These same girls were commissioned also to make frequent visits to the hospitals and talk with the sick soldiers. Often they read the Bible to them, and many a man through these little talks has found the way of eternal life. This in addition to their other work.
One night after a meeting in the hut a lad wanted to come into the room at the back and speak to one of the women about his soul. They knelt and prayed together, and the boy when he rose had a light of real happiness on his face. But suddenly the happiness faded and he exclaimed:
“But I can’t read!”
“Read? What do you mean?” asked the lassie.
“My Bible. Nobody never learned me to read, and I can’t read my Bible like you said in the meeting I should.”
The lassie thought for a minute, and then suggested that he come to the hut every morning just before first call and she would teach him a verse of scripture and read him a chapter. This meant that the lassie must rise that much earlier, but what of that for a servant of the King?
Just a month this program was carried out, and then came marching orders for the boy, but by this time he had a rich store of God’s word safe in his heart from the verses he had memorized. The last night when he came to say good-bye he said to his teacher:
“Your kindness has meant a lot of trouble for you, miss, but for me it has meant life! Before, I was afraid to fight; but now I don’t even fear death. I know now that it can only mean a new life. Thank God for your goodness to me!”
There was one soldier who went by the name of Scoop. He had been a reporter back in the States and learned to love drink. When he joined the army he did not give up his old habits. Whenever anybody remonstrated with him he invariably replied gaily, “I’m out to enjoy life.” On pay-days Scoop celebrated by drinking more than ever.
One day he happened into the Salvation Army hut. Whether the pie or the doughnuts or the homeyness of the place first attracted him no one knows. He said it was the pie. Something held him there. He came every night. The spirit of the Lord that lived and breathed in those consecrated men and girls began to work in his heart and conscience, and speak to him of better things that might even be for him.