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
Typical of the enthusiasm of each of the five men appointed as
Chaplains, the following story is told of First Lieutenant Ernest Holz,
who was inducted into his office as Senior Chaplain of his regiment
right at the commencement of his career.
At the beginning of the year, when Chaplain Holz knew his Salvation
Army comrades would, as usual, be engaged in special revival work, he
thought it would be a worthy thing to time a similar effort among the
men of his regiment. Approaching the Colonel, he found him in hearty
agreement concerning the effort, and so securing the assistance of his
fellow chaplains they arranged for a series of meetings nightly for one
week, with the result that two hundred of the men of the regiment
confessed Christ and practically all of them were deeply interested.
The effort was wholly directed to the uplift of the men and God
commanded His blessing in a most gratifying manner.
XI.
Homecoming
The boat docked that morning, and one soldier at least, as he stood on
the deck and watched the shores of his native land draw nearer, felt
mingling with the thrill of joy at his return a vague uneasiness. He
was coming back, it is true, but it had been a long time and a lot of
things had happened. For one thing he had lost his foot. That in itself
was a pretty stiff proposition. For another thing he was not wearing
any decorations save the wound stripes on his sleeve. Those would have
been enough, and more than enough, for his mother if she were alive,
but she had gone away from earth during his absence, and the girl he
had kissed good-bye and promised great things was peculiar. The
question was, would she stand for that amputated foot? He didn’t like
to think it of her, but he found he wasn’t sure. Perhaps, if there had
been a croix de guerre! He had promised her to win that and no end of
other honors, when he went away so buoyant and hopeful; but almost on
his first day of real battle he had been hurt and tossed aside like a
derelict, to languish in a hospital, with no more hope of winning
anything. And now he had come home with one foot gone, and no
distinction!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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