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SKETCHES-- IN
STERN CANADA
'HE RKiHT REV BISHOP INGHAM.D,Di
AND
IF REV BURROWS, M. A
SKETCHES IN WESTERN CANADA
:
^KETCHES IN
WESTERN CANADA
BY THE RT. REV.
BISHOP INGHAM, D.D.
AND THE REV.
CLEMENT L. BURROWS, M.A.
Vicar of St. Paufs, Bourtumouth
HODDER AND STOUGHTON
LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO
,.U V
V
Printed by Batell, Watton & Viney, Ld., London and
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PAdB
ENLISTED AND COMMISSIONED 3
CHAPTER II
FROM LIVERPOOL TO WINNIPEG . . 13
CHAPTER III
LLOYDMINSTER 35
CHAPTER IV
STRATHCONA AND EDMONTON 47
vi CONTENTS
CHAPTER V
PAQB
A SHORT RECESS 61
CHAPTER VI
STONEWALL 67
CHAPTER VII
YOUNG CANADA ..... 81
CHAPTER VIII
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN CANADA . 108
CHAPTER IX
ON THE ROAD HOME 137
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
THE ARCHBISHOP OF RUPERTSLAND (PRIMATE
OF CANADA) AND THE MEMBERS OF THE
" MISSION OF HELP " AND OTHER CLERGY
Frontispiece
FACING VAGB
FELLOW PASSENGERS TO THE FAR WEST, S.S.
" EMPRESS OF BRITAIN " ... 8
QUEBEC ....... 8
THE UNION CHURCH, MURRAY BAY, RIVER
ST. LAWRENCE . . . . .16
WINNIPEG CATHEDRAL, WITH ARCHBISHOP
MACHRAY'S MONUMENTAL CROSS IN THE
FOREGROUND . . . . . .16
ARCHBISHOP MATHESON AND BISHOP INGHAM
ON THE STEPS OF BISHOPSCOURT, WINNIPEG 24
FORT GARRY, WINNIPEG .... 24
BANK OF MONTREAL, WINNIPEG ... 40
TERMINUS OF THE CANADIAN NORTHERN RAIL-
WAY, WINNIPEG ..... 40
THE LAST NEW HOTEL, WINNIPEG . . 48
A HOUSE ON WHEELS, WINNIPEG . . 48
vii
viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING PAGE
ST. JOHN'S MINSTER, LLOYDMINSTER . . 56
THE FIRST LOG CHURCH, LLOYDMINSTER . 56
THE RECTOR OF LLOYDMINSTER SITTING IN
HIS HAYLOFT . . ... .72
OUR HOUSE FOR TEN DAYS AT LLOYDMINSTER 72
PLEASANT VALLEY FARM, ON THE PRAIRIE . 88
A THRESHING SCENE EN ROUTE TO ONION LAKE 88
JOHN GRACE MATHESON AND SOME OF HIS
INDIANS ONION LAKE .... 96
ONION LAKE MISSION ..... 96
GRAIN ELEVATORS ON THE C.P.R . . .104
THRESHING ON THE CANADIAN PRAIRIE . 104
NEW PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS, EDMONTON,
ALBERTA ...... 112
Y.M.C.A., EDMONTON 112
STRATHCONA RECTORY, WITH THE FOUNDATIONS
OF THE NEW CHURCH NEXT DOOR . .120
THE OLD HUDSON'S BAY FORT ON THE BANKS
OF THE SASKATCHEWAN (EDMONTON), WITH
THE NEW PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS IN THE
BACKGROUND. ... . 120
A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF EDMONTON . . 128
BANFF (IN THE ROCKIES) .... 128
AN AFTERNOON DRIVE IN THE ROCKIES . . 144
MOUNTAINS AROUND BANFF . 144
FOREWORD
A VERY few sentences will be sufficient
to prepare the reader for these Sketches.
They are sent forth in the hope that
they may become a " Mission of Help ''
to those who are looking westwards,
whether as citizens of the Empire, or as
intending settlers in the spacious Cana-
dian lands. It is evident that all of us
in the coming days are going to be linked
up with Canada in all sorts of ways.
And it seemed a pity to go there,
to gather experiences, and not take the
trouble to share them with others.
It has been by design that not a single
fellow- member of the " Mission of Help "
IX
x FOREWORD
has been consulted in the compiling and
sending forth of this little book. It was
better so. Sketches are, after all, the
result of what the man who sketches has
seen. It is unlikely that any other mem-
ber of our party will have gone over
quite the same ground.
Some ecclesiastical convictions that
emerge here and there are not likely to
be popular in some quarters, but these
convictions are held in great sincerity
and intensity, and we hope in a spirit
of love and goodwill to all men. They
must be left to commend themselves to
such as will receive them.
The chapter by the Canadian Church-
man is, in our opinion, important.
It is a criticism not from without but
from within. The man who writes it is a
hard-working clergyman born and bred
in Canada, but, like so many more.
FOREWORD xi
sprung from these Islands. He is filled
with a spirit of " Divine discontent "
with things as they are. He can say
what no outsider would dare to say. We
have left him a free hand and he has
used it, and his words should be care-
fully weighed.
Some of our readers will be (like the
unnamed clergyman) Canadian born and
bred. They will see, it is to be hoped, in
these pages no suspicion of patronage or
condescension. Such a spirit finds no
place here, because it finds no place in
the writers. We have no feeling but one
of deep gratitude for the splendid spirit
of fellow-citizenship we have witnessed
on all sides. We thank God for Canada
and for those who are making Canada
to-day.
Other readers will, no doubt, be resi-
dents in the " Old Country " ! They
xii FOREWORD
will feel, it is to be hoped, a new sense of
responsibility in living at the heart of the
Empire and perchance in the Communion
of the Old Church of the Empire at such a
time. And if they can do nothing better,
perhaps they would give their copy of
these " Sketches " to some one bound
westwards to help to " make Canada "
and to " make themselves."
E. GRAHAM INGHAM.
(Bishop.)
ST. JUDE'S VICARAGE,
SOUTHSEA,
Easter 1913.
ENLISTED AND COMMISSIONED
CHAPTER I
ENLISTED AND COMMISSIONED
IT was at Serjeant's Inn, Fleet Street,
that the thought of Canada came.
None too often did the pressure of work
at Salisbury Square permit attendance
at the Committee of the Colonial and Con-
tinental Church Society, but on this day
late in the autumn of 1911 it was
possible to be present. The minutes had
been read. Some one had dropped out
from the two representatives which that
Society was permitted to supply for the
coming Mission of Help from the Church
of England to Western Canada. It was
not found too easy to fill the gap. The
4 ENLISTED AND COMMISSIONED
Secretary said, " Why not Bishop Ing-
ham? " And so eventually, with the kind
concurrence of Salisbury Square, it came
to pass that the name was submitted and
presently accepted by the English and
Canadian committees which had the
arrangements in hand.
Four centres in Western Canada were
soon assigned St. John's Cathedral,
Winnipeg, Lloydminster, Strathcona, and
Stonewall in three different dioceses.
Correspondence began, and preparation
was made as far as possible by the Mis-
sioner for the people, and the people were
prepared for the Missioner.
My thoughts turned next to our friend
and fellow-traveller (and even more than
that) through India and Ceylon and parts
of the Near East Rev. C. L. Burrows,
Vicar of St. Paul's, Bournemouth, who,
jointly with me, sends forth these sketches.
ENLISTED AND COMMISSIONED 5
He was able and willing to go, and we
owe to him the photographs which are
so important a feature in these sketches,
and also the Chapter on Young Canada
with whom his part of the Mission brought
him into contact.
But what exactly does a Mission of
Help mean ? Some people were found
still asking this question when we reached
the field of operations. A few wondered
whether it implied the existence of an
impression in England that some of our
Anglo-Saxon fellow- subjects had lapsed
into heathenism ! Others wondered
whether things were so right in England
that it was possible to spare the men
and the time to set others right in Western
Canada ! No one really quite understood
why the ministries on the spot were not
sufficient to cope with the Spiritual
necessities of the situation. All this had
6 ENLISTED AND COMMISSIONED
been foreseen by those who planned the
Mission.
And so on June 28th, the Archbishop
of Canterbury gathered us together
some twenty or so in all in Henry VII's
Chapel in Westminster Abbey for Holy
Communion, Instruction, and Conference.
We shall not easily forget that early
morning scene in Henry VII's Chapel
just that part of the venerable pile that
abuts on the Houses of Parliament. This
juxtaposition had its own message for
us. It suggested the crosses that form
so important a part of our Union Jack.
If, across the way, was the seat of Im-
perial Government, here was the in-
wardness and inspiration of it all. And
our Mission was to be a reminder in a
newer land that the faith that had
unified and enriched and blessed the
centre would alone meet the needs of
ENLISTED AND COMMISSIONED 7
the circumference. And so, even before
the Archbishop began to speak, our
environment as no doubt specially
planned was a helpful preparation for
what was to follow. His Grace looked
upwards and around as he faced our
little party and said among other words
(so far as we can recall it) this : " The
thought comes to my mind that if only
some four hundred years ago when the
beautiful carvings that adorn this Chapel
were fresh from the workman's hands,
a service like this, in the spiritual interest
of the American Continent could have
been held how different things might
have been."
It will be easy to understand how the
Archbishop would proceed to lay upon
our hearts the significance and importance
of this new departure now finding a
definite place in our thought and prayer
8 ENLISTED AND COMMISSIONED
for the outlying dominions and common-
wealths of the Empire. And we did
not leave that Chapel before we had
offered and presented our souls and
bodies for this reasonable service. Another
thought made that early morning service
impressive. Seventy-five years ago on
this very day Queen Victoria had dedi-
cated herself to God in this very Abbey
and was crowned in the midst of her
people and so had (as it turned out) in-
augurated an era whose influence and
beneficence will never pass away. It
was then surely a great day, and on a
great spot and with great words that we
were commissioned for this holy service !
After breakfast at Canon Pearce's in
the Cloisters, and morning prayer in the
Abbey, the Bishop of London presided
over us in Conference in the Jerusalem
Chamber. And we came out of that
1
FELLOW PASSENGERS TO THE FAR WEST, S.S. " EMPRESS
OF BRITAIN."
QUEBEC.
ENLISTED AND COMMISSIONED 9
historic room fully realizing the importance
of acclimatization of mind if we were
to strengthen the hands of our brother
clergy and do the Western Canadian
any good.
The last thing to be said over there
must be, " We do things so and so in
England." The spirit to exorcise is any
approach to the spirit of patronage. The
spirit to cultivate must be the spirit of
loving sympathy and fellowship that,
realizing the Western Canadian to be up
against new and difficult conditions, shall
seek to apply to those conditions the
old Gospel, and so strengthen the hands
of the isolated brethren in permanent
spiritual charge, by saying over and over
again, without any suspicion of collusion,
what they have been saying all along !
This was the sort of guidance that this
very helpful conference sought to give.
FROM LIVERPOOL TO WINNIPEG
CHAPTER II
FROM LIVERPOOL TO WINNIPEG
Six days and a few hours on the Empress
of Britain brought us, by an extreme
northern route, across the Atlantic and
by the Straits of Belle Isle into the Gulf
of St. Lawrence. We passed in the Strait,
at a safe distance and in clear weather
happily, some of those icebergs which
we have learnt of late with too much
reason to dread. Of the passage across,
it need only be said that it was smooth,
with a dull, cold atmosphere, and some-
times not too clear.
On the one Sunday spent on board an
S.P.C.K. chaplain (bound for the North-
is
14 FROM LIVERPOOL TO WINNIPEG
West) gave us an early Communion ;
he was a very keen man, and his
daily services for the emigrants, in which
Mr. Burrows and I took our share,
were most unconventional and impressive.
We shall not soon forget the crowds,
rising to a couple of hundred at times,
of men, women and children, listening
attentively to what we were able to say,
and receiving so willingly the small Gospels
of one or other of the Evangelists which
Mr. Burrows most energetically distri-
buted. The Rev. D. J. Stather Hunt
was also of our party. (The remaining
thirteen members of the Mission of Help
to Western Canada were one week behind
us on the Megantic.)
