A Fortnight at the Front

by Henry Russell Wakefield

HOPES FOR THE FUTURE

It would neither be right nor in good taste to mention any names of chaplains, but one may instance the kind of work which one saw them doing. I have already referred to the dug-out club in a destroyed town. I may go on to tell of one who on his bicycle, sometimes late at night, would go away from the centre where he was stationed to outlying districts for the purpose of giving lantern lectures to our troops. When last I saw him he was arranging to give this particular entertainment to a number of our Indian wounded. This chaplain was the life and soul of a great parade service held in a square in one of the French towns, where, by his voice and his enthusiasm, he made the whole service go with fervour and effect. I remember how, on this occasion, numbers of French people came up to me and told me that they were certain that this outward acknowledgment by our soldiers of their devotion to God would be helpful to the spirituality of the whole town. The chaplains abroad have to be business men as well as clergy. The arrangements for services and other matters take up a considerable amount of time. At one base there are about thirty places to arrange for every Sunday, and in these thirty places over sixty services are held. It is no light matter for the Senior Chaplain to see that week by week everything is in order. This particular instance is not an isolated one, and is taken simply at random. Now that there is a Bishop as Deputy Chaplain of the Forces in France, everything should go on in a perfectly satisfactory manner and with great advantage to the chaplains themselves.

SPECIMEN OF SERVICE LIST OF ONE OF
OUR BASES AT THE FRONT

DIVINE SERVICES—SUNDAY, AUGUST 22, 1915.

H.C.=Holy Communion, P.S.=Parade Service, E.S.=Evening Service.

CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

B. Details.
8 a.m., H.C. in Orderly Room.
10.46 a.m., P.S. in Y.M.C.A. Hut No. 1.

Reinforcement Camps.
6.30 and 7.30 a.m., H.C. in C.A. Hut.
11.30 a.m., P.S. (open air, weather permitting) at Y.M.C.A.
Hut No. 2 for all Divisions.

If Wet.
10 a.m., P.S. (9, 12, 14 Divisions), C.A. Hut.
11 a.m., P.S. (16, 17, 18 Divisions), C.A. Hut.
11.30 a.m., P.S. (19, 20, 37, 61 Divisions) in Y.M.C.A. Hut
No. 2.
7 p.m., E.S., C.A. Hut.

No. 18 General Hospital.
6.30, 8.16, and 11.30 a.m., H.C., Church Tent.
11 a.m., P.S., Church Tent.
6 p.m., E.S., Church Tent.

No. 1 Canadian Hospital.
6 a.m., H.C., Recreation Tent.
8 a.m., H.C., Nurses Tent.
9.16 a.m., P.S., Recreation Tent.

Liverpool Merchants, St. Johns and Allied Forces Hospital.
7 a.m., H.C., Officers Recreation Tent, L.M.M. Hospital.
6.30 p.m., E.S., Officers Recreation Tent, L.M.M. Hospital.
10.30 a.m., P.S., Ward B. 25 in 23 General Hospital.

No. 3 Canadian Hospital.
6.46 a.m., H.C.
10.30 a.m., P.S.
6 p.m., E.S.

22 General Hospital.
6.16 and 7 a.m., H.C.
11.16 a.m., P.S.
6.30 p.m., E.S.

Convalescent Camp and Isolation Hospital.
6.30 and 8.15 a.m., H.C. in Church Tent, 18 General Hospital.
10 a.m., P.S., Tipperary Hut.

Detention Camp.
10.30 a.m., P.S.

Army Service Corps.
6 p.m., Open Air Service.

23 General Hospital.
6.30 a.m., H.C.
10.30 a.m., P.S. in Ward B. 25.
6.30 p.m., E.S. in Ward B. 25.

24 General Hospital.
6.30 and 8 a.m., H.C.
10.45 a.m., P.S. in Y.M.C.A. Hut 1.
5.30 p.m., E.S. in A 35.

26 General Hospital.
7.30 a.m., H.C., in Ward 15.
10.46 a.m., P.S., Y.M.C.A. Hut.
6.30 p.m., E.S. in 23 General Hospital, Ward 25.

Reserve Parks.
No. 32, P.S., 12.16 p.m.
Nos. 10 and 11, E.S., 6.30 p.m.

20 and 25 General Hospital.
6 and 7 a.m., H.C. in Church Hut of No. 20.
12.15 p.m., P.S. in Y.M.C.A. Hut.

