er linings. If war brings out
the very worst in human nature it offers opportunity also for the
display of the very best. And, thank God, proofs of this are not
wanting among us, and it is better to let one's thought range the light
rather than the darkness.

What the future holds for us no man may safely say. Mighty changes
without a doubt. May they all be for the better! But if that is to be
it must be the work of every one amongst us. In this, as in everything
else, each one of us helps or hinders, makes or mars.

If, in some of these verses, I have endeavoured to strike a note of
warning, it is because the times, and the times that are coming, call
for it. May it be heeded!

That the end of the present world-strife must and will mark also the
end of the most monstrous tyranny and the most hideous conception of
"Kultur" the world has ever seen, no man for one moment doubts.

But that is not an end but a beginning. Unless on the ashes of the
past we build to nobler purpose, all our gallant dead will have been
thrown away, all this gigantic effort, with all its inevitable horror
and loss, will have been in vain.

It rests with each one among us to say that that shall not be,--that
the future shall repair the past,--that out of this holocaust of death
shall come new life.

It behoves every one of us, each in his and her own sphere, and each in
his and her own way, to strive with heart and soul for that mighty end.

JOHN OXENHAM.

CONTENTS

PART ONE: "ALL'S WELL!"

GOD IS
WATCHMAN! WHAT OF THE NIGHT?
FOR THE MEN AT THE FRONT
IN TIME OF NEED
CHRISTS ALL!
THE CROSS STILL STANDS!
WHERE ARE YOU SLEEPING TO-NIGHT, MY LAD?
BE QUIET!
TO YOU WHO HAVE LOST
LORD, SAVE THEIR SOULS ALIVE!
THE ALABASTER BOX
WHITE BROTHER
A LITTLE TE DEUM FOR THESE TIMES
THY WILL BE DONE!
DIES IRAE--DIES PACIS
JUDGMENT DAY
THE HIGH THINGS
THE EMPTY CHAIR
ROAD-MATES
ALPHA--OMEGA
HAIL!--AND FAREWELL!
A SILENT TE DEUM
THE NAMELESS GRAVES
BLINDED!
SAID THE WOUNDED ONE:----
OUR SHARE
POLICEMAN X.--EPILOGUE, 1914
THE MEETING-PLACE
VICTORY DAY
WHEN HE TRIES THE HEARTS OF MEN
POISON-SEEDS
THE WAR-MAKERS
IS LIFE WORTH LIVING?
GOD'S HANDWRITING

PART TWO: THE KING'S HIGH WAY

THE KING'S HIGH WAY
THE WAYS
AD FINEM
EVENING BRINGS US HOME
THE REAPER
NO MAN GOETH ALONE.
ROSEMARY
EASTER SUNDAY, 1916
THE CHILD OF THE MA