RELIGION AFTER THE WAR 7 



religion a refuge from all the mighty and terrible facts of the 

 European situation. Such a phenomenon would have done 

 nothing whatever to rehabilitate Christianity in the minds of 

 the thoughtful ; and it could not have lasted ; but it would 

 assuredly have shown that Christianity had some force left, 

 and that sundry fundamental criticisms of Christianity had 

 not penetrated below a certain level of intelligence in the 

 mass of the population. Assuredly the leaders of Christianity 

 would have hailed it as the long-desired proof that science 

 was naught after all, and there would have been some 

 diverting altercations. 



The phenomenon, however, did not occur, nor anything 

 resembling it. The adherents of some varieties of the Chris- 

 tian creed may have slightly increased ; the adherents of the 

 majority of them have kept on decreasing, as before. Solemn 

 intercessory prayers are the less frequent as the war proceeds, 

 and the alleged spectacle of "a nation on its knees," or of a 

 national church prosecuting a "mission," has impressed 

 nobody, not even the organizers thereof. At the beginning 

 of the war there seemed to be a chance that church-going, 

 particularly on week-days, might become fashionable among 

 ladies whom war had bereaved or made solitary. There 

 would have been far more excuse for such a fashion than for 

 some other war fashions, and some spiritual and material 

 good might have conceivably resulted from it. But the 

 tendency expired. 



As for the achievements of the messengers of Christianity 

 at the front, I can only speak from my own very fragmentary 

 knowledge. I know that some of them have behaved admir- 

 ably as men, earning the sincere respect of other men whose 

 interest in Christianity was as detached as my own. It is 

 highly probable that in hours of crisis they have given moral 

 and even spiritual support which was valuable. At least one 

 of them a Wesleyan Methodist has sent home excellent 

 war correspondence. But I have found no evidence that they 

 have made solid and permanent conversions to Christianity. 

 And I am bound to say that after a fairly intimate and frank 

 acquaintance throughout the war with British officers of all 

 sorts and ranks officers who have been to the front and 

 returned battered or whole, and officers with the dangers of 

 the front still waiting for them I have yet to meet one officer 

 whose attitude towards the church and its rites was better 

 than indifferent, while the attitude of the majority of officers 

 has been hostile or contemptuous. (Of course I confine the 



