ears.

"Then it seemed to me, as the day cleared, that whatever of
impertinence showed in this building was due to _us_--and to me, more
than any--who in these few years past have believed ourselves to be
working for good, when all the while we have never cleared our vision
to see things in their right proportions.

"We are probably willing to accept this curse of War as a visitation
on our sins. But for _what_ sins? O, beware of taking the
prohibitions of the Decalogue in a lump, its named sins as
_equivalent!_ In every one of you must live an inward witness that
these sins do not rank equally in God's eye; that to murder, for
instance, is wickeder than to misuse the Lord's name in a hasty oath;
that to bear false witness against a neighbour is tenfold worse than
to break the Sabbath. Yet we for ever in our Churches put these out
of their right order; count ourselves righteous if we slander our
neighbour, so it be on the way to worship; and in petty cruelties
practice the lust of murder, interrupting it to shudder at a profane
oath uttered by some good fellow outside in the street. To love God
and your neighbour, summed up, for Christ, all the Law and the
Prophets: and his love was for the harlot and the publican, as his
worst word always for the self-deceiver who thanked God that he was
not as other men.

"I verily believe that in this struggle we war with principalities
and powers, with the rulers of darkness in this world, with spiritual
wickedness in high places. But make no mistake: the men who are
actually going out from England to brave the first brunt for us are
men whom _we_ have not taught to die like heroes, who have little
interest in Church or Chapel or their differences, who view sins in
an altogether different perspective from ours; whom we enlisted to do
this work because they were hungry and at the moment saw no better
job in prospect: whom we have taught to despise us while they protect
us.

"The sins of our enemy are evident. But if _We_ say we have no sin,
we shall deceive ourselves and the truth will not be in us."

"Did you ever hear a feebler or a more idiotic sermon?" demanded Mrs
Polsue of Miss Oliver on their way home down the valley.

"If ever a man had his chance to improve an occasion--"

"Tut! I say nothing of his incapacity. There are some men that
can't rise even when 'tis a question of all Europe at war. But did
you hear the light he made, or tried to make, of Sabba