arch to the
East, something of the immensity of the plains and freshness of the
lakes.

In the din of our manufacturing cities, in the quietness of our towns
and villages, by the rivers and winding bays of our Maritime Provinces,
along the peaceful shores of the St. Lawrence, the call of the West has
been heard.

Its alluring sound has cast a spell upon our youth, the hope of the
country. Faces flushed with the bright hues of life's dawn, eyes
sparkling with the fires of early youth, instinctively turn to the
West. From all points of Eastern Canada young men and young women are
leaving for that mysterious land of brilliant promise and great
possibilities.

The Call of the West! All Canada is eager to hear its message. Has
not the merchant his ear to the ground, listening to the throbbing of
the growing harvest on our Western prairies? He knows that in the
furrows of that rich loam lie the wealth and prosperity of the country
at large. The Eastern manufacturer anxiously scans the daily paper to
be posted on crop conditions in the West. They regulate to a great
extent the activities and output of his plant. And when college and
university days are over, where does the young professional man turn
his eyes? To the West. Westward, with the sun, he travels; its fiery
course is an invitation to and a harbinger of his bright career.

The Call of the West! Across the ocean it has gone and awakened the
dormant energies of old European nations. Settlers of every race and
creed have rushed to our shores, like the waves of "the heaving and
hurrying tide."

The attraction of the Canadian West has become general, at home and
abroad. Nothing can stop this onward march to the land of promise. A
new Canada is being created beyond the Great Lakes.

A very small fraction of the Western fertile soil is under cultivation
and already the phenomenal yield has prompted the nations at large to
call the Prairie Provinces "the granary of the world." Already in
Canada the industrial, commercial, and to a great extent, the political
world hinges on the Western crop. It is the great source of Canada's
national wealth. For, the prodigious resources of our mines and
forests, and the annual yield of our harvest are the two poles upon
which revolves the credit of our country abroad. But the growing value
of the West to the economic and national life of Canada is a mere
shadow of its increasing importance in the religious world.