The Discipline of War

through B

SUNDAY

ss. i

ncerning them that fall asleep; that ye sorro

enses the sternest, the most irrevocable, and th

the doctrine of a future existence, still less can death be tolerated unless it lead to further life. If sorrow in the bulk needs the Incarnation to throw upon it

rning the nearest, the dearest; in the vast majority of instances, from the

ty. Their time is so ceaselessly occupied that but little space remains for brooding or for anxious thought, on behalf of themselves or those at home. The men who remain behind,

rfulness, whilst all the time the load of apprehension and fear lies heavy on their hearts. None will ever know

them, are fixed irrevocably in their determination that peace, when it comes, shall be no temporary patching up of hostilities and arranging of in

there has come the

of a van

f a voice t

Lord wept at the grave of Lazarus, and in so doing sanctified human grief. The keenest faith, to which the other world is an absolute reality; the fullest hope of the sure and certain resurrection for the dear one; the most disciplined and submissive wil

g down the cheeks, the mourner will say, "I am so thankful he is at rest." No selfish, rebellious side of

f in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most miserable" (1 Cor. xv. 17). Then out of this fact of the resurrection flows a consequence: the dead, as we call them, "sleep in Jesus," and will be His immediate companions at the last day. We cannot enter into a discussion as to the exact conditions of what is called "Hades" or the "intermediate state"; suffice it to say that one great feature of it is nearness to Jesus, "having a de

Archbishop of Canterbury deal with th

e very passing of those brave and buoyant lives into the world beyond pierces the flimsy barrier between the things which are seen and tem

orrow with inc

ey who

r because their

but that in th

e other offi

ks and ministr

omised that Hi

ill. Therefore be

n, nor fruitl

riddles which

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gument against the practice of prayer for the departed, but surely this thought of the unity of the whole body leads in exactly the opposite direction. No argument can be adduced against this most ancient and primitive custom, observed by the Jews long before the coming of Christ, but what equally applies to any petition for an absent friend still on earth. In each case they are in the keeping of Him Who knows best and will do right, yet for those still here we pray, believing that in His own way God will take account of our prayers and knit them up into His own dealings, so

ane: the innate feeling of one who really knows what prayer means and w

lt down at her aunt's side to say her prayers. "Auntie, may I say God bless dear mother?" The whole drift of the aunt's training and theology would have led her to say "No" point blank. There was no time for argument or explanation

de of doubt that to the bereaved they bring an infinite sense of nearne

be called the faithful departed, the cases in which h

housands being hurried into eternity who, either according to the teaching of th

ecause it is the work of Christ which we conceive of as being there carried on. Catholic, because the Church from very early times has recognised the idea of the discipline of souls as being a process continued after death. The authority of S. Paul has been appealed to on account of his words to the Philippians (i. 6), "being confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ"; and to the Corinthians in that mysterio

st this much we may say: Surely no intelligent person can contemplate the thought of these vast hosts being hurried off into eternal perdition, and at the same time retain his reason or his faith in a

its measure to all the bereaved alike; the chastened joy from the tho

Major-General Allenby to Lady de

he died a hero's death. The brigade was hotly engaged, and on the Bays fell the brunt of the fighting on September 1st. Norman, with a few men, was

sympathy, yo

H. Al

of crushing grief must have lit up wi

reavement, above all other forms of sorrow, comes the felt need of God; it has been so with countless souls. The answer to the need is the revelation

foreknowledge is so admirably treated in "Some Eleme

seen and included within the all-embracing Predestination of God, as factors and causes, wo

itself. Prayer, too, is only a foreseen action of man which, together with its results, is embraced in the eternal Predestination of God. To us this or that blessing may be strictly contingent on our praying for it; but our prayer is nevertheless so far from necessarily introducing change into the purpose of the Unchangeable, that it has been all along taken, so to speak, into account b

tations during the