who are gathered together here the grounds upon which we stand 
 up for the day of weekly rest. I would like young men, for 
 example, and maidens who are here to know that it is not from 
 simple sentiment, nor from mere fashion, nor from mere tradition, 
 but, as the lawyers say, for cause. It is because there are reasons 
 that we can explain, maintain and defend, that we, remember the 
 Sabbath, the Lord's day, to keep it holy. 
 
 If we had only to live in this present world and there were no 
 existence beyond it, this matter would be of less importance than 
 it is ; but you and I know that there is another world into which 
 we go, and which is eternal, a world of joy or of woe. We are in 
 danger of forgetting that great fact. Anything, any institution 
 that brings it to our thoughts a 7 id keeps it before our minds is a 
 friend to us and we ought to be friends to it. 
 
 There are many things that tempt us to forget this great fact. 
 There is the large class of people who have to work that they may 
 live, and I for one have the deepest sympathy with those who have 
 thus to work, sometimes under great disadvantages ; and there is 
 the other class which does not need to work in order to live, which 
 is frequently restless and thoughtless, which is occupied by day 
 and by night, and by night more particularly, and which is 
 tempted in the nature of the case to put away from itself that 
 great concern that ought to be present to the mind of every one 
 of us. The weekly day of rest recalls that great immortality to 
 both classes, and because it does, it is our friend, and we should 
 stand by our friend, particularly if there be enemies ; and there 
 are enemies in this particular case. It is easy to enumerate a 
 few of them. There is avarice. Avarice is not a virtue. It 
 means greed, when we take an old Saxon word for it. We get it 
 from the Latin word “ to covet.” Avarice is greed of money, akin 
 
REV. DR. JOHN HALL. 87 
 
 j 
 
 to covetousness, and employers, companies and individuals 
 frequently yield to the temptation of avarice, and insist upon those 
 whom they employ working in such ways that they cannot per¬ 
 petuate and enjoy this day of rest. We need to deal with this 
 enemy of the day. 
 
 There is another class of enemies to this day that you could not 
 place in any way among the workers, whom you might describe 
 as caterers to public pleasure, givers of entertainments and enjoy¬ 
 ments, and who frequently profess the greatest public spirit, and 
 claim to themselves to be in some sense the considerate benefac¬ 
 tors of the hard working people of the community, and who sneer 
 now and then at the classes who deprecate their proceedings in 
 relation to this day. Where is the public spirit of these people ? 
 Where is their benevolence? Where are the institutions that they 
 found for the benefit of the rich or the poor ? What aim is there 
 impelling them but the aim of making so much money, and how 
 can they, seeing they only go into benevolence, as a rule when it 
 can advertise their money-making schemes , assume the air of lofty 
 scorn that they sometimes do to that great portion of the com¬ 
 munity we call the Church, which has done whatever has been 
 done for the relief of misery, and for the lifting up of the helpless 
 and the wretched among us ? 
 
 In the third place, there is an enemy to this day in the natural 
 enmity of the human heart against our holy Creator. That 
 enmity speaks in a thousand ways. Why should men lecture upon 
 Infidelity ? Why should they take pains to prove that we need 
 not have religious feelings and convictions ? What harm does 
 Christianity do in this world ? Is it not in some instances to be 
 suspected that they are going upon the plan that the poet has 
 described, whistling to keep their courage clear, talking loudly and 
 blustering that they may silence the voice of conscience within 
 them, and encourage themselves and one another in their hostility 
 to Him whose holiness they hate with a deep and real hatred? 
 These are the enemies. 
 
 Now we should be prepared to stand by our friends as against 
 these enemies, and one of the ways in which we can do it is to 
 have distinct and definite convictions as to the grounds upon 
 which we stand up for the day of rest; such convictions that a 
 young man, for example, in a factory could tell them to his 
 associates, such convictions that a young woman in a store could 
 tell them to her friends so that they would see that she under¬ 
 stood, and that they would carry away a distinct thought upon 
 the matter. That is what I would like to give to you on this 
 occasion. 
 
88 
 
 NATIONAL PERILS. 
 
 Then we stand up for this day of rest because it dates back to 
 the origin of the race, and is our Creator’s appointment. “ Oh, 
 yes,” says somebody, “now he is going to the Old Testament ; 
 have we not had enough of that? We are here in the 19th 
 Century and under the New Testament.” I do not want you to 
 think meanly, dear friends, of the Old Testament. It is not 
 obsolete. Take all the great institutions that you have and you 
 will find that the elements of them are in that Old Testament and 
 presented in such a way as to prepare us for receiving and intel¬ 
 ligently accepting them. (1), The family, (2), the State, (3), the 
 Nation, (4), Marriage, (5), the rights of property, the Church, the 
 Officers of the Church ; these, and very many other institutions of 
 the like kind that we have among us have their germs in the Old 
 Testament, and that man mistakes his Bible gravely who sup¬ 
 poses he can understand the New if he ignores the Old. A pupil 
 must learn something about axioms and definitions before he 
 understands the 3rd book of Euclid. 
 
 “God rested the seventh day.” “Why?” says somebody, 
 “ Was he weary, was he tired ? ” The strongest human minds do 
 not rest only because they are tired. What is contemplation ? 
 What is reflection ? What makes the strongest man reflective ? 
 What is reflection ? Bending the mind back upon the past. So 
 He rested for an example to you and me, and for the framing of 
 an institution that would be good for His creatures, not the intel¬ 
 ligent only, but the unintelligent creation that He had called into 
 being. He rested on that day from all his work, and there are a 
 good many things in the history of the human race outside of the 
 Mosaic narrative that go to corroborate the impression we have 
 touching that matter. 
 
 What a curious thing it is that the number 7, for example, 
 should be so generally a significant number as it has become. I 
 could understand the number 5 becoming a typical number ; we 
 have five fingers, ten fingers, five toes, ten toes, but as to the num¬ 
 ber 7 there is nothing of that suggestive nature about it. We 
 have the Seven Ages and the Seven Heavens and the Seven Wise 
 Men and the Seven Wonders of the world. We have a great 
 number of these sevens spread by tradition all over the race 
 wherever it has gone, just as we have the week. Tradition gives 
 unconscious but mighty corroborative arguments in favor of that 
 simple narrative that we have in the opening book of Genesis. 
 Nor are we left to those strong probabilities. Somebody may 
 say, “ Ah, that resting and that suggestion of a day of rest for 
 me—that is due altogether to Moses and is not to be found any¬ 
 where until you come to Sinai, and the ages after Sinai.” History 
 
REV. DR. JOHN HALL. 
 
 89 
 
 does not bear that out. Scholars will tell you about the Nineveh 
 calendar, and if you take such men as Sayce, and LeNormant, 
 and the greatest and most accurate antiquarians, they will tell 
 you on the authority of that Nineveh calendar that 600 years 
 before the days of Moses the week was a well understood institu¬ 
 tion, and the very name that the Assyrians had for the day of rest 
 was “ Sabbatu,” the very word we get in and from our Hebrew 
 Scriptures. 
 
 We stand for this day then because it is coeval with the history 
 of the race, and it comes to us with the stamp and appointment 
 of our Creator. Then we come down a little further and we get to 
 what men know as the Decalogue, and all that are here recollect 
 the words which we learned, many of us, from the lips of our 
 mothers or our fathers, “ Remember the Sabbath day to keep it 
 holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work, but the 
 seventh is the Sabbath of the Lord, thy God.” Now, of course, 
 you know very well that efforts have been made to break the force 
 of that remembrance. No wonder that men made these efforts. 
 Tell me to remember a thing and that implies that it has been 
 present to me before. “ Remember the Sabbath ” implies , it has 
 been argued truly , that it has been before the mind already. 
 Attempts have been made to break the force of that, but they have 
 been made, I venture to say, absolutely in vain, and that they are 
 in vain is made the clearer when you take into account the con¬ 
 cluding part of that one of the commandments, “ For in six days 
 the Lord made Heaven and Earth-,” and so on. What would be 
 the meaning, what the sense, what the fitness and what the pro¬ 
 priety of giving this reason arlnexed if it were not a thing already 
 understood and in relation to which it was proper to say strictly 
 “ Remember ” this old institution, “ Remember this day to keep 
 it holy r” 
 
 One may say, “ Ah, but the Decalogue was a comparatively 
 new thing and it made a set of moral rules for a dispensation 
 that was to pass away.” All Christendom rejects that theory. 
 All Christendom stands for the Decalogue. All Christendom 
 accepts the Decalogue as something permanent in its nature : 
 and no man believes that it for the first time made sin. 
 It did not need this Sixth Commandment to make Cain a 
 murderer ; it did not need the Fifth Commandment to make 
 Ham a dishonorer of his father. These commandments did not 
 create virtues and vices. They defined them, they stated them, 
 they put them in such a way that the human judgment might be 
 able to distinguish clearly between the right and the wrong, 
 between what God demands and what God will condemn. 
 
90 
 
 NATIONAL PERILS. 
 
 Then we come to the third consideration, namely, the Resurec- 
 tion of our blessed Saviour. A three-fold cord is not easily 
 broken ; here we have creation, divine legislation, our Lord’s 
 Resurrection, giving a new turn altogether to the attitude in 
 which men are to stand towards God, and bringing the race into 
 a fulness of light that was not enjoyed before. Now here it is 
 that I want you especially to give me attention and to exercise 
 your judgments upon the statements I want to make to you. 
 “ But,” says some one in speaking of this matter, “ Our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, the founder of our Christian system, does not tell 
 people anywhere that they are to give over keeping the day that 
 they have been keeping and that they are to take another.” 
 Now I want you to keep in mind that that is but a secondary 
 consideration in the matter. Where the day shall come, whether 
 at the beginning of the week or at the end of the week, is a 
 secondary matter. The great thing is that there should be a 
 seventh portion of the time given to rest. That is the great 
 thing. Where it comes is a matter of detail, as we shall show 
 by and by. 
 
 Now touching that statement—“the Lord himself here on 
 earth did not make the change of the day.” Think for a moment; 
 most of those to whom I speak are in the habit of going to 
 Church and joining in the services and hearing the precious 
 Word. You can comprehend then what is put before you. Our 
 blessed Lord did not in person found any of the institutions that 
 we have now. He for good and sufficient reasons left that to be 
 done by those who came after him. He trained his Apostles, he 
 invested them with authority, he promised them touching the 
 Holy Spirit, he departed, and that Spirit came when he had 
 departed, and they, carrying out his will and under the influence 
 of his Divine Spirit, framed the institutions that we have now. 
 Christ Jesus never built a church edifice, Christ Jesus never 
 gathered a Christian congregation, Christ Jesus never presided 
 in a Christian meeting, Christ Jesus never established the organi¬ 
 zations ; he sowed the seed and he gave the promise of the Spirit 
 to his Apostles, and he endued them with power, so that men in 
 his name and by his authority gave to the world the institutions 
 in which we rejoice as Christian institutions, and all that was 
 done according to a fixed and definite plan which theologians 
 can explain to you if you take the trouble to look into their 
 arguments upon that subject. 
 
 Then the question is, What did these men, endued with the 
 Spirit and doing the things that would glorify him that he might 
 glorify the Father, do ? Now I recall to your knowledge what 
 
REV. DR. JOHN HALL. 
 
 91 
 
 
 you have already seen in your Bibles. On the first day of the 
 week these men were in the habit of meeting together, meeting 
 together to remember and rejoice in the Resurrection, meet¬ 
 ing together to worship God and receive instruction, meeting 
 together as followers of a risen Saviour. It was not what they 
 were used to. Those of them that were Hebrews did indeed for 
 long continue to keep the Hebrew Sabbath, and to keep it con¬ 
 currently with the observance of the first day of the week, and 
 as long as that remained simply a matter of venerable usage the 
 Apostles had nothing to say against it; but when an attempt 
 was made to perpetuate these features of Judaism as against 
 Christianity, then, as you can see in your Bibles, they spoke out 
 against those things. They, on the other hand, did not keep as 
 a day holy the day of their Lord’s entombment, the day when 
 he was lying in the grave, the day when they were in the deepest 
 sadness and sorrow. They did not keep that, but they kept the 
 day when he rose, when their sadness disappeared, when their 
 burden was lifted from their shoulders, and when they met again 
 to rejoice, as they got understanding of his character, in a risen 
 Redeemer who had conquered death and the grave. 
 
 It is rather a curious thing, a coincidence probably, that we 
 have, in the narrative to which I allude, five times the meeting on 
 the first day of the week mentioned in the New Testament story. 
 Five times exactly in the narrative of Genesis we have an 
 allusion to the week. A curious coincidence, it will be said, 
 between the two things, and yet not so strange, probably, after 
 all. The finished work of the Creator was marked by the day 
 of Rest, and the finished work of the new Creator, who came to 
 redeem and make all things new, was worthily commemorated in 
 the same fashion and the usage started with absolute uniformity 
 on the part of the early Church, on the part of the Apostles as 
 a whole, on the part of Paul himself in relation to “ the collec¬ 
 tion ” and other things ; all these indicated that the clear,, 
 definite and established usage by men who had the gift of the 
 Spirit and who were to put in shape what Christ taught them, 
 as the germs of truth—their uniform usage, was to keep that 
 day, the first day of the week, which is now to us the Christian 
 Sabbath. If, therefore, an argument is needed upon that matter, 
 it is possible for us to set up an argument to which there is no 
 adequate and conclusive rejoinder. 
 
 Now upon the general subject there are various suggestions > 
 that it is proper to make in connection with this statement. If 
 the day be, as it has been represented to you, coming to us upon 
 the authority of inspiration, then the question is, what ought we 
 
92 
 
 NATIONAL PERILS. 
 
 to do with it ? The very simplest idea is that which we associate 
 with rest, and the testimony of scientific men is, that looking at 
 ourselves simply as physical beings we have need of the rest 
 that that commandment, that arrangement, provides for us. 
 Take medical men and ask their opinions upon the matter and 
 they will have no hesitation or difficulty in telling you. Take 
 history and look at France that made an experiment and tried 
 how the tenth day would work, and you know with what results? 
 Try your own experience. Look at the men and women who 
 disregard the day absolutely, and in how many instances does 
 the law of retribution tell upon them, limiting their powers, dis¬ 
 turbing their enjoyment and compelling them to lose on another 
 side what they supposed they had been gaining upon that. It 
 is not men only who are under this law of nature. There are, 
 doubtless, a good many here who have heard the name Bianconi. 
 It is an Italian name. It is well known to all of us who 
 have come from Ireland. An adventurous, most industrious 
 and enterprising Italian came over to that land in his youth 
 and in comparative poverty. He had the ability to see that 
 there was a necessity for an improved means of inter-com¬ 
 munication among different parts of the island. There were no 
 railroads in those days, there were no Government coaches. He 
 started a system of Irish cars, simple vehicles with a single horse 
 in each, and he made ways of communication between town 
 and town and city and city until he became an extremely wealthy 
 man, with the largest number of hands and the largest number 
 of horses in this particular form of occupation anywhere, 
 probably, in Europe. That man was not a narrow, bigoted, old 
 school Presbyterian ; he was an Italian and he had the religion 
 of his country, and stuck to it. He was brought to the 
 British House of Commons, he was examined in relation to 
 the employment he gave, his treatment of his animals and 
 his experience upon the subject, and he solemnly testified on 
 oath, before the British House of Commons, that he could get 
 more, as he had found by long experience, out of his horses 
 by their being worked six days and resting on the seventh, than 
 he could get by the disregard of the venerable and wide-spread 
 arrangement that secures the day of rest to men, and, in a good 
 degree, to the beasts. This is not a mere matter of conjecture ; 
 it is not a mere guess ; it is something that has been tested, 
 probably, upon the largest scale upon which it could be tested, 
 and the verdict has been given by one who would be regarded 
 at least as a calm and dispassionate witness. 
 
 “Well, but,” some one says, “if you take this day of rest 
 
REV. DR. JOHN HALL. 
 
 93 
 
 so-called, and apply it as you are inclined to do, you will make 
 it a very sad and gloomy day to a great mass of our people, and 
 especially of our young people.” Make it a sad and gloomy 
 day ? “ This is the day that the Lord hath made. We will 
 
 rejoice and be glad in it.” That does not sound like gloom. 
 You can point us, I dare say, here and there, to cases where 
 there has been indiscreet management of young people in 
 connection with the day ; but I stand here and I make my 
 appeal to you men and women that had godly parents and 
 Sabbath keeping homes, as you look back upon those parents 
 and religious homes now that you are men and women fighting 
 the battle of life and going through its struggles, and I ask you, 
 Do you regret, do you deplore the fact that you were taught to 
 keep the day holy ? Were your homes miserable while the 
 homes of the Sabbath neglecters, the Sabbath desecrators, were 
 full of pure happiness and real enjoyment? I am not afraid to 
 submit that thing to the verdict of the masses of those who have 
 been brought up in close observance of the day of rest. 
 
 I have not said all that I should like to say upon this matter, 
 and I am running rapidly over it so as, if possible, to save time. 
 Says some one, “ Granted that this day was kept among the 
 Hebrew people, but those days are gone, and we know this great 
 Teacher that was here upon the earth, instead of perpetuating 
 that close Sabbath keeping way, spoke against it and annulled 
 the day, and set all men free from any observance of that kind.” 
 Now I want you to use your judgment and to give close attention 
 to what is to be said in relation to that. That is, probably, the 
 most plausible statement and that which carries the most with it 
 that we know. They take down the sentences out of the Gospel 
 from the lips of our Saviour and say, “ Why look here ; he was 
 not a narrow bigoted fanatic upon the matter of the observance 
 of the Jewish Sabbath.” Let us see. You know how it was with 
 the Hebrew people. They were taken into captivity, to Babylon, 
 and one of the things which the prophets told them brought this 
 captivity upon them as a punishment was, that they disregarded 
 the observance of the day of rest, and the nation felt that. What 
 was the consequence when they came back into their own land 
 after the captivity ? There was a closer and more rigid observ¬ 
 ance of the day than ever there had been before. The law of 
 action and reaction operated as it always will in such cases. So 
 long as the people continued really religious, so long that observ¬ 
 ance was good, spiritual and holy ; but when they became cold 
 and careless, when they became dead and indifferent, as they did 
 after some time, the forms of observance of the day still continued 
 
94 
 
 NATIONAL PERILS. 
 
 but the spirit of it died out. What was the consequence ? There 
 grew up, as any scholar will tell you, what is known as the 
 Mishnah, a collection of rules and technical regulations made in 
 connection with the great Hebrew institutions, and these rules 
 and regulations were accepted by the Pharisees, as always will 
 be the case in such circumstances, to be more important in the 
 judgment of men than the very laws upon which they based 
 themselves ; for human nature is such that when two things are 
 before it, one divine and one human, it will choose the human 
 and disregard the divine. The Mishnah was full of foolish, childish 
 casuistry in regard to the way the day was to be kept. I am 
 rather ashamed to bring illustrations in front of you, but unless I 
 do you will not understand the argument. I am not now giving 
 the law of Moses, but this Pharisaic law of the Mishnah. It was 
 alleged to be a wrong thing for a person to carry a needle on the 
 Sabbath, for the needle might go through his clothing and that 
 would be an approach to sewing on the day of rest; it was alleged 
 to be a wrong thing if a bone was broken to set it on that day 
 because that would be so much work on the Sabbath day ; it was 
 alleged to be a wrong thing to take an emetic, it was a day of 
 rest, and as somebody said, that would be apt to work ; it was a 
 wrong thing, it was alleged, to eat an egg that had been laid on 
 the Sabbath, because that would be countenancing the breaking 
 of the day. The Pharisees adopted all that, and when they 
 could bring a charge against the Disciples of Sabbath break¬ 
 ing, the charge rested on those regulations of the Mishnah and 
 not upon the law of Moses. When our Lord defended his dis¬ 
 ciples he did not fling away the Sabbath, he did not stigmatize it, 
 he did not repudiate it for a moment, but he stigmatized these 
 human additions, these fancies, these superstitions, these childish 
 addenda that they had made to the law that God had given to 
 his people through his servants. Look, for example, at the 
 charge against these disciples. It was alleged that gathering and 
 eating corn on the day of rest was wrong. It was one of the 
 rules of that Mishnah that a man ought not to walk upon the 
 grass on the Sabbath, because that would be like threshing and 
 so indirectly breaking the day. What did Christ say in reply to 
 their talk ? Did he say, “ My brethren, the Sabbath is abolished. 
 My brethren, the Law of Moses goes by the board. My brethren, 
 I do not intend that the Fourth Commandment should be kept 
 any more?” Not a bit of it. What did he say? He said that 
 they had made the law void by their traditions and he defended 
 his disciples by adducing the case of David, to whom they could 
 not reasonably make any objection, and by showing in connection 
 
REV. DR. JOHN HALL. 
 
 95 
 
 with him that human necessities in certain cases might be strong 
 enough to supersede one-half of the letter of a statute that God 
 had given to the people. I say, “ one-half,” for it is not to be 
 forgotten that the Sabbath law is not merely, “ Thou shalt not 
 do any work on that day.” That is one-half of it only, and that 
 is the lower half of it. It has another half: “ Remember the 
 Sabbath to keep it holy; thou shalt not do any work in it,” thou 
 shalt keep it holy, and all that the Lord alleged was that it was 
 proper under certain human stringencies and pressure to set aside 
 the lower half of the letter of the law, as David had done, and 
 against David, these Pharisees, whom he took upon their own 
 ground, could not bring any objection. 
 
 Did he himself disregard the day of rest ? He was in the 
 Synagogue at Nazareth, as his custom was. Did his servants 
 disregard it ? On the contrary, you find Peter and Paul and 
 John and the rest going to the Synagogues and speaking to the 
 people on their day of rest, telling them, indeed, that there was 
 another day they were to observe in commemoration of the 
 Resurrection, but never once suggesting for a moment that a 
 periodic seventh day rest was set aside by the freedom of the 
 Gospel. 
 
 Look at it in another point of view, and yet, although I call 
 it another point of view, it is substantially the same. When these 
 leaders of the Christian Church went forth to speak to the people, 
 remember that a vast mass of their audience was a Gentile popula¬ 
 tion. These Gentiles were not familiar with the Hebrew institu¬ 
 tions in such a way as to have reverence for them. It would 
 have been a comparatively difficult thing to have brought some 
 of them to this Hebrew institution as such, but when Christ was 
 proclaimed, and men believed in Him, those Gentiles saw that it 
 was an easy and natural thing to associate joy and hope and 
 confidence and triumph and holiness and worship with that 
 Resurrection that gave hope to the sinner, of free forgiveness and 
 life everlasting. We say, therefore, and this point I want to have 
 settled distinctly in your minds, that these words of our Master 
 never once implied a repeal of the Sabbath law, never once 
 implied contempt of the seventh part of our time being taken 
 and given to God and to holy uses. All that he ever did mean, 
 all that he ever did teach, was to repudiate these silly, childish, 
 Pharisaic additions that had been made to the day of rest. 
 
 Look at it again. Whenever men turn aside from God’s 
 simple law and get into the domain of casuistry, they begin to 
 be childish and deceitful and self-deceiving. I can put it to you 
 by stating an objection. “Why,” says somebody to me, “what 
 
9 6 
 
 NATIONAL PERILS. 
 
 is the use of your talking to us in this way ? You want to tell 
 us that we ought to keep the Sabbath as it was kept in the Old 
 Testament, and yet you yourself will travel five, six, or ten 
 miles, perhaps, to preach on that day of rest Why do you not 
 stand by your Old Testament and respect the Sabbath day’s 
 journey ?” I have heard that a hundred times. Look at it now 
 for a moment. When you go home, take your Bible, examine 
 the law of Moses from beginning to end, then go through the 
 historical books, then go through the Prophets, and see if you can 
 find a Sabbath’s day’s journey defined and limited anywhere in 
 those Sacred Books. You cannot do it. It was another of these 
 inventions of the Pharisees, and, although it is spoken of, it is no 
 more endorsed by sacred writers than when you and I say “ a 
 mile,” we mean to convey the idea that a mile is just one thousand 
 paces. It was a Pharisaic arrangement and it is rather curious, 
 illustrating the way casuistry works. The men who framed this 
 piece of human device had also framed a way of getting out of 
 it. They said, “You must not go more than a Sabbath day’s 
 journey, but if it so happens that you have to travel a great deal 
 further than a Sabbath day’s journey you had better order that 
 a meal be prepared for you at the end of the journey, at your 
 destination, and then you may go as far as is convenient to you, 
 because, the meal being prepared for you, it is as good as being 
 in your own home still, since you get the meal there.” Now who 
 that is candid and frank and honest, does not see that there is a 
 wide difference between our blessed Lord’s sweeping away this 
 Pharisaic rubbish, and repealing that legislation that had come 
 down from creation and been resuscitated and endorsed in con¬ 
 nection with the Mosaic legislation ? 
 
 There is another point that I would like to put to you. The 
 statement was made that it is not, after all, so much a question of 
 where the day shall come as that there shall be a seventh part of 
 our time. You know very well that a given day of any week is 
 not the same all the world over. Ask the lawyers and they will 
 tell you that a day, in strict legal phraseology, is from midnight 
 until the next midnight, but that is not a fixed quantity all the 
 world over. How would they manage it at the Pole, for example, 
 where there is no such thing, strictly speaking, as sunset or mid¬ 
 night ? The day begins in London and in this place and in San 
 Francisco at entirely different periods. You cannot fix it as a 
 thing of mathematical precision, but you can fix and settle this 
 thing, that one seventh part of our time should be given to rest 
 and holy uses, and that that seventh part of our time should be, 
 as Christ by his Apostles taught men when Christendom was 
 
REV. DR. JOHN HALL. 
 
 97 
 
 founded, the first day of the week in commemoration of his 
 finished work, namely, his rising again from the dead. 
 
 Oh yes, some people say, the children do not like the old 
 Scotch way of keeping the Sabbath. I should not wonder if 
 the children sometimes find the Shorter Catechism a little 
 difficult to learn, but is that a reason why they should not learn 
 it ? Do they not find arithmetic hard ? 
 
 “ Multiplication is vexation, 
 
 Subtraction’s twice as bad ; 
 
 The Rule-of-Three, it puzzles me ; 
 
 And Fractions drive me mad.” 
 
 So says the old school rhyme of the children ; but do we stop 
 those children because it may be a little difficult. I was brought 
 up in this way. We were not allowed to have a newspaper in 
 the family on the Lord’s Day, we were taken to church as often 
 as we could go, in the evening we were brought together to 
 study the Catechism (if there was a Presbyterian servant in the 
 house, she was included too). Now that I am a father, and for 
 that matter a grandfather, and greyhaired, I look back upon 
 that as something I have to thank God for. It is said that this 
 mode of keeping the Sunday brings grief to the children. I 
 wonder what is to be said of the grief and distress brought to 
 families by children not reared in this way, when the children 
 are no longer young. When they become dishonest, or when 
 they are dragging themselves and others into the Divorce Court. 
 I wonder if there is not misery brought to the family a thousand 
 times blacker and harder than because the child is trained in the 
 way he should go. We hear'a good deal now in the newspapers 
 of fraud and dishonesty among the employees of rich corpora¬ 
 tions. You know about it here in Montreal. When I tell my 
 friends in New York that I am going to Montreal, why, they 
 positively smile. There is a great corporation which openly and 
 publicly disregards the Fourth Commandment, and requires its 
 servants to do the same. Is it strange that those employees 
 should be tempted to say, “Why, if my employers do not mind 
 about the Fourth Commandment, I need not be very particular 
 about the Eighth, and if I can steal from their well-filled 
 pockets it won’t be so great an evil after all.” I apply this to 
 the family. If the parents disregard the Lord’s Day, is it not 
 a natural thing for the children to say, “ If father and mother 
 don’t keep the Fourth Commandment, where is the obligation 
 on me to keep the Fifth ? I live in an advanced age. I am a 
 deal smarter than my forefathers, and I can manage this with¬ 
 out letting the governor know about it.” Is not this the way 
 
 G 
 
98 
 
 NATIONAL PERILS. 
 
 the young will look upon it as human nature is. Break and 
 trample upon one portion of this Holy Law, and how easy it is 
 made for others to improve upon the example. I would like to 
 impress on all, that if we want to keep the family right, we 
 must keep it on Bible lines ; and if the family is not kept right 
 it will go hard with the Church ; and if the Church has not its 
 power and influence, then it will go hard with the State. Teach 
 our children the truth of God’s Holy Word, teach them that in 
 the Bible we have a heavenly light, teach them that the con¬ 
 sideration of true obedience is first believing the Saviour, then 
 loving him, and then trying to do his will because we love him. 
 And when we do this the Bible becomes a glorious unity 
 to the understanding, it becomes the revelation to the heart, it 
 becomes a living power for the life of each returning Lord’s 
 Day. What a lovely unity there is in this Book of God with 
 man. You open it at Genesis—God speaking with man, and 
 man walking with God ; joy, and nothing but joy and happy 
 fellowship of the creature with the Creator. And then sin comes, 
 and deranges the whole of this, and a black cloud is over earth 
 and over man ; and Jesus is promised, and in due time revealed, 
 and he is the Restorer and the Deliverer. Satan does not 
 carry his point and evil does not triumph. You continue on 
 through the Book to the end, to Revelation, and then it is 
 not simply Adam and Eve, but man with God, and God with 
 man. That is what we would like to keep before the mind of 
 the individual, and the mind of the Church, that there might be 
 a continuous standing protest, by the individual, by the family, 
 by the community, and by the State against the desecration of 
 the Lord’s Day. 
 
 The Chairman, at the conclusion of the address, said :—“We 
 have all been charmed with Dr. Hall’s discourse. If our friends 
 in the States want to give us Retaliation, we can take any 
 amount of that kind of retaliation.” 
 
 The hymn :— 
 
 “ From ocean unto ocean, 
 
 Our land shall own Thee Lord ” 
 
 was then sung by the congregation. 
 
RIGHT REV. BISHOP FALLOWS. 
 
 99 
 
 INTEMPERANCE. 
 
 The Right Rev. Bishop Fallows, D.D., Chicago. 
 
 Some years ago an account of an imaginary battle was given 
 us, fought on English soil—which for over a thousand years the 
 foot of a foreign invader has not pressed—between British 
 soldiery and Continental troops; and as the mournful outcome of 
 that fierce contest there floated over London, the Metropolis of 
 the world, another flag than that of the regnant nation, “ whose 
 morning drum-beat following the sun and keeping company with 
 the hours, circles the globe with one unbroken, continuous strain 
 of the martial airs of England.” 
 
 Still later another account of another imaginary battle was 
 given us, between the forces of civilization in America and the 
 overwhelming hordes of the semi-civilization of overcrowded 
 China, fought on the Pacific slope of the United States. The 
 outcome of that awful conflict, in the author’s delineation, was 
 infinitely more disastrous than that of the other sanguinary 
 struggle across the sea. 
 
 If we, inhabitants of both countries, could possibly conceive 
 ourselves as being for the first time threatened with the invasion of 
 a possibly successful enemy, combining all the vices both of 
 civilization and of barbarism, such an enemy as is Intemperance, 
 the horror of a great darkness would at once fall on every one of 
 us, to be shaken off by a heroism of determination and action 
 which the most hotly-contested field of bloody strife has never 
 witnessed since time began ; an enemy that, after gaining 
 possession, would becloud the brain, shatter the nerves, fire the 
 passions, deaden the conscience, blast the affections, paralyze the 
 will of more than one thousand thousand men each year in these 
 two realms, including the laborer in the field, the artizan in the 
 workshop, the artist in the studio, the scholar in the study, the 
 legislator in the State House, the judge in the Court-room, the 
 minister in the pulpit ; an enemy that would seize the earnings 
 of labor and the rewards of genius with a robber’s ruthless grasp, 
 that would snatch the bread from the pallid lips of starving 
 women and hungry, crying children ; an enemy that would make 
 wise men idiots and sane men madmen ; an enemy that would 
 blear the eye, deaden the ear, padlock the lips, chain the hand, 
 and manacle the feet of countless multitudes ; an enemy that 
 would sow corruption in the flesh and rottenness in the bones, 
 that would summon the pestilence that walketh in darkness, and 
 the destruction that wasteth at noonday, to help in the work of 
 
IOO 
 
 NATIONAL PERILS. 
 
 disease and death ; an enemy that would incite month by month 
 tens of thousands to commit every crime that could curse man¬ 
 kind ; an enemy that would assail the honor of women with the 
 ravages of lust, and then hurl her down to degradation and 
 despair ; an enemy that would wreck thousands of homes each 
 circling year, parting husbands and wives, and putting on 
 childhood’s innocent brow the brand of shame ; an enemy that 
 would deliberately year by year put to death—and such a death 
 —more than five score thousands of men from every pursuit of 
 life ; and an enemy that would demand, and take directly, from 
 these two peoples to do all this, and unspeakably worse than 
 this, more than fourteen hundred millions of dollars each recurring 
 twelve months, and indirectly, through loss of time and loss of 
 capacity, and cost of consequences, nearly fourteen hundred 
 millions more. To meet that enemy, if it were to become an 
 embodied embattled host, would not the descendants of “ The 
 Scots wha hae wi’ Wallace bled,” and of the heroic clans who 
 fought with Bruce of Bannockburn, unite with those against 
 whom their fathers strove, to repel his coming ? Aye, would not 
 the Rose and the Thistle, and the Shamrock too, blending their 
 stirring meanings and binding memories as never before in the 
 Union Jack, lead on the one grand martial throng against the 
 merciless foe ? And in every heart unshakenly firm, and on 
 every countenance grimly set, would there not be read : “No 
 compromise—no surrender ! War to the knife?” 
 
 In my own adopted land would not the surviving heroes of 
 that mighty army of over two millions of men—five hundred 
 thousand of them born on other shores, and one hundred 
 thousand of them born beneath the British flag—who went to 
 the front fighting so bravely for “ the Union for ever,” would they 
 not join with the surviving heroes of that other mighty army of 
 nearly a million of men, who fought so gallantly against “ the 
 Union for ever,” and, taking the touch of elbows with the still 
 greater army of the flower of the nation’s youth, present an 
 unbroken battle line to the common foe ? Would there not be 
 a sublimely holy union purpose in the same old battle cry 
 ringing from their lips : “ No compromise—no surrender ! War 
 to the knife ? ” 
 
 My brethren, the enemy has gained possession. He is in the 
 very centre of the forces that ought to be doing battle against 
 him, and on both wings. He is in front and rear, and on either 
 flank. We have made an ignoble, a terrible surrender. 
 
 Let me change the metaphor. This foe, Intemperance, is as 
 wily as a serpent, slippery as an eel, cunning as a fox, savage as 
 
RIGHT REV. BISHOP FALLOWS. 
 
 IOI 
 
 a tiger, and bloodthirsty as a hyena. He is full of contradictions, 
 changing as a chameleon, yet unchangingas the spotted leopard, 
 now dumb as an oyster, and now loud-mouthed as the long-eared 
 brayer ; now burrowing like the mole, and now rising like a 
 vulture gorged with its prey ; now clothed in the garments of an 
 angel of light, and now clad in the loathsome rags through which 
 his satanic form is revealed. 
 
 The foe is within us. It is in our blood, our flesh, our 
 veins, lurking in ambush for a spring. Heredity, through sin, 
 through sins and the countless generations of sinners, who 
 have handed themselves down to us and through us, has 
 entrenched it there. Our feverish life is favoring and feeding it 
 there ; the customs of society have strengthened it there ; the 
 songs of the poet and the words of the orator have glorified it 
 there ; the example of Christians has well-nigh sanctified it there. 
 We are fighting the battle now at a fearful disadvantage. I can 
 strike at slavery without, but oh ! how hard to strike at the 
 slavery within. But there can be no temperance in society unless 
 there is temperance in the individual. I never can be sure that 
 I can gain a personal victory unless I touch not, taste not, 
 handle not that which puts me on the tempter’s enchanted ground. 
 The possible consequences of the last cup can only be avoided 
 by abstaining from the first cup. I put the emphasis right here. 
 Total abstinence for anybody is the only sure way of safety. I 
 must abstain for the good of others, even if I were able still to 
 stand erect and be a moderate drinker. I ought as a Christian 
 to take my place with St. Paul in his grand, brotherly helpful, 
 saving position, “If meat maketh my brother to offend I will eat 
 no more meat while the world standeth.” Mr. Moody was once 
 asked in one of the largest phenomenal Christian gatherings of 
 modern times, “ What is the best way to advance the cause of 
 Temperance?” He waited a second to reply, and then the 
 answer coming as an arrow from the twanging bow, hits the 
 centre of the mark, “ Let every Christian minister and man in 
 this assembly put the wine bottle off his own table.” One of the 
 most effective temperance sermons preached to me was delivered 
 from the lips of the dead in my early college days. They brought 
 into the University Chapel one beautiful June morning, the body 
 of the favorite son of its Chancellor, one of the brightest and most 
 gifted students the University had sent forthwith the baptism of 
 learning on his fair young brow. A splendid career was opening 
 before him, but this enemy, strong drink, met him and overthrew 
 him, and slew him. Before we students bore him away to the 
 peaceful cemetery on the hillside, his mother, a noble, stately 
 
102 
 
 NATIONAL PERILS. 
 
 woman, took a last look at the upturned face, while burning tears 
 streamed from her eyes, and then the last kiss was given. The 
 father had gained the mastery over us all, not only by his superb 
 scholarship and rare administrative ability, but by the con¬ 
 sciousness he had created within our breasts of the great reserves 
 of strength he had never yet drawn upon. But self-poised and 
 self-contained as he was, he did not dare trust himself before us 
 for that farewell parting* with the Benjamin of his heart. 
 
 But where had this young man, “ whose sun of life had hastened 
 to its setting ere it had climbed to its noon,” first met the 
 tempter ? At that Christian father’s own table. 
 
 A few years ago my English kin sent over to the city in which 
 I live a relative, who was being lured with ruin by the siren 
 seductions of this “ well-circumstanced sin,” in the hope that 
 change of conditions might work a change of habits. I did what 
 I could to help him gain the victory before he should return home 
 again. I visited that English home while he was yet away, and 
 on the dinner table three kinds of wine were set before me. I 
 felt then the case was comparatively a hopeless one. The good 
 I might help to do would be all undone under the very shelter of 
 the paternal roof. 
 
 Again, therefore, I urge total abstinence for the sake of 
 ourselves, and total abstinence for the sake of others. We 
 cannot measure the good this position, if taken in the strength 
 of God, will accomplish. 
 
 Soon after the close of one of the first decisive battles of our 
 late Civil War, I was an officer in the command of him who rose 
 to the highest pinnacle of military fame, before the long conflict 
 was ended. He had a battle, we all knew, to fight with himself, 
 as so many military men have to fight, beset as they are with 
 the peculiar temptations of army life. But he was fighting that 
 battle bravely. He said to us,—“ Gentlemen, I have a news¬ 
 paper reputation for being drunk, but I have not touched a drop 
 of liquor for nearly a year,” and then politely refused the glass 
 which one of our colonels had offered him. When he returned 
 from that triumphant tour around the world, one of the grandest 
 ovations it is permitted any man to receive was given him in my 
 own City of the Lakes. In the great banqueting hall, in the 
 presence of the most renowned dignitaries of the land, and of 
 the chiefest of the officers who had served under him, I saw him 
 turn down every glass before him, except that which held the 
 pure sparkling water, God’s best drink for man. And when 
 from Mount McGregor, as from another Mount Nebo, he went 
 to his eternal rest, amidst the unfeigned expressions of grief 
 
RIGHT REV. BISHOP FALLOWS. 
 
 103 
 
 from those who had fought with him and those who had fought 
 against him, he went, leaving the example of total abstinence to 
 the young men of the nation he did so much to preserve. 
 
 The Church of our Lord Jesus Christ must take the lead in 
 this great Temperance Movement. The very antithesis of what 
 we heard this morning from Dr. Gladden respecting the relations 
 of Christianity to Capital and Labor, is true of the relation 
 of Christianity to the liquor traffic. I am no fanatic, I speak 
 the words of truth and soberness. Between the two there must 
 ever be conflict, and never co-operation. The Church must have 
 no partnership, whether open or silent in this so-called 
 “ business/’ or “ industry.” I boldly challenge the right of any 
 man or any men, singly or combined, to call that “ an industry,” 
 which from the overwhelming testimony of judges, legislators, 
 philanthropists, political economists, and statesmen, is the most 
 prolific cause known on earth of “ ignorance, indolence and im¬ 
 providence.” Once the Church did have such a relationship, 
 but the time of that ignorance God winked at, but now com- 
 mandeth Christian men everywhere to repent. 
 
 I call upon you, young men, to-night to take the path of safety 
 and honor, and well-being, and well-doing, by becoming total 
 abstainers. I call upon you, Christian matrons and maidens, 
 “ in His name,” the helper and Redeemer of the race, never 
 to become hindrances and ministers of destruction to any 
 soul, by proffering with your delicate hands the contents of the 
 cup, which “ at last biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an 
 adder.” 
 
 I need not call upon you, beloved brethren, ministers of 
 Christ, to throw the whole weight of your example on the 
 temperance side. You have already done it. But I may urge 
 upon you still to be vigilant, for this our adversary goeth about 
 even among our flocks, seeking whom he may devour. 
 
 Upon the legal aspects of the case I have not time to dwell ; 
 but it is very evident that there must be first the proper senti¬ 
 ment, the Christian sentiment, and then the sentiment wielded 
 as a mighty, resistless power by the strong right arm of the 
 civil law. This law of self-denial, of self-sacrifice for another’s 
 good must be written first in the heart, before you can put an 
 effective compulsory temperance law on the statute book. 
 
 There may be one here who has come under the thraldom of 
 this fell foe, who is pitiously saying,—“ O wretched man that I 
 am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death ? ” My 
 brother, you may say, though with whispered words from 
 trembling lips, you may say, or as I have heard very many say 
 
104 
 
 NATIONAL PERILS. 
 
 it, “ Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our 
 Lord Jesus Christ.” The only permanent victory is that gained 
 by faith in him. 
 
 May God hasten the coming of His dear Son, who when he 
 comes shall bring in everlasting righteousness to make an end 
 of sin. 
 
 THE DANGERS OF PROMISCUOUS 
 IMMIGRATION. 
 
 The Rev. J. Robertson, D.D. 
 
 Immigration has been recently discussed with great ability on 
 both sides of the Atlantic, but no results have been reached that 
 command general acceptance. There is now, however, no dis¬ 
 position to receive, much less welcome, all who knock for admis¬ 
 sion at the doors of this continent. Nor are political economists 
 or politicians in Europe agreed that the national wealth is 
 increased or political and economic problems solved by deport¬ 
 ing large masses of their citizens to foreign lands. Salisbury’s 
 solution of the Irish question is antagonized. The steady 
 decrease in Parliamentary appropriations for purposes of immi¬ 
 gration, and the greater care exercised in the selection of immi¬ 
 grants, indicate a growing conviction among ourselves which is in 
 accord with the views of thoughtful writers in the United States. 
 It is no longer an axiom that every man is worth at least $1,000, 
 —that a slave in the old days was worth that figure. It may have 
 cost that figure to raise him, and if he could be worked like a 
 slave he might earn a $1,000 ; but under existing conditions he 
 may be worth a good deal less than nothing. A cripple, an 
 imbecile, or a thief, is not a creator but a consumer of wealth, and 
 such are too many of the immigrants. 
 
 But while the discussion is proceeding the human tide across 
 both oceans is increasing in breadth and volume. The causes are 
 not far to seek. The races from which our immigrants come are 
 hardy and prolific, and the gaps made by immigration are soon 
 filled up. 
 
 China has been crowded for centuries, and for the mass of the 
 people the struggle to live has been steady and severe. The news 
 of work and wages in America awakened in them a desire to 
 emigrate similar to that awakened in Europeans by the gold dis- 
 
REV. DR. J. ROBERTSON. 
 
 105 
 
 coveries of Australia and California. They have come and they 
 mean to stay in spite of our hostility. If we attempt to exclude 
 them will they not retaliate? If we ask the Chinese government 
 to protect our citizens shall we refuse to protect theirs ? It is con¬ 
 tended that they depress the labor market, are filthy, lawless and 
 immoral. On the Pacific coast their methods as laborers are 
 very much like those of white men ; and they are well paid. And 
 even if, eg., they are willing to give $120.00 worth of forest clear¬ 
 ing for $80.00 worth of gold, it is difficult to see how the state is 
 poorer by the transaction. The records of the courts fail to prove 
 that they are not law-abiding as a class. By unprejudiced judges 
 they have been acquitted of exceptional immorality, and if their 
 habits endanger public health, civic and sanitary laws can be 
 enforced against them as against other citizens. At any rate the 
 Chinese question should not be disposed of by hoodlums. It may 
 not be wise—we believe it to be eminently unwise,—to encourage 
 the immigration of any people that will not amalgamate with 
 Canadians and reinforce the national blood, but to exclude them, 
 or persecute them when here, we hold to be wrong. 
 
 But turning to Europe we find, in spite of the efforts of 
 political and social reformers, that the state of the peasant class is 
 very unsatisfactory, and getting worse. 
 
 Militarism is sapping the strength of Europe. Into the army 
 the flower of the nations are being drafted, and the rest must 
 give a considerable share of their earnings to support them. In 
 1886 there were over 4,000,000 under arms, or one in every fifteen 
 of the arms-bearing age. The reserves numbered 14,250,000 
 additional. Including both classes, the armies and navies of 
 Europe require one in five of the arms-bearing age, or one in 
 twenty-four of the entire population. The annual expenditure 
 for this colossal force is $1,000,000,000. It is estimated that the 
 entire earnings of one engaged in agriculture or in manufacturing 
 are required to support one soldier. We put the case otherwise, 
 there is required a man for every 200 acres of land, and $1.10 from 
 the annual product of every acre to support military establish¬ 
 ments. 
 
 Nor is this all. By reason of wars largely entered on to gratify 
 ambition or sate the lust of power or conquest, enormous debts 
 have been piled up. The indebtedness of seven of the principal 
 European states aggregates$20,000,000,000,and the annual charge 
 for interest, etc., is not less than that for the support of the armies 
 and navies. Britain and Prussia are the only nations that raise 
 a sufficient revenue to guarantee a permanent equilibrium of the 
 budget. Need we wonder at the desire to leave this armed camp 
 
io 6 
 
 NATIONAL PERILS. 
 
 with its exactions of treasure and blood ? Can we be surprised 
 that the fond mother longs to get away with her growing boys out 
 of the sight of the recruiting sergeant, and out of the sound of 
 fife and drum ? 
 
 Of late years, too, population has been increasing rapidly in 
 every country in Europe but France. In Britain the seasons have 
 been unfavorable, foreign competition has reduced prices and 
 farmers are in despair. In agricultural districts laborers are 
 elbowing each other for room. Manufacturing centres are con¬ 
 gested, and the extension of foreign markets no longer keeps pace 
 with the output of factories. Wages are reduced and men are 
 unable to support their families and children, and wives must 
 work if the household is to live, and labor commissions have made 
 shocking revelations, and the state has had to step in to prevent 
 physical deterioration and mental decay. And the outlook is not 
 brightening, and hence a restlessness that in some quarters is 
 ripening into revolution. What are Socialism, Communism, 
 Nihilism, but a revolt against what is regarded as legalized 
 wrong ? The methods by which redress is sought must be con¬ 
 demned, but we cannot palliate or excuse the conditions of which 
 these are the inevitable outcome. 
 
 It may be stated that so respectable a magazine as “Macmillan” 
 maintains that while the wealth of Britain is increasing it is not 
 keeping pace with the growth of the population, and that here 
 the per capita wealth is diminishing. 
 
 The cheapening of ocean fares and the shortening of passages, 
 the wide ramification of agencies, and the glowing, not to say false 
 colors in which the attractions of the new world are presented, the 
 promise of advancement and early independence, combined with 
 this longing for deliverance from repression and want, all help to 
 swell the stream of immigration. 
 
 Since 1874 about 6,000,000 are said to have been received at 
 the ports of the United States, and 950,000 in Canada. The 
 republic received large accessions from every country in Europe, 
 but the principal part of those settling in Canada were of British, 
 Teutonic or Scandinavian stock. 
 
 But who are those who seek to share with us the privileges 
 and responsibilities of citizenship? In the early migrations from 
 Asia to Europe the difficulties to be overcome weeded out the 
 weak. Were not the Celts superior to the Lapps, and the 
 Teutons to the Celts, they could never have become possessed of 
 their homes. The settlements effected by Norsemen and Saxons 
 on the coasts of England and France, and the conquests that 
 followed were the achievements of the best blood of Northern 
 
REV. DR. J. ROBERTSON. 107 
 
 Europe. The early settlements in America were made by men 
 of equal courage and endurance. 
 
 A considerable portion of our immigrants belong to the same 
 class. By laws that have come down from the Dark Ages they 
 find themselves divorced from the soil of their native land. They 
 come to America with their families to make and enjoy a home 
 of their own, and they are welcome. Such men hewed Quebec 
 and Ontario out of the forest. They had little capital but their 
 brain and brawn, their thrift and industry, a firm faith in God 
 and themselves, and with them they wrought marvels. 
 
 A large part of the immigrants of to-day, however, belong to a 
 wholly different class. In any country the weak are sure to fall 
 behind in the race of life. Their failure suggests a change. In 
 England the unemployed are divided into three classes—the 
 workless, the thriftless, and the worthless. The first constitute 
 only two per cent, of the idle, and the third is continually being 
 recruited from the second. Even in populous England and 
 Belgium there is ample demand for physical endurance, mental 
 ability, and superior skill. The inferior in natural endowment 
 or acquirement are the unemployed, the restless, and the 
 emigrating. And without fear of contradiction it may be said 
 that unaided very many of those coming to Canada could not 
 leave their native land. 
 
 According to the immigration report of the Federal Govern¬ 
 ment for last year, of all the steerage passengers that landed at 
 Quebec only 13*1 per cent, were farmers, and 86'6 were mechanics 
 and laborers. Of those landing at Halifax the percentages were 
 respectively 13*5 and 687. For the last nine years, for which we 
 have reports, 85 per cent of the immigrants landing at Quebec 
 were mechanics and laborers, and only about 13 per cent farmers. 
 The Commissioner of Labor in the United States holds that 31 'g 
 per cent of the mechanical laborers of that country are foreigners, 
 and that they are mainly responsible for the labor troubles of the 
 Republic. The character of our immigration from the economic 
 side is not without danger, and Canada is not a manufacturing 
 but a farming country. 
 
 But this is not the whole story. It is openly asserted that 
 societies, agencies, poor guardians and relatives, have shipped to 
 Canada paupers and criminals of the third and fourth generation, 
 and that the idiotic and insane have borne them company. 
 Some of the worst classes have even gone as far as Manitoba. 
 Dr. Hoyt, Secretary of the New York State Board of Charities 
 and Corrections, asserts that from Italy, Germany, Switzerland,. 
 Russia, Poland, and Britain, criminals are sent to America ; that 
 
ioS 
 
 NATIONAL PERILS. 
 
 these generally land in Canada, and from Canada find their way 
 to the United States. It is held that at Halifax no attempt is 
 made to find out whether a man is sound in mind or body, or 
 whether he may have spent his previous life in a poorhouse or 
 prison. Statistics in his office prove that while the proportion of 
 paupers in the case of the natives is one in 168, among the foreign 
 born it is one in 35. The insane among the natives are only 
 one-half the average among foreigners. The disproportion in 
 the case of convictions in the courts is even greater. In New 
 York State are 18,000 paupers, not including children, the insane 
 or the very aged—including these the number is 60,000. This 
 is a frightful picture, and if Canada is unwillingly a nuisance to 
 her neighbor, she should clear her skirts without delay, and take 
 care to guard her own interest. 
 
 Let me lay before you a few facts gleaned from inquiries 
 instituted in our own country. In the Rockwood Penitentiary 
 are confined 42*67 persons for every 100,000 in Manitoba and 
 the North-West. The proportions for the different nationalities 
 are : Canadians, 24*24 ; Scotch, 24*61 ; English, 70*54 ; and Irish, 
 83*63. Of commitments to the Toronto gaol—and Toronto has 
 been selected because away from the sea-coast—there were 
 10,388 for 1885-6-7, or 3,463 for a year. Including the county 
 of York the numbers per 1,000 were: Canadians, 13^; Scotch, 
 27^3; English, 33 ; and Irish, 54^. The criminal statistics for 
 the Dominion give the following convictions for 1887 for every 
 10,000 of our population : Canadians, 6*2 ; Scotch, 8*2 ; Irish, 
 16* 1 ; and English, 19*7. These figures all tell the same tale, 
 viz., that the moral status of the foreigner is lower, much lower, 
 than that of the native Canadian. And if their immediate 
 descendants are considered the case is much worse. 
 
 What of their sanity ? Dr. Clark, the Medical Superintendent 
 of the Insane Asylum at Toronto, sums up the result of my 
 inquiries : A larger number of our insane and defective classes 
 proportionately come from immigrants and their immediate 
 descendants than from our native population. This country is 
 being made a dumping ground for the riddlings of Europe. It 
 will take at least three generations to bring up such to a normal 
 standard of manhood and womanhood. 
 
 In corroboration of Dr. Clark’s contention in the last sentence 
 let me refer to the experience of New South Wales. Britain 
 transported to that Colony a large number of convicts. From 
 the slums of London wives were sent to them. Of these 
 marriages children were born, and the third and fourth genera¬ 
 tion of their descendants are found in Australia to-day. Now, 
 
REV. DR. J. ROBERTSON. 
 
 109 
 
 while several of these have risen to respectability and wealth, 
 the great majority, true to their ancestry, have all the charac¬ 
 teristics of their convict-virago origin. They are loafers, gaol¬ 
 birds and idlers, a burden on honest industry, and a poison to 
 virtuous blood. Will it be different with the off-spring of their 
 congeners who land on our shores ? Will the new environment, 
 the promise and opportunity of advancement, be strong enough 
 to master and subdue the taint and trend of generations of 
 pauperism and crime ? Not likely. While the teachings of 
 science in reference to heredity are accepted, we cannot afford to 
 try experiments by an infusion of vitiated blood. Nor does any 
 good reason exist why such people anywhere should be allowed 
 to propagate their kind. In a civilized country, a license to 
 marry and discharge the high function of a parent should 
 argue something more than the possession of a couple of dollars 
 and a decent dress. Physical health, mental balance and a 
 record free from vice or crime should be unfailing conditions. 
 Many European countries pay far more attention to the sires of 
 their horses than any state does to the parentage of its citizens. 
 
 Has the command to Joshua to exterminate the Canaanites 
 any lesson for us in this Nineteenth Century? The execution 
 of the command has been termed stern surgery, but in reading 
 the subsequent history of Israel you wish sometimes that the 
 surgery had been more searching. So much in any case is 
 clear that alliances with degenerate stock are an evil and that 
 there is far more danger of the good sinking than the bad rising 
 through them. 
 
 My aim has been to advance a few facts rather than deduce 
 conclusions. But let me ask whether the defective and insane, 
 the cripple and the criminal, should not be excluded entirely ? 
 Since the importation of large numbers of mechanics and 
 laborers tends to demoralize the labor-market and lead to strikes 
 and lockouts, it is pertinent to ask whether the state should en¬ 
 courage and aid this class of immigration ? I know it is con¬ 
 tended that this country should be an asylum for the poor and 
 oppressed of all lands—that laborers can cultivate the soil and 
 gain a competence. It is a sufficient reply that a state is not a 
 charitable society, or a philanthropic organization—that it must 
 have regard to the national welfare and moral culture of its 
 people—that laborers and operatives who settled on land in the 
 West were easily discouraged, abandoned their homesteads, and 
 drifted into cities and towns. Do not strikes separate our people 
 and prevent complete fusion ? Who are the strike organizers 
 and bomb-throwers ? Why is so large a proportion of our 
 
I IO 
 
 NATIONAL PERILS. 
 
 laboring classes out of the churches and hostile to religion ? Is 
 the foreign element largely responsible for the lower tone of 
 public life and the infidel views on religious questions ? In every 
 city is a large shifting vote,and politicians have discovered a means 
 of shifting it, although not of keeping it shifted. Did not the 
 disclosures before the courts, after the last general election, 
 bring the blush to the cheek of every patriotic Canadian ? Is 
 not the liquor traffic of the country largely controlled and 
 supported by the foreign element ? Are they not the principal 
 opponents of a prohibitory liquor law ? And who are the foes of 
 our Sabbath laws ? Who removed them off the statute book in 
 British Columbia ? In the Western States is not the Sabbath a 
 holiday rather than a holy day ? A day for cricket and base¬ 
 ball, for boating and racing, for picnicing and beer gardening, 
 rather than for the services of the Sanctuary ? Is not this the 
 result of the teaching and the practice of the worst elements of 
 the continent of Europe ? 
 
 Is not this foreign element recruiting the strength of the 
 Romish Church, and is she not a menace to free institutions ? 
 Does she not aim to control the votes of her people and through 
 them the legislative leaders, and has she not been too successful 
 in her aims? Need I remind you of the legislation in favor 
 of the Jesuits of this Province? And that she may the more 
 easily preserve and control her people, does she not keep them 
 separate ? Are not her views of mixed marriage and separate 
 schools parts of a system built up by astute men for purposes 
 remotely religious ? Is she not responsible for the dualism that 
 exists in Canada to-day? Stop the importation of Roman 
 Catholics to the United States, and one or two generations will 
 see the Roman Catholic Church shorn of its strength. 
 
 The Character of the settlers in the North-West can be re¬ 
 ferred to only very briefly. The Canadian is our best settler— 
 he is most intelligent, most versatile, and most successful. The 
 Scottish immigrant easily adapts himself to the requirements of 
 the country and proves a valuable acquisition. The same is true 
 of the Protestant Irish. Of Irish Roman Catholics only a 
 small number go to Manitoba. The English have not been of 
 the class best suited for engaging in agricultural pursuits, and 
 hence they have not succeeded where others have achieved 
 success. The Germans have been sturdy and successful settlers, 
 but the religious views of the Mennonites have kept them 
 separate from the rest of our people, prevented English being 
 taught in their schools, and the children from adopting the 
 customs of Canadians. Scandinavians and Icelanders are 
 
REV. DR. J. ROBERTSON. 
 
 111 
 
 valuable citizens. The Norseman with his splendid vitality 
 quickened the sluggish Saxon in England, and no doubt he will 
 enrich the blood of the West. Of Jews and Italians I can 
 speak in only very qualified terms. They are deficient in some 
 of the qualities that lie at the foundation of all success. I 
 am, of course, speaking of the immigration to the Canadian 
 North-West. I have every confidence in the regenerating 
 power of the Grace of God and the up-lifting influence of our 
 institutions, but is it not clear that immigration is too important 
 a department of state business to be allowed any longer to run 
 itself? The interests of the country, the people and religion, 
 seem to demand intelligent restriction. 
 
 But if immigration is impeded what is to become of the 
 struggling masses in Europe ? That is a problem for European 
 statesmen and economists to consider. And as long as European 
 nations maintain colossal forces, spend from $3,000,000 to 
 $5,000,000 on a single ship, reserve immense blocks of land for 
 deer and other game, they deserve little sympathy. Let them 
 disband their armies, and use the money in supporting them to 
 reclaim waste lands. Let them spend the cost of a “ Nelson” or 
 a “Trafalgar” in building cottages for the poor. Let the deer 
 parks and game preserves be utilized for raising human food, 
 and devise a measure for the more equitable division of the 
 profits of labor. By such reforms it is maintained that Europe 
 could support three times its present population. In any case, 
 Canada must guard her own interests, and much as we need 
 people we must take good care that they are of the kind to be 
 an acquisition. 
 
 The session closed with the pronouncing of the Benediction. 
 
WEDNESDAY, 24th OCTOBER, 1888. 
 
 MORNING SESSION. 
 
 The Conference assembled at 10 o’clock. 
 
 The chair was occupied by the Rev. PRINCIPAL BARBOUR* 
 D.D., of the Congregational College, Montreal. 
 
 The proceedings opened by the singing of the hymn, “ Blest 
 be the tie that binds.” The Rev. W. J. Jolliffe, of Quebec,, 
 offered prayer. 
 
 TOPIC: ROMAN CATHOLICISM IN CANADA. 
 
 CHAIRMAN’S ADDRESS. 
 
 Rev. Principal Barbour, D.D., Montreal. 
 
 The subject for consideration at this session is of the most 
 momentous character. Archbishop Whately has shown the 
 analogy between human nature and Romanism, its worldly ways 
 and its substitutions and superstitions, which are so prominent 
 in the Romish system. 
 
 We should look at this great question as it is put before us 
 and cease to wonder at the mighty power it has secured in this 
 world of human beings, with the seeds of all its great move¬ 
 ments already sown in the human heart. One of my experiences 
 with Romanism has been in this City, and it touches on the 
 remark of a shrewd observer, that you are likely to be hated 
 more for showing men the right way than for letting them alone 
 in the wrong. There has been a remarkable experience in 
 Montreal, between the Protestant clergy and the Protestant' 
 citizens and the powers that be at Rome. You have heard of 
 the effort to have a statue of the Virgin Mary erected in the 
 Mountain Park, which is public property, and the use of which 
 would have been offensive to all Protestants in this Christian 
 city. Thanks to the living and working Evangelical Alliance 
 in this city that project was stopped. To the praise of this city 
 
REV. PRINCIPAL MACVICAR. 
 
