THE COMPOSITE OF RACES AND RELIGIONS IN AMERICA. 251 



character will be influenced and perfected thereby in a measure 

 never before attained. 



In this attempt to forecast the future religious faith of 

 America and the religious composite which will some time come 

 into being, one is necessarily handicapped by the fact that so 

 little progress has been made toward the realization of any 

 considerable part of it. Nevertheless it is easy to perceive the 

 growing impatience of the people with theological polemic, with 

 unmeaning ceremonial, with ecclesiastical and dogmatic 

 authority, and with any doctrine or teaching which lightly or 

 ineffectually touches their real life. They are demanding that 

 religion, like everything else, shall submit itself to the test of 

 effectiveness. People are hungry for the truth wdiich touches 

 the heart of their life and are satisfied only when they get it. 

 The Church will more and more heed this cry, becoming as it is 

 increasingly insistent, and will come more perfectly to appre- 

 hend and to fulfil its divine mission of mediating between God 

 and man so that the people will come into a larger knowledge 

 of their Sovereign Lord and into fuller participation in the riches 

 of His Grace. 



Discussion. 



The Chairman said : I have no hesitation in saying on your 

 behalf as well as on my own that Chancellor ^IcCormick has 

 given us the opportunity of listening to a very interesting and 

 suggestive paper on the subject which he has chosen. 



The problems of the future in the United States are not different 

 to those which we have to face here in Great Britain, and it is with 

 very great interest that we listen to an authoritative voice explain- 

 ing to us how they are likely to be dealt with by the Great 

 Eepublic across the Atlantic. 



I think we must all recognize the glorious spirit of optimism and 

 confidence in the future which runs through the paper. Immigrants 

 from some of the most backward races of Europe are pouring in by 

 the hundieds of thousands, but the author feels confident that it is 

 only their best and most valuable qualities which will enter into the 

 composition of the future nation. So confident is the author on this 

 point that he seems rather to take the fact for granted than very 

 definitely to assign reasons for the conclusion. 



The most definite reason assigned is the very interesting law which 

 he formulates as the power resident in first settlers to determine 

 for all time the character of new communities. 



