with dawn, and those men are marching forward in the full radiance of that dawn, and soon Frenchmen and Americans, British and Russians, aye, Serbians, and Belgians, Montenegrins, and Roumanians, will emerge into the full light of a perfect day.

GREAT DAYS FOR THE REPUBLIC

WALTER HINES PAGE

THESE are great days for the republic. We have set out to help in an enterprise of saving the earth as a place worth living in.

There is no need to restate the meaning of this enterprise to you. What is new about it is that it now becomes our immediate American enterprise. The clear, solemn call of the President and the voice of Congress, which is the voice of the people, are to us the high call of duty. If there be an American in this room who has not volunteered to give any service that he can without thought of consequence or of pay, I don't see him.

From all of the states, from the states of the great Mississippi valley, from the South and from the Pacific, they will come, as many millions as need be. You are parts also of our great industrial organizations and financial institutions, and these, too, already are at the service of our government. We shall not have to do any commandeering.

Ambassador Page, representing the American Luncheon Club of London, made fitting reply to the words of Lloyd George in commending America on her newly taken stand on the side of the Allies.

Walter Hines Page is a North Carolinian by birth, having been born in that state on the 15th day of August, 1855. Mr. Page is well educated, having attended Randolph Macon College, and Tulane, Aberdeen (Scotland), and Johns Hopkins Universities. He became editor of The Forum in 1890, and of the Atlantic Monthly in 1896. He was editor of the World's Work when he was selected by President Wilson in 1913 to represent American interests at the Court of St. James.

For the first time we are coming to war in the old world-except, indeed, when once before we came thither to suppress the Barbary pirates. It is singular that our present errand is so similar.

Of our coming overseas many consequences will follow. First and foremost we trust for an earlier victory, and, secondly, for a better understanding of the United States by the free nations of Europe and of the free nations of Europe by the United States, and this, as I see it, is the largest constructive political need of the world.

We come in answer only to the high call of duty and not for any material reward; not for territory, not for indemnity or conquest, not for anything save the high duty to succor democracy when it is desperately assailed. We come only for the ideal; that is, the republic.

What is the United States? It is a vast territory of great resources and a hundred million prosperous people, yes, but more. The republic is a system of society, a scheme of life, a plan of freedom, a state of mind - an ideal that every human shall have the utmost possible opportunity for individual development and that nothing shall be put in the way of that development. It was for this and upon this that our fathers established it. This we haven't forgotten, nor shall we ever forget. It is to make sure that this ideal shall not now perish from the earth that brings the United States into this war. High as the cost and great as the toll may be, we shall be better for standing where we have always stood, whatever the cost.

COMRADES IN A COMMON CAUSE

BISHOP BRENT

WE comrades in the common cause have come together like sturdy Judas Maccabæus and his fellow patriots in the ancient story, to commit our decision to the Lord and place ourselves in His hands before we pitch our camp and go forth to battle. It were an unworthy cause that we could not commit to God with complete confidence. To-day we have this confidence.

This, I venture to say, is not merely the beginning of a new era, but of a new epoch. At this moment a great nation well skilled in self-sacrifice, is standing by with deep sympathy and bidding Godspeed to another great nation that is making its act of self-dedication to God. That altar upon which we Americans are to-day laying

On April 20, 1917, the British Government and people celebrated the entry of America into the world war. A historic service was held in St. Paul's Cathedral, London. The cathedral seats nearly 400 people and was filled to its farthest recesses, when King George and Queen Mary entered, followed by the mayors and aldermen of the twenty-six boroughs of London, wearing their scarlet robes of office.

The king and queen and Princess Mary were received at the west entrance by the lord mayor and sheriff, the archbishop of Canterbury, the dean and chapter of St. Paul's, and the United States ambassador, Walter Hines Page.

The American embassy and consular staffs occupied front seats with representatives of the Pilgrims, the American Society, the American Luncheon Club, and the American Chamber of Commerce. In the diplomatic section were officers in the uniforms of France, Russia, Italy, Belgium, Serbia, Montenegro, Roumania, and Japan.

The most impressive feature of the service came when the band played a stanza of "The Star-spangled Banner" and the great crowd

rose as one man.

The sermon here given was preached by Bishop Brent, Episcopal bishop of the Philippines, from the text in Maccabees II. 13 ending, "having given out to his men the watchword, 'Victory is God's.'"

our lives and our fortunes is already occupied. After three years Great Britain and her allies have been fighting not merely for their own laws, their own homes, their liberty, and all they hold sacred, but for the great commonwealth of mankind.

To-day, when the United States avow their intention of giving themselves wholeheartedly to this great cause, the battle for the right assumes new proportions. A new power and victory - aye, a victory that is God'sis in sight. We Americans have never been oblivious to the fact that the people of this country have been standing for the same principles which we love and for which we live. England, thank God, is the mother of democracy, and England's children come back to-day to pour all their experience, the experience of a century and a half of independent life, with gratitude at the feet of their mother.

To-day we stand side by side with our fellows as common soldiers in the common fight. There have been great quarrels in the past that were results of misunderstanding, but our quarrel with Germany is not based on misunderstanding. It is due to understanding. Just as it was understanding that made us break with Germany, so it is understanding which makes us take our place by the side of the Allies. It would have been impossible for us to do otherwise.

This act of America has enabled her to find her soul. America, which stands for democracy, must champion the cause of the plain people at all costs. The plain people most desire peace. That is what America with the Allies is fighting for. She thinks so much of peace that she is ready to pay the cost of war. Our war to-day is that we may destroy war. One thing to do with war is to hunt it to its death and, please God, in this war we shall achieve our purpose.