The captain of the ship preferred to
take the Sunday morning service himself.
This disposed of all questions of pre-
cedence, and had an impressiveness all
FROM LIVERPOOL TO WINNIPEG 15
its own. But more liberty of prophesying
was permitted in the second-class saloon
at night.
I shall attempt no detailed description
of Quebec or Montreal. Still less must
I dwell upon the glorious autumn foliage
for which Canada is so famous. Some
impressions, however, gained in those
cities and near them during the week at
our disposal before starting for the Far
West, may be useful. It is easier now
to understand the problems which the two
races (French and English) necessarily
present in this part of Canada. It is easier
also to realize that, while the loyalty of
the French is a real loyalty, yet the
history of Wolfe's great victory is too
recent, after all, to be too obviously and
too often paraded. We think we under-
stand why Quebec, where French is
dominant, has stood still, while Montreal
16 FROM LIVERPOOL TO WINNIPEG
has so marvellously gone ahead. Some-
thing also was seen of the great wealth
of the Roman Catholic Church and its
orders, and of the smartness that assesses
all incomes for its propaganda.
It was impossible not to notice at every
turn the urgency and difficulty of the
labour problem in things domestic, and
how every sort of electric power has to
be set in motion to save labour, because
adequate help is not to be had. When
you see toast being beautifully made in
the toast-rack by electricity on the
breakfast-table you realize the necessity
of learning to contrive.
Many incidents were the more im-
pressive by the force of contrast. Forty-
two years ago I had left Bishop's College
School, Lennoxville, in the Province of
Quebec, for Oxford. It was impossible
not to visit the old place, situated so
THE UNION CHUnCH, MURRAY BAY, RIVER ST. LAWRENCE.
WINNIPEG CATHEDRAL, WITH ARCHBISHOP MACHRAY'S MONUMENTAL
CROSS IN THE FOREGROUND.
FROM LIVERPOOL TO WINNIPEG 17
beautifully at the junction of the rivers
St. Francis and Massawippi, and it re-
joiced us to witness some elements of
stability and progress under the present
headmaster, Mr. Tyson Williams. It
is good to find men like the heads
of the Allan Line and the Canadian
Pacific Railway, and men like Lord Strath-
cona, alive to the necessity of caring
for the best interests of our sons and
brothers growing up around them in
Canada.
We called on the Bishop of Montreal,
and heard from him something of the
Church's problems in his vast diocese.
We talk, rightly enough, of the extension
of our Home episcopate, but Montreal
Diocese is as large as England and Wales,
and Quebec as large as France and
Spain ! The Bishop feels that the unifica-
tion of the Canadian Church, from the
18 FROM LIVERPOOL TO WINNIPEG
Atlantic on one side to the Pacific, and
also up to the Arctic circle on the other,
has brought new life and hope to what
used to be the Dioceses of Upper and
Lower Canada. He told us of an inci-
dent in connection with the formation of
this country into a " Dominion " that
deserves to be known far and wide.
While the Council was in session, which
was arranging for the confederacy of
the several provinces, and when a decision
had to be taken as to the name to be
chosen for it, a gentleman rose and spoke
much as follows : " We are talking of
a name for this confederacy. It is to
spread from sea to sea and practically
from the St. Lawrence to the North Pole.
I have thought of one. In the morning
Psalms of to-day I came upon this verse :
6 His dominion shall be from sea to sea,
and from the river to the ends of the
FROM LIVERPOOL TO WINNIPEG 19
earth.' Let us adopt that title and
trust that this vast area may be His
dominion ! ' It was carried unanimously.
It has been evident to us, so far as we
have had opportunity to inquire, that
the Canadian Church rejoices much in
being its own missionary society. The
test of this recent experiment lies, of
course, farther ahead ; but we have
found no one to dispute our own con-
viction, which has found expression once
or twice, that " circumstances alter cases,"
and that our " Society " system in Eng-
land is now sufficiently supplemented
by the Board of Missions acting, so far
as it can do so, for the Church in her
missionary capacity, and that, while it
is important for the Church to claim her
right place, voluntary initiative (as we
now have it in our leading societies)
should not be interfered with. Laymen
20 FROM LIVERPOOL TO WINNIPEG
appear to claim their right place in the
councils of the Canadian Church. An
interesting illustration of their influence
has lately been forthcoming.
No financial step can be taken, of
course, without their co-operation. And
in respect to these steps, they do not
hesitate to express their opinion. The
question of the adequate support of
Theological colleges in the different non-
Roman Churches of the Montreal Diocese
came up. Every one of them had a
shortage in men and funds. The laymen
approached the Bishop and his clergy
thus : " Why can you not have one such
college, employ the best men, have the
most complete machinery, instead of the
obscure agencies you now individually
use ? Can you not agree to unite on the
principle of reserving for special treatment
the subjects in which you are differen-
FROM LIVERPOOL TO WINNIPEG 21
tiated from one another ? ' The experi-
ment has been decided upon, and the
laymen's money has been forthcoming !
We discussed the Laymen's Missionary
Movement as far as possible with leaders
in Montreal. As an interdenominational
movement it is thought unlikely to ad-
vance very far, but it will leave the
Church laymen in quite a new relation
to the Church's missionary work. This
was good hearing. We saw placards
announcing a coming " Palestine Exhi-
bition " in Montreal next month, and we
saw that Mr. Schor was about, so it is
certain that some excellent work will be
done.
Three preachings fell to my lot in this
part of my journey. The first was at
Murray Bay, named after the General
Murray the first Governor- General of
Canada, for whom some Murray nephews
22 FROM LIVERPOOL TO WINNIPEG
of mine have right to be thankful. We
owed the hospitality of this pleasant resort
(eighty miles below Quebec) to my col-
league and friend, the Rev. C. L. Burrows.
We stayed with his aunt, Mrs. Blake. It
was interesting to find that the church
a beautiful little building is a " union
church," i.e. that the Episcopalians have
the morning use of the building and the
Presbyterians and others the evening use.
President Taft is frequently a member
of the congregation, but unfortunately
we did not have the opportunity of
preaching before so big a man ! We
nevertheless lunched with one of his
greatest friends.
The second preaching was in Montreal
Cathedral. It is noteworthy that the
" north-side " position at Holy Com-
munion obtains in this Cathedral, and
that they do not turn to the east at
FROM LIVERPOOL TO WINNIPEG 23
the Creed. Music is emphasized. Women
sing (with men) in the choir, and march
in procession with surplice and college
cap. (They would look better in the
cap if their hair was under more restraint.)
The reason given for using women's voices
was that there is something in the climate
which seems to spoil the boy-voice for
singing.
But the greatest service at which we
preached was on Sunday evening, Sep-
tember 22nd, at St. George's. This is
the church in Montreal ; it stands in
Dominion Square, and immediately op-
posite the impressive terminus of the
great Canadian Pacific Railway, from
which we were on the point of starting
for our great westward journey.
We had received most kindly hos-
pitality from Dr. and Mrs. Paterson
Smyth for a few days, and, as Rector, he
24 FROM LIVERPOOL TO WINNIPEG
was most anxious that this particular
evening service should be a " send-off "
service to our Mission of Help. Every
arrangement was made for the presence
of the large party, but, alas ! the Megantic
had been delayed. The Bishop of Edin-
burgh therefore could not preach, as
had been hoped, in the morning, and it
fell to me in the evening to speak to an
immense congregation, and to endeavour
to bring it into spiritual touch with our
Mission of Help. The Bishop of Montreal
was present in his robes, and he not only
said a few most apposite words at the
close, but asked for the prayers of the
congregation for the work now to be
entered upon. After a space for silent
prayer he concluded with a suitable
prayer and the Benediction.
It may be useful to describe briefly
at this point the setting of the scenes we
FROM LIVERPOOL TO WINNIPEG 25
hope to sketch. The journey across
Canada has, roughly, three divisions. Up
to Winnipeg there is mostly lake big
and small in bewildering confusion and
forest. And the autumn tints were
glorious ! On reaching Winnipeg we
begin to touch the prairie, which spreads
westward and northward for at least
a thousand miles. The third division
will be the Rockies and the British
Columbia slopes. Thither we have not
yet gone ! We had not had the ad-
vantage of crossing the sea with the
general body of the missioners. This
was something of a loss to fellowship,
but it was to some extent repaired on
the train. The Mission of Help Com-
mittee at Winnipeg had provided a sleep-
ing car (serving as a " Pullman " drawing-
room by day). So we were all together,
and could have our meals in the same
26 FROM LIVERPOOL TO WINNIPEG
place (next door) and distribute ourselves
as we liked. The Bishop of Edinburgh
conducted morning prayer each day, the
two other Bishops reading the lessons.
It was near ten o'clock on Tuesday
night, September 24th, when our train
drew up at Winnipeg. All our prospective
hosts were on the platform, and we were
soon sorted out each to each. The
Archbishop of Rupertsland claimed us,
and we were soon driving through the
wide streets of a brilliantly lighted city
to Bishopscourt. As the cathedral was
to be our own mission centre, Bishops-
court proved a convenient pied-a-terre
throughout.
The great city of Winnipeg lies between
the two parishes of St. James at the
south and St. John's (cathedral) at the
north. Within this area now so busy
and crowded a man was actually lost
FROM LIVERPOOL TO WINNIPEG 27
for a day or two in a forest sixty years
ago!
Bishopscourt is situated on the banks
of the Red River. The grounds go down
to the river itself. The cathedral and
St. John's College and deanery and
canons' residences are hard by. All this
ground (and other land since sold for
endowment purposes) was granted to
John West, the first C.M.S. missionary,
in 1820. He built a small church and
school on it. This, in the course of
years, has developed into St. John's
Cathedral and St. John's College re-
spectively.
The cathedral (which, to its honour,
has refused to be anything but a small
church holding only 250 people while
the diocese required so many other build-
ings and ministries) was built in 1862,
and is really the only fully organized one
28 FROM LIVERPOOL TO WINNIPEG
in Canada, with its dean and canons,
each with their collegiate and other work
and residences and endowments. It
stands in a beautifully kept God's acre
the special care of the Archbishop
himself.
It can well be understood what a
privilege it was to be the guest of Arch-
bishop Matheson, Primate of all Canada,
and to realize that he was a disciple of
Machray, had been his right-hand man
throughout, had known Winnipeg before
Winnipeg knew itself, and who exemplifies
in himself the same spiritual, evangelical,
and ecclesiastical traditions that had ob-
tained here from the beginning.
The Archbishop was born and baptized
in the Presbyterian Kirk not the only
living Archbishop, we believe, who has
had the same experience ! He tells how
his father is said to have remarked of
FROM LIVERPOOL TO WINNIPEG 29
him : " He is a poor, puny little
thing : he'll be no loss to the Presbyterian
Church ; so I gave him over to the
Church of England ! " Those who are
familiar with the stalwart Archbishop
Matheson of to-day will say that the
Church of England atmosphere must
have developed him considerably ! This
" puny " personality has been the means
of building eighty-nine churches since
he became Archbishop !
It is time to return to the Mission of
Help in Winnipeg, September 25th to
October 7th.
We began with a great Reception
Service (September 25th) in Holy Trinity
Church, which must be the largest and
most important church in the city. Arch-
deacon Fortin is the rector. The Arch-
bishop welcomed the missioners in an
address which deserves to be widely
30 FROM LIVERPOOL TO WINNIPEG
read, and the Bishop of Edinburgh suit-
ably replied for us.
We had three services daily in our
little cathedral, viz. 7.30 a.m., 3 p.m.,
and 8 p.m. The presence of an Arch-
bishop, a dean, and canons at so many
of the services was a little staggering
to us, but they were so delightfully
humble-minded and receptive that we
were able frequently to forget them.
The pen goes slowly here, for it is holy
ground, and spiritual work is apt to lose
its bloom if described in detail. We will
only say that we recognized a valued
opportunity, and we tried to do our duty.
