CHURCH AND WAR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2764, 6 May 1916, Page 10

CHURCH AND WAR

ABOUT LOST SHEEP "SUCH COOD FELLOWS, THE RASCALS." The London "Spectator" prints a very interesting article by "A. Student iu Arms" about "some who. were lost, and afterwards found." It is based upon the story of the Good Shepherd and His. lost sheep. The lost sheep winch "A Student in Asms" had in miud were so lovable that they had to be forgiven. "They were such goori fellows, the rascals." The article proceeds ;—

They were perplexing. We could not but condemn them. Indeed, they condemned themselves with the utmost good luun'onr. Yet we could never altogether feel that wo should like them to be exactly as they were. Th'cir humility disarmed our self-satis-fied judgments. "Tliey-had the elusive charm ot youth, irresponsibility, and vagabondage. As wc read the Gospel story, we tftought that thero must have been men very like them among the "lost cheep" whom the Lord Jesus* came to seek. Some of those Publicaus and Sinners with whom the Lord feasted, to the great scandal of the worth}- Pharisees, mu-st have been very like these wayward vagabonds of ours.' Onco more tho Lord lias walked our streets. Once more Ho has called to the lost sheep to follow the Good Shepherd along the thorny path of suffering and deatli. As of old, He has demanded of them- their all. And as of old, He has not called in vain. Whatever their faults, these beloved lost sheep do not lack courage. When they give they give recklessly, not staying to count the cost. They never bargain, estimate the odds, calculate profit and loss. With them it is a plunge, a blind, headlong pluage. They venture "neck or nothing: Heaven's success found, or earth's fiailure." When the call came .to faco hardship and risk life itself in the cause of freedom we stolid respectable folk paused. Wo waited to be convinced of the necessity. Wc calculated the loss and gain.- We sounded our employers about the keeping open of 'our jobs Not so they. They plunged headlong.' It was their chamce. For this, thoy felt, they had been born. Their hearts were afire. They- had a craving to give their lives for tlie great cause. Tliey had a hunger for danger. And what a nuisance they were in that first wearyyear of training! They plunged headlong . down the stony path of glory, but in their haste they stumbled . over every stone 1 And when thcy_ did that they put us all out of our stride, so crowded was the path. Wero they promoted? They promptly celebrated the fact in a, fashion that Fecured their immediate reduction. Wore, they reduced to the ranks? Then they jvcre in hot water from early morn to dewy eve, and, such was their irrepressible chaim that hot water lost its terrors. ..To bo a defaulter in such merry company was a privilege rather than a disgrace. So in despair wo promoted them again, hoping that by giving them a little responsibility wo should enlist tljom on the side of good order arid, discipline. Vain hopel There are things that cannot be overlooked, even in a "Kitchener battalion."

. Then at lasfc.ro "got out." Wo were -confronted with dearth,' danger, and death. And then they came to their own. Wo could no longer compete with them. We stolid respectable folk irere not in our element Wo Knew it. We felt it. We were determined to go through with it. We succeeded; but it was not without much internal wrestling, 'much self-conscious ouort. \efc they, who had formerly been our despair, were now our glory. .Their spirits effervesced. Their wit sparkled. Hunger and thirst could not depress them. , Rain could not damp them. Cold could not chill them. Every hardship became a joke. They rlid not enduro hardship, they derided it. And somehow it seemed at the moment as, if derision was all that hardship existed for! Never was such a triumph of spirit over matter. As for death, it was, in a way, the greatest joko of all. 11l a way, for if' it was another fellow that was hit it was an occasion for tenderness and grief. But if ono of them was hit, 0 Deatli where is thy sting? 0 Grave, where is thy .victory? Portentous, ■ solemn Death, you looked a fool when you tackled ono of them! Life? They did not value life! They had never been able to make much of a fist of it. But if they lived'amiss they died gloriously, with a smile for the pain and the dread of it. What else had they, been born for?. It was their chance. With a- gay. hqart they gave their greatest gift, and with a smile to think that after all .they had anything to give which ; was 'of value. " One by one Death challenged them. One by one they smiled in his grim visage, and refused to be dismayed. They had been lost; but they fotiud the path that led' them homo; and when at last they laid their lives at the feet of the' Good Shepherd, what could they do but smile? • , ' v

G. K. CHESTERTON. THE BUNY AN OF PARADOX. "The tragedy of literature is tliat a prophet has no honour in his own country,",writes Mr. Jamc-o Douglas in tho "Observer," reviewing .Mr. "West's ''Study or G. K. Chesterton". (Martin Keeker, 75., (id. net). "Wo starve and stone our prophets.''' But not ; Mr. Chesterton! "Xho'central truth to bo uttered about, 'Mr. Chesterton Is that'lie is the greatest prophet of our generation. He is as great as Tolstoy or Ibsen. It may seem rash to set him beside these great prophets, but time will ratify my rashness. A prophet is a man of genius with a spiritual messago lor his age. "Tho spiritual messago delivered by Sir. Chesterton is mightier than any other sounding in our cars. He i 3 logger man than Maeterlinck or Ber"-i-on, though wo krow it not. As a prophet he is larger in every way than Air. .Shaw or Mr. Wells or llr. Arnold Bennett, because he deals with the soul whereas they deal with the soul's environment;. Thoy deal with iriai: as a social animal. Ho deals with man as a spiritual being.

"Our failure to salute tile prophet is complete, and it is emphasised by our failure to perceive that li o is tho authentic voice of that English soul which is now wrestling with the Teutonic soul for tho soul of the world. Ho is the soul of England. He expresses tfco English temper which .you can trace through Wordsworth, Blake, Shakespeare, Milton, tho Bible, and tho Book of Common Prayer, right back to Gaedmon. it is tho antithesis of the brutal Teutonic temper, with its cynical faith "in gross materialism, its unconscious vulgarity, its arrogant heathenism of tho mind. "This English temper is sublime in its spiritual heroism, and that it is alivo to-day in tho race is demonstrated by the stupendous selfishness of tho inarticulate masses who arc laying down their lives dumbly for an ideal which they divine but do not discern. Our peoplo are dying for the soul of man. And Jlr. Chesterton in his essays and in his poetry is the prophet of man's soul. "lie is as fragmentary as Isaiah or Nietzsche or Blake, but Renins flames in. all his fragments. His excesses are sublime and his faults are celestial, for they are the laughter of life and the foliage of energy. Bis imperfections aro tho flourishes of his perfections. "His paradox is a new thing in literature, or it is a spiritual paradox, like

tho old spiritual parable and the old spiritual allegory. He is the Bunyan of paradox."

A STORY FROM THE FRONT. "History and Prophecy" was tbo subject of an address given by Sir Andrew Wingato, K.C.1.E., to tlie Kingsway Fellowship. He closed with a story from the front: ''A shell fell in a village unexpectedly; a woman and her baby ran screaming towards a. group of our soldiers, standing down the street. They opened, received her into, their midst, and closed round. A second shell fell an<] burst, and one of the soldiers was killed and two or three wore wounded, but the...woman and her child were unscathed. There was no eye to see, there was 110 V.C. to win, but it just tells us of that splendid British heart that comes out in sudden moments ol danger. I think," said Sir Andrew Wingate, "it is true of our own country. We were standing listlessly and unprepared, when suddenly this great, war bitrst upon Europe, and, instead of standing aside, we threw our arms round poor little Belgium and took 0111 place alongside of France."