SIR, I have read with great gratitude your article in
the issue of March 6th entitled " Braced and Compact? " It is one of the best that we have had in The Spectator for a long time, and any remarks of mine will only serve to underline the note that is implicit throughout.
Day after lay, almost ad nauseam, our leaders are reminding us of the greatness of our resources, our man-power, our material wealth, our munitions and our " big battalions," and all that despite the fact that this war once again has proved that God is not always on the side of these battalions. On the other hand we have been hearing less and less of the spiritual issues and demands of the war. We have almost forgotten in our emphasis on material needs that in the end " the things which are seen are temporal ; but the things which are not seen are eternal." Have we not to recapture our sense of proportion?
As things are, it would seem as if materialism has eaten so deeply into the soul of our people that despite the sacrifices of our fighting men we are blind to these things. The result is that "racketeers, coupon-swindlers, and food-hoarders " flourish, and on all hands there is an insatiable scramble after big wages and the desire to get some- thing out of the State. Do we not need first to repent of all this rottenness and then by faith and sacrifice prove our dedication to the Cause which God has given us. If our leaders will only speak less of these lesser things and more of the eternal, England will respond and in a strength not her own stand " braced and compact " to meet the critical months ahead.—Yours faithfully,
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