The sun., 1918-10-20

SAVoo, thC h1iiu VA ldIuiiCoo thoS gu"
clearly all the suffering ahead, and met it
unfinchingly, yes, greeted it and grasped
it as the very end and aim of life.
And it is only when you in America
are ready and eager to suffer and to ac-
cept suffering as the source of strength
and the inspiration and end Of national
life-then and then only can we have hope
Of winning the war, and then and then
only can we feel that America is ready to
stand fast, to pay the cost, and be worthy
of the victory. When you are out on a
shell swept hill and the shells are going
by like bats out of hell, as the soldiers
say, and it's as dark as the grave, and
every man, God bless him! stands strong
and true, camouflaging all his own feel
ings for your sake and for the sake Of
what he has back home, meatless days
and wheatless days and Liberty bond cam
paigns seem cheap as your support Of
him in such an hour.
America Only IL Beginning.
These are ale necessary, know, but
they are only beginning, and such a
small beginning! And we who think over
here know that America is on the eve Of
its Passion, and we trust those who think
and lead in America to sound the depths
that are ahead and, as the Son of God
conquered through the Cross, so in our
own way we shall be victorious only
through the strength that comes by suf-
fering.
There is something SO wonderful about
the French people am billeted here in
what is left Of something that was once
home for some poor old souls. In the
remnants Of an old building next to me
there is an old French woman, pushing
ninety. She ought to have gone long ago,
but she hangs on because it has been home,
Yet as we sit together and warm our
selves before the little fire catch some Of
the spirit of France, and she says the
Boche cannot pass, as they said at Verdun,
and she says lie bon Dieu will soon send
the showers and sunshine to revive the
dropping feur de lis of France. And
sometimes when I am cropping am glad
to take her hand and be led out of the
darkness to the impregnable heights Of her
faith in God and His care for France.
When things are very lively-there is
an old wine cellar in the barnyard when
the Boche are out for murder-she says
"Dieu, lie bon," and it means everything
the good God-for she has found the one
thing that stands, and I think Of her in
her utter desolation in connection with
what St. Paul said Gas having nothing and
yet possessing all things"
! have just come over from the hospital
for the night and it is getting late, and
am afraid / have wearied you with this
long letter. Things are getting a bit
lively, and one lives under such conditions
with an entirely new outlook. 1t is great
to see the cheap and petty things swept
away and the best in human nature take
its proper place.
You Just feel that all the things that
sort of grew on them from their contact
with the cheap and sordid side of life in
the past have been cut away, and the
great and strong part left, the part that
belongs to God, and so 1 like to think
they 60 out to Him like heroes, leaving
behind all that belongs here. and just the
grand and great in them going Home to
God.
One Of them said to me yesterday: II
guess God will understandable tried to
do my best" 1t made me think Of those
last lines of Rostand's "Cyrano/ Do you
remember, as he dies surrounded by mag
mary enemies, he says TO them:
Roxane, when I enter Christi fair courts
tonight
And sweep with DOTTED casque Heavens
threshold blue,
One thing there is that void Of smutch or
stain
bear away despite you-.
And Roxane's question receives the an
SWpP.