struggle with the difficulties of a colonial life, the religious
teachers always threw a gleam of light amid the mental darkness that
necessarily prevailed among the toilers of the land and sea. Bishops
Laval, Lartigue, Strachan, and Mountain; Sister Bourgeois, Dr. Burns,
Dr. Jas. McGregor, Dr. Anson Green, are conspicuous names among the many
religious teachers who did good service in the early times of colonial
development. During the first periods of Canadian history, the priest or
clergyman was, as often as not, a guide in things temporal as well as
spiritual. Dr. Strachan was not simply the instructor in knowledge of
many of the Upper Canadian youth who, in after times, were among the
foremost men of their day, but was as potent and obstinate in the
Council as he was vigorous and decided in the pulpit. When
communications were wretched, and churches were the exception, the
clergyman was a constant guest in the humble homes of the settlers, who
welcomed him as one who not only gave them religious instruction, but on
many a winter or autumn evening charmed the listeners in front of the
blazing maple logs with anecdotes of the great world of which they too
rarely heard. In those early days, the Church of England clergyman was a
man generally trained in one of the Universities of the parent state,
bringing to the discharge of his duties a conscientious conviction of
his great responsibilities, possessing at the same time varied
knowledge, and necessarily exercising through his profession and
acquirements no inconsiderable influence, not only in a religious but in
an intellectual sense as well--an influence which he has never ceased to
exercise in this country. It is true as the country became more thickly
settled and the people began to claim larger political rights, the
influence of many leading minds among the Anglican clergy, who believed
in an intimate connection between Church and State, even in a colony,
was somewhat antagonistic to the promotion of popular education and the
extension of popular government. The Church was too often the Church of