sistently, and often are most noxious, where once has been, but now has ceased, careful cultivation. If He who "keepeth Israel neither neither slumbers nor sleeps," how eternally vigilent should be those who are set as watchmen over fold and field, over church and community.

In existing conditions, there is nothing to discourage, least of all to dismay, us. Our fathers experienced, we are going through, our children will encounter, religious and moral and social crises. The gospel creates an everlasting crisis, and solves it. With the advent of the day of stress, will come the Spirit of Divine Power. The Master lived on earth not to approve but to improve; He came not to bring peace, but a sword. He is both the cause of social desire and unrest, and its consummation and its cure. The Church could not, therefore, do other than to hold fast to "the faith once delivered to the saints," and to preach it with clearness, and courage, and constancy; to continue to be the uncompromising champion of that which alone "exalteth a nation"; and to "cry aloud and spare not," until there shall be adopted, and put into successful operation, in every land, every moral and social reform which shall make life better and more endurable, surely world-motives, with a world-without-end object. Human experience is denied the comfort of perfection in order that we may be given the privilege of perfecting the imperfect.

Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the

night?"

The morning cometh! The morning cometh!"

Events hasten toward the consummation "to which the whole creation moves." The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ!

THE SOLIDARITY OF THE CONGREGATIONAL
FELLOWSHIP.

REV. J. PERCIVAL HUGET, DETROIT, MICH.

In the opening portion of his address Mr. Huget referred to the splendid exhibition of unity presented in the personality and the messages of the speakers who had just brought greetings from other Congregational bodies. He also stated that in these addresses, as well as in the discussions before the Commission of Twenty-Five, and in the general discussion and conversation of the delegates to the Council, so much of the ground covered in his prepared address had already been thoroughly and repeatedly gone over, so that it seemed most proper for him to speak very briefly and informally. Moreover, with the expectation that certain points with which he had purposed to deal would be included in the report of the Commission of Twenty-Five, to be made on the following morning, he preferred to leave these points for discussion at that time. The substance of Mr. Huget's informal address was as follows: The solidarity of the Congregational fellowship is not a dream, not a vague hope, not a vision of something yet to be; it is a fact. We have already come to a denominational consciousness. The movements now manifesting themselves tend toward a fuller realization and a freer expression of this already existing unity.

This involves readjustment. This is the ever-present problem of growth. It involves the relationship of the individual Congregational church to other churches of the same denomination. This is the primary problem, that of effective organization and coöperation. It involves the relationship of Congregational bodies, local and state, to each other and to the whole body of Congregational churches. This is the immediate problem of this Council, the problem of effective denominational coördination and administration. It involves the relationship of Congregational agencies to each other and to the whole church. This is the fundamental problem, and the most intricate and

delicate one. In its most concrete form it deals with our Congregational missionary societies and their relationship to each other and to the denomination.

Our present duty and opportunity is in the line of unification, of conservation, and of utilization. We must unify independent elements into a real fellowship. We must protect the weak and the isolated. Nothing must for a moment be permitted to stand in the way of that conservation of the life and resources of our church which is our first and highest duty to ourselves and to the kingdom of God. We must utilize our united strength, realize upon our collective power.

The steps of more immediate progress will doubtless be indicated in the report to be presented to-morrow. The line of further advance has to do with the denominational oversight and control of the raising and the expenditure of our denominational funds. There is no criticism of the organization, the history, or the present administration of our splendid missionary societies. The simple fact is that the time has come in the denominational life for a closer union and a more direct control.

In a more general sense the expression of our newly realized solidarity, our newly appreciated unity and power, will be in the formulation and expression of the twentieth century denominational reason; in the effective utterance of our special message to the life of our day; and in the outlining and courageous forwarding of a wise and effective Denominational program.

THE SOLIDARITY OF CONGREGATIONAL
FELLOWSHIP.

REV. ALEXANDER LEWIS, KANSAS CITY, MO.

So much of my thinking has been done in molds of from thirty to forty minutes that I find myself considerably embarrassed when asked to give an address "of about ten minutes." The only thing I have been able to do in the past under such circumstances is to prepare the longer address and then divide it into two or three parts according to the exigencies of the case. As the result of this, I have found myself sometimes with an introduction and no conclusion, or perhaps with an introduction and conclusion and no middle. Much that I would like to say on this occasion, such as to sing the praises of a fellowship which has held a great denomination intact for a century, cannot even be condensed into the time allowed; it must be deliberately omitted, that I may touch briefly two failures in the fellowship of modern Congregationalism. If this single sentence of introduction seems to some a waste of time with so few minutes at my disposal, they must remember that it takes as long to warm up for a one-hundred-yard dash as for a mile heat, and that even the aeroplane must have a little run along the ground before it can fly.

"The Solidarity of Congregational Fellowship": For solidity, for dignity, for splendid idealism, this theme cannot be surpassed. Its evident source reminds me of a story. Two Jersey City Irishmen were discussing the relative virtues of the Jersey and Irish mosquitoes. Pat insisted that there were no mosquitoes in all the world like the Jersey brand. Mike was equally emphatic that they were no larger or more savage than those to be found in Ireland. Whereupon Pat offered to bet Mike a dollar that he could not lie on his face and expose his bare back for one-half hour to the Jersey pests. Mike accepted the wager and Pat took out his watch to keep time on the test. For twenty minutes Mike made a heroic and successful fight, and, as the half hour began to draw to its close,

Pat became fearful of losing his money, so he removed the crystal of his watch and focused the sun's rays between Mike's shoulder blades. This was more than poor Mike could endure and, unable to stand it longer, he called out," Pat, would ye mind shooing that fellow off from between me shoulders, I recognize him- he is from Ireland."

Fathers and brethren, in all seriousness, the moment this subject was placed in my hand I recognized it as from Boston. Had a committee of western men arranged the program, this subject would have read "The Isolation of Congregational Fellowship," or, "The Need of Transplanting the Congregational Fellowship of New England" to the West and the Northwest and the greatest West of them all, for it is the only West we have in the technical sense of the word, - the great Southwest. Missouri and Massachusetts have about the same population, with this difference, that Missouri's is scattered over a territory more than eight times as large as that of Massachusetts. In Massachusetts with its much smaller territory and no larger population there are 588 Congregational churches, with a membership of 123,000, while Missouri has but 72 Congregational churches with a membership of but 10,000. In Massachusetts I never went more than ten miles to attend a local association, while in Missouri I have traveled more than one hundred miles to attend such a meeting. Do you not see that Congregational fellowship in New England and in the West is a very different thing? Can you not see why some of us feel that these National Societies have been culpably neglectful of their opportunities in not bringing to the great Southwest, long before this, the fellowship of their annual gatherings? Will there not continue to be a deficit in their annual receipts if they continue to neglect new fields? We reap not only what we sow, but where we sow. Two years ago the Baptists went to Oklahoma City, and the Presbyterians came to Kansas City, while last year the latter went to Denver.

From Kansas City to the Rockies is 600 miles. From Kansas City to the Gulf is 600 miles. In this square which contains about one seventh of the entire territory of the United States are to be found as flourishing cities, as rich mines, as fertile fields, as noble a people, as exist anywhere in the world; and, more than all this, this section is growing and will continue