 1 13 
 
 be it said—and I, as a stranger, can praise it, for I have never 
 lived in a city, in the old or new world, in which there is such a. 
 united Protestant feeling as there is in Montreal. It struck me 
 delightfully when I arrived here, and the longer I live the more 
 I see the reality of it. This working Evangelical Alliance came 
 toeether and so framed and directed their remonstrances that 
 the proposition to have erected that offensive statue was with¬ 
 drawn. Rome likes us none the better for setting her right—* 
 she would like us more if we let her go on in the way of Rome. 
 But I must remember that my duty this morning is to introduce 
 the speakers appointed, and I have to present to you now, one 
 who is, as his work will show you, well qualified to take the lead 
 in this discussion. I present to the Alliance the Rev. Principal 
 MacVicar, of the Presbyterian College, Montreal. 
 
 POSITION AND ATTITUDE OF ROMANISM. 
 
 Rev. Principal MacVicar, D.D., LL.D., Montreal. 
 
 In a review article published in New York two years ago, and 
 afterwards republished in Nova Scotia and in London, England, 
 I gave an extended account of Romanism in Canada. 
 
 The views there advanced, I am glad to say, have not been 
 set aside. On the contrary, leading journals have repeated and 
 widely disseminated them. , I shall have occasion now, in con¬ 
 densed form, to re-afhrm some of the same points, and need 
 hardly add that the subject is far too large for the limits assigned 
 to this paper. 
 
 The attitude of the Romish Church towards Protestantism has. 
 always been the same, and must be defined by her published 
 dogmas and the decrees of her Councils and Popes. These show 
 her to be steadily intolerant to heretics, and to assert with 
 unwavering confidence her superiority over civil rulers and 
 governments.* As she claims to be infallible and unchangeable,. 
 
 * St. Thomas, Vol. iv., p. 91, says: “ Quanquam heretici tolerandi non sunt ipso 
 illorum demerito, usque tamen ad secundam correptionem expectandi sunt, ut ad 
 sanam redeant ecclesiae fidem ; qui vero post secundam correptionem in suo errore 
 obstinati permanent, non modo excommunicationis sententia, sed etiam saecularibus 
 principibus externimandi tradendi sunt.” Translated—'' t Though heretics must not 
 be tolerated because they deserve it, we must bear with them till, by second; 
 admonition, they may be brought back to the faith of the Church ; but those who,, 
 after a second admonition, remain obstinate in their errors, must not only be excom- 
 
 H 
 
I 14 ROMAN CATHOLICISM IN CANADA. 
 
 she must be held responsible for all her past history. We proceed 
 upon this principle in what we advance regarding practical issues 
 in our own country. Romanism of to-day is no better and no 
 worse than Romanism of the past. Hence it is of the utmost 
 importance to understand : 
 
 I. The Legal Status of the Church of Rome in Canada. 
 Throughout the Dominion, with the exception of the Province of 
 Quebec, all religious denominations enjoy substantially the same 
 legal status, but in this Province the Church of Rome has a con¬ 
 spicuous pre-eminence, being distinctly established by law. This 
 was brought about in the following manner, and by several succes¬ 
 sive steps extending over fifteen years. The first step was taken in 
 1759, at the time of the conquest of the Province by Great Britain. 
 The 27th Article of Capitulation declared that the Catholic 
 inhabitants of Canada were “ granted the free exercise of the 
 Romish religion, the obligation of paying tithes to the priest to 
 depend upon the King’s pleasure.” 
 
 This, it will be observed, settled only one matter,—that of 
 religious toleration, but did not effect any legal establishment of 
 the church. The next step in that direction was taken in the 
 Treaty of Peace, July, 10th, 1763. The clause touching this 
 matter declares that “ His Britannic Majesty agrees to grant 
 liberty of the Catholic religion to the inhabitants of Canada. He 
 will consequently give the most effectual orders that his new 
 Roman Catholic subjects may profess the worship of their religion 
 according to the rites of the Romish Church as far as the laws 
 of Great Britain permit!' But the laws of Great Britain did not 
 then establish Romanism, or fasten it upon the people in the 
 manner in which it now exists in this Province, either at home or 
 in the colonies. Still more: the terms of this treaty did not author¬ 
 ize any such establishment; and hence its provisions were 
 undeniably far exceeded by the subsequent Act of the British 
 Parliament, 14 George III., cap. 83, sect. 5, which conferred 
 
 municated, but they must be delivered to the secular powers to be exterminated.” 
 The present Pope, Leo XIII., has approved the writings of St. Thomas as standard 
 theological works. The Vatican Council, 1871, anathematized the idea that “ it is no 
 longer expedient that the Catholic religion be held as the only religion of the State, to 
 the exclusion of all other modes of worship.” 
 
 Pope Pius VI., 1786, in the Bull Stiper Soliditate, declared “ that the Pope can 
 deprive kings of their authority to rule, and absolve subjects from their allegiance.” 
 
 The Jesuit Saurez, in Defensio Fidei, Book VI., chap. 4, says : “ Monarchs deposed 
 by the Pope thereby become notorious tyrants, and may be killed by the first who can 
 reach them.” 
 
 Pope Pius IX. declared in 1851 “ The Roman Catholic religion must be exclusively 
 dominant, and every other worship must be banished and interdicted.”—( The Papacy 
 .of Modern Times,pp. 226 — 229.) 
 
REV. PRINCIPAL MACVICAR. 
 
 US 
 
 powers on the clergy not contained in the treaty, and finally 
 settled the legal status of the Church. By this settlement, and 
 by subsequent Canadian legislation, the clergy are fully empowered 
 to collect tithes ; and they can also levy taxes as they may judge 
 necessary for church purposes. The Imperial Act of 1774 mani¬ 
 festly contemplated th^e parishes and seigniories then intact; but 
 it was not intended that the parish system with its oppressive 
 exactions should be extended. But this, however, has taken place, 
 and bishops are now clothed with legal powers to create new 
 parishes. When this is done, parishioners have hardly any voice, 
 except through their marguilliers or wardens, in determining the 
 size, style and cost of churches for the payment of which they 
 are assessed. (See Consolidated Statutes of Lower Canada , cap. 
 X VIII.) And with the Parliament of Quebec now so largely 
 under ecclesiastical control, any further legislation that may be 
 thought necessary for the still firmer establishment of the Church 
 can be readily procured. By this means the liberties of the people 
 are being more and more invaded, and the principle of religious 
 equality in our country is set aside by Romanism being undeni¬ 
 ably placed in a position in relation to British law wholly different 
 from that of other creeds. Government has no right, we hold, to 
 discriminate in this fashion in favour of one set of dogmas and to 
 clothe the teachers of them with civil powers such as those just 
 mentioned. The French people themselves in the exercise of 
 their personal rights and freedom should cast off this intolerable 
 mediaeval incubus of tithes and taxes, and support, as they may 
 judge proper, tbe religion of their choice deliberately decided upon 
 in the light of God’s truth, and not under compulsion of Acts of 
 Parliament. And we should not only urge them to do so in the 
 interests of our common country and of human freedom, but 
 also aid them in every way in our power to accomplish this 
 national reformation.* 
 
 II. Income of the Church.—How derived.—Her wealth in this 
 Province. 
 
 The main sources of revenue may be enumerated in a single 
 sentence. They are tithes, taxes, pew rents, fees for sacraments 
 
 * It is said that Protestants have no right to meddle with this matter of tithes and 
 taxes. We answer, as patriotic Canadians they are deeply interested in everything 
 that impedes the progress of the Dominion, and entitled, in legitimate ways, to seek 
 its removal; and it is a significant fact that, twice at least, the Liberals of Quebec 
 seriously proposed the abolition of tithes. 
 
 It is also said that French Roman Catholics pay these tithes and taxes willingly and 
 without complaint. If so, the admonitions of Bishops to delinquents in pastoral 
 letters should be unnecessary. The coercive law, too, is a dead letter and should be 
 abolished, and the Church should rely upon the voluntary offerings of the people. To 
 such, no one can object. 
 
ROMAN CATHOLICISM IN CANADA. 
 
 116 
 
 and for special masses for the dead, proceeds of lotteries, of 
 services rendered by nuns as managers of convents, asylums and 
 hospitals, and as manufacturers and vendors of trinkets and 
 charms, bequests, rents, and interest from invested capital. 
 
 It may be safely said that no one can state accurately the 
 aggregate revenue from all these sources, for, while the Church 
 denounces secret societies, she practices the utmost secrecy in 
 conducting her own business. Unlike civil governments, banking 
 houses, manufacturing companies and Protestant denominations, 
 she publishes no statement of revenue and expenditure. 
 
 The chief facts regarding tithes may be stated in few words. 
 They were instituted in Quebe*c in 1663, and enforced since 1667, 
 a period of more than two centuries. They were not from the 
 first, and are not now, levied as formerly in France, or in 
 accordance with the requirements of the canon law, which 
 demanded a tenth of all the products of the soil, but were fixed 
 at one twenty-sixth. This continued to be the law for a time, 
 but was complained of as oppressive, and consequently the tithe, 
 or “ dime,” was more carefully defined, and finally restricted, by 
 a decree of the Council of State, July 12th, 1707, to one twenty- 
 sixth of certain grains to be harvested, threshed, winnowed, and 
 delivered at the priest’s parsonage. It is unnecessary here to 
 specify the kinds of grain referred to, but it may be mentioned 
 as an item of curious information, and as illustrative of the 
 watchfulness of the priesthood regarding revenue, that until about 
 twenty-five years ago pease, which for more than a century were 
 little cultivated by the French people, were counted vegetables, 
 and exempt from tithes. By and by, however, it was found 
 profitable to grow pease on a large scale, specially on impoverished 
 clayish soils, and the clergy discovering that this was being done, 
 succeeded in having pease removed from the category of vege¬ 
 tables and placed in the list of cereals which are subject to tithes. 
 
 One of the latest estimates of the entire revenues and wealth 
 of the Church in the Province of Quebec is by the Rev. A. B. 
 Cruchet, Montreal, in an article published on the 15th September, 
 1888, in the Revue de Theologie Pratique , of Paris. He claims 
 that his figures are from authentic sources. They are .as 
 follows :— 
 
 “The number of farms under cultivation in the Province is estimated at 200,000. 
 Many of these produce barely enough to give bread to the numerous families who 
 cultivate them. We may form an opinion by the following statement : 
 
 “(1.) The Province of Quebec produces a total of 31,280,000 bushels ( minotes ), 
 valued at $18,200,000, yielding a ‘dime,’ or tithe, of $700,000. 
 
 “(2.) Taxes on families who do not possess land, amounting to not less than 
 $300,000. 
 
REV. PRINCIPAL MACVICAR. 117 
 
 “ (3.) Fees for baptisms, marriages, funerals and masses, payments for pew-rents 
 and objects of piety, yielding not less than $2,000,000. 
 
 “ (4.) Voluntary gifts received from house to house, legacies, and revenue derived 
 from property of unknown extent, held in mort main , all put together, probably 
 exceeding $3,000,000. 
 
 “(5.) Taxes for construction and maintenance of Churches, Presbyteries, and 
 Fabrique Schools, amounting to at least $2,000,000. 
 
 “The Romish Church, therefore, receives on an average annually, from 200,000 
 Catholic families in Quebec, the enormous sum of $8,000,000 for the exclusive ends of 
 their worship, that is to say, for the maintenance of 900 parishes (cures) at $8,000 
 each. This seems incredible. The figures, however, are far from giving a complete 
 idea of the revenues of the Church in our happy province.” 
 
 Mr. Cruchet then gives the following inventory of the Church’s 
 property :— 
 
 “ In 1759 she received 2,117,000 acres of land, which valuable possession has since 
 been greatly added to by property gained through diplomacy and continual begging, 
 and by the natural increase in the value of certain kinds of real estate. 
 
 “She owns 900 churches, valued at $37,000,000 ; 900 parsonages along with the 
 palaces of the Cardinal, the Archbishops and Bishops, valued at $9,000,000 ; twelve 
 seminaries worth $600,000; 17 classical colleges, $850,000; 259 boarding schools 
 and academies, $6,000,000 ; 800 convents, $4,000,000; 68 hospitals and asylums, 
 $4,000,000; total, $61,210,000. 
 
 “ As to lands, shops, houses, and invested capital, it is impossible to reach absolute 
 certainty. We know that some ecclesiastical orders are enormously rich. Catholics 
 themselves declare that the Sulpicians, for example, are richer than the Bank of 
 Montreal, the most powerful institution of the kind in America.” * 
 
 Such is Mr. Cruchet’s general estimate. It is manifestly ex¬ 
 clusive of several large items and understates others. Indeed, 
 since he published his article he has been distinctly informed by 
 a distinguished ecclesiastic, that the Church is far richer than 
 she is made to appear by his figures. I have no doubt of it. 
 She owns a great part of towns and villages which are not 
 mentioned. Joliette, for example, is valued at one million 
 dollars, the half of which belongs to the Church, and is exempt 
 from municipal taxation, as is the case with all ecclesiastical 
 property. Besides, Mr. Cruchet has not been able to report the 
 vast endowments which must exist in order to carry on the array 
 of schools, colleges, convents, hospitals and asylums which he 
 enumerates. He surely underestimates the value of the grounds 
 and buildings of hospitals and asylums. About two years ago 
 Sister Ste. Therese, Mother Superior of Longue Pointe Asylum, 
 
 * “ According to Bouchette, in his first edition of the ‘ Description of Lower 
 Canada,’ the following Seigniories belonged to the St. Sulpician Seminary, Montreal : 
 The Island of Montreal, 32 by io }4 miles square ; the Seigniory of St. Sulpicius, 6 by 
 18 miles ; and the Seigniory of the Lake of Two Mountains. The endowments of 
 this Seminary are very extensive and valuable. On the testimony of ecclesiastics 
 connected with it, the annual revenue of its funds is $128,000. If this income is equal 
 to six per cent, on the capital, their funds amount to $2,300,000 ; but considering the 
 low rents received on their concessions, it is presumed that the revenue does not 
 exceed two per cent on the capital. Admitting this to be the rate, then the funds of 
 the institution are $6,900,000.”— Rankin's Jesuits' Estates, pp. 114-115. 
 
118 
 
 ROMAN CATHOLICISM IN CANADA. 
 
 stated to a representative of the press, that the nuns built that 
 institution with their own funds at a cost of one million dollars, 
 which is one fourth of the entire amount set down by Mr. 
 Cruchet as the value of sixty-eight hospitals and asylums. 
 Then there are the profits realized by such institutions. The 
 Longue Pointe Asylum holds a contract from the Quebec 
 Government under which it receives about $90,000, per annum, 
 for the treatment of patients, which we may be certain is not a 
 losing business. And who can ascertain what is gained by con¬ 
 vents, where the daughters of wealthy easy-going Protestants 
 are found in hundreds, many of whom become Roman 
 Catholics, and many more extremely tolerant of all manner 
 of superstitions. 
 
 In connection with church revenues, it should also be remem¬ 
 bered that some of the methods followed in securing them 
 are thoroughly corrupting to the hearts and consciences of 
 the people. It is well-known that according to the casuistry 
 and ethics of Rome, what is wholly immoral in ordinary 
 business may be piously employed in behalf of religion.—The 
 end justifies the means.—Hence a wheel-of-fortune was used for 
 monetary purposes not very long ago within the walls of the 
 unfinished St. Peter’s, Montreal. And we have had in our city, 
 several years ago, under the highest ecclesiastical sanction and 
 patronage, the Grand Lottery of the Sacred Heart, in connection 
 with which tickets were offered for sale, it is said, to the value of 
 millions of dollars, and prizes amounting to over half a million. 
 And on St. James street may be seen any day the sign-board 
 of the National Lottery. Nor is the evil confined to this 
 Province. On the 10th instant, one of our daily papers made 
 the following editorial announcement:— 
 
 “Like many other Roman Catholic Dioceses, that of London, Ontario, has re¬ 
 solved itself into a gambling agency. We have received a package of tickets of a 
 lottery scheme entitled, ‘ Grand Charity Bazaar ,’ carried on under the patronage and 
 approval of Bishop Walsh, who appears as the giver of the principal prize .”—Daily 
 Witness. 
 
 This traffic is utterly indefensable. Alas that some Protes¬ 
 tants, as well as Papists, countenance it, and are gradually 
 falling more and more into similar discreditable methods of 
 church finance. The world is teaching the Church a lesson in 
 this respect. Even the secular authorities of civilized nations 
 have, with singular unanimity, pronounced unlawful the 
 gambling by lotteries now homologated as part of the dominant 
 religious system of this Province. The fact that such methods 
 are resorted to by the Church cannot but exert a most injurious 
 
REV. PRINCIPAL MACVICAR. 119 
 
 influence upon public morality, and in this we are all deeply 
 concerned. 
 
 III. The poverty and stagnation produced by the exactions 
 and the teachings of the church demand the attention of all true 
 patriots. 
 
 It is obvious that no people, however industrious and frugal, 
 can prosper under such grinding exactions as we have just 
 indicated. Nor can it be denied that the Church has, a hundred 
 times over, denounced modern science, freedom and progress in 
 her councils, and by bulls and encyclicals. Equally true it is 
 that she has been successful in breathing the spirit of stagnation 
 into many of her votaries in Quebec. Hence some of its 
 parishes are now very much as they were a century ago. The 
 world moves but they stand still, except in so far as young 
 people find their way into our cities and into the United States. 
 It may be regarded almost as a rule, without exception, that 
 where the Church thrives and has things her own way, indepen¬ 
 dent thought and bold business enterprise gradually disappear. 
 Instances of this sort will occur to many of you without our 
 stating them. You know where real estate has fallen in value 
 and commercial enterprise has well nigh died out, and that too 
 under naturally favorable circumstances. The docile subjects of 
 the Church are not the prominent capitalists and leading pro¬ 
 jectors of great railway lines and ocean steamship companies. 
 The reason of this is obvious. Not that they are wasteful, 
 indolent and incapable, but that their energies are paralyzed and 
 their resources gradually absorbed by the Church. This is not 
 a question of race but of religion. * History repeats itself, The 
 Province of Quebec is fast approaching, if it has not already 
 reached, so far as its French population is concerned, the con¬ 
 dition of Scotland immediately before the Reformation, when, 
 according to the historian, James Mackenzie, “ The wealth and 
 power of the clergy were enormous. Fully one half of all the 
 property in the nation belonged to them. Every few miles, all 
 the country over, there stood in some fair fertile spot a great 
 establishment of some of the numerous orders of monks living 
 in idleness on the fat of the land. There were 240 such places 
 in all, and the whole population of the Kingdom was under a 
 million,” pp. 276, 277. 
 
 * In Montreal Romanists are about four times as numerous as Protestants, but, 
 according to official figures, Protestants own fully half the entire wealth of the city, 
 so far as lay proprietors are concerned. On them, therefore, the burden of taxation 
 falls heavily in proportion to the small share they have in the management of civic 
 affairs. 
 
120 
 
 ROMAN CATHOLICISM IN CANADA. 
 
 It is true that the Roman Catholic population of this Province 
 is somewhat larger than that of Scotland at the time referred to, 
 but we have, according to Mr. Cruchet’s figures, a far greater 
 array of ecclesiastical machinery. Just think of it. The country 
 is crowded with such, and there seems to be no abatement of its 
 increase. Nine hundred churches, 12 seminaries, 17 colleges, 259 
 boarding-schools and academies, 800 convents and 68 hospitals 
 and asylums ! And if half of all the property of the Province 
 is not yet absorbed by the Church, that is due to the presence of 
 so many enterprising well-to-do Protestants, and to the earnest 
 efforts made to check her aggressions, restrain her greed and 
 secure the freedom of the people. 
 
 IV. The position of the Romish Church, in relation to Education. 
 
 She is opposed to a national system of education, and con¬ 
 sequently has separate schools where she is in the minority, as in 
 Ontario and other provinces. In Quebec, where she is dominant, 
 there are schools managed by Commissioners, some of them 
 laymen, but these are not regarded with favour. Complete 
 ecclesiastical control alone gives full satisfaction, and hence the 
 Council of Education is composed of a decided majority of 
 bishops, and each bishop is virtually superintendent in his own 
 diocese, so that the education of the bulk of the French people is 
 wholly in the hands of the Church. 
 
 Protestants in the Province of Quebec are made to suffer wrong 
 in the matter of education in several respects : 
 
 First , they are subject to the dictation of the majority as to 
 the amount of taxes to be levied for school purposes. The result 
 is that the income supplied is quite inadequate. This is the case 
 to-day in Montreal and elsewhere. While our schools are 
 excellent as far as they go, they are insufficient for the wants 
 of our Protestant population, and we are held back by the 
 educational views of those who dictate what we should do. 
 
 Second , the school taxes of joint-stock companies, such as 
 banks, railways, etc., are divided according to population, and 
 thus Protestants in many districts lose large amounts of their 
 own assessments. In the City of Montreal, for example, Roman 
 Catholics are four times as numerous as Protestants, and hence for 
 every dollar Protestants get from this source Roman Catholics 
 receive four, while it is well-known that probably more than 
 three-fourths of the stocks of the greater number of such insti¬ 
 tutions are owned by Protestants. It is estimated that between 
 ten and twelve thousand dollars of the taxes of Protestants are 
 thus annually handed over to Roman Catholics in the City of 
 Montreal alone. There is no insuperable obstacle in the way of 
 
REV. PRINCIPAL MACVICAR. 
 
 121 
 
 putting this matter right except the power of the Romish Church 
 and the supineness of Protestants, who should press it upon the 
 attention of the local government, and, failing justice being done, 
 exercise their right, under the British North America Act, to 
 appeal to Ottawa. The School Law of Ontario makes provision 
 for the taxes of joint-stock companies being equitably applied 
 according to the religious faith of the owners, and why should we 
 not have a similar law in this Province ? 
 
 Third , the Government of Quebec has invested the Council of 
 the Bar and the Medical Council of this Province with powers to 
 enact by-laws which prove injurious to the interests of higher 
 education as conducted by Protestants, and which have practically 
 the effect of compelling, especially students in law, and to some 
 extent students in medicine, to adopt in part the course of study 
 prescribed by the Church. A decided majority of these Councils 
 are French and Roman Catholic, and they may be wholly such. 
 The Council of the Bar dictates to the Universities the cur¬ 
 riculum in that profession, the number of lectures to be delivered 
 to students, and the relative value to be attached to their 
 answers in different subjects. Hence a man having taken the 
 degree of B.A. in any of our Universities is not thereby quali¬ 
 fied to begin professional studies in law or medicine. He must, 
 in addition, pass an entrance examination, including branches to 
 which special importance is attached in Romish institutions. 
 
 Fourth , the recent action of the Provincial Government in 
 relation to the Jesuits gives cause for grave alarm. The Society 
 of Jesus was suppressed in Canada in 1774 by a Royal Decree of 
 the Imperial Parliament, and their property was confiscated, 
 provision being made for the comfortable maintenance of those 
 of them who remained in the country.* The last of their number, 
 Jean Joseph Cazot, died in 1800, when the Crown became sole 
 and absolute owner of all their estates, which were formally 
 taken possession of under a Royal writ, sent by George III. to 
 the Sheriff of the District of Quebec. This writ, which was 
 duly executed, declares explicitly that the estates were the 
 property of the Crown of Britain from the Conquest of Canada 
 in 1760, and that the title to them was confirmed to the king by 
 the treaty of peace in 1763. It is plain, therefore, that the 
 Jesuits have no right or title to any part of these estates. 
 
 * The date of the suppression has been questioned, and 1791 has been given as 
 correct, this being mentioned in the Chisholm Papers in the Dominion Parliamentary- 
 Library. The vital thing is the fact of the suppression, and this is acknowledged, 
 and the date given as 1773, by the Archbishop of Quebec.—(See Statutes of Quebec, 
 1888, p. 44.) 
 
122 
 
 ROMAN CATHOLICISM IN CANADA. 
 
 Accordingly, in 1831, the Home Government placed the 
 property under Colonial control, to be held for educational 
 purposes. Since then dignitaries of the Church of Rome have 
 made many unsuccessful attempts to gain possession of it. In 
 1887 the Jesuits obtained from the Legislature of Quebec powers 
 of incorporation, and in 1888 the same Government passed an 
 “Act (cap. 13, Statutes of Quebec) to put an end to the 
 uneasiness which exists in this Province in connection with the 
 question of the Jesuits’ Estates.” 
 
 We judge that the “ uneasiness ” is only increased by the 
 method adopted to put an end to it. According to the Act: 
 
 Sect. 2 .—“ The Lieutenant-Governor-in-Council is authorised 
 to pay, out of any public money at his disposal, the sum of four 
 hundred thousand dollars, in the manner and under the condi¬ 
 tions mentioned in the documents above cited, and to make any 
 deed that he may deem necessary for the full and entire execu¬ 
 tion of such agreement.” 
 
 Sect. 3 .—“ The Lieutenant-Governor-in-Council is authorized 
 to transfer to the Society of Jesus, a society incorporated under 
 act of this Province, 50 Victoria, chapter 28, all the rights of this 
 Province in and to Laprarie common.” 
 
 Sect. 4 .—“ On such settlement being effected, the Lieutenant 
 Governor-in-Council may pay a sum of sixty thousand dollars to 
 the Protestant Committee of the Council of Public Instruction, 
 to be invested by said committee. 
 
 The interest from said investment shall be annually apportioned 
 by the Protestant Committee, with the approval of the Lieutenant 
 Governor-in-Council, among the Protestant institutions of superior 
 education, in addition to and in the same manner as any sums now 
 granted by law for the purpose of Protestant superior education 
 in this Province.” 
 
 The documents cited in the Act, and which form part of it, 
 are voluminous and consist of correspondence between the 
 Government and Father Tourgeon, Procurator of the Jesuits, at 
 Montreal, Cardinal Taschereau, the Pope, etc., etc. 
 
 The Hon. Honore Mercier, in a letter dated May 1st, 1888, tells 
 Father Turgeon that “ in consenting to treat with you respecting 
 this property, the Government does not recognize any civil obli¬ 
 gation, but merely a moral obligation in this respect.” The 
 nature or grounds of the “moral obligation,” however, are nowhere 
 stated. In the same letter it is said “ that the amount of the 
 compensation fixed shall remain in the possession of the Govern¬ 
 ment of the Province as a special deposit, until the Pope has 
 ratified the said settlement and made known his wishes respect- 
 
REV. PRINCIPAL MACVICAR. 
 
 123 
 
 ing the distribution of such amount in this country.” This was 
 agreed to, because in a letter sent from Rome by Cardinal 
 Simeoni, dated 24th of March, 1888, these words occur : “ The 
 
 Pope allows the Government to retain the proceeds of the sale of 
 the Jesuit estates as a special deposit to be disposed of hereafter 
 with the sanction of the Holy See.” In a letter dated May 14th, 
 1888, Hon. Mr. Mercier asks Father Turgeon to “ be very reason¬ 
 able and moderate, in view of the financial and other difficulties 
 of the Province.” The Father, in reply, asserts that the estates 
 are worth at least $2,000,000, and puts in what he considers a 
 very reasonable and moderate claim, at $990,000 ; but finally 
 accepts $400,000, with the additional gift of the Laprairie 
 common to commemorate the settlement of this “ delicate 
 question.” 
 
 This whole transaction was taken into consideration by a 
 recent meeting of the Presbytery of Montreal, when the following 
 resolutions were unanimously adopted :— 
 
 “ Whereas, by recent legislation of the Province of Quebec, a 
 large sum of money was voted out of the Jesuits’ estates, which 
 upwards of a century ago became public property, and has been 
 since looked to as available for educating the people of the Pro¬ 
 vince, irrespective of race or religious belief,—$400,000 to the 
 Society of Jesus, and $60,000 to the Protestant Committee of the 
 Council of Public Instruction : 
 
 “ The Presbytery of Montreal avails itself of this opportunity 
 of expressing strong disapproval of the same, and of declining, so 
 far as it has a right to voice public opinion, to be a party to it; 
 
 “ The Presbytery further expresses astonishment that the Pro¬ 
 vincial Legislature, not content with granting powers of incor¬ 
 poration to the Jesuits, should have gone out of its way to foster 
 in a mixed community a society which has proved itself the enemy 
 of civil and religious liberty all the world over, and which, even 
 the governments of Roman Catholic states have found it neces¬ 
 sary to expel ; 
 
 “ The Presbytery also protests earnestly against the action ot 
 the Government of Quebec in violating the principle of religious 
 equality which was established in Canada many years ago, by 
 bestowing public money upon a society of a distinctly religious 
 character like that of the Jesuits ; 
 
 “ Therefore, the Presbytery resolved to memorialize the Gov- 
 ernor-General-in-Council to take the foregoing preamble and 
 resolutions into consideration, and to adopt such measures as 
 will protect the rights of the people of this Province in the 
 premises.” 
 
124 
 
 ROMAN CATHOLICISM IN CANADA. 
 
 Let us hope that justice will speedily be done in the case. If 
 the Jesuits have a legal and moral right to their forfeited estates 
 they should receive them in full, and not a sum of $400,000, pro¬ 
 bably not one-fourth of their whole value.* 
 
 And if they have such a right, Protestants should not receive 
 one cent of these estates. It is simply an act of injustice to give 
 them $60,000 of what, in this case, belongs to others, and an act 
 capable, under the circumstances, of being regarded as designed 
 to silence them. Besides, why should the Jesuits be singled out 
 to receive public money in this fashion, that they may have advan¬ 
 tage over other communities in the Church of Rome? It is a 
 wrong to the Roman Catholics of the Province against which 
 they should protest. It may be said that the act does not put 
 the Jesuits in possession of $400,000, but leaves that sum at the 
 disposal of the Pope ; yet, seeing they have been instrumental in 
 securing the promise of this amount from the public chest, it is 
 most probable that he will give them the lion’s share, should the 
 provisions of the act be carried into effect. 
 
 Finally, if asked what we are to expect in future from the 
 present attitude and position of Romanism in this country, I 
 •cannot better express my view than in the words of my last 
 Report to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in 
 Canada, which report was cordially adopted by the Assembly. 
 I said :—“ It is believed that there are at present two hundred 
 Jesuits in this Province, and that they are likely to be joined by 
 a large number of the order from all parts of the world. It is 
 ascertained from undoubted sources of information, that their 
 general policy is to be more aggressive than heretofore.”—This 
 has since become a matter of history.—“ The Ultramontane 
 spirit is to be thoroughly infused into every channel of ecclesias¬ 
 tical and political activity. Educational and religious appliances 
 of all sorts are to be diligently employed to increase the influ¬ 
 ence of the Virgin Mary and of the Society of Jesus. Wealthy 
 easy-going Protestants, engaged in commercial pursuits and in- 
 
 * “The whole amount of the Jesuits’ lands is 616,500 acres : 48,000 in the district of 
 Montreal, 439,000 in the district of Three Rivers, and 129,500 in the district of Quebec. 
 The value of these estates is not known. The writer was informed in October, 1849, 
 by Mr. Fortier, the commissioner of the Jesuits’ estates, that their value had never been 
 estimated. Notwithstanding the opinion of the commissioner, the writer, in view of 
 the extent, variety and quality of this property, as its value is disclosed by Parliament¬ 
 ary papers, presumes to express the opinion that it may amount to $2,000,000, or 
 $3,000,000, or more.” The same writer gives a detailed list of all the items of said 
 estates as contained in the writ of George III., addressed to the sheriff of the district 
 of Quebec, March 8th, 1800. 
 
 See Jesuits' Estates in Canada , Public Property, by Rev. A. Rankin, A. M. 
 (Montreal, i8po.) pp. 19-27. 
 
REV. PRINCIPAL MACVICAR. 
 
 125 
 
 volved in political movements, are to be conciliated and flattered. 
 They are to be persuaded—which is often an easy task—that 
 the nursing services, educational skill and public charities of 
 nuns, friars and Jesuits far surpass anything they possess within 
 the pale of their own denominations, and, therefore, deserve 
 generous support at their hands. They are to be induced to have 
 influential and astute Roman Catholic laymen and ecclesiastics 
 take part in the management of institutions founded and 
 supported by Protestant money. Their daughters are to be per¬ 
 suaded to avail themselves of the facilities for superior culture in 
 music, painting and modern languages offered in spacious and 
 attractive convents. They are to be assured that their religion 
 will not be interfered with, while, of course, they are required to 
 conform to the rules of these institutions and thus learn to 
 admire the devotion and zeal with which they are conducted. 
 
 Poor and refractory Protestants, who are in the habit of speak¬ 
 ing about the Bible and disseminating it, especially in country 
 districts, are to be quietly driven out. They are to be proscribed 
 in every convenient way. They are to receive no appointments 
 to municipal and other offices, their educational and social privi¬ 
 leges are to be limited as far as possible, and their farms, when 
 offered for sale, are to be purchased by Church funds, and taken 
 possession of by the faithful. The race feeling—so easily 
 excited—is to be carefully cultivated so as to stimulate activity 
 in all these directions ; and the movement is to be pushed, 
 especially in Eastern and Northern Ontario. Already some two 
 or three French Members sit in the Parliament of that Province, 
 and the expectation is that, at next election, four more may be 
 added, and then they may so manage the balance of power as to 
 demand the use of their language on the floor of the House in 
 Toronto, and the printing of papers in French and English. If 
 this is not gained in the near future it is at least never to be lost 
 sight of. The ignorance of Protestants as to the true nature of 
 Jesuitism, their readiness to call for the fullest measure of tolera¬ 
 tion, the laxness with which many of them adhere to the 
 principles of their own historic past, the ease with which they 
 divide into contending factions, the potent aid usually rendered 
 to the cause of Romanism by certain sections of the Protestant 
 press, and especially the eagerness with which political leaders 
 seek to secure the Popish vote—all these are counted on as im¬ 
 portant factors in carrying out this programme.—Meanwhile 
 what are we to do ? 
 
 To break up these intrigues and the present stagnation and 
 oppression the voice of the people themselves must be raised, 
 
126 
 
 ROMAN CATHOLICISM IN CANADA. 
 
 and in order to this they must be enlightened by schools con¬ 
 ducted in a liberal Christian spirit, and by the distribution of 
 the Word of God among them. It is not enough for us to know 
 that they are in large numbers discontented, craving for better 
 education than they now enjoy, and that thousands, perhaps 
 hundreds of thousands of them, nominally in the bosom of the 
 Church, have no confidence in her dogmas. Our duty is to do 
 all in our power to bring them out into the full light of the 
 Gospel, that they may enjoy the civil and religious liberty which 
 is our common heritage under the British flag.” 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 Rev. E. B. Ryckman, D.D., London, Ont. 
 
 It is no discredit to Romanism that, with as much zeal as any 
 church has ever shown, it is endeavoring to push itself forward 
 in the world and to make its claims and pretensions known to 
 men everywhere. Its attitude is aggressive. Aggression is the 
 word. The object set before them by the powers that control 
 and serve that Church is to make it victorious in all lands. This 
 object is to be gained by open, straightforward steps, where such 
 are possible ; if otherwise, then by a series of side-steps, zigzags, 
 and indirections. The system is admirably adapted for the 
 accomplishment of such an object so far as human devices or 
 methods are concerned. Its celibate priests and nuns, brothers 
 and sisters, have no personal interests. Their interests centre in 
 the Church. They are ready for any work or any sacrifice that 
 the Church requires. Moreover, the system is not scrupulous as 
 to the means by which its end is to be reached. According to 
 its notorious code of ethics, anything that will promote the 
 conquests of the Church is permissible and right. As matter of 
 fact and history, craft has been employed of all grades, from the 
 most petty deceits to the most stupendous falsehoods; and for its 
 own votaries, terrorization, by withholding the rites of the church, 
 absolution, the indispensable extreme unction, and, a la Guibord , 
 Christian burial ; and for Protestants, especially converts, perse¬ 
 cution, black-listing, boycotting, mobbing, and occasionally the 
 knife or the bullet, a la Hackett. All these methods have been 
 adopted to advance the cause of the Church, and credit may be 
 claimed in this statement for making it so temperate. 
 
REV. DR. RYCKMAN. 
 
 127 
 
 The aim of Catholicism in Canada is to make Canada Roman 
 Catholic. Methods may vary in different localities. In Ontario, 
 where the majority are Protestant, the contest may go on with 
 soft gloves, in pugilistic phraseology ; in Quebec, without gloves. 
 But there are certain instrumentalities which are almost invariably 
 employed, and generally with powerful effect. 
 
 I. Political Influence: Romanism professes to be a religion. 
 It exists ostensibly for the purpose of helping men to heaven. 
 It tells the Canadian people that it is the only true Church, and 
 that if men would be saved they must come to it. But it must 
 control men. Its votaries must obey the Church. Their voice, 
 vote and influence must be given to the Church at the peril of 
 their souls. The political strength of other churches is divided ; 
 the Roman Catholic vote is solid. If a Roman Catholic occupies 
 a public position of power and influence, he must exert his 
 authority on behalf of the Church. Rome does not blush at 
 dragooning its people into line in political contests. It believes 
 that the head of the Church on earth—the Pope—is the real 
 vicegerent of God ; therefore kings must reign and princes 
 decree justice, laws must be made and nations governed, with 
 reference to him. A Government that would live where there is 
 a considerable Roman Catholic element in the population must 
 meet the wishes of the Church. Politicians,consequently, rival each 
 other in subserviency, nay, servility, to Rome. It was a prophecy 
 in Ontario months ago, that the claim of the Jesuits for the 
 restoration of their forfeited estates, or an equivalent, whether 
 just or unjust, would be conceded ; $400,000 to the Jesuits, 
 and $60,000 to Protestants, for hush money ?—O no ! for Pro¬ 
 testant education—are the fulfilment of the prophecy. What 
 could a Government in Quebec do? What better could a 
 Government in Ontario do ? What did an Ontario Government 
 do ? When Scott’s Marmion had been selected by the provincial 
 authorities as a part of the high school curriculum in English 
 literature, the Roman Catholic Archbishop objected on the 
 ground of alleged reflections on the Church. The text-book was 
 thrown out, as a matter of course, although Scott’s fiction had 
 been a thousand times outdone in cruelty and immorality (the 
 two points of the objection) in the actual history of the Roman 
 Catholic Church. In Boston, Mass., the Board of Education, at 
 the instance of a priest, cast out a text-book on history, and 
 sought to remove a high school teacher, although the teacher’s 
 offence was using a book that the Board itself had placed in his 
 hands, and although the history was true. Such is the power of 
 the Church. Political leaders, the best, strongest, and most 
 
128 
 
 ROMAN CATHOLICISM IN CANADA. 
 
 honest of them, find it impossible to maintain political ascendency 
 without the favor of Rome, and vie with each other in a policy 
 of conciliation, and stand ready to grant Rome’s requests for the 
 consideration of political support. As might be expected in such 
 a condition of affairs, the secular press also is in a state of 
 disgusting truculency to the Church. The organs of the different 
 parties scan each other’s columns with the eye of a lynx, 
 especially when an election is approaching, and if a remark or 
 reference can be found that can be construed into an attack upon, 
 or a disparagement of,theRoman Catholic Church, public attention 
 is immediately called to the insult, and the Church is ostenta¬ 
 tiously defended. The Church recognizes the readiness of the 
 press to crawl in the dust, and takes the obvious advantage. 
 The press, having sold itself out for political support, dares not 
 criticise the Church, while it persistently seeks to influence not 
 only Parliamentary elections, but also mayoralties, reeveships, 
 school trusteeships, and all municipal and civic affairs—all for 
 the ever-remembered end, the advancement of the Church. 
 
 II. Another instrument Rome employs wherever it is socially 
 influential, is the power of social influence and sympathy . 
 Romanists must not be permitted to associate in a social way 
 with the adherents of other churches. They must not enter a 
 Protestant church. The servant must not bow at the family 
 altar with the family she is serving. Marriages must not be 
 allowed between Catholics and Protestants, unless the contract¬ 
 ing parties engage beforehand to adhere to the Church. If at 
 any time one should renounce Romanism the whole sweep of 
 social power is turned against him with unmerciful promptness 
 and persistency. His family are excluded from society, his 
 children become the sport of a neighborhood, his business is 
 boycotted, and in the great majority of instances he is compelled 
 to seek a home elsewhere. Wherever it can be exercised a 
 subtle, cruel, social tyranny is set up in the interest of the 
 Church. • This fact must be considered in accounting for, first, 
 the tenacity with which thousands of Romanists adhere to their 
 Church ; and secondly, the smallness of the number of professed 
 converts in the membership of the French Canadian Missions, 
 because as soon as they renounce Romanism, they must, for the 
 merest purpose of a livelihood, remove to some place beyond 
 the reach of the social tyranny just described. 
 
 III. A third weapon which Romanism wields in its battle for 
 supremacy is the influence which it exerts through the schools 
 under its management. There are its convent schools, chiefly 
 for girls, the superficial advantages of which are so attractive to 
 
REV. DR. RYCKMAN. 
 
 129 
 
 many Protestant parents—the ridiculously low price of tuition 
 given by the Sisters whose services cost nothing, the showiness 
 of the superficial accomplishments taught, the laxity of dis¬ 
 cipline notoriously partial to Protestants and requiring little 
 except attendance upon Catholic worship, rewards and prizes 
 artfully distributed to all, the promises readily made and as 
 readily broken not to interfere with the religious opinions of the 
 pupils—these, and other features of these convent-schools, make 
 them peculiarly dangerous to the young people of the weakly 
 Protestant families that patronize them. Then there are the 
 separate schools for the support of which the public treasury is at 
 command, where, judging from the small number of pupils that 
 reach the High School or the University, the tuition must be 
 pitifully inefficient, or the intellect of the pupils pitifully weak, 
 and where the youth of the country are defrauded of the mental 
 culture which the expenditure entitles the country to expect. 
 Then there are, once more, those schools on the Eastern border 
 of Ontario, where Romanism is encroaching on Protestant 
 ground, and where they are forcing the most incompetent 
 teachers into the schools because they are cheap. The in¬ 
 difference, perhaps it should be said, the antagonism, of Roman¬ 
 ism to the cultivation of the mind is sure to appear whenever 
 and wherever the education of the youth falls into the hands of 
 the Church. 
 
 It cannot be denied that a system with such characteristics is 
 a religion, but it is not Christianity. It is true, it holds, in the 
 main, all the doctrines^ of Christianity, but it overlays every 
 Christian doctrine with such human perversions and corruptions 
 as to nullify its power and destroy its gospel effect. It is indeed 
 a kind of paganism, and has been a curse to every people that it 
 has controlled. What is the least prosperous and happy part of 
 the British domain ? There may be many causes contributing 
 to the deplorable state of Ireland, but Romanism is the cause 
 more than all things else. Spain is the most unknown country 
 in Europe and, perhaps, the most blindly bigoted in the world. 
 Mexico occupies about the same position on this continent that 
 Spain does in Europe. And what of Italy itself? I remember 
 hearing, in this city, many years ago, a lecture by Dr. Ives, a 
 pervert to Rome, once a bishop of the Protestant Episcopal 
 Church in Carolina, in which he sought to repel the charge that 
 the Roman Catholic Church was hostile to education. He 
 counted the number of schools in the holy city, scores and scores 
 of them ; and the number of scholars, thousands upon thousands 
 of them. But after all, when Victor Emmanuel ascended the 
 
130 
 
 ROMAN CATHOLICISM IN CANADA. 
 
 throne of Italy there were 17,000,000 of the people who could 
 neither read nor write. It is a ghastly fact that Rome can 
 multiply schools and yet leave all undisturbed the ignorance of 
 the people. 
 
 Now what can be done to meet and vanquish the evil influ¬ 
 ences of such a system as Romanism in this Canada of ours ? 
 
 (1.) What can be done to nullify its political influence? Can 
 anything be done to rectify politics? Will politics ever become, 
 can politics ever be made, anything better than a trade by which 
 selfish men shall seek to gain a mere livelihood, or a profession 
 by which ambitious men, after having harangued, and wrangled, 
 and given, in the service of their party for a sufficient length of 
 time, may be in circumstances to demand of that party a reward 
 in the form of an office, so that in positions of cushioned lazi¬ 
 ness they may spend the remainder of their days, besides pro¬ 
 viding for a number of their needy friends ? If politics could 
 be redeemed and exalted ; if politicians could not be bribed 
 nor bought, neither by gold, nor by honors, nor by offices, 
 then the power of Rome in this direction could be easily 
 checked. But so long as politics shall continue to be the 
 game of selfish and unpatriotic men, Rome will win in every 
 conflict. I am sorry to say that, but I believe it. Meanwhile 
 let Christian people and true Protestants stand to their rights, 
 and energetically resist, whether effectually or ineffectually, the 
 encroachments of the “ Man of Sin.” When Protestants shall 
 discover that the issues between religion and education on the 
 one side, and superstition and ignorance on the other, are vastly 
 more important than those which commonly separate between 
 political parties, then, perhaps, the Protestant vote also may be 
 solid, and then the political power of Rome will be at an end. 
 
 (2.) Let Protestants make trial of the powerful agency of 
 Christian social influence. The tide of Catholic immigration 
 which rolls upon our shores is divided. Many of those immi¬ 
 grants, mingling with a more intelligent, more independent, more 
 consistently godly class of Christians, lose something of their 
 bigotry, their eyes are enlightened, their hatred of Protestantism 
 is mollified, and many of them are saved. There should be 
 warm hearts and helping hands for those who have renounced 
 Romanism. “ Do good, . . . especially unto those who are 
 
 of the household of faith,” is an exhortation we should heed in 
 this connection. 
 
 (3.) And, finally, spread diligently the light and power of know¬ 
 ledge and salvation. There is nothing that will dispel darkness 
 .but light. Nothing will drive away ignorance but knowledge. 
 
REV. S. N. JACKSON. 
 
 I 3 I 
 
 Nothing will banish error but truth. This in some respects is 
 more important and more mighty than all else. We have the 
 purer form of Christianity. Protestants ought to be visibly more 
 Christlike, more holy, more benevolent, more happy, than any 
 other people. With our more spiritual faith we ought to be so 
 far superior to Roman Catholics in all holiness and Christian 
 activity ; in all kindness, generosity, geniality and love, that the 
 life itself would for ever proclaim the truth and divinity of 
 genuine Protestant Christianity. 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 Rev. S. N. Jackson, M.D., Kingston, Ont. 
 
 Much as has been said about the pernicious influence in the 
 state of the Jesuit Fathers, there is a body of men, and the major¬ 
 ity of them Protestants, whom I fear more than the whole Roman 
 Catholic hierarchy. These are our Political Fathers, or the lead¬ 
 ers in party politics. While I believe there are honest, honorable 
 politicians in all the parties, and many more who would wish to be 
 such, still, party strife has become so rife, and the lust for power 
 so deeply seated, that I fear the danger of the state is the state 
 itself, or, to put it plainly, the condition of party politics. 
 
 The Jesuits are charged with promulgating the principle that 
 the end justifies the means, but where do you find this principle 
 so assiduously practised as in the realm of politics. Add to this 
 the doctrine that a man is bound to follow his party whether it 
 be right or wrong ; and this other article of the political creed, to 
 the victors belong the spoils, which, if unuttered is most forcibly 
 expressed, and you have some of the fundamentals of the modern 
 political faith of all political parties. Have we not cause for say¬ 
 ing that the maxims and manners of the party politicians give 
 greater ground for fear concerning the moral and social securities 
 of the commonwealth than those of any other body of men ? It 
 is this condition of party politics which gives significance to the 
 influence of Romanism in relation to the state. This only makes 
 it possible for any ecclesiastical system to cause peril to the liber¬ 
 ties of a free people in a free state. The reformation we need 
 most of all is the reformation of politics. When, irrespective of 
 creed, the best men are appointed as officers of the Cabinet, as 
 members of Senates and to all offices of trust ; when Romanism 
 
132 
 
 ROMAN CATHOLICISM IN CANADA. 
 
 or any other “ ism ” shall no longer be allowed to have a pre¬ 
 dominate influence because it manages to hold the balance of 
 power either in Ottawa or in any of the Provincial capitals, then, 
 and only then, shall there be equality and absolute security. 
 
 And who are to undertake this moral crusade against the 
 political Saracens of the nineteenth century ? Certainly not the 
 Fathers of the order of Jesus. But who, if not the followers of 
 Jesus, having the watchword, “one is your master, even Christ, and 
 all ye are brethren.” There is great significance in the fact that 
 the partisan press so emphatically declaims against the introduc¬ 
 tion of politics in the pulpit, and so frequently assails the preach¬ 
 er’s exposure of public abuses therefrom. They have cause to fear 
 when the dark ways of political partisans are exposed by and 
 contrasted with the teachings of Jesus Christ. If the pulpit and 
 the religious press will not undertake to create a righteous senti¬ 
 ment in relation to these matters, and make the church of Christ 
 in every sense independent of party politics, what possible hope 
 can we have of this greatly needed reformation ? 
 
 The Separate School System is an inheritance bequeathed to 
 this generation by our politicians which should be put away. Its 
 evil tendencies and dangerous results have already been amply 
 experienced. The use of public funds for sectarian education, 
 especially when the head of the sect or Church is a foreign prince, 
 is and must be subversive to intellectual, social and national pro¬ 
 gress. It is wrong to recognize clans, classes or creeds in any 
 system of national education. 
 
 Some of the oldest Catholic countries, having had experience 
 for many generations of the system of education by ecclesiastics, 
 have found the condition intolerable, and, in spite of every pro¬ 
 test and threat of the hierarchy, are seeking to emancipate their 
 children from ignorance and superstition, and are seeking to pro¬ 
 tect the state by secularizing their public schools and by withdraw¬ 
 ing grants to ecclesiastics. Surely we who are laying the found¬ 
 ations of one of the newest nations in the new world may feel 
 fully justified in calling for a correction of this grave, national 
 error with a voice that shall be heard. 
 
 As a means to bring this about we may be excused if we take 
 a lesson from our Roman Catholic friends and agitate the 
 question. This is what they are doing in the United States now 
 in relation to the same matter, and by this means they accom¬ 
 plished their purpose here. Let the true nationalists in every 
 Province from Nova Scotia to British Columbia so agitate this 
 question until our Public School system shall once more become 
 national and free from all ecclesiastical control. 
 
REV. S. N. JACKSON. 
 
 133 
 
 Here in this large and representative assembly let us begin by 
 uttering a solemn and emphatic protest against the unpatriotic 
 and dishonorable proceedings enacted in the last session of the 
 Quebec Parliament in the name of British law, whereby at the 
 dictation and according to the direction of the Pope, the Pro¬ 
 vincial Treasury was robbed in the interests of Rome. As to the 
 solatium tendered to the Protestants for higher education, as the 
 price of aquiescence or silence, let it be firmly refused, coming as 
 it does in such a connection and form. 
 
 In relation to other matters at issue the limits of our time will 
 not admit of particularizing. Suffice it to say that while we would 
 seek to emphasize the fact that we are ever ready to accord our 
 fellow citizens of the Roman Catholic faith the fullest civil and 
 religious equality, irrespective of national origin, we cannot 
 and will not yield to the assumption of domination or of patroniz¬ 
 ing favor. No power, be it political or ecclesiastical, shall be 
 allowed, either by clan of race or creed of religion, to deprive any 
 portion of the community in any Province of their British right of 
 complete civil and religious equality. 
 
 If this is attempted under cover of treaty rights or of tra¬ 
 ditional privileges, these so-called rights and privileges must be 
 adjusted and harmonized with the age in which we live. This 
 has been repeatedly done in Catholic countries and may be done 
 in this. History repeats itself, and what has been deemed neces¬ 
 sary in the old world may become an imperative necessity in the 
 new. 
 
 Let us never forget that the rights and immunities we claim for 
 ourselves we must always be prepared to accord to others. For 
 instance, members of the Roman Catholic Church have the same 
 right to march in procession through the streets of Toronto and 
 Kingston as have any of our Sunday Schools or the Salvation 
 Army. 
 
 Neither should it be assumed that all intelligent Roman 
 Catholics are oblivious to fair claims of right and justice. The 
 projected statue to the Virgin which it was proposed to erect 
 on Mount Royal, and the act relating to crucifixes in court houses 
 are recent illustrations of this fact, for both were withdrawn 
 because they were obnoxious to the Protestant minority. 
 
 Moreover, we should not fail to note the fact that Roman 
 Catholics have made considerable advance in sentiment in relation 
 to Protestant conscientious principles and the rights of others. 
 There was a time, and that within the memory of many here, 
 when, if a Protestant did not kneel as the procession of Corpus 
 Christi passed through this city he would have to do homage by 
 
134 
 
 ROMAN CATHOLICISM IN CANADA. 
 
 being knocked down, and later, if he would not remove his hat 
 it would be knocked off. To-day the Gavazzi riots could hardly 
 be possible. The venerable Father Chiniquy is now protected 
 in his periodical visits to this city, however emphatically he may 
 denounce the errors of Rome, and even the Salvation Army have 
 not yet secured a martyr. 
 
 While we say this, and say it gladly, the fact remains that the 
 price of our liberty is eternal vigilance. With the strife for power 
 between the political parties and the readiness of the Church of 
 Rome to secure its ends at any price, Protestants and all true 
 citizens must ever be on their guard, never ceasing to watch and 
 pray. 
 
 DISCUSSION. 
 
 Mr. John Patton, New York. 
 
 We cannot forget that we all, ministers and laymen, belong to 
 the Church Militant, and that if the Evangelical Alliance is not 
 aggressive and militant it loses a great part of its aims and 
 objects. In our country we have the like difficulties that you 
 have here, and we have to fight the aggression of Rome, which 
 tries to lay its hands on our institutions, and especially upon our 
 schools. A few years ago, under the specious name of religious 
 freedom, a “ Freedom of Worship Bill ” was introduced into the 
 Legislature at Albany, providing for the appointment of a paid 
 Roman Catholic chaplain to every institution receiving State 
 aid. The Bill was on the point of being carried when the 
 Evangelical Alliance, through our friend Dr. King, took hold of 
 the work. Hundreds and thousands of circulars were sent out, 
 every pastor and every church in the State petitioned against it, 
 and when the Legislature met again at Albany the friends of the 
 measure found that it was killed, and killed through the exertions 
 of the Evangelical Alliance. Again we had another attack from 
 Rome. It was found that there were thousands of children on 
 the streets of New York, and they tried to get a Bill passed, by 
 which every boy and girl picked up on the streets of New York 
 should be sent to a Roman Catholic institution, and trained under 
 priests, unless the parents or legal guardian could prove that the 
 boy or girl was a Protestant. Our friend Dr. King and the 
 Evangelical Alliance are now at work, and we believe that this 
 bill will not be carried in the Legislature. I speak this to show 
 
DISCUSSION. 
 
 135 
 
 the aggressiveness of the Church of Rome, and with the greatest 
 respect to Roman Catholics in the United States, and many noble 
 and admirable men and women there are among them who help 
 in many a good cause. We will protest and fight, however, 
 against the hands of the priesthood and of the Jesuits being laid 
 upon our public institutions, and especially upon our schools. I 
 believe that if any open attack is made upon the school system 
 of the United States that it will be met with a tremendous 
 uprising of the American people—such an uprising as we saw 
 twenty-five years ago, when the Southern slave-holders tried to 
 prop up their institutions in the south, and even to carry them 
 into the free soil of the States, in the north and west. The 
 people then rose in their might, and stamped out for ever the vile 
 institution of human slavery. So it will be if any attempt is 
 made to introduce ecclesiastical control into the public school 
 system, which we regard as the very bulwark of the nation. 
 
 Rev. E. J. Stobo, Quebec. 
 
 It is with extreme diffidence I rise to address you on a subject 
 which has been so ably discussed by the different speakers. I 
 think, however, I have some right to be here on this occasion 
 which so much concerns us. I come from the City of Quebec, 
 the old rock city, with which my name has been connected since 
 1754. I have the highest esteem and a strong affection for my 
 Roman Catholic friends, but I owe very little to Roman 
 Catholicism. Left without father and mother at a very early 
 age, I was cared for by a Roman Catholic family. I know the 
 inner life of the Roman Catholic people, and I know the peculiar 
 difficulties by which they are beset, and I think I have some idea 
 of what Roman Catholicism is, and the methods by which we are 
 able to grapple with it and to overcome it. The first thing I 
 would call attention to is that there must be strength and 
 individual conviction on the part of those who profess the 
 Evangelical belief. God means to reach the convictions through 
 the understanding, and I am thankful for such a paper as we 
 have listened to from the Rev. Dr. MacVicar. If that were sent 
 broadcast over the land it would go a great way towards 
 informing the understanding, and producing intelligent con¬ 
 victions. There is one little book that I would like all the 
 brethren here to get hold of. It is published by the Protestant 
 Defence Association of Great Britain, deals with the political 
 aspect of the question, about which it gives much valuable 
 information, and is entitled “ Under which Sovereign?” Next 
 
136 ROMAN CATHOLICISM IN CANADA. 
 
 to individual conviction we must have household religion, for the 
 family is both the Church and nation. What we need to-day in 
 Quebec Province on the part of those of the Evangelical faith is 
 household religion. I don’t mean family religion, but household 
 religion, because there is often a disposition to put the Word of 
 God in the background for fear of giving offence. Many of our 
 households include those of another faith, and they never hear 
 God’s Word read in the family unless it be by stealth. We, as 
 Protestant Christians, have a golden opportunity here. Let us 
 read God’s Word around the family altar, and let no member of 
 the household be absent. 
 
 We have greatly neglected the French people of this province. 
 We have been in the country since 1759, and what have we done 
 for the people among whom we have lived so long and made 
 our wealth ? What have we done in the way of building up a 
 national life among them ? If we have anything to complain of 
 to-day we are to blame, and not the French people. If we had 
 treated them as brothers from the first, if we had tried to win 
 them for Christ from the first, we should not be in the position 
 that we are to-day. The French are a noble people, and they 
 are worthy of all the affection we can give them, but they have 
 been greatly spoiled by the system under which they have been 
 brought up. You in this city have golden opportunities for 
 advancing this great work, and winning souls for Jesus. Remem¬ 
 ber, if you don’t convert the members of your household they 
 will do the very utmost to convert you and your children. 
 
 A CLERGYMAN : And they sometimes succeed. 
 
 Rev. Mr. Stobo : Yes, they do succeed, and I can give 
 instance upon instance where they have succeeded. Again, not 
 only must there be household religion, but there must be 
 aggressive action. We have been too supine in this matter. 
 Our object, and that of our people, should be to put the Word of 
 God in every home, and with God’s help to get Christ into every 
 heart. In doing this we do not need to say unkind things to the 
 people, we do not need to ridicule the Romish system ; all we 
 have to do is to present Christ, and to present Him in all 
 tenderness and affection. I will give you one incident in my 
 own experience. I had assigned to me a district in which the 
 Roman Catholics were in the majority, and I visited every family 
 in that district. I succeeded in finding an entrance into the 
 homes of twenty-five Roman Catholic families, and I could 
 gather them together and read the Scriptures, and pray with 
 them, without ever having an unkind or disrespectful word said to 
 me. There was one family I did not venture to go near, because 
 
DISCUSSION. 
 
 137 
 
 they told me that so-and-so was a good Catholic, and it would not 
 be well for me to go near there. One day I was passing by and the 
 door was open. I looked in and I saw an old lady at a wash 
 tub. I put my head in the door and said, “ Good morning, 
 granny ” (she was an Irishwoman). “ Wisha good mornin’, sir.” 
 “ May I come in, granny ? ” “ Oh, sure no, you and I cannot 
 
 agree, for we have different religions.” I said, “ Granny, there 
 is only one religion.” “ Sure, you’re right, sir,” said she. I 
 asked, “Granny, do you love the Lord Jesus ?” “ Faith, and I 
 
 do with all my heart.” “ Well,” I said, “ I love the Lord Jesus 
 Christ too, and we are both agreed on that point. Now, granny, 
 if I come in and talk to you about Him would you object ? ” 
 “ Not a bit,” said she. We talked together, and I turned to John 
 and read a chapter, and we knelt down and prayed to the Saviour 
 together, and when I rose from my knees the old lady said, 
 “ You are the first gentleman of your sort that ever came to my 
 house and behaved in that way, and you’re welcome to come in 
 every day and never pass the door.” Other men had gone there 
 and pestered the old lady about purgatory and indulgences, and 
 worshipping the saints ; they had done everything but the right 
 thing ; they had done everything but to present Jesus Christ 
 and Him crucified as the object of faith, and as One whom we 
 have to take into our hearts. That is the attitude we should 
 assume towards our separated Roman Catholic brethren. Give 
 them our love and our confidence, and offer them Christ, but let 
 their system alone. If we can get Christ in, it will crush out 
 everything else. 
 
 Rev. Dr. Burns, Halifax, N.S. 
 
