Three years ago its vast bulk and massive towers rose grandly above its surrounding buildings in all the pride of lasting permanency. For seven hundred years these stones had cried aloud to the glory of God and the supreme genius of its French builders and decorators. France--that treasure-house of architectural masterpieces--had no more noble building than this, so dear to the French people by reason of the supremacy of its art and as the coronation church of their kings, and once the emblem and the expression of their nationality. In its present dismantled, battered, more than half-ruined state, the cathedral of Reims is of all the unnecessary sacrifices in the War the most unnecessary. It has been too great and too good a thing to disappear from the world without leaving an empty place that cannot be filled. Once, in far back September, 1914, the merciless barbarian encamped before its holy portals. There he stayed for nine days, and, leaving in haste, presently bombarded it, so that his own wounded, temporarily placed within it for safety, were burned alive under the protecting flag of the Red Cross. A pitiable comment on his regard for great churches and the well-being of the wounded. Since then--September 12, 1914, to be exact--no good news has come out of Reims. Yet of this we may be certain: devoted as the French are to their great national church, they will gladly sacrifice it utterly if that sacrifice be required to thrust out the barbaric invading hordes that know only hate of the good, the true, the beautiful. The catastrophe of Reims supplies a very sure index as to what passes as the quality of the German mind. Although of all churches the most French, the cathedral of Reims belongs to the whole world, a rare, beautiful and precious structure, hallowed with great memories and endowed with exquisite art. The question is thus very simple: is the world better with the cathedral of Reims or without it? The Germans seem unquestionably to have decreed its destruction. Of this the record of the bombardment offers ample proof. But as yet the cathedral-destroyers have offered no word, no hint, no suggestion, as to how or why the world will be bettered by the wilful destruction of this matchless church. [Illustration: THE FRONT AT REIMS IN MAY, 1917] 1914 September, 1914 2 French army evacuated Reims in the night. 3 Taube dropped 2 bombs 9:15 A. M.; Dr. Langlet, Mayor of Reims, issued proclamation announcing the approach of the Germans and urging calm. German officers enter Reims 8:30 P. M. 4 First bombardment 9:22 A. M., 176 shells, many killed and wounded; minor injuries to the cathedral, glass broken; St. Remi and St. André injured; German troops enter in afternoon; anniversary of the German occupation of 1870. 5 German occupation. 6 German occupation. 7 German occupation. 8 German occupation. 9 German occupation. 10 German occupation. 11 German occupation.