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
"Only he who has conquered himself in time of peace can aspire to be a
fighting man under the Sun flag. The brilliant and faithful deeds of
the soldier on the battle-field are nothing but the flowering and
fruition of the work and training of his daily life in time of peace.
A man whose life is in disorder in time of peace would have a rather
difficult task if he tried to perform with correctness and success the
duties of a true soldier on the field of battle."
If we carry these statements on to their issue, then surely the
Christian soldier should fight best of all. He has not only the
discipline and training of the Army, but moral discipline and training
as well. And he has something more--the spiritual fact which dominates
his being and transfigures and transforms him. To him death is not
death, he lives and will live, and in the worst of all fiery furnaces
there is always with him "the form of the fourth, like unto the Son of
God."
Such men as these are unconquerable. They remind us of _Punch's_
famous cartoon, "Unconquerable"; for _Punch_ is not only a humorist,
he is a preacher too.
_The Kaiser_: "So you see--you've lost everything."
_The King of the Belgians_: "Not my soul!"
The Kaiser has gained his victory and sheathed his sword. Belgium is
his; there is nothing in that country left for him to conquer. A
ruined building is behind him, on his left is the broken wheel of a
gun-carriage. In the distance is a Belgian family--an aged man, a
woman, a child. The woman's husband is not there--most likely he is
dead.
The King of the Belgians has lost his helmet. His uniform is war-worn,
his hair untidy. His scabbard is empty, but he has not parted with his
sword. He still grasps it in his strong right hand.
"You have lost everything," says the Kaiser--"Liège, Namur, Brussels,
Antwerp." "No, not everything. Not my soul."
But the King of the Belgians was not alone in the claim which _Punch_
puts into his life. Every Christian man fighting for his country, and
many another, wounded, frost-bitten, dying, can answer "Not my soul."
You cannot take that from him, it is his own sacred possession, and
the consciousness that he possesses it still nerves him to do and
dare.
As the Rev. E.R. Day, Church of England chaplain at the front, says:
"There were men to whom we might almost kneel down in reverence. The
bravery, endurance, heroism, and patience of our men at the front are
such that French people could not understand it."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account