CHURCH AND WAR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2723, 18 March 1916, Page 14

CHURCH AND WAR

BEHIND THE TRENCHES THE SPIRIT OF THE BRITISH SOLDIER. The Dev. Sydney Berry, M.A., of Carr's Lsuic, Birmingham, successor io Kev. Dr. Joivott, recently spent three months with the Y.M.C.A. in Franco. To a representative of the " Westminster Gazette" he confessed that his experiences had proved a liberal education and had Riven him an unforgettable impression of the spirit of the British Tommy at tho front.

"I'coplo at home do not appreciate," said Mr. Berry, "what tiho life of tlio soldier is like up at tho firing line. He spends four days ill the trench and four out, when lie is billeted in barns. These are usually about four miles back, and arc naturally of a rough and ready description. He sleeps usually on tho hay or straw in a barn loft and lias few facilities for writing or 'for passing bis leisure time. Ho may 'ri-ouso' occasionally, but his spirit is remarkable. A number of men were returning to the trenches .the other night when one of them stopped into a deep hole used for the purpose of draining the water out of tie trenches. These holes are usually covered , with a grating, but on this occasion it was absent, and the soldier tumbled up to his chin into muddy water. He knew that ho would be obliged to remain in his wot clothes all night,' but he got out and gaily remarked: 'took, boys, I am Father Neptune!' This is tho spirit absolutely in which tho men meet everything.

"You meet at the front a large number of social grades and temperaments of all descriptions, but . tho men seem to possess a spirit which is a remarkable combination of stoicism and cheerfulness."

111 answor to a question concerning the soldier's attitude to religion Mr. Berry had much to say that was to the pbint. '!fc£© stated, however, at the outset that the soldier's expression of religion defied analysis. ''If you ask hiin at a service what are his preferences with respect to the hymns ho will usually choose 'Lead, Kindly Light,' and 'Jesu, Lover of My Soul.' You would not describe either of these hymns as -being sentimental, but it is hard to define the religious attitude of the men. Last Sunday night they crowded into the Y.M.O.A. hut for a voluntary service. - The regimental brass band was in attendance and played the accompaniment to tho hymns.

I commenced my address by saying that I was going home, and was just summing up the impressions of my stay in, France. I told them that I had not Been any signs of a religious revival, and that the English, reserve which we all appreciated was still there. 'If you talked about the religious spirit, I sajd, 'you had to judge it by its deeds.' The men broke out into applause, and were obviously moved. They have a tremendous consciousness, though they do not claim virtue for themsolves aa individuals, of the sacrifices the Army is making. What I have seen in this and i other particulars will strengthen me immensely for my future work." Mr. Berry helped to open one of the. first Y.M.C.A. huts behind the firing line. This measured 100 ft. by 30ft., and. when the boys returning from tho trenches first saw it Mr. Berry says that the joy 011 their faces was soma* tiling to witness. They were dclightod that the,Y.M.C.A. had got up so far, for they have accepted it as the best bit of Christian service to he found any-n-here. 'Y.M.C.A. hut is just what we want,' is a frequent remark one hears from the men," added Mr. Berry. A CLORIOUS HOUR. FIGHTING THE HUN TO THE DEATH. A war article in the "British Weekly" of January 6 concludes as follows: We say to our new soldiers that they come at a glorious hour. Never was a great struggle so completely divested of false appearances. Tho enemy has appeared in his full hideousness. Germans have set themselves to break civilisation and liberty and morality and religion. _ They put forward no pretext of righteousness or of pity. They laugh in the face of the Americans who gently remonstrate "when American citizens are drowned. They carry their system to its legitimate end. They are strong, calculating, rutlfiess, ready, and coherent. All that science and skill, undisturbed by moral scruples, can do tliey are doing. Wo had next to no preparation apart from the Navy when tho war began. Prom this want of preparation we have suffered severely. But we have seen this principle of evil in its naked horror, and are fighting i£ foot to foot and face to face, and will so Tight to the end. We are like those 1 Amorlcans who, after nearly four years of battle, were more •Elian ever resolved to go on, though their land came tffTie covered with liosptttils, though, their cities were filled with Bankrupts, _ though every family had to weep for its sons. They would fight for what is essential to a true and grand national life, not shrinking, not faltering, not refusing the necessary sacrifice, not accepting the evil compromise. Thej; went on and on, continually reinforcing and continually in battle, before they yielded. Before the Allies yield they will light the Hun to the death. . The German success would mean that freedom is a chimera, benevolence a snare, progress a delusion, Christianity a dream. We have to show that freedom and strength go together, and in order to prove it we must be capable of all conceivable sacrifice, The Americans did not shrinkwhen Lincoln told them that tlie demand for tho abolition of slavery would add years to the war. Neither shall we shrink, whatever the ultimate course ofi things may be. We shall ask ourselves rather what more we can do, what more we can suffer. Those who enter tho war in .these circumstances are of. a truth helping to carry the cross of Jesus Christ.

"ETERNITY TO MAN." AN INSTINCT WHICH POINTS TO AN AFTER LIFE. . . "AYhat would not our children's children give for the chance to meet and greet any of the brave men who are sleeping tlieir last sleep to-day, in tlie ravines and liills of the Dardanelles, 1 or in the plains of France?" asks the Rev. .Robert Christie, discussing "the sacrifice of the individual and immortality," in the "Contemporary Review." "It is just the same instinct which points us to.an after-life: it is the desire that the spirit, which is likest God within the soul, shall be the sovereign power in the umverso at the last.

