639 
 R4W7 
 
 B
 
 Ex Libris 
 C. K. OGDEN ] 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 THE SOUL OF 
 A NATION
 
 THE SOUL OF 
 A NATION 
 
 Preached by 
 The Right Hon. and Right Rev. 
 
 Arthur F. Winnington-Ingram, D.D. 
 Lord Bishop of London 
 
 From the Steps or 
 
 ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL 
 
 July 25, 1915 
 
 LONDON 
 
 C. ARTHUR PEARSON LTD. 
 
 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN
 
 3> 
 
 PUBLISHERS' 
 NOTE 
 
 IT is a pleasure to be able to 
 present the remarkable sermon 
 which was preached by the Right 
 Rev. Arthur Foley Winnington- 
 Ingram, Bishop of London, from 
 the steps of St. Paul's Cathedral on 
 Sunday, July 25, 1915, in this cheap 
 and accessible form. Amongst all 
 the pulpit utterances that have 
 owed their origin to the Great War 
 
 5 
 
 1012823
 
 THE SOUL OF A NATION 
 
 in Europe this address stands out 
 with extraordinary clearness. It 
 crystallizes, in a series of striking 
 paragraphs, the real inner mean- 
 ing of the terrible conflict of armed 
 forces that is now in progress, and 
 it utters, in clarion accents, a call 
 to the people of England to rise to 
 the heights of the great opportunities 
 that are now offered to them for 
 the noblest and most unselfish forms 
 of service. 
 
 £g The Bishop of London has not 
 only a prescriptive but a personal 
 6
 
 THE SOUL OF A NATION 
 
 right to speak about our soldiers. 
 He is not only chaplain to the 
 London Rifle Brigade but is Bishop 
 of the Chaplaincies in Northern- 
 Central Europe, so that when 
 he went on his recent memorable 
 visit to the Front he was performing 
 a double duty — he was looking after 
 the interests of the men who were 
 in his spiritual charge and he was 
 travelling over a portion of his own 
 diocese. No fatigue has been too 
 great since the war began for the 
 Bishop of the Battlefields, as he is 
 called sometimes. "Wherever duty 
 
 7
 
 THE SOUL OF A NATION 
 
 has called, he has gone ungrudgingly, 
 although he is now in his 57th year 
 and has spent many more years in 
 ecclesiastical harness than usually 
 fall to the lot of men in his exalted 
 position. And when he returned 
 from France at the end of a fort- 
 night's never-ceasing toil, he summed 
 up his own impression of his 
 mission amongst the soldiers at the 
 Front in this striking phrase : "I 
 have had the experience of my 
 life." 
 
 £g As his chaplain stated after- 
 8
 
 THE SOUL OF A NATION 
 
 wards : " Many people would give 
 a great deal to see the British Army 
 in the Field — indeed most men long 
 to be serving with it there — but 
 the Bishop had the opportunity to 
 acquire first-hand knowledge of all 
 that is happening across the Channel 
 from one end of the line to the 
 other, both in the generals 1 head- 
 quarters and the soldiers' billets. 
 But he was not referring to this 
 side of the visit when he used 
 these words. . . . He went out for 
 one object, and for one object only. 
 He went out to hold a mission. . . . 
 
 9
 
 THE SOUL OF A NATION 
 
 He left England to make a spiritual 
 appeal to the men, and the response 
 exceeded anything that he could 
 have anticipated." And he was 
 able to state afterwards : " The 
 truth of the matter is that the 
 realities of war have melted away 
 the surface shyness of men about 
 religion ; they feel they are ' up 
 against' questions of life and 
 death." 
 
 fig Over those who seek a mere rehash 
 of partisan cries or a noisy re-state- 
 ment of crude patriotic shibboleths 
 10
 
 THE SOUL OF A NATION 
 
 the following message of the Bishop 
 of London to the People of England 
 may conceivably exercise very little 
 influence. The Bishop did not 
 appeal to that class. Those people 
 were not the object of the service 
 around that hallowed stone on 
 which Queen Victoria stood when 
 her Majesty went in solemn state 
 to the National Valhalla to return 
 thanks for a reign of fifty years as 
 Sovereign. In point of fact the 
 whole significance of the occasion 
 was summed up by the writer 
 in the Daily Telegraph the next 
 
