much dross will be consumed. The conscience of the State has been
stirred, and it cannot in the future acquiesce in the continuance of
the social evils which are gnawing at the nation's heart. The fate of
the Empire in the long years to come will depend more on the fight for
social renewal in the midst of the streets than on red battlefields.
To the men who have stood between the race and destruction the State
owes a debt which it can only repay by such measures of social
regeneration as will make possible for every man and woman to realise
the thrill and the joy of life. These pages only represent an effort
to portray the first stirring of that newly awakened consciousness of
God and of duty which was felt in every parish throughout the Empire,
and which is destined to transform the world.

Contents

I. THE GREAT DISCOVERY
II. THE REVIVAL OF PATRIOTISM
III. THE SHADOW OF THE CROSS
IV. THE POWER OF PRAYER
V. THE VICTORY
VI. THE CITIES OF THE PLAIN

I

The Great Discovery

I

While the thing is still fresh in my mind I will try to put it down on
paper--the incredible thing that has happened in our parish. When we
had least thought about life's great things, we have come face to face
with the greatest.

We had been for long years living on the surface of things. The sun
basked on the slopes of the hills, purple at eve; we came back from the
offices in town, plunged through the tunnel, and hastened to our
gardens. We lifted up our eyes to the hills, and our security seemed
as immovable as their crests soaring above the little dells that were
haunts of ancient peace around their foundations.

Long years of ease dimmed our vision. The church bell rang in vain for
many of us. Those who had six whole days in the week to devote to
their own pleasure began to devote the seventh also to that same end.
The day of peace was becoming a day of unrest.

Thus it was with us when, with the suddenness of a lightning flash, the
incredible overtook us.

***

If only one could put it into words! But words can never express this
sudden meeting of man and God when that meeting was least expected.

It was heralded by the booming of guns across the sea. The great city
lay slumbering between us and the shore, but over the turrets and
spires it came--boom, boom--under the stars. It was war. That
far-away echo might not itself be the grim struggle of death, but it
was its harbin