168 EUEAL LIFE IN CANADA 



An extract from the " Eeport of Progress for 1911," 

 of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in 

 America, puts well the place of such executive over- 

 sight: " At the meeting of the Council in Philadelphia 

 in 1908 three notable reports were made which attracted, 

 national and international attention, the reports, 

 namely, upon ' The Church and Industrial Relations,' 

 ' The Church and International Relations,' and ' The 

 Church and Home Missions.' Had the meeting in 

 Philadelphia been merely a Convention these notable 

 utterances would soon have lost their significance. But 

 placed in the hands of the churches with provision for 

 permanent executive oversight they have become the 

 source of activities of service which, it is no exaggera- 

 tion to say, are affecting the entire Christian and church 

 life of our country." 



This utterance indicates clearly the weakness, not 

 only of conventions, but of much of the business of the 

 church. Conferences, Synods, and Assemblies adopt 

 recommendations and pass resolutions which express 

 with wisdom and force well-planned courses of action. 

 But because of no executive leadership to see to the 

 ca^ying out of snch resolutions, much of their force is 

 lost. 



It is but a few years since the churches began appoint- 

 ing their Boards and Commissions of Social Service. 

 It was then the conviction of many that the church 

 had entered upon a new field of achievement which 

 would yet be found to exercise as profound a change 

 upon society, and in its reflex action upon the church 

 itself, as even the great work of missions was doing. 

 That conviction is strengthened to-day as we see new 

 vistas such as this opening before us. 



