READ the casualty lists, and think! Look at the black garments in the streets, and the silent agony on the faces of the bereaved, and think! Go to a munition works, see the bombs and shells in the making, and think! Think of the human agony begun ere each has run its course, and such are made and fired by the million. War is Hell indeed! Every moment we live is a moment of slaughter and agony. Every breath we breathe some fellow human being is being killed, mutilated, or torn in pieces by some abominable invention of the devil! Who says “Business as Usual,” or Pleasure? None but the devils of hell or elsewhere. To every thinking soul with a heart the last thought at night and the first in the morning and throughout the day is “Hell as usual.” And the worst is we are becoming accustomed to it. ― C.T.S.
Admiral Beatty’s Message
“Until England is taken out of her self-satisfaction and complacency, just so long will the War continue. When she looks out with humbler eyes, and prayer on her lips, then she can begin to count the days towards the end.”
“You Will Tell My Mother”
In the Dardanelles an Australian soldier lay dying. A hospital nurse kneeling on the ground held his head in her lap. He smiled as the Chaplain knelt beside him; then he clenched his teeth as spasms of pain twisted his body. As he listened to the story of the Saviour’s love he clasped the Chaplain’s hand and looked with earnest eyes into his face. And then, with heart at rest, he gave his last message, “Sir you will tell my mother.” Yes, the mother must know that her boy has gone to heaven―from the storm of war to the endless peace of God. A father and mother at a large London station are bidding farewell to their eldest son, a Life Guardsman. They pleaded with him to come to Christ before he went into battle. He was impressed, but he did not yield. After he was gone the father and mother made it their daily prayer that their boy might be saved. A week passed, and then a letter came from the Front. As the mother read it, she burst into tears of joy―their boy had been converted. In his letter he said that their lives had such an effect on him, and their parting words of Godspeed had so remained with him, that on his way over the sea he had felt compelled to get on his knees and cry to God for salvation.
The Last Sentry on the Western Line
The battle trenches run for hundreds of miles from the ocean to the borders of Switzerland on the western Front. Every inch has to be patrolled and guarded by night and by day. The hardships our men have endured in these trenches can scarcely be conceived. In wintry weather, up to their waists in liquid mud, men constantly being drowned in shell holes; thousands of rats running along the parapets and up and down the trenches, and vermin covering the bodies of clean and healthy men. One lieutenant wrote home about the loneliness of his watch at night in the trench. The dead all around him in the darkness, and under his feet as he trod his measured beat. When the trenches are bombarded an officer told me you just have to sit down with your back to the trench wall and wait. A shell may burst in the trench and maim or kill you, or the parapet may be smashed in and you may be buried underneath. All these hardships are cheerfully faced by brave and trained men, resolute to do their duty. And the unbelief and pleasure and sin of England is causing the death of thousands of these brave men. It is inexplicable that women can throng the theaters and cinemas when their dearest are thus face to face with death. We ought to be on our knees crying to God for these sentinels whose watchful guard is keeping us safe. The man in the picture, close to the tossing sea, must think of home across the pathless deep. His loved ones are on the other side; will he ever see them again? God in heaven bless our soldiers! May every man in the trenches have the Word of God in his pocket. Help us to send the Testaments to them. Held us at once, and God will bless you.
The Sailor on the “Queen Mary”
He was an atheist and known amongst his mates as an unbeliever. When the explosion happened on the Queen Mary he was blown into the sea. In a moment, while battling for his life, his whole history came before him, and he cried to the Lord that he did believe in Him and he would believe in Him. At that moment a hand laid hold of him and pulled him out of the water into a boat. He was taken to another ship and put to bed. A doctor and his orderly came to attend to him. While they were bending over him a shell came through the side of the vessel, passed over the bed where he lay, leaving him uninjured, but killing both the doctor and his orderly. He Was so overcome by this second deliverance from death that he became out and out for Christ. He is now preaching the gospel at Portsmouth.
Closing Words for October
An earnest worker writes from the Front: ―
“Many thanks for packets of Testaments. I trust all the dear friends who enable you to supply me so liberally may have as much joy in so doing as I have in giving them to our dear men.”
Another says: ―
“I could do with parcels at once; the dear fellows are eager for the truth. There are regiments here with no Testaments. Fifty thousand men want a lot of providing for. I tell them there are no infidels in France amongst our troops. Ten minutes in the trenches knocks all the infidelity out of them. They will pray there if they never prayed before!.. Pray on for us, victory is sure through the blood.”
Yes, we must pray and work. We must send the Testaments and pray God to bless them.