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The Review of Reviews. 



last political will and testament to the English people, 

 wrote : — " There is still, we hojjc. the unclassed aristo- 

 cracy by nature, not inconsiderable in numbers, and 

 supreme in faculty, in wisdom, in human talent, noble- 

 ness, and courage, who derive their patent of nobility 

 direct from Almighty God. If, indeed, these fail us; 

 and are trodden out under the unanimous torrent of 

 hobnails, of brutish hoofs and hobnails, then, indeed; 

 it is all ended. National death lies ahead of our once 

 heroic England. . . . Will there, in short, prove to be 

 a recognisable small nucleus of Invincible Aristoi fight- 

 ing for the Good Cause in their various wisest ways, 

 and never ceasing or slackening till they die ? This is 

 the question of questions on which all turns. In the 

 answer to this, could we give it clearly, as no man can, 

 lies the oracle response, ' Life for you ; death for you.' 

 But considering what of piety, the devoutest and 

 bravest yet known, there once was in England, one is 

 inclined to hope for the best." 



Our supreme task is to help to discover these wise 

 ones, to afford them opportunity of articulate utterance, 

 to do what we can to make their authority potent 

 among their contemporaries. AVho is there among the 

 people who has truth in him, who is no self-seeker, who 

 is no coward, and who is capable of honest, painstaking 

 effort to help his country } For such men we would 

 .search as for hid treasures. They are the salt of the 

 earth and the light of the world, and it is the duty and 

 the privilege of the wise man to see that they are like 

 cities set on the hill, which cannot be hid. 



The great word which has now to be spoken in the 

 ears of the world is that the time has come when men 

 and women must work for the salvation of the State 

 with as much zeal and self-sacrifice as they now work 

 for the salvation of the individual. ; For the saving of 

 the soul of Hodge Joskins what energy, what devotion 

 is not possible to all of us ! There is not a street in 

 London nor a village in the country which is not 

 capable of producing, often at short notice and under 

 slight pressure, a' man or woman who will spend a 

 couple of hours a week every week in the year, in more 

 or less irksome voluntary exertions, in order to snatch 

 the soul of Hodge Joskins from everlasting burning. 

 But to .save the country from the grasp of demons 

 innumerable, to prc\ent this Empire or this Republic 

 becoming an incarnate demon of lawless ambition and 

 cruel love of gold, how many men and women are willing 

 to spend even one hour a month or a year ? For Hodge 

 Joskins innumerable are the multitude of workers : for 

 the English-speaking race, for the iinbodinient of many 

 millions of Hodges, how few are those who will exert 

 themselves at all ! At elections there is little canvass- 



ing and excitement ; but excepting at tho.se times the 

 idea that the State needs saving, that the democracy 

 needs educating, and that the problems of Government 

 and of reform need careful and laborious study is 

 foreign to the ideas of our people. The religious side of 

 politics has not yet entered the minds of men. 



What is wanted is a revival of civic faith, a quicken- 

 ing of spiritual life in the political sphere, the inspiring 

 of men and women with the conception of what may 

 be done towards the salvation of the world, if the}' will 

 but bring to bear upon public affairs the same spirit of 

 self-sacrificing labour that so many thousands manifest 

 in the ordinary drudgery of parochial and evangelistic 

 work. It ma}' no doubt seem an impossible dream. 



Can those dry bones live ? Those who ask that 

 question little know the infinite possibilities latent in 

 the heart of man. The faith of Lo\ ola, what an unsus- 

 pected mine of enthusiasm did it not spring upon 

 mankind ! " The Old ^^'orId," as IMacaulay remarks, 

 " was not wide enough for that strange activity. In 

 the depths of the Peruvian mines, in the hearts of the 

 African slave caravans, on the shores of the Spice 

 Islands, in the observatories of China, the Jesuits were 

 to be found. They made converts in regions where 

 neither avarice nor curiosity had tempted any of their 

 countrymen to enter ; and preached and disputed in 

 tongues of which no other native of the West under- 

 stood a word." 



How was this miracle effected ? By the preaching 

 of a man who energised the activity of the Church by 

 the ideals of chivalry and the strength of military 

 discipline. What we have now to do is to energise and 

 elevate the politics of our time by the enthusiasm and 

 the system of the religious bodies. Those who .say that 

 it is impossible to raise up men and women ready to 

 sacrifice all that they possess, and, if need be, to 

 lay down their lives in any great cause that appeals 

 to their higher nature, should spare a little time 

 to watch the recruiting of the Salvation Army 

 for the Indian mission-field. The delicate dress- 

 maker and the sturdy puddler, the young people 

 raised in the densest layer of English commonplace, 

 under the stimulus of an appeal to the instincts of 

 self-sacrifice and of their duty to their brethren, 

 abandon home, friends, kindred, and go forth to walk 

 barefoot through India at a beggar's pittance until 

 they can pick up sufficient words of the unfamiliar 

 tongue to deliver to these dusky strangers the message 

 of their Gospel. Certain disease awaits them, cruel 

 privations, and probahh' an early death. But they 

 .shrink not. A race whose members arc'capable of siu h 

 dex-olion cannot be regarded as hopeless from the 