A conference was held on the last morn-
ing between the missioners and the clergy,
at which the Archbishop presided. All
of us noted the universal domination of
dollars and acres. Some of us ventured
to question whether our Lord's wide
FROM LIVERPOOL TO WINNIPEG 31
Catholic purpose for the world was not
being left out of sight and spiritual loss
thereby was not accruing to Winnipeg
itself. This was confirmed later by one
who said that men generally felt that all
this undeveloped region tended unduly to
concentrate the attention to the ignoring
of the rest of the world. But we
thanked God for much and took courage.
Most of us left the conference to prepare
for our thanksgiving services, and on the
same night, at eleven o'clock, our party of
four were in the train for Lloydminster,
where, after some twenty-eight hours'
travelling, we alighted in good condition
at one o'clock on the frosty morning of
Wednesday, October 9th.
LLOYDMINSTER
CHAPTER III
LLOYDMINSTER
A JOURNEY along the Canadian Northern
line for a night and a day brought us
to Lloydminster. It is situated on the
boundary line between the Province of
Saskatchewan and that of Alberta, and
suffers from a duplicated set of conditions
as the result.
The Barr Colony made Lloydminster (if
it can be said to be made) and Principal
Lloyd (then Archdeacon) gave it its name.
It is only nine years since that enterprise
was carried into effect. Mr. Barr has
disappeared from the scene and Arch-
deacon Lloyd remains as the Principal of
the Divinity College at Saskatoon.
35
36 LLOYDMINSTER
It speaks well for the pioneers of this
colony that such excellent beginnings have
been made.
The church (St. John's Minster) will
speak for itself. Rev. J. G. Gibson is the
rector. It is the best building in the
place. A suitable rectory stands beside
it, and next door is the G. F. S. Lodge in
which our party stayed. The future of
the little town is not unclouded. Time
only can prove the wisdom of the venture
of nine years ago. Much must of course
depend upon the success of the prairie
homesteads round about. Bad seasons,
early autumn frosts, the depredations of
the gopher (a small animal about the
size of a squirrel and not so pretty) these,
with the short summers and the long
winters, had severely tried many with
whom we had conversation. But nothing
spoke so plainly of the bravery of these
LLOYDMINSTER 37
Colonists as the obvious personal toil
involved, for every simple member of the
community in the trivial round and
common task. Nobody is really at leisure.
The slightest act of hospitality means
hard work for some members of the family.
No one can attend church or choir practice
on a week-night without some degree of
management and self-denial. It may also
mean financial loss to one who works far
on into the evening. It was impossible
to foresee what sort of attendance would
be possible at the week-night services of
the Mission, and it exceeded expecta-
tions.
In this small town of 800 to 1,000,
Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, and a
few Roman Catholics are all in evidence.
Many of them came to the Mission, but
there was not the inclination to close their
own churches, on such an occasion, that
38 LLOYDMINSTER
we had been led to expect. I gave an ad-
dress on missionary work in the Presby-
terian Church, and was warmly welcomed.
Amongst the institutions we visited was
an excellent rendezvous, maintained by
the Canadian Government in certain
centres, for the purpose of receiving the
new-comer when he leaves the train, for
whom there is no place ready. It is under
the care of an officer, who, by the way,
came forward for a memorial card on
the last night of the Mission. Here the
settler and his party can come straight
from the railway station, have bed and
lodgings free for a week, while he looks
round, and it is not unusual for a week's
extension to be granted. This seemed
worth placing on record. It would surprise
those who have not been so far West to
see how well supplied the small shops and
stores are with food stuffs ; even Huntley
LLOYDMINSTER 39
and Palmer's biscuits can be bought. The
wood pavements which serve as side walks
are a positive terror on a moonless night
in these small towns. My own adventures
were an awkward headlong sprawl through
missing the foothold, and the running
away up the main street of two terrified
horses. Three of us certainly expected
the " Mission of Help " to be suddenly at
an end. Happily, there is plenty of room
in Western Canada and the rector had
quieted the horses before any collision took
place.
Some one said to us on the morrow of
the Lloydminster Mission, " Are you satis-
fied with the success of your effort ? "
Our answer was, " No ! never satisfied,
but we thank God and take courage."
One interesting experience that grew out
of the Lloydminster Mission was a visit
to Onion Lake, some forty miles away.
40 LLOYDMINSTER
It is the centre of an Indian Reserve.
Rev. J. G. Matheson is the C. M. S. Mis-
sionary in charge. No account of Onion
Lake would be possible without mention
of him. He is cousin to Archbishop
Matheson and appears to be now well over
sixty. For very many years he has been
a personality in these parts. He loves to
tell of his conversion twenty- one years
ago how he dared, in spite of the advice
of sporting companions, to attend a certain
revival service in New Westminster, how
he boldly accepted the challenge made
by the Missioner, that some one would
have the courage to come out that night
on the Lord's side how he, who had
never refused a sporting challenge, re-
sponded, scarcely knowing what he did
all this he told us with much feeling. It
was not easy to go home that night and
take the consequences ! But he faced it
HANK OF MONTREAL, WINNIPEG.
TERMINUS OF THE CANADIAN NORTHERN RAILWAY, WINNIPEG.
LLOYDMINSTER 41
out alone, told the Lord on the road that
he was not fit to take such a step as he had
taken. And then there came back to his
memory, words his mother used to sing
that he had not thought of for years,
and " Just as I am without one plea "
settled the matter for ever there and
then.
Canon Matheson (another cousin) told
us, later on, that in reporting his con-
version to his mother he wrote, " The man
was over forty years old on whom this
miracle was shewed."
And she replied with a " Nunc Dimittis 1 "
He also told how he came to possess the
name of " Grace ! " His father had so often
to call him to order that " grace " might
be said, that the words, John ! Grace !
came to be linked together, never hereafter
to be separated. John Grace Matheson
probably needs to be called to order still
42 LLOYDMINSTER
in one way and another, but he has the
root of the matter in him.
Onion Lake is a very pretty place.
The forty-mile drive behind two splendid
horses, driven by Mr. Matheson under a
glorious sunshine over a snow-white prairie
was a pure delight. Mrs. Matheson, who
is a lady doctor, formerly a Missionary
worker in India and now the succourer
of many an Indian home of the Far West,
gave us a bright welcome. They have a
happy family of young people, even the
youngest of whom is brought up to useful
domestic duties.
The next day was devoted to spiritual
work. A service in Cree for Indians, and
two services for the English-speaking home-
stead folk around, with an afternoon tea
party, filled up a pleasant and, we hope, a
useful day.
Mr. Matheson is a Missionary sui
LLOYDMINSTER 43
generis. He will have no successor. He
is one of those personalities that cannot be
replaced. He appears to maintain his
church, school, hospital, and other work
without a penny of subscription from
outside. The casual onlooker, who sees
him selling a horse or buying a cow, or
again disposing of a fur, would call him a
trader and blame him for it. But Mr.
Matheson will tell you that whatever
faculty he possesses in this direction is God-
given and the money is God-sent, and there
is an end of the matter!
Mrs. Matheson drove us back to Lloyd-
minster on the third day another glorious
drive, with a lunch at Pleasant Valley
Farm (the home of Mr. and Mrs. New-
lands), which we shall always pleasantly
remember.
Mr. Ahenakew, the first Indian clergy-
man in Saskatchewan and who was
44 LLOYDMINSTER
trained at Wycliffe College, Toronto,
greatly interested us. He is assisting
Mr. Matheson, and his presence there is a
guarantee of good spiritual work among
his own people.
STRATHCONA AND EDMONTON
CHAPTER IV
STRATHCONA AND EDMONTON
THE Canadian Northern Railway has now
brought us a night's journey west of
Lloydminster, and we find ourselves in the
most progressive city of the Province of
Alberta. It is the " jumping-off place 5:
for the North Pole. No railways at pre-
sent go farther north, if we except a small
line to Athabasca landing. The Sas-
katchewan River here divides Edmonton
from its newly incorporated suburb of
Strathcona. The river takes a beautiful
winding course, with high banks on both
sides studded with trees and crowned with
great buildings, rising up with startling
rapidity on noble heights. j
47
48 STRATHCONA AND EDMONTON
Just above the old Hudson's Bay
Stockade, where once all the residents of
the neighbourhood took shelter in a time
of war trouble, now stands the noble
Parliament Buildings of the province,
recently opened by the Governor- General
of Canada. An immense high-level bridge
connecting Edmonton with Strathcona is
more than half completed. Electric street
cars run across the river by a low-level
bridge and along the wide thoroughfares
for many miles. A city of 53,000 in-
habitants has within little more than a
decade grown from one of 1,500 people,
and everything around speaks of progress,
construction, and enterprise.
Strathcona, which lagged behind for a
while, has since its incorporation taken a
great leap forward. Motor cars gliding
along pleasant boulevards with those
pleasant green central and side spaces
THE LAST NEW HOTEL, WINNIPEG.
A HOUSE ON WHEELS, WINNIPEG.
STRATHCONA AND EDMONT 49
that we admired in Winnipeg are every-
where.
An immense area containing permanent
buildings in the best style for the exhibition
of every sort of product of the Edmonton
district occupies a splendid site on the
outskirts of the city. Twenty thousand
people were gathered there from day to
day in August last.
Archdeacon Gray, whose ministry here
of some sixteen years has made him an
historical personage in the town, drove
our party round in two motors and showed
us many of the sights to which allusion
has now been made. He is a most in-
teresting man, knows everybody, and
must exercise considerable influence in
the town. He is Rector of All Saints'.
Bishop Joscelyne of Jamaica has just
taken a mission in his church. The Arch-
deacon took us to call on the Rev. G. W.
4
50 STRATHCONA AND EDMONTON
Boyd, the head of St. Faith's Mission.
We had known him in London as Do-
mestic Chaplain to the Archbishop of
Canterbury, and we hope to know more
presently of the sort of work he is trying
to do here.
We came into residence at the Rectory
of Strathcona on October 26th for the
week's Mission (October 27th to November
3rd). Rev. C. Carruthers is the rector.
Strathcona has an individuality of
its own. Since its incorporation with
Edmonton it has made rapid strides.
Electric street cars connect it with the
larger city across the river by a bridge.
Another bridge the high-level one to
which reference has been made is already
half built over another reach of the river ;
and it is not difficult to see that Strathcona,
with its striking heights and splendid
elevation, will be a favourite residential
STRATHCONA AND EDMONTON 51
place for the business men of Edmonton.
Already great buildings are rising up on
every side. The provincial university
buildings, already immense are steadily
adding wing after wing. Four years ago
they were non-existent. The Government
are encouraging the different religious
bodies to build their own Divinity colleges
or hostels on marked out contiguous
sites. The Presbyterians and Methodists
have responded, but up to the present
the Anglicans are not in evidence. We
were asked to address a contingent of
the Y.M.C.A. in the University itself,
and dined with the students, and
also lunched with and addressed the
nucleus of the coming Presbyterian
College.
It is impossible to describe a week's
mission work at Holy Trinity, Strathcona,
in detail. But a few impressions that
52 STRATHCONA AND EDMONTON
came in on us during those days may be of
more general interest.
The Sunday and week-day gatherings
have once more abundantly justified the
conviction that, in spite of the pre-
occupation and labour involved for men
and women alike in these new lands, the
old, old story does draw men and women
into love and fellowship. People will,
moreover, let you speak with great plain-
ness on the dangers incident to the worship
of dollars and acres, if you endeavour to
speak with sympathy and brotherly good-
will.
The Rev. C. L. Burrows had an excep-
tionally good time with his young people
and had the satisfaction of leaving an
organized Scripture Union and a Scouts'
movement behind him. We hope a
Sunday afternoon Men's Service will also
remain as a new departure.
STRATHCONA AND EDMONTON 53
Perhaps, however, the most outstanding
impressions gather round the clergy who
have to carry on these organizations after
the Missioners have gone.
We cannot say enough of all the kind-
nesses and hospitality received from Mr.
and Mrs. Carruthers. They will not mind
our saying that, in spite of the most hos-
pitable care the res angustae domi could
not always be kept out of sight.