 I think I can draw the line between the system and those who 
 profess it. While we can love our Roman Catholic brethren, we 
 can act as the noble Argyle did, when he said, “ I wish to die 
 with a heart hatred of Popery.” The more we love truth the 
 more we wish to deliver those who are under the influence of 
 that system. I remember in 1854, in old Chalmers church, 
 Kingston, I gave some lectures on the principles and practices of 
 the Jesuits. I think it did good, and although there was a stone 
 thrown at the window behind the pulpit, nobody was hurt. In 
 1876, when Father Chiniquy came to Fort Massey, he and I 
 occupied the pulpit, and the windows were battered with stones, 
 which, as you know, are rather questionable arguments to apply. 
 I do not believe that the prominent Roman Catholics in the 
 community favored that sort of thing. I know the Archbishop 
 
138 ROMAN CATHOLICISM IN CANADA. 
 
 did not. He happened to be away at the time, and when he 
 returned, it almost broke his heart. He felt exceedingly sad about 
 it, and not long after he died, and I attended his funeral. I do 
 feel we can show respect to them, as I honestly do to many of 
 them, while at the same time I feel thoroughly alive to the terri¬ 
 ble evils connected with the system. After doing the damage 
 they did to Father Chiniquy, I appeared in Court against one of 
 them who was caught, and I remember the presiding judge ask¬ 
 ing me, “ did they make a noise ? ” They had not the excuse of 
 being stirred up by what Father Chiniquy said, because they did 
 not hear him. It was the mob outside, for those inside were 
 quiet enough. “Why, my lord,” said I, “they howled like wolves.” 
 The present Chief Justice of Nova Scotia, then a lawyer, defended 
 the prisoner, and after two hours pleading for him the man got 
 off. The fact is, that when I looked at the jury, I expected what 
 the decision would be. Still, I think all this did good, and we 
 got Father Chiniquy back to Fort Massey, and he preached the 
 Gospel in peace. It was the Jesuits that were at the bottom of 
 it, and it is said that two of them were seen in the crowd. A 
 little while after, having found that the Bishop did not like it, 
 they folded their tents like the Arabs and silently stole away. 
 They are coming back now. A good Catholic died and left 
 them an endowment of $100,000, and they have started with a 
 school. A little while afterwards a ritualistic missionary came 
 into our neighborhood, and he began setting up a confessional 
 box. He has since gone over to the Church of Rome ; so it 
 shows the tendency. The balls I fired from Fort Massey did 
 not seem to strike St. Luke’s, but to have gone further. The 
 Archbishop, it is supposed, championed the Roman system, 
 and Bishop Cameron, from down at Arichat, came to his 
 assistance and we had a friendly tilt. I think good was done by 
 that fair, frank, above board discussion. I dread exceedingly 
 this coming back of the Jesuits, and this movement in the 
 Province of Quebec, for we have a little of it in Nova Scotia 
 now. I would like this noble Alliance to endorse the resolu¬ 
 tions of the Presbytery of Montreal. I would like to see some 
 such strong testimony given upon this subject at this time. I 
 would also like to have a resolution in favor of the establishment 
 of Ladies’ Colleges. We have a successful one in Halifax, and 
 I believe it is the best way to counteract the evil of Protestant 
 girls being sent to Romish Convents. With my brother from 
 Quebec, I would like to see that paper of Principal MacVicar’s 
 scattered broadcast throughout the land. I have a great dread 
 
DISCUSSION. 
 
 139 
 
 of the Romish system and its encroachments. Why, a cousin 
 of mine, a brother of the eminent missionary, W. C. Burns, was. 
 won over to Rome and became chief bookseller for the Roman¬ 
 ists in London ; his widow was Lady Superior of a convent, and 
 his son, a bright, sharp, clever fellow, is a Roman Catholic priest. 
 It is singular how they are brought over. We ought to be up 
 and doing. We ought to have our eyes wide open, and while we 
 should speak the truth and cherish the kindest possible feelings 
 for our friends on the other side, we ought to be on our guard 
 against the tactics of Rome as presented by Dr. MacVicar 
 to-day—tactics like that hush-money of $60,000.— 
 
 “Timeo Danaos et Dona ferentes.” 
 
 which may be paraphrased: “I despise the Romans, even though 
 they bring presents.” 
 
 Rev. J. Cooper Antliff, D.D., Montreal. 
 
 After listening to the excellent papers and addresses on 
 Romanism with which we have been favored this morning, the 
 question suggests itself to my mind :—What shall be the 
 practical outcome of our deliberations? In answering this 
 question, I venture to submit that steps should be taken to spread 
 information, that the people may be more fully alive to the 
 dangerous character of the dogmas of Romanism. In the first 
 place let us pay attention to the instruction of the young. Our 
 Protestant youth need to have such literature put in their hands 
 that may guard them from the supposition that, after all, 
 Romanism differs but little from Protestantism, and that in these 
 days of liberal thought, we can afford to be quite indifferent to 
 its propagandism. A good end might be gained by a judicious 
 selection of books bearing on the history, spirit and practices of 
 Romanism being placed in our Sabbath school libraries. During 
 the past week we have been enlargingthe library connected with 
 my own school, and I paid special attention to this matter. 
 Amongst other books, I took care that a large illustrated copy 
 of Fox Book of Martyrs should be obtained, and I requested 
 the librarian to do what he could to get it well circulated 
 amongst the children. We must take care of the young, and in 
 this we may learn a lesson from our enemies. Cardinal 
 Manning, I believe it was, who said : “ Give me children to 
 educate until they are twelve years of age, and you will never 
 make anything of them but Roman Catholics.” Would that 
 
140 ROMAN CATHOLICISM IN CANADA. 
 
 Protestant ministers felt more fully the necessity of making the 
 young of their flocks intelligent Protestants ! But not only do 
 children need instruction but also adults. The course of lectures 
 delivered by Dr. Jenkins, in this city, in the year 1853, is still 
 remembered, and its good effects have not yet ceased ; and 
 similar lectures would be useful at the present time. We have 
 to deal with a wily foe, who aims at attracting by various means, 
 the thoughtless of our community. I am told that not a few 
 Protestants may be found, on Sunday evenings, at the Jesuit 
 Church on Bleury Street, in this city, who are attracted by what 
 is called fine music. Words of warning need to be spoken to - 
 such as are in danger of being inveigled by this or similar 
 attractions. 
 
 Reference has been made to the Jesuits and the recent action 
 of the Provincial Legislature concerning them. I count it 
 amongst my pleasant recollections, that I wrote out the only 
 petitions that*were presented to the Legislature and Senate in 
 Quebec against the bill for their incorporation. I did this on 
 behalf of the Ministerial Association of this city. The Hon. 
 Mr. Mercier took occasion, when the bill was before the House, 
 to refer to the petition, and to express his surprise that ministers 
 in Montreal should meddle in the matter. But, surely, if the 
 Pope of Rome—a foreign minister—had a right to be consulted 
 concerning the bill, the Protestant ministers of Montreal, being 
 citizens of the country affected by the bill, might use their con¬ 
 stitutional right of petition without being charged with being 
 meddlesome. In regard to the money grant to the now incor¬ 
 porated “ Society of Jesus/’ I may say, that I am glad we have 
 a Dominion Parliament to which we can appeal for its disallow¬ 
 ance, and I cordially agree with the last speaker that we should 
 avail ourselves of the opportunity to protest as an Alliance re¬ 
 presenting the various Protestant Churches, against the Pro¬ 
 vincial funds being paid to a society that has been an injury to 
 every country in which it has been allowed to establish itself. 
 Let it be seen that we are alive to the great danger now hanging 
 over this province. 
 
 Before concluding, there is one other matter to which I desire 
 to call attention—the attendance of Protestant girls at convents. 
 I regret that even Methodist young ladies have been sent to 
 such institutions. In my pastoral visitations I have taken 
 occasion to warn parents who have sent their daughters to these 
 institutions, of the insidious influences to which they must inevi¬ 
 tably be exposed. Too high a price is paid for a modicum of 
 instruction in music and painting when the spiritual well-being 
 
DISCUSSION. 
 
 141 
 
 is liable to suffer serious harm. I am glad to say that in at least 
 one or two cases girls have been withdrawn as the result of my 
 representations. 
 
 Rev. Dr. King, New York. 
 
 I believe it is necessary for us to watch and to fight. I believe 
 that we must show the ignorant adherents of Romanism that we 
 have a better religion than they, and that we mean to lead them 
 gently and kindly into the real and saving Christian faith. At 
 the same time, I believe it to be the duty of Protestantism to 
 strike the abominations of popery every time between the eyes. 
 I have come to this conclusion in the presence of the aggression 
 of Romanism, Ritualism, Rationalism, and all other “ isms ” 
 seeking to do wrong. All that the Papal power, under the 
 control of the Jesuits as it is, wants of people who live under a 
 free Government, is to keep still. Two forces that must 
 eventually overcome the power that seeks to destroy civil and 
 religious liberty in Canada, as well as in the United States, are 
 light and courage ; light constantly showing forth the abomina¬ 
 tions of the system. There has never been a period in the history 
 of Governments when the Papal power was so much a political 
 power as it is to-day. There was a time when it could bid 
 emperors and kings kneel in the snow outside the Papal 
 residence. That was simply the bowing down of one man, and 
 not the subjection of free governments and representative 
 institutions. These are what the papal power aims at bringing 
 to the foot of its throne to-day. In our country popery hates 
 light wonderfully, and I feel very much at home when I hear 
 people here talk about politicians being such awfully bad fellows. 
 I wish that more of them would commit crimes against the law, 
 and come on here to be evangelized. Why, to-day, in the midst 
 of our great national struggle, it is an impossibility to get a 
 straight statement concerning the aggression of Romanism into 
 any paper in the United States. I lectured three weeks ago last 
 Monday before the faculty of the New York University, on 
 “Two perils: Secularism and Jesuitism,” and the abominations 
 of reports that went into the newspapers were wonderful. It was 
 not anything like what I said at all. Every reference to the 
 power of Jesuitism as a peril to our institutions, and to the 
 educational system of our country was absolutely misquoted. 
 To add to the sepulchral character of the joke, I received one of 
 the Roman Catholic papers (they send them to me, though I 
 don’t subscribe for them), with an editorial of a column and a 
 
142 
 
 ROMAN CATHOLICISM IN CANADA. 
 
 quarter, based upon the assumption that what was reported in 
 the daily paper was what I said, when it had no reference to 
 anything I said at all. The simple fact of it is : The Press 
 to-day, in our country and in yours, and in Great Britain, is 
 controlled by the Jesuit power. What we want is daylight 
 thrown on the movements of politicians. Brother Patton has 
 told you about the troubles we had in the State of New York 
 over the “ Freedom of Worship Bill.” I wrote, I believe, every 
 editorial that appeared in any of the papers on the subject ; I 
 wrote a good many more editorials than ever appeared. When 
 we went to Albany we could not get the newspapers around the 
 constituencies of those men whose vote concerned our civil and 
 religious liberty to print a syllable, and so we had to do our own 
 printing. But there was one thing we did that had effect. We 
 sent out an appeal to the 4,000 Evangelical ministers to preach 
 a sermon against the aggressions of Romanism. The legislators 
 of Albany went home to spend the Sunday. They are not over 
 particular about attending church, some of them, but their families 
 and their constituents were there, and they thought : What on 
 earth does this mean ! everyone is talking of the aggression of 
 Rome. And when they went back to Albany they found that 
 their constituents were awakened, and accordingly the Bill was 
 rejected. God grant that the Evangelical Alliance shall have 
 the courage—politics or no politics—to declare against all 
 abominations, and against the power that seeks to rule by a 
 hand stretched across the sea. God help us to see that the 
 papal power, absolutely without a place to stand on in Europe, 
 is looking this way to grasp the continent. We may laugh at it 
 as we choose ; we only prove ourselves fools and ignoramuses if 
 we laugh at the idea that this power seeks to grasp the liberties 
 of this entire continent. At Sedan His Holiness met with 
 disaster in Europe. I trust he will find another Sedan all over 
 this land. Let us, self-respecting citizens of different nationalities, 
 be tender and gentle, and Christlike in our relationship to the 
 ignorant and poor misled Roman Catholics. Let us be just as 
 Christlike when we are uncompromising with its Romish 
 system. 
 
 Rev. G. H. Wells, Montreal. 
 
 I feel that the solution of the Romish question is to be found 
 in evangelistic work, which shall reach and so convert our fellow 
 countrymen of the French blood and Roman Catholic faith. We 
 stand here in the very stronghold of the power of Rome. Within 
 the past few months I have passed through Spain, which has been 
 
DISCUSSION. 
 
 143 
 
 spoken of from this platform as a typical Roman Catholic country. 
 I have travelled through it from end to end. I have talked with 
 its people in their own language, I have attended churches, both 
 Protestant and Catholic, and I have endeavored as far as possible 
 in a few weeks to sound their feelings on this and other subjects. 
 I passed on to Italy, and in Rome itself I talked with the people 
 and with foreign residents who have been long there and under¬ 
 stand the condition of affairs. I read the most Ultramontane 
 papers as well as those which represent the new life and liberal 
 feeling of Italy, and I was surprised to find in the Eternal City 
 itself the amount of unrest and disquiet that there is upon that 
 subject of the temporal power of the Pope. Misery makes 
 strange bed-fellows and travelling makes strange companions, and 
 it was a little significant that I happened to be in Rome when 
 the great multitudes of Jubilee pilgrims come from all parts. 
 The Pope was busy receiving presents and congratulations, and 
 he kept Rome in a perfect ferment of excitement all the time I 
 was there by his repeated utterances on the subject of his tem¬ 
 poral power. I do not believe that the Pope is going to get back 
 his temporal sovereignty. It is utterly impossible for him ever 
 to have the Eternal City again within his grasp, and re-united Italy, 
 —the most astonishing evidence of national life that the 19th 
 century has known. Italy will never consent to any such arrange¬ 
 ment. I do not care about the German Emperor’s visit or any¬ 
 thing else. The Pope might as well try to turn the Tiber over 
 the Apennines or endeavor to try to turn the stars from their 
 courses as to get back his temporal power. 
 
 But they say His Holiness will come to Quebec. Well he may 
 do as little harm here as any where else, but we do not want him. 
 In these Roman Catholic countries where I have been, I have seen 
 such a spirit of liberality that I have come to the deliberate judg¬ 
 ment that there is no place on earth so completely within the grasp 
 of the Roman Church as this Province in which we dwell. I believe 
 it is our duty to fight the nearest foe. We are sending our 
 missionaries to China, Japan, and the furthermost part of the 
 earth. Is it not true that we have never yet combated as we 
 ought this great problem which stands before us and is always 
 with us ? The one aggressive influence against Christianity to¬ 
 day is the Roman Catholic Church. It is not Mohammedanism, 
 nor Buddhism, nor Heathenism, but in every centre of Christian¬ 
 ity, wherever the great fight for civilization and progress and 
 liberty is going forward, there is one sleepless enemy always on 
 the watch, always fighting against human progress and welfare. 
 Let us thank God that he has placed us in this fortress of the 
 
144 
 
 ROMAN CATHOLICISM IN CANADA. 
 
 enemy to battle against it. Are we to be discouraged ? No 1 
 It is sad to work for the evangelization of our fellow country men 
 and then when they are converted to have them go to the States 
 as they do. We cannot surrender. If we convert 40,000 French 
 Canadians and every one of them leaves the country we will have 
 40,000 less Roman Catholics in Canada to fight against. Whether 
 we annex the States or not and thus get them all back, God has 
 given us the work to do and we must do it. 
 
 Brother Stobo fears that some day there may be no Protestant 
 Church in Quebec. It certainly looks as if there might be no 
 English speaking Church, as that element of the population is 
 dying out; but let us have some French-speaking Protestant 
 Churches there, and when every English speaking citizen shall 
 have left, in the old fortress city there shall be the flag of Protest¬ 
 antism uplifted by the descendants of those splendid pioneers 
 who first came for the discovery and subjugation of this land. 
 We are well able to do it. If we cannot do it there is no use call¬ 
 ing ourselves Christians. It is this for which we desire to set 
 forth the facts, to arouse the sympathies and secure the co-opera¬ 
 tion of our brethren from abroad, to inspire us with courage in 
 the task, so that we may devote ourselves to it as we never did 
 before. 
 
 The Doxology was sung and the session closed. 
 
COMMUNION SERVICE. 
 
 The Communion Service in connection with the Conference 
 was held in the Dominion Square Methodist Church on 
 Wednesday, October 24th, at 2 p.m. Notwithstanding the 
 pouring rain the service was numerously attended, all the 
 denominations being represented. The Rev. J. C. Antliff, D.D., 
 pastor of the church, presided, and opened the service by giving 
 out the hymn, “ According to Thy gracious word.” The Right 
 Rev. Bishop Ussher having offered prayer, the Rev. R. F. Burns, 
 D.D., of Halifax, N.S., delivered the address before the distribution 
 of the elements, in substance as follows :— 
 
 We are gathered here to-day from all parts of this wide 
 Dominion, representing the Church of Christ in her various 
 departments, around the table of our common Lord, to partake 
 of the significant symbols of the common salvation. This feast 
 is a mirror. It reflects truth, the truth as it is in Jesus, the 
 leading doctrines that centre in Him; His divinity, His humanity, 
 His atonement, the truths that “ are most surely believed 
 amongst us,” are here. We look back to His first advent and 
 forward to His second. His feast is a memorial, a monument of 
 the most gracious person that ever lived, and the most glorious 
 event that ever happened. We do this in remembrance of Christ. 
 We show forth the Lord’s death till He come. This feast is a 
 medium, a medium of communion with the Saviour and the 
 saints. Truly, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son 
 Christ Jesus, while we realize fellowship one with another, and 
 the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleansing us from all sin. 
 
 Here we declare ourselves anew to be His. 
 
 “ He redeemed me, he redeemed me, he redeemed me,” was 
 the answer of a Southern slave whose freedom was purchased by 
 a Northern philanthropist, and who became a servant in his 
 house. Friends visiting the family, and marking her singular 
 fidelity, would sometimes enquire into her history. Her eyes 
 would fire and her heart heave as, pointing to her new master, 
 she thus uniformly replied. And have we been redeemed, not 
 with corruptible things such as silver and gold, but with the 
 precious blood of Christ, and shall we not anew confess, as we 
 come afresh to the altar of God (for we have an altar), “ Lord, I 
 am Thy servant, I am Thy servant; Thou has loosed my bonds.” 
 
 K 
 
146 
 
 COMMUNION SERVICE. 
 
 “ Wherever you go, Sir, I am yours ; every drop of my blood 
 thanks you, for you have had compassion on every drop of it,” 
 cried a poor condemned criminal to whom Philip Doddridge 
 brought a pardon, bearing the sign manual of the king. 
 
 If, from being “ condemned already,” “ there is to us now no 
 -condemnation ; ” if He who has been anointed to proclaim the 
 opening of the prison doors to the bound has bought us and 
 brought us our pardon, should we not all feel thus : “ Wherever 
 you go, O my Saviour, I am yours ; every drop of my blood 
 thanks you, for you have had compassion on every drop of it.” 
 “ Thou hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood.” Therefore are 
 we not our own ? Bought as we are with a price, we feel bound 
 to glorify Him in our bodies and spirits, which are His. The 
 eyes for Jesus, to scan the glories of His world, and to pour with 
 deep and delighted interest over the treasures of His Word ; the 
 ears for Jesus, sensitive to catch every communication from the 
 skies, and every Macedonian cry that is wafted on the breeze ; 
 the lips for Jesus, breathing filial Abbas into the ears of the 
 listening Father, and speaking a word in season to him that is 
 weary ; the hands for Jesus, ready to distribute, willing to com¬ 
 municate ; the feet for Jesus, joying when it is said let us go to 
 the House of the Lord, let us watch with Him one hour at the 
 prayer meeting ; going through the streets and lanes of our towns 
 and cities, and drawing from the lips of the children of suffering 
 and sin, in cellars deep and garrets high, the exclamation : 
 “ How beautiful in these dark dens of ours the feet of them that 
 bring the good tidings ! ” The head for Jesus, to think of Him ; 
 the heart for Jesus, to love Him ; the time for Jesus, the talents 
 for Jesus, the treasure for Jesus, the influence for Jesus, the all 
 for Jesus. This is what our present profession means, and if to 
 any good practical purpose we realize Jesus in the midst, and 
 sitting down, watch Him there, if we have caught the glance of 
 His melting eyes and the grasp of His nail-pierced hands, the 
 feeling welling up within us will thus find vent :— 
 
 “ Were the whole realm of nature mine, 
 
 That were a present far too small, 
 
 Love so amazing, so divine, 
 
 Demands my soul, my life, my all.” 
 
 The elements having been distributed by the clergymen, who 
 had been appointed for that purpose, the Rev. John Potts, D.D., 
 of Toronto, delivered an address, which was in substance as 
 follows :— 
 
 Behold how good and how pleasant a thing it is that brethren 
 
COMMUNION SERVICE. 
 
 147 
 
 should dwell together in unity. This is a very remarkable 
 service, and the thought has just been impressed on my mind 
 that it is a service well-pleasing in the sight of our Glorified 
 Lord. We are not one whit the less denominational, we have 
 not one whit the less a choice in Church Government now than 
 before we came into this Evangelical Alliance Sacramental 
 Service, and yet I venture to say to-day that each heart throbs 
 in sympathy with the other. We are in Christ Jesus. 
 
 Presbyterianism, Episcopalianism and Methodism, and all 
 those human expressions we have for religious belief seem very 
 little different in principle in view of the Glorious Atonement 
 and in the acceptance of the Glorious Coming of our Lord and 
 Saviour Jesus Christ. These human organizations seem very 
 insignificant to-day in view of the anticipation that when we are 
 done with earth, we shall all sit down at the Marriage Supper 
 of the Lamb. My own heart was greatly impressed with the 
 loving and tender words of Dr. Burns. I am sure you join me 
 in the feeling to-day that we each bear for the other nothing but 
 love and esteem. 
 
 “ He brought me to His banqueting house, and His banner 
 over me was love.” Oh, dear brethren, let us go forth, not only 
 from this Sacramental Service, but from this Evangelical 
 Alliance Meeting with renewed and enlarged and more practical 
 consecration to the service of Christ and his Church, and may 
 the presence of the Master be with us in every department of 
 His great service. 
 
 As I came over to the service this afternoon, and as I thought 
 of it, there is one passage of the Second Ephesians which im¬ 
 pressed itself on my mind, “And hath raised us up and made us 
 sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” It is remark¬ 
 able that the “ heavenly places in Christ Jesus” are everywhere. 
 Yet the Providence of God allots us our place. There are 
 “heavenly places in Christ Jesus” in the workshop, in the 
 counting-house, behind the counter, and in the discharge of the 
 various legitimate duties that devolve on us ; but, I suppose I 
 should not hazard anything in saying, that in a peculiar sense, 
 we sit together, to-day, “in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” 
 Oh ! it is a more blessed thing to be in Christ Jesus than in any 
 section of His Church on Earth, and if we can serve Him, 
 whether in the Anglican, or Presbyterian, or Baptist, or Congre¬ 
 gational, or Methodist Church, we be as distinct as the billows 
 yet one as the sea. 
 
 The hymn, “ Rock of Ages,” was sung with great fervor, and 
 the Rev. Dr. Antliff closed the meeting with prayer. 
 
WEDNESDAY, 24th OCTOBER, 1888. 
 
 AFTERNOON SESSION. 
 
 The Rev. T. Lafleur, President of the French Branch of 
 the Evangelical Alliance, Montreal, occupied the chair. 
 
 The hymn, commencing “ The Church’s one foundation,” was 
 sung, and the Rev. Dr. Torrance, of Guelph, offered prayer. 
 
 TOPIC: ROMANISM IN RELATION TO EDUCATION. 
 
 CHAIRMAN’S ADDRESS. 
 
 Rev. T. Lafleur, Montreal. 
 
 Dear Brethren .—The Evangelical Alliance, especially in its 
 present attitude, seems to stand in complete antagonism with 
 Roman Catholicism, as though recognizing nothing good, and 
 no one as truly Christian in the whole body of that form of 
 Christianity. But our meeting at this time, and particularly on 
 this day—even with its programme and the whole array of its 
 essays and speeches—must not convey that meaning, for it is 
 not intended to convey it. 
 
 We have gathered here as brethren in Christ, having become 
 such by a now grateful knowledge of His words and of His 
 work, handed down to us by faithful disciples through long ages ; 
 and also professing to have felt in our souls the converting and 
 saving power of the spirit of God. It is in acknowledgment 
 of all this, and in the glorious hope of an immortal life beyond, 
 that we have come together here, for a few days, not as Churches, 
 or as denominations, but as individual Christians, inviting all 
 other individual Christians to join us in the expression of our 
 faith, of our love, and of our immortal hopes. If, therefore, any 
 Christian of any Church, Protestant, Greek, or Roman Catholic, 
 can feel at liberty to join us, he is heartily welcome. 
 
 In giving expression to our faith in the doctrines that seem to 
 us clearly to result from the study of the Word of God, we do 
 not do so in a spirit of condemnation of those who see these 
 
chairman’s address. 
 
 149 
 
 important questions in other lights than we do, nor with a view to 
 excluding them from our fellowship, and as implying that they 
 are necessarily not in fellowship with Christ ; but we meet as 
 those who yearn for and seek union in what they regard as 
 essential in Christian belief and practice. 
 
 There may even be some among us who have strained a point 
 to meet the exact or exacting expression of others, thus making 
 spiritual Christian union a more essential bond of brotherhood 
 than intellectual conformity; and believing with the great 
 apostle, that the letter killeth sometimes, the Spirit of Christ 
 never. If in the human family, blood is thicker than water, in the 
 Christian brotherhood, spirit is stronger than flesh, blood, or in¬ 
 tellectual acumen, for it is the spirit of charity, of the higher 
 family of God. 
 
 Our position as Protestants, or rather as Evangelical Chris¬ 
 tians, for we evangelize and affirm more than we protest, is in 
 the matter of belief and practice very different from the attitude 
 of the Roman Catholic Church. She claims to possess absolute 
 knowledge of absolute truth, in order to justify her intolerance, 
 and maintains that she alone has the authority to coerce others 
 into her own belief and practices. This anti-Christian and anti¬ 
 human pretension she has put into practice whenever she has 
 had the power to do so. Some writers in that Church declare 
 that times have changed her disposition in that respect ; that 
 she has been modified by Christian and humanizing civilization ; 
 that she would not persecute to-day, even if she had the oppor¬ 
 tunity to do so. Others as boldly affirm that she would, and 
 that it would be for the good of the world and the glory of God. 
 This only shows us that in that Church there is no real unity of 
 thought ; and in no case can this give us the assurance as to 
 what we are to expect, to hope, or to fear from her spirit or 
 action. 
 
 What we require and demand from that Church is that her 
 highest authority shall give us a clear and final dictum in the 
 matter. I suppose we must consider the Syllabus as the expres¬ 
 sion of that authority. The Syllabus is clearly her most recent 
 declaration, and it is the dictum of an exclusive and intolerant 
 Church. We could pardon a religious body for having been 
 intolerant, when almost everybody was more or less intolerant, 
 and did not seem to understand liberty of thought in religious 
 matters. We can even understand cruelty in a Church, at a time 
 when humanity at large was still coarse and ignorant, and when 
 the spirit and light of the Apostolic age were dimmed by the 
 thick darkness of the Middle ages, and only flickered here and 
 
150 ROMANISM IN RELATION TO EDUCATION. 
 
 there in monastic retreats ; when the Divine leaven of the 
 Kingdom of Christ was for a time smothered under the mass of 
 the unconverted hordes that filled the Church : but in the light 
 and religious life of our day, we postulate and exact that a 
 Church, to be considered a sister Church, shall give us a clear 
 and unmistakable expression that she will never coerce or perse¬ 
 cute, that she does not profess to have the monopoly of religious 
 truth and of the Holy Spirit This she does not say, and has 
 never said through an authorized organ. It is not security for 
 other Christians to be told clearly by such and such a writer 
 of the Catholic press, author of pamphlet or book, or in the 
 ambiguous speech of a bishop, cardinal or ablegate, that their 
 Church is in favor of religious liberty and never intends to 
 persecute ; we want the head of the Church to say so ; and until 
 he says it we shall not feel that our Churches have a sister in 
 her. We all know that she proclaims herself the aged mother 
 whom all the other churches must obey. The pretension which 
 this respectable comparison contains has had a wonderful 
 success and influence ; but comparisons do not always contain 
 the highest reason of things. We all respect mothers for what 
 they are and have been ; but if the most venerable of mothers— 
 some twelve hundred years old—should tell her daughters that 
 she has never made a mistake in all her long life, the daughters 
 would wisely look at each other with a strong suspicion that the 
 memory or the reason of the aged parent was giving way. 
 
 We may add that those sisters have come of age, and also 
 form their opinion, well grounded, of their own knowledge and 
 wisdom ; so much so, indeed, that they would never dream of 
 thinking themselves infallible. But the Church of Rome urges 
 this claim for herself, and consequently cannot admit having 
 made mistakes or committed wrongs ; such admission would 
 destroy the fabric of her imaginary power of infallibility and 
 authority. She must then remain bound up and enslaved in the 
 system of her inhuman and anti-Christian logic, and die by it. 
 
 For a while yet, she will live by enslaving minds and hearts in 
 the idea that she alone can give peace and rest to the weary,— 
 unsettled by the scientific and theological discussions of the day; 
 but those who have any knowledge of the history of Christianity, 
 know that she has been the fostering mother of scepticism and 
 infidelity more than all the other Churches put together. 
 
 We have friends and brethren among Roman Catholics, and 
 we desire to keep them, and to increase the number of them, but 
 we know that our sympathy can be shared only by individual 
 members of that Church, and those among the laity and subordin- 
 
chairman’s address. 
 
 151 
 
 ates. Her leaders are the sworn enemies of our liberties and our 
 principles. They are the enemies of our free institutions, of the 
 personal study of the Holy Scriptures, of our principle of the 
 right of private judgment, and especially of our schools and free 
 churches. 
 
 Our Alliance is not formed as against the Church of Rome, 
 and with the special purpose of combatting her ; it is formed by 
 personal adherence to express our Christian brotherhood, and 
 wherever it is called to suffer from her intolerance we raise our 
 united voice. Our Protestantism is constantly accused by her of 
 being the father of all the sects in Christendom. We do not 
 love sects any more than she does, because in our most spiritual 
 moods we dislike all imperfections. But there is more sound 
 sense, more true theology, and far more religion in the Christian 
 forbearance of sects than in condemnation of them by the ques¬ 
 tionable standard of an absolute knowledge of the truth. 
 
 The leaders of the Roman Catholic Church, which is now a 
 sect by the side of other sects, should know better than to cavil 
 or to rejoice with an evil joy at the sight of differences of 
 opinion even among the best, the purest and the most en¬ 
 lightened Christians, because it is the fate of different minds, of 
 different forms of culture, to differ in their conceptions of revealed 
 truth. That it was strikingly so in the primitive and Apostolic 
 Church cannot be denied. Divine light passing through a variety 
 of human prisms is necessarily colored and distorted ; only one 
 man was so perfect, so pure and so transparent, as to have been 
 the “ Light of the World.” 
 
 Our conviction is that the authorities of the Roman Church 
 must regret to see the successful attempts we are making to bring 
 our different Protestant bodies into a larger unity of fellowship 
 and brotherhood. We are increasing in unity by voluntary 
 adhesions, while she is decreasing while decreeing uniformity, 
 and is more and more showing signs of disintegration. 
 
 The Christian world is moving and enlarging in spite of the 
 Syllabus : true Christianity will expand in sister churches, which 
 by the power of the Spirit of Christ will become more and more 
 transformed, even here below, as the visible body of Him whose 
 image we must become. 
 
 Our aim is to unite our efforts at reaching the highest, deepest, 
 largest expression of our Christian belief and sentiment, and to 
 draw as many as we can of the Christian brotherhood to the 
 feet of the Divine Master, to learn of Him, as we can learn 
 nowhere else. 
 
 First, we gather around him, on the Mount of Galilee to listen 
 
152 
 
 ROMANISM IN RELATION TO EDUCATION. 
 
 to the first of all sermons, and the model for all beginners in the 
 preaching of the Gospel of the grace of God ; then on the 
 Mount of Golgotha, to learn at the foot of the cross the great, 
 the awful lesson of God’s love which does not spare the beloved 
 Son, the innocent and Holy Victim, giving His life to save 
 sinners and wicked men ; and, finally, we gather on the Mount of 
 Olives to behold the First Born of the Grave, the sublime and 
 Divine Brother who ascends to the Father of us all. 
 
 Who is there then climbing those heights towards the Master, 
 Saviour and Brother, realizing how far he is himself from the 
 summit, who, I say, thus climbing, can look down or around with 
 anger, hatred or contempt upon a struggling, suffering, praying 
 brother who may have taken another path, which he thinks the 
 best to reach the same summit to meet a common Lord ! All 
 those who ascend belong already to the same family of God. 
 
 I have now much pleasure in introducing to you the Rev. Dr. 
 James M. King, of New York. 
 
 ROMANISM IN RELATION TO EDUCATION. 
 
 Rev. Jas. M. King, D.D., New York. 
 
 Against the Holy Catholic Church in its educational work we 
 have nothing to say, but against the Roman Catholic Church, 
 under Jesuit control in these directions, we have the continuous 
 indictment of history. The Holy Catholic Church in her teach¬ 
 ings, has converted barbarians into Christians ; has liberated 
 bondmen ; has subjugated tyrants ; has built noble temples of 
 worship ; has nurtured learning ; has built hospitals ; has in¬ 
 spired men and women to lives of devotion and suffering for 
 man’s help and for God’s glory. The Roman Catholic Church 
 in her teachings has employed all these virtues of the Holy 
 Catholic Church for base ends. It has sought to educate the 
 world back to pagan rites and worship. It falsifies history to 
 promote its own wicked ends. It teaches intolerance. It 
 educates its adherents to disloyalty to governments and rulers 
 not subject to a Jesuit-controlled Pope. Its relation to educa¬ 
 tion has put a premium on lying concerning the facts and 
 teachings of history and Scripture. Liguori says : “ The 
 Scriptures and books of controversies may not be permitted in 
 the vernacular language ; as also they cannot be read without 
 permission.” 
 
REV. DR. JAMES M. KING. 
 
 153 
 
 Education ought to give a man a ready spiritual apprehension 
 of noble ideas, a generous loyalty to truth, a vital sympathy 
 with the needs of mankind. Jesuitism warps all of these essen¬ 
 tials to a genuine education. 
 
 Every man holds, all his powers in trust, and the office of 
 education is to train the intelligence and quicken the conscience, 
 that the will may be rightly directed in man’s life-work. 
 Jesuitism makes a captive of the will, and by it brings the other 
 powers into unquestioning and unenlightened obedience. Right 
 education makes men aspire to ideas and convictions, and gives 
 breadth of view, mental scope, force of will and distinctness of 
 purpose. Jesuitism forges the chains of unchanging custom, and 
 bolts the doors against the visits of new ideas. 
 
 ESSENTIAL RELATIONSHIP OF JESUITISM TO EDUCATION AND 
 
 GOVERNMENT. 
 
 Lafayette, himself a Romanist, but not a bigot, whose sword 
 helped to carve out the liberties of the United States, said;—“If 
 the liberties of the American people are ever destroyed they will 
 fall by the hands of the (Jesuit) Roman clergy.” And often 
 remarked, “ If anything disturbs your liberties, look for the 
 invisible hand of the Jesuit.” 
 
 Control of the education of the teachers of the people has 
 been the policy of the Jesuits at different periods for centuries. 
 They have sought to overcome by logic the spirit of free thought. 
 Luther, born in 1483,^ monk who left the cloister to lead the 
 world to liberty ; and Loyola, born in 1491, a man of fortune 
 and military renown, who left the world for the cloister, to devise 
 plans to make men bondsmen, were the leaders of two rival 
 systems of education that have been contending ever since for 
 the supremacy in every country under the sun. That of Loyola 
 has always been antagonistic to the established schools, colleges 
 and universities in every country where it has gained a foothold ; 
 and always antagonistic to the established government, unless the 
 government became subject to the Papal power. The one sys¬ 
 tem of education has represented liberty, the other authority. 
 One, the right of progress, the other legitimacy: one, privilege, 
 the other prerogative. 
 
 Only ten years after the establishment of their order the 
 Jesuits asked permission of Henry II. to establish schools in 
 Lrance. The king asked the advice of the University authorities, 
 the crown lawyers, and the Bishop of Paris, and they all 
 
154 
 
 ROMANISM IN RELATION TO EDUCATION. 
 
 condemned the order as possessed of dangerous power. The 
 faculty of the University used the following language :—“ This 
 new society appropriates particularly to itself the unusual title of 
 the name of Jesus ; it receives with great laxity and without any 
 discrimination all kinds of persons, however criminal, lawless, 
 and infamous they may be ; it withdraws from obedience and 
 submission due to ordinaries ; it unjustly deprives both temporal 
 and spiritual lords of their rights ; it brings disturbance into 
 every form of government. The faculty of teaching youth 
 should neither be granted nor continued, but to those who seem 
 inclined to maintain peace in the schools and tranquility in the 
 world.” 
 
 Liberty and nobility of national character in the Old World 
 have always asserted themselves when Jesuitism has been 
 expelled from the seats of learning, and liberty and nobility of 
 national character have always taken their flight when Jesuitism 
 has been enthroned in the schools. 
 
 The members of this politico-religious order have controlled 
 substantially the world by intrigue. They have preserved their 
 identity while governments have fallen. The order has been 
 dissolved by Popes again and again, and then restored to power. 
 They have been banished from every European nation as foes 
 of civil government. The present Pope Leo XIII. has again 
 restored them to power. The church authorities have always 
 feared them, and while they have hated them have eaten the 
 fruits of their unscrupulousness. They alter their methods to 
 suit the changing times. Science was once their weapon ; they 
 now appeal to ignorance. Court intrigue was formerly their 
 arena ; they now mix in political party machinery. The means 
 are changed, but the aim is the same, viz., to stop the progress 
 of civilization and enslave mankind under the yoke of the Pope ; 
 and the Syllabus and the dogma of infallibility are among their 
 latest achievements. 
 
 In their ends, aims, methods and results, their system,—so the 
 members of this order stoutly claim,—has not been modified in 
 any essential particular. The end they propose in their collegiate 
 instruction is the education of a ruling class, not of the common 
 people. They would remove out of the way, or supplant any 
 common school system, and restrict, if possible, higher education 
 to the control of the church. And this for two reasons : that 
 their order might gain the mighty power of a secret and exclusive 
 band in creating for themselves an overshadowing educational 
 system ; that through this means they may form a public 
 opinion which shall enable them first to control government 
 
REV. DR. JAMES M. KING. 
 
 155 
 
 patronage, and thus to gain control over their own as well as 
 other churches. To those ends every feature of their school and 
 college systems is made to tend. Speaking as a citizen of the 
 United States, I say Ultramontanism means Jesuitism, and it 
 can never be American. It owes and teaches allegiance to a 
 foreign potentate and power. The revised Statutes of the United 
 States declare :—“ The alien seeking citizenship must make oath 
 to renounce for ever all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince , 
 potentate , State , or sovereignty , in particular that to which he has 
 been subject.” 
 
 The United States’ Constitution assumes that no foreign 
 potentate whatever shall be permitted to dictate to us in matters 
 of politics, of society, of legislation, of jurisprudence, of education, 
 or of government in any of its forms. 
 
 But the Pope says in a recent encyclical :—“ The Romish 
 Church has a right to exercise its authority without any limits 
 set to it by the civil power.” . . . “ The Pope and the priests 
 ought to have dominion over the temporal affairs.” . . . “ The 
 Romish Church and her ecclesiastics have a right to immunity 
 from civil law.” . . . “ In case of conflict between the ecclesiastical 
 and civil powers the ecclesiastical powers ought to prevail.” 
 
 Gladstone’s comment on the encyclical is :—“ Rome requires 
 a convert who joins her to forfeit his moral and mental freedom, 
 and to place his loyalty and civil duty at the mercy of another.” 
 
 Cardinal McClosky, of New York, said :—“ Nationalities must 
 be subordinate to religion, and we must learn that we are 
 Catholics first and citizens next. The Catholics of the United 
 States are as strongly devoted to the maintenance of the 
 temporal powers of the Holy Father as Catholics in any part of 
 the world, and if it should be necessary to prove it by acts, they 
 are ready to do so.” 
 
 Thus it is patent that there are irreconcilable differences 
 between Jesuit principles and the principles of free government. 
 Free government is self-government. Individuals so bound that 
 they are incapable of self-government, cannot be loyal citizens of 
 a republic, or of any constitutional government. 
 
 THE CHARACTER AND RESULTS OF SOME JESUIT TEACHINGS. 
 
 What are some of the dangerous elements which enter into 
 the instruction of Ultramontane schools ? I quote from a text¬ 
 book, issued by the “ Catholic Publication Society ” in New 
 York, Baltimore, and Cincinnati, pp. 97-104 :— 
 
 “ Q. Have Protestants any faith in Christ ? 
 
 “A . They never had. 
 
156 ROMANISM IN RELATION TO EDUCATION. 
 
 “ Q. Why not ? 
 
 “A. Because there never lived such a Christ as they imagine and believe in. 
 
 “ Q. In what kind of a Christ do they believe ? 
 
 “A. In such a one of whom they can make a liar with impunity, whose doctrine 
 they can interpret as they please, and who does not care what a man believes 
 provided he be an honest man before the public. 
 
 “ Q. Will such a faith in such a Christ save Protestants ? 
 
 “A. No sensible man will assent to such an absurdity. 
 
 “ Q. What will Christ say to them on the Day of Judgment ? 
 
 “A. I know you not, because you never knew me. 
 
 “ Q. Are Protestants willing to confess their sins to a Catholic bishop or priest, 
 who alone has power from Christ to forgive sins ? ‘ Whose sins you shall forgive 
 
 they are forgiven them.’ 
 
 ei A. No; for they generally have an utter aversion to confession, and therefore 
 their sins will not be forgiven them throughout all eternity. 
 
 “ Q. What follows from this ? 
 
 “ A. That they die in their sins, and are damned.” 
 
 What relationship can persons thus instructed sustain to their 
 Protestant countrymen ? What do you think now of the right 
 of the people, who give character to American civilization, to 
 demand that text-books and teachers of such schools, if either 
 chartered or aided by Government, should be subject to Govern¬ 
 ment inspection ? Is the proposed University at Washington 
 to receive a charter from the United States Government to 
 disseminate such doctrine as this ? Oh for a baptism of national 
 self-respect! 
 
 But what are the results of these and kindred teachings ? 
 The Jesuit morality taught in the Parochial Schools by Roman 
 Catholic text-books leaves no further explanation necessary of 
 the following statistics gathered from the census. It seems that 
 there are furnished to every 10,000 inhabitants in the United 
 States :— 
 
 Illiterates. Paupers. Criminals. 
 
 By Public Schools of State of Massachusetts.. 71 69 11 
 
 By Public Schools of 21 States. 350 170 75 
 
 By Roman Catholic Schools. 1,400 410 160 
 
 In the state of New York the Roman Catholic parochial school 
 system turns out three and a half times as many paupers as the 
 public school system. A word from Macaulay upon the effect 
 produced by Ultramontane education may here prove instructive. 
 “ Under its power,” he says : “the loveliest and most fertile pro¬ 
 vinces of Europe have been sunk in poverty, political servitude, 
 and intellectual torpor.” 
 
 The Catholic Review (of April, 1871) thus explains the reasons 
 why it does not provide even the simplest elements of education : 
 “We do not indeed prize as highly as some of our countrymen 
 appear to do, the ability to read, write and cipher. Some men 
 are born to be leaders, and the rest are born to be led. The best 
 
REV. DR. JAMES M. KING. I 57 
 
 ordered and administered state is that in which the few are well 
 educated and lead, and the many are trained to obedience.” 
 
 The third Plenary Council of Baltimore, 1884, declared:— 
 “ Parochial schools must be founded in every parish, where it is 
 possible to do so. No one must attend these public schools in 
 which the faith of children is endangered or compromised by 
 sectarian teaching or practices. The common schools may be 
 frequented, whenever there is good reason to do so, of which 
 reason the bishop is the proper judge.” . . . Archbishop Corrigan, 
 in announcing this edict of the Council, said : “ The Plenary 
 Council has laid down that wherever there is a Catholic Church 
 and resident pastor, there also, within two years from the pro¬ 
 mulgation of the council, except only in cases of extreme diffi¬ 
 culties, of which the bishop shall be the judge, a Catholic school 
 shall be erected and a board of visitors appointed, who will make 
 a tour of inspection once or twice a year, and submit to the bishop 
 an official report.” And the Catholic Review said : “ There is no 
 longer a school question for Catholics : it is closed. The door 
 of discussion is closed, locked and bolted, and barred by the 
 Plenary Council.” And now an advance is made all along the 
 line for a division of the public school funds to support parochial 
 schools. 
 
 Jesuitism has never favored the education of the masses. In 
 its relation to them it has carried out the spirit of its proverb : 
 “ Ignorance is the mother of devotion.” Compelled in Protestant 
 countries in self-defence to open schools of its own, its real 
 attitude towards the education of the masses is ascertained from 
 its course in the countries where its sway is undisputed, and where 
 it has forged the chains of ignorance upon the people. In Italy 
 73 per cent, of the population are illiterate ; in Spain 80 per cent. ; 
 and in Mexico 93 per cent. 
 
 Dr. Brownson, the most learned pervert Romanism has secured 
 in this country, says of the character of the education given by 
 his own ecclesiastical organization : “We educate not for the 
 present or the future but for a past which can never be restored, 
 an order of things which the world has left behind, for it could 
 be reproduced, if at all, only by a second childhood ; and it has 
 no root in the life of the nation, and as an inferior civilization it 
 has done much to corrupt and lower our civilization and morals.” 
 The foreignism which Roman Catholics bring with them and per¬ 
 petuate in their foreign colony is uncatholic and antagonistic to 
 the American idea, and has done more injury to the American 
 idea of civilization than the Catholicity they also bring with them 
 has done good.” The text that inspired these comments must 
 
iS8 
 
 ROMANISM IN RELATION TO EDUCATION. 
 
 t 
 
 have been found in the following utterance of Pius IX.: “ The 
 absurd and erroneous doctrines or ravings in defence of liberty 
 of conscience are a most pestilential error, a pest of all others, 
 most to be dreaded in a state.” 
 
 TEACHINGS FROM STANDARD JESUIT AUTHORITIES. 
 
 For centuries the relation of Romanism to education has been 
 controlled by the Jesuits, and when they have been expelled 
 from states, and ostensibly suppressed by Popes, they have been 
 restored to power before the systems of instruction they had 
 instituted had been changed or reformed. This changeless sys¬ 
 tem of education is their boast. Let us see what it is. Meantime, 
 let us remember that Leo XIII. has restored the Jesuits to power, 
 and therefore there can be no debate as to the relation of things. 
 Romanism at the present moment of human history means Jesuitism . 
 
 . Now the Jesuits themselves admit that they are to be judged 
 by the writings of their principal authors. Gretser says: “It is 
 not from vague and obscure descriptions that an opinion of the 
 doctrine of the Jesuits can be found, but from their books, which, by 
 the blessing of God,are already very numerous. ... It is from the 
 books of our theologians that the reader will easily judge whether 
 our doctrine is comparable to the doctrine of Jesus Christ.” No 
 book written by a Jesuit can be published until it has been 
 approved by the General. And for all the works published by 
 its members the order is responsible. 
 
 Listen to the following accurate quotations from Jesuit books. 
 The sources of these quotations are filed, and ready to come 
 forth in case any man venture to challenge their accuracy, and 
 with them will come forth troops of others fit to become their 
 companions. The limits of this paper prohibit the extended 
 references which have been compiled. 
 
 Here are some of the teachings on Murder: 
 
 “ Christian and Catholic sons may accuse their fathers of the crime of heresy, if they 
 wish to turn them from the faith, although they may know that their parents will be 
 burned by fire, and put to death for it, as Jolet teaches. They may also justly kill 
 them, observing the moderation of a just self-defence, if they forcibly compel their 
 children to abandon the faith.” “A calumniator should first be warned that he 
 desist from his slander, and if he will not he should be killed, not openly, on account 
 of the slander, but secretly.” 
 
 “ It is lawful for a son to rejoice at the murder of his parent, committed by himself 
 in a state of drunkenness, on account of the great riches acquired thence by inheri¬ 
 tance.” . . . “The general, and the other fifty heads of houses and rectors to be 
 appointed by him for the occasion, can grant a dispensation to members of our order, 
 in all cases without exception under the seal of confession only, but the dispensation 
 in the case of murder does not include ministering at the altar.” “ In the case 
 of irregularity, arising from bigamy and from murder, it is reserved to the general 
 alone.’’ 
 
REV. DR. JAMES M. KING. 
 
 159 
 
 “ Sotus, Suarez, Durandus, and others affirm, with great probability, that the Pope 
 has power in any particular case, not so much to dispense as to declare the Divine 
 law not to be obligatory in that particular case ; for it seems necessary that such power 
 should exist in the Pope for the common good of the church, on account of the various 
 circumstances which may arise.” 
 
 Here are some of the teachings on Theft: 
 
 “It is not a mortal sin to take secretly from him who would give if it were asked, 
 although he may be unwilling that it should be taken secretly, and it is not necessary 
 to restore.” ... “ It is not theft to take a small thing secretly from a husband or a 
 father, but if it be considerable it must be restored.” . . . “ Servants are excused 
 both from sin and restitution if they only take for equitable compensation.” . . . 
 “The Salamancan Jesuits say that the servants may act upon their own private 
 judgment in compensating their own work.” . . . “He by no means sins against 
 justice who compensates himself rather than have recourse to legal procedure, when¬ 
 ever this may be attended with difficulties, or the danger of scandal, or extraordinary 
 cost, because their recourse to legal procedure is impossible.” 
 
 Here are some of the teachings on Equivocation : 
 
 “ It is not intrinsically wrong to use equivocation even in making oath, whence it is 
 not always perjury.” . . . “ It is the common opinion, even amongst the more rigid 
 doctors, that it is lawful for us for a just cause, and speaking generally, to use mental 
 restriction when not purely mental, and equivocal words even in swearing, for then 
 we do not deceive our neighbour, but we permit him to deceive himself.” ... “A 
 confessor can affirm, even on oath, that he does not know of a sin heard in confession, 
 understanding that he heard it as a minister of Christ and not as a man.” . . . “ A 
 poor man absconding with goods for his own support can answer the judge that he 
 has nothing.” . . . “ Tf sacramentally an adulteress has confessed her adultery she 
 can deny adultery to her husband, and say I am innocent of this crime, because by 
 confession it was taken away.” 
 
 Here are some of the teachings on Oaths: 
 
 “ To say ‘ I swear that it is so ’ is not truly an oath, because in that case the Divine 
 testimony is neither explicitly or implicitly called'upon.” “An oath without the 
 intention of binding oneself is not a promise, but a mere purpose ; therefore, the 
 promise being evanescent, the oath is also such, and is considered as made without the 
 intention of swearing, which' certainly, as we have seen, is null and void ; but if no 
 oath exists there is no obligation of fulfilling that oath.” . . . “ He who has sworn to 
 a judge that he would speak what he knew, is not bound to reveal concealed things. 
 However, let oaths be ever so valid, they can be released by the church.” . . . “ The 
 binding force of an oath has to be interpreted according to the tacit conditions either 
 included or implied therein.” 
 
 Here are some of the teachings on Rulers and their Subjects : 
 
 “ The spiritual power may change kingdoms, and take from one to transfer them 
 to another, as a spiritual prince, if it should be necessary for the salvation of souls.” 
 ... “ The right of deposing kings is inherent in the supreme sovereignty which the 
 Popes, as vicegerents of Christ, exercise over all Christian nations.” Cardinal 
 Manning describes the Pope as saying: “In Christ’s right I am sovereign. I 
 acknowledge no civil superior, and I claim more than this, 1 claim to be the supreme 
 judge on earth, and director of the consciences of men, of the peasant that tills the 
 field and the prince that sits on the throne ; of the household that lives in the shade of 
 privacy and the legislature that makes laws for kingdoms, and am the last supreme 
 judge on earth of what is right and wrong.” 
 
 Here are some of the teachings on Payment of Taxes : 
 
 “ Speaking generally of taxes, Lugo is of opinion that people should be exhorted 
 to pay them, but that after the act they should not be compelled to make restitution 
 of a duty they may have withheld fraudulently, if they have any probable ground for 
 
i6o 
 
 ROMANISM IN RELATION TO EDUCATION. 
 
 persuading themselves that in so great a number of taxes they may have paid some¬ 
 thing not justly, or that they have contributed adequately to the public wants.” . . . 
 “Those who import prohibited goods in small quantities, and for their own benefit, 
 especially if poor, are certainly not liable to blame ; the others (the rich and systematic 
 smugglers), however, are in danger of sinning against their duty towards themselves, 
 by running a risk of very severe penalties.” 
 
 Here are some of the teachings on Gifts in Wills : 
 
 “Can Bishops, with just cause, alter pious dispositions?” The answer is that 
 the commonly held opinion is that “ bishops, as ordinaries, have this power of 
 altering dispositions in wills, for such altering is a dispensation in the law, pre¬ 
 scribing the exact fulfilment of last wills, so that when it is said by the Council of 
 Trent that such dispensations can be made, and it is not expressed by whom, it is 
 understood that it can be done by bishops, as Suarez and Sauchez teach. Though 
 the bishop could not do it of his authority as ordinary, still he can do it as delegate of 
 the Apostolic See, provided there is a just cause for his sentence, and this point is 
 proved by the Council of Trent.” 
 
 Quotations teaching questionable morality and putting a 
 premium on immorality might be multiplied, but these specimens 
 will suffice. Most of these extracts are taken from the standard 
 works of theology, now used in the College of Maynooth, and 
 other Roman Catholic seminaries under Jesuit control, and 
 from the writings of Liguori, who was formally canonized by 
 the Pope, and in 1870 made a doctor of the church, and of 
 whom Leo XIII. declares “that though he wrote most copiously, 
 yet it became evident, after a diligent examination of his writ¬ 
 ings, that they may be all perused by the faithful without any 
 danger of stumbling.” 
 
 Is this a fitting training for a priesthood, whose influence in 
 educating the masses is all-powerful and all-pervading ? Was 
 Lord Palmerston right when he declared that “ the teachings of 
 the Order of Jesuits are incompatible with the safety of govern¬ 
 ment and the well-being of society ? ” William Marshall says to 
 the English people : “ Jesuit-bound Popery and Protestantism 
 are once more in your native land, struggling with each other for 
 mastery, if not for existence.” 
 
 The nobility, the ministry, the seats of learning in England 
 are fast being Romanized. “Numberless are the instances in 
 which a widow has denied herself comforts for many years in 
 order to send her darling son to Oxford or Cambridge, only to 
 find him return dead to her in popery.” The Romish population 
 in England in 1845 was one in fifty, now it is one in fourteen. 
 Romanism has in Great Britain about 200 colleges and schools, 
 and mostly under Jesuit control. The annual payments from 
 public funds in support of Romanism in Great Britain and 
 Ireland amount to £716,703, and in Canada the annual value of 
 endowment for this same support is ,£276,250. In the United 
 States it is impossible to at all accurately determine the 
 
REV. DR. JAMES M. KING. 
 
 161 
 
 enormous amounts that, through political crookedness, find their 
 way into the treasury of Roman institutions. Through its 
 educational methods Romanism is grappling with the great 
 Republic. It has in the United States 154 hospitals, with 30,000 
 inmates ; 320 asylums, with 40,000 inmates, and hospitals and 
 asylums are converted into schools for propagating the Roman 
 faith ; it has 124 Jesuit and other colleges and institutions of 
 high grade, with 19,000 students ; it has 577,000 students of all 
 classes under its instruction. It claims as members and 
 adherents 7,000,000 of the population, and it has property valued 
 at $70,000,000. 
 
 ROME TEACHES COMMUNISM. 
 
 Mr. Guinness forcibly calls attention to the fact, that the claim 
 preferred by the rioters in Trafalgar Square, that the state is 
 bound to supply work for the unemployed, seems to have found 
 an ardent advocate in the person of Cardinal Manning, and has 
 given rise to an animated controversy in the public papers on 
 questions of Social Political Economy. Cardinal Manning bases 
 his argument upon what he terms “the law of natural right ” which 
 he alleges has a divine sanction, and in an article in the January 
 number of the Fortnightly Review he states :—“ The obligation 
 to feed the hungry springs from the natural right of every man to 
 life, and to the food necessary for the sustenance of life. So 
 strong is this natural right that it prevails over all positive laws 
 of property. Necessity has no law, and a starving man has a 
 natural right to his neighbor’s bread.” Such teaching is rank 
 communism. The Divine law says, “Thou shalt not steal ” ; but 
 Cardinal Manning asserts that “ necessity has no law.” A man, 
 by his own folly, by intemperance, by extravagance, by indulgence 
 in vice, or by idleness, may have reduced himself to a state of 
 need, yet “ his natural right to life prevails over all positive laws 
 of property,” and he has a natural right to steal his neighbor’s 
 bread. Cardinal Manning refers us to the writings of Liguori. 
 This so-called Saint is held up by the Cardinal as of the highest 
 authority in the Church of Rome, and says that “his decisions may 
 be safely followed.” The reference to Liguori’s writings show the 
 value that is to be attached to his opinions, which are held up by 
 Cardinal Manning as principles of morality ; yet the Cardinal is 
 supported in the approval of these opinions by the most exalted 
 authorities of the Church of Rome. This is what Liguori teaches 
 in reference to stealing. In the original works to which we have 
 referred, we find as follows :—“ It is certain that he who is in 
 extreme want may steal the property of another (posse alienum 
 
162 
 
 ROMANISM IN RELATION TO EDUCATION. 
 
 surripere) as much as is sufficient to deliver himself from such a 
 necessity. Thus, commonly the doctors teach with Thomas (St. 
 Thomas Aquinas.) The reason of the doctor is, because in such 
 a case all things are common ; for the law of nations by which a 
 division of goods was made, cannot derogate from the natural law, 
 which pleads for any one the right of providing for himself when 
 he suffers under great necessity. The same thing also is said 
 when a necessity is next to extreme, or equivalent to it.” (vol. iii. 
 p. 237, n 519, lib. iv.) Liguori then proceeds to examine the cir¬ 
 cumstances that contribute such a case of grave necessity, which 
 would authorize a man to steal. Amongst which he enumerates 
 the danger of death or of the punishment of the galleys, or a per¬ 
 petual imprisonment, or severe disease, or infancy ; and he teaches 
 that if a man is so ashamed of begging that he would prefer death 
 itself, he may provide for himself out of another man’s property. 
 Such teaching would doubtless obtain approval with many of the 
 Socialist fraternity who advocate the rights of man, and affirm 
 that “ the acquisition of property is robbery.” The principle of 
 community of property, moreover, has been recently affirmed by 
 the Roman Catholic Bishop Nulty in Ireland. In the Times, Dec. 
 28th, 1881, attention was directed to a document, which at that 
 time “was being distributed by the Roman Catholic priests in 
 Ireland,” which ran as follows :—“ Land, the common property 
 of all. The land of every country is the common property of the 
 people of the country ; because its real owner—the Creator who 
 made it—has transferred it as a voluntary gift to them. Terr am 
 antem dedit filiis hominum. (The earth He hath given to the 
 children of men.) Now, as every individual, in every country, is 
 a creature and a child of God, and as all His creatures are equal 
 in His sight, any settlement of the land of this or any other coun¬ 
 try that would exclude the humblest man in this or that country 
 from his share of the common inheritance, would not only be an 
 injustice and a wrong to that man, but would, moreover, be an 
 impious resistance to the benevolent intentions of his Creator.” 
 
 THE EVIDENCE OF LORD MACAULAY 
 
 as to the blighting effect of the teaching of the Church of Rome 
 is instructive. He writes :—“ During the last three centuries to 
 stunt the growth of the human mind has been her chief object. 
 Throughout Christendom, whatever advance has been made in 
 knowledge, in freedom, in wealth, and in the arts of life, has 
 been in inverse proportion to her power. The loveliest and most 
 fertile provinces of Europe have, under her rule, been sunk in 
 
REV. DR. JAMES M. KING. 
 
 163 
 
 poverty, in political servitude, and in intellectual torpor, while 
 Protestant countries, once proverbial for sterility and barbar¬ 
 ism, have been turned by skill and industry into gardens, and 
 can boast of a long list of heroes and statesmen, philosophers 
 and poets. Whoever knowing what Italy and Scotland naturally 
 are, and what four hundred years ago they actually were, shall 
 now compare the country around Rome with the country around 
 Edinburgh, will be able to form some judgment as to the 
 tendency of Papal domination. The descent of Spain, once the 
 first among monarchies, to the lowest depths of degradation— 
 the elevation of Holland, in spite of many natural disadvantages, 
 to a position such as no Commonwealth so small has ever 
 reached—teach the same lesson. Whoever passes in Germany 
 from a Roman Catholic to a Protestant principality, in Switzer¬ 
 land from a Roman Catholic to a Protestant canton, finds that he 
 has passed from a lower to a higher grade of civilization. On 
 the other side of the Atlantic the same law prevails. The Pro¬ 
 testants of the United States have left far behind them the 
 Roman Catholics of Mexico, Peru, and Brazil. The Roman 
 Catholics of Lower Canada remain inert, while the whole con¬ 
 tinent around them is in a ferment with Protestant activity and 
 enterprise.” 
 
