This book deals, therefore, with those evils which now hide the face of God from us. If drunkenness be the greatest of these evils, there are others closely allied to it. Two Commissions have recently issued Reports, the one on 'The Declining Birthrate,' and the other on 'The Social Evil,' {viii} which reveal the perilous condition of degeneration into which the nation is falling. It is difficult for people, engrossed in the labours and anxieties of these days, to grasp the meaning of the facts as presented in these Reports. In these pages an effort is made to look the facts in the face and to make the danger clear, so that he who runs may read. And the writer has had but one purpose: to show that there is but one remedy for all our grievous ills, even a return to God. As we think of the millions who have taken all that makes life dear and laid it down that we might live; who have gone down to an earthly hell that we might not lose our heaven; who have wrestled with the powers of destruction on sea and land that these isles might continue to be the sanctuary of freedom and the home of righteousness; who in the midst of their torment never flinched; and of the fathers, mothers, and wives who have laid on the altar the sacrifice of all their love and hope--the question arises, how can {ix} we show our love and our gratitude to those who have redeemed us? We can only prove our gratitude by making a new world for those who have saved us--a world in which men and women shall no longer be doomed to live lives of sordidness and misery. When we shall set ourselves to that task, seeking to meet the sacrifice of heroism by the sacrifice of our service, deeming no labour too great and no effort too arduous, then the vision of God will again arise upon us and will abide. N. M. _October_ 7, 1916. {xi} CONTENTS CHAPTER I THE EMPTY CRADLE CHAPTER II THE ROOTS OF THE EVIL CHAPTER III THE EMPTY COUNTRYSIDE CHAPTER IV THE MAN IN THE SLUM CHAPTER V THE LORD OF THE SLUM CHAPTER VI THE GREAT REFUSAL {xii} CHAPTER VII THE SLUM IN THE MAN CHAPTER VIII BEHIND YOU IS GOD {1} CHAPTER I THE EMPTY CRADLE