XII
WITNESS UNTO THE TRUTH
The purely Eastern aspect of the Church is the
way of Mary, the spiritual, meditative, introspective,
mystical way, and this is ever the strength of the
whole Church. It is even the strength of the
Protestant churches, though there the spiritual life is
more private. In Orthodoxy the voice speaks from
the desert right into the ears of the everyday
mundane crowd. The people are enjoined against
sloth in the name of the fathers of the desert. They
sing their hymns in praise of those who have overcome.
They are encompassed round about with
"the crowd of witnesses," the ikon faces and frescoed
saints of the church walls, the thousands of those
who have died in the Lord looking on whilst we run
with patience the race that is set before us.
Our work is in the world, our passion is for the realisation of good worldly hopes. We pray for the King, the Emperor; we own a true allegiance to a God-guided Cæsar, and are ready to render to such a Cæsar the things that are his. We pray for the administrative bodies and for Parliament, may they
