ENGLAND'S TWO DREAMS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2968, 4 January 1917, Page 3

ENGLAND'S TWO DREAMS

The Bishop of Worcester and Bishop Montgomery (formerly Bishop of Tasmania), delegates from England to the General Convention of tho Episcopal Church at St. Louis, are now, says the New York correspondent of tho London "Daily Tfclegraph," two of tho most popular preachers in New York. They drew record congregations to tho Cathedral of St. John the Divine and tho historic Trinity .Church. Both defended England's stand in tho -war, and both spoke hopefully of the prospects of a religious union. Bishop Montgomery, preaching at tho Cathedral, drew an analogy between the dream of tho English Church to make Christianity again a telling factor in international affairs, and the dream of English statesmen to make England, tho State, the guarantor of liberty.

.-■ Englishmen (continued tho ■ Bishop) know that the time had passed when part of the Empire can. be ruled by the benefit of tho centre, and that no land should be governed by her except'with the consent and the desire of the goy'erned. We believe that England will live, must live, for the blessing of mankind. We dream of a common, wealth of nations insuring peace on earth and protecting small nations. It is a beautiful dream, this dream of English statesmen of to-day. "Impossible," you say; but hold the exclamation. "There are 6,000,000 men of many races fighting side by side on 2000 miles of battle-front. What does that mean? That they aro fighting for what England dreams of. You ask why we have dared to dream such a dream. The answer is that the events of the past two years have shown the confidence of the best nart of tho world in our rule. No Englishman doubts his duty to protect his land against the evils of child labour, to ■protect its women, and to guard its light. The British Empire asks to do the same for the world of nations. Than this, nothing seems better, nothing seems nobler to England. It seems to us that the dissolution of the British Empire at this time would be a catnstronho to mankind too great to contemplate. Wβ are a nation upon its knees, conscious of its blunders, of its ifjnorancn, but prayins; to fulfil our destiny as tho. hopo of the race."