 For further confirmation we may next turn to a work entitled, 
 “ Protestantism and Catholicism in their bearing upon the 
 Liberty and Prosperity of Nations, by Emile de Laveleye, with 
 an introductory letter by the Right Honorable W. E. Gladstone, 
 M.P.” “ This work,” as Mr. Gladstone observes, “ has initiated 
 
 the discussion of a question which heretofore can hardly be said 
 to have been presented to the public mind, and which it seems 
 high time to examine. That question is, whether experience has 
 now supplied data sufficient for a trustworthy comparison of 
 results, in the several spheres of political liberty, social advance¬ 
 ment, mental intelligence, and general morality, between the 
 Church of Rome, on the one hand, and the religious communi¬ 
 ties cast off by or separated from her on the other.” 
 
 ROME’S POWER OVER THE PRESS IN ENGLAND AND IN THE 
 
 UNITED STATES. 
 
 The Romish journals also justly boast of the educational 
 influence they have obtained in the control of the public press. 
 The Weekly Register , London, 19th of June, 1869, stated:— 
 “ There is not in London a single newspaper of which some of 
 the leading reporters, and one or more of the chief persons on its 
 
1 64 ROMANISM IN RELATION TO EDUCATION. 
 
 staff are not (Roman) Catholics.” The Catholic Times again, 
 May the 28th, 1880, stated:—“The number of Catholic press¬ 
 men in London is now very large—not that their influence can 
 make itself pronouncedly felt under Protestant editorial super¬ 
 vision. Anti-Papal Punch has its F. C. Burnand, who was at 
 one time on the point of entering a religious community ; and 
 even the Standard, which was established with the special 
 intention of attacking the Catholic religion, includes Catholics on 
 its staff. On the Times, Morning Post, the Daily News y 
 and the Daily Chronicle, Catholic pens are at work ; also on 
 the Saturday Review, the Spectator, and lighter weeklies such 
 as the World . The monthly magazines have many con¬ 
 tributors of the same creed—in evidence of which we may 
 mention that a glance over the forthcoming June number ot 
 Tinsley shows us no fewer than four articles written by 
 Catholics. Of course these contributions are for the most part 
 colorless in religion ; but in the very fact that they are neutral, 
 and not biased against Truth, there is much cause for congratu¬ 
 lation, especially when we remember the sort of writing that 
 passed muster thirty or forty years ago.” 
 
 We can name instances in which this influence has been 
 ostensibly exercised to the prejudice of Protestantism, and we 
 advisedly ask : “ Are these' statements of the Roman Catholic 
 journals merely so many instances of ‘ exaggeration ’ and samples 
 of the braggadocio to which the Times refers?” 
 
 In their references to this pilgrimage no notice has been taken 
 by the Times and the other journals of the erection of an 
 image of the Virgin and Child at the northern entrance to West¬ 
 minster Abbey. The restoration of such material objects of 
 Romish worship is significant when considered in connection with 
 the pilgrimage made to the shrine of the Confessor. Canon 
 Duckworth writes to the Times, October 23rd, that the 
 memorialists who made the protest are wide indeed of the mark 
 if they have persuaded themselves that the Dean and Chapter of 
 Westminster are aiding and abetting a Romeward movement, 
 and that the erection of a statue of the Virgin and Child in the 
 restored north porch is an indication of such sympathy. One 
 would think that the image of the crowned infant, Christ, in the 
 arms of the uncrowned human mother ought to satisfy the most 
 sensitive Protestantism.” 
 
 In the United States the majority of the secular papers of 
 extended circulation either have not or will not discuss or give 
 news concerning the aggressions of Romanism upon our civil and 
 religious liberties, thus giving strong color to the claim of Jesuit¬ 
 ism that it holds a free press in subjection. 
 
REV. DR. JAMES M. KING. 
 
 165 
 
 SOME FACTS OF INTEREST FOR CANADIANS. 
 
 The “ Monthly letter of the Protestant Alliance ,” (England) 
 for October, 1888, contains the following matters of interest for 
 Canadians :—“ In the colonies we find that the Jesuits are con¬ 
 tinuously gaining ground. In Canada, by the terms of the 
 capitulation at the conquest, the property of the Jesuits was con¬ 
 fiscated, and the members of the order were excluded from all 
 right to the possession of estates. Now, the Jesuits have not only 
 obtained a footing in Canada, but have so far regained their 
 influence in that country, that, by means of the Roman Catholic 
 vote, they have even procured the passing of legislation in their 
 favor. The Philadelphia Protestant Standard , July, 1888, 
 says :—“ The pestiferous Jesuits have succeeded at last in extort¬ 
 ing $400,000 from the Province of Quebec as compensation for 
 what they claim to have been ‘ confiscation ’ of certain estates in 
 1800 by the British crown. It is a dangerous precedent and a 
 very bad deal all around. The Jesuits have no legal or moral 
 right to that money. They were not legally in existence in 1800, 
 for Pope Clement XIV. had, in 1773, suppressed the infamous 
 order, and it was not till 1814 that another infallible (?) Pope 
 restored the Society to its former state. In addition to the 
 $400,000 paid from the public chest, the Jesuits receive from 
 Mr. Mercier, the Quebec premier, a transfer of the Laprairie 
 common which belonged to their order last century.” 
 
 On this point the Huntingdon, P.Q., Gleaner of July 12th 
 says : “ The Jesuits Estates Bill has passed the Legislature, 
 and unless Sir John Macdonald can be induced to secure it being 
 vetoed it will become law. The real significance of the measure 
 does not seem to be recognized by the public. The worst aspect 
 of it is not the taking of public money for sectarian purposes, 
 and particularly to endow a secret society so detested as the 
 Jesuits, but the setting at naught of British authority, by denying 
 the validity of the Queen’s title to Canada, as derived from the 
 Conquest. To illustrate this, take the case of the restoration 
 of the particular estates that belonged to the Jesuits. If there is 
 a part of the Province that was more peculiarly the British 
 Sovereign’s than another it is that flat expanse at the foot of the 
 Lachine Rapids, where her troops lodged and paraded for scores 
 of years. Yet it is to this block of land, over which the veterans 
 of the Peninsula and of Waterloo daily marched, over which the 
 will of the Queen’s commandant was absolute, and her standard 
 saluted the rising and setting sun at bugle-call, that our Legis¬ 
 lature has decided the British Sovereign had no right, and 
 
166 ROMANISM IN RELATION TO EDUCATION. 
 
 ordered to be restored to the Jesuits. The restoration of 
 Laprairie Common to the Jesuits is a declaration by the Quebec 
 Legislature that the British occupation of Canada was a 
 usurpation, and that the Sovereign never had a true title to it. 
 
 “ The Jesuit Bill is not only a misapplication of public money, 
 a squandering of the resources of the Province, an endowment of 
 a religious denomination at the expense of those who are not its 
 adherents ; it is a disloyal act, a treasonable defiance of the 
 rights and prerogatives of the British Crown. This Jesuit Bill 
 is an attack on the settlement effected by the Conquest, and 
 renders dubious every concession of real estate in Quebec under 
 the Royal manual, for it declares there is a title that prevails 
 above that of the Crown patent.” 
 
 The influence of the Jesuits in Canada has extended even to 
 the Press. The Toronto Mail , July 23rd, 1888, writes: “The 
 newspapers have been prohibited from dealing with the Jesuit 
 Endowment Bill. Since L Aurore wrote, directing attention to 
 the ecclesiastical discipline exercised over the Press, another 
 typical case in point is furnished by La Verity the well-known 
 Ultramontane journal, in its issue of the 21st. La Verite has 
 just entered upon the eighth year of its publication, and the 
 Editor announces to his readers that ‘ we once more renew our 
 absolute adhesion to the teachings and directions of the Sovereign 
 Pontiff, and reiterate the declaration we have so often made, 
 to wit, that we have always been, that we still are, and, God 
 helping us, that we always will be, ready to disavow and correct 
 the slightest error, the least deviation that competent authority 
 may point out to us in our writings/ In plain English La 
 Verite unqualifiedly accepts the clerical censorship.” 
 
 In their determination to obtain eventually the absolute control 
 of education the Jesuits in Canada have gained a further point 
 of vantage. 
 
 The Toronto Mail , July 30th, 1888, writes:—“The long 
 struggle in Quebec between the Jesuits and Laval University, 
 for the control of higher education, is about to be decided in 
 favor of the Jesuits. The Superior of the Order has gone to 
 Rome to arrange for the establishment of a Jesuit University at 
 Montreal, in opposition to the succursale, or branch of Laval, 
 opened there in 1878. The Rector of Laval has gone to Rome, 
 and Mr. Mercier likewise intends to appear there, to be in at the 
 death of the old Gallican movement. The Jesuits maintain that 
 Laval is a Gallican institution, and that it has failed to meet the 
 demand for University training. . . . La Minerve, in its 
 
 issue of the 27th inst., shows on behalf of Laval that Rome has 
 
REV. DR. JAMES M. KING. 
 
 167 
 
 always opposed the formation of a Jesuit University, and implies 
 that it is therefore bound to continue its opposition. But the 
 Jesuits are now fully equipped for the work they desired to 
 undertake, and the conditions having thus been changed, Rome 
 can safely aver that a new era has arisen. The decoration of Mr. 
 Mercier with the Grand Cross of St. Gregory is accepted by most 
 intelligent observers of the struggle as a broad hint that Pope 
 Leo intends to decide in favour of the Society,” . . . “ The 
 transfer of higher education in Quebec from the hands of Laval 
 to the hands of the Jesuits is a matter of no little importance to 
 us all, for it signifies that Ultramontanism, with the peculiar 
 doctrines included in it, has trampled over the more liberal form 
 of Roman Catholicism.” . . . “ The Jesuit University is to 
 inculcate ‘ the well-understood principles of the Jesuit Society/ 
 and also ‘ to exert a beneficial influence on primary education/ 
 which means, we suppose, that the teaching in the public schools 
 of the Province is to be made, if possible, more obscurantist. 
 Further, the University is to ‘ cultivate and cherish the national 
 spirit ’ of Lower Canada : that is to say, it intends to make 
 Lower Canada more French as well as more Papal.” 
 
 The endowment of this society, with the circumstances 
 attending the process, brings out with painful clearness the fact, 
 apparent enough in other directions, that instead of coming 
 together the two races of which this country is composed are 
 rapidly drifting apart. . . . “ Every French Canadian con¬ 
 
 tends indeed that English Canadians have nothing whatever to 
 do with the matter—that we are a separate and distinct people who 
 have no right to meddle in their affairs; And the two political 
 parties in the English Provinces tacitly admit this to be the case. 
 Both Sir John Macdonald and Sir Richard Cartwright must at 
 least suspect the Jesuit denomination is a serious thing for 
 Quebec ; yet each resolutely shuts his eyes, as though the future 
 well-being of the French half of the population were something 
 that lay entirely beyond his concern.” The efforts of the Jesuits 
 in Canada appear to have a striking similarity to the action of 
 the Romish Church in Ireland, and it would appear that the 
 object sought by the Jesuits is to effect a dismemberment of the 
 Empire, in order to break up and destroy the power of Great 
 Britain as a Protestant State. 
 
 VICTOR HUGO AND GUIZOT. 
 
 We may well repeat here the protest of Victor Hugo :—A few 
 years ago the Roman clergy determined to secure control of the 
 
168 
 
 ROMANISM IN RELATION TO EDUCATION. 
 
 national schools, and called upon the French Assembly to pass an 
 act making them the only legitimate instructors of the young. 
 This attempt to bring public instruction under the supervision of 
 Rome drew from Victor Hugo the following protest: “ Ah ! we 
 know you ; we know the clerical party. It is an old party. 
 Every step which the intelligence of Europe has taken has been 
 in spite of it. Its history is written in the history of human 
 progress ; but it is written on the back of the leaf. That it is 
 which persecuted Harvey for having proved the circulation of the 
 blood. In the name of Jesus it shut up Galileo ; in the name of 
 St. Paul it imprisoned Christopher Columbus. To discover a law 
 of the heavens was impiety ; to find a world was heresy. This 
 it is which anathematized Pascal in the name of religion, and 
 Montaigne in the name of morality. For a long time already 
 you have tried to put the gag upon the human intellect. You 
 wish to be the masters of education, and there is not a poet, 
 not an author, not a philosopher, not a thinker that you will 
 accept. All that has been written, found, dreamed, deduced, 
 inspired, invented by genius, the treasures of civilization, the 
 venerable inheritance of generations, the common patrimony of 
 humanity and of knowledge, you reject. There is a book which 
 is from one end to the other an emanation from above, a book 
 which is for the whole world, a book which contains all human 
 wisdom, illuminated by divine wisdom, a book which the venera¬ 
 tion of the people calls the Bible. Well, your censure has 
 reached even that book. How astonishing to see the finger of 
 Rome placed upon the book of God 1 And you claim the 
 liberty of teaching. Stop ! Be sincere ! Let us understand. 
 The liberty you claim is the liberty of not teaching. You wish 
 us to give you the people to instruct. Very well. Let us see 
 your pupils. What have you done for Italy ? What have you 
 done for Spain? What have you done for centuries? You 
 have kept your hands upon the schools of these two great nations, 
 illustrious among the illustrious. What have you done for them? 
 I am going to tell you. Italy is, of all the states of Europe, 
 that where the smallest number of natives know how to read. 
 Spain, magnificently endowed Spain, which received from the 
 Romans her first civilization, from the Arabs the second—what 
 have you done for Spain ? Taken everything from her and left 
 her the Inquisition. This is what you have done for these two 
 great nations. And now what do you wish to do for France? 
 Stop! You have just come from Rome. I congratulate you. 
 You have had fine success there. You have come from gagging 
 the Roman people. Now you wish to gag the French people. 
 
REV. DR. JAMES M. KING. 169 
 
 I understand you. The attempt is still more fine, but take care! 
 It is dangerous ! France is a lion and is alive! ” 
 
 Guizot writes :—“ As to the Jesuit system, it can now har¬ 
 monize with any system ; while it, moreover, is antagonistic to 
 all other ecclesiastical efforts at general education. The only 
 successful system that can be obtained is that of the United 
 States, where the Church and State unite with and co-operate 
 in public and higher education, into which the Jesuit system 
 cannot enter as a part.” 
 
 SPEAKING AS A CITIZEN OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 As a citizen of the United States you will permit me to speak 
 as follows, while I suspect you will find some of the facts 
 applicable to your Dominion. But, says the ignorant commen¬ 
 tator, or the cloistered scholar, or the compromising citizen, you 
 are an alarmist. Rome loses great numbers of adherents through 
 the power of our free schools and free institutions, and by the 
 detaching power of our independent national spirit. These 
 matters will adjust themselves. But the most of the detached 
 become dangerous citizens, because the rebound from intellectual 
 bondage carries them beyond national liberty into license and 
 excess. The multiplication of subjects for Jesuitical domination 
 confronts us with a great peril. In 1806 the Roman Catholic 
 population was 100,000, in 1888 over 7,000,000. In 1800 there 
 was one Romanist to every 53 of the whole population ; in 1888 
 one to seven. It is The relative gains that are instructive. 
 During thirty years preceding 1880 the entire population 
 increased 116 per cent., the communicants of evangelical churches 
 185 per cent., the Roman Catholic population 294 per cent. 
 James Barton estimates that in 1900 one-third of the entire 
 population will be Roman Catholic. 
 
 With persistent and peculiar skill the Jesuits attempt to enlist 
 American assistance in undermining the common school system, 
 as the most powerful bulwark of American institutions. And 
 this fact ought to command the gravest attention of our thoughtful 
 citizens, and mark it as a national question of vital importance, 
 that can no longer be ignored nor trifled with in our State or 
 National elections. Bills are repeatedly presented in our State 
 Legislatures to assist in subjecting children to Jesuit guardian¬ 
 ship, and for appropriations to Jesuit protectors, where they are 
 trained not as American citizens, but as subjects of a foreign 
 potentate. Their last nefarious scheme is to smother the Blair 
 Education Bill in the National House of Representatives, by 
 
170 ROMANISM IN RELATION TO EDUCATION. 
 
 securing a dominating force of Romanists on the Committee to 
 which it is referred. 
 
 No danger to the coming citizenship and to the Republic under 
 such educational influences ! when loyalty to Republican institu¬ 
 tions is the only security for the perpetuation of liberty, and 
 when we are boldly confronted by a power that has for centuries 
 proved to be a politico-ecclesiastical conspiracy against the 
 liberties of mankind ? 
 
 No danger to multitudes of American youth ! wh$n these 
 changeless Jesuits control the Pope, and teach that he is infallible, 
 and that he has the absolute right to demand the obedience of 
 all citizens and civil powers ? 
 
 No danger! when the Archbishop of Toronto notifies Lord 
 Randolph Churchill that he and his brethren hold the balance of 
 power in Canada, and through it have controlled the elections 
 there, and asserts that by a similar use of the balance of power 
 Presidential elections will be decided in this Republic. 
 
 No danger ! when in national elections the States are so evenly 
 balanced that a command from the Roman Pope, or Roman 
 American Cardinal Prince, can order Roman legions, the subjects 
 of a foreign ruler, in sufficient numbers to march to the polls and 
 determine one way or the other the most momentous issue ? 
 
 No danger ! when an honestly and truthfully spoken allitera¬ 
 tion, in which the word Romanism appears in its legitimate place 
 in a clerical Presbyterian sandwich, can determine who shall be 
 the President of the great Republic ? 
 
 No danger ! when in many of the States and Municipalities 
 this foreign political power has such domination, that for the 
 support of its schools and other institutions where youth are 
 trained, its sleepless and greedy managers thrust their arms elbow 
 deep into the public treasuries ? 
 
 No danger l when “ political damnation” is openly threatened 
 by this power against citizens who dare oppose its un-American 
 demands and aggressions ? 
 
 No danger l when Jesuit teachers say “a slave state in the 
 church,” in ears that are not permitted to hear the American 
 doctrine of “ a free church in a free state ?” 
 
 No danger ! when the secular press seems to be largely under 
 Jesuitical censorship, and is, because of political considerations, 
 afraid to warn the people of perils from a power that has enslaved 
 the intellect and conscience of man in every land ? 
 
 No danger ! when American citizens are summoned to Rome 
 to answer for the crime of loyalty to American iustitutions ? 
 
 No danger ! when far-reaching plans are being devised, and 
 
REV. DR. JAMES M. KING. 
 
 171 
 
 large amounts of money raised, to people the Southern States by 
 importing ignorant and superstitious subjects of Rome and plac¬ 
 ing them under disloyal Jesuit instruction ; thus adding difficul¬ 
 ties to the solution of the problem as to how a liberated, and yet 
 only nominally enfranchised race can be made intelligent factors 
 in a republican form of government, and as to how a multitude 
 of white people, debauched by contact with human slavery, can be 
 converted into loyal and self-respecting citizens ? 
 
 No danger ! when the Papal dictator of over 7,000,000 of our 
 population declares that “ all Catholic teachers should do all in 
 their power to cause the constitutions of states and legislation to 
 be modelled on the principles of Romanism. And that all 
 Catholic writers and journalists should never for an instant lose 
 sight of this prescription ?” 
 
 No danger ! when Salisbury helplessly makes overtures to Leo 
 XIII. for assistance to rule Ireland by foreign Roman dictation? 
 
 No danger! when the mighty Bismarck at one time banishes 
 the Jesuits from the territory and from the seats of learning of 
 the German Empire, and at another time humbly and penitently 
 goes to Canossa for help ? 
 
 No danger! when petty Bismarcks by the thousand in this 
 republic, are ready to barter away the fundamental principles of 
 republican liberties for any office from alderman to president ? 
 
 No danger! when already throughout the land millions of 
 dollars are annually paid from public funds for sectarian purposes 
 and sectarian teaching, furnishing the beginnings of a courtship 
 designed to end in the marriage of the church and state, and the 
 church in question teaching disloyalty to the state it would wed ? 
 
 One of the best equipped statesmen in our modern national 
 history, the majestic Garfield, said in his letter of acceptance of 
 the presidential nomination :—“ Next in importance to freedom 
 and justice is popular education, without which neither freedom 
 nor justice can be permanently maintained. It would be unjust 
 to our people, and dangerous to our institutions to apply any por¬ 
 tion of the revenue of the nation or of the states to the support 
 of sectarian schools. The separation of the church and the state 
 in everything relating to taxation should be absolute.” 
 
 In view of the da?igerous elements of Jesuit instruction in 
 national education are we not ready for the following platform 
 for this continent:—Christian morality in the instruction of the 
 youth, as a preparation for responsible and loyal citizenship, and 
 as the historic and actual basis of our national institutions ; no 
 sectarian perversion of the fund designed for the common educa¬ 
 tion of our citizenship ; no foreign dictation to the voters of the 
 
172 
 
 ROMANISM IN RELATION TO EDUCATION. 
 
 nations ; no church and state in our legislation : but un-sectarian 
 schools for the future citizens, and an inquiry into the sort of 
 education given in all institutions having legal sanction or receiv¬ 
 ing public money, and the outlawing of all nurseries of intolerance 
 and disloyalty as measures of self-preservation of national life. 
 
 The hymn, “Ye servants of the Lord,” was then sung. 
 
 Rev. Dr. King : I regret very much that a serious and 
 important engagement renders it necessary I should return at 
 once to New York. I extend to the brethren my sincere and 
 heartfelt gratitude for the kind way in which they have received 
 a stranger in their midst. 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 Rev. P. S. Moxom, D.D., Boston. 
 
 The subject before us is “ Romanism in relation to Education.” 
 It is a very large theme, and if one goes at all into practical 
 details it is impossible to treat it satisfactorily within the limits 
 of twenty minutes. The most I can do is to outline the thoughts 
 which have come to me by a study* of Romanism in a practical 
 way in relation to our own institutions in the United States. I 
 may say that I find in certain points a striking degree of 
 similarity between our condition and yours. First, as to the 
 claim which Romanism makes (when I say “ Romanism ” I wish 
 to say, that with it in its character as a religion I have nothing 
 now to do, but with Romanism as a polity, as affecting the 
 educational, social, and political life of people,) with special 
 reference to the matter of education. 
 
 I have here a definition of education from “ A Catholic 
 Dictionary,” by Wm. E. Addes and Thomas Arnold, and which 
 bears the imprimatur of the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster. 
 It is the mildest article on Catholic education I have been able 
 to find. It says:—“ Since the object of education is to form 
 man, the prime end, in subordination to which it must be 
 conducted, must be identical with the prime end of man himself. 
 What this is we learn from the Catechism : it is to know and 
 serve God in this life, and to enjoy Him for ever in the next. In 
 subordination to this end all educational processes are to be 
 carried on. Human beings ought to be so educated that they 
 may know God here, and through that knowledge possess Him 
 
REV. DR. P. S. MOXOM. 
 
 173 
 
 hereafter. How, then, are they to obtain this necessary know¬ 
 ledge ? The Catholic answer is, that they must seek and receive 
 it at the hands of the one divinely-appointed and infallible 
 witness of the revelation by which He has made Himself known 
 to mankind—the Catholic and Roman Church. It thus appears 
 that in the logical order the first and highest authority in all 
 that regards education is the Church. With her sanction it 
 should be commenced, and under her superintendence it should 
 be continued, for were her intervention to be excluded at any 
 stage there would be danger, lest those under education came to 
 mistake one of the subordinate ends of man for his main end, to 
 their own and others’ detriment. . . . The organized power 
 
 in society—in other words, the State—may reasonably require 
 that all its citizens should early receive that mental and moral 
 training which may dispose them to restrain anti-social passions, 
 to obey the laws, and by industry to promote their own and the 
 public welfare. Whatever control over the machinery of 
 education may be necessary to secure the attainment of this 
 end, that control the State may reasonably pretend to. Its 
 claims only become unjust and oppressive when, ignoring the 
 still more sacred right of the Church to secure in education the 
 attainment of man’s highest end, it compels or tempts Catholics 
 to place their children in schools which the ecclesiastical authority 
 has not sanctioned. The end pursued by the Church is primary; 
 that pursued by the State is secondary. Each may justly 
 demand that its authority be recognized; but the injury caused 
 by disallowing the authority of the Church is more serious than 
 in the contrary case, by hbw much that which affects man’s 
 eternal interest is more important than that which affects his 
 temporal interest only. A third authority in education is that of 
 the family. . . . Catholic parents are, of course, bound . . . 
 
 to see that the teaching in the schools to which they send their 
 children has ecclesiastical sanction, and to resist all attempts to 
 make them patronize schools without that sanction. 
 
 “ It thus appears that education has three principal ends, the 
 first religious, the second political, the third domestic, but that 
 among these the religious end takes the lead, and dominates over 
 the other two, on account of its intrinsically greater importance. 
 And since, as explained above, we cannot walk securely in 
 religion one step except in union with and obedience to the 
 Church, every well-instructed Catholic understands that the 
 Church must preside over the education of Catholics at every 
 stage and in every branch, so far as to see that they are 
 sufficiently instructed in their religion.” 
 
174 ROMANISM IN RELATION TO EDUCATION. 
 
 The Church of Rome therefore claims to have the entire super¬ 
 intendence and the supreme control of the whole educational 
 process. Her claim of infallibility makes this logically neces¬ 
 sary. Now, then, if the Church of Rome made this claim 
 simply and wholly with reference to her own adherents, that 
 would be one thing ; but she makes the claim with reference to 
 all. Her policy through all time has been to claim everything 
 and then get all she can. By its position of infallibility, Rome 
 claims the right of control in every part of life. It recognizes 
 no rival in government, for the temporal power is not a rival, but 
 a subordinate power. Here, then, we must enter our protest 
 against this assumption because, let it be freely, fairly and 
 honestly recognized that the Roman Catholic Church is a sect. 
 A sect is a segment—a part of the whole—and it requires a 
 degree of lunacy amounting to genius to claim that the Roman 
 Catholic Church is a whole. In the United States, counting the 
 young and the old, the infirm and the demented, all told, the 
 Roman Catholics number less than 7,000,000, while there are two 
 Evangelical Denominations alone of which the actual communi¬ 
 cants are a little less than 3,000,000 each, while the adherents are 
 twice as many more, making 17,000,000 or 18,000,000. The 
 assumption of the Romish Church that it is a whole is therefore 
 monstrous. Has the Church of Rome any right to exercise its 
 claim to the control of education within its own territory ? Here 
 I say, no ; because every man in this world has relations to 
 society over which the Church, which is a human organization, 
 has no right to assert authority, and every man has political 
 relations over which the Church has no right to assert authority. 
 Therefore our protest sweeps the whole line. Now, what is the 
 end aimed at, in the second place, by the Roman Catholic theory 
 of education? To sum it all up in one word :—It is to make 
 good Catholics, and obedient servants of that sect which is 
 known as the Roman Catholic Church. Cardinal Antonelli, and 
 he is supported by a number of others, says :—“ Geography, 
 Grammar, Mathematics, are all very well, but the main end is the 
 Catechism,” and you have heard some selections from the Cate¬ 
 chism to-day. Now the results of education, on the basis of 
 simple and pure argument, according to the Romanists’ idea, 
 cannot be the best. I am bound to put my argument carefully, 
 and to draw it as mildly as I can, because then the position is so 
 impregnable that not all the dialecticians of the Jesuits’ school, 
 from Loyola down, can break it. The result of education, 
 according to the Romanist, cannot be the best, because in prin¬ 
 ciple it forbids intellectual liberty, and where there is no intellec- 
 
REV. DR. P. S. MOXOM. 
 
 175 
 
 tual liberty there cannot be true education. The child in the pre¬ 
 paratory school—the young man in the advanced Roman 
 Catholic school—is not seeking the truth for the sake of truth, 
 is not studying to know what is true in all the domains of human 
 knowledge, for he must subject his mind to the authority of 
 another man. I care not whether it be the whole priesthood or 
 the Pope, the principle is essentially the same. He must submit 
 his mind to the authority of another man, and that other man is 
 as fallible as he himself is in all essential respects. Therefore, 
 being compelled to put his mind in bond, there is no search of 
 truth for truth’s sake—there is no possible development of that 
 judgment which comes through the exercise of the faculties upon 
 the material of truth, which is brought before the mind. The 
 judgment has gone forth peremptorily that it must be according 
 to certain conclusions, and if the student in the Romanized 
 school comes across a fact which seems repugnant to the Church 
 of which he is a member, he is bound to stultify his reason and 
 explain away the position. The result has the tendency to draw 
 him along in a certain line, the end of which is to pervert in¬ 
 tellectual life and place it in bond. That is so clearly true that 
 all the educational history of modern Christendom proves what 
 I say. Then, in the next place, the results of education, accord¬ 
 ing to the Romanized idea, cannot be the best, because its 
 principle destroys political independence. Here the very nerve 
 of our difficulty is touched because, after all, it is under the 
 cegis of political liberty that every institution, which we hold 
 dear, thrives. Tyranny here, means tyranny through the whole 
 domain of life. The principle under which Romanism carries 
 on education is that of the supremacy of a foreign potentate. It 
 raises a rivalry between two institutions, the State and the 
 Church. The State—as a whole people—exercises the functions 
 of self-government and self-preservation. This side of heaven 
 there is no authority that can be a rival to that. Government 
 to-day is representative. The people are the rulers of Canada. 
 The people direct the will that is executed in the laws, and the 
 operations of government, and the State is, therefore, the whole 
 people exercising the right of self-government. The Church, 
 ideally, as a whole people, exercises the functions of religion, but 
 practically there is no such thing. There is one supreme Church 
 to which all true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ belong, but 
 there is no external body which is a whole Church. There is no 
 corresponding unity, and God did not mean there should be in 
 human history. The facts are the same here as in the United 
 States. The citizen is the subject of the government, and in all 
 
176 
 
 ROMANISM IN RELATION TO EDUCATION. 
 
 matters concerning his public life and his economic relations, he 
 is under the authority of the people by their expressed will, 
 which is the result of their best judgment. But the Roman 
 Catholic, by his religion and by his education (which is simply a 
 developing of the religious idea) is a subject of a supreme earthly 
 authority who sits in a somewhat shaky chair in the palace of 
 the Vatican. Where there are two sovereigns there can be no 
 political integrity. They tell us sometimes that if a crisis came 
 in our political life, when there should be a distinct antagonism 
 between the will of the Pope and the government, that the 
 Roman Catholics would stand by the government. There are 
 many Roman Catholics who would, but I am not sure that there 
 would not be a good many who are so bound by the ideas in¬ 
 stilled into them, who would, as in days past, take up the sword 
 and musket to murder the liberties of the people. 
 
 Again, education, according to the Romish idea, cannot be the 
 best, because its methods are not those of sound culture. I 
 would like to depart from the regular course and ask a question: 
 How many of you here are really familiar with the character of 
 the teaching of the books used in the schools of the Roman 
 Catholic Church ? I will ask those to stand up, who are so 
 
 familiar. (About six clergymen stood up.) 
 
 Rev. Dr. Moxom :—I find there are about half-a-dozen. I 
 have here one of the books used in the schools, and I will give 
 you a few samples of the instruction seriously given to children. 
 Under the head of “ Discoveries and Inventions of Catholics,” it 
 
 says :— 
 
 “ It will be seen that not only the Church has been no obstacle to progress, either 
 in science or art, but that to Catholics is due the discovery of nearly all the valuable 
 inventions we have. Carefully examined it will be seen that, with the exception of 
 the steam engine and the railroad, little that is really new has been discovered other 
 than by Catholics. It is true valuable improvements have been made, but discoveries 
 and inventions of things entirely new are few and far between.” 
 
 Again, with reference to the Reformation and Luther:— 
 
 “ In 1517 Pope Leo X. published a Jubilee and directed that the alms to be given 
 should be sent to Rome to help complete the great Cathedral of St. Peter, then being 
 built. Tetzel the superior of the Dominicans was appointed to preach this Jubilee 
 throughout Germany, which greatly displeased Luther because of the slight, as he sup¬ 
 posed, that had thus been thrown upon the Augustinians by not inviting them to preach 
 the Jubilee. ” 
 
 I will read you part of a chapter on the history of Protestant 
 Reformation in England :— 
 
 “To make converts Catholicity has ever appealed to reason ; Protestantism, like 
 Mohammedanism, to force and violence. In England and Scotland Protestantism was 
 forced upon the people by fines, imprisonment and death ; in Germany and Russia, 
 Sweden and Denmark and Norway the same. Protestantism began with an open 
 Bible and free interpretation, and has ended in division and disbelief. By the above 
 principle everyone becomes judge of what he will or will not believe. Hence among 
 
REV. DR. P. S. MOXOM. 
 
 1 77 
 
 Protestants there are always as many religions as there are individuals ; the churches 
 divided and torn to pieces, ending in Infidelity and Mormonism. On the other hand 
 Catholicity remains ever the same, because Catholicity is truth, and truth changes not.” 
 
 There is a lament in the last chapter. It says :—“Within the 
 Church there is much to console and much to afflict. The 
 indifferentism of the world is largely affecting the faith of 
 Catholics : numbers are becoming cold, or adopting the loose 
 doctrines of the day. The teachings on civil freedom, now so 
 prevalent, are exciting to a religious freedom that must end in 
 disbelief.” This is from a Bible history, to which is added a com¬ 
 pendium of church history prepared for the use of Catholic 
 schools, by Rt. Rev. Bishop Gilmour, D.D., Bishop of Cleveland. 
 
 Brethren, you laugh at the gross absurdity stated in this book. 
 I tell you it is no laughing matter that 500,000 children in the 
 United States, and I know not how many in Canada, are taking 
 this falsehood into their minds as history. When they are men 
 and women with those ideas rooted in their minds, what are you 
 going to do with them. We do not appreciate the significance 
 of the fact that the whole method of culture in these schools of 
 the church is against sound culture, is against political integrity, is 
 against intellectual liberty, and you take those three questions 
 out of our life and education and what is the result ? Is it not 
 time that we should wake up ? 
 
 Let me say in the few minutes yet remaining to me that the 
 state, as a whole people, exercising as a whole people the right of 
 self-government, has, as its duty, to educate the children of the 
 whole commonwealth. The state must do this as self-protection. 
 It must oppose ignorance and the foul brood of vice and crime 
 that spring from ignoranceand, on the other hand, foster 
 enlightenment and patriotism. The facts developed by a careful 
 study of successive censuses are significant and interesting on 
 these points. 
 
 In the second place, the state must educate because a large 
 part of the people have not the means to provide their children 
 with the best education. In the city of Boston the poorest boy 
 can have an education that sets him well on the way for Harvard 
 University, and without it costing his father one penny. Not 
 only is he furnished schooling in magnificent buildings, beauti¬ 
 fully adorned and well ventilated, and supplied with all the 
 appliances of the educational art, but he also has free school 
 books, and, with one exception, the best text books in the land 
 are given him free ; even the boy’s slate and lead pencil are 
 given him by the state. That is the fruit of the whole people 
 taking possession of education, where the children are taught 
 
 M 
 
178 
 
 ROMANISM IN RELATION TO EDUCATION. 
 
 the principles of liberty, and the facts of history, not warped 
 as they are in the book from which I have quoted, but the truth 
 as far as men have found it, in history, science and literature. 
 The elements of industry are also taught,—that primary training , 
 of hand and eye in the use of materials which by-and-by will 
 make the skilled mechanic, the skilled girl in domestic work, and 
 the faithful mother. 
 
 Again, we teach in our public schools the elements of Chris¬ 
 tianity,—that Christianity which has its spring in the sermon 
 on the Mount. While there is no invasion of any religious 
 right and no specified religious teaching, in the ordinary sense, 
 there is the teaching that comes from God. In these particulars 
 we are laying a foundation for the life that is to come. Of 
 course, this whole scheme of education is repugnant to the Roman 
 Catholic Church, and the two stand in antagonism. One or the 
 other must go down. Which will go down in the United States, 
 
 I have no doubt. The people who have come from other lands, 
 and who are members of the Roman Catholic Church, have tasted 
 of liberty and they are not going to give it up. I know that 
 eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,and I know that revolutions 
 do not go backward, and that mighty gramp fish,—the Romish 
 Church—cannot stultify the liberties of the Republic or of its 
 own adherents. There are many Roman Catholics in Boston who 
 have gone through the High school, and some of them through 
 Harvard University, and as those men increase in number, the 
 whole method and activity of the Roman Church with refer¬ 
 ence to education must change. That means that the Roman 
 Church as it has existed must go down. It cannot live forever 
 in the air of liberty. It is for us to faithfully support along the 
 lines of truth and liberty our national system of education, and to 
 make it so good that it cannot have a rival. Make our schools 
 ' so good, that as the people grow in intelligence they will refuse to 
 keep their children in places to learn their catechism, but that 
 they will send them to the public schools where they will be 
 trained for that efficiency in life which their parents desire. 
 
REV. DR. SAUNDERS. 
 
 179 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 Rev. Dr. Saunders, Halifax. 
 
 If it is asked what relation Romanism holds to education, a 
 distinct statement of the character of the education referred to 
 is both just and necessary in any attempted reply. It may, 
 therefore, be said that education is the training of the faculties 
 and powers of the man in harmony with the laws of his own 
 being, and of the world in which he lives. The acquisition of 
 knowledge is a matter of course. In obtaining this training the 
 learner is taught that he possesses the right, the liberty, and the 
 power to employ all his talents as a free agent, accountable 
 alone to God, in whatever He requires of him in duty to his 
 fellow men and to his Maker. In this educational work these 
 rights are regarded as inalienable, and more precious than all 
 material wealth. Their claims are recognized in the choice and 
 application of the methods and principles employed in educating 
 the young. 
 
 The individuality of the student is made distinct and emphatic. 
 Personality is not merged in the community. One by one the 
 members of the race appear in this sphere of action, one by one 
 they are accountable to God, and one by one they will stand for 
 themselves in the great judgment. This personality is empha¬ 
 sized in all sound education, but there is not only a dissolution 
 of the community into the elements of a distinct individuality, 
 but each individual is taught that he is a part of a great whole, 
 and that there is a unity of all men. 
 
 The doctrine of the regal rights of reason and conscience is 
 both fundamental and essential to all sound education. Any 
 system lacking it will fail to do justice to the people, whatever 
 its methods, or however skilful its administration. The right to 
 think and decide independently is an inheritance, and not an 
 acquisition. As Paul said in regard to Roman citizenship, so 
 every man may say of himself in a wider sense, “ I was free born.” 
 This is not a possession which a man is at liberty to use or not, 
 to hold or to surrender. No one has a right to take it from him. 
 Indeed, to yield it up for any consideration is a betrayal of a 
 sacred trust, and exchange of freedom for slavery. Whoever 
 takes away this priceless gift is a tyrant and a robber, not only a 
 robber of man, but a robber of God. 
 
 Lest there should be a wrong estimate of this divine gift of 
 freedom, and man thereby be seduced to make claims for false 
 liberty, it becomes necessary that he should be taught that his 
 
l80 ROMANISM IN RELATION TO EDUCATION. 
 
 sphere of independent action is bounded by a system of laws 
 under which he was created, and under which he should be 
 trained and spend his life. Limited therefore by these laws, 
 ordained for the government of matter, mind, and spirit, and by 
 the additional precepts and doctrines embodied in the system of 
 revealed religion, man finds the sphere of his free agency, and 
 ample scope for the exercise of all his talents. Any transgression 
 of these bounds is license, not liberty. A system of education 
 founded on these principles is adapted to all peoples, and 
 essential to the world’s welfare. Both professedly aim at 
 Christian education, and there are many doctrines held in common 
 —the trinity, the fall of man, the incarnation and sacrifice of the 
 Son of God, and future rewards and punishments, Romanism 
 having added the myth of purgatory. In the work of education 
 many of these common truths are taught and believed. The 
 gulf that separates them is not doctrinal, it is that of principle— 
 the principle on which instruction shall be given. Here Protes¬ 
 tantism and Romanism part company. The one gives freedom 
 to the reason and the heart in all subjects, religious and secular. 
 Train the reason, enlighten the judgment and the conscience, 
 says Protestantism. Let religion and all collateral truth be 
 subjects of rational faith. Rome, on the other hand, says that in 
 this field there is no employment for either reason or conscience. 
 These are not subjects for independent minds and free souls. 
 Faith and service are defined and offered for unreasoning 
 acceptance. “ To seek truth and pursue it ”—religious truth, all 
 truth—is the right and responsibility rolled by Protestantism 
 upon every person. The success of the Christian religion, under 
 either flag, it is firmly believed, depends upon the efficient 
 working of these respective polities. The administration of 
 ' Rome’s plan would be the destruction of Protestant Christianity, 
 and the administration of the Protestant plan would destroy 
 Romanism. 
 
 When these two systems, unchanged, embrace each other, 
 then, in the natural world, oil and water will make a permanent 
 mixture, and in the spiritual world Christ and Belial will be in 
 loving fellowship. The prolonged endeavors of the State to 
 work a miracle here will be as successful as the long search for 
 the philosopher’s stone. Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have 
 one system, but a double administration. Rome likes that, for 
 it is double dealing. Quebec is dual both in statute and in 
 administration. That plan stands out in plain honesty, and is 
 not open to the charge of duplicity. 
 
 Must Protestants be forced to adopt the Romish polity ? 
 
REV. DR. SAUNDERS. 
 
 1.8 I 
 
 Must Romanists be forced to adopt the Protestant polity ? Are 
 the welfare and the existence of the State at stake if Romanism 
 carries out its own educational plans ? If not, where is the ground 
 for coercion ? How do compulsion and religious liberty get into 
 harmony over this question ? That great peril comes to the 
 State through Ultramontane, that is Jesuitical, education, is 
 abundantly proved by history. 
 
 Free state systems without the Bible, and lacking the 
 constant instruction from Christian teachers, at liberty to draw 
 their authority for the morals they inculcate directly from the 
 Word of God, may lead some of the Roman Catholic youth from 
 papal bondage into the bondage of infidelity, but they will never 
 give, in the best sense of the word, a Christian education. 
 
 To take away the objections of Romanism, State schools have 
 been nearly denuded of the Christian religion, and the fruits are 
 apparent A Christian people should give a Christian education. 
 When national systems provide for the education of the heart, 
 as well as the head, then their labors will be wholly in the 
 interests of Christianity. The conscience and the moral nature 
 are in some measure neglected, and this neglect gives Romanism 
 some ground for stigmatizing the work as godless, but should it 
 become rationally godly it would be no more acceptable to 
 Romanism. Rome will never be taken for Christ through such 
 public schemes of education as are now fostered by the State. 
 
 Her contact with popular education has supplanted, to a large 
 extent in many places, her illiteracy with the knowledge of 
 reading and writing. Ho re is the door through which religious 
 literature and the Bible may enter. Should this province, for 
 instance, be invaded with a large Christian army, burning with 
 Apostolic zeal and imbued with the spirit of Christ, furnished 
 with the sword of the Spirit, victory in due time would be 
 certain. 
 
 Its contrast with the meagre, unshapely polity of Romanism is 
 striking and significant. The relations of the one to the other 
 can be best seen by bringing the two systems face to face. The 
 one is already described. What are the essential principles 
 and the prominent characteristics of the other ? Instead of 
 liberating and guiding the thoughts, and training the judgment 
 and hearts of the people in the exercise of their inalienable free¬ 
 dom, it binds the reason and conscience, and brings the 
 education of the world under the tyranny of Papal authority. In 
 vain is search for points of correspondence between them in any 
 of their essential principles. 
 
 As is well known, education begins with the dawn of intelli- 
 
182 
 
 ROMANISM IN RELATION TO EDUCATION. 
 
 gence, and ends with the close of life. The work is chiefly done 
 in the family, the school and the Church ; but outside of these 
 departments of life, agencies and influences exist which help to 
 train the mind and mould the character. This is true of all 
 systems. Rome knows and appreciates this. Her work begins 
 at the earliest possible moment. Nothing is left undone in the 
 employment of her varied means to supervise and overtake all 
 the work required. Before the conscience and the reason are 
 able to claim their rights, they are perverted and brought under 
 priestly control. In the study of religion, all exercise is denied 
 them, except to receive, without questioning, the instructions and 
 dogmas of the Church. Little by little they are led into almost 
 hopeless bondage ; and their possessors are taught to boast and 
 rejoice in this mental and religious servitude. The priest, in the 
 name of the Pope, robs helpless infancy, comes between immortal 
 beings and their Creator, dictates religious belief, prescribes rules 
 of conduct, as if he held in his hand authority derived from the 
 Eternal Throne to bind the mind and spirits, and to appoint the 
 destiny of his fellow men. The educational polity of Rome is 
 in harmony with these assumptions. It is the same throughout 
 the whole world, and is everywhere well understood. 
 
 To reason and judge in religion is strictly forbidden. This is 
 not denied alone to youthful and ignorant minds. No natural 
 talents or attainments in learning entitle a man to the indepen¬ 
 dent use of his reason and conscience. The judgment may 
 rebel, and the soul cry out for freedom ; but their demands are 
 mocked by inexorable dogma, and by the enforcement of a 
 merciless tyranny. To doubt even, is the beginning of damna¬ 
 tion. To this slavery is added the right to enforce both belief 
 and practice upon unwilling souls. The spiritual pains and 
 penalties, hung over the heads of the disobedient, to be suffered 
 in time and eternity, are not the only means of securing uni¬ 
 formity in belief and worship. Magisterial authority is employed 
 to compel unwilling spirits. History is filled with the records of 
 this dogma, reduced to terrible practice. This plenary power 
 dwells in the infallible Pope, and is delegated to all the grades 
 of sacerdotalism ; and is, therefore, everywhere present, ready 
 and alert, watching, defending and sustaining the work of keep¬ 
 ing the people in religious and intellectual bondage. 
 
 In full view of all this, and much more, comes the question of 
 Romanism in its relation to education. The light of the present 
 day is too intense and universal to admit of the concealment of 
 the principles, methods and work of the Papacy in the education 
 of the people. The results too are on a large scale. Many cen- 
 
REV. DR. SAUNDERS. 
 
 183 
 
 turies and nations can be summoned to prove the character of 
 the principles and the outcome of the education given to the 
 world by Papal Rome. But her dark record has wrought for her 
 no reformation. Protestant education and this system, sanc¬ 
 tioned by the Pope, and placed in the front of the missions of 
 the Church, are irreconcilable, and actively antagonistic. They 
 are mutually destructive. Seeing this, the Hierarchy taxes all 
 its resources of power and agency to keep the training of Roman 
 Catholics under its own control. Indeed these are not the limits 
 of the plans of the Papacy. Subtle and unwearied efforts are 
 made to extend the work beyond its own borders. Convent 
 schools and other institutions are opened to Protestant boys and 
 girls with an affected unsectarian freedom, and a seductive 
 cheapness. Fruitful in device and abounding in wealth of means, 
 this system is resolute and aggressive in its universal propaganda. 
 Material, political, social and religious forces are ever active in 
 obstructing the work of free systems, and in sustaining and 
 making efficient the schemes of the Vatican. 
 
 The evil results of robbing the people of their rights to think 
 and act for themselves in the matter of religion, are not confined 
 to faith and worship. In the independent study of religious 
 subjects, man’s faculties, sentiments and sympathies are so em¬ 
 ployed as to strengthen, refine and ennoble both body, soul and 
 spirit. His investigations are not confined to written revelation. 
 To him philosophy, science and the Bible are one subject, ex¬ 
 hibited in a threefold form. They are parts of a perfect whole. 
 There is a oneness in all truth, corresponding to the oneness of 
 the powers and faculties of 1 mind employed in the study of 
 accessible subjects. As man is a religious being, and as religion 
 is a subject of such vast dimensions, great loss comes of exclud¬ 
 ing him from an independent study of it. In it every power 
 and faculty finds full and joyful employment. Its grand truths 
 and momentous interests engage the whole intellect and the 
 entire heart. The doctrines, histories, biographies, prophecies 
 and precepts of revelation, open up ever-widening fields for the 
 fancy, the reason and the affections. They revel in truths plain 
 and profound ; in pleasures sweet and satisfying. It gives 
 mental and spiritual illumination, and a resultant flow of fervid 
 sympathy. There is both intellectual and emotional training. 
 The vision is one ; and it ceases not to unroll its inexhaustible 
 secrets. Religion studied and practised in the free exercise of 
 the reason, the conscience and the heart exerts a potent influence 
 on the investigation in the whole realm of learning. Walking in 
 this light, the order, laws, and plans of the Author of all things 
 
1 84 ROMANISM IN RELATION TO EDUCATION. 
 
 are revealed to the understanding. Man follows up the links of 
 cause and effect till he arrives at the Cause of causes. There he 
 bows in obedience and adoring homage before the Eternal 
 Spirit, whom he worships in spirit and in truth. 
 
 Romanism excludes free and independent thought from this 
 vast field of knowledge. Every door is closed. The bulls and 
 encyclicals issued from the Vatican, the public teachings of 
 acknowledged leaders, the instructions given from all papal 
 pulpits, the doings of church courts, and the appalling history 
 of the Inquisition, all condemn in unqualified terms the inde¬ 
 pendent exercise of the reason and the heart in the study and 
 practice of religion. Whatever pleasure, knowledge or profit 
 comes to man through the enjoyment of liberty in this subject, 
 is everywhere withheld from him by the educational polity of 
 Romanism. Its slavery begets fear, blindness and superstition. 
 Its devotees know nothing of the grandeur of thought, the lofty 
 range of intelligent sentiment, and the superabounding pleasures 
 flowing from an apprehension of the facts and doctrines of 
 religion, and the adoration of its Great Author. 
 
 Excluded from all these high and holy exercises, the obedient 
 and subservient communities of the Papal faith are disqualified 
 for successful leadership in the search for truth, and in the en¬ 
 terprises that uplift and enrich the world. Romanism is not 
 satisfied not to enter this great kingdom herself; but she em¬ 
 ploys all her arts and agencies to exclude others who would 
 enter ; hence her attitude of antagonism to Protestant education. 
 
 In what dense darkness men must dwell, who employ them¬ 
 selves in a mission, the evil effects of which omniscience alone 
 can fully know. The startling exclamation of the celebrated 
 Robert Hall when referring to modern infidelity, might be used 
 to express the amazement with which enlightened Christian minds 
 contemplate the doings of Romanism in holding back the 
 world’s progress, in binding in benighted superstition each suc¬ 
 cessive generation, beginning at the cradle and ending only when 
 their victims disappear in the grave. “ Eternal God,” said this 
 eminent divine, “ on what are thine enemies intent ; what are 
 those enterprises of guilt and horror, that for the safety of their 
 performers require to be enveloped in a darkness which the eye 
 of Heaven must not pierce.” 
 
 This work, subtle, slow and successful, merits the condemnation 
 of Christianity, in whose name and for the promotion of whose 
 interests, it is professedly performed. But denunciation is the dis¬ 
 charge of but a small part of the debt which the Christian 
 religion owes to this religious despotism. The cry of the Pagan 
 
REV. DR. SAUNDERS. 
 
 185 
 
 idolatries is “ Come over and help us.” What is the cry of this 
 Christianized idolatry ? All the influence and means at the dis¬ 
 posal of the Church of Christ should be employed to emancipate 
 and enlighten the church of Rome. 
 
 It should be borne in mind that each succeeding generation of 
 children is captured, bound and trained by this system of 
 delusion. The leaders and defenders of this false faith have been 
 qualified for their work in this way. A few indeed have received 
 their early training in other communions, but under influences so 
 similar to those of the Romish faith that the effects need cause 
 no wonder. It took long centuries of persevering labours, worthy 
 of a good cause, to perfect the faith, and vote the head of the 
 Church infallible; but after having gained the victory the 
 delusion is self-perpetuating. The officers of the entire sacer¬ 
 dotal army, from the Vatican to the obscure country parish, are 
 not in their places as intelligent volunteers ; but they are there 
 as the result of a conscription that enrolled them in their cradles 
 and subjected them to an involuntary training. This fact should 
 melt intelligent Christians in compassionate sympathy, as well as 
 convince them of the power this demon possesses to resist expul¬ 
 sion. The deceived become the deceivers of successive generations. 
 
 To be consistent, Rome must have her own educational polity, 
 employ her own methods ; and then immutable law secures the 
 result. What she sows she reaps. A people weak, unprogressive, 
 unsuccessful, is the harvest. They can never govern, never guide. 
 There is no keenness of perception with which to pierce the 
 dark secrets of nature and spirit,—no power to master minds, and 
 to marshal and control the forces that govern life and shape 
 destiny. The training of Romanism does not add invention to 
 invention, and discovery to discovery ; and so ever enlarge the 
 boundary of conquered territory. 
 
 It is of the system, pure and simple, that all the foregoing is pre¬ 
 dicated. Different results can be referred to other causes. 
 Occasionally, inspired men appear who, Samson-like, break the 
 bonds of traditional bondage and assert the right to enjoy free¬ 
 dom. Their native strength rolls off the mental and spiritual 
 incubus, and they appear in the dignity of independent manhood. 
 
 Contact with free and progressive communities imparts life to 
 this dead body, and causes activity in some of its members. 
 
 Reason, repulsed, constructs for itself new faiths, and whatever 
 their unsoundness, freedom to think is their characteristic. Here, 
 too, is another source of intellectual life. To these and other 
 kindred causes the exceptional conditions of things in Romish 
 communities can be justly traced. 
 
1 86 ROMANISM IN RELATION TO EDUCATION. 
 
 After centuries of failure in other lands, the system was put on 
 trial in this country. Every advantage was secured at an early 
 day to hold a foremost place in building up a Christian nation. 
 The flock was rent by no heresy. The people were docile and 
 obedient. They brought with them the mercurial life and active 
 brains of typical Celts. At the bidding of this people, well 
 trained, well led, nature would have poured forth her varied and 
 abundant plenty ; the arts and sciences would have flourished, 
 industries would have multiplied on every hand, and the whole 
 country would have been astir with intelligent, religious enter¬ 
 prises. Saxons and Teutons would have been the willing helpers 
 of this great work, undertaken by Gallic Celts. 
 
 What are the facts ? Are the outlying districts of this Province 
 the most intellectual and progressive of any in the Dominion of 
 Canada? Are the keys of the great corporations in the hands 
 gf French Celts? Do they lead the thought and stand first in 
 guiding the interests of this great Dominion ? Does the intellec¬ 
 tual, moral and religious life flow from them. If not, they are not 
 to blame for it ; but Romanism is. 
 
 DISCUSSION. 
 
 & 
 
 Rev. Dr. MacVicar, Montreal. 
 
 I believe that we should take active measures in this conference 
 and look for practical results. We should distribute informa¬ 
 tion to all our people, and specially to the million and a quarter 
 of French speaking Roman Catholics in the Dominion. This is 
 what they need to qualify them to exercise, in a free and manly 
 way, their rights as citizens and as subjects of British government. 
 
 I agree with the suggestion of the forenoon that resolutions 
 embracing our views on the great questions discussed should be 
 adopted by the Conference and sent forth to the world. As to 
 Jesuit education, its central principle may be expressed in one 
 word—subordination—utter unreasoning subjection to the will of 
 the superior. To gain this end, means are employed which 
 must be characterized as indefensible. Here the speaker gave 
 instances of the unprofitable and unreasonable penances pre¬ 
 scribed. These, it should be known, were in use in our own good 
 city of Montreal. 
 
 I agree with Dr. Moxom that we ought to teach the principles 
 
DISCUSSION. 
 
 187 
 
 of industry, the elements of useful knowledge and of Christian 
 Ethics in our public schools. I go farther, and avow my belief 
 that we can only teach Christian ethics successfully by making 
 free use of the Bible. There is nothing better for men, all the 
 world over, and in all ranks and conditions, than God’s own 
 Word ; and, therefore, they should have it without any limita¬ 
 tions or restrictions by Church or State. 
 
 As Chairman of the Protestant School Board in Montreal, I 
 am glad to announce that the Commissioners with whom I have 
 worked for years are acting on that principle. We teach the 
 Word of God openly and fearlessly to all our pupils, and without 
 a shadow of difficulty as to denominationalism. 
 
 Rev. Dr. Moxom • — Pressed by the brief time which I had 
 to speak, I left many statements uncompleted. I wish to say in 
 response to what Dr. MacVicar has said, that it has been my 
 privilege to advocate in public not only the use of the Bible 
 judiciously in the schools, but that liberal selections from the Old 
 and New Testaments should be added in the form of a regular 
 reader, so that the influence and spirit of it should go into the 
 spirit of the children and so touch no question of sectarian 
 religion. 
 
 Rev. Dr. MacVicar : — The only difference is, I don’t wish 
 to have any extracts, I want the whole Book. 
 
 A Committee on Resolutions. 
 
 Rev. Dr. BURNS, of Halifax, N.S., moved as follows :— 
 
 “ This Alliance deeming it advisable to place on record its testimony with reference 
 to recent Legislation in the interest of the Order of Jesus, in the Province of Quebec, 
 appoints the following Commitee to draw up a suitable deliverance. 
 
 “That this Committee be empowered to draw up resolutions on such other subjects 
 as have been, or may yet be before us, as in its wisdom it deems advisable; The 
 following is the Committee ;—Rev. Dr. Williams, of Toronto ; Dr. MacVicar, Arch¬ 
 deacon Evans, Dr. Macrae, Senator Macdonald, Rev. G. H. Wells, D.D. ; Rev. Dr. 
 Burns, Rev. T. F. Lafleur, Rev. Mr. Freeland, Brockville ; Rev. F. H. Marling* 
 Right Reverend Bishop Ussher, Rev. Dr. Potts, Rev. Wm. Scott and Rev. Dr. 
 Wardrope, Guelph.■’ 
 
 The resolution was unanimously adopted. 
 
 The Session closed with the singing of the Doxology. 
 
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24th, 1888. 
 
 EVENING SESSION. 
 
 The Rev. J. A. Williams, D.D., General Superintendent, 
 Methodist Church, Toronto, presided. 
 
 The hymn, “Christ for the World we sing,” was sung, after 
 which, Rev. Dr. Burns offered prayer. 
 
 TOPIC: ROMISH DOGMA, A SOURCE OF RELIGI¬ 
 OUS, SOCIAL AND NATIONAL PERIL. 
 
 CHAIRMAN’S ADDRESS. 
 
 Rev. J. A. Williams, D.D., Toronto. 
 
 I hope that the discussion to-night may be characterized by 
 the same loving spirit which has been present in all our delibera¬ 
 tions. Although we are dealing with truths that sometimes 
 pinch very hard, yet there is a way in which we may speak the 
 truth in love and cultivate a feeling of love towards everyone. 
 I have known Montreal for a good many years; it is more than 
 fifty years since I first saw this city, and I have had more or less 
 intercourse with it ever since. I say here, to-night, that Mont¬ 
 real has never seen such a day as this day. Of all the matters 
 that have come before the public mind, and all the discussions 
 that have taken place in the past, there has been no occasion 
 where a discussion on Romanism has been carried on so fully, so 
 closely, or so delightfully. We are sitting here, to-day, under 
 the shade of our own vine and fig tree, none daring to make us 
 afraid in the discussion of those matters which we consider for 
 the welfare of the Dominion, and for the welfare of the people, 
 young and old. There can be but one opinion on the subject of 
 consideration this evening, and that is, that Romish Dogma is a 
 a source of religious, social and national peril. Any dogma 
 that interferes with the free exercise of the mind ; any dogma 
 that interferes with the authority of Christ in the conscience 
 
REV. G. M. MILLIGAN. 
 
 189 
 
 the thought, the feeling, or the action, must be injurious to the 
 nation at large. We come here, to-night—I was going to say— 
 to brighten up our Protestantism, but at any rate to give it fair 
 play. I take it that every Protestant ought to be able to state 
 the reasons why he is a Protestant ; and we have come here to 
 talk together on that matter. I do not know how it is here, but 
 we have some people up with us who are ashamed of the name 
 of Protestants. I don’t know if you have that kind of Protes¬ 
 tants or Reformers in Montreal. For my part it becomes more 
 glorious to me every day. I am satisfied that the world never 
 will be elevated, I am satisfied that the gathering which is pro¬ 
 mised, in this book,—the Bible—never will take place, nor the 
 earth be subdued, only upon the principle of Protestantism. 
 Whatever may be the beneficial change which will take place in 
 the Romish doctrines and institutions, it will be on the principles 
 of Protestantism. It can only be done on the principle of a free 
 Bible, and the Bible supreme as directing conscience and thought 
 —the Bible supreme in the Legislature—the Bible supreme in 
 the office and in the store—the Bible supreme everywhere. Then 
 we may look for the coming of our Lord with gladness and joy. 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 Rev. G. M. Milligan, B.A., Toronto. 
 
 This theme, I take it, means Romanism is hurtful to man in 
 his relations to God, to his fellowmen, and to the state. A most 
 marked difference between Romish and Protestant dogma exists 
 in reference to the question, What is the Church ? Rome affirms 
 that the Church is an external organization consisting of those 
 who profess the same faith ; who unite in celebrating the same 
 sacraments; and who profess allegiance to the Pope as the Vicar 
 of Christ. Only those in this organization belong to the true 
 Church. This conception of the Church was not held in the 
 time of Gregory the Great. He declared that he who called 
 himself universal patriarch was Antichrist. His successor, how¬ 
 ever, accepted the title from Phocas. In the middle of the ninth 
 century, the idea of Nicholas I. of the Papacy, was that of a 
 Theocratic monarchy. This idea was developed by all the arts 
 of intrigue and politics. In the latter part of the ninth century, 
 
190 
 
 ROMISH DOGMA. 
 
