SO SPEAK YE, AND SO DO, AS MEN THAT ARE TO BE JUDGED BY A LAW OF LIBERTY.-St. James ii. 12.

1. IT is with very special satisfaction that I welcome to the Cathedral to-day the Mayor and Corporation of the City of Durham, and I hold it a happy circumstance that they should be accompanied by a contingent of His Majesty's Forces. The union of the Civil and the Military Factors of the National Life is best realized in the Worship of Him Whose severe and righteous Law it is the solemn task of all Powers of Government to express in human affairs, and Who alone can make sinful and ignorant men able to fulfil so sublime a function. and dangerous circumstances of the turns on the frank co-operation

In the difficult
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1 Preached in Durham Cathedral on the twenty-third Sunday after Trinity, November 15, 1914, before the Mayor and Corporation, and a considerable body of Troops.

Authorities, and on their resolute loyalty to those great principles of Truth, Purity, and Self-sacrifice, which are as the rock-foundations on which the Temple of healthy public Life must rest. It is but little more than three months since the War broke out, and we are hardly yet able to grasp the new responsibilities which it has brought to us. In the first place, naturally, there stood the new obligation of military service, which came with the shock of surprise to large multitudes of young men. We know that many of them from this City and County responded to the Call of the Country with an ardour of patriotism which filled us with honourable pride. I congratulate them from my heart on having taken a course which they will always remember with pleasure, and which England will never forget. I feel confident that there are many more who, when they realize the urgency of the Country's need, will follow the example so worthily set, and insist on taking a personal share in the sacred Task of defending their native Land, and with it those everlasting principles of Justice and Liberty, of which Great Britain has been among the nations as the ordained Apostle and historic Exponent. It is not, however, of that primary obligation that I propose to speak this afternoon, but rather of some other

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obligations which it has drawn in its train. these bear directly on the duties of the Municipal Authorities and the conduct of ordinary Citizens.

2. Durham through the coming winter will present an unwonted appearance. Our narrow and winding streets will be crowded by the Recruits billeted here in order to train for the grim contingencies of Warfare. These hundreds of

young men create inevitably a situation of some gravity. How will the City affect them? Will they find in Durham influences which strengthen character and stimulate the sense of duty? or will they rather find themselves in their leisure hours, spent necessarily in our streets, weakened in body and spirit by what they see and do? Let me observe that we ought to recognize that the conditions of our civic life will become highly artificial, and be prepared to accept the necessity of abnormal arrangements in order to save the civic life from grave derangement. We all know that wherever large bodies of men are brought together, there are two dangers which must be reckoned with -the danger of intemperance and the danger of loose behaviour. To say this is not to make any suggestion of exceptional badness against anybody; but simply to face the necessary consequence of

artificial conditions. Numbers and excitement are the two new factors, and they are very serious factors. The great soldiers, who are organizing and leading the British Armies at this juncture, have spoken with no uncertain voice on the subject of what is known as "treating"; and they have appealed with all possible earnestness to the British People to avoid a practice which, although prompted by kindness of heart, is most harmful to the health and discipline of the troops. The Civic Authorities in most places have taken special measures to reduce the risks of intemperance. It is far from my mind to offer an opinion on matters which lie outside my proper concern, and I must ever dissociate myself from any general attack on those who are carrying on a necessary and very difficult trade, and for the most part carrying it on very creditably. Nevertheless, extraordinary situations must be met by extraordinary arrangements. The establishment among us of large bodies of young men, who are preparing for military service in a crisis of national danger, does create an extraordinary situation, which we may fairly ask all citizens, whatever their Occupation may be, to consider; and I must take leave to say plainly that, in view of what Lord Kitchener, Lord Roberts, and other eminent soldiers

have said on the subject, in view also of the action which has been taken in most other military centres, it does seem to me that our own Local Authorities will be accepting a very heavy responsibility if they take no steps to secure an earlier closing of publichouses during this winter. It is sometimes argued

that there is little use in closing the public-houses so long as the clubs remain open; and it must be allowed that the argument has force enough to suggest to the Committees and Members of all Clubs, in which drink is sold, a very earnest appeal for their frank co-operation with the Municipal Authorities in doing what can be done to remove temptation and reduce intemperance.

3. I pass to a far more difficult and delicate subject, a subject, indeed, so difficult and so delicate that only a coercive sense of duty could justify me in referring to it on such an occasion as this. Every accumulation of young men must necessarily raise the question of their relations with the other Sex. Here, again, the situation is highly artificial, and its peculiar danger lies in that circumstance. What can we do to save the soldier's leisure from becoming a snare to him? What can we do to put a shield over the self-respect of our girls? In times of patriotic excitement such as the present, many