actions of men. That were unthinkable. Of two claimants to that
sceptre, one must be a pretender, an Anti-Christ.

"Therefore our first duty in this dreadful business is to clear our
minds, to make sure that ours is truly the right God. Let us not
trouble--for it is too late--about any German's mind. Our business
is to clear our own vision.

"I confess to you that, however we clear it, I anticipate that what
we see in the end is likely to be damaging to what I will call
'official' Christianity. However you put it, the Churches of Europe
(established or free) have been allowing at least one _simulacrum_ of
Christ to walk the earth, claiming holiness while devising evil.
However you put it, the slaughter of man by man is horrible, and--
more than that--our Churches exist to prevent it, by persuasion
teaching peace on earth, good-will towards men.

"Disquieted, unable to sleep for this thought, I arose and dressed
early this morning, and sat for a while on the wall opposite, gazing
at this homely house of God across the roadway. It looked strange
and unreal to me, there in the dawn; and (for Heaven knows I can
never afford to slight the place it holds in my affection) I even
dared in my fondness to reckon it with great and famous temples such
as in our Westminster, in Paris, in Rheims--aye, and in Cologne--men
have reared to the glory of God. I asked myself if these, too,
looked impertinent as this day's sun took their towers, dawning so
eventfully over Europe; if these, too, suffered in men's minds such a
loss of significance by comparison with the eternal hills and the
river that rushed at my feet refreshing this valley as night-long,
day-long, it has run refreshing and sung unheeded for thousands upon