 John VIII. advocated the choosing and crowning of the Emperor 
 by the Pope. In 1073, Hildebrand instituted the celibacy of the 
 clergy, to separate them from all ties of country and government. 
 In 1100, the Pope claimed to be, not Pontifex urbis, but orbis , 
 and not as previously, “ Vicar of Peter and Paul/’ but of God 
 and Christ. The Ban and Interdict became henceforth the 
 terrible instruments of this desolating ecclesiastical usurpation. 
 
 The Protestant conception of the Church is that it consists of 
 the body of believers, and that it is used as a collective term to 
 denote those who are vitally united to Christ by faith. Rome 
 holds that the Church or corporation makes believers ; Protest- 
 tants, on the contrary, allege that believers make the Church. 
 Rome magnifies the corporation ; Protestantism the individual. 
 Rome makes man for the corporation ; Protestantism makes the 
 corporation for man. The false Romish view of the nature and 
 function of the Church lies at the root of all that is both tragic 
 in Church history and hurtful to human interests, religiously, 
 socially and nationally. 
 
 Wherever man’s interests are subordinate to those of any cor¬ 
 poration whatever, intellectual, moral, and social, hurt is inflicted 
 upon those who are the subjects of such treatment. 
 
 Business exists for the physical, mental and moral well-being 
 of the merchant. When he lives for his business, instead of 
 his business existing for him, he becomes its slave. 
 
 The Spartans taught their youths to steal, in order that thereby 
 they might become daring and wary, and swift of foot, qualities 
 useful when they had to do battle for Sparta. The eighth 
 commandment was violated for the benefit of the nation. In 
 like manner, when individuals are made to exist for an educa¬ 
 tional system, instead of the system for the individual, there is 
 educational hurt incurred. The machine system in education 
 suppresses individuality of character and weakens the play of 
 the intellectual powers. 
 
 “ On earth there is nothing great but man ; in man there is 
 nothing great but mind.” When any institution, be it religious, 
 political, or educational, is made king of men, it is a despotism 
 which enslaves and demoralizes them. Even “ the Sabbath was 
 made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.” Now, Rome is a 
 peril to human interests, because she subjects men to the 
 dominion of a corporation, which she calls the Church. She 
 hurts man in his relation to God. True religion places man in 
 direct relation to God. He knows whom he believes, when he is 
 religiously right. Man is therefore his own priest. He realizes 
 that he must give an account of himself to God. He must know 
 
REV. G. M. MILLIGAN. 
 
 191 
 
 God for himself. The truth must commend itself to his con¬ 
 science. Authority must not be made the basis of his faith, but 
 truth personally perceived and accepted. Now, Rome is opposed 
 to all this. She substitutes authority for argument, obedience for 
 conviction, and places herself between the soul and its God. By 
 her spiritual attorneyship she deadens the conscience ; hinders, if 
 not destroys, spiritual activity, and prevents the most solemn of 
 all considerations swaying the heart and life—that of a man’s 
 individual responsibility to God for his beliefs and actions. 
 
 What made Moses not fear the wrath of Egypt’s king ? Was 
 it because he was a member of the Jewish people ? Nay, rather, 
 it was because he by faith saw Him who is invisible. The same 
 object of faith, and not a corporation, sustained Luther before 
 European potentates, ecclesiastical and civil, at Worms. Men 
 become men by living, not for an organization, but for God, 
 known, loved, and obeyed from personal conviction. Personality 
 has no place in such a system as Rome. Everyone is the slave 
 of a system, from the Pope downward ; there is no personal 
 liberty, other than it serves not the Lord, but the cause. 
 
 In Rome, creeds are to be received on the simple authority of 
 the Church. In her teachings, Rome is dogmatic in the most 
 absolute sense. Such dogmatism induces the mind when any¬ 
 thing is presented to it for its assent, to ask, not is a thing true, 
 but, is it safe. The one great virtue in the Romish Communion 
 is obedience, not obedience intelligent and loyal, but servile and 
 unquestioning. Her members are not encouraged to find for 
 themselves or give to others a reason for the hope that is in them. 
 The deplorable effects of the passive obedience of the intellect 
 demanded by Rome, is seen in her Hagiography, where she gives 
 her people fables for food. 
 
 Romish casuistry, moreover, with its doctrine of “ Counsels of 
 Imperfection,” furnishes the people with excuses for lying, 
 especially to those outside of her pale, who are to be treated 
 with evasion and “ economy.” Falsehood and kindred expedi¬ 
 ents are allowable in dealing with outsiders, and are indeed 
 praiseworthy if exercised in saving a soul, that is, in making a 
 proselyte. 
 
 As aids to devotion she does not counsel her people to seek 
 the Holy Ghost to help their infirmities, but misleads them with 
 such vanities as pictures, relics, and amulets. By her materializ¬ 
 ing traditions she deceives, now the senses, and now the intellect 
 of men, and all that she may reduce her children to abject 
 slavery to her despotic aims. Instead of bringing men nigh to 
 God, she sets them afar off in ignorant and slavish dread. 
 
192 
 
 ROMISH DOGMA. 
 
 Under such a system the first and great commandment cannot 
 be fulfilled,—“ Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy 
 heart and soul, and mind, and strength.” 
 
 II. Rome is hurtful to men in their relation one to another. 
 She sets up walls of partition between man and man. She is so 
 thoroughly anti-social that she even sets the first table of the 
 law against the second. This follows from making the corpora¬ 
 tion the chief end of man. Corporationists in all ages make 
 void the moral law. The Pharisees, in their day, taught men to 
 violate the fifth commandment to do honor to the first. They 
 taught children to withhold from parents pecuniary aid by 
 devoting their funds to the Church. Jesuits have urged the 
 breaking of the sixth and ninth commandments for the good of 
 the Church. 
 
 In the treatment Romanists are inculcated to mete out to 
 heretics, Rome proves herself to be bitterly and hopelessly anti¬ 
 social in her teaching and influence. Through the confessional 
 and indulgences she in the most carnal manner sets a man 
 against his fellows. With her doctrines of indulgences and of 
 the confessional she puts a premium upon crime. Hence 
 brigandism and agrarianism are consistent with membership in 
 her communion. By such anti-social teaching she has produced 
 a numerous progeny of Ishmaelites in all lands where she has 
 had sway. 
 
 III. She is hurtful to men as citizens. The state is the place 
 where men find themselves in jural relations, as in the family 
 they are placed in those which are domestic, and in the Church 
 in those which are religious. In jural relations a man enjoys the 
 right to make the most of himself as a citizen of this world. 
 Jural relations secure for us to this end a twofold benefit—pro¬ 
 tection and education. By protection, a man is guarded against 
 interference in the exercise of his powers bodily, mental and 
 moral, for his own and others good. By educational advan¬ 
 tages, as a citizen, I am aided by the state in fulfilling right 
 functions, which I could not of myself discharge. By educa¬ 
 tional advantages, moreover, furnished by the state, there is free 
 play given to the interchange of thought by such means as 
 literature and free speech. For educational purposes the state 
 should cherish and maintain the strong ties of a common 
 language and literature, of the fine arts, the sciences and national 
 customs. The state exists to enable society to attain the highest 
 civilization and the greatest possible development of man. 
 Justice or right is that which I claim as necessary to me as a 
 
REV. G. M. MILLIGAN. 
 
 193 
 
 man. The best political institutions are those which furnish the 
 largest scope to all the faculties with which man is endowed. 
 
 Rome, by her interference in political affairs, has proven her¬ 
 self the foe of man as a citizen. In her palmy days, she kept 
 men of genius wielding pen and brush, not according to their 
 bent, but according to her requirements. She has been the 
 enemy of science, literature, art, domesticities, and every human 
 interest which she could control. In proof of this, examine the 
 countries and ages she has swayed. Contrast Spain with Scot¬ 
 land, the Province of Quebec with that of Ontario, and by her 
 works you ascertain her genius and aims. 
 
 What cure shall we prescribe for the dangers with which she 
 menaces us ? 
 
 (1.) The evangelization of her subjects. By all wise means, 
 organized and individual, strive to bring her subjects under the 
 liberating and enlightening power of the gospel. 
 
 (2.) The second way, to mitigate, and, we hope, finally to re¬ 
 move her evils from among us is the advocacy of equal rights 
 for all. 
 
 The state must cease to recognize men as Englishmen, Scotch¬ 
 men, Irishmen, or Frenchmen. We must put an end to the 
 recognition of race distinctions among us. There must be the 
 abolition of separate schools. The state must educate her chil¬ 
 dren within the same walls, and, upon subjects conducing to 
 good citizenship only. There must be the doing away of all 
 exemptions from taxation of religious teachers and properties. 
 The state can only be free, can only be unified, when in the eye 
 of the law no man is known as Jew or Gentile, bond or free. 
 There must be no imperia in imperio. 
 
 Men controlling the votes of citizens, be they lay or cleric, 
 should be visited with severest penalties. Any corporate vote, 
 be it that of a Church or railway company, is a menace to a free 
 state, because it is an imperiuni in imperio. To effect these 
 remedies constant and energetic service must be undertaken by 
 all loyal citizens. The issue of a free and united country is 
 worthy of the prayerful and devoted services of every patriotic 
 Canadian. 
 
 The difficulties to faith and courage are, though great, not 
 insurmountable.— 
 
 “ Let us then be up and doing, 
 
 With a heart for any fate, 
 
 Still achieving, still pursuing, 
 
 Learn to labor and to wait.” 
 
 N 
 
194 
 
 ROMISH DOGMA. 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 Rev. John Lathern, D.D., Halifax. 
 
 Old Puritan preachers had a custom, after treating their themes 
 under many divisions and sub-divisions, of coming to what they 
 called the “ uses ” or application of the subject. As the addresses 
 and discussions of this Conference are designed to pave the way 
 for organization and practical work, it may be of advantage to 
 ascertain how far the design of the programme up to this point 
 has been realized. 
 
 (i.) It is manifest that during these Conference exercises there 
 has been a deepening sense of the allegiance we owe to Christ. 
 
 It may be remembered, as we meet in Christian council, that 
 the last Ecumenical council met in Rome in December, 1869. 
 On the eve of that council an Apostolic letter was addressed to 
 the Eastern churches, and “ a paternal letter ” to the Protestants 
 of the west. Protestants were challenged on that auspicious 
 occasion to return to the only sheepfold of Christ, and to make 
 submission to the Pontiff. The ground upon which the claim 
 was made was the authority of the Pope as the successor of 
 Peter in the Papal chair. “No one can doubt or deny,” said the 
 Pope, “ that Jesus Christ Himself built on Peter his one only 
 Church on earth.” But that is a proposition which Protestants 
 do most positively both doubt and deny, and repudiate the 
 assumption which it involves. When Simon Peter made his 
 memorable confession, Jesus said unto him, “ Blessed art thou.” 
 He said, “ Thou art Peter,” a name signifying rock or stone, and 
 with thy name corresponds thy confession. It embodies funda¬ 
 mental truth ; the Divinity of Christ, Christ the Son of the 
 living God ; and upon this rock of Divine and essential truth I 
 will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail 
 against it. 
 
 It was claimed by Cardinal Cullen in discussions at the 
 Ecumenical Council (some report of which found its way to the 
 light), that the Protestant, or what he called the Calvinistic, 
 interpretation was not admissible. The contention is that the 
 words of Christ, “Upon this rock I will build my Church,” and 
 those of St. Paul to the Ephesians, “ Built on the foundation of 
 the apostles and prophets,” cannot be harmonized on such a 
 principle of interpretation. But the more closely we scrutinize 
 and compare these passages the more full will be our conviction 
 that the Protestant interpretation is just what their exegesis and 
 harmony imperatively demand. 
 
REV. DR. LATHERN. 
 
 195 
 
 When a master builder is about to erect a monumental and 
 enduring structure, he is solicitous about the foundation. The 
 base of a building demands the first consideration. His plan is 
 to search down to the living rock, and what that rock is to the 
 edifice, that Christ is to the Church, the Rock of Ages, an 
 immovable foundation. But then the builder needs foundation 
 stones. They must be of a size and solidity suited to the 
 proportions of the superstructure. What those blocks of granite 
 embedded in the rock are to the building, that the Apostles were 
 to the Church of the Redeemer ; the first course of spiritual 
 masonry : built on the foundations of the apostles and prophets. 
 But other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, 
 which is Christ Jesus. 
 
 The centre of thought at the Ecumenical Council, with all its 
 pomp and ceremony, was wrong, and it could only result in 
 error and confusion. In the old Ptolemaic system of astronomy 
 the earth was supposed to be the centre of solar movements, 
 and consequently every calculation based on that idea involved 
 mathematical error. But when the sublime law was discovered 
 that the sun is the centre, and that around it planetary worlds 
 whirl and burn in their orbits, the system was seen to be one of 
 order as well as magnificence. We claim, whatever else of 
 prestige may be wanting in this conference, to have found the 
 right centre of thought. It is not human but Divine. Our first 
 and most sacred duty is to render homage to the Lord Christ, 
 and to contend for his crown rights : 
 
 “ Bring forth tbe royal diadem, 
 
 And crown Him Lord of all.” 
 
 When Martin Luther was braving a power that made princes 
 to quail and sovereigns to tremble, standing unscathed by papal 
 thunderings and sacerdotal lightnings, in admiration of his 
 intrepidity, students of the University with which he was 
 connected rushed into the square and shouted, “ Luther for 
 ever! ” “ No,” said the Monk that shook the world, “ Not 
 
 Luther, but Christ! ” And so in this Conference our watchword 
 is not Luther or Calvin, not Knox or Wesley, not priest or pontiff, 
 but Christ. “ We are one body in Christ.” That is the motto 
 of this Alliance. Therefore, with the Holy Church, the Church 
 of the apostles and martyrs, the Church of St. Paul and St. 
 John, the Church of St. Ambrose and St. Augustine, the Church 
 of the Nicene Council and Creed, the Church of the first cen¬ 
 turies, before the ambition of Rome had wrought great and 
 grievous schism, the Church throughout all the world, we unite 
 in acknowledgment and ascription, saying, “ Thou art the King 
 
196 
 
 ROMISH DOGMA. 
 
 of Glory, O Christ, Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father.” 
 In love and loyalty to the Lord Jesus Christ, and to all His 
 purposes of love and mercy in reference to our world, would we 
 meet and organize an evangelical alliance. 
 
 (2.) During the utterances of this Conference there has been a 
 deepening sense of obligation in regard to claims of the Holy 
 Scriptures as the only infallible standard of truth ; indissoluble 
 and not to be broken, for the Word of God liveth and abideth 
 for ever. 
 
 When Pope Pius urged Protestants to make their submission 
 at the Vatican, he contravened the doctrine of every man’s right 
 to read and interpret his own Bible. The Ecumenical Council 
 was summoned mainly for the purpose of elevating the theory of 
 Papal infallibility to the dignity of a dogma. It was declared 
 that when the Pontiff speaks ex cathedra , “ by virtue of his 
 supreme apostolic authority, he defines a doctrine regarding 
 faith and morals to be held by the universal church.” But that 
 dogma of Rome we believe to be a source of religious, social and 
 national peril. We adopt a nobler maxim, the Bible, the whole 
 Bible, and nothing but the Bible, as the one infallible standard 
 of authority. In that address of the Pope to Protestants, on the 
 eve of the Ecumenical Council, to which I have already referred, 
 it is claimed that the denial of the Pontiffs authority “ to govern 
 the opinions of the human mind, and to direct the actions of 
 men, both in private and in social life, has excited, promoted, 
 and sustained those unhappy commotions and revolutions by 
 which almost every nation is agitated, miserable, and afflicted.” 
 No wonder the Protestant Alliance of London, in replying to the 
 marvellous manifesto, assured the Pope that he was wrong both 
 in facts and inferences. To satisfy ourselves in regard to this 
 question we need only take a comparative view of the condition 
 of Protestant and Roman Catholic countries. Look at Ontario 
 in comparison with Mexico, at the United States and the nations 
 of South America, at Scotland or Ireland ; or, in this tercen¬ 
 tenary year of the defeat of the Armada, with so many proud 
 recollections and historical suggestions, we may look at England 
 in comparison with Spain. Facts of the case compel us to the 
 conviction that Romish dogma is incompatible with the highest 
 mental and religious freedom, and therefore unfavorable to 
 national and social progress and well-being. 
 
 Next to Chillingworth’s grand maxim, I like the motto of 
 Owen, the first Secretary of the British and Foreign Bible 
 Society, the legend of which was : An open Bible England's best 
 hope. It has been demonstrated that the national greatness and 
 
REV. DR. LATHERN. 
 
 197 
 
 glory of England have been uniform with her Protestantism. 
 From the moment that the English people stood before the world 
 with an open Bible as the source and symbol of her strength, the 
 nation has continued to advance in commercial and political 
 greatness. More magnificent than Babylon, more opulent than 
 Tyre, with grander dependencies than imperial Rome could boast 
 in its palmiest and proudest days, and with an empire of which 
 the old Spanish vaunt is true—that on it the sun never sets— 
 Old England still throbs with the muffled fire of a past which 
 she can never forget. She is at this day the strong citadel and 
 the central fortress of the moral world, and from her walls and 
 towers there waves a broad bright banner for the truth of God 
 and His Christ. 
 
 And what of that great country beyond our borders with its 
 fifty millions of people ? Was General Grant mistaken when he 
 spoke of the Bible as the sheet-anchor of the country’s hope, 
 and of the fact that the United States was indebted to it for all 
 that was most progressive in civilization ? One of the first acts 
 of Congress after the Revolution was to pass an order for three 
 or four thousand copies of the Word of God, to meet the 
 destitution which had been caused during a long war. But it 
 was no easy matter to obtain such a supply at that time. There 
 were few printing presses on the continent, and none equal to the 
 work of printing an edition of the Bible. The British and 
 Foreign Bible Society had not then been born, and such an order 
 taxed the resources of English and Continental houses. But the 
 century has rolled on, and now the United States supplies the 
 millions of its own people; and sends millions of copies for 
 circulation in the living languages of other lands. Our hope is 
 that these two great Protestant nations, the Empire and the 
 Republic, will continue to stand by the open Bible. Inter¬ 
 national questions they may have ; but we would fain hope that 
 there may be no rivalry in the future but one of righteousness 
 and of legitimate enterprise. The influence of the Evangelical 
 Alliance will be to furl the battle flags. Through the dominance 
 of Christian principle may we not hope that the banner of the 
 Union with its bright stars,—the emblem of God’s great and 
 glorious work of creation—and the red-cross flag of Old England, 
 —emblem of God’s greater and more glorious work in redemption 
 —may continue to wave in undisturbed harmony until their 
 interwoven brightness shall mingle with the splendour of 
 millennial day. 
 
 And so of our own and all other lands. Romish dogma we 
 know to be a source of religious, social, and national peril. “But 
 
198 
 
 ROMISH DOGMA. 
 
 it is impossible,” said one of the great leaders of public thought 
 in America, “ to mentally and socially enslave a Bible-reading 
 people, for the principles of the Bible are the ground-work of 
 human freedom.” The Bible widely diffused in the hearts and 
 homes of our people, the basis of education, the charter of liberty, 
 the foundation of law, the corner-stone of civilization, the pledge 
 of national progress, the bond of Evangelical Alliance, guarantees 
 religious, social, and national elevation and progress. 
 
 (3.) There has been during this Conference a deepening sense 
 of responsibility in regard to the Protestantism of Canada. 
 
 We have a goodly heritage. When God gave a land to His 
 own chosen people for an inheritance, He gave them a land 
 flowing with milk and honey—in the centre of the world's 
 civilization. They had cities of the Nile to the South, Greece 
 and Rome were to the west of the Mediterranean waters, while 
 beyond the great river of the east were populous and wealthy 
 empires. So we here have a land of promise—a land rich in 
 treasures of field and forest, mountain, mine, and sea—long kept 
 as a reserve, it has in the providence of God been opened up for us. 
 Then for all geographical and commercial purposes we hold a 
 central and commanding position. Beyond the Atlantic, in the 
 track of navigation, we have that dear old land our fathers loved 
 so well and taught.their sons to love, and close by the marts of 
 civilized Europe. In close contiguity for commercial purposes, 
 in another direction we have the United States, the West Indies, 
 and the people of South America. From our western shores 
 the Pacific Ocean connects our ports with Oriental empires, the 
 traffic of which may yet find its thoroughfare across our own 
 lines of railway. But we in this Conference believe that the 
 government of God has to do with the allotment of territory and 
 the development of nations. A Divine purpose and plan must 
 be the evangelization of this fair land and its subjugation to the 
 Lord Jesus Christ. “ He shall have dominion also.” Dominion 
 also ! Does it not seem as if the name of this new nation were 
 prophetic of future and destined glory. Dominion also “ from 
 sea to sea,” from ocean to ocean, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 
 “ And from the rivers to the ends of the earth ; ” from the vast 
 floods of Niagara to the region of the Pole, literally the ends of 
 the earth. We have felt the thrill of an exulting strain in this 
 Conference. Shall not the days come when, from the shores of 
 the Atlantic and tidal deeps of the Bay of Fundy, that strain of 
 praise shall roll up to the mighty waters of the St. Lawrence, 
 across the noble Province of Ontario, skirt Lake Huron, and 
 sweep on to the Red River and to the sources of the Saskatchewan; 
 
REV. DR. LATHERN. 
 
 199 
 
 on still to British Columbia and the Pacific, till province after 
 province taught the song, boundless homage of rapture and 
 praise shall be rendered to Him whose dominion is an everlasting 
 dominion ? May Evangelical Alliance speed the day ! 
 
 In a measure, too, we realize a sense of responsibility in regard 
 to those who have gone before us, and who have bequeathed to 
 us a sacred heritage of truth, as well as a noble example of 
 heroism and devotion. Three thousand years ago the tower of 
 David was built for an armory, wherein were hung in thousands 
 the shields of his mighty men there, for an incentive to patriotic 
 achievement. The eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the 
 Hebrews has been called the Westminster Abbey of the New 
 Testament. The men of Athens and Sparta regarded themselves 
 as having a loftier character to sustain after the battles of 
 Marathon and Thermopylae. And we cannot forget those who, 
 posted at the shrine of truth, have stood or fallen in its defence, 
 to whom we are deeply indebted for the priceless boon of 
 religious freedom which we now enjoy. I was deeply impressed 
 with this thought on a visit to Oxford—the University city of 
 England. On the way to the martyrs’ memorial, on Broad 
 street, a cross was seen sunk in the pavement. It was there that 
 the martyrs’ fires of the Reformation were kindled, there that 
 Latimer and Ridley died for the truth. “ Be of good cheer,” 
 said Latimer to Ridley, as the flames wreathed around them ; 
 “ we shall this day light a candle in England as, by God’s grace, 
 shall never be put out.” 
 
 From the Oxford pile these confessors for the truth passed up 
 in their chariots of fire through the gates into the golden city, to 
 join the noble army of martyrs, and to chant the triumphant 
 anthems of the skies. Shall not the spirit of such men be 
 perpetuated ? 
 
 “ Strive we in affection strive, 
 
 Let the purer flame revive ; 
 
 Such as in the martyrs glowed 
 Dying champions for their God.’’ 
 
 It would not be fitting for me to make any general reference 
 to honored witnesses for the truth in our own land, whose faith 
 we would fain follow. But there are two or three names to 
 which I would gladly pay a tribute of affectionate respect. The 
 first name is that of the Hon. Judge Wilmot, who presided at 
 the Montreal meeting of 1874, at that time Governor of New 
 Brunswick, as loyal a Protestant and as patriotic a citizen as the 
 sun ever shone upon. The name of the Hon. Senator Ferrier 
 was identified with every enterprise of philanthropy and 
 
200 
 
 ROMISH DOGMA. 
 
 religion, and some of us remember how keenly solicitous he was 
 that the last meeting of the Alliance in this city should be a 
 distinguished success. Then I venture to mention also the name 
 of the veteran Dr. Egerson Ryerson, who from the chair of the 
 Toronto General Conference came as a representative to the 
 Evangelical Alliance. These were men who never faltered when 
 their testimony was demanded for the truth. They were not 
 bigots, but Protestants to the core, and they taught us by word 
 and deed that vigilance is the price of liberty. It may be thought 
 that the day is past for any stern necessity for maintenance of 
 Protestant rights. But one of the prominent public men of 
 Canada ventured to express an opinion in this city, a few months 
 ago, that the next twenty years would determine whether Canada 
 was to be governed from Ottawa or from Rome. Some of the 
 people down by the sea were not long ago startled by words of 
 threatening tone spoken by an Archbishop in a cathedral 
 service ; words breathing the spirit of St. Bartholomew and the 
 dark ages. Some unwise concessions have been made to Romish 
 dogma in the Halifax public schools. Pictures and statues of 
 the Virgin and the sacred heart are hung in some of the school¬ 
 rooms. There had been some rumor of their removal. But 
 they were there for a purpose ; “ and that,” said the Archbishop, 
 as reported in the daily press, “ is why they will continue there, 
 and that is why you should be ready to fight to keep them there. 
 For I shall call upon you to fight if the 7 iecessity arises .” 
 
 But our hope is that if future exigencies should ever be sore 
 and pressing, in the hour of Protestant need the spirit of Wilmot 
 and Ferrier, and Ryerson, and their compeers, may stand forth 
 in resolute maintenance of the right. Canada needs such men : 
 
 “ heroes who shall dare 
 To struggle in the solid ranks of truth ; 
 
 To clutch the monster Error by the throat; 
 
 To blot the era of Oppression out, 
 
 And lead a universal Freedom in.” 
 
 (4.) Another of the “ uses ” of interchange of thought and 
 expression in this Conference has been to make and manifest 
 union. The second ground of appeal in the Pope’s letter to the 
 Protestants, September 13, 1868, was the divisions among 
 Christians beyond the Romish Church. But the assumption of 
 that appeal is that uniformity is necessary to union. It was for 
 spiritual unity that the Redeemer prayed on the eve of His 
 passion : “ As Thou Father art in me, and I in Thee, that they 
 also may be one in us.” But such union does not necessarily 
 demand uniformity, organic union, or oneness of ecclesiastical 
 
REV. DR. LATHERN. 
 
 201 
 
 organization. There was dead uniformity of Romish dogma and 
 domination in England in the 14th Century, just before the dawn 
 of the Reformation. But vital union was not to be found there. 
 If a man were an anxious enquirer, concerned for truth and 
 salvation, he might go from order to order, from .Dominican to 
 Franciscan, and from Franciscan to Carmelite, and no words of 
 life as determined by the one Mediator, Christ crucified, could 
 be heard. There was no one creed to satisfy the conscience or 
 to save the soul. There may be uniformity without spiritual 
 unity. On the other hand, the organization of an Evangelical 
 Alliance is of itself all the evidence we need that there may be a 
 union without any absolute uniformity. “ We are one body in 
 Christone Lord, one faith, one baptism. Even in funda¬ 
 mental doctrine the Alliance finds a basis of union. We believe 
 in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. We 
 believe in Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of the Father, his 
 incarnation, sacrificial death, and mediatorial exaltation. We 
 believe that God so loved the world that He gave His only 
 begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not 
 perish but have everlasting life. We believe in the evangelical 
 doctrine of justification by faith : articuliis stantis vel cadentis 
 ecclesice , the article of a standing or falling church. We believe 
 in the Holy Ghost, the universal church, the communion of 
 saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and 
 the life everlasting. 
 
 “We are not divided, all one body we, 
 
 One in hope and doctrine, one in Charity.” 
 
 We heard, at the welcome meeting, of the auspicious time for 
 an Alliance organization. We were reminded of the three great 
 Pans of this year, the Pan-Missionary, the Pan-Anglican, the 
 Pan-Presbyterian. But why should not we have an Evangelical 
 Pan, a Pan large enough to hold us all ? Romanism is an 
 organized system and can be met only with success by an 
 organized Protestantism. Our churches, from Nova Scotia to 
 British Columbia, will gather inspiration and strength from the 
 organizing at this Conference of an Evangelical Alliance for 
 the Dominion of Canada. Launching our bark freighted with 
 the good of future years, we are able to say:— 
 
 “ Our hearts, our hopes, are all with Thee ; 
 
 Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears ; 
 
 Our faith, triumphant o’er our fears, 
 
 Are all with Thee, all with Thee.” 
 
202 
 
 ROMISH DOGMA. 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 Rev. Dr. Hole, Halifax. 
 
 The Lord Jesus, when referring to the nature of His Church 
 and its growth, employed the figure of a grain of mustard seed, 
 a figure which the subsequent growth of the Church proved to 
 be especially appropriate. Dr. Hole then gave a sketch of the 
 founding of the Church by the apostles after the day of Pentecost, 
 its spread in spite of persecution, until at last it became so great 
 that it could not be disregarded by those in power. At first they 
 incurred the bitterness of persecution, but in course of time 
 policy recognized that it would be of greater advantage to use 
 this new power in the state. Constantine therefore “ estab¬ 
 lished ” the Christian faith,—a measure, which while consolidat¬ 
 ing his empire, was disastrous to the spirituality and true growth 
 of the Church. Christianity was now become the avenue to 
 power and place, and therefore attracted into the fold of the 
 Church the crowds of ambitious men who, without being influ¬ 
 enced by its principles, professed its membership for the sake of 
 the worldly advantage that profession secured. They brought 
 with them old unconsecrated heathen habits and modes of 
 religious thought and practice, which were the baneful cause of 
 rapid corruption of the Church ; for the rulers of the Church, 
 adopting methods of expediency and policy, introduced into 
 the pure worship of the Church the splendid ceremonials and 
 too often idolatrous practices of the pagan world, only changing 
 nomenclature to give a Christian aspect to these novelties. This 
 corruption was, however, checked for a time by the advent to 
 power of Julian the Apostate, when every effort was directed to 
 bringing Christianity into contempt,—but whose efforts were 
 overthrown when he, dying in the Persian campaign, defeated 
 and baffled, cried, “ Galilean, thou hast conquered ! ” Succeed¬ 
 ing emperors, however, took the Church into unholy alliance, 
 and thereby retributtvely fostered a serpent that eventually stung 
 the power they represented. Ambitious men occupied the Epis¬ 
 copal seat in Rome. The idea gradually developed itself of 
 establishing a magnificent universal empire over the minds and 
 moral being of men by one who should be counted vicegerent of 
 God and the vicar of Christ. It is true that one of those very 
 Bishops of Rome, when such a thought was broached, pronounced 
 that he who should accomplish this should be no other than 
 Antichrist ; but Hildebrand and his successors did accomplish 
 this design and establish an imperial despotic tyranny over the 
 
REV. DR. HOLE. 
 
 203 
 
 minds and consciences of men, and we see the effect in the 
 degraded and corrupt condition of Europe during the dark and 
 middle ages. Where then was the Church ? We answer, the true 
 Church consisted of the seven thousand who did not bow the knee 
 to Baal; who, amidst all the corruption that hid the truth, rested 
 by faith upon the Saviour. The cry of the Church represented by 
 the Albigenses,Wycliff and the Lollards, went up to God, and his 
 answer came in the person and work of Luther. That great 
 reformer bore a glorious testimony to God’s answer, when before 
 the Diet at Worms, he preached the Gospel to the Emperor and 
 assembled nobles and ecclesiastics, declaring his principles drawn 
 from the Word of God. “ Here I stand. I can do no other : so 
 help me God.” Luther and his fellow reformers gave to the 
 Church the great gift which has emancipated it, freed the 
 consciences of men and built up civil and religious liberty, 
 namely, the Word of God in the language understood by the 
 people. But Rome remains. The question is sometimes asked, 
 “ Is she not changed?” Let the cruelties of St. Bartholomew’s 
 Day, the Spanish Armada, the Revocation of the Edict of 
 Nantes, the persecution of the Waldenses, the Revolution of 1688, 
 which saved Great Britain from having the iron rule of Rome 
 reimposed upon it, and laid the foundations firm of our present 
 glorious civil and religious liberties—let them furnish the 
 answer. Or, again, let the present condition of Spain, or,—to 
 come nearer home, the Province of Quebec itself, as it is domi¬ 
 nated by the Romish system, give the emphatic reply in the 
 negative. No ! whether she wields the weapons of force or of 
 Jesuit craft, semper eadem , is'always true of her—ever the foe of 
 civil and religious liberty. She is swift, yet patient. She acts 
 suddenly, or, as circumstances demand—waits centuries. She 
 brings to her aid all the resources of art and literature. Music, 
 painting, sculpture, are in her hands the instruments for 
 enslaving her victims. Like one of her engines of torture of her 
 own Inquisition, the Virgin’s Kiss, this was a figure, moddled 
 and painted with the most seductive skill, inviting approach with 
 extended arms. The victim being pushed within them, they 
 closed around it, knives opening from various parts of the body, 
 wounding and lacerating the flesh. So with Rome :—she 
 attracts by every art, but when once she has enclosed her 
 votaries in her meshes, they find themselves deceived, enslaved 
 and helpless. 
 
 Now, to the Protestant Churches is committed the great task 
 under God of stemming the tide of her advances, of defeating 
 the end at which she aims. How is this to be accomplished ? 
 
204 
 
 ROMISH DOGMA. 
 
 The answer is, by union ; for union is strength. If we will but 
 recognize it, we can be more united and have a truer union than 
 that of which Rome vainly and falsely boasts. Amid all dis¬ 
 similarities which forbid uniformity, there is one principle that 
 can bring us into true unity. It is to recognize the Lord Jesus 
 Christ in his living and ascended power as the sun of our spiritual 
 system. Round his person we can gather and join hands, united 
 in heart, united in faith, strong in the midst of our weakness, in His 
 strength to work for and accomplish the triumph of His Church 
 in combating this foe. However, let us remember that we are 
 at war only with the system. Against its baleful machinations 
 and ceaseless intrigues we should ever be on the alert to meet 
 and defeat them. To the members of the system our attitude 
 must be that of considerate sympathy. They are under its 
 bondage—not the less real because they acquiesce in it—and our 
 message to them is one of fraternal interest. Our efforts on their 
 behalf should be directed to bringing them under the influence 
 of the Gospel of Christ, especially by disseminating among them 
 the Word of God. This was the instrument under God of our 
 emancipation ; by His blessing it will be so of theirs. It is the 
 charter of our freedom ; it will be of theirs. May God grant 
 that the Evangelical Alliance may rise to its true capacities 
 for God and in the power of God’s Holy Spirit for a practical 
 exhibition of the fulfilment of Christ’s prayer and the accom¬ 
 plishment of Christ’s work upon the condition of that fulfilment 
 —“ That they all may be one, as thou Father art in me and I 
 in Thee, that they also may be one in us : that the world may 
 believe that thou hast sent me.” 
 
 At the conclusion of Dr. Hole’s speech, the Benediction was 
 pronounced and the meeting brought to a close. 
 
THURSDAY, 25th OCTOBER, 1888. 
 
 MORNING SESSION. 
 
 Sir William Dawson, President of the Montreal Branch of 
 the Alliance, occupied the chair. 
 
 After a hymn had been sung and prayer offered, the Chairman 
 remarked that this was to be a business session, and that no time 
 might be lost, he would call at once upon the Secretary, Rev. 
 W. Jackson, to introduce it with a paper. 
 
 THE DOMINION EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE, ITS 
 OBJECTS, NEEDS AND POSSIBILITIES. 
 
 Rev. W. Jackson, Montreal. 
 
 At the time of holding the General Conference of the Evan¬ 
 gelical Alliance in the City of New York, in October of the year 
 1873, the Canadian Delegates held a meeting in the parlor of 
 the Young Men’s Christian Association, at which it was resolved 
 to organize a Dominion Branch of the Alliance. Arrangements 
 were made, at the same time, to hold a general meeting in 
 the month of October, 1874. The officers and executive com¬ 
 mittee of the Montreal Branch were requested by the meeting to 
 act as the provisional officers and executive of the Dominion 
 Alliance until the time of the said meeting. The Conference 
 held in this city was a most brilliant and successful gathering, 
 being attended by many distinguished men, both from Europe 
 and the United States. At an early period of the meeting, a 
 committee of seventeen persons were appointed by the Chair¬ 
 man to draft a Constitution. This committee, after due delibera¬ 
 tion, recommended that the Dominion Evangelical Alliance be 
 formed on the basis recommended by the parent Alliance in 
 England, and that all branches be formed on the same basis. 
 This committee further recommended a list of names, as officers, 
 consisting of a president, twenty-four vice presidents, one general 
 secretary, seven honorary secretaries, one treasurer, and a general 
 committee of forty-three ; these officers and committee were 
 authorized to choose and appoint an executive from their own 
 
206 
 
 THE DOMINION EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE. 
 
 number, who should have power to transact all business in the 
 intervals of the general meetings of the committee. Patient 
 search has failed to reveal any further facts in reference to the 
 Dominion Alliance. Auspiciously started, as it doubtless was, I 
 fear that it never had any other existence than upon paper. I 
 have, therefore, to deal with the future, rather than with the past; 
 with what may be, rather than with what is. And when I think 
 of the interests that stand identified with this morning’s session, 
 or of the issues which may grow out of it, I can only wish that 
 this paper had been allotted to abler hands. However, as this is 
 not the time for excuses or apologies, I must address myself to 
 the task my colleagues have assigned me. For the sake of clear¬ 
 ness, I shall attempt an answer to three questions. 
 
 I. What are the Objects at which the Evangelical 
 Alliance Aims ? 
 
 In answering this question, I imagine, I cannot do better than 
 quote from the original documents of the Organization as laid 
 down in London, in 1846 :— 
 
 “1. That, inasmuch as this proposal for union originated, in a great degree, in the 
 sense very generally entertained among Christians, of their grevious practical neglect 
 of our Loi'd’s ‘ new commandment 5 to His disciples, to ‘love one another’ ; in which 
 offence the members of the Alliance desire, with godly sorrow, to acknowledge their 
 full participation ; it ought to form one chief object of the Alliance to deepen in the 
 minds of its own members, and, through their influence, to extend among the dis¬ 
 ciples of our Lord Jesus Christ generally, that conviction of sin and shortcoming in 
 this respect which the blessed Spirit of God seems to be awakening throughout His 
 Church ; in order that, humbling themselves more and more belore the Lord, they 
 may be stirred up to make full confession of their guilt at all seasonable times, and to 
 implore, through the merits and intercessions of their merciful Head and Saviour, 
 forgiveness of their past offences, and Divine Grace to lead them to the better cultiva¬ 
 tion of that brotherly affection which is enjoined upon all who, loving the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, are bound also to love one another, for the truth’s sake which dwelleth in them. 
 
 “ 2. That the great object of the Evangelical Alliance be, to aid in manifesting, as 
 far as practical, the unity which exists among the true disciples of Christ; to promote 
 their union by fraternal and devotional intercourse ; to discourage all envyings, strifes, 
 and divisions ; to impress upon Christians a deeper sense of the great duty of obey¬ 
 ing the Lord’s command, to ‘ love one another ’ ; and to seek the full accomplishment 
 of His prayer :—‘ That they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in 
 Thee ; that they also may be one in Us ; that the world may believe that Thou hast 
 sent Me.” 
 
 “ 3. That, in furtherance of this object, the Alliance shall receive such information 
 respecting the progress of vital religion, in all parts of the world, as Christian brethren 
 may be disposed to communicate; and that a correspondence be opened and main¬ 
 tained with Christian brethren in different parts of the world, especially with those 
 who may be engaged, amid peculiar difficulties and opposition, in the cause of the 
 Gospel, in order to afford them all suitable encouragement and sympathy, and to 
 diffuse an interest in their welfare. 
 
 “4. That, in subserviency to the same great object, the Alliance will endeavour to 
 exert a beneficial influence on the advancement of Evangelical Protestantism, and on 
 the counteraction of infidelity, of Romanism, and of such other forms of superstition, 
 error, and profaneness as are most prominently opposed to it;—especially the dese¬ 
 cration of the Lord’s Day; it being understood that the different organizations of the 
 
REV. W. JACKSON. 
 
 207 
 
 Alliance be left to adopt such methods of prosecuting these great ends as to them 
 may appear most in accordance with their respective circumstances ; all at the same 
 time pursuing them in the spirit of tender compassion and love. 
 
 “5. In promoting these and similar objects, the Alliance contemplates chiefly the 
 stimulating of Christians to such efforts as the exigencies of the case may demand, by 
 publishing its views in regard to them, rather than accomplishing these views by any 
 general organization of its own. 
 
 “6. That reports, minutes, and other documents in promotion of the above objects 
 be published by the Alliance at the time of its meetings, or by its order afterwards ; 
 and that similar documents may be issued from time to time by its various organiza¬ 
 tions on their own responsibility.” 
 
 This quotation will preclude any further remark in the same 
 direction. These objects will commend themselves to the intelli¬ 
 gence and heart of every Christian who ponders them : I there¬ 
 fore pass on to my second question. 
 
 II. IS THERE ANY NEED FOR SUCH AN ORGANIZATION AS 
 
 the Evangelical Alliance in the Dominion of Canada? 
 
 In my judgment there is ; and for three reasons :— 
 
 (1.) I deem the Alliance the best existing organization for the 
 promotion and manifestation of genuine Christian union among 
 the members of all denominations. Whatever may be said of 
 organic union, with all our dreams, we are a long way from it 
 yet ; and, with the testimony of history before them, many wise 
 and devout people most earnestly pray that such a union may 
 never come. “ Better the evils of diversity, manifold as they are, 
 than the evils of uniformity, invariable and deadly as they have 
 been.” The diversities which exist in Christendom, to-day, will 
 be likely to continue “so long as men are born of different types, 
 and are environed by different circumstances ” ; but these diver¬ 
 sities present no real barriers to that spiritual union for which 
 Christ prayed. The Alliance, in its meetings for united prayer, 
 its Conferences for the discussion of great questions of interest 
 common to all, furnishes admirable opportunities for demonstrat¬ 
 ing to the world, that, notwithstanding the differences of opinion 
 which exist among them, Christ’s people are one in heart the wide 
 earth over. The gatherings just alluded to have brought to light 
 the fact that no denomination has a monopoly of Christian scholar¬ 
 ship or life ; and they have demonstrated that there is a deeper 
 bond of brotherhood among Christ’s followers than that which 
 arises from a mere agreement of opinion, viz.:—a common rela¬ 
 tion to Christ and a living embodiment of His Spirit and life. 
 The friendly relations existing among different denominations 
 have been gradually improving for the last fifty years. Instead of 
 looking at each other as rivals, we have come to recognize each 
 other as parts of the one true Catholic Church, and are beginning 
 to esteem each other as brethren in the Lord. Now, I do not 
 
208 
 
 THE DOMINION EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE. 
 
 affirm that the Evangelical Alliance has been the sole influence 
 at work in this direction ; at the same time it is undeniable that 
 it has been the chief earthly factor in the case. This I put 
 down as one of its grandest achievements. And were there no 
 other motive, this itself would be reason sufficient to lead us to 
 maintain and extend it throughout the Dominion ; for to draw 
 the bonds of Christian brotherhood closer is a work the value of 
 which it is impossible to overestimate. 
 
 (2.) My second reason is because we have in the Alliance a 
 standing protest against persecution for conscience sake , a?id the 
 powerful friend of all who thus suffer , regardless of their 7 iationality 
 or of their creed. “ Having branches in all countries of the world, 
 it is able to give a universal expression to all forms of Christian 
 sympathy, and often its appeals or its remonstrances have been 
 the means of inducing some of the most autocratic sovereigns to 
 give religious liberty to their subjects when all other efforts have 
 been unavailing.” I cannot take time to allude to particular 
 instances of the great services of this sort which have been 
 rendered to suffering servants of Christ. Let us bring the matter 
 home. Our French Canadian Protestant Missionaries find one 
 of their chief hindrances in the enforced banishment of their 
 converts by a persecution, which, while it keeps within the law, 
 is none the less real. If we had a vigorous branch of the Alliance 
 here we could efficiently aid these brethren, who are toiling in 
 one of the most discouraging fields on the face of the earth. 
 With the countless forms of infidelity undermining the foundation 
 of society, in the face of a solid and compact Romanism, 
 marshaled by the subtle agency of Jesuitism, we need a strong 
 and vigorous organization, ready for united action in any emer¬ 
 gency that may arise. There seems to be a general consensus 
 of opinion that events are slowly and silently, but inevitably 
 tending toward a crisis in this beloved country of ours. What 
 is its future to be ? Is Romanism, with its stagnation and 
 bondage, to be triumphant, or is Protestantism, with its progress 
 and its liberty, to rule ? We are face to face with this question 
 to-day, and all the momentous interests that underlie it. We 
 need some efficient organization, independent of all party politics, 
 under Christian control, and including in its membership men of 
 all churches, ready to operate for the relief of any oppressed 
 brother, and in which we may find a swift and sure defence 
 whensoever our own liberties are threatened by any foe. The 
 Evangelical Alliance is just such an organization. 
 
 (3.) My third reason is that the Evangelical Alliance is a most 
 efficient combination of Christian men of all creeds for educating 
 
REV. W. JACKSON. 
 
 209 
 
 the people , and thereby influencing legislation on all great questions 
 relating to public morals, as well as for united Christia?i effort to 
 reach the masses who are outside of all our churches. With our 
 American brethren, we are persuaded that “ Many and great 
 perils threaten our institutions and our Christian civilization.” 
 And we are also persuaded that the Evangelical Alliance fur¬ 
 nishes the best medium for “ Consolidating and expressing 
 Christian public opinion, and of affording an effective channel 
 for concerted action and organized effort.” Here is a platform 
 from which Protestantism can utter its united opinion on any 
 great public question in a way that can make itself felt in the 
 halls of legislation, and through all the ramifications of society. 
 Here is an organization that may efficiently work both among 
 our city and rural populations, a system of co-operative Christian 
 labor which shall reach the non-church-goers as no church ever 
 can. These are not theories, they are facts in the history of the 
 Alliance, both in Europe and in the United States. For these 
 three reasons I should like to have a Dominion Alliance. There 
 is much good work being done in various ways along the lines I 
 have indicated, but there is no united action which carries with 
 it the weight of the Protestantism of this land, or that is entitled 
 to speak in its name. 
 
 III. My third question is: How may we best secure 
 for the Dominion of Canada the advantages the 
 Evangelical Alliance offers ? 
 
 (1.) We want a workable Constitution. I have intimated that 
 the Alliance formed inn874 adopted the Constitution recom¬ 
 mended by the Parent Alliance in England. I hold in my hand 
 a copy of the Constitution of the Branch of the Alliance in the 
 United States. With these two excellent models before us it 
 should not be a difficult task to frame a Constitution adapted to 
 our needs, and one which we could easily work. And the action 
 of the Conference has anticipated what I would have said just 
 here, and has therefore saved some of its own most precious time. 
 You have already determined to organize, and adopted with 
 slight modifications the Provisional Constitution prepared by the 
 direction of the Montreal Branch of the Alliance, for the 
 consideration of this Conference. There is one important point 
 which escaped my notice when we were drawing up that document 
 that I should like to see incorporated therein ; it refers to the 
 “ Practical Resolutions.”* 
 
 (2.) We need an efficient and widely-extended Executive. I 
 
 * These resolutions were read in part and ordered to be incorporated in the 
 Constitution. 
 
 O 
 
210 
 
 THE DOMINION EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE. 
 
 believe, without blaming anyone, that this was the rock on which 
 the Alliance of 1874 was wrecked. Provision was not made for 
 working the Constitution, and as it could not work itself it 
 became defunct. What would the English Branch be without 
 the office in the Strand, London, with General Field and A. J. 
 Arnold the Secretaries ? or what the United States Branch 
 without the office in New York, and the honored Secretaries, 
 Revs. Drs. Strong and Russell ? You say these things cost time 
 and money ; true, and if the churches of this country are not 
 willing to give the time and money needful, we had better drop 
 the matter where it is ; but I believe if the Christian people of 
 this country are once shown the advantages that are likely to 
 accrue, they will give the time and the cash needful to make a 
 Dominion Alliance a grand success. 
 
 (3.) We need a?i Auxiliary of the Alliance in every city , town , 
 and village of the Dominion , from ocean to ocean. The entire 
 country must be awakened and interested in the movement. 
 All this will take time and labor, but is, in my judgment, essential 
 to success. 
 
 These are the chief elements necessary to success. The 
 Montreal Branch has asked you to come together for this 
 Conference, and has set apart this session for the purpose of 
 discussing this important practical matter. You have been 
 listening for two days to eminent men discussing important 
 social and religious questions ; there is before us for discussion 
 now a matter of business. Having introduced the subject as 
 briefly as I could, I pray that we may be Divinely guided to such 
 conclusions as will bring glory to the Great Head of the Church, 
 and tend to the advancement of His kingdom in our midst. 
 
BUSINESS SESSION OF THE CONFERENCE. 
 
 After Mr. Jackson’s address a free discussion ensued, and it 
 was resolved to form a Branch of the Alliance for the Dominion 
 of Canada, and the following Constitution was adopted, and the 
 officers elected :— 
 
 CONSTITUTION : 
 
 Article I.— Name. 
 
 The Evangelical Alliance for the Dominion of Canada. 
 
 Article II.— Objects. 
 
 (i.) To manifest and strengthen Christian Unity. (2.) To vindicate religious 
 liberty. (3.) To promote co-operation in Christian work, without interference with 
 the internal affairs of the different denominations. 
 
 Article III.— Doctrinal Basis. 
 
 The Articles adopted by the Parent Alliance at its organization in London in the 
 year 1846, which are as follows :— 
 
 (1.) The Divine Inspiration, Authority, and Sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 (2.) The right and duty of private judgment in the interpretation of the Holy 
 Scriptures. 
 
 (3.) The Unity of the Godhead, and the Trinity of Persons therein. 
 
 (4.) The utter depravity of human nature in consequence of the Fall. 
 
 (5.) The Incarnation of the Son of God, His work of Atonement for sinners of 
 mankind, and His Mediatorial intercession and reign. 
 
 (6.) The Justification of the Sinner by Faith alone. 
 
 (7.) The work of the Holy Spirit in the Conversion and Sanctification of the Sinner. 
 (8.) The Immortality of the Soul, the Resurrection of the Body, the Judgment of the 
 World by our Lord Jesus Christ, with the eternal blessedness of the righteous, and 
 the eternal punishment of the “wicked. 
 
 (9.) The Divine Institution of the Christian Ministry, and the obligation and perpetuity 
 of the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. 
 
 It being, however, distinctly declared that this brief summary is not to be regarded 
 in any formal or ecclesiastical sense as a creed or confession ; nor the adoption of it as 
 an assumption of the right to define authoritatively the limits of Christian brotherhood, 
 but simply as an indication of the class of persons whom it is desirable to embrace 
 within the Alliance. 
 
 Article IV.— Membership. 
 
 Any Communicant member of an Evangelical Church may become a member by 
 signing the Constitution, and paying annually a fee of one dollar. 
 
 The payment of $50 at one time constitutes a person a life member of the Alliance, 
 provided such member maintain his church relation.* 
 
 Article V.— Officers. 
 
 A President, Vice-President, seven Or more Honorary Secretaries, a Treasurer, a 
 General Secretary, a Recording Secretary, and a General Committee of twenty-five 
 additional members. All Presidents of Provincial Alliances shall be ex-officio Vice- 
 Presidents of this Alliance. 
 
 * The Executive Committee, in answer to enquiries, beg to state that they under¬ 
 stand the Constitution of the Alliance as indicating that individual members of Branch 
 Alliances become members of the Dominion Alliance, by complying with the require¬ 
 ments of Article IV. of the Constitution of the same. 
 
212 
 
 BUSINESS SESSION OF THE CONFERENCE. 
 
 Article VI.— Management. 
 
 The management is entrusted to an Executive Committee, consisting of the Presi¬ 
 dent, a Vice-President from each Province, the Treasurer, the General Secretary, the 
 Recording Secretary, and twenty others, appointed by the General Committee. 
 
 N.B.—Should Provinces fail to organize Provincial Alliances, the delegates from 
 such Provinces attending the annual meeting shall nominate the Vice-President to 
 represent such Provinces on the Executive Committee. 
 
 Article VII.— Branch Alliances. 
 
 Provincial and Local Branches shall be formed wherever practicable, and all 
 Branches shall be entitled to send delegates to the annual meeting ; such delegates to 
 have the right to vote on all matters coming before the annual meeting. 
 
 Branches are left free to form their own by-laws, provided that they do not 
 conflict with the Constitution of the Dominion Alliance. 
 
 Article VIII.— Annual Meeting. 
 
 The Annual Meeting of the Alliance shall be held in the month of October, in such 
 place as the Executive Committee may determine. 
 
 Article IX.— Practical Resolutions. 
 
 The ‘‘Practical Resolutions” of the Parent Alliance in England shall be read at 
 some convenient time during the annual meeting, and be expounded and enforced by 
 some person appointed for that purpose. 
 
 N.B .— These Resolutions have been printed separately, and may be had on application 
 to the Secretary. 
 
 Article X.— Amendment of Constitution. 
 
 This Constitution may be amended at any annual meeting of the Alliance by a two- 
 thirds vote of the members present. Notice of motion shall be given of any proposed 
 amendment at least one Session before it is discussed ; but when desired the mover 
 shall be required to state the scope of his motion at the time of giving notice. 
 
 OFFICERS : 
 
 President :—The Honorable Senator Macdonald, Toronto. 
 
 Vice-Presidents : 
 
 Sir William Dawson, C.M.G., F.R.S., 
 LL.D., Montreal. 
 
 The Right Rev. Bishop of Montreal. 
 
 The Ven. Archdeacon Evans, “ 
 
 Rev. A. B. Mackay, “ 
 
 Rev. Geo. H. Wells, D.D., “ 
 
 Rev. W. I. Shaw, LL.D, 
 
 Rev. D. H. MacVicar, D.D., LL.D., 
 Montreal. 
 
 Rev. F. H. Marling, Montreal. 
 
 James A. Mathewson, Esq., Montreal. 
 Rev. Edwd. J. Stobo, Quebec. 
 
 Rev. John A. Williams, D.D., Toronto. 
 Hon. Oliver Mowat, “ 
 
 Sir Daniel Wilson, LL.D., 
 
 Rev. Dr. Reid, “ 
 
 Rev. John Potts, D.D., “ 
 
 Rev. Malcolm MacVicar, Ph.D., LL.D., 
 Toronto. 
 
 W. H. Howland, Esq., Toronto. 
 
 Hon. S. H. Blake, “ 
 
 H. J. Clarke, Esq., “ 
 
 S. C. Duncan Clarke, Esq., Toronto. 
 The Right Rev. Bishop of Huron, Lon¬ 
 don. 
 
 Rev. E. B. Ryckman, D.D., London. 
 Rev. R. F. Burns, D.D., Halifax, N.S. 
 Hon. S. H. Shannon, “ 
 
 Rev. Dr. Macrae, St. John, N.B. 
 
 *Hon. A. F. Randolf, “ 
 
 Rev. C. H. Hole, D.D., Halifax. 
 
 *T. W. Daniel, Esq., Fredericton. 
 
 T. C. James, Esq., Charlottetown. 
 
 Rev. J. M. King, D.D., Winnipeg. 
 
 Hon. James A. Smart, Brandon. 
 
 Rt. Rev. Bishop Cridge, Victoria, B.C. 
 Noah Shakespeare, Esq., “ 
 
 Rev. Dr. Wardrope, Guelph. 
 
 Hon. Sidney Smith, Cobourg. 
 
 Rev. D. H. Fletcher, Hamilton. 
 
 Rev. Dr. Cochrane, Brantford. 
 
 *Very Rev. Principal Grant, Kingston. 
 Hon. Judge McDonald, Brockville. 
 
BUSINESS SESSION OF THE CONFERENCE. 
 
 213 
 
 Honorary Secretaries : 
 
 J. J. Woodhouse, Esq., Toronto. 
 Robert Murray, Esq., Halifax. 
 Rev. J. B. Saer, B.D., St. John. 
 
 Rev. P. M. F. McLeod, Victoria, B.C. 
 J. A. M. Aikins, Esq., Winnipeg, Man. 
 W. Brown, Esq., Quebec. 
 
 General Secretary, (Not yet appointed.) 
 Recording Secretary : Rev. William Jackson, Montreal. 
 Honorary Treasurer : George Hague, Esq., Montreal. 
 
 General Committee : 
 
 Right Rev. BishopUssher, M.D., Montreal. 
 Warden King, Esq., “ 
 
 Wm. C. Palmer, Esq., “ 
 
 Rev. James Henderson “ 
 
 Rev. L. H. Jordan, B.D., 
 
 Rev. Thos G. Williams, “ 
 
 Rev. A. G. Upham, “ 
 
 Rev. J. C. Antliff, D.D., 
 
 Charles Morton, Esq., “ 
 
 A. F. Gault, Esq., “ 
 
 Executive 
 
 Hon. Senator Macdonald, President, 
 Toronto. 
 
 SirW. Dawson, C.M.G., F.R.S., LL.D., 
 Vice-President for Quebec. 
 
 W. H. Howland, Esq., Vice-President 
 for Ontario. 
 
 T. W. Daniel, Esq., Vice-President for 
 New Brunswick. 
 
 Hon. Mr. Shannon, Vice-President .for 
 Nova Scotia. 
 
 T. C. James, Esq., Vice-President for 
 Prince Edward Island. 
 
 Hon. J. A. Smart, Vice-President for 
 Manitoba. 
 
 Right Rev. Bishop Cridge, Vice-President 
 for British Columbia. 
 
 Vice-President for Newfoundland (To be 
 asked to appoint). 
 
 The General Secretary, Montreal. 
 
 The Recording Secretary, 
 
 The Honorary Treasurer, “ 
 
 J. C. Holden, Esq., Montreal. 
 
 Rev. W. Scott, Ottawa. 
 
 C. Falconer, Esq., “ 
 
 *Peter Johnson, Esq., Quebec. 
 Arthur Chown, Esq., Kingston. 
 
 *R. V. Rogers, Esq., Kingston. 
 Rev. E. F. Torrance, Peterborough. 
 R. S. Gurd, Esq., Sarnia. 
 
 Rev. R. Torrance, D.D., Guelph. 
 
 Committee : 
 
 The Ven. Archdeacon Evans, Montreal. 
 Rev. W. I. Shaw, LL.D., “ 
 
 Rev. D. H. MacVicar, D.D., LLD., 
 Montreal. 
 
 Rev. F. H. Marling, Montreal. 
 
 Rev. J. C. Antliff, D.D., “ 
 
 Rev. T. G. Williams, “ 
 
 Rev. A. G. Upham, “ 
 
 Rt. Rev. Bishop Ussher, M.D., Montreal. 
 Warden King, Esq., Montreal. 
 
 Rev. Dr. Macrae, St. John, N.B. 
 
 Rev. Dr. Burns, Halifax, N.S. 
 
 Rev. John Lathern, D.D., Halifax, N.S. 
 Rev. E. J. Stobo, Quebec. 
 
 Rev. W. Scott, Ottawa, Ont. 
 
 C. Falconer, Esq., “ “ 
 
 Hon. Judge McDonald, Brockville. 
 
 Rev. John Potts, D.D., Toronto, Ont. 
 
 S. C. D. Clarke, Esq., “ “ 
 
 Rev. D. H. Fletcher, Hamilton, Ont. 
 
 * These gentlemen have been asked to accept the positions to which their names 
 are attached, but had not been heard from at the time of printing. 
 
THURSDAY, 25th OCTOBER, 1888. 
 
 AFTERNOON SESSION. 
 
 Hon. Judge McDonald, of Brockville, Ontario, occupied 
 the chair. 
 
 The hymn, “ Blest be the tie that binds,” was sung, after which, 
 Rev. Dr. MACRAE offered prayer. 
 
 The Chairman read the first five verses of the Fourth 
 Chapter of Ezra. 
 
 TOPIC: CO-OPERATION IN CHRISTIAN WORK. 
 
 CHAIRMAN’S ADDRESS. 
 
 Hon. Judge McDonald, Brockville, Ontario. 
 
 He first considered the difficulties in the way of co-operation. 
 (1) Owing to the co-operation in Church work of those who 
 are not truly in Christian fellowship, and (2), owing to co-opera¬ 
 tion in work that is called Christian, but is not. The social 
 element is to be encouraged. God did not give us a social 
 nature without intending it should be developed, and we may 
 have social recreation and amusements of an innocent character; 
 but not for the purpose of raising money for church purposes. 
 
 If a man wishing to dispose of a horse, a watch, or some other 
 property, gets up a raffle and disposes of tickets in the Province 
 of Ontario, he may be fined, and each purchaser who purchases 
 a ticket may be fined the sum of $20. But if a raffle is got up 
 for a religious object it is legal, provided the consent of the 
 Mayor, or other chief officer of the municipality, is procured and 
 the article to be raffled does not exceed $50 in value. 
 
