The Soul of the Soldier: Sketches from the Western Battle-Front — John Shaqi
The Soul of the Soldier: Sketches from the Western Battle-FrontTiplady, Thomas
History
The Soul of the Soldier: Sketches from the Western Battle-Front
Tiplady, Thomas
World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, English
One wet night on the Somme I got lost in "Happy Valley" and could not
find my regiment. Seeing a light in a tent, I made for it. It was a
pioneers’ tent, but they invited me to come in out of the storm and stay
the night. They were at supper and had only a small supply of
bully-beef, biscuits and strong tea; but they insisted on me sharing
what they had. I was dripping with rain, and they gave me one of their
blankets. One of them gave me a box to sleep on, while he shared his
chum’s. Some lost privates came in later wet to the skin, and the
pioneers gave them all the eatables left over from supper, and shared
out their blankets and clothes. It was pure Christianity--whatever
creeds they may think they believe. And it is the glamour of the Front.
England feels cold and dull after it. Kindness and comradeship pervade
the air in France. You feel that everyone is a friend and brother. It
will be pretty hard for chaplains to go back to their churches. They
have been spoiled by too much kindness. How can they go back to the
cold atmosphere of criticism and narrow judgments which prevail in so
many churches--that is, unless the war has brought changes there also?
And after preaching to dying men who listen as it their destiny depended
upon their hearing, how can they go back to pulpits where large numbers
in the congregations regard their messages as of less importance than
dinner, and as merely supplying material for an exercise in more or less
kindly criticism during the discussion of that meal?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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