We are too apt, in a word, to take our stand within the horizon of this life, and to judge of all things as they are reflected in this world’s mirror; but if we would see them in their true perspective and so measure their real values, we must take our stand in the life beyond the grave. We must look, not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. In some degree, though not to the same extent, we may apply a similar consideration to the sufferings of nations, and of the world as a whole, in a great war. It is revealed to us in the Book of the Revelation of St. John that, at the consummation of all things, after scenes of carnage which are at least equal in their horror to the dreadful spectacle now before our eyes, a new heaven and a new earth will be created, by Him Who sits upon the throne making all things new. Even so far as the present world is concerned, the sufferings and sacrifices involved in great wars have doubtless won for future generations the greatest blessings of true Christian civilization--liberty, order, peace, and justice. It might, indeed, be thought that the price of such blessings was too high, if we judged of the sacrifices of individual lives in the light only of the things that are seen; but when we can feel that every life thus sacrificed, that every suffering thus unselfishly endured, works out for the sufferer himself an exceeding and eternal reward, we can look to the things which are not seen, and can again realize that, in comparison with them, it is not too much to speak, with St. Paul, of “our light affliction which is but for a moment.” That is the grand comfort, also, of the mourners who are left behind, who may be similarly assured that, in their patient acceptance of their bitter share of these sacrifices, they will be united with those they have loved and lost, in the eternal blessedness to which St. Paul looks forward.