S. M. R. N. ―
A Sergeant in a South African Native Regiment writes from the front in France: ―
“Dear Mr. Wreford,
“I am sure you will perhaps be astonished to get a line from one you have never seen. One day, as I was going about in the camp, I picked up one of your pamphlets, ‘How can I be Saved?’ I read this touching sermon with great interest, and it is beginning to make me a new man, and it is working very stubborn against Satan. Your little book has become my comforter. The Word of God is really wonderful—the true sense of it never appeared to me before. You made it so explicit and so inviting. Many representatives of Christ have preached to me on several occasions, but they never touched my heart so seriously as to convince me that the world I live in is shrouded by the darkness of sin, and that my sins help to make the world more dark. Ah! if I could but help, I would cease to have part in an association of crime against my Saviour. I hope, by the help of God, to be a true follower of Christ. You will help me, Dr. Wreford; I know you will. One cannot help yielding to the invitation of his Lord in the way you put it. I am a native of South Africa; my family are all Christians. My father died in the Lord in 1899; he told us that he was going Home to rest and that we should seek to get where he is.... You may send me another sermon-send one you think will help me on my way. ―Yours faithfully,
“S. M. R. N―.”
In his next letter to me, he thanked me for my letter. He told me the chaplain would be glad of a parcel, and that he would do what he could to bring others in his regiment to Christ. May God bless him!