With Our Fighting Men: The story of their faith, courage, endurance in the Great WarSellers, William E.
History
With Our Fighting Men: The story of their faith, courage, endurance in the Great War
Sellers, William E.
Great Britain. Army -- Military life; World War, 1914-1918 -- Religious aspects
The story I am about to tell is one of surpassing interest. It is the
story of Christian life, work, and heroism among our troops at the
front.
The soldier is easily moved to good or to evil. In the past evil
influences have been more powerful and more numerous than influences
for good. Our soldiers had been drawn, for the most part, from classes
outside all churches and Christian influences, and the wet canteen had
been the most popular institution in the Army.
For the last twenty-five years, however, the situation has been
altering for the better. The day-school has done its work, and a free
education has accomplished splendid things for the working-man. The
Sunday-school, too, has extended its scope and has of late years been
more efficient than ever before. There has been a steady levelling up
of the people, and the Army has risen with the rest. Said a soldier to
me during the South African war: "They think we are the same as we
used to be, but we are no longer the scum of the earth."
Slowly and surely the work done outside the Army has been reflected
_in_ the Army. The Army Temperance Association, the Soldiers'
Christian Association, the Soldiers' Homes provided by the churches,
and other uplifting organisations have found that they were working on
soil to some extent prepared. The soldier has responded readily to the
appeals made, and the Soldiers' Homes have become as popular as the
canteens, and often more so. A Soldiers' Home in a camp has meant at
once a change for the better. The senior officers have recognised this
fact, and have gladly welcomed every Christian effort on behalf of
their men.
I remember, when Bordon and Longmoor camps were formed, with what joy
my colleagues and I were welcomed by the officer in command.
Everything he had was placed at our disposal, a hut was apportioned to
us, and we furnished it, for the most part, from furniture belonging
to the camp. Everything was very rough in those days, and the roads
well-nigh impassable; but when we got there what a welcome we had! The
late Colonel Gordon, R.E. (nephew of Gordon of Khartoum), lent us his
piano and his wife often played it for us.
I was standing on Petersfield Station platform one night looking sadly
at a group of drunken and half-drunken soldiers, when a
non-commissioned officer came up, and, after saluting, said, "They
would not be like that if you had a Home for them, sir."
By and by it was not only a hut we had, but a permanent Soldiers'
Home, and when it was opened by the Earl of Donoughmore, it became
crowded at once. Brigadier-General Campbell stood our friend through
all those difficult days, and rejoiced as much as we did in the
prosperity of the Home.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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