350 



SUi ANDREW WIXGATE, K.C.LE.^ 



intended for manual labour ; and, finally, the waking of dis- 

 content by being stimulated to compare what they have with 

 what they are told they ought to have. But these causes would 

 not breed lawlessness, but for the weakening of the faith of 

 the masses in the Bible. When Israel departed from Jehovah 

 there was always unrest in the land. There are two ways of 

 obtaining even what we ought to have. David was informed 

 he would be king, but he refused to permit Saul to be killed. 

 Hazael was informed he would be Idng, and he forthwith 

 murdered Benhadad. 



When God blesses a nation, he makes even its enemies to be 

 at peace with it. (Prov. xvi, 7 ; Psl. xxix, 11.) Germany and 

 Britain are allied by race, religion and temperament, and by 

 the loDg struggle with Eome to win the right of the Saxon 

 peoples to possess the Bible in their own vernacular. To-day, 

 the possibility of a war between Germany and ourselves is 

 freely discussed, and both empires are actively increasing their 

 armaments by sea and land. The entente with Trance, 

 useful as it has been in ISTorth Africa, has fulfilled Lord 

 Eosebery's prediction that it would entail the enmity of Ger- 

 many. An alliance with France, whose immediate thought is 

 to recover her lost provinces, is fraught with anxieties. 



The situation is difficult, because Germany is just as desirous 

 of the aid of the French fleet in the ISTorth Sea as we are to 

 have it in the Mediterranean. The situation is also critical 

 because events succeed one another with bewildering rapidity. 

 The pressing fact is that the Mahomedan populations are 

 passing under the control of Christian rulers. From Egypt to 

 Morocco, too'ether wdth the vast hinterlands of Kioeria and the 

 Sudan, the whole continent of ISTorth Africa is being freed from 

 Moslem domination. I^orth Persia is under the firm tutelage 

 of Eussia, and England is being forced into a similar position in 

 South Persia. This break-up of Mahomedan power has not 

 only caused Germany to seek to extend her territory in Africa, 

 but has warned her that some power must shortly take Turkey 

 in hand. The natural expansion of Germany and Austria is 

 towards Constantinople, and this brings the interests of the 

 Triple Alliance into conflict with a Eussian ambition, which we, 

 too, have long consistently opposed. 



The pressure is being felt in Egypt, which has long enjoyed 

 isolation, but is now flanked, on one side by a strong Itahan 

 army, and on the other, as soon as the approaching linking-up 

 of the Anatolian and Hedjaz Eailway Systems is completed, by 

 Turkish troops. If Mesopotamia is to be re-created under 



