A General said to an army chaplain: “What you need to preach to these men is that, when they spring out of the trenches and go over the top, and a German bullet lays them low, they go straight into heaven, having made the great sacrifice.”
“General,” he replied, “pardon me, I have got my orders as to what to preach from another head-quarters, and I am not going to try to obey two generals. I love our men,” he continued, still addressing the general, “for the glorious stand they have made, but the way I present Christ and the gospel never can be exceeded in its adequacy.
“For the man who springs at the signal and goes over the top of the trench you cannot make the gate wider than I make it, or wider than Christ’s own terms, which meet every circumstance. Besides, the sacrifice of a million soldiers for any cause does not come within a million miles of the unique alone sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ for the sin of the world.” Then he added: “I am in sympathy with all that can be said about the heroism of our soldiers, and what they are doing in these days of tremendous sacrifice, but let the cross of Christ―that mighty sacrifice-stand where the New Testament puts it. Paul would have said: ‘If salvation can came by patriotism, then Christ has died in vain, and the cross was not needed.’ What is more, the soldier does Got believe in this clap-trap; he does not want to hear it, for he knows better.”
Anon.