By the Editor
“Watchman! What of the night?”
OH! Watchman on the eternal hills, there are traitors in the Camp of God today. The Son of God has been wounded in the house of His so-called friends. We are afraid of German spies in our midst, and there are thousands doubtless, but that is nothing compared to the awful fact that we have among us today the devil’s agents taking the guise of ministers and followers of Christ, who are traitors in thought and word and deed to the Captain of our salvation.
God had to say of a nation in old days, “Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed Me, even this whole nation” (Mal. 3:99Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. (Malachi 3:9)). We are robbing God of the glory of His Person if we deny the divinity of His Son. We are robbing God of the glory of His Godhead if we deny the inspiration of His holy Word; we are robbing God of His essential glory if we deny the fall of man and the need of the atoning work of Christ; we are robbing God of His holiness and righteousness if we deny eternal punishment.
We cannot rob God with impunity. As a nation we are becoming more and more Unitarian every day. The great sin of the age is the rejection of Jesus Christ.
God can give no truce to a nation that, under the cloak of religion, denies the divinity of His Son.
The most foul sin of the twentieth century is this blasphemy against the person of Christ, and it was the religious world that crucified Christ; and although a heathen soldier, who watched Him die, said, “Truly this is the Son of God,” and a poor thief dying by His side owns Him Lord, yet the dignitaries of the world’s religions cried aloud to the listening heavens that darkened at their sin, and to the earth that shuddered as it heard, “Away with Him! We will not have this Man to reign over us.”
We are seeking to get rid of Jesus Christ. He is leaving our universities; He is leaving many of our so-called places of worship; He is leaving our homes; He is leaving our centers of governing power. The voice of the ecclesiastic, the voice of the scholar, the voice of the people is blending in one awful cry, “We will not have this Man to reign over us.”
And so the devil reigns. There can be no other alternative: “Not this Man, but Barabbas.” Barabbas was a robber. Not Christ but the devil. We rob God and so put ourselves and our nation into the hands of Satan. This great War is known by many to be a war of Satan against Christ.
The godly in our midst are the forlorn hope of Christendom. Our destiny as a nation is trembling in the balances of God. Our sins are crying aloud for judgment to fall upon us, and if we are to be saved it will be by the prevailing prayer of righteous men and women. Oh! that as a nation we would return to God, saying, “We have sinned against heaven and before Thee.” “If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?”
The Watch of God
We are told of General Sir John French that no matter how hard he had to fight during the day, he always tries to spend a little time in the field hospital at night with the wounded. He strolls in, sometimes accompanied by an orderly, but often alone. He asks the wounded how they are getting on, and tells them he hopes “they will soon be out and back with us.” And sometimes the General would stay too long, and find that he could not get back to headquarters that night. In that case he would wrap a blanket around him and curl up on a vacant cot or on the floor alongside a wounded Tommy and go to sleep. So they tell us every British soldier loves Sir John French, and they think him a real man as well as a soldier.
And so the French soldiers loved Marshal Turenne, for he thought of them and did all he could for them. Once when a regiment was wading through a morass the younger men began to complain. But the older soldiers silenced their criticism. “Depend upon it, Marshal Turenne is more concerned than we are about these difficulties. At this moment he is thinking how to deliver us. He watches while we sleep.”
When we are in the midst of life’s morasses, let us remember that He that keepeth Israel slumbereth not nor sleeps. He is thinking of us to deliver us. If earthly generals watch over and care for their soldiers, how much more does the blessed Lord care for His own, whether at home or on the battlefield! May every soldier and sailor believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved!
A Touching Letter
From a dear friend I have received the following letter. It was written to him by a French Christians who says in his note, “Herewith you will find copy of a letter written by a young French officer to a cousin of mine, Madame Ch―, who lost her husband. It is all the more touching as the writer is a Roman Catholic.”
(TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH)
Madam, dear Madam,
Let your Christian soul prepare to accept the I trial which it has pleased the Lord to send you. My excellent dear friend Jacques Ch― died facing the enemy on S— October 11TH, falling on the road from Arras to Bethune lifted him up, and almost at once carried him to the M—, office at Nceux, where, when life had been pronounced extinct, he was buried piously, amid’ the tears of all his comrades in the Company.
His body rests in the Cemetery of Nœux-les-Mines, and later you will have the last consolation of kneeling at his tomb... “Happy are the dead who die in the Lord.”
I have had the great pleasure and Honor of making your husband’s acquaintance here in the Regiment during the terrible days we are passing through. Always at his post, always ready for peril, sincerely loving his men, I had noticed him well, as all had. We were friends, and, although of different religion, I did not cease to admire the strength which faith in Christ had planted in his Protestant soul.
The soldier Ch—did his duty as a soldier, as a good Frenchman, but he died without anger and without hate. It remains for us all, Madam, to cherish him in our hearts, and to imitate him on behalf of France.
Goodbye, dear Madam, and with the sorrowful. condolence of all, I have the Honor to offer you my deep respect, with my sympathy in Christ.
(Signed,) F. JAS.
Sub-Lieutenant, 26ge d’Infanterie.
“My sins deserved eternal death,
But Jesus died for me.”
Comfort for Christian Soldiers
The Captain of our Salvation is worthy of our love because: —
1. He never lost a single man.
2. He makes His soldiers more than conquerors.
3. He takes an individual interest in each one, for He died for each one.
4. He needs no identification ticket to be sewn in any man’s coat, for He wears their names on His own breast and has written them on the palms of His hands.
5. He gives His own strength to His soldiers, and will, when the War is over, reward each one personally.
Is Jesus Christ your Captain, and will He speak your name in the roll-call of heaven?