Westminster Hospital.
7 a.m., H.C., English Church.
7.30 a.m. and 12 noon, H.C.
11 a.m., P.S.
6.15 p.m., E.S.

No. 2 Canadian Hospital.
7.30 a.m., H.C.
10 a.m., P.S.
7.30 p.m., Ward Service.

PRESBYTERIAN.

Reinforcement Camps.
9.30 a.m., P.S. (15 and 51 Divisions), Y.M.C.A. Hut 2.
10.30 a.m., P.S. (other Divisions), Y.M.C.A. Hut 2.
6.30 p.m., E.S., all Units, Y.M.C.A. Hut 2.

No. 1 Canadian Hospital.
10 a.m., P.S. in Recreation Tent for all Hospitals except
18 General.

Presbyterian and Nonconformists.
11 a.m., P.S., Y.M.C.A. Hut.
6 p.m., E.S., Church Tent, 25 General Hospital.
7.46 p.m., E.S., Y.M.C.A. Hut.

ROMAN CATHOLIC.

For all Reinforcements, Camps and Base Details, etc.
9.30 a.m., P.S. in Parish Church.
6 p.m., E.S. in Parish Church.
9 a.m., P.S. in Ward 25, 23 General Hospital
7.15 a.m., Holy Mass with Communion in Ward B. 25, 23
General Hospital, for all Hospitals except 18 General
and No. 1 Canadian.

No. 1 Canadian Hospital.
10 a.m., P.S. in Officers MOM Tent.

WESLEYAN AND OTHER NONCONFORMISTS.

All Hospitals, Convalescent Camp and Details.
9.30 a.m., P.S., Y.M.C.A. Hut 1, for all Divisions.
11 a.m., P.S. in S.C.A. Hut.
See Presbyterian Notices.
Evening Services in C.A., Y.M.C.A. and S.C.A. Huts.

WILL UNITS PLEASE COPY ORDERS REFERRING TO THEMSELVES?

I come now to say a word as to the care given to the bodies of our men. The hospitals from the trenches up to the base are admirable, and the appliances are of the most modern description. I shall not soon forget how in one place I saw for the first time the travelling X-ray caravan. It seemed very strange to be in the hospital whilst the photograph was taken and then to go out in the road and see the machine which did the work. What a convenience this must be in these clearing hospitals can well be imagined. One cannot mention all the splendid stationary and other hospitals over which one was shown by officials with untiring patience and courtesy. The pride which our fellow-citizens from the Dominions beyond the seas take in the fitting up and working of their hospitals is quite extraordinary, and the same spirit animates the private individuals who have their own large institutions in hotels, casinos, and such-like places that they have taken over. I am not sure that I was not more struck with the splendid arrangements made by the Liverpool merchants for our wounded than by anything else of this kind. There is also what one may call a Convalescent Home for the tired soldier, weary in body, in mind and nerve, which, thanks to the man at the head, seems to be very effective. We all know how the strain of the Front tells upon our soldiers, and especially upon the younger men. They come back to this excellent Home by the thousand; they are kept until really restored, and then they go back cheerful and ready for duty. The last thing before they return is a little service in the chapel, which I had the honour on one occasion to take. It was interesting when paying a visit to another hospital to find that it had been formerly a school, and that as the whole building had not been taken over some of the classes were still being held. I intruded into the schoolroom and gave a talk to the young people about the Alliance.

