Page:French Calvinism, German Lutheranism and the War.pdf/2

 FRENCH CALVINISM, GERMAN LUTHERANISM AND THE WAR.

Introductory Lecture delivered in the University of Edinburgh on 9th October 1917.

(1) The lecture was extemporo. This is the stenographic report taken by my secretary.

The world war has brought us countless tragedies which for generations to come will provide inexhaustible material to dramatic and to epic poets. And the war has also brought us many surprises and many revelations. But the greatest, the most awful tragedy is not the tragedy of Belgium, or of Serbia, and Roumania, or of Poland and Israel: the greatest tragedy is the tragedy of the German people. And the most startling surprise, the most disconcerting revelation is the revelation of the German soul.

By this time we are beginning to understand the workings of the German political and military machine. We have not yet learned to understand the spiritual forces which are behind that machine and which have allowed that formidable machine for four years to resist all the armies of the world. We understand/