"Nor, again, so long as self-sacrl-fice aims at the good of others, is it possible for it not to yearn for some sort of union and communion* with a spirit akin to itself. Thus, the pioneers of progress, scorned in their own day, are represented, by William Morris, as appealing to the future " 'Then 'twixt lips of loved and lover solemn thoughts of us shall rise, We, who onco wore fools and dreamers, then shall bo the brave and wise.'

"This' sense of an unseen tribunal, this appeal to an ideal society or an ideal companion,, is, as Professor James lias said, an indispensable element in the consciousness of all who live, a social life. Whither does this habit of mind inevitably tend? It tends directly to the conception of a Being who Is omniscient and morally perfect.

"It is when we arc most alone, and at our highest and best, that this sense of communion with God Himself becomes clear and strong. For religious •men, this has over been one great ialcan of immortality, -"Tis .the Divia-

ity that stirs within lis and intimates— Kternity to man.' Such an experience is not present with us at all times, but when It comes, it gives tho most intense feeling of reality which ivo can know. It is like the branch which camo floating out of the Unknown to unswor tho cioubtsof Columbus and his companions: it gives clear tidings of the Now World, that lies beyona the sea and tho night." A MIDNICHT MASS. A correspondent of the Press Association, describing Christmas Eve in the French firing line not far from Amiens, says:— _ "Off we went again, and came In a [ littlo time to a village, where we were [ received with delightful courtesy by. the General, and went with him and his staff to midnight Mass. The congregation was made up almost altogether of soldiers, with a sprinkling of women and children. It was a remarkable and impressive scene, and a most moving service. The choir was composed •entirely of soldiers in uniform, and I have never heard singing which seemed to come so straight from the heart. These men, who faced death at every hour of the day, werejno idle worshippers, they sang and prayed with their hearts in their voices. From the church we went to supper at the General's table, and we then learned that ho and another General who was a guest had each lost a son in thQ war. This gave the words that he said to U3 before leaving a peculiar dignity, for he spoke of tho high privilege of giving one's life for his country, and of the pride one should feel in having sons to give." V/HAT CANADA IS SENDING. Dr. W. T. Guun, secretary of the Congregational Union of Canada, recently returned from a visit to the Pacific coast. "Writing fronj Toronto, ho says:—"l hope the British neople are generally recognising that Canada is sending over, as privates in,tho Tanks, men of as good social standing as any. No British General since Cromwell has had any better material than some we are sending to you. From our own church we have stripped our Christian Endeavour Society of its leaders, and nearly every unmarried 'man of our choir has gone. Gone, as Cromwell said, 'with a conscience in it.' No con. script army can face that lcind of men:" A PLEA FOR NATIONAL' SERVICE. Preaching in Westminster Abbey, Archdeacon Wilberforce said there should be 110 shadow of doubt, or discouragement, or pessimism as to the issue of the war. The question still remained, Were we, as a nation, going forward whole-heartedly and unitedly, with all political predilections obliterated, and with sufficient determination and sef-sacrifico to justify this crying unto tho Lord to-day? It was positively irreverent to approach the Lord God Omnipotent with petitions to save England from the crushing miseries inflicted on Belgium, Serbia, and Armenia unless we were ready to do our part, unless we were prepared to adopt unitfersal national service without hesitation. Otherwise we coukl only expect from God the historic answer: "Where, fore troublest thou Me? Speak to the British nation that they go forward." PEACE VISIONARIES. In an address to his congregation, the Rev. J. H. White, vicar of St. Augustine, Croydon, writes: "Wo have to fear not so much the Germans and their Zoppelins, but our own unintelligent pessimism and our own politicians. . . . This war is being waged by soldiers and sailors, and we must determine that their splendid self-sacrifico on tho sea and in the trenches is not going to be undone in the saddle-back chairs of peace visionaries and politicians who were,ever tho sport of every wind that blows. Politicians can no more be expected to conduct a war than a plumber to tune a piano. . , . One dare not think of what would be the result of an immature victory or patch-ed-np peace. Such a war of cruel extermination would follow, long before tho present century had run its course, as would bring down Church and State and civilisation in one common scrapheap of ruin." A YOUNG SOLDIER'S PRAYER. A moving prayer was found in writing on the body_ of a Algerian student who fell in Alsace in September, After promising to go to Communion as often as possible whilst with the colours, the prayer proceeds as follows: "My God, Who lovest purity of heart, soul, and body, never to sin, I beg that Franco may come out of this horrible war victorious, and that my family may not be in mourning after the cannon's last shot. But if Thou de-sirest a victim, take me and spare my brother, my undo, and my cousins. If I have the happiness to keep my life, grant that I may be whole and strong, and I promise to make my life what Thou desirest. If Thou deemest me worthy, my God, give me the great grace of vocation which I so muqh desire, and which would be the greatest grace I could have." A SPARTAN MOTHER. A mother's self-sacrifice is told bj tho Rev. F. W. Newland, of the Claremont Mission, Pentonville, London. A canvasser, under Lord Derby's scheme, visited tho house of a poor woman in St. Luke's, Finsbury, and in . reply to his quos regarding her son's enlistment she said

"I had nine boys. Eight have gone to the war, four are dead, two are ■wounded. But if the King wants my remaining boy, tell him, he can have him—God I)less him—even if I must go to the workhouse."