A WONDERFUL SERVICE.

Clutha Leader, Volume XLII, Issue 63, 11 February 1916, Page 3

A WONDERFUL SERVICE.

All officer in the Indian force now operating in Mesopotamia writes as ■follows to the London 'Morning Post.': The Bishop of Lahore is with us (our most advanced position), and the great man and his two chaplains are among us, living as we do and sharing our discomforts. It is very noble of him to come, as he is an oldish man, and 1 need hardly say how much we appreciate his devotion, We shall, all of us, be in battle before long, and the ■Bishop and his men are here to see us through with it. It is grand of them, and their nresence will be of the greatest help to us, especially to the sick and wounded. There is Holy Communion every morning at seven o'clock, so that some time during the week every one will probably get a chance of attending.

Last evening we had service at six o'clock, just as the sun set, and a nearly full moon rose in the sky'. It was a wonderful service, the men in shirt sleeves, with their rifles heside them, on three sides of a square, with the officers on the fourth side, andl slightly in advance; the Bishop and his chapl'anis in the centre of the square with the Union Jack draped over some planks to make an altar. Save thai: an aeroplane hovered round and swooped down like a great bird returning to earth to rest, the endless buzz close by, and' from the outposts the signal lights flashing across the Headquarters, the camp might have been at evening service in peace time. Our thoughts went far away from war as we sang the old hymns and listened to one of the finest sermons I ever heard —most inspiring, simple, and eloquent; a sermon that the slowest-wil-ted of the men could understand. The old man, with his hands lifted up in the moonlight, took us out of ourselves back among our own families and our own people to our own town*; and village homes. He made us see the privilege of fighting in this war. fighting with God. for God ; and he made us feel that death was nothing, a lucre glorious entry among the hosts of the 1/ord and His Kleet. He has vi.sitcd the scenes of all our battles, consecrating the cemeteries ami hurying-phices. and lonely graves of those who have fallen on our long line of advance. The difficulties and hardships and risks lie might have experienced and been l subject to have been verv great; but he has done all this, and surely; no roan could have done more, for our dead and living,