CHAPTER XV

M. LE POILU

I

If you had ventured into Bar-le-Duc during the stormy days of 1916, when the waves of the German ocean beat in vain against the gates of Verdun, you might have thought that the entire French army was quartered there. Soldiers were everywhere. The station-yard was a wilderness of soldiers. In faded horizon-blue, muddy, inconceivably dirty, with that air of _je ne sais quoi de fagoté_ which distinguishes them, they simply took possession of the town. The _pâtisseries_ were packed--how they love cakes, _choux-à-la-crême_, _brioches_, _madeleines_, tarts!--the Magasins Réunis was a tin in which all the sardines were blue and all had been galvanised into life; fruit-shops belched forth clouds that met, mingled and strove with clouds that sought to envelop the vacated space; in the groceries we, who were women and mere civilians at that, stood as suppliants, "with bated breath and whispering humbleness," and generally stood in vain. But for Madame I verily believe we would have starved. Orderlies from officers' messes away up on the Front drove, rode or trained down with lists as long as the mileage they covered, lists that embraced every human need, from flagons of costly scent to tins of herrings or _pâté-de-foie-gras_, or _Petit Beurre_, _Lulu_ (the most insinuating _Petit Beurre_ in the world), from pencils and notepaper to soap, from asparagus and chickens--twelve francs each and as large as a fair-sized snipe--to dried prunes and hair-oil. We even heard of one _popotte_ which pooled resources and paid twenty-five francs for a lobster, but perhaps that tale was merely offered as a tax upon our credulity.

Bar-le-Duc was delirious. Never had it known such a reaping, never had it heard of such prices. It rose dizzily to an occasion which would have been sublime but for the inhumanity of the _Petite Vitesse_ which, lacking true appreciation of the situation, sat down upon its wheels and ceased to run.

Not that the _Petite Vitesse_ was really to blame. It yearned to indulge in itinerant action, but there was Verdun, with its gargantuan mouths wide open, all waiting to be fed, and all clamouring for men, munitions and _ravitaillement_ of every kind. In those days all roads led to Verdun--all except one, and that the Germans were hysterically treading.

However, we wasted no sympathy on the shopkeepers. Their complete indifference to our needs drove every melting tenderness from our hearts, or, to be quite accurate, drove it in another direction--that of the poor _poilu_ who had no list and no fat wallet bulging with hundred-franc notes. And I think he richly deserved all the sympathy we could give him. Think of the streets as I have described them when talking of the Marché Couvert, call to mind every discomfort that weather can impose, add to them, multiply them exceedingly, and then extend them beyond the farthest bounds of reason, and you have Bar in the spring of 1916. Cold, wet, snow, sleet, slush, wind, mud, rain--interminable rain--did their worst with us, and in them all and under most soldiers lived in the streets. The _débitants_ and café-restaurants were closed during a great part of the day, there was literally nowhere for them to go. They huddled like flocks of draggled birds in the station-yard, some in groups, some in serried mass before the barrier, some stamping up and down, some sitting on the kerb or on the low stone parapet from which the railings spring, and while some, pillowing their heads on their kits, went exhaustedly to sleep, others crouched with their backs against the wall. They ate their bread, opened their tins of _conserve_--generally potted meat or sardines--sliced their cheese with a pocket-knife, or absorbed needed comfort from bottles which, for all their original dedication, were rarely destined to hold water! On the Canal bank they sat or lay in the snow, on ground holding the seeds of a dozen chilly diseases in its breast; on the river banks they sprang up like weeds, on the Boulevard every seat had its quota, and we have known them to have it for the night. In all the town there was not a canteen or a _foyer_, not a hut nor a camp, not a place of amusement (except a spasmodic cinema), not a room set apart for their service. They might have been Ishmaels; they must have been profoundly uncomfortable.

Yet no one seemed to realise it. That was the outstanding explosive feature of the case. Late in the spring, towards the end of April or in May, buffets were opened in the station-yard under the ægis of the Croix Rouge. At one of these ham, sardines, bread, post cards, tobacco, chocolate, cakes, matches, _pâté_, cheese, etc., could be bought; at the other wine, and possibly beer. The space between was not even roofed over, and, their small purchases made, the men had to consume them--when eatable--in the open. But of real solicitude, in the British sense of the word, for their comfort there was none.

France has shown herself mighty in many ways during the war, but--with the utmost diffidence I suggest it--not in her care for the men who are waging it. Our Tommies, with their Y.M.C.A. huts and Church Army and Salvation huts, with their hot baths, their sing-songs in every rest-camp, their clouds of ministering angels, their constellations of adoring satellites waiting on them hand and foot, are pampered minions compared with the French soldier. For him there is neither Y.M.C.A., Church Army nor Salvation Army. He comes, some three thousand of him, _en repos_ to a tiny village, such as Fains or Saudrupt, Trémont or Bazincourt, he is crowded into barns, granges, stables and lofts, he is route-marched by day, he is neglected by evening. No one worries about him. Amusement, distraction there is none. No club-room where he may foregather comfortably, no cheery canteen with billiards and games, no shops in which if he has money he can spend it. Blank, cheerless, uncared-for nothingness. He gets into mischief--what can you expect? He goes back to the trenches, and shamed eyes are averted and hearts weighed with care hide behind bravado as he goes.

Sometimes you hear, "The men are so weary and so dispirited they do no harm." They are like dream people, moving through a world of shadows. Those who go down into hell do not come back easily to the things of earth. Sometimes you hear tales that make you wince. The pity of it! And sometimes you meet young girls who, tempted beyond their strength, are paying the price of a sin whose responsibility should rest on other shoulders.

"My friend the Aumonier at F---- does not know what to do with his men," said the Abbé B. to me one day. "They are utterly discouraged, he cannot rouse them; they vow they will not go back to the trenches." And then he talked of agitators who tried to stir up disaffection in the ranks, Socialist leaders and the like. (France has her Bolos to meet even in the humblest places.) But I could not help thinking that the good Aumonier's task would have been a lighter one had plenty of wholesome recreation been provided for his men in that super-stupid, dull and uninteresting village of F----.[11]

[11] It must be remembered that there is no one in such villages or their immediate neighbourhood capable of initiating such recreation. The inhabitants are of the small farmer class for the most part, the mayor a working man, the parish priest old (priests of military age serve with the colours), and all are often very poor.

The migratory soldier going to or from leave, or changing from one part of the Front to another, might, as we have seen, wait hours at a junction, cold and friendless, without where to lay his head. And just why it was not particularly easy to discover. We divined a psychological problem, we never really resolved it.

Does logic, carried to its ultimate conclusion, leave humanity limping behind it on the road?

Or are the French the victims of their own history? Did not the Revolution sow the seeds of deep distrust between aristocracy and bourgeoisie and, more than that, sow an even deeper distrust between bourgeois and bourgeois? During the Reign of Terror the man who dined with you to-night all too often betrayed you on the morrow, neighbour feared neighbour, and with terrible justification, the home became a fortress round which ran a moat of silence and reserve, the family circle became the family horizon, people learned to live to themselves, to mind their own business and let the devil or who would mind that of their neighbours.

When England was blossoming in a springtime of altruism, when great-minded men and women were learning that the burden of the poor, the sick, the suffering was their burden to be shouldered and carried and passed from hand to hand, France was still maimed and battered by blows from which she has scarcely yet recovered.

Even to-day French women tell me of the isolation of their upbringing. "Our father discouraged intercourse with the families about us."

But that narrow individualism--or, more properly, tribalism--is, I think, dying out, and the present war bids fair to give it its death-stroke.

Behind the Revolution lay no fine feudal instinct, no traditions save those of bitter hatred and of resentment on the one hand, of contempt and oppression on the other. Not, it will be acknowledged, the best material out of which to reconstitute a broken world. And so what might be called collective sympathy was a feeble plant, struggling pitifully in unfavourable soil. The great upper class which has made England so peculiarly what she is scarcely existed in France. The old aristocracy passed away, the new sprang from the Napoleonic knapsack; Demos in a gilt frame, a Demos who had much to forget and infinitely more to learn.

Some philanthropic societies, of course, existed before the war, but, so far as my knowledge of them goes, they were run by the State or by its delegates, the iron hand of officialdom closed down upon them, they made little if any claim upon the heart of the people. Perhaps in a nation of such indomitable independence no more was necessary, but what was necessary--if I may dare to say so--was large-hearted sympathy and understanding between class and class--a common meeting-ground, in fact.

So, at least, I read the problem, and offer you my solution for what it is worth, uncomfortably aware that wiser heads than mine may laugh me out of court and sentence me to eternal derision.

One thing, at least, I do not wish, and that is to bring in a verdict of general inhumanity and hard-heartedness against the French nation. A certain imperceptiveness, lack of intuition, of insight, of the sympathetic imagination--call it what you will--is, perhaps, theirs in a measure; but, on the other hand, the individual responds quickly, even emotionally, to an appeal to his softer side. Only he has not acquired the habit of exposing his soft side to view and asking the needy to lean upon it! Nor has he acquired the habit of going forth to look for people ready to lean. He accepts the _status quo_. But prove to him that it needs altering, and he is with you heart and hand. His is an attitude of mind, not of heart. When the heart is touched the mind becomes its staunchest ally. The feeding of the refugees done on lavish scale, the installation of a hostel for the relatives of men dying in hospital are instances of what I mean. For months, years, poor women, wives and mothers coming to take their last farewell of those who gave their lives for France, had no welcome in Bar. All too often they were unable to find a bed, they wandered the streets when the hospitals were closed against them, they slept in the station. Then a _Médicin-Chef_, with a big heart and reforming mind, suggested that the refugee dormitories in the market should be converted into a hostel. No sooner suggested than done. The "Maison des Parents" sprang into life, a tiny charge was made for _le gîte et la table_, voluntary helpers served the meals, organised, catered, kept the accounts. France only needs to be shown the way. One day she will seek it out for herself. Every day she is finding new roads. And this I am sure every one who has worked as our Society has done will endorse, no appeal has ever been made in vain to those who, like our friends in Bar-le-Duc and elsewhere, gave with unstinting generosity and without self-advertisement.

II

Think, too, of the hospitals. The call of the wounded was answered magnificently. Remember that before the war French hospitals were very much where ours were in the days of Mrs. Gamp, and before Florence Nightingale carried her lamp through their dark and noisome places. It is said that the nursing used to be done by nuns for the most part, a fact of which the Government took no cognisance when it drove the religious orders from the country, and when they went away it fell into the hands of riff-raff. Women of no character, imported by students as worthless as themselves, masqueraded as ministering angels, and it is safe to assume that they neither ministered nor were angelic. Gentlewomen, even the _petit bourgeoisie_, drew their skirts aside from such creatures. The woman of good birth and education who became a nurse, not only violated her code by earning her living, but cut her social cables and drifted out upon an almost uncharted sea. Only the few who were brave enough to attempt it trained (if my authorities are reliable) in England, and no doubt it was owing in large measure to them that a movement for re-organising the hospitals was set on foot. But before the project could mature the church bells, ringing out their call to arms, rang out a call to French women too, and gathered them into the nursing profession.