It is necessary to be very careful on this
subject, or we shall hurt where we are
anxious only to help. But we are sketch-
ing facts. For some time to come the
work of our clergy in Western Canada is
going to be extremely hard. Several
circumstances combine to make it so. It
is one thing to be paid a fixed stipend by
a Missionary Society, as is the case with our
workers in India, China, or Japan. It is
quite another to receive a call from the
54 STRATHCONA AND EDMONTON
vestry of a Canadian Church and for the
stipend to depend mainly upon a man's own
powers, exertions, and popularity. More-
over, the same body which calls can dis-
miss or starve out. It is by no means
unknown for a clergyman to receive a plain
intimation from the vestry that they have
no further use for him. On one occasion
a young priestling is reported to have said
to some of his flock, " When once I am
duly licensed by the bishop I will not give
you mid-day Communion any more." He
was promptly told to go, and no one can
blame the authority that so dealt with
him. Some will even wish that such a
ready method existed in our own country.
Stipends, moreover, are exceedingly
small. It is probable that very few can
exceed $1,000, i.e. about 200. There is
not always even a rectory. We have
seen parsons grooming the horses which
STRATHCONA AND EDMONTON 55
have to take them to outlying districts,
watering them, feeding them, packing the
new-mown hay into the hayloft, sweeping
the paths, clearing the snow away, fetching
water from the well, lighting the house fires,
and then coming in looking wondrously
clean to receive their guests, preside
at breakfast, take family prayers, rush to
the telephone, hasten to a sick bed, and
get the church ready for a morning service.
We could have made the last sentence even
longer, but we forbear.
We are not sure that our rector's wife
has not an even more difficult part to play
in those new lands. Very few can afford
to keep a servant, and where children have
to be got ready for the public elementary
school each morning, or attended to at
home, and the cooking and serving of
meals, washing up, sweeping, cleaning,
and the thousand and one duties of a
56 STRATHCONA AND EDMONTON
household have to be combined with those
of a rector's wife to say nothing of the
frantic rushes to the impatient telephone
bell ! it requires a strong woman to be
able to stand it. And we feel much
sympathy with these women folk who
must do the domestic work of strenuous
households, and who also must take their
place in parochial or social duties as though
they had a staff of good servants. It
is this which is going to try the health of
the bravest. Let it command the sym-
pathy and practical helpfulness of all who
can lend a hand. Let it never be said that
" mother " forfeits an atom of generous
and courteous respect because she has to
say day by day, " Blessed be drudgery"
We were not fortunate at Strathcona in
having Church dignitaries to bless and
back us up, as in Winnipeg. The Bishop
of Calgary wrote a kind note, but was
ST. JOHN'S MINSTER, LLOYDMINSTER.
THE FIRST LOG CHURCH, LLOYDMINSTER.
STRATHCONA AND EDMONTON 57
unable to be present. And Archdeacon
Gray, who had been such a kind cicerone
on our first day in Edmonton, was also
unable to come over. We called on the
Rev. G. W. Boyd at St. Faith's Mission,
and saw over some of his buildings. They
have made themselves a pleasant little
centre at St. Faith's. We could not help
saying to the Archdeacon that we should
like to cart the whole Mission across the
river and set it and its adjoining buildings
down in one of the University plots offered
to the Anglican Church for a Divinity
college.
It will be impossible not to watch the
development of the Church of Holy
Trinity, Strathcona, with an altogether
new interest and prayerfulness after this
Mission week with the Rector. Mr.
Carruthers deserves a good backing from
the people of this great centre.
58 STRATHCONA AND EDMONTON
The church is practically underground
at present. All is well appointed so far
as it goes, but it is only a basement. We
trust the foundations are in every sense in
better condition for this week's work, but
the church must get above ground as soon
as possible, and if keen Evangelical church-
manship can give a successful lead, we feel
sure it is going to be given. And we shall
long to know that this Mission has given a
true spiritual uplift to the best friends
and workers of Holy Trinity, Strathcona.
A SHORT RECESS
CHAPTER V
A SHORT RECESS
WE have been up into a mountain ! How
often one is arrested by the words in the
Gospels :
" And Jesus went up into a mountain, and there He
sat with His disciples."
" He took them up into a high mountain apart."
A kind friend took us we were four in
the party * straight from the Strathcona
Mission for a couple of days into the
Rocky Mountains. Some of the scenes
around our retreat at Banff will speak for
themselves. Glorious weather, keen cold
air tempered by brilliant sunshine, magni-
ficent snow mountains all round, together
* Mrs. Ingham, Miss Fremantle, Rev. C. L. Burrows,
and myself. ED.
61
62 A SHORT RECESS
with an excellent base of operations by
way of a comfortable hotel, united to pro-
duce impressions that will never fade away.
It was a good time for quiet thought and
prayer, for looking up, looking back, and
looking on.
En route from Strathcona we passed
through Calgary. The Rev. Dr. Ferguson
and Mrs. Ferguson, some friends of Mr.
Burrows, met us and gave us tea at their
sweet little home. He is Superintendent
of 550 miles of Presbyterian Missions and
Pastorates, and he abundantly confirmed
the impressions we had already received of
the difficulties of the clergy in Western
Canada. He told us that some of the more
obvious difficulties were going to be met,
he understood, in British Columbia by the
Anglican Church, through the supply of
more men with private means. He wished
his denomination could do the same !
A SHORT RECESS 68
Dr. Ferguson greatly amused us by reci-
ting the two unwritten but inexorable
commandments of Western Canadian
Social Life. The first is, " Thou shalt not
knock ! " (criticize). The second, " Thou
shalt boost " (crack up). It would appear
that the " remittance men " of former
days who were ever looking towards the
Old Country for money orders and praising
it at Canada's expense have not prejudiced
the Canadian people in favour of English
settlers. The prejudice can be lived
down. Intercourse and intermarriage in
days to come will improve the feeling off
the face of the land, but at present it is
there and must be kept in mind.
We leave this interesting Scotch family
with the reflection that, wherever we go,
our Presbyterian fellow-Christians always
welcome us, and we marvel at the faculty
of our Scotch fellow subjects for pre-
64 A SHORT RECESS
eminence in so many ways, wherever we
meet them, both in Great and Greater
Britain.
It may be it is disconcerting to find
them (with other Protestant bodies) ahead
of us in so many ways ; but we have to
remember that without them the Roman
Church would be a far greater danger than
it is.
STONEWALL
CHAPTER VI
STONEWALL
THE concluding days of our Mission of Help
work must now be placed on record. The
journey from Banff to Winnipeg covered
the entire extent of the Canadian prairie
and took some thirty hours. We probably
travelled some 800 to 1,000 miles. It is
one of the rewards of travel that friendly
and interesting fellow voyagers turn up
along the road ; other sorts are no doubt
to be found, but they have not troubled us.
One interesting personality a retired
military officer who served in the Boer
war pleaded with us on this particular
journey to find him a young parson !
67
68 STONEWALL
He is in charge of a very large business,
the construction of water conduits on the
prairie in connection with the C. P. R.
He told us that he much preferred to deal
with English work-people, but that owing
to their drinking habits not contracted
in Canada he would be compelled very
shortly to visit Sweden, in order to bring
over 300 Swedes ! It is impossible to hear
these things without a blush of shame.
Apropos of this, though otherwise out
of place, I was soon to mark the relieved
surprise that met my refusal of a glass of
beer at our host's table at Stonewall.
" We thought," said he, " that all English-
men drank, and you are the first one I have
met who does not." This was said in no
spirit of contempt, but as the result of
ordinary experience.
But to resume this gentleman on the
train is so anxious for the young parson
STONEWALL 69
who can get on with men, that he offers a
good sum out of his own pocket, will build
both residence and Mission church and
supply firewood and rations. He has our
English address and does not intend to
leave us alone. Are there none ready to
endure a little "hardness" with compen-
sations ?
At Winnipeg we parted company for a
few days with Rev. C. L. Burrows and Miss
Fremantle, while we conducted our fourth
mission at Stonewall, which is situated some
twenty miles from that city. We were
glad to meet at the C. P. R. Hotel during
the two days before Stonewall, the Rev.
Douglas Ellison, who is connected with the
Archbishops' Western Canada Fund. I
had met him in England in connection with
his Railway Mission work in South Africa.
We were able to have some nice straight
talks on Church Work, as it is and as it
70 STONEWALL
ought to be, in Western Canada. He told
us he had one Evangelical clergyman
and that he would welcome many more
that he did not wish ecclesiastical attitudes
and positions to limit the supply of men
to only one type. This was good hearing,
and we ventured to say that, if this could
be made clear at home, the effect would
be excellent and more general support
would be conciliated. Mr. Ellison rather
seems to think that Societies have had
their day and must now be made to " toe
the line" whatever that may mean. He
generously recognizes that whatever Mis-
sionary enthusiasm now exists in the
Home Land has been created and diffused
by the Societies, but he thinks that we are
up against problems that Societies cannot
deal with and which need and call loudly
for the united action of the whole Church.
We ventured to point out a few plain
STONEWALL 71
facts amongst others the present dead-
lock between the Northern and Southern
convocations and the chilly atmosphere of
some diocesan gatherings at home. And
we contrasted with these facts the warm,
intelligent, co-operative atmosphere of
the Committee Rooms in London, where
Churchmen and Churchwomen, in perfect
loyalty to Church order, thank God that
there is still left to them the opportunity
for some voluntary initiative, as, with
diversity of gift and administration, in one
Spirit, they assist towards the extension
of the Kingdom of God in other lands.
One dictum of the Bishop of St. Albans
has often comforted us in this particular.
He said, a little while ago, " There is no-
thing now amiss in the relations between
Societies and the Dioceses of the Church
of England abroad which a little patience
and common sense cannot put right."
72 STONEWALL
Canon Matheson, of St. John's College,
Winnipeg, was my colleague at Stonewall.
Rev. F. W. Goodeve is the rector, and
Mr. and Mrs. Coleman were our kind
host and hostess. Dark and gloomy days,
but warm and kindly conditions other-
wise, fairly describe this concluding
Mission. We have sketched some of the
clerical conditions elsewhere. Mr. Good-
eve will not mind plain speech also here.
Again it is a case of res angustae domi
but most cheerfully borne. The family
with whom we spent some pleasant hours,
increases much faster than the means of
support. But the rector is brave. He
cannot always be visiting 1,000 people, not
all of whom by any means are his people,
and most of whom are exceedingly busy.
So he raises fowls, he does printing work,
and is ready to do anything else that is
reasonable in order to make 180 per
STONEWALL 73
annum go a little further. Who can blame
him ? He is not in love with the voluntary
system. There are many ways in which
the parson is made to feel his position very
painfully. And, as he laughingly re-
marked, if a born Canadian finds it all but
impossible to make ends meet, would an
English-bred man amongst kindlier con-
ditions in the Old Country do better ?
We think not.
But our picture of Stonewall must not
be merely a clerical sketch. For the first
time we found ourselves in touch with the
staple product of this country real es-
tate for Mr. Coleman, who is a solicitor,
is evidently experienced and successful
in this hazardous but stimulating enter-
prise, and with Mrs. Coleman as a most
thoughtful and attentive housewife we
were in an easy position for studying an-
other side of Canadian life in the Far West.
74 STONEWALL
But it may be surprising to record that,
not real estate, but books and men were
the staple subjects of converse in our
leisure moments here. Mr. Coleman
evidently keeps his real estate for the office,
and we gathered that he and his wife spend
their evenings in the company of great
authors he reading aloud to her most
nights, with an occasional game of some
sort coming in between.
Stone wall's chief industry is its stone
quarries, and most of its residents come
from the Old Country. This was the sort
of place and these some of the conditions
for our closing effort.
But our real estate experience claims a
word before we go further into detail
about the Mission.
Mr. Coleman brought home one day the
deed of a Canadian homestead, and we
learnt with interest that, be the settler
STONEWALL 75
of what nationality he may, he has to re-
ceive his land as a grant from His Majesty
King George V. an excellent indication
of the attitude of Canada and its Govern-
ment to the seat and cradle of Empire.
