vision to which the soul and the nation can attain, that we count
ourselves rich, though so much has gone.

To think of what we might have been if we had refused to bear our
share--to look back on the evils of luxury and selfishness that were
creeping over us, makes us feel that we may have lost some things,
but "what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose
his own soul." And we have saved our soul. The souls of the nations
travail in a new birth through a night of agony and tears. The
purposes being worked out are so great, that it is difficult for us
to see them with our limited human vision, but in great moments of
insight we do see, and having seen, go back to our tasks in the light
of that vision, knowing that though now we fight in dim shadows with
monstrous and awful evils of mankind's creation, the day is coming
nearer and the light will come.

An age is dying and a new age comes, and what it shall be only the men
and women of the world can answer.




RECONSTRUCTION


"The tumult and the shouting dies--
The captains and the Kings depart--
Still stands thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts; be with us yet,