on of God in the
military conduct of the Allies, and to that extent he is hardly less
revolting, in view of his culture, than the archbishop. Could the God of
Professor Clow find no other way of removing Germany's arrogance than to
sear and blast it with a world-war and involve millions of innocent
along with the guilty in his lakes of fire and blood?

More important, however, is a sermon delivered before the recent
National Free Church Council by one of the most esteemed Nonconformist
preachers, the Rev. J. H. Rushbrooke, and reproduced admiringly in the
Nonconformist journals. The cloud of war, naturally, brooded over this
gathering of ministers. Some of them heroically closed their eyes to it
and went on with their clerical business as usual. But most of the
speakers seem to have felt that all other issues were thrust aside in
the minds of their followers just now, and that a grave and soul-shaking
question possessed them. As a result we have, I suppose, the finest
efforts of Nonconformity to meet that question and save the prestige of
the Churches.

Mr. Rushbrooke frankly described the war as an overwhelming catastrophe,
gravely disturbing the religious mind. It bore witness, he said, to "the
failure of organised, or disorganised, Christianity." He conceived it as
"God's judgment upon the Church's failure seriously to devote herself
to the great cause of peace on earth and good-will among men." With all
their boasts of what Christianity had done in Europe, it now appeared
that that civilisation was raised upon "foundations of sand." The
preacher claimed that much was being done in modern times by the clergy
to promote international amity, but he seemed to feel that it was little
and was _very_ recent. The spectacle unfolded before us in Europe to-day
is a sufficient proof of its inadequacy. And, as Mr. Rushbrooke said, we
now see how little use it is to preach ideals at home and not apply them
to the common life of the world.

These words are the nearest to wisdom that I have found among a large
collection of pulpit-utterances and religious articles. The preacher
plainly sees, and with some measure of candour confesses, that long
remissness of Christian ministers in applying their principles to which
the war, and all wars, are fundamentally due. The record which he
carefully makes of recent efforts to redeem the failure is paltry in
comparison with the resources even of the Free Churches, and only serves
to bring