This is true. A Nation robbed of its faith, is like a human body robbed of its heart--it has neither pulse nor motion,--it is the mere corpse of itself lying prone in the dust of perishable waste things. And the fact that grave retribution will follow the steps of those who assist in bringing it to this doom cannot be doubted. Such retribution has then been visited heavily on over-prosperous peoples, who, misled by special pleaders in the cause of Materialism have set God aside out of their countings as a non-proven quantity. The “non-proven” has always proved itself with crushing swiftness and authority in the fall of great powers, the shaking of great thrones, and the ruin and degradation of great names,--while very often a calamitous climax of misery and disaster has befallen an entire civilization and brought it to utter decay. Such occurrences are traceable through all history, and always appear to result from the same cause,--the crushing out of the vital principle, the spiritual starving of the Soul of a Nation. Heaven has not denied or diminished its bounteous nourishment and blessing,--for, in our own day, the wonders of Science have opened out to our view such infinite reaches of the Ideal as should double and treble our perception of the glories yet to be unfolded to us when we have “shuffled off this mortal coil”--while at the same time, nothing in all our changing phases of progress has yet occurred to alter the simple and noble teaching of Christ, or to make such instruction otherwise than sane, pure and helpful for every man, woman and child ever born. Indeed, it would seem with the marvellous new penetration we have gained into the secrets of the earth, air and light, that the Infinite Creator is approaching His creature even more nearly, with fresh pledges of help and promise such as His Messenger brought in the words: “Fear not, little flock,--it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.” And to the Soul of the Nation that “Kingdom” is everything. In that kingdom it hopes to find all it has loved and lost, all it has striven for and failed to win, all that it has prayed for, wept for, worked for. Yet to-day between that aspiring Soul and its immortal Inheritance stand two deadly enemies,--a contentious Churchdom and a capitalized Press,--the one hypocrite, the other materialist. And the satirical demand “Do we Believe?” is but an echo of Pilate’s question “What is truth?”--a question immediately followed by Truth’s crucifixion. Nevertheless the Soul of the Nation--our nation, our empire--is becoming aware of its enemies. It is instinctively conscious of threatening evil, and is on the alert to save Itself if others will not save it. But its way out of the labyrinth of difficulty will probably be neither through Church nor Press,--nor will it be aided by “revival” meetings or Salvationist assemblies. Its path will be cloven straight,--not crookedly; for the British Nation, above all other nations in the world, does most easily sicken of priestly Sham and subsidized Journalism. And the sane, strong Soul of it--that Soul which in its native intrinsic virtue, is devoutly God-fearing, pure and true, will find means to shake off its pressing foes and stand free. For priestcraft and dogma are like prison chains fastened upon the progressive spirit of humanity, and they have nothing in common with the simple teaching of Christ, which is the only real Christianity.