Not the least amazing phenomenon of these most amazing times is the fact that millions of men should consent to be hurled to certain death, and to permit the ruin of their countries, to satisfy the insensate ambitions of rulers, who, when all is said and done, are but men, and in some cases even of alien birth and personally not specially beloved by them. Surely one outcome of this world-war will be the birth of a new determination in every nation that its own voice and its own will shall control its own destinies--that no one man or self-appointed clique shall swing it to ruin for his or their own selfish purposes. Who pays the piper must in future call the tune. "The world has suffered much too long. O wonder of the ages-- O marvel of all time-- This wonderful great patience of the peoples! How long, O Lord, how long?" The answer cannot come too soon for the good of the world. JOHN OXENHAM. [Illustration: VOX POPULI SUPREMA LEX The Kaiser: "Don't bother about your people, Tino. People only have to applaud what we say."] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- THE CHRISTMAS OF KULTUR, A.D. 1915 Mary, worn with grief and fear, covers her emaciated face with scarred hands, as she kneels in prayer before the infant Jesus. Joseph, grown old and feeble, nails up a barricade of planks to strengthen the door against the missiles of Kultur already bursting through it and threatening the sleeping child. So in that first Christmas, nineteen centuries ago, he saved Mary's child from the baby-massacre ordered by Herod to preserve his own throne. Kultur, the gathered wisdom of the ages, has brought us back to the same Holy War. What a Christmas! What a Festival of Peace and goodwill towards men! People ask: Why does God allow it? Is God dead? Foolish questions. When I was at school I had the good fortune to be under a great teacher whose name is honoured to-day. He used to tell us that the most terrible verse in the Bible was: "So He gave them up unto their own hearts' lust and they walked in their own counsels" (Ps. lxxxi, 13). Man has the knowledge of good and evil; he has eaten of the tree and insists on going his own way. He knows best. Is not this the age of science and Kultur? We must not cry out if the road we have chosen leads to disaster. Yet still the Child of Christmas lives and a divine light shines round His head. He sleeps. A. SHADWELL. [Illustration: CHRISTMAS EVE JOSEPH: "The Holy War is at the door!"] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- SERBIA