SO said a lady friend to me at the entrance to the Cathedral Close, just under that fragile bridge put up by the Mayor, Burnett Patch, in the year 1814, that connects the Archdeacon’s garden with the Chancellor’s. “You always cheer one up,” she kept repeating, and I felt cheered that she thought so, for at family prayer that morning I had asked I might speak a kind word to someone during the day. Nevertheless our talk was not a cheerful subject, for it was about the War and the attendant grief, sorrow and pain it has brought on thousands, and the still sadder sorrow that England, as a nation, has not yet returned to our God.
I was much struck with the remark a young officer made when home for a few days’ leave, and seeing the usual society pleasure going on. He said, “In the trenches nothing matters but God.” True, get God, the indwelling Holy Spirit, in your heart, and little else will matter. Then, as I said to my friend, nothing can separate us from Him—height, nor depth, nor any other creature, death nor life (see Rom. 8:3838For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, (Romans 8:38)).
E. P. L.