can death be tolerated unless it lead to further life. If sorrow in the
bulk needs the Incarnation to throw upon it the light of God's love,
still more does this particular grief require the assurance that the
finished work of Christ operates within, as well as without, the vail.

Broadly speaking, all over the world there are torn and bleeding hearts
mourning the nearest, the dearest; in the vast majority of instances,
from the circumstances of the case, men in the beginning or the very
prime of life.

The heroism of the women has been as magnificent as that of the
men--nay, in a sense, more so. For those who go forth there is the
novelty, the excitement, the nerving sense of duty. Their time is so
ceaselessly occupied that but little space remains for brooding or for
anxious thought, on behalf of themselves or those at home. The men who
remain behind, the fathers, brothers, friends, have the priceless boon
of daily occupation, often vastly increased in amount. There is no such
infallible anodyne of care as plenty of honest work.

But the women--theirs is the harder task, the fiercer trial, of keeping
up the brave appearance, the show of cheerfulness, whilst all the time
the load of apprehension and fear lies heavy on their hearts. None will
ever know the crushing reality of the offering the women are making to
their country, in one great stream of self-sacrifice.

Nor can we forecast the end, nor estimate the claims that are yet to be
made in the cause of patriotism. The nations engaged, at least the chief
of them, are fixed irrevocably in their determination that peace, when
it comes, shall be no temporary patching up of hostilities and arranging
of indemnities, but a solid, lasting settlement, which shall, as far as