can go on just as usual in luxury, self-indulgence, and ease amid the
crushing mass of suffering around them on all sides?

Thank God that, though we may have erred very grievously through
softness of living, we are not a callous people, but we needed a strong,
stern discipline of the national soul; some stirring and trumpet-tongued
appeal to the national life, and in the righteous mercy of God it has
come.

Some of the immediate effects are obvious; but what are the lasting
results to be?

The _Guardian_, of a few weeks back, thus soundly comments upon the
matter:--

"It is true that the outbreak of war put a sudden end to much that
was thoughtless, stupid, and even base in contemporary life. 'Tango
teas' and afternoon Bridge among women have receded almost as far
into ancient history as dinners at Ranelagh or suppers at Cremorne.
But human nature is easily frightened into propriety by a crisis;
it is not so easy to maintain the new way of life when the fright
is safely over. The things that are amiss in our national life, and
above all that lack of seriousness which so many observers have
lamented during the last few years, can be amended only by a clear
conviction of the inherent unsoundness of our outlook, and a firm
determination to rebuild it upon new and more stable foundations."


The soul of the nation needs discipline, and that can only come through
the effort of the individual to discipline his own life.