appointing those who would welcome the opportunity of doing so. In the presence of the vision of so great an opportunity for this Church to make her influence and leadership felt, one feels humiliated by the thought of the possibility that the Church might dare to refuse. For her to do so would make it impossible for her to share in the credit and glory of the enterprise to which the contributions which would be made by her broad-visioned laymen would entitle her. It would also preclude the possibility of her exerting her influence in the administration and control of the institutions founded under this programme. And it would be a concession to the theories of those in the Church whose opposition would be largely founded upon interpretations of the ministerial orders which the Church has never officially sanctioned, and which she should not be expected to sanction, in this exclusive sense, in this indirect way.

The time has come when questions of theory and interpretation, concerning which scholars and priests stand hopelessly divided, should not

be allowed to clog the wheels of progress, or be forced as issues and hindrances into the practical work of the Church. They are questions with which the laity are not primarily and vitally concerned, and this Church should find some way, and find it as soon as possible, by which those who are untrammelled by unauthorised exclusive interpretations may, with her sanction and blessing, respond to what they very earnestly believe to be the clear call of Christ to their conscience and to His Church.

CHAPTER XLIV

THE RESTRAINT OF POWER

HE token and sign of true greatness of

THE

spirit and power is never so clearly evident as it is in its restraint. This is the marvel and the wonder of the life and power of God. There are forces in nature which, if unbound, would in a moment annihilate the universe. The world exists by the marvel of the providence which restrains created force. The vast patience of God is manifested in the restraint of justice by the power of mercy. The masterful majesty of Christ was shown when, with the power to summon to His aid "twelve legions of angels," He suffered Himself to be betrayed by a kiss, and to be led to judgment and to crucifixion by the unrestrained malice and fury

of the mob. That the devil and his angels are not self-restrained, is proof of the limitation, and prophetic of the ultimate overthrow of their power.

Those who hold, by reason of their majority, the power to impose their will upon the whole Church, will, if they be imbued with the restraining presence of the all-powerful Spirit of God, refrain from seeking to crush the liberties of those who are at their mercy.

The majority may rightly insist upon their liberty to act in conformity with their convictions; they may not, without tyranny, demand that others of contrary conviction be compelled to act with them.

If, for example, in the case of the Panama Conference, the Bishop of the missionary jurisdiction of Panama, or a missionary Bishop of Porto Rico or Mexico had been ordered to attend this convention, either by the Board of Missions, or by the General Convention, it would have been a tyranny of the majority. If the President of the Board, or any member of

it, had been ordered to go as a delegate, it would have been an act of tyranny. If, in view of a protest, funds contributed by the General Church, where divergent views obtain, had been voted to defray the expenses of a conference opposed by a minority, this too would have shown the lack of restraint of power.

None of these things was done. That those should have been delegated to go who would choose to accept, and make use of their credentials, was not in any way an act of oppression; nor did it show a disregard for the views of others. The right of the minority to express their views, and to act in accordance with them, was freely accorded on the one hand, and fully exercised on the other.

For the minority to have insisted that a representative missionary organisation did not have the right to send those who were willing to go to a conference where the facts and conditions of half a continent were to be reviewed and considered, seems a contention which could not be assented to without a forfeiture of what