farious traffic, and slavery under the
guise of other names being imposed on the natives of Africa. Wherever
you go, to the tropics or the Orient, there the great power for
righteousness is the British Empire. It does not exploit inferior
races for gold; it is the trustee of the helpless native.

When one thinks of these little islands floating in the western sea, of
the power that has gone forth from them to heal and bless, of the vast
multitudes to whom the King-Emperor is the symbol of justice and
security--his is a poor heart which cannot feel the thrill of gratitude
for citizenship in an Empire girdling the whole earth, whose
foundations are thus laid in righteousness.

***

Patriotism is not, however, a mere sentiment. It was not sentiment
which built up the Empire. It was self-sacrifice--the spirit that
faced and endured death. For us, too, patriotism must be more than
sentiment; it must be action and the self-sacrifice which action
requires.

What our fathers reared we must defend. And the startling thing is
that there are still so many of our people who shrink from the burden
which patriotism imposes. Many thousands refuse to prepare themselves
for war; who are as the Romans who could not leave their baths to go
and fight.

Vast multitudes congregate to gaze on football matches and gamble on
the issue. The call of King and country falls on ears grown deaf. We
thank God for those who, hearing the call, have gone forth to fight,
counting everything but loss as compared to their country's gain. But
these others, they cannot have paused to think. They have not pictured
these fair lands, that have not heard the sound of war for seven
generations, given over to that devouring enemy which has made Belgium
a wilderness.

They have not thought of Oxford and St. Andrews sharing the fate of
Louvain; of London and Edinburgh become as Brussels; of the millions of
Glasgow and Birmingham thrown on the mercies of the world, women and
children fleeing, driven by nameless fears, with no place to flee to
but the mountain fastnesses of Wales and the Highlands of Scotland--the
last refuge of the miserable and the broken. And yet these miseries
would surely befall were all the manhood of the race such as these.

Think what it would mean were the walls of our defence broken down.
Supposing that a shattering blow were struck at the heart of the Empire
and our fleet crushed. What would follow? The crumbling of th