PREFACE

In this admirable book the Rev. Dr. Maclean has done a piece of work of far-reaching significance. The Doctor is well fitted by training, experience, knowledge and sympathy to do this work and has done it in a manner which fully vindicates his claim to all these qualifications.

Our beloved Canada is just emerging into a vigorous consciousness of nationhood and is showing herself worthy of the best ideals in her conception of what the highest nationality really involves. It is therefore of the utmost importance that the young of this young nation thrilled with a new sense of power, and conscious of a new place in the activities of the world, should understand thoroughly those factors and forces which have so strikingly combined to give us our present place of prominence. Our fathers wisely emphasized some important fundamentals and their fidelity to truth and righteousness is largely responsible for that type of Canadian citizenship of which we are today so justly proud. The sacrifice and heroism which have so marked these past four years are not an accident. They are the product of devoted lives and consecrated personalities. Great men, forgetful of glory and asking only that they might serve, have given ungrudgingly all they had of energy, devotion and ability to the young life of Canada. These great souls have piloted Canadian life up through the roughness of the wilderness and the remoteness of the plain into its present place of power and progress. To these men there were two great realities in life, all other things were secondary. The supreme matters were the moral and spiritual verities. If these were true to the highest principles of life and being then all was well. To men of this cast religion was concerned with true spiritual attitudes and proper moral conceptions. Religion was no mere form nor passing ritual but a deep and abiding consciousness of living contact with God and with the spirit world. If men failed to come into touch with God and this spirit world, then all was lost. It became a burning passion with these men to bring the new settlers from other lands and the pagan aborigines of the forest and the plain into a clear and definite consciousness of their communion with God. Such nearness to and contact with God have a wonderfully purifying effect upon the fountains and streams of life. As a people, we are just beginning to understand how fundamental the work done by these noble pioneers was to the splendid fabric of our social and civil life today.

Dr. Maclean gives in the following pages a brief history of a few of these noble men. In a concise form he gives us a glimpse of the trials and triumphs of some of the worthy men whose lives were laid upon the altar of the spiritual welfare of our country.

The Doctor has not attempted to present a long and critical analysis of the forces which made these men great, but he has so told the story of their deeds that any one can readily understand the secret of their power.

While telling each story he has not forgotten to link it with the other great streams of influence which have been forming in the years to make Canada our boast and pride today.

This excellent book coming as it does when an awakened interest is being felt in the noble red man, ought to be in every home. But the red man is not our only problem. Thousands are coming to our shores. They are breathing the fresh air of a new found liberty. They too must learn the secret of this liberty which we possess. To make them worthy citizens of Canada should be the aim of every true Canadian. They must be educated, enlightened and taught to live and respect the institutions we love so dearly. In their case, as in all others, the finest type of citizenship can be secured only by the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ felt in the heart and known in the life. The supreme lesson of this book is that the law of life is “ Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul and strength and thy neighbor as thyself.”

J. H. Riddell.
Wesley College. Dec. 4, 1918.

Vanguards of Canada
By John MacLean, M.A., Ph.D., D.D. (1918) (pdf)