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reindeer stop feeding and move slowly toward the north, and then more and more rapidly until they disappear in the great forests.

Again and again here and there in the world, some man stops beside his plow, stops with his hammer lifted from his lap stone, with his needle drawn to the length of his thread, stops as he is throwing the shuttle back and forth, and asks, "Why?" and another and another asks, "Why?" and there is a revolution.

To-day there are seven million men under arms, facing each other in Europe, waiting until this king or that king sounds the word of onset. Some day these men will be hurled against each other. They do not know why. Their lives will be lost-always the lives of the common people; their treasures will be expended—always the treasure of the common people; the people's homes will be desolate, it is the people that have the debt resting upon them; the people that have the burden of taxes increased; the people that have the enjoyments of life lessened; the people that have the possibilities of life restricted. Little children will cry for their fathers, and wives for their husbands. A truce will be patched up, peace will be declared, and a few miles of soil will be taken from one country and given to another; some millions of dollars of indemnity will be paid, which too will be wrung from the people who knew nothing of this. But some day not long distant, men here and men there, in Russia, in Germany, in Italy, in France, will lift their heads and breathe God's free air, will whisper to each other, "Why?" and then there will be a revolution and a people's movement. And when it subsides, you may look over the world and not see a king on his throne. Then as the movement passes away and the smoke clears, you will see the United States of Europe-a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

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Families become extinct, names are wiped off of the peerage of England and out of the memory of man, but God's life is always in the world. He never leaves himself without a witness. His seven thousand multiplied becomes seventy thousand and seventy million that will not kiss the unclean thing, and will not bow before a lie. "One man, one vote," says Gladstone. Each man counts for one, but for no more than one with God. Each of us has a thing to do and a word to say, and that thing and that word means something in this great whole. Names are lost, names are obscured. God calls his leaders from cane-brakes and tow-paths and charcoal burner's huts, and from King's palaces, too. He is no respecter of persons.

At Marathon, Greek and Persian confronted each other determining which civilization, west or east, should rule the world. A few Greeks stood up and breasted the waves of the barbarians. Every man did his manliest. Suddenly there appeared among them a man clothed with goat skin and armed with a plowshare. Forward through the ranks unshielded he ran on and on, plowing his way through those hosts, making a way for the army, and when the deed was done they could not find him. He was a nameless man. They sent to Delphi to ask what was his name, that they might write it on enduring brass that a grateful nation might reward him, and the answer said, "Care for no name at all, say but just this: We praise one helpful, whom we call Echetlos, the holder of the plow-share."

No one

God's cause in this world rests on no man. man dare say, "I have been very jealous, and I alone, for the Lord of hosts, and they seek my life; what will become of this world?" "I am responsible; I hold the truth." But each of us may say, "I am a part of that innumerable company out of every country and nation and tongue; the multiplied forces of God's seven

thousand who have fought, wrought, and suffered for the truth, and with robes washed white in much suffering have come at last to sing the great triumphal song of those who fought. In this great chorus we have our part. In this great struggle we have our place to occupy and our stroke to strike. In this great march we have our place. Names count for nothing, and to our egotism God opposes this word: "I have always left seven thousand men whose lips have not kissed the unclean thing, and whose knees have not bowed to that which is false, or unjust, or unkind, or unhelpful.

May Thy blessing of grace and mercy and peace be with us. Strengthen us to do the thing Thou hast set us to do. Help us to say the word Thou hast given us to say. Each has part and place and use-little children, young men and women, men and women in mature life and old men and women. Help us to do the thing that lies next to us, to do it in courage and in hope. We work for the future as well as for to-day; for eternity as well as for time; for the world as well as for ourselves and our children. Weave all our work together in our consciousness as one great thing, so that we may not say "I" and "my" and "mine," but "ours" and "the world's" and "God's."

THE THINGS WHICH ABIDE.

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