ships and privations undreamed of the
Russian soldier retained his health and fighting power. Though he
often confronted the enemy with no weapon but his bare breast, he never
despaired. Wounds which in other campaigns would have been inevitably
fatal, healed, and life conquered death. Though oft deprived of
sufficient food, he endured fatiguing marches, and in the midst of the
nervous strain of defeat and retreat he remained cheerful, determined,
and confident of victory. At last, with 'firm faith in the clemency of
God,' the Russian hosts turned at bay and stood fast. When the clouds
were darkest, it was as if the sun broke forth when the news was
flashed through the world that the Russians had stormed Erzerum.
To-day Armenia is freed, and the great surge of the Russian hosts is
rolling west. For the Russians knew that a holy war could not be waged
by a drunken nation; {136} and in the power of self-sacrifice they have
snatched victory from what seemed irretrievable defeat. While Britain
continued to sacrifice its strength and its wealth at the shrine of
alcohol, while the wives and the children of the men who were fighting
and dying were left to the comforting of publicans, while the
munition-workers were hindered and marred by the lure of strong drink,
while the best of the manhood of the British race called in vain for
deliverance from the yoke of the national bondage, Russia in the might
of a great renunciation was gathering its forces and advancing to
victory. Autocracy has delivered Russia from the bondage of centuries;
democracy has surrendered its power to the party politician, and the
party politician has kept Britain still enslaved.

III

It would be difficult to overestimate the evil consequences for the
future of {137} the race which will inevitably ensue from the great
refusal. Let me endeavour to make clear one of these evil
consequences. Had the House of Commons on April 20th of last year
resolved to follow the King's lead, instead of spurning it; had it made
that lead effective, what would have been the result? One effect would
have been that to-day we would have had an army delivered from the bane
of alcohol. The King's officers and the men who wear his uniform would
have followed the King's example.

It is the commonplace of much of the speaking from religious platforms
that we are to have a new era inaugurated when the men come back from
the war. The religious life of the nation is