Soldier silhouettes on our frontStidger, William L. (William Le Roy)
History
Soldier silhouettes on our front
Stidger, William L. (William Le Roy)
World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives; World War, 1914-1918 -- War work -- Young Men's Christian Associations
"So is the Christian world standing today on the hill of 'Calvaire.'
The storms have been black about the Christian world. The clouds have
seemed impenetrable. The earth has been desolate. We have walked on
our hands and knees and in our bare feet up the flinty road of
Baupaume, 'the saddest road in Christendom,' and along this road we
have borne the cross. We, the Christian world, the mothers, the
fathers, the little children, have bled. We have stumbled and fallen
along the way. And when we climbed the hill of Calvary, as we have
been doing for these years of war, the clouds darkened and we saw only
the ominous silhouettes of the three crosses.
"But the sun is now breaking the clouds, and it shall burn its way to a
glorious day. Across the fields we see the open tomb and the
resurrection is about to dawn; the day of brotherhood, democracy,
justice, love, and peace forever.
"Hope is in the world, hope brooding, hope dominant, hope triumphant,
hope in its supreme ascension."
One could not see this Silhouette of Silence, this "Calvaire" of the
French nation, and not come away knowing the full meaning of the war.
It is "The New Calvary" of the world.
VII
SILHOUETTES OF SERVICE
A newspaper paragraph in a Paris paper said: "Dale was last seen in a
village just before the Germans entered it, gathering together a crowd
of little French children, trying to get them to a place of safety."
Dale has never been seen since, and that was two months ago. Whether
he is dead or alive we do not know, but those who knew this manly
American lad best, say unanimously: "That was just like Dale; he loved
kids, and he was always talking about his own and showing us their
pictures."
No monument will ever be erected to Dale, for he was just a common
soldier; but I for one would rather have had the monument of that
simple paragraph in the press despatches; I for one would rather have
it said of me, "The last seen of Dale he was gathering together a crowd
of little children"; I would rather have died in such a service than to
have lived to be a part of the marching army that is one day to enter
the streets of Berlin. That was a man's way to die; dying while trying
to save a crowd of little children from the cowardly Hun.
[Illustration: "The last seen of Dale he was gathering together a crowd
of little children."]
If I had died in that kind of service, in my dying moments I could have
heard the words of John Masefield from "The Everlasting Mercy" singing
in my heart:
"Whoever gives a child a treat
Makes joybells ring in Heaven's street;
Whoever gives a child a home,
Builds palaces in Kingdom Come;
Whoever brings a child to birth,
Brings Saviour Christ again to earth."
Or, better, I would have seen the Master blessing little children,
taking them up in His arms and saying to the Hebrew mothers that stood
about with wondering eyes: "Suffer the little children to come unto me,
and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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