1 1 } I Mi 1 1 ' 
 
 I 
 
 BERNARD VAUGH
 
 
 J
 
 WHAT OF TO-DAY? 

 
 BY THE SAME AUTHOR 
 
 THE SINS OF SOCIETY 
 
 THE MATCHLESS MAID OF 
 FRANCE 
 
 SOCIETY SIN AND OUR 
 SAVIOUR 
 
 SOCIALISM FROM THE 
 CHRISTIAN STANDPOINT 
 
 Etc. 

 
 Photograph by P. MacDonald, New York. 
 
 FATHER BERNARD VAUGHAN, S.J.
 
 
 What of To-Day? 
 
 BY 
 
 FATHER BERNARD VAUGHAN, S.J. 
 
 ' ' The highest Faith makes still the highest man ; 
 For we grow like the things our souls believe, 
 And rise or sink as we aim high or low." 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 McBRIDE, NAST AND COMPANY 
 1915 
 
 'i 1
 
 I 
 
 A Sa Majeste 
 
 ALBERT LE GRAND 
 ROI 
 
 des Braves Beiges 
 
 par son humble et son obeissant servitcur 
 BERNARD VAUGHAN, S.J.

 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 1. THE NEW SPIRIT . . . . '.. . i 
 
 2. THE WAR AND THE EMPIRE .... 5 
 
 3. THE REAL SUPERMAN : 
 
 I. His "Kultur" . . . . . 13 
 II. His Creed . . . . f . . 20 
 
 4. GOOD OUT OF EVIL 27 
 
 5. WAR AND RELIGION . . . . .33 
 
 6. "A SCRAP OF PAPER" ... . . 41 
 
 7. THE RED CROSS " . 50 
 
 8. SOWN IN TEARS 58 
 
 9. PLAY THE GAME .65 
 
 10. RUN FOR YOUR LIFE . . . . . 72 
 
 11. THE WEAPON OF PRAYER . . ' . * 83 
 
 12. ANOTHER WAR TO WAGE ; V , :> ; ,' J . 98 
 
 13. "THERE is NO SIN!" . r 1 ' . '.' . 109 
 
 14. "SOME SORT OF RELIGION" . . : . ' . 116 
 
 15. A TRIPLE ALLIANCE v .- . . . 123
 
 viii Contents 
 
 PAGE 
 
 1 6. SATANIC SPIRITISM 132 
 
 I. The Fraudulent 133 
 
 II. The Frivolous 140 
 
 III. The Fiendish . . . . .149 
 
 IV. Cui Bono ? 157 
 
 17. THE SPIRIT OF COMPROMISE . . . .166 
 
 1 8. Is ENGLAND CHRISTIAN? 
 
 I. The Mind of England . . . .174 
 II. The Heart of England . . . .180 
 
 III. The Will of England . . . .185 
 
 IV. The Character of England . . .191 
 
 19. SOCIALISM AND CHRISTIANITY . . .199 
 
 20. WHO WANTS RELIGION ? 
 
 I. Topsy-Turvyism 207 
 
 II. Current Cant 214 
 
 III. Spiritual Snacks 220 
 
 21. "THE SIMPLE LIFE FOR ME" . . . 228 
 
 22. MARRIAGE : 
 
 I. Wedded Love 235 
 
 II. Husband and Wife .... 240 
 
 III. Divorce Made Easy .... 249 
 
 IV. Race Suicide 255 
 
 23. THE SERVANT PROBLEM . . . .262
 
 Contents ix 
 
 FACE 
 
 24. "DIVINE DISCONTENT" . . . . . 269 
 
 25. THE WOMAN MOVEMENT : 
 
 I. The Sex War 275 
 
 II. Lust and Licence 283 
 
 26. " REDEEM THE TIME " 289 
 
 27. THE SELF-CENTRED LIFE .... 299 
 
 28. THE ARRIVAL OF DEMOCRACY . . . 305 
 
 29. SOCIAL REFORM AND INDIVIDUAL REFORM 312 
 
 30. THE SWEATING CURSE . . . . .318 
 
 31. CAPITAL AND LABOUR 325 
 
 32. MODERN IDEALS : 
 
 I. Reversion to Paganism . . . -334 
 II. "Making a Success" .... 339 
 
 33. THE USES OF ADVERTISEMENT . . . 346 
 
 34. THE FETISH OF SPORT 355 
 
 35. "Tnou FOOL" .363 
 
 36. A MESSAGE FROM BETHLEHEM . . .371 
 
 37. " WATCHMAN, WHAT OF THE NIGHT ? " . 379 
 
 38. THE OLD SPIRIT 386
 
 NIHIL OBSTAT 
 
 J. N. STRASSMAIER, S.J., 
 
 CENSOR DEPUTATUS. 
 
 IMPRIMATUR 
 
 EDM : CANONICUS SURMONT, D.D., 
 
 VICARIUS GENERALIS. 
 
 WESTMONASTERII, 
 
 die 7 Novembris, 1914.

 
 PREFACE 
 
 DURING the present crisis of our history it is the 
 business of every citizen to find out how he may 
 best serve his country. If held back by age or 
 duty from joining the colours he must cast about 
 to see what he can do at home. There is work 
 enough to go round ; no one need drop out and 
 join the army of the unemployed. As a matter 
 of fact every section of the community has its 
 loins girt and its lamp trimmed and is eagerly 
 asking: " How can I help?" " What can I do?" 
 Social, political, religious barriers have been 
 swept aside with the incoming tide of true 
 Christian Democracy. 
 
 Never was there a closer union among the so- 
 called classes and masses, never a more kindly or 
 a more genial relationship between them ; never 
 was a finer spirit of the social sense, or a stronger 
 proof of Christian self-sacrifice astir in our midst. 
 
 Having done my small part in helping men 
 "to sign on," and in appealing for the public 
 support of a bi-weekly Flemish paper to reach 
 those of our Refugees who can speak and read
 
 Xll 
 
 Preface 
 
 nothing else, I feel the next best thing to be 
 done is to try to raise a little financial help for 
 the relief of such as find themselves stranded 
 without money or equipment in England, where 
 they want to earn a living and pay their way. 
 Accordingly I am making bold to place on the 
 book market for their benefit this volume, made 
 up of papers on a variety of subjects, which I 
 venture to hope may serve as finger-posts to 
 those of my readers who, like other pilgrims 
 along the way of life, may find themselves for 
 the moment at a junction where the roads cross 
 without being quite certain which of them is the 
 one leading to their true destiny. 
 
 Some of us did not take the right turning 
 after the late South African War ; or if we did 
 for a while we did not keep to it, so that the 
 moral status of our country in the estimate of 
 some of us became worse after than it was before 
 the war. Many, it would seem, only half-re- 
 pentant, relapsed, returning from the Narrow 
 to the Broad Road. 
 
 To-day we are plunged into a life-and-death 
 struggle the like of which has never been wit- 
 nessed in the history of the world. God, in His 
 saving mercy, may, perhaps, have permitted this 
 scourge to fall upon us that the very pain of it 
 might bring us to our right senses, and teach
 
 Preface xiii 
 
 us that we have not been sent into this war-faring 
 world to have "a good time" but to merit " a 
 good eternity." War is a great teacher, and in 
 its school we get to learn what years of peace 
 often may fail to teach. War, though contrary to 
 the perfect Christian ideal, is not an unmitigated 
 evil, still less is it an unmixed good "It is of 
 mingled yarn, good and bad together." We 
 must note the distinction. 
 
 We have to deal with two schools of thought, 
 the one represented by Nietzsche and Bernhardi, 
 and the other by Tolstoi and Ramsay Mac- 
 donald. 
 
 The teaching of the former class makes out 
 that war is the supreme good, a "biological 
 necessity," the essential factor of morality, the 
 religion of valour, the legitimate expression of 
 highest virtue ; the latter class, on the contrary, 
 has no words strong enough with which to con- 
 demn war. It is for this class of men the 
 supreme evil; they say, nothing can justify it, no 
 good can come out of it. Lifting up his hands 
 in horror of it, Mr. Ramsay Macdonald exclaims, 
 in a phrase forestalled by the infidel Voltaire : 
 "The hollow mockery of it! that men using 
 the same name and worshipping the same God 
 should, from rival battlefields and rival pulpits, 
 put up rival prayers asking for rival blessings."
 
 XIV 
 
 So terribly blasphemous to him is the thought 
 that Germans, Russians, French and English 
 should be invoking a blessing on their rival 
 forces, that he goes on to say : "I wish we were 
 back in the old pagan days when every land had 
 its own idol to which it could pray."* 
 
 Clearly there is a via media between these two 
 extreme lines of thought. We must be reasonable 
 and not allow ourselves to be unduly influenced 
 in giving unqualified praise to or in expressing 
 wholesale condemnation of war. To those who 
 have persuaded themselves that war must be a 
 supreme good because forsooth it evokes noble 
 and splendid qualities both in those at the front 
 and in those remaining at home, I should like 
 to say that plagues and earthquakes, shipwrecks 
 and conflagrations also provide the occasion for 
 the display of all manner of virtues which make 
 no less for heroism. And as we pray to be de- 
 livered from these latter calamities, so also we beg 
 deliverance from war itself and its ravages. On 
 the other hand, to those who teach that war is a 
 supreme evil, that nothing can justify it, and that 
 to suppress violence by violence is criminal, I 
 should wish to point out that if such a doctrine 
 as this were to obtain universally, then there 
 would presently be an end to the practice of 
 
 * Manchester Guardian, Nov. 2nd, 1914.
 
 Preface 
 
 XV 
 
 Tightness and of justice on earth. Honour would 
 go, Truth would go, Justice would go. There 
 would be nothing left but what you want to be 
 rid of internecine war. 
 
 We are fighting to-day in the first instance be- 
 cause there is something we prize more than all 
 our national possessions, and that is our plighted 
 word and our national honour. Had England 
 cringed before the foe, and turned a dull ear to 
 the cry for help from Belgium, every Britisher 
 to-day would feel he had been sold by his 
 Government into a slavery compared with which 
 the serfdom of our Anglo-Saxon forbears was 
 freedom. 
 
 As for the "rival prayers of rival nations," in- 
 stead of finding anything in them to condemn I 
 find much to praise. As it does not shock, but, 
 on the contrary, edifies me to hear of Noncon- 
 formists asking God's blessing on their lives and 
 their good works, so am I comforted no less to 
 read of Bavarians and Rhine-men pleading for 
 a blessing on themselves, their arms and their 
 banners. The fact that the enemy begs God to 
 bless his cause is in itself a proof that he believes 
 in its Tightness. Do not such prayers go to show 
 that the rank and file of the armies against us are 
 doing their duty in good faith ? Thank God for 
 that ! Truth to tell, the German people believe 
 
 b
 
 XVI 
 
 Preface 
 
 what they are told " officially." Accordingly our 
 enemy is persuaded that Count Schwerin, the 
 President of the Prussian Diet, expressed accur- 
 ately the German position when he said in that 
 assembly : ' We have honourably striven for 
 peace, but have been forced into war by a jealous 
 and envious enemy." 
 
 And again: "We are not fighting for a 
 greater sphere of power, the enlargement of 
 our Empire, or base commercial profit, but to 
 defend our homes and families." The people 
 believing such statements as these may well be- 
 seech God to bless their righteous cause. We 
 ourselves do not lay claim to the monopoly of 
 justice. All we know about our side of the case 
 is that "our national interests, of which the 
 highest is our national honour," have compelled 
 us to unsheathe the war-sword and to fling to the 
 wind the scabbard till the fight is done and won. 
 
 Had the late Lord Roberts's strong note of 
 warning been heeded there would have been no 
 war. But like Cassandra, who prophesied the 
 Trojan War but was not believed, so did he warn 
 my country of what was about to come upon 
 her ; but he too was set down as a false prophet 
 and told to mind his own business. It is not 
 easy to know which to admire most, that great 
 soldier's eloquent appeal before the declaration
 
 Preface xvii 
 
 of war for national service, or his eloquent 
 silence after its declaration about the neglect of 
 that appeal. In both cases he was an object 
 lesson to us all in the value of character. 
 
 Is it too much to hope that when righteous 
 and abiding peace shall have been proclaimed at 
 the close of this warfare, England will then see 
 her way to establish, if only for the sake of the 
 discipline it furnishes, some system of National 
 Training for her sons of Empire ? 
 
 In this college, where I am writing, there 
 has been now for many years compulsory service 
 of all the boys in the O.T.C. What it has done 
 for the discipline, the alertness, the character 
 and the patriotism of my old school language 
 cannot express. It has transformed the school. 
 It has done this besides, it has sent not fewer than 
 350 Stonyhurst lads to join the colours, and it is 
 training as many more to-day in the ways of 
 loyalty, manliness and patriotism.* 
 
 I do not offer any apology for referring in 
 these pages to German barbarism, atrocities and 
 arson, because instead of repudiating these 
 charges of brutality German authorities defend 
 them. 
 
 * Between Stonyhurst and Beaumont, to mention two only out of our 
 seven Jesuit schools in England, to-day there cannot be many fewer than 
 seven hundred alumni with commissions or in the ranks. Lord Roberta's 
 warning, I am proud to say, has been heeded by our Catholic schools.
 
 xviii Preface 
 
 Not only did Bismarck tell the troops to leave 
 the vanquished nothing but eyes to weep with, 
 but the present Chancellor reminded us how 
 Germany, admittedly in the wrong, would hack 
 her way through Belgium to victory ; and to-day 
 I read a letter sent to the Hamburger Nach- 
 richten by General von Disfurth, in which he 
 declares, "every act of whatever nature ... is 
 fully justified." Read the following extracts of 
 this letter, and be satisfied about the real situation 
 of this super-nation with the monopoly of Kultur. 
 
 The General states that : 
 
 "No object whatever is served by taking 
 any notice of the accusations of barbarity lev- 
 elled against Germany by the foreign critics. 
 Frankly, we are, and must be, barbarians, if by 
 this word we understand those who wage war 
 relentlessly to the uttermost degree. It would 
 be incompatible with the dignity of the German 
 Empire and with the proud traditions of the 
 Prussian army to defend our courageous soldiers 
 from the accusations which have been hurled 
 against them in foreign and neutral countries. 
 We owe no explanations to anyone. 
 
 'There is nothing for us to justify and 
 nothing for us to explain away. Every act of 
 whatever nature committed by our troops for the 
 purpose of discouraging, defeating, and destroy-
 
 Preface xix 
 
 ing our enemies is a brave act, a good deed, and 
 is fully justified. 
 
 "It is of no consequence whatever if all the 
 monuments ever created, all the pictures ever 
 painted, all the buildings ever erected by the 
 great architects of the world be destroyed if, by 
 their destruction, we promote Germany's victory 
 over the enemies who have vowed her complete 
 annihilation. 
 
 "In times of peace we might perhaps regard 
 the loss of such things ; but at the present 
 moment not a word of regret, not a thought, 
 should be squandered upon them. War is war, 
 and must be waged with severity. The com- 
 monest, ugliest stone placed to mark the place of 
 burial of a German grenadier is a more glorious 
 and venerable monument than all the cathedrals 
 of Europe put together. . . . 
 
 "For my part, I hope that in this war we 
 have merited the title of barbarians. Let neutral 
 peoples and our enemies stop their empty 
 chatter, which may well be compared with the 
 twitter of birds. Let them cease to talk of the 
 cathedral of Rheims and of all the churches and 
 all the castles in France which have shared its 
 fate. These things do not interest us. Our troops 
 must achieve victory. What else matters? " * 
 
 * Sunday Chronicle, Nov. 15th, 1914.
 
 XX 
 
 Preface 
 
 One way of partaking in another's sin is by 
 silence. It is the sin of the coward. If I did 
 not denounce publicly the anti-Christian utter- 
 ances of the German war party I should have to 
 write myself down a coward. In this day more 
 especially we must think straight, speak straight, 
 and act straight, or else fall back into the ranks 
 of the unemployed. 
 
 I close this preface with the expression of 
 my profound grief at the sad loss the whole 
 Empire has sustained by the death of our revered 
 and beloved Field-Marshal Lord Roberts. I had 
 fondly hoped he would have done me the honour 
 of introducing my volume to the public. In 
 answer to my request he sent me the first letter 
 quoted below, which, to my thinking, serves 
 better than a preface as providing for my 
 audience such a noble object lesson in the Chris- 
 tian patriotism advocated in the following pages. 
 On my expressing myself in this sense to Lord 
 Roberts he wrote me another cordial letter which 
 also I have pleasure in introducing. 
 
 " ENGLEMERE, 
 u ASCOT, BERKS. 
 
 " October 196$, 1914. 
 
 ' ' DEAR FATHER VAUGHAN, 
 
 " I am much obliged for your letter of the 
 18th instant and greatly appreciate the compli-
 
 Preface xxi 
 
 ment you have paid me in asking me to write a 
 preface to your forthcoming book. Under or- 
 dinary circumstances I should be only too glad to 
 meet your wishes, but, as matters stand, I regret 
 it is impossible. 
 
 " I can hardly cope with the heavy correspond- 
 ence this war has entailed upon me, and the 
 many extra duties I have undertaken in connec- 
 tion with it take up so much of my time that I 
 can hardly get through my ordinary routine. 
 
 " Were it not for this, what you propose would 
 have been a congenial task, as the book will, I 
 am sure, be most interesting. I hope you will 
 send me a copy when it appears. 
 
 " Yours sincerely, 
 
 "ROBERTS, F.M." 
 
 ENGLHMERE, 
 " ASCOT, BERKS. 
 
 u October 2Qth, 1914. 
 
 " DEAR FATHER VAUGHAN, 
 
 " You are most welcome to use my letter 
 of the 19th instant, as you kindly propose. I 
 feel flattered you should think the letter could 
 
 be of use. 
 
 " Yours sincerely, 
 
 "ROBERTS." 
 
 Stonyhurst College, BERNARD VAUGHAN. 
 
 Nov. i6th, 1914.
 
 WHAT OF TO-DAY? 
 
 THE NEW SPIRIT 
 
 THERE are two kinds of writers, as there are two 
 kinds of speakers those who have to say some- 
 thing, and those who have something to say. 
 I believe, after due consideration, that I belong 
 to the second class ; for I have something to say, 
 something at any rate which I feel ought to 
 be said. I have something to say with which 
 many, perhaps most, of my readers will not agree. 
 If, indeed, men in general were ready to agree 
 with me, there would be no necessity for me 
 to write at all. But I must be prepared for more 
 than passive disagreement, and I am quite aware 
 that to be called a reactionary, a conventionalist, 
 or a pessimist is quite the mildest criticism I 
 may expect. 
 
 We are living in an age in which, more than 
 in any other perhaps, new ideas are being put 
 forward, new views of morality are industriously 
 disseminated, new solutions of the old human 
 problems are daily presented to us. It is suffi- 
 cient, it appears, that a point of view should be 
 old or conventional for its instant condemnation ; 
 and we hear a great deal of the spirit of revolt, of 
 B
 
 2 What of To-Day? 
 
 the wisdom of the rising generation, of the cast- 
 ing off of the shackles, religious, intellectual, and 
 moral, which have hitherto, it seems, impeded 
 man so seriously in his progress towards 
 "freedom," that the wonder is how he has 
 managed to raise himself above the brutes at all. 
 
 Now, I would not have it supposed that 
 because I am one of those whose final exit from 
 this stage cannot be long delayed, I am, there- 
 fore, wholly out of sympathy with every new 
 movement, that I cling to certain old beliefs and 
 conventions merely because they are old. But if 
 there are some things in this " new spirit" with 
 which we must all sympathise such movements, 
 I mean, as tend to real social reform, to the 
 bettering of the condition of the poorer classes, 
 and the growth of the broader spirit of brother- 
 hood there are, nevertheless, dangerous indica- 
 tions that in the all but universal revolt against 
 the old order, much is being light-heartedly 
 attacked that is not only useful but absolutely 
 essential to the spiritual, and therefore the real, 
 welfare of all sections of society. 
 
 We are pelted with specious arguments 
 against ' conventional " marriage, " conven- 
 tional " morality, "conventional" standards of all 
 sorts. Yet those who attack such conventions 
 never stop to ask themselves on what grounds 
 these long-established ideas are based. For them 
 a convention is necessarily wrong. Now to enter 
 upon an argument with such people is futile,
 
 The New Spirit 3 
 
 partly because argument usually leads to nothing 
 but a bitter controversy, barren of result, and 
 partly because their own methods are not 
 logical, but, as a rule, inductive. 
 
 A dramatist, for example, will give us a play 
 whose moral is that women are entitled to lead 
 their own lives, as the cant phrase goes, with the 
 same licence that men are popularly supposed 
 to enjoy. But, even supposing discussion to be 
 possible on such a subject, we shall not find in 
 the class of play I am referring to any hint that it 
 is woman's function to raise man to a higher 
 level instead of competing with him as to which 
 shall be the baser sex. 
 
 In novels, or at any rate in many novels which 
 have gained great popularity, the same tendency 
 is observable. Old-fashioned ideas I do not 
 disown the adjective are held up to ridicule, not 
 without skill, I admit, while the heroine, about 
 whose mode of life the less said the better, is 
 depicted as an admirable character, whose chief 
 quality is to prove her superiority over the rest 
 of the humdrum characters of the story by the 
 audacity of her views and actions. 
 
 These, and other equally abominable fallacies, 
 are what I would wish to raise my voice against, 
 all the more loudly since such ideas arc unhappily 
 gaming ground, and, alas, our modern system 
 of education is not directed towards combating 
 them. 
 
 This book, then, forms my protest against
 
 4 What of To-Day? 
 
 the spirit permeating the age : an age which is 
 seemingly determined to live without religion, 
 without morality, without discipline or restraint 
 of any sort. I have admitted that this spirit of 
 revolt is not altogether bad ; if directed into 
 proper channels it might be wholly good. But 
 the terrible truth is, that the revolt we are wit- 
 nessing to-day is not mainly against such modern 
 conditions of life as we all deplore, but against 
 authority of every kind. 
 
 The right of every man to lead his own life 
 in the manner which appears most pleasing 
 in his own eyes that is the ideal which our 
 twentieth century revolters of every class, con- 
 sciously or unconsciously, have put before them- 
 selves. I say emphatically that no man or woman 
 has that right. Mere denial of the duty we owe 
 to God, to our neighbour, and to ourselves, will 
 not rid us of that threefold debt ; the mere 
 assertion that man is free to do as he pleases, 
 does not, and never will, release the spiritual, 
 the moral side of him from that threefold obli- 
 gation. It is the triple cord not easily broken.
 
 II 
 
 THE WAR AND THE EMPIRE 
 
 No Englishman, I think, can feel otherwise than 
 proud of the spirit in which the call to arms has 
 been met. With few exceptions and those of 
 little account each of us has, in his own way, 
 done something and made some sort of sacrifice 
 for the sake of his country. 
 
 Whatever be the result of the titanic struggle 
 to which, through no fault of our own, we are 
 committed, we can at least feel that we have done 
 our duty, that our consciences are clear, and that 
 we have played the man as befits those who have 
 so glorious a heritage to maintain. Never have 
 we fought in a more righteous cause, and never, 
 even in the days of Napoleon, have we entered 
 upon a war with less thought of personal profit 
 or national aggrandisement. 
 
 No one in his senses supposes that the Servian 
 episode alone could, by any exaggeration, have 
 formed sufficient justification for the world-wide 
 conflagration now raging. It was the German 
 War Lords who chose to seize the occasion as 
 a suitable one for the prosecution of their own 
 designs of illimitable power. Nothing could
 
 6 What of To-Day? 
 
 have been easier than for Germany to have 
 settled the Austro-Servian dispute by diplomatic 
 methods. But we now realise only too well 
 that Germany was bent on conquest and was but 
 awaiting her opportunity to unsheathe the sword. 
 She wanted peace only till she was ready for war, 
 and before the allied nations were aware of her 
 purpose, she was already mobilising her troops. 
 When the favourable hour struck, when the 
 opportunity arrived, the enemy rose up in his 
 full strength and declared, through his Chan- 
 cellor, that the German troops "would hack 
 their way to victory." 
 
 The publication of the White Book, from 
 which Mr. Asquith and Sir Edward Grey drew 
 the texts of their epoch-making speeches, has 
 proved beyond all possible doubt that Germany 
 was out to re-cast the map of Europe and to 
 reconstruct the nations of the earth. The war 
 party was determined to justify to the people its 
 vast armaments. It had sat on the safety-valve 
 long enough, and now it promised its teeming 
 population nothing less than the French Colonial 
 Empire as a reward for the patient endurance of 
 the heavy burdens laid upon them by the cease- 
 less demands of their War Lords. 
 
 The lust of power and the greed of gain has 
 so atrophied Prussia's moral sense that in her 
 intoxication she has altogether forgotten those 
 principles upon which alone civilised nations 
 can live and flourish. Not only has the enemy
 
 The War and the Empire 7 
 
 trampled on treaties to which he has solemnly 
 signed his name, but he has invaded neutral terri- 
 tories where he had no right to a foothold and then 
 stooped in his blind insolence to ask Great Britain 
 to be a party to a bargain which was nothing 
 less than the stabbing of a friend in the back. 
 Germany's whole policy has been a conspiracy 
 against honour, truth and freedom, while the 
 German Chancellor, with infinite irony, has 
 promised to make what was all wrong, all right. 
 But not even the Chancellor himself knows the 
 secret of performing such a miracle of black 
 magic. 
 
 It is difficult, even with the facts before us, 
 to believe that a people so cultured, so learned, 
 so scientific and so brave could stoop to methods 
 so base and contemptible, in order to facilitate 
 the robbery of possessions to which they could 
 show no claim. Never before has a civilised 
 Christian nation adopted so cynically for its 
 motto the theory that "the end justifies the 
 means." But the war party the party that 
 boasts of its blood and iron policy had to justify 
 its methods somehow, by fair means or foul. 
 The reported brutality of the Prussian soldiery 
 in Belgium was not, as some people have tried 
 to make out, an instance of the lust for blood 
 suddenly breaking out among hitherto super- 
 ficially civilised individuals. It was part of the 
 calculated policy of Germany to strike terror into 
 the hearts of those who should oppose her designs.
 
 8 What of To-Day? 
 
 The German soldier is far too strongly disciplined 
 to dare to commit such outrages as have been 
 proved against him without the express sanction 
 of superior officers who dominate him. The 
 murders that lie at the door of Prussia have been 
 committed deliberately. The victims whose 
 blood cries to Heaven for vengeance have been 
 offered as sacrifices to the German War God, 
 whose other name is Odin. And if anyone still 
 doubts the possibility of such inhuman savagery 
 in this twentieth century, let him compare the 
 conduct of the German soldiery in such towns 
 as opened their gates without resistance with 
 the awful massacres which followed the slightest 
 attempt on the part of the Belgian villagers to 
 defend their hearths and homes. 
 
 This catastrophic war which the overweening 
 ambition and pride of Prussianised Germany 
 has so suddenly let loose on the world is 
 going to be a long and sanguinary struggle. 
 None can doubt it. And it is equally certain that 
 many sacrifices will be demanded of the British 
 people and the British Empire before it can be 
 ended. Yet we have many grounds for encour- 
 agement in the dark days that must lie before us. 
 Germany has many millions of brave men at 
 her command. Her forces are led by skilled 
 leaders, and in their ranks every man is set and 
 fixed like the cog of a wheel in the great engine 
 of war. But their battle-cry has been set in a 
 minor key. It lacks the vitality of fine motive,
 
 The War and the Empire 9 
 
 and except on the plea that might is right, their 
 fight cannot be justified. Like a blind Samson, 
 Germany is grappling with ruin and destruction, 
 and is hoping, if the worst should come to the 
 worst, to involve the whole world in a common 
 disaster with herself. 
 
 Therefore, on moral grounds alone, we have 
 good reason to continue fighting with light, as 
 well as stout, hearts. We have been forced into 
 a war, of which there was no possibility of 
 our keeping clear, save at the sacrifice of all 
 that honourable men hold sacred. Once more, 
 as of old, we have sent our mighty fleet to 
 guard the seas ; once more we have gathered 
 together as great an army as we could. And 
 our Empire from east to west stands shoulder 
 to shoulder, with teeth set and muscles braced, 
 resolving never to lay down arms till the aggres- 
 sive force of blood and iron be broken and 
 disarmed as was that of Napoleon a hundred 
 years ago. 
 
 The troops of our Empire have rallied 
 under the inspiring motto "For Honour, Truth 
 and Freedom." We, a peace-loving Empire, 
 have heard the cry and taken up arms, because 
 we are not dead to what those words imply. 
 We were slow to declare war ; we needed no fresh 
 fields of conquest ; we had no ambitions but for 
 peace and prosperity. We are a patient people, 
 not easily provoked to aggressive action, but 
 there is one thing we still cherish as dearer than
 
 io What of To-Day? 
 
 life and I rejoice to be able to know that it 
 is so and that is British honour, British truth 
 and British freedom. 
 
 The insulting bribe offered by Germany in 
 the hope of keeping us neutral has stung this 
 nation to the quick, and the effect has been to 
 rouse the British spirit as it has never been 
 roused before. Never has Britain in the whole 
 of her glorious island-story engaged in a nobler 
 crusade ; never have her sons rallied with 
 greater alertness to her colours ; never have we 
 had more reason to be proud of being the 
 subjects of an Empire that would not break 
 her word of honour and has shown that in the 
 hour of need she still sets a higher value on 
 moral, than on material, things. 
 
 I happened to be staying in Scotland during 
 the first month of the war and nothing could 
 have been more heartening to see than the 
 eagerness of every man in that country to don 
 the King's uniform and get to the front. I was 
 talking to some Highland keepers, past the 
 war age, on the subject. "What a pity it is," 
 I said, "that you and I are too old for the 
 fighting line." 
 
 " May be," replied one of them, " if the 
 young are killed off we may yet be there, and 
 we will die hard, every one of us." 
 
 Not so long ago though it seems incredibly 
 remote to us now that word "Die-hard" was 
 used as a contemptuous political term. But
 
 The War and the Empire n 
 
 to-day we are all Die-hards in the truest and 
 noblest sense of the word. And if we are, by 
 the blessing of God, to win through the most 
 desperate crisis with which our Empire has 
 ever been confronted, Die-hards we must con- 
 tinue to the bitter end. 
 
 More than anything else, I think, it is the 
 consciousness of the justice of our cause that 
 will carry us on to ultimate victory. The 
 Empire is not handicapped by want of a motive 
 in this deadly struggle. "Never," said Mr. 
 Asquith in a ringing phrase, "has England 
 gone to battle with a clearer conscience." In 
 the words of the text we can feel " If whole 
 armies stand up against me, I will not fear; for 
 Thou art with me." We are fighting and we 
 shall continue to fight for all that makes for 
 'honour and freedom. Our English, Scottish 
 and Irish soldiers, as well as the contingents 
 from our oversea dominions, are inspired and 
 actuated by principles which make irresistibly 
 for victory. However the tide of battle may 
 flow from day to day, whatever reverses we 
 may be called upon to sustain, we shall bear 
 all things with fortitude and courage if we 
 keep steadily in mind the great fact that this 
 war is one of moral against brute force. 
 
 We are armed and up to fight an organised 
 power whose religion is might and whose 
 ideal is "Germany, the arbiter of nations and 
 the War Lord of the World." The struggle
 
 12 What of To-Day? 
 
 may be long, the losses will be counted in 
 hundreds of thousands, but if we are true to 
 our traditions and our ideals, the shout of 
 victory will be ours, and the sacrament of fire 
 through which we are passing, will be for the 
 cleansing of Europe. Chastened and purified 
 it will emerge from those cleansing flames, 
 and, if God wills, the end of this crusade shall 
 bring about universal peace among the nations, 
 so that instead of peoples armed to the teeth 
 and ready to spring at one another's throats, 
 there shall in the future be seen rising up on 
 the earth a Brotherhood of nations, under the 
 Fatherhood of God, living on terms with one 
 another under the smile of heaven in a "multi- 
 tude of peace." It may take years before we all 
 become united in the bonds of Christian peace, 
 but this war may be the means of bringing it 
 about. It must be our constant and fervent 
 prayer that there may be, in God's good time, 
 found among all the Christian nations of the 
 earth a righteous and enduring peace, with 
 England and Germany knit closer together than 
 ever before, not only by the ties of "blood 
 thicker than water," but also by the bonds of 
 love stronger than death.
 
 Ill 
 
 THE REAL SUPERMAN 
 I. His "KULTUR" 
 
 AMONG the many false gods and unclean idols 
 which the perversity of man's nature has set up 
 as objects of adoration, I know of none more 
 repulsive than the figure of that grinning mon- 
 ster whose temple is in the innermost courts of 
 Teutonic " culture," and of whose gospel a 
 madman was the fitting evangelist. 
 
 The worship of brute force is no new thing. 
 Primitive communities indeed can have no 
 other standard than that of physical strength 
 and courage by which to measure the worth of 
 their heroes. But it has been the chief justifi- 
 cation of all civilised societies which have existed 
 up to the present age, that they have recognised 
 the superiority of moral virtue over mere bodily 
 excellence, and have acknowledged that the 
 highest intellectual or physical qualities do not 
 in themselves constitute, if the moral attributes 
 are lacking, a claim to the veneration or ap- 
 plause of mankind. 
 
 It has been reserved for our day, and for 
 a civilisation which claims to be the most 
 cultured the world has yet seen, to witness 
 
 13
 
 14 What of To-Day ? 
 
 the cult of the " Superman " a monstrous 
 being whose mission it is to prove his strength 
 by setting up his own standard of morality, 
 his own code of ethics, his own measure of 
 right and wrong. Few of us, I imagine, have 
 realised until the present war, that the theories 
 of German philosophers could ever be trans- 
 lated into action, and fewer still can have 
 understood into what terrible depths of de- 
 pravity such gospel could lead a professedly 
 cultured and civilised nation. 
 
 Confession is good for the soul. And while 
 we recoil in horror from the long list of broken 
 treaties, of dishonourable dealings, of shocking 
 atrocities and of nameless outrages which stand 
 to the discredit of the Nietzschean gospel, let us 
 not forget that this veritable Moloch, this true 
 Anti-Christ, has not lacked disciples even among 
 ourselves, whose eyes have been blinded to 
 the inner meaning of the teaching of the 
 " Superman." 
 
 Mankind, in haste to get away from the 
 teaching of Christianity, has, implicitly at least, 
 accepted many of the doctrines of the material- 
 istic philosophy of Germany. The Christian 
 virtues of humility, obedience, chastity and pen- 
 ance have come to be regarded with contempt. 
 Nietzsche's definition of "slave-morality" has 
 been accepted by only too many as synonymous 
 with the teaching of Christ. And the figure of 
 the Superman, resolute and self-sufficient, mak-
 
 The Real Superman 15 
 
 ing no terms with Heaven or Hell, and carving 
 his way to success, heedless of the tears or 
 groans of his weaker brethren, has had, for a 
 large number of us, an irresistible and unholy 
 fascination. 
 
 Three dreary months of reality has cleared the 
 air. Our eyes have been opened by the actions 
 of the Superman himself, and we see him for 
 what he is a barbarian and a bully, who has 
 no pity for the tears of little children or the 
 sobs of widowed mothers, and who is prepared 
 to hack his way to victory and the ultimate 
 over-lordship of the world. Long years of peace 
 and security have lulled us into the comfortable 
 delusion that there was something splendid in 
 the notion of a hero who should be above the 
 common race of men, and we had even come 
 to talk lightly of pity and such kindred virtues 
 as weaknesses from which the " strong man " 
 should be exempt. 
 
 "You must leave the people through whom 
 you march," said Bismarck, in his description of 
 how warfare should be carried on, "only their 
 eyes to weep with." And the German soldiery, 
 forty years later, have carried out those orders 
 only too faithfully. There is no occasion for me 
 to recapitulate here the horrors which have filled 
 columns of English and American dailies. It is 
 my part to draw the moral from the tale of 
 such atrocities as cannot be paralleled in the 
 annals of civilised warfare.
 
 16 What of To-Day ? 
 
 Even now, I have found many people sin- 
 gularly slow to grasp the true significance of the 
 deeds done in Belgium. I have spoken to 
 people who, horrified though they are at the 
 frightful stories of arson and murder perpe- 
 trated by the German troops, have merely seen 
 in them a further argument against all form 
 of warfare, and sometimes a dreadful commen- 
 tary on the innate depravity of human nature. 
 Such an attitude is hopelessly wrong. War, 
 we know, cannot be waged with kid gloves, 
 but even war, as conducted in a civilised age, 
 may be waged with humanity. Our own men, 
 I am proud to think, have shown that sol- 
 diers are not necessarily brutal or debased 
 because they are fighting for their country. 
 We must seek the explanation of the infamies 
 perpetrated in Belgium and elsewhere, not in 
 the madness or blood-lust suddenly overtaking 
 an army enraged by resistance, but in that 
 diabolical philosophy which has in these latter 
 years usurped the place of Christianity and 
 erected the image of the Superman on the altar 
 of God Himself. 
 
 Never, I think, in the pages of history, has 
 there been presented to us such a spectacle 
 as that of Prussia justifying and exulting in 
 the savagery displayed by its army in the field 
 as proof of her own wonderful culture and 
 civilisation. When Attila ravaged Europe with 
 fire and sword, he did not plead that he was
 
 The Real Superman 17 
 
 spreading a higher culture among his victims. 
 On the contrary, he called himself "the scourge 
 of God." And if there have been other bar- 
 barian generals and armies who have equalled 
 the ferocity of the Prussian soldiery, let it at 
 least be recorded in extenuation of their mis- 
 deeds that they made no pretence to be other 
 than they were. 
 
 That is not the case to-day. It is in the 
 name of modern "culture" that the horrors of 
 which we have read have been done. It is 
 from Nietzsche, from Heine, from Hausser 
 and from Treitschke that Germany derives her 
 anti-Christian spirit. The Superman of to-day 
 is the very antithesis of the Christ of Galilee. 
 Openly and undisguisedly the Christian is con- 
 temned and the ideals of Christianity made a 
 laughing-stock. Here is a lesson for us all, and 
 we shall do well to consider to what a pass 
 that country may be brought which rejects 
 Christ and offers its worship to an ideal which 
 the very Pagan would have looked upon with 
 horror. 
 
 There has lately passed from among us one 
 whose whole life was a witness to the truth of 
 Christ's teaching, and who in his own person 
 was the exact antithesis of the Nietzschean 
 Superman. Pius X., as has been well said of 
 him, was "by origin a peasant and by vocation 
 a saint." The "culture " of German philosophy 
 was denied him, yet in his own person he em- 
 c
 
 18 What of To-Day? 
 
 bodied all those qualities with which all, save 
 the followers of the doctrine of brute force, 
 would endow their ideal Superman. He was 
 called unwillingly to the highest and the most 
 widespread sovereignty in the world ; and his 
 conduct in that high station, for which chiefly the 
 saintliness and simplicity of his life had fitted 
 him, elicited on his death a universal tribute 
 of admiration and applause. 
 
 Here was an example and the world was 
 quick to recognise it of the real Superman, 
 and not the spurious brand which "culture" 
 and "science," uncontrolled by religion, have 
 set before us. Not the man of blood and iron, 
 the ruthless bully who leaves his brethren "only 
 their eyes to weep with," but the man of 
 knighthood and chivalry, the man with the heart 
 of a child, is the real Superman. On the blood- 
 stained fields of Belgium we have seen the 
 Nietzschean Superman in being. On the 
 throne of St. Peter, incarnated in Pius X., we 
 have had a supreme example of the Christian 
 ideal. 
 
 We must return to the Sermon on the 
 Mount. We must get back to the Teacher, and 
 then we shall accept His teaching. Against the 
 foul Superman of the Devil's imagining we 
 must set up the knightly Superman of Christ's 
 Gospel. The powers of darkness have unmasked 
 themselves prematurely, and the hideousness of 
 the revelation has appalled a world not yet so
 
 The Real Superman 19 
 
 utterly gone astray as to be unable to distin- 
 guish between brute force and moral power, 
 between vice and virtue, between devilry and 
 sanctity. 
 
 The anti-Christian Superman has declared in 
 his arrogance that he will re-map Europe, that i 
 nothing less than the Empire of the world will \ 
 content him. It is for a re-mapped Europe that 
 we, too, are fighting. We must crush for ever I 
 under our heel the pestilent serpent, whose / 
 poisonous breath would paralyse all the noblest 
 and most spiritual aspirations of mankind. And in 
 this most righteous crusade against the enemies 
 of all which we, as Christians, hold dear, it 
 should hearten us to bear in mind that we 
 are fighting, not only for home and children, 
 for country and empire, but for truth and 
 honour, for justice and freedom, in a word, 
 for all that is loftiest and holiest in Christian 
 civilisation. 
 
 Such is our conviction, and though we can 
 scarcely dare to hope that the enemy will give 
 us credit for it, we do proclaim to the whole 
 world that we are, in this warfare, actuated by 
 no feelings of hatred against the German people, 
 but rather against those false ideals advocated 
 in the Heidelberg School and taught by 
 Hausser and Schlosser, and extolled by Treit- 
 schke and his following as the only ones 
 worthy to-day of "the civilised and cultured 
 German Empire."
 
 20 What of To-Day? 
 
 II. His CREED 
 
 WE have seen only too clearly to what depths 
 of unspeakable depravation the Nietzschean 
 Superman, resting on himself alone, must inev- 
 itably sink. The Christian virtues are for him 
 something worse than signs of weakness ; they 
 rank indeed as crimes in the code of his 
 " master-morality." And even such natural 
 human emotions as pity and love are to him 
 anathema. Now of all the qualities or rather 
 absence of qualities which go to make up 
 the frozen semblance of man which we have 
 been asked to bow down before and worship, 
 the lack of love is, I think, the most horrify- 
 ing and repulsive. 
 
 What is there stronger on earth, what is 
 there sweeter or grander, what is there loftier 
 or holier, what is there greater or more divine 
 in its essence than love ? Love divine love 
 is the vital principle of the Christian soul. 
 And the man, whose soul is without it, may 
 as well draw down the blinds and go into 
 mourning at once for his spiritual death. "If 
 I should distribute all my goods to feed the 
 poor," says St. Paul, " and if I should deliver 
 my body to be burned, and have not charity, 
 it profiteth me nothing." 
 
 Perfect, according to his own code, the 
 Nietzschean Superman may be ; perfect, that 
 is to say, in his relentless application of all
 
 The Real Superman 21 
 
 the devilish designs of his master, Satan, but 
 it is a "dead perfection," such as that of 
 which the poet speaks. It is not God, as he 
 pretends, who is dead. It is he himself who 
 is living a hideous death-in-life. 
 
 Is there anything greater than the love of 
 a mother for her child ? I only know one 
 thing, the love of God for us, and all that 
 He asks us in return is that we shall give 
 Him such love as we are capable of. And 
 for that we must become as little children, 
 we must trust ourselves wholly to Him and 
 get rid of every atom of that terrible pride, 
 that appalling self-sufficiency which stamps the 
 Nietzschean super-monster. 
 
 Moral and mental shipwreck, as these past 
 days of trial have taught us, is the inevitable 
 fate of all who think they can do without 
 God and set up their own law in opposition to A^U^~ 
 His. Man is but a child, and needs, as does 
 all else in nature, a prop to lean upon. That 
 is the lesson which God Himself came down 
 to earth to teach us. And does not the active 
 anti-Christianity of the spurious Superman clearly 
 prove to us where that same support is to be 
 found? Where else but on the strong arm of 
 the Son of God? 
 
 Of a truth, if we do our part, we are all 
 destined to be supermen, and more than super- 
 men, some day. But we cannot reach the starry 
 heights without long and patient training. The
 
 22 What of To-Day? 
 
 most daring of our airmen has had to under- 
 go an arduous and wearisome apprenticeship 
 before being permitted to leave the earth and 
 soar, like a bird, into the stainless blue. For 
 us, too, a day of release will come, when if 
 we have laboured well, we shall be permitted 
 to exchange the monotony of our training here 
 for the boundless freedom and joy of the 
 heavens. And if we fail to learn our lesson, it 
 will be our own folly and sloth that we must 
 blame. 
 
 We are here, then, to work, to realise our 
 mission, to make some return, however in- 
 adequate, for the love poured forth upon us 
 by our Father and Creator. Not for us is that 
 shallow philosophy which would persuade us that 
 life is ours to do with it as we please. Let us 
 remember that in the exact proportion that we 
 forget our God, so do we approach nearer the 
 frightful ideal of the diabolical Superman. And 
 the harder we find it to escape being carried 
 along the current in company with those who 
 are only living for the passing show of this world, 
 the more need there must be for us to put all 
 our faith and trust in the strong arm of Christ. 
 
 "Come to me all ye that labour," said Our 
 Lord, and that invitation He is still repeating 
 to-day. He will give us what we need. He 
 will supply us with a strong arm on which to 
 lean. He will open to us a treasure-house in 
 His heart on which we can draw, and in His 
 
 \
 
 The Real Superman 23 
 
 countenance we shall see that which will uplift 
 us and inspire us with an ambition commen- 
 surate with the high destiny to which He calls 
 us. 
 
 Not long since a man called upon me to tell 
 me of his misfortunes. He was or had been 
 one of fortune's favourites, who had never had 
 to do a day's work in his life. But through a 
 stroke of hard luck he had lost nearly every 
 penny he possessed. He told me his tale, and 
 added, "Father, you will still be welcome at 
 my table, but you will have to bring with you 
 what you want to eat, for I shall only be able 
 to give you a knife and fork." 
 
 I asked him what he was going to do. 
 "Going to do?' ! he cried, "I am going to 
 work. The gate beyond the stars is not shut 
 yet. As long as the gate is open and the 
 Master is on the doorstep, I can face and 
 push through my troubles and difficulties." 
 So, with the energy and enterprise of a true 
 Englishman, who does not know when he is 
 beaten, this man, instead of folding his arms 
 and bewailing his fate, rose upward for the 
 first time in his life, put his shoulder to the 
 wheel, and now, in the popular phrase of the 
 day, he is "making good." Why? Because, 
 as he told me when last I saw him, he felt 
 that he had Christ behind him. Trust in Jesus 
 Christ, that is the whole of our faith. 
 
 " Come to Me, all ye that are heavy
 
 24 What of To-Day ? 
 
 burdened." Burdened ! We are all burdened, 
 and at the present moment we are bearing a 
 heavier burden of grief and anxiety than, per- 
 haps, has ever been our lot before. Shall we 
 find the courage and strength to bear that 
 burden in ourselves alone ? The Superman 
 pretends that he can do so, by stripping what 
 he calls his soul of every kindly human emotion, 
 of all sympathy with his fellows, of every feel- 
 ing of love towards God or his neighbour. 
 And what is the result ? Instead of becoming 
 something more than man, instead of striking 
 his head against the stars, he sinks into a state 
 which is below that of the brute creation. 
 
 It is only by leaning upon Christ that we 
 can reach the stature of the true Superman, no 
 matter in what dustbin of the world we are 
 grovelling. The weakest of us can become 
 more than a match for the super-beast, if we 
 are content to rely on the divine force that is 
 freely at the disposal of such as ask for its help. 
 
 " For what are men better than sheep or goats 
 That nourish a blind life within the brain, 
 If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer, 
 Both for themselves and those who call them friend ? 
 For so the whole round earth is every way 
 Bound by gold chains about the feet of God." 
 
 That is the secret of the saint the power 
 of prayer. What resource has the Nietzschean 
 Superman when his doctrine of brute force 
 fails? Or even should it, for a time, seem to
 
 The Real Superman 25 
 
 succeed, what can his "culture" avail him 
 when he stands face to face with an outraged 
 God? 
 
 Why, in that devastating first month of the 
 war when the Superman, faithful to his brutal 
 creed, was carrying fire and sword through 
 violated Belgium, and wreaking his blind rage 
 on innocent women and children ; when, 
 through sheer force of numbers, he was driv- 
 ing back the allied armies farther and farther 
 into France, why, in those dark days, were 
 our hearts still high, why were we still so 
 confident that our cause would prevail? Was 
 it not because our consciences were clear, 
 because, in other words, whatever our errors 
 and shortcomings may have been, we still put 
 our trust in the God of Righteousness? Many 
 and grievous have been the faults of this nation 
 in the past, but we have at least kept our- 
 selves free from that worst crime of all the 
 blasphemous pretence of making ourselves the 
 equals of God. 
 
 The knights of old fought not the less stoutly 
 because their faith was as the faith of little child- 
 ren. Nor have our gallant soldiers and sailors 
 proved themselves any the less brave because 
 they can feel pity for a fallen foe, and because 
 they wage no war on helpless women and babes 
 in arms. 
 
 Ruthlessness is no proof of courage, nor need 
 we wait for posterity to emphasise the difference
 
 26 What of To-Day? 
 
 between the barbarous spectacle of the sacking 
 of Louvain and the picture of our sailors rescu- 
 ing their drowning enemies under the fire of 
 the German guns. 
 
 Manliness, bravery and sportsmanlike pluck 
 we can all admire wherever we find them, and 
 we are proud to acknowledge the fine traits of 
 all these qualities in the captain of the Emden 
 which, for many weeks, gave us so many sur- 
 prises on the high seas, till at length she was 
 herself surprised, and her little games of hide- 
 and-go-seek were finally stopped by the Aus- 
 tralian cruiser Sydney. England is proud to 
 honour a foe such as Captain von Miiller of 
 the German Navy.
 
 IV 
 GOOD OUT OF EVIL 
 
 THERE are people, short-sighted perhaps, but 
 entirely sincere, who are so impressed with the 
 horror of warfare that they have come to regard 
 war as the worst of all evils. On the material 
 side they point to the physical want and misery 
 that must overtake thousands and hundreds of 
 thousands of innocent non-combatants ; to the 
 financial ruin that must overwhelm so many 
 hitherto happy and peaceful homes ; to the 
 sorrow and grief that the deaths of the best and 
 most vigorous of the country's manhood must 
 cause to those who are left behind. On the 
 moral side there are even stronger arguments 
 put forward against war. Those who are actu- 
 ally fighting, it is maintained, tend to become 
 brutal and callous by the habit of slaughter. 
 Repelled at first by the awful scenes of bloodshed 
 they are forced to witness, their higher nature 
 eventually becomes atrophied, their animal in- 
 stincts get the better of them, and they finally 
 degenerate to the level of the beasts of the field 
 which know neither pity nor mercy. 
 
 That is one side of the picture, and so power- 
 
 27
 
 28 What of To-Day? 
 
 fully does it appeal to a certain class of mind that 
 we come across not a few people who will tell 
 us that it is better to endure anything rather 
 than suffer war to come, and that nothing can 
 justify one nation declaring war upon another. 
 'Peace at any price" is their motto, and per- 
 haps they are to be pitied rather than blamed 
 for their one-sided attitude. For hateful as war 
 is, terrible as are its material, and sometimes its 
 moral, consequences, we must not make the 
 mistake of believing it to be always criminal. 
 
 War is an evil who denies it? But so are 
 many other things, and the chief of these is sin. 
 But that is just the point, the peace apologists 
 will eagerly interrupt, war is the greatest of sins. 
 So it may be, if it is a war waged for no other 
 motive than ambition or aggression. But when 
 the choice is presented to a nation of waging a 
 just war in self-defence, in a good and sacred 
 cause, or of giving up all its ideals of honour, 
 of courage, and of righteousness, would it not be 
 a worse sin for that nation to refuse the gage 
 of battle and to hold aloof in a cowardly panic 
 from the stricken field ? 
 
 War, I repeat, is an evil, one of the greatest 
 of evils, but like any other evil, if it be met in 
 the right spirit, much good may come of it. 
 Wellington once said there was nothing more 
 appalling in war than victory, except defeat. But 
 if the horrors of war are not to be denied, war 
 also provides opportunities for bringing forth
 
 Good Out of Evil 29 
 
 much that is best and noblest in man's nature. I 
 am not only thinking now of the bravery that 
 may be shown in battle, or even of the small 
 things we at home can do, the little sacrifices 
 we can make to help those who are fighting far 
 away at the front. These things we take as a 
 matter of course, and if we could not count on 
 them we should indeed be a decaying nation, 
 morally and in every other way. 
 
 But greater benefit can and should be ex- 
 tracted from a war such as we have been forced 
 into than a mere temporary exaltation of the 
 emotional side of our nature. While this war 
 lasts we may fight valiantly, we may endure 
 steadfastly, we may suffer all things with patience, 
 so that, when the end comes, we may have the 
 right to claim that we have quitted ourselves like 
 men. That will be something to our credit and 
 to the credit of our great Empire. But it will 
 not be enough. It is when the war is finished, 
 when we have fought through to .victory, that 
 the test will come. For it is then that we shall 
 have to show, by an altered mode of life, by an 
 altogether worthier practice of ideals, that in the 
 fire of battle the dross has been shaken out of 
 the gold, and that we have awakened to a real 
 and lasting knowledge of the relative value of 
 the things that are prized by the world. 
 
 Let us admit that for the moment, and under 
 the stress and strain of a great crisis, we are doing 
 our duty, and shall continue to do our duty,
 
 30 What of To-Day? 
 
 splendidly, gloriously, while the crisis lasts. But 
 when the stress is over, when the strain is relaxed, 
 then will come the temptation to fall back into 
 the old habits, the old thoughts, the old careless- 
 ness, to forget the Power that sustained us during 
 the struggle, and to become more than ever 
 immersed in selfish schemes of personal success. 
 
 Thus if we hope to extract good from evil, we 
 must look to it that, when the war is ended, there 
 must be no sinking back into a comfortable 
 slumber. It will not do for us to breathe a sigh 
 of relief at the thought that we have done our 
 duty and that there are no further duties await- 
 ing us. For it is then that we shall most need 
 to keep alive the spirit of brotherhood and of 
 altruism which, I venture to think, the war 
 has, for the moment at least, evoked, to our 
 own legitimate pride, the admiration of the 
 world. 
 
 There are many wrongs which need right- 
 ing in this fair land of ours. To some of them I 
 have referred in the following pages. The war 
 has already produced many examples of Christian 
 charity, of brotherly kindness, of self-sacrifice and 
 of devotion to duty. It has dissipated, as per- 
 haps nothing else could have dissipated, the antag- 
 onism of classes, it has drawn together men of 
 all parties and all creeds ; and it has, I rejoice to 
 believe, taught many to understand something 
 of their dependence upon a higher Power. 
 These things are all to the good, but to be of
 
 Good Out of Evil 31 
 
 any value they must be permanent. The spirit 
 that has hushed party strife, that has silenced 
 the Suffragette, that has taught the Socialist 
 wisdom is this spirit to flicker out when 
 the booming of the guns no longer sounds in 
 our ears ? 
 
 I trust not. I hope not. But it is a matter 
 that has got to be faced, and it should be faced 
 now, in this time of national peril. It is not my 
 wish to underrate the qualities that, as a nation, 
 we have shown in our day of trial. But we must 
 beware of slipping back when the danger is past. 
 We must be on our guard against false pride, 
 which is one of the deadliest of sins. Nor must 
 we yield to the temptation of feeling that, having 
 shown ourselves equal to the occasion, nothing 
 more is reasonably to be expected of us. 
 
 Our real mission will only then be beginning. 
 God asks us to give Him of our best no less in 
 peace than in war, in times of prosperity as well 
 as in times of adversity. Let us not forget that 
 it is often easier to be courageous in face of a 
 sudden emergency than to do our duty consist- 
 ently throughout the monotonous daily round. 
 As it is with individuals, so it is with nations. 
 We have faced and we are facing this inter- 
 national crisis with stout hearts and with all 
 that is best in us. And I doubt not we shall find 
 strength to endure nobly and generously till 
 the end. But when that peril is past and 
 God grant it may not be too long drawn-out
 
 32 What of To-Day ? 
 
 we shall be faced with the equally pressing 
 duty of putting our own house in order. That 
 duty, indeed, has always been waiting perform- 
 ance. But never shall we have such a golden 
 opportunity of accomplishing it as that which, 
 if all goes well, will be granted us in the not 
 distant future. 
 
 It is that day which we should try to bear 
 in mind. It is that day to which we should be 
 looking, not altogether as a welcome end to our 
 present troubles, but as the beginning of a new 
 era in our social relations, the new dawn of a 
 finer national life, the new age of freedom and 
 truth, a new chapter in the story of religion. 
 If the war shall have aroused us to a confession 
 of our own past shortcomings in this respect 
 and to a firm determination to remedy them in 
 the future, it will, I venture to affirm, have 
 done us more good than a hundred years of 
 peace. May it bring us peace, lasting peace, 
 with God, with our neighbour, with ourselves.
 
 WAR AND RELIGION 
 
 BEFORE the war came, many people were very 
 busy proclaiming that whoever ventured to hint 
 at the possibility of a German invasion was a 
 false prophet, an alarmist ; they all knew better 
 than he did that war never would, and never 
 could, come. Apart from those who argued 
 on economic grounds, on which I do not pre- 
 tend to be an authority, the chief reason 
 advanced for the impossibility of war ever 
 again being waged on the Napoleonic scale 
 seems to have been that such a war would be 
 too brutal and too appalling to be tolerated by 
 an advanced civilisation like ours. It would 
 be "unthinkable." Well, so it is "unthink- 
 able" in one sense, but, for all that, it has 
 come, and the fallacy of believing that it never 
 could come lay in the meaning we attach to 
 the words "civilisation" and "culture." 
 
 We have talked so much and written at 
 such length about this wonderful modern 
 civilisation of ours that, I verily believe, most 
 of us have been persuaded, or have persuaded 
 ourselves, that the human race has really reached 
 D 33
 
 34 What of To-Day? 
 
 a moral and intellectual altitude hitherto un- 
 attained in the history of mankind. The fact 
 of the matter is that our " progress," to use 
 another cant phrase of the day, has been 
 very largely of a material description. Thanks 
 chiefly to the scientific discoveries of the 
 nineteenth century, life has been made far 
 more comfortable and luxurious for us than at 
 any previous period, and so we have been led, 
 by a sort of false analogy, to believe that we 
 are as superior, on the moral side as on the 
 material, to all the past civilisations of which 
 we have any record. 
 
 Perhaps the humble searching of heart which 
 the war must surely produce in the national 
 conscience may help us to realise the great fact 
 that human nature changes but little from age 
 to age, and that the greatest material prosperity 
 is no sure guarantee of a correspondingly con- 
 spicuous morality. Elsewhere in this book I 
 have emphasised the point that all reform, 
 whether social or moral, must start with the 
 individual, and in the same way I would here 
 urge my readers to remember that a civilisation 
 can only be called great or splendid, in the 
 true sense of the words, precisely in proportion 
 to the right thinking and the right living of the 
 individuals composing it. 
 
 This notion that a European war was an 
 impossibility was somewhat on a par with that 
 other fallacy, that you can make people good
 
 War and Religion 35 
 
 in the bulk by Acts of Parliament, and that 
 morality is something distinct from religion. 
 When we are all angels, war, without doubt, 
 will disappear from the earth. So will every 
 other crime and vice which now disfigures our 
 erring humanity. But, believe me, civilisation 
 alone will never effect this miracle. On the 
 contrary, civilisation alas, that it should be 
 so ! tends to make men more and not less 
 vicious, more and not less inclined to pur- 
 sue the pleasures and grip the prizes of the 
 world. 
 
 I have frequently come across people 
 holding the comfortable theory that a Christian 
 civilisation cannot possibly be permitted by the 
 Almighty to pass away as the old heathen 
 empires passed away. Such people can have 
 studied history to little purpose if they really 
 believe that Christianity depends upon civilisa- 
 tion, or that because a nation dubs itself 
 Christian, it has thereby a vague claim to 
 immunity against the attacks of a vigorous 
 enemy. The Church of Christ cannot perish 
 we have the words of Our Lord that even the 
 gates of hell shall not prevail against her but 
 we have no guarantee that civilisation, as we 
 know it, may not be utterly wiped out, leaving 
 no trace behind. The conversion of Rome to 
 Christianity did not save that mighty Empire 
 from falling before the onset of the Goths and 
 the Vandals, nor did Christendom in the Middle
 
 36 What of To-Day? 
 
 Ages always wage a very successful war against 
 the hosts of Islam. 
 
 The true Christian gives of his best to God, 
 but he does not expect to be paid by God in 
 this world's coin. And if adversity comes his 
 way, whether on a large or small scale, he 
 welcomes it as an opportunity for his spiritual 
 advancement, not as a reason for reproaching 
 his Creator for withholding His blessings. Job 
 is an example of the way in which the devout 
 Christian should meet the reverses of fortune, 
 and the man who, professing Christianity, is not 
 prepared to submit patiently to the will of God 
 in all things, has not yet learned the true mean- 
 ing of his religion. 
 
 When the whole world has become Christian 
 in thought and act as well as in name, when, 
 that is to say, each individual is striving to act 
 up to the fine ideals put before us by Our 
 Lord, then and then only shall we have a right 
 to think of war as impossible. It comes, there- 
 fore, to this, that we must, each one of us, 
 strive whole-heartedly and with full endeavour 
 to lead truly Christian lives, not only for our 
 own sakes, but for the sake of the world at 
 large. Only in this way, and not by any loud 
 talk about the Christianity of the age, can we 
 really hope to make the Christian spirit alive 
 and vigorous. 
 
 The fashion, then, of denouncing war as 
 a crime against civilisation, against culture,
 
 War and Religion 37 
 
 against modern humanitarianism, is futile and 
 meaningless. War may be, nay, it undoubtedly 
 is. an offence against these things. But this is 
 not the chief or the real reason why, as the 
 Peace Society resolutions say, it " ought to be 
 abolished." Before you can abolish war, you 
 must abolish the equally detestable things that 
 are done every day in times of peace, you must 
 set the foundations of society firmly and 
 securely upon the rock of religion, and you 
 must teach every child to know and recognise 
 that there are greater things in life than the 
 pursuit of material profit. 
 
