England's naval and colonial empire, and laid the foundation of all her
future glories. So it was then, so it is now; so it will be for ever:
he who seeks to save his life will lose it: he who willingly throws
away his life for the cause of mankind, which is the cause of God, the
Father of mankind, he shall save it, and be rewarded a hundred-fold.
That God may grant us, the children of the Elizabethan heroes, all
wisdom to see our duty, and courage to do it, even to the death, should
be our earliest prayer. Our statesmen have done wisely and well in
refusing, in spite of hot-headed clamours, to appeal to the sword as
long as there was any chance of a peaceful settlement even of a single
evil. They are doing wisely and well now in declining to throw away the
scabbard as long as there is hope that a determined front will awe the
offender into submission: but the day may come when the scabbard must
be thrown away; and God grant that they may have the courage to do it.

It is reported that our rulers have said, that English diplomacy can no
longer recognise "nationalities," but only existing "governments." God
grant that they may see in time that the assertion of national life, as
a spiritual and indefeasible existence, was for centuries the central
idea of English policy; the idea by faith in which she delivered first
herself, and then the Protestant nations of the Continent, successively
from the yokes of Rome, of Spain, of France; and that they may reassert
that most English of all truths again, let the apparent cost be what it
may.

It is true, that this end will not be attained without what is called
nowadays "a destruction of human life." But we have yet to learn (at
least if the doctrines which I have tried to illustrate in this little
book have any truth in them) whether shot or shell has the power of
taking away human life; and to believe, if we believe our Bibles, that