Perhaps that is why the hale, hearty, often dirty, and by no means always respectful _poilu_ has been neglected. Woman seeing him wounded had no eye for him whole. Besides, he is rather a bewildering thing; his gods are not her gods, his standards not her standards, she is--dare I whisper it?--just a little afraid of him, as we are apt to be of the thing we do not understand. All her instinct has bidden her banish him from her orbit, but insensibly, inevitably he is beginning to move in it, to worm himself in. Wounded, she has him at her mercy, and when, repaired, patched and nursed into the semblance of a man again, he goes back to the trenches surely she can never think of him in the old way, or look at him from the old angle? As your true democrat is at heart a complete snob, the poor _poilu_ used to be, and is probably to a large extent still, looked down upon as an inferior being. Conscription rubbed the hero from him, but the human being is beginning to emerge.

It is possible that in the hospitals another revolution is taking place which, if unseen and unguessed at, may be scarcely less far-reaching in its effects than the old. It has at least drawn the women outside the charmed circle of the home, it is bringing them hourly into contact with a side of life which, but for the war, might have remained a closed book whose pages they would always have shrunk from turning. Such close contact with human agony, endurance and death cannot leave them unmoved, and though they have not yet thoroughly mastered the knack of making hospitals HOMES, though many little comforts, graces and refinements that we think essential are missing, still, when one remembers the overwhelming ignorance with which they began and the difficulties they had to contend with, we must concede that they have done wonders. For, unlike our V.A.D.s, they did not step into up-to-date, well-appointed wards with lynx-eyed sisters, steeped in the best traditions, waiting to instruct them. Experience was their teacher. They were amateurs doing professional work, and without discredit to them we may sympathise with the soldiers who, transferred from a hospital under British management to one run by their own compatriots, wept like children. Which shows that though we may deny him the quality, the _poilu_ appreciates and is grateful for a good dose of judicious petting.

III

Yes! The _poilu_ deserves our sympathy. He is, to my mind, one of the most tragic figures of the war. He is pursued by a fatalism as relentless as it is hopeless, and whether he is ill or well is subjected to much unnecessary discomfort. He hates war, he hates the trenches, he loathes the life of the trenches, he wants nothing so much in the world as his own hearthstone. He is often despairing, and convinced of defeat. ("Mademoiselle, never can we drive the Boche from his trenches, _never_!") and yet he goes on. There lies the hero in him--he goes on. Not one in a hundred of him has Tommy's cheery optimism, unfailing good-humour, cheerful grumble and certainty of victory. And yet he goes on! He sings _L'Internationale_, he vows in regiments that "on ne marchera plus. C'est fini"--but he goes on. He is really rather wonderful, for he has borne the brunt of heavy fighting for more than three years, and behind him is no warm barrage of organised care, of solicitude for his welfare, or public ministration to shield him from the devils of depression and despair. His wife, his sister, his mother may pinch and starve to send him little comforts, but he is conscious of the pinching, he has not yet got the great warm heart of a generous nation at his back. Think of his pay, of his separation allowances (those of the refugees, one franc twenty-five per day per adult, fifty centimes per day per child), and then picture him fighting against heavy odds, standing up to and defying the might of Germany at Verdun. Isn't he wonderful?

He seems to have no hope of coming through the war alive. In canteen, in the train, in the kitchens of the refugees you may hear him say, "At Verdun or on the Somme, what matter? It will come some time, and best for those to whom it comes quickly."

"Ceux qui cherchent la mort ne la trouve jamais." The speaker was a quick, vivid thing, obviously not of the working classes. He had been _cité_ (mentioned) more than once, and offered his stripes with a view to a commission several times, but had always refused them. "For me, I do not mind, but think of the responsibility ... to know that the lives of others hung upon you, your coolness, quickness, readiness of decision. _Impossible!_ And it is the sergeants who die. The mortality among them is higher than in any other rank. They must expose themselves more, you see.... Oh yes, there are men who are afraid, and there are men who try to die." It was then he added, "But those who seek death never find it. The man who hesitates, who peers over the top of the trench, who looks this way and that, wondering if the moment is good, he gets killed; but the man who is not afraid, the man who wants to die, he rushes straight out, he rushes straight up to the Boche ... he is never hurt."

And then he and his companion talked of men who longed to die, who courted death but in vain. Both expressed a quiet, unemotional conviction that Death would come to them before long. And both wore the Croix de Guerre.

Old Madame Leblan--you remember her?--had a nephew whom she loved as a son. He and her own boys had grown up together, and she would talk to me of Paul by the hour. He saw all the Verdun fighting, and before that much that was almost as fierce; he visited her during every leave, he brought her and her family gifts, napkin-rings, pen-handles, paper-cutters, finger-rings, all sorts of odds and ends made in the trenches from shell-cases and the like. He was always cheery, always sure he would come again. Paul was like a breeze of sunny wind, he never lost heart, he never lost hope--until they gave him his commission. He refused it over and over again. Then his Colonel, taxing him with want of patriotism, forced him to accept it. That week he wrote to Madame. He told her of his promotion, adding, "In a fortnight I shall get leave, so I am looking forward to seeing you all, unless...."

She showed me the letter. She pointed to that significant "unless...."

"Never have I known Paul to write like that. Always he said I will come." Her heart was full of foreboding, and next time I saw her she took out the letter with shaking hands. Paul was dead.

"He knew," she said, as she wept bitterly; "he knew when he took his commission."

A reconnaissance from which all his men got back safely, Paul last of all, crawling on hands and knees ... raises himself to take a necessary observation ... a sniper ... a swift bullet ... a merciful death ... and an old heart bleeding from a wound that will never heal.

"If we see Death in front of us we care no more for it than we do for that." A Zouave held a glass of lemonade high above the canteen counter. "For that is the honour of the regiment. Death?" he shrugged. "One will die, _sans doute_. At Verdun, on the Somme, _n'importe_! My _copain_ here has been wounded twice. And I? I had two brothers, they are both in your cemetery here. Yes, killed at Verdun, M'amzelle; I was wounded. Some day I suppose that we, _nous aussi_...." Again he shrugged. "Will you give me another lemonade?"

He and his companion wore the _fourragère_, the cord of honour, given to regiments for exceptional gallantry in the field. They had been at Vaux. And what marvels of endurance and sheer pluck the Zouaves exhibited there are matters now of common knowledge. Personally, I nourish a calm conviction that but for them and their whirlwind sacrifice Verdun must have fallen.

IV

Fatalists? Yes. But a thousand other things besides. It is useless to try and offer you the _poilu_ in tabloid form, he refuses to be reduced to a formula. The pessimist of to-day is the inconsequent child of to-morrow. You pity him for his misfortunes, and straightway he makes you yearn to chastise him for his impertinence. His manners--especially in the street--like the Artless Bahdar's, "are not always nice." He can be, and all too often is, frankly indecent; indeed there are hours when you ask yourself wildly whether indecency is not just a question of opinion, and whether standards must shift when frontiers are crossed, and a new outlook on life be acquired as diligently and as open-mindedly as one acquires--or strives to!--a Parisian accent.

It is, of course, in the canteen that he can be studied most easily. There you see him in all his moods, and there you need all your wits about you if you are not to be put out of court a hundred times a day. Canteens are, as we have seen, accidental luxuries on the French front. They took root in most inhospitable soil. As happy hunting-grounds for the pacifists and anti-war agitators they were feared, their value as restoratives (I speak temperamentally, not gastronomically) being practically unknown. But once known it was recognised. The canteen at Bar-le-Duc, for instance, has been the means of opening up at least two others, though the opinion of one General, forcibly expressed when it was in process of installation, filled its promoters with darkest gloom.

"There will not be an unsmashed bowl, cup or plate in a week. The men will destroy everything." And therein proved himself a false prophet, for the men destroyed nothing--except our faith in that General's knowledge of them!

Once, indeed, we did see them in unbridled mood, and many and deep were the complications that followed it. It was New Year's Eve, and as I crossed the station yard I could hear wild revelry ascending to the night. (Perhaps at this point it would be as well to say that the canteen was not run by or connected in any way with our Society, and that I and two members of the _coterie_ worked there as supernumeraries in the evenings when other work was done. The fourth and by no means last member was one of the fairy godmothers whose magic wand had waved it into being.) Going in, I found it as usual in a fog of smoke, and thronged with men. Now precisely what befell it would take too long to relate, but I admit you to some esoteric knowledge. The evening, for me, began with songs sung in chorus, passed swiftly to solos which blistered the air, and which would have been promptly silenced had not Authority warned us "to leave the men alone, they are in dangerous mood to-night." (A warning with which one helper, at least, had no sympathy.) It may safely be assumed that there was much in those songs which we did not understand, but, judging by what we did, ignorance was more than bliss, it was the topmost pinnacle of discretion.

The soloist hoarse (he should have had a megaphone, so terrific was the din), his place was taken by a creature so picturesque that all my hearts went out to him at once. (It is as well to take a few hundred with you when you go to France, they have such a trick of mislaying themselves.) He was tall and slender, finely made, splendidly poised, well-knit, a graceful thing with finished gestures, and he wore a red fez, wide mustard-coloured trousers and a Zouave coat. He was singularly handsome with chiselled features and eyes of that deep soft brown that one associates with the South. Furthermore, he possessed no mean gift of oratory.

He stood on the bench that did duty as a platform. Jan Van Steen might have painted the canteen then, or would he have vulgarised it? In spite of everything, in some indefinable way it was not vulgar, and yet we instinctively felt that it ought to have been. What saved it? Ah, that I cannot tell. Perhaps the dim light, or the faint blueish haze of tobacco smoke, the stacked arms, trench-helmets hanging on the walls. Or else that wonderful horizon-blue, a colour that is capable of every artistic _nuance_, that lures the imagination, that offers a hundred beauties to the eye, and can resolve itself as exquisitely against the dark boarding of a canteen as against the first delicate green of spring, or against autumn woods a riot of colour.

Now the speech of that graceless creature, swaying lightly above the crowd, was everything that a canteen or war-time speech ought not to be. It began with abuse of capitalists--well, they deserved it, perhaps. It taxed them with all responsibility for the war, it yearned passionately to see them in the trenches. There, at least, we were in accord. We know a few.... But when it went on to say that the masses who fought were fools, that they should "down tools," that the German is too rich, too powerful, too well-organised, too supreme a militarist ever to be defeated.... Then British pride arose in arms.... Just what might have happened I cannot say, for French pride arose too, and as it rose the orator descended, and holy calm fell for a moment upon the raging tumult.

It was indeed a hectic evening, and I, for one, was hoarse for two days after it. Even "Monsieur désire?" or "Ça fait trente-trois sous, Monsieur," was an exercise requiring vocal cords of steel or of wire in such a hubbub, and mine, alas! are of neither.

