A YOUNG sailor between seventeen and eighteen years of age, from Exeter, went down in H.M.S. Viknor. Not long before he had been home on leave, and came to our meetings at the Palladium. I have the last letter he ever wrote before me. I give a few extracts from it: — “I always say my prayers every morning and evening, and pray to the Lord to keep all at home safe, and those at the Front, and those at sea. Yes, Bert, I seek the blessing of the Lord. There is a man on our gun who is a preacher, and I am with him. We go around the ship seeking out all the Christians and hold meetings together.” We can rejoice that this dear lad was a Christian and ready for the call. “Be ye also ready.”
Soul-Winning in the Trenches
A Remarkable Story written by a Christian Soldier at the Front
A Christian sergeant, recently mentioned in Sir John French’s dispatch as showing great bravery, has sent me the following little incident from the trenches, he himself being one of the four “British soldiers” whom he mentions: —
“This scene,” he writes, “is one of many beautiful illustrations of how God is working amongst the men in the fighting line. Four British soldiers were side by side in the trenches facing the foe, some six hundred yards from their trenches and about one thousand yards from their artillery, which was pounding away in a vain endeavor to silence the British guns. Night was coming on, and the four soldiers closed in towards each other to read a portion of the Word of God and to seek His grace and blessing ere darkness came upon them, bringing with it they knew not what, but feeling safe in His keeping, and remembering that He that keepeth... neither slumbers nor sleeps.
“The company to which the four sons of England belong was in support of the other three companies of the battalion which formed the firing line. The trench which they occupied was some three hundred yards in rear of the center company, and was so constructed as to give shelter from the enemy’s fire to the dispatch-bearers who were told off to carry messages to the commanding officer as to how the fight was going on. The four soldiers were in the midst of reading the 91St Psalm when a dispatch-bearer came along the trench. He was a lad not more than nineteen years of age, and from the language he had used when he had passed that way earlier in the day, it was not difficult to understand the condition of his mind towards the things of God. As he came to where they stood the four soldiers fell back into position — shoulder to shoulder — in order to let him pass.
“As everyone in the fighting line is anxious for news, one of them asked, ‘Is there any message, sonny?’
“On learning that there was none, the speaker continued, Shall I give you a message, sonny? and, turning to his Bible, he read, ‘God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’
“He had not quoted half a dozen words before the lad snatched his cap from his head and fell on his knees in the trench, as though he had been suddenly ushered into the presence of God. When he rose from his knees he said, ‘Thank yer, sergeant; yer wants some’ut on this job wi’ these things [shells and bullets] flyin’ about.’ There was no time for more just then, and the lad went on his way and back to his company, but later on he was again sent with a message to the C.O., and, coming up to the sergeant, he said, ‘What yer said to me just now ‘ave woke me up.’ Then, in the midst of danger and deafening din of shot and shell, the young soldier once again knelt down in the trench before his comrades and yielded himself to the Lord.”
In another letter to me this Christian sergeant says: — “Tell all the men you meet at the camp [Shorncliffe] how very precious Christ is to me. When shot and shell are taking men from the right and left of one, and one’s heart begins to flutter, He speaks, and says ‘Peace, be still,’ and there is a great calm.” F. M. H.