of the Free Church denominations. In his first presidential
address under the title "The Free Churches at the Cross-roads" he put
forward an unanswerable case for the union of the whole of the Free
Churches of England. He pointed to the fact that for many years past
these churches have suffered a serious decline in the number of their
members and of their Sunday school scholars and teachers; and he found
one of the chief causes of this in their excessive denominationalism,
which led to over-lapping and rivalry. He pleaded that the old sectarian
distinctions had now ceased to represent vital issues, and to appeal to
the best elements both in the churches and in the nation outside; and he
urged that the maintenance of these distinctions now tended to destroy
the collective witness of the Free Churches and involved an immense
waste of men, money and energy. For the sake of efficiency, as well as
in order to maintain a proper Christian comity, he argued that it was
absolutely necessary to put an end to this condition of things. As long
as the Free Churches were thus divided, they could not expect either to
do their own work well or to exercise their proper influence in the life
of the nation. There is no doubt that this estimate of the situation
represented a growing feeling among those who were best acquainted with
the facts. But it is probable that Mr Shakespeare under-estimated the
strength of the conservative spirit in many of the Free Churches. And
there is no doubt that a considerable educational process will have to
be gone through before his proposals take practical shape. This process,
however, has already begun and has made considerable way. Mr
Shakespeare's challenge led almost immediately to the formation of a
large conference of representatives appointed by the Free Church
Council along with the Baptist, Congregational, Presbyterian, Primitive
Methodist, Independent Methodist, Wesleyan Methodist, Wesleyan Reform,
United Methodist, Moravian, Countess of Huntingdon, and Disciples of
Christ Churches. This Conference first met at Mansfield College, Oxford,
in September, 1916, and later at the Leys School, Cambridge, in 1917,
and again in London in the early part of this year. It appointed
Committees on Faith, Constitution, Evangelization and the Ministry, all
of which have held many meetings in addition to those of the whole
Conference. The Committee on Faith was able to frame a declaratory
statement on doctrine whi