it. This money is God's. I have robbed Him and my
brother man all these years. Whatever restitution I can make in the
next few days I desire to make.

"But the great question with us all, my friends, is not this particular
disaster. That will in time take its place as one event out of
thousands in the daily life of this world. The great event of
existence is not death, it is life. The great question of the world is
not the tariff or the silver question, or the labour question, or
temperance, or this or that or the other. The great question of the
whole world is selfishness in the heart of man. The great command is,
'Seek ye first the kingdom of God.' If we had done that in this town,
I believe such a physical disaster as the one we lament would never
have happened. That is our great need.

"If we go home from this meeting resolved to rebuke our selfishness in
whatever form it is displeasing to God, and if we begin to-morrow to
act out that resolution in word and deed, we shall revolutionise this
town in its business, its politics, its church, its schools, its homes.
If we simply allow our emotions to be stirred, our sympathies to be
excited to the giving of a little money on this occasion, it will do us
and the community little permanent good. God wants a complete
transformation in the people of this nation. Nothing less than a
complete regeneration can save us from destruction. Unconsecrated,
selfish money and selfish education, selfish political power and
selfish genius in art, letters, and diplomacy will sink us as a people
into a gulf of annihilation. There is no salvation for us except in
Jesus Christ. Let us believe in Him and live in Him.

"I have said my message. I trust you have understood it. I would not
say otherwise if I knew that I should step off this platform now and
stand before the judgment seat of Christ. God help us all to do our
duty! Time is short, eternity is long. Death is nothing; life is
everything."

Five years after this speech of Robert Hardy to the people of Barton in
the town hall, one who was present in the audience described the
sensation that passed through it when the speaker sat down to be like a
distinct electric shock which passed from seat to seat, and held the
people fixed and breathless as if they had been smitten into images of
stone. The effect on the chairman of the meeting was the same. He sat
motionless. Then a wave of emotion gradually stirred the