 The speaker referred to tableaux, and other means used to 
 raise money for church purposes, instancing one case in which 
 there was a tableau representing the Ten Virgins. When the 
 Salvation Army had a representation of that parable in connec¬ 
 tion with a religious service there was great indignation, and yet 
 it could be acted or represented in an opera-house to raise 
 
215 
 
 chairman’s address. 
 
 money for church purposes. This state of things is unfair to 
 ministers, who are called upon to act as masters of ceremonies, 
 or prompters, or stage-managers. They preach against theatres, 
 and wonder the people go to them. 
 
 The evil with which the speaker dealt is sapping the life 
 of the Church. The speaker then read, as expressing the 
 state of matters better than he could, the following words of 
 a gifted poetess :— 
 
 “ The Church and the World walked far apart. 
 
 On the changing shores of time ; 
 
 The World was singing a giddy song, 
 
 And the Church a hymn sublime. 
 
 ‘Come, give me your hand,’ cried the merry World, 
 
 ‘ And walk with me this way ; ’ 
 
 But the good Church hid her snowy hand, 
 
 And solemnly answered, ‘ Nay, 
 
 I will not give you my hand at all, 
 
 And I will not walk with you ; 
 
 Your way is the way of endless death ; 
 
 Your words are all untrue.’ 
 
 “ ‘ Nay, walk with me but a little space,’ 
 Said the World with a kindly air; 
 
 ‘ The road I walk is a pleasant I'oad, 
 
 And the sun shines always there. 
 
 Your path is thorny and rough and rude, 
 And mine is broad and plain ; 
 
 My road is paved with flowers and gems, 
 And yours with tears and pain. 
 
 The sky above me is always blue ; 
 
 No waiit, no toil, I know ; 
 
 The sky above you is always dark ; 
 
 Your lot is a lot of woe. 
 
 My path, you see, is a broad, fair path, 
 And my gate is high and wide,— 
 There is room enough for you and for me 
 To travel side by side.’ 
 
 “ Half shyly the Church approached the World, 
 And gave him her hand of snow : 
 
 The World grasped it, and walked along, 
 
 Saying, in accents low,— 
 
 ‘ Your dress is too simple to please my taste ; 
 
 I will give you pearls to wear, 
 
 Rich velvets and silks for your graceful form, 
 
 And diamonds to deck your hair.’ 
 
 The Church looked down at her plain white robes, 
 And then at the dazzling World, 
 
 And blushed as she saw his handsome lip 
 With a smile contemptuous curled. 
 
 * I will change my dress for a costlier one,’ 
 
 Said the Church with a smile of grace ; 
 
216 
 
 CO-OPERATION IN CHRISTIAN WORK. 
 
 Then her pure garments drifted away, 
 
 And the World gave, in their place, 
 
 Beautiful satins, and shining silks, 
 
 And roses and gems and pearls ; 
 
 And over her forehead her bright hair fell 
 Crisped in a thousand curls. 
 
 “ ‘Your house is too plain,’ said the proud old World ; 
 ‘ I’ll build you one like mine :— 
 
 Carpets of Brussels, and curtains of lace, 
 
 And furniture ever so fine.’ 
 
 So he built her a costly and beautiful house— 
 Splendid it was to behold ; 
 
 Her sons and her beautiful daughters dwelt there, 
 Gleaming in purple and gold ; 
 
 And fairs and shows in the halls were held, 
 
 And the World and his children were there ; 
 
 And laughter and music and feasts were heard 
 In the place that was meant for prayer. 
 
 She had cushioned pews for the rich and the great 
 To sit in their pomp and their pride, 
 
 While the poor folks, clad in their shabby suits, 
 
 Sat meekly down outside. 
 
 “ The angel of mercy flew over the Church, 
 
 And whispered, ‘ I know thy sin.’ 
 
 The Church looked back with a sigh, and longed 
 To gather her children in. 
 
 But some were off in the midnight ball, 
 
 And some were off at the play, 
 
 And some were drinking in gay saloons ; 
 
 So she quietly went her way. 
 
 “ The sly World gallantly said to her, 
 
 ‘Your children mean no harm— 
 
 Merely indulging in innocent sports.’ 
 
 So she leaned on his proferred arm, 
 
 And smiled, and chatted, and gathered flowers, 
 
 As she walked along with the World ; 
 
 While millions and millions of deathless souls 
 To the horrible pit were hurled. 
 
 “ ‘ Your preachers are all too old and plain,’ 
 
 Said the gay old World with a sneer ; 
 
 ‘They frighten my children with dreadful tales, 
 Which I like not for them to hear : 
 
 They talk of brimstone and fire and pain, 
 
 And the horrors of endless night ; 
 
 They talk of a place that should not be 
 Mentioned to ears polite. 
 
 I will send you some of the better stamp, 
 
 Brilliant and gay and fast, 
 
 Who will tell them that people may live as they list, 
 And go to heaven at last. 
 
 The Father is merciful and great and good, 
 
 Tender and true and kind ; 
 
 Do you think He would take one child to heaven 
 And leave the rest behind ? ’ 
 
chairman’s address. 
 
 217 
 
 So he filled her house with gay divines, 
 
 Gifted and great and learned ; 
 
 And the plain old men that preached the cross 
 Were out of the pulpit turned. 
 
 “ ‘ You give too much to the poor,’ said the World ; 
 ‘Far more than you ought to do. 
 
 If the poor need shelter and food and clothes, 
 
 Why need it trouble you ? 
 
 Go, take your money and buy rich robes, 
 
 And horses and carriages fine, 
 
 And pearls and jewels and dainty food. 
 
 And the rarest and costliest wine. 
 
 My children they dote on all such things, 
 
 And if you their love would win, 
 
 You must do as they do, and walk in the ways 
 That they are walking in.’ 
 
 The Church held tightly the strings of her purse, 
 
 And gracefully lowered her head, 
 
 And simpered, ‘ I’ve given too much away ; 
 
 I’ll do, sir, as you have said. ’ 
 
 “ So the poor were turned from her door in scorn, 
 
 And she heard not the orphan’s cry ; 
 
 And she drew her beautiful robes aside, 
 
 As the widows went weeping by. 
 
 The sons of the World and the sons of the Church 
 Walked closely hand and heart, 
 
 And only the Master who knoweth all, 
 
 Could tell the two apart. 
 
 Then the Church sat down at her ease and said, 
 
 ‘ I am rich, and in goods increased ; 
 
 I have need of nothing, and naught to do 
 But to laugh and dance and feast.’ 
 
 The sly World heard her, and laughed in his sleeve, 
 And mockingly said aside, 
 
 ‘ The Church is fallen—the beautiful Church— 
 
 And her shame is her boast and pride ! ’ 
 
 4 ‘The angel drew near to the mercy-seat, 
 
 And whispered in sighs her name ; 
 
 And the saints their anthems of rapture hushed, 
 
 And covered their heads with shame. 
 
 And a voice came down, through the hush of heaven, 
 From Him who sat on the throne, 
 
 ‘I know thy work,’ and how thou hast said, 
 
 ‘ I am rich ; ’ and hast not known 
 That thou art naked and poor and blind 
 And wretched before My face ; 
 
 Therefore, from My presence I cast thee out, 
 
 And blot thy name from its place ! ” 
 
 Matilda C. Edwards. 
 
218 
 
 CO-OPERATION IN CHRISTIAN WORK. 
 
 THE NECESSITY OF CO-OPERATION IN 
 
 CHRISTIAN WORK. 
 
 Rev. Josiah Strong, D.D., New York. 
 
 The world’s progress is along two lines, the development of 
 the individual and the higher and more complex organization of 
 society. 
 
 These two tendencies toward individualism on the one hand, 
 and toward combination on the other, are, in a measure, antago¬ 
 nistic, and are needed to balance each other. They are like the 
 two oars of a boat. One alone would turn the course to the 
 right, the other to the left ; the movement is circular, not forward. 
 Only when both are operative is there progress straight on. 
 
 Chinese society affords an illustration of the one tendency 
 overcome by the other. When 300,000,000 people live in peace 
 and comparative comfort under one government, it indicates a 
 highly-organized society. It shows a powerful tendency toward 
 combination. But the tendency toward the development of the 
 individual seems to have been arrested centuries ago. There is 
 a vast wilderness of mediocrity, and for hundreds of years each 
 generation seems to have been cast in the same mould. Chinese 
 civilization, therefore, stagnated. 
 
 Germany affords the best illustration of the opposite develop¬ 
 ment, the tendency toward combination overcome by the tendency 
 toward individualism. Less than a score of years ago Germany 
 yielded to the powerful organizing tendency of the age, and the 
 empire was the result. But down to that time all efforts for 
 German unity had proved fruitless. A strong individuality is 
 probably more characteristic of the German race than of any 
 other. Their individualism was so strong that for generations it 
 prevented the concessions which were essential to combination 
 and organization. And the consequence was that the German 
 people, broken into fragments, were politically weak. 
 
 It is quite as important that the balance between these two 
 tendencies be preserved in the Church as in the State. But 
 Church history shows that the one tendency is apt to overcome 
 the other. Both the strength and the weakness of Romanism are 
 due to a tendency toward organization so powerful that it well 
 nigh crushes out all individuality. Both the strength and weakness 
 of Protestantism are due to an individuality so strong that it 
 checks combination and results in weakness. Romanists are the 
 Chinese of the religious world. They belong to a vast organiza- 
 
REV. DR. JOSIAH STRONG. 
 
 219 
 
 tion, the rulers of which exercise absolute authority, but there is 
 little individuality, and there results stagnation; while Protestants 
 are the Germans of the religious world, strongly individual, free 
 to investigate, growing in knowledge, but enfeebled by lack of 
 organization. 
 
 As the tendency toward centralization grew stronger in the 
 Church and overcame individualism, the Church grew formal in 
 its uniformity, and lost its spirituality. Then fell the night of 
 the dark ages, luridly illuminated from time to time by the 
 flames that martyred men who dared to think and speak for 
 themselves. 
 
 The great Protestant Reformation was a reaction towards 
 individualism. A gentleman, perfectly acquainted with Dr. 
 Dollinger, told me recently that he once asked that old Catholic 
 leader what was the root principle from which had sprung the 
 old Catholic movement. He replied : “ Individual accountability 
 to God.” And this, as we all know, was the underlying principle 
 of the Reformation of the 16th century. From this principle 
 there sprung logically the right of private interpretation of God’s 
 Word. Then followed naturally—through sadly mistaken ideas 
 of the relations of belief to Christian fellowship—the multiplica¬ 
 tion of sects, and the competition of one denomination with 
 another, and its attendant evils, many and great. Thus, while 
 individualism gave Protestantism her birth, and crowned her 
 with glory and honor, the development at the expense of the 
 co-ordinate principle of combination and organization divided 
 her forces and limited her powers. 
 
 Now be it observed that co-operation, combination, and 
 organization—these are the presiding genius of 19th century 
 civilization. Mark the unprecedented growth of cities, the rise 
 of numerous trusts, the formation of new political parties and an 
 endless number of societies, the growth of powerful corporations, 
 the organization of immense standing armies, andthe consolidation 
 of petty states and principalities into empires, as in the case of 
 Germany and Italy. A tendency so universal, and which finds 
 such various expression in statecraft, in military science, in 
 commerce, in popular reforms, in almost every branch of business, 
 and in the distribution of population, cannot be accidental. It 
 is the result of definite causes, and will continue while they 
 remain operative. This powerful impulse given to the tendency 
 toward co-operation and organization was from steam and 
 electricity. And as communication is facilitated this tendency 
 will continue. Here then is a mighty tide in the affairs of men 
 which more than anything else characterizes the century, and 
 
220 
 
 CO-OPERATION IN CHRISTIAN WORK. 
 
 this tide the Protestant Churches have, for the most part, resisted. 
 Where the great controlling forces of the century are strongest, 
 Protestantism is weakest. Is it strange that our churches are 
 losing their hold on the masses ? Is it not evident that if 
 Protestantism is to take its proper place among the forces which 
 are moulding modern life, and giving form to our rapidly 
 developing civilization, it must seize upon the power, so long 
 neglected, which comes from co-operation ? 
 
 Permit me to outline some of the reasons which emphasize the 
 necessity of co-operation in Christian work. 
 
 (i.) Co-operation is necessary to put an end to the evils of 
 competition. 
 
 As we have seen, the multiplication of denominations leads 
 naturally to rivalries. If there are in a community three times 
 as many churches as are needed, one church, if it becomes strong, 
 does so at the expense of £he other two ; more likely they are all 
 weak and struggling for existence. Human nature being still 
 human, this struggle to live under such conditions naturally leads 
 to competition, jealousies, and strife. Thus Christ and His 
 religion are dishonored before the world, and the piety and 
 influence of the churches are marred. 
 
 This competitive struggle to live has many bad effects. 
 Sometimes it seriously modifies the tone of the preaching, 
 rendering it less bold, less faithful to the conscience, less loyal to 
 the truth, for fear that some rich sinner may be offended. 
 Before now, when the Rev. Mr. Hew-to-the-line has cried aloud 
 and spared not, and has shown the people their sins, he has been 
 waited on by the trustees, and informed that that kind of 
 preaching will cause a deficit in the treasury. And Mr. Hew-to- 
 the-line has had to learn to speak smooth things, or step down 
 and out. 
 
 As a result of this competitive struggle to live, is there not 
 often a tendency to have the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ with 
 respect of persons ? When there come into our assemblies a 
 man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and also a poor man in 
 vile raiment, doesn’t the usher often say to him that weareth the 
 gay clothing, “ Sit thou here in a good place ; ” and to the poor 
 man, “ Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool ? ” And 
 isn’t the family of the man in gay clothing likely to receive much 
 more social recognition than that of the man in vile raiment ? 
 And isn’t there a tendency, perhaps unconscious, yet none the 
 less real, to adapt the sermon, the music, the architecture, and all 
 the appointments of the church and its worship to the tastes of 
 the rich man rather than to those of the poor ? Is it strange 
 
REV DR. JOSIAH STRONG. 
 
 221 
 
 that working-men have gained the idea that the church is for the 
 rich men, and that they are not wanted there ? 
 
 The unwise multiplication of the churches, and their consequent 
 competition, has made their support a great burden, so that the 
 financial question occupies a very large share of the attention of 
 most churches. And this has given to the world a radically 
 wrong impression of the character and motives of the church. 
 There is nothing harder than to convince a thoroughly selfish 
 man of disinterestedness. When the church seeks him he thinks 
 it is for some ulterior purpose, and believes that you are not 
 seeking him but his. A friend of mine, a clergyman, was making 
 an effort, which had been already several times repeated, to induce 
 a working man to attend church. “ Why should you,” said the 
 man, “ be troubling yourself about me and my family anyway ? 
 I couldn’t give more than four or five dollars a year, and that 
 isn’t worth your while.” When looking up non-church-goers, as 
 a pastor, I have had the door, which had been opened just far 
 enough to show that I was a minister, slammed in my face, with 
 the remark, “ We haven’t any money for you to-day.” The 
 impression that the church is after money is one of the greatest 
 existing obstacles in the way of reaching the masses. And that 
 impression is likely to continue so long as competition between 
 the churches continues. 
 
 Another evil effect of this competition is the congestion of 
 churches so often seen in our large cities. The churches, having 
 followed the well-to-do people up town, have left the down town 
 districts sadly destitute. A denominational City Missionary 
 Society looks over the whole field to select the place to plant a 
 new church. The Secretary says to himself, “If we go down 
 town we shall find the prices very high, and no help on the 
 ground to buy or to rent. The people are needy enough, but as 
 soon as any of these are converted and made respectable they 
 will move away, so that the mission will never become self- 
 supporting. But up town, where the well-to-do and Christian 
 people are building, there is room for a church. The people will 
 contribute largely toward building it; in two or three years it 
 will be self-supporting, and begin to return money to our 
 treasury.” And, of course,, he goes up town with his new 
 church. The representative of another denomination takes note 
 of the fact, and says : “ There are some of our people living near 
 that new church, and they will be going into it, and we shall 
 lose them to our denomination if we don’t build in that 
 neighborhood.” So another church is built on the opposite 
 corner, not because there isn’t any church in that vicinity, but 
 
222 
 
 CO-OPERATION IN CHRISTIAN WORK. 
 
 just because there is. Thus this competition of the denominations 
 leads them to locate their new enterprises where they will find 
 the most sympathy and make the most rapid growth—not where 
 they are most needed, but where they are least needed. The 
 churches are planted not where they will best serve the interests 
 of the city, but where the city will best serve the interests of the 
 churches. Is it not to be feared that we are sometimes more 
 anxious to save the church than to save men ? 
 
 Surely, the evil effects, both upon the Church and the world, 
 which spring from competition in Christian work, demand that, 
 whatever may be true in political economy, we need in ecclesias¬ 
 tical economy the substitute co-operation for competition. 
 
 (2.) Another reason for co-operation is that it is necessary to 
 the best economy of existing forces. 
 
 So far as the adjusting of forces, and the location of new 
 enterprises are concerned, the relations of most of the denomina¬ 
 tions are like those of the Jews and Samaritans. They have no 
 dealings with one another. Several church families are often 
 found trying to get a living out of one small garden patch, while 
 there are square miles of free lands wholly neglected, and 
 producing only weeds and thistles. 
 
 A clergyman in the State of New York writes :—“ In one town 
 are two houses of worship . . . where the aggregate congregations 
 rarely exceed seventy. In another village are two houses of 
 worship, the aggregate congregations in which . . . rarely exceed 
 thirty.” In another community of six or seven hundred are four 
 churches, one of them recently built. “ All these cases,” writes 
 this clergyman, “ are within a radius of six miles.” Such cases 
 are hardly exceptional. “ In an examination of statistics,” 
 continues my informant, “covering some scores of churches, 
 located mostly in agricultural districts and in small villages, I 
 found the average population to the church to be less than three 
 hundred. In a village of some three hundred or four hundred 
 population, where I once lived, there are three church edifices 
 having a seating capacity of eight hundred ; ” while on the 
 frontier there are communities as destitute of churches and as 
 godless as any heathen village in the heart of the dark continent, 
 and we have large city populations where there is only one 
 church to ten, twenty, and even forty thousand souls. 
 
 If all the churches and ministers in the land were Roman 
 Catholic, would there be any such distribution of forces ? and if 
 such distribution would be unwise for that Church, it is unwise 
 for the Kingdom of Christ. 
 
 New settlements are not taking place as rapidly in Western 
 
REV. DR. JOSIAH STRONG. 
 
 223 
 
 Canada as in the Trans-Mississippi region. But the public lands 
 of the United States will be practically exhausted by the close 
 of this century, and then immigration will flow more into your 
 west. And unless your resources are greater than ours, you will 
 not be able to put a Christian stamp upon those new communities 
 without an intelligent understanding and co-operation among 
 denominations. 
 
 Let us suppose, and the supposition is not a violent one, that 
 Dakota will be sufficiently settled by the close of this century to 
 need, on the average , one church and one minister to every 
 twenty-five square miles of territory. And suppose the Congre¬ 
 gational denomination should attempt to supply the demand. 
 We should have to rob of its pastor every Congregational Church 
 in the United States outside of that territory ; we should have to 
 take every living minister of the denomination, sick and well, old 
 and young, the secretaries of the benevolent and religious 
 societies, college presidents, editors and insurance agents ; we 
 should have to put every minister on the denominational list 
 into that one territory, and then call on the Presbyterians for 
 1,600 of their men. 
 
 What if the Presbyterian Church North should attempt a like 
 work for Texas? That Church would have to transport its 
 entire ministry to that one State, and then 4,700 townships, each 
 five miles square, would be left destitute. Suppose we divide 
 into such townships the whole region west of the Mississippi, 
 not including Alaska. I believe it to be within the limits of 
 strong probability that one-half of these townships will be 
 sufficiently settled by the close of this century to demand one 
 minister each. And this, you observe, takes no account of the 
 larger needs of many cities. Yet to place one minister in every 
 other township would require over 40,000 men. 
 
 You have a Western Empire as well as we, and that mighty 
 West is to dominate the continent and determine its destiny. 
 The impress which is to abide for centuries is to be given during 
 the next dozen years or so. 
 
 Are the churches of the East able to place a Christian stamp 
 on that civilization ? Surely not so long as men and money are 
 wasted ; surely not without that economy of existing forces, 
 which can come only from co-operation. 
 
 (3.) Again, another reason for co-operation is that it is 
 necessary to the development of latent forces. 
 
 A handful of drilled soldiers will disperse an armed mob of ten 
 times their numbers. Not because the soldier is braver or 
 physically stronger than the citizen, but because drill means 
 
224 
 
 CO-OPERATION IN CHRISTIAN WORK. 
 
 co-operation, organization. Every soldier makes every other 
 soldier more effective. Hence with organized numbers there is 
 cumulative power. In the human organism each member serves 
 every other. How much can the eye see without the brain, and 
 how much can the brain see without the eye ? Every organ 
 increases the efficiency of all the others. Hence organization 
 discredits the multiplication table, and we find that ten times 
 one is not ten, but perhaps fifty, it may be a hundred. 
 
 In 1885 the churches of Pittsburg became much aroused over 
 the question, “ How to reach the masses ? ” In three years they 
 tried three different methods, and under circumstances equally 
 favorable. One year they all held special services, but without 
 any co-operation. Another year they united so far as to invite 
 Messrs. Moody and Sankey to hold evangelistic meetings in the 
 city, and lent their hearty support to the movement. Another 
 year they engaged in co-operative house to house visitation. 
 Notice the results, as given by one of the pastors in the New 
 York Independe?it. He gives the statistics for the Presbyterian 
 Churches, which probably represent all fairly well. 
 
 During the year preceding these special efforts the net increase 
 of the churches was four per cent, of the membership. During 
 the year of special but independent effort the net increase was 
 five per cent. During the year of Union evangelistic meetings 
 the net increase was seven per cent. And during the year of 
 co-operative church work in house to house visitation, notwith¬ 
 standing the fact that the work was very imperfectly done, the 
 net increase was ten per cent, of the membership—twice as large 
 as during the year that the churches labored with equal zeal 
 but without co-operation. In this case ten times one was twenty. 
 Now the churches are organizing to co-operate in house to house 
 visitation according to the new plans recommended by the 
 Evangelical Alliance. 
 
 The differences between the various Evangelical Churches need 
 not interfere with their co-operation, but will rather serve to 
 increase its efficiency. Differences do not necessarily imply 
 discord ; without differences there can be no harmony. 
 
 There is such a thing as the polarity of truth as well as of 
 light, which is its accepted emblem. All great truths have 
 opposite poles or sides, and we are so limited—each man being 
 only a fraction of a man—that we seize upon a portion of the 
 truth, only a segment of it, and forget or depreciate its comple¬ 
 ment. Hence the different sects, each emphasizing a different 
 truth or portion of truth, need each other to round out its perfect 
 circle. The differences between Evangelical denominations. 
 
REV. DR. JOSIAH STRONG. 
 
 225 
 
 instead of being hostile to co-operation, are friendly. Different 
 organs with different functions are a condition of all high 
 organization. A hundred hands do not make an organized body. 
 There must be many members in one body having different 
 offices. There is a mighty power in the various Protestant 
 Churches as yet undeveloped, because these various members of 
 the body of Christ have failed to enter into true and helpful 
 relations to each other. 
 
 True, some of our differences are not complemental but 
 contradictory, but they are comparatively insignificant. Mission¬ 
 aries in heathen lands find that such differences become puerile 
 in the presence of those who worship the devil. And surely they 
 are too insignificant to prevent our co-operation in the presence 
 of those who worship the world and the flesh. 
 
 Christian civilization in these closing years of the nineteenth 
 century is beset with perils, many and mighty. We need to 
 make every ounce of possible power actual power. Dare we, for 
 selfish and petty reasons, refuse that co-operation which will 
 enable two to put ten thousand to flight ? 
 
 I have sometimes thought that our common dangers were 
 intended of God to force us together. The Hellenic tribes were 
 for generations weakened by their intertribal jealousies and 
 strifes. But the Persian was the smith who, with the hammer of 
 war, welded these Grecian tribes, glowing in the fires of patriotism 
 into a mighty nation. Thus the perils which threaten our 
 Christian civilization to-day may bless us by forcing us to seek 
 the strength which comes from intelligent co-operation, thus 
 realizing in a higher degree than ever before the unity of the body 
 of Christ , which affords a fourth reason, the last which I will 
 mention, for co-operation in Christian work. 
 
 Many long to see all denominations of Christians come into 
 organic relations under one form of Church government. This 
 would not seem to be necessary to a true spiritual unity. Whether 
 or not an organic union is ever to take place this side heaven, I 
 think that all will agree that the body of Christ is dismembered 
 when the eye says to the hand, “ I have no need of thee/’ and 
 when the head says to the feet, “ I have no need of you,” when 
 members of the body of Christ act quite independently of each 
 other, and even in competition with each other. This surely is 
 not being one, as the Father and the Son are one. All will agree 
 that mutual helpfulness is essential to the unity of the body of 
 Christ, for which the Master prayed, and which all His followers 
 desire. And I do not see how such mutual helpfulness can be 
 realized without co-operation. 
 
 P 
 
I 
 
 226 CO-OPERATION IN CHRISTIAN WORK. 
 
 Now, the several denominations hardly draw near enough to 
 each other to become really acquainted, and with lack of 
 acquaintance there is sometimes a lack of full confidence. When 
 I get near enough to a man to recognize in him likeness to 
 Christ, be he white or black, or red, or yellow, and whatever be 
 the name by which he is called, whether Protestant or Catholic, 
 I must needs love him, even though he refuses to fellowship me. 
 I will love him in spite of himself. But denominations of 
 Christians are to-day so isolated that they do not draw near 
 enough to recognize the likeness of Christ in each other. But 
 let them join hands in Christian work, laboring together with 
 like faith and zeal for the same end, and they will recognize each 
 other as brethren indeed. With increasing acquaintance will 
 come growing confidence, a blessed fellowship and a spiritual 
 unity, both real and manifest. 
 
 Brethren, we have spent some time looking full in the face some 
 of the perils which threaten our Christian civilization, and 
 studying some of the great problems of the times, which command 
 the attention of every serious and intelligent mind. Are we 
 perchance tempted to doubt and discouragement ? The great 
 problems of all ages are radically the same. The struggle 
 between sin and righteousness, varying in form with new phases 
 of civilization and changing with the changed conditions of 
 society, is the conflict of ages. On the one hand human selfish¬ 
 ness manifesting itself in the oppression of the weak by the 
 strong—Csesarism, feudalism, slavery, the degradation of women ; 
 on the other hand the power and truth of God, manifesting His 
 righteousness and love, and elevating the race by elevating its 
 units until Caesarism and feudalism give way, slavery’s chain is 
 broken, and womanhood is honored. 
 
 Human selfishness in this age of the world is no greater than 
 it has ever been, and the power of God’s truth and love is no less 
 mighty. The struggles of to-day between the capitalist and 
 laborer, between law and the anarchist, between the home and the 
 saloon, is the old conflict in new forms. The issue will be what 
 it has always been. God’s righteousness will conquer man’s sin, 
 and the race will move forward into a larger place. 
 
 The saving power is God’s, its instruments are we, the several 
 members of that body in which Christ is now incarnate in the 
 world. It is for us in loyalty to our Head to see that Christ’s 
 body is no longer dismembered, but that, “ being fitly joined 
 together, and compacted by that which every joint supplieth,” it 
 becomes the most perfect instrument of His saving power. 
 
REV. DR. FRANK RUSSELL. 
 
 227 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN FORCES CO-OPERATING IN 
 THEIR APPROPRIATE FIELD AND WORK. 
 
 Rev. Frank Russell, D.D., New York. 
 
 We are to study what is called, “ A New Movement,” or, the 
 “ New Departure of the Evangelical Alliance.” It is an impulse 
 of Christian and patriotic forces. There has been for years an 
 increasing ardor to reach the masses of people who are sepa¬ 
 rated from the churches. Such efforts have been mostly denomi¬ 
 national. Some of the best thinkers have given their best 
 thought to the matter. The study and the application of 
 methods have been multiplying. Co-operation has grown up in 
 almost all other enterprises excepting among Christian forces. 
 With the masses in our midst who are not leavened with the 
 Gospel, their numbers vastly increasing, their condition growing 
 more appalling, and the consequent dangers being more alarm¬ 
 ing, the need of some more efficient force to reach them has 
 become apparent. It has become no less apparent that the 
 Gospel of Redemption is pre-eminently our remedy, and the 
 great burden of the study is its most effective handling. 
 
 A significant meeting for the study of the situation was held 
 three years since in Cincinnati, called the Interdenominational 
 Congress. Eminent persons were present, and most advance 
 consideration was had of the perils against our Christian civiliza¬ 
 tion and how the churches, the saving forces of every community, 
 could so adjust their work tbwards these perils. 
 
 That meeting adjourned, with provision for calling another, 
 and a National Meeting of like kind in one, two, or three years. 
 These studies seemed to grow rife in all communities, and the 
 needs more pressing. The work of Chalmers and Guthrie was 
 re-studied with great interest, experiments in Elberfeld and 
 Germantown, and other places, lent aid to the question, revival 
 measures, Sunday School advancement and methods, the Young 
 Men’s Christian Associations, the Bible Society, and the Tract 
 Society, the most excellent work of City Missions, and of 
 churches and pastors eminent in vigorous and effective effort. It 
 seemed evident that the saving force was the Gospel, and the 
 instrument—not new organizations—but the churches themselves, 
 and the churches uniting to call their forces into the field. The 
 formation of societies of Christian Endeavor, while most effective 
 in their purpose, hinted broadly at great forces latent in the 
 churches. The book entitled, “ Our Country,” unfolding the 
 
228 
 
 CO-OPERATION IN CHRISTIAN WORK. 
 
 perils, and the Christian League of Connecticut, suggesting greater 
 effectiveness of Christian forces, besides other services of their 
 eminent authors, and of many others, have engaged attention 
 wide and thoughtful. Experiments quickly followed under the 
 names of, “Union Mission Work,” “Union Church Work,” 
 “ Church Canvassing,” “ Co-operative Church Work.” The 
 Evangelical Alliance for the United States, the only organized 
 expression of a working Christian unity in our country, became 
 intensely interested in these phases of church power. To it was 
 worthily and providentially committed the matter of aiding the 
 churches in rallying their forces for local work, and the national 
 meeting anticipated in Cincinnati, was called by the Alliance, 
 and held in December last. The echoes of that meeting, with 
 no loss of distinctness, are throbbing throughout our whole land. 
 The experiments in co-operative church efforts have continued 
 under the name of Alliance work. It is the nature of this 
 activity to which I am invited to call your attention, “ The 
 Christian Forces Co-operating in their Appropriate Field and 
 Work.” 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN FORCES. 
 
 They are vast in numbers, the membership of the Evangelical 
 Churches reaching twelve millions in the United States. They 
 are also nobly equipped, with the finest commanders and staffs, 
 impregnable works, and lavish supplies, each legion by itself a 
 mighty army, with a grand armament. Each legion is also well 
 drilled and displays great activity, the best activity in promoting 
 everything connected with its own armament. But the legions 
 of this army, God’s great army for the world’s redemption, 
 are very separate. While existing for the same purpose, acting 
 under the same Great Commander, and under the same directions, 
 one manual for all, their power has been largely devoted to 
 things wherein they differ. It is doubtless well there should be 
 differences of names and regalia, and some forms of legion life, 
 and appearances in parade ; right that there should be strong 
 leaders, and strong attachments for the same, and much difference 
 of habit, yet the glory of the legion, or of the history, possession, 
 or appearances, or the length of its roster, is not the aim of its 
 life. To do battle for the Lord’s Kingdom of Righteousness, to 
 go forth and make all the world captive for Christ, is the common 
 purpose of all the legions. 
 
 Now, there has been so much of camp service, and of effort 
 bestowed upon the greatness of the legion that the forces have 
 not been adequately led into the field. We have no regret, 
 
REV. DR. FRANK RUSSELL. 
 
 229 
 
 nothing only grateful praise that the denominations have grown 
 so strong. It is doubtless by divine direction that Christendom 
 is so strong as it is to-day, through the strength of its great 
 denominations ; and we sing hallelujahs that the old strifes 
 among them are matters of the past. The fences once so 
 guarded are gone, split into kindling wood for revival fires, and 
 clergymen, while this is the case, have seemed to conclude that 
 gates and bars of separation between the acquaintance and 
 fellowship of the legions of Christ’s followers are not worth while. 
 For this acquaintance and fellowship it is not deemed necessary 
 to remit or abandon precious and honored traditions or family 
 customs. There is reason enough, and room enough, for them to 
 be retained. If one family desires a little treasuring of glorious 
 and significant coat-of-arms, or another to have a different hour 
 for dinner, all can be well allowed in the neighborhood of our 
 encampment. Presbyterians can well persevere in being Presby¬ 
 terians ; Methodists need not fall from the grace of Methodism ; 
 Baptists may swim on as Baptists, and may choose what songs 
 they shall sing, and what aids they shall have in* their camp 
 music, and so on, through all the differences and preferences 
 of family, or camp life. But when these matters keep us from 
 the field, or exhaust our activities, we are missing the best results 
 for which our army exists. Our rank and file are learning to 
 say that they never enlisted for service in the field, or to go to 
 the front. They have already been saying to the colonels that 
 they can do only camp duty, that the minister only is the 
 evangelist, the one to go into the field to win captives. This 
 has been the case until the Church forces shrink back from the 
 field, and have become largely unmindful of its crying demands. 
 The mass of our lay forces, with one consent begin, and continue 
 to “ make excuse.” Ministers are often asked how they like 
 their new fields, when only their churches, their regiments or 
 forces are meant, and the field outside, outnumbering our forces 
 has gone almost unthought of. The Church is not the clergy¬ 
 man’s field—it is his camp, his headquarters, his regiment of 
 forces. The vast populations that throng the fields and await 
 our work with them, have gained the impression that we are 
 filled with factions, that we emphasize unimportant differences so 
 that they stumble at the choice of which division of Christ they 
 shall choose. They feel that the churches are not anxious for 
 them to be saved, do not want them in their ranks, that we as 
 churches are exclusive, that we lead a kind of club life to which it 
 is impossible for them to attain ; that the Gospel is not for the 
 poor, not for the distressed and discouraged, not a beauty for their 
 
230 
 
 CO-OPERATION IN CHRISTIAN WORK. 
 
 ashes, or the oil of joy for their mourning, but a luxury for the 
 more able, and far beyond their reach. This centripetal current in 
 our Church atmosphere has led us rather to relegate the evangeli¬ 
 zation of the masses to other than the direct forces of the churches. 
 A long list of ex cathedra organizations have been formed, and we 
 have actually been demitting to them the work of spreading the 
 Gospel over against the houses of the Church. We are carrying 
 the Gospel grandly and none too well to the remote parts ot the 
 earth. We know better how to put the Gospel into the homes 
 of China, or India, or about Lake Nyanza, than we do in the 
 homes of New York, or perhaps of Montreal. We are actually 
 recognizing this fact, and are found taking part in the discussion 
 of the questions, “ How to reach the masses ? ” “ Is the pulpit 
 
 a failure ? ” “ Arc the churches a failure ? ” And associations 
 
 of various orders, secret and semi-secret societies, travelling 
 specialists, sisterhoods, fraternities, and lodges, have grown up in 
 every community with distinct Gospel aims, and their champions 
 are actually found coming for collections, to clergymen who are 
 the exponents of the religious forces, and saying, “You ought to 
 help us, for, you know, we are doing your work.” What business 
 has any one else doing our work ? How comes it that the work 
 of the churches is so far undone that it must pass into the hands 
 of other agencies ? The churches are the light of the world, but 
 with too severe significance our spires are often called, “ extin¬ 
 guishers.” We are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has not 
 lost its savor, we must confess that it is barrelled up in our pews, 
 and it will not renovate our communities until it is sprinkled 
 among their streets and lanes and hedges. Our churches are 
 fountains of healing, but if, as they stand together, they cannot 
 send out rivulets to join here, there, everywhere, and run in 
 purifying streams to all homes, a tidal river of salvation, then our 
 hydraulic arrangements are a failure. 
 
 Again, the pulpits, to a great degree, take tone conformable to 
 this state of things. There is no more noble, hardworking, faith¬ 
 ful, or self-sacrificing class of men than our American clergy. 
 But many of them, after many sincere and severe efforts, have 
 become discouraged over the questions of the masses. Many of 
 them have conscientiously given over the struggle in the taxation 
 of the other things that come heavily upon them. Hundreds of 
 them express the isolation and consequent weakness of their 
 position, and feel that they are doing all they can. Many of 
 them relapse unconsciously into an un-evangelical condition of 
 study, administration, and preaching. Themes of Theology, of 
 denomination, of the great institutions and the armament of 
 
REV. DR. FRANK RUSSELL. 
 
 231 
 
 their legion, of literature, of many things in the all comprehen¬ 
 siveness of the Gospel occupy them. Others devoutly pray 
 for something to “ turn up,” for the solution of the field problems 
 and wait for it, ready for any spasm of any kind of church 
 activity, and many easily fall into lines and methods of mere 
 generalities, and are open to the charges made by thousands who 
 have wearied of church attendance, that they get no food when 
 they go asking for bread and fish. These unevangelical tones of 
 the pulpit are largely the reflection of the condition of the 
 churches, and they promote and confirm the same condition. It 
 is a mutual action and reaction. As far as our work in our own 
 communities are concerned, we have on the average expended 
 our own force upon this armament of our respective legions. 
 Europe, we are told, last year expended almost seven hundred 
 millions of dollars upon armies and navies, amid the competition 
 of their states, and not a man was killed on the field, not a 
 prisoner taken, not an inch of territory acquired. It is also 
 stated that each European nation, for its mighty armament, has 
 increased its indebtedness, and thus .is tending toward bank¬ 
 ruptcy, going in pieces through the great weight of its magnifi¬ 
 cent equipment. Let it not be longer so with the churches. Let 
 us bring our forces into the field. And to this end we must 
 have an understanding of 
 
 THE FIELD. 
 
 Where is it? It is at our own doors, it is abroad throughout 
 our country. A patclvof it is in every hamlet. It is an element 
 of every town, and in cities everywhere the ratio increases, until 
 we are wide of the truth to call this unchurched, ungospelled 
 field an element. It is fast becoming the controlling element. 
 
 .Its population has grown to be immense. It has been my 
 work to confer with pastors of churches in many cities who are 
 studying this field in their respective communities and ascertaining 
 the facts concerning it. In every instance they themselves are 
 amazed at the number of population which they find disconnected 
 from the churches, having no real acquaintance with clergymen, 
 church officials, or church pews. This population ranges from 
 52 per cent, to 71 per cent, of the inhabitants. We often feel, 
 and feel keenly, the power of the misapprehensions that obtain 
 among this population. But we have much of misapprehension 
 concerning them and their real condition. The religious chasm 
 which separates this vast population from our church acquain¬ 
 tance and life has become also a social chasm. It is a broad, 
 deep, dark, dangerous chasm, and growing broader, deeper, 
 
232 CO-OPERATION IN CHRISTIAN WORK. 
 
 darker, and more dangerous. It is a “ Cherith ” in which more 
 than one-half our population has fallen, and are being fed by 
 ravens, not sent of Goa for sustentation. Forty per cent, of that 
 population, as found by repeated and revised counts, in many 
 places, belong to our pews right off. They are children of our 
 parents, and were reared in our churches and our church schools. 
 As they are now in places rapidly returning, their almost 
 stereotyped expression is, “Well, we can scarcely tell why we 
 stopped attending church ; we used to attend, or we were 
 members, until we moved here from another city, and we were 
 not acquainted.” In one community in Ohio, where the work is 
 in progress, 40 per cent, of the population not known to the 
 churches were members of churches in other places from which 
 they had removed in one, two, three, four, or more years. One 
 church in New York city received through the work 83 letters 
 from homes standing right about it, 83 letters transferring 
 membership, which should have been presented one, two, three, 
 four, five, or more years before. 
 
 Now, what beyond these 40 per cent. ? We go deeper into the 
 chasm, and the air grows thick, damp, unwholesome, and 
 dangerous. Some have been pushed back and have failed in the 
 scramble after competence ; some, discouraged in social relations, 
 or else in theological despair, revolted from revival influences ; 
 many indifferent merely ; some are in the midst of ecclesiastical 
 vagrancy, going about on some slight church impulse from one 
 to another, until all ties are lost, or are chilled and interrupted by 
 marrying across church lines, neither church acceptable to both, 
 until the children and parents are cut off from any church. 
 Many accuse the clergy and the churches of not caring enough 
 for them to keep them in relations of acquaintance. The densely 
 ignorant are there. Superstitions and religious vagaries have 
 played havoc with a great number. Many, through pernicious 
 reading and pernicious associations, revolted from church life for 
 slight causes, and have gone down into infidelity ; unwholesome 
 organizations have fastened to them and absorbed them farther 
 away. In literally thousands of instances the husband or the 
 father has been drawn down through some of these circum¬ 
 stances, while the wife, or other member of the family, struggles 
 in mind, trying in vain to hold on with tears and prayers, and 
 waiting, until her grasp is at last relaxed and she goes down. 
 We go through the realms of discontent and bitterness into the 
 abodes of vice, rank and threatening. Intemperance has its 
 stronghold there ; turbulence of labor against capital is fermented; 
 polygamy, not just like Mormonism, but as bad and as wide- 
 
REV. DR. FRANK RUSSELL. 
 
 233 
 
 spread, is often found, polygamy and antigamy. Poverty is 
 there, sad, reeking, dangerous, recruiting its numbers, and 
 breeding children in this slimy darkness. Sabbath breaking, 
 and all license with high hand, are there. Bitterness is outspoken 
 against the churches, against laws, against good society, against 
 all refinement. 
 
 This state of things is not improved by a great per cent, of 
 immigration that pours into this population. We concede that 
 much good has come to us through the streams of life pouring 
 in upon us from the older nations ; strength of labor, and 
 genius and wealth. But we do not hide our eyes to the fact that 
 the steamships are sloops filled with garbage, reeking and foul, 
 gladly thrown out by other nations, and dumped into our own. 
 Our institutions for the care of the defective and dangerous 
 classes, tell us in their reports, that now eighty per cent, of their 
 inmates are either foreign born or the children of the foreign 
 born. Every motive of either piety or patriotism impels us to call 
 out our Christian forces and explore this field with the Gospel in 
 hand. It is not enough that we put a little slender plank across 
 the chasm here and there, and send a tremulous canvasser, or 
 tract distributor, or city missionary across to do Gospel work, we 
 must bridge the chasm from street to street, from the churches to 
 all its estranged houses and, as generals, we must take our forces 
 into this field. 
 
 Again, this field belongs to no denomination of our forces, and 
 no part of it belongs to any one of these denominations. No 
 part of it can be worked denominationally. Such an attempt is 
 multiplying friction, diminishing power, and crushing the fruit 
 more into the mire. Each denomination, however, has part and 
 lot in this matter. There is the tie, or remains, or possibility of 
 denominational fruitage in every part of the field, even in its 
 uttermost darkness. No section of it can be won and trans¬ 
 formed by Apollos, or Paul, or any other of our divided names. 
 Christ only, pure and simple, can do this work, and gain this 
 fruit. The ambassador that goes to this population must go in 
 the simple name of the Master, and to do this he must repre¬ 
 sent not one denomination, but all. The denominational purpose 
 may be minimised to the least possible degree by the representa¬ 
 tive of one of our denominations in going in the sincerest 
 purpose, yet the impression the other side of the chasm will not 
 be thus divested of its sectional character, and much therefore 
 will be lost. 
 
234 
 
 CO-OPERATION IN CHRISTIAN WORK. 
 
 We come then to the consideration of— 
 
 THE CO-OPERATION OF THESE FORCES. 
 
 Let the pastors of the churches in any given section of 
 territory, a country township, a village, a small city, one ward, or 
 more, of a large city, consider themselves as leaders of the forces, 
 responsible for the Gospel going to every house in that given 
 territory. They cannot personally do all the work ; every 
 general needs a staff, every colonel needs lieutenants and 
 captains. Denominational forces must also be equitably repre¬ 
 sented. To make an army of these grand legions each must be 
 fairly called into the great whole. Then let a meeting be called 
 to which each one of these pastors shall bring one staff officer— 
 or supervisor, as they are called,—one for every hundred of his 
 church membership. If there be a fraction of membership over 
 fifty let it yet count a hundred, and if a membership be less than 
 fifty let it yet count as a hundred. Should there be twenty of 
 these pastors, and the average of the membership of their 
 churches be three hundred, then to that meeting for consecrated 
 planning there will come eighty persons, sixty of them laymen. 
 Officials, or otherwise, they should be bright, competent, busy 
 men, appointed in any way agreeable to their own churches. 
 Each pastor sitting with these supervisors, his own staff, with the 
 roll of his church membership before them, should check off 
 the names of fifteen members for each hundred of their respec¬ 
 tive membership, ten for immediate active work of household 
 visitation, and the five for a reserve ready for possible vacancies 
 and other related labor. Let cards of uniform blanks be used in 
 w r riting the names of visitors, their residence, numbers, and their 
 church connection. Seat the supervisors together and serve to 
 them these cards, the ten to a hundred membership, first those of 
 one denomination, then of another, and another, until all are 
 exhausted, when each supervisor will have an average of ten, 
 with scarcely two members of the same church, and there will be 
 six hundred in all, a great army of workers for the homes of 
 that community. Repeated experiments in now scores of places 
 have shown that this proportionate number just about matches the 
 count of the households, allotting an average of ten to each 
 visitor. These forces must now be led into the field. The field, 
 then, must be appropriately districted. No one can do this so 
 well as a committee appointed by the supervisors. This is best 
 done by counting along one side of a street, making memo¬ 
 randa of the limits of each field. The aim is that the field shall 
 contain ten households, but good limits should be secured if it 
 
REV. DR. FRANK RUSSELL. 
 
 235 
 
 be only eight ; or it runs on to twelve or more. Ten of these 
 fields, described upon a sheet of paper, make a district, and the 
 districts will thus average about a hundred houses each. One of 
 these districts is, in some chosen way, assigned to each supervisor. 
 Each one will now call his corps of visitors, as his cards shall 
 indicate, and give to each her field. 
 
 Adjustments can be made suiting the taste of these visitors 
 regarding the distances and character of the fields. Each pastor 
 should call together his own corps of visitors, make full explana¬ 
 tions of the nature of the work to be done, and place in the hand 
 of each a card of printed suggestions. Printed suggestions are 
 also prepared for the supervisors. Besides, they have heard 
 thoroughly of the matter in Conference rooms and from pulpits 
 during the meetings for arrangements. They will have also 
 meetings where all the workers will be gathered, and exhortations 
 and explanations will be made by all the pastors. Emphasis 
 should be made of the fact that this work is not a canvass of the 
 community for statistics. A canvass stops. This is a corporate 
 part of Church life and work, contemplating an increasing 
 acquaintance of the churches, through these visitors, with the 
 whole community. Each visitor can visit her ten homes some 
 afternoon of the month, and at her own home afterwards fill the 
 little blank as her monthly report to her supervisor. The 
 supervisor collates these field blanks on a district blank for the 
 General Secretary, and the Secretary collates the district blanks 
 for his general monthly report. In a large city the territory falls 
 naturally into several divisions, the boundaries of which are often 
 made by the river, the railways, by boulevards, or likely by 
 ward divisions. So supervisors may report to the Secretary of 
 their respective sections, and these Secretaries to a General 
 Secretary of the City Committee. The visitor, as she goes to 
 her field, can have a card of introduction, that the lady of the 
 house may be fully apprized of the nature of her call, having 
 already heard much about it. She will also have a special 
 blank, on which she will write the name of the resident and the 
 number, and send it, perhaps, through the supervisor, to the 
 pastor of the church for which the family has a preference. Each 
 pastor, therefore, will receive not only the data for making a 
 complete church directory, but also the names and numbers of 
 every household and individual in all that community who 
 prefer his Church. The denominational work commences at 
 this point. He and his church families call now with a purpose 
 on these families, the long list of which surprises him. That is 
 one line drawing that family or individual ; their own choice is 
 
236 CO-OPERATION IN CHRISTIAN WORK. 
 
 another, for having made it, it works like a goodly leaven in 
 their purposes. The visitor returns the next month, and naturally 
 speaks of the newly-formed or contemplated church acquain¬ 
 tance, and so three lines of influence tend to draw every home to 
 some church, and that the church of its own choice, a natural 
 and legitimate work. The visitor, likely pairing with some in her 
 successive monthly visits, and in her maturing acquaintance, has 
 no air or effect of an official, as in a canvass, but becomes simply 
 a Christian friend. She finds no opportunity of anything like 
 proselytising, for all that is forestalled; but she finds invariably 
 such matters of Christian interest as impel her to more frequent 
 calls than her monthly schedule, and one pastor declares his 
 belief that the voluntary calls, through sheer personal interest, 
 outnumber those expected of the visitors in their monthly 
 schedule. The monthly meetings may alternate between meet¬ 
 ings for workers only and more public meetings, to be addressed 
 after the report on topics pertinent to the work. The pastors 
 also, as they shall see fit, may hold occasional meetings for the 
 instruction and help of their own visitors. No more interesting 
 meetings have I ever attended than those held from time to time 
 for the relation of experiences in the work, and of suggestions 
 toward improvement. These should be small meetings, and 
 may be held simultaneously in many different places, three, four, 
 or five supervisors calling their corps of visitors together, that the 
 leader may have a list brief enough to enable him to call all their 
 names within the hour. The touching recitals at these meetings 
 of the things found in the fields are very impressive. As the 
 monthly visiting continues, opportunities develop of doing good 
 in many ways. Mistakes of locating new Church enterprises are 
 avoided and corrected. Many questions are more wisely 
 handled, because the facts concerning them are more fully and 
 more accurately ascertained than seems possible in any way 
 short of such an acquaintance with the field. We shall now be 
 interested to note some 
 
 FEATURES AND RESULTS OF THE WORK. 
 
 These are not new as marking Christian activity. The very 
 genius of the Gospel and of the Churches embody the same 
 features. In revival efforts they have been insisted on as the 
 most important instruments of success. 
 
 The work is everywhere received with surprising readiness. 
 Pastors and churches alike, many times conservative towards 
 new things, and discouraged with some forms of work not new, 
 have a hearty welcome for it. In some places Sunday School 
 
REV. DR. FRANK RUSSELL. 
 
 237 
 
 activity, and systematic Bible and tract distribution, have prepared 
 the field, and made use of visitors in essentially the same 
 manner. One city has been found in New England, where the 
 household visitation has been carried on for more than a score of 
 years, and four visitors have had the same list of houses for 
 monthly calling for more than sixteen years, two of them for 
 more than twenty years, and a resident says that he thinks no 
 place can be found where the attendance on, and connection with 
 the churches, is nearly so great in proportion to the population. 
 
 The households in the communities disclose the same grateful 
 readiness. Visitors who have gone tremulously into some of the 
 fields, even expecting a rebuff, have, with rare exceptions indeed, 
 found a welcome instead. 
 
 A large number of the rank and file of the Church member¬ 
 ship is brought into activity. Here, too, the readiness is found. 
 In the room where the first Christians awaited the coming of the 
 Spirit, everyone received the manifestation, and not the Apostles 
 alone. Verily, “ Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy 
 power.” 
 
 Pastors find thus much latent power in their membership 
 which proves, when exercised, most effective. 
 
 The organization, so far as it is an organization, is a very 
 simple one. There is in it no extra machinery, but it rather 
 utilizes the forces of the organizations now existing, namely, the 
 Churches. 
 
 It is also most flexible. The details of the method are in no 
 wise stereotyped, while now there is a growing uniformity of 
 procedure, yet pastors in every community will study the 
 problems of the same, and in their own way direct the applica¬ 
 tion of the Gospel, so that every home may be in some sense 
 touched by its grace. 
 
 It does not interfere with other Christian effort, but proves 
 helpful to all. The Young Men’s Christian Associations are 
 assisted by it, and in some places the way opened for such 
 organizations to be formed. The Societies of Christian Endeavor 
 are seeking the same things among the young that this 
 co-operation of the churches realizes among all portions of the 
 communities. 
 
 The advantages of massing forces in military affairs, and of 
 combinations in commercial affairs, are now realized in religious 
 affairs. Christian forces are solidified, when hitherto we have 
 stood apart. The expression of our unity and of our power can 
 be as one voice, and mighty as the multitude of many waters, 
 
238 CO-OPERATION IN CHRISTIAN WORK. 
 
 whereas we have been speaking only here and there, and in 
 echoes faint in comparison. 
 
 Such acquaintance and fraternity is secured among all the 
 pastors, that their hearts are bound together in the common 
 purpose, as that of one man. In one city two pastors were found 
 who had each carried on his work for more than twenty years 
 side by side with the other, and they were not acquainted. 
 Conceive General Grant and General Sherman and General 
 Sheridan going through a war of four years with such lack of 
 mingling as would require a personal introduction of these leaders 
 in a common army. 
 
 Instances, of course, are met, where, for some reason, one or 
 more churches withhold co-operation with the others of the group. 
 These do not fail of some blessing. The fruit found rightly 
 belonging to them is at once turned over to them and they are 
 compelled to greater activity. When the tide is out from some 
 sweet bays only a few pools are seen, but when it again comes in, 
 there are no defined pools, but all is one rising refreshing flood. 
 So when through general quickening efforts a whole community 
 is stirred by grace, none can altogether hold aloof from the divine 
 effect. 
 
 The work is not onerous. Some meetings at the outset for 
 perfecting the organization ; some watch-care that the forces are 
 in readiness. Some remembrance of what Nelson said of his 
 forces in the stirring times of England, “We expect every man 
 to do his duty.” One meeting per month for report and 
 consideration is ordinarily sufficient. The meeting of the Execu¬ 
 tive Committee may precede this monthly meeting the same 
 evening, and the visiting can be done in a portion of one after¬ 
 noon every month. Few, indeed, would be unfitted for other 
 cares by adopting, for Christ’s sake, so much of a care as this. 
 
 It is a quiet work with continuous gentle blessings, like dew 
 upon the new mown grass ; no striving or crying ; the voice is 
 scarcely heard in the streets while the poor are having the Gospel 
 preached to them. Neither must it be carried through with a 
 rush, that its completion may give way to something else ; but as 
 a part of the life of the churches it should continue as long as the 
 sun endures. 
 
 It is most inexpensive. Some printing, some meetings, and 
 the bills to be shared pro rata among the churches, are so light 
 on each as hardly to deserve mention. 
 
 It is productive of good results immediately. The pastor’s 
 lists lengthen ; he must soon use more of his forces than the ten for 
 each one hundred first led into their fields. New attendance 
 
REV. DR. FRANK RUSSELL. 
 
 239 
 
 begins in all departments, and as visiting proceeds, and acquaint¬ 
 ance matures, numbers are in readiness to be received into 
 communicant relations. Pastors at their meetings are soon 
 enumerating the new families that have come to their respective 
 flocks. In Buffalo, one month’s work started three hundred and 
 eighty-seven families into the beginnings of church life. In 
 Rochester, the same month, one church received to such begin¬ 
 nings, forty-four families, and more than sixty persons besides, 
 not classified in families. In Oswego, the nineteenth monthly 
 report showed thirty-eight families thus starting. Why did these 
 await the nineteenth visit ? Because it required that number. 
 Why do many apples cling so many days to the boughs for 
 repeated suns to ripen them ? In a town of less than five 
 thousand inhabitants, the first monthly meeting disclosed the 
 fact that six hundred and fourteen names of young men and 
 women, who were non-attendants on any church, had been 
 placed in the hands of the respective pastors, one of whom said, 
 “These lists, thus distributed, are worth more to our work a dozen 
 times over than all the effort has cost.” Visits were made in one 
 month, in Rochester, to twenty thousand one hundred and 
 seventy-six households ; and in Baltimore, in one section of the 
 city, more than twenty-four thousand households were visited in 
 one month, while in Brooklyn, thirty-one hundred households 
 were visited in one afternoon. 
 
 The statistics that are gathered are complete and reliable. 
 Better data for a church directory, or a better religious census of 
 a community cannot be gained than such as are made from 
 the reports of this acquaintance visiting. 
 
 Charitable matters are better regulated in the light of the 
 facts found in the work, impositions corrected, and gifts more 
 efficiently bestowed. In some places, “ Children’s Homes,” 
 “ Open Doors,” intelligence offices, and labor bureaux, have 
 been outgrowths of this Christian acquaintance of the whole 
 community. • 
 
 The agency for spiritual good pre-eminent among all other 
 features is the personal touch and contact of the life-blood of the 
 Church as it continuously throbs in all the homes. The 
 commercial world long ago learned the efficiency of representa¬ 
 tives of business having personal interviews with samples of the 
 goods at hand. In politics people are interviewed for their votes. 
 The Master spake rich things indeed, with only one in the 
 audience, Nicodemus, and the woman at the well. When the 
 Christian mother goes repeatedly, and unofficially, for her friendly 
 visits, she gains a grasp for good upon the home. 
 
240 
 
 CO-OPERATION IN CHRISTIAN WORK. 
 
 The fact that religious affairs are made so much more a com¬ 
 mon topic of conversation promotes all the interests of religion 
 among all classes and makes the religious life far more probable 
 for thousands of families. It is no small matter that so large a 
 number of Church members are becoming trained in practical 
 religious activity, the ten in a hundred at first, but soon many 
 more. And already they are seeking improvement in the work, 
 and asking their pastors and writing to the Alliance office for the 
 best selections of scriptures, the best tracts, and religious litera¬ 
 ture for use among special classes. The reflex blessings upon the 
 workers is no small matter. He thatwatereth shall himself also 
 be watered. The churches cannot fail, do not fail to see the 
 benefit of it. One pastor writes that if I will come to the platform 
 of his prayer meeting, he thinks that I, a stranger to all present, 
 can select almost all his more than sixty visitors by the very glow 
 of interest depicted on their faces ; and one visitor related in 
 presence of her pastor that she had found a boy twelve years of 
 age, in her field, so injured several years before in the hip and 
 spine that he would never walk again, his mother once a member 
 of a church in another place. The boy, she said, did not know 
 any other meaning for the words, “ Jesus Christ,” excepting a term 
 which the boys swore with on the streets. Then the woman 
 added that she had had more of the presence of the Holy Spirit 
 in teaching that Christian heathen than in hearing all the sermons 
 ever preached to her. 
 
 Finally, the voice of God seems more than ever to be saying 
 to all his followers, “ Go and disciple, and, lo, I am with you 
 alway;” so will we be co-laborers with God. Let him that hear- 
 eth say “ come,” and let the churches “ seek to save them that are 
 lost.” 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 Rev. Dr. Potts, Toronto. 
 
 We are living in the best days the Church has ever seen. 
 Christianity has not been a failure, and it is not an effete and 
 spent force in the universe. It must be confessed that the 
 Church is far from perfect. It has much to learn, and much to 
 do, before the Master can say, “Well done, good and faithful 
 servant.” The Church to-day, however, is more active, more 
 united, more evangelical, and more practical than ever before. 
 
REV. DR. POTTS. 
 
 24I 
 
 The spirit of union is in the air. The regiments are a more solid 
 and compact army before the enemy than formerly. Christian 
 co-operation is being manifested more and more. How can this 
 be accounted for ? 
 
 Two things have contributed largely to this state of the 
 Church. One is the comparative unity of the Church in the 
 study of the Word of God—in the international scheme of 
 Sunday School lesson-s. Surely they are fellow helpers to the 
 truth, the lesson writers expounding the same portion of the 
 Word, the teachers studying and praying over the same passages, 
 and then on the same day teaching the same precious truth. 
 The other factor is the awakening and increasingly intelligent 
 interest in the conversion of heathen nations. The churches 
 have more sanctified common-sense in Christian work than at 
 any former time. Union of effort will abound as the Church 
 rises higher, and reaches out after the New Testament ideal. 
 
 I. The object of Christian co-operation is eminently worthy the 
 consideration of all workers for Christ. 
 
 What does it aim at? Is the object worthy of the time and 
 money, and talent, spent in the various forms of Christian 
 endeavour ? Let me ask a question. Is the furtherance of the 
 truth not an object worthy of the united effort of the people of 
 God ? It is the good news of God ; it is the heaven-appointed 
 food of the soul ; it is the emancipator of the enslaved sinner ; 
 it is the sanctifier of the followers of the Lord Jesus. All who 
 unite in Christian work are fellow helpers to the dissemination 
 and to the knowledge of the truth. 
 
 Another object of co-operation in Christian work is to extend 
 the Redeemer’s kingdom. 
 
 The Church lives and prospers by aggression. The Kingdom 
 of Christ advances by making inroads upon the kingdom of 
 darkness. The purpose of co-operation is adding territory to 
 the reign of Christ, in the new subjects who take the oath of 
 allegiance, and who offer the homage of their hearts to Jesus as 
 their King and Lord. Christian work increases the subjects 
 and extends the domain of Christ. 
 
 The object of united work is the salvation of sinners and the 
 general uplifting of mankind. It means conversion, it means 
 mental elevation, it means ennobled character, it means domestic 
 thrift, comfort, and adornment. It means the name written in 
 the Lamb’s Book of Life, and very likely in the savings bank as 
 well. It inculcates the Pauline truth “ that Godliness is profitable 
 unto all things.” It touches the whole man, and enriches all the 
 relationships of life. No wonder, then, that consecrated workers 
 
 Q 
 
242 CO-OPERATION IN CHRISTIAN WORK. 
 
 exclaim, “ For the love of Christ constraineth us.” In the light 
 of revelation, in the light of the soul’s transcendent value, and in 
 the light of personal Christian stewardship, how important the 
 object of united Christian work appears, and how insignificant 
 all other things, even the great things of the world, appear. 
 