But the descent of the orator was not the end. Somehow, no matter how, it came to certain ears that the canteen that night had been the scene of an "orgy," the reputation of France was at stake, and so it befell that one afternoon when the thermometer sympathetically registered twenty-two degrees of frost, Colonel X. interviewed those of us who had assisted at the revels, separately one by one, in the little office behind the canteen. He wanted, it seems, to find out exactly what had happened. Well, he found out!

Put to the question, "Colonel X.," quoth I, not knowing the enormity I was committing, "the men had drunk a little too much."

"But, Mademoiselle," his dignity was admirable, reproof was in every line of his exquisitely-fitting uniform, "soldiers of France are never drunk."

"Then"--this very sweetly--"can you tell me where they get the wine?"

And he told me! He ought to have shot me, of course, and no doubt I should richly have deserved it. But inadvertently I had touched upon one of his pet grievances. The military authorities can close the _débitants_ and restaurants, but they cannot close the _épiceries_.

"Every grocer in France," he cried, "can get a license to sell wine. He sends a small boy--_un vrai gosse_--to the Bureau, he stamps a certificate, he pays a few francs, and that is all. A soldier can fill his bottle at any grocer's in the town. Why," he went on, the original cause of our interview forgotten and the delinquent turned confidante, "not long ago I entrained a regiment here sober, Mademoiselle, I assure you sober, but when they arrived at R---- they were drunk. And the General was furious. 'What do you mean by sending me drunken soldiers?' he thundered. They had filled their bottles, they were thirsty in the train...."

But officially, you understand, soldiers of France are never drunk. Actually they seldom are. Coming home after six months in Bar, I saw more soldiers under the influence of drink in a week (it included a journey to Ireland in a train full of ultra-cheerful souls) than in all my time in France. That men who were far from sober came occasionally to the canteen cannot be denied, there are rapscallions in every army, but the percentage was small, and with twenty-two degrees of frost gnawing his vitals there is excuse for the man who solaces himself with wine.

V

It was characteristic of the French mind that Colonel X. could not understand why we did not call the station guard and turn the rioters into the street. To wander about in that bitter wind, to get perhaps into all sorts of trouble! Better a rowdy canteen a hundred times over.

We were frank enough--at least I know I was--on that aspect of the episode, and, all honour to him, he conceded a point though he failed to understand its necessity. But now, as at so many pulsating moments of my career, the ill-luck that dogs me seized me in the person of the Canteen-Chief and removed me from the room. She, poor ignorant dear, thought I was being indiscreet, whereas I was merely being receptive. I am sure I owe that Canteen-Chief a grudge, and I HOPE the Colonel thinks he does, but on that point his discretion has been perfect.

Only in the very direst extremity would we have called in the station guard. We knew the deep-seated animosity with which the soldier views the gendarme. I may be wrong, but my firm impression is that he hates him even more than, or quite as much, as he hates the Boche. I suppose because he does not fight. There must be something intensely irritating to a war-scarred soldier in the sight of a strapping, well-fed, comfortable policeman. You know the story of the wounded Tommy making his way back from the lines and being accosted by a red-cap?

"'Some' fight, eh?" he inquired blandly.

"Some don't," retorted Tommy, and that sums the situation up more neatly than a volume of explanation.

Once, after the Walpurgis Night, a man chose to be noisy and slightly offensive in the canteen. It was a thing that rarely happened, and could always be dealt with, but, smarting possibly under a reprimand, the guard rushed in, seized a quiet, inoffensive, rather elderly man who was meekly drinking his coffee, and in spite of remonstrances and protestations in which the canteen-workers joined, dragged him off, cutting his throat rather badly with a bayonet in the scuffle. A little incident which in no way inclined us to lean for support, moral or otherwise, upon the guardians of military law. But we gave them their coffee or chocolate piping hot just the same.

And there were weeks when hot drinks were more acceptable than would have been promise of salvation.

"Bien chaud" ("Very hot") they would cry, coming in with icicles on their moustaches and snow thick on their shoulders. Once an officer asked for coffee.

"Very hot, please."

"It is boiling, Monsieur." He gulped it down.

"It is the first hot food I have tasted for fourteen days."

"From Vaux?" we asked.

"Yes, front line trenches. Everything frozen, the wine in the wine-casks solid. Yes, another bowl, please."

Once another officer came in accompanied by an older man whom we thought must be his father. He begged for water.

"It comes straight from the main tap, it is neither filtered nor boiled," we told him.

"_N'importe._" No, he would not have tea nor coffee. Water, cold water. He had a raging, a devouring thirst. A glass was filled and given him.

"Suppose Monsieur gets typhoid?"

"He has it now," the elderly man replied. "His temperature is high, that is why he has so great thirst." The patient drank another glass. Then they both went away. We often wondered whether he recovered.

Once, at least, our hearts went out to another sick man. He leaned against the counter with pallid face, over which the sweat of physical weakness was breaking. Questioned, he told us he had just been discharged from hospital, he was going back to the trenches, to Verdun, in the morning. He looked as if he ought to have been in his bed. I wonder if any society exists in France with the object of helping such men? We never heard of one (which by no means proves that it does not exist), but oh, how useful it might have been in Bar! One morning, for instance, a man tottered into the canteen, ordered a cup of coffee, drank, laid his head down on the table and fell into a stupefied doze. So long did he remain the canteeners became anxious. Presently he stirred, and told them that he had come there straight from a hospital, that he was going home on leave, that his home was far--perhaps two days' journey--away, and he had not a sou in his pocket. He was by no means an isolated case. As a packet of food was being made up for him, a soldier, obviously a stranger to the sick man, ordered _deux œufs sur-le-plat_."

"They are not for myself," he said, "but for the pal here." A little act of good comradeship that was by no means the only one of its kind.

The moment which always thrilled was that in which a regimental Rothschild treated his companions to the best of our store. How eagerly and exhaustively the list of _boissons_ was studied!

"Un café? C'est combien? Deux sous? ce n'est pas cher ça." Then to a friend, "Qu'est-ce-que-tu-prends?"

"Moi? je veux bien un café."

"No, non, un chocolat. C'est très bon le chocolat." The coffee lover wavers.

"Soit. Un chocolat alors." Then some one else cannot make up his mind. A bearded man pouring _bouillon_ down his throat recommends that. It is excellent. The merits of soup are discussed. Then back they go to coffee again, and all the time as seriously as if the issue of the war depended upon their deliberations. At length, however, a decision is made--not without much pleading for _gniolle_ (rum) on the part of Rothschild. "A drop? Just a tiny drop, Mad'm'zelle. Eh, there is none? _Mais comment ça?_ How can one drink a _jus_ (coffee) without _gniolle_? Mad'm'zelle is not kind." He would wheedle a bird from the bushes, but happily for our strength of mind there is no drink stronger than _jus_ in the canteen, a fact he finds it exceedingly difficult to believe. We know that when at last he accepts defeat he is convinced that fat bottles lie hidden under the counter to be brought forth for one whose powers of persuasion are greater than his. He loads his bowls on a tray, carries them by some occult means unbroken through the throng, and has his reward when the never-failing ceremony of clinking bowls or glasses with _Bonne chance!_ or _Bonne Santé!_ or _À vous_, prefaces the feast.

A pretty rite that of the French. Never did two comrades drink together in the canteen without doing it reverence. Never did I, visiting a refugee, swallow, for my sins, _vin ordinaire rouge_ in which a lump of sugar had been dissolved without first clinking glasses with my hosts and murmuring a "Good health," or "Good luck," and feeling strangely and newly in sympathy with them as I did so. The little rite invested commonplace hospitality with grace and spiritual meaning.

VI

However, you must not think that the canteen kept us in a state of soppy sentiment, or even of perfervid sympathy. Sanity was the mood that suited it best. Presence of mind the quality that made for success. A sense of humour the saving grace that made both the former possible. When a thin, dark individual leans upon the counter for half an hour or more, silent, ruminative, pondering--it is a quiet night, no rush--gather your forces together. His eyes follow you wherever you go, you see revelations hovering on his lips. You become absorbed in ham or sausage (horse-sausage is incredibly revolting), but your absorption cannot last. Even sausages fail to charm, and then the dark one sees his opportunity. He leans towards you ... His faith in himself must be immense.... Does he really think that a journey to Paris at 2 a.m. in an omnibus train and a snowstorm can tempt you? If we had consoled all the lonely _poilus_ who offered us--temporarily--their hands, their hearts and their five sous a day we should now be confirmed bigamists.

Or it may be that you are busy and contemplation of sausage unnecessary. Then he sets up a maddening _Dîtes, dîtes, dîtes, Mad'm'zelle_, that drives you to distraction. To silence him is impossible. Indifference leaves him unmoved. He is like a clock in a nightmare that goes on striking ONE!

That he has an eye for beauty goes without saying. "Voilà, une jolie petite brune! Vas-y." So two vagabonds catching sight of a decorative canteener, and off they go to discuss the price of ham, for only by such prosaic means can Sentiment leap over the counter. He addresses you by any and every name that comes into his head. "La mère," "la patronne" (these before he grasped the fact that the canteen was an _œuvre_ and not a commercial enterprise), "la petite," "la belle," "la belle Marguerite," "la Frisée," "la Dame aux Lunettes," "la petite Rose," and many others I have forgotten.

Indeed, the French aptitude for nicknames based on physical attributes was constantly thrust on us. The refugees, finding our own names uncomfortable upon the tongue, fell back on descriptive nomenclature. "La Blonde," "la Blanche," for the fair-haired. "La Grande," "la Belle," "la belle Dame au Lunettes," "la petite bleue," "la Directrice," "la grande dame maigre." And once when a bill was in dispute in a shop the proprietress exclaimed, "Is it that you wish to know who bought the goods? It was la petite qui court toujours et qui est toujours si pressée" (the little lady who always runs and is always in such a hurry). As a verbal snapshot it has never been equalled. It would have carried conviction in any court in the country.

But most of all the heart of the soldier rejoices when he can call you his _marraine_ (godmother). That we, mere English, pursued by ardent souls, should sometimes be compelled to send out S.O.S. messages to our comrades; that, feeling the mantle of our dignity slipping perilously from our shoulders, we should cast aside our remote isolation and engage the worker in the "next department" in animated conversation, was only to be expected. But our hearts rejoiced and the imps in us danced ecstatically when Madame D. was discovered one day hiding in the office. She, splendid ally that she always was, volunteered to sit at the receipt of custom on certain afternoons each week, and, clad in her impenetrable panoply, at once suavely polite, gracious but infinitely aloof, to sell _tickés_ with subdued but inextinguishable enjoyment. But a lonely _poilu_ strayed by who badly needed a _marraine_, and so persistent was he in his demands, so irresistible in his pleadings, so embarrassing in his attentions, Madame, the panoply melting and dignity snatched by the winds, fled to the office, from whence no persuasions could lure her till the lonely one had gone his unsatisfied way.

