By the Editor
THE last month of the year 1915 has come! —the most fateful year Great Britain has ever known. The world is drenched with blood and tears; hearts are breaking everywhere. As one has said “We are in the stress and tumult of a tempest which is shaking the foundations of the earth.” All over England and the Continent the bells are ringing out their message: “Christ is born at Bethlehem,” but the silver chiming is drowned by the hammering of forges and by the dominating thunder of the cannons that they make. Not only are dike foundations of the earth shaken, as nations are destroyed and rebuilt amid the volcanic upheavals caused by the mad ambitions of rulers, but faith in God is leaving us; the Son of God and His finished work is despised and set aside, “He is wounded” day by day in the house of His so-called friends; men about to die are taught that their death in battle means heaven to them. “I am the way” has no longer any significance to those who, traitors to their Lord, are trampling on His precious blood. One whose name is known all over England as a self-styled Christian teacher has said, “I do not want anyone to die for me.” This horrible War has been used by the devil to accentuate the awful cries of Calvary, “Away with Him.”
And what are we, as Christians, doing, and what have we done this year for the Lord Jesus? A Christian poet writes: —
“Another year! Another year!
Gone to eternity,
With its faithful chronicle of deeds,
And of all that failed to be.
Awaken now! Redeem the time!
Thy sun will soon go down;
Some other faithful laborer stands;
Let no man take thy crown.
‘Another year! Another year!
O God, forgive the past,
The selfish luxury of peace,
That made my anchor fast,
But left the foundering barques of souls
Around me halting down:
Oh grant me longer stewardship;
Let no man take my crown.
M. B.
We are in danger of losing our crown, some of us, and of going empty-handed into eternity. We go on as usual, calm and careless, in spite of the awful need of precious souls.
Let me ask you a question in the presence of God: “Do you know that every soldier dying on the battlefields today has an immortal soul? Do you care for that soul? Do you want to bring that soul to Christ?”
We are willing to help you if you want to work for God among these dear men, by sending hundreds of parcels of Gospels and Testaments to them. All nations are hungering for the Bread of Life, and we are hungering to send it to them. Help us by sending us the means to get thousands upon thousands of Testaments. We will send them, and God will bless you for your help.
The Great Demand
Only last week I had applications for more than fifty parcels. This is beyond our ordinary list. I have sent to all. We have now about four hundred people to whom we have sent about two thousand parcels, and who are ready to take the Word of God from us and distribute it all over the world. We send to as many as we can every month — in fact one hundred parcels are needed every week. The dear brother who superintends the packing of the parcels has a band of earnest workers with him who are ready and willing for the Lord’s sake to pack and send all the parcels needed. This means that after their day’s work is done they come to work for God in this way. Do pray for them, dear friends, and thank God for them also.
Let me tell you a little more about our work, and I am sure you will be in fullest sympathy. Month by month this year the work has grown, and we have been able by the kindness of friends to meet the needs as they came before us. How God went with us, and before us, and opened doors of service for us is a sacred memory. It has all been very wonderful and very blessed, and all we can say is, “His holy Name be praised.”
We love the widows’ mites, and the blessing that always comes with them, and thank God some of our sweetest memories are linked up with the smallest gifts. But for those who wish the information I would say that for a gift of five shillings we can send one large parcel to the Front. The parcels weigh eleven pounds, and contain Gospels, Testaments, and an assortment of magazines and tracts and booklets. In many cases writing pads and envelopes and pencils as well. For a gift of ten shillings we can send two large parcels to the Front. For a gift of twenty shillings we can send four large parcels to the Front. For a gift of five pounds we can send twenty large parcels to the Front.
A Colonel writes to a friend saying, “Please thank Dr. Heyman Wreford for the splendid parcels he has sent; they are greatly appreciated.”
It is the Word of God we long most to send — the little khaki Testament that fits the soldier’s pocket. But on the last page of this number you will see our other wants.
I close my Diary this month with the following striking incident which has been told and re-told, but which will bear re-telling again. It is, from the report of the Scripture Gift Mission: —
An Officer’s Conversion
An officer was going his rounds among the trenches when he came across a soldier who was reading a little Gospel of John. It had been given him by a friend in Newcastle. The officer said, “Are you interested in those things? I am not. I should throw it away, if I were you; there is nothing in it.” The man looked up and said, “Sir, in this book I have found peace, joy and comfort, and I have eternal life, and the fear of death has been taken away from me, and I find in this book food for my soul. You ought to be interested in such things.” The officer passed on, and in a few seconds a shell burst. He turned round and saw the poor lad’s head rolling away. He was so awed by this terrible sight that he went over to find the Gospel, went into his dug-out, and began reading it. He was so convinced of his need of a Saviour that there and then he yielded himself to God. He came home on leave after being wounded, and has taken back with him a large number of Gospels for distribution, and he is constantly testifying to the Lord’s saving power and His goodness and mercy.