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 beauty of it is we are not troubled with fear at all--who could
be in the presence of the Master?" That sentence seems to sum up the
situation. Christ is there and He is all-sufficient. Strong in His
strength the Christian soldier goes anywhere and faces anything. How
grandly old "Diadem" would sound as these Christian soldiers sang it
in the battle charge--"And crown Him, crown Him Lord of all." There
was nothing in the situation incongruous to them. They did not think
of the Germans--only of their Lord and Saviour. And so they went right
on. Some of them were sure to fall, but they did not think of that.
The fact of Christ dominated them. Every other idea was "a grand
impertinence." He was with them here, and He would be with
them--yonder.
Sergeant-Major Moore gives us a picture of the King's Own Yorkshire
Light Infantry. Writing to Mr. Bateson on December 17, he says:
"Last Tuesday, that is a week ago, they went into the trenches when
it was pouring with rain. They were wet through to the skin, and then
had to enter trenches where the water was in the majority of cases up
to the knee, and in some as high as the waist. On being relieved some
had to be lifted up with drag ropes, and then they had to be helped to
walk. Others, after taking their boots off, were unable to put them on
again, and I saw several who could not walk at all.
"I was able to have a few quiet talks with some of the young men and
older ones, who during the past month have surrendered to the claims
of Jesus. Their bright faces told very plainly that they have found
the pearl of great price, and can say, 'What a friend I have in
Jesus.'"
What a picture!--weary and worn, but not sad. Having to be dragged out
of the trenches, unable to walk, and yet with "bright faces." It
reminds us of what the Rev. R. Winboult Harding says of a wounded man
in hospital at Cambridge: "He is of the Coldstreams and the Glory
Room. He has ten shrapnel wounds in his legs, but he has heaven in his
face."
Now was the time for services. And if no chaplain were available, the
men held meetings themselves.
Writes one, a corporal, to his chaplain: "I thank you for your letter,
also for the books for the little services which I hold amongst my
comrades when out of the trenches, and in billets, which is not often
the case, I am sorry to say. However, if our meetings are not
frequent, I praise God my prayers for my comrades are being daily
offered for them, in and out of the trenches, and on the march. What a
privilege to carry everything to God in prayer! Now it is Sunday
night, the 20th, and I have just held a nice service among my
comrades, who greatly enjoyed the singing and also the address. We
came out of the trenches last night, and go in again on Monday, so far
as we know."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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