THE FOURTH SUNDAY IN ADVENT.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—The attitude of a large portion of the British Press at the present moment recalls painfully that of Mrs. Quickly in Henry V, Act 2, Scene 3:—" How now, Sir John ? qnoth I. What man ! be of good cheer. So 'a cried out—God, God, God ! three or four times. Now I, to comfort him, bid him 'a should not think of God : I hoped there was no need to trouble himself with such thoughts yet." It is sup- posed to be undesirable to "discourage people" by a day of national humiliation. But assuredly the chastening hand of God is laid upon us, and the sooner we recognise as a nation the fact, and confess in the words of the Psalm for this morning that "it is better to trust in the Lord than to put any confidence in Man," the sooner the chastisement is likely to be removed, and we shall be able to say in the words of the same Psalm : "The Lord hath chastened and corrected me, but He bath not given me over unto death. I will thank Thee because Thou haat heard me and art become my
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