apparent want of connection between the missionary work and the publication department of the Sunday-School and Publishing Society. Each is most important to the life and success of the denomination. Both must be maintained. But not necessarily together. The Sunday-school branch has to do with the first step in missionary endeavor. The publication branch has, it is true, to do with the education of our youth, but it also has to do with the whole line of our denominational literature, and with general Christian literature as well. We have never been anywhere as near to our publishing house as many of our sister denominations are to theirs, or as we ought to be, and may be. We are less concerned in this discussion as to locality than as to the creation of a real consciousness of denominational ownership and efficiency.

I have referred especially to this society because it furnishes a striking illustration of the desirability, nay, even the necessity, of putting into operation this readjustment plan, in and by means of the good offices of the National Council, and because our denominational paper has expressed itself on the subject, as well as on account of what I believe to be the opinion of most of our churches.

I would that large recognition be given to this subject by the Council. In the interest of denominational unity and efficiency, the time seems ripe to consider whether it is not now desirable and feasible to create a strong bond of union between all our churches, from coast to coast.

We may enter upon such a movement with this initial advantage: The denomination now possesses in The Congregationalist and Christian World, a paper denominationally owned. Its publication by the Pilgrim Press, the servant of the churches in union, compels an attempt to represent all parties in the denomination, and to serve all parts of the country. Its limitations in realizing this ideal would be materially remedied if the board of directors of the Publishing Society were made nationally representative. We believe such a board would more than justify its creation, could it work out a plan of unification of our denominational papers. We believe that one denominational paper, with certain adaptations to sectional demands, would be a most effective agency for the practical unification of all our common interests.

May I be permitted to express the hope that our churches and societies alike shall come soon more fully to realize and generally to recognize the value of our Publication Society as a denominational asset. The literature which comes from its presses is a credit to our denomination, and has become a profit as well. Our society's publications, I should add, are among the best edited and mechanically "made up of any in the country.

We have had demonstrated that coöperation is a success in the American Missionary, and we pray that the time may speedily come when the complete oneness of all our missionary magazines shall be consummated.

THE APPORTIONMENT PLAN.

The Apportionment Plan, which has met with such marked approval throughout the denomination, indicates clearly the willingness of the churches to coöperate in a comprehensive benevolence plan.

It is to be observed that so much of unification as was applied in "The Together Campaign " did not in the least disturb the corporate interests of any of the societies, nor did it affect the efficiency of the administration of any. It is to be remembered, also, that, during that entire brilliant and successful campaign, the emphasis was ever laid upon the oneness of the work of the societies; and the response was to this united appeal.

Our national program calls for the underwriting of twenty thousand shares of stock at one hundred dollars each, for the world-work of Congregationalists each year. Of course, the number of shares which a State, a district, a city, a church, or an individual can take, must be left to each to determine. Only when the ratio recommended by the National Council is incorporated in the Apportionment Plan will the strong share the burdens of the weak, and the weak feel the fairness and the friendship of the strong.

In the "Together Campaign" the bookkeeping was simple. There was no multiplicity of treasurers to confuse contributors. All pledges went to one place. All funds were collected through one office. Men who were moved by the world-vision subscribed in one pledge, and the bookkeeper did the rest. It was simple; it was businesslike; and it won.

In this day, our men who do large things in business want to have their denomination undertake large things. They believe it is as easy to do a big thing as a little one. And our missionary societies are frequently hampered by ourselves, while we wonder why they seem to be somewhat out of touch with our churches. At a much less cost than the several societies are put to, under our present methods, we believe that a more vivid and permanent impression can be made, and each man's share in the whole work brought home personally to him, if all of the societies were to combine in creating and maintaining one Bureau of Information and Support. Operating from such centers as Boston, New York, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis, Minneapolis and St. Paul, Omaha, Kansas City, Denver, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle, with a strong cooperating committee back of each center, intensive methods of beneficence could be introduced which would greatly multiply the returns and divide the expense.

