It is impossible, in dealing with this subject, not to express, as I have done, a deep indignation at the motives and the spirit which have been displayed by our enemies in this war. But we should miss the whole purpose of our Lord’s warning unless we applied it in the first instance, and in the main, to ourselves. Let us bear in mind that what has happened in Belgium and France might in conceivable circumstances, in the further development of scientific warfare, in the air as well as in the sea, happen to ourselves; and let us take to heart the clear warning of our Lord that the only way to avert such destructions, and to avoid perishing ourselves, is to repent, and from our hearts to cultivate among us those principles of charity, truth, righteousness and religion, which alone can keep human nature in peace. After all, can we be sure that we are not partly to blame for this war by our own faults and failures? Have our statesmen, have we as a nation, been looking facts in the face and meeting them with faithfulness and self-sacrifice? Do not many among us ask whether this war would ever have been possible if we had realized our danger and our duty in time, and prepared ourselves, at whatever cost, to avert the danger? How far have we, and those who guide us, allowed ourselves to be diverted from the truth of our condition by sectarian and party passions and uncharitable class jealousies? Have we seriously laid to heart “the great dangers we are in by our unhappy divisions?” Is it compatible with the love of God and of Christ that those divisions should prevail so far as to lead to the curtailment of the Christian instruction of our school-children, and the secularization of property left by our ancestors for the hallowing of God’s Name and the promotion of Christ’s Kingdom? We have, moreover, been on the verge of civil war; and the very possibility of such war is proof enough, on the principles we have been considering, that some of the passions which lead to all wars have been rife among us. The possibility of that intestine war seems, in fact, to have been one of the considerations which encouraged the present attack upon us. Add to all this the social and personal vices, against which good men among us and great societies have been struggling for years, and have we not abundant reason to apply earnestly to our nation and to our individual selves the Lord’s warning: “Repent, or ye shall likewise perish?” For my part, I could wish that we were afforded an opportunity, by some solemn appointment of a Day of National Humiliation as well as Intercession, to search our consciences in the sight of God, and to unite in one great act of national repentance. But let us at least endeavour to discharge this duty of repentance and amendment for our own souls and in our individual lives; and we may then be assured that we are doing the best we can towards averting from our nation that suffering and ruin, which