in everything associated with him, it has been created during the last twelve months in abundance. I find that last year more than one hundred thousand admirers visited the Cottage and the Monument at Alloway; that throughout the year at least twenty-one books relating to Burns were published in this country, and many others in other parts of the world. A few months ago an edition of Burns's Complete Writings was published in London and America at the price of twelve guineas. Its publishers were fortunate in securing the skilled assistance of Mr. Ewing in connection with this fine tribute. Take another proof-who can fail to be impressed when we consider the most remarkable list of prices paid within the last few months for Burns manuscripts and books? A letter written by the poet to Alexander Cunningham, containing his world-famous song, "O, my Love's like the red, red rose," was sold for £2000 in December last. This works out at £4 a word! Nine letters and verses of Burns sold since December last have realised £5929, while within the last three months four volumes-two of his Poems, and two small books which belonged to himrealised £1580, a total of £7509. Magnificent testimony all this is to the fame of the poet who on his deathbed predicted that he would be more thought of a hundred years after!

The pertinent question can be put to us-What are Burns Clubs and their federated organisations really doing to honour the memory of the bard? I think a reference to the practical work done even during the last twelve months would provide a complete reply. For one thing, the clubs of to-day have killed the legends that Burns Clubs exist mainly as an excuse for drinking, and that their activities are limited to more or less bacchanalian carousals once a year, when maudlin sentiment about Robert Burns is talked and sung. These legends are no more true of Burns Clubs than is the fiction-in which some of us in our more frivolous

moments indulge-which finds expression in the so-called typical Aberdeen stories, and we can afford to treat them with the same indifference as do our worthy Aberdonian friends the stories at their expense. As you know, one of the main objects of Burns Clubs is to work for the preservation of our Scottish language and literature, and much work is being done by almost every club in this direction; while under the auspices of the Federation last year no fewer than 15,000 school children took part in competitions in Scottish literature organised by the Federation or by individual clubs. Again, many of us are taking an active part and giving practical assistance to the Scottish Dialects Committee, an organisation mainly of outstanding Aberdeen literary men, who have been working for years at the production of a great national Scottish dictionary. In the successful completion of this national effort the members of Burns Clubs throughout the world take an active part.

Then, we who have dedicated ourselves to serve in the Burns movement realise that it is the duty of every Burns Club to put into practical application the gospel which Burns preached, and thus honour the memory of the poet who wrote

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Affliction's sons are brothers in distress;
A brother to relieve, how exquisite the bliss!

We regret very much that Mr. Thomas Killin, an Hon. Vice-President, and one of the most enthusiastic members of our Executive, is absent to-day on account of illness. He represents the Glasgow Mauchline Society, the funds of which are now £8751, applied, as we know, in doing magnificent work for the aged poor in Ayrshire. Our Federation has brought before the clubs the desirability of aiming at providing children's cots and beds in infirmaries and hospitals; and we can already record that Birmingham has raised £1000 for this purpose, Liverpool £500, that our friends in Aberdeen are proposing

also to endow a bed and have already over £400 in hand, and that last year, through the good offices of a worthy Scot, Mr. Thomas H. Whitehead, £1000 was donated to the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary for a Burns Bed. I know that benevolent and charitable work is being done unostentatiously by nearly very club in our Federation. I cannot refrain from referring to one which I have the honour of visiting-a club in a mining area near Edinburgh, comprised largely of worthy working-men and their wives who meet fortnightly during the winter, and a club which I found to my surprise and gratification, without any publicity or record being sent in, has regularly raised over £100 a year to help aged men and women, to give a holiday to poor children, and to encourage young people to study the works of Burns. That is but one example of what is being done by many Burns Clubs all over the world.

As a Federation we hold a watching brief for the preservation of historical places associated with the poet; and in close and friendly co-operation with the local bodies charged with their care, we have been able to see that such sacred edifices and memorials as the Auld Brig of Ayr, Alloway Kirk, and the Brig o' Doon are preserved as memorials to the poet.

I make bold to say that the clubs represented by our Federation are doing a great work in carrying out the high ideals for which Burns stands. Gratifying and beneficial as are the concrete and material activities of our Burns Clubs, I claim further that every Burns Club is a potent instrument for the promotion of friendship and social justice, out to break down class animosities and narrow distinctions among honest men and women, and-perhaps greater than all-to work for the realisation of Burns's ideal of brotherhood throughout the world. We have with us to-day distinguished delegates representing thousands of Burns admirers throughout

the United States. Who can doubt that the work done by these disciples of Burns is playing a great part in forming public opinion in favour of international peace? In New York, in July last, one of the greatest demonstrations ever held took place, organised by the Robert Burns Memorial Association, when thousands of members of Burns and kindred clubs marched through New York to attend a demonstration in support of Burns's gospel of international peace. We hear much in these days of the League of Nations, and we all rejoiced when, a few weeks ago, on the initiative of our American kinsmen, a pact to abolish war was subscribed to by fifteen great Powers. We pray that that pact may be successful; but when we are told that Burns's aspirations are merely sentimental, we are entitled to point out that this pact, which we hope and pray will mark a great step in the world's peace movement, is based on sentiment alone, an expression only of the desirability of nations avoiding and abolishing war. That pact bears the signatures of fifteen representatives and may be signed by forty-five representatives of other nations, but even with these sixty signatures, it will be merely a scrap of paper," unless public opinion and the consciences of the peoples whom each signatory claims to represent are behind it. There is another pact, not signed by sixty great men, but written over 130 years ago by a Dumfries exciseman, and since then subscribed to and accepted with ever-increasing fervour and enthusiasm by hundreds of thousands of men and women all over the world-a pact which is not more sentimental than that which was signed the other day in Paris. The Poet's pact is short. It is that verse subscribed to by members of Burns Clubs all over the world, to the realisation of which all Burns Clubs have dedicated their services

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"Then let us pray that come it may,—

As come it will for a' that—

That Sense and Worth, o'er a' the earth,
May bear the gree, and a' that.

That is the great mission which Burns was sent to accomplish, and that is the gospel he preached. We are told by some critics that he died of drink. We know that is not true. We say of those who are content to emphasise his faults and failings, in the words of the motto which adorns the ancient College of this city, "Thay haif said. Quhat say they? Lat them say." We realise that with all his failings, and they were not few, he was a great instrument sent by divine providence to preach the gospel of manhood and brotherhood among men. It is for us to enforce his message, and to translate it into action. Thousands of men and women throughout the world, united with us to honour the memory of Robert Burns, have put their hands to that task, and we know that their labour shall not be in vain.

CHURCH SERVICE.

SERMON ON SOME CHRISTIAN CHARACTERISTICS OF BURNS," BY REV. MELVILLE DINWIDDIE, D.S.O., B.D.

Many of the delegates who remained in Aberdeen. over the week-end attended a special service in St. Machar's Cathedral on Sunday forenoon. The service was conducted by the Rev. Melville Dinwiddie, D.S.O., O.B.E., M.C., B.D., minister of the Second Charge. Taking as his text, "Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king" (I. Peter, ii., 17), the preacher said

Before I begin my sermon this morning, I should like to welcome the members of the Burns Federation Conference to our ancient and historic Cathedral, and to

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