l are they not
lowering themselves to the level of Nietzsche, Bernhardi and Buelow, and
submitting to the arbitrament of the sword, which decides nothing
except its own sharpness. The call of patriotism summoning to resist
even unto blood comes to them, and they are uncertain whether to obey.

But we must interpret the will of God, not by isolated sentences, but
by the whole content of the divine revelation. The commandment, "Thou
shalt not kill," does not mean that we are not to kill in any
circumstance whatever. If the commandment is to be taken literally,
then no limit is to be set to it, and we must not kill any animal--not
even the parasites of uncleanness. There is, moreover, another law
which runs: "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be
shed, for in the image of God created He him." So far from the mere
physical life being for ever sacred, the very altar of God Himself was
to be no sanctuary for the murderer. The man who owned a vicious ox
and knew him to be vicious, and the ox killed a man, the owner thereof
was to be slain. There are therefore circumstances in which the law,
"Thou shalt not kill," is abrogated, and its place is taken by the law,
"Thou shalt kill."

The law demanding the conservation of life rests on this foundation,
not that physical life itself is sacred, but that human life bears the
image of God. There are things far more sacred than the physical
life--even those things which constitute the image of God stamped upon
man. There are things for which men in all ages have been content to
die--truth and loyalty to truth, the principles which are dearer than
life. Those things which God ordained that men might through them grow
more and more into His image, for these things man must be ready to
die, and among these things is nationality.

Men cannot develop in isolation. What poor creatures men would be if
they were solitary units. They would be as the beasts that perish. It
is through the heritage of nationality that the soul is enriched. What
poor stunted lives would ours be if we had not behind us the great and
noble deeds which built up our Empire, if the words of the high souls
of many generations did not come thrilling to our hearts, if
Shakespeare and Wordsworth, Scott and Burns did not pour their
treasures into our laps. The soul grows into the image of God through
the riches of nationality. And whosoever warreth against nationality
warreth against the so