 11
 
 THE SOUL OF A NATION 
 
 morning when he related how 
 " three thousand soldiers knocked 
 humbly yesterday afternoon at the 
 great doors of St. Paul's Cathedral. 
 They came to pray for courage and 
 for victory, and so they gathered 
 at the threshold of the great Metro- 
 politan church." 
 
 fig "Outwardly," he added, "they 
 were the representatives of the City 
 of London Territorials, but to the 
 tens of thousands who reverently 
 assisted at the service they were the 
 embodiment of the chivalry and self- 
 12
 
 THE SOUL OF A NATION 
 
 sacrifice which daily finds noble 
 expression along the entire front of 
 our far-flung battle line. And it 
 was not for themselves alone that 
 these soldiers had come to pray. 
 Their voices were raised in humble 
 supplication for those who have 
 fallen in the terrible conflict : 
 their prayers were uttered for 
 those whose hearts are in sore 
 distress." 
 
 £g Everything seemed in harmony 
 with so memorable an occasion. 
 " Sombre and vast against the leaden 
 
 13
 
 THE SOUL OF A NATION 
 
 sky stood the great West Front of 
 the Cathedral. As if in keeping 
 with the storm and the clash of 
 battle, the rain fell in close persis- 
 tent sheets, drenching the throng of 
 worshippers. It was a scene mov- 
 ing alike by its sombre dignity, as 
 by the deep significance with which 
 it was charged. No place could 
 have been more fitting for the 
 appeal of the Church to the soul of 
 a nation — the steps of the shrine 
 where lie at rest the great sons 
 who have built up an Empire's 
 greatness." 
 14
 
 THE SOUL OF A NATION 
 
 fig To-day people who took part in 
 that great ritual of intercession 
 speak of it as one of the most pro- 
 found and moving spectacles they 
 can ever hope to witness. As far as 
 the eye could reach down Ludgate 
 Hill and along the Strand the pave- 
 ments seemed to be packed with 
 people whom not even the torren- 
 tial rains that fell almost through- 
 out the service could drive into 
 shelter. They awaited patiently the 
 arrival of the long procession of 
 soldiers who had marched, with 
 the Bishop in their midst, from 
 b 15
 
 THE SOUL OF A NATION 
 
 Trafalgar Square along the Strand 
 to Wren's great edifice. 
 
 QJ The regiments represented in 
 that march were the 1st to the 8th 
 Battalions of the City of London 
 Territorial regiments and the Honor- 
 able Artillery Company, with the 
 1st, 2nd and 3rd London Field 
 Ambulance Sections. The drums 
 of the Honorable Artillery Com- 
 pany formed the altar for the 
 service when, relates the writer 
 we have already quoted, "the 
 Bishop unmindful of the heavy 
 16
 
 THE SOUL OF A NATION 
 
 and persistent rain came forward, 
 escorted by his chaplains, and 
 preceded by his pastoral staff." It 
 was a happy omen that the sun 
 blazed forth just as the Bishop 
 began to speak. 
 
 £g " He took his place beneath the 
 great portico whilst the soldiers 
 ranged themselves silently round 
 the great flight of steps. The clergy 
 and choir, robed and surpliced, 
 took post on the Cathedral steps, 
 and the Bishop advanced to the 
 piled drums. ' God, our Help in 
 
 17
 
 THE SOUL OF A NATION 
 
 ages past' broke on the air. The 
 strains were taken up by the huge 
 concourse, and lost themselves in 
 a confused echo as they sped 
 along the vast human avenue. 
 And then came the impassioned 
 address by the Prelate in simple 
 direct phrase. ' For what is a 
 man profited, if he shall gain 
 the whole world, and lose his 
 own soul?' " 
 
 £g Critics now would find it diffi- 
 cult to estimate or to appreciate the 
 sensation that this sermon caused 
 18
 
 THE SOUL OF A NATION 
 
 in England when extracts from it 
 appeared in the public press and 
 were telegraphed all over the world. 
 The Times took advantage of the 
 occasion to point out how many 
 calls in this country were " still being 
 made and still being answered — 
 calls for men, calls for personal 
 service. Calls for money, calls for 
 the renunciation of luxury and a 
 return to a simpler and more fru- 
 gal mode of life. The Bishop of 
 London," it added, " was right when 
 he said that ' it is only a new Eng- 
 land which has come back to her 
 
