We shall have a reconstructed world with right foundations, only when the nations know that justice is throned internationally, and that every crime is to be judged and punished.  There can be no new world without living faith, without real religion.  A cheap and sentimental humanitarism is no substitute for real faith—­philosophies that seem adequate in ordinary times are poor things when the soul of man stands stripped of all its trappings and faces death and suffering and watches agonies.  Then the abiding eternal soul knows its own reality and its oneness with the Divine and eternal, and the sacrifice of Christ is a real living thing—­and in the men’s sacrifice they are very near to Him.

So the Churches are being tested, too, in this great crisis, and in a reconstructed world we shall want Churches that carry the message of Christianity with a clearer and firmer voice, but that is the task of all believers.  We cannot cast the duty of making the Church a living witness on our priests alone—­it is our work, and unless our faith goes into everything we do, it is no use.  People who profess a faith, and carefully shut it up in a compartment of their lives, so that it has no real connection with their work, are worse than honest doubters—­because they betray what they profess.

So reconstruction rests upon great spiritual tasks and values, and upon the willingness and ability of the nations to carry these out.

In our country, our political parties are going to be changed and reconstructed.  The Labour Party has already made a big appeal to “brain and hand workers,” and has announced its scheme of re-organization.

One definite result of the war in the minds of the people of our country is the definite mental discarding of state socialism of the bureaucratic kind as a conceivable system of government.  We have seen bureaucracy at work to a great extent, and shall undoubtedly have to continue control in many ways after peace comes, but we do not like it.  Socialism will have to go on to new lines of thought and development if it wishes to achieve anything—­and the most interesting thought and schemes are on the lines of Guild Socialism.

How the great Liberal and Unionist Parties will emerge, we cannot say—­but this we know, they will be different.  We have a new electorate, more men and the women, and the opinion and needs of the women will undoubtedly affect our political reconstruction.  Most of us, in the war, have entirely ceased to care for party; even the most fierce of partisans have changed, and the “party appeal,” in itself, will be of little account in our country.

I feel sure we shall scrutinize measures and men and programmes more carefully, and the work of educating our women will be part of the women’s great tasks in reconstruction.

Our ability to reconstruct and renew rests fundamentally upon our financial condition—­even the power to make the best peace terms rests upon it.  Crippled countries cannot stand out for the best terms, so finance is all-important.