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 ecclesiastical systems, if such attachment be a matter of intelligent conviction. 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 importance 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, Christian 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 day,

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 command 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 looking 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

venerable Apostle John, to be carried through our assembly, saying, "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 sumus 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 denominational 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 Christendom. 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

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 assumptions 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

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 bloodsprinkled Banner we have enlisted. He has not sent us this warfare on our own charges. He has given us the requisite accoutrements. 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 it were 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

words of our modern Sanballats and Tobiahs,-" Come down 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 detachments 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.