Be what you will, unfettered, free
To slay on this side or the other;

Abhorred be that hypocrisy

Which calls the Nazarene your brother."

But our " Martial Nazarene " could not know our
thoughts, and with evident pleasure in what he
considered a triumphant ending to a most instruct-
ive discourse, he rose and departed, after congratu-
lating Frederick upon having silenced the scruples
of his wife, whose previous point of view must
have been very annoying to a soldier.
" Ah! " I sighed, " what a torment! "
" Yes, it was, and was increased by the conscious-
ness that we were not acting fairly. I was some-
times almost driven to say to him that I shared the
convictions of my wife, and that what he had said
only showed the weakness of his own position and
would invite me to prove further how untenable it
was. But I was silent. Why should I outrage the
convictions of an honest man, convictions which
must necessarily lie at the foundation of his pro-
fession? " '



GROUND ARMS!" 223

" Honest convictions? Are you sure of that?
Does he reason at all? Does he actually believe he
is speaking the truth, or does he not consciously
deceive his soldier congregation when he prom-
ises them victory through the help of a God who he
knows is appealed to in the same manner by the
other side? This appeal for 'our nation ' and ' our
cause,' as if it were the only righteous one, and at
' the same time the cause of God, belongs to a per-
iod when one tribe, shut out from all other peo-
ples, considered itself the special favorite of heaven.