The Stonewall folk gave us a reception
on Saturday evening, November 9th, and
from that time till we left, these good
people, young and old, gathered around us
in increasing numbers as we sounded out
once again the old, old story that never
fails to touch the hearts of men. Mr.
Goodeve was keen about the young people,
of whom there are many. I had several
opportunities with them, both in the High
School and in the Church. He was also
determined to extract from me, for the
benefit of his Women's Auxiliary (com-
monly called the " W.A." in Canada)
what he considered an unusual combina-
tion of Missionary experiences.
76 STONEWALL
An entirely novel and interesting ex-
perience came to us in this place. Soon
after our arrival it must have been about
8 p.m. we heard the loud ringing of a bell
and were informed that it was the Stone-
wall curfew. For very sufficient reasons,
the Stonewall folk have adopted a practice
permissible, we believe, in the province,
that all young people under a certain age
must not be outside their homes un-
attended by parents or other responsible
people after this bell rings out each night.
There are proper pains and penalties at-
tached to the breach of this excellent rule,
and it works exceedingly well.
It was good to feel, as he and Mrs.
Goodeve saw us off in the early frosty
morning of November 14th, that they had
been cheered as also they had cheered
and encouraged us.
One more day in Winnipeg enabled us
STONEWALL 77
to call at Bishopscourt for a parting word
with the Archbishop of Rupertsland and
Mrs. Matheson. They had given us in
the first ten days, a very hospitable shelter,
and we had discovered, during the subse-
quent Missions, how accurate had been the
Archbishop's judgment in several parti-
culars. We found them at home, full of
business and engagements ; we talked over
our experiences, said our good-byes, and
having got our luggage together, faced
towards home. A pressing invitation to
give the week-end to Toronto, a city yet
unvisited, in order to get into sympathetic
touch with Church and college activities in
that important city, shortened our share of
the Stonewall Mission. But Canon Mathe-
son linked himself up with us in a most
sympathetic way, and he will (while we
are preaching at Toronto) know how to say
the closing word and draw the net to shore.
78 STONEWALL
We have been spending two nights and
the greater part of two days in this train,
between Winnipeg and Toronto. We fly
past great waterways like Lake Superior,
and now Lake Huron. Small lakes too rise
up before us on every side, and the journey
is one of constant interest and rapidly
changing beauty.
We lay down our pen for the moment in
the Muskoka district a lovely place of
summer resort, abounding in woods and
waters for the Toronto people.
YOUNG CANADA
CHAPTER VII
YOUNG CANADA
A FEW details about our work among the
young will, we feel sure, be of interest to
the reader. There is no doubt that the
exclusion of religious instruction from the
public schools in Canada is a serious draw-
back. The loss to the rising generation is
very real and is evident. It is not enough
to leave the religious education of the
children to the Sunday Schools, which
only meet once a week, and to the home,
where the parents are often too engrossed
and overstrained, or too indifferent, to
attend to it, and where family prayer is
seldom the custom.
6 81
82 YOUNG CANADA
It is a melancholy reflection that at-
tempts to reach some agreement about
Christian teaching in the schools in Western
Canada, have, as so often in England,
been frustrated by sectarian strife.
The Churches are doing their best to
remedy the defect by efficient Sunday
Schools, but this is not sufficient to coun-
teract the deadening influences of a
materialistic age.
One of the head teachers stated that he
went so far (!) as to have the Lord's
Prayer repeated daily in his school, but
that he was not without misgivings at
this transgression of official regulations.
On Sundays the young people gathered
together in church in good numbers, and
we had bright Services. On the week-
days the numbers were not so large, but
considering that the week-day service
came at the conclusion of afternoon school
YOUNG CANADA 83
it was encouraging to find what a good
number assembled, and in each Mission
it was an increasing number day by day.
At Winnipeg, Lloydminster, and Strath-
cona, we had the privilege of freshly start-
ing or reviving a branch of the Scripture
Union. Many of the young people wel-
comed the suggestion that they should
join, and in each place the rector gave
his cordial sanction. Thus we may hope,
that, as a definite result, there will be a
more diligent reading and using of God's
Word as a guide and weapon for daily life.
We found that the Young Men's and
Young Women's Christian Associations
are prominent institutions in the West and
are doing valuable work. There is a
tendency in some instances to a pre-
dominance of the secular, but the leaders
whom we met seemed to be aware of this
and to be desirous of counteracting it.
84 YOUNG CANADA
In Edmonton the Y.1VLC.A. is finely
situated. We found it swarming with life,
and although it is a large and handsome
building we were informed that the ac-
commodation was not sufficient and that
something larger was in contemplation.
The fact of smoking not being allowed in
the building does not seem to deter men
of all ages from frequenting it.
The attractions are so varied that we
were led to ask how the expenses of main-
tenance are provided and were informed
that the Association is entirely self-sup-
porting. There are 1,200 subscribing
members. A swimming bath and gym-
nasium are a part of Y.M.C.A. equipment
in the large centres and special attention
is given to the junior section.
We had the privilege of visiting All
Saints' Girls' Home in Edmonton, founded
by Mrs. Lloyd, who kindly showed us
YOUNG CANADA 85
round. It is beautifully situated and is
a delightful hostel for young women
working in offices, stores, etc., in the city.
It was not long before we became
familiar with the initials " W. A." We
learnt again and again of the widespread
influence of that useful adjunct of the
Canadian Church, "The Women's Aux-
iliary."
It is the Missionary spirit combined
with Missionary activities which is the
life of this organization. Its operations
are manifold, embracing both home and
foreign work, and there is a junior section
in which girls and young women are
enrolled, and in which they find happy and
useful occupation.
It has been a great interest to ascertain
how far the Scout movement, which has
taken such hold of boys in England and
elsewhere, had " caught on " in Canada.
86 YOUNG CANADA
The value of the movement appears to
be recognized on all sides, and there is no
lack of testimony as to its healthy in-
fluence.
We heard of several gallant and useful
actions being performed by Canadian
Scouts.
In one case in Manitoba, a fugitive had
quite baffled the police, and the Boy Scouts,
being requisitioned, immediately got on
his track and traced him to a hayloft, where
he was arrested.
In another case farther West, a murderer
was tracked and arrested, entirely through
the pluck and shrewdness of some of the
local Scouts. A retired British officer,
engaged in important irrigation works
for the C.P.R., whom we met in the train,
expressed his great admiration for the
movement, relating how on one occasion
he was in difficulties with his motor car
YOUNG CANADA 87
and some Scouts came to his assistance.
He was grateful and favourably impressed,
and still more so when offering the boys a
gratuity they refused to accept anything,
" because we are Scouts."
The Canadian boy is born to scouting
and woodcraft. He is in his element in
the woods, or shooting the rapids of some
river in his canoe, or on the boundless
prairie. We experienced this on one
occasion, when being driven a distance of
twelve miles across the Saskatchewan
prairie to preach at a place called Marshall.
It was the Harvest Festival and it was
important for us to arrive in time, but we
lost the trail and found ourselves in
ploughed fields and passing through high
brushwood. Darkness came on and it
looked as though we should fail to keep
our engagement ; but the driver of our
team was not in the least disconcerted ;
88 YOUNG CANADA
he maintained a cheery spirit fulfilling
the eighth Scout law, which relates to smil-
ing and whistling assuring us every now
and then that he " bet we should get there
all right," which we accordingly did just
a few minutes before the hour of service.
The weak point about the Canadian
boy (so we were repeatedly informed)
is a lack of discipline. He is so early
thrust into the responsibilities of life that
he becomes too quickly independent of
parental control. We know that this is
also a feature of young life in the Old
Country, though in a lesser degree, and it is
just this lack of discipline that " Scout-
craft," with its fine principles and varied
attractions, is designed to cure. The
great difficulty, however, is to find good
leaders.
There is fine material to work upon and
the boys are eager to belong to the great
PLEASANT VALLEY FARM, ON THE PRAIRIE.
A THRESHING SCENE EN ROUTE TO ONION LAKE.
YOUNG CANADA 89
" brotherhood," but in many cases there
is no one suitable and ready to take the
lead. We had the pleasure of meeting
some of the right sort, disciplined men
of high principle and Christian character,
who are willing to make sacrifices to win
the boys for God and good citizenship,
but their number is too few. The absorb-
ing interests and exacting duties of life
in a new country and the eagerness to
make your " pile " are often obstacles in
the way of such work being taken up.
The clergy are so greatly occupied with
the manifold duties of their calling, and
so burdened with financial responsibility
that they are unable, with few exceptions,
to run a troop of Scouts. They need and
are ready to welcome the active co-opera-
tion of keen young laymen who will take
up this work in the right spirit.
After a visit to Canada we are more than
90 YOUNG CANADA
ever convinced of the importance of the
Scout movement being carried out on a
religious basis, which is the only guarantee
of its permanence.
A few details of the movement as we
found it in working at the different places
we visited, may be of interest to the
reader.
Taking up a Winnipeg paper one day,
I caught sight of a large-lettered heading
to the effect that, owing to a statement
made by a distinguished British soldier,
Sir Ian Hamilton, that the real purpose
of the Scout movement is to make soldiers,
a meeting of scoutmasters would be
held that night at the Y.M.C.A. to frame
a protest. This was accordingly done, and
I was present at the said meeting and
became aware of the unanimous feeling
of our brother scoutmasters against
militarism. This certainly showed that
YOUNG CANADA 91
the Winnipeg leaders are vigilant and
zealous that the true principles of the
movement should be recognized and
carried out.
The 10th Winnipeg Scouts are con-
nected with Christ Church. It was good
to see them with their scoutmaster sitting
in the front seats at the mass meeting
for young people in the Walker Theatre,
when the Rev. S. M. Warner gave a very
helpful address.
Judging from a series of camp picture
postcards, kindly given me by their scout-
master, Mr. Hoskins, the 1st Manitou
Scouts must be resourceful fellows and
up to the mark. Mr. Hoskins is a law
student. He evidently loves his work
with the Scouts.
At Lloydminster, through lack of leader-
ship, the Scouts have been merged into
a cadet corps. This is a distinctively
92 YOUNG CANADA
military movement and is widespread in
the Dominion. The rector took me to
one of their meetings in the Hall of the
Canadian Mounted Infantry. They were
engaged in rifle drill and gymnastic exer-
cises. I was given the privilege of
addressing a few words to them.
Even at Onion Lake, an Indian Reserve,
forty miles from Lloydminster and the
railway, we found that the Baden-Powell
Scout movement was not unknown. In-
deed the native Cree Indian clergyman
there, the Rev. E. Ahenakew, told us that
he possessed a copy of the handbook,
" Scouting for Boys," and was anxious
to start a patrol among the Indian lads
and others on the Reserve, as he felt that
the Scout law and the different points of
scoutcraft would be very useful to them.
No doubt the training of these boys,
several of whom we saw, will require dis-
YOUNG CANADA 98
cretion, but under the wise guidance of
Mr. Ahenakew, we feel sure there would
be success. We had a good deal of talk
about the matter, and we fully expect to
hear of a Scout patrol being formed at
Onion Lake.
As we travelled farther West, we still
found the Boy Scouts in evidence.
At Edmonton, which is almost the far-
thest limit of the railway line North- West,
there are several troops. It did not take
long to discover that Archdeacon Gray
is the moving spirit there in scouting
matters. Until recently he has been act-
ing as District Commissioner and is very
keen and influential about everything that
concerns the welfare of the young. He
gave me the opportunity of visiting the
troop connected with his own church and
also another troop connected with the
Methodists. I was asked to address
94 YOUNG CANADA
the latter and they gave us a very hearty
reception. The archdeacon has had a
muster of as many as 200 Scouts. He
takes personal command, and knows
how to turn the youngsters to good ac-
count when any public service is required
of them.
