is being re-made; old
systems, hoary with age, are being destroyed. The birth of new movements
is on foot, new thoughts are in the air, new dreams are being dreamed,
and the new age is surely coming. But sometimes it seems as though we
have ears, and hear not,--eyes, and see not. God is speaking to us
aloud, calling us to repentance, and yet we do not hear His voice, or
seek His guidance. Still, we are on the eve of new movements, and out of
all the confusion will come a great order, and men will yet see the hand
of the Lord.'

His letter had scarcely reached me, when the news came that America had
declared war on Germany, and was to act on the side of the Allies. This
great free people, numbering a hundred million souls, made up of all
nationalities, yet welded into one great nation, had spoken, and had
spoken on the side of freedom and righteousness. Even the few who had
been downhearted took fresh courage at America's action. The thought
that the United States, with its almost illimitable resources of men, of
money, and of potentialities, was joining hands with us, made everything
possible. I was not surprised at receiving another letter from Edgecumbe.

'At last we have had a prophetic utterance,' he wrote. 'Wilson has
spoken, not merely as a politician, or as the head of the American
nation, but as a prophet of God. His every word made my nerves tingle,
my heart warm. As an Englishman, I felt jealous, and I asked why, during
these last months, there had been no voice heard in England, proclaiming
the idealism, the inwardness of this gigantic struggle? But as a citizen
of the world, I rejoiced with a great joy. I am inclined to think that
Wilson's speech will form a new era in the history of men. That for
which he contends will slowly percolate through the nations, and peoples
of every clime will know and understand that nothing can resist the will
of Almighty God.

'What pigmies we are, and for how little do the plans of individuals
count! God speaks, and lo the pomp of the Czar becomes but as chaff
which the wind drives away! Who would have believed a few months ago
that all the so-called glory of the Imperial House of the Romanoffs would
become the dream of yesterday? All the long line of Royal sons no longer
counts. Czardom with all it meant has gone for ever. The man, whose
word a few weeks ago meant glory or shame, life or death, is to-day an
exile, a prisoner. His word no more than the c