writers, artists, how many men fitted to promote the prosperity of their country in industry and commerce have we lost in the War! And how many of the rank and file, men who were distinguished for nothing in their lives so much as the manner of their death! How much poorer the next generation will be! To the memory of them all we give the grateful tribute of saddened and chastened hearts: we remember them all in our prayers, we recall their heroism as we rejoice in their manhood and their glory. Never was a time when so many of our best and noblest have gone from us willingly because they have felt it to be their duty and never was a time when their parents and dear ones have shown such a noble example of uncomplaining patience under a loss which to them was the greatest that any loss could be. We may well feel proud not only of the sons but of the parents that they have willingly given their children and have borne their loss with dignity and resignation, not repining and bewailing their dead, but putting their hands to works of charity and helpfulness. Let us who remain be worthy of those who have been taken, worthy of the country that can rear such children. They have revealed to us the soul of the nation, the soul by which, far more than by its wealth or its prosperity [pg 011] or its material strength, a nation lives: and while the soul of England thus lives, England will maintain her greatness.

Let us remember our heroes who have made the supreme sacrifice, not altogether with sorrow, but also with a solemn thankfulness—to God who strengthened them to play their part, to them for their simple example of duty done. The memories of these, our heroes, will for us and for those who come after shine as a holy flame, a light that will burn for ever at the altar of patriotism and of duty.

And so we commend their souls, even as our own, to the mercy of our God, looking to Him in all humility and trust to vouchsafe us in His good time “a permanence on the earth and a saving of life by a great deliverance.” Amen.