TOMMY WHEN HE PRAYS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1745, 7 August 1917, Page 4

TOMMY WHEN HE PRAYS.

“There is no character which has at the same time so puzzled and amazed the world as that of the British soldier; that strangfe mixed character, with its gaps and its un-, evennesses and Jts extraordinary loveableness,” says the Revs. T. W. Pym and G. Gordon, in their book “Papers from Picardy,” a record of their observations at the front. They make in this volume an attempt to analyse that character with an insight which is rare, and more particularly to discover its attitude to re • ligion. The modern British soldier prays in the hour of danger; —It is not perhaps a very high type of prayer, it is purely individual, selfcentred, and inspired by fear. At one time, especially during the early stages of the war, we heard a great deal about, religious revival and a new turning to prayer-. There is a story that during a lull in a heavy bombardment a man emerged from a dug-out and shouted enquiries to a neighbouring shelter: “You all right in there, mate 1 ?” “'Yes, so far, but some of them b shells 1 come b- — close.” “What have you been doing while it was going on 1 ?” “Well, as a matter of fact, we’ve all been saying our prayers.” “So’vc we — we’ve been praying like hell.”