A true Imperial spirit in religion does not seek to claim God for the Empire, but rather to claim the Empire for God; it does not wish to make 'the Empire' a religion, but to make the Empire religious. Put bluntly, we can only be sure that God is on the side of the extension of the British Empire if the extension of the British Empire is proved by its ideals and methods to be on the side of God.
2. Secondly, in the present context the word 'Church' is used in no strict or technical sense, but simply as the whole company of professing Christians organized in different religious bodies. What is said is meant to apply to the influence and policy of every Christian body. But it is only natural that the present writer should think mainly of the responsibilities and opportunities of the Church to which he belongs, and which he knows. It is the more natural because the English Church, which is older than the English nation, which has been for long centuries bound up with its development by a thousand ties of association, influence, and constitution, has obviously a special responsibility to the nation in its new stage of Imperial expansion.
What, then, is the place of the Christian Church in the building up of the Empire? To this question only four answers can here be given, and these very shortly. We look to the Church to strengthen the moral force of the Empire, to give a true ideal to its development, to counteract the destructive forces which it brings, and to deepen the unity which holds it together.
1. First and foremost, we look to the Church to strengthen the moral force of the Empire. After all, the strength and permanence of our Empire depends upon the character of its citizens. This is a commonplace so obvious that its importance is very generally Ignored. We take, and rightly take, immense pains to open out new channels of trade, to develop new material resources. We are apt to suppose that the development of character can be left to take care of itself. Yet the minds of many readers of this book as they read of
