yet what word has ever proved more terribly true than that he that taketh the sword shall perish by the sword. And this must be so. When the sword is the foundation of empire, appeal to the sword on every occasion is its first instinct. And for years this has been the pleasing habit of Germany. Her sword has never ceased to rattle in its scabbard. It may be that she has not intended to draw it; it may even be that on this occasion she did not intend to draw it--she says so though this seems incredible- but sooner or later the inevitable happens, and like some mad thing of evil, as if itself endowed with life, it flashes in the light, the scabbard is thrown away, and the world is involved in war.

And the world says that her sword shall threaten its liberties no more. Germany would cloud the issue; she would have it that it is we who threaten the liberties of mankind. But mankind is not to be deceived. Mankind knows that, even if we had the will, we have not the power. We have no army for such purpose. Our navy is strong, but as has been well said, it is not a sword to attack, but only a shield to defend. So mankind knows that our empire is but a voluntary association, of which the binding force is liberty alone. In a war of defence we unite as one man; a war of aggression would find us with more critics than guns.

And now we see how mighty is that spiritual force to which President Wilson has paid such tribute. However acquired in the past, our empire to-day is such that not one member would leave it. No sword threatens, no rifle coerces; on the contrary, there is not a sword nor rifle that is not ready to be grasped in its defence--and the one principle that unites us all is not community of interest, real though this may be, but the bond of good faith. To-day, in many an oriental bazaar, "Kalimat Ingleesi"-on the word of an Englishman-has passed into an oath. And ever may it be our proud boast as a nation and as individuals that our word is as good as our bond, that

we are as he that sweareth to his hurt and changeth not. Not on our wealth; not on our might; but on this is our empire built, and on this shall its foundations be made sure. It is not in crushing our enemy; it is not in destroying his fleet; it is not in annihilating his army that our safety and that of our allies must be sought, but in being true to our destiny, being true to the world, and, above all, in being true to ourselves. We may sweep away this peril, others will confront us-the road to happiness will never be all downhillnow as always, life will be a battle, and victory will be to the strong. But let us show the same united front in facing insidious dangers from within-danger from too much wealth; danger from too much ease; danger from too little necessity for strenuous effort— let us face these as we have faced our dangers from without, and our flag shall still ever bravely float over an empire of the free, and, above all, over an empire where no tear is shed in its upholding; where no sigh is heaved in its maintenance; but an empire which in its very prosperity ensures and adds to the prosperity, progress, and well being of all mankind.

CHAPTER IV.

DOES TALK COUNT?*

THE greater issues of mankind are determined, not by voting and majority divisions, but by blood and iron. Thus Bismarck, in one of his sledge-hammer sentences, expressed his contempt for talk, or the monkey-chatter we are pleased to call talk; and now for a moment I would like to consider with you this famous epitome of thought.

And therefore it is, Mr. President, I would doubly thank you on this occasion, first for your kind hospitality, and next for thus giving me the opportunity of ventilating a subject which has some what perplexed me briefly, does talk count?

On the face of it, it would seem a strange query. If on one thing the world seems agreed, it is on the importance of talk: the delightfulness of talkespecially our own-it takes the wisest of an age to revel in silence and the incessancy of talk. What differentiates man from the brute? Talk. Man from man? Talk. What is mightier than the sword? Talk-written talk. And so we agree, and then the strident Bismarck blast: "The greater issues," etc., etc. And so we ask, "Does talk count?" Mind, we do not ask, " Does talk pay?" Of course talk pays. Nothing pays so well as the paying sort of talk, above all the talk that gives good reasons for bad actions. The very vocation of a lawyer you gibe at me. Be it So. But how of the journalist, the professor, the politician, the theologian, who all equally would bask in the golden rays of eloquence rewarded. Of course

*A paper read before the Rotary Club, Liverpool Section.

talk pays; but in the greater issues of mankind-and to these we would limit our inquiry-in the march of the universe, does it count? In the roll of the centuries is man one whit the worse, one whit the better, for one word said or left unsaid? To go behind talk is another matter. Talk is the expression of thought; thought is the very man himself, and undoubtedly thought counts. His talk may be the man, or may not, but thought is our ego, our mind, our very self. Thought may be enshrined in a robust, magnificent temple, or prisoned in some sickly frame, but it is the man behind we love or hate. Undoubtedly the man behind counts, counts to the last farthing, just as the gold in the bank counts with notes issued against it. The gold there, and little matter whether the note be dirty or ugly, it commands its face value. And the gold not there, and no matter how beautiful the design how spotless the issue, it is but paper-still paper, nothing more. So with man. What of his talk? Is the gold behind, or is it not? So of his appearance. So of his manners: manners maketh the manthe surface man. Still all-important—is the gold behind? And in this, talk, manners, and appearance are one; they are the outward expression of man, and they repel or attract exactly so far as we believe them to be the true expression of the true man himself. But in the day of trial, in the day of stress alone, is this truth made manifest. Then the joy when friend is proved, or gold so unexpected is discovered; and it is, oh for the bitterness of disillusion when our once idols prove but potter's clay.

Yes, it is the gold behind the note, the gold and nothing else that counts, the gold that finds expression in acts. Tell me what a man has done, and I will tell you what he will do. Such the commonplace of the business world. You will tell me his talk!" "Something easier," the sneering rejoinder. And with this conclusion there is probably not the slightest disagreement, and yet pertinently you will ask, "But after all, is this more than shifting the

Is not

causa causans one step backwards, and nothing else? Grant that thought is all-important: but whence thought? talk parent of thought? Is not man himself child of talk? Thought finds expression in talk, but only itself to be begotten of talk. Hence the conundrum very much of the old order-the owl or the egg-which first? the owl! From what egg? The egg! From what owl? But the Bismarck school will have none of this conundrum. Thought may find expression in talk, or may not. The silent foe is the deadly foe, and in the begetting of thought, talk may be a factor but no very great one. Blood and iron determine the greater issues of mankind. Blood and iron are the genesis of thought. The clash of man with man makes man. Talk make man? they ask derisively. No, it is things done, things suffered, things burnt into a man's very being by a past makes man, makes thought.

In its enunciation the German philosophy of force was logical, practical, and complete, but onesided. It never grasped the true inwardness of the Christian inspiration. It only saw in Christianity a scramble after wealth, in which the professor was no mean proficient, and a refuge for the poltroon, the shirker, the weak, and the timid, who in its tenets would find justification for the shirking of duty. "That child is is too good to live" is an observation founded on experience. Its virtue is often to be traced to want of energy to be naughty. So with youth. So with man. and so with peoples. The world's history is full of coward nations who would substitute fine sentiments for hard blows, and in the end, in the progress of man, the world wants none of such. And thus the German saw us as it gibed at our Christianity-cult of the coward, cult of the talker too decadent to fight. And he was full of the nobility of sacrifice-the sacrifice that war entailed. Happily his diagnosis of the English race was wrong, and he failed to realize that in the Christian even there might be a devotion higher than the sacrifice of others--the sacrifice of self.