CHURCH AND WAR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2693, 12 February 1916, Page 9

CHURCH AND WAR

SHAKESPEARE'S MEN AND WOMEN. CHEAPSIDE STILL PRODUCES THEM. Wliat is civilisation? In "The Commonwealth" Professor Scott Holland recalls a schoolgirl's definition, that, forty, years ago, in the Canon's student days at Oxford, used to be quoted tri- ; uinphautly by Professor Bonamy Price, "Civilisation is progressive desire." Canon Scott Holland is not so impressed by the cleverness of "the ridiculous prig of a child." He is "prepared to go one better," and lie lires off with "Civilisation is the organised transmission of acquired habits and character." He speaks of the effect of national environment on character, and rejoices in the Frenchwoman's' remark, on her husband going to figlit, "Ho must go from,me and fight, for I am only his wife; but France is his mother." That "motherhood of Franco" conception is France's great source of strength and constancy just now. Dr. Scott Holland wishes we were equally possessed by it in England. He does not quite know what the docker and others, fated to live b.y picking up casual jobs, on the uttermost margin of existence, thinks of. England as "mother." But the "mother" idea must be the idea created out of the war. _ This, he says, is every Englishman's right. His claim upon England comes to this—that she shall enable him to be what ho is—an Englishman. He is still bo truo to type, thank God! This is what wo have learned through the war. Somehow the old quality reappears which drew its sounding bow at Agincourt. There is the historic temper, individual, cheery, ironic, affectionate, real. By some strange alchemy, no one knows how or why, Cheapside still produces Shakespeare's men and women. _ We do not deserve it. But there it is in our hands, to cherish and sustain. The type is there, but it hardly knows itself. We have got to make it;aware of its own most precious inheritance. We have got to equip it so that it feels and understands jvhet- it is to be English. "What will it matter to us if the Kaiser comes P" We have all heard the retort on our heroic appeals. And it is not so easy to confute it. For it means that he who .says it has no apprehension of what he is. If he had he would know that there could be nothing so dreadful or so deadly as for one race to be overlorded and stifled by another. That is the one absolutely intolerable thing; and any race that is- aware of its own soul would rather die a hundred deaths than submit to it. When once an Englishuian_ has become conscious of his tvpe, of his inheritance, of his racial Quality, ho will know whv he could never endure to live unless he were free to be himself. MILITARY CLORY. A BISHOP'S GLOWING WORDS. A soldier's death in battle is beyond question the highest of natural virtues (says the Roman Catholic Bishop of Northampton) ._ No conceivable ser? vice rendered in civil life, whether public or private, can compare with the self-devotion of a life laid down for the, 'country. Hence military . glory, always aiid everywhere, has been- held to outshino_ all other gloryand the heroic soldier or sailor ranks higher than the politician and the philanthropist in a nation's esteem. Others have given of their best to the country. The soldier has given his all. - How does the valiant stand in the sight of God? We cannot doubt that He who is the Author of nature not less than the Author of grace fully endorses a verdict ■ which springs spontaneously from the hearts He has created. And indeed throughout the Bible the shining qualities; of the soldier are set forth as the typo of the loftiest aspiration. _ His courage, his discipline, his hardships, and especially his supreme sacrifice, are used as incentives to animate us for the spiritual conflict. The soldier's death, therefore, is "precious" in God's sight, and cannot go unrewarded. But if the reward is to transcend the perishable .glory of -or-Mi, the soldier's valour must have tioeii Inspired by _ supernatural as well as natural motives, and adorned by supernatural as well as natural virtues. A.' double glory falls to the lot of true Christian volcliers—so many of whom have gone to the front from our own congregations—not only the glory of their country well served, but also the glory of God well served in their country's cause. Visible tokens abound in the new 3 that comes from abroad. of the special Providence which is over them:—The atmosphere of grace which accompanies them in their marches and, on the battlefield; their ever-growing appreciation of Mass and the Sacraments; their cheerful self-restraint and the holy thoughts which ward off the solicitations of sin; their fearless gaze into the very eyes of death, as having "the testimony qf a good conscience." Even the irreligious are recovering their faith, the dissipated their innocence, and the tepid their fervour. In the light of such evidence, the 'bereaved have the strongest grounds for their confidence that "the souls of their dear ones are in the hand of God and the torment of evil shall not touch them." COD'S PATIENCE. THE FIRE OF HIS CRUCIBLE. An article in the "British Weekly" by the Rev. Professor W. M. Clow, on "TiTe Crucible of War," concludes as follows:— ■ The Hebrew prophet wrote that God "sits'' as a refiner. He is declaring God's patience as He waits and watches. All of us are praying our daily prayer for peace. We long for the time when the trauquil blue of heaven will again lie overspread and nations will dwell in a brotherhood not of worldly interest, not of law and treaty, not of blood, but v. brothorhobd in Christ. But God wifl not send pcace until the work of the crucible is done. As one looks abroad upon tho nation and its ideals of life, ; and as one sees so much rebellion. ' against truth and purity, so much selfindulgence, and so much-neglect of the Word of Christ, the_ prayer for a speedy peace is sometimes checked and ! transformed into a petition that in tho midst of wrath God will remember , mercy, and that by His grace we shall abido the fire of His crucible, so that ( wo may como forth with a new faith in tho great certainties, and a new passion for likeness unto His Son. THE PADRE. "ALL THE MEN WORSHIP HIM." [ A correspondent sends to tho "Spectator" a few quotations from a letter written by u soldior at tho front:— "There is not one of us who is ashamed to drop upon his knees and pray at any moment, for wo face death all tho ; time. . . . Wo have a chaplain who conies up into the front lino cvory day, j no mutter lioiv dangerous and rough 1 things may lie; in fact, lie always ' makes for tho most dangerous places, 1 on principle. Ono day during a par--1 Umilarly hot bombardment, instead of leaving"!ho trendies, 'tho padre,' so ho is oallcd, strode uj> and down tho line 1 cheering and helping. Wherever tho bombardment was strongest that place became his objective, and it was no- ■ ticed that it slackened off as. soon as Wraaohci the. localitfo-Daiteji&gpjiies.

