INFLUENCE OF CAMP LIFE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1921, 31 December 1918, Page 3

INFLUENCE OF CAMP LIFE.

A CLERGYMAN'S IMPRESSIONS.

In (he course of his .sermon at the Unitarian Free Church, Wellington, (lie Rev. G. K Hale, 8.A., who has recently returned from camp, made reference to camp life, upon his religious faith. He sa’d that he regarded it as a great privilege to have mingled with other soldiers, not as a ejergyman, but as an ordinary private., am! had learned many things for which he was profoundly grateful. He bad found in the first place Hint religion made its strongest appeal Avben il was presented in its simplest and most practical form of love to God and man. The chaplains of whose general influence he spoke highly, depended very little if at all upon the (•(inventions ami theologies of ordinary church life; (hey spoke in very plain language of the claims of God upon the lives of the men, and in (his way made a deep, if nof a lasting, impression.

“In the second place,” said Mr Halo, “I have gained much addition-

al experience in an intimate and unofficial way of the real heart of man, or rather men. When t entered camp many of my friends assured me that as a private soldier f had before me (he posmbililies of good in many ways, Iml 1 received one Idler in whieh it was feared that (lie experiene would do me harm; that my fahh in Ihe highest and .best regarding man would be shaken. In regard to this taller prophecy, I must frankly confess that I did lind things ths.fl saddened me. But is it not absolutely essential that one should know these things if lie is to bo effective in his work as a minister of religion? Let me liaston, however, to add that I found splendid possibilities of good among my comrades. I do not hesitate to say that my brief term as a soldier has strengthened my faith in the essential goodness and divine possibilities of human nature. I have found that a special situation will call forth noble qualities in men who lay no claim to saintliness. During the terrible days of the epidemic in camp the almost womanly tenderness of hard men of the world who came forward and ministered to the, sick was a thing to stir anyone who is prepared to acknowledge goodness when lie sees it. And so I have learned from additional experience, as well as from the Bible and other hooks, that man may become a little lower than the angels if; we give him a chance.’’