The Discipline of War Part 9

In these Addresses we have said much about those large results which G.o.d is allowing us already to see as obviously coming out of the war; on our Day of "Humble Prayer to Almighty G.o.d" we solemnly thanked Him:

For the laying aside of controversies at home, and for the unity of the Nation and Empire;

For the loyal and loving response of our fellow-subjects beyond the seas;

For the full harmony between our Allies and ourselves, and for the success which has already been granted to our common efforts;

For the devotion of those who have laid down their lives for their country;

For the revelation in danger, in suffering, and in death, of the power of the Cross and the benefits of the Lord's Pa.s.sion.

Now remains the question, Are the results to be permanent? That entirely depends upon our att.i.tude towards the discipline of victory; or how we are going to behave ourselves in the hour of success. It is written concerning Israel, "The Lord saved them from the hand of them that hated them: and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy. Then believed they His words, they sang His praise. They soon forgat His works: they waited not for His counsel." G.o.d willing we shall ere long be singing our Te Deum; oh! yes, we shall do it with all our heart and soul; but how are we to fix the emotions, to render permanent that thankfulness which we shall really feel. The Israelites "waited not for His counsel." They failed, that is, under the discipline of success. Victory is given that it may be used for good, just as much as failure is sent that we may rise on "stepping-stones of our dead-selves" to fresh endeavour.

As a nation we have been single-minded and honourable in our entry upon and our waging of the War; when it is over we are to be just the same in our use of the fruits of the War. Victory will not come to us simply for our own sakes and that it may be selfishly exploited for our own needs.

No, a.s.suredly not: it will come for the mutual benefit of all concerned, and unless the very first fruits of it be dedicated to the cause of heroic Belgium, to her re-instatement in something of her former condition, it will have come in vain. The time of distress and disaster has knit together the Empire in a wondrous unity of brotherhood. There will be debts to be repaid to India and our Colonies, debts which can never be discharged in money, but in those higher acts of fellows.h.i.+p, justice, endeavour, which will knit yet closer the bonds that have been formed. There will remain a large heritage of disablement and unemployment to cope with which will require wise counsel, comprehensive measures, real self-sacrifice. It is computed that should the war last another eighteen months there will be nearly a quarter of a million men more or less unfitted to resume their ordinary callings.

All this, you say, is the concern of the State; certainly, but what is the State? Only another term for you and me. Therefore the seriousness of att.i.tude, the sense of proportion, the realisation of brotherhood, that by the mercy of G.o.d we have gained, must be retained for the facing of the new problems that will lie before us.

Turning to the more purely personal aspect of it, there will be the temptation to grow slack and cold in intercessions and communions, when the immediate occasion that prompted them has pa.s.sed. To be forewarned is to be forearmed, let us look out for this, expect it, then we shall not be afraid to meet it. "Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more"; think what the permanency of that victory has meant all down the ages of the past in the triumphs of the saints, in the deaths of the martyrs, in the splendid story of the Church of Christ. Think what it means to-day in the lives of millions of the faithful; in all the deeds of charity which are brightening homes, cheering hearts, giving hope to the hopeless, healing to the sick, and soundness to the maimed: think of all it means in rest and refreshment to the souls in Paradise; think of all it still will mean in the growth of the Church of Christ up to the fulness of its destined and glorious completion; think of all it may mean for you in your individual life, right up to the day when you shall be like Him, for you shall see Him as He is.

In the permanence of the victory of Christ, may we each one of us so use the discipline of victory that it may redound to the glory of Him, in Whom we live, and move, and have our being.