"Our first Communion was in the mayor's office (the church was denied us), and was packed to the doors with generals, colonels, and 'Tommies.' We sang 'While shepherds watched their flocks by night.' The celebration of Holy Communion within the booming of the guns, where bodies were being broken and blood shed, brought vividly, as nowhere else on earth, the message and meaning of the sympathy of God in the sufferings of men, and each one was thrilled with the reality of it all, as men of all ranks partook of the Holy Sacrament, and thoughts turned homeward to those who thought and prayed at the same service, convinced of the reality of the Communion of Saints. "My next service was under the shelter of a haystack along the side of a road, where a congregation of gunners in a semicircle sang the Christmas hymns with real feeling in the keen frosty air. It was too cold to keep them long, but I gave them the Christmas message, and wished them every Christmas blessing. "A couple of miles further on, I found a congregation of about two hundred and fifty men assembled in the small theatre of a country town. With deep reverence and great heartiness they followed the service. These men were under orders for the trenches, and every word in every prayer seemed so suitable--'Defend us thy humble servants in all assaults of our enemies, that we surely trusting in Thy defence may not fear the power of any adversaries, through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord.' "As soon as my first lot finished, another lot of two hundred and fifty filled the room for another service. What struck me most was that, though the surroundings were strange, the men showed no more signs of emotion than if they were keeping Christmas at home. The sounds of artillery every now and then accompanied our prayers, but we all felt we were in our right place. "I am convinced they envied not the man who sat down in comfort to his Christmas dinner at home; they had no wish to change places with those who, in luxury and ease, chose the easiest part in this time of war. In a few hours they would be in the forefront nearest their country's foe, and that was the place of honour this Christmas Day. Their hearts were warmed as I told them how many were thinking of them and praying for them to-day, but they needed no pity. They were where they would be,--where the bravest and best always want to be,--fronting the enemy who threatened their hearth and home.