CHURCH AND WAR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2600, 23 October 1915, Page 2

CHURCH AND WAR

A BRILLIANT SCHOLAR KILLED BY A TURKISH BULLET. Tho Rev. Evorard Digges La Touclic, M.A., Litt.D., who went with th° Australian Expeditionary Force to tho Dardanelles, has been killed in action. Dr. Diggos La Touoho was only about 110 years of age. Ho was educated at Trinity College, Dublin. In 1909 he published a volumo entitled "Christian Certitude," \tfiich was rogarded of such merit that he received the decree of Litt.D., and was appointed Donnollan Lccturer for 1911-12. Tho first series of t'hese lectures on "Tho Person of Christ in Modern Thought" was published in 1912. Ho was a brilliant scholar. Ho enlisted as a private in Sydney, where ho was Diocesan Missioner, and had dono a great work in dealing with the evidential side of j Christianity.

Dr. Talbot, Dean of Sydney, writing from the trenches at Gallipoli, tells how Dr. Digges La Toucho' met his death. "On Sunday morning last, August 8, it was my sad duty to bury tho mortal Temains of the brave boys who had fallen in the great chargo of tho Irish Infantry Brigade of the previous Friday. That charge will always stand out as one .of tho great achievements of operations here. On the Sunday morning I was standing at the side of a tronch in which 17 of our fallen officers and men lay side by side. Before the servico, which was much shortened, as wo were under heavy shell-fire at the time, I was surprised and shocked to come across the name of Dr. Diggos La Touche. Ho had landed, I believe, early on the morning of the chargo, and that samo night ho had scarce scaled the parapet of our trenches when he went down to a Turkish bullet. He saw but little of the war, but his example is a great asset. He desired at first to come away as a chaplain, and that when no opening offorded in that capacity he joined the ranks. He overcame every obstacle ol ill-health, and first as private, then as sergeant, then as colour-sergeant, and lastly as second-lieutenant, he found his way here. I remember his once saying to me in my office at the Deanery what a grand tiling it would be to get his commission from the ranks, and before he fell he 'had gained his desire. He was a born fighter. When the war broke out his patriotism simply possessed him. He laid aside the pen for the sword. He has often been heard to say that he was coming here to die for his country. It turned out to he a true presentiment, but his death was the deatli of a hero, and we thank our God for that."

THE HONS "ANGELS." A' COLONEL'S TESTLMONY. The Rev. A. Boddy, Vicar of All Saints', Sunderland, who has just returned home after two months' ministerial work at the front, says he had several opportunities of investigating the story of the "vision" at Mons. The evidence, he says, though not always direct, was remarkably .cumulative, and came through channels which were entitled to respect. Supernatural angel forms had, he believed, been seen. He was reminded of ono of the Biblical prophecies that at the time of a great orisis on the earth "great signs shall there bo from Heaven.".

A lady, whose name and address he holds, while nursing' in a convalescent hospital, was told by a patient that at a critical period in the retreat from Mons they saw an angel with outstretched wings, like a luminous cloud, between the advancing Germans and themselves. And at that moment the onslaught of fclio Germans slackened. Unable to credit the story, she was discussing later with a group of officers, when a colonel looked up and said: "Young lady, tho thing happened. You need not be incredulous. I saw it myself." A soldier-Private Robert Cleaver, of the Ist Cheshires—has made an affidavit before Mr. G. S. Hazlehurst, Magistrate of the County of Flint, that "I, personally, was at Mons and saw the angels with my own eyes." In tho "Daily Mail" of Saturday, a letter from "A.M.8." contained tho following:— As letters on tho subject of the Angels of Mons continue to appear, it may interest your readers ;to hear what was said in Germany about that time. A lady who was in Berlin up to the end of September said there was a great stir there because a regiment told off to do a certain duty at the Battle of Mons failed to carry out its orders. When severely reprimanded, the German soldiers gave this explanation: "We did try to carry out our orders, but those devils of Englishmen were up to some of their devilry, and we could do nothing; we were powerless." _My friend asked a lieutenant of the regiment what really happened, and ho said, "I cannot tell you. I only know_ that we were charging full on the British and we were suddenly stopped. It was almost like going full speed and being pulled np sharp at a preoipico_ ,but there was no precipice there, nothing at all; only our horses swerved round and fled ■ and wo could do nothing.". There was the account given in Berlin at the end of August, and as my friend did not leave Germany till tho end of September she had heard nothing of any English account -until she arrived in England.