Page:The Psychology of Jingoism.djvu/64

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
52
The Psychology of Jingoism

war against tyrants and oppressors, he is fighting on Christ's side, and Christ is fighting on his side; Christ is his Captain and his Leader, and he can be in no better service. Be sure of it, for the Bible tells you so.

Will Kingsley's confident assumption that the Crimean was 'a just war against tyrants and oppressors' (as indeed all our wars have ever been!) cause any to reflect upon the similar confidence which they repose upon those who have assured them of the justice of this war?

Canon Newbolt and Dean Farrar have been foremost among English Churchmen in their enforcement of the Divine nature of war, and the acceptance of the doctrine that 'carnage is His daughter.' But the spirit of this British Christianity is most aptly rendered in the glowing words of 'a most venerable and excellent prelate,' the Archbishop of Armagh, with which Dean Farrar concludes his glorification of the hell which is being enacted in South Africa: –

And, as I note how nobly natures form
Under the war's red rain, I deem it true
That He who made the earthquake and the storm
Perhaps makes battles too.

Thus as the heaven's many coloured flames
At sunset are but dust in rich disguise,
The ascending earthquake-dust of battle frames
God's picture in the skies.

This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.