But, in the way I have indicated, coupled with a somewhat extensive and vigorous recruiting campaign in the provinces, which I am happy to say has been most fruitful, and such assistance as one's poor purse can afford I can come here to-night without playing the role of the hypocrite, and ask every man in this hall to do his bit towards his country's job. [Cheers.]
Now, I do not propose to dwell further upon that aspect of the matter. It would be idle to deny that the spirit of some of our troops has been sorely tried, but every one of you knows that Tommy is made of pretty tough stuff, and that he does not mind roughing it. He knows it is a long, long way to Tipperary, but you may be sure of this, that he can be trusted to stay the course. [Cheers.] And there is another reason why I say that it is not right or desirable that we should dwell upon critical aspects of the great crisis in which we stand. There is an old and popular hymn, a line of which, all cant on one side, proclaims a profound truth when it says that "God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform." And it may be that, after all, in this great upheaval of the world we are merely the creatures of a destiny that we cannot control, and that possibly no human prevision could have prevented the bloodshed and the slaughter that is now occurring. It may be that this will be the last great conflict of blood between so-called civilized nations, and that when it is over we shall see the dawn of that era which at present seems a dream, and which is told in the old hackneyed lines as being the time—
When the war drum beats no longer,
And the battle flag is furled
In the Parliament of man,
The federation of the world.
But, in the meantime, friends, vast changes are occurring around us. There is a new spirit abroad—a new spirit in the social, the political, the religious life of the nation. Things are happening every day under our eyes of a far-reaching character, and we scarcely realize they are occurring. At home, the Government has already taken control of our railways; it has, to a large extent, taken control of our food supplies, and it has taken control of our money. In addition to that we have been taught to put our lights out at reasonable hours; to close our refreshment rooms at what many people consider unreasonable hours—[laughter]—to go to bed in good
