nd circle had paid off a $500.00 mortgage
for a heavily burdened priest in the South, had adopted eight abandoned
children of the Chinese Missions, had sent 1,000 Mass intentions, was
supporting seven catechists in Africa, India, and China, was educating
a Chinese seminarian, had given 150 volumes to the parochial library of
a bigoted section in the South, and was able then to place upon
exhibition a number of sacred vessels that were to be forwarded as
gifts to poor priests. "And did all these activities not interfere
with your parochial work?" Mgr. Freri asked the pastor. "Not in the
least"--was the answer--"My collections have never been larger." "EVEN
PROTESTANTISM FINDS THAT HOME COLLECTIONS ARE IN DIRECT PROPORTION TO
THE MISSION GIFTS."

CHAPTER II.

BRIDGING THE CHASM[1]

Most touching in its divine simplicity, most sublime in its inspired
lessons was the invitation of the Master to His Apostles: "Behold I say
to you lift up your eyes and see the countries, for they are white,
already to harvest," (John IV, 35)--As He stood by the well of Jacob,
facing the slopes of the hills of Samaria, He pointed out to them the
crowds that were hastening to listen to His Message and believe in His
divine mission. The fields around lay desolate and lifeless, for it
was then winter. "Do you not say," asks Jesus, "there are yet four
months and then the harvest cometh? Behold I say to you lift up your
eyes and see the countries for they are white already to harvest."
This human harvest, of which the Master speaks, is but the prelude of
that immense harvest of souls ever ripening under the rays of God's
divine grace in the great field of this world. The Church, like
Christ, also invites us to contemplate that waving harvest and to pray
the Lord to send labourers into the field.

This divine invitation, the Catholic Church Extension Society makes its
own, to plead the cause of our Home Missions. Pointing to our Western
Provinces, to that great Dominion beyond the Lakes, that missionary
organization says to every Catholic in the land: "The harvest is great,
but the labourers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest
that he send labourers into the harvest."

The Catholic Church Extension Society has been founded in Canada, for
the conservation and propagation of the Catholic Faith in our mission
districts. Its very name, as we readily see, shows forth its object
and explains its existence. Canada, as