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
[Illustration: "The boys call her 'The Woman with Sandwiches and
Sympathy.'"]
And as we knelt in prayer together there in the hut and I arose to
clasp his hand in sympathy, I knew that through service there in
France, through service to your sons, mothers and fathers of America,
this brave man, as well as his wife, were solacing their grief. They
were conquering sorrow in service, thank God.
Yes, there are Silhouettes of Sorrow, but these silhouettes always have
back of them the gold of a new dawn of hope. They are black
silhouettes, but they have a glorious background of sunrise and hope.
I tell of no sorrows here that are not triumphant sorrows, such as will
hearten the whole world to bear its sorrow well when it comes, pray God.
Up at ---- on the beautiful Loire is my friend the secretary. It is a
humble position, and there are not many soldiers there, but he is
serving and brothering, tenderly and faithfully, the few that are
there. No one would ever think of him as a hero, but I do. He, too,
is a hero who is conquering sorrow in service.
His only daughter had been accepted for Y. M. C. A. service in France.
She was all he had. He was a minister at home, and had given up his
church for the duration of the war. Both were looking forward with
keen anticipation to her coming to France. Then came the cable of her
death.
I was there, the morning it arrived, to preach for him. He said no
word to me about the blow. We went on with the service as usual. I
noticed that no hymns had been selected, and that things were not in
very good order for the service. I was a little annoyed at this, but I
am thankful with all my heart this day that I said nothing. I had
decided in my heart that he was not a very efficient religious director
until I heard the next day.
When I asked him why he had not told me, he said a characteristic
thing: "I didn't want to spoil the service. I thought I would keep my
grief in my own heart and fight it out alone."
And fight it out he did. Letters kept coming for several weeks after
the cable, letters full of girlish hope about France, and full of joy
at the thoughts of seeing "daddy" soon. This was the hardest of all.
He could not tear up those precious letters. Her last words and
thoughts were treasures; all that he had left; but they were
spear-thrusts of pain also. But bravely he fought out his battle of
grief, and tenderly he ministered, mothers and fathers of America, to
your boys. Is it any wonder that they loved him, that they went to him
with their loneliness and their heartaches; is it any wonder that he
understood all the troubles that they brought and that they bring to
him?
And then there was the young secretary who had just landed in France.
It had been hard to leave home, especially hard to leave that little
tot of a six-year-old girl, the apple of his eye.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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