CHURCH AND THE WAR.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXV, Issue 8216, 13 August 1915, Page 7

CHURCH AND THE WAR.

BRITISH SOLDIERS' RELIGION. A SURPRISE FOR THE CENSORS. The following interesting letter by the Bishop of London is published in "The Times":— 1 am glad to accept an invitation to write on this subject, as I. should like to say something in honour of the men whom 1 have learnt to love and respect more than ever during the last fortnight. i i have held during that time 50 or 60 short services all along the front of the battle-line and at all the bases, and have visited, ward by ward, 22 of the hospitals in Prance, and have therefore had a unique opportunity of seeing that side of the British soldier's character which is often left out in people's estimate of him. Wo hear a great deal of his wit and humour, his grit, and his splendid courage and endurance ■ but little is said • of that simple faith which he has imbibed in some quiet home or learnt in his Sunday school, and which, to a large extent, is the spring and source of his other qualities. As one of the leading Generals said to me, " People often ignore the- sentimental side of the British soldier's character." It is to this spiritual side, of course, to which I went out principally to appeal, and I chose Holy Week and Easter as the most appropriate time at which to do so. What has encouraged me so much has been the overwhelming response of the whole Army. A few of the services were of the nature of church parades, but the great majority were purely voluntary. On no occasion did we have fewer than 1000 men, and often 4000; about half the services were in the open air, others in cinema theatres, largo baths, and (at the bases) the huge warehouses where goods are stacked for the front. The Easter Communion. The most touching service,to myself was early on Easter Day, when, after giving the Holy Communion to 200 officers and men within a mile of the German lines in a schoolroom the roof of which had been taken oil' by a shell, I was told at the end that 150 more men and officers were outside from other regiments asking for their Easter "Communion; and of course I held at once another service for them. Before each servioe I gave a message from all at home, saying that they must imagine that their wives and mothers and' children, or sweethearts, had sent them all their love through me, and that the whole nation was thinking and praying- for them day and night. When the service began the religious note was struck at once, and the point I want to emphasise is the immediate response to the deepest spiritual note. Few things will live in my memory so -vividly, as the sight, from the wagon or extemporised .platform which was always arranged for me, of these thousands of upturned faces singing "When I Survey -the Wondrous Cross," with a depth and earnestness about which there could be no mistake. At the services just before and on Good Friday I took the Words from the Cross, and a.s the Generals and officers who attended in i large numbers with the men often remarked, "the men seemed to drink in every word." The guns booming hard by, and the British aeroplanes circling like guardian angels over the servico to guard the attractive target of 4000 men and officers with a Bishop in the middle, made the scene very impressive. Time being always strictly limited, we had sometimes three, but more often two, , hymns, some prayers translated from the Russian Liturgy of a simple character, of which I had taken out 2000 copies, and which were greatly appreciated, and an address of about a quarter of an hour, the whole lasting half an hour. A " Souvenir." At the end of each service my chaplains, among whom I must specially mention Mr Macpherson, senior chaplain of the Church of England chaplains, who gave up a whole fortnight to arrange my tour, gave out what the soldiers called "The Bishop's Souvenir," souvenir being one of the French words which the British soldier has enthusiastically adopted. Everything is a " souvenir," from a German helmet to a button of a Bishop's cassock. These particular soiivenirs were pictures of our Lord on the Cross- and of His resurrection on Easter Day, with some meditations and prayers I had written myself. I had onlyi room to take 10,000, and these made two enormous packages,' and they were almost fought for, as they began to run short towards the end. Every one spoko of the splendid work of the chaplains of all denominations. I shall take another opportunity of saying wha£ I saw of them; but the point which bears upon the subject in hand is that officers and men seem to look upon them as "guides, philosophers, and friends." ,'The truth of the matter is that the realities of war have melted away the surface shyness of men about religion; they feel they are "up against" questions of life and death; and I have heard of more than one censor who has for the first tints realised the part religion boars in a soldier's life by censoring the innumerable letters home in which tlio writers ask for the prayors of their relations or express their trust in God. Tb« visit of a, Bishop was more than justified by the one f'ant alone that, although sn^li short notioe bad. been given of my visit, 200 were waiting to Ijp ■confirmed, some witli the niu'd of iiio trenches still wet on their putties. ■ . In the Hospitals. ; It was:, liowevnr, perhaps most of all in the hospitals that tlm religious character of the British soldier came out. The linos and lines of wounded men and boys in those 22 hospitals, admirably look-rxl after by a, devoted band of doctors and nurses, form the most pathetic note of war. while thn patience and courage with which those terrible wounds are borne is its highest insniraticm. I only hoped that instead of the brief word which was all that was possible to each T had had time for the lone; and confidential talk for which I °r!J'ld soo by their faces they would linvp boon re.-uly. Sornotintes it was nossiblo to do more. One young man, little more than a lt"Y. i"st carried in from the trenches. shot through the shoulder, at a cleari'i.o; hospital at tlio front, bold out bis "rms towards me with a radiant smile. t +V"Mr]it for •]. moment be wps j't (KOirinm, but he was an East-end lad, n oommuniVant at an Enst-ond clnircb. •• ;k> sau' thn Bishop lie knew so well •Missino; bis bed. T. need not say tbnt I tried my best-to b«lp him in thati

hour of pain and trial. But the incident was in itself a parable; in his hour of need the soldier turns instinctively to the religion of his childhood; and in the men and boys who are fighting our country's battles we have more than brave heroes —we have potential saints.