There is a troop being worked at the
English Mission by Mr. Watkins, one of
the Rev. G. W. Boyd's staff. From what
he told us, we gathered that his task is a
difficult one, but we do not doubt that
with perseverance and kindness his en-
thusiasm for the cause will win the day.
At Strathcona (now incorporated with
Edmonton), where our Mission was held,
we came across some very keen young
Scouts, but they lacked leadership. The
rector wishes to have a troop formed in
connection with his church, which is by
far the best plan, and we hope that our
YOUNG CANADA 95
visit gave some impetus to the movement.
There are several lads ready to join and
amongst them some who will make good
patrol leaders. The great need is a
zealous scoutmaster and we hope the
rector will soon meet with one. It was
a pleasant surprise to find a couple of
these bright lads at the railway station on
the morning of our departure to help with
our hand baggage and to bid us God-
speed.
Whilst in Toronto, on our return
journey, there were several opportunities of
learning in what high estimation the Scout
movement is held in that great city. A
leading citizen informed us that the im-
provement effected in the conduct of those
youths who had come under Scout training
was again and again thrust upon his
attention. He was enthusiastically in
favour of the movement and expressed
96 YOUNG CANADA
his willingness to do anything in his power
to further so good a cause.
In the province of Ontario there are
about 8,000 Boy Scouts, 1,200 of these
being enrolled in the City of Toronto.
I was fortunate enough to fall in with
Mr. Hammond, the Provincial Secretary,
and Mr. Tod, scoutmaster of the 2nd
Toronto troop, from both of whom I
gained much interesting information about
the movement. A pleasing incident was
told us about a street arab, for this genus
is not unknown even in Canada. He was
not a Scout, but had learned something
about the meaning of being one. This boy,
being urged by his companions to join
them in pilfering at one of the great
Toronto stores, fled for sanctuary to the
office of the Scout headquarters. Being
asked for what purpose he had come, he
explained that he was fleeing from his
FOHN GRACE MATHESON AND SOME OF HIS INDIANS
ONION LAKE.
YOUNG CANADA 97
persecutors, because he did not want to
break the Scout law " that one about a
feller's honour."
I spent an evening with the 4th
Toronto Troop and addressed them on
parade. I also had the pleasure of
meeting the Rev. N. Tebbs, scoutmaster
of a troop at Hespeler, 100 miles from
Toronto, who related several instances
of the way in which his boys have been
influenced for good through imbibing the
spirit of the Scout law. The movement
in Toronto and indeed throughout Canada
has received much encouragement from
Earl Grey, the late Governor-General and
also from the Duke of Connaught, the
present Governor-General, who is Chief
Scout for the Dominion. With such fine
leadership, and under the guidance of such
men, it would appear that the true Christian
ideals and objects of the movement have
98 YOUNG CANADA
every likelihood of being promoted and
perpetuated.
In London, Ontario, there is a troop
in connection with St. Paul's Cathedral,
but we did not obtain any information
about it. From a talk we had with Mr.
Stanley Cree, of Huron College, I gathered
that the movement needed impetus and
experienced workers, but that a very
marked and pleasing feature of the London
Boy Scouts is the feeling of brotherhood
which exists both among the scoutmasters
and the boys. It was only the brevity of
the visit that prevented our accepting an
invitation from Mr. Cree to meet the
scoutmasters, and we believe also that a
rally of the boys was intended in our
honour. At the Cronyn Memorial Church
(where we had the great privilege of preach-
ing in the old pulpit used by my grand-
father, the first Bishop of Huron), we came
YOUNG CANADA 99
in contact with the junior St. Andrew's
brotherhood. I was asked to address
them at their Sunday afternoon gathering,
numbering over sixty, and was very
favourably impressed with their attention
and good order.
There is just one other incident, and
that an unexpected one, to relate in
reference to our contact with the Boy
Scout movement. During a passing visit
to the Niagara Falls, I had the pleasure
of meeting the Rev. Guy Gordon, the
Rector of Christ Church in that place.
He also turned out to be one of the
" fraternity," being scoutmaster of his
own troop. His introduction to the move-
ment came about in rather a curious way,
through the reading of an adverse criticism
sent to him by a friend ; it did not, how-
ever, act as a deterrent, for he at once
proposed to his boys' brigade that they
100 YOUNG CANADA
should adopt the name of "Boy Scouts,"
to which they readily agreed. He then
procured the handbook and proceeded to
operate on his own initiative, and now
declares, after four years' experience,
that he cannot understand any clergyman
neglecting to use such a valuable aid to-
wards getting into helpful touch with his
boys.
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN
CANADA :
A FEW CRITICISMS AND OPINIONS
BY A CANADIAN
CHAPTER VIII
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN CANADA:
A FEW CRITICISMS AND OPINIONS BY A
CANADIAN
IT will be quite impossible in one short
chapter to say all that should be said with
respect to the Church, her work, her pro-
gress, and her conquests, which are not by
any means few. An endeavour will rather
be made in this short space to give ex-
pression to a few straight criticisms of
the Church and the manner of her work,
in the hope that, if they are of any
practical utility, they will result in helping
us all to greater achievements and more
glorious conquests.
103
104 CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN CANADA
In order to thoroughly enter into the
spirit and work of the Church in Canada,
it is necessary to become imbued with
the greatness and potentiality of the
land. Beyond all manner of doubt,
Canada is destined to become a great
nation.
In extent it is twice the size of India,
and, omitting Russia, it is as large as
Europe, comprising altogether 3,745,574
square miles of territory, equal to about
one third of the whole British Empire.
This mighty domain stretching from ocean
to ocean is blessed beyond compare with
wonderful material resources the greatest
timber belts, wonderful explored and
unexplored mineral regions, vast plains
of the richest possible agricultural lands,
a wonderful natural system of inland
waterways, a climate healthy and invigor-
ating at all times, ideal conditions for
I I
CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN CANADA 105
the building up of a strong, sturdy, virile
race, the population made up of the hardy,
ambitious people from the British Isles and
the German Empire, and the wideawake
citizens from the northern countries of
Europe. Given such a land and the
commingling of such a resourceful and
progressive people, what limit can be set
to its progress and power ?
During the nineteenth century the United
States rose to be one of the richest and most
powerful nations of the world, and it does
not require the ken of a prophet to predict
that the twentieth century will see a like
transformation and evolution in Canada.
Having in mind then the nature, the
extent, and the marvellous future of this
land, let us turn our thoughts for a few
moments to the consideration of the past,
the present, and the future of the Church
of England in Canada.
106 CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN CANADA
In 1763 France ceded to England the
whole of North America lying north of the
Alleghany Mountains. The establishing
of military stations necessitated the bring-
ing in of chaplaincies and the services of
the Church. In fact, somewhere about the
year 1749 a regular mission of the Church
of England had been established at
Annapolis-Royal, Nova Scotia, and from
that early date the work of the Church
commenced and continued to grow and
spread throughout the whole length and
breadth of the Dominion.
The opportunity of the Church in those
early days to hold the field and become
the Church of the people was most unique.
She had the prestige of the Government
and its officials. Whatever there was of
British gentry also belonged to her. Most
of the settlers also were ex-soldiers, who
owed allegiance to her sway, and it was
CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN CANADA 107
also much easier then than it was later
to get the French " habitant " to attend
the services.
At this time also the Church had the
direct patronage of the Crown, and was
apparently given any needed financial
assistance for church-building, college
work, salaries of clergy, etc., and the good
people of England were always willing to
supply the necessary funds.
Later on, in 1783, there was a great influx
of people from the United States. These
were the people who remained loyal to
the Crown after the great American Re-
volution. They came over into Canada
in large numbers and settled in Ontario
and the maritime provinces. These
people were, without exception, members
of the Church of England, and though
their emigration from the States left the
Church there almost deserted, yet they
108 CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN CANADA
were a great source of strength to the
Church in Canada.
With this splendid start then, in both
men and money (and her numbers con-
tinually augmented year by year), we are
compelled to ask the question, " Why
is it that, instead of holding first place
amongst these Protestant bodies, she is
a bad third and in some places even
fourth ? " Any one who has the welfare
of the Church at heart is compelled to ask,
" What has been the matter with the
Church ? To what can we ascribe her
comparative failure ? ' To answer these
questions, we must, I think, first of all
consider the class of people with whom
the Church has had to deal. When once
the country became fairly well known in
the British Isles, the larger number of
people who year by year were attracted
to these shores were not the people of
CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN CANADA 109
English birth, but those of Scotch and
Irish parentage. And it is important to
note (in view of our historical enquiry)
that the most numerous and progressive
came from the north of Ireland. This
Scotch-Irish race which has given so many
great captains of industry and war to
Great Britain, gave to Canada a host of
hardy, industrious settlers who have be-
come the dominant peoples of the land.
In almost every occupation and pro-
fession you will find these people or their
descendants occupying the prominent and
commanding positions. Those from the
north of Ireland were chiefly members
of the Church of Ireland and came pre-
pared to throw in their lot with the
Church of Canada. They looked for and
they expected to have a say in the Govern-
ment of the Church, and naturally, where
they were in the majority, they desired
110 CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN CANADA
a service that approximated somewhat
to that of the Church in Ireland. In far
too many cases, however, they found the
clergy out of sympathy with their ideals
and most autocratic in their manner.
They had been given a voice in the Govern-
ment of their Church at home and they
expected the same here, and when they
found the clergyman hard and unsym-
pathetic and inclined to conduct the
services just as he saw fit, they soon be-
came indifferent to the welfare of the
Church and in many instances withdrew
from her membership.
The parsons laid down the law that all
the people had to do was to attend the
services of the Church and contribute to
its support, and it was none of their busi-
ness what the parson might do in his pri-
vate life or what ritual he might employ
in the service.
CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN CANADA 111
No doubt many of these settlers were
lacking in education and culture, and to
some of the parsons their manners were
possibly distressing, but it was the business
of the Church to elevate, educate, and
assist these people, instead of antagonizing
them, and in the long run alienating so
many of these hardy, industrious, pro-
gressive folk. A little laxity in ritual and
a little breaking down of English exclusive-
ness would have saved the Church many a
family that have since become a power in
the land.
Then again, these people, warm hearted
and sincere, were visited time and time
again by different Methodist and Presby-
terian Ministers, and services were held
in their houses. These services were
simple as a rule, and the presence of the
minister was cheering, and the touch of
human kindness drew many away that
112 CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN CANADA
might easily have been kept faithful to
the Church of their baptism. Great dis-
tricts in the different provinces were
almost completely captured by the Method-
ists and others, in these early days, when a
little more attention and kindly sympathy
on the part of the clergyman of the district
might have held them in the Church. Of
course the clergy were not altogether to
blame for this leakage. The immense
extent of the country and the scattered
nature of the settlements had a great
deal to do with it. One parson could
not adequately minister to a whole
country-side ; and the itinerant Methodist
preacher was the easiest possible develop-
ment, and many of these coming out of
the ranks of Church people had meeting-
places built, centres established, and the
foundations laid for a strong, progressive
Methodist Church. The few regularly
NEW PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS, EDMONTON, ALBERTA.
Y.M.C.A., EDMONTON.
CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN CANADA 118
ordained clergy in the field, even if they
were most acceptable, could not possibly
deal with the situation, and, instead of
getting faithful laymen to work, to read
and pray with the people, the opportunity
as far as the Church was concerned was
lost and the Methodists, with their more
elastic and democratic system, were the
gainers. The old conservative Church
could not adapt herself in time, and
when changes were finally made, their
people were gone and the opportunity
lost.
Thus pride in their culture, education,
and superior knowledge, insistence on
certain lines of Ritual, and their inability
to minister to the people, explains in a
measure how the clergy lost touch with so
many who might otherwise have been
Church people. Furthermore, the Church
lost ground tremendously in the way
8
114 CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN CANADA
she handled the educational question
of the country. Instead of founding
broad, comprehensive institutions, to which
all sorts and conditions could come and
be given equality in membership and
management, she sought to establish
schools and colleges solely under the
control of the bishops.
