t of it, and sends out
its life-blood everywhere. I am going to study London; I am going to the
House of Commons, and understand the feeling of our Government. I am
going to the places of amusements, the theatres, the music-halls, and see
what they really mean in the life of the people. I am going to visit the
churches, and try to understand how much hold religion has upon the
people. I am going to see London life, by night as well as by day.'

'You'll have a big job.'

'That may be, but I want to know, I want to understand. You don't seem
to believe me, Luscombe, but I am terribly in earnest. This war is
getting on my nerves, it is haunting me night and day, and I cannot
believe that it is the will of God it should continue. Mind you, Germany
must be beaten, _will_ be beaten,--of that I am convinced. That verse of
Kipling's is prophetic of our future,--it cannot be otherwise. The
nation which has depended upon brute force and lies, must sooner or later
crumble; the country guilty of what she has been guilty of must in some
way or another perish,--of that I am sure. Else God is a mockery, and
His eternal law a lie. Some day Germany, who years ago longed for war,
brought about war, and gloried in her militarism, will realize the
meaning of those words:

"Lo, all the pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre."

But we are paying the price of our materialism, too. Do you remember
those words of our Lord, Who, when speaking to the Jews about the
Galileans of olden times, said, "Suppose ye that these Galileans were
sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things? I
tell you, nay, but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." It
is not pleasant to talk about, is it? but Rome and Byzantium fell because
of their impurities, and they seemed as firmly established as the seven
hills on which Rome stood. Germany will fall, because she has trusted
supremely in the arm of flesh, with all that it means. Primarily it is
righteousness that exalteth a nation, while the nation which forgets God
is doomed to perish.'

'I might be listening to a Revivalist preacher,' I laughed, 'some Jonah
or Jeremiah proclaiming the sins of a nation. But seriously, my dear
fellow, do you think that because we do not talk so much about these
things, that we have of necessity forgotten them? Besides, we have been
sickened by the Kaiser's pious platitudes; he has been continually using
the name of G