It is the man from the _pays envahi_ who, most of all, needs a _marraine_, e. g. a sympathetic, sensible woman who will write to him, send him little gifts and take an interest in his welfare. Because all too often he stands friendless and alone. His relatives, his family having remained in their homes, between him and them lies silence more awful than death. He is a prey to torturing fears, he endures much agony of mind, dark forebodings hang about him like a miasma poisoning all his days. No news! And his loved ones, in the hands of a merciless foe, may be in the very village the French or the British are shelling so heavily! From his place in the trenches he may see the tall chimneys, the church spire in the distance. He has been gazing yearningly at them for two years, has seen landmarks crumble and steeples totter as the guns searched out first one, then another.... A _marraine_ may well save the reason of such men as these. She can assuredly rob life of much of its bitterness, and inspire it with hope and courage to endure.

One of these men who came from Stenay told us of his misery. He had done well in the army, had been promoted, might have been commissioned, but his loneliness, the vultures of conjecture that tugged at his heart, his longing and his grief overwhelmed him one night, and seeking distraction in unwise ways he fell into dire trouble, and was reduced to the ranks....

And yet, though I write of these poor derelicts, it is the gay and gallant who holds my imagination. The thing of the "glad eye," and the swagger, the jest, "Going _en permission_, Mad'm'zelle," the happiest thing in France! It is he, the irrepressible, who carries gaiety through the streets as he rolls by in his _camions_; he sings, he plays discordant instruments, he buys _couronnes_ of bread, he shouts to the women. "Ah, la belle fille!" "Mad'm'zelle, on aura un rendez-vous là-bas." Sometimes he is more explicit:--intermittent deafness is an infirmity of psychological value in the War Zone! And he thoroughly enjoys the canteen. He likes "ploom-cak," he likes being waited on by _Les Anglaises_, he likes the small refinements (though now and then he "borrows" the forks), he appreciates generosity, he is by no means ungrateful (see him pushing a few coppers across the counter with a shamefaced "C'est pour l'œuvre"), and at his worst, least controlled, most objectionable, he can be shamed into silence or an apology by a few firm or tactful words.

A bewildering thing! If I wrote of him for ever I should not be able to explain him.

ENVOI

And so the tale is written, and the story told in strange halting numbers that can but catch here and there at the great melody of the human symphony.

Just for one moment one may lay one's finger on the pulse of a great nation, feel its heart beat, feel the quivering, throbbing life that flows through its veins, but more than that who dare hope to gain? Not in one phase, nor in one era, not in one great crisis nor even in a myriad does the heart of a people express itself fully. From birth to death, from its first feeble primitive struggles as it emerges from the Womb of Time to its last death-throe as it sinks back again into the Nothingness from which it came, it gathers to itself new forces, new aspirations, new voices, new gods, new altars, new preachers, new goals, new Heavens, new Hells, new readings of the Riddle that only Eternity will solve. It is in perpetual solution, and the composite atoms that compose it are in a state of unending change and transmutation; it dies but to live again in other forms, is silent only to express itself through new and--may we not hope it?--more finely-tuned instruments.

Summarising it to-day you may say of your summary, This is Truth. But to-morrow it is already falsehood, for the Nation, bound upon the Wheel of Evolution, has passed on, leaving you bewildered by the way. And since the war has thrown the nations of the world into the crucible, until they come forth again, and not till then, may we say, with finality, "This is gold, or that alloy."

France is being subjected to a severe test; her burden is almost more than she can bear, but as she shoulders it we see the gold shining, we believe that the dross is falling away. No defeat in the field--if such an end were possible--can rob her of her glory, just as no victory could save Germany from shame. "What shall it profit a Nation if it gain the whole world, and lose its own soul?" The soul of Germany is withered and dead. She has sacrificed it on the Altar of Militarism, and has set up the galvanic battery of a relentless despotism and crude materialism in its place.

But the Soul of France lives on, strengthened and purified, the Soul of a Nation that seeks the Light and surely one day shall find it.

THE END

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED, BRUNSWICK ST., STAMFORD ST., S.E. 1, AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.

Skeffington's Early Spring Novels.

ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT NOVELS OF THE SPRING.

=Captain Dieppe=: By ANTHONY HOPE, Author of "The Prisoner of Zenda," "Rupert of Hentzau," etc., etc. Crown 8vo, cloth, 5s. net.

In this novel, Anthony Hope, after a long interval, returns again to similar scenes that formed the background of his famous novel "The Prisoner of Zenda."

Captain Dieppe, adventurer, servant of fortune, and, if not a fugitive, still a man to whom recognition would be inconvenient and perhaps dangerous, with only fifty francs in his pocket and a wardrobe in a knapsack might be seen marching up a long steep hill on a stormy evening. Later he finds himself before a castle bordering on a river and his curiosity is roused by finding only one half of the house lighted up. He meets the Count of Fieramondi, hears from him a strange story, and of course takes an active interest in his affairs.

The story, which has a powerful love interest running through it, tells of his many adventures.

=The Test=: By SYBIL SPOTTISWOODE, Author of "Her Husband's Country," "Marcia in Germany," etc. Cloth, 6s. net.

This delightful novel can be thoroughly recommended. It gives a very true impression of a bit of English life in and about a provincial town in War time. The story concerns three daughters of a Colonel, of whom the eldest is the central figure. These and the other characters who are interwoven into the story are absolutely natural, convincing and typical, and will be found most interesting company.

All the Author's Profits are to be devoted to Italian Refugees.

=The Chronicles of St. Tid=: By EDEN PHILLPOTTS. Cloth, and with an attractive coloured wrapper, 6s. net.

The scenes in this volume, which contains nearly 100,000 words, are laid in the West Country, the most popular setting of this famous author. It shows Eden Phillpotts at his best.

A FINE NOVEL OF THE SOUTH SEAS BY A NEW AUTHOR.

=Rotorua Rex=: By J. ALLEN DUNN. Cloth, and with an attractive coloured wrapper, 6s. net.

Everybody is on the look-out for a good strong story of love and adventure. Here is an exceptionally fine one, on the South Seas, which all lovers of Stevenson's and Stacpoole's novels will thoroughly enjoy. Each page grips the attention of the reader, and few will put the book down till the last page is reached.

=Simpson of Snell's=: By WILLIAM HEWLETT, Author of "The Child at the Window," "Introducing William Allison," "The Plot Maker," etc. Cloth, with an attractive coloured wrapper, 6s. net.

This is a story, or rather study, of a young clerk, the type of clerk that the modern commercial machine turns out by the hundred thousand as a by-product of our civilization. Simpson, invoicing clerk at Snell's, the celebrated patent-food people, had always seen life through the medium of thirty shillings a week, and the only oasis in his dreary desert of existence was his annual fortnight at Margate, where flannels, cheap excitements and "girls" abounded.

Why did not Mr. William Hewlett leave Simpson in this humble obscurity? Well, because Destiny had a great and moving part for him in the comedy of life! I don't think Simpson ever realized it was a "part" he was playing. It was certainly not the part he planned for himself, and throughout the period in which, at Mr. Hewlett's bidding he appears as a public character, he is seen almost invariably doing the thing he dislikes.

Simpson would have pursued the customary course of clerking and philandering to the end of his days, had it not been for an enterprising hosier, an unenterprising actor and the egregious Ottley--the public-school "Spark" dropped into Snell's like a meteor from the skies. The hosier and the actor introduced poor Simpson to "temperament," and temperament is a restive horse in a needy clerk's stable. But Ottley introduced him to Winnie. Winnie was there before, of course, a typist in his own office. But it was not until Ottley wove his evil web for Nancy that Winnie wove her innocent spell for Simpson. And because Winnie held Simpson securely and loved her friend's honour better than her own happiness, he rose to the full height of manhood, and to make the supreme sacrifice which turned him, an avowed enemy of heroics, into the greatest and most unexpected of heroes.

The story has a strong love-interest running through it with a most dramatic ending. It cannot fail to increase Mr. William Hewlett's popularity, and the publishers wish to draw special attention to it.

A LADY "SHERLOCK HOLMES."

A FINE NOVEL BY A NEW AUTHOR.

=The Green Jacket=: By JENNETTE LEE. A thrilling story of a Lady Detective who unravels a great Jewel Mystery. Cloth, and with an attractive coloured wrapper, 6s. net.

Millicent Newberry, a small, inconspicuous woman in grey, is a clever lady detective.

She keeps green wool by her and knits a kind of pattern of her case into the article she is making at the time. When the story opens, she is asked to employ her wits to the loss of the Mason Emeralds. The Green Jacket is the bit of knitting she has in hand. Her condition of undertaking a case is permission to deal privately with the criminal as she thinks best--reforming treatment rather than legal punishment--and she makes it work.

This detective story can be thoroughly recommended. The Author combines an exciting story with the charm of real literary art; the mystery is so impenetrable as to baffle the cleverest readers until the very sentence in which the secret is revealed.

A REMARKABLE FIRST HISTORICAL NOVEL.

=Claymore!=: By ARTHUR HOWDEN SMITH. A Story of the '45 Rebellion. Cloth, and with an attractive coloured wrapper, 6s. net.

Here is a first novel which, we believe, will bring to the Author immediate popularity. It is an attractive story of the Stuart Rebellion of the '45, full of love and adventure and with a good ending. The hero, young Chisholm, of English birth, joins Prince Charlie and the Stuart cause. How he meets and loves Sheila, the young girl chieftain of the Mac Ross Clan, and their many perils and adventures with rival claimants and traitors, together with happenings of many historical persons and incidents appearing throughout the story, make "Claymore" one of the best and arresting historical novels published for many a year.

=Tales that are Told=: By ALICE PERRIN, Author of "The Anglo-Indians," etc. Cloth, and with an attractive coloured wrapper, 6s.

This volume consists of a short novel of about 25,000 words and several fine Anglo-Indian and other stories.

EARLY REVIEWS.

"Ten of her very clever tales."--_The Globe._

"This attractive book."--_Observer._

"We can cordially recommend this book."--_Western Mail._

"An admirable and distinguished bit of writing. Mrs. Perrin at her best."--_Punch._

"I can recommend these stories."--_Evening News._

=Sunny Slopes=: By ETHEL HUESTON. Author of "Prudence of the Parsonage." 6s. net. with an attractive 3-colour wrapper.

This story is an inspiration to cheerful living. Not the impossible, sentimental, goody-goody kind, but the sane, sensible, human and humorous. Take it up if you are down-cast and learn how to keep the sunny slopes in sight, even if the way seems to lead into the dark valley.

Its appeal is to all who love clean, wholesome, amusing fiction. Both young and those not so young will glory in Carrol's fight for her husband's life, and laugh over Connie's hopeless struggle to keep from acquiring a lord and master. The quotations below will show you that Ethel Hueston has something to say and knows how to say it.

