months; shunting the workers off the main line of human progress to a siding, where they are out of sight and also out of mind.
But their toil is not lost. It will be seen again. The river of life is shut out from view by the fog of war; but it will be there when the fog is lifted. The buried seed will spring up again, if not with the crocus and the violet, then, a little later, with the roses that fling themselves in their glory over the cottage walls. The primal realities endure. All that altruism, urging itself upwards and forwards in ten thousand directions, though suddenly diverted from its course, and, maybe, hindered to some degree, will be found in the sum of things that make for human progress. War makes an end of building and shatters some of the creations of man; but his inward and spiritual work cannot perish. It belongs to eternity and bears its fruit in due season. The soul of the world is rent and tortured, and it is for a time, alas! for a long time, absorbed with its wounds; but healing is in its very structure, and when the balm of righteousness has done its work, the labours of the first seven months of 1914 will enrich and gladden the hearts of men.
There is one phase—and that the most important of all—of these first seven months that filled some observers with sadness and despondency and stirred others to penitence and shame; and, when it is fully understood, goes far to explain much of the suffering and misery that has crowded the five months which followed. The ethical and religious condition of the world from January to August was full of menace. The signs of reality and sincerity, of noble idealism and devotion to duty were far to seek. Indications of moral lapse were many. Seriousness was almost driven out of the life of most men; and even the avowed disciples of Jesus Christ were lacking in earnestness and passion; in eagerness to accept responsibility and make sacrifices. Institutional religion gave few signs of virility, of grasp of the situation, of the mastery of the ethical content of Christianity, of formative influence on life, on international relations, on industry and the wage-earning people, on the use of money and on society. The Churches were complaining of loss of members, of weakness and want of progress, of the rush for pleasure and luxury, of the disregard of righteousness and justice. What our predecessors called, in their direct way, the Seven Deadly Sins of Pride, Anger, Envy, Avarice, Sloth, Gluttony,