 Let us clear our minds, then, of the stupid 
 fallacy that civilisation or culture can of them- 
 selves ever prevent or abolish war. Christ- 
 ianity alone can do that. And if I am asked 
 why it has not succeeded in doing so during 
 the last thousand years, my answer is that the 
 fault is to be found not in Christianity, but 
 in the frailty of poor human nature. Such a 
 statement will, I know, be unwelcome to those 
 who have got into the habit of denying the 
 inherent sinfulness of mankind, who believe 
 that intellect is a sufficient substitute for religion, 
 and who affirm that a purely ethical ideal can 
 be constructed on a non-spiritual basis. Such 
 people will say that this is pessimism, pure and 
 simple, and shows too profound a disbelief in the 
 possibilities of human nature. To which one 
 can only reply that human nature, unaided by the
 
 38 What of To-Day ? 
 
 Divine, never progresses very far along any but 
 the most grossly material lines. All that civi- 
 lisation, divorced from religion, can do in the 
 way of averting or abolishing war, is to breed 
 a race which will never have the hardihood to 
 fight for its existence, and which, preferring 
 its own ease and comfort to all considerations 
 of honour and freedom, must inevitably decay 
 and perish of its own inherent vices. 
 
 Whether war will, in the distant future, 
 ever be banished from this earth it is not for 
 me to prophesy. But I make bold to say that, 
 before you can abolish war, you will have to 
 abolish sin, you will have to recognise that 
 civilisation is not a matter of culture alone, and 
 you will have so to order affairs that vice and 
 crime of every description shall be utterly rooted 
 out of men's lives. Is that an impossibility? 
 It may be. But it is a condition precedent to 
 the abolition of war. 
 
 Let us cease from arming, say some, and 
 war will automatically stop. But armaments 
 are an effect, not a cause. If I know that 
 armed burglars are prowling round my house, 
 ready to attack me at the earliest opportunity 
 and with the avowed intention of shooting 
 at sight, prudence demands that I should 
 purchase a revolver in self-defence. I may, it 
 is true, hope to convert the burglars before the 
 worst comes to the worst, but meanwhile I 
 must make ready to repel them by force, for
 
 War and Religion 39 
 
 arguments alone may not turn them from their 
 purpose. If universal disarmament ever comes 
 by consent, we shall be justified in rejoicing, 
 not on account of the fact itself, but because 
 it will be an indication that the peoples of the 
 world will have reached a frame of mind per- 
 mitting them to lay aside their mutual fears 
 and jealousies. Talk of a general disarmament, 
 therefore, is idle till religion has done its work. 
 And since religion acts on nations through 
 individuals, we come back to the same point, 
 namely, that it is by individual effort alone that 
 the world can be regenerated. 
 
 But though it is difficult to imagine a world 
 without war, just as it is difficult to imagine a 
 world without sin and sorrow and suffering, 
 we must not fall into the opposite error of 
 believing that war is a necessary evil. Few evils 
 in the world are necessary. Man's free will may 
 be exerted towards abolishing all sin, all crime, 
 and all evil just as readily as it is now, alas ! so 
 often used in promoting them. It is for us to 
 strive towards the Ideal, even though we may 
 never in this world win to the vision of the 
 Holy Grail. And this lesson at least let us 
 hope the war will bring home to us that 
 the closer we cling to Christ, the more faith- 
 fully we obey His precepts and the more un- 
 falteringly we follow in His footsteps, the 
 nearer we shall get to that great conception 
 of Universal Brotherhood which He was never
 
 40 What of To-Day ? 
 
 tired of preaching to His disciples and to the 
 world. 
 
 Do not let us, with history, sacred and 
 profane, before our eyes, condemn all warfare 
 as unjust and unnecessary. While we recognise 
 that war is a cleansing fire, out of which good 
 often comes, let us not forget that also out of 
 plague and pestilence, pit disasters and railway 
 accidents God often draws good. But we do 
 not, in consequence, pray that these calamities 
 may happen. On the contrary, in the great 
 Litany, we pray to be delivered from them. 
 That prayer will not be lost. In the event of 
 it not averting the calamity, it will win us the 
 grace and strength of bearing up under it as 
 sons of God.
 
 VI 
 "A SCRAP OF PAPER" 
 
 SOME of my friends on this and on the other side 
 of the Atlantic write asking me if Christianity has 
 collapsed altogether that we should be witnessing 
 in the centre of so-called Christian civilisation 
 wholesale murder, wanton vandalism and fiendish 
 atrocities? "The sights presented to us to-day 
 in Europe," they contend, "just strip the Churches 
 and their ministers of all spiritual significance." 
 They ask : * ' Upon what plea and with what excuse 
 do you followers of Jesus, meek and humble of 
 heart, unsheath your sword, when He bade Peter 
 fling his aside even when it was drawn in the de- 
 fence of his Master?" I answer: "One cannot 
 argue from the Gospel in favour of peace anymore 
 than in support of war. The Son of Man came 
 with a sword, as well as with peace to men of 
 goodwill. He came to establish the reign of 
 justice, to which peace may be a hindrance and 
 war a help, such is human perversity. We must 
 look to the causes which have led up to the 
 world-war before we can justify one side or the 
 other engaged in a life-and-death struggle." 
 When an armed burglar breaks into your own 
 
 41
 
 42 What of To-Day? 
 
 or your neighbour's house you have every right, 
 though you profess to be a Christian, to repel him, 
 even should you by so doing slay him in his 
 wanton aggression. And should you be assailed 
 on a journey by a highway robber you would in- 
 deed be made of poor and paltry stuff were you 
 to yield to his demand: "Your money or your 
 life ! " No, as a man and a Christian you would 
 fight for your own, nor would you feel any qualm 
 of conscience if in the hand-to-hand encounter 
 your aggressor lost his life. 
 
 What is ethically right in the case of an indi- 
 vidual defending himself against an aggressor is 
 equally justified when the case is transferred from 
 the unit to the State made up of units. The 
 State has a right, nay a duty, to defend her auto- 
 nomy, integrity, and independence against any 
 armed force that uses its strength to invade its 
 territory and to sack and burn it. It must repel 
 forceby force or else fail in its mission as 
 the safeguard of the temporal interests of its 
 members. 
 
 You ask me : Why are the Allies now at war, 
 or, more particularly, why is peace-loving, law- 
 abiding England armed as never she was before ? 
 Well, Germany would say we were fighting on 
 account of "a scrap of paper," and that our only 
 motive for doing so was envy of her and of her 
 place in the sun. Freely I acknowledge it was 
 "a scrap of paper " which cast the die and caused 
 the declaration of war upon Germany. But for-
 
 "A Scrap of Paper" 43 
 
 get not that while u a scrap of paper" may be 
 less than nothing it may also be more than words 
 can measure. "A scrap of paper," bearing my sig- 
 nature, may give away all I possess ; "a scrap of 
 paper" with the Bank of England at its back 
 may entitle me to draw a million pounds sterling 
 across its counter ; "a scrap of paper" with the 
 name of England emblazoned on it may stand for 
 more than all her wealth, and all her possessions 
 it may stand for her word of honour. England's 
 word is her bond. You may call the Charter of 
 our liberties "a scrap of paper," you may say 
 the great American Constitution is only "a scrap 
 of paper," nay, that the Gospel itself is only "a 
 scrap of paper." But what if that scrap of paper 
 be a nation's bond, or the Word of God? Make 
 no mistake about it, an international treaty with 
 Britain's signature to it can be regarded in one 
 light only, as a vital and sacred contract. After 
 the contract of marriage I can conceive of none 
 other more binding, solemn and sacred than 
 such a treaty. 
 
 What was this particular treaty for which the 
 right place according to Germany was the waste- 
 paper basket ? It was a contract signed in 1839, 
 and confirmed in 1870, guaranteeing the neutral- 
 ity of Belgium. Prussia, France and England 
 lent their names to this scrap of paper, and 
 pledged their word to abide by its provisions and 
 observe its terms. Behold here the sort of " scrap 
 of paper" for which England was prepared to go
 
 44 What of To-Day? 
 
 to war. Belgium relied on that scrap of paper 
 for her security and independence. France re- 
 lied on it as a strong rampart on her northern 
 frontier, and England relied on it as her friends' 
 guarantee making for lasting peace with indus- 
 trial progress. It was unthinkable that Germany 
 would have dreamt of tearing up a treaty to 
 which she had put her signature, and it was 
 impossible for England to believe that she 
 herself could be asked to look on with folded 
 arms while Prussian troops were invading Bel- 
 gium's neutral territory; because forsooth it hap- 
 pened to be the nearest way for them to reach 
 Paris. Yet, before diplomatists could debate 
 the question, the Kaiser's columns had already 
 crossed the border, on their way, as they thought, 
 to haul down the tricolour in the French capital. 
 Under the circumstances was there any way but 
 one for England to act, was there open to her 
 any course but the one which without flinching 
 she actually did take ? England declared war on 
 Germany because consistently with her word of 
 honour and code of morality she could do no- 
 thing else. Let anyone who calls her action in 
 question read the White Paper. After perusing 
 that diplomatic correspondence you arrive at one 
 conclusion only that England was quite as 
 keenly bent on peace as Germany was determined 
 on war. How could England stab gallant little 
 Belgium in the back, how could she come to 
 terms with the Prussian War-Lord who wanted
 
 45 
 
 to strike a bargain with us, and actually did make 
 us an "infamous proposal " ! Had England acted 
 otherwise than she did, not only would she have 
 been scorned and condemned by the whole civil- 
 ised world as a cringing coward, a word-breaker 
 and a traitor to her friends, but she herself would 
 have been conscious that her treacherous conduct 
 had deserved every drop of the vitriol poured out 
 upon her. 
 
 Thank God, England rose to the occasion, 
 counted the cost, and resolved that, even should 
 her treasury of gold and of men be spilt and ex- 
 hausted in the terrible struggle, she would fight for 
 honour, truth and freedom to the end. From one 
 end of the Empire to the other the cry went forth: 
 " With God's help we will fight this war. to the 
 finish, we shall see it out to the end." England's 
 sword has been drawn in a sacred cause ; ours is a 
 crusade against an insolent and aggressive foe who, 
 if he is determined to reset the map of Europe and 
 to reconstruct the nations thereof, may rest assured 
 that we too are equally determined to resist him to 
 the last. We pray that out of this world-wide war, 
 black as night, there may arise the dawn of a day 
 promising the cessation of colossal armaments by 
 land and sea, and in their stead the advent of an 
 era of Christian peace for the Christian peoples of 
 Europe. Nothing but a war such as this in which 
 the nations of Europe are now engaged can bring 
 peace to its people who, for the past generation, 
 have been menaced by a foe who declares it is
 
 46 What of To-Day? 
 
 Prussia's mission to Pan-Germanise the world. 
 Just as Belgium stood in Prussia's way to Paris, so 
 England stands in her way to world-conquest. 
 England must either get out of the way or be got 
 out of the way for the Prussian forces, whose rally- 
 ing cry is : " World dominion or death ! " 
 
 No man can read Nietzsche or Treitschke or 
 Bernhardi and any longer doubt what this terrible 
 war means. It means a life-and-death struggle 
 against Prussian domination, Prussian religion 
 and Prussian civilisation. In Cramb's lectures 
 on Germany and England, which are the best 
 commentary on Bernhardi's exposition of Ger- 
 many's aims and ambitions, we are told that 
 German professors and German generals and 
 German ministers of the new religion are united 
 in their determination to set up a world-empire 
 inspired with a world-religion the religion of 
 valour, with brute-force for its gospel. "And 
 what is the religion," asks the Professor of Modern 
 History, "which, on the whole, may be charac- 
 terised as the religion of the most earnest and 
 fashionable minds of young Germany ? What is 
 this new movement ? The movement, the govern- 
 ing idea .... is the wrestle of the German 
 intellect not only against Rome but against 
 Christianity itself. Germany at least shall not 
 confront the twentieth century and its thronging 
 vicissitudes as the worshipper of an alien God, 
 thrall of an alien morality. Her war-god shall 
 be Odin, not Christ. Ye have heard men say,
 
 "A Scrap of Paper " 47 
 
 Blessed are the peacemakers : but I say unto you, 
 Blessed are the war-makers, for they shall be 
 called, if not the children of Jahve, the children 
 of Odin, who is greater than Jahve." 
 
 I might continue to cite passages from this 
 modern school dominating Prussian thought, but 
 I have said more than enough to show what kind 
 of brute-force we are up against in this slaughter- 
 house war. As brute-force is the antithesis of 
 moral-force, so are the Prussian and the Allies' 
 interests opposed each to each. 
 
 Far be it from me to imply that the whole of 
 the German race is inspired by Prussian aims and 
 ambitions. The Catholics of Germany, the 
 Catholics of the Rhine provinces, of Bavaria, 
 Westphalia and Prussia itself are surely, among 
 the children of the Church, the most thorough 
 in their Christian principles, and the best in- 
 structed and most devout. Them we admire and 
 reverence for their loyalty and all that makes up 
 Christian heroes and heroines. They, indeed, 
 have our sympathy, for we recognise that to 
 them, if they ever hear of them, must be abhorrent 
 the methods of warfare with with their soldiers 
 are associated. Dropping down from the heavens 
 above bombs that strike unoffending citizens 
 and shatter their dwellings, and sowing with 
 infernal mines the neutral seas, are methods 
 of procedure which call for the condemnation 
 of the whole Christian world. Nor can any 
 sane person condone the wanton destruction
 
 48 What of To-Day? 
 
 of Louvain University, or the shelling and de- 
 facing of Rheims Cathedral. These arc crimes 
 crying to heaven for vengeance, they are crimes 
 against history and posterity, as well as against the 
 Christian dispensation of Christ Our Lord. Be- 
 side this, Germany, with its barbarism, atrocities, 
 and incendiarism, which has "disguised fair 
 nature with hard-favoured rage," there is the 
 Germany of music, of culture, of science, of 
 art, and of life pastoral and devotional. We 
 distinguish carefully between the two sections 
 of the same community we love the one as 
 much as we hate the other. 
 
 At present our sword is drawn against the 
 Germany under the sway of the Nietzsche and 
 Treitschke school of philosophy, against the Ger- 
 many of blood and iron, savagery and barbarism. 
 We arc united with our Allies to save Christian 
 civilisation from the fate of Louvain and Rheims 
 to protect our homes and universities from fall- 
 ing a prey to the vandalism of these modern Van- 
 dals and Huns. We look up and around, and as we 
 see our island home girdled with its cathedrals, 
 abbeys and minsters, our thoughts instinctively 
 turn to what would happen to these temples of 
 Peace were they to be exposed to a fate such as 
 has ruined one of Christendom's most cherished 
 shrines. Away with such nightmares, they must 
 not even be dreamt of in one's wildest dreams. 
 On the contrary, let us look forward to the day 
 when this world-encounter will be at an end, when
 
 "A Scrap of Paper" 49 
 
 Europe shall wake up to feel once more that she 
 may breathe and dwell in an atmosphere of peace, 
 when monster armaments shall be like a bad 
 dream, with no further reality, when the Allied 
 Forces will be able to guarantee autonomy, in- 
 tegrity and independence to small states that had 
 been forced to surrender their freedom at the 
 dictation of tyrant forces astride Europe and 
 dominating it. 
 
 Can you conceive a nobler work than that to 
 which we find ourselves, under the providence of 
 God, committed ? What loftier or holier mission 
 can there be on this earth than to protect the 
 weak against the strong, to uphold truth and 
 honour against falsehood and slander, and to 
 build up once again with Christ and for Christ, on 
 the ruins of barbarism and savagery, His saving 
 civilisation ? 
 
 Of course, we do not expect the German 
 people to take the same view as ourselves of the 
 present terrible situation, they no doubt consider 
 we are as wrong as we are persuaded we are right 
 in our verdict on the war. We give them credit 
 for their estimate of the present state of affairs, 
 but this will not absolve us from the solemn 
 and sacred duty of placing before our readers 
 England's justification for engaging in a war 
 which is turning our dear icountry into a house 
 of mourning.
 
 VII 
 THE RED CROSS 
 
 AT the best of times this world is very largely 
 a battlefield, whereon mankind is ceaselessly 
 waging war against suffering, disease, and death. 
 And at a moment like the present, there is no 
 need to draw out the analogy, and our hearts are 
 stricken with anguish as the long lists of the dead 
 and wounded bear grim witness to the dreadful 
 reality of the metaphor, we owe a special debt 
 of gratitude to those brave non-combatants 
 who are fighting under the flag of the Red 
 Cross. 
 
 War does not lessen, it only increases, their 
 work of mercy. And for my part I feel that, 
 deeply grateful as we all must be to those heroic 
 souls who tend our wounded and soothe the last 
 moments of our dying soldiers, we do not suffi- 
 ciently realise the full immensity of our obliga- 
 tions to them. In a time of national stress, 
 it seems natural that each of us should take 
 our share in lightening the burden that lies 
 heavily on the shoulders of all. There are plenty 
 of willing workers, anxious to do all in their 
 power to help. But and this is the point I 
 
 50
 
 The Red Cross 51 
 
 wish to emphasise the measure of our useful- 
 ness is limited by the degree to which we have 
 trained ourselves to be ready against the ap- 
 pointed day. To the Red Cross workers, there- 
 fore, our thanks are due, not merely or even 
 chiefly for the patience, the readiness, and the 
 devotion with which they tend and nurse our 
 wounded soldiers back to health, but far more 
 for the self-sacrifice they have shown in devoting 
 their lives beforehand to the hard and rigid dis- 
 cipline, the long hours of severe training, with- 
 out which they could never have become com- 
 petent to perform that gracious work, than which 
 no corporal act of mercy is to be accounted 
 higher in the sight of God and man. 
 
 I cannot speak more strongly than I feel upon 
 the real heroism of the Red Cross workers, that 
 quiet, unobtrusive, long-enduring heroism, which 
 only catches the public eye for a moment, as it 
 were, when it shows forth lit up by the angry 
 light of the fires of the battlefield. Little enough 
 do we reck, in normal times, of that multitude 
 of peaceful fighters whose sole care in life is to 
 sustain the suffering, to nurse the sick, and to 
 tend the fallen. We take it for granted, some- 
 how, in our careless, selfish fashion, that there 
 will always be some willing to undertake the 
 duties for which each one of us should, I think, fit 
 ourselves in some measure. The coming of this 
 war has brought home to us, as nothing else could 
 have done, the duty that lies upon every citizen
 
 52 What of To-Day? 
 
 so to train himself in peace time that he may 
 be able, if called upon, to render efficient and 
 effectual aid in the defence of the country and 
 the Empire. Yet great as is the admiration with 
 which, in war time, we hail the work of the Red 
 Cross, and necessary as we admit this help to be, 
 I doubt if it has occurred to many that it is just 
 as necessary for every woman to be trained to 
 some extent in the profession of nursing, as it is 
 for every man to be taught to use a rifle and to 
 know something of the elements of drill. 
 
 In that other comparatively insignificant war 
 in which we were engaged more than a dozen 
 years ago, many noble hearted women rushed 
 to the front to offer their services in helping to 
 nurse the wounded. They acted from the best 
 of motives, but they were practically useless, 
 for nursing is a science, and, like every other 
 science, must be acquired by a long and hard 
 apprenticeship. There is no royal road to 
 service under the Red Cross, nor can anyone 
 effectively take up the works of charity and 
 mercy, at a moment's notice, without having 
 fitted oneself for the task. 
 
 That lesson has been preached to mankind 
 for thousands of years, but how few have ever 
 taken it to heart ! And we of this generation 
 have been no wiser than our fathers before us. 
 Let us be frank and acknowledge the truth. 
 We have done much, I know, in the matter of 
 giving money. England, I am proud to think,
 
 The Red Cross 53 
 
 has ever had her ears open to the cry for help 
 from the hovels of her great centres of industry. 
 The hospitals of the country have been sup- 
 ported in magnificent fashion by voluntary effort, 
 and the work that they have been able to do in 
 consequence has been of incalculable value. But 
 the fact remains that we have left the hardest 
 part the personal service to that small band 
 of devoted and self-sacrificing women, whose 
 sole reward is in the doing of their works of 
 charity and mercy. If only for the discipline of 
 it, every man should be drilled how to fight as 
 every woman ought to be trained how to nurse. 
 If this only had been so, what a treasury of men 
 and money would have been saved to England 
 to-day. Foresight is not our strong point. 
 
 It is good for the discipline of our souls to 
 move among the sick in the wards of the hos- 
 pitals or infirmaries, or in slumland, "where a 
 single sordid attic holds the living and the dead." 
 It is by the bedside of the sick man and child 
 that lessons in courage and patience are learned. 
 Till we make a practice of visiting the sick it is 
 difficult for us to get a sense of proportion. Till 
 we set up our own crosses beside those borne 
 by others, it is impossible to realise that our own 
 sufferings are not quite the worst and certainly 
 not the least deserved. 
 
 This is why I want all Englishmen, and 
 particularly Englishwomen, to realise the true 
 meaning of the symbol of the Red Cross. It
 
 54 What of To-Day ? 
 
 is a banner under which we all, no matter what 
 our ordinary avocation may be, can enlist. We 
 may not be able to give up our whole time to 
 its call, but we can at least become not un- 
 worthy followers of all that it stands for. 
 Sooner or later the war will end, but there can 
 be no end to that other war against suffering 
 and disease. And in this never-ending struggle 
 the emblem of the Red Cross must stand for us 
 as a rallying point, or a signal-post pointing 
 to the path along which our duty lies. I have 
 on another page pointed to the consoling fact, 
 that great as are the horrors, and terrible as is 
 the curse, of war ; yet even out of such a war 
 as this good may come if we open our ears 
 and our hearts to receive, in a humble and a 
 chastened spirit, the lesson it has to teach and 
 the message it has to bring us. But we must 
 be ready to give up our false ideals of comfort, 
 our false ideals of leisure, our false ideals of life 
 itself. We must be prepared to throw over- 
 board the lumber of useless cargo with which, 
 during our years of peace and fancied security, 
 we have burdened our ship almost to sinking 
 point. We must get back to the realities of 
 things. We must return to a harder, cleaner 
 way of living. We must realise, in a finer, 
 clearer vision, that common brotherhood of men 
 of which we have talked so much and for which 
 we have done so little. We must, in short, 
 return to the principles laid down by Christ
 
 The Red Cross 55 
 
 for the better conduct of our own individual 
 lives. 
 
 For the Red Cross is the symbol of Christ 
 Himself. It is the symbol of compassion, one 
 of the greatest of Christian virtues. The man 
 who has compassion for his fellows will not be 
 found wanting in much else. We are told in 
 the Gospel story that Our Lord beheld the 
 multitude and had compassion on them, and 
 that He broke bread and gave it to them. He 
 opened His eyes to see, He opened His heart 
 to feel, He opened His hand to give. That 
 must be our method of procedure. We cannot 
 go on better lines in dealing with suffering 
 humanity. And the more we come into con- 
 tact, direct personal contact, with the sick and 
 the suffering, the more fully we shall come to 
 understand the meaning of the commandment 
 to love our neighbour as ourself. 
 
 It was my privilege, not a year ago, to say 
 a few words on behalf of the League of Mercy, 
 an institution which has done an enormous 
 amount of good in supporting our hospitals 
 and helping the sick and the suffering in many 
 ways. In future we must all become, whether 
 formally or not, Leaguers of Mercy. We must 
 recognise to the full the nature of the endless 
 war in which we have also our part to play. We 
 must not be shirkers in that fight, or deserters 
 from the post to which the great Commander- 
 in-Chief of all men has appointed us. We
 
 56 What of To-Day? 
 
 must boldly face the enemy with the same 
 spirit in which we are now facing the enemies 
 of our country. We must not any longer shut 
 our eyes to the unpleasant facts of life, or try 
 to banish from our thoughts, as well as from 
 our sight, the misery of so many of our fellow 
 beings. We must look upon the world not 
 as it might have been or as we choose to think 
 it may be, but as it actually is. 
 
 God has not created this world to be man's 
 final destiny. It is, at the best, but a sin-stained 
 noviciate for that other land where there shall 
 be no more sorrow and death. Not in trying 
 to satisfy our own worthless desires for material 
 happiness and pleasure shall we be preparing 
 for the high destiny to which we are called. 
 We must take a saner and more serious view. 
 Remembering all it stands for, let us turn our 
 eyes to the Red Cross, the cross consecrated 
 by the sufferings of Christ Himself, and learn 
 from that symbol of compassion the lesson we 
 had well-nigh forgotten in the heedless days 
 before our sudden and rude awakening. 
 
 I have said that the world to-day is largely 
 a battlefield, on which besides the fighters and 
 the fallen are the wounded and the dying. 
 Here is the opportunity for the priest, the 
 doctor, the surgeon, and the nurse, who, with 
 ambulances and all the personnel and equip- 
 ment of modern science, are quick to bring 
 help and solace and comfort to our brave men
 
 The Red Cross 57 
 
 broken in the fight. The Times Red Cross 
 Fund is lending a strong helping hand in this 
 mercy work. The sum, which bids fair to 
 reach 1,000,000, is contributed by representa- 
 tives of all sections of the community.
 
 VIII 
 SOWN IN TEARS 
 
 NEVER has our Empire shone forth so gloriously 
 from her place in the sun as she does to-day ; 
 never have her sons responded so readily or so 
 gladly to her appeal for recruits, never have they 
 felt so proud of being members of her Empire, 
 and never were they more stubbornly resolved to 
 fight this sacred war to the finish. What an in- 
 spiring sight has been presented to us by our 
 recruits rolling up in their 30,000 a day. They 
 caught the cry: "Your King and Country need 
 you," and forthwith the labourer dropped his hoe, 
 the operative his spindle, the artisan his tool, the 
 clerk his pen, the shopman his goods, the mer- 
 chant his bills, the squire his sport and the courtier 
 his place in order to join the colours and to serve 
 in the ranks, ready to do and die in a life-and- 
 death struggle for "Old England." Fancy a 
 colonel dropping to the rank of second lieu- 
 tenant so as to get sooner to the front ! and a 
 commander ready to start his career afresh in 
 order to be in the fighting line ! Who could 
 have believed that our. peace-loving, law-abiding 
 people could have had such grit and sand in 
 
 58
 
 Sown in Tears 59 
 
 them ? Who could have conceived it possible 
 that no sooner did they begin to realise that their 
 King needed their personal services but forthwith 
 without a murmur, without a second-thought, they 
 "signed on," and went forth in what they stood, 
 and with nothing else, to fall in and start a life 
 altogether foreign to their taste and contrary to 
 their instincts? 
 
 Often these men, accustomed to a cosy, com- 
 fortable and happy home, have found themselves 
 in the first days of camp life subjected to hard- 
 ships they had never even dreamed could have 
 been their lot. Short commons, no change, no 
 blanket has been their first experience of soldier- 
 ing, and yet these same recruits have submitted 
 to their trials with good-humoured joke and 
 laughter, making the best of hard luck! Not 
 only have our men experienced the bite of 
 hunger and the snap of cold before they ever got 
 into their khaki, but in the first weeks they had 
 to go without the pay which ought to have pur- 
 chased them some tinned food and tobacco. I 
 found several camps where the first days of 
 soldiering must have meant terrible privations to 
 the men, but though they acknowledged they had 
 been hit hard, they all seemed to recognise that 
 the hardship was almost inevitable, and would 
 not last long, and in spite of their privations they 
 marched with a swing and a swagger which 
 showed they were made of the right, tough stuff. 
 We are not all of us heroes, and, if the recruiting
 
 60 What of To-Day ? 
 
 fell off sadly enough after the first weeks, the 
 fault must not be charged on the people, but 
 rather on the Press, which, by its posters implied 
 the British were usually ''victorious," while the 
 Germans were "exhausted." Besides, at one 
 time, some dissatisfaction was expressed with 
 regard to the Government provision for the de- 
 pendents of those at the front. 
 
 One Sunday morning, when a thousand men 
 and more marched from near Wareham toBindon 
 Abbey, where I said Mass for them in the open 
 amid the ruins of the old Cistercian minster, I 
 was altogether enchanted with their appearance, 
 their bearing, and their simple, childlike piety 
 and devotion. When I stood upon an improvised 
 platform and after Mass harangued the men garbed 
 in all manner of turn-outs, a sea of faces was 
 turned up towards me, and eyes aglow with ex- 
 pectation were fixed on me. With rapt attention 
 these "Tommies" followed every word I said, 
 tears, in many instances, streaming in the sunshine, 
 down their sun-bronzed, boyish cheeks. I re- 
 minded them of the noble crusade against 
 barbarism, butchery and incendiarism upon which 
 they had entered ; how the freedom of peoples 
 and Christian civilisation itself lay in their hands ; 
 that it was a lay apostolate to which they had 
 pledged themselves. The spirit of the men once 
 serving under Nelson and Wellington, Havelock 
 and Outram, Roberts and Kitchener, I saw reborn 
 in the forces before me. They were out, as I
 
 Sown in Tears 61 
 
 reminded them, to plunge into the thick of a 
 world fight, and the flame of victory I could see 
 already ablaze upon their brows. Let them re- 
 member Aisne, remember September 15th, when 
 their brothers in arms withstood and repulsed a 
 ten-times repeated attack hurled by the Prussian 
 forces against them. Like an iron wall the Anglo- 
 French stood their ground all that night, finishing 
 their splendid stand with the capture of nearly a 
 thousand prisoners and the prize of 60 mitrail- 
 leuse guns. 
 
 When my address was done these sons of the 
 Empire, so reckless of life, light-hearted as boys, 
 pressed around me with rosaries, medals and 
 scapulars kneeling unabashed, and asking a bless- 
 ing upon themselves and their objects of piety. 
 Some gave me letters to post, others plucked a 
 field flower from the abbey ruins, or pressed a 
 photograph or picture-card into my hand, begging 
 me to send them home to dear ones left behind. 
 
 It was all very touching and very simple and 
 very sublime, because altogether very grand. 
 
 So far I have struck the brighter and lighter 
 side of the picture, but we must not forget the 
 shaded obverse aspect of the situation. To return 
 from camps to homes is almost like passing from 
 sunshine into darkness. Mothers, wives and 
 daughters, all braver than their men, all braced up 
 to do their duty, all struggling heroically to face 
 what for them may be life torn from meaning, a 
 great light quenched, and darkness to the end.
 
 62 What of To-Day ? 
 
 For with the life of every soldier fallen in battle 
 there goes forth the cry : 
 
 "ALL IS DARK WHERE THOU ART NOT." 
 
 If not without emotion an outsider takes up the 
 roll of honour in his morning paper, and reads 
 down the list of the dead, the wounded, and the 
 missing, picking out the names of those who are 
 his friends or acquaintances, what must be the 
 agony of anxiety with which a mother, wife, or 
 child, awaits news from the War Office, which 
 tells them of the fate of their dear ones at the 
 front! To witness, as I have done, the breaking 
 of hearts with the news of battles, has been 
 almost more than one could bear. Little com- 
 fort to the young wife or widowed mother to be 
 reminded that their dear one fell in a noble 
 cause, a hero in the fight, a martyr for his 
 country. What words have yet been forged in 
 any language to heal a wounded heart, to dry 
 up tears of blood ? There is little or no comfort 
 to be wrung out of the truest sympathy or to be 
 drawn from the deepest devotion. When the 
 sun of one's life has gone down, no language can 
 dispel the gathering gloom about the widowed 
 heart. When the prop on which one had learned 
 to lean with all k human strength has been with- 
 drawn and shattered, what remains but to sink 
 hopeless and helpless to the very earth ? 
 
 Yes, there is one source of help, there is one 
 strong hand that can lift the helpless, and one 
 kind heart that can revive the hopeless. Jesus
 
 Sown in Tears 63 
 
 Christ is here, yet, in our midst, and into the 
 blind-drawn house He passes with the words still 
 flowing from His sacred lips : " Come to Me all 
 ye that labour and are heavy burdened" He 
 can and will comfort the bereaved and the sick 
 at heart virtue still goes out from Him, and 
 strength is in His pathway. It is when all else 
 fails that the Christian soul finds the truest and 
 deepest meaning of the Christian religion. It is 
 the religion of the Man of Sorrows, " Who hath 
 borne our iniquities and carried our grief." 
 When Jesus Christ first came on earth, He met 
 Labour and his twin brother Sorrow, the offspring 
 of Sin. With the sweat of His brow He baptised 
 Labour and changed work from a curse into a 
 blessing, and with the tears upon His cheeks, 
 He baptised Sorrow, and changed sorrow from 
 a penalty into a privilege. Since then, both 
 Sorrow and Death have been as Angels guiding 
 us from this vale of tears to a land where Sorrow 
 shall be no more, nor Death any more. He, the 
 Strong Son of the Strong God, has promised, 
 when this shifting scene is done with, to wipe 
 away every tear from our eyes. Meanwhile, we 
 must betake ourselves to Him and plead at His 
 sacred feet for strength to do and to bear His 
 blessed will. We need, most of us, His chalice, 
 and we must force ourselves to sip from it drops 
 of that bitter draught which He drained to the 
 dregs. Have courage, be of good cheer, daugh- 
 ter, for he who has gone before you, fallen in
 
 6 4 What of To-Day? 
 
 battle, is already resting in peace, or awaiting 
 you on the golden threshold, a Christian hero 
 safely landed after his work was done. You, who 
 believe in prayers for the dead, pour forth your 
 hearts in humble but confident supplications for 
 your heroes fallen with faces to the foe. Lift up 
 your streaming eyes, and put forth your out- 
 stretched arms, asking God to help you to pursue 
 your journey onward and upward till the curtains 
 of night shall be drawn back, and the dawn of 
 everlasting day arises before you. Before long 
 this tiny arc out of the golden round of our 
 eternal life shall be closed up, and we, even we, 
 shall find Faith giving way to sight, Hope being 
 more than realised, and Love and loved ones 
 being all in all with the face-to-face vision of 
 God in our happy-making Home. Then shall 
 be fulfilled the promise that they who have 
 "Sown in tears, shall reap in joy."
 
 IX 
 PLAY THE GAME 
 
 THAT gallant, brave and heroic soldier, Field- 
 Marshal Lord Roberts, reminded us in his 
 last days that this is no time for playing games. 
 Emphatically it is not, but it is the time for 
 drawing lessons from the games which have 
 occupied so much of our leisure and absorbed 
 so much of our money as well as our attention. 
 
 Of all the countries of the world, America 
 and Britain are the two most devoted to out- 
 door sport, and whatever disadvantages this 
 devotion to games entails, it at least has the 
 solid benefit of improving the physique of a 
 nation, and teaching us the value of self-reliance 
 and self-restraint. Games train the limbs and 
 senses of the body, give quickness to the eye, 
 swiftness to the foot and increase the alertness, 
 nimbleness and decision of the mind. It is 
 scarcely an exaggeration to say that games play 
 an important part in character building. 
 
 But like other good things, games have been 
 overdone, both in my own country and, I am 
 sure many will agree, also in America. We have 
 been living in a day when the questions of 
 
 F 65
 
 66 What of To-Day ? 
 
 gate-money and professionalism have entered 
 far too deeply into what is, after all, merely 
 physical and mental exercise of a high order. 
 And it has come about that, in place of affording 
 reasonable recreation to the whole youth of the 
 nation, the actual playing of such games as foot- 
 ball and baseball has been restricted to a 
 comparatively small and highly paid body of 
 professed experts, while the rest of the com- 
 munity have been content to look on and 
 applaud their efforts. 
 
 The betting evil, too, which has followed as 
 a natural consequence of the vicarious interest 
 taken in such sport, has grown to enormous 
 proportions. Games, therefore, have failed of 
 late years in their true mission. They have not 
 enlisted the bones, blood and sinews of the 
 nation and sent them to fight for victory on our 
 playing fields. And here, as I think, is food 
 for serious thought, both for us who are now 
 called to render an account of how we have borne 
 ourselves in the fat days of peace, and no less 
 for our great sister nation across the sea, which 
 may profitably seize this moment for asking if 
 all is well with them also in this respect. 
 
 However well we may understand the rules, 
 the finer points, and the subtleties of a game, 
 the mere watching of others taking part in it 
 cannot benefit us in the slightest possible degree. 
 We may applaud the skill, the coolness and the 
 agility shown by the players, but that is no
 
 Play the Game 67 
 
 sufficient preparation against the hour when we 
 ourselves may be called upon to display in some 
 measure the qualities which have evoked our 
 enthusiasm for our peace-time heroes. 
 
 Perhaps the greatest of all the benefits con- 
 ferred by any game is that elusive and indefinable 
 quality known as *' sportsmanship." If it were 
 only for the sake of acquiring this excellent 
 virtue I would have all boys and youths taught 
 to delight in the actual playing of a game. We 
 have got into the habit, due in large measure to 
 the increase in the watching instead of the playing 
 of games, of judging too much by results. There 
 are people, I am credibly informed, who are made 
 utterly miserable by the sight of their football or 
 baseball club's defeat. Yet, rightly considered, 
 the object of the game was not so much victory at 
 all costs, but the good effect in those qualities I 
 have already mentioned on the players. The 
 real sportsman would far sooner be beaten in 
 a terrifically close contest, whatever the nature of 
 the game in which he is taking part, than form one 
 of a side achieving a run-away victory over out- 
 classed opponents, and still less share in a victory 
 achieved by some form of dishonesty. It is the 
 zest of the fight, not the joy of conquering, that 
 gives, or ought to give, real pleasure. What does 
 it matter whether we win or lose, if at the end of 
 the game we can say that we have borne ourselves 
 worthily during its progress? 
 
 It is this feeling, not yet crushed by the modern
 
 68 What of To-Day? 
 
 development of games, which ranges us instinc- 
 tively on the side of the " small nation " in the 
 sterner affairs of life. The spectacle of Belgium, 
 crushed and trampled under the heel of a ruthless 
 invader, is a saddening one, yet the heroic resis- 
 tance of that small country against an overpowering 
 enemy has called forth the admiration and applause 
 of the whole world . She has emphatically ' ' played 
 the game," and the real aim and object of our 
 friendly and peaceful contests should be to teach 
 us to " play the game " in other and sterner fights. 
 Does anyone feel that Belgium, over-run though 
 she be by innumerable hordes of invaders, has not 
 gained an imperishable glory by the unequal 
 struggle she has put up against overwhelming 
 numbers ? I think not. Belgium has at least 
 "played the game," although the issue is nothing. 
 
 Out-door pursuits must inevitably be of more 
 benefit to us both in body and soul than indoor 
 recreations, which are more suited to the older 
 amongst us. For every game is but a symbol of 
 life, and a " bad loser," whether at golf, at bridge 
 or at chess, will be a bad loser when things go 
 wrong with him in the great game of life. If men 
 and women would but steel themselves to accept 
 defeat even in a game with a light heart and a 
 pleasant smile, they would find it far easier to 
 grapple with real troubles and real losses. 
 
 How many people does one hear ascribing all 
 their woes and difficulties to ill luck ! Yet there is 
 in reality very little luck at all about the game of
 
 Play the Game 69 
 
 life. One man may, it is true, be born into 
 a higher position than another, with more favour- 
 able circumstances and with a more fortunate en- 
 vironment. But he is compelled no less than his 
 poorer brother to " play the game " properly, or 
 it will be the worse for him in the end. 
 
 Take the game of chess as an illustration of 
 what I mean. The generic term for the pieces 
 of all grades in this game is man. The men 
 are kings, queens, bishops, knights and pawns. 
 It is no special matter whether your mission is 
 represented by the king, or the bishop, or the 
 knight or the pawn, but it does matter very 
 much indeed that you should play the character 
 assigned to you to the best of your power. Your 
 business is not to be conceited about your crown 
 or your mitre, but to fulfil your part. When the 
 game is done, all the men from king to pawn 
 will be swept off the board into the same com- 
 mon wooden box, without distinction. All are 
 made of the same stuff, all of the same wooden 
 material. In origin and destiny we are all alike, 
 but for the moment during our sojourn here we 
 have to remind ourselves that he is the best servant 
 of God, the noblest Christian, who fills most 
 worthily the role allotted him in the scheme of 
 things on God's earth, who, in short, has " played 
 the game" to the full measure of his ability. 
 
 Once more, I may compare life to a game of 
 cards, taking as my illustration the game that is 
 rather too popular to-day the game of bridge.
 
 70 What of To-Day ? 
 
 Some men play for love and declare a heart, 
 others again are playing for riches and make 
 diamonds their suit, while others play boldly 
 for power and position and honours and then 
 clubs are trumps. But no matter what call a 
 man may make, he may be sure that in the end 
 he will be over-called by a declaration of spades. 
 
 Spades will be trumps, perhaps sooner than 
 most of us expect. When our unseen adversary 
 outbids us with that call the question will be, 
 have we played the game, have we been straight, 
 have we revoked, have we made the best of every 
 card in our hand, have we kept to the rules that 
 should have guided our play? Life consists not 
 so much in holding a good hand as in playing a 
 bad one well. Grumbling at the lack of aces 
 and kings in the hand dealt out to us will not avail 
 us when the rubber is over and the points on either 
 side are added up. For at the final reckoning we 
 shall not be required to have achieved a grand 
 slam without an ace in our hand, but rather to 
 have made the best of the cards we have actually 
 held. Once more, in fact, all that is asked of us 
 is to " play the game." 
 
 And in such sports as football, baseball and 
 cricket it is the same. We have to do our best 
 in that particular station to which the captain 
 assigns us. The pitcher or the bowler, if he has 
 done his best, will not be blamed for the defeat 
 of his side. Nor, if his skill is confined solely to 
 pitching, to mastery of the ball, will he be ex-
 
 Play the Game 71 
 
 pected to perform miracles in the way of making 
 big hits and scoring runs for his team. A foot- 
 ball forward does not necessarily make a good 
 back, but in either case each man is expected 
 to exert all his skill and his powers to the utter- 
 most against the common foe. 
 
 So it is with life. We are all players, but 
 each has his work set him to do, not to live for 
 the senses, not according to the lust of the 
 moment or the whim of the hour, but on the 
 contrary to do all in his power to carry out with 
 efficiency the work to which he is deputed by 
 God, who deigns to need each one of us. 
 
 It is a sad reflection that in times of prosperity 
 man is apt to neglect Almighty God. But such a 
 dark night as that through which we are now 
 passing, is God's opportunity. As children turn 
 in their little troubles to their parents for help and 
 comfort, so does man at such a time remember 
 that there is always one unfailing Helper and Com- 
 forter at his side. All that He asks in return for 
 His unstinted love and consolation is that we shall 
 on our part, ' ' play the game ' ' manfully and nobly, 
 and so in some small measure requite Him for 
 His care and never-failing watchfulness over us. 
 In these days there are many, hitherto neglectful, 
 who are turning to Him for strength and courage. 
 But while doing so in good hope that they shall 
 not be disappointed, let them remember that it is 
 for them, too, to play their part as He would have 
 them play it, quitting themselves as men.
 
 X 
 
 RUN FOR YOUR LIFE 
 
 IN St. Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, 
 the Apostle exhorts them to learn from their 
 national games, of which they had good reason 
 to be as supremely proud as they were passion- 
 ately fond, a lesson full of practical significance. 
 This is what he says: " Know you not that they 
 who run in the race all run indeed, but one 
 receiveth the prize ? So run, that you may ob- 
 tain." (1 Cor. ix. 24.) 
 
 From almost mythical times Corinth had 
 been famous for the Isthmian sports, as they 
 were called from the isthmus on which the city 
 was built. And, indeed, in no other part of 
 Greece was there to be found a ground more 
 favourably adapted by nature, as well as by art, 
 for athletic sports, than that one which ran down 
 the avenue of pine trees standing out so darkly 
 against the snow-white statues which reared 
 their heroic forms at regulated intervals along 
 the whole length of the Corinthian race course. 
 In this fine, fair city, sheltered by its citadel 
 rock on the north-east, its shoreland washed 
 by the great sea, assembled all Greece, with 
 
 72
 
 Run for Your Life 73 
 
 the exception of the Spartans and Eleans, on 
 occasion of these games in which so lively an 
 interest was taken by all sections of that vast 
 community. 
 
 For a moment let us pause and picture to 
 ourselves the familiar scene to which St. Paul 
 draws our attention in the passage of his letter 
 we have been reading. 
 
 The stadium or race course, strewn with fine 
 sand, running north and south of the pine grove, 
 is thronged throughout its entire length with 
 spectators raised tier above tier upon grand stands 
 commanding an uninterrupted view of the well- 
 laid race track. In the centre of the course, and 
 half-way between starting-point and finish, there 
 is placed the tripod on which may be seen the 
 keenly contested prizes. What are they? Behold 
 them : an unpretending garland of parsley and pine 
 leaves, and beside it a freshly cut palm branch. 
 
 Presently a blare of trumpets proclaims that a 
 race the foot race is about to open the national 
 games. The competitors, lithe and supple, 
 fresh from their anointing, step forth from the 
 pavilion on which all eyes are bent. Follow them, 
 my friends, see them as they take their stand at 
 the starting post in attitude expectant of the 
 signal to be gone. The flag drops, and these 
 athletes, splendidly made, splendidly trained, and 
 splendidly matched, bound forward over the 
 sparkling floor. With flying feet, on and on 
 and on they rush, so lightly touching the earth
 
 74 What of To-Day? 
 
 that they seem to be borne on the wings of the 
 very wind as they fly past the brilliant lines of 
 spectators, who, leaning forwards from their seats, 
 hold their breath in awful straining silence as they 
 follow the chances of their favourites pressing 
 onward to the goal. But who among such evenly 
 matched competitors shall the winner be ? Surely 
 that must depend upon some lucky movement 
 which not the most skilled eye can pretend to 
 foresee. 
 
 See, they are nearing the winning post all 
 abreast each so straining every nerve and forcing 
 every muscle that it looks as if the race will end 
 in a dead heat, but no! for one of the runners, 
 seizing his opportunity, gathering up his limbs like 
 a tiger about to spring on its prey, leaps over the 
 intervening space and alights at the winning post, 
 bursting the ribbon triumphant, the winner of 
 the race. 
 
 And now with the garland of wild parsley upon 
 his brow, and the palm branch in his hand, amid 
 thunders of applause rolling after him, he is con- 
 ducted down the stadium by a herald who in a 
 loud voice proclaims his name, his parentage, and 
 the city of his birth. Among the Greeks the ac- 
 quisition of this crown was not only a life-long 
 distinction for the winner, but reflected also the 
 highest honour on his family and his state, and we 
 are told that his countrymen used to testify their 
 gratitude by triumphal receptions and banquets at 
 the public expense.
 
 Run for Your Life 75 
 
 Let us pause for a moment and recall to 
 memory the price that our hero has paid for 
 this corruptible crown this chaplet of parsley 
 or pine leaves. 
 
 In the first place he has had to pass through a 
 period of training which beginning in childhood 
 has endured through the years of youth, and is 
 completed only on the attainment of man's estate. 
 The exercises during these precious years of the 
 athlete's life became more and more difficult and 
 complex in proportion as his bodily powers grew 
 in strength and suppleness, till at length when his 
 limbs had gained that union of agility and beauty 
 in which physical perfection consists, he was 
 judged to be sufficiently trained to enter the lists, 
 and compete for the coveted prize. 
 
 It is impossible not to feel a certain measure 
 of admiration for the marvellous and matchless 
 discipline of those Greek gymnasium schools. 
 Nothing was left to chance ; every detail in the 
 life of the candidate was mapped out and attended 
 to. Besides the Gymnasiarch, there were two 
 other officers whose functions were to show how 
 thorough was the training of the aspirant who had 
 set his heart on winning a prize at the national 
 games. It was the business of the Krosmetes to 
 superintend every stage in the physical training of 
 his client, while to the Sophronist fell the duty of 
 moulding the mental and moral features of his soul. 
 Let me cite you from the Enchiridion of Epictetus 
 a passage which St. Paul might very well have had
 
 76 What of To-Day? 
 
 before his mind when he referred to the severe 
 training of the gymnasium: " Do you wish," asks 
 the writer of a friend, "to conquer in the race? 
 So do I, for it is honourable. But bethink 
 yourself what this attempt implies, and then begin 
 the undertaking. You will have to subject your- 
 self to a determinate course. You must submit to 
 a severe regime. You must pursue established 
 exercises at fixed hours in heat and in cold. You 
 must abstain from all delicacies in meat and drink, 
 and yield yourself unreservedly to the control of 
 your teachers, and even endure floggings." 
 
 Upon the completion of this severe training 
 the candidate might enter his name for some 
 event, but before he was permitted to take 
 part in it he had to pass through yet another 
 ordeal. Into the public stadium he was sum- 
 moned by the herald, who, laying his hand 
 upon the head of the competitor, enquired with 
 a loud voice of the assembly : " Can anyone 
 here present accuse this man of any crime ? 
 Is he a robber or a slave ? or is he wicked or 
 depraved in his life and morals?" If the young 
 man passed through this trial of his virtue 
 successfully, he was then conducted to the 
 altar of Zeus, the punisher of the perjured, 
 where, with solemn rites, he was required to 
 swear that he had gone through the proper 
 training, and that he would conform to the 
 laws of the contest before him. 
 
 What was it, let me ask, that induced the
 
 Run for Your Life 77 
 
 smart young men of that day to subject them- 
 selves to this painful and laborious discipline of 
 the gymnasium? For so trying was it that 
 sometimes men fell out of the race while 
 it was actually being run, and sometimes there 
 were cases of competitors dropping down dead 
 at the winning post itself. 
 
 Was the contemptible prize of which the 
 Apostle speaks worth the price paid for it ? 
 Was it worth the risk of a man's life ? Clearly 
 it was thought so by the youth of this bygone 
 civilisation. 
 
 The fact is we are so constituted that when 
 we have our heart in our work, no matter what 
 that work may be, we do not pay much attention 
 to the degree of pain we may have to endure 
 as the price of its accomplishment. Pain and 
 pleasure are not so mutually exclusive of each 
 other as they would seem to be when judged 
 apart by the frigid onlooker. On the contrary, 
 they are complementary of each other, pain 
 only emphasising pleasure. 
 
 Sweet the pleasure after pain. And so it 
 came to pass that the competitors for the prizes 
 at the Isthmian games willingly and eagerly 
 went in for training, refraining themselves from 
 all things that were prejudicial to the end they 
 had in view ; curbing their passions, checking 
 their appetites, scorning all self-indulgence, 
 because their hearts were fixed on the something 
 higher, to which the lower appetites must be
 
 78 What of To-Day? 
 
 sacrificed. They sacrificed the lower joys for 
 the higher, they purchased pleasure at the price 
 of pain. 
 
 And now, let me invite you to draw from 
 this object lesson, provided for our instruction 
 by the men of ancient Greece, the truths which 
 it ought to bring home to us. 
 
 St. Paul would seem to argue in this strain. 
 He asks: Do you, my Christian brethren, believe 
 that at the end of this race of life there is awaiting 
 you, not a corruptible but an incorruptible crown, 
 a garland of unfading roses woven for you by the 
 hand of Christ Himself?" 
 
 4 ' Do you verily believe that this crown of life 
 is a prize most certainly attainable by each one 
 of you, provided only you conform to the rules 
 of the game ? " 
 
 " Do you in truth fully believe that this crown 
 is not only surely within your reach, but that it is 
 your sacred duty, your vocation, your mission at 
 all costs to win and wear it? " 
 
 " Moreover, do you believe that to encourage 
 you to make an effort to obtain it, Jesus Christ, 
 with bleeding feet, wearing a crown of thorns, and 
 bearing a heavy cross, has gone before you bless- 
 ing the royal road leading up to the immortal 
 prize?" 
 
 "And lastly, is it your settled conviction that 
 if you do not train for and run in this race, that 
 at the close of life not only will you miss the prize 
 of life, but all that it implies, ecstatic joy, ever-
 
 Run for Your Life 79 
 
 lasting bliss, rapturous love, and that all this will 
 be lost, and lost for ever, through your own fault, 
 your folly, your selfishness, your slothfulness ? " 
 
 As you are, as you ought to be, persuaded 
 that the prize of eternal life is being offered to 
 you, if only you will strive for it, you will, I feel 
 sure, make the necessary effort. If to obtain a 
 corruptible crown the Corinthian pagans did so 
 much, you Christians will not do less to win the 
 crown that is incorruptible. 
 
 Make not provision for the flesh, walk not 
 after the flesh, sow not in the flesh, live not after 
 the flesh ; but mortify the flesh, chastise the 
 flesh, crucify the flesh. "For if you live accord- 
 ing to the flesh you shall die, but if by the 
 Spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh you 
 shall live." 
 
 The apostles of naturalism will of course 
 laugh at this doctrine as a worn-out theory. 
 They hold one's only duty is to amuse one- 
 self, to enjoy the present hour, to make it 
 tingle with some new sensation. For them 
 there is but one sin, that of being dull. 
 Accordingly these modern hierophants of a 
 materialistic gospel advise their disciples not 
 to mortify, but to gratify the flesh ; to give it 
 all the sleep it asks, to feed its appetite on 
 dainties rich and rare, to slake its thirst on 
 wines choice and costly, and to clothe it in 
 garments soft and sumptuous. "Come, there- 
 fore, and let us enjoy the good things that
 
 8o What of To-Day? 
 
 are present ... let not the flower of the time 
 pass by : let us crown ourselves with roses before 
 they are withered, let no meadow escape our 
 riot." 
 
 "These things," says the Holy Spirit, "they 
 thought, and were deceived, for their own 
 malice blinded them." 
 
 Let us the children of Christian forbears 
 take all precaution against this microbe of 
 naturalism which is in the air we breathe, let 
 us inoculate the flesh with the myrrh of morti- 
 fication, that will enable us to throw off this 
 deadly poison with which in our day we are 
 attacked. Let us gird our loins, and after the 
 example of our sainted brethren gone before, 
 let us curb and chide, chasten and chastise 
 the flesh, lest instead of clothing the soul in 
 Heaven it seduce us to Hell. 
 
 Listen to the Apostle. Surely if ever there 
 lived a man on this earth who had nothing 
 to fear from his flesh it was St. Paul, and yet, 
 how does he treat it ? Listen to his solemn words 
 full of warning to us : "I chastise my body and 
 bring it into subjection." 
 
 Behold here the rule which each one of us 
 must follow, if we would win in the Christian 
 race. We must chastise our bodies, so much at 
 least as is necessary in order to keep them in sub- 
 jection. In other words, man's animal nature, like 
 all other animal natures, must be tamed and trained 
 into obedience, and this can be done only by
 
 Run for Your Life 81 
 
 stinting and starving its inordinate appetites, by 
 curbing and checking its wantonness, by chiding, 
 chastening, and chastising its rebelliousness. 
 
 The youngest among us is nearing the end 
 of the race, and when it shall have been run, and 
 the gasping for breath is quick and short and faint, 
 then with a last supreme effort may you spring 
 forth into the Everlasting Arms, where saved and 
 safe in the embrace of God your Father may you 
 hear the long-sought word: "Well done, well 
 done." 
 
 Then, clothed with the garment of glory and 
 crowned with the garland of immortality, shall 
 you enter the land of triumph and victory the 
 Home of those troops of Virgins who sacrificed 
 youth and beauty to follow the Lamb whereso- 
 ever He goeth ; the Home of the companies of 
 Confessors who fought the good fight, ran their 
 course, kept the faith and now wear the crown 
 of righteousness ; the Home of the armies of 
 Martyrs who, triumphant over persecution, fire, 
 and the sword, having dyed their garments in 
 the blood of the Lamb, now hold the golden 
 palm of everlasting victory : there shall your 
 Guardian Angel proclaim to all the Chivalry of 
 Heaven the story of your struggle and your 
 victory. 
 
 Then, when you shall look down from your 
 throne on high upon this insignificant grain of 
 dust this planet this earth and survey the 
 poor and paltry scene of your former struggles, 
 
 G
 
 82 What of To-Day? 
 
 how rapturous will be your joyous prayer of 
 thanksgiving to God that, before it was too late, 
 you had learned the great lesson that the crown 
 of eternal life is won only by those who strive and 
 train, and race for it. 
 
 " So run that you may obtain." Roll up in 
 your thousands, sign on at once, and go into 
 training, and when you start run for your life.
 
 XI 
 THE WEAPON OF PRAYER 
 
 " IT is no use praying, I never get what I ask for." 
 " What is the good of praying when God knows 
 what we want before we ask?" "I don't go to 
 church, because really the service is so tiresome 
 and the preaching insufferably dull." "How 
 can you expect us to go to church on Sundays, 
 when it is one's only chance for a day's spin in a 
 car, or when one is bound to spend the time on 
 the links so as to keep fit for the coming week?" 
 "Really, don't ask me to go to church, when 
 there is the blue vault of heaven over you, and the 
 lovely green cliffs rolling away as far as eye can 
 see. I can pray so much better in the open than 
 boxed up in a pew, where the air is stuffy, the 
 music execrable, and the sermon platitudes." 
 
 In these answers to the question, " Why don't 
 you go to church on Sundays?" you have the 
 usual excuses offered for not going. It is all 
 very painful and sad, and shows that the true 
 reasons for going to church have ceased to be 
 appreciated. 
 
 Of course the real reason why people give up 
 churchgoing is because they have already given 
 
 83
 
 84 What of To-Day? 
 
 up believing, or caring, or reckoning with re- 
 ligion at all. 
 
 Prayer is not a matter of taste, or a work of 
 supererogation, nor is it a business transaction 
 across a counter ; it is not putting down so much 
 and taking up what you have asked for. Prayer 
 is something far better and holier; it is the soul's 
 audience time with Heaven's King, it is our special 
 opportunity for acts of homage, of praise, thanking 
 God for what He is in Himself and then for what 
 He is to us. 
 
 Prayer is the very highest operation of the soul. 
 During it all the faculties of the soul are called 
 forth and are employed in the most meritorious 
 work in which they can be engaged. 
 
 Prayer is giving rather than getting. In it we 
 pour forth our whole being in acts of adoration, 
 praise and thanksgiving; we intone the "Gloria 
 in excelsis," or chant the "Magnificat," or sing 
 the psalms, or litanies in which the soul seeks 
 to express its worship of the Almighty, and its 
 indebtedness to Him for all His beauty and 
 excellence, as well as for all His mercy and all His 
 love. 
 
 God, if He does not always grant us our peti- 
 tion, always gives us some gift immeasurably 
 better for us than the one we asked for. Prayer 
 never fails of its mark; it always does us good. 
 
 The fact of the matter is we only too often 
 pray for what would be hurtful, not helpful to our 
 Christian life. It would be well for those who
 
 The Weapon of Prayer 85 
 
 seem to be forgetting the meaning of prayer to 
 make a few meditations on the petitions in the 
 "Our Father." In that best of all prayers you 
 have epitomised the Christian dispensation, the 
 Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes taught 
 by the Master. The Lord's Prayer is a treasury 
 of grace, an arsenal of spiritual weapons, and a 
 school of lessons in the ascetic life. 
 
 We ask amiss sometimes, our pleading so 
 often is for some temporal goal, success, or 
 advantage which God may see not to be useful 
 for us. He withholds it, and then we turn away 
 exclaiming : "What's the use ? " 
 
 Ask for what is profitable for your soul for 
 strength to bear God's Will, for courage to do it ; 
 plead for spiritual strength and heavenly ambitions 
 and you will obtain what you desire. 
 
 Whatever happens do not be so foolish as 
 to turn away from prayer, ignoring God and 
 neglecting His service. To give up prayer is to 
 forfeit salvation, for it is nothing else than spiritual 
 suicide starving the soul to death. Prayer, for- 
 get it never, is the soul's food, and you can no 
 more dispense with nourishment for the soul 
 than you can do without sustenance for the body. 
 
 All life needs some kind of foodstuff for its sup- 
 port. Indeed, it is true to say that the organic 
 world is marked off from the inorganic precisely 
 by this, that whereas the latter is capable of no 
 kind of nourishment, the former, on the contrary, 
 can only live and thrive on a diet suitable to it.
 
 86 What of To-Day ? 
 
 The crystal may seem to grow, but in reality 
 it does not ; whereas the organism does grow and 
 wax strong, because it absorbs into its system some 
 kind of foodstuff which it transforms into its own 
 substance. 
 
 Ask yourselves why the flowers in our public 
 parks or gardens retain for so long their beauty, 
 colour and characteristic loveliness ? It is because 
 they support themselves and are nourished by 
 such elements as carbon, oxygen and hydrogen 
 which, drawn under the stimulus of light and 
 heat and rain into the laboratories of root, stem 
 and leaf, are there manufactured into substances 
 fitted finally to build up the fibre of their wood 
 and the delicacy of their petals. 
 
 What we know of life in our gardens is true 
 of life in our fields, life in animals and in man 
 himself. We all recognise that not to eat is to 
 starve to death. The more the work done by a 
 human body, or for the matter of that by an 
 animal body, the more regular and the more 
 nourishing must be the food or fodder provided 
 for its support. We must charge the battery, 
 coal the engine, feed the animal. 
 
 Now to turn to the soul. No human soul, 
 no human being can hope to live, to keep in 
 health, and to grow spiritually strong unless he 
 is fed regularly on the food of prayer. "My 
 bones are dried up, because I have forgotten 
 to eat my bread." 
 
 Not to pray is to starve, and to starve one's
 
 The Weapon of Prayer 87 
 
 soul to death through one's own fault is to 
 commit spiritual self-slaughter. 
 
 Someone will say: "But unfortunately the 
 claims of modern life are so constantly pressing 
 and urgent that there is no time left for the 
 work of prayer." To this excuse I can but 
 answer : ' There is such a thing as making 
 time. And we make time for one duty by 
 robbing another of less importance of some of 
 the time usually allotted to it. To say there is 
 no time for prayer is like telling one there is 
 no time for sleep and no time for meals." I 
 repeat it, time must be made for prayer lest 
 otherwise we die of inanition and spiritual 
 anaemia. Cannot we manage to spend less time 
 on newspaper, magazine and romance-reading 
 and so create quite a series of daily moments for 
 spiritual reading, and for prayer both mental and 
 vocal ? 
 
