this temper on the part of the people of this new and growing Empire. One finds reflected in them the restlessness, the capriciousness, the wantonness of a vital and vigorous and even self-willed people; and finds also that beneath the disquieting surface is a soundness of heart, a capacity for sober afterthought, a loyalty to the things that are true, worthy, and of good report, an exuberant unselfishness, a genuine if unconventional spirit of reverence, a pronounced and enviable spirit of brotherly kindness, a readiness of response to spiritual appeal, and a sensitiveness to ethical demands-ample proof, if proof were needed, of a manhood and womanhood healthy, robust, and vigorous, the material out of which alone a great and noble State can come.

Moreover the sermons are in evidence as to the nature of this people's faith. Differing widely in the manner of presentation they are one in this: the informing spirit throughout is that of the New Testament evangel. There is neither doubt nor uncertainty, neither logical nor rhetorical quibbling; the note is clear and steady, convincing, and compelling-the hope of the world is Christ, the living Christ, the exalted Christ, who having been lifted up draws all men unto himself. There is much plain speaking, as there ought to be; the sins of society are diagnosed with unsparing frankness; the way of the cross is neither obscured nor belittled; contrition, repentance, belief, obedience, the clean life, the life in the

Spirit-these are the central and recurring themes stated with apostolic simplicity, candor, and brotherly kindness.

The book reveals the life of our people in this region, while it is also a tribute to their worth. The editor has rendered lasting service to the whole church by putting in such accessible form a transcript of life at once so illuminating and so intimate.

CHARLES M. STUART.

President Garrett Biblical Institute.

Evanston, Illinois, April 10, 1915.

INTRODUCTION

PAUL LITTLE

A FEW words will suffice to account for THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST PULPIT. For the past twelve years the writer has been a zealous student of the workings of Methodism-its legislative proceedings, its polity, its doctrine, and its growth. A careful study of scores of Annual Conference Journals and of many church publications has convinced him that this great and grand Pacific Northwest is but very little heard from. The church in general has a rather vague conception of her real problems and the men who are heroically working them out. We venture to say that even the church boards have but a meager idea of the needs in this vast territory. And why? Are they not appropriating tens of thousands of dollars annually? Do they not visit each Annual Conference and thus get in touch with our problems? Does not the Board of Home Missions and Church Extension receive the sanction of the local Conference boards ere it sends any money for any church? Does not the Board of Sunday Schools receive frequent reports from the Conference Sunday school superintendents as to their work? We say, "Yes" to all these. But O,

how little all these convey of our real tasks and problems!

In the territory covered by this book we have four States-Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana. These States contain 396,711 square miles, which is larger by 4,156 square miles than the sixteen Eastern States reaching from Maine to Florida.

According to the census of 1910, the population in this region was only 2,516,402, whereas in the Eastern group they had 35,121,478, or 32,605,076 more people than we had. Now a word relative to the religious census. According to our Conference Journals of 1914, in this immense section we had only 6 Conferences (Oregon, Puget Sound, Columbia River, Idaho, Montana, and North Montana), 22 districts, 836 churches (an average of 38 to a district), 3,617 probationers, 7,545 nonresident and 81,081 resident members, or a total of 92,243 members. Will you be surprised when you are told that there is one Conference in Methodism which has more churches and church members than this vast empire which is larger than sixteen Eastern States combined?

The North-East Ohio Conference has 862 churches, 10 districts (average of 86 to the district), 2,968 probationers, 6,895 nonresident, and 145,889 resident members, or a total of 155,742. Thus you see it has 27 more churches and 63,499 more members. What meaneth all this? Simply this, that if Methodism is to be a dominant factor

in the life and activity of this great empire within the next twenty-five years, she must begin to build wisely now by having proper supervision in every department of church work. We now have only three struggling colleges and three hospitals, but who knows how many schools and hospitals we shall have in the next quarter of a century if Methodism is awake to her opportunities!

We now have just about two and a half million inhabitants in this section, but who knows when the European war ceases and the teeming millions shall migrate to the land of peace and plenty and seek homesteads in the rich hills and valleys of this Pacific Northwest but that we shall have twenty million population in the next thirty years! Thus the solution of our varied problems thirty years hence will depend largely upon the solution of our problems now. And as our task is vast and comprehensive, we need in our ranks broad-minded ministers and laymen; men with large views and broad sympathies; Methodism needs men whose minds half an idea cannot satisfy, in whose souls half a world would leave a vacuum; whose philanthropy reaches more than one caste or color; who will find in every person a child of the same Great Father. This being preeminently a practical age, what we need to-day is not so much those good men who mourn over our State or national degeneracy and fast over our national sins, as those better men who will rise up from their fasts and prayers and go forth