Moses and Paul were sent to the desert to learn humility and the way of the Lord more perfectly by direct revelation, but when God wanted to build a nation, he chose a land of great possibilities and special opportunities through, which he could bless the nations round about. Such is western Canada, for one of high authority said, "It is a land of magnificent distances and unlimited possibilities; the soil is as fertile as the valley of the Mississippi and the sands as golden as Eden." The great deserts have no attractions for men seeking a home nor for missionary societies seeking the advancement of the kingdom. Jesus Christ said, "Where the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together." Where the land of great opportunity is found, the other nations wend their way. Such is that western Canada of ours.

      No other country in all the world commands so much of the attention of the nations. The productive soil, the wealth-producing hills and mountains rich in minerals, the extensive forests, [223] challenge the graphic power of reporters and strain the imagination of the real-estate agent to the point of breaking. Here the poor become rich and the rich more wealthy; the ignorant may become learned, and the learned more cultured, and the cultured more refined.

      And if the material outlook is hopeful and full of promise, the spiritual is even more so, and our responsibilities proportionately greater. The nations of earth are brought to our very doors by the thousands. Torn from their religious moorings in the home land, they are open to investigation, and so become more susceptible to the truth, religious as well as on other lines. Our religious neighbors are keenly alive to the situation and are making heroic

J. A. L. ROMIG.

efforts to provide for their people as they come from everywhere. The Catholics, realizing the importance of caring for their people, after housing their members wherever sufficient numbers justify, are arranging to send out cars on the various lines of railroad in which the priests are to conduct services and hold their people in line. The denominations are pouring in money by the fifty and sixty thousand dollars each annually, and are calling on their people for a hundred thousand dollars for the current year.

      The opportunities are there. In the larger cities the denominations are strong and growing rapidly. They have built great houses of worship that have cost from forty to sixty and on up to a hundred thousand dollars. Their equipment is modern and up to date. They build for the future, having faith in their people, God and the country. They often go heavily in debt for these buildings, but they have a magnificent church with the best music and the finest singers to be had. They have moved out on a large scale that corresponds with the country to win the people, and when the people come they go with them, not only their own, but those who have been Disciples in the Eastern provinces and the United States as well.

      Brethren, I want to say to you that if we win the people of the larger cities, we must start out on a basis that will be equal to those of our religious neighbors if we want to command the respect of the community.

      We need money in the cities and in the smaller towns. Where we have had sufficient funds to operate, the gospel was preached and the people have had the best buildings, not only in the town, but in the district. What we have done in the smaller towns can be done in every town and city where we have sufficient funds to operate on a basis that will inspire confidence sufficient to secure us a hearing and future promise of permanent success.

      The people in western Canada, as in no other place that I have ever visited, are tired of sectarianism and long for the pure word of God as it was first delivered to the saints, and in the absence of it do the best they can and make the most of what they get; but when they hear us and see the contrast, they cry for more and plead with us to come to their aid with a gospel that will save men and transform lives to the image and the glory of God.

      Just a word about Christian union. No place on the footstool of God that I know of is so open to the gospel of Christ and the appeal of our Saviour for the unity of his disciples and his followers. The people are hungry for it. We could have Christian union from Port Arthur to Vancouver in a single year if you would leave it to the people; if you got rid of the preachers and some of the leaders. The people want it. The people see the importance of it. They are sick and tired of building four churches, one on each corner of the square, and going at a rate that is certainly deplorable, because of the sectarian spirit, the strife and jealousy that is manifested in the smaller towns of that country.

      In conclusion, we are building an empire that is greater than any communion or any denomination. Shall we do our part in laying broad and deep the foundations of a nation whose God [224] is the Lord, one that escheweth evil, doeth good and worketh righteousness forever? It is our privilege so to do, and the measure of our ability is the measure of our responsibility to God. With Christian America to the south of us and Captain Bernier with the Union Jack on the islands and Dr. Cook and Commander Peary to the north of us, we covet for Jesus Christ all that lies between. All authority hath been given unto him.

[CCR 223-225]