 ' But," it will be urged, " prayer is so irksome, 
 and it is so hard to persevere in it. It is all easy 
 enough to pray when the music is entrancing, 
 and you feel like praying, but just to sink to your 
 knees morning and night and say your prayers 
 is dull, distracting work, and little or no good 
 can come from it." Well, there's the rub. No 
 doubt prayer is a work, an effort and a tremendous 
 test of loyalty and love. But keep at it, persevere 
 in it and you will with its golden key unlock the 
 treasury of heaven and draw the grace and bless- 
 ing to relish what is right and just, and to win the
 
 88 What of To-Day ? 
 
 constant enjoyment of God's blessing to be 
 pressed from the Sacred Heart of Jesus by the 
 prayer of the persevering. Let me illustrate 
 what I mean by the example of the Syro-Phceni- 
 cian woman. What a lovely story hers is ! Just 
 listen to this : 
 
 Jesus, accompanied by the disciples, was 
 making His way toward the coast on the north- 
 west of the highlands of Galilee. A rumour of 
 the approach of the Wonder-worker seems to 
 have been noised abroad ; for somewhere between 
 the coasts of Sidon and Tyre there lived a poor 
 woman with an only child who was possessed of a 
 devil , to whom itwas reported that Jesuswas coming 
 that way. How many years that poor child had 
 been afflicted, or how many remedies that poor 
 mother had applied in vain, I know not ; all I know 
 is this: that so soon as she heard of Our Lord's 
 rumoured presence in the neighbourhood, forth- 
 with she set out, resolved not to come back till 
 her prayer was heard. Oh! I fancy I can see her 
 so worn by sorrow, so radiant with hope, hurrying 
 ever forward like one beside herself, asking at 
 every hamlet, and of each chance passer-by, such 
 questions as these : " Have you seen Him? " " Is 
 He coming this way ? " "Is He healing diseases ? ' ' 
 Onward she leaps, rather than runs, till at length 
 her joy knows no bounds. In the distance, per- 
 haps, through a cleft in the hillside, she sees a 
 dark moving mass. Straining her eyes, she runs 
 forward, springs to the ledge of a projecting rock
 
 The Weapon of Prayer 89 
 
 by the way, where she may be seen as well as see, 
 and then, almost before Jesus is within hearing 
 distance of her, she wails out it was like a wail of 
 the wind the piteous cry : " Have mercy on me, 
 O Lord, Thou Son of David, for my daughter is 
 grievously troubled with a devil." Nearer and 
 nearer the Physician, surrounded by His band of 
 followers, approaches. Again and again, till her 
 voice grows hoarse, the mother repeats her cry, 
 " Have pity on me." The procession is abreast 
 of her, has passed her: and Jesus, Who had said, 
 u Ask and you shall receive," answered her not a 
 word, returned her not a look. Nothing daunted 
 or discouraged, leaping once more into the road 
 and pushing her way among the throng, she lays 
 hold of the disciples, begging of them to tell Him 
 her sad story; but it was all of no avail. They 
 bade her hold her peace and not trouble them 
 with her frantic cries and gestures. And when 
 by no means they could get rid of her, turning to 
 Our Lord they asked Him to send her away. 
 Jesus, Who it would seem from St. Mark's report 
 of the incident, was on His way into some neigh- 
 bouring house, stopped and turning to the dis- 
 tracted suppliant, said to her, " I was not sent but 
 to the sheep that are lost, of the house of Israel." 
 Then, perhaps, it was that, crossing the threshold, 
 He passed out of sight. Oh, my friends, our Divine 
 Lord's Heart suffered far more than the poor 
 woman's by this delay in the answer to her peti- 
 tion ; but among other reasons for it there was the
 
 90 What of To-Day? 
 
 sad necessity of teaching us, through her, to per- 
 severe in prayer. The valiant woman, who was 
 quick to recognise in His Face and Voice the 
 mercy in store for her, all unbidden followed Him 
 into the house, where, falling prone on her face 
 in adoration, she sobbed out from a breaking 
 heart the petition : " Lord, help me ! " See her, 
 look at her, and learn how to make a way unto the 
 Sacred Heart of Jesus. In words intelligible 
 enough to one who was a Syro-Phoenician, Jesus 
 said to her : " It is not good to take the bread of 
 the children and to cast it to the dogs." Upon 
 this I can see the suppliant raising her head from 
 the ground, clasping her hands, looking Him full 
 in the face, and sure of His sympathy now, re- 
 plying: "Yea, Lord, for the whelps also eat of 
 the crumbs that fall from the table of their master " 
 as though she would say : " I do not ask to be 
 treated as a member of the family, or as a guest, 
 or even as a servant : provided only I may belong 
 to the Master of the house, it is enough for me 
 to be the whelp under His table ; for there I shall 
 not be forgotten by Him Who remembers all and 
 fills every creature with benediction." 
 
 The Chanaanite had asked, and received not ; 
 had sought, and found not ; and now she knocked, 
 and it was opened to her. Out from that door, 
 forth from that Heart, came the words that have 
 rung through the ages: "Oh, woman, great is 
 thy faith; be it done to thee as thou wilt." Per- 
 severe in prayer.
 
 The Weapon of Prayer 91 
 
 Now, let me pass on to mental prayer. What 
 a fine tonic for the soul is contemplation and medi- 
 tation. It enlightens the mind, strengthens the 
 will and inflames the heart as no other spiritual 
 exercise can possibly do. But you will say : " It is 
 quite impossible to meditate in the rush and fever 
 of modern life. Besides, even if one had the 
 leisure, the inclination would be wanting. I am 
 not at all clever, and I could no more plough 
 through a meditation than I could aviate, or lift 
 myself up by my shoe-strings. ' ' There is no doubt 
 meditation, like any other exercise, is difficult 
 without practice. Piano-playing, violin exercise, 
 painting and dancing, or even games, golf and 
 cricket and football, need to be practised to make 
 oneself efficient in them. It is the same with 
 prayer. But follow me, and let me show you that 
 meditation is not so difficult as it seems. Let me 
 suppose you are going to take for your subject 
 of meditation the text : "And He said to all. If 
 any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, 
 and take up his cross and follow Me." Well, I 
 should pause to remind myself that our Lord " said 
 to all," so that there is no exception to the case ; in 
 fact He goes on to say emphatically, " if any one will 
 come after Me," therefore, if I want to come after 
 Him, I too must make up my mind there is only one 
 way of doing it I toomust deny myself, take up my 
 cross, and follow Him I notice that our Lord says, 
 * * If anyone will come . ' ' His service is no slavery, 
 but free, it is will-service. The object in going
 
 92 What of To-Day? 
 
 after Him is just this, to get near Him and become 
 like Him. The Christian religion clearly enough 
 is one of self-denial and self-conquest. I must cut 
 off what is sinful, what is dangerous, what is inex- 
 pedient. There is no mistake about it, this religion 
 of the Crucified is no easygoing, Sunday dress 
 affair ; it is a probing, a chastening, a pruning 
 business. It is always cutting off, or burning away 
 some growth or tendency which might prove fatal 
 to the soul if allowed to have its own way. It is 
 not a Sunday practice, but a daily effort. To deny 
 oneself is not enough, to take up one's cross just 
 now and then will not serve our purpose. As we 
 are to follow Christ all the time , we must take up the 
 cross daily, maybe hourly, and it is to be done not 
 under compulsion, as when Simon of Cyrene 
 helped Christ to bear His, but it is to betaken up 
 with both hands, even if it is a burden from the 
 battle-front, and lifted like a precious burden till 
 it is planted beside the Master on Calvary. How 
 small and insignificant it will then look, standing 
 beside His ! Mary beside Christ, you beside your 
 dead or wounded husband, father or child. 
 
 Having come to grips with the lesson conveyed 
 by the text or message, go on to unfold the reasons 
 appealing with special force to you for accepting 
 it. In the present instance the chief reasons for 
 taking up your cross and following Our Lord will 
 be because He bids you to do so, because it would 
 be splendid to follow such a leader, and would 
 inevitably result in the cross being exchanged, at
 
 The Weapon of Prayer 93 
 
 the end of life's march, for a crown the crown of 
 life incorruptible and ever glorious. 
 
 Then, with these motives of action before your 
 mind, the will becomes inspired and impelled 
 to make good and strong resolutions to follow 
 Christ, and so you will rise from the struggle 
 of meditation, like a soldier called to the front, 
 determined in life and in death to fight on the 
 side of your Captain King. 
 
 Lately I have spent not a little time in the 
 camps of some of the divisions now gone to the 
 fighting area. What most of all struck me in 
 my visits to the men was their fine soldierlike 
 appearance and bearing. Both infantry and 
 cavalry looked well cared for, well fed, and well 
 armed. Indeed, you only had to wander through 
 the camps, and to see the stores, and watch the 
 cooks at work to be satisfied that the British 
 soldier of to-day is done well, and he knows, 
 and acknowledges it. Every Christian is a 
 soldier he too needs the rations of prayer and 
 the drill of spiritual exercise to fit him for service 
 in the field of spiritual combat. Without prayer 
 the Christian is like a soldier without weapons, 
 he is not ready for the fighting line. Get ready, 
 get trained in the School of Christ : " Esto miles," 
 be a soldier. Many a wounded officer, gunner 
 and trooper has assured me that in the trenches, 
 and in the open under fire, men who thought they 
 could not pray, prayed with the terror of saints. 
 
 It is my conviction that what has brought on
 
 94 What of To-Day? 
 
 this overdue war has been, among other causes, 
 our neglect of prayer, of religion. In England, 
 as well as in France, God and God's command- 
 ments have been ignored, spurned, defied. In 
 France irreligion has been a boast. Not only have 
 governments vied with each other in their 
 attempts to quench the lights of heaven, to close 
 Catholic schools and clerical seminaries, but 
 with studied thoroughness the name of God has 
 been blotted out of school books, and the tokens 
 of religion have been everywhere torn down and 
 a black mark set against any official who ventured 
 even to go inside a church. I will not dwell on the 
 treatment meted out to religious of either sex, 
 but let me just say that the dechristianisation of 
 France has been carried out with the ruthless logic 
 of a syllogism. France turned Religion out of 
 the country and slammed the door in her face. 
 
 As for England, she has not flaunted her 
 irreligion in one's face. Here in England we 
 are not as logical and virulent and violent as in 
 France, but for all that, we have habitually left 
 God out of our reckoning. His wishes have 
 had little or no weight with us. As a nation we 
 have been getting farther and farther away from 
 vital Christianity. Among the leisured classes 
 has there been that reverence for God and that 
 Sunday observance once so characteristic of 
 this country? From Friday to Tuesday have 
 not men and women in high society been in- 
 dulging in revels on the river, or in orgies in
 
 The Weapon of Prayer 95 
 
 country-houses, or in joy-rides in motors. As a 
 matter of fact Sunday has been the busiest day 
 in the week, not only for so-called smart people, 
 but for their domestics and hangers-on also. 
 Then look at the wilful, wanton extravagance, 
 the lust of luxuries, the waste of money, of time, 
 of talent, of virtue, of opportunities. And all 
 this wanton dissipation has been carried on in 
 presence of servants who pass it on wholesale 
 to the shopkeeper, who retails it across the 
 counter to the man in the street, till what with 
 the Press, the shopkeeper, and the loiterers, the 
 sins of society have become common property, 
 and as the fashions of to-day get down to villa- 
 dom and the slums to-morrow, so the vices now 
 in vogue in the West End are copied 1 in all their 
 grossness and vulgarity as soon as possible in the 
 East End. The poet drew no false picture of 
 the luxury-loving English lad when he described 
 him as one : 
 
 " Whose gods were luxury and chance." 
 
 Someone will, no doubt find fault with me 
 for daring to call the attention of my country- 
 men to their vices, which have provoked the 
 Almighty, and helped to bring about this war- 
 slaughter which is so terribly scourging us for 
 our sins. But how have we been persistently 
 and constantly treating God ? No private prayer 
 in the week, and no public service on Sunday. 
 In the West End of London, I do not believe five
 
 96 What of To-Day? 
 
 per hundred of society have been in the habit 
 of going to church during the season. If with 
 Catholics the case is different, you must remem- 
 ber we have to go to Mass on Sundays ; it is with 
 us a sacred duty. Do the working-class go any 
 better than the leisured classes? I very much 
 fear they do not. 
 
 A nation that neglects its religious duties will 
 easily fall a prey to the vice of race-suicide, and 
 to immodesty in dress, which during the past few 
 years has been growing more and more offensive, 
 and more and more expressive of our decadence 
 in a moral sense. We have fallen into the sins of 
 the cities of the plains due to "fullness of bread 
 and idleness." 
 
 May this murderous war, turning England 
 into a house of mourning, open our eyes to our 
 past follies, and bring us to repentance with re- 
 solves not to fall back into our sins when the 
 ghastly strain of the struggle is relaxed and we 
 return slowly to peace, weeping over our dead. 
 
 May we as a nation return to God, and con- 
 vert Sunday into a day of worship as well as of 
 recreation. It is not golfing on Sunday of which 
 I complain, but spending all day at it, without a 
 thought of God, without an idea of our, or our 
 servants', need of prayer our true spiritual food. 
 
 Let us put order into our lives, and live by 
 some sort of rule, and not by the whim of the 
 hour, or the fashion of the moment, or the chance 
 for amusement.
 
 The Weapon of Prayer 97 
 
 For some time to come we shall have upon 
 our hands not only wounded soldiers, and the 
 families of those who are doing the fighting for 
 us, but we shall have to pay special attention to 
 other sections of the community who will be 
 brought to actual starvation by this war-scourge 
 if we help them not actors and actresses, dress- 
 makers, tailors, florists, jewellers, painters, 
 builders, and hosts of others too numerous to 
 catalogue. We shall have many pressing calls 
 upon our charity. 
 
 May God draw blessings for us out of this de- 
 vastating war, and may He bring us to see and to 
 acknowledge that to bear the burden of life as it 
 is to-day weighing upon us, we must sink to our 
 knees before Him, and proclaim publicly before 
 the world that He is our God and we are His 
 
 people. 
 
 "We come to Thee, sweet Saviour, 
 Thou wilt not ask us why, 
 We cannot live without Thee, 
 Still less without Thee die." 
 
 Must Sunday go? No, but it must be con- 
 verted into a day to renew, to re-create soul and 
 body sending man into the week strong to bear 
 God's will, and to do his life's work and duty. 
 
 H
 
 XII 
 ANOTHER WAR TO WAGE 
 
 THE war which each one of us has to wage is, as 
 Washington said, on the territory under his own 
 hat. It is much easier to get inspired with the 
 passion to fight some foreign foe than to rise up 
 against one so native and intimate as oneself. Yet 
 General Nogi used to tell his Japanese troops that, 
 till a man had learned to fight and conquer himself, 
 he was not properly equipped * ' to take on ' ' anyone 
 else. As a matter of fact, we British have been 
 holding our own, and have reported ourselves to 
 the Germans in a very telling manner, and we have 
 proved our dynamic force in every engagement in 
 which our troops have flung themselves against 
 armies five times their number. We can fight 
 others all right. 
 
 Now comes the time to turn the weapons of 
 warfare upon ourselves. Know thyself, fight thy- 
 self, conquer thyself are bits of advice full of tough 
 meaning. They hold plenty of meat on the bone. 
 Let us wrestle with them and get at their full 
 significance. 
 
 When a man has reached self-knowledge there 
 is every hope of his achieving self-conquest, self- 
 
 ,98
 
 Another War to Wage 99 
 
 realisation. I do not think a Britisher can do 
 better work for God, or King or Country, than to 
 take himself in hand, determining to make the best 
 of himself. After all, what mission can be finer or 
 nobler than to build up a personal character of 
 which we ne*ed not be ashamed, a character formed 
 and fashioned on the lines laid down for us by Him 
 Who was the noblest of the noble, the bravest of 
 the brave, the holiest of the holy Jesus Christ ? 
 For all Christians in all times He must ever be not 
 only their highest pattern of virtue, but as Ranke 
 points out, the greatest incentive to its practice. 
 
 Look the world over and you will not come 
 upon better raw material out of which to weave 
 garments of glory than you will find in the British 
 Empire, or in those nations, such as the United 
 States, which descend so largely from British stock. 
 To be satisfied about this we have but to read the 
 war events as they are chronicled from day to day 
 in the Press. In the opening scenes of this terrible 
 tragedy I tried to keep count of the most conspic- 
 uous, thrilling and heroic deeds wrought on battle- 
 fields by our men in khaki. Soon I had to give 
 up the attempt, for the deeds of valour succeeded 
 each other so rapidly that there was no keeping 
 pace with them. One could but read on, thank- 
 ing God our brothers in arms were so splendid, 
 and so irresistible when at close quarters with the 
 enemy. Whether overwhelmed by numbers or 
 shattered by shell, the British troops seem to take 
 it all in the day's work. They are never beaten, for
 
 ioo What of To-Day ? 
 
 they refuse to go under, no matter what hail of fire 
 may find them and riddle their ranks. It is some- 
 thing to be proud of, to be linked by chains of 
 affinity to men who march on day and night without 
 halting, who reach entrenchments in which they 
 stand waist-deep in water, where they are drenched 
 to the skin, famished with hunger, tortured with 
 undressed wounds, overcome with shell fumes, 
 oppressed with want of sleep, and held back from 
 " getting at 'em," because if they did they would 
 be mowed down to a man under the withering, 
 murderous fire from guns that have found their 
 range, and by troops far superior in numbers. 
 These "Tommies" hate being held back ; they do 
 not know what fear is. It may be they describe 
 it as " hell let loose," but the more appalling the 
 situation the keener they are to plunge into it and 
 keep at it. Take one instance only just by way of 
 showing what I mean. In the operations round 
 Cambrai we are told that : 
 
 "At dawn on August 26th the position was 
 critical, for 300,000 Germans were thrown on our 
 lines with the known intention of wiping out 
 the British Army. Seven hundred guns were 
 trained upon the heroic force, and the pressure 
 on the extreme left, where the 3rd, 4th (now 
 moving up), and 5th Divisions were under 
 General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien, was so great 
 that he could not carry out the intended further 
 retirement. The force held tight and fought 
 with courage and resource. Thus far the Ger-
 
 Another War to Wage 101 
 
 mans had succeeded in their plans. They had 
 tied us down to a position, and numbers they 
 calculated would then prevail to overwhelm our 
 force. The numbers came. Companies, bat- 
 talions, and brigades deployed in endless succes- 
 sion, but only to be destroyed by the splendid 
 shooting of the British Army, and soon the field 
 was strewn with ramparts of dead which obscured 
 the field of vision. At places some of our men 
 in the lulls of the firing had to run out to these 
 heaps to obtain warning of the next approach, 
 and the Germans halted at the masess of the fallen 
 and used them as cover. Thousands upon thou- 
 sands of the enemy were shot down and replaced 
 by thousands more. The Gloucester Battalion 
 was one of those most hotly assailed. During the 
 action a German aeroplane, flying the French flag, 
 came over the line, but a machine-gun succeeded 
 in bringing it to earth. Many a deed worthy of 
 the Victoria Cross was done on August the 26th. 
 Two men were seen bringing in a wounded sol- 
 dier under a terrific fire, and another left the lines 
 in the face of the advancing Germans to carry 
 back a fallen comrade in a party which was par- 
 tially cut off, but was rescued by the 4th Dragoon 
 Guards in a gallant charge." 
 
 Well may we be proud, I repeat, of men who 
 bring such glory to our flag, and prove they are 
 made of stuff that cannot shrink, lose colour, or 
 be torn to pieces. Their letters home paint in its 
 true pigments the horror of the sights around
 
 102 What of To-Day? 
 
 them, the hell-like fire of war, but they assure 
 you that they want to be nowhere else till the fight 
 is done, and the foe is laid low for ever. " I chose 
 to come, mother," writes one lieutenant. " I am 
 sharing a fighting man's lot and am glad of it, and 
 am thankful I am alive to keep plunging into it. 
 My only trouble jis I have to smoke tea leaves 
 instead of tobacco. Many a pal would give his 
 whole kit for a single match." 
 
 I have digressed, but I want to bring home to 
 you the fact that it is in war-time the true Briton 
 reveals his inner self and real worth to his fellows. 
 It is when there is no time for self-consciousness 
 that the Briton displays his native characteristics, 
 and proves beyond all manner of doubt that there 
 is in him the stuff out of which are made the 
 heroes of Christianity saints. 
 
 Is it too much to hope and believe that when 
 this ghastly life-and-death struggle is fought to 
 the finish we shall find England more fully re- 
 cognising the claims of God and the need of 
 keeping right with Him ? Perhaps we as a nation 
 needed this awful scourge to bring us to our 
 knees, and to force us to realise we cannot run 
 Republics or Empires in the ways of peace with- 
 out God's blessing and help. One thing is cer- 
 tain, and it is this, that hundreds of thousands of 
 our Allies who had never bowed their heads to 
 God since the day of their first Communion, have 
 been reconciled to Him by confession on the 
 battle-field, and have gone into the fight as into
 
 Another War to Wage 103 
 
 the holiest crusade that ever rallied men to a 
 Christian flag. 
 
 Think of it, 60,000 priests with the colours 
 and in the fighting line, absolving their fellows 
 in the ranks, and saying Mass when there is a lull 
 in the trenches, or wherever they can set up a 
 portable altar. Surely this must tell upon a land 
 that was being systematically dechristianised by 
 successive governments glorying in their infidel 
 triumphs over Christianity. Is there not good 
 reason to hope that the people of France and 
 England too will have learned from this war that 
 they are not sent here, on this blood-stained earth, 
 merely to have a good time, to enjoy themselves, 
 to crown themselves with roses before they are 
 withered, to plunge into every inconceivable vice, 
 from lust to gambling, to indulge in every pastime, 
 from river-riotings to watching prize-fights in the 
 ring, and to end life worn-out and famished on 
 the garbage of sin, and the Dead Sea apples of 
 despair? 
 
 Perhaps we needed a terribly rude awakening 
 to bring us to our right senses. What the South 
 African War failed to teach I really believe this 
 world-war will bring home to us. This latter, 
 unlike the former war, is a religious war, is a 
 crusade against dechristianisation and barbarism. 
 It is for the Christianity of Christ against the 
 brutality of Nietzsche that we are contending ; it 
 is for the peace and blessing of Christian civilisa- 
 tion that the Allies are pushing through the storm
 
 io 4 What of To-Day? 
 
 of battle on to victory. It is the Cross against the 
 Sword. Not only our soldiers abroad, but our 
 stay-at-homes are being chastened under the chas- 
 tisement through which, without exception, they 
 are passing. The fire is burning off the dross 
 from the fine gold of our English characters, and 
 our peoples on every rung of the social ladder 
 stand forth to-day in the searchlight of truth, 
 clearer, brighter and holier than ever they did be- 
 fore the purging fires had their way, testing their 
 worth in the refining flame. A young wounded 
 Guardsman being asked in hospital by his father 
 if he had seen much infidelity or agnosticism 
 among his brother officers on active service, 
 replied : " Father, when you are under fire there 
 is no time for agnosticism or what not ; we all 
 just call upon God and fight for all we are 
 worth." 
 
 Is it not the same at home ? Have not 
 mothers, wives, daughters and lovers in war-time 
 just dropped their Naturalism or Humanitarian- 
 ism, their Christian Science, their Higher Criti- 
 cism, their so-called Agnosticism and Modernism, 
 and with faces buried in their hands have they not 
 "wept their sad bosoms empty" pleading with 
 God for His protection on those in the front, and 
 for strength and courage for dear ones left behind ? 
 This war has brought more honour and glory to 
 God than a hundred years of peace. Never was 
 there so much prayer, so much sympathy, so 
 much kindness, so much self-control and self-
 
 Another War to Wage 105 
 
 sacrifice conspicuous in all walks of life as there 
 is to-day in England. 
 
 God knows that we shall need His help and 
 grace more than ever when this hellish war with all 
 its fiendish machinations is done with. We must 
 go into spiritual training, so that later on there 
 may be no reaction, no peace with self, but 
 thoroughly sustained warfare against that mob of 
 passions which now, for the moment, held down 
 in the dungeons of our lower selves, will attempt 
 in the day of victory to break loose and wreck the 
 palace of our souls, dethroning and making riot 
 in the innermost sanctuary of the heart. Know 
 thyself, fight thyself, conquer thyself now. Put 
 method into your life, live by some well-thought- 
 out scheme of action ; have some fixed hour for 
 rising, and definite moments for prayer, and some 
 work of mercy which under all circumstances you 
 will continue to practise. Do not poison the 
 well of life by desultory reading, and do not 
 undermine your nervous system by incessant 
 cigarette smoking, or other nerve-destroying 
 practices. Choose your friends, and let them be 
 not only congenial but uplifting and bracing as a 
 sea-breeze. But, above all things, make religion 
 the biggest factor in your life. "It is all or 
 nothing," sings the poet. Let your religion be to 
 you what I have found it to be to soldiers who 
 are fighting for us at the front. Listen to this. 
 Lately I was in the New Forest where 20,000 of 
 our men were encamped waiting for orders to
 
 io6 What of To-Day? 
 
 start for the front. It would have moved the 
 least emotional to tears to have visited that Satur- 
 day the beautiful little Gothic church outside 
 Lyndhurst. It kept filling with men in khaki 
 from the early afternoon till late at night. There, 
 in the calm before the storm, men on the staff 
 and in the ranks were kneeling without note of 
 distinction to a civilian beside one another, wait- 
 ing to take their turn to go to confession and re- 
 ceive absolution. It was all done so unostenta- 
 tiously, so honestly, and thoroughly that the most 
 sceptical could not have watched the scene with- 
 out deep emotion. Some were married men with 
 their wives and little ones with them, while more 
 were bright-eyed boys not out of their teens. It 
 made no difference, they all went through their 
 work in a businesslike way, and when they had 
 done their penance after confession not a 'few 
 crept up to Our Lady's shrine and placed a lit 
 candle, or else a plucked flower at her feet, stay- 
 ing on to say their rosary. Next morning we had 
 two Masses in camp. Among others I had the 
 Scots Guards at mine. It was a picturesque scene, 
 in a sequestered spot outside the camp, with 
 forest trees forming a background and the simple 
 altar, around which the men were grouped, look- 
 ing all the more solemn and in dead earnest for 
 the sombre colouring of their khaki uniforms. 
 Seldom have I felt so impressed as I did when 
 after the Gospel I faced these magnificent Guards- 
 men and gave them a message from God to
 
 Another War to Wage 107 
 
 take to the front. Their sunburnt, clean-shaven 
 faces and deep-set features stood out so grand 
 against the russet-dyed bracken on which they sat 
 that you almost fancied you could already see 
 the flame of victory burning on their foreheads. 
 When I reminded them that theirs was the finest 
 apostolate to which ever Guardsmen had been 
 called, and that the war into which they were 
 about to plunge was a crusade not to rescue the 
 Sepulchre but the Gospel itself of Christ from 
 hands that would substitute for it the religion of 
 brute force, the men sat up so stiffly that you 
 might have thought they were about to spring to 
 their feet and feel for their weapons of war. I 
 exhorted them to return from the seat of war in 
 the same Christian spirit in which they were set- 
 ting out to it, only with this difference, that in- 
 stead of directing their weapons of wrath upon a 
 foreign foe they should then turn them upon a 
 foe within the realm of their own souls, their 
 own lower restless animal natures, which if let 
 loose might as readily and fatally destroy what 
 was far more rich and rare, precious and sacred 
 to God, than the priceless treasures of Louvain 
 or Rheims, namely, their Christian heritage with 
 its wealth of present grace and promise of future 
 glory. 
 
 To my readers I repeat my parting words 
 to the Guards: "You are not your own. You 
 are bought at a great price." Fight then the 
 good fight, run your course, keep the Faith
 
 io8 What of To-Day? 
 
 till you exchange it for triumph in the land of 
 Victory. 
 
 " The highest Faith makes still the highest man, 
 For we grow like the things our souls believe, 
 And rise or sink as we aim high or low. 
 No mirror shows such likeness of the face 
 As Faith we live by of the heart and mind ; 
 "We are in very truth that which we love, 
 And Love, like noblest deeds, is born of Faith."
 
 XIII 
 "THERE IS NO SIN!" 
 
 THE modern world is very busy just now trying to 
 explain away sin. We are assured by some people 
 that sin, as such, does not exist in other words, 
 is an illusion and that moral evil is merely 
 the failure to reach some ideal or metaphysical 
 standard. So that, as you cannot blame a woman 
 for not attaining a certain standard of physical 
 beauty, so neither may you blame a man for 
 not reaching a particular standard of moral holi- 
 ness. We are told that, as we have nothing 
 but pity for the child who cannot see straight, 
 so we must feel only compassion for the girl 
 who cannot speak straight. If we were to judge 
 sinful actions, therefore, according to the ideas 
 of this school, as mere failure to reach some 
 recognised and ideal standard of morality, we 
 should have to put aside all thought of correction. 
 We could not in decency find fault with one 
 another, and the necessity for either law or 
 religion would be gone. 
 
 But there is another school which tells us 
 that evil is the outcome of ignorance ; and that 
 as we advance in knowledge, and as the world 
 
 1 09
 
 no What of To-Day? 
 
 grows in science, this moral evil will be swept 
 away as darkness is dispelled by the rising sun. 
 If this were so, then would the learned scientist 
 be the most innocent member of society, while 
 the child in its mother's arms would be the 
 most criminal. I fail to discover that, because 
 we are teaching in our elementary schools all 
 sorts of irrelevant subjects which are, in too many 
 cases, not likely to be of the slightest use to the 
 child in after life, the younger generation is so 
 much more advanced in morality and religious 
 thought than its elders. On the contrary, I find 
 the mechanic and the man in the street think- 
 ing that they now know enough to do without 
 religion at all. 
 
 There is, again, another school which teaches 
 us that there can be no such thing as sin, for 
 the very good reason that the Almighty cares 
 little for what we do. How, so runs the argu- 
 ment, could an Omnipotent Being like God 
 trouble Himself as to the words or actions of 
 such insignificant insects as ourselves ? It would 
 be as reasonable for us to investigate the moral 
 attributes of the flies on the window-pane as for 
 an Almighty God to attach any importance to 
 our wholly unimportant doings. This position 
 is practically indistinguishable from Atheism, for 
 though that particular "ism," as such, is not, I 
 am assured, now looked upon with favour in 
 the best circles, what else is the habitual ex- 
 clusion of the thought of God from every
 
 There is no Sin!' m 
 
 detail of our daily lives but a denial of the 
 Godhead? 
 
 A fourth school declares that whatever moral 
 evil exists in the world is the outcome of modern 
 civilisation, the result of social inequalities, which 
 again are the inevitable product of the conditions, 
 political and economic, under which we live. 
 The remedy for this state of things, we are 
 taught, must be looked for in the universal 
 adoption of Socialism. If the Socialists get their 
 way, property will be abolished, and as a curiously 
 illogical consequence, sin will cetise to exist. 
 But I do not find that people grow morally 
 better in the measure of their prosperity, and 
 though in theory it may be, and ought to be, 
 easy to be virtuous on five thousand a year, we 
 all know that in practice the possession of wealth 
 brings manifold temptations of its own. 
 
 Lastly, there are those curiously-minded people 
 who profess to regard sin as something negative 
 rather than positive. Sin is not, they maintain, 
 with all the air of philosophers, so much an 
 active evil as a privation of good. It is like 
 the shadow which obscures the sun. Like those 
 others of whom I have spoken, they hazard the 
 opinion that sin is merely a failure to reach a 
 certain standard of perfection, that it is, mon- 
 strous as the theory sounds, when stated in this 
 bald fashion, an imperfect good. 
 
 If I tell a lie in order to escape punishment 
 for some misdeed, am I then telling the truth
 
 ii2 What of To-Day ? 
 
 in some imperfect way? If a society woman 
 writes a garbled and venomous memoir of one 
 whom she has called her friend, and passes it 
 on to the public, has she not done something 
 more positive than simply failing to reach a 
 certain standard of good? She has indeed used 
 her gifts to work actual harm. She is poisoning 
 the moral atmosphere, and she knows it, and is 
 taking money for that evil action. Surely it is 
 positive sin, not comparative good, when we tell 
 lies about one another, tear one another's char- 
 acters to pieces, and repeat scandal and gossip 
 with the sole excuse that "we have heard it." 
 
 In acting thus we have done something 
 more than fail to reach a standard of perfec- 
 tion. We have misused our freedom; we have 
 played the part of a criminal ; and that is how 
 it stands before God ; and every human being, 
 in his innermost conscience, knows and con- 
 fesses it. 
 
 I do not propose to waste time in showing 
 the contradictory nature of these positions. The 
 point I want to emphasise is that they all, in 
 the result, amount to this : that men and women 
 are not to be blamed for their evil actions ; 
 that there is, in short, no such thing as moral 
 evil in the sense which Christianity attaches to 
 the words. It is, of course, admitted that a 
 man can still offend against his neighbour, that 
 is to say, Society in general, but in that case 
 Society, if it finds him out, will take very good
 
 "There is no Sin!' 113 
 
 care to punish him for its own protection, and 
 the modern cynic will agree that it serves him 
 right for being such a fool as to be found out. 
 
 But the idea that any of us can sin, in the 
 old-fashioned sense, against God or ourselves, 
 is an idea which the preachers of this new 
 gospel have pronounced to be obsolete. Morality, 
 then, is seen to be a mere matter of law or 
 convention, and the abominable and insidious 
 nature of this doctrine can be realised when we 
 consider how many sins there are which neither 
 the State nor public opinion punishes or con- 
 demns. The list of positive crimes, such as 
 theft or murder, which must obviously be kept 
 under in the interests of the community, is 
 soon exhausted ; and though in an avowedly 
 Christian country, public opinion might be ex- 
 pected to exercise some restraining influence on 
 such vicious practices as are not amenable to 
 the law, the miserable truth is that the spread 
 of these ideas in itself threatens to disturb the 
 moral balance of the community, so that public 
 opinion as a check ceases to exist. 
 
 Now, I do not wish for one moment to 
 maintain that this particular age in which we 
 live is the worst the world has ever seen. That 
 would be an absurdly exaggerated estimate. But 
 I do say that there is a spirit abroad which 
 contains in itself such potentialities for evil as 
 have never yet existed in any previous era; and 
 my chief reason for that belief is that we are 
 i
 
 ii 4 What of To-Day ? 
 
 rapidly heading towards a condition in which 
 the very great majority of people will fail, as so 
 many even now fail, to recognise evil when 
 they see it. If you do not realise that you are 
 living in and breathing a poisoned atmosphere, 
 you will not make any efforts to escape from 
 it, and therefore it becomes a serious duty for 
 those of us who have sufficient moral sense left, 
 not only to make a firm stand against these 
 noxious and false ideas, but to endeavour, by 
 example as well as by precept, to influence the 
 minds and souls of our neighbours. 
 
 I have already admitted that the morality of 
 the present day, qua morality, is not worse, 
 indeed in many respects it is better, than the 
 morality of many other periods of history. But 
 even Pagan Rome, at its worst, indulged in its 
 excesses with its eyes open. Ovid could say : 
 "I see the better things, and approve them, but 
 follow the worse." Cicero was not forgetful to 
 tell us that he saw the evil, but the ray of light 
 was extinguished by the immoralities within him. 
 So long as human nature acknowledges the 
 existence of an ideal, and recognises that its 
 failure to reach that ideal is due to its own 
 miserable weakness, and is not a thing to be 
 proud of, we need not despair of the morality 
 of any age. 
 
 But when preachers arise, who, in place of 
 the pulpit, make use of the far easier method of 
 influencing the public through the arts, through
 
 "There is no Sin!' 115 
 
 the drama, through novels and poetry, and whose 
 constant cry is that there is no such thing as 
 sin, that morality is a convention, and that 
 Nature is in all respects a better guide to con- 
 duct than Conscience ; when, moreover, we see 
 such preachers attracting an ever-growing follow- 
 ing among the young, the inexperienced, and 
 the half-educated, then, indeed, it requires an 
 almost superhuman faith to continue to regard 
 the future with any feelings save those of the 
 deepest despair. 
 
 Self-deceit is the deadliest moral poison in 
 the world ; and I say emphatically that the worst 
 criminal, who frankly recognises his own mis- 
 deeds for what they are, is in a healthier moral 
 condition than the theorist who has succeeded 
 in persuading himself and others that to be 
 immoral is to be virtuous, and that to be vicious 
 is to be free, even though he will not go so 
 far as to practise what he preaches.
 
 XIV 
 "SOME SORT OF RELIGION" 
 
 SIDE by side with that terrible indifferentism to 
 spiritual things, which has been such a marked 
 characteristic of the present day, there exists a 
 curious frenzy, on the part of many mentally 
 emotional people, to satisfy their starved souls by 
 following any new " religion " that sets itself up 
 as the final exposition of truth. 
 
 Science was active enough, during the last 
 century, in sweeping away from men's minds all 
 definite forms of religious beliefs, but a reaction 
 inevitably followed from the hopeless materialism 
 which was all that it had to offer the starved 
 human heart. Science itself has had to give up 
 many of its old dogmatic conclusions in view 
 of the discoveries of recent years, and men and 
 women are not now inclined to allow science to 
 interfere too obtrusively in matters that are out- 
 side its legitimate province. 
 
 Materialism, then, as a definite theory of life, 
 we may regard as dead, and apart from those 
 Indifferentists who literally do not give a thought 
 to spiritual things, and of whom, for the moment, 
 I do not wish to speak, men and women are 
 
 116
 
 "Some Sort of Religion" 117 
 
 recognising that some kind of religion is necessary 
 for their well-being, that man has a higher destiny 
 than merely to eat and drink and sleep away his 
 life on earth, and that there is somewhere a clue 
 to the meaning of this puzzling scheme of things 
 if only one could find it. 
 
 Well, perhaps the clue is not so very hard to 
 find, but, once having lost it, these unfortunate 
 people give themselves an enormous amount of 
 trouble and anxiety in looking for it in every 
 direction except the right one. Hardly do we 
 know whether to pity or condemn the devotees 
 they are to be numbered by the thousand of 
 such pseudo-religions as Spiritualism, Theosophy, 
 Christian Science, and other still vaguer forms of 
 belief. 
 
 Take Spiritualism. One need not be a dis- 
 believer in the genuineness of much of the pheno- 
 mena of the seance-room to shrink with horror 
 from the notion of founding a religion on such a 
 basis. To me it is a most extraordinary and pain- 
 ful reflection that many worthy people, who 
 actually call themselves Christians, profess to find 
 religious comfort in these spiritualistic gather- 
 ings, because the "communications" and "spirit 
 messages " afford evidence of the reality of a 
 life beyond the grave. 
 
 Now, putting aside the question as to the 
 worthlessness or otherwise of this evidence, is it 
 not amazing that a Christian should require such 
 proof ? It is more than amazing. It is, in fact,
 
 us What of To-Day? 
 
 impossible, the truth being that these people are 
 not Christians at all. That is to say, they have 
 never grasped the elementary principles of the 
 religion they believe themselves to hold, and 
 the natural result is that, with no firm ground 
 of faith to rest on, they are content to put 
 their trust in what, at best, is of a doubtful 
 nature, and at worst, will not bear thinking 
 about. 
 
 Even more astonishing, if that be possible, is 
 the hold that Theosophy has got over so many 
 restless minds to-day. A religion which boasts 
 that it teaches " the essential truths which lie be- 
 hind all the great world religions" will probably 
 be found itself to contain, if only by accident, 
 a certain modicum of truth. And this very fact 
 constitutes a grave danger to the credulous souls 
 who swallow its teachings holus-bolus. And here 
 again, as in the case of Spiritualism, we find that 
 apparently one can accept Theosophy and yet re- 
 main a Christian ! The explanation would seem 
 to be that the Theosophists undertake to point 
 out exactly where Christianity is right and where 
 it has gone wrong ; where the Bible may be 
 relied upon, and where it is obviously in error ; 
 and how far, in short, it is safe for a Christian 
 to hold to his faith. But a semi-Christian is not 
 even a half-baked Christian. He is no Christian 
 at all. And once more we are face to face with 
 the saddening and appalling fact that the 
 Christianity of our time is a purely nominal
 
 "Some Sort of Religion" 119 
 
 matter, having no relation to the truths taught 
 by Christ nearly two thousand years ago. 
 
 I should be loath to weary the reader by ex- 
 amining the claims of such a religion as Christian 
 Science to call itself either Christian or scientific. 
 That such a parody of Christianity could ever 
 take captive the mind or imagination of any 
 human being would be unthinkable, save on the 
 hypothesis I have already suggested, viz. : that its 
 followers have not the smallest conception of the 
 meaning of Christianity, and no atom of right to 
 call themselves followers of Christ. 
 
 Nor have I the patience to discuss the innu- 
 merable lesser systems which, masquerading as 
 New Thought Centres, or Higher Thought 
 Circles, attract a crowd of what I should be in- 
 clined to call mental parasites, who, without 
 faith themselves, seek to regain consciousness of 
 their souls by leaning on some other more self- 
 satisfied personality. 
 
 Men are feeling the need for some sort of 
 religion, and there is something hopeful in the 
 fact. They have escaped from the blank horror 
 of Materialism, but are still groping blindly in 
 the darkness, and, though they may be feebly 
 trying to "touch God's right hand in that dark- 
 ness," they will never succeed till they learn to 
 eschew these devious by-ways, and trust them- 
 selves wholly and unreservedly to Him. We 
 may detest the materialistic attitude ; but it is 
 at least more understandable than this hybrid
 
 120 What of To-Day? 
 
 Christianity. For, to put it on the lowest ground, 
 what spiritual satisfaction have these curious, new 
 semi-religions to offer that Christianity has not 
 supplied far more abundantly for the last nine- 
 teen hundred years? 
 
 When Christ came humanity was expiring of 
 suicidal corruption. Society was rotten to the 
 core. More than half the world was enslaved to 
 the other half, and that other was enslaved more 
 hopelessly to its own passions. Christianity 
 purified the heart of Europe from its grossness, 
 and the tide of grace having passed into it, there 
 sprang forth from it the Christian family with its 
 love of home and traditions of chivalry, the 
 Christian church and abbey with their religious 
 life and the care of God's poor ; Christian 
 guilds and fraternities for the protection of the 
 arts and crafts ; Christian hospitals and asylums 
 for the shelter of the sick and maimed, Christian 
 schools and universities for the education of the 
 feudal lord and the serf; and the Christian 
 nation with its motto : Pro Deo, Rege et Patria. 
 Thus did Christianity proclaim and practise her 
 true ideal of the universal brotherhood of man. 
 
 The deadening influence of Materialism has 
 brought us perilously near to the state of things 
 prevailing before Christianity finally asserted it- 
 self. Vice stalks naked and unashamed through 
 our great cities, and multitudes rush hither and 
 thither, seeking for some safe spiritual guide, 
 some firm rock of repose for their agitated souls
 
 "Some Sort of Religion" 121 
 
 in Philosophy, in New Thought, in Gnosticism 
 or even Occultism, wherein they strive to attain 
 that peace of mind and serenity of heart which 
 the Master reminds us " the world cannot give." 
 
 What Christianity has done, Christianity can 
 and will do again. Meanwhile those who refuse 
 to be satisfied with its ancient teachings attempt 
 to persuade themselves and each other that the 
 great work accomplished by Christianity in times 
 past was due to the truths of moral philosophy 
 which were found to be tied up with what are 
 termed the "silly superstitions and childish 
 extravagances," suitable perhaps to a church in 
 her infancy, but wholly out of date and out of 
 place in her growth to maturer years and better 
 sense. 
 
 Truth to tell, there is nothing more delusive 
 than this comparison between the teaching of 
 Christ and the philosophy of the pagan world. 
 Philosophy hopes to cure the vices of human 
 nature by appealing to the head, Christianity by 
 educating the heart. To dispense with the 
 means to an end is practically to abandon the end 
 itself, and this is what the world is now doing. 
 One after another, the essential dogmas of Chris- 
 tianity are being quietly put aside as fond inven- 
 tions and forgeries of superstition, until we find 
 even the Divinity of Christ denied by those who 
 profess to follow Him. Divide up Christ into 
 the Christ of Faith and the Christ of History 
 and you have no Christ at all. Better than this
 
 122 What of To-Day ? 
 
 blasphemous mockery were it to exclaim with 
 the Jews of old: "Away with Him, crucify 
 Him." That position is, at any rate, intelligible ; 
 the Modernists have not even that merit. 
 
 That is where we stand to-day, truly, it may be 
 said, at the parting of the ways. Some sort of 
 religion, it would appear, men must have. Why, 
 then, should they reject Christianity and follow 
 after these new strange gods, the creation of their 
 own disordered imagination? With Augustine 
 of Hippo I would say to these searchers after 
 mental repose : Seek what you seek, but seek 
 it not where you seek it. Seek it in Christ our 
 peace.
 
 XV 
 A TRIPLE ALLIANCE 
 
 IN the broader sense of the word, religion is 
 clearly as necessary to the individual, as it has 
 always been found essential to the well-being of 
 Society. There have always been, and there 
 probably will always be, rebels against an estab- 
 lished or, if you like, conventional religion of 
 a particular sort, just as there will always be 
 malcontents who are for ever seeking to destroy 
 existing social conditions with reckless disregard 
 of future embarrassments. Such people gener- 
 ally arrogate to themselves the proud title of Re- 
 formers, but, as a rule, destruction rather than 
 construction is the end of their endeavours. 
 They are, in fact, little better than pessimists 
 who look for ever on the dark side of things, 
 or officious busybodies anxious to meddle in 
 everybody else's affairs. 
 
 But this matter of religion is a serious one, 
 far more serious than the anti-religionists quite 
 realise. They talk lightly and gaily of "childish 
 superstitions," and " antiquated dogmas," yet 
 their case against religion, in its special sense, 
 rests entirely upon a set of assumptions, a 
 
 123
 
 124 What of To-Day? 
 
 bundle of opinions which, in the aggregate, make 
 up their own religion, much as they dislike to 
 be told so. 
 
 Life has a nasty knack of disillusioning us ; 
 in other words, as we grow from childhood 
 to manhood, we inevitably lose many of those 
 beliefs which, as children, we cherished so con- 
 fidently. But we do not merely lose or outgrow 
 them. We replace them by others. No man's 
 mind is an absolute blank. And if we take 
 away from him his faith in the supernatural, we 
 do not thereby deprive him of the faculty of 
 believing. Strictly speaking, there is no such 
 thing as an absolute negation. A man may 
 deny, but his denial is merely another form of 
 affirming, and the most materialistic thinker that 
 ever lived would probably admit that he believed 
 in the evidence of his senses. 
 
 In one way or another, then, every man 
 holds fast to a belief in something, and the 
 tendency of every individual is to exalt his belief 
 into a religion, in the sense that he affirms his 
 belief, and no other, to be the truth. 
 
 In the last century, the most scientifically 
 materialistic age that, I suppose, the world has 
 ever known, it became the fashion to turn 
 Science, not only into a religion, with prophets 
 and dogmas all complete, but almost, it might 
 be said, into a god. If Science and true religion 
 contradicted each other at any point, and in 
 those days such issues were constantly arising,
 
 A Triple Alliance 125 
 
 the question was supposed to be settled without 
 further discussion on the ipse dixit of Science. 
 It did not seem to occur to the wise men of 
 that day that Science itself was merely a ten- 
 tative system, often a working hypothesis only, 
 liable at any moment to be upset in any depart- 
 ment by further discoveries. Or perhaps I should 
 rather say, there was a tacit understanding among 
 materialists that scientific progress must, in the 
 nature of things, take a course farther and farther 
 away from religion. 
 
 And the most curious part of the matter was 
 that the scientific prophets, whose whole system 
 had been built up by many years of patient 
 endeavour and investigation into natural causes, 
 adopted a wholly unscientific attitude towards 
 workers who wished to investigate on any other 
 lines save those which were formally proposed 
 by the scientists themselves. If a man, for 
 instance, laid it down as a theory that prayer 
 had a real dynamic force, quite apart, I mean, 
 from any theological virtue it might possess, 
 the nineteenth century professor would refuse 
 even to argue with the theorist. Science, he 
 would say, denied the possibility of such a 
 thing and that was enough. Science, in fact, 
 postulated a revelation that demanded as much 
 unquestioning faith and obedience as any religion 
 has ever done. 
 
 The discoveries of the last generation have 
 produced a tremendous change in this attitude,
 
 126 What of To-Day? 
 
 and Science, amazed and bewildered by its own 
 "many inventions," is now in a state to refuse 
 belief to no marvel, to accept almost any mira- 
 cle, and most decidedly to examine impartially 
 the claims of every investigator into its most 
 dubious by-paths. Science, in fact, has travelled 
 so fast, and in such a totally different direction 
 from that anticipated by its nineteenth century 
 prophets, that it is running the risk of becoming 
 too credulous rather than too agnostic. 
 
 The Christian who bases his beliefs on other 
 authority than the verdict of his intellectual con- 
 temporaries, and who is not disturbed by con- 
 fident pronouncements which are quite likely 
 to be upset in a few years, can afford to smile 
 at the somersaults which scientific men are 
 continually turning in these days. And if we 
 smile at the so-called " science" of our ances- 
 tors, may not our descendants be equally amused 
 at the theories and guesses of our own age? 
 
 The truth is that Science is constantly inter- 
 fering in matters which are not her province at 
 all. It is the business of Science to deal with 
 phenomena, to find out and present facts ; it is 
 the province of Philosophy to investigate causes 
 and it is the duty of Religion to bring home to 
 man the why and wherefore of his life, to put 
 before him the solution of the great problem of 
 existence. 
 
 Between these three no antagonism ought to 
 exist. On the contrary, they should be united
 
 A Triple Alliance 127 
 
 in a strong Triple Alliance, equally respected 
 and revered by all of us. 
 
 Science, Philosophy and Religion are three 
 outstanding figures linked hand in hand. If I 
 question Science and ask her to tell me some- 
 thing belonging to her own domain, I shall 
 accept her answer so far as she can give me 
 reason for doing so. It is when the so-called 
 scientist passes out of his own realm that I am 
 a little in fear about him. We are living in an 
 age when nobody is allowed to confess his 
 ignorance, and, when some great question of 
 theology is mooted, there is always a Marie 
 Corelli or a Hall Caine to solve it. 
 
 Now what has Science to tell me about this 
 life ? Science tells me that this puny, petty planet, 
 set in this vast archipelago of the universe, was once 
 a ball of fire, tossed off a ball of fire larger still ; 
 that, as it gyrated round the bigger ball, rotat- 
 ing on its own axis, it gradually cooled and 
 settled down into the likeness and form of this 
 globe whereon we live. 
 
 Now Science, having said so much, has 
 finished her task. She can retire, and the Phil- 
 osopher may come forward and I will ask him : 
 "Sir, it is your province to investigate causes; 
 I want to know who set this ball spinning, 
 who is the Prime Mover of the prime thing 
 moved ? ' ' 
 
 He will tell me that he accepts phenomena, 
 and when the last link has dropped from the
 
 i28 What of To-Day ? 
 
 Scientist's hand, he picks it up and finds that 
 the thing moved must have been started by 
 Someone having the power to move it. And 
 when he says so, Religion will step forth and, 
 grasping the hands of both her sisters, Science 
 and Philosophy, will confirm the truth of their 
 utterances, and will reveal to them as much as 
 may be known of the nature and the intentions 
 of the Prime Mover. 
 
 Nobody mistrusts the first-class scientist or 
 philosopher. Such men as Newton, or Faraday, 
 or Kelvin never attacked religion. It is the 
 second-rate people who are always starting up 
 and treating the Almighty as though He were 
 some constitutional monarch, dependent on a 
 plebiscite of His Empire, and telling Him 
 exactly what He may or may not do. 
 
 Well now, once again, wanting to know 
 things, I address myself to Science. I find we 
 are made up of mind, of heart, of will ; mind 
 the seat of knowledge, heart the seat of love, 
 and will the seat of action ; and these three 
 forces result in one strong force the man who 
 wants to know, and to get to the bottom of 
 things. 
 
 Accordingly, I ask Science: "What can you 
 tell me about life?" And if Science is in a 
 normal state, and has not temporarily lost her 
 head, she will say: "I know little about life. 
 I can label it with many names, but I know no 
 more about the beginning of life than I do
 
 A Triple Alliance 129 
 
 about the primitive nebula, and that is just no- 
 thing at all." 
 
 But Science will also tell me that there was 
 a time when this little planet tossed round and 
 round in its feverish excitement with a temper- 
 ature so high that it could tolerate no life at 
 all upon its bosom. Yet life appeared. Whence 
 and how did it appear? Science can only say 
 that nobody knows anything about life except 
 as the offspring of pre-existing life. 
 
 I turn to the Philosopher. "Well," he will 
 say, "the only explanation I have to offer is 
 this : that some tremendous force, dowered with 
 self-existence, must have stooped over this mineral 
 world, and, brooding over it, breathed into its 
 substance the breath of His own life, so that 
 the planet began to pulsate with a life of its 
 own . ' ' 
 
 If this, then, is the teaching of Philosophy, 
 and if Science has no teaching to offer, what 
 prevents them once more joining hands with 
 Religion, across the threshold of revealed Truth 
 and accepting in all humbleness that answer 
 which was given of old to man's questionings, 
 wherein we are told that God breathed into the 
 clay the breath of life, and man became a living 
 soul? But there is still a third question I wish 
 to ask of Science and Philosophy. I want to 
 know when is this planet to have done with its 
 mad spinning ? What is going to be the upshot 
 of all this? What is the meaning of all this 
 
 J
 
 130 What of To-Day? 
 
 fret, and fume, and fever? What of this exis- 
 tence which, even at midday, is a nightmare to 
 so many of us? Whither are we going? What 
 is to happen to us? 
 
 And Science will answer, honestly enough : 
 "All I know is that within a certain limited 
 time this little planet, as you say, fuming and 
 fretting its fevered life, will quiet down, and its 
 pulse will cease to beat, and no life shall be 
 able any more to breathe upon it. Whether it 
 will be burnt up or burnt out I cannot tell, 
 but I know that its fate is certain." 
 
 "Tell, me then," I ask, "what is it that is 
 to be buried? That long procession which 
 started so many thousands of years ago, that long 
 procession is it carrying out the living soul or 
 the dead body?" 
 
 "I cannot tell you," says Science, "Neither 
 my scalpel, nor my microscope, nor my test 
 tube have yet discovered a human soul I know 
 nothing about it." That, I say again, is an 
 honest answer, beyond which Science cannot 
 go. Science cannot prove a negative, and the 
 scientist, who, because he cannot find the soul, 
 denies its existence, has no right to call himself 
 a scientist at all. 
 
 And now, Philosopher, come forward and 
 give us the result of your investigations into 
 these high, psychological questions. Tell us 
 what conclusions you have formed about the 
 soul.
 
 A Triple Alliance 131 
 
 And he will reply: "Why, all I know is 
 this : that there is something in man's nature 
 which appears to transcend his earthly part, some 
 spiritual force which distinguishes him from the 
 rest of creation, some immaterial consciousness 
 which provides reasons for his thoughts and 
 actions on a basis which nature alone is insuf- 
 ficient to furnish. That this soul is something 
 apart from his merely animal side appears to 
 me to be proved. I cannot affirm of my own 
 unaided knowledge that it is an immortal entity, 
 but the evidence would seem to be strongly in 
 favour of such an assumption." 
 
 Then once more Religion steps forward, 
 as the crown of both Science and Philosophy, 
 and, in answer to the immemorial yearnings of 
 mankind, teaches that the world has not been 
 left in utter darkness in these matters that there 
 is sure ground for that Hope and Faith which 
 have never wholly deserted the earth, and that 
 the warrant for these things comes from a source 
 that cannot be doubted. Thus it is Religion, 
 Faith, that gives man his true orientation and 
 makes life worth while. 
 
 u The highest faith makes still the highest man, 
 For we grow like the things our souls believe, 
 And rise or sink as we aim high or low."
 
 XVI 
 SATANIC SPIRITISM 
 
 IT is only after considerable hesitation that I 
 have decided to include the following articles 
 in this book. Many of my readers, I know, 
 will consider the whole subject of " Spiritual- 
 ism " to be entirely unworthy of serious notice, 
 and I should be the last to urge anyone to de- 
 part from that attitude. The less we have to 
 do with seances and "spirits," the better for 
 our moral and mental health. On the other 
 hand it is useless to shut one's eyes to the 
 enormous influence which the new "cult" ex- 
 ercises over very many thousands of people to- 
 day, and those by no means confined to the 
 ignorant or half-educated classes. A well-known 
 investigator into psychic matters has given it as 
 his opinion, founded on a long and varied ex- 
 perience, that "ninety-eight per cent, of the 
 phenomena are fraudulent." I think, myself, 
 the figure is rather too high, but in any case the 
 fact that so great an authority admits the genuine- 
 ness of even a proportion of phenomena should 
 serve as a warning to honest Christian believers 
 to avoid "Spiritualism" as they would the 
 
 132
 
 Satanic Spiritism 133 
 
 plague. The evil is a growing one and the 
 dangers to which it opens the door are literally 
 appalling ; and I do not think it would be right 
 for me to pass by in silence practices which 
 are all the more harmful inasmuch as they seem 
 specially devised to attract many who are honestly, 
 if misguidedly, seeking the truth. 
 
 I. THE FRAUDULENT 
 
 WHEN we consider that fraud enters so largely 
 into Spiritualistic stances, it might be thought 
 sufficient for me to utter a word of warning on 
 this aspect of the subject and pass on to more 
 serious matters at once. But-- 1 am inclined to 
 dwell a little longer on this side of Spiritualism, 
 for two excellent reasons. In the first place 
 there are numbers of credulous persons who 
 have never come into contact with any genuine 
 phenomena at all and yet are among the most 
 enthusiastic followers of the cult ; and secondly, 
 in nearly every instance where an inquirer, 
 drawn either by curiosity or by some blind 
 groping after the truth, begins to attend seances, 
 it will be found that his ultimate devotion to 
 the whole pernicious system rests on the hum- 
 bug and charlatanry of a fraudulent medium. 
 Certain things happen which to him are inex- 
 plicable, though any clever conjurer could dupli- 
 cate them, and he at once rushes to the con- 
 clusion that he has seen the ''spirits" at work.
 
 i 3 4 What of To-Day ? 
 
 A blind belief in fraudulent phenomena, 
 therefore, may do a very real amount of harm 
 to a trusting soul, even if the results cannot in 
 the nature of things be quite so deadly as 
 those produced by the presence of genuine 
 spirits. There are certain people whose attitude 
 towards the whole subject is exactly the reverse 
 of that adopted by the materialistic school of 
 the last century. Tyndall, for instance, having 
 gone to a stance and having observed that the 
 phenomena produced were clearly fraudulent, laid 
 it down that there could be nothing supernatural 
 about any manifestation. The modern inquirer, 
 primed with thrilling stories of his friends' ex- 
 periences, attends a medium's circle, is be- 
 wildered and impressed by the phenomena 
 shown, which, knowing little or nothing of 
 mediumistic methods, he cannot account for, 
 and incontinently jumps to the conclusion that 
 everything is the work of the spirits of whom 
 he has been told such marvels. 
 
 Thenceforth, he is an easy prey to every 
 professional fortune-teller, every self-styled clair- 
 voyant whom he may come across. Nothing is 
 too much for him to swallow. He fondly im- 
 agines himself to be in constant communication 
 with the souls of departed friends-and relatives. 
 Forgetful of the pure beliefs of his childhood, 
 he now considers himself for the first time fully 
 assured of a life after death, and he naturally 
 takes the advice of his "spirit-guides "as to how
 
 Satanic Spiritism 135 
 
 he shall conduct himself with a view to his 
 own comfort, both here and hereafter. I confess 
 I have small sympathy with the man who, after 
 some years of this sort of thing, finds himself 
 beggared in pocket and with his faith in human 
 nature rudely shaken. He may be thankful that 
 matters are no worse and that he has found out 
 his mistake in time. If when he realises the 
 truth, he hastily decides, like Tyndall, that the 
 whole of Spiritualism is a gigantic fraud and re- 
 solves to dabble no more in such things, then, 
 I say, so much the better for him. The material- 
 istic, common-sense position, where Spiritualism 
 is concerned, is a far safer one than sheer blind 
 credulity. 
 
 If only these ardent seekers after the super- 
 natural would take the trouble to read some of 
 the books that have been published explaining 
 the methods of fraudulent mediums, they would 
 at least have the satisfaction of detecting for 
 themselves many of the clever conjuring tricks 
 on which so much of Spiritualism rests. Such 
 books have been published in abundance, but 
 the credulous believer refuses, I must suppose, 
 to read them. 
 
 One such was recently expatiating to me on 
 the physical marvels shown at a seance he had 
 recently attended. As a matter of fact, it was 
 not, as stances go, such a very wonderful per- 
 formance, and I had little difficulty in explain- 
 ing the modus operandi of every trick he
 
 136 What of To-Day? 
 
 mentioned. But I failed to convince him that 
 everything he had witnessed could be explained 
 on purely natural grounds. He admitted that 
 my explanations covered the facts, but, he went 
 on to say, " There was something in the atmo- 
 sphere, some wholly indescribable feeling of 
 being actually in touch with a higher sphere 
 (why "higher"?) that forced one to the con- 
 clusion that all was genuine." 
 
 I have come across the same thing dozens 
 of times. The wish to believe makes all things 
 easy from the medium's point of view and a 
 lady once assured me quite seriously that though 
 the "spirit-friends" she was accustomed to re- 
 new acquaintance with at seances were never 
 identically the same as she remembered them 
 in life, there was always an indescribable air 
 about them which entirely satisfied her that they 
 were what they represented themselves to be ! 
 
 As a matter of fact, no evidence has ever 
 been advanced that a "materialisation" is ever 
 produced by anything but the grossest fraud. 
 The late Mr. W. T. Stead, a confirmed Spirit- 
 ualist, admitted as much upon one occasion. 
 'The phenomena of Spiritualism," he wrote, 
 "so far as relates to the materialising of spirits, 
 seem to be much less frequent in London at 
 present than they were some years ago. Dur- 
 ing these investigations I have made great 
 efforts to obtain the services of a trustworthy 
 materialising medium, who had not at any time
 
 Satanic Spiritism 137 
 
 been detected in fraud. There are three or 
 four materialising mediums who give seances in 
 London ; but, whether from misfortune or their 
 own fault, their names have all been associated 
 at one time or another with the production of 
 fraudulent phenomena. I am not now speak- 
 ing of what is said by such opponents of spiritu- 
 alistic phenomena as ... Mr. Maskelyne. I 
 am speaking of what has been communicated 
 to me by fervent Spiritualists, whom I have 
 consulted in the hope that they might be able 
 to furnish me with the address of a trustworthy 
 materialising medium. The net result of my 
 inquiries came to this : that, in the whole of 
 the United Kingdom, so far as was known to 
 the spiritualistic community, there was only one 
 person of undoubted materialising faculty and 
 undoubted character who could almost always 
 secure the presence cf phenomena, and who 
 had never been detected in a trick of any 
 kind." 
 
