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High Church party both in the Church of England and the American Episcopal Church, are the best evidences of the vitality of the

movement.

Nor is it only in the Episcopal Church that this type of religion makes its appeal. Many who do not share the beliefs by which the Anglo-Catholic justifies his procedure find the form of his worship spiritually satisfying. Symbolism, long discredited in the churches of the Puritan tradition, is coming again to its own. In Congregational circles we find a new interest in the sacrament, a new appreciation of the liturgy, a growing consciousness of the importance of the ministry which art can render to religion. A church which goes back only four hundred years is felt by many to be too young for the children of the God of all the centuries, and in various ways the churches which broke away from Rome at the time of the Reformation are seeking to recover their original heritage. Church unity, once dismissed as an idle dream, is now a living interest for many Christians.

The movement for church unity has taken two main forms. One seeks its goal by the path of organic union; that is to say, the inclusion of all existing churches in one organization with definite standards of belief, worship and ministry. Those who have made this form of unity their goal will meet next year at Lausanne in the Conference on Faith and Order to discuss the obstacles which now keep the churches apart. The other follows the method of federation, reserving to each church its own independent organization and government, while furnishing all with a single organ through which they can act together in matters of common concern. Those who advocate federation are not necessarily opposed to organic union. But they believe that in view of the wide diversity of belief and practice among Christians, any chance of uniting all in a single organization is so remote that it is best for the present at least to recognize existing differences and to use our present machinery for realizing the measure of unity which already exists. The Universal Christian Conference on Life and Work which met at Stockholm in August of 1925 gave an impressive demonstration of the extent to which the federal idea has already made its place, not only in the thinking but in the practice of Christians.

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The meeting at Stockholm was in many respects the most important gathering of Christians which has taken place since the Reformation. Called to consider the responsibilities of the church for bringing the principles of the Gospel to bear upon the life of our time, it was an impressive witness to the three influences to the discussion of which this paper has been devoted. Those who met at Stockholm had been brought there by their recognition of the social obligation imposed upon Christians by their faith. They met as churchmen, officially delegated by the different bodies in which organized Christianity finds its present expression. But one and all were convinced that if the church was to fulfil the social task to which they believed she was called, it must be through renewed contact with her Divine Lord and a fresh experience of the transforming power of His Spirit.

More than a hundred different ecclesiastical bodies were represented at Stockholm. Every important communion, except the Church of Rome and certain Protestants of the extreme right wing, was officially represented. Delegates came from five continents and from thirty-seven different countries. East and West were there, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the churches of the Continent, of Great Britain, and of the United States, as well as of the younger churches that are growing up on the mission field. Almost every type of religious and social philosophy was represented. Men who had fought on both sides in the Great War sat down side by side to plan together for the making of a new world in which there should be no more war.

The discussions of the Congress covered every phase of social life-political, economic, social, religious. Five commissions prepared preliminary reports which furnished the Congress with the basis of a discussion which was at once frank and considerate. Wide differences of opinion appeared at many points. But as to the duty of the individual Christian and the church to bring the influence of the Gospel to bear upon all the relations of life, there was no difference.

Responding to His call "Follow Me," we have in the presence of the Cross accepted the urgent duty of applying His Gospel in all realms of human life -industrial, social, political and international.

When one considers the wide differences of religious and social

background of those who attended the Congress, the adoption of such a declaration by an all but unanimous vote is a significant sign of the times.

No final pronouncement on matters of policy was attempted. But a brief message summed up the deliberations of the Congress and expressed its spirit. A continuation committee was appointed to carry on the work and to provide for the calling of a second congress when the time shall be deemed ripe.

Such are some of the forms through which the spirit of contemporary religion is expressing itself. Which promises the shortest and the most direct way to the desired goal, he would be a bold man to say. It may well be that, as so often in the past, no one way will be found practicable for all travelers, and that in the future as in the past they will make their journey by different routes. But one thing we may confidently predict: that unless human nature shall radically change, the religion of the future will still be religion. It will begin and end in the quest for God and will not be satisfied with any substitute. May we not hope that the earnest effort that is going into this quest in our day will not fail, and that the generation upon which we are entering will find its God and will be able to speak His name so clearly that all who hear will understand and recognize in what they hear the answer to their deepest need?

WILLIAM ADAMS BROWN.

CONTROL OF THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC

AN EXPERIMENT IN BRITISH COLUMBIA

BY REGINALD E. HOSE

NATIONALIZATION of the liquor traffic in Canada, or at least its genesis, may be found in the Government Control system established by the self-determining Parliaments in the various Provinces whose statutory enactments have given effect in this manner to the expressed opinions of their electorates. A departure from prohibitory legislation was made during the years 1920 to 1925 by five of the Provinces as well as by the Yukon Territory and the Dominion of Newfoundland, while Government control of the public sale of beer was also assumed by the Province of Ontario.

It is not within the scope of this article to discuss the development of this form of liquor administration throughout Canada or the exigencies leading up to the recent Treaty between Canada and the United States, ratified by the Imperial Government, providing for "the suppression of smuggling operations along the International Boundary between the Dominion of Canada and the United States".

The geographical importance, however, attaching to the distribution of the area in which the sale and consumption of alcoholic liquor has been approved, lies in its proximity to the United States, in which a contrary opinion has been developed, and it would appear as if the North American Continent has constituted itself the battleground for this question.

The success which attended the efforts of the Central Control Board (Liquor Traffic) in Great Britain during the war period, the outstanding feature of which was the "Carlisle Experiment", has been generally recognized, and if an echo of that transient legislation is heard in the description given of British Columbia's experiment in Government control, it is a tribute to the sentiment

for British institutions. By the last official census (1921) the inhabitants of the Province were divided into 387,513 of British origin, 76,153 foreign, 38,539 Oriental, and a native Indian population-widely distributed-of 22,377. Exclusive of the Indian portion, the population presented no racial problem in the administration of liquor laws, and in seeking to account for the varying attitude of the people of this and other Provinces toward the liquor question, colored doubtless by environment and ætiological proclivities, the influencing proximity of that more populous portion of the North American continent to which the Provinces are contiguous must not be overlooked.

In the year 1898 the movement in Canada to prevent the use of liquor for beverage purposes found expression in a Dominionwide plebiscite. "Are you in favor" (the question read) "of passing an Act prohibiting the importation, manufacture, or sale of spirits, wine, ale, cider, and all other alcoholic liquors for use as a beverage?" All the Provinces gave an answer in the affirmative with the exception of Quebec, though the total majority was so narrow that it was not interpreted as justifying the measure being brought into operation, more particularly as at this time a large majority of the rural districts in Eastern Canada were under Local Option.

During the next sixteen years-a period marked by increasing population and development—but little activity was manifested in support of Prohibition, but with the advent of the World War a more general support for prohibitory measures arose, resulting in various Provincial referenda, and subsequent legislation prohibiting the sale of liquor for beverage purposes, or its consumption in public, and in some cases its importation for private use.

In British Columbia, the existing licensing statute was superseded in 1916 by a Provincial Prohibition Act following an appeal to the electorate at which the enfranchisement of women was also approved. Provision was made under the Military Forces Act for taking the vote overseas, and though the issue was somewhat beclouded by the absence of so many male voters, and the dual nature of the referendum, the result reflected the attitude of public hostility to the "bar" and the licensing system in general. The Prohibition Act received further support in the two years

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