 19
 
 THE SOUL OF A NATION 
 
 best self which can save the world 
 to-day.' " 
 
 £g Another journal recalled the 
 phrase of the poet " Kneeling ne'er 
 spoilt silk stocking," and that still 
 less does it spoil the uniform of the 
 soldier, and declared that the Bishop 
 had spoken eloquently of the soul 
 of the various nations — u of Belgium, 
 which had lost all but honour and 
 is the greater for her loss ; of 
 France, which has become trans- 
 figured by the war ; and of the 
 4 great patient soul of Russia,' which 
 20
 
 THE SOUL OF A NATION 
 
 has been revealed by the touch of 
 the purging fire. The question," 
 it contended, " for all of us is : 'What 
 of the soul of Britain?' Are we 
 emerging from the ordeal as noble 
 as France and Russia? We have 
 been spared the unspeakable horrors 
 which have befallen them ; are we 
 doing all that we ought in order to 
 mark our gratitude?" 
 
 fig " Our people," cried another 
 writer, "are consecrated to a task 
 more than national. Outside St. 
 Paul's the nation gathered together 
 
 21
 
 THE SOUL OF A NATION 
 
 desiring its own change of heart, 
 knowing that, if it is to be made 
 worthy to conquer it will conquer 
 in the cause of Christendom ; but 
 knowing also that it must overcome — 
 besides those enemies who, with 
 their new doctrine, threaten all that 
 Christendom has desired to be — its 
 own selfishness, its own dullness, 
 its own lack of faith. 
 
 £g "That was the spirit expressed 
 in the prayers and in the words of 
 the Bishop of London, and that was, 
 we cannot doubt, the spirit of all 
 22
 
 THE SOUL OF A NATION 
 
 the troops ranged before him" and 
 of the silent crowd as they listened 
 eagerly to the following address. 
 
 23
 
 THE SOUL OF 
 A NATION
 
 This sermon will be included 
 in the forthcoming volume 
 of Sermons by the Bishop 
 of London, entitled "The 
 Church in War Time," to 
 be published shortly.
 
 "For what is a man profited, if 
 he shall gain the whole world, 
 and lose his own soul ? or what 
 shall a man give in exchange for 
 his soul ? " 
 
 Matthew xvi, 26.
 
 THE SOUL OF 
 A NATION 
 
 I THINK the most strik- 
 ing cartoon which I have 
 ever seen was in the pages 
 of our greatest comic paper 
 six months ago. It was when 
 Belgium had been ravaged 
 up to the last town— and a 
 dark figure says sneeringly 
 
 c 31
 
 THE SOUL OF A NATION 
 
 to the King of Belgium, " So 
 you have lost everything"; 
 but with a noble pride in- 
 stinct in every feature, the 
 King answers back, "Not 
 my soul" 
 
 I. It was a great answer and 
 a true one; the soul of a 
 nation is more than its ma- 
 terial possessions : " What 
 does it profit a nation, if it 
 32
 
 THE SOUL OF A NATION 
 
 gain the whole world and 
 loses its soul?" 
 
 i. Belgium in her poverty 
 to-day is far greater than 
 Belgium rich with the rubber 
 trade from the Congo— for 
 she stands pure in soul, un- 
 conquerable in spirit, untar- 
 nished in fame — she has lost 
 her wealth ; she has found 
 her soul. 
 
 33
 
 THE SOUL OF A NATION 
 2. So with France. Those 
 who have come recently from 
 France stand entranced be- 
 fore the change in the nation ; 
 there was a time when the 
 antagonism to the Roman 
 Catholic priesthood seemed 
 degenerating into a hatred 
 of religion — Paris was the 
 home of gaiety and the fount 
 of fashion. 
 
 34
 
 THE SOUL OF A NATION 
 
 £8 But there is a new France 
 in the world to-day— abso- 
 lutely one, with a passionate 
 patriotism which is like a 
 flame; all pleasures are flung 
 aside— she pants for the day 
 when the fair provinces taken 
 by the enemy shall be re- 
 stored, and the fangs of the 
 wild beast which have been 
 fastened in her, shaken off. 
 
