The War Romance of the Salvation ArmyHill, Grace Livingston
History
The War Romance of the Salvation Army
Hill, Grace Livingston
World War, 1914-1918 -- War work -- Salvation Army
Over there in the corner on a bench sat the lassies, the women who had
been serving them all through the hard days, as quiet and calm in the
darkness as though they sat in a cushioned pew in some well-lit church
in New York. It was as if the guns were like annoying little insects
that were outside a screen, and now and then slipped in, so little
attention did the audience pay to them. When all those who wished to
accept this wonderful invitation were asked to come forward, seven men
arose and stumbled through the darkness. The light from a bursting
shell revealed for an instant the forms of these men as they knelt at
the rough bench in front, one of them with his steel helmet hanging
from his arm as he prayed aloud for his own salvation. No one who was
in that meeting that night could doubt but that Jesus Christ Himself
was there, and that those men all felt His presence.
In Bertrichamps the Salvation Army was given a large glass factory for
a canteen. It made a beautiful place, and there was room to take care
of eight hundred men at a time. This building was also used by the Y.
M. C. A. as well as the Jews and the Catholics for their services,
there being no other suitable place in town. But everybody worked
together, and got along harmoniously.
Here there were some wonderful meetings, and it was great to hear the
boys singing “When The Roll Is Called Up Yonder, I’ll Be There.”
Perhaps if some of the half-hearted Christians at home could have
caught the echo of that song sung with such earnestness by those boyish
voices they would have had a revelation. It seemed as if the earth-film
were more than half torn away from their young, wise eyes over there;
and they found that earthly standards and earthly false-whisperings did
not fit. They felt the spirit of the hour, they felt the spirit of the
place, and of the people who were serving them patiently day by day;
who didn’t have to stay there and work; who might have kept in back of
the lines and worked and sent things up now and then; but who chose to
stay close with them and share their hardships. They felt that
something more than just love to their fellow-men had instigated such
unselfishness. They knew it was something they needed to help them
through what was before them. They reached hungrily after the Christ
and they found Him.
Then they testified in the meetings. Often as many as twelve or more
before an audience of five hundred would get up and tell what Jesus had
become to them. In one meeting in this glass factory two hundred
soldiers pledged to serve the Lord, to read their Bibles, and to pray.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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