ith Luther, Knox, Carlyle, and the prophets shut out. In France
to-day Napoleon would never have been born! We can already trace the
tracks of the withering blight that has seared humanity. In Germany
idealism is dead, and there is no prophet either of Christian love or
of self-sacrifice. France trampled upon the Church because the Church
fought resolutely against the policy of racial suicide and used all its
power to save the womanhood of France from submitting to degeneration.
Because the Church persisted, France 'extinguished the light of
heaven,' and no man was found who could rouse the nation to realise its
sin and to repent. {19} The prophet who could have done so was
doubtless shut out. And among ourselves we can mark the slow ebbing of
vision, of genius, and of prophetic might. Two generations ago one
voice could rouse the whole nation and kindle the fire of fierce
indignation against the tale of Balkan atrocities. In our day we
beheld the Armenians massacred again and again; but there was no voice
to rouse the nation to indignation or to action. We could not send the
fleet to the mountains of Ararat, declared our statesmen, and we
acquiesced. One by one the great leaders, the poets, the writers
passed into the silence, and the day of the politician and the
time-server had come. Did a prophet arise, we no longer stoned him; we
only meted out to him contumely and neglect. In vain did Lord Roberts
summon a nation sinking on its lees to arise and quit themselves like
men. When the judgment throne of God blazed forth in the heavens, and
our startled eyes beheld the sword emerge from the mists that hid
heaven {20} from our eyes, we were engaged in preparations for civil
war, and listening to the low murmur of the toiling masses who
threatened social chaos. And there was no man found equal to the task
of saving us from ourselves. The men who could have saved us were,
doubtless, shut out. It is manifest that the richest elements must be
lost to any race that limits its own growth. If the sixth and seventh
children in a family be the healthiest, as has been established by
investigation,[4] then there is no place for the strongest in a family
limited to two! Thus it comes that we are left to-day without a Wesley
who could kindle the passion of righteousness in the nation's soul;
without a Scott who could glorify our patriotism; and without a
Tennyson who could set the hearts athrob. We have as yet produc