CHURCH AND WAR

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2534, 7 August 1915, Page 3

CHURCH AND WAR

SAYINGS AND DOINGS "EVERYTHING WORTH HAVING AT STAKE." 11l answer to the question "How can the Church help the nation?" tlio Bishop of London writes to the "Guardian" as follows: — I think tho Church can best help the nation first of all by making it realise that it is engaged in a, Holy War, and not bo afraid of saying so. Christ died on Good Friday for Freedom, Honour, and Chivalry, " and our boys are dying for the samo things. Having onco realised that everything worth having in the world is at stake; tlio nation will not hesitate to allow itself to be mobilised. You ask for my advice in a sentence as to what the Church is to do. I answer "Mobilise" tho nation for a Holy War. A Chaplain's Devotion. The following of _ the devotion shown by a chaplain is taken from a letter'home, written by . a French soldier: —"I saw a scene which was awfully touching. We had just captured three German lines filled with corpses and prisoners and had come to a ridge crossed by the Bethune Road, when I was surprised to see the cliai>lain, tho Abbe .Dubreuil. Under a liail of bullets he was running from one wounded man to another, attending wounds, giving absolution. In his left hand he held a crucifix, though ho was already badly wounded, and his fingers were all dripping with blood. Before I could sign to him to get to cover lie fell a few moments later, under tho fire of the German machine guns. Ho had waved his arm to show his Red Cross, and his handkerchief, but to no purpose. His cassock ought to havo been a protection for him, but he foil dead hit by several bullets." Scotland's Sacrifices, Tlio Bishop of Glasgow; preaching in London, made this striking statement: "The slack, pleasure loving, indolent hoys of yesterday put themselves willingly under the severest military discipline. In a few weeks there was a change, and when he saw them marching past hia house in Glasgow they had liecomo men. It was the same in England as in his own country of Scotland. • There had never been anything like it since Edinburgh after Flodden. Day after day he had to write letters to those who_ were leaders in Scotland, to try and give words of comfort because one son after another had been taken. The succession of what they called tho great families of Scotland, almost without a single exception, had been altered by the war."--The Rediscovery of Cod. In the course of an ordination service in Lincoln Cathedral tho Rev. E. A. Burroughs, Fellow and Tutor of Hertford, Oxford, said: "From a thousand sources we havo been learning of what can only be called the rediscovery of God by the mon at the front; not only by our own men, but by those of our Allies and of our enemies as well. If time allowed,_ I could tell of case after case of this from my own small personal experience in Franco a month ago. To us, to all who for- so many centuries have imagined that our life-work consisted in showing forth God, it is surely a reproach that God should havo needed rediscovering, and should havo had to find His own strango way back into the life of an ago that seemed to be forgetting Him." The Mothers of England. ! Tho Bishop of St. Asaph, speaking at the service in St. Paul's Cathedral for tho members of the Mother's Union, said a nation's strength depended not on its possessions, but upon its character, and character was formed in the home and tho mother was the centro of tho home. This was a time of tremendous sacrifice for all of us, but sacrifice was the test of character and none was called u{ion to make such heart-search-ing sacrifices as the mothers of England. Tho temptation to keep the sons they had nurtured and brought up. at homo must be terrible, but they had tho consolation that it was better to be the ; mother of a dead hero than of a living coward. Our First Concern. The two great interest of the war (said Dr. Kelmau, tho distinguished Presbyterian preacher, in a recent sermon), wo were reminded, are the interest of righteousness and the interest of sacrifice. On tho first point Dr. Kelman indignantly refuted those teachers who imagine that our first concern in this war is forgiveness of enemies. "The first moral principle before ns is not forgiveness, but tho inalienable distinction between right and wrong, between goodness and badness, between heaven and hell." Under the second head he spoke of our lovo for the lads who march away, and compared their sacrifico to that of Calvary. "It is bettcT to lovo with a broken heart than to keep your heart whole in a loveless neutrality." A Religious Crusade. Tho "British Weekly" states that it is impressed by a letter from a- distinguished Cambridge man, who writes from Boulogne as follows: —"We shall in any ■ case drain through tho major portion _ of our young manhood. If we do it stupidly, or disjointedly, or with friction, wo shall lose our manhood, and at tho samo time miss tho prize; but if tie whole of England plunges into the task with tho unanimity and devotion of a religious crusade, beside which no interests or so-called principles are of the slightest conscquence, then we shall indeed lose mon, but wo shall win our prize, and tho next generation will be glad for it." The Cerman Ceneral Staff. "If at tho end of the present war," saidDean luge at Sion College, London, "it is impossible to get hold of tho German General Staff, guilty of all theso atrocious crimes, and if, after due trial, it is considered right to put them away, I think wo should be quite justified in doing it." "Thank" Cod for Zeppelins." Preaching at St. Judo's, South Kensington, the Bishop of London said that when people spoko of tho danger to London from Zeppelins he thought they should thank God that they were allowed to have a bit of danger. Wo did not want to leave all the danger for tho boys in the firing line. "And," said tho Bishop, "I shall be ashamed of London if wo don't face our little bit of danger with absolutely, unshaken norves." Absolution under Fire. A priest-soldier of the diocese of Gap, writing homo to thank friends for their promise of prayers, says: "All my mon have seen your letter, and were much touched by it, for they know tho sublime devotodness which religion has evoked during this war.' I remember a night of awful fighting when I saw a chaplain in a surplice come with tho doc-, tors and stretcher-bearers to tho middlo of the field of horror to go tho round of the dying, giving absolution whilst tho shejls and bullets fell all round. In his desiro not to allow njijv man to dio without tho help of religion,, this chaplain certainly did more for tho return to Christian ideas than six months of sermons in peace time. I am glad to be able to add that ho lias been decoratcd. ..with the .Cross pi the Lesion of Hon«_

