146 



EUEAL LIFE IN CANADA 



If there was a Zacchaeus whose honesty and generosity 

 had given way under the bad system of revenue-col- 

 lecting them in vogue, Jesus felt Himself implicated 

 in his downfall. If there were sick folk, their diseases 

 were to Him, in part at least, due to inherited weak- 

 ness or wrong conditions of life which might frankly 

 be termed devilish, but for which He felt Himself 

 socially accountable." 



And if we. His followers, do not try to better human 

 living, Markham's final question concerns us: 



O Masters, Lords and Rulers in all lands, 

 How will the future reckon with this man? 

 How answer his brute question in that hour 

 When whirlwinds of rebellion shake the world? 

 How will it be with kingdoms and with kings — 

 With those who shaped him to the thing he is — 

 When this dumb terror shall reply to God 

 After the silence of the centuries? 



The country is lacking in community ideals. What 

 patriotism is to a nation such ideals are to a locality. 

 Solidarity is one of these high ideals, the oneness in 

 being and in interests of all. But in the country as it 

 now is there is no magnetism to touch its atoms with 

 the power of affinity and make them cohere. The rural 

 community is but ropes of sand where it should be 

 chains of steel. There are localities here and there 

 throughout the country where more of such solidarity 

 exists than is generally found. Roebuck, the neigh- 

 borhood in which is situated one of the three 

 congregations in my pastoral charge, has always, 

 through some kindly influence, retained something of 

 this. The two denominations chiefly represented in the 

 community, Methodist and Presbyterian, are singu- 



