Page:The World's Parliament of Religions Vol 1.djvu/131

 ASSEMBLING AND WELCOMING. I03 SPEECH OF PRINCIPAL GRANT. The dream that allured hardy navigators for many years was the sup- posed existence of a northwest passage by water. But in our day it has been found that that great northwest passage is not by sea but by land. We have discovered that the shortest way from the old world to the world of Japan and China, is across Canada. So Canada feels herself now to be the link between old Europe and the older East, and the link between the three great self-governing parts of the British Empire. How is it possible for a people so situated to be parochial ? How is it possible for them not to meet in a genial way the representatives of other religions ? Across our broad lands millions are coming and going from East to West, mingling with us, and we are obliged to meet them as man should always meet man. Not only this, but on that great new ocean which is to be the arena of the future commerce of the world — on that our sons are showing that they intend to play an important part. Their posi- tion, as the fourth maritime nation of the world as regards ocean tonnage, shows the aptitude of our people for foreign trade, and as sailors owning the ships they sail in, they are more likely than any others to learn the lesson that the life of the world is one, that truth is one, that all men are brothers, and that the service of humanity is the most acceptable form of relig- ion to God. And therefore we feel that we have a sort of right to join with you in this matter of extending a welcome to those from different nations, whose faiths are different, but whose spiritual natures are the same, in whom dwelleth that true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. Our place in history gives us a still more undoubted right to come here and to take our place in a friendly way beside the representatives of other religions. Our racial, political and religious evolution bids us do that. Our racial evolution your own Parkman has described to you in pages glowing with purple light. He has told you of the two centuries of conflict between France and Britain for the possession of this fair young continent, and he has told you that, while outward failure was the part of the former, all the heroism and enduring successes were not with the conquerors. France gave without stint the greatest explorers, whose names are sown all over this continent, thick as seeds in a field — martyrs and missionaries of deathless fame, sanits whose works do still follow them. In Canada the seed sprang from good soil and we see its permanent memorial now in a noble, fresh Canadian people, enjoying their own language, laws and insti- tutions under a flag that is identified with their liberties, and under a consti- tution that they and their fathers have helped to hammer out. Their children sit side by side in our federal parliament with the children of their ancestral foes, and the only real contest between them is which shall serve Canada best. The union of two races and languages was needed to enable England to do her imperial work. Will not the same union enable Canada