 The medium referred to by Mr. Stead in 
 this remarkable paragraph he reveals as Mrs. 
 Mellon, a medium who, as a matter of fact, 
 was actually exposed in Sydney, Australia, two 
 years after Mr. Stead's admission quoted above. 
 Mr. Hereward Carrington quotes, in "The 
 Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism," a first- 
 hand account of this exposure at a seance where 
 several sceptics had agreed to seize one of the 
 "spirits" issuing from the cabinet in order to
 
 138 What of To-Day? 
 
 ascertain whether the form seen was genuine, 
 or was, as appeared likely, that of Mrs. Mellon 
 herself in disguise. Here is the story as given 
 by Mr. Carrington : Mr. Henry, one of the 
 sceptics, seized the figure as it came from the 
 cabinet, and then, in his own words, " found 
 that I held the form of Mrs. Mellon, and that 
 she was on her knees, and had a white material 
 like muslin round her head and shoulders. I 
 can swear positively that when I seized the 
 form Mrs. Mellon was on her knees. She 
 struggled, but I held her firmly and called for 
 the light to be turned up. Someone struck 
 matches, and then I saw that Mrs. Mellon had 
 a mask of black material over her face, and 
 aforesaid white drapery round her shoulders, 
 her sleeves drawn up above the elbows, the 
 skirt of her dress turned up and her feet 
 bare. . . . The matches were blown out, and 
 I was assaulted by two or three men present, 
 Mr. Mellon catching me by the throat and 
 tearing off my necktie. I never let go my 
 hold on Mrs. Mellon, however, until the gas 
 in the back room was lit and turned full on, 
 and everyone present had an opportunity of 
 seeing Mrs. Mellon in the position and in the 
 condition in which I had caught her. I looked 
 inside the cabinet, and saw, lying upon the 
 floor (inside the cabinet), a false beard. I 
 called Mr. Roydhouse over, and he picked up 
 the beard, but it was snatched from his hand.
 
 Satanic Spiritism 139 
 
 As soon as I released my hold, Mrs. Mellon 
 tore the black mask from her face and the 
 drapery from her shoulders, and hid them 
 under her petticoat." 
 
 This plain story, taken in conjunction with 
 Mr. Stead's significant declaration, is pretty con- 
 clusive proof that cases of supposed materiali- 
 sation are nearly always fraudulent. As for the 
 so-called " messages " obtained by such mecha- 
 nical means as slate-writing, sealed letters and 
 so forth, these methods have been exposed so 
 often that, quite apart from the insanity of 
 the " messages " themselves, only the most obsti- 
 nately credulous can possibly suppose such 
 phenomena due to anything but the trickery 
 of the medium. 
 
 Yet on such a basis, only too often, has the 
 restlessness of our age erected what its followers 
 regard as a real "religion." It is, I suppose, 
 hopeless for an ordinary sane person to endea- 
 vour to understand the mental state of the in- 
 dividual who, at one moment appeals to the 
 Bible as proving the reality of the phenomena 
 of the seance-room and, at another, claims that 
 such phenomena "confirm" the truths taught 
 in the Bible. I shall have occasion later to re- 
 fer to the nature of the " messages " that 
 purport to come from another sphere of exist- 
 ence. Suffice it here to say that they are all 
 either meaningless or actually harmful, and that 
 the ones which are given as a "test" of the
 
 140 What of To-Day? 
 
 supposed spirits' identity are, as a rule, the 
 most untrustworthy of all. 
 
 II. THE FRIVOLOUS 
 
 IF modern science still refuses to take the 
 claims of Spiritualism seriously, there are many 
 scientific men who admit that a certain propor- 
 tion of the phenomena are genuine, i.e. are not 
 the product of conscious fraud. And there can 
 be little doubt that a great many communications 
 which are supposed to emanate from those in 
 " spirit-land " are evolved from the sub-conscious- 
 ness either of the medium or of the sitters. It is 
 not always easy to distinguish these from those 
 which are actually fraudulent, but, so far as the 
 Spiritualist is concerned, the distinction is of 
 very little importance. If the sometimes high- 
 flown and sometimes inane messages which 
 purport to come from " Aunt Mary" or "Uncle 
 John " can be shown to have an entirely natural 
 origin, surely it is only reasonable to ask the 
 Spiritualist for what cause he prefers to place 
 his confidence in these dubious guides rather 
 than in those who can show him firmer ground 
 for belief. 
 
 I propose in this chapter to quote a few ex- 
 tracts which have been in all seriousness put 
 forward as actual communications from the spirit- 
 world by prominent men since their death. 
 They may be altogether fraudulent productions
 
 Satanic Spiritism 141 
 
 or they may have been evolved from the sub- 
 consciousness of some enterprising inquirer in 
 these fields. I know nothing of the circum- 
 stances under which they were obtained, but I 
 do know that anyone reading them in cold blood 
 and with an impartial mind will acknowledge 
 that they are certainly not what they purport to 
 be, and if the perusal of them tends to make any- 
 one inclined towards Spiritualism throw up the 
 whole subject in disgust, they will have served 
 my purpose. I class them, I may add, as 
 " frivolous," because, though occasionally pre- 
 tentious in tone-, they are hopelessly childish 
 and emphatically not in the least worthy of the 
 distinguished names attached to them. 
 
 I will give pride of place to William Shake- 
 speare, both by reason of his literary achieve- 
 ments and because he has been dead so long 
 that it is a little remarkable that he should still 
 take an interest in mundane matters. Shake- 
 speare has, moreover, got something really 
 curious to tell us. He did not, it appears and 
 as many worthy moderns have long suspected 
 write his plays himself. But Bacon was not the 
 author, either. Let me give you the facts of 
 the case in Shakespeare's own words. 
 
 "I was spiritually controlled. I was never 
 myself either in acting or writing. Every word 
 of ' King Lear ' I wrote, hearing the words 
 audiently. ' Coriolanus ' was another play I 
 wrote after my retirement from London ; I
 
 i 4 2 What of To-Day ? 
 
 wrote this hearing it clair-audiently. * The 
 Merry Wives of Windsor ' was written through 
 my hand in nearly illegible characters. I had 
 been with Drayton and Ben Jonson, having a 
 social glass together, and after our carousal, for 
 it finished with one, I stopped at the inn where 
 it took place, and rilled seventy-four sheets of 
 manuscript from 2 a.m. to 4.35. This was the 
 * Merry Wives of Windsor.' . . . 
 
 " I wrote, 'Venus and Adonis' under con- 
 trol, also ' Coriolanus ' and * Antony and Cleo- 
 patra.' Five plays I think I wrote in all ; I was 
 thoroughly controlled when I wrote, and when 
 anyone came in at any time before I was restored 
 to consciousness, they would be struck and pass 
 remarks upon my want of attentiveness, they 
 would charge me with an absence of conscious- 
 ness. I put it all down to meditativeness ; I 
 knew it was something beyond myself, but I 
 dared not mention it. I was always deemed 
 eccentric. I was right royal in my friendships, 
 and indifferent to those for whom I felt no 
 partiality ; in fact, I was a man of extremes, a 
 Sensitive, a term which embraces all the eccen- 
 tricities of a soul tabernacled in clay." 
 
 I am afraid Shakespeare's literary style has 
 deteriorated a little during the three hundred 
 years he has spent in the " Spiritland," and this is 
 the more remarkable since he has not lacked, it 
 appears, for congenial company in his "sphere." 
 For he continues : "I have seen Spenser spiritu-
 
 Satanic Spiritism 143 
 
 ally ; I am in the same sphere with Ben Jonson 
 and Drayton, and Pope, the eccentric, gloomy 
 soul, is with us. Cardinal Wolsey is also one 
 of our sphere we have also got artists, sculp- 
 tors, and the great architect, Sir Christopher 
 Wren, is also with us." 
 
 Asked, apparently on another occasion, what 
 other great men were with him, he became a 
 trifle impatient. 
 
 "Great men?" he exclaimed. "What you 
 call greatness pertains only to the earth. That 
 which the world calls greatness is too often a 
 sepulchre without a tenant, a shell without a 
 kernel, or only a dried and withered one within. 
 We see that he alone is great who is great 
 interiorly. A name is often a millstone hung 
 round one's neck. Ah ! what a sham the world 
 is!' 
 
 To which unexceptionable sentiment we can 
 only cry "hear, hear," and pass on to the next 
 name on our list, that of Thomas Carlyle. He 
 also has a list of his associates to give us. 
 
 "I have seen and conversed," he says, "with 
 Frederick the Great, with Voltaire and Rous- 
 seau ; with Napoleon the First ; with the blood- 
 thirsty Robespierre ; with Marat and the leaders 
 of the first French Revolution ; with Richter, 
 Goethe, and Schiller, with Byron, Coleridge, 
 and Shelley. I was not in harmony with the 
 age in which I lived, its trivialities vexed my 
 soul. I belonged to the past. Schiller and
 
 i 4 4 What of To-Day? 
 
 Goethe were my bosom friends. I was like a 
 meteoric stone, flung on earth by an electrical 
 tempest, out of place, and having no grounding 
 soil where I was, gazed upon with wonder and 
 not comprehended by the people around me." 
 
 Carlyle is still a little egotistical, it will be 
 noticed. Perhaps we are to take this as evidence 
 of his identity, and if further proof be wanted, 
 the final outburst, a propos of nothing in par- 
 ticular, will surely be convincing. 
 
 "O rugged Scotland! home of my boyhood; 
 the spirit of thy Highlanders and Lowlanders ; 
 thy love of freedom ; the poverty of thy soil ; thy 
 mountains, sparsely clothed with elements to 
 grow food, have saved thee from the rapacity 
 of the rich and noble. Thy Kirk-bells have 
 rung out their harsh theology without breaking 
 the spirit of Hope dominant in thy people." 
 
 I append a communication supposed to come 
 from John Dryden in itself about the most 
 fatuous string of platitudes that anyone could 
 put together. It is only of interest as showing 
 the credulity of the misguided enthusiasts who 
 can persuade themselves into the belief that 
 such stuff has really been communicated by 
 Dryden's spirit. 
 
 "Ah! time passes along, and immortal souls 
 are, by its mandate, transferred from earth to 
 another and higher state of existence. Time 
 brings many changes on the face of the earth 
 the stately city of the past is the ruin of the
 
 Satanic Spiritism 145 
 
 present ; the child of yesterday is the grey-haired 
 and decrepit old man of to-day ; the earth 
 knows that soul in the form no more ; but, 
 however surprising these changes may seem, no 
 change wrought by time is so great as when 
 time once more embraces the atoms which form 
 the body, the soul's abiding-place on earth ; thus 
 giving that soul its liberty I say its liberty 
 either to see and lament, or to rejoice and be 
 glad. . . . Yes, it is a great and nearly in- 
 describable change." 
 
 I cannot refrain, at the risk of wearying [the 
 reader, from adding one more message. It 
 purports to be from Lord Beaconsfield, but I 
 think a fourth-form schoolboy could have done 
 better if he had been set the task of giving us an 
 imaginary message from the deceased statesman. 
 
 " Since I left the earth I have been in a posi- 
 tion analogous to a person looking through a 
 diminishing glass. I rode on the wave of popu- 
 larity, the Prime Minister of England and Privy 
 Councillor of the Queen, honoured for the 
 moment, the literary curiosity, applauded as a 
 giant in intellect, as a courtier, as a favourite 
 of fortune, and one whom the gods delighted 
 to honour. From this exalted position I was 
 suddenly thrust down. The smiles of kings and 
 princes, the applause of the multitude were 
 withdrawn, and thus my life was an epitome 
 of all life. I took the lesson that was taught 
 me silently, and again turned my attention to 
 
 K
 
 346 What of To-Day? 
 
 literature. Here, said I, man may become im- 
 mortal ; here public favour is enduring, and 
 does not applaud one day and stab its victim 
 the next. 
 
 "But I had one more lesson to learn. 
 Another change occurred in my horoscope. 
 The star of my life set on earth to rise dimly in 
 another sphere of existence. And now, from 
 this Cloud-land, I look through the diminishing 
 atmosphere between the two worlds, to find my 
 mirage on earth is reduced to a mere speck. 
 The pale primroses of spring are the only 
 mementoes that are left of Beaconsfield. What 
 a lesson of the mutations of life a lesson that 
 should be studied by all popular favourites who 
 live on the breath of the multitude. The policy 
 of the present English Government towards 
 Ireland is a question that now deeply interests 
 the inhabitants of the Spiritual Spheres." 
 
 I am afraid that last sentence may sound a 
 trifle abrupt, but perhaps it was thrown in as 
 evidence of identity. 
 
 Some Spiritualists will protest that I am doing 
 them an injustice when I quote such messages 
 as these as typical of the ones on which they 
 have founded their faith. They may even go 
 so far as to admit that they are not wholly 
 satisfied as to the spirit-identity of Shakespeare 
 or Beaconsfield. But that is of no importance. 
 What, they will tell you, admits of no discussion 
 is the fact that they have seen, or at all events
 
 Satanic Spiritism 147 
 
 talked with, the spirits of various friends and 
 relatives who have "passed over." 
 
 When analysed, such conversations are found 
 to be not only entirely "non-evidential," as the 
 psychic researchers put it, but are chiefly con- 
 fined to recalling trivial matters known to both 
 parties which, as Spiritualists assert, are the 
 best possible proof of identity. But is there, 
 amid all the mass of published records of stances, 
 one single case (of this sort) which could not 
 be readily explained on other grounds? Mr. 
 Here ward Carrington, to whom I have already 
 referred, has some interesting remarks in one 
 of his books on this point. He is speaking 
 more particularly of "trance-mediums." 
 
 "Once the genuine nature of the trance 
 state be granted, and the fact that the messages 
 that come through the medium's mouth (auto- 
 matic utterance), or hand (automatic writing), 
 are not the products of conscious fraud, there 
 is opened before us a problem the extent of 
 which no man can fathom. That does not 
 necessarily mean that the messages which are 
 delivered in the trance state are spirit messages 
 not by any means ; they may be the result of 
 the activity of the secondary consciousness of 
 the medium, active at the time, and passing it- 
 self off as a spirit the super-normal knowledge 
 displayed being gained by means of telepathy, 
 clairvoyance, and such super-normal processes, 
 and woven together by the medium's secondary
 
 148 What of To-Day ? 
 
 consciousness to personate a spirit. We know 
 that this is frequently done, the analogy of 
 hypnotically induced personalities guiding us in 
 the investigation of these trance personalities." 
 
 The majority of convinced Spiritualists, it 
 must be confessed, trouble themselves little 
 about theories of this sort, but accept everything, 
 except the palpably fraudulent, and even that 
 very often, as the work of the "spirits." Nothing 
 incenses a Spiritualist of this sort so deeply as 
 a hint that he is taking too much on trust, and 
 he can seldom find words bitter enough to hurl 
 at those who, for whatever reason, deprecate 
 psychical research altogether. 
 
 It might be urged that it is better that a man 
 should be led towards a belief in a future life 
 even by such dubious ways rather than remain 
 a rank materialist with no thought outside the 
 concerns of this world. As a fact, that is a 
 matter that does not require to be discussed, for 
 your out-and-out materialist is not of the type 
 to frequent seances. He sets down the whole 
 phenomena of Spiritualism as mere humbug 
 and trickery, and no conjuring performances 
 will shake his disbelief. 
 
 No. Oddly, and sadly, enough it is the 
 professing Christian who runs after these extran- 
 eous aids to prop his feeble faith, who finds in 
 the paraphernalia of the seance-room an accept- 
 able substitute for attendance at church, and 
 who prefers to be instructed in his religious
 
 Satanic Spiritism 149 
 
 duties and his moral conduct by mysterious 
 communications from an unknown source rather 
 than seek spiritual aid and sustenance from the 
 words of Christ and those appointed to continue 
 His teaching. 
 
 III. THE FIENDISH 
 
 I COME to the gravest part of my present 
 subject. If Spiritualism could be definitely 
 proved to be nothing but an agglomeration of 
 clever conjuring tricks, or if Science could show, 
 beyond cavil, that the stirring of our sub-con- 
 scious selves was responsible for every manifesta- 
 tion of the seance-room, the whole matter might 
 be left to a natural death, and we could trust the 
 sound common-sense of humanity to recover its 
 equilibrium in no very long time. 
 
 Unhappily, that is not the case. There is a 
 considerable and, I fear, an increasing proportion 
 of phenomena which owe their direct origin to 
 the action of visitors from another sphere than 
 ours. 
 
 No reasonable man, who undertakes an im- 
 partial investigation into the mass of evidence 
 collected on the subject, can doubt the fact. 
 I have neither the time nor the space to examine 
 this evidence here, nor is it indeed necessary, 
 for this chapter has not been written to convince 
 the mocking materialist, but rather to warn the 
 devotees of Spiritualism against the dangers, 
 physical, mental, and moral, which they are
 
 150 What of To-Day? 
 
 incurring through their ignorant playing with 
 fire. 
 
 Spiritualists, I know, do not receive these 
 warnings kindly. They are furious at the bare 
 suggestion that the spirits with whom they are 
 in touch are not what they assert themselves to 
 be. And if they be further told that such spirits 
 are lying spirits, are devilish and Satanic in their 
 origin, they indignantly demand proof of the 
 charge. Would it not be more to the point if 
 the Spiritualists could bring proof that they were 
 not? It is a favourite assertion of these people 
 that only debased minds get en rapport with 
 debased spirits, and that the more spiritually 
 minded an inquirer is, the purer and more 
 elevated are the spirits who come in answer to 
 his call. But how is it proposed to differentiate 
 between the Satanic and the Saintly Spirit ? Easily 
 enough, declares the Spiritualist, for the evil 
 spirits are readily distinguished by their irrever- 
 ent, even blasphemous remarks and their malic- 
 ious doings, whereas those from higher spheres 
 are full of lofty sentiments and their communica- 
 tions are always couched in solemn and holy 
 language. 
 
 Cannot a spirit then, as well as a man, be a 
 hypocrite? Would a lying spirit, seeking to 
 pervert mankind, hesitate to give voice to such 
 sentiments as might be best calculated to deceive 
 its hearers into accepting it as a trustworthy and 
 truthful authority on the unseen world? The
 
 Satanic Spiritism 151 
 
 plain fact of the matter is that the man who 
 accepts the teaching of the spirits and regulates 
 his religious belief and his conduct thereby, 
 ceases to be a Christian in any real sense of the 
 term. He may still call himself a follower of 
 Christ, but the Christ he elects to follow is not 
 the Divine Man of the Gospel, but a monstrous 
 caricature an antichrist in fact who is held up 
 for his veneration as merely a man somewhat in 
 advance of his time by virtue of his superior 
 mediumistic powers. 
 
 A well-known investigator into this subject, 
 Mr. J. Godfrey Raupert, whose book on the 
 "Dangers of Spiritualism" should be carefully 
 studied by every professing Spiritualist, has 
 given us a general resume of the usual tenor 
 of spirit messages. I quote the following pas- 
 sage : 
 
 "Many of them (the spirits) know nothing 
 of God : others employ a phraseology which 
 would tend to destroy all faith in God, and 
 duty, and responsibility, and which would seem 
 to indicate that they have, since their translation 
 into the next sphere of being, sunk to a de- 
 cidedly lower level of moral and religious 
 thought. The tendency of their utterances is, 
 most certainly, in many directions, towards the 
 removal of the sanction of religion, and to the 
 creation in other minds of doubt in the exist- 
 ence of God." 
 
 I will supplement this statement with one or
 
 152 What of To-Day ? 
 
 two instances of communications from spirits 
 on the subject of God and religion. Answer- 
 ing a singularly foolish question as to why the 
 Creator of the human infant could create a leo- 
 pard to mangle and destroy that infant, one 
 spirit is reported to have said : " You will yet 
 learn that there were many Creators. This fact 
 is referred to in your sacred writings, where 
 the Gods say, * Let us make man in our image 
 and after our likeness " ! 
 
 That answer is characteristic of these so- 
 called "spirit-guides" and "teachers." The 
 words ot Scripture are ever in their mouths, 
 and in every case, with truly diabolical ingenu- 
 ity, they twist and torture the meaning of the 
 sacred texts to suit their own purposes. 
 
 The subjoined extract from another spirit- 
 message will illustrate the subtle and insidious 
 fashion in which the spirits work to cast doubt 
 on the truths of revealed religion : 
 
 "All progress has its culminating point. 
 
 " ./Eons have passed to produce the most 
 exquisite crystals, the highest forms of vegeta- 
 tion, of animals, of men. Then came the slow 
 processes of civilising and educating men ; the 
 dim instincts of fear and propitiation, merging, 
 by slow degrees, in the first conceptions of 
 love, as something apart from desire, and so 
 forth. 
 
 "Was I to be expected to shut my eyes to 
 all these known facts, and bolt down the
 
 Satanic Spiritism 153 
 
 theories contained in one Book, written by 
 human authors, no matter how admirable ? 
 
 "I felt it was impossible. 
 'Then I remembered with relief that these 
 very dogmas, as a matter of fact, were in so 
 fluent a state, that my own bare fifty years of 
 living had seen at least four different high-water 
 marks ! 
 
 "Here again, therefore, under my very eyes, 
 was the universal law of progress working, the 
 moment it could work, by being released from 
 the swaddling-clothes of the Roman Catholic 
 Church, which, so far as it is orthodox, is fos- 
 silised." 
 
 And again (from the same message): "And 
 so you have gone on see-sawing to and fro, not 
 really believing the old orthodox ideas, but not 
 courageously sweeping them away for yourself." 
 
 Over and over again in such messages we 
 find the same idea repeated, the same crafty 
 appeal made to those listening to free their 
 minds from the "bonds of creeds," to take 
 "broader views of theology," and so forth. 
 Seldom has the person thus appealed to the 
 strength to resist the implied flattery that he is 
 at too high an intellectual or spiritual level to 
 be satisfied with the common notions of reli- 
 gion which are good enough for the rest of 
 mankind. 
 
 Here is another sample of the kind of dia- 
 bolical perversion to which I am referring :
 
 154 What of To-Day? 
 
 "As we grow older and become more de- 
 veloped in spiritual consciousness, so do we 
 tend more and more to worship the inner and 
 intangible, rather than the outward and mani- 
 fest . . . Those limitations which once made 
 for reverence are in time found to be cramp- 
 ing and to lead to superstition . . . The old 
 ideas of Heaven and Hell are already doomed, 
 but other ideas, equally untrue from the literal 
 point of view, still hold their own, and will be 
 more slowly eradicated It is well this should 
 be so. The world at large is not prepared yet 
 to take this further step." 
 
 'Tell your friend," teaches another spirit, 
 "not to be afraid of a broader outlook in all 
 religious matters, nor fear the psychic questions 
 which interest her. Truth must come out of 
 all earnest search for it, and if you widen your 
 outlook while on earth, you will have less to 
 unlearn when you pass to this side." 
 
 In other words, we are exhorted to give up 
 that belief in Christianity which has sustained 
 and strengthened the lives of men for the last 
 two thousand years ; we are taught, agreeably 
 with the spirit of the age, that the more we 
 "broaden our views," and the sooner we es- 
 cape from the "trammels of orthodoxy," the 
 greater progress we shall make in the spiritual 
 life ; and, finally, we are told that while the 
 old Christian dogmas were well enough in their 
 way for a childish and ignorant age, it behoves
 
 Satanic Spiritism 155 
 
 us, now that we have reached intellectual man- 
 hood, to take a more "liberal" view of Divi- 
 nity. 
 
 Can any practising Christian soberly accept 
 such teaching as a new revelation? What 
 grounds has he for setting aside the express 
 and explicit commands of Christ in favour of 
 the vague and nebulous exhortations of lying 
 spirits, whose sole claim to speak with authority 
 rests on their ability to move a table or take 
 possession of a medium? That the spirits con- 
 tinually contradict themselves and each other, 
 that at one moment they will affect to speak 
 with reverence of the Saviour and at the next 
 give the lie to His every word, apparently matters 
 not at all to their deluded victims. 
 
 Is there any possible escape from the dilemma 
 that these spirits are either messengers from 
 God or the direct emissaries of Satan ? And if 
 the internal evidence of their communications 
 is not sufficient, as alas, we know it is not, to 
 convince inquirers of their evil nature, how 
 comes it that God, having once and for all sent 
 His Son upon earth to establish a Church which 
 shall, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, 
 be a living witness to the truth how comes it, 
 I say, that God now finds it necessary to correct 
 and modify His Son's Gospel by the mouths of 
 a host of messengers who are unable to establish 
 their own identity ? 
 
 Let me quote one more extract from one
 
 i56 What of To-Day? 
 
 of these spirit-messages, purporting, in high- 
 sounding phraseology, to give the spirits' own 
 reason for their activity. 
 
 " We come to you beings of earth to do some- 
 thing more than merely to prove our existence 
 in another sphere, and to present wonders to 
 marvel-seekers. We mean serious and practical 
 work for human enlightenment and progress. 
 We come to teach a truer, brighter, and better 
 philosophy of life than the world has yet had 
 to aid you in the solution of the great problems 
 of your being ; to inspire you with higher aims 
 and nobler efforts for your own and for others' 
 good ; to give you ,the benefit of our larger 
 experience that you may be incited to make 
 the most and best of your earthly opportunities ; 
 and to do what we can to correct your errors 
 and to educate you for the practical duties of 
 both the present and the future life." 
 
 Had Our Lord, then, nothing to teach men 
 on the correction of their errors the word 
 "sin," you may note, is carefully avoided had 
 He nothing to propose on their education for 
 the practical duties of both the present and the 
 future life ? It would seem not, if we are to 
 put our trust in the spirits who promise us 
 "enlightenment and progress," and who "come 
 to teach a truer, brighter, and better philosophy 
 of life than the world has yet had." If that 
 phrase does not contain the most explicit denial 
 of the Christian revelation that it is possible to
 
 Satanic Spiritism 157 
 
 have, I should like to hear one put more 
 plainly. 
 
 Such a communication as this, and it is 
 typical of many others, is, I say it emphatically, 
 nothing more or less than the work of the 
 Devil. It bears upon the face of it every mark 
 of its diabolical origin and a man must have 
 strayed far indeed from the teachings of Christ 
 to be deceived by such miserable and lying 
 bombast. 
 
 IV GUI BONO? 
 
 FROM the higher religious standpoint it is clear 
 that Spiritualism has nothing to recommend it, 
 but that, on the contrary, much harm may, and 
 does, result to its followers. There are, too, the 
 physical efforts to be considered, of which, alas, 
 those who dabble in Spiritualism hear little or 
 nothing until some devastating tragedy at their 
 own doors, so to speak, tears the veil from their 
 eyes. Once a man ventures the frail bark of 
 his soul near the quicksands of occultism, his 
 doom is sealed almost as surely as that of the 
 vessel driven on the Goodwins. It matters little 
 whether it be curiosity or superstition or bereave- 
 ment that first brings a man or woman into 
 "spirit-circles." The result is in nearly all cases 
 the same, loss of physical control, loss of mental 
 balance, loss of moral sense. 
 
 There is no room in this work-a-day world 
 for the Spiritualist. At the best he becomes
 
 158 What of To-Day? 
 
 engrossed and absorbed by the fascination exer- 
 cised by his occult pursuits, to the extinction 
 of all other interests in life. At the worst he 
 ends his days in a mad-house. If only the 
 physical havoc and ruin which the craze after 
 spiritualistic seances is creating among all classes 
 of the community were generally known and 
 realised, perhaps it is not too much to hope 
 that even the Spiritualists themselves would not 
 resent so bitterly the warnings addressed to them 
 by responsible and level-headed advisers. 
 
 Remembering the many cases of moral ruin 
 and physical wreckage which have come before 
 me as a result of these practices, I would not, 
 if I could, remain tongue-tied. I cannot forget 
 how a young mother, being told that her dead 
 child wanted to speak to her, was drawn to a 
 stance and became almost enchanted because 
 she thought she recognised its innocent prattle. 
 Strange child, which led her first by the ways 
 of piety and prayer, and finally to give up all 
 religion and believe in nothing but the grossest 
 superstition and folly. 
 
 Nor can I forget the working man who went 
 to a seance in the hope of communicating with 
 his dead wife, and of obtaining consolation and 
 advice from her, and who had become so pestered 
 and tempted by lying and obscene spirits that 
 he was driven into an asylum, whence he emerged 
 only again to re-enter it. 
 
 I recall another case, that of a young wife
 
 Satanic Spiritism 159 
 
 and her brother, who out of curiosity began 
 by indulging in crystal-gazing, palmistry, divin- 
 ation by means of Tarot cards and other so- 
 called operations, and then got into the habit 
 of attending seances. There as they were per- 
 suaded, they were raised to the astral plane, 
 had intercourse with angels, and finally with 
 Our Divine Lord, Jesus Christ, who confessed 
 to them that He was only a man in advance of 
 His time. Both brother and sister have not 
 only given up their religion but are now rabid 
 anti-Christians. 
 
 A man came to me the other day and, tell- 
 ing me of his terrible trouble, of how his wife 
 had gone to a lunatic asylum through dabbling 
 in Spiritualism, begged me with tears in his 
 eyes to do all I could to stop this devilry, which 
 seems to gather new strength every day, and 
 whose insidious methods are all directed to be- 
 little and undermine the Church of Christ. 
 
 I could multiply instances of the devastating 
 effects of this blasphemous cult, and those who 
 are inclined to think the results exaggerated 
 will do well to read the cases recorded by Mr. 
 J. Godfrey Raupert in his book on the "Dangers 
 of Spiritualism," from which I have already 
 quoted. The saner investigators who look upon 
 psychical research from the strictly scientific 
 point of view, the examination of which may 
 help to solve the problems presented by such 
 recently discovered facts as telepathy, hypnotism,
 
 160 What of To-Day? 
 
 the sub-conscious mind and so forth, are thoroughly 
 agreed as to the dangers, mental, moral and 
 physical, which are incurred by those who are 
 attracted to it from other causes. 
 
 Once a man opens the door of his soul to 
 such influences, who can say what visitors may 
 not enter? Cases of actual obsession are far 
 more frequent than Spiritualists imagine or will 
 admit, and no one who has ever come across a 
 single instance of the kind can ever again have 
 any feeling towards Spiritualism but one of 
 shuddering aversion. 
 
 To put the case on the very lowest grounds, 
 of what possible benefit can this spirit com- 
 munication be to the world at large? The 
 return or the supposed return of friends and 
 relatives we have lost in years gone by, is cited 
 as a proof that there is another world than this, 
 that we do not wholly die when we depart this 
 life, and that there is a nobler side of us which 
 still lives a conscious existence when our bodies 
 are shut up in the coffin and left to moulder in 
 the grave. But since when has a Christian re- 
 quired such proof? At what period of history 
 has the Church ever taught that men perish as 
 the beasts in the field? And what kind of 
 religious faith is that which needs to be forti- 
 fied by the utterances of spirits who, at the 
 best, have nothing to reveal which Christianity 
 has not taught for these nineteen hundred years 
 and more, and who, at the worst, make the
 
 Satanic Spiritism 161 
 
 blasphemous assertion that the highest religion is 
 to have no religion at all? 
 
 With the argument put forward by many 
 Spiritualists that their efforts are doing good in 
 the direction of converting many from blank 
 materialism to a belief in some sort of future 
 life, I have already dealt. The thorough-going 
 materialist, let me repeat, has no time for in- 
 vestigations of this sort and he certainly will 
 not accept other people's accounts at second- 
 hand. The inquirer, on the other hand, who 
 honestly seeks for enlightenment from this source, 
 will find all the evidence for the truths which 
 he is seeking, if he consults his own conscience, 
 his own reason and the teaching of the Church 
 founded, so many hundreds of years ago, by 
 Christ. And in this connection I think a sen- 
 tence from Mr. Raupert's book is worth quot- 
 ing: "The Spiritualistic view of the other 
 state is but a dignified kind of materialism, 
 which has no necessary connection with the 
 moral life, and which chiefly appeals to that 
 side of our nature from which high moral effort 
 and endeavour can scarcely be looked for. The 
 prospect of a necessary and inevitable and never- 
 ending procession, much on the basis of the 
 present life, is apt to lull the human soul to 
 sleep and to rob it of that constant stimulus to a 
 life of higher attainment and greater purity which 
 the Christian system, and a ready obedience to the 
 promptings of conscience, are known to create." 
 
 L
 
 162 What of To-Day ? 
 
 In fact, even if a stray Materialist should, by 
 investigating the phenomena, succeed in convinc- 
 ing himself that his conscious existence would 
 continue after death, that in itself would not pro- 
 vide any reason or inducement for him to nourish 
 his moral and spiritual nature. The next world, 
 he is informed by the spirits, is much the same as 
 this one, while the pleasantness or unpleasantness 
 of his surroundings there will apparently depend 
 not on whether his life here has been a pure 
 and virtuous one, but on the refinement or vul- 
 garity of his tastes I The spirits will tell him 
 nothing of God, nothing of duty, nothing of 
 the necessity of self-discipline. They will have 
 no message to give him concerning religion, 
 and while it is possible that they will hint 
 vaguely at a certain amount of discomfort to be 
 endured by the irreclaimably vile and vicious 
 of mankind, they will be careful to make it 
 quite clear that a man of cultured tastes and 
 refined temperament such as himself will, 
 after death, be conducted to a delightful, if 
 rather suspicious material, Summerland, where 
 his intellectual and artistic requirements will be 
 satisfied to the full. How can it benefit a man 
 to be taught such a creed as that? 
 
 There are many Spiritualists, again, who will 
 tell you that to hold weekly or daily converse 
 with those they have loved and lost as they 
 fully believe they do is the only thing that 
 makes life tolerable for them. Is life, then, so
 
 Satanic Spiritism 163 
 
 long, or have we grown so impatient of all 
 suffering that we cannot wait trustfully for a 
 few years till we, in our turn, shall join those 
 beloved ones ? Cannot we stand manfully and 
 faithfully at our posts, doing our appointed 
 work, and relying on God for the consolation 
 and comfort that we need ? If we find our 
 duties too hard and irksome, can we not turn 
 for help towards Him who is the source of all 
 strength and courage ? The Roman soldier, who 
 stood to his post at the gate of Pompeii, while 
 all the world was crashing about him into ruin, 
 and the panic j stricken populace were crushing 
 each other to death in their frantic struggles to 
 escape from the doomed city, knew better what 
 duty meant than do many of our so-called 
 Christians to-day. 
 
 Perhaps the most amazing of all the claims 
 put forward by Spiritualists is the assertion that 
 it has been reserved for them alone, of all the 
 generations of men, to make the discovery that, 
 to use a phrase constantly in their mouths, 
 ' There is no death." We are not to under- 
 stand by this, of course, that they have succeeded 
 in abolishing the physical phenomenon of the 
 death of the body ; all they mean to imply by 
 this juggling with words is that the soul lives 
 on after it has quitted its tenement of flesh. 
 Well, common sense alone taught most men 
 that long before the days of professional me- 
 diums, and even before Christ came on earth
 
 164 What of To-Day ? 
 
 to redeem mankind, the nations of antiquity 
 never quibbled much over the immortality of 
 the soul. The chief problem that exercised 
 them was the future life and the ultimate des- 
 tiny of that soul, on which point the wisest of 
 the old Greek philosophers is better worth 
 listening to than the most talkative of the spirits 
 that haunt the modern stance-room. 
 
 The heart of man is restless by nature until 
 it finds peace in God, Who alone knows and 
 satisfies its inmost life. What else do the rest- 
 lessness and discontent and ceaseless cravings 
 after something new, whether in the religious 
 or social order, signify than that the world has 
 turned away from God and is seeking vainly 
 elsewhere for something that may for a moment 
 soothe its jaded spirit, or satisfy its weary and 
 worn-out senses ? It is not in the seance-room 
 that humanity will find its God awaiting it ; it 
 is not by holding converse with fraudulent or 
 lying spirits that man will find the solution of 
 the problem of his being; it is not by suffer- 
 ing himself to be made the toy and plaything 
 of devils that man will arrive at the knowledge 
 of the Eternal Truth. 
 
 If any of those who read these words have 
 been attracted by curiosity, or for any other 
 reason, to dabble, however lightly, in these 
 things, may I beg of them very earnestly to ask 
 themselves what possible profit it can be either 
 to them or others to meddle with matters which
 
 Satanic Spiritism 165 
 
 are beyond their understanding? While we 
 have the words of Christ before us, and the 
 teaching of the Church of Christ to guide us, 
 how shall it advantage us to go behind either? 
 I have already spoken briefly of the very real 
 perils awaiting those who open the door to the 
 inrush of the evil influences ever about us ; but, 
 apart from these, what has Spiritualism to offer 
 to your soul in the way of spiritual nourishment 
 in any sense comparable with the gifts of God 
 through the Mediatorship of His Divine Son? 
 
 This chapter I have entitled " Cui Bono?" I 
 have used the expression in its borrowed rather 
 than in its native sense not asking "To whom 
 is it of use?" but rather, "What is the use 
 of it?"
 
 XVII 
 THE SPIRIT OF COMPROMISE 
 
 ONE of the worst faults, I have always thought, 
 in the Englishman's character is his love of 
 compromise. Some people regard it, I know, 
 as almost a virtue. " Look," they exclaim, " how 
 England has flourished under this common 
 sense system. Here you have a country whose 
 constitution is a compromise, whose govern- 
 ment is a compromise, whose politics are a 
 compromise, whose whole Empire is a com- 
 promise, and see the result. A free people, a 
 wonderful power in the world, and a glorious 
 Empire. Oh, the English are a great nation!" 
 
 Well, I believe they are ; but I am not at 
 all sure that they might not be greater still if 
 that spirit of compromise had been kept within 
 due bounds. And I am quite certain that they 
 will not be a great nation for very much longer 
 unless they put their foot down very decidedly, 
 and very quickly, upon what has of late years 
 been rapidly developing into a fixed habit. 
 
 Even in their religion, Englishmen have 
 effected some very extraordinary compromises 
 in the past, but it has remained for our own 
 
 166
 
 The Spirit of Compromise 167 
 
 day to witness the most extraordinary compro- 
 mise of all a compromise with the Almighty 
 Himself. 
 
 The modern man has become dissatisfied with 
 God's revelation. He admits that there is a 
 God, but he is by no means clear in his own 
 mind as to the relative rights of the Creator 
 and the creature. So, in his own feeble mind, 
 he makes a compromise. He is a free man, 
 and he will do what seems good to him. He 
 will taste all the pleasures and enjoyments of 
 this world in which he finds himself, he will 
 indulge in no foolish scruples about sin or 
 morality, and then, when he comes to die, he 
 will meet his God with a sure hope of being 
 accepted at his own valuation. 
 
 " He's a good fellow, and 'twill all be 
 well." That is the latest philosophy, the latest 
 morality, the latest compromise. An ingenious 
 scheme whereby a man can save himself from 
 all prickings of his conscience, and hopes to 
 have a good time, without bother, both here 
 and hereafter. 
 
 Many, very many years ago, we were told 
 that we cannot serve both God and Mammon, 
 and for many years the world accepted the 
 teaching. Men frankly served one or the 
 other. But, nowadays, our superior wisdom 
 has begun to revolt against this doctrine. Why, 
 it is asked, if he makes himself as comfortable as 
 he can in this world, should a man be debarred
 
 168 What of To-Day ? 
 
 from participating in the joys of the next? We 
 are human beings ; is it not likely enough that 
 we are placed here to follow the bent of our own 
 human nature ? In short, God is not going to 
 be so unjust as to punish us for a few trifling 
 lapses ; for taking our pleasures as they come ; 
 for getting what we can out of this life. 
 
 But what this sort of people never seem 
 able to comprehend is that we cannot serve two 
 masters whole-heartedly. There is nothing in 
 this world, I verily believe, that a man cannot 
 have if he chooses to pay the price. But he 
 cannot have anything by compromise. If he 
 wishes for the good things of this world, he 
 must serve the world with no thought of any 
 other master. But if his heart is set on higher 
 things, then he must give his service to the One 
 Who can reward him according to his self- 
 denial. 
 
 How, then, is it possible to love both God 
 and Mammon, to give our hearts and minds 
 and souls unreservedly to each ? Can a politician 
 be at the same time a pronounced Liberal and 
 a staunch Conservative ? Can a patriot at the 
 same time love his native land and plot evil 
 against her ? Can a soldier fight for and against 
 his country simultaneously? If you wish for 
 the world's prizes, serve the world with all your 
 strength and they are yours. But you must not 
 expect to be paid by two masters for the ser- 
 vices you have rendered to one.
 
 The Spirit of Compromise 169 
 
 "Well," I can hear some one protesting, 
 "this is all very fine, but it is mightily unprac- 
 tical. After all, we have got to live in the world, 
 for a time, at any rate, and unless we all go into 
 monasteries, it is difficult to see how we are to 
 avoid giving some measure of service to the 
 world." 
 
 I admit that it is difficult, but only difficult 
 because we are so constantly tempted to give 
 our whole service, and not a part of it, to the 
 world. And here we come back to the whole 
 point of duty. We have many worldly duties 
 to perform ; we have to give our service to this 
 master or that ; we have to do many things 
 that, on the surface, have no conceivable rela- 
 tion to our service to God. But it is on the 
 surface only. For if in all our daily work we 
 are actuated by the single-hearted motive of 
 doing all things well and thoroughly, and for 
 the honour of Him Who created us, then, I 
 say, we are serving God and not the world. 
 
 In so acting, we are, it is true, ostensibly 
 serving the world, but it is the motive which 
 counts, the intention which is of vital import- 
 ance. And it is this motive, this intention 
 which differentiates the man who is serving 
 God from the man who is serving the world 
 and his own selfish interests. 
 
 This point of view solves many of our 
 modern difficulties with regard to the social in- 
 equalities of mankind. Why should one man
 
 170 What of To-Day? 
 
 serve and another rule, it is asked ? Why should 
 one be born in a position of authority and one 
 in subjection? So far as I can see, the Socialist 
 may continue asking that question without ever 
 succeeding in eliciting a satisfactory reply. 
 
 Yet surely the answer is plain enough. What 
 does it matter whether for a few short years I 
 am, in the world's eyes, your superior or your 
 inferior, if both of us are striving to carry out 
 the duties of our station in a proper spirit? A 
 good servant is a far better man than a bad 
 master, and a good master is equally a better 
 man than a bad servant. It is not a question 
 of position at all, and the true Christian, the 
 man who elects to serve God, is not in the 
 least concerned to know whether the world ap- 
 proves of his merit or not. The approval that 
 matters to him comes from elsewhere. 
 
 All men ought to be equal in the eyes of 
 the world, shrieks the Socialist ; and that is just 
 where Socialism confesses its own incapacity for 
 combatting the evils of life. For the Socialist 
 would begin at the wrong end in his endeavour 
 to set everything right. The dignity of service 
 and in that word I include all service, whether 
 rendered by a king to his people, by a footman 
 to his master, or by a workman to his employer 
 can never be enhanced in the smallest degree 
 by what the world chooses to think of it. The 
 good servant, in whatever capacity he serves, 
 will not become better because the world esti-
 
 The Spirit of Compromise 171 
 
 mates him more highly. Indeed, he would be 
 more likely to degenerate, for the world's ap- 
 plause is apt to have a debilitating rather than 
 a bracing effect. 
 
 There can be nothing ignoble, then, about 
 service, provided the motive is good, for it is an 
 essential part of our subjection to the law of the 
 Master of us all. Just as the soldier in obeying 
 his officer, obeys his king, the Christian in serving 
 those legitimately placed above him, obeys his 
 God. So true is this, that we can almost surely 
 deduce from a servant's honesty, loyalty, and 
 devotedness in the service of his temporary 
 master, the measure of his honesty, loyalty, and 
 devotedness in the service of the common Lord 
 and Master of us all. 
 
 It is only where the teaching of Christ has lost 
 its hold upon the heart, and where the spirit of 
 the age has crept in, usurping its place, that we 
 find an insubordination which is the result of the 
 Socialistic tendencies of the times in which our 
 lives are cast. 
 
 No doubt there will be plenty to attack me for 
 using that word "insubordination." It smacks 
 too much, I shall be told, of the feudal system, 
 ecclesiasticism, and Heaven knows how many 
 other dreadful things. I care little for that. 
 What I do care for very much is to rouse my 
 countrymen to a sense of the real value of things, 
 to get them to see life in just proportion, to serve 
 God, in other words, rather than Mammon. The
 
 i 7 2 What of To-Day ? 
 
 using of one's talents to their full is one matter, 
 as I have elsewhere pointed out, the insubordinate 
 spirit of revolt against service of any sort is quite 
 another. It is the old choice between God and 
 the world a choice which admits of no bar- 
 gaining no compromise. 
 
 Let us at least be frank with ourselves. If 
 Christ's way, at times, seems hard, if the world's 
 standard of honour, morality, and conduct seems 
 infinitely easier for us to go by, and we come 
 to the conclusion that this standard is " good 
 enough " for us, let us not try to palter with our 
 consciences and persuade ourselves that it will be 
 also good enough for God. We know in our 
 hearts that the matter does not stand thus. We 
 know that we have recognised the better things ; 
 and that if we choose the worse, we are taking 
 service with the world and against God. And if 
 we will but acknowledge the fact freely, and 
 abandon all the miserable subterfuges of compro- 
 mise, we shall not find ourselves so utterly at a 
 loss where to turn for help, when the prizes of 
 the world are proved to be worthless baubles, and 
 the pleasures of the earth have turned to dust 
 and ashes in our mouths. 
 
 The guardsman, the trooper, the gunner, now 
 in the thick of it, remind us, through their letters 
 sent from the shell-torn trenches, that in the 
 mercy of God and in fervent prayer to Him is 
 their inspiration, their hope, their trust. Listen to 
 this extract from a letter now before me : ' ' Facing
 
 The Spirit of Compromise 173 
 
 death quietly night and day is a good reminder 
 there is another life beyond the grave. To see a 
 brave friend lying dead beside you is good for the 
 soul." And this: "Nothing bucks a fellow up 
 so much under a hell of fire as feeling you're 
 all right with God. As you used to say in your 
 sermons : Isn't He just splendid? "
 
 XVIII 
 
 IS ENGLAND CHRISTIAN? 
 I. THE MIND OF ENGLAND 
 
 No one, I hope, will quarrel with me for draw- 
 ing a distinction between the bad Christian and 
 the nominal Christian ; between, that is to say, 
 the man who, though he may live recklessly and 
 immorally, acknowledges and retains a genuine 
 belief in the fundamental truths of Christianity, 
 and the man for whom Christianity simply does 
 not count in any thought or action of his life. 
 The distinction is a vital one, for while the bad 
 Christian will be conscious of his ill-doing, and 
 will probably make spasmodic efforts to reform 
 himself, the man who has utterly cast aside his 
 faith will not admit the need for repentance. 
 His conscience, in fact, will have ceased to 
 reprove him, and that is a very terrible state to 
 be in. 
 
 In discussing, then, the question how far Eng- 
 land can rightly be called a Christian country, it 
 is useless to search out the statistics of Sunday 
 church-going, or to look up criminal records, or 
 to examine the increase or decrease in the con- 
 sumption of alcohol. Such things are well enough 
 in their place, but they do not tell us anything 
 
 174
 
 Is England Christian? 175 
 
 concerning the religious feeling of a country. 
 The worst drunkard in the kingdom may be a 
 real Christian, fighting against a vice which is 
 constantly overcoming all his efforts, just as, alas, 
 the most habitual church-goer may have half a 
 dozen reasons for his constant attendance, even 
 though he lacks all belief in the spiritual efficacy 
 of religion. 
 
 The matter is one of atmosphere I had al- 
 most said of intuition and we can only arrive 
 at a satisfactory estimate of the Christianity of 
 any country by asking ourselves further: "Is 
 the mind of that country Christian? Is her 
 heart, her will, her character, and her religion 
 Christian?" 
 
 And where are we to find evidence of the 
 mind of England ? Where else but in the out- 
 put of her mind in the library, upon the 
 platform, in the press and on the stage. 
 
 Take, then, in the first place, the thousands 
 of volumes that are published in this country 
 every year, and inquire of the free libraries, the 
 lending libraries, the booksellers and the publishers 
 as to what books have the largest circulation. 
 They will tell you that the books which make 
 the greatest sensation and are the most widely 
 read are not good books, but bad books, bad as 
 regards questions of religion, or of morals, or of 
 both. 
 
 The books that are read to-day by the man 
 in his club, by the woman in her boudoir, by
 
 176 What of To-Day? 
 
 the girl behind the counter, and the young man 
 in the street, are the books that cannot feed 
 the Christian mind. In our cities there is an 
 ever-increasing population drinking at the Sty- 
 gian pools of filth, feeding upon the offal of 
 literature, and learning lessons of degradation 
 and shame. 
 
 It will be retorted upon me that I know 
 nothing about it, but I do know. I have taken 
 these books up ; I have seen them in the garret in 
 the East End, I have seen them in the boudoir 
 of the rich, I have seen them in the clubroom, 
 and cast about like garbage in hotels. 
 
 Why is literature like this ? Because the 
 people will have it so. Let a man write a clean, 
 wholesome, and instructive book, and he will 
 have to go round with it in his hand, begging 
 his friends to buy it. The amount of balderdash, 
 of lying hysteria, that is sent broadcast over the 
 country, and eagerly devoured by the public, is 
 almost incredible. Not many weeks ago, before 
 the war broke out, I asked a literary friend of 
 mine, who was in the habit of writing stories for 
 publishers, why he did not make some serious 
 contribution to the literary market. He replied : 
 ' Whenever I venture to send a story or article 
 calculated to do some good, it is invariably 
 returned with some such comment as ' too 
 stodgy,' or 'the public will not have it,' or 
 'we do not publish sermons. 5 ' 
 
 Still worse, there are novels which command
 
 Is England Christian? 177 
 
 an immense sale, whose whole tone, though not 
 frankly indecent, tend to the propagation of such 
 irreligion and immorality as no sane Christian 
 would tolerate for a moment. There is no 
 direct attack on Christianity in such books, but, 
 what is infinitely more dangerous, its doctrines 
 and teaching are tacitly assumed to be obsolete 
 and the actions of the characters are guided 
 entirely by the light of their own reason or 
 rather of their own inclinations. The author 
 apparently takes it for granted that the reader 
 will approve, not necessarily his characters' lives, 
 but at least the freedom from restraint with 
 which they act. And to judge by the sales of 
 these books, such approval is easy to obtain. 
 But assuredly, if literature in England to-day is 
 non-Christian, it is because the minds of its 
 readers are non-Christian, because the mind of 
 England is not Christian. 
 
 Again, what of the Press ? The Press that 
 has its hand upon the public pulse, the Press 
 that judges to a nicety what its patients require, 
 what its patients dislike, what its patients devour 
 gluttonously. You may take up any ordinary 
 daily paper and read it through, and you might 
 come to the conclusion that there was no per- 
 sonal God at all, only the fetish of the hour. 
 
 Not that the Press denies the existence of 
 God. That is not its province, but it expounds 
 everything without the mention of His Name. 
 It will tell you it is a daily record of daily 
 
 M
 
 178 What of To-Day? 
 
 events, that it is interested only in recording 
 them, and that it knows no other section of the 
 public to whom it can offer a circulation. 
 
 The Press will record a Parliamentary debate 
 on a religious question which has got, somehow 
 or other, inextricably tangled up with politics, 
 and it will give a leader possibly on that sub- 
 ject, with an occasional column of colourless 
 "Church Notes." But the Press knows nothing 
 of the Kingdom of God, it ignores the claims of 
 Jesus Christ, it has nothing to say concerning 
 the interests of the immortal soul. 
 
 How heavily handicapped a high principled 
 journal is, how difficult for it to compete in 
 this race for readers with those papers which are 
 merely a record of facts which never happened, 
 to please a public which never thinks ! 
 
 Yet, if the Press is non-Christian, it is not 
 altogether the Press that we must blame. It is 
 non-Christian because its readers are non-Christian, 
 because the mind of England is not Christian. 
 
 Once more, let us take the Stage. No 
 matter what may be said for the drama, no one 
 will pretend that it is a means of drawing people 
 to think more of God and the eternal interests 
 of their own souls. All plays are not bad, even 
 if the best that can be said of them is that 
 they serve to amuse or pass pleasantly a couple 
 of hours. But I fear it cannot be denied that, 
 for the most part, the play that attracts is the 
 immoral play; the entertainment that draws is
 
 Is England Christian? 179 
 
 the one that appeals to the senses ; the theatre 
 or music-hall that makes most money is the one 
 that caters most openly to the frankly pagan 
 instincts of the crowd. 
 
 At its best one can hardly maintain that the 
 theatre feeds the soul. At its worst, it rouses 
 the passions, stirs the senses, and banishes all 
 thought of religion from the minds of its 
 devotees. A so-called problem play, or a 
 sensuous musical comedy, is not exactly de- 
 signed to stimulate the spiritual life of the 
 Christian. It cannot do him any good; it may 
 do him irreparable harm. 
 
 What, then, is the mind of England? Judged 
 by its literature, its Press, and its drama, I say 
 it is not Christian. 
 
 It may be objected to me that, after all, 
 even in these aspects England is not only no 
 worse than other countries, but is not so bad 
 as many. Is it really any satisfaction to a man 
 to feel that, though an evil liver, he is not 
 quite so abandoned as his next-door neighbour? 
 Let us not trouble ourselves about the iniquities 
 of other countries. Let us come to our own 
 horrors, our own iniquities, and not for ever be 
 gathering in great crowds to protest against this 
 or that evil abroad. The Englishman loves to 
 point out his neighbour's wrong-doing a char- 
 acteristic which has, perhaps not unjustly, earned 
 for him that reputation for hypocrisy and cant 
 with which all other nations credit him. Cannot
 
 i8o What of To-Day? 
 
 we for once in a way play the game and attack 
 ourselves, and be men even if we are seemingly 
 no longer Christians in the dogmatic sense of the 
 word ? Let us shut our eyes to the motes in the 
 eyes of others and open them to the beams in 
 our own. 
 
 II. THE HEART OF ENGLAND 
 
 THOUGH the mind of England be not Christian, 
 is it not possible that her heart is, after all, in 
 the right place ? Much was forgiven to the 
 woman who loved much, and charity, as we 
 know, covers a multitude of sins. I have pointed 
 out that the habitual drunkard may recognise 
 and abhor his vice, even though his struggles 
 against it seem doomed to end in failure. But 
 if he uses his Christian armoury aright, we can 
 trust him safely to Providence. 
 
 Now, how does our country, as a whole, 
 stand in this respect? Does she, as a frail 
 Christian, loathe the vices she is too weak to 
 conquer? Does she, as a believing Christian, 
 look for strength and forgiveness to a Higher 
 Power? Does she still strive, in spite of many 
 failures and repeated transgressions, and in 
 however feeble a fashion, to obey that Divine 
 ordinance of Christ: "If you love Me, keep My 
 commandments"? Does she, in fine, display 
 that hatred of sin which is the measure of the 
 love we bear to our Creator? 
 
 This is a test which, if truly applied, should
 
 Is England Christian? 181 
 
 prove an infallible one. However vicious or 
 criminal a man may be, his future is not to be 
 despaired of if he recognises his position. A 
 number of powerful motives may impel him to 
 commit his evil actions, but so long as he knows 
 that they are evil, there is hope for him. 
 
 Is this the case to-day with England? Let 
 us examine the matter from this standpoint, 
 and we shall be able to ascertain how far she 
 is Christian by the measure in which she shows 
 her hatred of sin, her real antipathy to vice and 
 iniquity. 
 
 And when we inquire into the matter, what 
 are we told? That there is no such thing as 
 sin. That it is a relic of a bygone superstition ; 
 that it is a thing dealt with by popish priests 
 for the sake of having a confessional and hear- 
 ing the scruples of silly people. Sin, we are 
 told, is merely a growing pain a necessary part 
 of nature's system of evolution through which 
 the human race is progressing. 
 
 How can the God of Heaven object to a 
 man enjoying himself? "If there is a God," 
 as someone said to me the other day, "He 
 wants me to be happy, and the only way to be 
 happy is for me to think, to say, to do as I 
 please." 
 
 That may be some people's idea of happi- 
 ness, though even the pagans of old taught a 
 nobler system of morals. And, after all, if 
 there is such happiness in sin, in doing what
 
 182 What of To-Day? 
 
 one pleases, in such unfettered freedom of 
 thought and action, how is it that they who 
 have the best opportunity for gratifying every 
 whim are the most miserable, the most discon- 
 tented, the most blase people to be found on 
 this earth? These are the dullest dogs of us 
 all, for they can only think and talk about one 
 thing. They should be tied to a chain and 
 driven into their kennels. 
 
 England's estimate of sin is all wrong ; at 
 one end of the scale it is based on sentimentalism 
 run wild, at the other it is founded on philosophy 
 gone mad. So lightly does England regard sin 
 to-day that she has ceased to see any virtue in 
 religion. Hell has been dismissed with costs, 
 and we are taught that if there is a heaven at 
 all, it is to be on earth, and that Socialism has 
 discovered it and intends to open its gates to 
 all the people. That is what has become very 
 much in vogue, if not in such direct terms, any- 
 how in thought and act to-day in this once 
 honest and Christian country. 
 
 I read, not so very long ago, two reviews of 
 two new plays, in one of which the heroine 
 professes that she has been sinned against, and 
 proclaims her own intentions in some such words 
 as these: "I intend," she says, "to sin against 
 others. I was dragged down into the streets, 
 and I intend to drag others down. A man 
 ruined my life and covered me with the mire 
 of the gutter, and I have set myself to entangle
 
 Is England Christian? 183 
 
 other men, and I glory in the fact that I have 
 ruined others." 
 
 What sort of pagan philosophy is that? Is 
 that the object lesson that should be taught to the 
 man in the street ? Is that the sort of mental 
 pabulum on which our countrymen and country- 
 women are to grow strong ? The curtain ought 
 to have been rung down, not at the end, but 
 at the opening scene of that play. 
 
 In the review of the second play I came upon 
 a hero, and the dilemma of the plot was this : 
 He has ruined another man's wife, and from the 
 window of her room he sees a fellow-man done 
 to death. Now he is tortured with scruples, 
 and he wonders whether he ought to go forth 
 and proclaim the innocence of one who might 
 be charged with the crime. 
 
 Now, what troubles me most in this scheme 
 of things is that, whereas our immoral hero has 
 no scruples at all about the soul murder he has 
 committed, he is greatly concerned about a body 
 murder committed by another man. What kind 
 of morality, I would ask, is this, to put before 
 other people? Here is a man entirely undis- 
 turbed about the great wrong he himself had 
 wrought, but worried and anxious about an affair 
 with which he had nothing to do. 
 
 I believe that our moral sense, in this country, 
 is getting hopelessly blurred by being accus- 
 tomed to see things in such false perspective. 
 Indeed, it would not surprise me if I heard
 
 i8 4 What of To-Day? 
 
 of a man feeling no remorse at all for robbing 
 a girl of her virtue, and yet being filled with 
 qualms of conscience for stealing a run at cricket. 
 Could anything be more ridiculous, more ghastly? 
 Our sense of right and wrong seems to be wholly 
 lost or perverted, and to shield a woman's honour 
 appears to mean nowadays, not to protect her 
 virtue, but to save her from the ignominy of being 
 found out. 
 
 I could fill pages with similar instances of 
 wrong thinking, culled not only from our drama, 
 but from our literature, our periodical reviews, 
 our daily and weekly press. There is not a single 
 commandment the breaking of which is not 
 viewed with approval in one form or another. 
 There are no deadly sins left, and the rising 
 generation is applauded for refusing to be bound 
 by any old-fashioned rules which hamper or limit 
 in any way the following of its own appetites 
 and inclinations. All sense of obligation, all idea 
 of honour seem fast disappearing from this land, 
 which once prided itself on its steadfast devotion 
 to duty. Heaven forbid that I should be too 
 sweeping in my condemnation of my fellow 
 countrymen. I know, and I recognise with 
 gratitude and joy, that there are many who still 
 hold to the ancient ideals of our fathers. But 
 these new and insidious teachings are gaining 
 ground with dreadful rapidity; they are eating 
 into the very vitals of the nation, and what body 
 can remain sound and clean when corruption
 
 Is England Christian? 185 
 
 and decay have already made havoc of its 
 members? 
 
 There is still time for England to regain that 
 hold on Christianity which she seems to be fast 
 relinquishing. But the evil is very real, the dan- 
 ger very pressing. Action and reaction, science 
 tells us, are always equal and opposite, and we 
 may extract some comfort from the thought 
 that when the pendulum has swung a certain 
 distance in one direction, it will swing back again 
 to its old position. For all that, no sane citizen, 
 no Christian man can view the past decade 
 without misgiving. If England's heart be not 
 Christian, if England's aspirations be not 
 Christian, to what inevitable abyss of immorality 
 and anarchy may she not be drifting ? ' Where 
 thy treasure is," says the divine Master, "there 
 is thy heart also." Where is England's treasure? 
 
 III. THE WILL OF ENGLAND 
 
 IT is not my intention to enter into any abstruse 
 arguments concerning Free-will and Predestina- 
 tion. Over-clever people may split hairs on this 
 matter, may " argue high and low and also argue 
 round about it," but in the last resort a man's 
 own common-sense will tell him that his will, 
 that imperial power in the palace of his soul, is 
 free. He may so weaken it by habitual and 
 often-repeated surrender as to make it too feeble 
 to assert its force, but those very acts themselves
 
 186 What of To-Day? 
 
 have been done of his own free choice. Like 
 every other of man's powers, physical, mental 
 or spiritual, the will requires to be constantly 
 exercised if it is to be kept in a healthy and 
 vigorous condition. 
 
 You can imprison a man, you can break his 
 body, but no power on earth can break his 
 will. You can acquire an enormous influence 
 over another man, you can mislead him, you 
 can tempt him into the commission of all sorts 
 of crimes and evil acts, but, however poor- 
 spirited he may be, you cannot drive or lead 
 him farther than he is willing to go. "It is of 
 ourselves that we are thus or thus." 
 
