fession neither of Theism, nor of Christianity, carries any kind of guarantee that Theist or Christian holds. War to be morally indefensible, or Peace an ordained condition of life, and consequently a realisable object of endeavour. For all who identify God Himself with that Eternal Mind with which the human conscience is created to correspond, these truths, one would have thought, must be axiomatic. We recall, indeed, the Mystic protest against scholiast attempts to define the indefinable-" Le Dieu défini est le Dieu fini." But no Mystic ever quarrelled with the sentence which constitutes for the larger part of civilised mankind the sovereign definition: GOD is LOVE. When that is said, one might have thought that all is said. For the eternal Religion is founded on that Rock: the rest are but tossed upon the waves of time.

Let, then, the accordant voices of Religion and Philosophy, all high examples of non-Christian conduct, and the specimen witness of "the thirsting mind" of our own masses, teach us, ere it be too late, that one of the highest aims of a community is “to maintain the moral vigour of its members, to increase it by discipline, and to provide it with inspirations." Whatever happens, we may be sure that, whether in the West or in the East, the power of self-guidance and restraint will remain the very Salt of Citizenship. And, contrariwise, its certain corruption will arise from flouting the wisdom of our Burke by neglecting to cultivate every sort of generous and honest feeling belonging to our nature, our nature," and by refusing to "bring the dispositions that are lovely in private life into the service and conduct of the Commonwealth."

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The Good for the reasonable animal is Society. Take pleasure in passing from one social act to another, thinking of God. Men exist for the sake of one another. We are made for Co-operation. To act against one another is therefore contrary to Nature. Whatever is done without reference, either immediately or remotely, to a social end, this tears asunder thy life, destroys its unity, and is of the nature of a mutiny. Never value anything as profitable to thyself which shall compel thee to suspect, or to hate, any man. If as rational beings we have in common intellect or reason, we have also a common law, and are all fellow-citizens. For of what other political community will any one say that the whole human race are members? 1

O people of the World, ye are the fruit of One Tree, and the leaves of One Branch. Put away the Sword, and put the Word in its place. Let not any man glory in that he loves his Country; let him rather glory in that he loves his Kind.2

1 M. AURELIUS ANTONINUS.

2 BAHA'U'LLAH.-Founder of a modern religious movement in Persia, credited with a roll of 20,000 martyrs, and with the current adherence of at least one-fifth of the people. It aims at unity of spirit among all Faiths and all Races.

One is your Father, even God; and all ye are Brethren. The first of all the commandments is, "Thou shalt love . . . It was said to them of old time "Thou shalt love thy neighbour and hate thine enemy;" but I say unto you, "Love your enemies . . . that ye may be sons of your Father in Heaven."

All our mighty achievements are being hampered and often neutralised, all our difficulties are being doubled, and all our social diseases are being aggravated by this supreme and dominant fact that we have suffered our Religion to slide from us, and that in effect our age has no abiding faith in any religion at all. The urgent task of our time is to recover a religious Faith as a basis of life both personal and social.1

What are the Churches doing,—what in particular is the Church of England doing,-to help the fulfilment of her prayer for the gift to all nations of unity, peace, and concord?

In her best and greatest days the Church has been a great emancipating power. .. But it is the mission of the Church not only to set men free but to bind and hold them together. She has banished, or helped to banish, many of the social plagues which used to poison and devastate human life. She may still, if she will— using her opportunities and living up to the height of her mandate-take her share in expelling the greatest scourge which still threatens the unity and progress of mankind.2

1 FREDERIC HARRISON.

2 H. H. ASQUITH.

CHAPTER VIII

THE CALL OF RELIGION

THE uniform witness of the world's greatest Teachers on the subject of Peace and War has been continually disregarded. Wisdom and eloquence have striven in vain to straighten out obliquity which ages of habit have ingrained and immemorial tradition has upheld.

In the infancy and childhood of the world, in ages of violence and in regions of barbarism, such treatment of premature testimony is not surprising. Though its Light shone never so clearly, "the darkness comprehended it not." But that the rejection should persist, when the social progress of mankind has made men susceptible to light of almost every other kind, is anomalous indeed.

When Religion by the mouth of its true teachers has invited; the world has, for the most part, begun to make excuse. Prophet after prophet has proclaimed the Eternal Law which visits violence with vexation, and sends "poverty as an armed man" quick on the heels of rapine. Scarcely ever has the witness failed; very poorly has mankind responded. Yet the choicer spirits of the race have gone on striving to propagate their own vivid sense of the invincibility of Love, the fact of Brotherhood, the sovereignty of Service. To their quick insight, wide outlook, and large words, we owe a debt beyond appraisal. For whatever the

degree in which man has " come to himself," it is greatly owing to their enthusiastic perseverance, shaken neither by discouragement from without nor by despondency within. But, as Lowell sings

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Disappointment's dry and bitter root,

Envy's harsh berries, and the choking pool

Of the world's scorn, are the right mother-milk
To the tough hearts that pioneer their kind."

Moreover, the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him." In the lucent crystal of their souls so clearly rose "the Vision of the Future, and all the glory that would be " at the final triumph of Eternal Law, that all the long dark past, filled with immeasurable failure, has been lost in the light of inextinguishable Hope.

Even in ages long remote, the listening spirits heard with singular acuteness those unsilenceable voices which none the less appeal to all: "O that thou hadst hearkened to My Law! Then had thy Peace been as a river, and thy Righteousness as the waves of the sea." For them, the crowning title of the King of kings was neither Wonderful, nor Counsellor, nor Mighty One, nor even Everlasting Father, but "Prince of Peace." And of their eagle outlook on the days to come, this was the outstanding feature:

"Of the increase of His government, and peace, there shall be no end." In the whole wild world of nature and of man, "They shall not hurt nor destroy; neither shall they learn War any more." For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."

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To some similar effect, with a voice which reverberates along the ages, seer after seer has spoken, and