for many years i have been thrown very much into the society of young men of all ranks. i spend a great part of my time with them, i like being with them, and i think they like being with me. i know well, therefore, how rare anything like a living faith—a faith in and by which you can live, and for which you would die—is amongst them. i know that it is becoming rarer every day. i find it every day more difficult to get them to speak on the subject: they will not do so unless you drive them to it.

i feel deeply that for the sake of england they must be driven to it, and therefore that it is the bounden duty of every man who has any faith himself, and who has a chance of being listened to by them, to speak out manfully what he has to say, concealing nothing, disguising nothing, and leaving the issue to god.