n the way that is wise and right and honourable."

In the brief prayer that followed there fell upon the people an
overpowering sense of the futility of man's wisdom, and of the need of
the might and wisdom that are not man's but God's.

Two days later Mr. Murray and the children accompanied Dr. Brown and
Jane to Kenora on their way back to the city. As they were proceeding to
the railway station they were arrested by a group that stood in front
of the bulletin board upon which since the war began the local newspaper
was wont to affix the latest despatches. The group was standing in awed
silence staring at the bulletin board before them. Dr. Brown pushed his
way through, read the despatch, looked around upon the faces beside him,
read the words once more, came back to where his party were standing and
stood silent.

"What is it?" inquired Mr. Murray.

"War," said Dr. Brown in a husky whisper. Then clearing his throat,
"War--Britain and Germany."

War! For the first time in the memory of living man that word was spoken
in a voice that stopped dead still the Empire in the daily routine of
its life. War! That word whispered in the secret silent chamber of the
man whose chief glory had been his title as Supreme War Lord of Europe,
swift as the lightning's flash circled the globe, arresting multitudes
of men busy with their peaceful tasks, piercing the hearts of countless
women with a new and nameless terror, paralysing the activities of
nations engaged in the arts of peace, transforming into bitter enemies
those living in the bonds of brotherhood, and loosing upon the world the
fiends of hell.

Mr. Murray turned to his boy. "Jim," he said, "I must go to Winnipeg.
Take the children home and tell their mother. I shall wire you to-morrow
when to meet me." Awed, solemnised and in silence they took their ways.

Arrived at the railway station, Mr. Murray changed his mind. He was a
man clear in thought and swift in action. His first thought had been of
his business as being immediately affected by this new and mighty fact
of war. Then he thought of other and wider interests.

"Let us go back, Dr. Brown," he said. "A large number of our business
men are at the Lake. I suppose half of our Board of Trade are down
here. We can reach them more easily here than any place else, and it is
important that we should immediately get them together. Excuse me while
I wire to my architect. I must stop that block of mine."

They returne