"If one can be pretty as well as sensible I think it's a Christian duty to do it."

"He is as good as an angel and as innocent as a baby. Two very good traits, but dangerous when you take them both together."

"The wickedest fires in the world would die out if there were not some idle hands to fan them."

"The only way to keep your husband out of danger is to tackle it yourself."

"Read Chapter IV and see how Carol does it."

TWO ENTIRELY NEW NOVELS, 3s. 6d. NET EACH.

=The Cabinet Minister=: By WILLIAM LE QUEUX. Cloth, and with an attractive coloured wrapper, 3s. 6d. net.

Mr. Le Queux's famous detective novels need no introduction to readers; they sell by the tens of thousands. The "Cabinet Minister" is a new novel with a weird and fascinating plot which holds the reader from the first page to the last. His Majesty's Cabinet Minister, Mr. George Chesham, has disappeared in very mysterious circumstances, and in his place is a dead stranger, who let himself into the house with Mr. Chesham's own latch-key. This is the problem set for the public and readers to unravel. The story is full of highly exciting incidents of love and adventure, with a strong detective interest--the Covers unravelling the mystery--in the true Le Queux style.

=The Secret Monitor=: By GUY THORNE. Author of "The Secret Submarine." Cloth, with an attractive coloured wrapper, 3s. 6d. net.

A remarkable, thrilling and swiftly-moving story of love, adventure and mystery woven round about half a dozen characters on the Atlantic coast of Ireland, Liverpool and elsewhere, in connection with the invention of a new material made from papier mâché (destined to take the place of steel), and the building of a wonderful new ship from it. Finally, when launched, "The Secret Monitor" goes on a mission to destroy a German base, and a succession of breathless adventures follow. This novel ought to considerably increase the popularity which has been gradually and consistently growing for Mr. Guy Thorne's mystery novels. No one, after picking up the book, will want to put it down until the last page is read.

SKEFFINGTON'S 1s. 6d. NOVELS.

BOUND, AND WITH ATTRACTIVE PICTORIAL WRAPPERS.

=Sir Nigel=: By A. CONAN DOYLE.

=Spragge's Canyon=: By H. A. VACHELL (Author of "Quinneys").

=The Great Plot=: By WILLIAM LE QUEUX, "The Master of Mystery."

=The Mysterious Mr. Miller=: By WILLIAM LE QUEUX, "The Master of Mystery."

=The Leavenworth Case=: By ANNA KATHERINE GREEN.

_Also uniform with the above_:

=A Woman Spy=: Further confessions and experiences of Germany's principal Secret Service woman, Olga von Kopf, edited by HENRY DE HALSALLE.

London: SKEFFINGTON & SON, LTD., Publishers, 34, Southampton Street, Strand, W.C.2.

_Any of the Books in this List can be posted on receipt of a Remittance._

TELEGRAMS; LANGUAGE-RAND, LONDON.

TELEPHONE NO. 7435 GERRARD.

To the Clergy: Lent, 1918.

_34, SOUTHAMPTON STREET, STRAND, LONDON, W.C.2._

_PUBLISHERS TO HIS MAJESTY KING GEORGE V._

SKEFFINGTON'S NEW LIST

Including New Sermons for +Lent, Good Friday+ and +Easter,+ many of them with special reference to the +Three Years of War,+ and the special conditions of the times in which we live. Manuals for +Confirmation, Easter Communion.+

=Thoughts for Dark Days=: By the Rev. H. L. GOUDGE, D.D., Canon of Ely. Crown 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d. net (postage 3d.).

The purpose of these excellent sermons is to bring out the value of the Epistle of St. James in this present time of strain and difficulty. The writer believes that St. James wrote in circumstances very similar to our own, and that his teaching is in many instances exactly that which we require. The sermons are arranged as a course for Lent and Easter, and contain an exposition of almost every important passage in the Epistle.

=Lenten Teaching in War Time=: By the Rev. J. H. WILLIAMS, M.A., Author of "Christmas Peace in War Time," "Lenten Thoughts in War Time," etc. Crown 8vo. Cloth, 2s. 6d. net.

These Addresses are eminently practicable. The effects of the War on the earthly life are closely followed as illustrations of what takes place in the Spiritual life. Thus, a comparison is drawn between the present enforced abstinence occasioned by the War and the Church's command to self-denial during Lent.

They contain many new thoughts, and the subjects dealt with are treated in new ways. The subjects chosen for Ash Wednesday, the Sundays in Lent, Good Friday, Easter Eve and Easter Day, are singularly appropriate, viz.: "Self-Denial," "Conflict," "Help," "Perseverance," "Relief," "Sacrifice." "Triumph," "Suffering," "The Body of Jesus," "The Conqueror of the Grave."

Many of the thoughts are illustrated by similes and anecdotes very touching and appropriate.

It will be difficult to find Lenten Sermons better suited to country congregations and to others who appreciate plain teaching.

They are likely to prove the more palatable because some reference to the War is contained in each (postage 2d.).

_Postages to the Colonies are about 25% in excess of Inland Postages._

=Fruits of the Passion=: A Daily Watch with Jesus through the Mysteries of His Sorrow unto the Joy of His Resurrection. By HILDA PARHAM. Crown 8vo, cloth, 3s. net (postage 3d.).

A work of beauty, ability and intense earnestness. It is full of beautiful thoughts, and presents a new way of regarding the Season of Lent. There are no "drybones" in this work. It is therefore interesting as well as devotional. It supplies a very excellent and necessary meditation on our want of any real sense of sin. It also presents excellent teaching in the sinfulness of little sins.

The book contains brief meditations for Lent upon the Five Sorrowful Mysteries, impressing the Father's love as shown forth in the life of Christ and tracing the Fruit of the Holy Spirit in the Passion.

There is one main thought throughout each week (with illustrative poem). In simple devotional tone _each day_ strikes its clear note of Catholic teaching. The Publishers wish to draw very special attention to this beautiful book.

=Life in Christ=, or What It Is to be a Christian: By the REV. CANON KEYMER, Missioner in the Diocese of Southwell, and formerly Rector of Headon, Notts. Author of "Salvation in Christ Jesus," "The Holy Eucharist in Typeland Shadow," etc. Crown 8vo, cloth, 3s. net (postage 3d.).

The Author of this book was for many years engaged in preaching Missions, and in giving Courses of Instructions. The teachings then given have been arranged and connected under the general heading of "Life in Christ."

The book will be specially useful to those who desire to have, or to give to others, consecutive and plain teaching.

=At God's Gate=: By the Venerable JOHN WAKEFORD, B.D., Precentor of Lincoln. Crown 8vo, cloth, 3s. net (postage 3d.).

A Series of Addresses suitable for "A Retreat," "A Quiet Day," or for private reading with many entirely new thoughts and the expressions of thought. The book is written with marked ability and can be thoroughly recommended.

It contains eight chapters suggesting thought, and stimulating the praise and worship of God. In these days of emotion and spiritual disquiet it is a wholesome thing to be drawn to think about the relation of body and spirit in the harmony of the life of grace. The mistaken distinctions of natural and spiritual are here put away, and man is shown in his common life as the Child of God, intent upon doing his Father's business.

=Triplicates of Holy Writ=: By the Rev. J. H. WILLIAMS, M.A. Author of "Christmas Peace in War Time," "Lenten Thoughts in War Time," etc. Crown 8vo, cloth, 2s. 6d. net (postage 2d.).

This book contains fine Addresses for the Sundays in Lent, Good Friday and Easter Day applicable to the War.

The Publishers cannot do better than give the chapter headings of the book which is written in this popular writer's best vein:

_Ash Wednesday_: The Three Primary Duties--Prayer, Fasting and Alms-giving. _Lent I._: The Three Temptations. _Lent II._: The Three Favoured Disciples. _Lent III._: The Three Hebrew Martyrs. _Refreshment Sunday_: The Three Witnesses. _Passion Sunday_: The Three-One God. _Palm Sunday_: The Three Burdens. _Good Friday_: The Three Crosses. _Easter Sunday_: The Threefold Benediction.

=Some Penitents of Scripture=: By the late Rev. G. A. COBBOLD. Author of "Tempted Like as We are." Crown 8vo, cloth, 3s. (postage 3d.).

This book, showing as it does various aspects of that wide subject, "Repentance," should prove especially useful to the Clergy during the Season of Lent.

The first address is a powerful appeal and a clear setting forth of the meaning of a true repentance.

In the other six addresses the author dwells in a very original and practical way on various notable repentances recorded in Holy Scripture.

=Piety and Power=: By the Rev. H. CONGREVE HORNE, Author of "The Mind of Christ crucified." Crown 8vo, cloth, 2s. 6d. net.

An exposition of "My Duty towards God," as defined in the Catechism, and of the Eucharist as the means whereby we are empowered to perform that duty.

A contribution towards the wider appreciation of the Holy Eucharist as the grand corporate act of redeemed humanity, bending in lowly homage before the Sovereign Ruler of the Universe and Father of all mankind.

Contents: Introduction--Faith, Fear and Love--Worship and Thanksgiving--Trustfulness and Prayer--God's Holy Name and Word--True Service--An Epilogue for Holy Week.

Each chapter is divided into six sections. Those with the four which form the Introduction will provide a short reading for each week day of Lent. The Epilogue for Holy Week reviews the leading ideas of the book by means of outline Meditations on one of the events of each day. (Postage 2d.).

=The Language of the Cross=: By the Rev. J. H. WILLIAMS, M.A. Author of "Christmas Peace in War Time," "Lenten Thoughts in War Time," etc. Crown 8vo, cloth, 2s. 6d. net (postage 2d.).

This excellent book contains plain addresses written on new lines of thought, on "The Seven Last Words."

They have copious reference to the War and are likely to prove useful for the Three Hours' Service, or as Addresses during Lent and Passion.

The subjects include: "The Word of Intercession," "The Word of Kingly Majesty," "The Word of Filial Affection," "The Word of Desertion," "The Word of Agonized Humanity," "The Word of Victory," "The Word of Death."

=God's Love and Man's Perplexity=: By the Rev. A. V. MAGEE, Vicar of St. Mark's, Hamilton Terrace. Author of "The Message of the Guest Chamber" (3rd edition), etc. Crown 8vo, cloth, 3s. net (postage 3d.).

This book, which deals with various aspects of the love of God, will be specially useful for Retreats and Quiet Days, or for courses of Sermons. It is also a message of Hope in war time, for all who feel unable to reconcile the love of God with the horrors of war.

The chapters deal with "The Prodigality of Love," "The Claim and Response of Love," "The Quality of Divine Love," "The Joy of Love," "The Timeliness of Love," "The Tardiness of Love, the Power and Patience of Love," "Love's Reward of Obedience," "Love's Perplexity."

It is excellent in every way, and can be thoroughly recommended.

