T

HE severest test of one's steadfastness in crossing the continent is the temptation to stop at each centre of life and activity to observe the changes that have taken place since he last visited them, for the West is ever growing and so is intensely interesting to one accustomed to the more settled East. There is always something new to remind one that we do not begin to realize what the future holds for this Nation. All the way across this suggestion of greater things to be is manifest, but after the Mississippi is crossed it becomes more apparent until one finds himself actually becoming excited as he looks for new signs of development.

At Omaha and Kearney there was strong disposition to stop, if only to tell the bishops that the Church is not indifferent as it seems to be, to the tremendous burdens that the conditions big with possibilities for the future lay upon them. It would in a way relieve one of the pressure on one's own mind and heart to be able to assure these men, contending against odds that would be insuperable if their help were not divine, that many in the Church remember their trials and that the time seems to be near when the whole Church will realize that the Mission intrusted to it is a serious enterprise.

At Ogden it seemed sheer waste not to turn aside for an hour at least with the Bishop of Utah to gain a bit of the strength that comes of being with a man who sees in the obstacles facing him the reason for his sending, and faces them with the joyful optimism that can spring from only one source.

When the train stopped at Reno he would have been a poor one indeed who would not have been tempted to go out into the streets of this splendid witness to the courage and intelligence of our

fellow-countrymen and proclaim aloud that the Church is not lacking in sympathy for them or admiration, in spite of the fact that she has sent them a bishop, for whom she provided neither men nor money nor house to live in, and to beg that they may not lose hope. Some day a better method will prevail and the coming of the bishop will mean that the strength of the Church has gone forth to watch over and protect them while they are busy bringing the wealth stored for the Nation within the reach of those who are to be enriched!

No less strong was the desire to drop off at Sacramento and convey the greetings of their American brethren to the Japanese Christians working there with the bishop to save their countrymen from the damaging influences that go along with our civilization.

However, engagements must be kept at any cost, and for this even such allurements as these must be resisted, nor does one regret it when safe in the home of the Bishop of California he knows the first stage of his journey is ended and that he may quietly observe what is doing in the city that the combination of all kinds of evil has not been able to discourage in its struggle to make a more beautiful and a better ordered town rise from the wreck wrought by disaster. The public spirit in San Francisco is splendid and the courage manifest everywhere is a striking exhibit of what Christian civilization can do for a people. Of course, the same spirit is present in the Church as in the community at large, with the result that it emphasizes what seems to be generally true throughout the West. The Church is thought of more in the terms of the Body and less in terms of the parochial or diocesan organization, so unhappily common in the East.

This was exhibited in a most interest

ing way at the sessions of the diocesan council, which fortunately was being held at the time. In all the discussions the speakers evidently had in mind not only the Church in California, but this in relation to the whole Church in America, and not only so, but there was evidently a clear appreciation of the debt the Church owes to the community and that its being is to be justified by its purifying and uplifting influence among the people to whom it has been sent.

The value of the East's generosity in coming to the aid of San Francisco at the time when it was helpless was most apparent in the temper of the whole. Church in California. Without this help the diocese would have been powerless to meet the situation, in spite of the very best purpose and willingness to make any sacrifices. The timely lifting of the burden has set the people free to do what they are abundantly able to do and which they are already busy about doing. San Francisco will soon be again the centre of the Church's life on the Pacific coast and a source of strength and help for that rapidly growing country. And not only so, but the timely and generous aid given has evidently. bound the West to the East in a fashion that means good-will and oneness of life

and purpose for the future. I could not but wish that those whose faith made it possible for them to come to the relief of California might see the returns from their investment and have the satisfaction of observing the spirit of hope manifest everywhere as the result of their brotherly kindness.

The inability to stop at Los Angeles was the more regretted, as it prevented my gratifying curiosity raised by a statement made to me as by one who knew whereof he spoke. I was told that the 10,000 Presbyterians in three counties of southern California had last year given $70,000 to help those beyond their borders, while the whole diocese (6,000 communicants) had given only $10,000 for like purpose. I was anxious to learn how this could be, as it is generally true that Churchmen are liberal, and I wondered if it could be possible that the whole Church in that diocese is poor. If this be the case and therefore explaining the startling figures noted above, there is nothing to disturb in them, for after all, it is not wealth but the spirit that will use faithfully what it has, that the strength of the Church depends on.

El Paso was visited because it is one of the far-away outposts, but I was not prepared for the surprise that awaited

me there a city of nearly 50,000 in the midst of the desert, growing as only things in that West of ours can grow, the gate between Mexico and the States, the distributing point for large areas in both countries, fed by nine railways, four of them trunk lines, and every soul certain that in a very little while Denver will be left far behind. The public spirit of the city was illustrated by a legend conspicuous in more than one place, and which the Church might adopt as its own with profit. As I stood waiting for the car that was to take me to my train, it flashed out in electric light: "Boost, don't knock." What wonders might be wrought if every soul in the Church would follow that sage advice!

The character of the people who have made this city is as noteworthy as the city itself. The city is separated from the Mexican town of Juarez only by a short bridge where American patronage keeps alive a make-believe bull ring, and where one sign conspicuously displayed made appeal especially for "Sunday trade." Of course it was a bar-room. Yet there is no sign of the wide-openness that is supposed to be a factor of western life. On the contrary, the city's life is ordered after a fashion as civilized and decent as the cities in the East. I shall be forgiven, I am sure, if I confess that I heard with something like pride that the meeting of citizens which years ago substituted decency for chaos in the corporate life of El Paso met in the parish house of St. Clement's Church and was called to order by the rector of the parish. To-day the parish is one of the most substantial in the West, having a home in which any community might find satisfaction. The history of its life revealed a story of heroism which the development of the West has no doubt seen often repeated. If someone could search them out and preserve them they would enrich mightily the life of the American Church.

In 1870 Judge Gaylord Clarke, then State senator, who had come to El Paso

from Syracuse, N. Y., met at Austin the Rev. Joseph Wilkin Tays, who happened to be acting as chaplain of the Legislature. To this man the judge threw down the challenge that he should come to El Paso and bring to the few people there the Church's ministrations. At that time there was no priest of the Church between Los Angeles and Brownsville. Mr. Tays was attracted by the opportunity to lay down foundations. in a new country, and, having surrendered his work in Austin, with his two little boys (his wife had died) he made the journey of 2,000 miles across the desert and took up his abode in El Paso. There was no church to support him, so he maintained himself and his children by his work as a county surveyor, to which office he had been appointed on his arrival. Even so, his living was of the scantiest, the people being poor as he was, and often they must needs pay him in land for the services he rendered. He had service and Sunday-school in his own house for three years, helped by Judge Clarke and his family and a lady. whom it was my privilege to meet while in El Paso. Then came the panic of '73 when the town vanished, and, having written "dead" or "removed" opposite to the name of every soul connected in any way with the congregation of St. Clement's parish, Mr. Tays yielded to persuasion and took his boys to Illinois that they might enter school.

In 1881 the railroad came to El Paso and Mr. Tays was among the first of those who came to lay the foundations of the present splendid city. The lands he had been obliged to receive years before in lieu of fees were now valuable, so that he found himself a man of independent means. He immediately profited by this, and in the heart of the town built the church and rectory. The parish still has the bell he had cast in Mexico and the people seem to regard this relic with peculiar reverence. He had the privilege of this service for only four years, when he died of virulent small-pox, contracted while ministering