 It is a man's own choice whether he follow 
 good or evil, right or wrong, Life eternal or 
 Death eternal. There is nothing in this world, 
 or the next, that we cannot have if we are will- 
 ing to pay the price demanded. The price de- 
 manded that is the point ! For this freedom 
 of will, this liberty of choice, bears with it a 
 terrible responsibility. The man who says "j 
 am free to do as I like," speaks truly in the 
 sense that no one, not even God Himself, can 
 force him against his will to choose good rather 
 than evil, Heaven rather than Hell. But if 
 mentally he is free, morally he is not so. And 
 if he does not recognise this truth, he cannot 
 call himself a Christian. 
 
 No man in this country can legally sell 
 himself into slavery, and in the same way no
 
 Is England Christian? 187 
 
 man has the moral right to barter away his 
 freedom of will. For that is what he does when 
 he yields himself wholly to the business and 
 pleasures of this world. Who but himself 
 forges chains for the drunkard, the voluptuary, 
 the gambler ? A man may gain the whole world 
 if he sets his mind to it, and the world in 
 return will place fetters upon him from which 
 he can never get free. Slavery, absolute and 
 hopeless, is the price that man has to pay who 
 sets his heart upon merely material things. 
 
 Those who flout what they call " conven- 
 tion," who boast that they have freed their 
 minds from the "chains of superstition," the 
 "fetters of religion," find themselves in no 
 long time condemned to a real imprisonment, 
 a real slavery in the world. 
 
 Is the man whose whole thoughts and de- 
 sires are bound up with material things any 
 better than a slave ? He is ever at the world's 
 beck and call, he has no hour he can call his 
 own, he has to waste, at the will of others, 
 those brief fleeting moments which will never 
 recur, and he has to squander in idleness and 
 frivolity those precious talents which were given 
 to him, not for the world's service, but for his 
 own spiritual advancement. Can such a man 
 be called free ? He may shout till he is hoarse 
 "Britons never will be slaves, " but he himself 
 is the denial of the boast. 
 
 Too much intercourse with the world is not
 
 188 What of To-Day ? 
 
 good for a man. Even the old Pagan philo- 
 sopher who tells us that "he never left the 
 society of his fellow-men without feeling less 
 a man," knew this. For the man who would 
 remain free, free in mind, free in soul, free in 
 spirit, must make an effort to retain that free- 
 dom. He must find time for meditation, for 
 self-communion, for contemplation of things 
 other than the world recks of, nor must his 
 wordly affairs be so engrossing as to prevent 
 him withdrawing himself at intervals to seek 
 that spiritual refreshment for his soul, his real 
 self, which the world cannot give. Such a man 
 may truly call himself a Christian, for he is free 
 free in this world and the next. 
 
 How stands it, I would ask, with England 
 in this respect to-day? Is England's will free 
 is England's will Christian ? 
 
 Can anyone look on the disturbing spec- 
 tacle of our crowded towns and our neglected 
 countryside and answer that question in any 
 other way than with an emphatic negative ? A 
 hundred years ago there were 80 per cent, of 
 the population in rural districts ; fifty years ago 
 the population was divided equally between 
 town and country ; to-day more than 80 per 
 cent, of our people live in our mammoth cities, 
 seeking amusement and excitement to drown 
 their cares, to forget their work, to forget their 
 duties. 
 
 Even the politicians, whose chief care is
 
 Is England Christian? 189 
 
 votes, and who have nothing to say concerning 
 the souls of the voters, are beginning to realise 
 the danger. " Back to the land " is the vain 
 cry, and endless schemes of land reform are 
 mooted in the impossible endeavour to get 
 the people away from the overcrowded towns, 
 back to the peaceful and harmless life of the 
 country. 
 
 But I grieve to say that you will never per- 
 suade the people of England to go back to the 
 land until they are assured that amusement, ex- 
 citement, and feverish pleasures of every sort 
 are to be had within easy reach of every farm. 
 You can no more drag them out of the music- 
 hall than you can drag them into church. 
 
 Heaven forbid that, in speaking like this, I 
 should be thought desirous of taking away from 
 the worker his legitimate recreation. No one 
 can fail to observe that our working communi- 
 ties need, even more than others, some relaxa- 
 tion after their hard and strenuous day's work. 
 No man who knows anything about the lives of 
 those millions who have nothing to do all day 
 but pick at bits of machinery and perform soul- 
 less tasks, can fail to sympathise with their long- 
 ing for a laugh in which to forget themselves. 
 For God's sake let them laugh. For God's sake 
 let them forget themselves; but let us not, in 
 the effort to lighten their lives, pander to the 
 lewd and lower side of their nature. Surely it 
 is possible to rouse a laugh by honest and clever
 
 i 9 o What of To-Day? 
 
 humour as easily as by a vulgar song or a 
 suggestive play. 
 
 Whose fault is it that our working men have 
 abandoned the country and have crowded, and 
 are continuing to crowd, into the towns ? Our 
 fault England's fault ! And having got them 
 into these great towns, where there is no air to 
 breathe, scarcely room to live, how have we 
 how has England provided for their relaxation 
 and amusement ? We have trained them to take 
 pleasure in what is low and vulgar ; can we ex- 
 pect them to give up the excitement and the 
 sense-delighting fare we have taught them to 
 enjoy? 
 
 And so the vicious circle runs on. It is the 
 will of England, bent only on material gain, 
 that has created these conditions for her own 
 sons. And now, aghast at the result of her own 
 handiwork, England feebly raises the cry of 
 " back to the land." So might a frightened 
 hen run wildly up and down the banks of a 
 pond, cackling to the ducklings she has hatched 
 to return to the soil on which they were born. 
 
 If the rich were setting an example of clean 
 living and rational enjoyment to the poorer 
 classes, the position would not be so desperate. 
 But notoriously such is not the case. Never in 
 the history of this country has there been a time 
 when the upper classes have so profligately 
 wasted their energies in the pursuit of pleasure. 
 The gathering of money, and the spending of
 
 Is England Christian? 191 
 
 it in a thousand reckless ways, seems to be the 
 one object on which the mighty Will of Eng- 
 land is concentrated. 
 
 All thought of duty, of discipline, of devotion 
 has been cast aside before the overpowering 
 desire to plunge into this maelstrom of pleasure, 
 to satiate the senses, and then devise new means 
 of gratifying them. The grossest materialism 
 has had this unhappy country by the throat, and 
 confident though we may be in the ultimate 
 triumph of good, can any Christian contemplate 
 the spectacle of such abasement without a 
 sickening sense of failure and defeat ? 
 
 Is it not time for England to bestir herself, 
 to use that freedom of will with which, in com- 
 mon with all mankind, she has been endowed, 
 and to shake off the shackles of the monstrous 
 slavery in which she has been lying ? This 
 present long-drawn war is giving us time to 
 turn round and review our past lives. May 
 the picture presented draw from England the 
 determined cry, "Never again!' 
 
 IV. THE CHARACTER OF ENGLAND 
 
 FROM these three qualities which exist in man, 
 his mind, his heart, and his will, there comes 
 a resultant force called character. That power 
 which is the sum of man's excellences or de- 
 ficiencies, that figure, that engraving upon the 
 individual, that personality which makes him
 
 192 What of To-Day? 
 
 distinct from everything and everyone else. 
 "Engraving" was what the Greeks called it, 
 and whose image and superscription is engraved, 
 we may ask, upon the soul of England to-day? 
 Is it Caesar's, or is it God's? 
 
 It is for each of us to determine how we 
 shall engrave our personality. Shall it be with 
 Christ crucified, Whose followers we profess 
 ourselves to be, or with the figure of Caesar, plea- 
 sure and the world ? It is not only mind, heart 
 and will that determine character. Such things 
 as heredity and environment must also be taken 
 into account. And it is for this reason that in 
 trying to form our own character we must re- 
 member our collective as well as our individual 
 responsibility. A man's character affects not only 
 himself, but his neighbours, and his descendants 
 as well. 
 
 If we reflect upon this for a little, and con- 
 sider the amount of good or evil that arises 
 from environment, can we refuse to acknowledge 
 that there is a great and pressing need for help- 
 ing those who live in the most squalid and evil 
 surroundings, and that we, each of us, have a 
 very real responsibility in connection with them? 
 The character of England is the character of her 
 people, and if so many of them are at this 
 moment sweltering in the slums, and being 
 brought up in the most squalid circumstances, how 
 can we expect their character to be Christian ? 
 
 We see daily more and more how inefficient
 
 Is England Christian? 193 
 
 is our Poor Law system, how inadequate our 
 methods of treating those who are in need of 
 help, whose souls and bodies are stunted for lack 
 both of material and spiritual food ; and if we 
 have a spark of manhood in us, we realise that 
 some real effort is necessary if the life and blood 
 of the country is to be put in the way of proper 
 development. But it is not sufficient to realise 
 this. Action is necessary. But how many of us 
 take anything more than an occasional interest 
 in such things ? 
 
 Plenty of plausible excuses, no doubt, will be 
 forthcoming from the individual for his own 
 apathy in the matter. I shall be told as I have 
 been told that it is all very regrettable and de- 
 plorable, but after all, it is Parliament's business 
 to look after the welfare of the country, and 
 that if Parliament neglects its duty, it is difficult 
 to see what is to be done, except in the way of 
 spasmodic and possibly ill-directed charity. 
 
 Well, I am no politician, but I think my 
 friends are right who say that this a matter for 
 Parliament's attention. But if it be true that 
 Parliament neglects this grave duty, does that 
 relieve us, as individuals, of our own responsi- 
 bility? Is not Parliament the representative of 
 the people ? Is not Parliament the expression of 
 the people's will of England's will? If England 
 had sufficient force of character to insist that 
 the politicians should stop mouthing futilities, 
 and should take up this question at once, could 
 
 N
 
 i94 What of To-Day? 
 
 any Parliament resist the unanimous demand? 
 No, blame Parliament if you will, but the country 
 remains responsible. 
 
 Other excuses have been made to me. "After 
 all," I have been told, "you must not be im- 
 patient. We are doing our best. For instance, 
 we are making vast strides in education " 
 
 Education ! Ah, yes, an important matter, 
 this education. And how are we educating our 
 boys and girls to-day? Not the poor only, but 
 the rich, for the education of both is of equal 
 urgency. 
 
 If we inquire into this question we shall find 
 that instead of correcting the evils of environment 
 by trying to develop, to draw out the best that 
 is in our poorer children, and to eradicate the 
 harm that miserable surroundings have already 
 done their immature minds, we hustle them 
 through one standard after another as quickly as 
 possible, and turn them adrift to fight the battle 
 of life at the very moment when they are least 
 fitted to cope with the world, when their minds 
 are dazed and bewildered with a few bits of 
 knowledge crammed pell-mell into their childish 
 brains, so that they are just fit to enjoy the 
 dubious delights of the moving pictures or the 
 penny dreadful. 
 
 Of the spiritual training of these children, 
 perhaps the less said the better. There is 
 now a great outcry against religious teaching 
 of any kind in the County Council schools.
 
 Is England Christian? 195 
 
 So that I suppose we shall soon arrive at a 
 time when religion will be altogether divorced 
 from education, and so long as a university 
 scholarship is occasionally won by a County 
 Council schoolboy, we shall be satisfied that we 
 have done our duty by him in every respect. 
 
 But is the rich man's son much better pro- 
 vided for? We hear a great deal nowadays about 
 the necessity for reform in our big Public Schools. 
 But what is the chief complaint alleged against 
 them? It is not, as might be supposed, that 
 they pay too little attention to the Christian 
 education of the boys, that the religious teaching 
 is perfunctory or neglected, that the morals of 
 the school are not so carefully looked after as 
 they should be. 
 
 No, the charge is that they are not " com- 
 mercial" enough, that they do not teach a boy 
 the things that will enable him to get on in 
 the world, that they do not turn out a sufficient 
 supply of sharp business men. Well, no doubt 
 it is an excellent thing to be a good business 
 man, but there are other things even more im- 
 portant, and one of them is to be a good 
 Christian. 
 
 But England is apparently inclined just now 
 to set a higher value on the good business man 
 than on the good Christian, and that is a signi- 
 ficant indication of her own character. She has 
 recognised that environment counts for much 
 in the formation of character, in the production
 
 i 9 6 What of To-Day? 
 
 of good citizens, in the moulding of her chil- 
 dren ; yet such efforts as she puts forth to 
 control that environment are all in the wrong 
 direction. 
 
 It is a sign, I say, of England's character 
 that Christianity plays so small a part in her 
 schemes for social reform, her political plans for 
 cajoling this or that section of voters. Prob- 
 lems are daily arising which, if considered 
 from the Christian standpoint, would cease to 
 be problems at all. Yet they are discussed, and 
 different solutions debated, as hotly as though 
 they had not been settled once for all two 
 thousand years ago. 
 
 I suppose I shall be excused of extravagance 
 if I affirm that the environment of the rich in 
 this country is as bad, morally, as that of the 
 poor. Yet anyone who takes the trouble to 
 examine the condition of things will, I think, 
 agree with that statement. The progress of me- 
 chanical invention alone has been such, during 
 the last fifty, and particularly the last twenty, 
 years as to make the surroundings of the wealthy 
 intolerably luxurious. They have been so pam- 
 pered, so petted, so glutted with comforts, that 
 it has required nothing less than a world-shaking 
 war to rouse them from sinking into a bottomless 
 sea of apathy and indolence. 
 
 There are others, again, whose wealth, they 
 flatter themselves, lies in their intellect. They 
 scorn the materialism of the age, as much as
 
 Is England Christian? 197 
 
 they scorn the essential truths of Christianity. 
 Such men create an atmosphere of religious 
 doubt and disbelief that is even more poisonous 
 than that spread about by the free-thinker. For 
 the lies they teach are half-truths. They take a 
 Christian doctrine, a Christian dogma, and pro- 
 claim that it is by no means wholly superstitious. 
 It contains, in fact, quite a respectable degree 
 of truth if it be interpreted in the right way, 
 which, needless to add, is their way. How many 
 are there to-day in this country whose minds 
 and souls have been led astray by the specious 
 misrepresentations of Christian Science, Theo- 
 sophy, and kindred "religions"? 
 
 I look around me and see the mad scramble 
 for money and pleasure among all classes in 
 this England of ours. I listen, and I hear only 
 a confused babel of voices, each proclaiming 
 it has a new truth to give to the world. Yet 
 England is still reckoned among the Christian 
 countries of the world. When shall we pause 
 to set our house in order ? Before England can 
 rightly call herself Christian again, she will need 
 a good spring-cleaning of the most thorough 
 and drastic description. The war is doing much 
 for us ; it is building character. Most of the 
 brave wounded men with whom I have come into 
 contact say: "Well, after my experience under 
 fire, life can never be quite what it was before." 
 Or else they will tell you: "When you are in 
 action you feel nothing but a worm, utterly and
 
 ig8 What of To-Day? 
 
 absolutely dependent on God, ashamed of your 
 past and strongly resolved, if you come out of 
 it all right, to make amends in the future." The 
 actual horrors of war will, with God's providence, 
 be seen by a comparatively small number of our 
 people. But is it too much to hope that the 
 lessons will not be lost on each one of us?
 
 XIX 
 
 SOCIALISM AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 SETTING aside the abuse which the party news- 
 papers deal out so lavishly to their political 
 opponents, I take it that there is no reason 
 why a good party man should not be a good 
 Christian. There is nothing, that is to say, or 
 rather there ought to be nothing, inherently 
 antagonistic between politics and Christianity. 
 Indeed that is a mild way of putting it. For 
 the two ought, in any Christian country, to 
 be run in double harness. 
 
 This being so, it is, I fancy, because Social- 
 ism is, or would like to be, a political force 
 that many worthy people are unable to under- 
 stand why an ardent Socialist should not also 
 be a good Christian. Such people will deprecate 
 any attack on Socialism from the religious point 
 of view. Socialism, they will urge, has not ne- 
 cessarily any connection with religion. It deals 
 solely with certain reforms in the economic and 
 social life of the community, and it is unjust 
 to the poor Socialist to brand him as an anti- 
 religious revolutionary, when he is in reality only 
 doing his best to promote, according to his lights, 
 the welfare of the poorer classes.
 
 200 What of To-Day ? 
 
 So strongly is this view held among a certain 
 section of entirely worthy people, that there has 
 actually come into existence a hybrid monstrosity 
 which calls itself Christian Socialism. And this 
 aspect of the movement renders it very difficult 
 to deal faithfully with the real article. For these 
 self-styled Socialists, actuated themselves by 
 what no doubt are noble philanthropic motives, 
 reject with scorn and derision any adverse criti- 
 cism of the theory and practice of Socialism. 
 They declare, in language about the meaning 
 of which there can be no mistake, that Socialism, 
 if not a religious movement, is at any rate akin 
 to religion ; that it is a system of philosophy 
 which is the outcome of the religious spirit, 
 and that anyone who calls these statements into 
 question must be denounced as narrow-minded, 
 bigoted, and untruthful. 
 
 If such individual Socialists, who assure us 
 that their religion is in no way tainted by 
 their Socialism, were the recognised leaders 
 and propagandists of the international move- 
 ment, there might possibly be some hope 
 of salvation for Socialism, but, as a matter 
 of fact, these well-intentioned gentlemen are at 
 the head of no section of Socialism whatever. 
 They ought rather to be called what we ourselves 
 are Social Reformers. If in any sense they 
 do belong to the socialistic movement, they are 
 its free lances. They do not count. 
 
 Before they can be allowed the right to speak
 
 Socialism and Christianity 201 
 
 in the name of Socialism, they must enlist and 
 serve under its flag, and prove their claim to 
 speak authoritatively in its name. They must 
 further, as Socialists, accept the whole of the 
 socialist teaching and must not pick out bits of 
 its creed, here and there, as suits them, and 
 then fancy that they are in a position to assure 
 others of the harmlessness of the whole of its 
 doctrine. I have written and spoken a great 
 deal on this particular subject, and if I have 
 let isolated individuals severely alone, I have 
 not omitted to cite recognised authorities in 
 support of my contention that Socialism, as an 
 international movement and in its broad aspect, 
 is not merely non-religious, but anti-religious. 
 
 I have been called slipshod, bigoted, shallow, 
 and narrow-minded, but abuse cannot alter facts, 
 such facts as may be ascertained not only from 
 the classic, as well as the street literature put 
 forth and published in the name of Socialism, 
 but also from the men of flesh and blood who 
 form the rank and file of this advancing army. 
 Abroad, as at home, I have made it my business, 
 whenever occasion offered, to get into conver- 
 sation with Socialists among the labouring classes. 
 In this way I have had quite exceptional chances 
 of satisfying myself about the effects of Socialism 
 upon the religious Character and practice of its 
 most ardent votaries. 
 
 The impression left upon my mind, in practi- 
 cally every instance I have come across, has
 
 202 What of To-Day ? 
 
 been anything but favourable to Socialism as a 
 going religious concern. I could cite innumer- 
 able examples, proving up to the hilt that the 
 thorough-going Socialist finds no place in his 
 life for religion. Oftener than not he will tell 
 you that, after becoming a Socialist, he has 
 dropped religion altogether. I wish I could 
 think and say otherwise. In this sad business I 
 should love to discover that I was mistaken. But 
 in no part of the country, in no diocese, and in 
 no parish of it, have I yet been told by priest 
 or parson or people that my verdict upon 
 Socialism in its relation to religion is contra- 
 dicted by experience. In order rightly to un- 
 derstand the real attitude of Socialism towards 
 religion we must, however, examine it not 
 merely in theory, but more especially in prac- 
 tice ; in a word, we must take it in the concrete 
 as a great international system with its public 
 principles, its avowed aims, its recognised leaders 
 and apostles, its vast propagandist organisation, 
 its mob orators, its foul literature. I print below 
 two letters which were published some time ago 
 in one of our provincial newspapers and which 
 were sent to me at the time for reply. 
 
 " SIR, I am enjoying the correspondence 
 on the above subject in your columns. I 
 am afraid that some of my comrades would 
 mislead your readers by insinuating that there 
 is something in common between Socialism and
 
 Socialism and Christianity 203 
 
 Christianity. There must be no flirting with 
 Christianity under the guise of Christian Social- 
 ism, for no man or woman can be a Christian 
 and a Socialist at the same time. Because 
 Socialism stands for universal wealth, Christ for 
 universal poverty; Socialism stands for this world, 
 Christ for the next world ; Socialism stands for 
 courage, Christ for humility and meekness; 
 Socialism stands for the human race, Christ for 
 God's chosen people ; Socialism stands for equal 
 justice, Christ for intolerance and bigotry ; 
 Socialism stands for human reason, Christ for 
 faith in God ; Socialism stands for human 
 knowledge, Christ for revelation from God. On 
 all these important points Christ's teachings are 
 in distinct antagonism to Socialism. 
 
 " Yours, etc. 
 
 This is candid at any rate, and expresses the 
 Socialist's point of view to perfection. But the 
 following is even stronger : 
 
 "SiR, You deserve the hearty thanks of all 
 Socialists for the courageous way in which you are 
 allowing a discussion on the differences we have 
 with Christians. Without apologising, I will give 
 your readers some reasons why we, as Socialists, 
 reject Christianity. We reject Christianity be- 
 cause it is the evangel of self-abnegation instead 
 of self-realisation, self-obliteration instead of self-
 
 204 What of To-Day? 
 
 assertion, also because it glorifies altruism, 
 duty, humility, submission, contentment, and 
 the other slave virtues. We believe Christianity 
 to be the cause of the decadence of the 
 common people, and for the existence of this 
 respectable barbarism erroneously described as 
 'civilisation.' Civilisation is not worth having 
 where the wants of the individual are not 
 satisfied. For what is civilisation if it brings 
 not happiness? For this we reject Christ- 
 ianity. 
 
 "We reject Christianity because we think it 
 is responsible for this pseudo-civilisation, with 
 its corroding charity, its cant, hypocrisy, wage 
 slavery, the sybaritic splendour of the parasites, 
 and the squalid misery of the producer. We 
 believe Christianity to be a curse and incubus 
 on the minds of the mutable many. For this 
 we reject it. 
 
 "We repudiate Christianity and all other 
 theorems that quail under the stern, staunch, 
 steadfast gaze of reason and scientific analysis. 
 We reject it because its devotees have ever 
 been the enemies of progress and the proleta- 
 riat ; because it is founded on fiction, not fact 
 blindfold belief, not judgment, knowledge, or 
 reason. 
 
 'We reject it because it demoralises the 
 minds of the demi-damned, the workers, chloro- 
 forms the conceptions of womankind, and con- 
 fuses and confounds the brains of the young.
 
 Socialism and Christianity 205 
 
 Christianity is the gospel for rainbow-chasers, 
 snobocrats, sucklings, slaves, and sycophants. 
 
 "Yours, etc. 
 
 I can fancy the dear good Christian Socialist's 
 distress at reading such letters as these. How 
 he would wring his hands and protest very 
 bitterly against the writers ! 
 
 "Indeed, my dear Father," I can hear him 
 saying, "these people you quote are quite mis- 
 taken ; they haven't grasped what Christianity is 
 or what Socialism is ; they are utterly wrong- 
 headed. You must surely admit that." 
 
 I do. But I also recognise that we must 
 take Socialism and judge of it by its effects 
 upon such writers as the two correspondents 
 quoted above, who, moreover, are repre- 
 sentative of scores of thousands among our 
 toiling fellow-countrymen. And I would say 
 something further. The Socialist of this stamp 
 may be mistaken, wrong-headed what you will 
 but he is a solid fact not a shadow to be dis- 
 sipated by the light of any watered-down theory 
 of Socialism. And if the Christian Socialist 
 complacently dismisses such men as "extrem- 
 ists," may I remind him that in revolutionary 
 times it is the extremist who is very apt to 
 get his own way in the long run. He rises to 
 power on the shoulders of moderate men, who, 
 too late, find what a monster they have brought
 
 206 What of To-Day? 
 
 to life, and all their own timid and temperate 
 counsels are swept away like chaff before the 
 wind. 
 
 Does not all history confirm that lesson? 
 And I solemnly warn these Christian Socialists 
 that they are lending their support to a move- 
 ment, which, if it should ever prove successful, 
 will assuredly claim them as its first victims. They 
 are incurring the responsibility of directly aiding 
 to establish a system of society whose inevitable 
 result would be the destruction of that Christ- 
 ianity which they profess to hold so dear. 
 
 For my part, I can appreciate the Socialist, 
 and, much as I abhor his views, I can at least 
 understand the frank expression of them, But 
 the Christian Socialist I can neither appreciate 
 nor understand. To the Socialist we are under 
 a debt of gratitude for forcing us to pause and 
 study the social wrongs of the comrade class, 
 and also for setting us a noble example as how 
 to work whole-heartedly for a cause in which 
 its advocate believes. It is not in social revolu- 
 tion but in social reformation that we must put 
 our trust.
 
 I. TOPSY-TURVYISM 
 
 I HAVE often been puzzled to know why those 
 very wonderful young men who are so con- 
 stantly starting new movements in literature 
 and art under some such vague terminology 
 as Futurism, Cubism, Vertiginism and so on, 
 should find it necessary not merely to ignore 
 religion that would perhaps be intelligible 
 but actually to insist on irreligion as being es- 
 sential to the right practising of their novel 
 principles. Why should a revolution in art 
 forms necessarily imply an abandonment of our 
 religious ideas ? Such revolutions, not quite 
 so hare-brained, perhaps, but far -reaching 
 enough, have occurred many times in the past, 
 but I cannot recall any previous school of art 
 attacking religion as such, or making the 
 abandonment of religion a sine qua non of its 
 own existence. 
 
 Various solutions of this puzzle might be 
 hazarded. An easy way out would be to write 
 these "pioneers" down as insane, and so not 
 worth noticing. Or again, it may be said that 
 since their intention is to make a clean sweep 
 
 207
 
 2o8 What of To-Day? 
 
 of the past, religion must go into the dust- 
 bin, with all the other musty "shibboleths' 
 of the centuries. But then that is hardly logi- 
 cal, for religion is a very vital thing, and is 
 essentially, for each one of us, a question of 
 the moment and of the future. 
 
 On the whole, the conclusion I have come 
 to on the matter strikes me as being the most 
 reasonable, r though perhaps the most saddening, 
 of all. These wise and wonderful young men, 
 I take it and, indeed, we have it on their 
 own authority are out to make a noise in the 
 world, to attract attention and to win a success, 
 which they could not otherwise hope for, by 
 making themselves as bizarre and grotesque as 
 possible. But that in itself is not enough. 
 Like all self-constituted leaders, they not only 
 wish to make a splash, they also require fol- 
 lowers. And they hope to gain sympathy for 
 their incongruous and ignorant ideas on art 
 and literature by pandering to the world's 
 present impatience of any form of religious 
 restraint. 
 
 By proclaiming that religion is to exist no 
 more, they calculate, with a considerable amount 
 of worldly cunning, that their aims will be 
 viewed with interest and sympathy by that 
 large number of people who want to find some 
 excuse for doing without God. 
 
 Such people are alarmingly common in the 
 world to-day. Some of them try to satisfy their
 
 Who Wants Religion? 209 
 
 consciences by following after new and strange 
 gods and philosophies, some are openly and 
 sheerly indifferent to any other life but the one 
 they live, and some are seeking desperately for 
 "proofs" that God does not exist. But in the 
 end it all comes to this : that a terribly large 
 number of men and women want to do away 
 with religion altogether, in order that they may 
 live their own vicious lives and obey their own 
 disordered instincts without having to bear even 
 the silent reproach of the empty church in the 
 next street. 
 
 The old Puritans, as we have often been re- 
 minded, were so saturated with their peculiar 
 ideas on the subject of happiness and godliness 
 that they suppressed with an unsparing hand 
 even the most innocent forms of recreation. 
 They could not bear to see their neighbours 
 happy or amused, and no man was accounted 
 virtuous unless he went about with a long face 
 and a sombre garb, and took no pleasure, how- 
 ever harmless, in mundane things. 
 
 We are in a fair way, it seems to me, to be- 
 come like the Puritans turned upside down. 
 Men and women of the world not only are in- 
 different to religion, but they want it put out 
 of their lives altogether. They would not be 
 thought intolerant that would be bad form 
 but they are doing all they can, in a negative 
 sort of way, to shove religion aside, to think 
 about it as little as possible, and to talk about 
 o
 
 210 What of To-Day? 
 
 it even less. If, by a rare chance, the question 
 of religion crops up in conversation, how often 
 do you hear any intelligent discussion on it? 
 Religion, to these people, means less than 
 nothing, because, horrible as it sounds, they 
 have no desire to be reminded that they have 
 a Creator, a Master to Whom they owe a very 
 real obedience. They want, in fact, to do 
 without God. 
 
 More horrible still, they want the rest of the 
 world to do without Him. While they see men 
 still leading earnest Christian lives around them, 
 while they see others still going to church on 
 Sunday, they do not feel wholly comfortable or at 
 ease. They want everybody to be in the same 
 position as themselves, with no priests to worry 
 them or interfere, however ineffectively, with 
 the good time they are having. In short, they 
 do not wish to be reminded that a day of 
 reckoning is bound to come as surely as their 
 own empty and frivolous lives must have an 
 end. 
 
 In this, as in so many other things, they 
 are worse off, spiritually, even than those Egyp- 
 tians of old who in the midst of their wildest 
 carousals caused a representation of Death to 
 be carried through the banqueting hall to re- 
 mind the careless revellers of the fate that 
 inevitably awaited each and all of them. Hard 
 things, I fear, would be said of the good taste 
 of a modern host who treated his guests to
 
 Who Wants Religion? 211 
 
 such an unwelcome reminder unless indeed, 
 so curious are the workings of a diseased mind, 
 the thing should be treated as a novel form of 
 entertainment for the jaded diners and hailed 
 with acclamation as an infinitely clever and 
 amusing interlude. 
 
 Well, these people certainly do not want 
 religion, and they do not want other people to 
 want it either. What are we to do with them? 
 We cannot reason with them. We cannot speak 
 to them of Christ, of their duty to God, of their 
 duty to others. They scarcely understand what 
 you mean by the divinity of Christ, they do 
 not acknowledge the Almighty, and they have 
 no thought of duty in any shape or form. They 
 would stare at you uncomprehendingly if you 
 were to talk to them of their immortal souls. 
 
 They have no thought and no care for the 
 future, they want no draft upon Heaven, they 
 are satisfied with the good things of this life, 
 the luxury and pleasure of the moment, and 
 they will not be bored by any talk on a subject 
 which means nothing to them. Living in a tainted 
 atmosphere, their whole being has become 
 vitiated. They have accommodated themselves 
 only too well to the surroundings which they 
 have themselves helped to create, and their ap- 
 petite for the passing things of time and sense 
 grows with what it feeds upon. They will 
 thank you, in short, not to disturb them at the 
 troughs from which they swill.
 
 212 What of To-Day ? 
 
 Well, they have got to be roused from their 
 miserable and animal existence sooner or later, 
 and we can only pray that their awakening 
 may come in this life and not in the next. 
 But from the practical point of view there is 
 one thing that all of us, who believe and know 
 that man is something better than a beast, can 
 do to counteract the unholy influence which 
 the example of such lives has on others. The 
 world is full of sheep which follow unthink- 
 ingly whither they see those in front leading. 
 Well, is it not the -duty of such of us who still 
 hold by the truths of religion, who understand 
 how inalienably we belong to God and how 
 absolutely we depend upon Him, is it not our 
 duty, I say, to counteract such evil examples 
 by living up to our own principles more firmly 
 and rigorously? The slackness of believers is 
 a shocking thing in this present day. For how 
 can we have the face to protest against the 
 active wrong-doers with our tongues, if our own 
 lives do not bear witness that our religious be- 
 liefs are something more than intellectual? If 
 the world to-day insists that it does not want 
 religion, that it is tired of the old bogies and 
 the worn-out superstitions, and that it means 
 to get along without God for the future, how 
 are we to retort with any effect unless we can 
 show that, by holding fast to that source of 
 strength which is not of this world, we are 
 veritably made better and loftier creatures than
 
 Who Wants Religion? 213 
 
 those poor fools of whom I have been speaking ? 
 A man is judged by his fellow-men, not by his 
 words but by his acts, not by his professions of 
 goodness but by his manner of living. And in 
 such an age as this, more than any other, we 
 are called upon to try to do a little better than 
 our best, to raise rather than lower our moral 
 standard. We are accustoming ourselves, un- 
 happily, to living more softly and luxuriously than 
 our forefathers did. We are making concessions 
 to the weaker side of our nature all along the 
 line. And men and women do things to-day 
 without a reproach which even fifty years ago 
 would have stamped them as hardly fit associates 
 for decent people. 
 
 I do not say that there is anything actually 
 sinful in many modern fashions, such as the 
 craze for dining out every evening at restaurants, 
 and similar habits, in themselves apparently 
 harmless. But the accumulated effect of many 
 of these worldly pleasures is bad directly for 
 ourselves and indirectly for others. We lose 
 touch with spiritual things, we come more and 
 more to accept the standard of morality set by 
 the world, till in the end there is nothing to 
 distinguish us from the crowd of flesh-ridden 
 worldlings who avowedly care for nothing but 
 the gratification of their lusts, and whose whole 
 life is an implicit denial of the existence of God. 
 
 I am not urging my fellow-countrymen to 
 go about talking religion or trying to get up
 
 214 What of To-Day ? 
 
 arguments and discussions on Atheism or Ag- 
 nosticism or any other queer "ism" that may 
 be in the air just now. I only ask them to 
 live up to their religion, to show by their daily 
 life and conduct that the divinity of Christ is 
 something more than a mere phrase for them, 
 and that they refuse to conform to the easy- 
 going morality of a world that is doing its best 
 to forget the truth once revealed to it. 
 
 " Live while you live, the sacred preacher cries, 
 And give to God each moment as it flies; 
 Lord, in my life let both united be, 
 I live to pleasure if I live to Thee." 
 
 II. CURRENT CANT 
 
 THERE is a great deal of what I am very sorely 
 tempted to call affected ignorance with regard 
 to spiritual matters abroad in the world to-day. 
 I am constantly meeting people who in their own 
 estimation are very earnest inquirers after truth. 
 They are as busy as bees in seeking to answer 
 the old conundrum: "Whence came we and 
 whither do we go?' They ransack libraries 
 for old volumes of out- worn philosophies, they 
 flock to hear the latest exponent of a brand- 
 new theory of life, they wear out their brains 
 in trying to discover the esoteric meaning of 
 pagan myths, and in the end they are just as 
 wise, if a trifle more confused, than when they 
 started.
 
 Who Wants Religion? 215 
 
 Is it not odd that about the only book which 
 they are too clever to consult, the only volume 
 which they leave undisturbed upon its shelf, 
 is the record of the doings and sayings of 
 Christ ? Of all the religious teachers the world 
 has ever known, Christ is the most definite and 
 the One Who leaves us in least doubt as to 
 our origin and destination. I can only surmise 
 that He is too plain, too simple and straight- 
 forward to be accepted as a satisfying guide 
 by these folk. They want something more com- 
 plex, something a little more brain-worrying. 
 They will not, in fact, "become as little chil- 
 dren " and be content with a clear explanation 
 of what they insist is a very abstruse puzzle. 
 They have an intellect, it appears, and to be 
 told in plain terms that they come from God 
 and that they go to God, and that their work 
 in this world is to fit them for so great and 
 wonderful a destiny, is to insult that intellect. 
 The fact is such people are not seeking the 
 truth at all. It is not religion they want. They 
 are playing with their minds, making a game 
 of the universe, exercising their brains in a 
 problem which for them is a purely metaphysical 
 one and has no actual relation to the practical 
 affairs of life. 
 
 And that is just the difference between real 
 religion and this dilettante dabbling in all the 
 grotesque speculations with which man has in 
 the past amused himself. Philosophy is all very
 
 216 What of To-Day? 
 
 well in its place, but philosophy can never usurp 
 the functions of religion. The philosopher is 
 a theorist, but the truly religious man is the 
 most practical of all men. He has a very shrewd 
 idea of what he is out for and he means to 
 get it. And ought not that to be the attitude 
 of everyone who calls himself a Christian ? Yet 
 in a nominally Christian country like our own, 
 we find a shockingly large number of men who 
 still profess to be doubtful of what their spiritual 
 aim in life should be. 
 
 " I know whence I came and whither I go," 
 said Our Lord. And any follower of His, ignor- 
 ant though he may be of many things, must 
 at least, one would think, realise that he is not 
 ignorant of this important truth. How can we 
 make any spiritual progress at all, indeed, unless 
 we know where we stand in this regard? We 
 should be like a ship that has lost its rudder, 
 drifting helplessly hither and thither at the 
 mercy of the waves, and that I fear is the 
 position of but too many in the world to-day. 
 
 It is not only too common to hear nowadays 
 -the complaint, ''Yes, but where do I come in? 
 Who cares for me? If I were to slip out of 
 creation who would miss me ? I should be no 
 more than the leaf off the tree, a grain of sand 
 less from the great shore, a mere bubble, a 
 drop of water sucked into the ocean again." 
 That is true enough from the world's point of 
 view. You and I will not be missed, when we
 
 Who Wants Religion? 217 
 
 leave this earth. Nobody is missed because no- 
 body is wanted, and there are plenty of others 
 waiting to fill our places. But the result of this 
 mental attitude is a sort of despairing feeling 
 that we are of no use to the world and that 
 the world is of no use to us. And that is why 
 we are so constantly hearing of suicides for the 
 most trivial of reasons. Men are trying to get 
 something out of this world which God has not 
 put into it, and when they fail, they get dis- 
 heartened, or rebellious, and they say, u Better 
 to end it all. Things can't be worse than they 
 are here, no matter where I go." 
 
 That is want of religion, want of Christianity. 
 A Christian possesses at least this one great 
 certainty that he came from God and that he 
 will return to God. He can hold fast to that 
 certainty, however things go with him. Such 
 a faith has no place for despair, and if that 
 faith had a little more prominence given to it 
 in these days than is unhappily the case, what 
 a far finer and altogether happier place to live 
 in this world would be. 
 
 What does all the current cant that is in- 
 dulged in concerning the shackles of religion, 
 the fetters of superstition and the rest of it 
 really amount to ? The man who has got rid of 
 his religion or thinks he has talks proudly of 
 his liberty of thought, of his independence, of 
 his freedom from the tyranny of a dogmatic 
 priesthood. Never, he will tell you, has he felt
 
 2i8 What of To-Day? 
 
 himself so much a man as since he has re- 
 nounced the foolish teachings of his childhood. 
 But what is it he has really attained ? Instead 
 of the spiritual liberty which was to be his des- 
 tiny, he has set up as his ideal the licence 
 allowed the beasts of the field, who live accord- 
 ing to their nature. The man without religion 
 boasts that he too will live " according to his 
 nature." But he lies when he makes that boast. 
 He does not live according to his true nature. 
 For man is not merely an animal. He has a 
 higher and a lower nature, and the kind of person 
 who gives the go-by to religion is deliberately 
 developing his lower nature and neglecting the 
 higher and spiritual side. 
 
 Let us import a little common sense into 
 this question. Even the most materially minded 
 will acknowledge that a man who does not 
 exercise his muscles will soon degenerate into 
 a flabby mass of flesh unfit even to take his 
 place among the animals. If anyone wants 
 a useful body, he must take care of it. If 
 he wants to be healthy, he must obey the 
 rules of health. If he wants to possess a sound 
 thinking-machine he must exercise his brain. 
 And similarly, if he wants to grow in spirituality, 
 to become, in other words, something more than 
 a thinking animal, he must cultivate that part 
 of him which is spiritual. "That is all very 
 well," the man who is trying to do without 
 religion will say, "but if I am to cultivate my
 
 Who Wants Religion? 219 
 
 spiritual nature, I don't see why I shouldn't do 
 it in my own way. For one thing, my way is 
 a much more pleasant way than yours. I don't 
 hamper myself with any uncomfortable restric- 
 tions. I give fair play to every side of me. I 
 don't believe everything I am told, and I cer- 
 tainly don't intend to put my intellect into 
 bonds to please any man." 
 
 Just so. Yet, to take what seems to me a 
 very good analogy, what would be thought of 
 a youth, just entering the Navy, whose first 
 proceeding should be to object to the discipline 
 and regulations of the service ? He might 
 make out a very fair case for refusing to do 
 this or that particular duty which was demanded 
 of him. He might object to salute his superior 
 officer on the ground that to do so could not 
 possibly make him any more efficient in the 
 knowledge of how to handle a ship or a fleet 
 in the face of the enemy. And, on purely 
 theoretical grounds, he might be right. But 
 one thing is certain he would be of no use 
 whatever to the Navy. 
 
 I sometimes think we are like a lot of naughty 
 school children who think it a fine thing to break 
 the rules of their school and who imagine that, 
 by defying authority, they are showing their 
 independence and proving their freedom. A 
 good caning is generally the end of such 
 little outbursts, and if in the world-school our 
 follies and rebellion against our Teacher are left
 
 220 What of To-Day? 
 
 unrebuked for a time, is not that merely because 
 His patience is inexhaustible and He wishes us 
 to turn to Him for help of our own free will? 
 The fact is that the spirit of the world is as 
 pagan to-day as ever it was. In one way or 
 another, however clearly disguised, the world is 
 still trying to do without God, without religion, 
 without spirituality. Our impatience of disci- 
 pline, our impatience of self-restraint, our im- 
 patience of all authority are merely symptoms of 
 our refusal to acknowledge God. We will have 
 no master set over us, either here or hereafter. 
 In our own conceit, we will be free, lords of 
 the universe and monarchs of creation, and the 
 only reason why men are trying more and more 
 to get away from religion, from Christianity, is 
 because they wish to escape the restraint which 
 religion asks them, in the Name of their Creator, 
 to place upon themselves and their senses. 
 
 III. SPIRITUAL SNACKS 
 
 TOUCHING this matter of religion, I should 
 be sorry to give anyone the impression that I 
 believe most people to be either irreligious or 
 non - religious. On the contrary,* I think the 
 majority of mankind do, in some sort, realise 
 the necessity of religion. The trouble is that 
 they do not actually want it with their whole 
 heart and soul, as they want, for instance, the 
 good things of this world. They have always 
 time to spare for the business that will bring
 
 Who Wants Religion? 221 
 
 them money, or the pleasure that will help them 
 to an exciting hour. But they cannot work up 
 any enthusiasm over religion, and if in the rush 
 and hurry of modern life something has to be 
 put aside or go to the wall altogether, you will 
 find that, in most cases, it is religion that suffers. 
 
 To such people their religion is so mixed up 
 with Sunday that they have little time for it 
 during the week. And the man who punc- 
 tiliously observes his Sunday duties, while his 
 neighbours are openly and flagrantly ignoring 
 theirs, is apt to plume himself on being rather a 
 fine fellow, spiritually, and would certainly feel 
 extremely hurt and astonished if he were told 
 that his soul is starving for want of the daily 
 nourishment which he refuses it. 
 
 For religion ought to be the first considera- 
 tion, not the last, in the lives of all of us. How 
 can it be possible for men who pay lip-service to 
 their Creator, who acknowledge the claims of 
 Christ, to relegate God to a back seat in their 
 souls, where they can pay Him a careless visit 
 once a week, forgetting all about His existence 
 during the interval? 
 
 People of this sort take their religion as a 
 sort of hors d'ceuvre to the more serious business 
 of the week. They like it in the form of a few 
 spiritual snacks thrown to them, so to speak, 
 across the counter. There are people who re- 
 gard it as a sort of disagreeable necessity, inex- 
 tricably bound up with church-going, a kind of
 
 222 What of To-Day? 
 
 medicine to be swallowed in homoeopathic doses, 
 so that they hardly know whether they have had 
 it or not. And there are some people, again, 
 who cannot say their prayers till they have got 
 their morocco - bound prayer-books with them, 
 and who can only pray in one church and in 
 one seat. What life, what virility can there be 
 in such mechanical religion as that ? If we really 
 wanted religion, if we were steeped in it and 
 saturated with it, it would be to us as the very 
 foundation of our life, its centre of gravity, its 
 source of strength and health and beauty. If 
 we had got hold of the true spirit of religion, 
 we should not be content with a perfunctory 
 once-a-week acknowledgment of its claims. It 
 would inspire us daily, hourly, in every action 
 of our lives. 
 
 I notice that the power of prayer is not so 
 derided to-day as it was thirty years ago. When 
 the leaders of materialism were at the height 
 of their fame, they laid it down dogmatically 
 that, while prayer might bring some sort of 
 subjective consolation to the weak-minded, it 
 could not effect anything of itself. Well, even 
 science has shifted its position since those days, 
 and the power of prayer as a real force, quite 
 apart from its religious significance, is now 
 coming to be recognised more and more. This 
 recognition of the value of prayer masquerades, 
 it is true, under many quaint forms, but it is 
 something to have it recognised at all.
 
 Who Wants Religion? 223 
 
 But here again one must be on one's guard 
 against the delusion that to gabble a certain 
 form of words, without thinking of their meaning 
 or without any intention of praying, is prayer 
 in the real sense of the term. Prayer is one of 
 the greatest forces in the world, but it must be 
 the genuine article. Substitutes and imitations 
 are no good. 
 
 Those people, therefore, who fancy they are 
 doing excellently from the religious point of 
 view, because they go down on their knees 
 every morning and evening and say their prayers, 
 would be well advised to look into the matter 
 a little more closely. And if they are honest 
 with themselves, they may be surprised to find 
 how much time they waste in prayer which is 
 not prayer at all. The spending of long hours 
 in prayer is not in itself any proof of piety. In 
 such cases I want to see the fruit of prayer. 
 Are such people less critical of their neigh- 
 bours ? Are they more generous in their views ? 
 Are they more conscientious about paying 
 their bills ? Are they living up to the spirit of 
 religion ? 
 
 If not, they may have spent a long time in 
 church, but they have not been long at prayer. 
 You have to translate prayer into self-conquest, 
 self-reverence, self-determination, to be just and 
 kind and generous to your neighbour. That is 
 the kind of religion we want in the world. It 
 is not the hours spent on your knees, not the
 
 224 What of To-Day? 
 
 number of hymns sung, not the amount of 
 Sunday clothes in your wardrobe that counts, but 
 the amount of fine Christian example that you 
 give, built on the lines laid down by Christ, 
 studied at the foot of the Cross. The man who 
 is true to his religion will not be found want- 
 ing in his duty towards his king and his coun- 
 try, or towards all those with whom he comes 
 into contact in the daily course of his business. 
 I desire to see not only the non-religious and 
 the irreligious and the indifferent turning again 
 towards Christ, but I also wish to see those 
 who are still outwardly steadfast showing more 
 enthusiasm, more grit, in the practice of religion. 
 Nowadays, men seem to be afraid of standing 
 erect on their feet and stiffening their backs 
 and fighting for all they are worth for what 
 they believe to be true. And it is just because 
 we are so back-boneless, so half-hearted in reli- 
 gion that we are getting so soft and flabby in 
 all the affairs of our daily life. How many 
 men, I wonder, are there in this country who 
 will let their religion interfere with their busi- 
 ness ! Why, the wise men of the world have 
 even invented a special code of morals to be 
 applied to business transactions, so that a man 
 who looks upon himself as the soul of honour 
 outside his office, will not hesitate to stoop to 
 incredibly mean and sordid trickery where a 
 business deal is concerned. Oh, the pity 
 of it !
 
 Who Wants Religion? 225 
 
 That is where religion comes in, and that is 
 where you will find the difference between the 
 man who is genuinely religious and the man 
 for whom religion means little more than a 
 Sunday church-parade. It all comes back to 
 the old question of doing one's duty, whether 
 to God or to one's neighbour or to oneself. 
 The man who acts up to the spirit of religion, 
 who follows Christ in his heart as well as in 
 outward seeming, is the sort of man who can 
 be trusted inside his office as well as outside 
 of it. 
 
 That is the sort of man we want in England 
 and in the Empire to-day the man who puts 
 religion first and allows no comfortable con- 
 ventions to interfere with what his conscience 
 tells him is the right thing to do. But where 
 are we to find such men ? One does not wish 
 to exaggerate, but the humiliating truth is that 
 most men are so little proud of their religion 
 that they take every opportunity of putting it 
 on one side or of endeavouring to lock it up 
 in a water-tight compartment all to itself. 
 
 We are constantly being adjured as a nation 
 to "wake up." In all directions, we are told, 
 England is being overtaken and outstripped by 
 her competitors, that we are growing careless 
 and lazy, and that we are fast becoming the 
 laughing-stock of the world for our slackness 
 and inefficiency. That there is a certain mea- 
 sure of truth in these allegations I will not take 
 
 p
 
 226 What of To-Day? 
 
 it upon myself to deny, but I cannot sec that 
 the schemes proposed to remedy this state of 
 things are much to the purpose. For, to tell 
 the truth, they are mostly superficial ; they deal 
 with effects when they should be going to the 
 root of the evil ; they are trying to allay the 
 symptoms without getting at the cause of the 
 disease. 
 
 What our country needs is more religion, 
 and the only way, seemingly, it can get more 
 religion is by teaching its children what religion 
 means. We talk a great deal about duty and 
 patriotism and self-sacrifice and the beauty of 
 citizenship, and we have laid in quite a stock 
 of fine phrases which are trotted out in the 
 Press on every possible and impossible occasion. 
 But what do these things signify, what mean- 
 ing can they convey to those who have never 
 been taught that the duty we owe to our fellows 
 rests on a deeper and firmer foundation than 
 the mere preservation of a society on strictly 
 utilitarian grounds? Not unnaturally, the citizen 
 who is told that he owes a duty to the State is 
 apt to be inconveniently curious concerning the 
 nature and origin of his obligation. And when 
 he finds that it apparently springs from some 
 presumed social contract between himself and 
 the rest of the community, can we wonder that 
 he takes a far keener interest in the debt which 
 the State owes him than in his own duty to- 
 wards the State?
 
 Who Wants Religion? 227 
 
 I am, myself, among those who condemn 
 this latter-day insistence on personal "rights" 
 and "privileges" to the neglect of correspond- 
 ing duties and obligations. But I recognise 
 and I think it is high time that we all should 
 recognise that if you 'attempt to run a State 
 without religion, if you base your demands from 
 your neighbour on purely human and utilitarian 
 grounds, you are building on a shifting and a 
 sandy soil, which can never stand the weight 
 you are putting on it. And tinkering with the 
 structure will never make the foundation more 
 secure. 
 
 The wise man builds his house upon a rock, 
 and it is upon the rock of religion that our 
 modern society needs to be rebuilt, if it is 
 to stand firm and four-square against the 
 gathering forces of disruption and disunion.
 
 XXI 
 
 "THE SIMPLE LIFE FOR ME" 
 
 SOCIETY has got a new craze, new in form, that is 
 to say, but not in substance. For the return 
 to the Simple Life, which is what Society just 
 now believes it is craving for, is a fancy or 
 whim common to most ages in which an over- 
 dose of pleasure has bred ennui, and a surfeit 
 of luxury has produced a temporary reaction. 
 
 Of course, there are different forms of the 
 Simple Life. The millionaire, for example, 
 could hardly be expected to enjoy, even for a 
 week, the simplicity of life as lived by the farm 
 labourer ; and the pampered Society woman 
 would not be likely to take kindly to the hard- 
 working existence of the village house-wife who 
 has to keep her home clean, look after half-a- 
 dozen active youngsters, cook meals for the 
 whole family, and provide them with sufficient 
 food and clothing on a few shillings a week. 
 
 No, Society is not in search of such rude 
 simplicity as that. To lead the Simple Life as 
 Society understands it requires in the first 
 place quite a respectable amount of money. It 
 is not, in fact, a poor man's recreation. To 
 
 228
 
 "The Simple Life for Me" 229 
 
 start with, one must buy a caravan or cottage, 
 the initial expense of which counts for nothing 
 in comparison with the sum that has then to 
 be spent upon them to make them habitable. 
 For this particular form of the Simple Life in 
 reality is nothing but a variant of the vapid, 
 useless, and luxurious existence which is common 
 to so many mansions in Mayfair at the present 
 day. The Simple Life, in short, is the Life of 
 Pleasure transplanted from the town to the 
 country ; and the craze for it is nothing but 
 another form of that craving for new emotions 
 of any kind, characteristic of our plutocratic 
 generation. With the coming of the motor-car 
 the week-end habit was enormously extended, 
 and from that habit, in a large measure, has 
 been evolved this fantastic desire for an arti- 
 ficial and extremely unprimitive simplicity of 
 life. 
 
 When, I wonder, will such people realise 
 that the Simple Life is not a matter of living 
 in the town or the country, in a palace or a 
 hovel, in an office, or a farm-house ; but rather 
 that it is a question of the inner spiritual exist- 
 ence of a man. In this, as in almost everything 
 else, we see the symptoms of that hopeless 
 materialism which, like a canker, is eating its 
 way so terribly into the national vitals. It 
 is pathetic to watch the efforts of men and 
 women, worn out and wearied with their round 
 of joyless pleasure, to escape from their unhappy
 
 What of To-Day? 
 
 existence ; still more pathetic is it that these 
 blas6 voluptuaries should fancy that by changing 
 their surroundings they can escape from them- 
 selves and their own shrivelled souls. 
 
 Yet even the most materially-minded of us 
 can, if we like, lead a stern and simple life 
 amid the most profuse luxury. Marcus Aurelius 
 found it possible amid all the splendours of the 
 Imperial Court of Rome. And what the pagan 
 sceptic of old could do, cannot a modern 
 Englishman contrive to accomplish ? But then 
 the Roman Emperor had his ideal, such as it 
 was, which he tried to live up to, and nowadays 
 many of us have not even that. 
 
 The truth is, that the Simple Life is, in 
 reality, nothing but the Christian Life the life 
 lived by the man who is honestly and sincerely 
 endeavouring to do his duty according to the 
 Christian standard of ethics. Such a man will 
 have no feverish desires after extremes. His 
 whole life will be simple, in whatever circum- 
 stances he may be placed ; he will not be 
 continually running to and fro, seeking distrac- 
 tions in a hundred ways, and finding unhappiness 
 in all, but with a single mind and a single 
 purpose he will steadfastly pursue his course to 
 the goal which every man is meant to reach. 
 
 Men taste all the pleasures of the world and 
 find them, as Solomon found them, nothing but 
 vanity ; and in despair they turn to new and 
 paradoxical methods of satisfying their unsatisfied
 
 The Simple Life for Me" 231 
 
 spirit. When will they learn that lesson which 
 even the world itself teaches them, that there is 
 not and cannot be any rest or lasting happiness 
 in this restless pursuit of earthly things ? What 
 is all this talk of the Simple Life save a con- 
 fession that the lives people are leading are too 
 complex, too much entangled with pursuits 
 that are not germane to the end for which they 
 were destined, too bound by chains which, 
 forged by themselves, can be, if they will only 
 realise it, readily struck off by themselves? 
 
 I am not pleading just now with these 
 people to lead a saintly life. I merely ask 
 them to begin by leading an ordinary Christian 
 life. Not necessarily to give up their Mayfair 
 residence or their costly cottage in the country, 
 or their motor-car, but to regard these things 
 from a different standpoint, to use them in a 
 different spirit. There is a great deal of truth 
 in the old saying concerning the burden of 
 riches. The rich man ought to feel that he 
 bears a burden, for, in sober fact, he has a tre- 
 mendous responsibility placed upon his shoulders. 
 Yet the moment he recognises that responsibility 
 and faces it squarely and accepts it, in that 
 moment his burden will be immeasurably light- 
 ened. 
 
 "Come to Me," said Christ, u all ye that 
 labour and are burdened, and I will refresh 
 you." It was not only to the poor and sorrow- 
 ing that this invitation was addressed. It was
 
 232 What of To-Day? 
 
 meant equally for those who, having all they 
 can desire in this world, think there can be 
 nothing else worth living for than the gratifica- 
 tion of their own selfish whims and passions. 
 
 Assuredly the Simple Life is the one life to 
 which such people should turn the life, that is 
 to say, lived in accordance with the precepts of 
 Christ. It is, perhaps, a sign of grace that they 
 should, however vaguely, recognise that their 
 existence is over-full of pleasure, that they should, 
 in however feeble a fashion, endeavour to get 
 away from their vicious round of excitement 
 and extravagance ; but they may rest assured that 
 the mere turning from one style of worldly life 
 to another will not serve them. But let them 
 try the Christian Life, and I will guarantee to 
 cure them of all their boredom and weariness 
 of spirit. 
 
 There is another aspect of this Simple Life 
 craze which I feel constrained to touch on here. 
 There are certain people, by no means confined 
 to one class, who have persuaded themselves, or 
 who wish to persuade themselves, that the beasts 
 of the field are the proper examples for rational 
 human beings to follow. In other words, they 
 would free life of its complexities by freeing it 
 of all moral obligations. They will have no 
 constraint, religious or social, put upon their 
 desires, and in their anxiety to give free rein 
 to the lower side of their nature, pose as the 
 pioneers of a coming era when a crafty priest-
 
 "The Simple Life for Me" 233 
 
 hood shall no longer have power to impose 
 its will upon the imagination, or work upon the 
 fears, of mankind. 
 
 We might dismiss such people, without much 
 notice, as mere faddists, capable of doing little 
 harm, were it not for the horrible doctrines of 
 free love and immorality which they preach to 
 a public not yet, thank Heaven, quite so gullible 
 as to swallow them entire. But so artfully is 
 the poison instilled, so carefully presented amid 
 much that is harmless, that I fear many may be 
 deceived by these specious advocates of abomin- 
 able things. 
 
 They like to look upon themselves as ad- 
 vanced, but in truth their only idea of progress 
 is to go backward, to put themselves on a level 
 with the savage, and, under the pretence of 
 remedying the errors, and simplifying the com- 
 plexities, of civilisation, to return to the dark 
 days of the pre-Christian era, when men had no 
 thought but to gratify their passions, and no 
 higher ideal than to make the most of their lives 
 in this world. 
 
 "Let us return to Nature." That is the cry 
 we hear raised to-day. "Nature," we are 
 told, "knows no conventions, no soul-cramping 
 limitations; Nature is free, as man should be. 
 It is the priests who, for their own ends, have 
 so fettered and bound him by their rules and 
 regulations that he dare no longer call his soul 
 his own."
 
 234 What of To-Day? 
 
 No thinking man, I admit, could possibly 
 be taken in by an argument that implied he 
 was no better than an animal, but there are 
 many amongst us, ignorant and empty-headed, 
 who may easily be deceived even by such trans- 
 parent fallacies. I do not wish to exaggerate 
 the power of such preaching. But I recognise 
 a real danger in it, and I have therefore thought 
 it a duty to raise my voice against this latest 
 horrible and subtle plea for the leading of an 
 immoral life.
 
 XXII 
 
 MARRIAGE 
 I. WEDDED LOVE 
 
 IT would be a waste of time to insist on the 
 Christian and sacred character of marriage as 
 regards men with whom Christians have nothing 
 in common either in religion or philosophy. 
 But living as I do in a Christian country, is it 
 altogether presumptuous on my part to hope that 
 my fellow-countrymen, in the mass, still accept, 
 at least in theory, the Christian standard of life 
 and its duties? The professed atheist, like the 
 professed pagan, may regulate his conduct by rules 
 that are based on no higher conception of ethics 
 than such as appeal to him personally as logically 
 necessary for the preservation of society, but 
 the believing Christian must surely acknowledge 
 a firmer foundation for his system of morality. 
 
 The claims of the materialist to be more 
 practical than the Christian would be amusing 
 were it not for the grave issues involved. For, 
 in point of fact, the Christian has, or should 
 have, no haziness as regards his future existence. 
 From God he comes and to God he must 
 return. There is, in reality, no "riddle of the 
 universe"; and the real problem for us to 
 
 235
 
 236 What of To-Day? 
 
 solve is not concerned with our "whence" or 
 "whither," but with our "here" and "now." 
 
 What, then, is the mission of man on this 
 earth? It is not to waltz I had almost written 
 tango through life in a continuous round of 
 pleasure and careless ease. It is not to say, 
 'Let us eat and drink and be merry, for to- 
 morrow we die." It is not to plunge into 
 sensuality and gratify the lowest desires and 
 cravings of the flesh, until the conscience is 
 seared and unresponsive, the mind depraved, 
 the body ruined, and the soul lost. 
 
 It is not to concentrate every energy upon 
 the building up of a fortune, to rack the brain, 
 spoil the temper, and choke up the avenues to 
 the soul with the sordid growths of greed and 
 avarice. 
 
 The mission of man, "so noble in reason, 
 so infinite in faculty, in apprehension so like 
 God," is to work out the beast and savage, 
 and so to evolve the higher and spiritual side 
 of his nature that he may be fit to take his place 
 hereafter in one of those "many mansions" in 
 which it should be his sure and certain hope one 
 day to dwell. 
 
 For the evolution and attainment of the great 
 ideal of manhood and womanhood which the 
 Christian religion places before us, marriage is, for 
 the generality of men, the safest and surest means. 
 Properly used, there is no better school in which 
 to learn self-reverence, self-mastery, self-control ;
 
 Marriage 237 
 
 no finer discipline through which to rise more 
 surely in the spiritual life than a Christian mar- 
 riage. There are those, it is true, who are called 
 to an even higher state, but such are exceptions 
 to the general rule, and what I have to say on this 
 subject is addressed to the ordinary man "the 
 man in the street." 
 
 Have we not been assured that there is no 
 more subtle master under Heaven, not only to 
 keep down the lower desires of our nature, but 
 to fill the mind with great thoughts and the heart 
 with beauteous aspirations, than the "maiden 
 passion for a maid"? The sweet chastity of 
 maidenhood is the source of the strong courage 
 of manhood. The man who can write, 'I 
 have become engaged to a girl," can add, 
 1 ' and I am learning to strive after the highest 
 and to seek the best." 
 
 But this noble result will follow only from 
 the love that is pure, not from the mad infatu- 
 ation of passion. To be what is commonly 
 called ' ' madly in love " is no test of the reality 
 of love. Indeed the very intensity of such an 
 emotion indicates rather the presence of passion 
 alone, than which there is no traitor more 
 cunning or cruel. One fierce outburst may leave 
 behind a sting the pang of which will be felt 
 for a lifetime, and the shame be irremediable. 
 It is the privilege of woman to act from feeling, 
 it is the duty of man to ignore feeling and follow 
 reason.
 
