deprives thousands of our fellow citizens abroad of any services
at all, and leaves multitudes of the heathen in ignorance of the
message of the Gospel ? It is because we value so highly our
opportunities for worship, and in the very measure in which we
value them, that we should be ready to forego some of them, to
lose our souls, if need be, that we may find them, because we feel
it to be impossible to withhold from others what we know to be of
such great worth. Now if ever is the opportunity for sacrifice,
and in that sacrifice the Church should lead the way.*
(c) Fellowship.—Our insular position and our strong national
tendency to individualism make it peculiarly difficult for us to
realize all that is implied in our membership in the Catholic
Church. Church life to many of us means little more than the
services of the church we attend and the small activities of our
own parish, whilst for the wider life of the Church beyond its
limits we feel little concern, e.g., are some of us more than dimly
conscious of the existence of the Churches of the East—of the
great Church of Russia with its 90,000,000 members ? What
responsibility do we feel for the work of the Church in other
lands? What interest do we take in movements outside our own
immediate circle in the Church at home? Whilst we waste our
energies on petty controversies, and attack one another in the
columns of the press, how is it possible for the world to realize
chat the Church is the living fellowship of those who are all
members of one Body, and that in her corporate life all those ideals
of mutual service and brotherhood meet after which men are
groping ?
One result of the war may be to foster the aspiration for unity
which has found expression in various ways during the last few
years, and particularly to draw us closer to our brethren of the
Russian Church; and it is to be hoped that no attempts to
conciliate other Christian bodies at home will imperil our closer
relationship with the Churches of the East.
(d) The Church stands for the unceasing conflict with evil.
Our Lord by His coming into the world drew a sharp dividing
line between righteousness and unrighteousness. There are no
sterner words in the Bible than those which fell from the lips of
sur Saviour. He “ came not to bring peace, but a sword,” and the
New Testament is penetrated with the conviction of that stern
conflict against the powers of darkness to which the Church is
committed.
But in our anxiety to avoid over-severity we have been ready
:0 make excuses for wrong-doing till our sense of moral distinctions

* Might it not in some cases be found possible for the churches in the same district to
make some common arrangement for providing a sufficient number of services to be held,
sometimes in one of the churches of the district, sometimes in another, thus economizing
he time of the clergy, and bringing together the congregations of the various parishes fo
heir mutual advantage ?