 II. Co-operation is not peculiar to Christians. 
 
 It is seen in all the walks of life. Co-operation is a principle of 
 advancing civilization. How manifest it is in the educational 
 realm. You see it in the public schools and in our colleges. 
 The teacher of the rudimentary branches is in hearty co-operation 
 with the professor in mathematics. The object is education, 
 and all the teachers contribute to that end. In all the industrial 
 pursuits of life co-operation is essential. This city furnishes 
 evidence and illustrations in the factories, the railways, and 
 steamships, which make the city throb with the vigor of its 
 commercial life. 
 
 Christianity affords a glorious field for co-operation in work. 
 The spheres of Christian co-operation are many. They may be 
 found within the congregation or within the denomination. 
 
 I would call attention to inter-denominational co-operation. 
 Confessedly the time has not come when there may be co-opera¬ 
 tion along the line of organic union. While this is true, it will 
 be found practicable for those of all sections of the Church of 
 Christ to unite in several forms of service for the Lord Christ. 
 
 Let me name a few of the available spheres for practicable 
 unity of effort. In the beautiful charities which adorn our 
 Christian civilization, orphanages, asylums, homes for the aged, 
 and incurable hospitals. In the Young Men’s Christian Asso¬ 
 ciations they are a mighty power for good. What a field, what 
 a fruitful field ! Think of our young men in the light of the 
 country and of the Church. In the great temperance movement, 
 what a magnificent opportunity for united effort, which may mean 
 the rescue of drunkards, the prevention of the fatal habit in the 
 youth of the land, and the prohibition of the nation-destroying, 
 character-destroying, and soul-destroying liquor traffic. Here is 
 an enemy which the whole Church should unite to destroy, to 
 annihilate. The influence of the whole Church of God should 
 be concentrated on this battle field of temperance reform. 
 
 In the great missionary enterprise, whose sublime aim is the 
 conversion of the world. In this great work, which is the chief 
 business of the Church, co-operation may be carried on most 
 profitably. How? By mapping out the nations of the world 
 beyond Christendom, and by common consent, divide the 
 territory among the churches. In this way the churches econo- 
 
REV. DR. POTTS. 
 
 243 
 
 mize that they may extend. In the defective arrangements of 
 the present plan, the godly missionaries of the churches rise 
 above the spirit, which is but too prevalent at home, and evince 
 much of the spirit of the Divine Missionary, the Lord Jesus. 
 
 By division of labor, the churches would co-operate in proclaim¬ 
 ing the Gospel of Christ in every nation, in every province, in 
 every city, yea, in every hamlet of the heathen world. What 
 would be the result ? Missionary sympathy at home and 
 missionary triumphs in every land—multiplied a hundred-fold 
 beyond the successes of the past, or even of the present. Soon 
 prophecy would be converted into history, and the last prayer of 
 David the son of Jesse would be answered, “and let the whole 
 earth be filled with the glory of the Lord.” 
 
 III. Co-operation in Christian Work. 
 
 (1.) This means health and expansion and happiness of soul 
 to all who engage in it. Multitudes of professing Christians are 
 sick from sheer inactivity. Many are narrow in their religious 
 sympathies and affections because they do not come into contact 
 with other types of religious life. There is essential oneness and 
 yet beautiful variety in the spiritual life of God’s people. 
 Communion in Christian work is the highest form of Christian 
 communion. 
 
 (2.) It multiplies Christian agency. 
 
 (3.) It is an influential testimony to the world for Christ. 
 The world is watching the Church. The Church is the world’s 
 Bible. Co-operation testifies to the insignificance of our differ¬ 
 ences, and to the significance of our oneness in Christ—one in 
 work, because one in life—even life in Christ. United in work, 
 because united in love for the Lord Jesus Christ, and for our 
 perishing fellow men. 
 
 (4.) Co-operation in Christian work is a well merited rebuke 
 to all nominal and bigoted Christians. 
 
 How shall we have this much needed and much desired 
 co-operation ? 
 
 (a) By cultivating the spirit of brotherly love. 
 
 (b) By drinking in the spirit of truth. 
 
 ( c ) By living and working under the influence of the Holy 
 Ghost. Thus shall we be “ fellow helpers to the truth.” 
 
 Rev. Dr. Williams evinced his interest in co-operation, and 
 took occasion to advocate the Establishment of “ Sabbath 
 Normal Schools,” where teachers might be trained by a 
 systematic study of the Scriptures for Sabbath school work. 
 
244 
 
 CO-OPERATION IN CHRISTIAN WORK. 
 
 Resolutions re Jesuits’ Estates Act. 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Burns, convener of the Committee appointed 
 to prepare Resolutions re Jesuits’ Estates Act, brought in the 
 Report of the Committee, recommending the adoption of the 
 following resolutions by the Alliance :— 
 
 1. “The Evangelical Alliance in Conference assembled, representing the various 
 Protestant denominations throughout the Dominion, avails itself of the present 
 opportunity to record its decided disapproval of the recent legislative action in the 
 Province of Quebec, in appropriating to the Society of Jesus the sum of four 
 hundred thousand dollars, taken out of the funds which came into the public 
 exchequer, over one hundred years ago, and have hitherto been available for the 
 purposes of general education, throughout the Province, without respect to creed or 
 nationality. 
 
 2. “This Alliance is of opinion that the Provincial Legislature by previously 
 investing with corporate powers this long defunct order, whose career has been so 
 inimical to the best interests of mankind, and which all civilized people (Roman 
 Catholics included) have united in condemning and expelling, and by now endowing 
 this order with public funds, has adopted a course prejudicial to civil and religious 
 liberty, and in a mixed community like ours, calculated to entail consequences, which 
 it is most desirable to avoid. 
 
 3. “ This Alliance is likewise of opinion that the Society of Jesus being confessedly 
 a religious organization, its endowment in this way, is at variance with those principles 
 of religious equality, now happily established in this Dominion. 
 
 4. “This Alliance, while fully recognizing the right of the Protestant minority to 
 its full share of the public funds for educational purposes, cordially sympathizes with 
 our brethren of the Province of Quebec, who distinctly repudiate, as a part of this 
 arrangement with the Society of Jesus, the appropriation of sixty thousand dollars to 
 the Protestant Committee of Public Instruction. 
 
 5. “ This Alliance would also strongly protest against those provisions of the Jesuits’ 
 Estates Act, which make the distribution of the public money of the Province 
 dependent upon the will of the Pope, and agreements of the Government with any 
 society, under the Queen’s Government, subject to his ratification. 
 
 6. “ The Evangelical Alliance hereby remits to its Executive Committee to take 
 such steps in the premises, at its earliest convenience, and as to its wisdom may seem 
 meet, in order to give practical effect to the foregoing deliverance.”* 
 
 The above Report was unanimously adopted by the Alliance. 
 The meeting adjourned with the Benediction. 
 
 * The petition prepared by the Executive and'forwarded to the Governor-General, 
 in Council, praying that the Jesuits’ Estates Act be disallowed, will be found in the 
 Appendix. 
 
THURSDAY, 25th OCTOBER, 1888. 
 
 EVENING SESSION. 
 
 The last meeting of the Conference assembled at 8 o’clock, on 
 Thursday evening. 
 
 Hon. Senator Macdonald, President of the Alliance, 
 occupied the chair, in the absence of the Hon. S. H. Blake, 
 Q.C., of Toronto, whose name was on the programme to fill the 
 position. 
 
 The hymn,— 
 
 “Jesus shall reign where’er the sun 
 Does his successive journeys run.” 
 
 Rev. W. J. Crothers, M.A., of Ottawa, led in prayer. 
 
 TOPIC : THE CHURCH IN ITS RELATION TO THE 
 EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD. 
 
 CHAIRMAN’S ADDRESS. 
 
 Hon. Senator Macdonald, Toronto. 
 
 I must congratulate this audience on the distinguished dele¬ 
 gates present from the United States. After .all the bluster and 
 folly of politicians on both sides of the line, I believe that a 
 leaven of righteousness remains in both countries sufficient to 
 secure for ever peaceful relations. An heroic and eloquent mis¬ 
 sionary from India is also present. The subject to be discussed is, 
 “ The Church in its Relation to the Evangelization of the World.” 
 The subject is as important as it is large I dare not think of 
 the Divine in any way that, would limit His power. The Church 
 must, however, evangelize the world with the living voice of living 
 man proclaiming a living Gospel. The Church has been doing 
 this for the last eighteen centuries, and notably for the last one 
 hundred years. Opponents of mission work taunt the Church 
 that nevertheless there are 3,000,000 more heathen to-day than a 
 century ago. There is, however, no cause for discouragement for 
 
246 
 
 EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD. 
 
 the true Christian ; for God’s promise is, that “ every valley shall 
 be filled and rough places made smooth.” It is always the duty 
 of the Church to say, “ Go forward.” All the people who don’t 
 want to give, and are ready to find excuse, should receive the 
 answer, “ Let us go up and take the city, for we are well able.” 
 That great missionary, the Rev. Dr. Duff, speaking at Toronto 
 some years ago, said, “I don’t say to you, give something and you 
 will never miss it. If you don’t miss it, keep it.” I believe that 
 if that had been the standard of giving to missionary work the 
 world would have been converted long ago. I doubt whether 
 any but the poorest people have felt what they are giving. If 
 the rich gave in the same proportion as the poor, the increase 
 would be marvellous. It is said of the sainted Dr. Geddes that 
 he had visited a region where there were no Christians, and 
 when he left there were no pagans. It appeared certain that 
 hundreds of church members had really never been born again, 
 and without that second birth no man could understand the full 
 missionary spirit. 
 
 HOME BENEFITS OF FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 Rev. S. J. Macpherson, D.D., Chicago. 
 
 It is a familiar injunction of our blessed Lord “that repent¬ 
 ance and remission of sins should be preached in his name 
 among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” In this royal 
 commission are imbedded three foundation principles of church 
 life and growth.— 
 
 1. The Church is constitutionally missionary. It is the same 
 foe that must be fought at home and abroad,—the radical 
 heathenism of sin. It is the same goal that must every¬ 
 where be sought,—the reclaiming of lost men to God. It is the 
 same Gospel that must uniformly be preached,—“ repentance 
 and remission of sins ” in the name of the Crucified. Every 
 man, even though he be a Christian, is a heathen just as far as he 
 is a sinner. Every church, however rich and cultured, is a 
 mission station just as far as it is faithful to its divine charter. 
 Every preacher, whatever gifts or favors he may enjoy, is a mis¬ 
 sionary just so far as he follows Paul and Christ. 
 
 2. There is no essential difference between the home work 
 and the foreign work as to either our moral liability or its 
 intrinsic character. If we perceive hedge or fence between these 
 
REV. DR. S. J. MACPHERSON. 
 
 247 
 
 two portions of the vineyard, it is artificial and not normal. It 
 is merely nominal, for convenience of description ; or else 
 technical, for ease of administration. Division of labor may 
 promote promptness and efficiency ; but any aggrandizement of 
 either department at the expense of the other, is an exhibition 
 of fanatical zeal and ruinous rivalry, a sinful mangling of the 
 individual body of Christ. 
 
 3. The field is the undivided world of all nations, and only 
 the starting-point is our own dwelling-place. Our primary duty 
 as evangelists lies at our very doors, but our final obligations 
 and our vital interests include “ every creature.” Selfishness is 
 quite as fatal in the Church as in the world. The Church is a 
 single vast and sensitive organism, which thrills with universal 
 sympathies to its remotest extremities. Whether one member 
 suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honored, 
 all the members rejoice with it. Ecclesiastical isolation means 
 spiritual stagnation. There is that withholdeth more than is 
 meet, but it tendeth to poverty. On the other hand, “ The 
 liberal soul, shall be made fat ; and he that watereth shall be 
 watered also himself.” 
 
 According to these principles and promises, we ought to 
 expect great benefits at home from mission enterprise abroad. 
 Nor are these returns far to seek. They come to us in every 
 sphere of civilized life, commercial, intellectual, moral and 
 spiritual, and they come in larger and larger richness as the 
 spheres grow higher and higher. Suppose that we cull scattering 
 illustrations of this truth. - 
 
 We may begin with the lowest rung of the ladder and 
 consider, for a moment, the commercial benefits of foreign 
 missions. Your great British Empire, on which the sun never 
 sets, receives, it is credibly affirmed, A10 in return for every £1 
 expended in mission work. I am convinced that the ratio of 
 cash gains is even larger both here and throughout Christendom. 
 
 Find the first illustrations in the Dark Continent. Immense 
 business enterprises, inaugurated by Mr. Stanley in the Congo 
 country, have been enlisting the competitive scrutiny of several 
 European nations. But who was Mr. Stanley ? An obscure 
 newspaper reporter, who suddenly became famous the world 
 over by his admirable success in bringing back within sight of 
 man that grand old missionary hero, Livingstone. What sent 
 Mr. Stanley on his errand ? Simply the New York Herald's 
 “ nose for news ” and trained instinct for a sensational advertise¬ 
 ment. That journal was wise enough to take advantage of 
 humanity’s intense interest in a missionary—an interest which 
 
248 
 
 EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD. 
 
 would have been impossible a century earlier. Accordingly, 
 through the often despised agency of missions, a whole new 
 world of wealth dawned upon the vision of commerce, to render 
 every great business centre gluttonous with hope. 
 
 As much as fifteen years ago, the American ploughs sold among 
 the Zulus of South Africa brought enough money to sustain 
 the American Mission among them. Yet the first American 
 missionaries had gone there, less than a dozen years before, to 
 find that all the tilled soil was broken up with “ clumsy picks and 
 hoes ” in the hands of native women. Christianity, as usual, not 
 only emancipated down-trodden womanhood from lazy brutes of 
 men, but turned the desert into a fruitful field and opened a 
 market for farm implements, cooking utensils, household furni¬ 
 ture, clothing, and a thousand other manufactured articles. 
 
 The world, you know, notwithstanding the grape-sugar 
 industry, still gets large annual sums out of sorghum. Yet as a 
 source of sugars and syrups, sorghum is said to have been first 
 brought to the attention of the world, in 1854, by Mr. Wilder, a 
 missionary to these same Zulus. The home benefits of this 
 Chinese sugar cane alone have largely reimbursed us for our 
 outlays on foreign missions. Indeed, everybody that eats sweet 
 cakes, ice-creams and candies, is in debt to foreign missions for 
 the cheapness of these luxuries. 
 
 Asia has the same story to tell. I well remember my surprise 
 when in coming over Mount Lebanon, in a diligence, I saw two 
 American ships lying in the harbour of Beyrout. I asked the 
 driver why they were there. He replied, that they had brought 
 cargoes of kerosene oil. Then I recollected that even in the 
 hamlets of Syria, one sees American lamps burning American 
 oil, which, Dr. Jessup afterwards told me, had been first intro¬ 
 duced among the people by the direct influence of a missionary. 
 This may be an unexpected kind of light for missionaries to shed, 
 but it ought, at least, to reveal the debt which our Standard Oil 
 Company owes foreign missions. It is as the Rev. Henry 
 Morden, of Central Turkey, says : “No contact with western 
 civilization has ever roused the Oriental from his apathy, but 
 when his heart is warmed by Gospel truth, his mind awakes, and 
 he wants a clock, a book, a glass window and a flour-mill.” 
 
 It is well known that the Pacific Islands were long the terror 
 of navigators. The dusky islanders liked the tender flavor of a 
 white sailor. Magellan fell at the Ladrone Islands ; Captain 
 Cook was murdered at the Sandwich Islands ; the crew of “ The 
 Boyd ” was massacred at New Zealand. But since missions have 
 occupied these places, hundreds of vessels anchor there in safety, 
 
REV. DR. S. J. MACPHERSON. 
 
 249 
 
 lay in new supplies, ship new sailors, and carry on a great trade. 
 It has been estimated that in 1881 the annual exports of the 
 Hawaiian Islands were more than six and a-half millions of 
 dollars, and the imports more than four and a-half millions. At 
 11 per cent, profit this would be a net commercial gain of about 
 $1,200,000, which was just the entire cost in money of Christian¬ 
 izing these islands. Every year commerce gets more money out 
 of them than the Church ever put in. Indeed, the amount saved 
 to consumers in the mere matter of insurance on vessels and 
 cargoes would restore our gifts to foreign missions in the Pacific 
 Islands. Every family that uses Oriental rice or tea or coffee, 
 every housekeeper that buys Oriental fans, rugs, paper hangings, 
 China ware or carvings, every lady that wears Oriental silks or 
 shawls, is a debtor to the commercial benefits of foreign missions. 
 In a word, missionaries do much to open new markets for us, to 
 bring us new products, to reduce the prices of foreign luxuries, 
 and, in general, to cheapen and extend and protect the commerce 
 of Christendom. 
 
 But the intellectual benefits of foreign mission work are far 
 higher than the commercial. Let me select a few examples from 
 many volumes. It has given a fine impulse to the literature of 
 travel and the science of geography. Missionaries are explorers, 
 and in many cases pioneer explorers. Lonely dwellers amidst 
 strange scenes, they are constantly prompted to describe these 
 scenes to the dear friends at home. You know how it is with 
 the average foreign traveller in these parts. After spending 
 three months in our hotels and Pullman cars, he can write an 
 infallible book on Canada and the United States. I remember 
 crossing the Atlantic with such an inspired author. He had 
 landed at Quebec, and glanced at “ the heights,” run up here to 
 Montreal, and superficially inspected your beautiful city from the 
 mountain, sped away to Niagara Falls—all foreigners see Niagara 
 —and then passed on by railroad to New York, where he set sail 
 for home just one week after debarking at Quebec. Well, he 
 knew more already than most of us ever dreamed about the 
 fisheries, the Canadian Pacific Railway, the Provincial and 
 Republican forms of government, and even the Mormons. But 
 missionaries, as a rule, acquire less knowledge by intuition. 
 They are usually men of ability, education, and character, and 
 they dwell long amongst the places and persons that they 
 describe. Franciscan missionaries, in the 13th century, travelled 
 further east in Asia than any other Europeans. Jesuit mission¬ 
 aries prepared the first map of China known to the west, and 
 published, as a digest of Chinese customs and literature, a 
 
250 
 
 EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD. 
 
 cyclopaedia in ioo volumes, now in the British Museum. Spanish 
 and Portuguese missionaries described the sources of the Nile as 
 fully and accurately at the beginning of the 17th Century as 
 Bruce did near the close of the 18th. Danish missionaries gave 
 us the earliest description of Greenland, with far less sacrifice of 
 blood and treasure than have signalized recent Arctic explorations. 
 The late S. Wells Williams wrote the best book in English on 
 China. Dr. Thompson’s “ The Land and the Book ” is probably 
 the best single work on the Holy Land. Herschel, the 
 astronomer, pledged to Stoddard, the Persian missionary, the 
 thanks of the Royal Society for important discoveries. Professor 
 Whitney says that the American Oriental Society largely depends 
 upon missionaries for its usefulness. Mr. Powell, of the Oriental 
 Topographical Corps, says : “ Probably no source of knowledge 
 in this department has been so vast, varied, and prolific as the 
 investigations ... of missionaries.” “ But for the researches of 
 missionaries,” says another, “ Larther India would be—most of it 
 —a terra incognita .” That “ prince of geographers,” Carl Ritter, 
 confessed that without the material collected by missionaries he 
 never could have written his “ Erdkunde.” It is not too much 
 to say, with the old Princeton Review, that “ our missionaries 
 have rendered more real service to geography than all the 
 geographical societies of the world.” 
 
 Much the same claims might be made for missionaries in the 
 sciences of botany and zoology; for they have gathered statistics 
 of the flora and fauna of many regions : of meteorology, since 
 their very lives and deaths have testified to mankind upon the 
 influence of climates in almost every latitude and longitude ; of 
 archaeology, since to know strange peoples the missionary has 
 had to study their history and traditions ; and especially of 
 philology. The one endeavor to translate the Bible into the 
 languages of the world has, I doubt not, done more for the science 
 of language than all the linguistics of all the colleges of Chris¬ 
 tendom. Missions furnish the modern scholar with materials for 
 studying the Indian dialects, some of which survive in missionary 
 literature alone, the soft vocables of the South Seas, the tone 
 language of the Mongolians, and the throaty gutturals of the 
 children of Shem. 
 
 Missionaries also afford large and accurate knowledge of the 
 Ethnic religions. Dr. Mullens paved the way for Professor Max 
 Muller, in the study of the Vedas. The Christian printing presses 
 of Beyroot send Arabic, whose excellence rivals the alleged 
 peerlessness of the Koran, over South Western Asia and North 
 Eastern Africa. A few years ago a gifted English Editor wrote 
 
REV. DR. S. J. MACPHERSON. 
 
 251 
 
 a poem, flashing with all the jewelled arts known to a sensuous 
 genius and bedecked in part with livery stolen from Christianity. 
 “ The Light of Asia ” recounts the character, career, and doctrines 
 and destiny of Gautama, the saviour prince of the Buddhists. 
 When that book appeared, not a few half-informed people at once 
 jumped to the conclusion that Buddhism was morally the rival 
 of our own religion. But Dr. Kellogg, long a missionary in 
 India, exploded that delusion in plain prose, by “ The Light of 
 Asia and the Light of the World,” and all our missionaries there, 
 by describing the actual condition of the people under Buddhism, 
 have corrected Mr. Arnold’s estimate, and emphasized for us once 
 more the truth that, “If the light which is in Thee be darkness, 
 how great is that darkness.” Free from envy and full of sadness, 
 we may turn back to the meek and lowly, who said : “ He that 
 followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light 
 of life.” 
 
 Again, foreign missions have created a new epoch in the 
 literature of human heroism. Our boys need no longer turn to 
 Plutarch’s “ Lives,” or to the annals of knight errantry, in order 
 to catch the ennobling contagion of chivalry. Theseus was 
 certainly no more God-like a figure than the despised shoemaker, 
 Carey, when, disdaining the paltry selfishness even of the 
 Church, he set out, single-handed, to win the world back to 
 Christ. Godfrey de Bouillon never won a nobler battle in behalf 
 of the Holy Sepulchre than Henry Martyn, when he left country, 
 and culture, and friends, and even sweetheart, behind for ever,, 
 and romantically offered his feeble frame in a crusade of vicarious 
 suffering for benighted India and Persia. If ever you feel the 
 gloom of pessimism, go follow Adoniram Judson from the hay 
 stack in his native New England to the new Gethsemane of his 
 Burmese prison, and thence through virtual martyrdom to the 
 welcoming throne of God. If you are tempted to mistrust that 
 the sordid love of money is a rust on all modern life, look at the 
 great-hearted Livingstone, descending, a willing sacrifice, from 
 the dear home in Old Scotia to that African hovel where, in the 
 name of Christ, he died alone upon his knees, to “ heal the open 
 sore of the world.” Thank God, our human nature can never 
 seem contemptible while such majestic courage, compassion, and 
 consecration reflect before the awe-touched eyes of men the 
 crucified Prince of the Kings of the earth. 
 
 But our chief returns from foreign missions are moral and 
 spiritual. These highest benefits are the most numerous of all. 
 
 First, foreign missions aim a death-blow at the inveterate 
 selfishness of even Christian hearts. The type of piety, which 
 
252 
 
 EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD. 
 
 aims, like the old monastic life, at mere personal salvation, savors 
 too much of spiritual self-indulgence. Religion is something 
 far larger and nobler than a personal intransferable ticket of 
 admission to the celestial city. We love to see our gifts applied, 
 so that pride may be flattered by the gratitude of our beneficiaries, 
 and by the commendation of our associates. But despite all 
 their general and remote reflex benefits, commercial and intel¬ 
 lectual, foreign missions call for the exercise of personal faith, and 
 the practise of individual self-denial. They demand that without 
 any of the narrow intolerance which made Greeks despise the 
 world as barbarian, and filled Jews with contempt for all Gentiles, 
 we shall agree with God, who made of one blood all nations on 
 earth, shall realize that we must ultimately dwell with them all, 
 either in heaven or in hell, shall acknowledge the debt which the 
 strong owe to the weak, and shall imitate Christ, the first foreign 
 missionary to lost men, by bearing that magnetic, bloody Cross 
 which draws all men unto Him. 
 
 Foreign missions have likewise been of incalculable benefit to 
 our home churches, by opening splendid new opportunities of 
 Christian work. They keep us spiritually warm, both because 
 they bring us nearer the fire of God’s loving purpose, and because 
 they rouse us to active exercise in that part of the field where 
 the returns are largest. Their example and their success alike 
 are contagious. They provoke us to emulation (Rom. xi. 14 ; 
 2 Cor. ix. 2), as the Macedonians, by their forwardness, stimulated 
 the Corinthians. They show us what we can do, and we always 
 love to use those powers of which we have become conscious. 
 Fear of failure brings paralysis of will and effort. When my 
 older daughter was something over a year old she suddenly 
 found out one evening that she could walk. She was in the 
 greatest glee, and so also were two others of us. Next morning, 
 the first thing on waking, the little creature must again enjoy her 
 discovery. But presently she got two painful falls in quick 
 succession. Instantly she stopped trying, and because she 
 thought she could not walk she would not attempt even to stand 
 alone for four months. The Church has an equal amount of 
 illogical human nature. During those many ages when she 
 considered foreign mission work an impossibility, she would 
 neither endeavor to walk abroad nor even so much as stand at 
 home. She shrivelled like an unused muscle. But just remember, 
 for instance, the marvellous experience of our Women’s Foreign 
 Missionary Societies. Less than twenty years ago they first 
 learned to stand alone. Now, in my country at least, they are 
 going so fast that we seem to need men’s missionary societies, 
 
REV. DR. S. J. MACPHERSON. 
 
 253 
 
 to teach male Christians the use of their feet. Opportunities are 
 not only tremendous obligations, but uplifting inspirations as well. 
 And what miraculous opportunities we have ! All doors are 
 open ; and the impressive array of appliances,—railways, steam¬ 
 ships, telegraphs, banks, boards of missions,— are triumphantly 
 marching through. The globe is shrunk to so small a compass 
 that you can hear your antipodes whispering in your ear. We 
 can no longer ask, “ Who is my neighbor ? ” The question is, 
 who is not my neighbor ? It thrills the heart to think of what 
 we can do. Do we not enjoy using our God-given powers ? 
 
 Foreign missions have given us a new system of apologetics. 
 It is as Dr. Punshon said at Mildmay : “When the citadel of our 
 faith is attacked at home we may go to our missions to authen¬ 
 ticate our theology ; and, in these days of sad latitudinarianism, 
 when spiritual religion is by many derided as a myth and a 
 mockery, we may go to our missions to authenticate our 
 experience.” Facts speak unanswerably. A million and a half 
 of actual converts among heathen in half a century, is a very 
 troublesome evidence of Christianity for infidels to handle. The 
 only resource of the blatant champion skeptic, in Chicago, was 
 to deny the facts—a hopeful sign—for denying facts exposes 
 one’s chance as a debater and one’s character as a man. Missions 
 show the oecumenical quality of Christianity. No climate 
 blights it. Equally at home, east, west, north, south, Christ is 
 not, as Mazoomdar said, an oriental ; nor is he, as we may some¬ 
 times fondly fancy, a .Western-world man : but the one true 
 cosmopolite, offering suitable help to all races and all tempera¬ 
 ments at once. His original credentials, shown to John the 
 Baptist, are not outworn. The deaf hear, the lepers are cleansed, 
 the dead are raised, the poor have the Gospel preached to them. 
 Son of Man, Son of God, the omnipresent Saviour, circumstances 
 cannot thwart Him, various opposition cannot over-ride Him, 
 death itself can nowhere defeat Him. Nay, these all enter into 
 His central purpose, and become the very means of achieving it. 
 He comes clear down to humanity’s Bethlehem and Calvary. 
 His light, like that of the great friendly sun, beams upon the 
 world, warming the smallest particle of my own blood into life, 
 yet controlling the myriad stars in their courses. Meeting all 
 human needs, His religion must issue from the scarred hand that 
 fashioned as well as redeemed the race. Depending neither 
 upon the sword, which appeals to fear, nor upon indulgence that 
 winks at passion, He regenerates by the still energy of the loving 
 Spirit of God. 
 
 Similarly, foreign missions give us new methods of inter- 
 
254 
 
 EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD. 
 
 preting the Bible. Providence is the only authoritative 
 commentary on prophecy. The missions of the Nineteenth 
 Century have made the world and the Scripture stand together 
 in new lights. How could our forefathers understand the great 
 commission to disciple all nations, when they confined themselves 
 to little corners of the globe ? How could they really believe 
 that “ God so loved the world ” that he gave his Son, while they 
 were affording Him no opportunity to embrace it ? Did not 
 His everlasting arms ache for ages because the unmotherly 
 Church would not suffer His children to fill them? 
 
 Foreign missions are touching the eastern sky with the mellow 
 sun-rise of Christian fellowship and unity. Despite petty 
 bickerings and jealousies still seen occasionally at home, the 
 growing light abroad is scattering the dismal shadows of 
 sectarianism. Our missionary age is distinguished 'by warmer 
 denominational friendliness than any other since the Reformation. 
 That is attested by the number and the strength of such 
 common agencies as this Evangelical Alliance, the Young Men’s 
 Christian Associations, which are beginning to lay plans covering 
 the world, and the Bible Societies, which have seen Scripture 
 versions increase from fifty to over three hundred. The forms of 
 practical co-operation between mission boards and schools and 
 churches are rapidly multiplying. No wonder! The facing of 
 appalling wickedness and need and danger in heathenism has 
 shamed many of the Pharisaic niceties out of our polemics, and 
 taught us that the enemy of each church is sin, the common 
 deadly enemy of all. Churches and missionaries alike have 
 been forced by their death-struggle with paganism to ignore the 
 unessential differences which have chiefly divided them, and to 
 put all their emphasis upon the common fundamentals that have 
 long united them. Thank God, that when a missionary in India 
 says to the world of Christians : “ Let us pray,” the Evangelical 
 Churches of the world agree to spend a week out of the year on 
 their knees. May all these churches, bowing down together in 
 behalf of the world for which Christ died, hear his dying inter¬ 
 cession, “ That they may be one ; as thou, Father, art in me, and 
 I in thee, that they also may be one in us : that the world may 
 believe that thou hast sent me.” 
 
REV. PRINCIPAL SHERATON. 
 
 255 
 
 THE RELATION OF MISSIONS TO THE CHURCH* 
 
 Rev. Principal Sheraton, D.D., Toronto. 
 
 The whole life of the Christian Church is comprehended in 
 two corelative functions. Our Lord Himself briefly summarized 
 them in one pregnant sentence—“ Freely ye have received ; 
 freely give.” On the one hand there is the receptivity of the 
 Church. It receives Christ, appropriates and assimilates Him. 
 Out of His fulness, as St. John testifies, “we all received.” On 
 the other hand, the Church reflects Christ ; it imparts what it 
 has received from him ; it gives forth His truth and love. The 
 two functions are co-ordinate. Their activities are simultaneous. 
 His love cannot be appropriated except by a loving heart. The 
 truth believed must be at the same time truth confessed. Where 
 confession is restrained, faith becomes enfeebled. In all life, and 
 most of all in the life of God in the soul of man, there is this 
 constant interaction, this ceaseless cycle, these activities of 
 reception and bestowal in which the life is manifested, and by 
 which it is developed. Both functions are essential. The 
 receptive side of our Christian life cannot be too strongly insisted 
 upon. We are to be self-emptied, that Christ may take complete 
 possession of us. Our weakness and His strength, our poverty 
 and His riches, are blessed correlatives. But were it mere self¬ 
 enrichment which we derived from Him, who became poor that 
 we through His poverty might be rich, it were ruin, not redemp¬ 
 tion. Salvation is a partaking of the Divine nature ; and the 
 Divine nature is essentially a self-communicative one. It is 
 God’s very nature to impart Himself without limit, to give Him¬ 
 self, His gifts and blessings, for the enrichment of His creatures. 
 Salvation is being possessed by Christ’s spirit and renewed after 
 Christ’s likeness. The measure of which we have obtained from 
 Christ, will be the freeness and abundance of our giving. The 
 love and grace, the knowledge and truth we have received from 
 Him, must overflow to others. The gifts would belie their 
 source, would be false to their nature, did they become self- 
 centered. As it was the function and office of Christ to reveal 
 the Father, so it is the function and work of the Church to 
 reveal Christ. God is love, and as He is revealed in the self- 
 sacrifice of Jesus, so the love of Jesus is to be revealed in the 
 
 self-sacrifice of the Christian. “ As He is, so are we in this 
 
 world.” As God worked in the world by Christ, so Christ works 
 in the world by the Church. As Christ was sent by the Father, 
 
 * This paper was not read, owing to the inability of the writer to attend the 
 
 Conference. 
 
256 
 
 EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD. 
 
 so He declares that we are sent by Him. “ As thou hast sent 
 Me into the world/’ He addresses the Father, “even so have I 
 also sent them into the world.” Christ was God’s Apostle, His 
 sent One. We are Christ’s apostles. Christ had a mission : so 
 the Church, every believer in Jesus, has a mission. The mission 
 is identical in both cases. “ The Son of Man came to seek and 
 to save that which was lost.” This work, which the Father gave 
 Him to do, He still carries on, and He carries it on by means of 
 the Church. In a word, He established and instituted the 
 Church for this very end. 
 
 The missionary is one who is sent upon a mission—the mission 
 of God’s love and truth to a sinful and suffering world. Every 
 Christian is, in virtue of his Christian calling, a missionary. The 
 Church is essentially missionary. The relation of missions to 
 the Church is not accidental, or subordinate, or voluntary ; it is 
 essential and organic, involved in the very life and nature of the 
 Church. As a great missionary wisely puts it, “ Missions are the 
 chief end of the Christian Church.” To it all else is subordinate. 
 Its receptivity is strong only as its activities are abundant. The 
 intensive growth is largely dependent upon and conditioned by 
 the extensive growth. When the Church ceases to expand, 
 not merely is its growth interrupted, but that which it has 
 already attained to, it loses. When Christianity is no longer 
 aggressive, it becomes degenerate. The upbuilding of the 
 Church is simply the result of its power to appropriate Christ. 
 But the power to appropriate Christ is dependent upon the faith¬ 
 fulness to confess Him and to follow Him in His self-devotion 
 to the world. 
 
 I have used the word “ missions ” in its largest sense. I have 
 not separated foreign missions from home missions, nor these 
 from the parochial and domestic activities of each congregation 
 and each Christian. For these differ from each other only as 
 the larger from the smaller cycle enclosed within it. They differ 
 only in the extent of the sphere in which the work is done, and 
 in the methods followed ; not in the spirit which pervades them, 
 nor in the object that is pursued. The extent of the work is 
 limited only by the need and by the opportunity. “ The field is 
 the world.” We have our Lord’s express command to “ go into 
 all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.” Wher¬ 
 ever God in His providence sets an open door, there His Church 
 must follow. This was the principle which controlled the 
 apostolic missionaries. So they went from city to city, and from 
 continent to continent, sowing everywhere the Divine seed. We 
 have means of entering them such as none before us have 
 
REV. PRINCIPAL SHERATON. 
 
 257 
 
 possessed. If Divine overruling is unmistakably traceable in the 
 maturity and completeness of the organization of the Roman 
 Empire at the Christian era, opening everywhere channels of 
 communication, providing facilities of travel, and protecting from 
 lawless violence the messengers of the religion which it ulti¬ 
 mately persecuted ; much more is the same Sovereign Providence 
 manifest in the position of the Anglo-Saxon race, its restless 
 instinct for colonization and its wide-spread dominion. And of 
 its aggressive genius the missionary impulse forms, as has been 
 justly observed, the necessary spiritual complement. 
 
 Home and foreign missions cannot be separated. Their 
 object and their interests are identical. The home need is great 
 It never was more urgent than at this very hour. New 
 conditions of life present complications which nothing can 
 adjust but the prevalence of Christianity as a living reality in 
 the midst of our civilization. There are social problems whose 
 solution can only be achieved by means of the practical applica¬ 
 tion of the living principles of the Gospel. Let not the romance 
 of the foreign field lead any to disparage the necessities of the 
 work at home, or to belittle the sacrifices and services of workers 
 who wrestle with the dead inertia of a godlessness as dreary and 
 hopeless as heathenism itself. The missionary spirit is needed 
 everywhere, at home as well as abroad. He, whom Dr. Duff, 
 himself a hero missionary, called the prince of missionaries, 
 achieved his splendid work in the lanes and closes of a great 
 city. The missionary .spirit thus nurtured cannot be circum¬ 
 scribed by any bounds more narrow than the world’s need and 
 the worker’s opportunity. The self-devotion which ministers to 
 the ignorant and perishing at home will sustain the great work 
 abroad. The home field will prove the best training ground for 
 the foreign work, the source and base of its supplies. It will 
 quicken the zeal of the Church ; clarify its conceptions of the 
 truth ; give it a stronger hold upon essentials, and a wiser and 
 more generous discrimination in things non-essential ; and unite 
 it more completely in the bonds of love and in the unity of the 
 faith. A Church without missions, without earnest aggressive 
 work is a declining Church. The spirit of self-indulgence grows, 
 and the spirit of Christian self-denial dwindles. The gravitation 
 of true love is always toward equal distribution. As has been 
 aptly said, you cannot accumulate water in a heap except by 
 freezing it. When in 1812 application was made to the Senate 
 of Massachusetts for the incorporation of the American Board 
 of Foreign Missions the objection was actually raised that the 
 country had no religion to spare. It required much persuasion 
 
 R 
 
258 
 
 EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD. 
 
 to convince the worthy Senators that religion is a commodity 
 which increases by exportation, which grows by self-abandon¬ 
 ment. The very life of the Church is bound up in its missionary 
 work. No less an authority than Professor Max Muller, of 
 Oxford, has declared that “ the Christian Church would cease to 
 exist if it ceased to be missionary.” Can we not trace much of 
 the deadness and worldliness of the Church to its unfaithfulness 
 to its chief purpose and mission ? It holds true of the Church 
 as of the individual Christian, that, “ he who saveth his life shall 
 lose it” The salt of self-sacrifice is the source of vigour and 
 vitality. Where it is lost there is weakness and decay. The 
 condition of the Church then resembles that of a weakened 
 and diseased organism infested by parasites. Thus it is that 
 error and division find an entrance. As Dr. Duff, the great 
 Indian missionary, once said, “ the Church that ceases to be 
 evangelistic will soon cease to be evangelical.” The great hope 
 of the revived purity and unity of the Church lies in the revival 
 of a missionary spirit. Such is the vital and essential relation¬ 
 ship of missions to the Church. Here is this strange paradox, 
 that self-preservation lies in self-sacrifice. No subject is of more 
 paramount importance, involves issues more far-reaching and 
 demands more strenuous and reiterated insistence than the 
 obligations and importance of missions. 
 
 We neglect the work at our peril. Look abroad. The 
 multitudes of India and China are fast becoming possessed of 
 the instruments and appliances of modern civilization, while vice 
 and infidelity from the West keep pace with the advances of art 
 and commerce. If Christianity fails to subdue these peoples, if 
 the Christian Church fails in her duty to them, and selfishly 
 ignores the splendid opportunities before her, she is preparing 
 avengers of her guilty negligence and selfish apathy more cruel 
 than the barbarian scourges which devastated Imperial Rome. 
 Look at home. Infidelity, socialism, anarchy, the outcome of 
 the neglect, oppression and unfaithfulness of Christendom, are 
 rallying their forces and preparing certain judgment for a worldly 
 and apathetic Church. What can avert it ? Communism must 
 come. Shall it be the communism of the devil, or the 
 communism of Christ? Under God, our salvation as a Church 
 and as a people depends upon revived faithfulness to that great 
 aggressive work which Christ has given us to do. 
 
 Our method in this work will be moulded and controlled by 
 our conceptions of its nature and of its relation to the Church. 
 
 It must be a personal work. It is from the individual to the 
 individual. You may talk to men in masses, but the personal 
 
REV. PRINCIPAL SHERATON. 
 
 259 
 
 word in personal dealing with the individuals is that which takes 
 hold. If this is true even in Christian lands, much more is it 
 true in the midst of the darkness and ignorance of heathenism. 
 This close personal contact can only be secured when the 
 missionaries identify themselves in their mode of life with those 
 they are seeking to win. They must go among these people, 
 live their life, adopt their customs, conform to their habits, and 
 be as they are. This was our Lord’s method, who was in all 
 things made like to us. It requires self-denial. But the China 
 Inland Mission and the Salvation Army in India illustrate the 
 method and prove its power. And in the work among the poor 
 in large cities the best results are attained when men and 
 women of refinement and devotion make their homes and live 
 their life in the midst of the degraded and ignorant. The heart 
 and life then go along with the teaching, and make a way for 
 its reception. 
 
 But the individuality of the work does not dispense with 
 organization. While personal effort and contact are indispen¬ 
 sable and must always form the point of application, combined 
 effort gives intensity and continuity. One of the most remark¬ 
 able developments of modern science is the concentration and 
 accumulation of power, to be effectively applied at any point at 
 which it is required. Now in the dynamics of Christianity, this is 
 effected by means of organization and association. And men 
 work best in the organizations in which they have been trained. 
 Each national and particular church, each denomination furnishes 
 the proper association in which its members should work. All 
 such organized work is incalculably more effective and permanent 
 than unorganized and isolated work. 
 
 But whenever the organization itself becomes the end of the 
 work, fatal mischief ensues. We must work in our missions as 
 Presbyterians, as Methodists, as Congregationalists, or as Epis¬ 
 copalians. But we do not and ought not to work merely to 
 propagate the Presbyterianism, or the Methodism, or the Angli¬ 
 canism. The true object of all genuine missionary work is not 
 to make proselytes to any sect or denomination, but to make 
 disciples of Jesus ; not to reproduce in heathen lands the peculi¬ 
 arities of any single church, but to build up in every land an 
 indigenous Church,—a Church of Christ, self-governed, self- 
 sustained, self-propagating, with its own standards and 
 confessions of faith, its own hymns and prayers, its own forms 
 of worship and methods of work. This was the apostolic 
 method ; it must be ours. Christianity is a life; and life 
 possesses the power of constructing its own organization accord- 
 
26o 
 
 EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD. 
 
 ing to its environment The great purpose of a foreign 
 missionary entering a heathen land is to plant within it the 
 heavenly leaven, to set in motion there the Divine forces inherent 
 in Christianity, and to lay the foundations of a native Church 
 and a native ministry. 
 
 Such being the case there can be no difficulty in securing 
 co-operation in missionary work, and distribution of the 
 missionary field amongst the different churches and organizations 
 doing the work. And if there is unity and co-operation abroad, 
 can we find greater difficulty in securing these at home ? The 
 uncared for wastes of our new settlements and the dense masses 
 of untaught and degraded humanity in our large cities are at 
 once a disgrace and a menace to our churches. These evils can 
 only be adequately dealt with upon some system of co-operation 
 in home missions. It is worse than folly, it is a crime to dissipate 
 our inadequate resourses in an. un-Christian competition. Let 
 the home field be, as far as possible, distributed upon the same 
 principles of comity as are almost universally observed in the 
 foreign field. Let our cities be divided out among the churches, 
 each congregation working its own district, and concentrating 
 upon it all its energies. Such a plan is now followed in many 
 cities of the neighboring republic, under the auspices of the 
 Evangelical Alliance. No more practical and seasonable work 
 could engage the attention of this Canadian Alliance. 
 
 It has been recently stated that the present methods of 
 missionary work are inadequate, and that they cannot keep pace 
 with the natural increase of heathenism, much less hope to wrest 
 from it its vast territories. This allegation seems to me to be 
 greatly exaggerated ; nevertheless it is strongly felt in most 
 sections of the Christian Church that the present is a critical 
 time in the work, and that with the wonderful opening up of 
 lands hitherto impervious to the entrance of the Gospel, it is not 
 wise to confine missionary operations to the old lines, but that 
 every form and method of evangelization must be tried. In the 
 earlier history of modern missions the work was almost exclu¬ 
 sively of an evangelistic character, by means of the itinerating 
 preaching of the Gospel. The great Dr. Duff had to encounter 
 the suspicions and prejudices of his contemporaries in India 
 when he began his remarkable educational work and laid the 
 foundations of those Christian colleges which more than any 
 other agency have helped to saturate the Hindoo mind with the 
 principles of revealed truth. Educational work must continue 
 to be an increasingly important agency both in the work of 
 aggression and of upbuilding. 
 
REV. PRINCIPAL SHERATON. 
 
 26l 
 
 The introduction of medical missions was another innovation ; 
 but how effectively has it approved itself to the conscience of the 
 Church. Strange it is that the example of the great Healer so 
 long failed to lead to this practical application of His methods. 
 Another great advance was made in the development of women’s 
 work, by which the Gospel message is so closely brought into 
 contact with the homes and hearts of multitudes, especially in 
 India. This branch of the work is yet but in its infancy. With 
 its growth will come another onward step to which I have 
 already alluded. Men will go forth as did the Lord’s first 
 messengers, providing neither gold nor silver in their purses, nor 
 scrip for their journey, content to depend upon the provision 
 made for them in the way. Not only ordained missionaries, but 
 laymen with the simple message of the Gospel will plunge into 
 the midst of the dense Eastern populations, scattering broadcast 
 the words of life, and in order to do this, freely identifying them¬ 
 selves in every lawful respect with the people they seek to win. 
 The Church has not had sufficient faith in the Word of the 
 Gospel. It has not been content to let it make its own way and 
 to build up around itself in new environments an indigenous 
 Church, and an indigenous theology. It has thought it essential 
 to the honor of the Gospel and the well-being of the people to 
 fence around the sacred and living Word with the traditions and 
 theologies of European and American Christendom. The work 
 can no longer wait upon such cumbrous processes. The hungry 
 multitudes clamour for the Living Bread. God Himself will give 
 the Word and great will be the company of those who go forth 
 bearing its messages. Christian colonists, Christian traders, 
 Christian itinerants will penetrate the inmost recesses of the 
 Orient, impelled, not by lust of gain, but by the impulse of an 
 unquenchable love for the perishing. A new crusade will be 
 proclaimed. Asia and Africa will be traversed, not by devotees 
 of superstition, but by Christ’s knight-errants, content for His 
 dear sake to go as humbly and as meanly equipped as friars of 
 old, not for the aggrandizement of a sacerdotal church, but for 
 the promulgation of a simple Gospel message, as did the preach¬ 
 ing brothers, “ the poor priests,” of Wycliffe. The chief changes 
 in the mission work of the future will be in the direction of 
 simplicity and elasticity. Our present methods will not be 
 superseded. Their more elaborate and advanced organization 
 will be essential in the leadership and control of the work. But 
 they will be complemented, pioneered and multiplied by agencies 
 as various as they will be simple and elastic. 
 
 That which is of greatest moment is the quickening through- 
 
262 
 
 EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD. 
 
 out the Church universal of a consciousness of missionary 
 responsibility and a conviction of the vital importance of 
 missionary work. Missionary information must be disseminated, 
 and missionary spirit developed. This work ought to move 
 more especially along three lines. The first is in connection with 
 congregations. In sermons, by systematic instruction and by 
 special appeals let every Christian be brought to realize his own 
 personal responsibility, a responsibility that he cannot shift to 
 others, but must by his own personal efforts discharge. The 
 second is in connection with the young, in the Sunday schools 
 and Bible classes. Let them now be trained to take a real 
 interest in the cause. From their earliest and most impressible 
 age, let them be educated in sympathy and in active co-opera¬ 
 tion. The third is in connection with our colleges and 
 theological schools. Let chairs of Christian missions be 
 established. It was the crowning labor of the great Indian 
 missionary to establish in Edinburgh such’a chair, the first of the 
 kind, which he for a time so worthily filled. Definite, accurate, 
 scientific teaching is required. Few know the vast extent and 
 the innumerable interests of the subject. Let our young men 
 and our theological students be trained. The pastors at home, 
 as well as the missionaries abroad, the men of culture and of 
 thought, need this instruction. When they are saturated with it 
 and with the enthusiasm it begets, the results will tell with 
 inconceivable power upon the whole work of the Church. 
 
 With the awakening sense of our responsibilities in missions, 
 will come a new consciousness of the opportunities and respon¬ 
 sibilities of wealth. With systematic instruction in the nature 
 and claims of the work, must be conjoined systematic instruction 
 in the nature and methods of giving. What is needed is not a 
 revival of Judaistic compulsion in tithes, but a more complete 
 consecration of wealth and a more ardent and devoted 
 beneficence. 
 
 Above all, we must not separate what Christ has indissolubly 
 united—the work and the power. He never sent His mission¬ 
 aries forth upon their own charges ; they were to tarry for the 
 outpouring of the Power from on high. It will avail little to 
 multiply methods and to perfect machinery, unless we have in 
 our midst—permeating our hearts, controlling our working, and 
 giving effect to His own truth—the Presence and Power of the 
 Holy Spirit. Let the Church then seek, unitedly, persistently, 
 believingly, for a fresh baptism from above, that the Spirit of 
 Jesus may Himself use our feeble efforts for the upbuilding of 
 the Kingdom which is righteousness and peace and joy in the 
 Holy Ghost. 
 
REV. CHANCELLOR SIMS. 
 
 263 
 
 THE PROBLEM OF HOME EVANGELIZATION. 
 
 Rev. Chancellor Sims, D.D., LL.D., Syracuse. 
 
 Mr. President and Christian Friends: —I agree with the wise 
 and earnest utterances to which we have been listening during 
 the three days of this interesting and instructive Convention. I 
 have full faith in the power of the Gospel to bring this weary 
 world to Christ. I believe in the intelligence, the zeal and piety 
 of the Church of the present ; but, I think, there are great 
 problems of our time which we have not yet solved, questions 
 to which we have not yet addressed ourselves with sufficient 
 earnestness, and dangers we do not yet fully appreciate. 
 
 Let us for a while withdraw our thoughts from the contem¬ 
 plation of the great achievements of the past, and the glorious 
 hopes of the future, and give attention to matters of serious 
 concern close about us. I do not now propose to discuss the 
 speedy Christianization of distant heathen lands, but to consider 
 a much less inspiring subject. 
 
 The question to which I invite your thought is :— 
 
 Is the Church of to-day , with its present degree of piety , enter¬ 
 prise and devotion , adequate to the work of Home Evangelization ? 
 
 Are we able to bring the people who speak our own language, 
 live in our own cities, and are our fellow citizens, to a saving 
 knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ? 
 
 Such a question should not be asked unless there are signifi¬ 
 cant and uncomfortable facts to make it pertinent. In searching 
 for facts I must look at the condition of things as I find them in 
 my own country ; yet, I am sure, the general condition must be 
 so nearly the same on both sides of the line as to afford common 
 considerations of apprehension and duty. Why then do I ask 
 the question ? 
 
 The condition of the Home Work affords good reason for 
 anxiety. 
 
 In the United States, with a population of sixty-five millions, 
 our statistics show that we have only twelve millions of Protest¬ 
 ant Church members. This means that for every person who 
 professes a personal interest in Christ there are four others that 
 do not acknowledge Him as a personal Saviour. For every 
 congregation of believers there are four others of equal numbers 
 who have practically neglected Him. What reason shall we 
 assign for our feeble hold on our own people? It is not that 
 we are hindered by legal interference, for we have had the largest 
 liberty to push our work when and where we pleased. It is not 
 
264 
 
 EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD. 
 
 that we are late comers and strangers, who are hindered by being 
 misunderstood for want of acquaintance. We were here from 
 the beginning and the foundations of society were laid by 
 Christian men. The people know who we are and what manner 
 of lives we live. We and our fathers have been working for two 
 hundred and fifty years to persuade the community in which we 
 live to receive Christ, and now we claim only one in five of them 
 as his acknowledged followers. Surely from the stand-point of 
 numbers we do not get a satisfactory answer to our question. 
 
 Let us classify a little further. We have on our side the 
 orderly, moral, thrifty, intelligent, conservative part of society. 
 On the other side are the turbulent, the unsteady, the immoral 
 and the dangerous classes. They have, also, not a few people of 
 cultivated minds and reputable morals who regard our faith as 
 vain and its foundation unsubstantial. With them and of them 
 are the gamblers, liquor sellers, Sabbath breakers, thieves, 
 frequenters of disreputable places, the profane, and the degraded 
 of every class. Places of infamy, practice of vice and centres of 
 lawlessness have grown up and flourished all about us, and we 
 have been helpless to overcome them. Is there not reason 
 for the question, “ Are we adequate to the task of home 
 evangelization ? ” 
 
 In our efforts to reclaim them, one of our first difficulties is 
 that, as a class , they do not like us. We have been troubling 
 their wicked Israel. We have denounced their manner of life, 
 their pursuits and indulgences, their habits and pleasures. We 
 have exposed their sins and antagonized their methods, and they 
 are offended at us. Furthermore, by the gravitation of divine 
 tastes and feelings, we and they have been unconsciously parting 
 company. They watch us to discover our inconsistencies and 
 faults. They rejoice when a church member disgraces his 
 profession. They prefer to think ill rather than well of us. 
 They are not easily attracted to our public services or social 
 meetings. We find it difficult to get hold of their sympathies 
 and enlist their interest. There are other than geographical 
 distances between us. 
 
 They differ greatly from us in the amount and kind of religious 
 knowledge they possess. Compare the intelligent Christian home 
 with the household that is Godless and note the difference. In 
 one the earliest recollections of childhood are lessons of piety 
 learned at the mother’s knee ; God, heaven, prayer, the crime of 
 falsehood, the sin of anger, the obligation of the Golden rule— 
 all these are inwrought into the very texture of its life. It holds 
 among its hallowed associations remembrances of an open Bible, 
 
REV. CHANCELLOR SIMS. 
 
 265 
 
 the family altar, the rest of the Sabbath and the place of 
 worship. Its first years were very near Heaven, and its whole 
 being was illumined with the light of religious truth, and fortified 
 with Christian training. 
 
 In the other household, there was the absence of all these. 
 First recollections and impressions were gained amid strife, 
 profanity, and evil ways of life. Now, put the inmates of these 
 two homes side by side and see how much they differ in practical 
 religious knowledge, although living within hearing of the same 
 church bells. Church worship adapted to the needs and tastes 
 of the one, utterly fails in ministration to the other. 
 
 I know that not nearly all of the unconverted answer to the 
 description I have given, but a very large proportion does, and to 
 these we must address our most earnest efforts. Should we make 
 thorough investigation of the spiritual condition of those who 
 live in the worst parts of our towns and cities, we should be 
 appalled at their lack of religious knowledge and their want of 
 Christian habits and impulses. Many of them are without Bibles, 
 never enter churches or Sabbath schools, and scarcely know 
 anything of the Spirit or teachings of the Saviour. Are we 
 doing all that is necessary for them ? 
 
 An equally marked difference exists with regard to the 
 development and training of conscience. It is one thing to have 
 a numb sense of something wrong in conduct, and a confused 
 conception of the law we disregard, and quite another to 
 recognize our high obligations to God, and see clearly the beauty 
 and beneficence of His holy government. In the first case 
 conscience is scarcely more than the inaudible mutterings of an 
 unknown and mysterious voice ; in the latter, it is the clearly 
 recognized authority of God. The one is too feeble to resist the 
 passions, the inclinations, the invitations to every form of vice ; 
 the other warns with commanding tones against even the 
 appearance of evil. Who can over-estimate the amount of 
 patient instruction and careful example needed to arouse and 
 develop the darkened and enfeebled consciences of many who are 
 just about us ? 
 
 There are social differences betwee?i the two classes which greatly 
 increase the difficulties of Home Evangelization. 
 
 We are accustomed to say, in our inventory of Christian 
 forces, that the wealth of the world is chiefly in the possession 
 of Christians. And the saying is true. The temperance, 
 industry, honesty, reliability and intelligence of Christians 
 naturally contribute to their temporal prosperity. They are 
 not taxed with the vices which so grievously affect the health 
 
266 
 
 EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD. 
 
 and pockets of the wicked. He who adds to the cost of his 
 daily necessities the expenses of haunts of iniquity has usually 
 little left as a provision against the wants of age and infirmity. 
 It is according to the order of Providence, that he who practises 
 the Christian virtues should increase in substance and rise in 
 social influence. It is inevitable in the nature of things that 
 those who waste their substance in evil ways should wear the 
 yoke of poverty. Thus most of the wretchedly poor look upon 
 Christian people as a class more favored than themselves, and 
 upon churches as luxuries they are unable to afford, and they 
 shrink back into their poverty and suffering from both. The 
 work of Home Evangelization will not be completed until these 
 fancied or real social barriers are so far broken down as to make 
 an open and easy path from one side to the other. 
 
 There is a vast difference between the cheerfulness and happi¬ 
 ness of the two classes. Sin is never out of the shadow of 
 suffering. All forms of agony that torture humanity follow 
 closely on the steps of wrong doing. The shame of disgrace, 
 the distress of want, the storms of passion, the pain of abused 
 organs and nerves are familiar experiences of law-breakers, and 
 there are no moral alleviations to make their suffering tolerable. 
 Piety, temperance and self-control are quiet, free from fear, full 
 of hope, and adequately provided for. How can these two 
 forms of experience adequately sympathize with each other? 
 How shall the upright man make known to his neighbor the 
 source and value of his joys? 
 
 So the earnest Christians and their irreligious neighbors are 
 separated from each other, as knowledge and ignorance, high 
 purpose and the absence of it, clear convictions of duty and 
 seared consciences, abundance and poverty, joy and pain are 
 separated. How shall knowledge banish ignorance, purity exalt 
 degradation, thrift redeem want and happiness dispel grief? 
 
 To all these questions, the one general answer is, more zeal, 
 self-sacrifice, activity and personal illustration of the Spirit of 
 Christ. Be deeply concerned for the redemption of these men. 
 Count Tolstoi charges that Christians depend upon policemen, 
 judges and jailers to protect them from violent men, and asks the 
 pertinent question, “ if our only protection against the disorderly 
 was in making them better, should we not be more jealous for 
 their reformation ? ” 
 
 Somehow, somewhere, we must meet these people and give 
 them unmistakable tokens of our love and anxious concern for 
 them, “ Go out into the highways and hedges and compel them 
 to come in.” Feel actual sympathy for them in all their misfor- 
 
REV. CHANCELLOR SIMS. 
 
 267 
 
 tunes, and when you try to show that feeling they will not 
 misunderstand you. Do not be afraid of compromising your 
 social standing or committing social improprieties in kindly 
 intercourse either with the lowly or the low. Jesus shocked the 
 fastidious, in his day, by receiving sinners and eating with them. 
 We may safely follow where the Master led the way. There is 
 no danger of contamination in going anywhere on errands of 
 love and mercy. Good and bad society are not determined by 
 the kind of people we meet, but by the purpose and spirit of the 
 meeting. Two young men meet at a gambling table to play and 
 drink and both are in bad society : they go thence to some 
 secluded spot to pledge themselves together to an upright life and 
 both are in good society. All genuine ministration for Christ’s 
 sake makes the way easy to the hearts of the poor and the sinful. 
 Actual, restless love for souls is sure to bear fruit in saving the 
 lost. Love is the greatest of all motive forces, and when it 
 abounds, glorious results will surely follow. It is better than all 
 machinery without it. If necessary, it makes its own occasions, 
 devises its own methods, and achieves whatever it undertakes. 
 
 Integrity of character and consistency of life are great factors 
 in Christian efficiency. The Russian Count’s story of the poor 
 woman’s long and unavailing efforts to cleanse the soiled table 
 with the dirty cloth, leaving as many unclean streaks as she 
 found, until she first cleansed the cloth, and then quickly 
 accomplished her task, has an application in all Christian effort.— 
 If we would lead others to purity we must be pure ourselves. 
 
 Heart earnestness is seldom unrecognized or misunderstood— 
 “ He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall 
 doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves 
 with him.” 
 
 Yes, we shall accomplish the work of Home Evangelization, 
 and “ all shall know the Lord from the least unto the greatest; ” 
 but before the work is done, we shall be wiser in winning souls, 
 less careful for social fastidiousness, more awake to duty, and 
 more ready to be “ all things to all men, that by all means we 
 may save some.” 
 
268 
 
 EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD. 
 
 MISSIONARY WORK IN INDIA. 
 
 Rev. W. Burgess, Wesleyan Missionary, India. 
 
