We have purposely abstained in these Addresses from fanning flames, or appealing to passions.  But here is a broad ground upon which, by the very confession of our enemies, we stand on a higher platform.  We went to war because we would not break a treaty, nor forsake a friend too weak for self-defence; Germany commenced the war by a treacherous act.  Therefore, strong in the belief that the God of righteousness will cause the right to triumph, we can calmly look forward to ultimate victory,

  To doubt would be disloyalty,
    To falter would be sin.

Much more might be said in the same direction, but let the broad thought suffice.

The war has produced a type of pessimism which, in some instances, runs almost to disturbance of mental balance.  Every reverse is exaggerated, and accepted with a kind of confident despondency; every success discounted and treated with half-hearted incredulity:  “The Germans have destroyed another ship; what is our Navy doing?” “Oh, but that’s only one little hill; the Germans will have it back soon enough.”  Surely this kind of pessimism, except where the victim of it is not really responsible, must be as offensive to God as it is exasperating to man.

But now to turn to our chief thought for the day, that is, the permanence of the victory of Easter Day, “Christ dieth no more.”  That is why He is called “The first fruits of them that are asleep.”  Several resurrections are recorded both in the Old and New Testaments, but these are cases of those who were raised by others, and then died again.  Christ raised Himself and death hath no more dominion over Him.  The resurrection is permanent and keeps on perpetuating and extending itself in the life of the whole universal Church.  It was not an isolated act, but part of a wondrous plan.  Not only does it possess doctrinal significance in that plan, but vital force for the carrying of it out.  “He died for our sins,” but “He was raised for our justification.”

  Yes, death’s last hope, his strongest fort and prison,
    Is shattered, never to be built again;
  And He, the mighty Captive, He is risen,
    Leaving behind the gate, the bar, the chain.

We are praying constantly, earnestly, that we “may be brought through strife to a lasting peace”; and that “the nations of the world may be united in a firmer fellowship for the promotion of Thy glory and the good of all mankind.”  No conditions of peace are worth accepting unless they will, humanly speaking, secure this result.  Germany on the one side, and the Allies on the other, both realise that this is a “fight to a finish.”  Singularly enough the object of both sides is similar—­to render another great European war impossible:  but the ideals in respect to its attainment are by no means the same; one looks to the setting up of a world dominion; the other, to the establishment of a state of balanced power and mutual interests among European nations.  We are fighting essentially