of
every Englishman to put everything in the world he possesses, everything
that he values, into the scale to ensure success, and I am sure there is
not one of us, whatever his position, who would flinch in the slightest
from the duty he owes to his country and to his deepest self."

The response to the facts has been obedience, immediate and
unquestioning, on the part of a vast number. True, not all have yet been
reached who ought to come forward, and some are even now crying out for
that compulsory service which may yet prove inevitable. They forget that
the obedience of one free man is worth more than the forced submission
of many. Let us wait hopefully, energetically; losing no opportunity of
pressing the stern logic of facts wherever we may.

And those who have joined the services have come at once under a
discipline totally different from that of the sternest school or the
strictest house of business. The surrender has been made voluntarily,
and it has placed the whole life in each detail under the claim of an
absolute obedience.

The disposal of every moment of time belongs to the authorities. The
private in high social position must obey the orders of a young
lance-corporal just as exactly as he expected his own commands to be
carried out in his business or his household.

Who can estimate the immense development of moral fibre that surely must
take place in succeeding generations from the fact that so vast a
number, in all ranks of society, are now under obedience? Not because
they were driven to it, but because they embraced it by an initial act
of obedience.

--Thus they answered,--hoping, fearing,
Some in faith, and doubting some,
Till a trumpet-voice proclaiming,
Said, "My chosen people, come!"
Then the drum,
Lo! was dumb,
For the great heart of the nation throbbing,
Answered, "Lord we come."[2]

[Footnote 2: _The Reveille_, Bret Harte.]

Let us apply this thought to the command in our text, "Do this in
remembrance of Me." The facts are undisputed. Our Lord Jesus Christ, in
the tenderness of His compassion, instituted an ordinance by which we
might remember Him and feed upon Him.

Further than this we cannot go on the ground of universal consent.
Strangely enough, that rite which is the same in its central act,
whether celebrated by the nonconformist in his ordinary dress, or the
priest clad in costly vestments, whether in the humble room or the