 2 3 8 What of To-Day ? 
 
 When a young man sayi he is in ecstasies, 
 he is not far from hysteria. Ecstasy and hysteria 
 are both abnormal conditions, and, if he is in 
 either, a man is in no state of mind to become 
 engaged. Such aids to marriage as moonlight 
 strolls, dreamy music, or worse still, rowdy 
 companionship, ought to play no part in a 
 man's final choice. Indeed, no self-respecting 
 man could really be guilty of the error of 
 becoming engaged without sane and sober con- 
 sideration. I shall be told that love is a passion 
 that so sweeps a man off his feet that his will 
 and his reason are for the moment utterly over- 
 whelmed that he is, in a word, not responsible 
 for his actions at such a time. 
 
 But that is precisely what I deny. If a 
 man loves truly, he loves with his whole self, 
 with his soul, his will and his reason as well as 
 his body. I have no patience with those fanatics 
 (unhappily they seem to be increasing in num- 
 ber) who are for ever talking about their 
 "soul-mates," their "spiritual comrades" and 
 so forth, but there is at least this to be said for 
 them, that they represent, however partially, a 
 certain revolt against the purely physical side 
 of love, beyond which many men seem unable 
 to progress. 
 
 I would lay it down, then, as an infallible 
 rule that, if a young man finds himself so carried 
 away by his feelings that he is unable to con- 
 sider calmly the consequences of his marriage,
 
 Marriage 259 
 
 he may be sure that it is passion, and net love, 
 which is dominating him. And, whatever popu- 
 lar novelists may preach, it is equally certain 
 that every man has the strength of will, if he 
 chooses to exercise it, to throw off such an ob- 
 session. Above all things, be it remembered, 
 it is the function of love to give rather than to 
 get ; to find joy in bestowing, rather than to 
 take pleasure in receiving. 
 
 There would be fewer unhappy marriages if 
 men would but ask themselves, before taking 
 the preliminary step, for what purpose they are 
 entering the married state. Ought not one to 
 enter it in order to realise oneself, to become a 
 deeper and a truer man, to fulfil a God-given 
 mission in time, and to reap a God-given re- 
 ward in eternity? To be, moreover, the bright- 
 ness and stay of some good woman's life, and, 
 as far as in one lies, to lift her on to a plane of 
 holy and happy living ? 
 
 Let a man then make his choice in the light 
 of these considerations. Let him raise his mind 
 from mere prettiness and shallow sentimentality 
 to thoughts of higher and more enduring things. 
 To every young man contemplating marriage I 
 would earnestly say: Choose not the flighty, 
 showy, smoking-room girl, however superficially 
 attractive or dazzling. Choose a girl in whom 
 the virtues flourish, one in whom you will find 
 not a little to venerate and reverence. Seek a 
 comrade rather than a charmer. So will your
 
 240 What of To-Day ? 
 
 affection continue to grow until the end, and 
 prove to be, not a lurid, fierce flame of passion, 
 but a sun-glow of life-long duration, shedding 
 the light of love and the warmth of joy abroad 
 from both your hearts. 
 
 Old-fashioned advice, do you think? I admit 
 it is not up-to-date. But are all old things 
 necessarily wrong, and is every new idea, of its 
 own nature, unquestionably right ? After all, 
 the so-called ''up-to-date" ideas are only a re- 
 version to the savage man's instincts, and are 
 even more old-fashioned, therefore, than the 
 others. The modern man is a curious being, 
 and more than half a child in the eagerness 
 with which he will pounce on some long-for- 
 gotten toy, dragged out from a dusty cupboard, 
 and pretend that it is the very latest device of 
 some ingenious inventor of playthings. But it 
 is my firm belief that most men are better than 
 they profess to be. And there are few, I think, 
 who will not, in their candid moments, admit 
 the reality of the distinction between love and 
 passion, or recognise the altruism of the one, 
 the egotism of the other. 
 
 II. HUSBAND AND WIFE 
 
 IT is said and I believe statistics support 
 the statement that there is a growing distaste 
 for marriage. Many apparently reasonable argu- 
 ments are set forth on behalf of the man, yes,
 
 Marriage 241 
 
 and the woman, who deliberately and of set 
 purpose avoids the marriage state. Pressure of 
 economic conditions, the desire for a freer life, 
 fear of added responsibilities, the necessity for 
 individual development, and all kinds of curious 
 reasons are alleged in excuse of this tendency. 
 But, at bottom, we may safely say that, save in 
 a few exceptional cases, selfishness is the sole 
 motive which sways the modern man or woman 
 in this matter. 
 
 I do not intend to argue the point. Nor, 
 indeed, should I have alluded to it even in 
 passing were it not for the fact that many 
 apologists for marriage are, almost unconsciously, 
 disseminating a new view of that holy state 
 altogether opposed to its real meaning and 
 object. The idea is, apparently, that marriage 
 is to be made more " attractive " on the same 
 principle, I suppose, that some quite worthy 
 clergymen and ministers seek to entice larger 
 congregations to their churches and chapels by 
 what I can only describe as exhibition side- 
 shows. 
 
 The latest view of marriage, then, is to re- 
 gard it as a condition of existence in which each 
 of the parties has the fullest liberty to do as he 
 or she pleases. I am not now referring to the 
 grosser exaggerations of this doctrine, concern- 
 ing which I shall have something to say later ; 
 for the moment I wish to examine only the 
 more moderate view which contemplates the 
 
 Q
 
 242 What of To-Day ? 
 
 complete separation of the real lives of the 
 couple who have taken each other for better 
 or worse. 
 
 The argument seems to be based on the 
 assumption that it is quite impossible to expect 
 two frail human beings to spend their lives to- 
 gether with any real happiness to either. Inevit- 
 able quarrels, in themselves of no consequence, 
 are treated as though they must raise insurpass- 
 able barriers between husband and wife. We 
 all jar on each other at times, but it appears 
 that a man and his wife cannot get on each 
 other's nerves for a moment without a deadly 
 feud at once arising. 
 
 Those people, who would have a married 
 couple go their own road in all the ordinary 
 details of life, are lacking in a sense of pro- 
 portion. But it is really bizarre, even in 
 these grotesque times, to find the proposition 
 put forward in sober earnestness, that the less 
 a husband and wife see of each other, the more 
 affectionate they are likely to remain. I can 
 imagine that a certain friendship might exist 
 between two persons thus situated, but they 
 certainly could not be regarded as fulfilling the 
 duties of the married state. 
 
 Duties ! That is the word a word I know 
 which is anathema to many people at the pre- 
 sent day. Yet, whether a man dislikes the 
 notion of duty or not, experience will teach 
 him, sooner or later, that it is not good for
 
 Marriage 243 
 
 him to trifle with his sense of duty, and that 
 should he neglect it, he will find that he has 
 done so at a heavy cost. You cannot fight 
 against God and win. 
 
 Now, to put it on the lowest ground, would 
 it not be much more sensible for married people, 
 instead of running away in this cowardly fashion 
 from their responsibilities and duties towards each 
 other in the selfish pursuit of feverish pleasures, 
 to face the facts, and endeavour so to order 
 their lives as to promote the real happiness of 
 both? 
 
 Man and woman are in many respects comple- 
 mentary to each other ; and therefore is it not 
 the mission of each to complete the other and 
 to be completed by the other, so that the 
 happiness and perfection of both depends upon 
 each asking and receiving from the other, as 
 has been well said, what the other alone can 
 give? 
 
 What other basis for marriage can there be 
 but union, and how can there be any true 
 marriage-union when it is the chief occupation 
 of each partner to see as little of the other as 
 possible ? In wedlock, as it has ever been re- 
 garded in Christendom, the man and woman 
 become indissolubly one, and live on, each 
 ministering to each, each serving the other, 
 each merging their life into that of the other, 
 each losing self to find it more fully and better 
 expressed in the other. Thus, and thus only,
 
 244 What of To-Day? 
 
 docs wedded life become in deed and in truth 
 a love-life, revealing itself in terms of mutual 
 service. For he who loves most has the most, 
 not to get, but to give. Self-abnegation is the 
 means in and through which love finds expres- 
 sion. 
 
 The marriage state, then, being a state of 
 love, must also be one of self-sacrifice. This 
 sacrifice, in the deepest sense, is not to be more 
 on one side than the other. In the blending 
 processes of married life, the mingled sacrifice 
 of the husband and the wife make the happiness 
 and completeness of the home. 
 
 Men and women, therefore, must recognise 
 that the keynote of marriage is sacrifice, and if 
 they undertake its duties and its joys in that 
 spirit, they will not find the trials of married life 
 too heavy to be borne. They will not want to 
 be everlastingly away from each other ; they will 
 not want to meet each other on the footing of 
 acquaintances, or to have each their own circle 
 of friends into which the other has no right of 
 entry. 
 
 But while the sacrifices demanded by the mar- 
 riage state are common to men and women alike, 
 their duties, of course, differ widely, and it is 
 here that troubles and misunderstandings so fre- 
 quently arise. 
 
 Now, with all due respect to the militant 
 ladies whose activities have been till lately so con- 
 spicuous, I do not propose to say anything about
 
 Marriage 245 
 
 the superiority of either sex over the other. There 
 cannot, and ought not to be, any question of the 
 superiority or inferiority of either sex, for the 
 differences between them are chiefly psychologi- 
 cal. Man is mind and woman is heart. He 
 rules by reason, she legislates by love. He is 
 logical, she is emotional, and where he is satis- 
 fied to judge by a nice balancing of pros and 
 cons, she is content to trust to her intuition. 
 
 Not many days ago a Frenchwoman said to 
 me: 'Men are like regular verbs; knowing 
 one, I know them all, in all their moods and 
 tenses." 
 
 ' That may be," I answered, "* but women 
 are like your French irregular verbs, and unless 
 a man studies them individually in their every 
 peculiar mood and tense, he will be likely to 
 misunderstand them, much to his own discom- 
 fiture." 
 
 The first business of a bride and bridegroom is 
 to study one another, and to get to understand one 
 another. They must make allowances for inevit- 
 able differences, differences of sex, of education, 
 of taste, of tradition, and each must try to be 
 satisfied with what he or she finds in the other, 
 and each must endeavour to promote that other's 
 interests, not in one particular, but in everything. 
 This is their mission, and they must face it 
 bravely and hopefully. 
 
 And now I have something to say to the 
 husband, and it is this : Be kind and thought-
 
 246 
 
 ful to your wife. Bear with her little feminine 
 ways. Never attempt to check the flowing tide 
 of her talk. This is a cardinal rule ; whatever 
 else you may try to check in your wife, never 
 check her chatter. Remember, a woman needs 
 many safety-valves and outlets for her tempera- 
 ment. Be patient and tender with her. Don't 
 say sharp and cutting things, and don't be too 
 fond of speaking your mind and saying what 
 you mean and meaning what you say, as one 
 having authority. Consider the sensitive char- 
 acter of a woman's disposition, and humour her 
 in every possible way. Don't be hasty, but 
 bear yourself with that manliness which will 
 never cause a woman pain. 
 
 Further than all this, I would ask the hus- 
 band not to be careless of the little likes and 
 dislikes of his wife. They are a part of her, 
 and must be counted with. Most women have 
 a passion for finery in some form or other ; 
 jewellery, or dress, or both. Well, give her 
 what you can, even if it costs you some sacri- 
 fice, and let her feel it is from you, and that 
 you have not given her what has cost you 
 nothing. Praise her and make much of her, and 
 above all, remember that a woman's thirst for 
 sympathy is like that of the flowers for sunshine. 
 If you are always away at the club, if you are 
 never thinking of her, if you neglect to write 
 when away from her, others may come and offer 
 her what you withhold, and who will then be
 
 Marriage 247 
 
 to blame ? If anything goes wrong in married 
 life I usually put the blame on the man. He is 
 the stronger, and he should overcome himself 
 and protect the wife of his heart, lending her a 
 strong arm on which to lean. 
 
 And what of the wife's own duties towards 
 her husband ? First and specially, I would 
 remind her that she must keep the home in 
 good order. Man appreciates a beautiful home, 
 possibly even more than a woman does, because 
 he is in it less. Let the sun stream through 
 your windows upon rooms tastefully arrayed, 
 and bearing, from kitchen to attic, the traces of 
 a true, wifely devotion to the home. 
 
 And keep a good table. There is very much 
 in that. Even in the Christian man there is 
 much of the animal. Let it be impossible for 
 any invidious distinction to be drawn between 
 meals out and meals at home. The dinner may 
 be simple, but let it be good and hot and 
 daintily served. 
 
 Let the wife, too, remember always to be 
 neat and smart, even when she is quite alone 
 with her husband. A man likes to see his wife 
 well turned out, and it is her business to look 
 pleasing in his eyes. Many women dress to 
 look better than other women, and consequently 
 they overdress. Let her consult his taste rather 
 than that of her modiste. 
 
 Do not get into the habit of contradicting 
 all your husband's cherished views, from mere
 
 248 What of To-Day ? 
 
 perversity, but study to gratify, within reasonable 
 limits, his whims and fancies. Woman has no 
 monopoly of fads. Never offer him lame and 
 impossible excuses, be frank and aboveboard in 
 everything, and endeavour, as far as you can, not 
 to keep him waiting about while you change 
 your dress or put on your " things." 
 
 Try to make the wheels of life's chariot run 
 smoothly. Never preach at your husband, never 
 nag, never scold in public, never cry "on pur- 
 pose." These tricks of women often bring them 
 what they want, but they may in the process 
 kill a husband's love. No man wants to be 
 teased, and no man wants to be pestered. And 
 no wife ever gains in the long run by any tactics 
 that are a breach of the law of love. 
 
 Have I spoken only of the trivial, of the 
 little things ? Believe me, it is these that count 
 in marriage far more than the big things. Most 
 of us are destined to lead humdrum lives, apart 
 from which it must not be forgotten that when 
 marriage ends in tragedy, it is more often than 
 not to small beginnings, to bickerings and mis- 
 understandings, that the tragedy may be traced. 
 
 But if a husband and wife, knit together in 
 the closest of ties, build up a home which shall 
 be a harbour of refuge from the storms of life, 
 a temple in which love reigns and triumphs, a 
 sanctuary in which holiness dwells ; if they are 
 courteous and chivalrous to one another, and 
 do not let the discord of quarrelling and wrang-
 
 Marriage 249 
 
 ling mar their peace ; then surely they will have 
 no need to resort to artificial means for keep- 
 ing alive that affection whose natural flowering 
 can alone ensure their lasting happiness and joy 
 in each other's company. 
 
 Disappointments, sorrows, and troubles are 
 inevitable. There is no life without them. 
 They are the test of our fidelity and our 
 truth, nor will the shirking of our duties keep 
 them away. But when husband and wife are 
 one physically, one morally, one mentally, one 
 in a supreme effort to sink all differences and 
 to face all difficulties, then indeed they may be 
 said to have solved not only the secret of a 
 happy marriage, but the problem of life itself. 
 To each I would say: "Measure thy life by 
 loss and not by gain, not by the wine drunk, 
 but by the wine poured forth." 
 
 III. DIVORCE MADE EASY 
 
 IT is not surprising that in a day when men speak 
 of philosophy without reason, of morality without 
 sanction, and of religion without dogma, there 
 should be persons who contend that marriage 
 ought to be binding only until some danger zone 
 of life is reached, or even until by mutual con- 
 sent the married couple agree to part. We have 
 among us men who unblushingly advocate what 
 is called leasehold marriage, which is a respectable 
 term for the hellish idea of free love. It seems
 
 250 What of To-Day ? 
 
 that the notion is gaining ground, more or less 
 among all classes, that marriage is nothing more 
 than a bilateral contract, entered into by mutual 
 arrangement, and easily terminable at any time. 
 
 To such a state of mind have some of our 
 fellow-countrymen come ! Putting aside the blas- 
 phemy involved in such teaching, what is this 
 but a conspiracy against the honour of manhood 
 and the pure dignity of womanhood ? It is a 
 dragging down of marriage from the sublime 
 heights to which Christianity has raised it, to 
 rob it of its poetry and spiritual power, by turn- 
 ing it into a business transaction on a level with 
 drawing a cheque or buying a house. 
 
 For if marriage is nothing better than a 
 bilateral contract, there is no reason in the world 
 why it should not be treated as a matter-of-fact 
 business arrangement, a transaction into which 
 enters nothing higher than ordinary commercial 
 buying and selling. 
 
 But is marriage a mere contract, civil or other- 
 wise ? The Law treats it as such, I know, but 
 in certain matters the Law is not always a safe 
 guide. Let me take an easily understandable 
 analogy. Everyone will admit that, rightly or 
 wrongly, the first debts that a man of the world 
 considers himself in honour bound to pay are 
 his card and his betting debts. He may dismiss 
 with a laugh the importunities of his tailor, the 
 groans of his grocer, the bullying of his butcher, 
 but he will strain every nerve, he will resort to
 
 Marriage 251 
 
 every device to meet the obligations he has 
 incurred on a racecourse or in a gambling 
 den. 
 
 Yet the Law lays it down that such debts are 
 no debts at all, and that, legally speaking, no 
 one has any claim on him in respect of them. 
 
 I am not concerned here with either the ethical 
 or the legal aspects of gambling. I merely cite 
 the analogy to show that there are cases where 
 the Law cannot be considered in relation to con- 
 duct, and that men will regulate their actions 
 rather according to their own standard of honour 
 or morality than by the strict interpretation of a 
 civil statute. 
 
 If this be so, how much more should the 
 Christian hold fast to the belief that, however 
 the Law may regard it, marriage is something far 
 holier and higher than a civil contract, that may 
 be rescinded by mutual consent at any time the 
 contracting parties think fit? 
 
 No Christian can, in fact, be content with a 
 "civil marriage," or believe that, in marrying, he 
 is entering into an agreement of no more im- 
 portance, commercially speaking, than the renting 
 of a house. He knows, none better, that marriage 
 is a moral and a religious contract, implying a 
 union between man and woman so close, so 
 intimate, so sublime and sacred, that it becomes 
 a mysterious religious rite in which the con- 
 tracting parties themselves, as the sacred offici- 
 ating ministers of it, call upon God Almighty
 
 252 What of To-Day ? 
 
 to witness that they are pledged to adhere to 
 each other until death do them part. 
 
 The terms on which bride and bridegroom 
 make their vows, the very language which they 
 utter before the altar, proves beyond question 
 that on their wedding-day they pass into a state 
 of life which can only be ended, and into a 
 relationship which can only be resolved, by the 
 hand of death. 
 
 No bride and bridegroom who for the words 
 "till death us do part," were to substitute such 
 phrases as "till we desire a change," or "till 
 something better turns up," would be held by 
 any Christian person to be in any real sense 
 married at all. Before now, I have heard people 
 contend and it is an absurd, a cowardly, and an 
 irrational contention that they are not respon- 
 sible for the wording of the marriage rite. They 
 acknowledge that they repeated the words the 
 Church puts into the mouths of those who are 
 to be united, but they did not frame the service 
 and ought not, so they argue, to be held any 
 more liable for the severity and old-fashioned 
 nature of its expressions than an Anglican clergy- 
 man is for the wording of the Thirty-nine Articles. 
 No. They did not frame the marriage service 
 and it is a great and a grand thing that the 
 services of the Catholic Church are enshrined 
 in unalterable terms but they did in the most 
 solemn way freely utter the vow of life-long 
 duration, they did publicly, in the sight of God
 
 Marriage 253 
 
 and the people assembled, endorse the language 
 of the Church. And from that vow nothing in 
 life can release them. 
 
 I have often been asked whether, under any 
 given circumstances exceptional and possibly 
 hard and trying circumstances a married couple 
 would be justified in dissolving their marriage 
 and entering into a new alliance. I can only 
 answer that question as many other questions 
 about Christian practice must be answered. We 
 have got to follow Christ's teaching. And on 
 this matter His commands are plain enough. 
 "Whosoever shall marry her that is put away 
 committeth adultery." Hence the Pauline direc- 
 tion : "A woman is bound by the law as long as 
 her husband liveth." 
 
 What binds one party binds the other also. 
 Man and wife by the Christian law are indis- 
 solubly one. There may be in certain cases, 
 which are clearly defined, legal separation alas, 
 for the necessity even of that. But even then the 
 tie is not wholly severed, so that, until death 
 releases them, every married couple must bear 
 for better or worse the consequences of their 
 solemnly plighted troth. 
 
 The end and object for which marriage was 
 ordained and instituted seems to be forgotten 
 nowadays by many people. It was never meant 
 to be a state of life in which passion should run 
 riot, a soulless pursuit of the flesh-pots of Egypt. 
 Even the old pagans, with all their licence, never
 
 254 What of To-Day? 
 
 contemplated marriage as a mere device for self- 
 gratification, or thought of it as abolishing the 
 necessity for temperance and self-abnegation. Yet 
 there are nominal Christians in our midst to-day 
 whose gospel is the degrading creed of the 
 Hedonist. They have sold their birthright for a 
 mess of sensuous pottage, and they have become 
 "without understanding" in their rebellion 
 against the ordinance of Him Whom they pro- 
 fess to follow. How these truths are brought 
 home to us under the chastisement of war ! 
 
 The clamour for easier divorce and laxer 
 divorce laws is very loud in the land just now, 
 and, to our shame be it said, the cry is sup- 
 ported by many who call themselves Christians. 
 Frankly, I find it impossible to understand the 
 attitude of such men. Even the unbeliever, who 
 is sincerely desirous of maintaining the ethical 
 and moral standard of society, is wont to tread 
 circumspectly in approaching this difficult ques- 
 tion, for he realises to the full what dreadful 
 consequences, even on the material side, may 
 follow the granting of too great facilities for 
 divorce. Yet among the loudest voices raised 
 to-day in favour of an easy legal dissolution of 
 the marriage tie are those of professing Chris- 
 tians. What more disheartening thought can 
 there be than this? What hope can there be 
 for the stability of the social fabric when its 
 foundations are being undermined by these men, 
 worse than foreign spies in our midst ? Leave
 
 Marriage 255 
 
 divorce between man and wife to the hand of 
 Death. Keep, you, your hands off. So would 
 I address them. 
 
 IV. RACE SUICIDE 
 
 NOT so many years ago large families in this 
 country were the rule rather than the exception, 
 while childlessness was the greatest misfortune 
 that could befall a married couple. The child- 
 less wife was an object of commiseration in that, 
 though married, she had never tasted the holy 
 happiness of maternity, which was held in those 
 days to be perhaps the greatest of all earthly joys. 
 
 I have already referred to the Hedonist view 
 of marriage, as exemplified by those people who 
 crush their consciences into the temporarily satis- 
 fying belief that wedded life is merely a state 
 for providing additional facilities for fresh pleasure 
 and self-enjoyment, without any corresponding 
 duties or responsibilities. Such people have, no 
 doubt, always existed. They certainly did so at 
 the time I speak of. But this, at least, must be 
 set to their credit, that they did not seek to 
 evade the responsibility of having children. They 
 may have been careless or negligent parents, but 
 they, at any rate, could not be accused of living 
 entirely for themselves. 
 
 Can the same be said of us to-day? Is it 
 not, on the contrary, becoming increasingly com- 
 mon for young men and women to marry with 
 the deliberate and express understanding that no
 
 256 What of To-Day? 
 
 children are to be permitted to interfere with 
 the irresponsible and luxurious existence they 
 contemplate ? 
 
 In England, thank God, in spite of the pro- 
 gress of these most abominable errors, there are 
 still overwhelming numbers who recognise that 
 there are few responsibilities so sacred in character 
 as that with which wedded couples are charged 
 as parents. The best people realise this : that, 
 because of the sacred trust which has been com- 
 mitted to them of increasing and multiplying 
 the human family God has made unity and per- 
 petuity the characteristic notes of wedded life. 
 Alas! across the Channel our Allies are now 
 suffering for their deliberate shortage of the 
 birth-rate. Instead of having a population of 
 70,000,000 to draw upon in the struggle with 
 Germany's 67,000,000, France has but 38,000,000, 
 while we, in these British Isles, are sadly below 
 our proper strength in numbers. 
 
 We are constantly reminded of the hardships 
 involved for some in carrying out to the full 
 their duties in this respect. But what about the 
 endless tale of hardships and wrongs resulting 
 from neglect of duty? There is no law, social, 
 civil or divine, that does not press heavily upon 
 some. It is when a man is hard hit that he 
 reveals his mental state and his real moral char- 
 acter. If duty is hard to do, the effort of doing 
 it builds up a man in all that is best. 
 
 It is difficult to understand how any Christian
 
 Marriage 257 
 
 people who believe in a revelation can deliberately 
 evade the loftiest and holiest duties of their calling. 
 Yet they do evade those duties, and they suffer 
 the consequences in a lower standard of character, 
 and in the harm that comes of bartering principle 
 for expediency. 
 
 I have nothing to say to those married 
 people who, for one cause or another, cannot 
 exercise their legitimate rights. What I do 
 wish to impress upon all who are in the married 
 state is, that every right they possess should be 
 exercised rightly. There is no greater plague 
 on the face of the earth to-day than that which 
 is being spread by married people who want 
 to enjoy life while shirking its responsibilities. 
 Marriage with them seems to have lost its 
 message and its meaning, and the state in which 
 they live, instead of ennobling and beautifying, 
 not infrequently so debases them that their lives 
 end in divorce, insanity, or even self-destruction. 
 The foul contagion of this pestilence must be 
 arrested, men and women must be reminded 
 that we are members one of another, and this 
 country, which professes the Christian religion, 
 must be awakened to the significance of the 
 plague which is rampant in its homes. 
 
 It is one of the saddest phases of this sub- 
 ject that, in spite of the appalling consequences 
 of the profanation of marriage which confront us 
 on every hand, many married people persistently 
 refuse to learn from the experiences of others, 
 
 R
 
 258 What of To-Day ? 
 
 and speak, not only openly, but even boastfully, 
 of what I can only call a sin that cries to 
 Heaven for vengeance. 
 
 Thus does the artificial and selfish creed of 
 the day render men and women shameless and 
 careless before God and man. A generation 
 ago vice was looked upon as corruption ; to-day 
 we are asked to regard it as a stage of evolution, 
 an inevitable result of the operation of certain 
 influences, the sign, not of a fall, but of a nor- 
 mal and healthy growth in life. Man is seeking 
 to become a law unto himself, and he would 
 weave the shallow subtleties of infidel philo- 
 sophers into a defence of that reign of passion 
 which he would proclaim. 
 
 But passion has got to be brought into sub- 
 jection. These demoralising views have spread 
 far and wide. In the name of all that is sacred 
 I say it is time to call a halt. When wives 
 refuse the privilege of motherhood, because it 
 interferes with the London season, or with the 
 hunting season, or because they cannot be bored 
 with a nursery, or because there is not enough 
 room in their flat, or because they themselves 
 are not strong enough to bear what they do not 
 like, it is about time, I think, to read the Riot 
 Act. How such women profane the law of 
 God! 
 
 But are not husbands even more to blame ? 
 
 Some men try to persuade themselves that 
 they have a right to regulate their state because
 
 Marriage 259 
 
 of their small income, and because science has 
 come to their aid in this matter. According to 
 this doctrine, which I have lately seen advocated, 
 it is quite clear that any city clerk who is 
 clever enough not to be found out, is free to 
 rob his employer, and indeed any murderer 
 who is sure of escaping detection, may proceed 
 to do his victim to death. I am afraid there 
 are not a few in our midst whose deeds must 
 be called by the ugly name of race-suicide. 
 The decline in the birth-rate is becoming every 
 day more and more terribly significant. Where 
 will it end? 
 
 Not long ago when I was denouncing this 
 vice to which I am now referring, an educated 
 man exclaimed: "And what have we our free- 
 dom for, except to exercise it?" To which I 
 replied: "And what, pray, have we our police 
 for, except to stop us from exercising it?" 
 
 Liberty does not spell licence. Liberty brings 
 with it responsibilities which necessarily cramp 
 our absolute freedom. And much as men and 
 women of to-day dislike being reminded of 
 their responsibilities, they will not in the long 
 run find any profit to themselves in ignoring 
 them. 
 
 Can any sane Christian suppose that he has 
 been given his free choice between good and 
 evil for no purpose whatever that it can make 
 no difference to him or his fellows whether he 
 chooses the good or the evil? Even the Ag-
 
 260 What of To-Day ? 
 
 nostic or the Atheist is ready with very valid 
 reasons why every good citizen should fulfil his 
 obligations towards the State. And we, as a 
 people, must be sunk low indeed if even the 
 materialist condemns, on social grounds, our 
 mode of living. 
 
 It was the Founder of Christianity Who set 
 marriage upon an imperishable basis, and there- 
 by laid the foundation, in and through family 
 life, of modern society, and of all social evolu- 
 tion ; and has the Christian to be reminded of 
 his duty by those who profess no allegiance to 
 Christ? 
 
 The family is the unit that builds up the 
 State. And in the happiness of the family circle 
 there are gained those impressions which make 
 or unmake, long years after, when children 
 have grown to manhood, the destinies of men 
 and empires. 
 
 Those, therefore, who seek to weaken the 
 bonds of matrimony, those who would keep 
 from the home influences which are essential 
 to it, are working to undermine the very 
 foundation upon which the social order rests. 
 
 I shall doubtless be severely criticised for 
 daring to touch upon a subject in regard to 
 which, it is held, every married person has a 
 right to express and practise his or her own 
 theories. I shall be told that I am wanting in 
 decency, in delicacy, in tact, even in common- 
 sense ; that married people must judge of these
 
 Marriage 261 
 
 matters for themselves, and decide them as best 
 suits their own convenience. But, as I have 
 tried to show, this is not a matter upon which 
 the individual has the right to decide, and if I 
 were to be silent while the springs of our 
 national life are being poisoned, just because 
 an outcry may be raised against me, I should 
 be not a Christian Englishman, but a time- 
 serving miserable coward.
 
 XXIII 
 THE SERVANT PROBLEM 
 
 MOST of us recognise that, whether we like 
 it or not, many of the old class barriers are 
 being swept away by the new democratic spirit ; 
 but are we equally resolved to accept and make 
 the best of the new condition of things? It is 
 no good sitting on the sea-shore and wringing 
 one's hands over the fact that the incoming 
 tide is about to demolish the beautiful sand 
 castle we have just built, and it is equally 
 fatuous for the modern mistress to lament over 
 the "old-fashioned servant" of fifty years ago, 
 who "knew her place" and did not presume 
 to ask for evenings off and days out, and who 
 had, moreover, no new-fangled notions of what 
 was due to her. 
 
 Whether the well-to-do classes like it or 
 not, it is time that they made up their minds 
 to accept the fact that domestic servants of both 
 sexes have altogether different views of life, 
 as well as of service, from what were held a 
 generation or two ago. Naturally enough, most 
 girls, after the so-called education they pass 
 through in primary or secondary schools, feel 
 
 262
 
 The Servant Problem 263 
 
 no inclination to go into service. Their ambi- 
 tion is to become clerks, typists, or shop-girls. 
 Even as mill-hands they feel more free than as 
 servants. Not only do these occupations seem 
 to them to be less unworthy, and to bring better 
 pay, but they also afford them more chances, 
 and give them more leisure. 
 
 Of course it is an error of the gravest kind 
 to look upon any sort of honest work as un- 
 worthy or in any way degrading. But, when 
 all is said and done, are these people to be 
 blamed for trying to better themselves ? On the 
 contrary, they are entirely to be commended. 
 
 I emphasise this aspect of the servant ques- 
 tion because I want to bring it home to the 
 modern mistress how important it is for her 
 home peace to try and understand these things 
 from the servant's standpoint. The day has gone 
 by when the servant could be ignored as a per- 
 son who had no right to have " views." The 
 time has passed for ever when masters and mis- 
 tresses could treat their servants as chattels, and 
 dictate to them what they should wear, or do, 
 or eat. Servants resent overmuch interference, 
 and she is a wise mistress who has learned how 
 to have her way in the house without unduly 
 asserting herself. I venture to suggest that the 
 best thing to do after engaging a girl is to 
 observe what she can do, and what she will not 
 or cannot do. 
 
 One thing is quite certain. It is a waste of
 
 264 What of To-Day? 
 
 time to look for the ideal in any walk of life. 
 The servant who fulfils all the requirements of 
 some people has not yet appeared upon the 
 earth. The only sound philosophy is to make 
 the best of the service at one's command, never 
 forgetting that the servant has her rights as well 
 as her duties, and that she is fully aware of the 
 fact. 
 
 All servants, especially under-servants, need 
 from their employers a little personal interest 
 a word of praise, of encouragement, and of 
 thanks. Some mistresses begrudge any expres- 
 sion of appreciation, lest it should lead to the 
 last thing on earth they care to hear an appli- 
 cation for higher wages. It is not in such a 
 spirit that the internal organisation of the home 
 can be smoothly worked. Even paid servants 
 require a little encouragement. 
 
 Then there is the important duty of provid- 
 ing leisure time for all servants, particularly in 
 a house where much entertaining is done. Ser- 
 vants cannot be treated as if they were machines 
 capable of work without feeling exhaustion. 
 Everyone requires relaxation and rest. 
 
 I do not wish to be misunderstood. I am 
 not one of those who teach that servants should 
 work no more than is good for their appetites. 
 On the contrary, a bright, busy staff of servants 
 who are kept up to their work, will be found, 
 as a rule, to grumble the least. 
 
 Observation has led me to the conclusion
 
 The Servant Problem 265 
 
 that the present difficulty which is, I admit, a 
 real one in getting good servants, is by no 
 means altogether due either to over-education 
 or to the spread of democratic ideas ; or even, 
 as some people are inclined to assert, to the 
 growing love of pleasure among the wage- 
 earning classes. 
 
 The fact is that of late years, masters and 
 mistresses, taking them as a class, have set their 
 servants a bad example in small things as well 
 as in great. If the lives of master and mistress 
 are without method, their day without order, 
 how can the servants be expected to be me- 
 thodical and punctual ? 
 
 If a lady orders luncheon at half-past one and 
 returns home with unexpected guests at a quarter- 
 past two, it is quite possible that the entrees may be 
 spoiled, the legumes cold, and the souffle ruined. 
 But let her ask herself whose is the fault ? It 
 is bad enough to be exacting, it is worse to be 
 irrational. Mistresses might even be reasonable 
 enough to intimate occasionally to their maids 
 at what hour after midnight they may be ex- 
 pected home. 
 
 Is it not a pity, too, that employers of ser- 
 vants are not more equable, less irritable and 
 put out by every trivial little thing that goes 
 wrong? I am aware that the modern rush of 
 life is exceptionally wearing to the nerves, but 
 is that a reason why a woman should vent her 
 ill-humour on her servants ? Moreover, a woman
 
 266 What of To-Day? 
 
 who cannot control herself will certainly never 
 be able to control others. 
 
 One of the reasons, again, why servants now- 
 adays are more like "hands" than "friends," 
 taking little more personal interest in the home 
 than they would in a factory, is that their mas- 
 ters and mistresses themselves do not seem to 
 treasure their house as a home. In a sense, it is 
 too often more like an hotel, to which are invited, 
 not so much members of the family and inti- 
 mate friends, as people of fashion and persons 
 of notoriety, in whatever way that notoriety may 
 have been gained. Servants who are engaged 
 to wait upon house parties of this sort regard 
 their service from a purely business standpoint, 
 and look upon the guests as merely so many 
 extra machines for the production of tips. 
 
 The master and mistress who seek for de- 
 voted service from their servants, who ask 
 from them a personal interest in the well-being 
 of the household, will have to make a point of 
 creating a real English home, with real English 
 traditions and real English relations as distinct 
 from familiarities between employer and em- 
 ployed. 
 
 I come to a far more serious aspect of the 
 subject, but it is impossible to pass it by in 
 silence. How often is not the example of those 
 upstairs the ruin of those downstairs ? The re- 
 hearsal may be heard in the drawing-room, but 
 the actual play not infrequently takes place in
 
 The Servant Problem 267 
 
 the servants' hall. Nothing nowadays is hid- 
 den, and nothing can be hidden. The revela- 
 tions of the Press have sharpened the wits of 
 dependants, and the newest scullery-maid and the 
 youngest stable-boy know pretty well everything 
 about everybody who crosses the threshold of 
 the house. It is not surprising that in slumdom 
 is known what never ought to have reached villa- 
 dom, and that the misdoings of a certain section 
 of the community, which, as it is called " the 
 best society," ought to set the best example, 
 are the common talk of circles where those who 
 give occasion for scandal are only known by 
 name. 
 
 Only when men and women seriously try to 
 rule their own lives and their own homes by 
 the immortal principles of the Christian religion, 
 will they get good sense from others. Example 
 and atmosphere have more influence upon all 
 of us than we are always willing to admit. We 
 may talk as we like about the growth of wrong 
 ideas, the ceaseless pursuit of pleasure and the 
 lack of interest in their work characteristic of 
 the modern servants, but these things are 
 fostered by the spectacle of the lives not so un- 
 commonly lived by the wealthier classes, and I 
 say that the main reason for the poor service 
 rendered to-day, where it exists, lies in the in- 
 difference to all that constitutes home, morally 
 and actually, of those who should set the 
 standard of living for the nation at large. To
 
 268 What of To-Day ? 
 
 what a noble and uplifting mission masters and 
 mistresses are deputed by their calling. It 
 would be well for England if only they were 
 to realise it. In this, as in other domestic and 
 social matters, we are given a great and noble 
 lead by our beloved King and Queen.
 
 XXIV 
 "DIVINE DISCONTENT" 
 
 ONCE upon a time, when men's minds were 
 simpler and more direct, and the world less 
 sophisticated, contentment was reckoned a virtue, 
 and discontentment something worse than a 
 fault. But so topsy-turvy are our modern ideas, 
 so wholly have we lost the power of thinking 
 clearly, that to-day we set the discontented man 
 upon a pedestal, and despise the contented man 
 as of no earthly use in this busy, hustling world. 
 It is a curious sign of the times, and will per- 
 haps repay a little investigation. 
 
 A case I heard of the other day will illus- 
 strate my meaning, though I cannot vouch for 
 its truth, since my informant had only got it 
 himself at secondhand. 
 
 The very big head of a very big business 
 indeed was descending the staircase of his very 
 big offices, when there met him a promising 
 member of the staff who had only recently 
 joined the firm. The very big business man 
 greeted his employee with a gracious smile. 
 
 11 Well, Mr. B.," he said, " how are you get- 
 ting on? Everything all right? Quite satisfied 
 and happy ? ' 
 
 269
 
 270 What of To-Day? 
 
 ' Very much so, thank you," answered the 
 other guilelessly, "I've nothing to grumble 
 about." 
 
 "Quite contented, eh?" 
 
 " Quite, thank you." 
 
 "Ah the big employer drew a long 
 
 breath. "Well, Mr. B., I'm sorry, but I'm 
 afraid you won't do for me. I want men 
 who aren't satisfied, who want to get on, who are 
 ambitious. Good-day to you." 
 
 And the unfortunate man, who had so 
 thoughtlessly given expression to his content- 
 ment, duly received his dismissal. 
 
 That is the spirit of the age the " get on 
 or get out" idea which resents, as an imper- 
 tinence, the presence of a man who is so lost 
 to all sense of self-respect as to be actually 
 contented with his lot. The confusion of our 
 fretted lives is reflected in a confusion of thought 
 which makes us incapable of distinguishing be- 
 tween an honourable ambition and a stupid 
 discontent, or between the ' 'umbleness " of a 
 Uriah Heep and the cheerful contentment of 
 the man who has placed his affairs in the hands 
 of a Higher Power. 
 
 Thus it has come about that the " divine 
 discontent" that is everywhere visible to-day, is 
 actually looked upon as an excellent sign of the 
 growing desire of man to better his condition, 
 to make progress. Nothing, in point of fact, 
 could be further from the truth. Our discontent
 
 "Divine Discontent" 271 
 
 that discontent of which we are beginning to 
 feel quite proud is not to be mentioned in 
 the same breath with the laudable ambition 
 which everyone of us ought to have, to do 
 something in the world and for humanity before 
 we are called away. 
 
 Our modern discontented frame of mind, 
 then, is nothing to boast about. But it is easy 
 enough to diagnose its cause. Ever since the 
 middle of the last century our material progress 
 has been extraordinary, but can anyone affirm 
 that our moral and religious progress has kept 
 pace with our increased comfort and prosperity ? 
 It was a sort of maxim with the early Victorians 
 that people would become better as they grew 
 more prosperous. Has that prediction been ful- 
 filled in any appreciable measure? 
 
 Applied Science has ministered almost 
 miraculously to the wants and ills of man's body, 
 but it has never got the entre to the sanctuary 
 of his soul. In the laboratory there is nothing to 
 neutralise the deadly poison of deadly sins ; in 
 the surgery nothing to mitigate the agonies of 
 a tortured conscience ; in the observatory no- 
 thing to correct the aberrations of the mind's 
 fitful gleams of light ; in the photographer's 
 dark room nothing to fix with permanence the 
 heights and beauty of virtue ; in the dynamo- 
 chamber nothing to generate zeal for God's 
 glory or love of the brotherhood of humanity. 
 
 Is it cause for wonder that bitter discontent
 
 272 What of To-Day ? 
 
 with what one is, and what one has, is spread- 
 ing amongst us with results far more fatal to the 
 community than either cancer or consumption? 
 Do we ask why man is wandering unsatisfied 
 in the spacious palaces of his new material 
 splendour? There is no other reason, there can 
 be no other reason, than that the progress of 
 irreligion has evicted him from the City of God, 
 leaving his soul to shiver and starve on the rocks 
 of despair, like a dog for whom no one cares. 
 Well might such an one cry out with Chateau- 
 briand : 'Tell me, for pity's sake, where in 
 the fields of philosophy to which you drive me, 
 shall I find a family or a God?" 
 
 And it is this restless spirit of discontent on 
 a grand scale that is now, I would have you 
 note, being lauded and approved as giving 
 proof of an intelligent desire on the part of 
 mankind to " get on." If our present discontent 
 was really " divine " ; if we could, for a moment 
 even, turn our attention from material things 
 and examine into our spiritual state ; if, in fine, 
 we would acknowledge to ourselves the incon- 
 testable fact that, in casting aside Christianity, 
 we have thrown away that without which all 
 the wealth of the world is of no value, why 
 then, in a spirit of real remorse and laudable 
 discontent, we might well rejoice to have re- 
 cognised that things were going badly with us. 
 
 That is the only sort of discontent which 
 the Christian can or ought to permit himself to
 
 "Divine Discontent" 273 
 
 feel. Instead of letting his mind be lifted up 
 with worldly views and sordid aims, and the 
 pride which comes from getting, and the vanity 
 which comes from possession, and the deceit which 
 comes from boasting, he will abase himself, and 
 strike his breast, and do penance. Instead of 
 giving way to his passion for gain, or envy, or 
 carnal self-indulgence, lust of money, lust of 
 the flesh, or lust for any of the vicious pleasures 
 of this life, he will abase himself, and strike his 
 breast, and do penance. Instead of trampling 
 upon the weak in order that he may wax strong, 
 of deriding the failure of his brother in order 
 that he may have greater consideration in the 
 eyes of the world, instead of accusing his 
 God of being the Author of the evil he him- 
 self has wrought, he will bow down his head 
 to the dust, and strike his breast, and do 
 penance. 
 
 Do I shock the ultra-delicate sentiment of 
 our over-refined moderns by uttering such 
 words? I should rejoice to think I could stir 
 their long-dormant consciences by galvanising 
 them into any sort of life. But "penance" is 
 a word that is fast passing out of common use 
 in this country. The notion that a man> how- 
 ever irreligious and immoral his life may be, 
 has anything to be ashamed of, is quite anti- 
 quated. We must be proud of our manhood, 
 stand erect before God Himself (if He exists at 
 all), and prove that we are no cringing curs, 
 s
 
 274 What of To-Day? 
 
 but men who realise the strength and splendoui 
 of their nature. That is the latest anti-Christian 
 teaching. 
 
 Ah, let us by all means be proud of our 
 manhood, but let us first see to it that we are 
 so living that we have a right to be proud of 
 it. Let the virtuous man exult in his virtue, 
 but is the vicious man equally to exult in his 
 vice ? Is the wicked man to glory in his 
 wickedness, or boast of his immorality as proof 
 of his manhood ? 
 
 For that is where this new theory logically 
 lands us, with the natural corollary that to 
 repent, to do penance, to bow our heads in 
 humility for our sins is unmanly and feeble, 
 and shows a lack of proper spirit. No, however 
 discontented we may be with our position in 
 life, our place in the world, our surroundings, 
 our lack of recognition, we must not on any 
 account be discontented with ourselves. That 
 is the modern teaching. Does it strike you as 
 reasonable ? My experience goes to show that 
 in the measure in which a man has lofty 
 and holy aspirations he is, I do not say 
 discouraged, but disappointed, discontented 
 even with his best efforts to live up to them. 
 Conscious of his frailty, he humbly thanks 
 God that he is not worse. "But for Thy 
 mercy I should have dwelt in hell."
 
 XXV 
 
 THE WOMAN MOVEMENT 
 I. THE SEX WAR 
 
 WOMAN has always played a conspicuous part in 
 the history of this planet a much more con- 
 spicuous part, indeed, than the modern repre- 
 sentative of the sex cares to admit. Hitherto, 
 however, she has been satisfied to remain behind 
 the scenes, pulling the strings and making men, 
 her puppets, dance according as she has willed, 
 in the eyes of the world. But now a change 
 has come over the spirit of her dream, she has 
 grown restless and dissatisfied with her position, 
 she is crying for a new toy, and she is out to 
 get it by any means, fair or unfair. 
 
 For my part I think a great deal of this vague 
 discontent is to be traced to the spirit of revolt 
 against the established order of things every- 
 where observable among mankind. Speaking 
 generally, woman does not possess the creative 
 or pioneering instinct of the man. She is con- 
 tent, for the most part, to follow where man 
 leads, and is it not significant that the militant 
 suffragettes who have till recently been "stagger- 
 ing humanity ' by their reckless methods of 
 
 275
 
 276 What of To-Day? 
 
 seeking the vote, plead the example of men 
 in justification of their mad actions ? 
 
 This consideration, I admit, does not carry 
 the matter much farther on the practical side. 
 If it be true that the spirit of the age is the 
 spirit of revolt, we have still to ask ourselves 
 what it is that woman, qua woman, is endeav- 
 ouring to obtain and how far her demands are 
 just, and to what extent they are unwise or 
 worse. It will not do to dismiss the whole move- 
 ment as a mere question whether women shall 
 or shall not have the vote. The vote may 
 stand as a symbol for much, but in itself it is 
 relatively insignificant. Women want more a 
 great deal more than the vote, and I think it 
 is worth while attempting to discover the real 
 aims of the movement as a whole. 
 
 Now in the first place it must be remembered 
 that this is an imperfect world, and that we all of 
 us both men and women are labouring under 
 many grievances and many injustices. Look 
 where we will, we see suffering and tyranny and 
 oppression on all sides of us. Men, no less than 
 women, and women, no less than men, have 
 much to bear that is due indirectly to the cal- 
 lousness and the cruelty shown by their fellows, 
 and it is surely the object of every right-think- 
 ing man or woman to lessen, if not to do away 
 altogether with burdens which man's inhumanity 
 to man has laid upon the world. 
 
 There are, I rejoice to think, many noble
 
 The Woman Movement 277 
 
 spirits whose whole lives are being devoted to 
 this end, who are unselfishly spending their days 
 in ministering to the wants of their unfortunate 
 fellow-creatures and who go about the world do- 
 ing good and fighting evil wherever they find 
 it. But these people would be the last to pro- 
 claim a class war, or a sex war, or enter upon 
 any campaign directed against a particular 
 section of society. 
 
 This is where the protagonists of the woman 
 movement have fallen into a deplorable and 
 hopeless error. With a sense of injustice rank- 
 ling in their minds, and labouring under certain 
 disabilities which no one can remove, they have, 
 with a lack of logic which is only equalled by 
 their want of common-sense, declared war 
 against man ! They will not be satisfied till 
 they have pulled man down from the pedestal 
 on which the wretched fellow has had the au- 
 dacity to set himself, and erected thereon, I 
 suppose, a statue of the Eternal Feminine as 
 the supreme ruler of the world. 
 
 What could be more ludicrous or degrading, 
 according to the observer's point of view, than 
 the spectacle of a lot of hysterical women 
 smashing windows, chaining themselves to rail- 
 ings, burning houses and, alas, churches as well 
 as a protest against "man-made laws"? I 
 have said before and I say it again, this is not 
 a question of the vote. It is a desperate protest 
 by a certain section of undisciplined women
 
 278 What of To-Day? 
 
 against the fact that they are women. They 
 have worked themselves up into a state of blind 
 resentment against authority, human and divine, 
 and they have no better way of showing it 
 than by venting their uncontrolled rage on the 
 male sex. 
 
 They want neither equality with man nor 
 the chivalrous deference with which men have 
 treated them in the past. They want to be re- 
 cognised definitely as the superior sex, and that 
 is why in their poor confused minds they have 
 singled out man as the enemy, and have deter- 
 mined to make him acknowledge their suprem- 
 acy. What imaginary wrongs they may be 
 labouring under it is bootless to inquire, for we 
 may be certain of this, that if women, as a sex, 
 were so oppressed and tyrannised over as these 
 viragoes would have us believe, every woman 
 worthy of the name would be up in arms against 
 the wrong-doers. As it is, I have heard the do- 
 ings of the militants condemned in far more 
 scathing terms by women than I have ever 
 heard used by men. 
 
 Their real grievance, as I think, is just that 
 they are women, while they scorn to be womanly. 
 This modern parody of a woman, who screams 
 from the top of a cart that she will have her 
 rights, and who mauls policemen like a wild 
 thing from the Zoo, apes everything mannish. 
 She wants to dress like a man, stalk about and 
 lounge like a man, smoke and drink like a man,
 
 The Woman Movement 279 
 
 talk and swear like a man, and generally to be- 
 have herself, not like a refined lady, but like an 
 unrefined man. While professing to hate and 
 despise the other sex, she envies man the very 
 things for which she might rightly hold him in 
 contempt. She wants to be free to emulate his 
 vices, to enjoy his so-called liberty of action, to 
 share his opportunities for degradation. 
 
 The sight of this sort of woman on the war- 
 path, or screaming and kicking in the dock, is 
 very painful to an English gentleman taught in 
 the old-fashioned school that he must pay defer- 
 ence and respect to women. He can only turn 
 away his face from the spectacle, hoping and 
 praying that this mad desire to be what God 
 never intended her to be may in the course of 
 time pass away as a phase of lunacy after some 
 nervous strain. 
 
 It is a pity that the man-mimicking woman 
 does not realise that if she insists in becoming 
 unsexed and taking man's place in the world, 
 she will soon meet with short shrift and be 
 treated, not like a gentlemanly man, but like 
 a bounder. I know that it is a common pose for 
 women of this sort to pretend that they do not 
 want the respect or deference which men are 
 accustomed to pay to them, that they ask no 
 other treatment from men than that which men 
 accord to each other. Yet observe the incon- 
 sistency of the creatures ! If a mob, roused to 
 indignation and thoroughly exasperated by their
 
 28o What of To-Day? 
 
 extravagances, venture on so much as a threaten- 
 ing movement in their direction, ^the woman, who 
 but a moment before was demanding equality 
 with man, instantly takes refuge under the cloak 
 of her sex, and taunts her hearers with cowardice 
 for lifting a hand against a defenceless female. 
 If she is arrested and dragged off I use the 
 expression advisedly, for it is part of the militants' 
 plan of campaign to give as much trouble as 
 possible on these occasions if, I say, she is 
 dragged off to prison, she can find no words 
 strong enough to condemn the "brutal" police- 
 men who have had the misfortune to be com- 
 pelled to take her to gaol. As for the scenes 
 enacted in the police-courts by these furies, 
 it makes one's cheek blush with shame to 
 read of them. 
 
 "It is time we were armed," declared one 
 of them not long ago on being sent to prison 
 with the option of a fine, and cheers from the 
 women at the back of the court greeted her 
 remark. No comment on the state of mind 
 revealed by such an aspiration is necessary. 
 
 The utter want of clear thinking to name 
 only one aspect of the movement which char- 
 acterised the whole of the militant campaign is 
 shown by the determination of the women con- 
 cerned not only to commit crimes but to claim 
 exemption from punishment. By trading on 
 their sex, they have discovered a means whereby 
 they can assure themselves, no matter how grave
 
 The Woman Movement 281 
 
 their offences, of escaping all unpleasant conse- 
 quences. They can pose as martyrs, as victims 
 of man's tyrannical cruelty on the one hand, and, 
 on the other, thanks solely to man's dislike of 
 proceeding to extremities against a woman, they 
 are assured of immunity from the usual penalties 
 that follow the commission of crime. They have 
 discovered, in short, how to eat their cake and 
 have it. 
 
 As an instance of how rapidly mental degene- 
 ration sets in in cases of this sort, let me relate 
 the gist of a conversation I had not long since 
 with a respectable Anglican clergyman who, to 
 my astonishment, manifested no small measure 
 of sympathy with the methods of the militant 
 suffragettes. The burning down of churches and 
 the disturbances created during services had, I 
 fancy, aroused some misgivings in the worthy 
 man's inner conscience, but for all that he still 
 solemnly maintained that, on the whole, their 
 motives were entitled to respect, though at times 
 they might have been guilty of carrying matters 
 too far. 
 
 And then, to my amazement, he entered into 
 an elaborate comparison between the Early 
 Christians and the mad militants, pointing out 
 how in each case a small band of enthusiasts set 
 out to convert the world, caring for nothing but 
 that their views should prevail, and daring ridicule, 
 torture and, as he hinted, death itself to further 
 the cause they had at heart. Such an argument,
 
 282 What of To-Day? 
 
 however irrational in itself, might have been 
 intelligible in the mouth of one to whom religion 
 meant nothing, and to whom Christ was but a 
 name. Coming, as it did, from one who had 
 pretensions to direct the spiritual welfare of 
 many souls, it was both painful and shocking. 
 
 I will not insist on the complete want of 
 understanding of what Christianity implies which 
 is involved in such a position. My readers are 
 capable of appreciating that for themselves. 
 That a clergyman of the Church of England 
 should father such sentiments makes the case 
 all the sadder. But putting this aside for the 
 moment, and apart from all question of the 
 rights or wrongs of woman, we may well be aston- 
 ished when we are asked to regard as " martyrs " 
 those who, after committing sacrilege, arson and 
 other crimes, refuse to take the consequences 
 of their acts. I have yet to learn that the 
 Christian martyrs after offending, as, humanly 
 speaking, they did offend, against the laws of the 
 Roman Empire by refusing to sacrifice to idols, 
 ever protested by word or deed against the 
 sufferings they had to endure. They did their 
 best to open the eyes of their persecutors as to 
 what they were doing, but, for the rest, they 
 faithfully imitated the example of their Divine 
 Master, and the words on their lips as they 
 died were ever the same : " Father, forgive them, 
 for they know not what they do." 
 
 Let us hear no more then of this canting
 
 The Woman Movement 283 
 
 nonsense concerning i4 martyrdom." For my 
 part I consider the meanest criminal in revolt 
 against society, who knows and is prepared to 
 accept the consequences of his crime, a better 
 specimen of the race than the wild women who 
 in their frenzied insanity go raging up and 
 down the country in a senseless endeavour to 
 prove the justice of their demands by inflicting 
 injustice and loss on others. Wonderful to 
 narrate, we seem to know how to conduct a 
 world-wide war but are helpless when attacked 
 by the vicious suffragette. Well may England 
 in her dilemma have been the laughing-stock of 
 Europe. 'Why," they used to exclaim on the 
 Continent, " they are afraid in England of a 
 militant girl; she defies a whole Government." 
 
 II. LUST AND LICENCE 
 
 THERE is one aspect of the woman question 
 which no one who calls himself a Christian, or 
 who holds firmly by the truths of the father- 
 hood of God and the brotherhood of man, can 
 fail to regard with grave apprehension. The 
 particular views put forward by the more "ad- 
 vanced" women have not I rejoice to be able 
 to think and say it made much headway in this 
 country. But no one can deny that they have 
 gained some sort of footing among a certain 
 section of women, even here, and no priest 
 would be worthy of his office, no Christian
 
 284 What of To-Day ? 
 
 worthy to call himself such, who did not issue 
 the strongest protest and the most solemn 
 warning against such fatal errors, when oppor- 
 tunity served. 
 
 The advocates of Women's Rights, if I 
 understand them properly, have been, like a great 
 many men, by the way, agitating for emancipa- 
 tion, for freedom. Well, that word "freedom" 
 is a rather nebulous expression, and Heaven 
 forbid that I, or anyone else, should deny to 
 any single woman such a legitimate measure 
 of liberty as will enable her to exercise all her 
 talents, to express her whole character as fully 
 as her nature will allow. 
 
 Her demand for the vote, for higher wages, 
 for greater opportunity, for a wider education, 
 for less dependence upon man ; all these things 
 may be right or they may be wrong. It is not 
 for me to say. But I have something to say 
 to woman, and very emphatically, too, when she 
 passes from such demands as these and begins 
 to question the sacramental character of marriage, 
 the value of religion, the foundations of Chris- 
 tianity itself. 
 
 If anything could ruin this Woman Movement, 
 one would have thought, it would be this attack 
 on the sanctity of the home, this open and 
 shocking declaration of war on morality, this 
 shameful and unashamed advocacy of the dia- 
 bolical doctrine of free love. That women 
 should, in a moment of passion, yield to temp-
 
 The Woman Movement 285 
 
 tation and fall is bad enough ; that our civilisa- 
 tion should be unable to grapple with the terrible 
 problem to which the streets of every town in 
 the kingdom bear witness, is ten times more 
 deplorable ; but that any women could be found 
 in the length and breadth of Christendom to 
 argue, on intellectual grounds, calmly and in no 
 sudden gust of passion, in favour of a State- 
 recognised and promiscuous intercourse, is so 
 awful, so hideous a phenomenon of our moder- 
 nity that the brain reels in contemplating the 
 consequences even the worldly consequences 
 of so ghastly and so miserable an error. 
 
 Yet it is true. Nor are these things whis- 
 pered quietly in private rooms behind locked 
 doors. They are proclaimed unblushingly from 
 the housetops, from public platforms, in lecture 
 halls, in books, in papers, in novels written for 
 the purpose, in every way that ingenuity can 
 suggest to reach the mind of the public. Woman 
 must be free free from the shackles of a mis- 
 guided past, free from the tyranny of man, free 
 the horrible blasphemy of it ! from the despotism 
 of God ! She must be free to go her own wild 
 road, free to trample in the dust the stainless 
 flower of her own purity, free to fall lower 
 than man himself has fallen and free to drag 
 him down from toiling up those heights which 
 it should be her pride and joy, as it is her 
 God-given mission, to help him to scale. 
 
 Man and woman were made to be the com-
 
 286 What of To-Day? 
 
 plemcnt of each other, and just as man is, on 
 the whole, intellectually and physically the 
 superior, so woman is, morally and spiritually, 
 finer than man. If wilfully and deliberately she 
 flings aside this priceless quality by virtue of 
 which she rules the home and tames the fiercer 
 nature of man, and teaches him to look up 
 with her to higher things, how can she do 
 otherwise than fall far below his own poor level 
 in every respect? 
 
 Women who, slandering their own woman- 
 hood, preach such doctrines are I say it deliber- 
 ately infinitely worse than the poor Magdalens 
 of the streets. Yet this pernicious, this criminal 
 theory of Free Love has been defended and by 
 women on the ground that we should hear no 
 more of women selling their bodies to gain a 
 livelihood, if leasehold unions were recognised by 
 the State and by public opinion as lawful and 
 decent. From the muddle-mindedness, the 
 almost incurable lack of moral perspective re- 
 vealed by such an argument, one recoils in 
 despair. 
 
 Thank God, such views are not common 
 among even the most clamorous of our own 
 advanced countrywomen. But there is on the 
 other hand a tendency which one cannot but 
 deplore, to belittle marriage, to sneer at the 
 home, and to speak slightingly of the house- 
 hold duties in which so many women find the 
 pleasure, as well as the labour, of their lives.
 
 The Woman Movement 287 
 
 This tendency not, be it observed, actually 
 connected with ideas of illicit love is, I fear, 
 spreading amongst those Englishwomen who 
 are not satisfied with their present status. Most 
 of them, I rejoice to admit, would recoil with 
 horror at the suggestion that they advocated 
 Free Love in any shape. Yet I would put this 
 consideration before them. If they are con- 
 tinually accustoming themselves, their readers, 
 their hearers, or their associates, to dwell on the 
 "drudgery" of housewifely duties, to regard 
 the bearing and rearing of children as no fit 
 task for an intellectual woman, and finally, to 
 think and talk of the marriage state as carrying 
 with it some sort of implication of inferiority 
 or slavery for the woman, how long, I ask, will 
 it be before such thoughts insensibly develop 
 into a mental attitude similar to that I have 
 already referred to ? 
 
 The woman who ceases to look on marriage 
 as a sacrament and the duties it entails as high 
 and holy ones, soon comes to regard it as a mere 
 conventional institution, which may be dispensed 
 with or not, according to the convenience of 
 the man and woman concerned. 
 
 This is one terrible danger of the Woman 
 Movement the precipice towards which women 
 may, all unthinkingly, be going. I do not ask 
 them to become slaves to men, I do not even 
 ask them to forgo their demand for a vote, 
 I do not ask them to abate a single jot of their
 
 288 What of To-Day ? 
 
 legitimate political or social rights : but I do 
 beg them, most seriously and solemnly, to look 
 into their hearts and consider well every step 
 they take towards whatever degree of "free- 
 dom " they are aiming at; to hold counsel very 
 earnestly with their consciences, to feel sure 
 that what they are doing is not contrary to the 
 dictates of religion, and finally, to take heed 
 that in the heat and dust and excitement of the 
 conflict they do not lose sight of God's own 
 immutable laws. 
 