Although I must refrain most reluctantly from saying anything about the great military personages whom I met in France, and with whom I was so greatly impressed, I may perhaps refer to two French persons of distinction, in no way connected with the war, whom I was privileged to meet. First there is that outstanding personality the Mayor of Hazebrouck, Abbé Lemire. He and I were brought together because he is a clerical municipal dignitary and I was the first clergyman who was ever a mayor in this country. He, however, does more than I have ever been able to do, because he is a member of the Chamber of Deputies, and here in England the doors of the House of Commons are still shut against the clergy. Abbé Lemire was formerly a professor of theology in a seminary and was a man of distinction in his Church. However, since the present influence at Rome he has got out with the authorities and is now excommunicated. The ostensible reason given was that he did not ask Rome's permission to sit as a Deputy. As it was only during the last few years that such a request was made, and as he had been in Parliament for several years before that fresh demand, the Abbé declined to submit. The probability is that he was fairly certain that no permission would be granted, because of the liberality of his opinions. One thing certainly was in the eyes of Rome a grave offence on his part. When the Bill dealing with the separation of Church and State was under discussion, he spoke and voted against it, but when it was passed he did not therefore give up his seat and refuse to serve the Republic any longer. He suggested, when the Bill was in Committee, many amendments which would have greatly eased the financial position of the Church, but these were rejected, mainly because Rome would have no compromise. The short-sighted policy which now prevails at the Vatican, and which has been the cause of the vacillation of the Pope on the subject of the war, has in regard to Abbé Lemire turned him into the hero of all the Liberal Church people of France. He is an extraordinarily winning personality, and as we walked through the streets of his city every woman and child and old man had something to say to him. With one he would discuss the imprisonment of a soldier son in Germany; with another the fact that a married daughter had had a bouncing boy who would be, so prophesied the Abbé, a soldier of France in years to come. To another in deep mourning he had a word of comfort to give; until at last I said to him that he appeared to be not only le maire but also le père of Hazebrouck. He took me round to his house, which is situated close to the church from the altar of which he is repelled by the vicar, and there he introduced me to the only priest in the neighbourhood who is brave enough to be publicly his friend. Such is the man that Rome ostracises and the people idolise.

ABBÉ LEMIRE

One little matter which should endear Abbé Lemire to the English people is the care which he takes himself, and makes his people take, of the graves of our British soldiers. When flowers are placed upon the French dead the Allies from the other side of the Straits of Dover are not neglected. The religion of Christ will never suffer loss so long as such men as the saint just sketched out exist to prove by sacrifice their devotion to their Master.

Another beautiful character is the present Archbishop of Rouen. Carrying well his seventy-six years, thanks in no small measure to the loving care of his secretary, the great dignitary has passed through the recent critical time for his Church, retaining throughout his breadth of view and his sweetness of nature. Turned out of his official residence, he has built himself another, beautifully situated, in the grounds of which may to-day be seen English doctors and nurses, and even wounded, resting and gaining health. The morning upon which I saw him I had been celebrating the Holy Communion in the chapel of what once was his palace. When I asked him whether he felt any objection to this being done by our English clergy, he answered, "Certainly not." And then, after a moment's thought, he went on: "After all, what does it matter whether one celebrates in one vestment and another in a different one, if at the root of things we are the same? Of course, at the root there must be union of belief." I do not claim that every Archbishop in France would go so far as he does of Rouen, but when sometimes we accuse others of narrowness we must bear in mind, first, that we are guilty very often ourselves, and, secondly, that there are great instances of breadth to be found within the ranks of Rome. I feel, honestly, that out of this war should come a possibility of a better understanding between the various religious bodies, whose men are fighting for the Allies.

Out at the Front all are living for duty. In five hours from London one can be at the very heart of affairs, and yet you are in a different world. One thing, and one only, animates those brothers of ours, so close to us and yet whose spiritual atmosphere seems so different. All the little things are relegated to their proper place; the really important question absorbs every one from the Commander-in-Chief through the whole of the Army. The drop, as it were, from the high standard of headquarters in France to the capital of the Empire depresses a good deal. If only one could make people understand that the whole position is intensely serious, and that the possibility of our Empire in the days to come being influential for the benefit of the world, nay, the possibility of our being a free nation; that these things rest upon our being at home instinct with the same devotion as our people at the Front, we should find that it would be unnecessary to issue almost despairing recruiting bills, and that all would be rushing to service in the cause of God and country, crying, "Here am I, send me."

I am tempted after setting down my impressions of my visit to the Front to take a general survey of the countries engaged in the war, two of which I lived in for a considerable time, and all of which, with the exception of Japan, I have visited during my life.

It is natural to turn one's attention first of all to the instigator of the war, Germany. Those of us who know that country are capable of understanding the readiness with which it plunged into the ocean of blood, and the determination with which it has carried on operations. Ever since 1870 Prussia has regarded itself as the Dictator of the Continent of Europe. Although for some ten years after the Franco-German War it was a poor country, it was nevertheless laying the foundations of that preparedness for eventual attack upon others, which it felt would be necessary in order to consolidate its position of prominence. After 1880 the great growth in material prosperity facilitated the extension of armed power, whilst national pride, which before had been reasonable, now grew into an extraordinary conception of the Divine right of Teutonic aspirations. The Prussian was not blind to the fact that his claims would meet with the inevitable opposition of other Continental Powers, but having cowed the minor German States he felt sure of victory, with those States by his side.