Jealousies and quarrels were thus
aroused, and the result was that non-
Anglicans founded their own institutions,
or threw all their support into the estab-
lishing of great State universities, in which
they have always exercised control, and
which have completely out-distanced the
Church institutions in prestige and popu-
larity.
The great tide of young life from the
schools went on to these State colleges,
and the Church has been striving with all
her power to maintain even a respectable
CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN CANADA 115
appearance. She has sunk enough money
in these institutions to evangelize the whole
West ; and better results could have been
obtained if she had thrown in her culture
and influence with the popular policy.
But possibly the greatest loss to the
Church in holding aloof from these great
State institutions is the fact that she
exercises very little influence on the
thought and character of the thousands
who yearly graduate from them. Even
to this very day she seems to shun the
progressive centres of learning. For in-
stance, the President of the Great Toronto
University is an ordained Presbyterian
Minister the Principal of McGill Univer-
sity in Montreal is a Presbyterian the
Head of Saskatchewan University is a
Presbyterian, and the President of Alberta
University is a Methodist Minister and
we might go on and enlarge on this list by
116 CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN CANADA
adding the names of the heads of many of
our great colleges and schools.
Again, the Church has miserably failed
to act in the capacity of leader in mould-
ing the character and morals of the people.
In a new country like Canada one's
profession of religion must mean some-
thing. It must be known and read of all
men. And the clergyman who is known
to smoke, take his glass, or indulge in
cards and theatres, has practically no
influence in moulding the conduct or
morals of his people. You cannot preach
one thing and practise another before
these downright, practical folk. So many
of the clergy have been thus unable to
take a really earnest stand on the great
questions that have affected the country
and in which men of the other Churches
have been conspicuous and honoured
leaders. Temperance legislation, gam-
CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN CANADA 117
bling, Lord's Day Observance, White
Slave Trade, etc., these movements are
nearly always led by non-Church bodies.
Not often enough has the Church found
her bishops or leading clergy taking a
definite advanced stand on any of these
questions.
Again, it is safe to say that possibly the
greatest hindrance to the progress of the
Church in this country has been the
constant quarrelling between the High and
Low factions. It has been simply pitiful
to see congregation after congregation
split up and almost destroyed over some
inane question as to whether the clergy-
man should wear a cassock or not, or
where a cross should be placed that
some person wished to present to the
church.
So frequent and bitter did these quarrels
become that many sober and plain think-
118 CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN CANADA
ing people left the Church completely, and
many more became indifferent and luke-
warm. It has been a thousand pities that
the clergy of the Church could not take a
plain prayer-book stand and give a simple
service to the people instead of continually
worrying them over ornaments and useless
accessories. But they would not, and as
a result the Church is punished by the loss
of her people. The plain people wanted
the plain simple Gospel, without a lot of
novel additions, and if they could not
get it in the Church they went to others
who would give it to them.
The last point that might be brought
out as a reason why the Church is not
as advanced in Canada as circumstances
would apparently warrant, and one that
cannot very well be overlooked, is the
almost complete failure on the part of the
English emigrant to properly support the
CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN CANADA 119
Church. Endowment in England may be
all very well for the Church there, but it
has the fatal effect of rendering the people
who are thus brought up quite unfit and
unprepared to support the Church, as she
must be supported where there is no
endowment. The Scotch, the Irish, and
the Nonconformists from England turn
naturally to the support of their own
Church when they arrive, but the English
Churchman turns rather and laughs and
sneers at the poor condition of what he
calls the Canadian Church as compared
with his wonderful Church in England, and
when he is pressed to contribute to the
support and upkeep of this Church he
generally gives a downright refusal, and
in many cases does not choose to be classed
as a member. It is an undisputed fact in
Canada that the English-reared Church-
man gives the clergy more trouble, and
120 CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN CANADA
expects more from the Church and gives
less in return than any other class of new-
comers to the country. Even the hard,
unbelieving American will contribute to
the support of the parson, though he never
belonged to any Church, nor expects
anything from it. Immigration statistics
would encourage the belief that the Church
had a wonderful influx of supporters every
year, but when it is considered that the
majority of them look to the Church to
give them something instead of their
supporting the Church, one can readily
understand they are of no great assistance.
Furthermore, this same class of Old Country
people have miserably failed to make good
way in Canada.
There are exceptions, of course, where
you do find some real, honest, hardworking
chaps, and these are getting along wonder-
fully well, but the vast majority are simply
CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN CANADA 121
" hewers of wood and drawers of water"
for the American and Canadian born.
The Englishman has not the faculty of
adapting himself to our conditions, and
he acts as though he was only a sojourner
or stranger in the land, instead of settling
right down and trying to overcome the
obstacles that every one meets with here.
He usually muddles around until some one
else picks up everything in sight, and he is
left to be a labourer for a man that possibly
has not one-half his education or advan-
tages.
A case in point is known to the writer,
of a town being established by a company
of people from the Old Country. They had
everything under their own control, offices,
stores, and businesses, and yet in six years
everything that was worth having in this
town was owned by an American or a
Canadian. These are facts stated simply
122 CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN CANADA
to show how the Church is handicapped ;
for if her members cannot succeed, the
institution cannot reasonably expect to
prosper.
In regard to the present condition of
the Church, then, we can see that she has
great problems to solve and a hard, uphill
road to pursue. She is completely out-
distanced in numbers and wealth by the
Romanists, Presbyterians, and Methodists,
and in this country nothing succeeds like
success. The very fact that the others are
ahead to-day gives them a wonderful
advantage, and assures them not only of
holding their own members, but attracting
many from the Church. The strong
Church in town or village draws. People
go with the crowd, and those who were
good Church people in some other country
have no hesitation in joining the Methodist
or Presbyterian here, simply because they
CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN CANADA 123
seem to be the leading Church. " To
him that hath, shall be given."
Furthermore, the Church, if she is to
keep in the procession at all, must give more
generously. The Baptists of the city of
Calgary alone give more for Missions than
the whole Diocese of Calgary, which in-
cludes not only the Church people of
Calgary, but also those of the whole Pro-
vince of Alberta. The budgets of the
Methodist and Presbyterian Churches are
statements of finance that, compared with
those of the Church, look like a millionaire's
income in contrast to that of a second-class
school teacher.
Another frightful present-day weakness
in the Church is the worldliness of her
members. So many of her people will
have pleasure first, no matter what more
serious concern goes to the wall. Church-
people will be found as leaders at the races,
124 CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN CANADA
society functions, concerts, military affairs,
Lodges, etc., but so few are real leaders in
their own body.
The Methodist or the Baptist builds
up his home, his church, and his school ;
if he has any left over he may give a little
to these frivolous things. But he puts
first things first. The average Churchman
puts pleasure first, and the rest may take
care of themselves.
The Church in Canada needs a real
conversion, and if she does not seek for
this, she will year by year drop back in
comparison with the other bodies and
yearly become of less force and power
in moulding and building up a true Chris-
tian people. She needs at the present time
a clergy caught up with the Pentecostal
power that will lead them to go to work
amongst the people with the sole desire
of saving their souls not carried away
CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN CANADA 125
with some strange doctrine, or some idea
that interests no one but themselves, but
the plain Gospel, given by plain men in a
way that plain people can readily under-
stand. Elaborate music, early services
(which household conditions here render
difficult), strange vestments and stranger
doctrines do not in the least interest
people in this busy land. These things
may be all very well for those wanting new
sensations, but there are too many sensa-
tions of a practical nature in this country
and the people are too desperately busy and
earnest for them to care for, and least of
all pay for, novelties in the Church.
The days of priestcraft and ecclesias-
ticism are long since over ; they have, j
in fact, never arrived in this country. ^/
The Clergy then to-day must be wide-
awake, well-educated men, and more intent
upon getting a man into a state of salva-
126 CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN CANADA
tion than into a nominal Church member-
ship. The liquor man, the gambler, the
society devotee, have signally failed to
keep the Church alive, and it is time for
real Christians to take charge of affairs
and let the professionals have a rest.
There is a strong element at work along
these same Evangelical lines. The growth
and influence of colleges like Wycliffe of
Toronto, Emmanuel of Saskatoon, the
New Theological movement in Montreal,
and others, augur well for the future, and if
only enough good, spiritually-minded young
men can be found to take up the work, a
noble future can yet be assured. The
Church does stand for something in the land.
She is. the fount of loyalty to the Empire,
and the maintenance of the Sovereignty.
The strong loyal bond taught in the Prayer
Book bears fruit, and if there is one force
more than another that holds Canada loyal,
CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN CANADA 127
it is the influence and teaching of the
Old Mother Church.
She stands also for a regular ministry,
for a quiet, orderly form of worship, for
a Prayer-Book service, that so many really,
after all, prefer to the compositions of any
individual. The Church also in Canada
has a wonderful opportunity to lead the
way in closer work and union of the non-
Roman bodies. She is free from the
trammels of State, and all the vested rights
and privileges that she has in the Old
Country. That the Church in Canada is
seizing these many opportunities to draw
closer to the separated brethren is seen
in her leadership in the Laymen's Mis-
sionary Movement, in Lord's Day Alliance
work, etc., also in the combining of the
Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian, and
Congregational colleges in Montreal on
several theological subjects that will be
128 CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN CANADA
taught by expert Professors to all the
students of these different colleges.
Thus, as we contemplate the future of
the Church we are beginning to realize
that her best work can be done by seeking
to infuse into the other bodies these
principles that she herself holds dear.
Working to the very best of her ability
to enlarge her sphere and increase her
influence, not in a narrow ecclesiastical
sense, but in a broad brotherly way
co-operating with the other Christian
bodies in every good word and work, and
seeking not so much to make every one
a Church member, but to make the whole
land Christian.
The Romanists, even, are adopting much
more liberal ways of working, and the old
monkish system has been replaced by that
of the regular parish priest, who is an active
citizen of the town and the friend of all.
A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF EDMONTON,
BANFF (IN THE ROCKIES).
CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN CANADA 129
The Parish system is the only one to
really succeed here. Brotherhood Missions
and such-like systems are a poor temporary
makeshift. To win even Church members
to your support you must identify yourself
fully and finally with the place in which
your lot is cast. Every town is so jealous
of its own progress and success, that any
one appealing for support must be con-
sidered a citizen of that town. Very little
success would be won by any one who
simply came in for a day or two and then
passed on to some other place. Much
better, by far, would it be for the Church
to spend more money on small Mission
churches and houses and keep the clergy-
man right on the field, than to spend
hundreds of dollars on some great central
house, the withdrawing of the men to
which means their loss of prestige and
the risk of their getting out of touch with
9
130 CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN CANADA
their people. The Roman Catholic, the
Presbyterian, and Methodist Churches keep
their men right on the field. They are
known to be one of the people and, as
such, they command the assistance and
support of the people all the time.
And the man who is there, in fair
weather and foul, to share all the ups and
downs of the place, is the man who in the
long run will win out. Some of the re-
cently arrived clergy complain of the
hardships this prairie life especially en-
tails. The only answer is that it is no
harder for the clergy than for the people,
and the parson who cannot rough it all
the year round, with the people, will
never win their regard.
The different societies at work on be-
half of the Church should adopt a common
platform one that is permanent and
Abiding, and that will make for the up-
CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN CANADA 131 *
building of the Church on safe and sound
lines and according to the real needs and
genius of the land. And, above all, the^
future success of the Church depends on
the individual clergy being strong men,
and imbued with the power of the Spirit. /
Men must really see in them individuals
who are caught up by the Spirit, and who
have as their very first object the planting
of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of others.
The institution here, as such, has no stand-
ing. There are no ancient ruins, no great
churches hoary with age nothing to in-
dicate power but the individual, who
must be as wise as a serpent and as harmless
as a dove.
It is only a waste of money to send out '
small second-rate men ; they have no
influence, and only cause the Church to
lose in the esteem of the people.
The clergy must be such that their
132 CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN CANADA
supporters will not have to apologize for
them. Both bishops and clergy must be
big men in every sense of the word, large-
hearted, broadminded, consecrated, and
such, working in and through the Church,
can yet do a great and enduring work in
the land.
