CAPTAIN MAC.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11948, 6 March 1917, Page 4

CAPTAIN MAC.

(By HAROLD BEGBIE.)

Of all the ministers of religion on the battlefield, here, I. think, is the strangest and the most, romantic. Ho is neither meek nor mild. He is neither tender nor gentle. And ns for theology, I'm inclined to think that you could knock him head over heels with the first pamphlet of the Rational Press Association which happens to come into your hands.

But, as you value your life, don't try to knock, him over with your list —for, believe me, Captain Mac is <a lighting man.

Theologian, no; saint, 'n the old meaning of the tern::, certainly not; but lighting man—well—

It is one of the mysteries of tha character of Jesus 'that lie attracts ait sorts and conditions of men—a mystic like St Francis, a .scholar like Newman j an unimaginative Englishman like ])r Johnson, and a great, hearty ii.ght-ioving Australian like . Captain Mac. What a mystery is the attraction of Jesus!

This Captain Mas is a big, hold person, with a brown Australian skni, black hair, 'black eyes, a. black mouataehe, and a voice that, would till the Crystal. Palace. His eyes shine and burn and twinkle with an animation s-:o excessive that you cannot imagine how he. doesn't explode, or how he manager, to sit still for two mma-ies together. And his smile is of tho kind that makes everybody else fcmih v , and that gives energy to the feeblest, and bestows good spirits on the maddest, A great, nig, hearty man, overflowing 'with tho joy of existence, bursting with energy, and longing, always longing, for a, fight.

" Thev gave you the Military Cross?""] asked him. " What, was that for?"

'■' Ah ! that's telling," ho repln-xl, and shook his head. " Hut sundy you can tell me.' "Hut surely 1 won't." Again, no shook his head, smiling, and looking away from rne. " Let's talk of something else. For instance. . . ." "I've hoard rumours about Gallipoli," 1 persisted. " A lot of stories have gathered round that!" " Tfoit tell me."

"All right; I will." He squares his shoulders ready to make a clean breast of it. "It was like. this. They were giving Military Crosses to a lot of our Australians one day, and at the end of tlm ceremony there was one over. I happened to be passing at the time, and so they gave it to me!" You should have heard his laughter. It.shook the tea things. Captain Maolxonzto was born in Scotland, full in every vein of fighting blood. " I wanted' to enlist, in the Senforth Highlanders," he told me; "my Highland blood sang for it; but it wasn't to be. I was taken as a child: to Australia, and there T soon began to push fortunes." All the piety of his Scottish ancestry was forgotten. Ho thought only of one thing—the main chance. But one day he came up against the Salvation Army, ft seemed to him, all of a sudden, that here was a chance for a fight, and the grandest fight in the world. First of all (for he was a wild, strong man) with Ins own soul. FIGHTING A GREAT EVIL.

" Whnt a religion I" ho cries. " Why, it was the real article] I meant giving up things drink, tobacco and much else—and facing scorn and derision. It meant going down to the mud and tho slime, it meant living with the lowest and the worst, it meant fbiht.ing with tho devil h'msclf for the souls of men. Lor', it snatched mo clean out of myself. It hit me, like a blow. Tt was? so real, so honest. I «aid to myself, ' Kere'is the irno religion for a fighting man'; nnd off T went, to be converted' and to sign on." You can imagine that to such a man as' this tho war came, as a trumpet) blast. Tie skvned on as chaplain. IIf» is by rights Chaplain-Colonel MacKenzio, but the Anzaes have dubbed hmt "Captain Mac." nnd Cantain Mac he'll •stay in their hearts till the end. of tho chapter. (Scores of those gallant fellows have slipped into 'the next world out of his arms, his vo'oo the last of earthly voices to reach them in tho darkness of death, a kind, confident, masculine. voice—good old Captain Mac! One can believe that if an angel challenged any of those Australian souls on the other side, they must have answered, "Captain Mae Pent me." The mm love him —for bo is as valorous as the best of them, and tender, too when it comes to comforting the dying. lio name into their hearts in this way: When the Australians were waitin"' for orders in Egypt, creeping son« of the devil pot among them with whispers of certain secret things to be seen for a little silver. I cannot even givo you a hint of those things. It is enr.'agli for you to know that on this earth nothing more hideously and loathsomely vita can be seen by eyes of man. Some of the Australians slipped away to see these shows.. Drink of a poisonous kind got hold of them. Thev were boys in a strange land. It, was not' difficult for a wily and insidious d'evil to lead them away from the camp, to drag them down, before they /knew It, to the abyss of iniquity. Well, into those vile places strode*

A FAMOUS AUSTRALUN SALVATIONIST.

