My War Experiences in Two ContinentsMacnaughtan, S. (Sarah)
History
My War Experiences in Two Continents
Macnaughtan, S. (Sarah)
World War, 1914-1918 -- Hospitals, charities, etc.; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, English
My aunt was a passionately religious woman. Her faith was the
inspiration of her whole life, and it is safe to say that from the
smallest to the greatest things there was never a struggle between
conscience and inclination in which conscience was not victorious. As
she grew older, I fancy that she became a less orthodox member of the
Church of England, to which she belonged, but her love for Christ and
for His people never wavered.
As each Sunday came round during her last illness, when she could not go
to church, she used to say to a very dear sister, "Now, J., we must have
our little service." Then the bedroom door was left ajar, and her sister
would go down to the drawing-room and play the simple hymns they had
sung together in childhood. And on the last Sunday, the day before her
death, when the invalid lay in a stupor and seemed scarcely conscious,
that same dear sister played the old hymns once more, and as the sound
floated up to the room above those who watched there saw a gleam of
pleasure on the dying woman's face.
My aunt had no fear of death. There had been a time, some weeks before
the end, when her feet had wandered very close to the waters which
divide us from the unknown shore, and she told her sisters afterwards
that she had almost seemed to see over to the "other side," and that so
many of those she loved were waiting for her, and saying, "Come over to
us, Sally. We are all here to welcome you."
Perhaps just at the last, when her body had grown weak, the journey
seemed rather far, and she clung to earth more closely, but such
weakness was purely physical. The brave spirit was ready to go, and as
the music of her favourite hymn pierced her consciousness when she lay
dying, so surely the words summed up all that she felt or wished to say,
and formed her last prayer in death, as they had been her constant
prayer in life:
"In death's dark vale I fear no ill
With Thee, dear Lord, beside me;
Thy rod and staff my comfort still,
Thy Cross before to guide me.
"And so through all the length of days
Thy goodness faileth never;
Good Shepherd, may I sing Thy praise
Within Thy house for ever."
INDEX
Aberdare, 164
Aberystwyth, 164
Adinkerke, 116;
soup-kitchen, 82, 86, 157;
bombardment, 139
Airships, German, over Antwerp, 5, 9;
Dunkirk, 81;
Furnes, 80;
St. Malo-les-Bains, 55;
destroyed, 27, 194
Andrews, John, 171
Antwerp, 1;
Hospital, 2;
arrival of wounded, 2, 3, 5, 12;
siege, 3-21;
reinforcements, 12, 16;
shelled, 18-21;
retreat of the Marines, 28
Arabs, rapid system of communication, 247
Ararat, Mount, 230
Armenians, massacres of, 209, 214, 217, 228;
refugees, 227;
character, 234
Artvin, 211
Asquith, Raymond, 183
Australians, treatment of the Turks, 177
Bagdad, 247
Bagot, Lady, 100;
at St. Malo-les-Bains, 49, 55;
hospital, 104, 113, 114;
arrival of wounded, 144;
entertains them, 147
Bailey, Sister, 22, 24
Baku, 233, 237
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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