World War, 1914-1918 -- War work -- Young Men's Christian Associations
Beside this photograph is the card of a strong-willed, self-righteous
young Pharisee, who had no use for religion in peace time, but who was
driven to God by his awful conflict with sin in this war. Next comes the
card of a young man who formerly had lived a proper conventional life
without bad habits. The war taught him to drink and he finally became a
drunkard, but in his extremity he found Christ as a personal Saviour.
Next comes the card of a man who had been in a public house for
thirty-two years--twenty-seven years as a bar tender and five years as a
saloon keeper. He said, "I have sent men to hell with drink. I have
seen women who would sell the clothes off the backs of their children or
pawn their husband's clothing to get drink." Yet this man has been
brought to God during the war. Many a man has found God on the field of
battle, or like the thief has turned to him in the hour of death.[2]
[Illustration: Three Thousand Soldiers in the Crowboro Hut.]
One young soldier thus describes his experience which is typical of many
another: There had been a charge, a hopeless affair from the start. He
lay in the long grass between the lines, unable to move, and with an
unceasing throbbing pain in his left leg and arm. A whizz-bang had
caught him in both places. He just lay there, feeling strangely
peaceful. Above him he could see the stars. All this bloodshed--what
was the good of it? He suddenly felt terribly small and lonely, and he
was so very, very weak. "God!" he whispered softly. "God everywhere!"
Then into his tired brain came a new phrase--"Underneath are the
everlasting arms." He sighed contentedly, as a tired child. They
fetched him in at last. He will never again be sound of limb; but there
is in his memory and in his heart that which may make him a staunch
fighter in other fields. He has learned a new way of prayer, and the
courage that is born of faith well-founded.
The idea has been widely preached by many British chaplains that death in
battle saves. This may be good Mohammedanism, but it is surely not the
Christian message that is given to Christ's ministers to preach. The
verse most often quoted in support of this theory is: "Greater love hath
no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." But such
a passage cannot be taken out of its context either in Christ's teaching
or in the man's own life. Our Lord had said that we were to love even as
He loved, that is, out of a pure and surrendered heart to lay down our
life for our friends; and He added, "Ye are my friends if ye do the
things which I command you." It is going far beyond the province of the
Christian minister to offer any hope other than that which is offered by
our Lord Himself. It is not death or a bullet or battle that saves.
Christ only saves, and there is no other name given under heaven. This
offer is made to all men and at all times.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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