The three dominant strands of Canadian public life in the later nineteenth century--religion, education, and national self-definition--merged in the life and influence of George Monro Grant. That influence was based on Grant's leadership in the Presbyterian Church, his twenty-five years (1877-1902) as principal of Queen's University, Kingston, and his lectures and writings on Canada's national development and role in the British Empire. Said by his admirers to occupy a rank comparable to that of Henry Ward Beecher in the United States, Grant lived to the full his conviction that the university and the church were vital forces in the coming-of-age of Canadian democracy.

Born at Albion Mines, Nova Scotia, Grant attended Pictou Academy and West River Seminary near his birthplace and then spent six years at Glasgow University in Scotland. Ordained a minister of the Church of Scotland after a brilliant university career, he returned to his homeland...