Captain Mac, scattering confusion and pulling out his boys. ''What 'ud your mother soy to :-oo you in such a hell of a, place? 1 ' "Boy, how will yon look your sister in the eyes again?" And not only this. He went to Authority. What! i'-' rhu: the reception prepared lor pure and healthy boys going io face drntli for the Mother Country?—i* tliis the glory of the British Empire'' - T~ this the best that England can do for her sons? Tt was explained to him tha*. FnglandV, /xiwor is not sovran over all Egvpt. that there have "concessions" m other nationalities, that Ibis, tli.it. and 1 the other thing. But the end? Captain Mac got b : ". wcv. riipso concession-*, do von remember, were abolished. The iniqui'T ws wiped out.. \Yo}\ done. Captai" Mac, and well done. Colonel I!p"vorfh, also of the Salvifion Armv. (The oleanstng or Egvpt will one dav be a story well worthy to he read.) A. TALE HALF TOLD.

And then Captain Mac, with his gnilant Australians, wont to the Dardanelles. Those Australians v. ho fiier-d death with a courage so sublime and an ir.t.olliconee sc incomparable that Ihey ha-sc made an epic of imperishrblo glory out of tlv.it tragic failure, saw how their chaplain could face death as well as the devil. He was with them always. .Notlvmv could hold him back. Ho was with the living, but he was also with the firditing. Once, when the Turks came ihrustmg up to the trenches, he seized a . But 1 really do not know the rest of the story. The Australians got to love this big brother. Thov came to his services. They sang his hymns. They said " Our Father" 'aftu him. And when they uore dying they snuggled themselves into his breast' His tunic has been wet. with their tears and their sweat. He was with them through the thick of it, and with them when they had to give up the heights they had won, mm return to th<:> ship- in the He was with them on their way to France. Ho has tasted victory, he h'as tasted bit tcrness-

'• Australians," lie says. have a good conceit of themselves They don't want anyone else to blow their trumpet for thorn. It's part of their creed to feel themselves great fellows. And so \ou won't mind if I say that never were there any soldiers m the world to compare with our Australians. "Tf.n thousand more of the same stuff would' have swept the Turks out of l'Juropo.

•'You see, trey ti.se their brains. They're not merely strong men; they're thoughtful men. They slouch about when there's nothing doing, they go slack and loch as if theie's nothing in tlieni when it's a ca-c of stand oa-y ; but give tliem a job, tell them off for something that wauls what we call flm three- vi's—grd, gnu and gumption--and then, they're princes, they're metx!" It was not fo- a long time Hint I could break through this fine- bracing talk and get at things. He came to it unwillingly. 1 think, for theie's no doubt his heart is in the fiehtinti. "Ah, the tragedy of it all!" be -s----elaimed. heaving a sigh. " I shall never forget as long as i lire a splendid sergeant coming hack from tho front ficnehes on the Homme, and throwing himself on niv chest, and' sobbing there like, a child, "just like a little child •'Charlie's dead! Charlie's dead!--oh. Mac, whatever shall I say to mother: 1 ' He had seen his own brother kil'ed at Ins side. And this m?n is well over sixfeet, strong; »y iron, bravo as anv Australian, and ■•lonr as a. S"ofc. But he cried like a child. Ah, i'i-'s a tragedy! The flower of our manhood ! Beautiful bovs at the th?odm!d of Me ! And look how some of ihem die.

