CHAPTER IX.

FURTHER EXPANSION.

UR BUILDING should be enlarged. It is not half sufficient for our immediate wants. It is vain to add to our library until we have a proper room in which to place it."

This announcement, made at the closing exercises in the spring of 1880, was the echo of so much that had been stated during the brief decade of the institution's history, that some who

listened felt but a languid interest. The proverbial "friend in need," however, could not let the matter drop out of mind-one whose confidence had always meant much in a practical way to those who enjoyed it.

David Morrice, leaving Perth, his birthplace in Scotland, had gained business experience in Dublin, Cork, London, Liverpool and Manchester, and

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shortly after he came of age, resolved to cross the seas, and, in the contagious hopefulness of the New World, try his fortunes on Canadian soil. "Muddy York" by that time had emerged from its mud, and offered attractions which held the young man for some years in mercantile service.

Not less attractive proved Christian service. The Sunday School of Knox Church, Toronto, found in him an indefatigable worker, and later on he became "a leading spirit in a little company of earnest Christians who gathered round Dr. John Taylor in founding the Gould Street United Presbyterian Church, now one of the strongest and most active congregations in Canada, worshipping in St. James Square. Dr. Taylor, in addition to discharging the duties of the pastorate of his little flock, was sole Professor of Divinity in the U. P. Hall, and performed the work of his chair with much learning and ability. For his congregation it was the day of small things and the struggle for existence was hard and protracted. To this good work David Morrice gave ungrudgingly time and thought and money without stint, indeed all that he acquired except what was absolutely necessary for personal support. He acted as elder, Sunday School teacher, and member of the Board of Management, and a director of the U. P. Magazine. In all these capacities his services were abundant and invaluable, and before leaving the city he had the satisfaction of seeing the congregation beginning to emerge from its weakness and difficulties."

When he removed from Toronto to Montreal, he was so attracted by Mr. MacVicar's ministry as to leave the United Presbyterian Church, and worship henceforth in Coté Street Free Church, where he was soon called to office as an elder, and where for many years he acted as Sunday School superintendent.

A masterly influence in the commercial world, as head of a firm which for many years has carried on the largest business in their line in Canada, controlling a considerable number of cotton and woolen mills in different parts of the Dominion, David Morrice, with dignified bearing, confident energy, ready grasp of detail and executive enterprise, has always discharged in a practical manner the duties incidental to his office as chairman of the College Board of Management.

A member of the Montreal Microscopic Club, and of similar institutions, and an enthusiastic patron of art, it would not have been surprising had he devoted his attention and means, like other large-hearted citizens, to fostering the interests of secular education. He appreciated, however, the incalculable influences exerted by a properly equipped theological institution, with its annual output of men whose training fits them to touch at so many vital points the higher personal, social and religious movements of an extensive territory. To a man of his temperament, a business-like appeal appealed." Already there was forming in his

mind a purpose that would result in the erection of a pile of buildings where increased numbers would assemble to taste the fruit of knowledge, on a spot where then stood a straggling clump of trees, up the branches of which street urchins were in the habit of swarming to taste luscious varieties of the apple "haw and " pear "-haw.

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One evening, shortly after the opening of the ensuing session, Principal MacVicar, his mind keen and face aglow with satisfaction, appeared on the platform of a crowded meeting of Montreal Presbyterians who had been in session from night to night to consider the great departments of the Church's work at home and abroad. Without the usual manuscript in his hand, he proceeded to discuss, with suppressed energy, some notable causes in the city which had evoked Christian munificence, and after arousing no little curiosity as to the drift of his further remarks he asked leave to read a letter from a friend, which, only after much insistence, he had secured permission to make public. It ran:

My Dear Principal MacVicar—

You are aware that the work of our college has occupied my serious attention for some time and has caused me considerable anxiety in planning how to place it, as regards equipment and endowment, on a more satisfactory basis than at present.

The matter has pressed upon my mind more particularly of late, and on looking over the general work of our Church, especially in connection with our mission fields, so much in need of service, for

which assistance must come from our colleges, where provision is made for a thoroughly educated ministry, I have resolved after mature consideration of the whole matter to erect for the purposes of the college a Convocation Hall, and suitable library buildings, with a much needed dining hall, and twenty-five or thirty additional dormitories for the use of students.

I shall have the necessary plans prepared and submit them at an early date, for the approval of the Board.

The matter of the endowment I must leave in the hands of other friends of the college, who, I sincerely trust, will help us in this good work.

This outlay will cause me considerable personal sacrifice, but I make it with pleasure, believing it to be of God. Yours faithfully,

DAVID MORRICE.

The applause which greeted this announcement was echoed all over the land, and even beyond the seas, both in private correspondence, on public platforms, and in the press. "Mr. Morrice," said one of the city journals, "has been so generous a giver of the good things with which he has been blessed that this, his latest act of liberality, was little more than was to have been expected. He had only to discover the educational needs of the church to which he belonged to be impelled to give of his bounty and help forward an enterprise second to no other work."

The Principal lost no time in acting upon the hint thrown out in regard to a probable willingness