turned in such a war as this. For a priest to raise his
hand to his cap did not seem to belong to his sacred office, and so it
was decided he should touch his cross instead. Quite apart from the
regular and official services, the priest would be always fulfilling his
part in bringing God home to his countrymen, until the very end when he
stood blessing them, as we have been told, as they rushed past him to
attack, many of them to return no more. There is something very
inspiring in the thought that the last earthly object many of them saw
as they rushed on to death was the Cross of Him Who had robbed death of
all its terrors, and brought Immortality to light.

One of my great reasons for looking to the Orthodox Church of Russia to
give us our first opportunity, in seeking to promote the larger unity of
Christendom, is, as I had occasion to say at a large public meeting in
London last year, that, like ourselves, they wish to have the New
Testament sense of the presence of CHRIST. I cannot use any other phrase
to express my meaning. It is to me the whole spirit of their worship,
not only at the Holy Communion, where one would expect it, but at all
the other services as well. Litanies form a very important part of their
worship, and as one hears that softly repeated "LORD, have mercy"
(_Gospodi pomilui_) again and again from the choir, it is as if they
were all conscious of speaking straight to their LORD with the feeling
that He is there Himself to grant their prayer. No other refrain that I
have ever heard has the same appealing note of real and moving faith.

I have attended the "all-night service" at S. Isaac's, in Petrograd, on
Saturdays at 6 p.m. It lasts two hours in cathedrals and churches, but
all night in monasteries and convents, and some of us going to S.
Isaac's for the first time would almost wish that it could be "all
night" there also. The glorious richness of the men's voices, their deep
rolling basses and sweet tenors, the silvery trebles of the boys--there
is no organ or other accompaniment--when heard as a new experience makes
one involuntarily think to one's self "I have never heard prayer and
praise expressed like this before." Whether one is behind the screen,
where I was conducted at once, or standing with the choir before
it--there are no seats in a Russian church--noting their picturesque
uniforms like those of officers, and their profound reverence, or moving
amongst the congregation, and looking