The following is an extract from a letter sent home by a chaplain at the Front. It shows us how God mercifully delivered some in answer to the prayer of those at home.
He writes: ‘I was among a lot of convalescent patients the other day, and one of them, an Australian, hardly out of his youth, with fair hair and blue eyes, asked if I believed in luck. After I had my say he continued the conversation in some such words as these: ‘I believe there is something far more reliable than luck in the world. I was right through the Somme in some of the most terrible battles fought there, and since I have been in other parts of the line, and been over the top a dozen times, and I have come through all with no injury, excepting the merest scratch that brought me down here. To crown everything, the hospital people have decided to keep me here as a ward orderly. I am so glad about it, for it is a regular hell up there, sir, and having had a year of it, I reckon I’ve had enough. Now what is it that has kept me safe in the midst of the fighting, when my pals were falling all around me? And what is it that has now secured me a position down here, which means comfort, security, and more sure prospect of seeing Australia again? I’ll tell you, sir, it isn’t luck.
“Away where I come from I’ve a dear old granny, the only relative I have in the world, and the morning I left her she put her hands on my shoulder, and as she looked into my face she said: “Your old granny will be praying for you every morning and evening until you return again.” My old granny’s prayers, sir, and not luck is the explanation of it all. I’m not what you call a godly man, but I do believe with all my heart that I’m alive today because the Almighty felt obliged to do what granny asked of Him.
“‘But what about my pals who fell by my side? Perhaps they had people praying for them?’ Then he answered his own question. ‘There are many things in life, sir, that we have to leave with a big question mark against them. We cannot understand them, we are not supposed to be able to solve them. All we can do is to leave them and try and believe, even when it is very difficult to do so, that what happens is for the best. I may not be able to understand the case of my pals who fall, but I understand my own, my granny, and God.’”