prayers for almost every conceivable situation, with one significant
exception--there is no prayer in defeat. The word is blotted out of the
German war vocabulary. It has been said that the belief in the divinity of
our Saviour is rapidly on the wane in Germany. If this war prayer-book
avails aught, the taint of the heresy may not enter into the army.

Germany is at war. While Paris is frantically shouting _A Berlin!_, while
all Germany is singing and meaning _Die Wacht am Rhein_, Moltke's order
goes forth into the towns and villages of the Fatherland for the
mobilisation of the Reserves. Hans was singing _Die Wacht am Rhein_ last
night over his beer; but there is little heart for song left in him as he
looks from that paper on the deal table into Gretchen's face. She is
weeping bitterly as her children cling around her, too young to realise
the cause of their parents' sorrow. Hans rises moodily, and pulling down
what military belongings he has not given into the arsenal after the last
drill, falls a turning over of them abstractedly. By chance his hand rests
upon the little gray volume, the _Gebetbuch fuer Soldaten_. It opens in his
hand, and he comes and sits down by Gretchen and reads in a voice that
chokes sometimes, the


PRAYER IN STRAIT AND SORROW

O Lord Jesus Christ! let the crying and sighing of the poor come before
Thee. Withhold not Thy countenance from the tears and beseechings of the
woebegone. Help by Thine outstretched arm, and avert our sorrow from us.
Awake us who are lying dead in sin and in great danger, and whose thoughts
often wander from Thee. Let us trust with all our hearts that nothing can
be so broad, so deep, so high, nor so arduous that Thy grace and favour
cannot overcome it; that we so can and must be holpen out of every