 35
 
 THE SOUL OF A NATION 
 
 S3 There are no great national 
 resources in France available 
 for comforts for the soldiers. 
 Paid their franc and a quarter 
 a day, out of this the wife 
 saves enough to send some 
 little comfort to her man in 
 the trenches. Purified by a 
 fire of trial of which we 
 have no conception here — 
 France has found her 
 soul. 
 36
 
 THE SOUL OF A NATION 
 
 3. And what shall we say of 
 Russia ? Those of us who 
 have visited Russia have 
 always loved the great soul 
 of Russia. To Palestine 
 every year, for every ten pil- 
 grims from other countries, 
 there come at least 1000 from 
 Russia. Beneath the vodka 
 habit, behind what often 
 seemed a lack of mission 
 spirit in the Church, behind 
 
 37
 
 THE SOUL OF A NATION 
 
 the old mistaken political 
 methods which produced so 
 many revolutions, a great 
 soul breathed, and at the 
 touch of the purging fire it 
 has been revealed. In a 
 week, the vodka was flung 
 aside, in a day the nation 
 was unified under its leader ; 
 within a month freedom was 
 promised to the nationalities 
 under its sway ; the religion 
 38
 
 THE SOUL OF A NATION 
 
 which breathed beneath 
 great state functions was 
 seen to be genuine and the 
 great patient soul of Russia 
 was revealed. Russia will 
 never be conquered — while 
 the world lasts; not only 
 because of the extent of its 
 territory, but because of the 
 soul of its people ; they may 
 be pushed back and back, but 
 they will burn and suffer, and 
 
 39
 
 THE SOUL OF A NATION 
 
 suffer and burn as they go 
 — they may lose the whole 
 world but they will keep 
 their soul. 
 
 II. The Church has come out 
 to-day to give a message to 
 the soul of our nation. Have 
 -we got a soul ? Who that 
 knows the history of the 
 English people can doubt it? 
 It is a soul which gets over- 
 
 40
 
 THE SOUL OF A NATION 
 
 laid like the soul of other 
 nations, with love of material 
 comfort ; with arrogance, 
 and with worldliness; but 
 the children would not be 
 springing from all over the 
 world to the mother's side, 
 if the mother had no soul, if 
 there had been no love for 
 freedom, no belief in honour, 
 no care for the weak, no 
 contempt for the merely 
 
 41
 
 THE SOUL OF A NATION 
 
 strong; then there would 
 have been no glad loyalty 
 from thousands and tens of 
 thousands who have rallied 
 round her Flag. 
 
 fiS Can we admit for a mo- 
 ment that the soul of the 
 nation which won Agincourt, 
 which flung back the Armada, 
 which withstood for many 
 years the armies of Napoleon 
 
 42
 
 THE SOUL OF A NATION 
 
 is not as great as the soul 
 of other nations ? 
 
 2? Rather we believe that in 
 this equally balanced contest 
 on the Continent it is the 
 soul of England which is to 
 once again free the world; 
 no calamity can be pictured 
 more awful than if at this su- 
 preme crisis in the history of 
 the world England should fail. 
 
 43
 
 THE SOUL OF A NATION 
 
 III. But, if we are to rise to 
 our vocation — 
 
 (i) The first essential thing 
 is that as a nation, not 
 as a few groups of pious 
 individuals, but as a 
 nation, we should turn to 
 God] the only power which 
 can save Europe to-day is 
 a nation which, while it 
 fights and works and serves 
 and saves without stint, is 
 
 44
 
 THE SOUL OF A NATION 
 
 also a nation on its 
 knees. 
 
 <&> Do we really believe in 
 God's strength? Do we 
 believe in an Almighty God 
 at all? Or is prayer waste 
 of time? Do we really be- 
 lieve in the promise "Seek 
 ■first the Kingdom of God 
 and His righteousness and 
 all these things shall be 
 added unto you." 
 
 45
 
 THE SOUL OF A NATION 
 
 fl? It is for that reason that 
 I have summoned London, 
 as the Archbishops have 
 again and again summoned 
 the nation, day and night to 
 pray. 
 
 (2) But to pray with effect, 
 we must pray with a good 
 conscience, and that is the 
 real significance of the 
 Church's call to repentance. 
 
