he excitement of battle the methodical precision of the moralist or the
theologian? Can we who revere his heroism doubt that his God welcomes
him with love?

Christian mothers, be proud of your sons. Of all griefs, of all our
human sorrows, yours is perhaps the most worthy of veneration. I think I
behold you in your affliction, but erect, standing at the side of the
Mother of Sorrows, at the foot of the Cross. Suffer us to offer you not
only our condolence, but our congratulation. Not all our heroes obtain
temporal honors, but for all we expect the immortal crown of the elect.
For this is the virtue of a single act of perfect charity--it cancels a
whole lifetime of sins. It transforms a sinful man into a saint.

Assuredly a great and a Christian comfort is the thought that not only
among our own men, but in any belligerent army whatsoever, all who in
good faith submit to the discipline of their leaders in the service of a
cause they believe to be righteous are sharers in the eternal reward of
the soldier's sacrifice. And how many may there not be among these young
men of 20 who, had they survived, might possibly not have had the
resolution to live altogether well, and yet in the impulse of patriotism
had the resolution to die so well?

Is it not true, my brethren, that God has the supreme art of mingling
His mercy with His wisdom and His justice? And shall we not acknowledge
that if war is a scourge for this earthly life of ours, a scourge
whereof we cannot easily estimate the destructive force and the extent,
it is also for multitudes of souls an expiation, a purification, a force
to lift them to the pure love of their country and to perfect Christian
unselfishness?

We may now say, my brethren, without unworthy pride, that our little
Belgium has taken a foremost place in the esteem of nations. I am aware
that certain onlookers, notably in Italy and in Holland, have asked how
it could be necessary to expose this country to so immense a loss of
wealth and of life, and whether a verbal manifesto against hostile
aggression, or a single cannon shot on the frontier, would not have
served the purpose of protest. But assuredly all men of good feeling
will be with us in our rejection of these paltry counsels. Mere
utilitarianism is no sufficient rule of Christian citizenship.

On the 19th of April, 1839, a treaty was signed in London by King
Leopold, in the name of Belgium, on the one part, and by the Emperor of
Austria,