divine ruling of the life of man. This is a very grave and plain
situation, and if the clergy have nothing more to say about it than to
borrow from an ancient Hebrew certain offensive gibes at the unbeliever,
or to offer us the kind of apologies we examined in the last chapter,
one must conclude that they do not realise the situation. The war has
terribly accentuated the most terrible difficulty they ever had to face.
Whether there is intelligence manifested in nature is, after all, an
academic question which does not profoundly stir the modern world.
Whether there is benevolence, a moral personality, reflected in the
course of man's history is the much more important question. And this
appalling calamity will induce many to take a more candid view of the
world-process and conclude that, as far as the critical eye can see,
man's world seems to be left entirely to his own efforts, to his own
crimes and blunders and aspirations.

CHAPTER V

THE HUMAN ALTERNATIVE

If the observations I have made in the preceding chapters are even
approximately just, the hope which many of the clergy express, that
there will be a religious revival at the close of the war, is very
singular. No doubt it means, on the whole, that some advantage to
religion will be sought in the flood of genial and generous emotion
which will surge through the country. In Germany and Austria, one
imagines, religion will have a rough experience. The people who wrote
and repeated constantly, "Gott strafe England"--which, by the way, is
another proof that the general German attitude is theological rather
than humanist--will have a few serious questions to put to the clergy,
as well as to their secular rulers. In France, despite the reports of
interested people, there will be little change. The nation, being
overwhelmingly Rationalistic, relied on its 75-centimetre guns rather
than on prayer, and will find its wisdom justified. But in England and
Russia, and in the backward Slav countries, there will be mighty
flag-waving in Church, and no doubt a great number of not very
thoughtful people will conclude that the clergy and the Y.M.C.A. and the
Salvation Army have behaved very nicely over the whole affair, and there
will be, for a time, an increased attendance at church.

We may suppose that this emotional storm will not last long, and the
nation will settle down to face the bill, the empty chairs at home, and
the disorganisation of its industries. Then