Her Majesty the Queen has been graciously pleased to say that she will be pleased to accept a copy of this book on publication.

=Prayer the Sign-Post of Victory=: Addresses written for January 6th, 1918, but eminently suitable for general use. By the REV. CANON C. LL. IVENS, H. CONGREVE HORNE and J. H. WILLIAMS. 2s. 6d. net.

This book contains five addresses, the chapter headings being: "A Time Call to Prayer and Thanksgiving," "The King's Command," "Prayerfulness," "Clearsightedness," "What the Crib reveals in Time of War," and an "Appendix of Prayers."

=Religion and Reconstruction.= Cloth, crown 8vo., 3s. 6d. net (postage 3d.).

If the War has taught us anything at all, it has most certainly taught us that many of our national institutions and many phases of our social life need urgent reform. Men's minds are turning towards reconstruction. The whole fabric of Church and State is quickly coming under the ken of an impatient public, and there is a danger that they will be guided more by the heart than the head. Problems of Reconstruction call for the consideration of men of stability and high character. As the Church's contribution to this momentous discussion, the forthcoming book on "RELIGION AND RECONSTRUCTION" is one that everybody will find extremely valuable.

It has been written by:

The RT. REV. C. J. RIDGEWAY, D.D., Bishop of Chichester. The RT. REV. J. A. KEMPTHORNE, D.D., Bishop of Lichfield. The RT. REV. B. POLLOCK, C.V.O., D.D., Bishop of Norwich. The RT. REV. W. W. PERRIN, D.D., M.A., Bishop of Willesden. The RT. REV. J. E. C. WELLDON, D.D., Dean of Manchester. The VERY REV. W. M. EDE, D.D., M.A., Dean of Worcester. The RT. REV. G. H. FRODSHAM, D.D., Canon of Gloucester. The HON. and REV. CANON JAMES ADDERLEY, M.A. The VEN. JOHN WAKEFORD, Precentor of Lincoln, B.D. MONSIGNOR POOCK, D.D. The REV. W. E. ORCHARD, D.D. (Presbyterian). The REV. F. B. MEYER, B.A., D.D. (Baptist). F. C. SPURR (Baptist).

leaders of religious thought, who are something more than students of social questions.

The book covers a very wide field, from questions of Education and Imperial Politics to those of Family and Domestic Interest. It is the book every parish priest, in fact every minister of religion, should read and discuss with his parishioners and adult classes.

=Faith and the War=: By ARTHUR MACHEN, Author of "The Bowmen: and other Legends of the War." Crown 8vo, cloth, 2s. 6d. net (postage 2d.).

This very ably written book contains excellent doctrine which ought to prove helpful to any Christian of any religious persuasion. The errors of Infidelity and the absurdities of Spiritualism are exposed in a courteous manner. The subjects include: "The Contradictions of Life," "Faith," "The Freethinker," "The Religion of the Plain Man," etc.

=The Round of the Church's Clock=: By the Rev. JOHN SINKER, Vicar of Lytham, and Rural Dean of the Fylde. Author of "Into the Church's Service," "The Prayer Book in the Pulpit," "The War; Its Deeds and Lessons," etc. With an introduction by the Right Rev. G. H. S. Walpole, D.D., Lord Bishop of Edinburgh. Recently published. Crown 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d. net (postage 4d).

An entirely new series of Addresses, including one Sermon for each of the Church's Seasons from Advent to Trinity.

These addresses are popular in style, and abound in illustrations and other matter calculated to arrest and hold the attention of any congregation. Messrs. Skeffington consider them among the very best they have ever published.

=Dr. Walpole, Bishop of Edinburgh=, writes: "I have no hesitation in commending these simple addresses to the Clergy, and all those who have the responsibility of expounding the teaching of the Church's seasons. 'The Round of the Church's Clock' contains not only clear and definite teaching, but it also abounds in stories, poems, experiences and analogies, which not only enable the listener to understand what is preached, but to be interested. While Mr. Sinker never belittles the sacredness of the high subjects he treats, he makes them easily understood."

=God and His Children=: By the Rev. F. W. WORSEY, M.A., Vicar of Bodenham. Author of "Praying Always," "Under the War Cloud," "War and the Easter Hope," etc. Just out. Crown 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d. net (postage 4d.).

An entirely new series of simple practical Sermons, including: Six for Lent on The Child of God, three for Good Friday and Easter, four for Advent on the Godhead, three for Christmas and New Year on the Divine Son, and two for Epiphany.

It will be seen that this new volume provides a complete course of preaching from Advent to Easter, and will be found in all respects equal to its author's previous volumes.

SIXTH IMPRESSION OF THIS REMARKABLE BOOK, WITH AN ENTIRELY NEW CHAPTER.

=Prophecy and the War:= By the Rev. E. J. NURSE, Rector of Windermere. Price 3s. net (postage 2½d.).

Seven Remarkable Prophecies on the War. This volume, which has proved so unusually striking and interesting, includes The Divine Potter Moulding the Nations--The Return of the Jews to Palestine--The Four World-Empires foretold by Daniel--The Downfall of the Turkish Empire--The Desolation and Restoration of Jerusalem--The Second Coming--The Millennium. Also an entirely New Chapter, entitled, "Armageddon; or, The Coming of Antichrist."

=Tennyson's "In Memoriam:"= Its Message to the Bereaved and Sorrowful. By the Rev. T. A. MOXON, M.A., Editor of "St. Chrysostom, on the Priesthood," etc. Assistant Master of Shrewsbury School, formerly Vicar and Rural Dean of Alfreton. Crown 8vo, cloth, 2s. 6d. net (postage 2½d.).

Six Addresses on the subject of Tennyson's Poem in relation to the present War. The "In Memoriam" is a record of the poet's gradual struggle from despair to faith, after the blow of the sudden death of his friend, A. H. Hallam. These addresses are specially composed to help the bereaved and sorrowful; they deal with the problems of Suffering, Death, Communion with the Departed, Faith and Hope, and the Message of Christ, as expressed by the late Lord Tennyson. This volume may be given to the bereaved; it may also be found useful for preachers, and those who minister to the sorrowful.

=Our Lenten Warfare=: For Lent. By the Rev. H. L. GOUDGE, D.D., Canon of Ely, with Special Foreword by the Bishop of London. Crown 8vo, cloth, 2s. 6d. net (postage 4d.). Third Impression.

Nine entirely new Sermons for Ash Wednesday, the Six Sundays in Lent, Good Friday and Easter Day. These most valuable and specially written Addresses deal with the Lenten Warfare of the Soul against Sin, in connection with the lessons of the Great War.

=The Bishop of London= says: "This excellent little book will commend itself by its own merit. The whole idea of the new Christian soldier as we understand him in the light of the war is so clearly worked out, without one superfluous word, that 'he who runs may read.' If I may, however, pick out one chapter out of the rest, I would choose that on 'The New Army.' The teaching of this chapter is VITAL."

=The Fellowship of the Holy Eucharist=: For Lent. By the Rev. G. LACEY MAY, M.A., Author of "What is The National Mission?" Crown 8vo, cloth, 2s. 6d. net (postage 3d.).

Forty entirely new Devotional Readings on the Sacrament of Love, specially suitable for the Forty Days of Lent, and most valuable in connection with the recent Mission Preaching and Teaching on the Subject. Among the subjects are: Fellowship with Our Lord--with The Holy Spirit--with The Angels--with Our Fellow-men--with The Suffering--with The Departed--with Nature. Full of material for Eucharistic Sermons.

=The Love of our Lord=: By the Rev. JOHN BERESFORD-PEIRSE, with Preface by the Bishop of Bloemfontein. Crown 8vo, cloth, 2s. 6d. net (postage 4d.).

An entirely new Set of Addresses to Boys and Young Men, which will be found invaluable for Teaching and for Mission Work. Among the twenty-one subjects are Prayer, Thanksgiving, Confirmation, The Holy Eucharist, Faith, Hope, Love, Service, Friendship, Purity, etc.

=Christ's Message in Times of Crisis=: By the Rev. E. C. DEWICK, some time Vice-Principal of St. Aidan's, Birkenhead Crown 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d. net (postage 5d.).

Twenty Sermons originally preached at St. Aidan's College. A singularly interesting set of Addresses, twelve of which are on subjects connected with THE WAR. They will be found very useful and valuable at the present time.

=Short Village Homilies=: By the Rev. F. L. H. MILLARD, M.A., Vicar of St. Aidan's, Carlisle. Crown 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d. net (postage 5d.).

A new Series of short and simple Sermons, specially adapted during these times for Villages and Evening Addresses in large towns. They include Six Sundays in Lent, Mourners and Bereaved, a Memorial Sermon, and several specially for use during War.

N.B.--These Sermons are prepared to give practical help until Trinity. The volume includes special Sermons on the War; To Mourners; Memorial Sermon; a complete course for Lent; also Good Friday, Easter, etc., etc. They are thoroughly interesting, practical sermons of a Mission type for villagers and for evening services in large towns.

=In the Hand of God=: By GERTRUDE HOLLIS. 2s. 6d. net. (postage 2d.).

In Memory of the Departed. This new and beautiful little volume contains thirty Short Chapters, full of comfort and hope for the Bereaved in this War. There is a space for the names of the Departed, and the Meditations on Paradise and the Resurrection are full of consolation.

=Praying Always (Eph. vi.--18). Ash Wednesday to Easter in War Time=: By the Rev. F. W. WORSEY, Vicar of Bodenham, Author of "Under the War Cloud," Nine Sermons, etc. Crown 8vo, cloth, 2s. 6d. net (postage 3d.). Published 1916.

Nine Plain Sermons for Ash Wednesday, each Sunday in Lent, Good Friday, and Easter Day. These Sermons deal largely with Lenten Prayer during the War: "The Call--The Object--The Difficulties, The Effect of Prayer--The Prayers from the Cross--The Easter Triumph of Prayer." =The Church Times= said of Mr. Worsey's former volume: "We should like to think that in every Country Church the War has found Parish Priests ready to give such admirable counsel to their people."

=The Discipline of War=: For Lent. By the Rev. Canon J. HASLOCH POTTER, M.A. 2s. net (postage 2d.). Second Impression. Published 1915.

Nine Addresses, including Ash Wednesday, the Six Sundays in Lent, Good Friday and Easter Day.

=Lenten Thoughts in War Time=: By the Rev. J. H. WILLIAMS, M.A., Author of "Village Sermons." Crown 8vo, cloth, 2s. 6d. net (postage 4d.). Published 1916.

Nine Plain Addresses, specially written for the Lenten Season in connection with the War. They include Sermons for Ash Wednesday, the six Sundays in Lent, Good Friday, and Easter Day. These addresses embrace the duties which we owe to God, to ourselves, to the nation, and to the Church.

=The Greatest War=: For Lent. By the Rev. A. C. BUCKELL, of St. Saviour's, Ealing. Fcap. 8vo, cloth, 2s. net (postage 2d.).