 A good many things have been said and a good many things 
 have been written, lately, touching the spread of Mohammed¬ 
 anism in India, and on the continent of Africa. I have no 
 personal acquaintance with Africa. I did once get a look at 
 that country through a telescope, some twenty-two years ago, 
 when I was rounding the Cape of Good Hope, but I will not 
 venture any remarks touching the spread of Mohammedanism 
 there, though I believe, with Dr. Macpherson, that strictures on 
 missions and stories about the progress of Christianity are some¬ 
 times made with a less acquaintance on the subject than is to be 
 obtained through the lens of a telescope, 
 
 With India, I do claim to have some practical acquaintance, 
 and I am here to say, to-night, that the statements which have 
 been made, touching the spread of Mohammedanism in India, are 
 mistakes. I do not say that these mistakes were made after 
 serious thought and with knowledge, but I do say, that Canon 
 Taylor, the dignitary who gave utterance to them, did not know 
 any better. The fact is: in 1871, there was a census taken in 
 India, and one of the schedules returned the number of the 
 professors of Islam. In 1881, another census was taken and 
 another return of Mohammedans given. Comparing the returns 
 of 1871 with those of 1881, the latter gave a larger return, and 
 Canon Taylor concluded that, during that decade, Moham¬ 
 medanism had made rapid strides in India, and that it was 
 making headway at the rate of 500,000 a year. Very unfortu¬ 
 nately for these deductions, it should be known that the census 
 of 1881 was made for a very different purpose to that of 1871. 
 The latter returns were for British India alone, whereas that of 
 1881 included all the feudatory states as well, making a difference 
 of several millions,—a very small item probably, but one quite 
 enough to vitiate the calculations arrived at by the learned canon. 
 
 Although I have lived in the greatest Mohammedan state in 
 India for years back—a state ruled by a follower of Mahomet, 
 and presided over in all its governmental offices by professors of 
 Islam,—though I have wandered throughout that state, yet I am 
 here to say, that I have never seen one Hindoo who ever gave 
 up Hindooism to become Mohammedan, and statements of recent 
 date, made by persons who ought to know the facts, put down 
 the number of those who changed from one to the other as less 
 than five thousand. 
 
REV. W. BURGESS. 
 
 269 
 
 There are reasons why Mohammedanism, which gained such 
 signal victories in Persia and Arabia, utterly failed to conquer in 
 India. Those reasons are operating to-day, and unless there is 
 something in Christianity lifting her immeasurably above all 
 other faiths, Christianity will fail in India as Mohammedanism 
 has failed. Let me mention two or three of those difficulties. 
 First, there is caste. We have heard a good deal about caste— 
 probably you will hear a good deal more about it too, before you 
 are permitted to send Chancellor Sims out to bury it and read 
 the funeral service over it. Second, there is what I may call the 
 “ massive force of Hindooism,” and there is a wonderful solidity 
 in numbers and a kind of strong magnetism in the multitude. I 
 am told that a soldier, when he first hears the call to battle, feels 
 a kind of trepidation, but when he finds himself in the centre of 
 a body some 10,000 strong and he hears their single step like 
 the heavy tread of a mighty giant, he loses his individuality in 
 the mass, and he begins to feel as though he himself were ten 
 thousand strong. 
 
 Now, Mr. Chairman, the whole people of the South Sea 
 Islands, to which you have referred, do not number half those to 
 be found congregated in a single Hindoo city. With a working 
 force of some fifty missionaries it would be comparatively easy 
 to split up society in the South Sea Islands into detached 
 portions and give to each missionary his own five thousand, 
 whereas, in India, they present a solid frontage of upwards of a 
 million to every preacher of the truth. Take my friend, Dr. 
 Macpherson here, and put him in Chicago, withdraw all other 
 Christian ministers from the city, put the lights out from every 
 philanthropic scheme, tell him to work on, and at the end of 
 twelve months to come here and render an account of the deeds 
 done. Do you think the result could be very satisfactory? No. 
 And yet that is the kind of thing you expect your missionary 
 to do in India. Again we have to contend against the elaborate 
 drill which every Hindoo is subjected to from his earliest years— 
 that is, the religious discipline which begins with his infancy and 
 which is carried on throughout his life, until it becomes a part of 
 his very nature, and thus renders him safe against any ordinary 
 attack. A Hindoo cannot write a letter of half a dozen words 
 without his going through a religious ceremony. He cannot 
 make out a bill for one cent, without his inscribing on the leaflet 
 the name of his God. Secularities in the Hindoo life there are 
 none ; for his religion is interwoven with everything he does. It 
 may shock you to hear it; but it is a fact that even the courte¬ 
 sans, in India, are a religious order, and before their life of 
 
2/0 
 
 EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD. 
 
 prostitution begins, they are publicly wedded to their god. From 
 their ungodly gains they lay a portion at the feet of their deities, 
 and in the Hindoo language they are called servants of God. 
 The fact is that Hindooism lays its hand upon all, no matter 
 how vile they be, and it welds into one solid, compact, well- 
 marshalled, impenetrable mass the whole Hindoo society. 
 Mahommedanism never had to confront difficulties like these in 
 any other countries she attacked ; and those are the reasons 
 which led to the Mahommedan failure in India. Unless there 
 is a spirituality of force in Christianity lifting her immeasurably 
 above other forms of faith, Christianity too will fail. 
 
 In view of these and other like difficulties which obtrude 
 themselves against the spread of the Gospel in India, there are 
 some who talk about this country as an utterly hopeless field. 
 The good Abbe du Bois, after laboring for twenty years in India, 
 left her shores with this mournful exclamation on his lips, “ The 
 Hindoos never can be converted to the Faith.” It must be a 
 hard task that a Jesuit priest will give up in despair; but if the 
 fortress were a hundred thousand times stronger we should not 
 be discouraged from the attack. 
 
 If I were in a storm on the Atlantic—and it is not always 
 propitious to strangers—I should not fear because some timid 
 lady happened to faint, or that some passenger grew pallid. I 
 should rather look to the captain’s face. I might quake if care 
 sat on his brow as he looked upon the troubled waters; but if, 
 on the contrary, he strode the bridge with lightsome tread and 
 his voice rang cheerily around, despite the alarm of the lands¬ 
 men, my heart would be full of assurance. It is so in our 
 attacks on this Hindoo fortress. Let one shrink from his post, 
 and another give up the thing in despair, and a third tell us that 
 as Mohammedanism has failed so Christianity will fail, yet so 
 long as our Captain’s face beams brightly on us ; so long as he 
 bids us, “ Go, possess the land,” adding the assurance of his 
 presence, daunted by no obstacle, our plain Christian common 
 sense duty is, to toil on in the strength of glorious faith. 
 
 The comparative difficulties in the Indian field are certainly 
 such as to stagger those who look not beyond the human arm, 
 and did we not rely on a power far above us, would fully justify 
 our being regarded as the most bewildered of fanatics embarking 
 on the most impracticable of schemes. In the presence of so 
 many reverend seigneurs here I feel somewhat nervous, but may 
 I be permitted to take a page from ecclesiastical history, and if 
 I should trip I am fully sure they will correct me. In the good 
 providence of God the Apostles were sent to commence their 
 
REV. W. BURGESS. 
 
 271 
 
 labours among a people specially prepared for Gospel truth ; 
 among a people whose ancient seers, Divinely taught, shot forth 
 prophecies, everyone of which found its exact fulfilment in the 
 Incarnate Word. In countries lying beyond Judea there was 
 always a synagogue of Jewish settlers on which the truth was 
 first impressed, and through which it was passed on to heathen 
 darkness. When Paul attacked the Grecian faith he found it 
 little more than a religion of exalted aesthetics, and in their 
 philosophies he encountered systems which had their origin in 
 nothing higher than human reason. He met with men who 
 oftentimes bemoaned their own ignorance, and expressed their 
 longing for the coming of the Divine Instructor. Later the 
 Divine hand has been seen in such places as the South Sea 
 Islands already referred to, and where, although persecution 
 doubtless did exist, the uniform simplicity of the people led to 
 glorious triumphs of the Cross. God has been in all this training 
 the heart of His Church; and, clothing it with noblest enthusiasm 
 in view of past triumphs, He points to such mighty fields as India 
 and China. God has wrought wondrous things among the 
 Zulus, in Australasia, and even cannibal Fiji is a mighty proof 
 of Christian power. This ought to inspire our hearts with high 
 hope, and cause them to glow touching the still more brilliant 
 triumphs in regions beyond. He points to China and India. 
 There you will find elaborate systems of faith and practices built 
 on principles that pamper every corrupt appetite and give 
 unlawful license to every froward fancy ; there you will find 
 Hindooism a mighty charnel house of every error that the inven¬ 
 tive genius of the devil ever devised ; pointing the curious to 
 schools of philosophy, where every germ of truth is burned neath 
 a mass of extraneous subtleties ; pointing the superstitious to 
 one unending round of ceremony ; prescribing for the sin weary, 
 tedious pilgrimage as happiness, and directing him to the sacred 
 stream, where his pollution may be transformed into holiness. 
 India, with all her religious systems, proud and scornful in the 
 halo of vast antiquity, and professing to rest on the basis of a body 
 of literature given under direct Divine dictation, and powerfully 
 supported by caste ; India, with its massive granite temples 
 towering brightly in their grand magnificence, and adorned with a 
 profusion of fret-work, the-outcome of ages of labor ; India, with 
 its seething millions rocking and shifting in a sea of endless doubt 
 and dread perplexity—is mine, saith the Lord, doubly mine, 
 redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. His command to you, 
 Christians of the United States and Canada, to-day is : “ Go ye up 
 and possess that land too.” Brethren, in that faith have I preached 
 
272 EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD. 
 
 the Gospel in India for more than twenty years, and I believe 
 that the Gospel of Christ is just as much the power of God 
 to-day as it was in the days of Paul. I believe that Gospel is 
 now doing for India what it did for Greece and Rome in the 
 days of early Christian efforts. Twenty years ago I stood for 
 the first time on the soil of Southern India. There were then 
 only 20,000 Protestant Christians there. The record to-day is 
 ^00,000, and if you include the whole of India and take in the 
 outlying dependencies, you have upwards of 2,000,000 recognising 
 the sway of King Jesus. I have the most unbounded fath in 
 preaching Christ to the world, for I know what Christ has done 
 for me, and that He will do the same for the sin-smitten Hindoos 
 these eyes of mine have seen. Despite the difficulties, I regard 
 the success which God has vouchsafed to the labors of our own 
 mission (and when I speak of the mission with which I am 
 connected I am speaking of all other missions, for what we have 
 done they are doing ten times better to-day) as my warrant for 
 increased effort, and I wish you to regard it as an incitement to 
 increased liberality. Let me give you one or two instances out 
 of many in my own experience in India, to show the power of the 
 Living Word. Some time since a man came to my house at 
 headquarters, and said that he had been sent as a deputation 
 from a village some distance off He told me that- the people 
 had read the books and tracts which I had left there on a previous 
 visit, had prayed about the matter, and they were prepared to 
 give up heathenism and embrace Christianity in a body. He 
 asked me to visit the people and instruct them further. You 
 may be sure I did not wait long when I heard such glorious 
 intelligence, and I made arrangements to visit the place on the 
 following day, in company with a native minister. It was about 
 thirty miles away, and we hired a bullock waggon to transport 
 us thither. The cart was drawn by two heavy bullocks, which 
 moved at the rate of about two miles an hour (I wonder how an 
 American would like that kind of rapid transit), but by means of 
 a patent kind of screw drill, and the twisting of the animals’ tails, 
 which the driver knew how to manipulate, it was possible to move 
 at the rate of about two and a half miles per hour. As the road 
 had been cut up into fissures and holes by the heavy rains, and 
 as our cart was a rough and rude contrivance, when we reached 
 the place we ached from end to end, and every bone in our 
 body was sore. The driver took out the bullocks, hoisted up the 
 cart, and we came sliding out behind. As soon as we could 
 regain equilibrium we stood on our feet and began preaching to 
 the people, but we were doomed to the most fearful disappoint- 
 
REV. W. BURGESS. 
 
 273 
 
 ment. We had been sharpening our sickles, hoping and trusting 
 that we should reap a harvest of souls, but the people seemed 
 harder than ever, and my good native brother fairly sobbed again 
 and again as we left that village, just as if his heart would break. 
 We wandered over the plain and came to a retired spot in that 
 wilderness. No eye gazed upon us save the eager, earnest look 
 of bended heaven ; no sound broke upon the stillness save the 
 heavy throb of the sobbing heart ; the winds seemed to be silent, 
 and to join every surrounding thing in bending the ear of 
 expectancy. “ Pray, Coopoo, pray ! ” said I, “ Pray, or your 
 heart will break/' Sorrow would not let him for a while, tears 
 would not let him surely for a while, but at length words came, 
 and such an outpouring of prayer for God’s blessing on the 
 people we had left I never heard before. Heaven opened, light 
 streamed therefrom, an angel sped from the sapphire throne, and 
 as the flash of gold swept past us there fell from his quivering 
 wing the message : “ My word shall not return to me void.” 
 Within six months after that remarkable prayer meeting on the 
 lone Indian plain, we had the unspeakable privilege of baptizing 
 in that and the two adjoining villages upwards of 200 in the 
 Fold of the Lord. A strange thing occurred at the baptismal 
 ceremony. The three head men of the village presented them¬ 
 selves, and everything went well until the reading of the 
 Scriptures. The congregation was a large one, and I requested 
 the native minister to baptize them. I never have baptized a 
 native when a native clergyman was present, for I have always 
 known that the time would come when it would be necessary that 
 I should be severed from India, and my desire was to teach the 
 people to look upon the native ministers as their God-given 
 leaders. When the reading of the Scriptures came on, the wife of 
 one of the candidates,—who tried to prevent her husband from 
 professing Christianity,—fell on the ground. She foamed at the 
 mouth, her eyes were fixed, her teeth clenched, her body twisted 
 and writhed like one in a fit, incoherent language came gurgling 
 from her throat, and the people said, “ The devil is speaking 
 within the woman.” One sentence we distinctly caught, and it 
 might have been prophetic, for it certainly came literally true. 
 “ If your husband becomes a. Christian I must leave your house,” 
 said the devil within the woman. The scene was indescribably 
 solemn. My native brother hesitated to proceed with the 
 ceremony. “ Go on,” said I ; “if the devil is in the house we 
 have come to drive him out of it, and out of the village, too ; 
 baptize the three in the name of the Blessed Trinity.” We did 
 so, and the devil left the house ; he actually kept his word for 
 
 s 
 
274 
 
 EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD. 
 
 once, I suppose the only recorded instance in which his satanic 
 majesty had ever tripped in this moral kind of way. 
 
 There is more than poetic fancy in this. It shows that the 
 truth lies enshrined in the lines :— 
 
 “ Jesus, the name high over all, 
 
 In hell, or earth, or sky ; 
 
 Angels and men before it fall, 
 
 And devils fear and fly.” 
 
 A few months and that devil-ridden woman stood before me, a 
 candidate to be received into the Christian Church by the rite of 
 baptism. Was it the same woman of the dishevelled hair and 
 twisting body ? It was ; but a marvellous change had been 
 wrought by the Lord. There was a play of joy on her face, 
 light beamed in her eyes. She was the first of that village 
 community that was called home, and even in her last moments 
 the devil was not permitted to come near her again. The charm 
 secured her, and she wore it on her head, and in her heart—it was 
 the name of Jesus. Another instance to show that our work has 
 not been altogether among the agriculturalists or poorer classes, 
 and that we have touched the highest grades of Indian society. 
 On one occasion there were three candidates for baptism—a 
 Brahmin, a Sudra, and a Pariah, and the town was in a great state 
 of commotion. It seemed as if a riot was pending, and the 
 police-force about the house and the church was considerably 
 augmented. When passing from my house to the church, I 
 found that the route was fairly lined by those who would gladly 
 have done me harm, had they not been restrained by a higher 
 power.—Many a curse was called down upon me that morning. 
 We were a little band of Christian workers, but we feared not, 
 feeling that the Lord of Hosts was with us. It was our usual 
 practice to have the baptismal service first and the sermon after¬ 
 wards, but as so many had assembled, it struck me that it would 
 be a pity to let them go without giving them an opportunity to 
 listen to a good plain Methodist sermon first. As soon as the 
 sermon was over, the three candidates approached the com¬ 
 munion rail. There was great excitement in the church ; it 
 appeared as if a rush were to be made and the converts torn 
 from us. We tried to show no sign of fear, but if any looked 
 lower than the face, he would find that the knees were in 
 trembling contiguity. I called upon the native minister to pray 
 —and they can pray out there too—I do not know how it would 
 be with our Montreal ministers if we got some of those grand 
 native Hindoo ministers here to pray. I am afraid they would 
 have to go to the country. I asked him to pray and he laid hold 
 
REV. W. BURGESS. 
 
 275 
 
 of the Tree of Life, and in his impassioned pleadings to God, 
 he swayed that tree to and fro until our souls were wetted with 
 the dew that fell therefrom. We rose to our feet again, and we 
 asked the three converts, in place of the usual questions—as they 
 were educated young men—to tell us how they came to Christ. 
 Two of them are graduates of the Madras University, which 
 prescribes an examination equal to the Syndic of the London 
 University. The Brahmin is a native minister now ; the Sudra 
 is a grand layman, giving a tenth, or more, to the cause of Christ; 
 and the Pariah was called upon to exchange the Cross for the 
 Crown. One after another they told us in language of the most 
 beautiful and naive simplicity how Christ’s blood washed him 
 from sin, how Christ’s words had calmed the turmoil in his breast, 
 and as testimony after testimony was given of this Spiritual 
 power in Christ, angry looks were softened and bitterness of 
 feeling began to give way to astonishment and wonder. We 
 baptized the three in the name of the Trinity. 
 
 That is the kind of work we are doing in India. Shall we 
 come home ? Shall we give up our great work in India, because 
 folk who visit the seaboard criticise it—just as they say there are 
 no tigers in India—because they never saw one ? 
 
 The district of Tanjore has been called the Garden of 
 Southern India. You would not think so if you could see it 
 about the middle of May. I remember climbing the Trichin- 
 opoly Rock, from the summit of which the flat country can be 
 seen for miles around. The month’s drought, which had 
 preceded the fiery sun, had robbed the land of beauty. The 
 ground showed sign of life nowhere, scorched, arid, hard, the 
 plains stretched their dreary, weary distance as far as the eye 
 could reach, unrelieved by any color, save here and there the 
 flaming flambo, in full flower, which seemed but to mock the 
 universal barrenness of everything. Every tank was dry, and 
 the bed of the Cauvery hard by a rock was like a sandy 
 desolate waste ; not a drop of water sparkled in the fierce sun¬ 
 light. Heat quivered in the air and quivered everywhere. I 
 climbed that rock again, when the freshets had swept down the 
 Eastern slopes of the Blue Mountains, and the Cauvery was in 
 full flood. The whole scene was changed ;—nature’s wizardy 
 had been at work. The whole was like a sea of emeralds in 
 which the distant hamlets nestled like fairy isles. Besides the 
 natural loveliness of the trees, whose foliage was already flourish¬ 
 ing beneath the benignant sunshine and rain, there were aspiring 
 creepers winding themselves up the strong stems, and covered in 
 graceful festoons with the most gorgeous flowers in wanton 
 
276 
 
 EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD. 
 
 profusion. Even the ditches were turned into beds of beauty, 
 with their banks covered beneath Calladium leaves and jungle 
 splendour, as if the teeming earth knew not what to do with the 
 wealth of all her treasures. Every tank was full, the brim 
 covered with lilies, white and red, and fringed with green turf 
 and golden osiers. Here the dark tamarind grove gives indica¬ 
 tion of the coming fulness, and huge branches sway under the 
 pressure of caressing winds. There, in greatest plenty, grows 
 the plaintain with its broad satin leaf of a lovely pale sea green. 
 Such is the picture. But we are working a far grander spiritual 
 transformation in India than any that this imagery suggests to 
 the most imaginative mind here to-night. Just now India 
 may be called the barrenest spot in all the Garden of the Lord. 
 Here and there the Tree of Life is growing luxuriantly, but over 
 the Land there is much desolation. Let but the dew from 
 Heaven fall silently, and without much outside show ; let but 
 the flood of beneficent Heaven’s richest largesse descend in 
 answer to ten thousand treasured prayers, and the desert shall 
 blossom as a rose, and for her barrenness she shall add ten¬ 
 fold to her beauty and become a choice Beulah, filled with 
 fragrance and sweet with fruit—a very Hephzibah—where God 
 and man may delight to dwell. 
 
 The service closed with the Benediction. 
 
APPENDIX I. 
 
 The following paper was prepared by Mr. A. J. Arnold, 
 Secretary of the British Evangelical Alliance and forwarded by 
 request of the British Evangelical Alliance to the Conference :— 
 
 THE DOMINION BRANCH OF THE EVANGELICAL 
 ALLIANCE: ITS NEEDS AND POSSIBILITIES. 
 
 It would have been gratifying to the writer of this paper, if 
 he had been able to accept the invitation to be present in person 
 at the important Conference now assembled in Montreal. The 
 unfortunate illness, which prevents Sir Robert Phayre fulfilling 
 his engagement, leaves the British Organization unrepresented 
 at the Conference ; and, therefore, seems to throw upon the 
 English Secretary the responsibility of committing to writing a 
 few thoughts, which there may be found an opportunity for 
 reading at the Conference. 
 
 It is always interesting to remember that the Evangelical 
 Alliance was constituted in- 1846, after much deliberation and 
 several preliminary gatherings, at which leading divines and 
 laymen, of all Evangelical Churches, took a prominent part. 
 The invitation for the first meeting was signed by the celebrated 
 Dr. Chalmers, * and others. Among those who were found 
 devoting much time and attention to the development of the 
 idea, and afterwards to the establishing of the Organization, 
 were such men as the Revs. John Angell James, Edward Bicker- 
 steth, Baptist Noel, and Dr. Jabez Bunting. The Christlike 
 spirit of those who assembled was manifested in the earnest 
 deliberations of these early meetings, when the difficulties of 
 establishing the Alliance, upon a thoroughly Evangelical basis, 
 were overcome. Nor must it ever be forgotten that the earliest 
 gatherings of the Alliance were consecrated by a devout spirit 
 of prayer, foreshadowing the blessing which was so soon to be 
 bestowed upon those assembled. One has described the meet¬ 
 ing, at which there were gathered together 1,200 leading 
 Christians from all parts of the United Kingdom, the continent of 
 Europe, and from America, as a marvellous one. The manifesta- 
 
278 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 tions of divine power impressed with awe all who were present, 
 and the Spirit’s fervid influence melted all hearts into penitence 
 and loving union. Thus was inaugurated that blessed effort to 
 exhibit the true unity of the one Church of the Living God ; 
 and it is a cause for much thankfulness that the movement has 
 developed itself as the Evangelical Alliance, with its branches 
 in all parts of the world. 
 
 The British Branch, notwithstanding innumerable difficulties 
 in its early career, has held on its way until it is able now to 
 look back upon the past forty-two years as having witnessed a 
 marvellous change as regards the fraternal spirit and intercom¬ 
 munion between members of all the Evangelical Churches. 
 From the first, the Annual Conferences, held in various cities of 
 the United Kingdom, together with periodical meetings of 
 various local branches throughout the country, afforded an 
 opportunity for Christians of all churches to meet together upon 
 a common platform ; and, for many years, the Alliance Confer¬ 
 ence was the only gathering of the kind. During recent years, 
 however, such conferences as that at Mildmay, and numerous 
 others, have grown up in our midst. 
 
 The Annual Conferences of the Alliance have not only 
 afforded an opportunity for the manifestation of Christian union 
 for its own sake, but also for the consideration of various 
 practical subjects, from time to time. Thus many enterprises 
 have been initiated, in which the co-operation of Christians 
 generally has been greatly blessed ; and several Societies for 
 definite objects have also had their origin in the Evangelical 
 Alliance. The attempt to reach the masses of the people by 
 Special Religious Services, in secular halls, and which are now 
 so common in all parts of the country, was originated and 
 carried on by the Council of the Alliance till it was taken up by 
 a committee appointed for the purpose. In various other ways 
 also, the advancement of true Evangelical religion has been 
 promoted by the Evangelical Alliance. Early in its history, 
 three or four definite objects also occupied the attention of the 
 British Branch. The subjects of Popery, Infidelity and Sabbath 
 Desecration were considered to be those in relation to which 
 Evangelical Christians are, for all practical purposes, unanimous ; 
 and the prizes given, and essays subsequently published by the 
 Evangelical Alliance upon those subjects, accomplished a vast 
 amount of good at the time. These are merely some indications 
 of the practical outcome of Christian union, as seen in the 
 subsidiary work of the Alliance. 
 
 At the formation of the Society in 1846, a series of resolutions 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 279 
 
 were adopted, which were not only commended to the practical 
 attention of all the members, but it was agreed that,at every Annual 
 Conference, these “ Practical Resolutions ” should be “ read and 
 enforced.” A well known clergyman of the Church of England, 
 who recently undertook this duty, described them as “ a magnifi¬ 
 cent model of Christian exhortation,” and the designation is not 
 an exaggerated one. They never fail to awaken deep sympathy 
 and hearty accord among Evangelical Christians ; and I would 
 venture to suggest that, at each Conference of the Dominion 
 Branch (which, I trust, may become an annual institution) this 
 series of Resolutions be brought forward and commended to the 
 earnest attention of friends of the Evangelical Alliance. 
 
 One of these Resolutions called upon the members of the 
 Alliance generally to observe the first week in each year as a 
 season for concert in prayer, and the Annual Invitation of the 
 Evangelical Alliance was a few years later (and at the suggestion 
 of the Lodiana Missionaries in India) extended to Christians 
 generally, instead of being limited to members of the Evan¬ 
 gelical Alliance. Thus the Week of Prayer has become 
 universal, not only because the programme is universal in its 
 application to the whole Church of Christ, with its multifarious 
 wants, but also because the first week in each year is now 
 observed by Christians in all parts of the world, irrespective of 
 denomination or nationality. Wherever its observance has been 
 faithfully carried out, marked blessing has, in many instances, 
 been the result. It would be interesting to follow this particular 
 work, but some idea may be formed of the high privilege, given 
 by God to the Evangelical Alliance in this matter, when it is 
 remembered that the Invitation and programme of subjects, 
 issued in the summer of each year for the following January, (and 
 in the name of the British and other Branches of the Alliance) is 
 accepted by Evangelical Christians all over the world ; and the 
 document is translated into a great number of languages. Thus 
 native Christians in every part of the mission field are enabled to 
 take an intelligent part in this world-wide concert in prayer. A 
 single instance may be given of the blessing which frequently 
 attends these united prayer meetings. A missionary, writing from 
 a town in Asiatic Turkey, where the Week of Prayer has been 
 observed regularly for many years, says : “We are experiencing 
 a great revival of religion. The meetings, in the evening 
 especially, were very large, no less than eight hundred persons 
 assembling, many of them, of course, out of curiosity, and large 
 numbers being unable to gain admission to the chapel. The 
 earnest prayers of those who had gathered together unitedly, to 
 
28 o 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 seek God’s blessing upon the Church and the world, arrested the 
 attention of those who had come out of mere curiosity ; and the 
 meetings, which were intended to last two hours, had to be 
 continued for three or four hours, night after night, the flow of 
 prayer and praise being so continuous.” The Missionary adds : 
 “ It is impossible for me adequately to describe the work that is 
 going on. All day long we are busy with enquirers, and last 
 night, at the great meeting, no less than sixty persons declared 
 for the first time their desire to follow the Lord Jesus Christ.” 
 
 There is one remarkable coincidence, which should be specially 
 remembered in this connection. The past twenty-five years has 
 witnessed remarkable progress, in regard to missions throughout 
 the world ; probably far greater progress than in any similar 
 period previously, and this same period has been the time during 
 which the Week of Prayer has been more than ever widely 
 observed. 
 
 If the Evangelical Alliance had done no other work than this 
 of combining the whole Church of Christ in a season of prayer 
 each year, it would have accomplished a great deal ; but there are 
 many other ways in which the power of Christian union has been 
 felt in the work of the Alliance. What other society, or what 
 section of the Christian Church alone, could have undertaken to 
 plead the cause of the persecuted and the oppressed for consci¬ 
 ence’ sake in many parts of the world ? Yet this has been the 
 blessed function of the Evangelical Alliance ; and its forty-two 
 years’ history shows how marvellously God has blessed its efforts. 
 In its early days there was scarcely a country on the continent 
 of Europe, where full religious liberty was enjoyed. But the 
 Alliance has witnessed great changes, till now nearly every 
 country in Europe is free for the preaching of the Gospel. In 
 Italy, some of the earliest and best efforts of the Evangelical 
 Alliance were put forth to obtain liberty for those who were 
 suffering for Christ’s sake, such as the Madai and others. In 
 Spain also, the marvellous power of united Christianity was seen 
 in the deliverance of Matamoros and his fellow-prisoners. In 
 numerous instances, in those two countries, as well as in many 
 other parts of Europe, and throughout the world, persecuted 
 Christians have had cause to bless God for the power which He 
 has given the Evangelical Alliance in pleading for religious 
 liberty. 
 
 It would not be possible, nor would it be within the scope of 
 this brief summary to enter into details in regard to this impor¬ 
 tant department of the labours of the Alliance. But one 
 instance may be mentioned as a sample. The Nestorian 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 28l 
 
 Christians, who had so long suffered persecution at the hands of 
 their fellow-subjects of the Shah of Persia, appealed to the 
 Evangelical Alliance by sending over two of their number on a 
 mission to England. Their story was heard and taken up 
 warmly by the Council in London ; and representations were 
 made to the Persian monarch upon the subject, who, after being 
 informed that the Evangelical Alliance represented Protestant 
 Christianity in all nations, and of all Evangelical Churches, 
 yielded to the request made that he should make enquiries. The 
 result was that the persecutions ceased, and the property of the 
 Nestorians was restored to them—their chapels, which had been 
 destroyed, being rebuilt out of a special fund raised for the 
 purpose. The first contributor to this fund was the Shah him¬ 
 self, who thus showed his appreciation of the action taken by 
 the Alliance in favour of some of the most peaceable and 
 law-abiding of his subjects. 
 
 It should be added that, while the past history of the Society 
 has been of vast importance and full of interest in regard to this 
 matter, there is still need for the exertions of the Alliance in the 
 same direction. In Russia, and in Turkey especially, there is 
 much which, even at the present moment, calls for intense anxiety 
 regarding liberty of conscience. There is also positive persecu¬ 
 tion in both countries, which calls for the active intervention of 
 the Evangelical Alliance. In Austria, and in Spain too, the 
 religious liberty now enjoyed is not nearly so full as we desire 
 and hope it may be some day. If we turn to more distant parts 
 of the world there comes a cry, from many places, in such words 
 as were used on one occasion by the suffering Nestorian Chris¬ 
 tians of Persia :—“ The eyes of the people are turned imploringly 
 to the Evangelical Alliance for sympathy and aid.” In the 
 South Sea Islands native Christians are now in imminent danger, 
 and an appeal is made to the Evangelical Alliance to exercise its 
 influence on their behalf. In Corea the religious liberty which 
 had been enjoyed for six years, and during which period mission 
 work had greatly prospered, has now been suddenly suspended, 
 and the missionaries are forbidden to travel about the country 
 proclaiming the Gospel of Christ. They met in Conference only 
 a few weeks ago, and formulated an appeal to the Evangelical 
 Alliance, which it is hoped the British and American Branches 
 may be able to deal with effectually. It has often been a source 
 of wonderment to worldly people that this peace-making and 
 peace-loving organization should exercise so mighty an influence 
 over the minds of Emperors and Kings. When, however, it is 
 remembered that each appeal in favour of religious liberty comes 
 
I 
 
 
 282 APPENDIX. 
 
 to a Sovereign or a Government, as the case may be, from a 
 body which speaks in the name of Evangelical Christians, not of 
 one church but of all churches, and not of one nation but of all 
 nations, we can well understand that it is felt to be expedient to 
 listen to such a voice. To God be all the praise for what has 
 been accomplished in the past, and to Him be our hopes directed 
 for the future! 
 
 In this rapid sketch it has been impossible to do more than to 
 indicate the lines upon which the Evangelical Alliance has been 
 privileged by God to labour for the whole Church of Christ. A 
 more complete statement could not fail to arouse the hearty 
 sympathy of all Evangelical Christians in the Dominion of 
 Canada, as in other countries ; but enough has been said to 
 warrant the writer of this paper in urging that Canadian Christians 
 take, in the future, a more active and definite part in the world¬ 
 wide and blessed labours of the Evangelical Alliance. 
 
 In dealing with the needs of the Evangelical Alliance of the 
 Dominion of Canada, it will be most fitting for Canadians 
 themselves to be heard first ; but it may not be unacceptable 
 that a few hints should be given by one who has had a long 
 experience in the work of the Evangelical Alliance, not only in 
 the United Kingdom, but in various other countries, and 
 especially in connection with the great CEcumenical gatherings 
 of the Alliance. 
 
 Surely the needs of Canada in regard to Christian union itself 
 are similar, if not so great as in the mother country. Is it not 
 often an occasion of reproach to the cause of Christ that His 
 followers stand before the world as disunited, rather than as 
 brethren in the same family ? The Evangelical Alliance does 
 not need to create union, for a deep and real union exists already 
 amongst all who are true disciples of the Lord Jesus ; but there 
 is need for the open manifestation of this glorious fact, that the 
 Church of the living God is one Church, never having lost, and 
 being incapable of losing, its essential unity. Not, therefore, to 
 create that unity, but to manifest it, is one of the grand objects 
 of the Evangelical Alliance. 
 
 Would it not be possible, throughout the Dominion of Canada, 
 to establish in many of its towns local branches, such as 
 those which exist in some of the principal cities already, and that 
 these local organizations should have periodical meetings for 
 united prayer and fraternal conference, as well as observe the 
 Universal Week of Prayer at the corhmencement of the year ? If 
 it is asked : How can the interest of these local meetings be kept 
 up ? I would refer to an experiment which has been found very 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 283 
 
 useful in many places, namely, inviting ministers of various 
 Evangelical Churches, by rotation, to give a summary of Christian 
 work throughout the world, taken from the pages of Evayigelical 
 Christendom , the monthly organ of the Alliance. Such a brief 
 statement will widen the sympathies and stimulate the interest 
 of those who attend the meetings. Then let those branches be 
 affiliated in one organization for the whole Dominion ; and 
 again, let the Dominion Branch of the Evangelical Alliance 
 maintain its hitherto warm attachment to the British organiza¬ 
 tion as the Parent Society, and thus be brought into line with 
 the whole of the Evangelical Alliance. In this way Canadian 
 Christians would feel that they had a share in this universal 
 brotherhood, and that their sympathy and support enabled them 
 effectively to share in the important work of defending the cause 
 of the persecuted for Christ’s sake, as well as in maintaining the 
 fundamental truths of the Gospel. It has been found possible in 
 many towns in the United Kingdom to have regular meetings of 
 the Branches of the Evangelical Alliance, thus affording not only 
 a pleasing spectacle but a most effective help to all who are 
 co-operating in the matter, and frequently the branches have 
 undertaken united Christian work, such as the preaching of the 
 Gospel by ministers of all evangelical denominations to the 
 masses of the people who are still outside the Church. Perhaps 
 something of this kind might grow out of an extension of the 
 Branches of the Alliance in Canada itself. But the writer of 
 this paper is specially anxious that Canadian Christians should 
 esteem it a privilege to have a distinct share in the greatly 
 blessed work of the Evangelical Alliance. 
 
 Would it not be well for the Conference at Montreal (having 
 a large representation from various parts of the Dominion) to 
 decide at once to have an Annual Conference (as in the case of 
 the British Alliance) in some city of Canada, selected beforehand? 
 Thus, periodically, there would be opportunity for delegates 
 from the various local organizations to meet and discuss matters 
 of common interest, and, moreover, the stimulus and help 
 inspired by such a gathering of delegates from all parts of 
 Canada could not fail to be of the utmost importance to the 
 cause of Evangelical religion throughout the Dominion. 
 
 The Council of the British Organization send their most cordial 
 and affectionate greetings to the brethren assembled in Montreal, 
 and assure them of their earnest prayers that the richest blessings 
 of God Almighty, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the 
 fellowship of the Holy Spirit may be abundantly realized by all 
 present. 
 
APPENDIX II. 
 
 In harmony with the instructions of the Alliance (see page 
 244), the following Petition has been forwarded to the Governor- 
 General in Council:— 
 
 PETITION 
 
 , To His Excellency the Right Honorable 
 Frederick A. Stanley, Baron Stanley of 
 Preston, G.C.B., Governor-General of the Do¬ 
 minion of Canada, 
 
 in Council. 
 
 The Petition of the undersigned humbly sheweth : 
 
 That whereas, at a meeting of the Evangelical 
 Alliance for the Dominion of Canada, held in 
 the City of Montreal in the month of October, in the 
 year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and 
 eighty-eight, certain matters touching the interests of 
 the several Protestant Churches were taken into 
 serious consideration, among which was “ The Act 
 RESPECTING THE JESUITS’ ESTATES,” passed by the 
 Legislature of the Province of Quebec, and assented 
 to on the 12th of July, 1888,—now lying before your 
 Excellency in Council for consideration ; 
 
 Address to And whereas, “the Estates of that [the Jesuit] 
 
 the House^lfAssembiy Order were originally granted by the King of France 
 l.c., a.d. 1800 . f or the purpose of educating the natives of the 
 
 Address to the King country,” and the Jesuits “were merely depositaries 
 from the same, m a.d. f or p Ur p Q ses of the education of the youth 
 
 of the Province ;” 
 
 And WHEREAS, the Order of the Jesuits was sup¬ 
 pressed in France in 1761, and its property taken by 
 the King for the purposes of education ; 
 
 And WHEREAS, the Royal instructions to the 
 Governor-General of Canada in 1774 directed “that 
 the Society of the Jesuits should be suppressed and 
 dissolved, and no longer continue a Body corporate 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 285 
 
 and politic, and that all their rights, privileges, and 
 property should be vested in the Crown 
 
 And whereas, the House of Assembly for the 
 Province of Quebec repeatedly petitioned the King In l8oo > lSl2 - l825> 
 or his Representative that the said Estates might be 
 devoted “ according to their primitive destination, for Petition of 1825. 
 the education of the youth of this country,” and be 
 placed at the disposal of the Legislature for that 
 purpose ; 
 
 And whereas, on the yth of July, 1831, Lord 
 Goderich, then Secretary for the Colonies to King 
 William IV., addressed a despatch to His Majesty’s 
 Representative in Quebec, in which he stated that 
 “ the Jesuits’ Estates were, on the dissolution of that 
 Order, appropriated to the education of the people,” 
 and further, “ that the revenue which might result 
 from that property should be regarded as inviolably 
 and exclusively applicable to the object,” and more- Appendix to 
 over, “ that the King, cheerfully and without reserve, Assembly—L.C. 1824, 
 confided the duty of the application of those funds' 0 ' 33 ' 
 for the purposes of education to the Provincial 
 Legislature 
 
 And whereas, the disposal of the said Estates p 
 
 1 , r . ’ . A . 1111^ • Statutes of Quebec, 
 
 has been from time to time impeded by the energetic i 888 .pp-43. 44 . 
 representations ” of the authorities of the Roman 
 Catholic Church asserting a claim to their “ owner¬ 
 ship 
 
 And whereas, the Government of the Province 
 of Quebec, in the negotiations with the Representative i8l?p u % s . ofQuebec ’ 
 of the present Order of the Jesuits in the Province of 
 Quebec, forming the basis of the Jesuits’ Estates Act 
 of 1888, expressly declared “ it did not recognize any 
 civil obligation, but merely a moral obligation, in 
 this respect ;” and proceeded to treat on the amount 
 and terms of “a compensation in money,” on condition 
 of receiving a full renunciation of all further claims on 
 the said Estates ; 
 
 And whereas, by the said Jesuits’ Estates Act of 
 1888, the Lieutenant-Governor in Council is authorized 
 to pay the sum of four hundred thousand dollars 
 “ out of any public money at his disposal,” for the 
 purpose of such compensation, “ to remain as a special 
 deposit until the Pope has ratified the said settle- i8§? t £ t ^ Quebec ’ 
 
286 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Cardinal Simeoni, 
 Statutes of Quebec, 
 1888, p. 47. 
 
 Statutes of Quebec 
 1887, p. 66. 
 
 ment, and made known his wishes respecting the 
 distribution of such amount in this country 
 
 And whereas, the said Jesuits’ Estates Act recog¬ 
 nises powers in the Holy See that are perilous to the 
 supremacy of the Queen, in thus requiring its consent 
 to legislation within her dominions, and the application 
 of public funds, and in accepting such terms as—“The 
 Pope allows the Government to retain the proceeds 
 of the sale of the Jesuits’ Estates as a special deposit 
 to be disposed of with the sanction of the Holy See 
 And WHEREAS, your petitioners contend that not 
 even a “ moral obligation ” exists to make “ compen¬ 
 sation” for property duly and lawfully taken by the 
 Crown, to the extinction of all “civil obligation 
 
 And WHEREAS, from the whole tenor of the nego¬ 
 tiations on this matter, it is to be surely expected that 
 the Holy See will apportion at least a large share of 
 the afore-mentioned $400,000 to the Order of the 
 Jesuits, which does not represent the Roman Catholic 
 , Church or population of Quebec as a whole, but itself 
 alone, and is confined by law to two Archdioceses 
 and one Diocese ; 
 
 And whereas, no stipulation is made that the 
 said $400,000 shall be devoted to Public Education, 
 or any account be rendered to the Government of the 
 use made of such public money ; 
 
 And WHEREAS, any further proceeds of the sale of 
 the Jesuits’ Estates are not secured for the purposes 
 of education, but passed into the general revenue of 
 the Province ; 
 
 And WHEREAS, finally, the appropriation in the 
 said Jesuits’ Estates Act, of the sum of sixty thousand 
 dollars, to be invested by the Protestant Committee 
 of the Council of Public Instruction for the benefit of 
 Protestant Institutions of superior education, though 
 urgently needed and justly due, though unlike the 
 $400,000 available for the entire population of one 
 class alike,—and though, by contrast again, to be 
 administered under public accountability,—is liable, 
 nevertheless, to be interpreted as making the Protes¬ 
 tant community consenting and approving parties to 
 that appropriation of the $400,000, to which the grave 
 objections above recited have to be made ; 
 
 THEREFORE, that your Petitioners, being duly 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 287 
 
 authorized on this behalf by the aforesaid EVAN¬ 
 GELICAL Alliance, do enter their solemn PROTEST 
 against the Act in question being carried into effect, 
 And HUMBLY PRAY that it may be DISALLOWED 
 by your Excellency in Council, as provided by the 
 British North America Act of 1867. 
 
 Signed on behalf of the 
 
 Evangelical Alliance of the Dominion 
 
 of Canada, 
 
 JOHN MACDONALD, 
 
 President. 
 
 WILLIAM JACKSON, 
 
 Secretary. 
 
 January 10th, 1889. 
 

INDEX 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Abstinence, total. ioi 
 
 African incident. 50 
 
 Aggression, time for. 15 
 
 Promotes prosperity.241 
 
 Age, characteristics of this. 29 
 
 Alford, Dean, on unity. 5 
 
 Antliff, Rev. Dr., remarks..51, 139 
 
 Antonelli, Cardinal. 174 
 
 Armies, cost of. 105 
 
 Arnold, A. J., paper. 277 
 
 Matthew .37, 57 
 
 Athenian Mountebank .. 43 
 
 “Asia, light of”. 250 
 
 Barbour, Rev. Dr., address. 112 
 
 Barker, Joseph. 51 
 
 Beaconsfield, Lord. 24 
 
 Bianconi. 92 
 
 Bible, candor of.. 45 
 
 Distribution of. 136 
 
 On masters and servants. 69 
 
 Ordered by Congress. 197 
 
 Whole in schools. 187 
 
 “ Book of Martyrs ”._... 139 
 
 Bois du Abbe. 27,0 
 
 Boston public schools.177 
 
 Brahma Somajh. 19 
 
 Brotherhood of man .55, 88 
 
 Brownson, Dr. 157 
 
 Bull-fighting in England. 85 
 
 Burgess, Rev. W., address. 268 
 
 Burns, Rev. Dr., remarks. 137 
 
 Response. 6 
 
 Communion address.145 
 
 Burwash, Chancellor, paper.... 27 
 
 Experience of. 36 
 
 Business Session of Alliance.... 211 
 Canaanites, extermination of... 109 
 
 Canada and United States, 
 
 Friends.. 13 
 
 Advantages of. 199 
 
 One in many respects. 14 
 
 Carlyle, Thos.63-64 
 
 Catholic Review.156-157 
 
 Catholic Dictionary on Educa¬ 
 tion . 172 
 
 Caste . .20, 269 
 
 Chair of missions. 262 
 
 Character, all important ....75, 77 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Charity, spurious. 7 
 
 China, Jesuit missionaries in.... 259 
 
 Inland mission. 259 
 
 Chinese immigration. 105 
 
 Stagnation. 218 
 
 Chiniquy, Father. 137 
 
 Christ, to be preached. 39 
 
 Our watchword. 195 
 
 Divinity of. 48 
 
 Wanted by world . 47 
 
 And wrongs. 75 
 
 “Christian Endeavor Societies” 227 
 Christianity and industry... .56, 83 
 
 Growing . 49 
 
 And slavery. 60 
 
 Church work.. 15 
 
 And world.214 
 
 And temperance. 103 
 
 Romish conception of . 189 
 
 A camp. 229 
 
 And outside societies. 230 
 
 Is missionary. 246 
 
 Churchism, broad. 50 
 
 Churchill, Lord R. 170 
 
 Clergy, celibacy of. 190 
 
 Conference, objects of this .... 4 
 
 Committee on resolutions. 187 
 
 Compensation, law of. 68 
 
 Communion Service. 145 
 
 Communism.161, 258 
 
 Competition, church . 220 
 
 Constantine. 202 
 
 Conscience, untrained . 265 
 
 Congestion of churches. 221 
 
 Convents, Protestants in. 140 
 
 Conversazione. 24 
 
 Co-operation, business . .62, 80, 242 
 
 Characteristic of age.219, 242 
 
 Co-operation in Christian 
 
 Work demanded . 260 
 
 Denominationalism no hindrance 229 
 
 Difficulties of. 214 
 
 Developes forces .223 
 
 Benefits of. 243 
 
 Why needed. 231 
 
 Scheme for.. 234 
 
 Necessity of.218, 220, 225 
 
 Economizes forces. 222 
 
 T 
 
290 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Co-operation in Christian 
 
 Work, 
 
 Success in Pittsburg. 224 
 
 Buffalo.239 
 
 “ Rochester.239 
 
 “ Oswego.239 
 
 Spheres for.242 
 
 Corrigan, Archbishop. 157 
 
 “ Counsels of Perfection v .. 191 
 
 Cruchet, Rev. A. B.116, 117 
 
 Crothers, Rev. W. J.245 
 
 Cullen, Cardinal. 194 
 
 Dakota’s need of churches. 223 
 
 Dangers, should unite.225 
 
 Dawson, Sir W., address. 2 
 
 Decalogue, permanency of.... 89 
 
 Democracy. 62,66 
 
 Divisions, Protestant. 200 
 
 Differences, not discord. 224 
 
 Dodge, W. E., Esq., response... 13 
 
 Doctrines, common. 180 
 
 Dollinger. 219 
 
 Doubt, spirit of . 27 
 
 Duff, Dr. 260 
 
 Duties, small. 70 
 
 Dynamics of Christianity. 259 
 
 Ecumenical Council . 194 
 
 Education, true. 179 
 
 And Romanism . .120, 172, 175, 183 
 
 Christian. 181 
 
 And State.177, 192 
 
 Edwards’, M. C., poem.215 
 
 “ Elsmere, Robert ”.9, 38 
 
 Eliot, George .. 38 
 
 Employers and employed. 67 
 
 Ethnic religions. 250 
 
 Equal rights . 193 
 
 Evans, Ven. Archdeacon, address 84 
 
 European military waste. m 
 
 Evidence Christian Society .... 52 
 
 Evidences, training in . 52 
 
 Exemptions, abolition of. 193 
 
 Evangelistic work needed.. 142, 193 
 Evangelical Alliance 
 
 (Dominion), objects of .206 
 
 Benefits of .207 
 
 Foe to persecution. 208 
 
 An educator.209 
 
 Needs of.210 
 
 Business session of.211 
 
 Constitution of.211 
 
 Doctrinal basis of.211 
 
 Officers of. 211 
 
 Evangelical Alliance 
 
 (Parent Society) history of. .9, 277 
 
 Effects of. 278 
 
 Friend of persecuted. 280 
 
 “Evangelical Christendom ” .. 283 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Faith, stronger needed . 35 
 
 Fallows, Bishop, address. 99 
 
 Falsehoods, society. 73 
 
 Ferrier, Hon. Jas. 199 
 
 Five, number in Scriptures. 91 
 
 Forces, Christian. 228 
 
 Franciscans in East. 249 
 
 Garfield. 171 
 
 Geography and missions. 250 
 
 German unity. 218 
 
 Gladden, Dr., paper . 56 
 
 Gladstone.40, 155 
 
 Gilmour, Bishop . 177 
 
 Giving, systematic. 262 
 
 Godin, Jean and workpeople.. .64, 65 
 Godliness, profitable .. .76, 241, 266 
 
 Grant, General. 102 
 
 Greetings from United States.. 13 
 
 Greg, W. E. 38 
 
 Guizot on Jesuits. 169 
 
 Guthrie, Dr.227, 257 
 
 Hague, Rev. D., remarks. 46 
 
 Hague, Geo., Esq., address .... 74 
 
 Hall, Rev. Dr., remarks. 49 
 
 Address. 84 
 
 Hall, Robert. 184 
 
 Hawaiian experts. 249 
 
 Heathen, increasing.245 
 
 Heretics, how to be treated.. 113-114 
 
 Heroism of missionaries. 251 
 
 Heart, source of unbelief. 51 
 
 Hindoos, religiousness of.269 
 
 Power in prayer. 274 
 
 Hole, Rev. Dr., remarks. 49 
 
 Addresses..53, 202 
 
 Home Evangelization. 263 
 
 Household religion. 136 
 
 Hoyt, Mr. 107 
 
 Hugo,V ictor. 168 
 
 “ Huntingdon Gleaner ”. 165 
 
 Ignorance.240, 264 
 
 Immigration, causes of.104, 106 
 
 Chinese. 105 
 
 Promiscuous.109-110 
 
 Immigrants, trades of. 107 
 
 Many undesirable .107,233 
 
 Moral status of. 108 
 
 In North-West. 110 
 
 India, baptisms in.273, 275 
 
 Caste.20, 269 
 
 Decay of Hindooism. 22 
 
 Fatalism of. 19 
 
 Jesuits failed in. 270 
 
 Movement new in. 22 
 
 Mahommedanism in. 268 
 
 Population of. 19 
 
 Redeemed. 271 
 
 Religiousness of people.269 
 
INDEX. 
 
 29I 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 India, Religious systems. 21 
 
 Success of Gospel in. .21, 23, 24, 272 
 
 Wealth of. 18 
 
 Individuality crushed by Rome 218 
 
 Indigenous churches.259 
 
 Intemperance, foe to nation ... 99 
 
 Described.100, 101 
 
 Heredity favors. 101 
 
 Student ruined by. .... IOI 
 
 Jackson, Rev. Dr., address. 131 
 
 Jackson, Rev. Wm., paper. 205 
 
 Jessup, Dr.248 
 
 Jerome, St. 5 
 
 Jesuits (also see Romanism), 
 
 Aggressive. 124 
 
 Aim of. 154 
 
 Condemned in France. 154 
 
 Education and Government. 153, 154 
 
 Estates Act condemned . 140 
 
 Petition against Act.284 
 
 Resolutions re . 244 
 
 Presbytery of Montreal and.... 123 
 
 Failed in India. 270 
 
 History of, in Canada. 121 
 
 How to meet.126, 141 
 
 Incorporation Act. 122 
 
 Methods of. 125, 154 
 
 Opposition to common schools.. 154 
 
 Palmerston on. 160 
 
 Press controlled by. 142 
 
 Results of teaching.156 
 
 Restored by Leo XIII... 158 
 
 Teachings on Protestanism , ... 156 
 
 Teachings on morality.158, 159 
 
 Jolliffe, Rev. W.J. 112 
 
 Judson, Adoniram. 251 
 
 Julian, apostate. 202 
 
 Keble. 4 
 
 Kerosene oil in Syria.248 
 
 Kellogg, Rev. Dr.251 
 
 King, Rev. Dr., remarks . 141 
 
 Paper. 152 
 
 Labor organizations.61, 78 
 
 Laborers necessary. 68 
 
 Ladies’ colleges . 138 
 
 Lafayette. 153 
 
 Lafleur, Rev. T., address. 148 
 
 Land, common property. 162 
 
 Laprairie Common. 165 
 
 Lapsed members.232 
 
 Lathern, Rev. Dr., address_ 194 
 
 Laveleye, de, E. 163 
 
 Liberality, spurious. 10 
 
 Life, power of holy. 47 
 
 Spiritual needed. 48 
 
 Liguori.152, 160, 161, 162 
 
 Livingstone. 251 
 
 Lotteries. 118 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Love, essential. 267 
 
 Luther..47, 153, 176, 191, 195, 203 
 
 Luxuries, waste by. 78 
 
 Macaulay on Romanism. 162 
 
 Macdonald, Hon. John, 
 
 Addresses.67, 245 
 
 214 
 18 
 
 Macdonald, Judge, address 
 Mackay, Joseph .. 
 
 Mackenzie, James .119 
 
 Macleod’s “Economics”. 62 
 
 Macpherson, Rev. Dr., address.. 246 
 Macrae, Rev. Dr., address .... 25 
 
 MacVicar, Rev. Principal, paper 113 
 
 M AHOMMEDANISM.268-269-270 
 
 “ Mail,” Toronto. 166 
 
 Marling, Rev. F. H. i 
 
 “ Marmion ”. 127 
 
 Martyn, H.251 
 
 Matter, study of. 30 
 
 Masters, duties of.71, 81 
 
 Matthew, St., xvi., 17. 194 
 
 Max Muller.250, 258 
 
 Mercier, Hon. Mr.166-167 
 
 Memorial re Jesuits. 123 
 
 Mishna and Sabbath. 94 
 
 Militarism in Europe. 106 
 
 Milligan, Rev. G. M., address.. 189 
 
 Missions, benefits of.246-247 
 
 Commercial value of. 247 
 
 Intellectual value of. 249 
 
 Moral and religious value of.... 251 
 
 Promote unity . 254 
 
 Claims of .262 
 
 Medical.261 
 
 Mismanagement of . 21 
 
 End of church.256 
 
 Providence in.257 
 
 Home and foreign allied.257 
 
 Neglect of, perilous.258 
 
 Modak, V. A. 186 
 
 Montaigne. 45 
 
 Montreal, Protestantism ... 113, 119 
 
 Conference (1874). 11, 205 
 
 Moody on abstinence. 101 
 
 Morden, Rev. H. 248 
 
 Morality and Christianity. 42 
 
 Moxon, Rev. Dr., address. 172 
 
 Nelson at Trafalgar. 8 
 
 Nestorians ..281 
 
 Nineveh Calendar. 89 
 
 Nulty, Bishop.162 
 
 Obelisk, inscription. 12 
 
 Oxford martyrs... 199 
 
 Palmerston, Lord. 160 
 
 “ Pans,” the three . 11 
 
 Partnerships in business ... .61, 63 
 
 Patton, Mr. J., remarks.134 
 
 Penitentiary, statistics. 108 
 
292 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Persia, Shah oL.281 
 
 Phayre, Sir Robert.r, 277 
 
 Pittsburg, experiment. 224 
 
 Plato . 8 
 
 Poem, “ Christ and world”. 215 
 
 Pope, temporal power gone. 143 
 
 Population, classification of.... 264 
 
 Europe of . 106 
 
 Outside church. 231 
 
 Potts, Rev. Dr., remarks. 48 
 
 Communion address. 146 
 
 Address.240 
 
 “Pray, Coopoo, pray!” .272 
 
 Prayer, Week of. 279 
 
 Profit sharing .62, 63, 80 
 
 Protestant, glorious name .... 188 
 
 Platform. 171 
 
 Reformation. 176 
 
 Punshon, Rev. Dr. 253 
 
 Quebec, Romanism in. 
 
 114, 116, 119, 124, 142 
 
 Raffles condemned. 214 
 
 Receiving and giving.255 
 
 Reformation, The, a reaction.. 218 
 Resolutions re Jesuits’ Estate Act 244 
 
 Committee. 187 
 
 Restlessness of this age. 44 
 
 Revolution of 1688. n 
 
 Rivalry in church building.211 
 
 Romanism (also see Jesuits). 
 
 Aggressiveness of. 126 
 
 Attitude of.113 
 
 Anti-social. 192 
 
 Bad influence of. 162 
 
 Becoming more liberal. 134 
 
 Books on. 139 
 
 Communism and. 161 
 
 Contrasted with Protestantism.. 190 
 
 Cure for.192 
 
 Crushes individuality. 218 
 
 Christianity not. 129 
 
 Duty towards. 130 
 
 Education and. 120,172 
 
 How to be treated. 133, 136, 137,141 
 
 Income and wealth of.115, 117 
 
 Inimical to education. .129, 157, 175 
 
 Inimical to freedom. 161 
 
 Influence through schools .... 128 
 
 Injures citizenship. 192 
 
 Intolerant... 151 
 
 Methods of raising money .... 118 
 Publishes no financial statements 116 
 
 Produces poverty . 119 
 
 Political influence of..... 127 
 
 Politics, party assist. 131 
 
 Press, secular and.128, 163 
 
 Statistics of, in Quebec. 120 
 
 England.160 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Romanism (also see Jesuits). 
 
 Statistics of, in U. States . .161, 159 
 
 Status in Quebec . 114 
 
 Social influence of. 128 
 
 Separate schools and. 132 
 
 Subordination, keyword of .... 186 
 
 Unchanged.203 
 
 Wrongs Protestants.120-121 
 
 Robertson, Rev. Dr., address .. 104 
 
 Russell, Rev. Dr., paper.227 
 
 Russell, General. 17 
 
 Russian Count, story of. 267 
 
 Ryerson, Rev. Dr.200 
 
 Ryckman, Rev. Dr., address_ 126 
 
 Sabbath, antiquity of. 88 
 
 Desecration of.85, 97 
 
 Enemies of .86, 87 
 
 Keeping, reasonable... .. 86 
 
 Kept by Jesus. 95 
 
 Mishna on. 94 
 
 Needful for body. 92 
 
 Needful for animals. 92 
 
 Not gloomy. 93 
 
 Resurrection of Christ and .... 90 
 
 Reminds of eternal things. 86 
 
 Why day changed. 91 
 
 Salisbury, Lord. 171 
 
 Salvation Army . 259 
 
 What ? .243 
 
 Saunders, Rev. Dr., address ... 179 
 
 Sceptical theories. 140 
 
 Scriptures, our standard. 196 
 
 Sects, need one another..224 
 
 Secularism. 32 
 
 Secularists, number of. 33 
 
 Selfishness and church. 247 
 
 Sensualism . 43 
 
 Servants, value of good. 70 
 
 Separate schools. 132 
 
 Seven, number. 88 
 
 Shaw, Rev. Dr., address. 3 
 
 Shelley. 37 
 
 Sheraton, Rev. Principal, paper 243 
 Sims, Rev. Chancellor, address .. 263 
 
 Sin and suffering.266 
 
 Spain, condition of .143, 157 
 
 Spanish Armada. 11 
 
 Spencer, Herbert . .... 45 
 
 South Sea Islands. 269 
 
 Stanley, Henry. 247 
 
 Statue of virgin. 112 
 
 State and education.177, 192 
 
 Stobo, Rev. E. J., remarks. 135 
 
 Strong, Rev. Dr., paper. 218 
 
 Social differences.265 
 
 Supineness is sin. 9 
 
 Sympathy needed .266 
 
 Syllabus intolerant. 149 
 
INDEX. 
 
 293 
 
 Tableaux condemned . 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Taylor’s Canon, figures .. . 
 
 ... 268 
 
 Tennyson . 
 
 
 Texas, need of churches. .. . 
 
 .. . 223 
 
 Thomas, St., on heretics . ... 
 
 
 Thomas, Rev. Prof., address . 
 
 .. 42 
 
 Tolstoi, Count. 
 
 ... 266 
 
 Torrance, Rev. Dr. 
 
 
 Traditional Beliefs ....... 
 
 
 Unbelief, Current— 
 
 
 Characteristics of. 
 
 
 Nature of . 
 
 ... 27 
 
 Practical .. 
 
 
 Philosophical . 
 
 ••• 33 
 
 How to meet . 
 
 •• 35 , 39 
 
 Shifting . 
 
 • •• 37 
 
 Negative . 
 
 ... 38 
 
 Melancholy . 
 
 ... 38 
 
 Ethical . 
 
 .. 38 
 
 Hopeful element in . 
 
 • •• 44 
 
 Greek philosophy and . 
 
 ... 49 
 
 “ Under which Sovereign ” . 
 
 ... 135 
 
 Uniformity, not unity . 
 
 
 Unity in Christ . 
 
 
 Union, spirit of, in Canada .. 
 
 ... 5 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Union promoted by Evangelical 
 
 Alliance. 207 
 
 Ussher, Bishop.1, 145 
 
 Van Dyke, Rev. Dr., address... 37 
 
 “ Virgin’s kiss ”.203 
 
 Visitation, systematic. 16 
 
 Wage system, temporary. 60 
 
 Warfare of saints. 7 
 
 Wardrope, Rev. Dr., remarks.. 48 
 
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