" Hie other day I wn.q watching a regiment ploughing hack trom tho trenches through mm] up t.o Ih"ir waists- Thi*- mr.d Idee porridge—it's thick, ir.'« st'ckv And it t-nkp.s stromtlh to cot through it. Well, someone told mf that, n couple of boys furthor hack wore in trouble, and 1 wont. a lourc to lie!pi thoui. 1 found them both. They wore 'teal. Just dead oi exhaustion. " Annt that's why wo po out to meet, the chapr. cf.romm* back from the figlitilll:tu , nud ».ivon them a song homo We sing to them, play to them, joke to thorn. The great thine; is to make them forget as soon as possible the heil they've come from. I've organised no end of sing-songs just- to help men to forget. And it will take hours, days sornet irnes. bo lore a. man shakes oft the meinorv of the fighting line. J>on't make a mistake. It's fine to bo there; I'd rather bp there than any place on the earth ; hut—it's hell. And out there, living in that hell, you get, to know the meaning of God's love for men. Who could help loving such men? f'ou rage ?--- thorn's no courage like it. Whv. the mom c.ourage of living such a life- -leaving out tho shells altogether--is like a miracle. And through it all. through all tho mud and tlui slime, and th<> rain and the, snow, and the cold and tho wretchedness, those men are not only patient, they're cheerful. Yes, cheerful! To live amoncj; sueh follows is to bo exalted. There's nothing man is not fit for. You feel that men like these are, indeed, Sons of God. They're worth dying for. And when you get them all round you, singing our rousing hvnins, praying our big" prayers- and see tho light in their eyes, arid hear tho ring in their voices, Lor', T tell you, it shakes you up. Love's a strong word, but T just- lovo those fel-iov.-s—every one of them." " HE ALSO SERVES. . . "What mak.s me so happy P Well, being a servant to the greatest fellows oa the earth, being allowed to do 6ome-

thing for them, and knowing that hell itselt can't break them, tve dug 1 can't, tell you now many graves; 1 ve read the burial scrvico over iiugiisn ana Australian; I've had sirens tearing up the bodies I've buried only a minute ago j and I've seen i:ic:i mutilated, ruined for . »»v ' , cllU \ lo . sti heart 1 , 1 cau'L be u -- rabto, 1 cant be sad. There's someiuing here "— U\e gallant- fellow placed a i>re.at brown hand over his heart—" that mal;cs v me ieel Mire, absolutely biire, that tiou is working to make His heaven out pv our hell. 1 think it tnu:>t he hue/' no added, '• hue, to die lighting.'' And Captain Mae, I am very certain, will die fighting, ii not m France, theu the devil in Melbourne or bydney. But let me tell you the most interesting thing of all about this lighting Salvationist. He may nut; be a iiieo.ogian ; his language may be uncritical; his attitude towards life may be crude; and he mar be the last man in the world to resolve a religious diflieulty—except the highest of all, namely, how to get out of a, bad lil'o and into a good life; but, all the same, Captain Mac is a spiritual man in the most real sense of 1 hat word Yes, this Australian is a mystic. He is conscious of a companion. There are moments when this companion speaks to him. He is told that he is to do certain things, or lie is told that he is not to' do something to which he is just about to set his hand. This voice'is not only a voice from outside himself, but a voice so authentic that Captain Mac never dreams of disobeying it. You would .say to look at him that here is one of those strong and healthy men to whom all spiritual things must seem unreal, for whom the visible must have a tremendous significance, for whom appearance is the only reality which matters, and with whom materialists would get on far bettor than mystics. But you would bo wrong. In spite of his hearty ways, his loud voice, his delight in his life, and his lust of fighting, here in sober truth is a man who lives with angels. THE INWAIM) MENTOR. What is this voice?

He cannot) tell you. All lie knows is this: that sometimes the voice is gentle, sometimes it is imperious and urgent, and that always it is a real voice. Jt has saved his life again and again. Oh his way to bury a poor lad lying out in No Man's Land' the voice will suddenly halt him, with the command, " Turn back !" And as lie turns a shell will fall a foot away from the dead body. This has happened not once, but many times.

And the voice lias urged him to go to certain places, to which he had never thought of going, and there ho has found someone who needed him. This too, has happened again and again. It is characteristic of the man that tie should nut like to speak of these experiences. But the voice is the great reality of his life, lie laughs, he jests, he boasts, he tells story after story cf heroism; and never once, unless you drive him. to if,, uill he, speak of things deeply sacred to him; hut his life .is what it is, his joy is what it- is, chiefly because ho is convinced of a spiritual companion.

What a- romance! Think of the battleiield—the air above tilled with a deafening clatter like the roaring of innumerable express trains; tho ground ploughed up by exploding shells; the sharp splutter of machine guns stabbing through the roar from above; the •stumbling charge of pale and breathless men over broken crouncl ; the hideous work of the. bayonet; the rain of bombs; the cry of tho wounded; the reel and fall of the slain—think of this, and then imagine lo yourself a big brown-faced man in khaki, facing that helj with joy and triumph in his heart, listening, always listening, in tho midst of the tempest-—for a. voice from heaven! _ If Only the Kaiser would bo still, and listen for a voice from heaven! But perhaps a man must have a heart- like Socrates or, Captain Mac beforo the voice can make iNolf heard. There are conditions.