the letter with a note from himself,
in which he said to Mr. Punshon:--To have the power, as God has given
you, to mould, to a large extent, the energies and labours of six
hundred ministers, and developments of the Canadian Church, and to
control largely the public mind in religious and benevolent
enterprises--looking at the future of our country--appears to me to
present a field of usefulness that Mr. Wesley himself might have coveted
in his day. All that God has enabled you to do already in this country
is but the foundation and beginning of what there is the prospect of
your doing hereafter by the Divine blessing. You know this is the old
ground on which I first proposed to you to come to this country, and
which I am sure you have no reason to regret. This is the only ground on
which I ought to desire your continued connection with it.

* * * * *

A pleasing episode in the _Globe_ controversy respecting Dr. Ryerson's
"First Lessons on Christian Morals," occurred in June, 1872. Bishop
Bethune, in his address to the Synod of the Diocese of Toronto, spoke of
the increasing spread of evil, and of the duty of the Church, under her
Divine Master, to cope with it. He said:

Her work is, confessedly, to lead fallen man to the true source of
pardon, and to teach him to aim at the recovery of the moral image
in which he was at first created. If the passions, and prejudices,
and divisions of professing Christians themselves are a distressing
hindrance to the attainment of this noble and dutiful aspiration,
we have much in the condition of the world around us to warn and
rouse us to a vigorous and united effort to arrest the increasing
tide of sin and crime. The developments of a grossly evil spirit at
the present day fill us with horror and alarm; the profligacy and
wanton cruelty of which we hear so many instances, make us tremble
for our social peace and safety.

It is but right to enquire to what all this enormity of wickedness
is traceable, that we may come, if possible, to the remedy. That is
largely to be ascribed, as all must be persuaded, to the neglect of
religious instruction in early life; to the contentment of peoples
and governments to afford a shallow secular education, without the
learning of religious truth, or the moral obligations that it
teaches. The child taught and trained for this world's vocations
onl