 46
 
 THE SOUL OF A NATION 
 
 Repentance is not a weak 
 whining to God on our knees 
 because we are in a difficulty, 
 it is a noble laying aside 
 of all that makes us un- 
 worthy of working with 
 The Great Friend. 
 
 68 It was said by a well- 
 known atheist, " the Great 
 Companion is dead," The 
 answer of a believing nation 
 
 d 47
 
 THE SOUL OF A NATION 
 
 is that He whom the 
 atheist ventured to call "the 
 Great Companion" is not 
 dead but that He can only 
 work with those who keep 
 His laws, and obey His will 
 and share His mind and 
 refuse to do evil that good 
 may come. 
 
 83 Can we as a nation say 
 that we have always done 
 48 

 
 THE SOUL OF A NATION 
 this ? Do we not know that 
 again and again we have 
 ignored His day, neglected 
 His worship, and broken His 
 commandment to "keep our 
 bodies in temperance, sober- 
 ness and chastity." 
 
 fi? To win this war then, to 
 liberate the spiritual 
 powers in heavenly places 
 which are at our disposal, 
 
 49
 
 THE SOUL OF A NATION 
 
 we must repent as well as 
 pray, and amend as well as 
 repent; it is only a new 
 England, which has come 
 
 back to her best self, which 
 can save the world to-day. 
 
 (3) But with the penitence 
 and prayer must go a spirit 
 of service which must im- 
 press the world. 
 
 50
 
 THE SOUL OF A NATION 
 
 V We have had a call ad- 
 dressed to the nation by its 
 responsible leaders, for 
 u Universal voluntary ser- 
 vice." It is the greatest 
 call which can be addressed 
 to a nation. No other nation 
 believes it possible. Every 
 one knows it is the last time 
 that we can afford to leave 
 the call voluntary, but, if it 
 can be given, voluntary 
 
 51
 
 THE SOUL OF A NATION 
 
 service is the noblest form 
 of service, 
 
 <£> " I am among you as He 
 that serveth," cried the great 
 Captain of Salvation, and it 
 was voluntary service of 
 which He spoke. 
 
 "He sent no angel to our race 
 Of higher or of lower place, 
 
 But wore the robe of human frame 
 Himself 
 
 And to this lost world came.' 
 
 52 

 
 THE SOUL OF A NATION 
 
 "By love serve one an- 
 other" — in those old words 
 the Church calls to the soul 
 of the nation to rise to this 
 great vocation, and from the 
 highest to the lowest to 
 offer itself for service, with 
 the single-hearted cry, 
 14 Here I am, send me. " 
 
 (4) But there must be 
 something more even than 
 service, and I am only put- 
 
 53
 
 THE SOUL OF A NATION 
 
 ting in a fuller form what I 
 have written in my letter to 
 the people of London, we 
 must also save. 
 
 fig No one yet realizes the 
 changes which this war is 
 going to make to all of us ; 
 a financial expert told us 
 the other day that many rich 
 men living in large houses 
 would be living in cottages 
 
 54
 
 THE SOUL OF A NATION 
 
 after the war; but the test 
 of whether the soul of the 
 nation is rising to its voca- 
 tion, is whether it is ready 
 to bear this cheerfully, so 
 long as it has kept its 
 honour untarnished and 
 fully achieved its great 
 aim. 
 
 When we are fighting for 
 the freedom of the Home of 
 Freedom, for the liberties of 
 
 55
 
 THE SOUL OF A NATION 
 
 the world, for International 
 Honour, for Christ upon the 
 Cross as opposed to the 
 revived pagan doctrine that 
 might is right, the Church 
 calls upon the nation to say 
 that no sacrifice matters if 
 you win. 
 
 11 No easy hopes or lies shall bring 
 us to our goal, 
 But iron sacrifice of body, will 
 and soul." 
 
 56
 
 THE SOUL OF A NATION 
 
 fig We summon then the soul 
 of England to arise in all 
 its grandeur and strength 
 at this crisis of the day of 
 God. Come from the four 
 winds, thou Breath of the 
 Spirit, and breathe upon this 
 great people that hope and 
 faith and love may once 
 again revive and the world 
 be saved again by the "Soul 
 of a People."
 
 PRINTED AT 
 
 THE BALLANTYNE PRESS 
 
 LONDON
 
 This book is DUE on the last 
 date stamped below. 

 
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