our. This happy Tetuni to our religious ideas is inevitable; here with death be-, fore their eyes every man is forced to think, and I know many who have changed their views." Soldier's Letters. "I must say, if this war has done a lot of harm, it has certainly brought men nearer to God. And when tho war is over the Army will be a lot more religious than before it started." A guuner in Egypt writes: —"We have not a chaplain with lis, so have to bo content ivitli reading a chapter of the Bible as often as we can We are on tile desert, and all we can see for miles is nothing but sand and flios and millions of locusts audi big beetles and lizards and little snakes."' WONDERFUL BATTLEFIELD STORY A VISION OF ANGELS. The' Manchester correspondent of the "Guardian" (Anglican) writes:— I have timo and again heard a wonderful story of miraculuous intervention which saved tho British troops oil their retreat from Mods. They ought to have been killed to the last man. They escaped, and their escape was not primarily due to their own skill' and tenacity, but to the Hand of God. Between tho German pursuers, and the retreating British a vision of angels was seen; tho horses of tho Germans stampeded and the pursuit was paralysed. This, in fact, is the stcry which I have heard from the lips of men who, some of them, were anything but predisposed to accept supernatural interpretations of earthly happenings. I have heard tho story told in awed tones by men who preferred not to enlargo upon it. "It was too solemn and sacred," said one of. them, to explain bis reticence. Sceptical at first, I have come slowly to believe that something marvellous did happen, and that it still awaits an explanation. But, like my confidants, I liavo not felt that 1 ought to descant upon it. Dr. E. F. Horton, the Congrcgationalist diviuo, told the whole story in a Manchester chapel. He regards some of' tho reports as being "completely authenticated." He spoke of "a company of angels" interposed between the two lines, and ho gave further witness to Divine, interventions in tlio Dardanelles and elsewhere. The considered statement of such a man is not to bo lightly sot asideat least it challenges inquiry. What if iti should prove as of old that "the mountain is full of horses and chariots of fire round about" those who trust God? "A Comrade In White." In his sermon, Dr. Horton said:— "There are wonderful stories coming to us in this time of war —some of them verified and some of them floating about and difficult to verify and to iix—but they aro stories which show quit© distinctly how men to-day are kept in tho secret places of tho Most High, under the shadow of tho Almighty, in the midst of unexampled peril." "I had news from the ' Dardanelles last week but one. A sailor on one of our transport ships told me in tho simplest language how airships of tho enemy came over the troopship droppin" bombs. Tho captain, who is a mail of God, gave the order to tho mon to pray. They knelt on tho deck and prayed, and the Lord delivered them. 'The eighteen bombs, which seemed to be falling from overhead, fell harmlessly into tho sea." "Now .and again," Dr. Horton continued, "a wounded man 011 the held is conscious of a comrade in white coming with help, and oven delivering him. One of our men who had heard of this story again and again and had put it down to hysterical excitement had an experience. His division had advanced, and was not adequately protected by the artillery. It was out to pieces, and ho himself fell. He tried to hide in a hollow of the ground, and as ho lay. helpless, not daring to lift bis head under the hail of tire, he saw 0110 in wliito coming to him. Tho bullets were flying all round. The white-robed caino near and bent over him. Tho man lost consciousness for a moment, and when he came round ho seemed to be out of danger. The white-robed still stood by him, and the man, looking at his hand, paid: 'You are wounded in your hand.' There was a wound in the palm. He answered: 'Yes, that is an old wound that has opened again lately.' The soldier says that, in spite of the peril and liis wounds, 110 felt a joy he had never experienced in his life before." "There is a story repeated, by so many witnesses that if anything can bo established by contemporary evidcnco it is established —of the retreat from irons. A section of tho lino was in imminent peril and it seemed as if' it must inevitably be borne down and. cut off. Our mon saw a company of angels interposed betweou them and the German cavalry and tho horses of tho Germans stampeded. Evidently tho animals beheld what our men beheld. Tho Gorman soldiers • endeavoured to bring tho horses back to tho line, out they tied. It was the salvation of our men." "Is it not an extraordinary fact (Sr. Horton proceeded) that, although the carnage is so fearful, there are evidences accumulating every day o'f those jvho are kent jmdei; the shadow, afjlie

Almighty—men who aro quite conscious that prayer is heard and answered for them? These men, if they are ultimately spared, will como back to. our country and our Churches to begin a perfectly new era in the history of Christendom and to change tho wholo aspect of our Church life. They will come back to tell us of a living God Who is ablo to help, and of a Saviour Who shows Himself m the hour of peril and when all earthly succour seems to fail."- ' '