 If man transgresses, is that a reason for 
 woman also wishing to transgress ? Because 
 man is vile, is woman to imitate his vileness? 
 Or shall a woman prove false to her own nature 
 by reason of man's weakness and man's folly? 
 Will she not rather show her superiority and 
 vindicate her claim to be considered the nobler 
 sex by resisting temptation, by helping her 
 fallen brother to regain his manhood, by lead- 
 ing him gently back to the path from which 
 he has strayed? And if, conscious of her own 
 human frailty, she pleads that she cannot, of 
 herself, do these things, then I would ask her to 
 turn for help and strength to One Who has yet 
 never failed any who sought His aid, and to 
 take her example and draw her inspiration 
 from the Divine Man, Jesus Christ Himself, 
 'Whom I have seen, Whom I have loved, in 
 Whom I have believed and in Whom 1 have 
 delighted."
 
 XXVI 
 "REDEEM THE TIME" 
 
 LIFE is a matter of work from the very begin- 
 ning. It started upon that plane from the time 
 of our first parents, and to the end of the world 
 this law of life will be always a law of labour. 
 And this law having been imposed upon man 
 in the beginning, work was looked upon, 
 throughout the ancient world, as a curse. So 
 we read of kings and emperors, rulers of 
 Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome conceiving 
 the idea that a life of happiness meant a life of 
 ordering others to work for them, while they 
 themselves indulged in every kind of luxury 
 and amusement, with the result that in the end 
 it came to be thought that only those who 
 could afford to be idle and lead a leisured, self- 
 indulgent life were happy, and that any man 
 who was obliged to work must be miserable. 
 
 Then came our divine Lord, the great 
 Master, and it was for Him, Who is not only 
 the holiest of the holy, but the wisest of the 
 wise and the mightiest of the mighty, to choose 
 the best state of life. He chose a life of labour. 
 He came to work with His hands ; He laboured 
 
 T 289
 
 2 9 o What of To-Day ? 
 
 with the sweat falling from His brows ; He 
 baptised labour and transformed it from a 
 penalty to a privilege. And since then men 
 have always spoken of the dignity of labour. 
 Christ glorified work, and His Church, following 
 His example, and taking up the tools and im- 
 plements of service, teaches men to work with 
 their hands and with their minds, to employ 
 themselves in manual and mental labour. 
 
 Was it not the Church of Christ that in the 
 Middle Ages organised labour by Christian 
 guilds for the production and promotion of 
 arts and crafts ? And throughout those ages, 
 did not the Church stand up as the champion 
 of the working man, the defender of the de- 
 fenceless? Did she not always and everywhere 
 drive home the lesson that all working men 
 have a right to a living wage, and that slavery 
 and serfdom must be swept away out of the 
 land in which Christ was to rule as Lord and 
 Master? It is the constant teaching of the 
 Church that we are all members of one great 
 social organism, and she unswervingly supports 
 the principle that each should work for the 
 good of the whole. 
 
 It is the function of all religion to get this 
 great altruistic principle accepted, and the way 
 to set about it is to see that our own work is 
 done honestly, efficiently, and above all thor- 
 oughly. There are many who can claim to be 
 making money, and who are doing well and
 
 "Redeem the Time" 291 
 
 getting on in the world's estimation, but how 
 many are there who can truthfully aver that they 
 are "thorough" in all that they undertake ? On 
 every rung of the social ladder there are only 
 too many inefficient characters, too readily satisfied 
 with inefficient work. " Efficiency " should be 
 the Englishman's motto in every walk of life 
 and in every department of his country's service. 
 Alas, there has been a plentiful lack of it every- 
 where, and it has needed a convulsion like the 
 present catastrophic war to shock the country 
 into action. 
 
 Egoism is playing havoc with altruism. All 
 are too much like children in a hurry to win 
 the prizes of life, and in the rush for dividends 
 men trample one another down without pity 
 and without remorse. They offer the lame ex- 
 cuse that competition in business is too keen, 
 and the margin of profit too fine, for them to 
 pause and consider what is right and what is 
 wrong, and the consequence is that work is in- 
 efficiently done, because done by men inefficient 
 in character. 
 
 Thoroughness is the only straight road to 
 the only sort of success worth having. An in- 
 dividual, like a nation, may for a time succeed 
 by trickery and superficiality, but in the long 
 run the man who is thorough in the thing to 
 which he is devoting his energies is the one 
 who will not only come out on top, but who 
 will stay there.
 
 What of To-Day? 
 
 Sir Joshua Reynolds was one day asked by 
 an ambitious young artist the secret of his suc- 
 cess. "Thoroughness," was the reply; "I 
 always paint my best." 
 
 "Do you know what has led me to success 
 in war?" asked the Napoleon in conversation 
 with his staff. "Attention to details." 
 
 There is a time-honoured maxim that what 
 is worth doing is worth doing well. That rule 
 applies to every career and to every action that 
 goes to build it up. Every brick in a building 
 has its right place and its right setting, and the 
 perfect adjustment of the whole can only result 
 from the perfect adjustment of its constituent 
 parts. I once heard of a builder who found fault 
 with a bricklayer for setting bricks too close 
 to one another. 
 
 "Jack," said he, "that work won't suit me. 
 Set 'em more free." 
 
 "It's the only work that'll suit me," said 
 the bricklayer, and at the end of the week he 
 found himself out of a job. Now he and his 
 employer have changed places. The bricklayer 
 is a well-to-do builder, but his former master is 
 glad of any odd job he can pick up. Depend 
 upon it thoroughness in the long run makes its 
 mark, and pays a good dividend, even though 
 for the moment the showy and superficial work- 
 man may seem to prosper better. 
 
 It is a thousand pities that this grand prin- 
 ciple is not more generally insisted on and
 
 "Redeem the Time" 293 
 
 driven home to the rising generation. If every 
 child were made to realise it at school and at 
 home there would not be so many to say later 
 in life, " Honesty is the best policy. I know, 
 for I have tried both." Unfortunately it is a 
 fact that, look where we may, we find evidence 
 all around us of the growing tendency towards 
 lack of thoroughness. Our mahogany is thinly 
 veneered, our cruet-stands lightly plated. Not 
 only are the finest figs at the top of the box, 
 and the biggest strawberries on the surface of 
 the basket, but protestations of honesty are too 
 often found only on the tips of the lips. The 
 man who is "thorough" through and through 
 is becoming a rara avis. 
 
 More than ever " things are not what they 
 seem." We are given uniforms that will not 
 last, cotton prints that will not hold their 
 colour, patent leathers that crack, umbrellas that 
 gape, and watches that only go when you shake 
 them. But, worse than all, we find a deplor- 
 able number of people who are as slack in their 
 work as these objects are useless for their pro- 
 fessed purpose, and who are surprised because 
 they do not "get on." The truth is that when 
 experience teaches buyers that there is more 
 slack than cobs in their coal, more paper than 
 leather in their boots, more shoddy than cloth 
 in their coats, they usually change their coal- 
 merchant, bootmaker, or tailor, as the case may 
 be.
 
 294 What of To-Day? 
 
 When shopkeepers are discovered selling 
 margarine for butter, or the ancient lays of 
 Limerick for new-laid eggs, they are heavily 
 fined, and it would be very serviceable to the 
 public if that system of fining could be applied 
 not only to the false labelling of perishable 
 goods, but also to the inefficient doing of 
 perishable work. It is said of plumbers, in a 
 certain portion of the globe not to be named, 
 that they never do one job without making 
 another. This, no doubt, shows a fine spirit of 
 work, but it is not a practice which should be 
 resorted to without the entire approval of the 
 party who has to pay for it. 
 
 What people really appreciate is having 
 some security that they are getting what they 
 pay for. If they pay for a thoroughly good 
 article or thoroughly good work, they expect 
 and want their money's worth. That is a rule 
 which knows no exception. It matters not 
 whether the thing takes the form of groceries, 
 millinery, or medicine, or sweeping or serving, 
 the master or buyer looks to " thoroughness" as 
 a test of efficiency. 
 
 Everyone, it is true, cannot work equally 
 well. There are no two hands or heads or 
 faces exactly alike, and so neither are there two 
 workers equally capable, but everyone can, at 
 least, give of his best. We are not all gifted 
 with the cleverness of the American mechanic, 
 who declared he had constructed a scarecrow
 
 "Redeem the Time" 295 
 
 which was so effective that it frightened every 
 bird in the district into bringing back every 
 grain of corn stolen thence during the previous 
 year, but we are all clever enough not to steal 
 our employer's time and not to let others steal 
 it. Nor need we undertake any work unless 
 we mean to do it as thoroughly as we can. 
 Not all of us can say with Ruskin : "I never 
 write about anything except what I know more 
 of than most other people," but everyone can 
 and ought to say : "I never set about doing 
 anything except what I can do as well as, or 
 better than, most other people." 
 
 It would be well if we took to heart and put 
 into practice the words spoken of Ezechia : 
 "And in every work that he did ... he did 
 it with all his heart and prospered." 
 
 There you have before you the example 
 which merited and won true prosperity. And 
 yet Ezechia had the infamous example of his 
 father, Achaz, before him, and lived his life in 
 an atmosphere laden with the abominations of 
 Oriental idolatry. But instead of yielding to his 
 environment, instead of submitting fatalistically 
 to the influence of his surroundings, he chose 
 to become the architect of circumstances. And 
 so God was with him, and "Ezechia prospered 
 in all his works." 
 
 Because you happen to be thrown in the 
 company of men who are not thorough-going, 
 that is no reason why you should take their
 
 296 What of To-Day? 
 
 arms and share their slipshod ways. Give them 
 a lead. From the experience I have had of 
 successful men in a large commercial city, I am 
 satisfied that most of them have started in the 
 race of life very heavily handicapped. It was 
 by dint of pluck and energy and enterprise in 
 a word, by their thoroughness that they mounted 
 step by step the ladder of prosperity. As a rule 
 the man who is born "with a silver sp >on in 
 his mouth" trusts too much to the spoon and 
 too little to business, and he often ends by 
 losing both. He pawns the one and ruins the 
 other. Not long ago a millionaire was reminded 
 by an elderly business man that, as an errand 
 boy, his boots used to be cleaned by him. 
 
 "Yes," said the man of millions, "and 
 didn't I make them shine?" That was the 
 secret of his success thoroughness. 
 
 It is this thoroughness that England needs 
 so sorely to-day in all her sons, and not in a 
 select few whom we can point to and hold up 
 for admiration to the rest of the world. Thor- 
 oughness in religion, thoroughness in work, 
 thoroughness in all things. The greatness of 
 the Empire does not depend on the vastness of 
 its population, or its fabulous wealth, but on 
 this that its sons be ever upright, honourable, 
 loyal and true. Are not all these qualities in- 
 cluded in that word "thorough"? 
 
 If her Empire is to stand, England must ask 
 much to-day from all her sons, not only from
 
 "Redeem the Time" 297 
 
 those who are more especially dedicated to her 
 service. She needs sons who will be thorough in 
 doing their duty, who will strain like hounds at 
 the leash to get at the work she asks from them. 
 She needs, and never more than to-day, empire 
 supporters as well as empire builders, men 
 whose feet are on the earth, but whose brows 
 touch the stars. She needs citizens on whom 
 she can rely, whom she can trust because they 
 have proved their strength by their thoroughness. 
 She wants no rotters, no loafers, no slackers, no 
 shirkers of work. England wants men who 
 refuse to be beaten, men of grit, men of enthu- 
 siasm, without which life is but a poor limp 
 affair. 
 
 And what of that greater empire the em- 
 pire of God ? Whether we like it or not, 
 whether we believe it or not, we are all citizens 
 of that supernatural empire, and it is only by 
 our own act that we can throw away that birth- 
 right. As members of a Christian community, 
 it is not for us to shirk the combat. We have 
 to be thorough in this matter as in all others, 
 to try to live up to the spiritual ideal every day 
 and all day, and not pack our religion away in 
 cold storage during the week, to be brought 
 out for an hour or two on Sundays. Cold 
 storage goods lose their flavour and nourishing 
 power. 
 
 Be thorough in this business of your spiritual 
 life and you will be thorough in smaller things.
 
 298 What of To-Day? 
 
 Be true to God in daily life, no matter who 
 else proves false. Beware of a wasted life 
 wasted hours wasted opportunities. Think of 
 Dives think of the careless wedding guest the 
 idle servant the foolish virgins, all lost for 
 wasted opportunities. Be thorough. Give God 
 work and He will give you rest. Give God 
 time and He will give you Eternity.
 
 XXVII 
 THE SELF-CENTRED LIFE 
 
 ONE of the] chief characteristics of the present 
 age is its hatred of restriction. People strain at 
 ties which should be held sacred, and break 
 the bonds which should be binding. They make 
 a mockery of the promises of baptism, and shame 
 their marriage vows without a thought. There 
 are many who practically live without principles 
 at all. The whim of the moment, the fancy of 
 the hour, decides their course of action. They 
 live according to fashion. There is no method 
 in their lives, their only aim is to "kill time." 
 Think of it ! To kill the golden moments that 
 are slipping by, and bringing Eternity nearer to 
 each one of us. 
 
 "Every day that is born into the world," 
 wrote Carlyle, "comes like a burst of music, and 
 rings itself the way through ; and you may make 
 it a dance, a dirge, or a life-march, as you will." 
 What a pity that more of us do not strive to make 
 of it a life-march ! Yet how many there are who, 
 waking to the sweet dawn, roll over on their 
 pillow and seek the sleep of oblivion, because 
 a longer sleep will help the boring day to pass 
 
 299
 
 300 What of To-Day? 
 
 more quickly! They waste a precious morning 
 over some scandal in their daily paper, or, with 
 a scrofulous novel in their hands, forget the hour 
 of rising, and stay in bed till noon. 
 
 The calls of their household, social and re- 
 ligious duties, are forgotten or ignored, because 
 some passing whim has magnetised them. Night 
 comes and, having managed somehow or other 
 to get through the day, they seek some violent 
 pleasure, some soul-deadening and sense-excit- 
 ing enjoyment, and so go on killing time till 
 they have killed a glorious Eternity. 
 
 There are many so-called men who lead such 
 lives, and there are women, especially women 
 in society rich, idle, voluptuous who com- 
 mand what they want by the small exertion of 
 pressing a button. And these men and women 
 might, if they liked, grow into fine, noble, inspir- 
 ing characters. The thought is enough to make 
 the very angels weep. 
 
 "How easy," sighed Becky Sharp, "it is to 
 be good on five thousand a year." And how 
 easy, how fatally easy, it is to be anything but 
 good on the same sum ! And why is this ? Is 
 it not because self-indulgence takes the place 
 of self-denial? 
 
 All classes, I am afraid, share in a degree in 
 this cult of self-indulgence, this horror of discip- 
 line. But it is the rich, in particular, I blame. 
 For it is theirs to set an example, to create a 
 fashion which others readily follow. Yet how
 
 The Self-centred Life 301 
 
 many of them, instead of realising their responsi- 
 bilities in this matter, make it their whole aim 
 to revel in pleasure, like pigs in a sty. They 
 have no thought of anything beyond this present 
 life. They are constantly in search of something 
 to tingle their nervous system, to excite them 
 and take them out of themselves. Even so, they 
 can find no happiness in their pleasure-seeking, 
 oblivion-hunting, weary life. Such people are 
 less happy in reality than the man who keeps 
 his crossing clean, or the woman who goes out 
 charing to keep a roof over her head. 
 
 The truth is and it is well that we should 
 recognise it that we are living in a world which 
 shirks its obligations, which acknowledges no 
 duties ; a world which loves only softness and 
 pleasure. Lapdogs of luxury are everywhere. 
 Immorality is sucking at the heart of England's 
 manhood, and vice is gnawing at the vitals of 
 the nation. 
 
 I have said that for this state of things I put 
 the responsibility mainly on the rich, and on 
 those who lead and have it in their power to 
 guide the mass of their fellow countrymen. 
 
 How, indeed, can we blame the working 
 classes for not recognising that discipline and 
 self-denial are duties a man owes to himself, his 
 fellows, and his country, when so many examples 
 of slackness and idleness and worse are contin- 
 ually to be seen around him? 
 
 It is a common complaint in certain circles
 
 302 What of To-Day ? 
 
 that what we call the lower classes arc degen- 
 erating, and in particular, that they are given to 
 "aping their betters." For my part, I cannot 
 see what great harm there would be in that, if 
 only these same "betters" would set an example 
 worth following. For in all societies, the majority 
 such is the weakness of human nature live 
 according to the fashion set them by those whom 
 circumstances have placed in a position to influ- 
 ence others. It matters not whether the com- 
 munity be, politically speaking, an aristocracy, a 
 plutocracy, or a democracy. The few lead, the 
 many follow. 
 
 Unhappily, too, while the open display of 
 luxury and self-indulgence acts like a magnet 
 in attracting weaker spirits, the example of a 
 virtuous life is not so readily followed. Vice 
 lends itself to gossip and smart talk ; virtue is 
 voted a boring subject of conversation, and there 
 fore even a comparatively small vicious set has 
 immeasurably greater influence on the more 
 ignorant than the example of many decent-living 
 men can have. 
 
 It is then, I repeat, worse than useless to 
 expect self-discipline, self-restraint, self-reverence 
 from the mass of the people in the face of such 
 open scandals as are daily reported by the Press, 
 such scenes of flagitious and riotous living as 
 anyone with eyes to see cannot help witnessing 
 all around him 
 
 Nor is it only in great matters that this self-
 
 The Self-centred Life 303 
 
 indulgent spirit is manifested. In every little 
 detail our lives are made smoother and more com- 
 fortable. The luxuries of one generation, so we 
 often hear, are the necessities of the next, and 
 material progress naturally accustoms us to a 
 mode of living that our forefathers would have 
 thought incredibly soft and effeminate. But this, 
 so far from being an excuse for still further self- 
 indulgence, should surely brace us up to disci- 
 pline more firmly our moral fibre. It is nothing 
 against a man that he possesses and uses a motor- 
 car to help him to get through his business and 
 his duties more quickly and effectively. Yet it is 
 undeniable that this invention, admirable if made 
 use of in a proper way, may, like so many other 
 luxuries, become the medium of a soul-stifling 
 self-indulgence that eventually will overpower all 
 the strength of a man's nature, and leave him 
 nothing but a worn-out shell, with all the vitality, 
 the life, the soul of him sucked dry. The very 
 fact that our modern conditions tend to become 
 more comfortable and easy every year should 
 nerve us to exert all our will against this degener- 
 ation of soul and body. After all, the Spartans 
 and Stoics of old had a nobler, if still mistaken, 
 ideal than our luxury-loving moderns. 
 
 Hard of body, firm of mind and strong of 
 spirit that is what I would wish every English 
 man to be. And I know of no better way to 
 attain these objects than by fashioning one's life 
 according to the teaching handed down by the
 
 3 o 4 What of To-Day? 
 
 Church through so many centuries. The truly 
 religious man is the man who seeks to fulfil, 
 to the best of his ability, his duties towards God, 
 his neighbour, and himself. And does not the 
 fulfilment of these duties imply an obligation to 
 keep oneself healthy in soul, mind and body, 
 so that one may be at once a useful citizen, a 
 helpful neighbour, and a perfected man? For 
 the moment the Empire is on its feet, braced 
 up, inspired by the Great Peril. May it never 
 relapse, never tire in its pursuit of what is right 
 and just, and in its resolve to be deserving of 
 its Christian heritage.
 
 XXVIII 
 THE ARRIVAL OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 THE twentieth century is already well advanced 
 in its teens, and will soon be entering upon its 
 manhood. And, if we are to judge by the signs 
 and portents of the moment, nothing seems more 
 certain than that this century will witness the 
 full assertion of its power by Democracy. 
 
 The closing years of the eighteenth century 
 gave birth to that tremendous cataclysm which 
 overthrew for ever the power of the privileged 
 classes who ruled Europe, and was not without 
 its effect even in this country. The nineteenth 
 century, which saw man making such marvellous 
 conquests over nature and such wonderful pro- 
 gress in science, industry and mechanical inven- 
 tions, saw also a notable change in the political 
 history of this country. To me, at least, the 
 outstanding fact of that century is the picture 
 of the middle class rising in power, asserting 
 its rights, pushing its way to the front, making 
 itself seen and heard and felt, and in turn giving 
 more and more political freedom to the working 
 class, until it is scarcely an exaggeration to say 
 u 305
 
 so6 What of To-Day? 
 
 that this latter now holds in its hands the destinies 
 of the nation. 
 
 Democracy, in short, has arrived. It has 
 come like the tide, gradually, quietly, slowly 
 gathering strength, forcing all the barriers that 
 once shut it out, breaking them down and 
 sweeping them away, levelling all things with 
 resistless energy. 
 
 Democracy, or the working man, if you like, 
 has come in borne on the strong arm of universal 
 suffrage and universal education. He has come 
 to stay because he has the strength to stay. 
 Applied science has brought him into contact 
 with his fellows throughout the inhabited globe. 
 The working men of the world stand, so to 
 speak, face to face, eye to eye, hand to hand, 
 and with hearts responsive to one another's needs. 
 Electricity, steam and the Press have put them 
 into communication with one another, and they 
 not only know what they want, but they mean, 
 by legitimate ways, to take what they have a 
 right to demand. 
 
 Universal suffrage has put into the hands of 
 the working man a weapon which makes him 
 a potent factor in political evolution, and uni- 
 versal education is teaching him how to use 
 that weapon. As we look around, we see our 
 brothers of the wage-earning classes rising up 
 and proclaiming their rights, and the political 
 parties of every creed offering them homage 
 and incense.
 
 The Arrival of Democracy 307 
 
 The working man is no longer the ignorant 
 labourer of fifty years ago. He reads, and reads 
 intelligently, and now that he has got political 
 freedom he may do great things for this great 
 Empire, if he be not led away by false prophets, 
 and by those who would exploit his inexperience 
 for their own selfish purposes. For Democracy, 
 after all, is entirely inexperienced in the proper 
 exercise of the enormous power which has been 
 placed in its hands. Education may bring know- 
 ledge, but it does not necessarily bring wisdom, 
 and it is wisdom of which the working man 
 now stands in such pressing need, when a 
 hundred clamouring voices are calling in his 
 ear, a hundred hands are stretched out to him, 
 and a multitude of counsellors are bidding him 
 confide his destiny to their keeping if he would 
 be prosperous and happy. 
 
 It is astonishing from what different stand- 
 points people view Democracy people, I mean, 
 who believe themselves to be wholly in sym- 
 pathy with its aspirations and ambitions. I have 
 met men who appear to think that the whole 
 duty of Democracy is to upset the established 
 order of things as quickly as possible ; in other 
 words, to turn the world upside down, so that 
 the poor may become rich and the rich poor. 
 A crack-brained ideal, truly ! 
 
 Then again there are the anti-religious, or 
 at least anti-Christian, faddists who rejoice to 
 discern in the new force which has arisen, an
 
 3 o8 What of To-Day ? 
 
 ally in their "struggle" against the priest and 
 the Church, and who seem to imagine that 
 Democracy must, by its nature, be synonymous 
 with irreligion. 
 
 Of the professional politicians who pay so 
 much lip-homage to the working-classes, I say 
 nothing. Nor is this the place to refer to the 
 Socialists, Syndicalists, Anarchists or other strange 
 wild-fowl of a similar sort, for these folk are 
 not so much admirers of Democracy as would- 
 be leaders and guides to point out to the people 
 the way it should go. 
 
 The most curious type of academic Demo- 
 crats, however, is to be found in that class which 
 protests that Democracy should not be hampered 
 with advice or counsel from any quarter. The 
 working man, so runs this strange theory, has 
 been educated and given the power to make 
 or mar himself and his country. Very well, 
 then, let him work out his own salvation ; let 
 him start fresh, and try all things, and learn by 
 bitter experience, if necessary, what is best for 
 him. He will make mistakes, but he will profit 
 by them, and in the end he will gain wisdom 
 as well as knowledge. 
 
 Now the fallacy of this remarkable vision of 
 Democracy working out its own salvation must 
 be obvious to anyone who stops for a moment 
 to think out its logical consequences. It assumes 
 that the working classes are to evolve their own 
 theories of life and conduct from nothing, that
 
 The Arrival of Democracy 309 
 
 the experience of past ages is not to count at 
 all, and that we are to throw away all the 
 good as well as all the bad that we have in- 
 herited from our ancestors. In fact, we might 
 as well revert to savagery at once, and painfully 
 hew our way back to civilisation through a 
 tangled jungle wherein all roads and signposts 
 have been overgrown and obliterated. 
 
 No, Democracy will not find wisdom by lightly 
 setting aside the experience of mankind, or 
 trusting implicitly to its own newly-won know- 
 ledge. For the very reason that it has much 
 to learn, it will be well-advised to go slowly, 
 and ponder well which of the two main roads 
 that stretch before it leads to its true goal. 
 
 For, setting aside details, Democracy has in 
 reality only a choice of two paths, and the 
 choice is identically the same as that which con- 
 fronts every individual soul : the choice between 
 good and evil, between spirituality and worldli- 
 ness, between Christ and Satan. Democracy is 
 not, in itself, a panacea for all our social troubles ; 
 indeed, I will go farther and say that it might, 
 in conceivable circumstances, enormously aggra- 
 vate them. Nor would it be any consolation, 
 to me at least, to know that while 
 
 " The world lay ruined about our feet 
 And the hopes of our youth were dead," 
 
 the catastrophe had come about purely through 
 an error or miscalculation on the part of a
 
 3 io What of To-Day ? 
 
 Democracy busily engaged in "working out its 
 own salvation." 
 
 I do not anticipate any such catastrophe. I 
 have, I hope, too much trust in the good sense 
 of my countrymen. But what I do wish to 
 emphasise is this : that Democracy is only of 
 value in so far as it realises its responsibilities. 
 To listen to some of the crazy talk indulged in 
 nowadays by professed or professional Demo- 
 crats, one would imagine that the People can 
 do no wrong, and that whatever a majority 
 affirms must be the truth. 
 
 No tyrant, possessed of the most absolute 
 power, was ever more flattered or fawned upon 
 than is our Democracy to-day, and the danger 
 is very real lest the working man, his head 
 turned by so much nonsense, should come to 
 believe that he really is above the law, and not 
 only the law of nature and of society, but of 
 God. 
 
 There is but one way for Democracy to work 
 out the salvation of its own soul. It needs a 
 leader to guide it, in whom it may place im- 
 plicit reliance and faith ; a standard to fight 
 under, which shall serve as a rallying-post ; an 
 ideal to battle for, which shall be capable of 
 drawing it on to higher and ever higher things. 
 
 And what more inspiring leader can Demo- 
 cray find than the Christ Whose voice was ever 
 raised on behalf of the poor and the suffering ; 
 what more glorious standard to fight under than
 
 The Arrival of Democracy 
 
 that of the Cross ; what finer ideal to strive 
 after than the Christian Ideal as preached nearly 
 two thousand years ago in Galilee? 
 
 Whatever social heights Democracy is destined 
 in the future to scale, whatever material wonders 
 it is destined to achieve, whatever political 
 triumphs it is destined to win, if one thing be 
 lacking, if Democracy turns away, as it is in 
 danger of turning away, from Christ and Chris- 
 tianity, it will perish and drag States and Em- 
 pires down in its fall, as surely as any pagan 
 civilisation of the past has vanished and left 
 nothing but its ruins to record its existence. 
 Our great need is more belief and reliance 
 on Christ, our Lord. A present-day write^ 
 reviewing the state of Europe to-day, is not 
 afraid to say, ''The situation in Europe drives 
 home the question whether a whole-hearted 
 acceptance of Christ's teaching is not the only 
 sound basis on which Society can be built." I 
 ask with the blessed apostle, "To whom else 
 shall we go?"
 
 XXIX 
 
 SOCIAL REFORM AND INDIVIDUAL 
 REFORM 
 
 IT is a curious instance of the muddle-headed- 
 ness of modern thinkers that Christ is now actu- 
 ally claimed by many as the great pioneer, the 
 first teacher of Socialism. As a matter of strict 
 fact, He was not even directly a social reformer. 
 His mission was a spiritual one, and He was, 
 in every sense of the word, not a political, but 
 a religious reformer. 
 
 It is true that, indirectly, He inspired many 
 social and domestic reforms. Lately we have 
 been told by those who know, by a great Com- 
 mission that has done a great work, that at root 
 the social problems resolve themselves into moral 
 problems, and that, until you lay hold of the 
 moral problem, until you shake the social ques- 
 tion down to the moral basis, you are merely 
 tinkering with social reform at the top. 
 
 Our Lord taught man to reform himself, and 
 when man has reformed himself he will soon 
 reform his environment, he will soon reform his 
 domestic and social relations, he will soon assert 
 his moral fibre. He will reform his home ; 
 
 312
 
 Social and Individual Reform 313 
 
 and when you have multiplied the reformation 
 of homes, you will have a reformed society. 
 
 Let us build up, by all means, our Empire 
 no one prouder of it than he who writes these 
 words but do not let us cheat ourselves with 
 the idea that the Empire or the country can 
 rest secure on our Navy, our Army, and our 
 Kitchener's men alone. These things we must 
 have, but they will soon cease to be worth much 
 to us unless we make up our minds to reform our 
 homes. What a haven of refuge is a real Chris- 
 tian home, what a shelter from the storms of 
 heresy, the cold blasts of Agnosticism, the frozen 
 avalanches of Indifferentism ! It is in the home 
 that the nation finds its strength, that the ulti- 
 mate foundations of Empire must rest. If our 
 homes are godless, how shall we train the future 
 citizens of our Empire to be worthy of their 
 heritage ? 
 
 Let us not talk, then, too much or too boast- 
 fully about social reform. It is individual reform, 
 home reform that we need. When that has 
 been accomplished, the wider results will follow 
 of themselves. 
 
 Take the question of environment. It is 
 not to be denied, as I have had occasion to 
 observe elsewhere, that environment has a very 
 important bearing upon character, and it is a 
 problem that must be dealt with wholesale in 
 the near future. But we must be on our guard 
 against exaggerating the effects of environment
 
 3 i4 What of To-Day? 
 
 and against imagining that, by changing a 
 man's surroundings, we can, by that means alone, 
 change his character. 
 
 There are other things to be thought of; 
 and first and foremost, as I have said, we must 
 reform ourselves. Nothing can well be more 
 ridiculous than a consciously superior person 
 talking of social reform, as though the whole 
 point at issue were the better housing of the 
 poor. By a strange impertinence, these people 
 assume that, having got their poor into dwell- 
 ings more worthy of human beings, the whole 
 moral tone of the State will thereby suddenly 
 be changed. 
 
 They appear to be labouring under the odd 
 delusion that by readjusting the environment 
 and ameliorating the condition of their less for- 
 tunate brothers and sisters they are going to 
 reform these poorer brethren. Never was there 
 a more shameful or preposterous mistake. Social 
 reform is all very well in its way, but England 
 stands in need to-day of individual reform, and 
 both must be founded on the Christian ideal. 
 
 It is only when we have set our own pri- 
 vate house in order that we can, with any effect, 
 try to help our neighbour to do the same for 
 his. We want to see a reformed society, a moral 
 state, a happy community. Is it not, then, 
 reasonable that we should start on this quest at 
 the nearest point, and, having ourselves made up 
 our minds to lead a better, a more Christian
 
 Social and Individual Reform 315 
 
 life, then go about doing good, offering personal 
 service instead of joining Leagues and promoting 
 dubious Bills ? 
 
 It is disturbing to think, amid all the pre- 
 sent day gush about Social Reform, how much 
 less real brotherhood exists between man and 
 man to-day, how impersonal our relations are 
 becoming one with another. It is a grievous 
 thing that in every review or paper where such 
 matters are discussed, it is always a question of 
 capital versus labour, the leisured classes versus 
 the wage-earning classes, the idle rich and the de- 
 serving poor, or the shiftless poor and the chari- 
 table rich. Why should there be this antagonism 
 between any section of the whole community ? 
 Is it not because we have accustomed ourselves 
 to think of our fellow creatures in the mass, 
 rather than as individuals, that we have refused 
 to follow the example of Christ, and that our 
 own relations with others are a matter of busi- 
 ness rather than of humanity ? There would be 
 very little need of social reform if we took 
 our religion seriously, and made an honest en- 
 deavour to put a few of Christ's precepts into 
 practice. 
 
 Go about the world and do good. Go and 
 visit the sick, yourself, go and inquire how the 
 poor live, not at secondhand, not for the sake 
 of experience, but that you may bring them 
 comfort and help. Go out, I say, and do good. 
 You can do it with a word, you can do it with
 
 316 What of To-Day ? 
 
 a smile, you can do it with a look, with a 
 shake of the hand, with a letter, with a visit. 
 Don't stop to think whether your neighbour is 
 similarly occupied. Start in yourself on the 
 good work, and you will be surprised to find 
 how much you can accomplish single-handed. 
 
 What a good place the world would be to 
 live in if we were all of this mind ! How much 
 more human we should become if we let our 
 sympathies have their way instead of stifling 
 them ! Dare, then, to be human, dare to be 
 manly, dare to be Christian, and do not be always 
 catering for your passions. They have fed quite 
 well enough. 
 
 4 'Oh, but," the Socialist will say, "my dear 
 Father, truly, you are stealing my thunder. 
 This is my own conception of the world the 
 world as it will be when we are all Socialists 
 and have got rid of all our present troubles, 
 Capitalism, Feudalism and, above all, the deaden- 
 ing superstitions of Christianity." 
 
 Well, I suppose the Socialist is at liberty to 
 make that assertion, at liberty in the legal sense, 
 I mean. But how does he suppose his nostrum 
 is going to cure the ills of civilisation when it 
 is founded on the very negation of humanity? 
 Where, in a Socialistic State, will there be room 
 for that personal service which it should be 
 the delight of every Christian to render to his 
 brother? The poor, I think, have had already 
 such experience of how a soulless Board can
 
 Social and Individual Reform 317 
 
 treat them as will not render them too anxious 
 to be given over wholly, in all the actions of 
 their daily lives, to its tender mercies. 
 
 The more moderate Social Reformer has 
 more reason on his side. But I would beg even 
 him to remember that social reform without a 
 moral or religious basis is worth nothing, that 
 to house the poor better may only be to trans- 
 fer them from one evil environment to another 
 just as bad for their morals. 
 
 Let us have reform by all means, but let us 
 understand what social reform really means, 
 what it should include, and what it shall not 
 include. The Christian who is honestly trying 
 to follow His great Example will have no diffi- 
 culty in discerning the right path, no matter 
 how other men are led astray in mists and bogs 
 by the enticing will-o'-the-wisps and mocking 
 illusions of a materialistic millennium. "If thou 
 wilt enter into life"; "if thou wilt come after 
 Me"; "if thou wilt be perfect " these are the 
 searching texts first of all to worry into the 
 fibre of our being.
 
 XXX 
 
 THE SWEATING CURSE 
 
 I WAS once asked for my views on sweating, and 
 I remember replying that I might just as well have 
 been asked my opinion about slavery or murder. 
 The sweating system should never have been al- 
 lowed to come into existence at all ; yet come it 
 did in the early part of the last century. Con- 
 sequently, it is nearly a hundred years too old, 
 and is quite ready for death and burial. Let it 
 die, then, and let us give it a pauper's funeral 
 with the epitaph : 
 
 " He was only a sweater whom nobody mourns." 
 
 I, for one, would rejoice more than I can say to 
 chronicle the disappearance of this slave-driving, 
 sweating business. Instead of being allowed to 
 starve its victims out of life, it should itself have 
 been starved to death in its infancy. An attempt, 
 I admit, to do this was made in 1850, and again 
 in 1876, while in 1888 a select committee of the 
 House of Lords was appointed to inquire into 
 the matter, 291 sweated witnesses being examined. 
 Some of us then hoped that the inquiry would 
 result in the extinction of this British vampire, 
 
 318
 
 The Sweating Curse 319 
 
 which was draining away the life-blood of our 
 defenceless brothers and sisters. But we were 
 beaten, and the sweater triumphed all along the 
 line. How could it be otherwise, when the 
 sweater has no conscience to shame him into 
 penitence, when his ears are as deaf to the cries 
 of his victims as his eyes are blind to their un- 
 utterable misery? The greed for gain is the only 
 feeling left in his atrophied soul, and the groans 
 of his fellow-creatures are only listened to by him 
 if he can coin them into gold. 
 
 What do we mean exactly by sweating? A 
 Parliamentary Committee has described the sys- 
 tem as 
 
 (1) Unduly low rates of wages. 
 
 (2) Excessive hours of work. 
 
 (3) Insanitary conditions of the workplaces. 
 
 I do not think that the vast majority of the com- 
 munity can have any idea of the sweating prac- 
 tices that obtain in their midst in London, in 
 Liverpool, and in Manchester, in Leicester and 
 Bristol, in Birmingham and other centres of 
 industry, and that are even being carried on in 
 connection with the supplies of uniforms and 
 equipment for our soldiers. It is the business 
 of those of us who know to enlighten them on 
 the subject, and to keep hammering away at it 
 until we succeed in waking them up, and 
 getting something done. 
 
 There are good and worthy people who are
 
 320 What of To-Day? 
 
 so horrified at uncomfortable revelations of this 
 sort, that as soon as anyone interested, for reasons 
 of his own, in continuing this detestable traffic, 
 protests that the agitation has been exaggerated, 
 they will gladly accept his word, and sink back 
 into their comfortable chairs with profound relief, 
 and a thankful ejaculation that " I always thought 
 things couldn't be so bad as they were made 
 out. It wouldn't be allowed in this country." 
 
 Let me tell you that it is allowed, and far 
 worse things than you have heard of are allowed 
 in this Christian England, in this civilised twen- 
 tieth century. There has been no exaggeration, 
 because no exaggeration is possible. 
 
 Let me illustrate what I mean by giving a 
 single instance a typical one. I take it from 
 Birmingham, which proudly claims to be the 
 ideal municipality. Few persons realise that in 
 the metropolis of the Midlands there are, or 
 were, when I got my information, fifty button 
 factories and, if I mistake not, twelve other 
 factories for hooks and eyes. These buttons 
 and hooks and eyes, when made, are usually 
 mounted on cards, ready for the inspection of 
 shopkeepers' customers. 
 
 Little do the purchasers imagine that some 
 ten thousand of the poorest of our poor brothers 
 and sisters are engaged the livelong day in hovels 
 called houses, sewing, among other things, these 
 hooks and eyes upon show cards. Still less do 
 they realise that 288 hooks and 288 eyes have
 
 The Sweating Curse 321 
 
 to be linked together and stitched to a card for 
 the magnificent remuneration of four farthings ! 
 
 When the sweated worker has carded a 
 "pack" she may claim as her wages ninepence. 
 But out of this ninepence the cost of needles and 
 cotton must be subtracted, which, "carders" tell 
 me, amounts to one penny in the shilling. Work- 
 ing all day a woman may earn at this job nearly 
 three farthings an hour, which totals on an average 
 about three and threepence a week ! You who 
 sing in England " Britons never shall be slaves," 
 think of your sisters carding hooks and eyes in 
 such poverty, hunger and misery. 
 
 Let me emphasise the case in hand a little 
 more. In a squalid court I found a woman, with 
 her four children, sitting on the floor of a fire- 
 less room, working in silence. The ages of the 
 children ranged from eight down to two and a 
 half years old. All the little brood God bless 
 them ! were linking the hooks and the eyes with 
 which the floor was littered, preparing them 
 for the mother's carding-needle. From 8 a.m. 
 to 10 p.m., or it may be to midnight, with neces- 
 sary interruptions only, the whole family sat 
 working, including even the husband, who was 
 out of employment. What do you suppose were 
 the earnings of this industrious family? Five 
 shillings a week! and out of this sum half a 
 crown had to go to the rackrenter. So that for 
 fire, for light, for food and for clothing, there 
 remained the other half a crown. 
 
 v
 
 322 What of To-Day? 
 
 " O God ! that rent should be so dear 
 And flesh and blood so cheap." 
 
 Is there not something rotten in Christian 
 England somewhere, when such a state of things 
 can continue unchecked? Children dragged up 
 in hovels such as I have described do not know 
 the meaning of a hearty meal, or a jolly game, 
 or a merry laugh. They are born hungry, tired 
 and weeping. 
 
 I have cited a sweating instance from Birm- 
 ingham. I could fill a whole volume with worse 
 cases from Manchester, where I worked for 
 nearly twenty years, or the East End of London, 
 where I had impressed upon me examples of 
 the sweating industry which can never fade from 
 my memory, but which I dare not commit to 
 print. But if you will multiply that single 
 example I have given from Birmingham by 
 some hundreds of thousands, you will begin to 
 appreciate the meaning of that text of Scripture 
 "Blessed is the man who understandeth con- 
 cerning the needy and the poor." 
 
 Instead of boasting that trade is booming, 
 and that our national prosperity stands so high, 
 better far would it be for us to hang our heads 
 and strike our breasts, confessing that pauperism 
 is increasing, that it has reached 46 per thousand 
 in London, and proclaiming to our shame that 
 the ragged army under the sweaters is being 
 daily recruited far more readily than the regular 
 army of the King. Do not be easily taken in
 
 The Sweating Curse 323 
 
 by imposing figures on balance-sheets. Turn 
 your thoughts instead to this war-scourge, 
 under which the Empire is groaning for 
 its sins. 
 
 To make matters worse for industrial 
 workers, undesirable aliens, so-called "politi- 
 cal refugees," are swarming in upon us like 
 a plague of locusts, seizing upon work which 
 ought to be kept for our own people, and 
 lowering the standard of living to a point to 
 which none of our own race could fall without 
 sinking into the grave itself. If our represen- 
 tatives, who are so considerate to aliens, would 
 visit the East End, they would find that in the 
 borough of Stepney alone 107 streets have passed 
 into the occupation of aliens. That ought to 
 satisfy them ! Each time I visit the district I 
 seem to learn that more and more of my fellow- 
 countrymen have been turned out of doors to 
 make room for yet another importation of aliens. 
 My complaint is not against the Russian Jew, 
 or whoever the alien happens to be, but against 
 our legislators who practically evict our own 
 people to make room for the immigrant. It is 
 all very well to be magnanimous at the expense 
 of others. I should like our legislators to be 
 magnanimous at their own expense, and not at 
 the cost of home and work to our wage-earning 
 brethren. 
 
 Of course, there is an Aliens Act, but the 
 foreigner is far too clever to be thwarted by it.
 
 324 What of To-Day? 
 
 He must bring a five-pound note of course. 
 That same five-pound note is a season ticket 
 and is the passport for scores of undesirables. 
 
 Meanwhile, is it not a terrible, a shocking, 
 a humiliating thing that in the twentieth century 
 a system should be allowed to continue which, 
 if it means anything, means the sapping of the 
 energies and of the vitality of the whole com- 
 munity ? 
 
 If a nation's efficiency depends upon the 
 efficiency of its industries, it is equally clear that 
 the efficiency of its industries depends no less 
 upon the efficiency of its industrial workers. To 
 defraud the labourer of a sustenance wage is, to 
 my thinking, the crime of national suicide. It 
 is a crime against the country, it is a crime against 
 the worker, it is a crime crying to Heaven for 
 vengeance, which no Christian nation ought to 
 tolerate within its borders. If the wage-earning 
 citizen has duties, he has rights no less, the first 
 among them being the right in a Christian State 
 to live a human and Christian existence. 
 
 Proclaim, if you will, that England expects 
 every man to do his duty, but, lest you forget, 
 let me remind you that, on the other hand, every 
 man expects England to do her duty. What 
 has she done ; what is she doing ; what is she 
 going to do? Wake up, England, and hear 
 God's present commentary on your past !
 
 XXXI 
 CAPITAL AND LABOUR 
 
 NOT so very many years ago, a strike of working 
 men on any extended scale invariably shocked 
 the respectable but somewhat lethargic mind of 
 the British public. They seldom troubled to 
 inquire very deeply into the causes of the dispute, 
 but in a general way they vaguely assumed that 
 the working classes were trying to get more 
 than they deserved or than was good for them, 
 and set about wringing their hands helplessly 
 and wondering what the world was coming to. 
 Sometimes one heard the opinion expressed that 
 strikes were only a passing phase, due to a 
 particular local or temporary cause, and that it 
 was quite absurd to suppose that they would 
 recur during a time of real trade prosperity. 
 Besides, Parliament was legislating as fast as it 
 could to remove any legitimate grievances the 
 lower classes might be suffering under, and so 
 there was, on the whole, a comfortable feeling 
 that things would settle down quietly again and 
 the industrial methods of the latter part of 
 the nineteenth century be allowed to continue 
 undisturbed. 
 
 325
 
 326 What of To-Day? 
 
 But strikes, so far from diminishing, have of 
 late years considerably increased both in number 
 and in magnitude, and this, too, at a time when 
 a tremendous trade boom has been in progress. 
 And at last the public have been forced to 
 realise that, however uncomfortable a strike may 
 be for themselves, it is a weapon which the 
 working man has made up his mind to use, not 
 only to adjust some special or individual griev- 
 ance, but with the object of maintaining certain 
 well-defined principles which he has laid down 
 for himself, and, above all, with the fixed notion 
 of bettering his own and his fellows' condition 
 generally. Whether it affects our own pockets 
 or not, or even though it may offend our own 
 sense of decency or decorum, we have to face 
 the fact that the strike is now a recognised 
 means of enabling Labour to stand up for its 
 rights against what it may consider the encroach- 
 ments of Capital. 
 
 And strikes have, at any rate, produced one 
 excellent result, in that modern society recog- 
 nises that the labouring classes are entitled to 
 consideration, and though at times they may be 
 inclined to push their demands too far, we have 
 at any rate got right away from the nineteenth 
 century view of treating Labour as a commodity 
 in itself and of ignoring entirely its human 
 aspect. 
 
 Even now, however, I do not think the 
 general public regard this grave question in
 
 Capital and Labour 327 
 
 the proper perspective. So far as my own 
 experience goes, I find people are apt to look 
 on a strike as still something in the nature of 
 a sporadic phenomenon, uncomfortable for the 
 moment, but usually to be settled by some 
 more or less satisfactory compromise, which will 
 keep things going fairly well until some fresh 
 point of disagreement is reached. 
 
 As a matter of fact, it does not require a 
 very deep examination of the whole subject to 
 arrive at the conclusion that a strike is not, as 
 some people seem to think, an isolated illness 
 which can be cured by a particular agreement 
 on certain points, but is rather a symptom of 
 the deep-seated disease which is eating into the 
 vitals of the whole social body. 
 
 Now we have advanced so far in our efforts 
 to diagnose this disease as to arrive at a pretty 
 general agreement that the first charge on any 
 industry must be a living wage for the workers, 
 the actual producers without whose co-operation 
 Capital is helpless. The economic theories of 
 the Manchester School, which limited its outlook 
 to the question of supply and demand, and which 
 made no distinction between machinery and flesh 
 and blood, are, for all practical purposes, dis- 
 credited, though I wish I could think that the 
 more humane view prevailing to-day had been 
 voluntarily adopted by the Capitalists, rather than 
 forced upon them by outside circumstances. 
 
 There have always been, I am thankful to
 
 328 What of To-Day? 
 
 know, employers who have done their duty by 
 their employees, and these, few though they 
 may have been, comparatively speaking, have 
 invariably found their policy pay them well, 
 even from the purely commercial point of view. 
 Which brings me to the discussion of what, I 
 think, would prove a real solution of most of 
 the industrial troubles that beset us at present, 
 and do away with nearly all the antagonism 
 between Capital and Labour. 
 
 What we have got to realise is that no amount 
 of legislation, however well-intended and even 
 actually beneficial, and that no amount of long- 
 winded discussions concerning the economic 
 rights of one side or the other, will avail to re- 
 move that antagonism. In proportion as one 
 party is forced to yield to the other, so will the 
 reelings of bitterness and injustice, with all that 
 they imply in the matter of setting class against 
 class, grow stronger and more ineradicable, and 
 the consequence may be an upheaval that may 
 destroy the whole of our Christian civilisation. 
 
 It is for the employers to make the first 
 move. The present soulless relations between 
 the capitalist and the wage-earner have got to 
 be put on an altogether different footing. The 
 worker must be able to regard the business in 
 which he is employed, not as a mere institution 
 from which he draws so many shillings weekly, 
 but as a concern in whose prosperity he is vitally 
 interested, and on whose success his own depends.
 
 Capital and Labour 329 
 
 Every employer of labour, then, with a wider 
 outlook than mere dividend-grabbing, will make 
 a point of introducing into his business some 
 such human element as co-partnership or profit- 
 sharing, which will give his workers a direct 
 and personal interest in the industry in which 
 they are engaged. I rejoice to know that in 
 many of our business houses some such scheme 
 is already operating with quite extraordinary suc- 
 cess. I know of firms which distribute at 
 Christmas time two, three, or even four thousand 
 pounds as a bonus on the results of the year's 
 working. This method of dealing with the 
 wage-earners changes a business from being 
 merely a piece of elaborate mechanism into a 
 human organism. The men and women in 
 such a firm, store or shop, become, as it were, 
 members of one family, taking a very personal 
 interest in the success of a business in which 
 they are something more than mere "hands" 
 under a " boss." 
 
 And not only is the staff of employees bene- 
 fited by the conversion of a business from a 
 grinding machine into a human organisation, 
 but the employer himself is saved inconceivable 
 anxiety about his relations with his men, and 
 he is able to move among them in the different 
 departments of his business, feeling that his 
 presence means to them a sympathetic en- 
 couragement and a friendly recognition of their 
 devoted services.
 
 330 What of To-Day ? 
 
 It is this human element, more than any- 
 thing else, which is going to put an end to 
 strikes and to save us in the future from the 
 quicksands of Socialistic and Syndicalistic theo- 
 ries. While I was in the States I saw this per- 
 sonal relationship between master and man highly 
 developed in not a few department stores and 
 other business establishments ; but I want par- 
 ticularly to emphasise the fact that the mere 
 adoption of co-operative or profit-sharing methods 
 will not, in itself, necessarily abolish all trouble 
 between employers and employed. 
 
 It will do a great deal, beyond a doubt, to 
 rid us of much of the existing class antagonism, 
 but we want something more than this. We 
 want to get closer together, to strive to work 
 for the common good, each for all and all for 
 each, and to realise, to the greatest possible ex- 
 tent, the Christian ideal of the brotherhood of 
 men under the fatherhood of God. 
 
 It is a big ideal, and I do not say that our 
 erring human nature will ever be able to realise 
 it in its full meaning, but at least it is an ideal 
 worth struggling for, and to no relation of life, 
 as it seems to me, is it more easy to apply 
 than to that between employer and employed. 
 Self-interest alone should be a sufficient in- 
 ducement for any firm to make their employees 
 contented, happy and prosperous, but self-in- 
 terest as a motive will never get the best 
 results. The element of real humanity, of a
 
 Capital and Labour 331 
 
 brotherly interest, must be added if the result 
 is to be successful, and in this connection much 
 can be done, and, I am thankful to recognise, 
 much is being done in many quarters in what 
 may be called social welfare work. 
 
 By looking after, and taking a lively personal 
 interest in, the outside recreations and pursuits 
 of his employees, the head of a firm may do a 
 great deal to foster the intimate personal note 
 in the business. But here, again, tact is specially 
 needed. Employees must not be made to feel 
 that they are bound to enjoy themselves or 
 mould their own lives in a way which a bene- 
 volent, but, perhaps, rather too autocratic, em- 
 ployer commands. I have heard of cases in 
 which, doubtless with the most laudable motives, 
 the lives of employees have been made almost 
 unbearable owing to the strict supervision to 
 which they were subjected in the matter of 
 recreation and amusement. And the result was 
 that there was far more ill-feeling between the 
 workers and the masters than would have been 
 the case had the latter left the men more to 
 their own devices. No Englishman likes to be 
 driven. If he is treated well, he will work well, 
 but he will not submit to being dictated to as 
 to how he shall use the hours which are his 
 own. And this, I think, is a point that should 
 be borne in mind by many well-meaning em- 
 ployers, who think they are doing so much for 
 their men and who are honestly hurt and be-
 
 332 What of To-Day? 
 
 wildered by the cold way in which their efforts 
 are received. 
 
 But these pitfalls can easily be avoided, and 
 the chief point is that the means employed to 
 improve the relationship between masters and 
 men shall be adapted to the end. Whatever 
 technical or theoretical difficulties are supposed 
 to exist in the adoption of profit-sharing schemes 
 can always be overcome in practice, as has 
 been abundantly proved, and for the rest, as I 
 say, it is largely a question of tact and good- 
 will. Let employers provide all the social 
 amenities possible for their employees, but let it 
 be entirely a matter for the employee's own 
 choice whether he takes advantage of them. 
 
 Looking out upon the commercial and in- 
 dustrial side of life, it is possible to see, in the 
 near future, almost unlimited opportunities for 
 expansion. Business is becoming a fine art, 
 and anyone who has studied the subject will 
 soon be satisfied that there is no end to be set 
 to its sphere of activity and enterprise. There 
 is money in it, there are brains in it, there is 
 education in it, there is recreation in it. And 
 once the wage-earner is made to understand and 
 realise that his own opportunities are as unlimited 
 as those of the man at the top, his point of view 
 will speedily be altered. And I would remind 
 the employer that, apart from the increased 
 success which the increased efficiency of his
 
 Capital and Labour 333 
 
 employees will bring him, he will get an enor- 
 mous return in other ways under the altered 
 industrial conditions. There is no greater con- 
 solation to be got out of life than the joy of 
 helping others.
 
 XXXII 
 
 MODERN IDEALS 
 I. REVERSION TO PAGANISM 
 
 CHRISTIANS can have but one ideal, one true 
 measure of greatness. It is the measure given 
 to us, taught to us, revealed to us by the 
 Founder of Christianity, Jesus Christ. Before 
 the principles of the great Liberator became 
 dominant in human affairs, there were, roughly 
 speaking, three measures of greatness prevalent 
 in the world : that of the Barbarian, that 
 of the Greek, and that of the Roman ; and 
 even to-day, wherever we find a people not 
 recognising the standard of Christ, one or 
 other of these three pagan measures still 
 obtains. 
 
 The savage and barbarian in all times has 
 but one ideal of greatness, which is brute 
 force. He measures greatness by the number 
 of scalps, by the amount of looted plunder he 
 has collected, by his herds of cattle, by his 
 empire over the lives of others. Alaric, 
 Attila, Tamerlane such are the ideals of great- 
 ness in the mind of the barbarian. A 
 miserable standard it is, for a drop of poison, 
 an inch of steel, a few infinitesimal microbes 
 
 334
 
 Modern Ideals 335 
 
 may in a moment bring to nothing such great- 
 ness as that. 
 
 The refined and polished Athenian had quite 
 another standard of greatness : his was an in- 
 tellectual and aesthetic standard. He lived 
 chiefly in the open air, or about the precincts of 
 a great temple. He spent his days in the study 
 of art, or hung upon the eloquent words of 
 an ^Eschines or a Demosthenes, or paced up 
 and down listening to the philosophy of an 
 Aristotle or a Plato. He worshipped intellect, 
 art and eloquence. 
 
 The Roman ideal was political strength and 
 imperial dominion. To the Romans the highest 
 type of the great man was to be found in the 
 conqueror of nations, the master of many legions, 
 the sagacious ruler, and it was Rome's proudest 
 boast that she was not only mistress of the world, 
 but that she was able, by her unrivalled instinct 
 for governing, to retain, with no effort, the 
 allegiance of the countries she had added to her 
 Empire. 
 
 Yet surely man was born for something 
 better and nobler than these ideals of great- 
 ness brute force, mental power, political energy! 
 We may endow a man with the physique of 
 Hercules, the eloquence of Demosthenes, and 
 the statecraft of Caesar ; but unless he has that 
 within him which teaches him to do all that 
 becomes a man, he will degenerate into a 
 selfish tyrant. Physical energy, mental ability,
 
 336 What of To-Day? 
 
 and political astuteness were united in the 
 highest degree in Napoleon. Yet he ended 
 by arriving at such a pitch of egoism that, as 
 he himself is reported to have said, the lives of 
 millions of men counted as nothing to him 
 when his interests were at stake. 
 
 What is the Christian standard of greatness? 
 It seems strange that, in an avowedly Christian 
 country, one should have to recall the words of 
 Christ, Who, when His Apostles were disputing 
 among themselves as to which should be the 
 greater in the Kingdom of Heaven, stopped 
 their strife with those memorable words : "Who- 
 soever shall be great among you, let him be 
 your minister, and whosoever will be chief among 
 you, let him be your servant." 
 
 There, in a phrase, is the difference between 
 the world's standard of judgment and the Divine 
 conception of human greatness. And Christ's 
 estimate of greatness differs from all others prin- 
 cipally in this, that, according to it, greatness 
 is not to be the monopoly of a privileged class 
 or the title given to certain exceptional forms 
 of service. It is to be common to every sec- 
 tion of the community, it is to consist, not in 
 the importance of the act performed, but in the 
 motive which is behind the action. 
 
 A humble man may carry out an obscure 
 task in the course of his labour, from such prin- 
 ciples and in such a manner as to render it 
 truly great. The greatness which Christ recog-
 
 Modern Ideals 337 
 
 ntses is possible to every individual member of 
 the social organism by the due performance of 
 his functions of usefulness, whatever they may 
 be ; by his exchanging egoism for altruism, by 
 his suppression of himself, his giving up of 
 himself for others. 
 
 In short, Christ taught that the quality of an 
 act did not lie in its intrinsic importance, but in 
 the fashion and the spirit in which it was done. 
 
 It is pertinent, then, to inquire how far, in 
 this age, we have departed from the Christian 
 ideal, and to what extent we still cling to the 
 barbarian and pagan measures of greatness. 
 Human nature being what it is, it is not to be 
 expected that we shall cease, even in the course 
 of centuries, from acclaiming the man pre- 
 eminent in certain walks of life, and ignoring or 
 even despising other occupations as contemptible 
 or degrading. 
 
 But it seems to me that, just at present, there 
 are specially disturbing signs that public opinion 
 is being subtly educated not only to admire and 
 copy, so far as it can, the example of the so- 
 called successful men of the world, but also to set 
 up deliberately, in place of the Christian ideal, 
 those other standards of which I have spoken. 
 
 It is the fashion nowadays to decry work as 
 work. Work, by all means, you will be told, 
 work hard and work in a hurry, but only as a 
 means to an end, the end being that you may 
 the sooner be able to lead a life of self-indulg- 
 
 w
 
 338 What of To-Day? 
 
 ence and luxury. It is absurd to take a pride 
 in one's work we must work for gain, so that 
 we may the sooner be rid of the necessity for 
 work, or only go on working to add more money 
 to that we have already earned. 
 
 A man must work, it is admitted, whether to 
 live or to make money, but, for all that, the 
 notion that there is anything honourable or dig- 
 nified in the actual work itself is sedulously 
 discouraged. Indeed, the notion is steadily 
 fostered that good honest work is not wanted 
 nowadays, or rather that the capacity for work 
 is nothing like so excellent a possession as the 
 mental agility which, at a moment's notice, can 
 bring forth "ideas" readily convertible into hard 
 cash. 
 
 I am not saying that there are no hard or 
 honest workers in the world. There are plenty 
 of them. But the trouble is that they are grad- 
 ually being pushed into an inferior position as 
 compared with that " brainy," smart young 
 person, for whom there seems such a constant de- 
 mand at the present time. And what, may I ask, 
 is the consequence of such a continual depreciation 
 of the honest worker likely to be? Surely the 
 youth about to enter upon his struggle with the 
 world will elect to join the ranks, not of the 
 workers, but of the " brainy " band, and make 
 up in push and cheek what he lacks in market- 
 able ideas. So that, even from a worldly point 
 of view, the country will be a loser.
 
 Modern Ideals 339 
 
 I have, I fear, been tempted into an apparent 
 digression on this subject of work, but it is, in 
 reality, germane to my subject, for it is in the 
 attitude adopted towards the every-day task that 
 the ideals of Christianity and the modern spirit 
 are so appallingly at variance. To the former 
 there can be no such thing as menial employ- 
 ment ; all labour, if worthily done, is worthy of 
 the best energies of a man or woman. But a 
 generation, fed on the noxious heresies of an irre- 
 ligious and worldly philosophy, is rapidly arriving 
 at the conclusion that the ordinary tasks of daily 
 life are not worthy its exalted attention that it 
 cannot, in short, sufficiently "express "its own 
 wonderful self through such a paltry medium. 
 So far astray does the deliberate turning aside 
 from Christianity lead the deluded human 
 mind I Believe me, if I were to keep a 
 London street crossing, there would be this 
 remarkable about it that it would be the best 
 kept crossing in the whole metropolis. Be 
 proud of your work, no matter how humble 
 it is. 
 
 II. " MAKING A SUCCESS" 
 
 BUT I still have something to say concerning 
 the three ideals already referred to. As ideals, 
 they are manifestly worthless, though in their 
 proper place they may be, each and all, worthy 
 of respect and even admiration. 
 
 It is a good thing for youth to take care of
 
 340 What of To-Day? 
 
 its physical body, and to keep it healthy and 
 strong by means of proper exercise and mod- 
 eration. Intellect, art and eloquence, again, are 
 good things in their way, and it is fit that we 
 should pay due consideration to them. Similarly 
 the man who has attained to political power and 
 uses ^it wisely and well, is justly entitled to our 
 admiration and respect. 
 
 But how stands the matter as regards these 
 things to-day ? 
 
 The Christian ideal, as I have shown, is no 
 longer that obtaining in this country. We have 
 gone back for our standards to the pagans and the 
 savages. And if there is a great deal that is to 
 be commended in the physical culture craze of 
 which we hear so much nowadays, there is also 
 grave danger of the cult being overdone. By 
 all means be careful about your health, but do not 
 erect your body into a god, and neglect the 
 higher side of your nature in anxiously cultivat- 
 ing your biceps, and in studying the intricate 
 question of pose and poise, bearing and balance. 
 Lead a healthy, regular life, and you may safely 
 trust Nature to repay you in that respect. 
 
 It may seem strange that immediately after 
 warning my readers against paying overmuch 
 attention to their bodies, I should find myself 
 compelled to caution them against the equally 
 pressing and even more insidious danger of 
 making a fetish of the intellect. But it is a 
 fact that this curious age, with all its hunger
 
 Modern Ideals 341 
 
 for luxury, its craving for pleasure, has, in some 
 odd, paradoxical fancy, begun to take itself 
 seriously. Having discarded the old teachings 
 of Christianity, it has started to "think for it- 
 self," and the results might be amusing were 
 they not too distressing to furnish food for 
 laughter. 
 