This most interesting course of Six Lent Sermons will be found valuable at the present time. Among the subjects most strikingly treated are: The War--Its Author--Its Cause--The Equipment--The Trial--The End--and the Glory of the War.

=The Prayer of the Lord and the Lord of the Prayer=: For Lent. By the Rev. T. A. SEDGWICK, M.A. Crown 8vo, cloth, 2s. 6d. net (postage 4d.).

Six Addresses on the Lord's Prayer, and also a complete Set of Addresses on the Seven Last Words. A striking volume for Lent and Holy Week.

=The World's Destiny=: By a LAYMAN. Crown 8vo, cloth, 2s. 6d. net (postage 4d.).

A challenge by a Layman to the Clergy of the Church of England. The writer deals with the question of Our Lord's Return. In a catholic spirit, he asks whether the clergy are not seriously neglecting an important part of Catholic Truth in failing to teach the literal fulfilment of prophecy. The book is scholarly and arresting; the arguments are marshalled clearly and with legal fairness and acumen; the challenge is one which demands attention and an answer.

=With the C.L.B. Battalion in France=: By the Rev. JAMES DUNCAN, Chaplain to the 16th K.R.R. (C.L.B.). With Frontispiece and a most interesting Preface by the Rev. EDGAR ROGERS. Cloth, 2s. 6d. net (postage 4d.).

This intensely interesting book gives an account of the doings of the Battalion raised from the Church Lads' Brigade. Among the vivid and striking chapters are Going to the Front--In France--In Billets--In the Firing Line--The Trenches--The Red Harvest of War, etc.

TO MEET THE NEEDS OF THE TIME NEW AND CHEAP EDITIONS HAVE BEEN ISSUED OF THE FOLLOWING SIX VALUABLE AND INTERESTING VOLUMES.

=1. Mission Preaching for a Year=: 86 Original Mission Sermons. Two Vols. Crown 8vo, cloth, 10s. net (postage 7d.) The whole work probably constitutes the most complete Manual of Mission Preaching ever published.

VOL. I., containing forty-one Sermons, from Advent to Whit Sunday, separately. 5s. net (postage 5d.).

VOL. II., containing forty-five Sermons, for all the Sundays in Trinity and many occasional (_e.g._, All Saints--Holy Communion--Sunday Observance--Opening of an Organ--Harvest--Flower Service--Service for Men--Service for Women--Missions--Temperance--Funeral--Social Clubs--Empire Sermon, etc.), separately. 5s. net (postage 5d.).

These Sermons are by the most practical and experienced Mission Preachers of the day, including amongst many others the Archbishop of York, Bishops of London, Manchester, Chichester, Birmingham, Bishop Ingham, Deans of Bristol and Bangor, Canons Hay, Aitken, Atherton, Barnett, Body, Scott Holland, Lester, Archdeacons Sinclair, Madden and Taylor, The Revs. W. Black, F. M. Blakiston, H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Robert Catterall, W. H. Hunt, A. V. Magee, A. H. Stanton, P. N. Waggett, John Wakeford, Paul Bull, A. J. Waldron, Cyril Bickersteth, etc., etc.

=2. The Sunday Round=: By the Rev. S. BARING-GOULD, M.A., Author of "Village Preaching." Two Vols. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6s. net (postage 6d.).

VOL. I., Advent to Fifth after Easter. 3s. net (postage 5d.).

VOL. II., Ascensiontide to the end of Trinity, etc. 3s. net (postage 5d.).

Being a Plain Village Sermon for each Sunday and some Chief Festivals of the Christian Year, after the style and model of the same Author's first series of "Village Preaching for a Year." Printed in Large Clear Type, and brimful of original thoughts, ideas and illustrations, which will prove a mine of help in the preparation of Sermons, whether written or extempore.

"From beginning to end these simple, forcible and intensely practical sermons will give pleasure and instruction. They are written with scholarly freshness and vigour, and teem with homely illustrations appealing equally to the educated and the honest labourer."--_Guardian._

NOTE.--The above series of Village Sermons forms a perfect storehouse of Teaching, Illustration, and Anecdote, for the Sundays of the whole Year and will be found invaluable to the Preacher in Country Towns and Villages.

=3. The Church's Lessons for the Christian Year=: By the Rev. Dr. A. G. MORTIMER. Two Volumes. Crown 8vo, cloth, 9s. net (postage 7d.).

VOL. I., Advent to Fifth Sunday after Easter (60 Sermons, being two sermons for every Sunday) separately. 4s. 6d. net (postage 5d.).

VOL. II., Ascension Day to Advent. 4s. 6d. net (postage 5d.).

Sixty Sermons for the Sundays and Chief Holy Days, on Texts from the OLD Testament Lessons, and Sixty Sermons on Texts from the NEW Testament, appropriate to the occasion, thus forming a complete Year's Sermons, 120 in number, for Mattins and Evensong.

=The Church Times= says: "We like these Sermons very much. They are full of wholesome thought and teaching, and very practical. Quite as good, spiritual and suggestive, as his 'Helps to Meditation.'"

=The Guardian= says: "We do not often notice a volume of Sermons we can praise with so few reservations."

=4.Sorrow, Hope and Prayer=: By the Rev. Dr. A. G. MORTIMER. THIRD THOUSAND. Crown 8vo, cloth, 2s. 6d. net (postage 4d.).

This beautiful book forms a companion volume to the same Author's most popular work, "It Ringeth to Evensong." It will be found a great help and comfort to the bereaved, and to those in sorrow and suffering.

N.B.--An edition of this book, most handsomely bound in rich leather, with rounded corners and gold over red edges, lettered in gold, forming a really beautiful Gift-book. 7s. 6d. net (postage 5d.).

"Many books exist with similar aim, but this seems exactly what is wanted."--_Church Times._

=5.Bible Object-Lessons=: By the late Rev. H. J. WILMOT-BUXTON, M.A. Crown 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d. net (postage 5d.).

Thirty Plain Sermons, including Four for Advent, Six for Lent, Christmas, Easter, etc., etc., and many General Sermons.

"These Sermons have sound doctrine, copious illustrations, and excellent moral teaching. They are particularly suited for Village Congregations."--_Church Times._

"These Sermons on divine object-lessons are justly published, for they are infused with a spirit of sensible as well as devotional churchmanship, with simple practical teaching. Mr. Buxton is a recognized master of the simple and devotional."--_Guardian._

=6.Till the Night is Gone=: By the late Rev. J. B. C. MURPHY. SECOND IMPRESSION. Crown 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d. net (postage 5d.).

A volume of Thirty Sermons, including Four for Advent, Christmas, Six for Lent, Good Friday, Easter, and many General Sermons.

OPINIONS OF MR. MURPHY'S SERMONS.

"Sermons of a very straightforward and forcible kind, much wanted in the present day."--_National Church._

=A Rector in the Midlands= writes: "_These are perfect Sermons for Villagers_, and calculated to do an enormous amount of good. A congregation that listens to such sermons is to be envied indeed."

"Can be heartily praised. Never uninstructive and never dull. The sermons have force, directness, actuality, with simplicity of style. Full of brightness and vivacity. Nobody could go to sleep where such sermons are delivered."--_Guardian._

TWO VOLUMES OF SERMONS ON HYMNS.

=Popular Hymns: their Authors and Teachers=: By the late CANON DUNCAN, Vicar of St. Stephen's, Newcastle-on-Tyne. CHEAP Edition. Crown 8vo, cloth, 4s. 6d. net (postage 5d.).

A Series of thirty-six Sermons on popular hymns. Most attractive and instructive Sermons.

"We can bear very strong personal testimony to the great delight and usefulness of Canon Duncan's beautiful and impressive work."--_Record._

"A deeply interesting and helpful book."--_Church Family Newspaper._

=Hymns and their Singers=: By the late Rev. M. H. JAMES, LL.D., Vicar of St. Thomas', Hull. SECOND IMPRESSION. Crown 8vo, cloth, 4s. 6d. net (postage 4d.).

Twenty-one Sermons on popular Hymns. These very original Sermons deal not only with the meaning of the words, but are full of interesting information as to the Authorship and History of the various Hymns.

=The Church of Ireland Gazette= says: "The writer is to be congratulated. There are twenty-one extremely interesting and attractive Sermons."

=On the Way Home=: By the Rev. W. H. JONES. THIRD IMPRESSION. Crown 8vo, cloth, 4s. 6d. net (postage 4d.).

Sixty Sermons for Life's Travellers, for all the Sundays and Chief Holy Days in the Christian Year.

"We believe that everyone on reading these short Addresses will agree with us in the high opinion we have formed of them. They are replete with anecdotes drawn from life, and such as are calculated to fix the attention of homely folk for whom especially they are intended. Written as they are by a Priest of the Diocese of Lincoln, they breathe much of that spirit of love which one has learned to associate with that favoured See."--_Church Times._

=The Country Pulpit=: By the Rev. J. A. CRAIGIE, M.A., Vicar of Otterford. Crown 8vo, cloth, 4s. 6d. net (postage 4d.).

This excellent volume of Village Sermons includes Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, and the Sundays from Septuagesima to Easter, besides General Sermons.

"We feel convinced that these sermons were listened to, and that their author will be heard again."--_National Church._

=The Good Shepherd=: The last book by the late Rev. Canon GEORGE BODY. SECOND IMPRESSION. Cloth, boards, 2s. 6d. net (postage 3d.).

A Series of Meditations. (The Pastorate of Jesus--The Fold--Personal Knowledge of Jesus--Guidance--Sustenance--Healing--Paradise, etc.).

BOOKS FOR THE FORTY DAYS OF LENT

=New and Contrite Hearts=: By the late Rev. H. J. WILMOT-BUXTON, M.A. EIGHTH IMPRESSION. Crown 8vo, cloth, 2s. 6d. net (postage 3d.).

Forty brief Meditations, one for every day in Lent, from Ash Wednesday to Easter Eve. A new and cheaper Edition of these most popular Readings, which include a Set of Seven Short Addresses on the Seven Last Words.

"Just such readings as will help the devout soul to realize the blessing which follows a well observed Lent."--_Church Family Newspaper._

=Lenten Lights and Shadows=: By the Author of "The Six Maries," etc. Fcap. 8vo, cloth, bevelled boards, 2s. 6d. net (postage 3d.).

Meditations for the Forty Days of Lent, with additional readings for the Sundays in Lent and Easter Day. This book of Short and Beautiful Readings for the days of Lent is strongly recommended.

=The Last Discourses of Our Lord=: By the Rev. DR. A. G. MORTIMER. NEW AND CHEAPER EDITION. THIRD IMPRESSION. Crown 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d. net (postage 5d.).

In Forty Addresses or Readings for the Forty Days of Lent.

A New Edition of this valuable book, which is now published at 3s. 6d. net instead of 5s. net.

