"There had been some weird stories told about Christmas Day. He was not going to deny these stories. He was not even going to deny the cigar incident, but was going to show the cigar. Christmas Day made him understand something of the size of God. The day ended for him with the vision of a great German regiment standing behind their commanding officer bareheaded, and not so far distant as one gallery from the other of that church, British officers with their soldiers bareheaded, and between them a man reading the Twenty-third Psalm. In the name of the One Christ, these two foes, the most awful the world had ever seen, held Christmas. It was the fear of God--the need of God--that did it all." I have told the story in the simplest language, without any attempt to give it colouring, because it seems to me it speaks for itself. It tells that deep down beneath the uniform, beneath all that makes man true Briton or true German, there is the bond of brotherhood. They were Scotchmen, these Gordons, and I wonder if they thought of the lines of their Scottish poet: Man to man the warld o'er, Shall brithers be for a' that. Is it not a grim tragedy that men who can thus fraternise on Christmas Day should a few hours after be sending each other to their death? We look forward to the day, and pray God it may not be far distant, when war shall cease. Here at home and there on the battle-field, Christian men unite in the prayer: Not on this land alone, But be God's mercies known From shore to shore: And may the nations see That men should brothers be, And form one family The wide world o'er. CHAPTER VII CHRISTIAN HEROISM A Picture in "Punch"--Tommy's Deep-rooted Religion--Courage of Chaplains--A Shell in His Back--Stories of Christian Soldiers--First Clergyman Soldier to Die--Driver Osborne--A Church Parade of Four--"Tell My Wife I am Ready "--Duty overcomes Fear. There was a time when men thought that the reckless devil-may-care man made the finest soldier; that the hard drinker, the hard swearer, the riotous liver came out best in a fight. Wellington wrote of his "collection of ruffians" in the Peninsula: "It is impossible to describe to you the irregularities and excesses committed by the troops. We are an excellent army on parade, an excellent one to fight, but we are worse than an enemy in the country." How greatly times have changed since then! Sir George White once said that recklessness and lawlessness will carry men a certain distance, but when men are half fed, when nights are wet and cold, and when nerves are broken down by shot and shell, then the lawless man disappears. It is when he is called upon to take the place of a comrade shot on a lonely picket that the man who has disciplined himself proves the true soldier. General Nogi, who commanded the Japanese forces at Port Arthur, held the same view. His words may well be borne in mind at this time: