“I saw one of your gift Testaments today. I am writing because of your message inside the Testament that you are willing to help anyone in the Christian life. I am one who plucked up courage when I joined up four months ago to confess Christ as my Redeemer. Since then I have needed messages from men with experience. I have a few Christian friends, amongst whom is my widowed mother and my brother. They help me with their messages of hope and quotations from the Bible. Anyone in a barrack-room full of jeerers needs a continual flow of such messages. I want to feel that Christ is beside me all the time. I know He is, but I cannot seem to grasp it. I cannot seem to see Him as I would like when. I pray. I want His image fixed in my mind. I feel that you can help me to live nearer to my God. I feel like the poet who writes: —
‘Oh! for a faith that will not shrink,
Though pressed by many a foe;
That will not tremble on the brink.
Of any earthly woe.’
“I cannot seem to have such faith, and there are so many in the room who laugh at the idea of a God. I am helpless to prove differently to them as I am only a baby in the larger life of a Christian. I am convinced that, with God’s help, I can keep in the narrow way, but I do like such messages as ‘Lo, I am with you always’ and ‘My grace is sufficient for thee.’ I need such messages from my Redeemer. They cheer me when I am cast down. A peculiar letter, is it not? But I am only anxious for these reassuring messages. I should be so glad of a few helpful words from you. Could you manage it? I am twenty-three years of age. I have a Bible, so I am not writing this to have one of your Testaments, nice as they are.” — Pte. A. L―.