Supernatural; World War, 1914-1918; World War, 1914-1918 -- Fiction
The doctrine of the atonement is used to promote the crude idea that to
put our responsibilities upon others is more religious than facing them
oneself. Christ's atonement is no isolated fact in history to make men
cowards, but a sustained attitude of devotion in which every man and
woman is to take a part. Instead of thanking Christ for hanging there
upon the Cross in our place we should strive for the same courage, the
same endurance, the supreme devotion to duty and the vision of Divine
Aid will be ours perhaps in Angel form. To the brave in all ages has
come the vision of higher things.
III
THE SOUL'S BOUNDARY LINE
"I never was religious, but this business is changing me and many
thousands more," so writes a soldier. From another soldier's letter we
get, "War is the most sobering influence I know ... it sobers their
every day. They listen more attentively to the religious services.
Sometimes I wish for the sake of the morals of our army that we were
always at war."
When I was in Northern France I came in contact with many wounded French
soldiers, men who had gone to the front as atheists and returned firm
believers. "Thank the good God I have really seen. I fell wounded in
twenty-three places they tell me. I fell cursing a God I did not believe
in: then a cold hand was laid upon my brow. I looked up and saw--ah! my
God! how beautiful a Being. Now I do not want, I do not care to live for
I want to see that beautiful Being again. I know I shall. Leave me. See
to the others." This was a voluntary statement of a French soldier who
called me to his side simply to light a cigarette for him. I left him
perfectly happy and it was quite true about his number of wounds. He
lived only a few hours and he knew that he was dying. Men do not usually
tell lies on their death beds.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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