I suppose no people really dislike each other more than the Bavarian dislikes the Prussian neighbour, and probably no characters are more antagonistic than those of the Saxon and the Prussian, but under the iron hand of the military despotism of Berlin, Munich and Dresden came to heel. As to Austria, bearing in mind all the probable disputes between its various component parts, so soon as the present Empire passes away, she feels that safety for her lies only with association with Prussia, though here again there is no love lost between the peoples.

Germanic patriotism is aggressive, and there is certainly some excuse, when we bear in mind that there is a constantly growing population and there is not very much room still left uninhabited. Colonial expansion is the special desire of the heart of Germany, and it is here where she comes into conflict with Great Britain, though it must never be forgotten that there is nowhere a German feels happier than in one of our English dominions. Conscious that her colonising power has proved to be very slight, there have been moments when she has been anxious to meet Great Britain for the purpose of securing some dominions beyond the seas in association with ourselves, and I should not be surprised if, when the question of peace is before us, she should suggest a bargain whereby it is made easy for her to expand on other continents, she agreeing to surrender that which she so far holds by temporary conquest in Europe. It is when one reads the Old Testament that one can best understand Germanic patriotism of to-day. Just as the Jews of old got an inflated idea of the meaning of being the people of God, so is it with Prussia to-day. She believes herself to be appointed for the management of much of the world, and she thinks that she can be allowed to attain this goal by a most uncivilised war. The German does not love cruelty, but the civilisation of the Prussian is something which is a thin coating over a rather brutal nature. The constant mention of Kultur in German writings has in itself almost proved that it is something only lately put on, and that it fits badly. The Prussian is easily made coarse. He is learned, he is what he calls "gemuethlich," which can be described as kindly disposed. He has an over-elaborated polish which is a clumsy imitation of French politeness. His table manners are slightly improving, but the vice of his capital city is disgusting in its coarseness, and some of the jests he attempts are Rabelaisian, except that they have no humour. His religion is that of the Old Testament, and his preachers are powerful to stir him to warfare, but incapable of instilling into him high principles. His jealousy of England was not unnatural. With a strenuous determination Germany was working earnestly for pre-eminence, and we seemed over here to be comparatively careless and to be lacking in force and in the deepening of character.

It was in the less useful things in our social life that Germany imitated us, because in regard to the greater things the Prussian felt himself to be a more earnest striver than we here were. He was ready to copy our clothes, some of our sports, certain peculiarities of our manner, but he could not, and to-day he cannot, understand the real centre, as it were, of the English disposition. The Crown Prince is a typical case of a man who anglicises himself in regard to the excrescences upon our national character, but who cannot by any possibility, though he had an English grandmother, ever understand what a Britisher is. He may wear collars and riding breeches which are copied from productions of a Bond Street hosier or tailor, but he will still go on looting, and he will still show by his utter want of nobility of ideal that he is a somewhat decadent specimen of the lower type of Prussian character.

Although Germany meant war on the Continent, it was not until after the Agadir incident and the diplomatic defeat inflicted by England that there was any real dislike of ourselves. After that time there was undoubtedly a belief that sooner or later there would have to be war with Great Britain, or a great general settlement which should prevent the two nations from engaging in strife. Before that time there were always possibilities of disagreement, but there were also means by which the difficulties could be reconciled. It seemed good to bring the various elements in the two nations together. Some tried to associate the merchants, the legal administrators, the journalists of the two countries; I myself took some part in bringing together the clergy and ministers of England and Germany. I suppose we all felt the possibility of disturbance between our two lands, and it was when I became practically certain that the efforts we were making were vain that I became merely a nominal adherent of the excellent associations which were striving to promote union.

The war came and found Germany ready, united, patriotic, with the feeling of "Deutschland ueber Alles," running through the whole of the central Empires and being a very real inspiration. I may take a very low view of some parts of the German character, but as to the determination, the thoroughness and the unyielding devotion to what is believed to be the goal, I cannot but bend my head in the deepest respect. Let no one believe in the suggested breakdown of Germany. There must be an absolute crushing of the despotic ideals which instigated and at the present day carry on the war. The Brandenburg Gate at Berlin will have to be battered down, or at least the Niederwald Monument of the victory of 1870 hurled into the Rhine, before peace will be secured.

Just now the German is a brave, disciplined, determined, brutal foe, led by a Sovereign who knows that this campaign will either place him first of all Earth's monarchs, or disgrace him and his country for all time. He knows also that he must do the work himself, for from his eldest born nothing stable or wholesome is to be expected.

