e desired
than babies.

Here is an advertisement that appeared in the _Daily Chronicle_ of 29th
May 1917: 'Chapel-keepers, man and wife (no children), for large
Congregational church, Central London; must be total abstainers ... 5
rooms, coal and light provided.--Write ------, hon. secretary, ... E.C.
4.' I forbear giving the name of the Christian church that provides
five rooms for its 'keeper' and slams the door in the face of the
child. (The curious can find it in the files.) Even in this day, when
the child is so precious to the race, one can see unblushing
advertisements for gardeners and lodge-keepers with the clause 'no
children.' That the children of this world should act so is
deplorable; but that the children of the light should have 'five
rooms,' and in them all no place for a cradle--that suggests doom.
Think of that congregation hailing, with songs of rapture, the coming
of the Child; the preacher getting dewy over the callousness of the inn
in Bethlehem--and their own servants forbidden a child! ... It was
something like that which caused a prophet of old to exclaim--'Judgment
begins in the House of God.'

IV

At this Christmastide what we need most is to make room for the Child.
People are ever ready to make room for that which they recognise to be
precious. The most precious thing on earth is goodness. Give any
mother her choice of her son being rich and a rogue, or poor and good;
she will choose poverty. There is no power that builds up men and
women in unselfishness and goodness but the power that is radiated from
Him whose life on earth began in a manger. We must, if need be, cast
away our costliest treasures that we may make room.... In very truth
He cannot now be shut out altogether. No contumely will drive Him
hence. It is different now from the day when a woman groped her way in
agony to the asses and the stall. Different now, for He comes in
through the closed doors. That is how the world has not been able to
destroy Christianity; and that is how the Child conquers at the last.

CHAPTER X

DOMINION FROM SEA TO SEA

No part of the Empire rendered the cause of the world's soul in the
world war greater service than Canada. When the clouds of chlorine gas
were let loose it was the Canadians who stopped the gap through which
the torrent of destruction was flowing. And the question the wounded
men gasped out of tortured throats and lungs was not 'Shall I live?'
but 'Did