the King of France, the Queen of England, the King of Prussia,
and the Emperor of Russia, on the other; and its seventh article decreed
that Belgium should form a separate and perpetually neutral State, and
should be held to the observance of this neutrality in regard to all
other States. The co-signatories promised, for themselves and their
successors, upon their oath, to fulfill and to observe that treaty in
every point and every article without contravention or tolerance of
contravention. Belgium was thus bound in honor to defend her own
independence. She kept her oath. The other powers were bound to respect
and to protect her neutrality. Germany violated her oath; England kept
hers.

These are the facts.

The laws of conscience are sovereign laws. We should have acted
unworthily had we evaded our obligation by a mere feint of resistance.
And now we would not rescind our first resolution; we exult in it. Being
called upon to write a most solemn page in the history of our country,
we resolved that it should be also a sincere, also a glorious page. And
as long as we are required to give proof of endurance, so long we shall
endure.

All classes of our citizens have devoted their sons to the cause of
their country, but the poorer part of the population have set the
noblest example, for they have suffered also privation, cold, and
famine. If I may judge of the general feeling from what I have witnessed
in the humbler quarters of Malines and in the most cruelly afflicted
districts of my diocese, the people are energetic in their endurance.
They look to be righted; they will not hear of surrender.

Affliction is, in the hand of Divine Omnipotence, a two-edged sword. It
wounds the rebellious, it sanctifies him who is willing to endure.

God proveth us, as St. James has told us, but He "is not a tempter of
evils." All that comes from Him is good, a ray of light, a pledge of
love. "But every man is tempted by his own concupiscence.... Blessed is
he that endureth temptation, for when he hath been proved he shall
receive the crown of life, which God hath promised to them that love
Him."

Truce, then, my brethren, to all murmurs of complaint. Remember St.
Paul's words to the Hebrews, and through them to all of Christ's flock,
when, referring to the bloody sacrifice of our Lord upon the cross, he
reminded them that they had not yet resisted unto blood. Not only to the
Redeemer's example shall you look, but also to that of t