compassion of a man for his wounded brother, of which the
very fabric of mercy is woven. There is too much death, too much
suffering. Men grow calloused. As yet the loss is not irretrievable,
but the war is still only a matter of months. What if it is to be of
years?

France and Belgium were suffering from a wave of atheism before the
war. But there comes a time in the existence of nations, as in the
lives of individuals, when human endeavour seems useless, when the
world and the things thereof have failed. At such time nations and
individuals alike turn at last to a Higher Power. France is on her
knees to-day. Her churches are crowded. Not perhaps since the days of
chivalry, when men were shriven in the churches before going out to
battle, has France so generally knelt and bowed her head--but it is to
the God of Battles that she prays.

On her battlefields the priests have most signally distinguished
themselves. Some have exchanged the soutane for the uniform, and have
fought bravely and well. Others, like the priests who stood firm in
the midst of Jordan, have carried their message of hope to the dying
into the trenches.

No article on the work of the Red Cross can be complete without a
reference to the work of these priests, not perhaps affiliated with
the society, but doing yeoman work of service among the wounded. They
are everywhere, in the trenches or at the outposts, in the hospitals
and hospital trains, in hundreds of small villages, where the entire
community plus its burden of wounded turns to the _cure_ for
everything, from advice to the sacrament.

In prostrate Belgium the demands on the priests have been extremely
heavy. Subjected to insult, injury and even death during the German
invasion, where in one diocese alone thirteen were put to death--their
churches destroyed, or used as barracks by the enemy--that which was
their world has turned to chaos about them. Those who remained with
their conquered people have done their best to keep their small
communities together and to look after their material needs--which
has, indeed, been the lot of the priests of battle-scarred Flanders
for many generations.

Others have attached themselves to the hospital service. All the
Belgian trains of wounded are cared for solely by these priests, who
perform every necessary service for their men, and who, as I have said
before, administer the sacrament and make coffee to cheer the flagging
spirits of the wounded, wi