Germany will offer Britain a bargain before this war is over, probably disgraceful to us but tempting in its clauses. It might be summed up, "the land for Germany and the sea for Britain." It is not surprising that up to the present, neutral nations on the Continent believe, or profess to believe, in the victory of Germany. All that they can see is that on the whole success has so far, on the Continent, rested with the central Powers. Sir Edward Grey was absolutely right when he said that the Balkan States, and it probably would be true of Turkey also, would be at the disposal of the Powers towards which victory seemed to incline. Self-interest has to be, unfortunately, the motive inspiring petty States. If it be true that M. Delcassé, the French Foreign Minister, resigned because of his distrust of Greece, no one need be surprised. Greece is in a very difficult position, not only because her Queen is a German Princess, but also because if by any chance Germany were victorious and Greece had taken up arms against her, the German demands upon that small country would be such as would mean practical destruction.

Turning now to France, we realise that her impelling force in this war is a sacred devotion to country. The pathetic mistake made at the beginning of operations of attempting an incursion into Alsace sprang out of the longing to give back to the beloved land the portion which had been torn from her in 1870. To a Frenchman his earth has a deep meaning, his country has an absolute right to his life, a right never disputed and which is acknowledged with the greatest fervour in the hour of gravest danger. There is no doubt that in the early months of the war the oppression of the last campaign was upon the people; they could still, some of them, remember, and all the others had been told of, the terrible experiences undergone five and forty years ago. When once more Germany was overrunning the land there was for a little time a belief in the inevitable victory of the enemy, but very soon France pulled herself together, and she was enabled to do so because the men leading her, and she herself, had developed a greatness which did not show itself in 1870. I look back to the time when I saw French prisoners spit as they passed their own principal leaders, also in the hands of the enemy. I remember in one German town how subaltern prisoners would cross a road in order to avoid saluting men of superior rank in their own army. I can also call to mind a great moral degradation on the part of many French officers. How different it all is to-day. It seems to me as if Joffre were typical of the new patience which has entered into the French character. At all times the Frenchman has been the best attacker in the world; to-day he has learnt the duty of patient warfare. When the French Commander-in-Chief says that he is nibbling at the Germans, he is making a statement which would have been impatiently received in the days gone by, but which is, after all, under present conditions not only necessary but the most difficult of warlike methods. To-day France is earnest, whilst in 1870 she was only eager. Her moral position has also changed. Behind the armies to-day woman is present, not to minister to passion but to minister to suffering, and to ennoble in thought.

The salvation of France has been, under God, its motherhood. The relationship between, not only the boy, but the grown man and his mother, has remained upon me as the most beautiful thing in the way of relationship that I have ever known. When I hear that almost invariably the dying soldier in France, of all ranks, speaks as his last word upon earth the one that he first spoke—"Maman," I know that I am being told an absolute truth. It may be that in the past the French character has suffered through passion, but if woman has sometimes been an evil influence, assuredly she has oftener certainly proved herself a blessing to the men of the land.

It is a delight to one who loves France, but who was never quite sure that she was to be trusted in difficult moments, to feel now that she has all the stability which will make her carry on to the end this awful war.

There is another class to which France owes much of her reformation: the religious, the Clergy and the Sisters. It is a pity that at the present time, through harsh dealing, she is deprived of the perfect nursing and caring for, of some of the religious Orders, as one hears rather painful accounts of the conditions in some of the French War Hospitals, but she has her clergy, her priests, who fight and pray and bear no grudge for injustice done to the Church they serve. Whatever we may feel sometimes about the great Roman Catholic religion, we know this, at any rate, that the power of its members is always at its highest in the hour of greatest sacrifice. I have seen some of its priests ministering, themselves wounded and suffering, and I have thanked God that there were such examples of Christlike devotion at this great hour of the world's history. The sacredness of la patrie for Frenchmen is a beautiful thing to dwell upon. We are just learning here in England the first lesson of that which is a finished, perfected knowledge to the meanest of French subjects.