The future policy of the Church, also,
must be one of bold adventure. Hitherto
she has been too timid, too conservative,
in regard to new fields. Church extenders
and Church builders are taken at their
own estimate, and the Church that erects
a little wooden building, where the other
denomination erects a large brick and
stone structure, will receive the regard
and support that she apparently expects.
Smallness in anything never pays here.
The best building possible, the most
strategic sites, the most ambitious policy
is none too good for the Church, but
CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN CANADA 133
her leaders have been all too slow in
pursuing such a course. It is to the
everlasting discredit of the Church that
her leaders have been so slow in taking
advantage of the marvellous advances in
property values that this land has seen.
From one quarter- section alone, the
Hudson Bay Company made over four
million dollars. The Church, with a little
foresight, could have easily had all the
money needed for any work. But as it is
she has to go on begging in these days
when all other institutions are rolling in
wealth and their leaders cry out, " Why
do not smart young men take up the work
of the Ministry ? " The marvel is, when
they see such unwisdom and inefficiency,
that any one can be got to enlist in her
ranks. If the Church is not a strong,
efficient force making for righteousness,
through which a man can thus have an
134 CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN CANADA
effective vocation, she will in no other
respect attract young men. The ministry
offers no social standing to-day no
position of prominence and no prospect
of wealth. The only thing it offers is a
medium for men to work for the good of
their fellowmen and for the glory of God.
Let the Church, then, realize her Divine
calling, pruning down and casting off all
other considerations but the one great
reason of her existence service. If in the
years to come she can, in this great and
growing land, come nearer and nearer to
this grand ideal the ideal of absolute
service she will more and more make
herself a power for good in the land.
ON THE ROAD HOME. TORONTO
AND NEW YORK
CHAPTER IX
ON THE ROAD HOME. TORONTO AND
NEW YORK
TORONTO was well worth while, and in the
persons of Canon and Mrs. O'Meara it
gave us a cordial welcome. The academic
environment of Wycliffe College, which
with other Divinity schools are grouped
around the University, greatly interested
us. Here also stands in beautiful grounds
the Provincial Parliament building, and
we looked forth from Canon O'Meara's well-
constructed Wycliffe Lodge with thankful-
ness that his college buildings enjoyed so
distinguished a position.
137
188 ON THE ROAD HOME
This college seems to us likely to have so
important an influence upon the future of
Church work in Western Canada, that
we make no apology for the insertion here
of a brief historical sketch.
Wycliffe College originated thirty-three
years ago in the spontaneous and volun-
tary action of a number of earnest and
loyal members of the Church of England
in the Diocese of Toronto, who recognized
the paramount importance of the mainten-
ance and propagation of those principles
of Evangelical truth upon fidelity to which
they believed the strength and efficacy
of the Church depended. The conviction
grew that the only adequate remedy for
the evils which threatened the Church
must be found in the provision of distinc-
tive Evangelical teaching in the training
and education of candidates for the sacred
ministry; and out of this conviction,
ON THE ROAD HOME 189
deepened by thought and prayer, origi-
nated Wycliffe College.
In October 1877 the work of the
College, then known as the Protestant
Episcopal Divinity School, was begun in a
very unassuming way in the schoolhouse
attached to St. James' Cathedral, where a
little band of students assembled, and
some six of the Evangelical clergy of the
city gave their valuable and gratuitous
services as instructors, under the able
leadership of the late Dr. Sheraton, first
Principal of the College. In 1879 the
College was incorporated. In 1882 a build-
ing was erected upon College Street, to
supply the accommodation and appliances
without which the work could not be
efficiently carried on. In 1885 the build-
ing was enlarged. In 1890, when further
additions were in contemplation, oppor-
tunity was found to dispose of it, and the
140 ON THE ROAD HOME
foundations of the present commodious
structure were laid. This was completed
in the autumn of 1891, and the work of
the College was transferred to it. In
1902 further extensive additions were
made. A new Library and spacious Con-
vocation Hall were erected ; the residential
section was materially extended ; and the
housekeeper's apartments were built.
In 1908, on account of the rapid increase
in the number of students, further enlarge-
ments became necessary, providing twenty-
six additional rooms for students, a facul-
ty room, a new dining-hall and kitchen.
Again, in 1911, for the same reason, the
principal's residence was converted into
students' rooms, thus giving the whole
college rooms for ninety-eight students.
A common room and a sitting-room for
the students were also provided. Ad-
ditional land to the east was secured from
ON THE ROAD HOME 141
the University for the erection of the
Founders' Chapel and a new residence for
the Principal. The chapel is complete in
every appointment, with pipe organ and
memorial brasses for the Founders, the
deceased graduates, and students.
Since the commencement of its work the
College has been the means of sending out
to the work of the Ministry 224 men.
These are now labouring in the following
fields :
Eastern Canada . . 127
Canadian North- West , 48
The Foreign Field . . 17
Elsewhere . . . 25
Wycliffe enjoys the unique advantage of
being the only theological college con-
nected with the University which possesses
its residential and teaching equipment
situated within the University grounds.
142 ON THE ROAD HOME
The benefits derived from this intimate
relationship with the life and teaching of
the University are self-evident. The easy
access to the staff and lectures ; the
economy of time made possible by close
proximity with the University buildings
( including gymnasium, undergraduate
union, etc.), and not the least the influence
of a life spent in common association with
a large body of students these are factors
which make the position of Wycliffe
College unique in opportunity for life and
teaching. The College forms an integral
part of the educational system of the
Church of England in Canada. By resolu-
tion of the Provincial Synod in the year
1889 it was given its place as one of the
recognized theological colleges of our
Church, on an equal basis with those of
other centres of educational and Church
life in Canada. Its graduates are re-
ON THE ROAD HOME 143
ceived by all the bishops as candidates
for Holy Orders. The Primate and many
of the bishops are visitors of the college.
The course of study throughout the period
of training is so arranged as to lead up to
the examinations for the degrees of B.D.
and D.D., set by the Board of Examiners
of the Provincial Synod, upon which body
Wycliff e College appoints its representative
from year to year.
We shall not soon forget the Saturday
evening devotional gathering in the beauti-
ful chapel of this college. It was by no
means confined to the students. Many came
from outside. It was so real, so reverent,
and so entirely practical. Principal O'Meara
guided the intercessions, and it fell to me to
say the word of exhortation. No mere
words ever describe such times as these,
but the atmosphere reminded me of the
144 ON THE ROAD HOME
large room in Salisbury Square, and the
prayers were the prayers of those who
know the Lord and about the work He
wants to have done. The Principal had
arranged a busy Sunday for me. In the
Church of the Redeemer hard by, my
name as preacher in the morning came
next in the preacher's book to that of
Bishop Boyd Carpenter, on whose track
we find we have been from Calgary right
down to New York. In the evening, to
another large not to say immense
congregation I spoke at St. Paul's, which
is proving too small for its opportunities,
and is being replaced by a Cathedral-like
structure alongside.
Archdeacon Cody is the rector. We
had long wanted to meet him and he gave
us a cordial welcome. There is surely
something in atmosphere, and there is a
freemasonry of Christian fellowship. We
ON THE ROAD HOME 145
enjoyed both in a remarkable degree at
this church, and we wish such men and
such churches may be multiplied through-
out Canada. We had long heard of
Havergal College ; we had seen its daughter
in Winnipeg, and were now to see its
Founder and Head, in the person of Miss
Knox, sister to the Bishop of Manchester.
But she was in a nursing-home and but
a short week before had been under an
operation for appendicitis. No one who
saw her that Sunday afternoon, almost
framed in loving gifts of flowers from kind
and sympathetic friends, would have be-
lieved it. The time permitted was all too
short, but it was enough to reveal to us
afresh a strong woman with a clear and
definite purpose for the young womanhood
of her day in Canada. And we thanked God
that such gifts as hers are thus dedicated.
She had wanted us to stay with her, but
10
146 ON THE ROAD HOME
although this was impossible, we did see
the buildings, and visited room after room,
even to her inner sanctum, which told
much to us of the refined and spiritual
influence exercised there.
Those who follow the story of Missionary
enterprise have heard with sympathy of
the trials and hardships through which
Bishop Stringer, of the Yukon, has recently
passed. What relation there can be be-
tween " eating one's boots " and appendi-
citis, we must leave to the faculty to dis-
cover, but here, in a Toronto hospital on a
Sunday afternoon, we found the strong
manly frame of this Missionary hero,
which had survived on leather for many
days in the Yukon, just emerging from the
now too common operation. It is good to
meet and pray with such men, and he was
good enough to tell us that his last visit
to England burnt into him the thought
ON THE ROAD HOME 147
that work well done on the Pacific slopes
will help not only North-West Canada, but
also China and Japan. Our afternoon
was not yet done. There remained a
Sunday night tea with Dr. and Mrs.
Griffith Thomas. The sight of their
drawing-room fire, burning with a welcome
as the door opened, can be appreciated
aright only by those who have been without
an open fire-place for some time. It was a
fitting prelude to a pleasant and helpful
hour of converse. We were glad to see Dr.
Thomas in the midst of his new work. For
many years a common link has united us
a common love and veneration for the late
Canon Christopher, of Oxford. His " Bible
Studies" at Keswick (1912) had greatly
helped us, and we had wondered how far
it was wise in these days of negation and
ultra-criticism to spare such a man from
the homeland. But we heard enough
10*
148 ON THE ROAD HOME
in Toronto to make us glad he is lent to
Canada for a time. Many thoughts rose
in the mind during this pleasant hour's
talk, and one in particular claims mention
here. The Yarmouth Church Congress
stood out afresh before the memory, and
we heard over again his warning words on
irresponsible chatter on the Higher Criti-
cism. He reminded us of how, while the
hypotheses of other sciences were modestly
deliberated upon and explored in the
laboratory, that the criticisms of this the
highest science of all the knowledge of
God and His Word was being dealt
with from pulpit and platform as not
hypothesis but fact, by crude theorists
and unscientific professors, to the griev-
ous injury of God's work. Dr. Griffith
Thomas has helped many, but he never
was more helpful than in the utterance of
this grave and necessary warning.
ON THE ROAD HOME 149
We were glad to hear from him that he
hopes every alternate year to revisit the
Old Country.
With a drawing-room full of Wycliffe
students after evening service, having
coffee with Principal and Mrs. O'Meara,
and a few bright hymns, ended a very
full Sunday ended also our Ministry of
Help, such as it was, in Western Canada.
Canon O'Meara had not yet finished his
kindly offices for us. After checking our
luggage ne xt morning to the Oceanic
and driving us round to see several more
friends, including Mrs. Edward Blake,
our kind hostess at Murray Bay and
even changing our Canadian money into
U.S. bills, he sent us off with a warm
feeling of gratitude in our hearts. We
ventured to recommend them both to
adopt the motto for Wycliffe that stands
over an old inn near Oxford : " We
150 ON THE ROAD HOME
welcome the coming and speed the depart-
ing guest." Such a label may possibly
prove inconvenient, but the spirit of such
a generous hospitality is undoubtedly
there and in many another Canadian home
that has received us during this memorable
time.
A peep at Niagara Falls en route a
night or two with a sister, Mrs. Ross,
in Philadelphia, a night with an old school
friend (Charles Leaycraft) at New Jersey
and then we went on board the Oceanic,
which is rapidly carrying us back to the
homeland, from whence (if we may dare
to use the words) " The Mission of Help
had been recommended to the Grace of
God for the work which they fulfilled."
We send forth these impressions of such
Church work as we have seen and known
in Western Canada in the hope that they
may assist towards a right view of the
ON THE ROAD HOME 151
situation there, remove some of the ab-
sent-mindedness that too widely obtains
as to the duty of us all towards those who
are so rapidly overflowing from us to
those parts of the Empire, and guide those
who are preparing to go, in some not un-
important ways.
If any such results should follow the
publication of this brief narrative, it would
be our best justification for daring to ask
for some little attention on the part of
those who read.
Printed by Hazell, Watson Viney, Ld. t London and Ayletbvry.
University of Toronto
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