crying in the wilderness. Not yet had Canadians come to their faith
in their Western Empire. Among the great leaders were still found
those who poured contempt upon the project of the trans-continental
railway, and even those who favoured the scheme based their support
upon political rather than upon economic grounds. It was all so far
away and all so unreal that men who prided themselves upon being
governed by shrewd business sense held aloof from western
enterprises, waiting in calm assurance for their certain collapse.
Still, here and there men like Bompas, McLean, McDougall, and
Robertson were holding high the light that fell upon prairie and
foothill, mountain peak and canyon, where speculators, adventurers,
broken men, men with shamed names seeking hiding, and human wolves
seeking their prey were pouring in.

Discouraged with the results of his work in the Eastern Colleges,
the Superintendent arrived at Knox, and to-night he stood facing the
crowd of students and their friends that filled the long Dining Hall
to overflowing. With heart hot from disappointment and voice
strident with intensity of emotion, he told of the things he had
seen and heard in that great new land. Descriptions of scenery,
statistics, tales humorous and pathetic, patriotic appeal, and
prophetic vision came pouring forth in an overwhelming flood from
the great man, whose tall, sinewy form swayed and rocked in his
passion, and whose Scotch voice burred through his sonorous periods.
"For your Church, for your fellowmen, for Canada," rang out his last
appeal, and the men passed out into the corridor toward the Entrance
Hall, silent or conversing in low, earnest tones. There was none of
the usual chaffing or larking. They had been thinking great thoughts
and seeing great visions.