Russia.—Here the atmosphere is different. We are in the presence of a nation naturally, often superstitiously, religious and somewhat uneducated. Russia does not make war in a cool and calculating way. The peasant is ignorant even of the causes of the war. His "little father" orders and thenceforth the war becomes a Crusade, a Holy War. The illiterate, religious, patriotic man or woman in Russia knows no such end to warfare except that which comes from the Czar's command. When you turn to the mercantile class you are conscious that all of it which is not German is strongly, almost vehemently anti-Prussian. The language of commerce to-day is German. French has been left to the aristocracy. In the shops of Moscow, Petrograd and Nijni-Novgorod, German is the universal language. It is idle to dispute the Teutonic influence which exists, but there is also an intensely antagonistic feeling on the part of those who have experienced the competition of the German. The aristocracy of Russia has a loathing of German coarseness and is French in speech and feeling. All the classes in Russia are simple, the word Kultur does not impress them. The art, the music and the stage effects of Russia are very natural, though often most perfectly expressed.

One is tempted to sum up the present Russian position as that of a simple, religious, almost fatalistic people, ready for all things at the order of the man who is their civil and spiritual head. But Russia was not prepared for war last year. Those of us who have seen in Moscow the drilling of even some of the best known regiments were conscious that we were not looking at the finished article. The Cossack is a natural horseman who in some ways has hardly anything to learn, but the infantry need to be modernised. The Russian will not turn his back, and his preparedness will grow each day.

Italy.—One or two words only in regard to this country, as to which I fancy we at home are a little disappointed. Let us not forget that it was by no means easy for Italy to sever herself from Germany, with whom she had been allied for a long time. We must not leave out of account that there had been no close sympathy with France for some years, nor must the impoverished condition of the country be forgotten. It needed some courage and some faith to ignore the continental impression of the power of Germany and to take up arms at all against her. We must be patient with her, because, though she may not be "on fire" for this war, yet she is in earnest, and her love for England is real.

Belgium.—This little land faced the inevitable, the never-dreamt-of, with an army not intended for international warfare, and which had to be strengthened by utterly untrained civilians. Her action was magnificent. She could have had terms, but she scorned them. Belgium did not love England before this war. One may doubt whether she even trusted her, but she does now. Still even here there has always been a pro-German class, well-to-do and influential, which may be said to have dominated the commerce of Antwerp and other leading centres. There has also been some sympathy with Germany on the part of the people living near to the German border, and no doubt the Belgian nation has suffered through this war from the treachery of some of its own people. But the tenacity of this little land is unquestionable, and her King and Queen will go down to posterity as perhaps the two most knightly characters of this war, two people who seem more to fit in with the days of the Round Table than with the age of Zeppelins and Mines.

On turning to our own Empire, we have to confess that the level of earnestness at the beginning of the war was lower than in the case of France, Russia, or Belgium, and, indeed, in some ways lower than that of Germany. We were thrilled for a moment, as it were, by the knowledge that we were taking up arms because honour demanded that we should, but the public heart was not greatly stirred. Gradually we began to realise that we were engaged in a struggle for our own existence, but even now there are millions in Great Britain who are not persuaded of this fact. Canada, Australia, New Zealand seem to have understood, before the Motherland, how serious the war was for the Empire. It is not for me to declare to Britain her duty; I do not suggest that I know more of the mind of the nation or of the needs of the nation than any other Briton. I think that I may have had greater opportunity of feeling the pulse of other lands than many people, but all of us here at home can see now what our own duty is, and that whilst the usual mistakes have been made, there is now an awakened Empire which dare not in the sight of God refuse any sacrifice in order to crush for at least the generation that is coming, the accursed ideals which the military party in Germany wishes to see dominating the world. Upon this subject the Church must continue to speak and to act; her words being stronger and her actions firmer than up to the present they have been. This war is in my judgment a fight between right and wrong, between God and evil.

Had I my way I would relegate to obscurity for at any rate the whole period of the war every religious division; I would on this all-important matter fall gladly into line with all sides of Christianity in order that men should know that in our judgment the followers of Jesus cannot understand their Leader without being ready to give, if needs be, life, to prevent the victory of wickedness. This is my reasoned judgment, more than ever impressed upon me by my visit to the Front. If we all face the future with this conviction pessimism will die, not to be superseded by a stupid, unreflecting optimism, but by an unremitting devotion, which shall spring out of that courage which belongs to the man who knows his cause is that of God, and that he himself can and must do something towards hastening the triumph which is inevitable if only we are worthy. The religious England to which I look forward is one which has been taught by the awakening of the spirit of Christian patriotism, that in life the beginning and the end of perfection, for nation as well as individual, is the willing offering of body, mind, and spirit in order that it shall be easy for humanity to be free and for right to triumph over evil. May it be our Empire's glory to have the grandest share in this great offering.

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