sheep (the people) what have they done?" We may ask the same of the rank
and file of our army. What have they done? It was not they who ordained
the war, and so far as personal influence may have gone to provoke war,
many of those who sit at home at ease are more to blame than the men who
believe that they are obeying the call of duty when they offer
themselves for perils, for hardships, wounds, sickness, and lingering as
well as sudden death.

God's thoughts, however, are "not as our thoughts," nor "His ways as our
ways." The record I might give of spiritual awakening and extraordinary
blessing bestowed by Him at this time in the very heart of this war on
these, the "first victims" of it, would be received I fear with complete
incredulity by those to whom I now address myself. Be it so. The sources
of my information are from "the front," they are many and they are
trustworthy. It seems to me that in visiting the sins of the fathers on
the children, or of rulers on the people, the Great Father of all, in
His infinite love has said to these multitudes: "Your bodies are given
to destruction, but I have set wide open for you the door of salvation;
you Shall enter into my kingdom through death." And many have so
entered.[38]

The following is the expression of the thought of many of our humble
people at home, who are neither "jingoes" nor yet impatient judges of
others. The Journal from which the extract is taken represents not the
wealthy nor ambitious part of society, but that of the middle class of
people, dependent on their own efforts for their daily bread, among whom
we often find much good sense:--"Some persons are humiliated for the
sins and mistakes they see in other people. As for themselves, their one
thought is 'If my advice had been taken the country would never have
been in this pass!' This is the expression of an utterly un-Christian
self-conceit. Others, again, take delight in recording the sins of the
nation. That our ideals have been dimmed, that a low order of public
morality has been openly defended in the highest places, and that the
reckoning has come to us we fully believe. Yet it is possible to judge
the heart of our people far too harshly. It is a sound heart when all is
said and done. We fix our eyes upon the great and wealthy offenders; but
it must be remembered that the British people are not wealthy. The
number of rich men is small. Most of us, in fact, are very poor. Even
those who may be cal