=The Halo of Life=: By Rev. HARRY WILSON, formerly Vicar of St. Augustine's, Stepney. ELEVENTH IMPRESSION. Cloth, 1s. 6d. net (postage 2d.).

Forty Little Readings on Humility, specially suitable for the Forty Days of Lent. Suited for general distribution.

"This is a valuable little book, which we most highly recommend. How many thousand families might be blessed by this invaluable work if its noble rules were applied to daily life."--_Church Review._

BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

=Catholic Teaching=; or, Our Life and His Love. A Series of Fifty-six Simple Instructions in the Christian Life. FOURTEENTH IMPRESSION. Cloth, 2s. net (postage 2d.).

=The Church Review= says: "Has the true ring of Catholic Teaching, persuasively and eloquently put in the plainest English. This valuable little book is as good as any we can recommend."

=A Treasury of Meditation=, or Suggestions, as Aids to those Who Desire to Lead a Devout Life. By the REV. CANON KNOX LITTLE. THIRTEENTH IMPRESSION. Printed throughout in red and black, on specially made paper, and bound in crimson cloth, bevelled boards, with burnished red edges, 4s. 6d. net (postage 4d.).

A Manual of brief Meditations on various subjects, _e.g._, On Sin--On the World--On Things of Ordinary Life--On Nearness to God--On the Perfect Life--On the Life and Offices of Christ--On the Cross of Christ--On the Holy Ghost--On Saints and Angels--On the Blessed Sacrament--On Life, Death, and Eternity, etc.

N.B.--Each one includes brief Directions, Meditation, Question, Resolve, Prayer, Work of Christ, Verse of Hymn. This Manual is invaluable for the whole Christian Year.

=The Guided Life=; or, Life Lived under the Guidance of the Holy Spirit. By the late Rev. CANON GEORGE BODY. EIGHTH IMPRESSION. Fcap. 8vo, cloth, 1s. 6d. net (postage 1½d.).

The Way of Contrition; The Way of Sanctity; The Way of Patience; The Way of Ministry, etc.

"Of very great value."--_Guardian._

"Very bright, cheering, helpful, and valuable meditations."--_Church Review._

=The Mystery of Suffering=: By Rev. S. BARING-GOULD. A NEW AND CHEAP EDITION FOR LENT (the Tenth). 2s. 6d. net (postage 4d.).

A Course of Lent Lectures: 1. The Mystery of Suffering. 2. The Occasion of Suffering. 3. The Capacity for Suffering. 4. Suffering Educative. 5. Suffering Evidential. 6. Suffering Sacrificial.

"This is the very poetry of Theology; it is a very difficult subject very beautifully handled."--_Church Quarterly._

=The Mountain of Blessedness=: By DR. C. J. RIDGEWAY, Bishop of Chichester. FIFTH IMPRESSION. Cloth, 2s. 6d. net (postage 3d.).

A Series of Plain Lent Addresses on the Beatitudes.

FOR CHILDREN'S SERVICES.

=The King and His Soldiers=: By M. E. CLEMENTS, Author of "Missionary Stories." Crown 8vo, cloth, 3s. net (postage 4d.).

Twenty-six Talks with Boys and Girls, from Advent to Whit Sunday. These Addresses will be found of the greatest possible interest for Children, and will be invaluable for Addresses in Church, in School, or for Home Reading for the Sundays in Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, and up to Whit Sunday. They cannot fail to seize and hold the attention of young people.

=The Children's Law=: By Rev. G. R. OAKLEY, M.A., B.D. 2s. 6d. net (postage 4d.).

Plain Talks to Children on the Commandments, the Sacramental Ordinances, and on Rules of Life and Worship, of the greatest value in instructing and helping the Young; for use in Church, Sunday School, or at Home.

_A strikingly beautiful little book._

=Missionary Stories of the Olden Time=: By MARY E. CLEMENTS. 2s. net (postage 3d.).

A Series of deeply interesting Stories specially suited for Young People, full of picturesque incidents in the Story of the Evangelization of the British Isles. Among the contents are the Stories of St. Alban--St. Patrick--The Boys in the Slave Market--Of Gregory and the Young Angles--The Conversion of Kent--Sussex--Wessex, etc. A delightful book for children and others.

TWO VOLUMES OF SERMONS TO CHILDREN.

=Sermons to Children=: First Series. By the Rev. S. BARING-GOULD. THIRTEENTH IMPRESSION. 4s. 6d. net (postage 4d.).

Including a set of Six on Children's Duties and Faults (Tidiness--Idleness--Wilfulness--Obedience--Perseverance--Idle Talk, etc.), and also a set of Four on the Seasons of the Year.

=The Church Quarterly= says: "These are really Sermons suited _for_ Children, alike in mode of thought, simplicity of language, and lessons conveyed, and they are very beautiful. No mere critical description can do justice to the charm with which spiritual and moral lessons are made to flow (not merely are drawn) out of natural facts or objects. Stories, too, are made use of with admirable taste, and the lessons taught are, without exception, sound and admirable. We cannot doubt that the volume will be, and will remain, a standard favourite."

=Sermons to Children=: Second Series. Crown 8vo, cloth, 4s. 6d. net (postage 4d.).

Twenty-four Sermons, including Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, Whitsunday, Trinity, and many General Sermons.

The immense success of Mr. BARING-GOULD'S former Series of Sermons to Children, of which thirteen editions have already been sold, will make this new volume doubly welcome.

=The Church Times= says: "There will be a run on this volume. The stories are most cleverly told, and the lessons are all that they should be. No child who reads or hears these Addresses will be left in doubt as to what he ought to believe and do."

TWO VOLUMES OF SERMONS TO CHILDREN.

=Led by a Little Child=: (Isaiah xi. 6). By the late H. J. WILMOT-BUXTON. SIXTH IMPRESSION. Crown 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d. net (postage 4d.).

A Series of Fifteen Short Addresses or Readings for Children. Among the Subjects and Titles of the Addresses are "The Lion and the Lamb," "The Serpent and the Dove," "Wolves," "Foxes," "The Sparrow and the Swallow," "Eagles' Wings," "Sermons in Stones," "Four Feeble Things" (Prov. xxx. 24), "What the Cedar Beam Saw," etc., etc.

"Bright, simply-worded homilies for children, with plenty of anecdotes and illustrations, which are not dragged in, but really do help the lesson to be enforced. Very useful for reading aloud to children."--_Guardian._

"Models of what children's sermons should be."--_Ecclesiastical Gazette._

=Parable Sermons for Children=: A Cheap Edition. Crown 8vo, cloth, 2s. 6d. net (postage 3d.).

These beautiful Sermons generally begin with a Story or Parable, and cannot fail to arrest and hold the attention of children. The original Edition was published at 3s. 6d. It is now reduced to 2s. 6d. net.

=The Boys and Girls of the Bible=: By Rev. CANON J. HAMMOND. Two Vols., 12s. net (postage 5d.).

Two Volumes of Sermons on Old and New Testament Characters.

VOL. I., Old Testament, 6s. net (postage 4d.). VOL. II., New Testament, 6s. net (postage 4d.).

=The Church Catechism in Anecdote=: Collected and Arranged by the late Rev. L. M. DALTON, M.A. FOURTH IMPRESSION. Cloth, 2s. 6d. net (postage 4d.).

Providing one or more anecdotes illustrating each clause of the Church Catechism, the teacher being left to apply the materials thus provided. An endeavour has been made to find good anecdotes which have not been used in other well-known books on the Church Catechism, and the volume cannot fail to delight and interest the children who are being taught.

CHURCH MUSIC FOR LENT AND EASTER.

=The Benedicite, for Septuagesima and Lent=: (Shortened Form.) Six simple chant settings, the second half of each verse being repeated after every third verse only, thus repeating it _eleven_ instead of thirty-two times.

NO. 1, in D, by MARTIN S. SKEFFINGTON. NO. 2, in G, by MARTIN S. SKEFFINGTON.--NO. 3, in B Flat, by MARTIN S. SKEFFINGTON.--NO. 1, in E Flat, by H. HAMILTON JEFFERIES.--NO. 2, in A Flat, by H. HAMILTON JEFFERIES.--NO. 3, in G, by H. HAMILTON JEFFERIES.

The price of each of the above, Words and Music complete, is 2d., or 25 Copies of any one setting for 3s. net (postage 2d.). One Copy of each of these Six Settings post free for 1s.

MUSIC BY H. HAMILTON JEFFERIES.

=Vesper Hymn=: "Part in Peace," to be sung kneeling, after the Benediction. The Words by SARAH F. ADAMS, author of "Nearer, my God, to Thee," and the Music by H. HAMILTON JEFFERIES. Complete with Music, 1d., or Twenty-five Copies for 1s. 9d. net (postage 1d.). The Words separately, price ½d., or 1s. 6d. net per 100 (postage 2d.).

=The Morning Service in Chant Form= in D Major, including Kyrie. Price 2d., or Twenty-five Copies for 3s. net (postage 4d.).

A simple Service in Chant Form for Village and Parish Choirs, including chants for the Venite, quadruple for the Te Deum (the Words printed in full), for the Benedictus or Jubilate, and a Kyrie. A melodious and attractive Service for congregational use.

=The Story of the Cross=: A beautiful setting for Parish Choirs, by H. HAMILTON JEFFERIES. Price 1d., or Twenty-five Copies for 1s. 9d. net (postage 2d.). The Words separately, ½d., or 1s. 6d. net per 100 (postage 2d.).

This devotional and lovely setting, both in compass and simplicity, is perfectly suited for Choirs in Towns or Villages.

=A Midland Vicar writes=:--"I have tried nearly all the settings used, but yours is the most tuneful of all."

=An Easter Service of Song=: Complete with Music. Price 4d. The Words separately, price ½., or 3s. 6d. net per 100 (postage 4d.).

A complete Order of Service, short and simple, for Eastertide, with Hymns and Carols. Special tunes by Sir J. F. BRIDGE, etc.

=The Late Canon Woodward's Children's Service Book=: 394th Thousand. Services, Prayers, Hymns, Litanies, Carols, etc.

The Complete Words Edition, stitched, price 3d. net. Strong limp cloth, 6d. net. Handsome cloth boards, 8d. net. Complete Musical Edition, 3s. 6d. net (Inland postage 5d.).

Clergymen desirous of making CHILDREN'S SERVICES REALLY POPULAR and THOROUGHLY ATTRACTIVE both to children and their elders should send for Specimen Copy. Post free, 3-½d.

VOLUMES OF SERMONS, ADDRESSES OR READINGS ESPECIALLY SUITABLE FOR LENT AND EASTER, MANY CONTAINING COMPLETE COURSES.

=The Prodigal Son=: By Rev. A. C. BUCKELL, M.A. of St. Saviour's, Ealing. Fcap. 8vo, cloth, 2s. net (postage 2d.). SECOND IMPRESSION.

Six new and most picturesque Sermons for Lent and Easter, the various events being vividly described in six scenes.