By the Apportionment Plan we estimate that our churches should raise ten million dollars annually, of which four fifths, or eight millions, are to be expended for home purposes, and one fifth, or two millions, contributed to the seven national societies, on a basis agreed upon among the societies themselves, figured on their proportionate needs extending over a period of years. The Apportionment Plan reaches through the State Conferences and the District Associations to the local church and to the individual. It creates no new ecclesiastical machinery, no additional wheels, but aims to put vastly more power into such as we have. It takes notice of our world-missionary right, and it confesses our personal accountability. It is a proof and an expression of our denominational loyalty and unity, which it creates and continues. It is businesslike, as it seeks to inform us as to the source and amount of our income before we assume obligations for its expenditure. It is economical, as it reduces the cost of solicitation and administration. It provides against deficits, and thus steadies the work in every part. It makes possible the development, and anticipates the advance, of our enterprises. It eliminates the special pleader, whose efforts tend to unsettle balance; and it encourages the presentation of every departmental endeavor in its proper relation, magnitude, importance, and needs. It commands the careful study by the

individual of the fields. It calls for the educational sermon rather than for the emotional or sensational address. And it demands a world-response because it furnishes a world-motive.

"WATCHMAN, WHAT OF THE NIGHT?"

We are closing a triennium of unexampled activity in every department of the world's work. We are about to enter upon another of undefined opportunity and of uncharted obligation. The achievements of this period in the realm of religion are numerous and important. They have been secured by our brethren of many Christian communions, and are not confined to any one of them. They have touched denominational development at almost every point. In them we rejoice as though they were our own. We can do little else here than enumerate some of them; but they belong to us as a very real part of our common Christian heritage, and as such, we believe, have a proper place in our triennial history.

Our Baptist brethren consummated, this year, at their national meeting held in Chicago, a notable advance in centralization and efficiency. Some such consummation, representing the practical wisdom and virile energy of our people applied to administrative affairs, is devoutly to be desired among us; and in these days of swift social change, the old Puritan motto, "Reformation without tarrying for any," is more effective than the often obstructive policy expressed in the caution, "Make haste slowly."

Our Presbyterian brethren have witnessed the completion of one of their union movements, which mean so much to other Christian bodies as well as to themselves.

Our Catholic brethren assembled in Montreal have had a remarkable celebration, attended and participated in by distinguished clergy from Europe and America, and by thousands of their devoutest members.

Our Epíscopal brethren are even now holding their influential general convention at Cincinnati, Ohio.

To both these last-named fellow-Christians we owe an especial debt of gratitude for their uncompromising attitude and their unequivocal utterances concerning the purity of the marriage relation and the sanctity of the home. The same standard of

personal morality should be required of the man as of the woman, and this it is the duty of every body which bears the Christian name to preach, and to teach, and to enforce, with all the power and authority God has given his servants.

The World's Sunday-School Association's gathering in Washington, D. C., was a great one, the third in the series, sadly shadowed, however, by the drawing of the "color line." *

The monarch of a mighty nation, speaking our own language, has let it be understood that he is averse to subscribing to an official oath, some of whose terms are offensive to the religious convictions of a large number of his loyal subjects, and no longer considered necessary in this year of grace in a Christian country.

Another monarch of a great continental people spends long days and nights in earnest discussion with learned doctors of theology of his empire concerning the foundations of belief in the personality of Jesus and of the historicity of the New Testament.

In Great Britain there is a well-organized movement for the promotion of the publication of pure literature.

The World's Young Women's Christian Association, held in Berlin this year, set apart much of the time of its fourth conference to a study of the best methods of practical service in behalf of members of their sex; assured that it were better to help one of the Master's little ones than to change the geography of a hemisphere, or to be the ruler of an empire whose boundaries know no setting sun.

And we note with interest the meeting, also held in Berlin this

*This reference to the "color line " was the occasion, from the floor of the Council, of a protest of a delegate from Washington, D. C., who denied its correctness. The authorities on which the above statement was based were: Mrs. Lillian Camp Whittlesey, correspondent of The Congregationalist, at Washington, D. C., and an esteemed member of the First Congregational Church of that city, who wrote of this incident under her own name, on page 782 of The Congregationalist, of June 4, 1910; and The Advance, of Chicago, in its specially prepared report on page 682 (10) in the issue of June 2, 1910.

The Washington, D. C., Post, of May 20, 1910, stated that " negro delegates were ruled out of the convention." On May 21, the same paper stated that President W. P. Thirkield, of Howard University, and Dr. E. L. Parks, of the faculty of the same institution, and a prominent member of Hamline Methodist Church, declined in advance to take part in the parade from which their colored brethren were excluded." The Washington, D. C., Herald, of May 21, contained an article in which Rev. Dr. Waldron, chairman of the "Committee of Protest," said that " negro churches had sent delegates to every world's convention in the last twelve years, and that this was the first one where the color line was drawn." The parade, which it was said was local only, is announced twice, once each on pages 8 and 9 of the "Official Programme," as a part of the convention's exercises.