every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."

It is our measure of obedience to that word, faulty and broken as it is, which has given us leadership, attracted other peoples to us, and helped us to absorb them into our life, so that they and we are co-operating in securing the final and universal triumph of these Divine ideas of national well-being.

It follows, then, at once that we owe to the colonies all the aid we can give in the promotion of the religion which secures for these ideas the fullest and widest sway. It is on religion-the religion of the New Testamentour colonising future depends more than on anything else. Heine asks: "Why do the British gain foothold in so many lands? With them they bring the Bible, that grand democracy wherein each man shall not only be king in his own house, but also bishop. They are demanding, they are founding, the great kingdom of the Spirit, the kingdom of religious emotions, and the love of humanity, of purity, of true morality, which cannot be taught by dogmatic formulas, but by parable and example, such as are contained in that beautiful, sacred, educational book for young and old, the Bible."

Hegel said, in 1820: "The material existence of England is based on commerce and industry, and the English have undertaken the weighty responsibility of being the missionaries of

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civilisation to the world; for their commercial spirit urges them to traverse every sea and land, to form connections with barbarous peoples, to create wants and stimulate industry, and, first and foremost, to establish among them the conditions necessary to commerceviz., the relinquishment of lawless violence, respect for property, and civility to strangers."

Professor Bryce, speaking of South Africa, which seethes with problems, says: "The Gospel and the mission schools are at present the most truly civilising influences which work upon the natives, and upon these influences more than on any other agency does the progress of the coloured race depend."

But it is of primary importance that the religion we take to the Colonies should be that type of Christianity which has proved itself the friend of liberty of conscience, the promoter of love of truth and justice; the spring of Divine compassion, and the creator of manly independence. Spain is a Christian country in name: she glories in the Cross, and has carried it into many lands, but she has murdered more persons beneath it than any other people. A Christianity that fosters tyranny and starvation, cruelty and massacre, is a libel on the Christian name, and an offence to God and men, and cannot be the typical colonising religion. A religion that is aristocratic, clerical, and sacerdotal is not in keeping with the principles of

national well-being.

It is divisive and antisocial, refuses equality of opportunity, restricts liberty, and withers, where it does not destroy, fraternity. It does not trust the people. It is out of accord with what Dr. Creighton, the Bishop of London, describes as "this stubborn desire to manage its own affairs in its own way, without any interference from outside, which is the bottom element in the English national character and explains most of its peculiarities." No, we need a Gospel that has not a crucifix, but Christ Himself, once crucified for men, but risen and living, and leading the life of the world; a simple, strong, man-redeeming Gospel, uttered by a Church broad in its sympathies, keen in its use of reason, ever insistent on righteousness and love, blending order and liberty, truth and tenderness-in a word, a Gospel and a Church as understood and interpreted by this Society.

It

Help this Society. It is doing good and necessary work. To that I can witness. has more work to do. Sustain it, so that you may help the Old Country to discharge its obligations to the New, and thereby assist Greater Britain in fulfilling her mission to the world.

THE ANGLO-AMERICAN ALLIANCE.

I WISH to speak upon the Anglo-American Alliance. The subject is of the widest interest and of the first importance. There is no brighter omen for the dawning of the twentieth century, and I may add, for all the centuries that are to follow, than the uprising and extending strength of the desire of the two great peoples of England and America for more cordial fellowship and hearty co-operation in the service of mankind. The mere existence of such a desire is of itself good news for all people. It is the pledge of the continuance of the highest types of human progress, and a sign of the advancement of the Kingdom of God upon the earth.

For this desire is as extended as it is beneficent. As to England, I can speak with the authority of a lengthened and intimate acquaintance, and I simply bear witness that the desire for this alliance is not so much passively cherished as it is passionately and eagerly felt. The Churches feel it and feed it; ministers expound it and urge it; aristocrats have come into line with the middle and the lower classes, so that there beats one great pulse of eagerness

for the further consolidation of these two peoples. The Liberals, who, by the inheritance of ancient traditions, have been sympathetic with the closer union between England and America, find themselves in fellowship with the Tories, and the Tories are not a whit behind the Liberals in their eagerness for this result. From end to end of our country, this unquestionably is the one dominating emotion; and although I cannot speak with the same authority concerning New England, the District of Columbia, Pennsylvania, and New York, having been simply a flying visitor in those districts, nevertheless, from the newspapers I have read, from the conversations I have been permitted to engage in, I judge that there, as well as here, there is the same eager and passionate enthusiasm on behalf of this great cause. Scarcely a dissentient voice have I heard there or here; and that voice when heard has come from one who carries the memories of cruel wrongs inflicted upon him in the name of British authority; and therefore is to be kindly and even forgivingly heard.

It must also be remembered that this desire is no Jonah's gourd springing up in a night, arresting everybody's attention by the rapidity and luxuriousness of its growth, and then becoming an offence the next morning to the observer. No, this desire for alliance has grown slowly and surely. Some of us have