clean heart and a right spirit. I believe that though I have cursed
myself, yet Thou wilt still bless me; for Thou wiliest nought but the
good of every creature Thou hast made. God be merciful to me a sinner!"
Amen.

PART II.

I. BRAVE WORDS FOR BRAVE SOLDIERS AND SAILORS. {199}

My friends,--I speak to you simply as brave men. I speak alike to Roman
Catholic and Protestant. I speak alike to godly men and ungodly. I
speak alike to soldiers and sailors. . . . If you are _brave_, read these
words. I call these _brave_ words. They are not my _own_ words, or my
own message, but the message to you of the bravest man who ever lived, or
who ever will live, and if you will read them and think over them, He
will not _make_ you brave (for that, thank God, you are already), but
_keep_ you brave, come victory or defeat. I speak to the brave men who
have now fought three bloody battles, and fought them like heroes. All
England has blessed you, and admired you; all England has felt for you in
a way that would do your hearts good to see. For you know as well as I,
that nothing is so comforting, nothing so endearing, as sympathy, as _to
know that people feel for one_. If one knows that, one can dare and do
anything. If one feels that nobody cares for one's suffering or one's
success, one is ready to lie down and die. It is so with a horse or a
dog even. If there is any noble spirit in them, a word of encouragement
will make them go till they drop. How much more will the spirit of a
_man_? I can well believe that the Queen's beautiful letter put more
heart into you, than the hope of all the prize money in the world would
have done; and that with the words of that letter ringing in your ears,
you will prove true to the last, to the words of the grand old song--

"Hearts of oak are our ships, hearts of oak are our men,
And we'll fight, and we'll conquer again, and again."

But, my friends, you know as well as I, that there are times when neither
that letter, nor the feeling of duty, nor of honour, nor of glory, can
keep your hearts from sinking. Not in battle! No. Only cowards' hearts
fail them there; and there are no cowards among you. But even a brave
man's heart may fail him at whiles, when, instead of the enemy's balls
and bayonets, he has to face delay, and disappointment, and fatigue, and
sickness, and hunger, and cold, and nakedness; as you have, my brave
brothers, and faced them as well as