 Just as in Athens of old the people were ever 
 attracted by some new thing, so, in our own 
 day, a preacher or a teacher has but to enun- 
 ciate some fresh philosophy, some novel doc- 
 trine, to attract a goodly crowd of followers, 
 who imagine that by accepting his brand-new 
 gospel they are showing a fine independence 
 of 'thought, and proving themselves superior to 
 the common herd. 
 
 Well, an original thinker must always com- 
 mand our respect and engage our interest, even 
 if we consider him mistaken, but the hashed-up 
 heresies of the past, which nowadays affect to 
 take the place of religion, are so obviously far 
 from being original, that they could only de- 
 ceive those who play at thinking as children 
 make-believe with toys. 
 
 There is, again, that third ideal which I 
 mentioned the Roman ideal of imperial strength 
 and dominion. Such an ideal must make the 
 strongest possible appeal to every Englishman, 
 to every British subject. Let us be patriotic 
 by all means, but it is also necessary to be on 
 our guard against dwelling too much on the
 
 342 What of To-Day? 
 
 material benefits of Empire. "What shall it profit 
 a man if he gain the whole world, and suffer the 
 loss of his own soul?" And what shall it profit 
 a nation how did it profit Rome? to conquer 
 the whole world merely for its own selfish ends, 
 and to satisfy its own greed and lust for power ? 
 Heaven forbid that I should bring such an ac- 
 cusation as that against my own beloved country; 
 but I would remind my readers that to rule 
 others wisely, it is necessary to rule oneself, and 
 never more so than at a time like the present. 
 There, for the moment, let the matter rest. 
 
 I have spoken of these three ideals, and I 
 have frankly admitted that there is good in each, 
 if kept within bounds. But there is another 
 ideal if we can call it such which is, I fear, 
 making very rapid headway in England just 
 now. It is, in the phrase of the day, " to make 
 a success," and since it is clearly our duty 
 to make the most of such talents as we have 
 been given, such an ambition would seem at 
 first sight innocent and even laudable. 
 
 Everything depends, however, on what mean- 
 ing we attach to the word "success." No 
 Christian who really considered his religion of 
 vital importance could possibly, at the end of 
 life, regard his career as a success, however high 
 he had risen in the world's estimation, if he had 
 not satisfied his own conscience and kept faith 
 with his Creator. 
 
 I am not saying a word against legitimate
 
 Modern Ideals 343 
 
 ambitions. On the contrary, since power, riches 
 and position increase a man's ability to do good 
 and help others, we should each strive, so far 
 as in us lies, to attain to such a position as will 
 enable us to get what we can in order that we 
 may give the more freely. We cannot go wrong 
 if we keep in mind the Christian measure of 
 greatness of which I have spoken "to minister 
 to all men." 
 
 But can we say of this generation that its ob- 
 jects are thus laudable ? Can we even award it 
 the negative praise of pursuing an artistic or 
 business ideal for the satisfaction of knowing 
 that the work in hand has been well and truly 
 done, irrespective of the wealth it may bring ? 
 We can appreciate, even if we cannot approve, 
 the man who cares nothing for money, who, 
 let us say, for the sake of his art, flouts the 
 world and its riches, and is content to eat the 
 bread of poverty, so long as he feels he is not 
 bartering his talents. No doubt at bottom his 
 motives will be found to rest on much vanity 
 and egoism. But at least he follows a worthier 
 ideal than most of us can boast we do to-day. 
 
 For the fact is and it is absurd to deny it 
 that in this material, sensual age, by "suc- 
 cess" we mean "money." Let a man make 
 money, and there will be few to ask how he 
 made it; fewer still to inquire whether he uses 
 it well. And, to speak candidly, the whole aim 
 of our modern money-seekers seems to be that
 
 344 What of To-Day? 
 
 they may use their riches, when acquired, to in- 
 dulge themselves in every kind of luxury and 
 pleasure. There are many men I have met who 
 have achieved this kind of success, and, since 
 they are not notorious evil-livers, they would 
 probably be very genuinely astonished if told 
 that, from the Christian point of view, they 
 were failures. 
 
 Such men have not, I maintain, used their 
 talents rightly. Having satisfied all their per- 
 sonal desires in the way of luxury and enjoy- 
 ment, they find it possible to devote a certain 
 sum yearly to charity ; they may even become 
 patrons of various charitable organisations, but 
 it never occurs to them that they are called 
 upon to do more than this. And why? Be- 
 cause they live, I do not say in an anti-Chris- 
 tian, but most decidedly in an un-Christian 
 atmosphere, in an age when the teachings of 
 Christ are not so much opposed, as ignored. 
 And I say explicitly, there is more danger to 
 the world's morality to be apprehended from 
 this indifferent, practically pagan, attitude, than 
 from the bitter hostility which at various times 
 in history infidels and atheists have shown to 
 the Christian spirit. 
 
 For while these latter had their time too 
 fully occupied in attacking the Church to stop 
 to inquire what they were going to put in her 
 place, the modern pagan is a constructive builder 
 of evil. He insists that an act, a rule of con-
 
 Modern Ideals 345 
 
 duct, a mode of life, which by every law of 
 God is wrong, is to be considered right, that 
 evil is good and vice virtue, and finds in a 
 dozen other horrible paradoxes the sole reposi- 
 tory of truth where morality and ethics are con- 
 cerned. 
 
 In fact, he will not have the spirit of Christ 
 on any consideration. Sooner than that, he will 
 return to the old pagan standards, the morality, 
 the ideals of pagan Greece and Rome, or even 
 the deceptive philosophies of the East. And 
 the result is, as all such turning away from the 
 Divine must be, the growth of a more debased, 
 if more subtle, type of materialism than any 
 pagan philosopher ever imagined or any heathen 
 voluptuary ever practised. We can never be as 
 though the Cross in the heavens had not once 
 shone out before us.
 
 XXXIII 
 
 THE USES OF ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 SOME superior-minded folk have got into the 
 habit of unthinkingly condemning the extent to 
 which the art of advertisement is used nowa- 
 days. And on the surface there is some slight 
 plausibility for their attitude. They point 
 out that advertisement of itself by no means 
 guarantees the goodness of the thing advertised, 
 that indeed an inferior article well boomed if 
 I may be allowed the expression is more likely 
 to be bought by an ignorant public than the 
 genuine goods which are sold on their merits 
 alone, and that this very fact tends to lessen 
 the general power of discrimination, and leads 
 both to the neglect of what is really valuable in 
 great and small matters and to the undue 
 exaltation of the lower at the expense of the 
 higher. 
 
 Such people, it will be noticed, are not 
 referring to the uses of advertisement in con- 
 nection with commerce alone ; rightly or wrong- 
 ly, this practice of advertising what one has to 
 offer to the world now permeates every depart- 
 ment of human activity, and that in a very 
 
 346
 
 The Uses of Advertisement 347 
 
 extraordinary degree. And the question arises 
 whether on the whole the effects on mankind 
 generally are quite so injurious as the anti- 
 advertisers would have us believe. 
 
 For my part, I am heart and soul with the 
 advertisers, and I can give the reasons for my 
 position in a very few words. In the first place, 
 advertisement is no new thing. Every genera- 
 tion, back to the remotest ages, has made use 
 of the art, according to its lights and in its own 
 way. If the advertising of our own times is a 
 little more pronounced a little more blatant, if 
 you like that is readily explained by the fact 
 that with the comparative growth of the civil- 
 ised world it has become necessary to raise 
 one's voice a little louder than was needful 
 in the past. The necessity may be deplored, 
 but it is no use kicking against accomplished 
 facts. 
 
 Secondly, my experience goes to show that 
 no amount of advertisement will sell a really 
 bad article for any length of time. You may 
 fool the people to start with, but you cannot 
 fool them for ever. And thirdly, I am myself 
 inartistic enough to believe that if you have 
 something to offer mankind, whether in trade, 
 art, or morality, which will benefit your 
 fellow-creatures, you have every right to use 
 all legitimate means to make them appreciate 
 that fact. In certain cases I would even go 
 farther and insist that it is your duty to do so.
 
 348 What of To-Day? 
 
 But that is a point which I will deal with 
 directly. 
 
 I have referred to advertisement as an art. 
 It is also a science. It is a science inasmuch 
 as it implies a thorough study of psychology. 
 We want to know what men want. We have 
 to sit down and study human nature in all its 
 moods and tenses and on every rung of the 
 social ladder. We must know what is doing 
 and how it is being done, and we have got 
 to be actual and supply pressing immediate 
 wants. 
 
 It is an art because artists have strong mo- 
 tives for employing their best skill in this 
 matter of advertising. If I were asked to define 
 it, I would say it was the art of arresting atten- 
 tion, and telling men where best to get what 
 most they want. I do not say that advertising 
 is free from abuse. Cheap and nasty things 
 which nobody needs are forced upon our atten- 
 tion unblushingly and boldly. But what good 
 thing is there in the world which is not equally 
 misused ? The honest advertiser of an honest 
 article has my approbation all the time, and the 
 attitude of those who condemn him is little 
 short of hypocritical. 
 
 But while I thoroughly believe in advertise- 
 ment, I would at the same time offer a word 
 of warning to advertisers and since we may all, 
 in one form or another, be included under that 
 designation, my warning is addressed to every-
 
 The Uses of Advertisement 349 
 
 body. In advertising, you must strike the right 
 note and get hold of the right thing to adver- 
 tise. Your article must be what it professes to 
 be, and it must be something that mankind 
 ought to need. And this brings me to my main 
 point. 
 
 The superior-minded people I have already 
 referred to object to modern methods of adver- 
 tisement chiefly, I gather, on artistic grounds. 
 But there is a certain class of goods I speak 
 with all reverence the advertising of which 
 they oppose, curiously enough, from an ethical 
 standpoint. "If you choose to annoy your fel- 
 lows," they say in effect, " by shouting in their 
 ears, at least confine your vulgar methods to 
 vulgar things. It is undignified and irreverent, 
 if not actually blasphemous, to introduce adver- 
 tisement into matters about which most people 
 preserve a becoming reticence, to strain your 
 voice in the effort to attract attention to your 
 religious wares and to turn the House of God 
 into a sort of theatre." 
 
 I pass by for the moment the point that 
 people who talk like this do not show them- 
 selves, as a rule, so very careful in other re- 
 spects of the Divine dignity or the reverence 
 due to the Creator. But I should very much 
 like to know why the subject of religion should 
 be the only one tabooed in the modern world. 
 I quite agree that, under present conditions, 
 the man who introduces this topic in mixed
 
 350 What of To-Day? 
 
 society is generally held to have committed a 
 blunder. And certainly no thinking man, how- 
 ever religious he may be, would expect to 
 accomplish any good by standing up in a draw- 
 ing-room and exhorting the assembled company 
 to eschew their frivolous conversation and turn 
 to the discussion of deeper and more important 
 subjects. But then would any advertising agent 
 expect to benefit his firm by producing, in 
 analogous circumstances, a sample of Messrs. 
 Snippet's trouserings or a catalogue of Some- 
 body's Supply Stores and descanting on the 
 merits of the articles? 
 
 The question is not one of taste but of 
 expediency, and I, as a member of the oldest 
 advertising firm in religion on this planet, in- 
 sist that the most important thing incompar- 
 ably the most important thing in the world has 
 as much right to be advertised, to be pushed, 
 to be boomed, to be dinned into men's ears, 
 as any other article that they need, whether 
 they are aware of their necessity or not. Fur- 
 ther, in an age like this, when to preserve a 
 dignified silence or to talk in whispers is about 
 as useful for all practical purposes as burying 
 one's talent in a napkin, I say it is the duty of 
 all Christian men to see that their religion is 
 brought before the eyes of all men, and kept 
 in the front, as prominently as possible. Why 
 should we disdain the use of advertisement in 
 this connection? Dignified reticence will not
 
 The Uses of Advertisement 351 
 
 induce men to remember their God, and if a 
 man needs to be shouted at or shaken violently 
 in order to rouse him from his mental and un- 
 spiritual torpor of mind, I for one will not be 
 afraid to lose any dignity I may possess by try- 
 ing to make him hear what he has got to be 
 told. 
 
 Faith comes by hearing, and if we do not 
 speak and make our wares known and put 
 them, as it were, into the shop window, how 
 are people going to know what we have got to 
 offer them? The Divine Founder of our reli- 
 gion bade His followers "Go into the world 
 and preach the Gospel to every creature." 
 Why? Because Christianity possesses wares 
 which defy competition and which are 
 needed by everybody. The lapse of time has 
 not affected the quality of those wares in any 
 way, and some of us are inclined to think that 
 mankind is just as much in need of them now 
 as it was two thousand years ago. 
 
 I wonder if those worthy people who de- 
 precate the advertising of religion ever ask 
 themselves what, humanly speaking, would have 
 been the fate of Christianity if the apostles and 
 elders of the early Church had neglected the 
 command of their Divine Master to go forth 
 and make every effort they could to bring the 
 light of the Gospel into every home. Why, 
 those humble fishermen and their followers lived 
 for nothing else but to give as much publicity
 
 352 What of To-Day? 
 
 as they could to the glorious tidings which had 
 been entrusted to them to share with their fellow- 
 men. What else did they do but advertise to 
 the fullest extent of the means at their command 
 the good news of the Gospel? Is it likely that 
 St. Peter and St. Paul, each in his own way 
 burning with enthusiasm to bring souls to 
 Christ, would have omitted, had they been living 
 to-day, to take full advantage of the magnificent 
 advertising methods in vogue among us now? 
 The advocates of "dignified silence" would 
 have received short shrift at their hands, and 
 so long as they could ensure the continuous 
 spreading of the Gospel they would have 
 troubled themselves very little about any charges 
 of irreverence or vulgarity that might have been 
 brought against them. 
 
 Though I do not deny the sincerity of many 
 of those who object to the advertising of re- 
 ligion, I do unhesitatingly accuse them of a 
 certain timidity, a lack of that fire and enthusi- 
 asm which should animate every Christian soul, 
 and a want of that fighting spirit which was so 
 conspicuous in the early days of the Church. 
 The Christian martyrs had to submit to worse 
 things for their faith than the sneers of the in- 
 tellectual aristocracy of Rome. The accusation 
 of vulgarity was not one that very greatly dis- 
 turbed their peace of mind. Yet the Christians 
 of our own day count it too much to endure 
 for the sake of their Master.
 
 The Uses of Advertisement 353 
 
 So far then from considering this question 
 of advertising religion as one worthy of discus- 
 sion, my own position is that it is the bounden 
 duty of all sincere followers of Christ to become, 
 in a sense, His advertising agents. I have been 
 called a great advertiser myself, and in such a 
 manner as intimated that the epithet was to be 
 regarded as a reproach. For my part I gladly 
 welcome the designation, for if the charge be 
 true, it can but mean that I have succeeded in 
 recalling the attention of the world or some 
 portion of it to the truths which it is in 
 desperate peril of forgetting altogether. 
 
 Is it an abuse of advertisement for the 
 Automobile Association or the Motor Union 
 to place prominent notices on the public roads 
 with the object of warning motorists against a 
 dangerous corner or a steep hill? And if not, 
 how can it be an abuse of advertisement for a 
 Christian man to use every means in his power 
 to restrain his fellow-creatures from their mad 
 rush to destruction, to placard the easy paths 
 they are pursuing with warning notices of the 
 precipices at the end, and to raise his voice as 
 loudly as possible in inducing them to take the 
 one safe road which will bring them, without 
 disaster, to their destination ? 
 
 In this, as in so many other matters, all we 
 
 need is a little clear thinking. We, as Christians, 
 
 cannot afford to sit at home with folded hands, 
 
 expecting a distracted public to inquire after 
 
 x
 
 354 
 
 What of To-Day? 
 
 our wares for themselves. Let us become com- 
 mercial travellers in the good things of God, 
 and let us lose no opportunity of putting them 
 in our shop-windows and in labelling their price, 
 worth and infinite utility.
 
 XXXIV 
 THE FETISH OF SPORT 
 
 A GREAT many people seem to be obsessed 
 with the idea that the whole aim and object of 
 life is to obtain unlimited leisure, and further 
 that such leisure should be devoted to nothing 
 but recreation and sport. During the last twenty 
 years, and more particularly the last ten, the 
 cult of sport has grown so disproportionately as 
 almost to overshadow every other question, 
 even of the most serious national or imperial 
 interest. International rivalry in games is parti- 
 ally, but by no means wholly, responsible for 
 the present ludicrous, but none the less 
 debasing state of affairs. 
 
 No one can be more in favour than I am 
 of a moderate amount of clean, healthy, physical 
 recreation for everybody. Such recreation is 
 indeed a necessity for body and mind, and if I 
 had my way I would extend rather than re- 
 strict the facilities for playing games, especially 
 among the poor. But that is a very different 
 matter from taking these games so seriously as 
 to believe that the existence of the Empire is 
 threatened because a foreigner wins the Diamond 
 
 355
 
 356 What of To-Day? 
 
 Sculls at Henley, or our picked athletes get 
 beaten in the Olympic Games. 
 
 In my young days we enjoyed plenty of 
 sport, quite as much as, if not more than, was 
 good for us. But we enjoyed it by way of re- 
 creation, not as a serious end in itself, and the 
 pleasure we got out of it was in the playing of 
 the game, and not in the actual result. Now- 
 adays, to judge from the amount of nonsense 
 one reads in the Press on this subject, it would 
 appear that anybody who is defeated in a con- 
 test in any sort of sport ought to be thoroughly 
 ashamed of himself. It does not seem to occur 
 to anybody that there can be any satisfaction in 
 having had a pleasant struggle with an opponent, 
 if the result has ended in defeat. And if that 
 struggle should chance to have been for an in- 
 ternational championship or trophy, the beaten 
 Englishman is apparently expected to abjure all 
 forms of sport for ever. 
 
 Recently, it seems I am open to correction 
 if I am wrong Englishmen have not met with 
 such all-round success in competing with their 
 foreign rivals as they should have done. Other 
 nations have taken up our own sports and pas- 
 times and are, to put it flippantly, beating us at 
 our own game. This is all very sad, though I 
 am afraid I cannot quite grasp its disastrous 
 significance for the Empire. However, the people 
 who write about sport in the papers (and so, I 
 suppose, must understand the matter far better
 
 The Fetish of Sport 357 
 
 than I do) have got their remedy all cut and 
 dried. Our national pride, which, I gather, has 
 been very deeply wounded by the victories of 
 these impertinent foreigners, can easily be healed 
 if the young men of the country will listen to 
 advice and take their sports more seriously! 
 
 That is the proposition. It rather takes one's 
 breath away to be told that this country is not 
 entering into its games with sufficient serious- 
 ness. Our budding athletes, I must suppose, 
 are wasting too much time over business and 
 other unimportant matters to be able to 
 devote the proper time for making themselves 
 thoroughly efficient on the playing-fields. 
 
 Frankly, however, I do believe this question 
 of national sport is one that should be taken 
 seriously, though my point of view is diametri- 
 cally opposed to that of the gentlemen who 
 write for the Press. And in the first place I 
 should like to clear the air by saying that I 
 thoroughly believe in the principle that what- 
 ever is worth doing at all is worth doing well. 
 The schoolboy, student or young man of busi- 
 ness ought to throw himself just as whole- 
 heartedly into his games, while he is playing 
 them, as he does, or should do, into his work. 
 But in neither the one nor the other should he 
 be so absorbed as to make it his whole in- 
 terest in life. And in passing I might remark 
 that it is a little odd to find Englishmen at 
 one moment being rebuked for not attending
 
 358 What of To-Day? 
 
 to their commercial interests more closely and 
 at another being rated because they cannot 
 produce an unbeatable champion at every sport. 
 
 For the slacker or loafer I have no tolera- 
 tion, nor has anybody else. But I have equally 
 little respect for the misguided individual whose 
 mind is so oddly proportioned that the whole 
 world presents itself to his imagination as one 
 vast playing-field, wherein sport is the one thing 
 that really matters. And into this frame of 
 mind, I verily believe, an enormous number of 
 our young men to-day are being led by the 
 columns of slushy nonsense that appear daily and 
 weekly in the public Press on the subject. 
 
 I shall not be disturbed if what I have to 
 say about sport is set down as extravagance ; 
 for to tell the truth I do not think it is 
 possible to be extravagant in dealing with ex- 
 cess in any direction. Setting aside serious 
 crime, there is hardly any evil which is not, 
 roughly speaking, the indulging to excess of 
 something in itself quite harmless or even posi- 
 tively good. No one would assert that wine- 
 drinking, in strict moderation, is a sin. Yet 
 there is scarcely any vice that creates such ap- 
 palling misery as drunkenness. 
 
 In the same way I maintain that excessive 
 indulgence in and devotion to sport is not only 
 injurious, but that it may become actually sin- 
 ful. One frequently meets men who are clever 
 in a. certain branch of sport and who are regarded
 
 The Fetish of Sport 359 
 
 by their friends and acquaintances as nothing 
 less than heroes. These men have devoted 
 years and years to the development of a skill in 
 recreation a recreation which has become a 
 vice, much in the same way as strong drink is 
 unconsciously cultivated by men of weak minds, 
 and one generally finds that these men have 
 very little in common with the ordinary educated 
 individual, who can at least speak sanely upon 
 most questions. He who carries the love of 
 sport to excess can very seldom think or con- 
 verse about any other subject. His mind is 
 warped ; and no matter how fair and straight- 
 forward he may be in his particular game, he 
 is committing one of the greatest sins by the 
 misuse of a life which was given to him to use 
 for the good of others and the glory of God. 
 
 There is not a single game played in this 
 country which I would condemn as a form of 
 innocent recreation, but I believe there is hardly 
 any popular sport which could not be con- 
 demned on the ground that it has done, or 
 is rapidly on the way to doing, far more harm 
 than good among its devotees. A pastime should 
 only be regarded as a health-giving amusement 
 during one's leisure hours, and whether the 
 man who indulges in the game be rich or 
 poor, whether he is worried by business cares 
 or not, whether his bread and butter is jeopar- 
 dised by giving up hours to play that could be 
 more profitably spent, or his income is large
 
 360 What of To-Day? 
 
 and he has no need to worry about the necessaries 
 of life, tf ere is still the same wrong in allowing 
 sport to fill his mind to the exclusion of other 
 and more serious thoughts. 
 
 Nothing could be farther from my intention 
 than to pose as a spoil-sport, or to interfere with 
 the relaxation and amusement that the poor, es- 
 pecially, need so badly. Yet this growing mania 
 for sport, particularly that form of it which con- 
 sists in watching rather than taking part in a 
 game, is a species of excess which, if persisted in, 
 may be just as bad, morally and physically, for 
 the race as any other vice. And the worst of 
 the matter is that while obvious vices such as 
 drunkenness and debauchery of all kinds are 
 recognised and condemned, this insidious disease 
 is encouraged and approved. I have come across 
 many young men who would far rather shine 
 in some branch of athletics than rise to eminence 
 in their profession or calling. 
 
 For my part, proud as I am of my country, or 
 rather for the very reason that I am proud of 
 being an Englishman, I would be willing to see 
 every English athlete handsomely beaten at an 
 Olympic games festival if the result would be 
 to check this over-glorification of sport. The 
 very terms used by the papers in reporting a 
 friendly encounter between an English and a 
 foreign "champion" are enough to make one's 
 gorge rise. It is not only that the heavy sprawl- 
 ing headlines proclaim "A National Disaster"
 
 The Fetish of Sport 361 
 
 or "A Brilliant Triumph," but the description 
 of the actual play would be extravagant if used 
 in reporting the progress of a world-shaking 
 battle. The endeavours made by a cricketer or 
 a footballer to save his side from defeat may 
 be very praiseworthy, and are certainly enjoyed 
 by none more than the player himself, but not 
 even by the most extravagant licence of language 
 can we call them " heroic." Yet this is about 
 the commonest word used in many newspaper 
 reports to bring home to the reader the 
 "prowess" shown by their particular demi-god. 
 
 All this overdone and hysterical enthusiasm 
 fosters an entirely wrong spirit in sport. The 
 essence of sportsmanship, as that word used to 
 be understood in this country, is unselfishness. 
 But the hero-worship so commonly indulged in 
 nowadays, is scarcely calculated to produce 
 this quality among our modern sportsmen. 
 
 Then again, take the morbid glorification of 
 " results." As I have said, the old-fashioned 
 sportsman recked little of victory or defeat. Fie 
 did his level best and strained every nerve to 
 win, but he never whined at being beaten, 
 and he was the first to recognise and applaud 
 his conqueror's skill. Yet to-day I fear it is 
 only too true that most football crowds would 
 rather see their own team win by unfair methods 
 than lose honestly to a superior side. 
 
 What, however, are we to think of the 
 financial, or, perhaps I ought to say, the busi-
 
 362 What of To-Day? 
 
 ness side, which is so prominent in modern 
 sport ? The question of gate-money enters so 
 largely into sport nowadays that games are 
 rapidly becoming nothing more or less than 
 spectacular shows, and a pastime is judged less 
 by the skill required for its exposition than by 
 its power to attract a big crowd of spectators. 
 
 All these things are a bad influence, not 
 only on sport itself but also on the sporting 
 spirit, the moral fibre of the nation. To put it 
 plainly, we are getting a little surfeited with 
 sport, and the result must infallibly end in a 
 bad attack of indigestion. Already I observe 
 ominous signs of squabbling between the devo- 
 tees of various games as to the superiority of 
 their own particular sport over all others. Just 
 as though it matters twopence what sort of 
 sport a man adopts as his recreation, provided 
 that he gets good exercise from it and indulges 
 in it in moderation. 
 
 There is nothing in this world worth giving 
 up one's whole mind to, least of all such trifles 
 as should only occupy a healthy man's leisure 
 time. May I suggest that if Englishmen would 
 take their sport a little more lightly than they 
 are just now being urged to do, and their reli- 
 gion a little more seriously, they would find not 
 only a better time here but a happier eternity 
 hereafter ?
 
 XXXV 
 "THOU FOOL!" 
 
 " I will say to my soul : Soul, thou hast much goods laid 
 up for many years ; take thy rest, eat, drink, make good 
 cheer. But God said to him : Thou fool, this night do they 
 require thy soul of thee : and whose shall those things be 
 which thou hast provided ? " Luke xii. 19, 20. 
 
 I AM intensely interested to know why the 
 recording Angel wrote over this particular 
 rich man's grave an epitaph in four letters, 
 FOOL. And it is surely of some impor- 
 tance to everybody in these days to know why 
 this man was such a fool. From a worldly 
 point of view he seems to have been quite a 
 nice man, one held in high esteem like his 
 brother Dives, who was clothed in purple and 
 fine linen, and feasted sumptuously every day in 
 spite of the poor man at his gate. 
 
 Why then was this rich man counted a fool 
 by the Angel of God ? The trying part of it 
 is this : that the Angel must have been right. 
 He was not like the ordinary man writing an 
 epitaph over a grave. As a rule there are more 
 lies inside than outside of a cemetery. But 
 the recording Angel, who had exceptional op- 
 portunities for knowing the man's whole story, 
 
 3*3
 
 364 What of To-Day? 
 
 all his good works, and all his shortcomings 
 and failures, after running up his account, wrote 
 it off: "Thou Fool!" 
 
 The thing, I admit, sounds foolish in the 
 ears of the modern world. The man was ob- 
 viously a success in life. He had prospered in 
 his dealings with others. And he certainly was 
 no fool for holding his stock and not selling 
 when there was a poor market. The Angel 
 could have told him he was a wise man there, 
 and he was a wise man for building great 
 barns wherein to bestow his goods. He showed, 
 in fact, plenty of business acumen in that way. 
 He made provision for himself against a rainy 
 day, and, in strict accordance with the tenets 
 held everywhere in the world to-day, he pro- 
 posed to make use of his riches to give himself 
 an uncommonly good time. 
 
 Had he lived to-day he would only have 
 been following the example set him by many 
 others of his rich friends and acquaintances ; and 
 he would undoubtedly have been considerably 
 astonished and hurt if anyone had told him that 
 in behaving in such a fashion he was showing 
 himself to be nothing but a fool. 
 
 I can well imagine the dialogue that might 
 have ensued. 
 
 "My dear man," the friendly adviser might 
 say, "you are making every preparation for 
 having a good time. But suppose you die 
 to-night?"
 
 "Thou Fool!' 365 
 
 'Well, that's possible," the rich man might 
 reply, "though it's not likely. I'm not particu- 
 larly old, my doctor's just given me a clean bill 
 of health, my heart's sound and my digestion's 
 good. I can promise you, my dear fellow, 
 there's plenty of life in the old dog yet." 
 
 ' I don't doubt it," persists the friendly ad- 
 viser, "but after all, people do die suddenly. 
 And if you were to pop off to-night, all these 
 elaborate preparations of yours would seem a 
 bit foolish, wouldn't they?" 
 
 "Not a bit of it," retorts the other warmly. 
 ' We've all got to die some time, but what's 
 the use of worrying about it? When I'm dead, 
 I'm dead, and there's an end of it. Mean- 
 while, like a sensible man, I've got to order 
 my affairs on the supposition that I shall be 
 alive to-morrow." 
 
 " But, as you say, you've got to die some 
 time, you know," protests his friend, and the 
 rich man bursts into a laugh. 
 
 "Of course I have," he agrees, "and that's 
 just why I'm going to have a rattling good 
 time while I live. We've only got one life on 
 earth, and I intend to make the most of it." 
 
 That, I take it, expresses broadly the point 
 of view of this man, and of very many men 
 and women of to-day towards life and death. 
 And over the grave of that rich man was 
 placed the epitaph "Thou Fool!" because he 
 ignored the two cardinal facts of existence he
 
 366 What of To-Day ? 
 
 ignored God and he forgot his own immor- 
 tal soul. 
 
 For this he was written down a fool. He 
 omitted God from his scheme of things ; there 
 was no place for the Almighty in his programme. 
 Can anything be more foolish than for a man 
 to live as though there were no God, when, as 
 God's creature, he belongs to God absolutely 
 and entirely, even borrowing from God his 
 power to sin against Him? 
 
 ' Every moment dies a man," and the Angel 
 of Death is just as busy and just as relentless in 
 Belgravia or Grosvenor Square as down in Aid- 
 gate or Commercial Road. Who can be sure 
 of another hour of life ? 
 
 There is only one Master of the Household 
 of Creation, and He can ring His servants up at 
 any moment, and, unlike other servants, His 
 servants have to answer the summons at once. 
 
 We are often told that servants ought to 
 know their place. So they ought, but are we not 
 all servants the servants of God, whether we 
 have the prizes of this life in our holding or are 
 members of the sweated league ? 
 
 It is not for any one of us to say : "I have so 
 many acres and so many barns, and such estate 
 and such health and such prospects, and such 
 cellars and such delicate viands, and so many 
 servants and footmen and chauffeurs, that I can 
 live on for so many years indulging myself to 
 the full." When God presses the button, so to
 
 "Thou Fool!' 367 
 
 speak, the bell is heard and must be answered 
 with unerring punctuality. 
 
 We all know, in short, that we have got to 
 die some time, even though, like the rich Fool 
 I am speaking of, we may not believe that our 
 own turn is coming just yet. And what is more, 
 though we may affect to ignore the fact, we all 
 know there is a God. 
 
 From the man in the street to the King upon 
 his throne, we are all conscious of that one great 
 truth, but how many of us live our lives as though 
 we realised it ? It is the fashion of to-day to put 
 God outside our lives, to busy ourselves with 
 anything rather than with the most important 
 fact on earth ; to place humanity, in short, where 
 we ought to put our Creator. Some of us try to 
 be grand before God, and we make fools of our- 
 selves and the recording Angel writes again the 
 epitaph "Thou Fool!" over our graves. We 
 are grown so callous that we no longer argue 
 about the existence of God. We are merely 
 indifferent to Him. Is not this to play the part 
 of a fool? 
 
 I am sorry to say there are poor fools as well 
 as rich fools. No matter on what rung of the 
 social ladder a man happens to stand, if he 
 ignores God, if he caters for his own life without 
 taking God into consideration, he is a fool. 
 That is why there is such folly in the Press, such 
 folly in the popular magazines, such folly in the 
 romantic literature of the day, such folly and
 
 368 What of To-Day? 
 
 worse than folly in the daily actions of mankind. 
 The fool in the Gospel story lived as if there 
 were no God. That is why he was a fool. He 
 congratulated himself on the fact that he had 
 many more years in which to enjoy himself. 
 Well, we are all going to live for a great many 
 more years. We are all going to live eternal 
 years, but not here. 
 
 Ask the average man if he is ready for 
 death, and in the majority of cases you will find 
 that he is ready from the world's point of 
 view. He has made his will, he has insured 
 his life, he has taken care, according to his 
 means, that his wife and children shall not be 
 left penniless, and if he is rich enough, he may 
 even have bequeathed a museum or a picture- 
 gallery to his native town. Oh yes, he is ready 
 enough to die, or at least he has, in his own 
 estimation, made all the preparations he can 
 think of in anticipation of an early death. 
 
 Only unhappily he has left out the most im- 
 portant of all. He has made no provision for 
 his life after death. He has lived as a self-exis- 
 tent and self-sufficient being, without attempting 
 to foster his spiritual growth in order to enter, 
 not utterly unequipped, upon his spiritual life. 
 Did he, indeed, act with as little foresight in 
 regard to the things of this world, he would 
 be the first to admit and endorse his own 
 folly. 
 
 All in the end comes back to this : that
 
 "Thou Fool!' 369 
 
 men are learning, with terrible rapidity, to do 
 without God, without religion, without spiritu- 
 ality. Shocking as it sounds, they are even 
 becoming proud of the fact that they are 
 so thoroughly self-reliant. So much has been 
 achieved during the last century on the purely 
 material plane, that man is now accustoming 
 himself to the thought that there is nothing im- 
 possible for human effort to achieve, and if 
 that be so, he reasons, why trouble about the 
 spiritual or the supernatural? 
 
 All classes are more and more adopting the 
 Fool's motto : " Eat, drink, and be merry, for 
 to-morrow we die." More and more does the 
 modern world strive after the most feverish and 
 fleeting of pleasures, more and more does the 
 craving for momentary excitement increase, and 
 with every year that passes the dance of life 
 grows madder and more furious. 
 
 For many hundreds of years the world pro- 
 fited by the teaching of Christ and His Church. 
 Though men might find it hard to act up to 
 the Christian ideal, they at least sincerely believed 
 in a future life. There may have been as many 
 profligate men and women in any past age as 
 there are to-day, but it has been reserved for 
 our generation to furnish the amazing spectacle 
 of nations deliberately shouldering God aside, 
 as a thing of no account. 
 
 We boast that we have out-grown the super- 
 stitions of the past. We point with pride to 
 Y
 
 37 
 
 What of To-Day ? 
 
 our empty churches as proof that we prefer 
 reasonable recreation on Sunday to giving up 
 an hour or two of our leisure time to our 
 Creator. We plume ourselves upon the fact that 
 we have emancipated ourselves from the " priestly 
 shackles" which bound our fathers. Are we so 
 sure that upon our graves also the recording 
 Angel will not write that scathing epitaph : 
 "Thou Fool!"?
 
 XXXVI 
 
 A MESSAGE FROM BETHLEHEM 
 
 ALL history finds its centre in the crib of 
 Bethlehem. Whatever does not converge to it 
 radiates from it. History is summed up in the 
 story of the Incarnation. 
 
 What a strange experience for a King visiting 
 His people, to find He was not wanted ! And 
 yet that was, as a matter of fact, Christ's first 
 experience upon earth. " He was in the world, 
 and the world was made by Him, and the world 
 knew Him not. He came unto His own, and 
 His own received Him not." 'There is no 
 room," was the cry, when He sought shelter. 
 Yes, there was no room two thousand years ago, 
 and to-day practically the same cry is taken up, 
 " There is no room." Jesus Christ still finds 
 He is not wanted. 
 
 It may be asked why, then, was "the Word 
 made flesh," and why " dwelt He amongst us," if 
 He was not wanted, if He was not to find room 
 among His own ? Do you ask me why He, the In- 
 finite, became finite, why the Son of God became 
 the Son of Man ; in a word, why *' the Word was 
 made flesh and dwelt amongst us " ? It was 
 
 371
 
 372 What of To-Day? 
 
 because He could not keep away. If we did 
 not want Him, He wanted us. He, the Great 
 Physician, knew what was in man, and He knew 
 it was not pleasure, it was not gold, it was not 
 place that man really wanted. God was man's 
 want ; his term of arrival being God, his way also 
 must be by God. "I am the Way, the Truth, 
 and the Life." God came to visit His people, 
 says Zachary, "to enlighten them that sit in 
 darkness and in the shadow of death, and to 
 direct our feet in the way of peace." 
 
 Yes, not only is Jesus Christ the King of 
 Glory, but He is also the Prince of Peace. On 
 that still midnight the coming was heralded by 
 a host of Angels to the shepherds keeping the 
 night watch over their sheep. Then broke 
 through the silence of the midnight air the 
 message, " Behold, I bring you tidings of great 
 joy, that shall be to all the people, for this day is 
 born to you a Saviour " ; then the whole chorus 
 of angelic bands lit up the darkness with 
 splendour, as they intoned the hymn, " Glory 
 to God on high, and on earth peace to men." 
 God had come to visit His people, starting with 
 the poorest of the poor. What a sight it was for 
 the simple, humble-minded shepherds! Well 
 might they exclaim, " Let us go over and see this 
 that is come to pass " ; and well may we re-echo 
 their words in the chorus of the Christian hymn, 
 Venite adoremus, "Come, let us adore!" 
 
 To you also, my friends, I extend the invita-
 
 A Message from Bethlehem 373 
 
 tion. Let us, in company with these chosen 
 courtiers of the Lord, seek the rock-hewn cave. 
 Put aside all intellectual pride ; open the eyes 
 of faith, and see the great sight revealed to 
 babes and little ones ; a Divine Infant wrapped 
 in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger; yes, 
 laid in a manger borrowed, not from man, but 
 from the beasts, from the ox and the ass. O 
 wonder of wonders ! O mystery of mysteries ! 
 Behold the Incomprehensible, the Omnipotent, 
 the Everlasting, whom the heavens cannot con- 
 tain, shrinking to the proportions of a Babe, lying 
 altogether helpless in the straw of His manger- 
 cradle ! Aptly do we read in the revealed word, 
 "His name shall be called Wonderful! ' 
 
 Let us for a moment glance round, and see 
 what sort of a place it is which the Omnipotent 
 has chosen for His first resting-place on earth. 
 His palace a stable ; His courtiers the ox and 
 the ass ! And what are the names of the four 
 friends closest to Him, whom He has chosen 
 to be His intimates, while He sojourns upon 
 this earth? Let me introduce you to them. 
 Many of you know them not. They are alto- 
 gether unfamiliar to the votaries of pleasure, to 
 the world of fashion, though among the humble 
 and the faithful their names are as household 
 words. The four friends who are so intimately 
 associated with the name of Jesus are, Humility 
 and Poverty, Purity and Charity. 
 
 See how Jesus Christ identifies Himself with
 
 374 What of To-Day? 
 
 Humility. Has He not humbled Himself as a 
 little child ? Will He not, later on, submit to 
 the law of circumcision ? Will He not for thirty 
 years and more lead His lowly life in the ob- 
 scurest village of Galilee in Palestine ? And 
 when He goes forth from His dear home among 
 the hills, shall we not see Him tempted, almost 
 as we are, by the Evil One ? Will He any 
 more than ourselves escape the malice of enemies 
 and the jealousy of false friends ? Ah, if you 
 want to see Him in His supreme act of humility, 
 watch Him as He sinks to His knees before the 
 arch-traitor and washes the feet of him who will 
 presently hurry off to commit the act of treachery 
 that will end in self-slaughter! When we, who 
 profess to be His followers, gaze upon this pic- 
 ture of Jesus kneeling before the traitor, we 
 may well feel confused, not knowing where to 
 find our own right place. "He humbled Him- 
 self" ; He made Humility His bosom friend. 
 But Poverty is no less dear to Jesus than 
 Humility. We have already seen the poverty 
 of His birthplace ; but even from it He will 
 soon be evicted and forced to exchange His 
 own chosen country for that of the Egyptians. 
 Poverty ! Who so poor as Jesus Christ ? Look 
 at Him later on, as He stands knee-deep in the 
 wood-shavings till the sweat pours from His 
 brow. He must work to help to keep a roof 
 over His poor Mother's head. But Nazareth 
 is luxury compared with His future home, for
 
 A Message from Bethlehem 375 
 
 when He went forth on His missionary tour, 
 the canopy of heaven was often the only roof 
 beneath which He prayed and slept. ' The 
 foxes have holes and the birds have nests, but 
 the Son of Man," as He Himself declared, 
 "hath no place whereon to lay His head." 
 When at length His countrymen did find Him 
 a bed on which to agonise and die it was a 
 wooden cross, with a Crown of Thorns for a 
 pillow, while the fierce noonday sun burned 
 into His bleeding wounds till death came to 
 His relief. 
 
 Look where we may, we can never find 
 poverty like that to which Our Lord was wedded 
 Why, even the pauper may claim a grave, but 
 not Jesus Christ, whom they stripped of all He 
 had I was going to say of all He was ; for 
 they stripped Him of His clothes, and they 
 stripped Him of His skin, and they wellnigh 
 stripped Him of His flesh and when He was 
 buried, it was in a grave lent Him by a friend. 
 " He loved Poverty," Poverty was His friend 
 till death. 
 
 Again, observe how dear to Jesus is Purity. 
 He is born of a Virgin Mother, and He chooses 
 a virgin for His foster-father ; while the friend 
 whom He takes to His bosom as the beloved 
 disciple is the virgin John. If there are those 
 outside Christianity who deny the virgin birth 
 of Our Divine Lord, they perhaps do so be- 
 cause with them " Miracles do not happen,"
 
 376 What of To-Day? 
 
 Disbelief in the virgin birth means tossing to 
 the winds the Gospels themselves, for are we 
 not in the first and third Synoptic Gospels told 
 that Jesus was born of a Virgin Mother? We 
 have the account of it both on Joseph's side 
 and on the side of the Blessed Virgin. They 
 who quarrel with the account do so on what 
 they are pleased to call their principles ; because 
 it is a miracle. But it is only one of the count- 
 less miracles that go to make up the mystery 
 of the Incarnation. To me it would be a greater 
 miracle to try and account for the universal 
 belief in the virgin birth by ascribing it to a 
 myth rather than to the Gospel. 
 
 The very best proof of our dear Lord's ap- 
 preciation and love of Purity lies in His attitude 
 of pity and compassion for those who by sin 
 have lost this precious, priceless friend. Jesus 
 is in a very special way the sinners' Friend, 
 because He is the One, the only One, who is 
 able to restore them to the friendship of Purity 
 when once that friendship has been lost. " He 
 loved Purity" : Purity was the friend of His 
 heart. 
 
 And now, lastly, let me introduce you to a 
 fourth friend, knit into the very Heart of Our 
 Saviour : Charity, or, as we sometimes call it, 
 Love. What has drawn the God of Heaven down 
 to earth ? Why, it is love : " God so loved the 
 world." Why did He court humiliations, priva- 
 tions, and sufferings? Because "He loved me,
 
 A Message from Bethlehem 377 
 
 and He gave Himself up for me." And tell me : 
 why did He submit to the scourge, the thorns, 
 the nails, and the cross? Because, " having loved 
 His own, He loved them to the end." Yes, Jesus 
 Christ passes through every phase of love to its 
 consummation in self-sacrifice. It is when He has 
 reached this last stage in His life of love, and is 
 actually expiring on the cross, that we picture 
 Him with arms extended and with heart broken 
 and pierced repeating to the world: "Greater 
 love than this no man hath." 
 
 Now, let me ask a short, simple question. 
 If Jesus Christ were to visit us once more, if 
 He were to come unto His own, should we 
 have once more to write, " And His own 
 received Him not"? Should we tell Him, 
 were He to knock at our door, "There is 
 no room"? I much fear Our Lord's second 
 coming would find no better welcome than 
 His first. Why, He has actually come ! He 
 is in our midst: "There hath stood One in 
 the midst of you, whom you know not." The 
 world still cries out, " We will not have this 
 Man to rule over us." Worldlings like neither 
 Him nor His friends Humility, Poverty, Purity, 
 and Charity. But let us divest ourselves of the 
 worldly spirit. Let us renounce all ambition for 
 the things of time and sense. Let us cleave to 
 Christ. 
 
 Let us make an attempt this Christmas to deny 
 ourselves, so as to make more room in the inn of
 
 378 What of To-Day ? 
 
 our hearts for Jesus Christ. 'Bid the beasts within 
 you, your passions, bow down and adore. Sum- 
 mon the four royal Friends as attendant spirits to 
 come and open wide their gates and sing to Him 
 the hymn of the Incarnation, Gloria in Excelsis. 
 Invite Him to your homes, hold Him for ever in 
 possession, offer Him all you have and all you are. 
 Be not a niggard of your gifts. Lay before Him 
 your freedom, your memory, your will, and your 
 whole hearts. And from time to time test the 
 reality of your love of Him by your devotedness 
 to His four inseparable Friends. Let us study 
 their lessons, follow them, love them ; for, in the 
 measure of our love to His friends during our 
 sojourn here, we shall be able to gauge the 
 room there is in our hearts for Him. 
 
 " Not what we give, but what we share, 
 For the gift without the giver is bare ; 
 Who gives himself, with his alms feeds three : 
 Himself, his famishing neighbour, and Me."
 
 XXXVII 
 "WATCHMAN, WHAT OF THE NIGHT?" 
 
 LIKE the Edomites of old, we, too, at the present 
 moment are standing, as it were, in a beleaguered 
 city, waiting, hoping, and praying for the dawn, 
 with the question rising on our lips and in our 
 anxious hearts, "What of the night?" And to us 
 also comes the double-edged reply, "The morning 
 cometh, and also the night." To the sad, the 
 sick and the downtrodden, to all who are lifting 
 streaming eyes and outstretched hands to those 
 they think can help them, that same answer is 
 the only possible one. Every mortal must be 
 prepared to meet with rain and shine, joy and 
 sorrow, success and failure, defeat and triumph. 
 And especially in such a night as is now over- 
 shadowing the world, must we be ready with 
 stout hearts and enduring minds to face what- 
 ever the future may hold in store. 
 
 But we must be on our guard equally against 
 an over-comfortable optimism and a too-hopeless 
 pessimism the two philosophies of life which 
 seem to find favour with many, yet both of 
 which contain a false note of prophecy. We 
 must beware of the too-glib optimist, disguised 
 
 379
 
 380 What of To-Day? 
 
 under a hundred fancy names, who pretends 
 that, after this war, we shall need only to 
 adopt his particular social, political, or ethical 
 programme to ensure a return of the Golden 
 Age and an era of universal prosperity and 
 peace. 
 
 "The morning cometh!" How often has 
 not that cry rung in the ears of suffering 
 humanity ! How often has not mankind been 
 told that it is standing at the gates of the 
 Promised Land ! And how often has it not 
 had cause to know that the Earthly Paradise is 
 not to be found, and that for every evil that we 
 abolish there arise a dozen new ones ; for every 
 craving we satisfy, a hundred fresh desires spring 
 up in our restless hearts. With the poet, let us 
 remember that, 
 
 "In trying to undo one riddle 
 And to find the true, 
 We knit a hundred others new." 
 
 Yes, the morning cometh, but listen to the 
 mocking voice, "And also the night." 
 
 And turn for a moment to the prophetic 
 utterances of the other school that of the 
 pessimist. It is a philosophy which may danger- 
 ously attract many whom this war has hurt 
 in their business and their pocket, or in the 
 loss of a dearly-loved relative or friend. But 
 primarily, pessimism as a creed is held by the 
 slave of pleasure sick and satiated with his ever-
 
 "What of the Night?" 381 
 
 lasting banquet, by the materialist with his shallow 
 gospel of despair, and by the cynic, the mis- 
 anthrope and the egoist, who see no hope for 
 the human race because they have no sympathy, 
 no feeling for their joys and sorrows. These 
 are the pessimists who proclaim that virtue is 
 hypocrisy, that religion is a snare and that we 
 are but as sailors voyaging on a rudderless vessel, 
 destined to inevitable shipwreck on the rocks 
 of death. We have no pilot, we have no com- 
 pass, we have no soul, we have no God. To 
 those who seek for comfort they have but one 
 reply, "And also the night! " 
 
 Happily, the school of pessimism has never 
 been able to command the audience it has 
 striven so hard to obtain. Indeed if such a 
 creed were ever to get hold of the mass of 
 civilised mankind, the stream of life would be 
 poisoned at its source. The only light left 
 upon earth would be the phosphorescence of 
 corruption, or the corpse lights flitting to and 
 fro over the graves of Faith, Hope and Love. 
 
 " We feel, although we cannot prove, 
 That every cloud that spreads above 
 And veileth Love, .itself is love." 
 
 That is the true antidote to pessimism and 
 one that in normal times is effective. But 
 these are not normal times, and it may well 
 be that the doctrine of despair, in one or 
 other of its forms, may find an entrance into
 
 382 What of To-Day? 
 
 many a mind that, in more peaceful days, 
 would have rejected it without a second thought. 
 We must be on our guard, then, against 
 harbouring this delusion, one even more dan- 
 gerous than an unreasoning optimism. We 
 must avoid both the Scylla and Charybdis of 
 conduct. 
 
 Both are harmful, because both are false. 
 The gospel of the optimist is false because it 
 ignores all that is implied in the story of the 
 fall of man ; the gospel of the pessimist is false 
 because it ignores all that is comprehended in 
 the story of man's redemption. There is only 
 one true philosophy of life, and it is comprised 
 in that question and answer of a day now long 
 fled: "Watchman, what of the night? The 
 morning cometh, and also the night." Neither 
 buoyed up with delusive hopes nor unduly 
 cast down by an unreasoning despair, we must 
 tread with firm and patient step our appointed 
 road, relying not on ourselves alone, but put- 
 ting our faith in the Power from which we 
 have only to ask, to receive all the strength 
 and support we need. In His own way, God 
 always answers the sinner's prayer. "A contrite 
 and humble heart Thou wilt not despise." 
 
 I cannot forbear to quote in this connection 
 the memorable words of Pius X. that saintly 
 soul whose recent passing away is mourned 
 by the whole of Christendom. 
 
 "We are terrified," he wrote, "beyond all
 
 "What of the Night?" 383 
 
 else, by the disastrous state of Society to-day. 
 For who can fail to see that Society is at the 
 present time, more than in any past age, suf- 
 fering from a terrible and deep-rooted malady 
 which, developing every day and eating into 
 its inmost being, is dragging it to destruction ? 
 The disease is apostasy from God, than which 
 nothing is more allied to ruin. For behold, 
 they that go far from Thee shall perish. 
 
 "This is the night. But ' the morning 
 cometh.' 
 
 "We take courage in Him who strengthens 
 us ; and setting ourselves to work, we proclaim 
 that we have no other programme but that of 
 'restoring all things in Christ,' so that 'Christ 
 may be all in all ' .... His interests shall 
 be our interests, and for these we are resolved 
 to spend all our strength, and, if need be, 
 our life." 
 
 Apostasy from God! There, in a phrase, is 
 summed up the error both of the optimist and 
 of the pessimist. Pride is the sin of one, 
 despair is the sin of the other, and each is 
 the result of turning away from the Almighty 
 Father. In that robust rallying cry of Pius X. 
 you will find neither the self-sufficiency of the 
 optimist nor the despondency of the pessimist, 
 but only the hope and trustfulness of the man 
 who puts his faith in a higher Power in God. 
 
 Looking down from his watch-tower upon a 
 world troubled and tried in the dark night of
 
 384 What of To-Day ? 
 
 adversity by a storm of conflicting passions, the 
 watchman can bravely make answer to our 
 appeal, ' The morning cometh, and also the 
 night." We are to expect neither the best 
 nor the worst. Our part is to be ready for all 
 things that may befall us, being neither puffed 
 up with prosperity nor unduly cast down by 
 adversity, but putting our trust in One who 
 never failed his children yet. 
 
 " Well roars the storm to those who hear 
 A deeper voice across the storm." 
 
 We must arise and be up and doing. "Take 
 up your cross and follow Me," said Christ. 
 Do not the evil days through which we are 
 passing help us to understand what He meant 
 by those words? Let us put our hearts into our 
 work, realise our mission, and, though the night 
 be dark, plunge into it and go forward to meet 
 the dawn of day. If we are Christians we 
 must follow Christ. And if we are to follow 
 Christ, we must renounce a life of unbroken 
 ease and peace, which means corruption. If 
 we are to be Christian men and women, we 
 must live the Christ life, think the Christ thought, 
 foster the Christ love, be the Christ character. 
 Neither victory nor defeat must have power to 
 shake our souls, for the one will not wholly 
 rid the earth of evil nor will the other mean 
 the ultimate triumph of darkness. 'The morn- 
 ing cometh, and also the night." If that
 
 "What of the Night?" 385 
 
 answer holds a word of cheer for us, it also 
 gives us a note of warning. Let us pay heed 
 to both. 
 
 i When I look towards the battle-fields where 
 our brothers are fighting, waist-deep in muddy 
 trenches, and facing bullet and shell with un- 
 daunted courage and coolness, I cannot but ask 
 myself: "And what art thou, my soul, pre- 
 pared to endure for thy Home beyond the stars 
 and for Christ, thy Captain-King? Arise, and 
 quit thyself as a Christian man and a Christian 
 soldier." " ESTO MILES."
 
 XXXVIII 
 THE OLD SPIRIT 
 
 I HAVE now set down, though, as I am conscious, 
 in a wholly inadequate fashion, some thoughts on 
 the New Spirit which has been permeating this 
 age, and on the consequences which are already 
 beginning to manifest themselves, as well as on 
 those which are not yet plainly visible. I say 
 again, as I said at the beginning of this book, 
 that I am not one of those hide-bound reaction- 
 aries who are opposed to progress, who fail to 
 recognise that humanity must go forward if it is 
 not to go back, and who offer an obstinate and 
 stupid resistance to all forms of new energy and 
 enterprise on the part of mankind. 
 
 But, while heartily welcoming all new things 
 that are good, I will make no compromise, I 
 will have no truck with what I recognise to be 
 not progress but retrogression, the more deadly 
 if it be spiritual rather than material. That 
 word " progress " has so obsessed our imagin- 
 ation that we are apt nowadays to regard any 
 reversal of established conventions, any upsetting 
 of settled ideas, as indicating an advance towards 
 some mysterious goal of perfection. So ignorant 
 
 386
 
 The Old Spirit 387 
 
 are we, moreover, in spite of all our boasted 
 education, that not in one, but in almost every 
 instance, what we are pleased to think of as 
 wonderfully fresh and original views, as a new 
 outlook upon life, and all the rest of it, are but 
 repetitions of what our wiser forefathers long 
 ago examined and rejected. 
 
 This New Spirit, then, which has shown itself 
 in many ways, but may, not inaptly, be summed 
 up as the Spirit of Unrest this New Spirit, I say, 
 must not be taken on trust as truly progressive 
 or excellent merely because it is new. I have 
 shown or at least I have done my best to 
 show that it is bad, that, if encouraged, it will 
 bring both the race and the country to ruin, 
 moral, material and spiritual, and that whatever 
 good there may be in it is hopelessly over- 
 shadowed by the evil. 
 
 Again and again in these pages I have de- 
 manded of my readers to look around them and 
 consider the symptoms of this hurried unrestful 
 age this age of headlines, snapshots, taxicabs 
 and music-halls, when all is fever, fret and 
 fume, when competition is so keen, and the 
 margin of profit so fine, and the desire for 
 luxury so eager, that the one cry beating through 
 the air is " hurry up." 
 
 We are living in a day when high ideals are 
 yielding to the pressure of creature comforts, 
 when principle is being exchanged for expedi- 
 ency ; in a day when self-sacrificing Christianity is
 
 3 88 What of To-Day ? 
 
 being bartered for self-centred materialism, when 
 the sense of sin is regarded as a worn-out super- 
 stition ; in a day when it matters not what you 
 believe, but only what you do, and when you 
 may do what you like provided you are not 
 found out ; in a day when the relations between 
 the sexes takes one back to pagan times, while 
 the garbage on which men and women feed is 
 as loathsome as the stuff over which they gloat 
 and chatter ; in a day when there is no empty 
 place but in the cradle, no room in which to 
 move but in the churches. 
 
 Such is, in part, the effect of this New Spirit, 
 and for confirmation of my words I would ask 
 you to read the story of present day life as it 
 is reflected in society, as it is mirrored forth on 
 the stage, as it is shown in the law-courts, as it 
 is writ large on our bookstalls, as it is published 
 in the society journals, in the magazines, in the 
 daily press. 
 
 Well may we ask ourselves whither are we 
 drifting, with God out of sight, and the roar of 
 the cataract distinctly heard beyond the rapids 
 over which we are being swept in our toy boats 
 of frivolity and folly. It would seem that the 
 sons of men who love vanity and seek after lying 
 are no more interested in their whither than in 
 their whence. All that they desire is that they 
 may be permitted to go on their mad way, 
 with no speed limit imposed on them. Nor do 
 they care when or where the end of their
 
 The Old Spirit 389 
 
 journey may be, if they are able to revel during 
 every moment of the time allotted to them in 
 this world. 
 
 Such, I say, are the effects of this Spirit of 
 Unrest which has taken such a grip upon the 
 minds, the souls, and the bodies of our genera- 
 tion. It is not only time to call a halt, to clap 
 on all the brakes, and to bring the whole 
 machine to a sudden standstill. We must do 
 more than that. We must get out of this mad- 
 dening motor-car, and retrace our steps, pain- 
 fully, and with much effort, if need be, till we 
 take our stand once more upon the summit of 
 that hill whence we have been dashing at such 
 breakneck speed into the valley of desolation 
 and death. 
 
 When I started to write on this subject, I 
 pointed out that there was much to admire in 
 the New Spirit, in spite of its deplorable mani- 
 festations in many directions. Yet all that is 
 bad in it comes from itself, and all that is good 
 in it springs, I say it unhesitatingly, from the Old 
 Spirit, the Spirit of Love and Self-sacrifice, the 
 Spirit of Restraint and Discipline, the Spirit 
 that was once revered and honoured throughout 
 this broad land, the Spirit that was revealed to 
 man nearly two thousand years ago on the Hill 
 of Calvary. 
 
 What is there about this Old Spirit that my 
 countrymen should reject it to-day as unmanly, 
 and lacking in strength and vitality? It is a
 
 390 What of To-Day? 
 
 question of words, I suppose, for assuredly I, 
 for one, can see nothing manly in immorality, 
 nothing virile in vice, nothing noble or worthy 
 of respect in the unchecked licence which 
 masquerades under the title of liberty. In what 
 respect did the Old Spirit the Spirit of Chris- 
 tianity ever fail in helping and strengthening 
 mankind in its daily troubles, its daily toils, its 
 daily sorrows ? If there was evil in the world 
 when the Old Spirit reigned, I cannot see that 
 the world is any happier to-day; nor was that 
 evil the result of the Old Spirit, rather was it 
 the consequence of the failure of mankind to 
 live up to that ideal. Nevertheless, they had 
 their ideal, and they were the better men for it. 
 
 Perhaps owing to its restlessness, this New 
 Spirit is very energetic in its preaching of the 
 doctrine of " Hustle." There was a time when 
 " Slow and Sure " was England's motto and a 
 very good motto it was too. However, not alto- 
 gether owing to England's fault for I recog- 
 nise that the press of foreign competition must 
 be met -that motto has been abandoned, and 
 thoroughness has had to give place to rapidity. 
 Disastrous as the consequences of this policy of 
 driving men must be in the long run, there is 
 one cant phrase of the day, not so often prac- 
 tised, by the way, as preached, which we might 
 all follow with advantage. 
 
 "Do it Now ! " That is the new catchword, 
 and I, personally, have nothing to say against
 
 The Old Spirit 391 
 
 it, provided that the thing to be done is worth 
 the doing. But of how many of the matters 
 connected with the business, the pleasure, or 
 the daily routine of our lives can we say that 
 with truth ? Duties there are which have to be 
 performed, work which has to be accomplished, 
 but it seems to me that a vast amount of energy 
 is expended in these days with a very dispro- 
 portionate result. 
 
 If we were to put a hundredth part of the 
 activity we so often waste in trying to improve 
 our worldly position into the even more serious 
 business of improving our moral characters, what 
 an incalculable return we should get. 
 
 Ten minutes here, ten minutes there are 
 we so dreadfully pressed that we cannot even 
 spare so much time from the service of man 
 to the service of God ? Unlike His creatures, 
 God is not a hard taskmaster, though the 
 New Spirit would like to prove Him so. He 
 asks so very little from us, and gives us such 
 high wages in payment, that it is a wonder to 
 me how man can be so neglectful of Him. 
 
 Well, the Old Spirit tells us that "It is 
 never too late to mend," and the New Spirit, 
 though not with such originality as it seems to 
 think, tells us to "Do it Now! " Cannot we, 
 in this particular at least, combine the two 
 Spirits, become, and that at once, hustlers in 
 the only service worth the name, and make an 
 effort each one of us, a personal, individual
 
 392 What of To-Day ? 
 
 effort to make Christendom once more what 
 its name implies? 
 
 It is my business to preach, but I have 
 tried not to preach too much in these pages. 
 What I have endeavoured to do is to rouse my 
 fellow-countrymen to a sense of the reality of 
 things, to get them to view life in juster per- 
 spective, to put before them some home truths 
 which some of them appear to be incapable of 
 appreciating. I have, in short, said what I set 
 out to say, and I can only hope that my criti- 
 cism may be taken in the spirit in which it has 
 been given. 
 
 We must not form our judgment of the state 
 of things by what we see around us to-day. At 
 present we are at our best, but this is a shifting 
 scene, and when the war is over and our victory 
 won, then will be the time to test the strength of 
 the good resolutions made under the pressure of 
 national danger and in a moment of abnormal 
 exaltation. No soldier who has been under fire 
 can ever be quite the same as before that awful 
 experience, and no civilian can have done his or 
 her part under the shelter of home during these 
 months of fighting and of pillage, of arson and 
 of massacre, without realising that, compared 
 with keeping faith with (Jod, nothing on this 
 earth matters in the least. 
 
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