e Empire
in a week! It is not we alone, with our wives and children in these
little islands, who would be swept to ruin, and on whom despair would
fall. From the far north-west to the long wash of the Australasian
seas the shadow of devouring misery and death would fall on humanity.
The millions of India would be forthwith swept into the whirlpools of
war and mutiny. Egypt would be thrown back into chaos. Africa would
be left to Islam and the merciless rule of a nation which knows but how
to smite. Australia and New Zealand would be at the mercy of the
yellow races.

It would not be a calamity for us in these islands alone. It would be
a calamity whose withering blight would be cast over all the world.
The ideals of righteousness which this Empire upholds would be trampled
everywhere under foot. Covetousness and the lust of gold would hold
the field of the world.

There is only one thing to be done, one duty summoning us with an
irresistible call--the duty that calls us to stand between our country
and destruction. Were the fate which has overtaken the Low Country to
overtake us; were this fair land to be made a wilderness, our women and
children driven into the wilds, and the Empire wrested from our hands,
the men who failed in their duty would never be able to hold up their
heads again.

What a terrible load would lie on him who, beholding the ruin of his
native land, could say, "This might not have happened if I, and others
like me, had done our duty." That would be a hell from which there
would be no escape. "Which way I fly is hell; myself am hell."

There can be no limit to the sacrifice which patriotism requires, so
great a heritage is our native land. It does not require of us as
Christians to engage in wars of conquest for the gratification of pride
and greed, but it does require of us even the sacrifice of our lives in
the defence of our homes or in the defence of our brother's home.

There are those who find themselves faced with difficulty. They are
called upon to fight with every force in their power, to slay,
withholding not their hand, while they hear the commandment, "Thou
shall not kill," ringing in their ears, and across the centuries the
voice of their Lord saying, "Resist not evil; whosoever shall smite
thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." They are
bewildered. Is not the attitude of non-resistance that which Jesus
Christ enjoins? If they fight with sword and shel