12 MARCH 1904, Page 18

WAR AND PEACE.

For those that ask it, let them have their fill—

But must the peasants go So far away from home across the snow To perish in a land Whose very name they hardly know And for a cause they cannot understand ?

Have they no wives And helpless little ones who need their lives ?

Are they not dear to Christ These simple multitudes so cheaply priced ?

Earth is so wide, and they For whom a narrow home sufficed

Must they be sent to die so far away ?

Yet some of them Have journeyed for His sake to Bethlehem, And kneeling where He lay, Offered their hearts for gifts and went their way; And now, where'er they are, I like to think that, come what may, They are at peace who once have seen the Star.

HUGH MACNAGHTEN.