34 WILL CHRISTIANITY SURVIVE THE WAR? 



no need, so to speak, of " revival " in that regard, but is 

 probably more religious than ever in respect of the general 

 nearness of the conflict and the immensity of the national 

 strain. 



If this view be broadly correct, there would seem to be 

 at least no greater chance of a religious renascence after the 

 war than during the struggle. All along, the direct attempts 

 at revival appear to run mainly to a propaganda in favour of 

 prayer ; and of all forms of religious activity that would seem 

 to be the one least likely to grow in favour in modern times. 

 At no time have Christian or other warriors shown much 

 practical faith in prayer as a military expedient, however 

 systematically they may have practised it. The pre-eminently 

 military Romans always laid much more stress on the 

 auguries than on the invocations ; and though Caesar, as a 

 consummate man of the world, always carried on the 

 recognized practices, he is credibly reported to have said that 

 when he desired to give battle the auspices would be as he 

 wanted them. And doubtless they were. Of great English 

 captains, the most religious is Cromwell ; and it is to 

 Cromwell that his countrymen complacently attribute the 

 adage : "Trust in God, but keep your powder dry." As who 

 should say : "Trust not in God, but in yourself." 



That the powder proverb has never been recognized by 

 religious people as a veiled blasphemy is one of the many 

 proofs of the fundamental irrationality of the religious mind. 

 Napoleon's saying that Providence is generally on the side 

 of the strongest battalions used to be so reprehended by 

 English divines ; but it frankly puts the real belief of most 

 people who unaffectedly practise prayer as a regular thing. 

 I am not sure, indeed, whether I was quite justified in 

 ascribing a touch of freethinking to the Tonga chief Finow, 

 who before Napoleon observed that he had generally found 

 the Gods to be on the side of the best warriors. At least, it 

 Avould certainly be inaccurate to predicate freethinking of all 

 the people in England who are convinced that this war will 

 be won by the side which can best maintain the output of 

 munitions and fighting men. It is, in fact, impossible to 

 obtain the name and address of any educated advocate of 

 National Prayer, clerical or lay, who avows the belief that 

 prayer will avail in the absence of high explosives. The 

 real Christian faith in the matter is just the faith of Voltaire : 

 " Incantations will destroy a flock of sheep if administered 

 with the requisite quantity of arsenic." 