down the line, giving away sweets ani cigarettes with a cheering word. He ij an elderly mm, and when we ask him why he comes into danger as ha does, when there is no call, he tells ui that he has no wife, his family ij grown up, and so he feels he can b« better spared than many. They saj that he is a Leods parson, but that he has been in tho colonies. He i? always glad to give Communion to Non* conformists. All the men worship him. I shall try to find out his name, but at present he is 'the padre'—tli? simplest, finest gentleman I have ev* met, and he has stood the test." CENERAL CASTELNAU,

STRONG RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS. The appointment by General Jo fire* who lias been entrusted with the su- : preme command of the French armies on all fronts, of General Castebiau as his Chief of Staff' has been hailed with welcome throughout France. "No better choice," "says the Paris correspondent of tho London "Observer," "could be made than that of Castelnau. He is one of the few Generals in the Republican armies who openly avow their Catholicism. Ha is devoutly religious, and will take Sacrament at any hour of tho night when his mission calls him to some forward move of imporfcanco and perillt is worth while insisting on the point, for it is a certificate of the man's fearless adherence to his convictions. There was a moment when it would have hindered his career. But that is past; no one thinks of branding a man because of his politicf or religion: all 'conform' to-day to the cult of country." He has lost thre« sons in the war,.and one ofhisdatigh. ters had had her forearm amputated as. the result of blood-poisoning contracted in 'hospital service. A correspondent of the "Manchester Guardian" declares:—"He is undoubtedly the best man—indeed, the only man —and nc other Consideration counts in war. No section of opinion in France, however they may look upon General Castelnau politically, regard him as-other than the brilliant soldier he is. He ii known also as a man of sterling chan acter." IN HYDE PARK.' ' & "q QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS. When the well-known organising secretary of the Christian Evidence Society mounted the platform in Hyde Park on a recent Sunday he was-soon asked: "Isn't it a bit awkward thai the Germans "are asking God for victory, too?" "No," rcphed the Rev. C. L. ' Drawbridge. "I don't see anything awkward in it. If a man has turnips on his side. of the hedge 'and prays for rain, and the man on • th« other side prays for fine weather, nobody'but a born idiot would expeci both to get what they wanted. : God will give the victory to. the side that deserve victory; in other words, we shall have it." "But God is neutral," said another man in the crowd. "No religious man, whatever his religion/' replied Mr. Drawbridge, "haa evei maintained that God is neutral in the matter of behaviour." In replying to other questions, Mr. Drawbridge remarked, "Prayer is not cadging that you may get by a short cut something you ought to work for. I don't exercise my lungs that somebody may give' me a five-pound note, but that I may, keep alive. I don't exercise my digestion that I may get a pound of sausages for nothing, hut that I may keep alive. The reward of my intellectual activity is not that I become a millionaire, but that I keep my intellect, alive. Prayer is the exercise of th( spiritual side of my nature, and it keep* me in touch with God." AN ALSATIAN SOLDIER. ' > V . -- ■■ 7' LETTERS TO HIS WIFE. Mgr. Herscher, Archbishop of Laodicea, has contributed an article on thi Soul of Alsace to the French papers in which, as illustrations, he gives sonii extracts from the letters of an Alsafia(' soldier, Captain Iska, to his wife. Caj tain Iska, who fell gloriously on Sep tember 25 whilst loading his men to a\ attack on the enemy's trenches, is declared in dispatches to have shown from the 'beginning of the war the finest/ qualities of a 6oldier. On the day before his death he wrote two letters tos his wife, one in the morning and tha other late at night. In the first hf wrote: — . "I do not know, . my darlingjwheher I shall bo able to continue writing every day. But do not b<; anxious if you should not get anything from me. Think that God has protected us so far and we will hope that) He will continue to do so. And then, . if it should please Him to decide otherwise, may His will be done. My soul, is at peace with God, and I do not fear death. If I fall the-only shadow is at leaving behind me so charming a companion and two little loves of children. ; But do hot look at the shadow, rather ' keep your eye fixed on the light. Tha light is duty, and it is all the finer when one is a soldier to be able to do one's duty always, and especially to dio for one's country m the defence of right and justice. If Ido not return.from the counter-attack which is now preparing be like all of us here, a soldier. We men have to give our lives without grudging; and you others, poor women, you must sacrifice what you hold dear< est without bewailing." In the second, written just befort midnight, he says:— "Wo are certainly clearing for action for to-morrow. Have confidence and courage. I send you my mention in dispatches, which I have just received. Later,, aud when our little girls are grown up, show it .to them. If to* morrow I am killed, remember that in spite of all' the sufferings of these fourteen months nothing has hindered me from doing mv duty as a Frenchman, and that I shall do it to the end. My last thought, after God, will be for : you. who liavd made me so happy of earth.. And do not be jealous, my las( ' thought- but one will be for Alsace."- .