Extracts from Addresses 359
ment has made. A year or two before the war a small committee was
appointed on which were represented certain of the bishops and laity
of the Church of England, and representatives of all the leading Pro-
testant denominations in England, the Methodists, Baptists, Congrega-
tionalists, and Presbyterians. It was quite a small number, a com-
mittee of about twelve. That committee was appointed to try to
arrive at some common principles of the union; not to formulate pro-
posals, but to arrive at principles. The first report was published some
three or four years ago. The common principles were arrived at with
a degree of unanimity that was extraordinary with -regard to faith.
Then came the second report, which was published a while ago, on the
church order, church government, and the question of church episcopacy,
and it is a very remarkable thing that a committee which included all
of these different denominations, and included believing people in
all these denominations, arrived at such a surprising amount of agree-
ment, but the principle of it was that the historic episcopacy should
be regarded as the basis of the union, the Episcopal form of govern-
ment; that is to say, that the bishops should be, so to speak, not
autocrats but should form a constitutional monarchy. But I do not
propose to go further into that. I merely want you to consider the
fact that so far as the leaders of these chief denominations in England
are concerned, complete agreement has been arrived at on those two
points of faith and church government. We of course all know that
believers and followers are very different things. Prejudices die hard,
and there are extremists in every church, but that so much of agreement
should have been arrived at is really quite astonishing. Now, that move-
ment in favor of reunion has its origin in two or three different quarters.
First of all, as Dr. Willett pointed out, it had its origin in the mission
field, using the mission field in its widest sense, not only missionary work
amongst the heathen, but missionary work in lands that are to be opened
up, like the prairie provinces of Canada. I propose to say nothing further
about that, but the two aspects of the question I want to speak about
are the universities and the trenches, the soldiers at the front.
Now, with regard to the universities, I will tell you an anecdote.
In the spring of 1917, when, of course, the university owing to the war
was depleted to an inconceivable extent, and there were less than three
hundred men students in residence, I went to a meeting of a society
called the Origen Society, which was established some years ago by
undergraduates, to study questions relating to religion and the phi-
losophy of religion, the borderland very largely between religion and
philosophy. Though it was in the thick of the war, when the university
was so depleted, there was an attendance of no less than forty, and the