Fairlight, Exeter,
April 27th 1917.
Dear Dr. Wreford, — I thought I should like to give you one or two incidents in connection with a visit to France to see a wounded son, in order to show the solemn need for the great work in which you are engaged, viz., the distribution of Testaments to the troops at the Front. Receiving a wire from the War office at noon one day, stating that my son was dangerously wounded, I rushed off to the railway station just as I was, with practically no luggage, and caught a non-stop train to London, nearly two hundred miles, and Was at my son’s ‘bedside in France the following day. But before-starting I knelt down and asked that a fulfillment of Exodus 23:2020Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. (Exodus 23:20) might be vouchsafed to me (“Behold, I send an angel before thee to keep thee hi the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared”). I had no idea how I should proceed to my destination, nor did I know where I should stay, nor whether I could get accommodation anywhere, and so great was my hurry to get away that I had not taken sufficient money with me. But from the moment I left home until I returned all my wants were not only supplied, but I was treated with the greatest kindness and consideration in all quarters. I traveled across the Channel with thousands of soldiers, all wearing lifebelts and escorted by destroyers; but as I relied upon the faithfulness of my God I did not put on a lifebelt, although they were close at hand.
The wire I received from the War Office simply stated that.my son was dangerously wounded in the legs and hand. In the train I prayed that there might be no necessity for amputations, and on arrival at my son’s bedside I found that arrangements had been made for amputating one of his legs at the very time I was praying in the train, but the operation was put off, and has not been carried out. Many were the sad scenes I witnessed from day to day; parents and others travelling from all parts of the British islands and elsewhere to see their wounded relatives, only to learn that they were dead and buried. One afternoon while waiting in the gloaming at a Y.M.C.A. hut to be taken to our destination there were gathered together around a stove three ladies myself and the father and mother of a young man who had died from wound, that day. Both parents were sobbing sadly in front of the fire, when the father said, in a North Country accent: “Ay, he was a good lad, only nineteen; he never drank, never smoked always worked with his father, but he never had anything to do with religion.” How my heart sank within me when I heard those words: — “He never had anything to do with religion.” How Could I comfort the poor mother and father? I could simply commend them to the love-of our; Heavenly Father, and urge them to seek for comfort in that blessed Word which is able to save their souls and all others who come in humble penitence and faith to Him Who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
— R. I. MORGAN.