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
Every day, officers and men die in trying to save their comrades, and
nothing could be more unjust than to blame those who survive for not
having done more to prevent others from being lost; for those who are
surviving, to-day, may become missing to-morrow, and leave no trace
behind. Officers have sometimes shown me letters from poor distracted
relatives which could never have been written if they could have
imagined the deadly peril in which the officers stood and the manifold
distractions that wore them down. Sometimes an officer’s letter is
short and business-like in reply to an enquiry, but it must be
remembered that his first duty is to the living. He must hold the line
and save his men; and he has, despite the tragedy of his position, to
answer not one enquiry but scores. And before he has finished answering
all the enquiries, his own parents, perhaps, will be making enquiries
about his own fate. Our officers are the bravest and kindest-hearted
men that ever had the lives of others in their keeping; and when the
chaplain asks them for details about any missing or slain soldier, they
will go to endless trouble for him. They know what their own death will
mean to their parents; and the knowledge makes their hearts go out in
sympathy to the parents of their men, and it makes them do all that is
possible to prevent lives being lost.
When Moses died no man knew the place of his burial. It has not been
found to this day. We know nothing of his last thoughts or of the
manner of his death. His end is a perfect mystery. But we know that he
died in the presence of God; that God strengthened him in the dread
hour; and that with His own fingers He closed the lids over the
prophet’s brave, tender eyes. God buried Moses in a grave dug by His
own hands and He will know where to find the poor worn-out body of the
great patriot at the resurrection of the just. And God was with every
one of our missing lads to the last, and He knows the narrow bed in
which each lies sleeping. The grave may have no cross above it, but it
will often know the tread of an angel’s feet as he comes to plant
poppies, primroses and daffodils above the resting-place of the brave.
*XII*
*"IT MUST BE SUNDAY"*
The Psalmist of Israel tells us that God has "ordained" the moon and the
stars. These "flaming fires" are "ministers of His that do His
pleasure." Nor are they the only ones chosen from Nature. Mungo Park,
having laid down in the desert to die, notices beside him a tiny flower,
and it awakens hope in him. The winter of his despair is ended. He
rises again, and pushes on until he finds a human habitation where he is
cared for by native women as though he were their brother. The little
flower had been "ordained" to minister hope to a lost and despairing
traveler.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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