far-reaching consequences involve to a great
extent the future of the Church in these new Provinces and,
consequently, in the Dominion at large. Moreover this immense harvest
is now white and calls for the reapers. To-morrow will be too late,
for, there comes a critical stage in the maturing harvest, when the
labours of past months and the most bright prospects melt away in an
hour. If therefore action is not immediate, irreparable, we contend,
will be the loss to the Church in the West. Only by a prompt and
united action will the stern and burning realities of the present be
converted into the bright visions that our Faith has a right to expect.

The harvesters are few. But were the Church at this critical hour able
to count on all the spiritual forces that lie dormant in the souls of
her children in Canada, the history of the future in the West would be
different from that of the past. As in times of emergency, the
conscription of Catholic forces is the supreme duty of the hour. It is
the duty of our leaders to affect by a definite policy the
"indeterminate masses," just as it is the duty of each individual of
the masses to shoulder his share of responsibility by an active
co-operation. _Without a definite workable policy of united action,
and the awakened consciousness of the Catholic masses at large,
throughout the Dominion, the Catholic problems in Western Canada will
not be solved_.

The Church in Canada, we maintain, stands at one of those critical
periods when the sweeping current of events give a decided bend to the
course of History. The hour is serious, for never was the future so
greatly involved in the present as it is now. All depends, to a very
large extent, on how, within the next decade or so, the Catholics will
consolidate their forces and extend their energies to meet the
religious issues of the West. Were we to fail at this momentous
period, our inactivity and want of co-operation will be charged against
us, and in the eyes of the Church we shall be marked as felons and
traitors to her great cause. The chapter of our times in the history
of the Church would then be fittingly headed with this accusing
caption: "_What should have been_!" For, we are the makers of History;
we prepare its verdicts.

One last word before parting with you, gentle reader. If you have
followed us through the various problems to which we have given our
attention in this book you will have remarked that there