An elaborate system of network communication trenches was formed, communicating with the rear, but in the worst of the weather, the communication trenches became worse than the fire trenches, and in some cases the water in them was up to the necks of the men.
It was only when night fell that communication with the fire trenches was possible. Then it was that rations were conveyed to the men at the front—only then was it possible—and even in the dark it was a difficult and dangerous task. No light must be shown; to strike a match might be death. Says the non-commissioned officer to his men engaged in this hazardous task: "Whenever a searchlight is turned on you, or the country is lit up by a flare or a star shell, stand perfectly still. It's movement wot gives the show away. Keep still, an' they'll think you're a bush, or a tree, or what not. But as sure as yer move, you're a deader."
Under these circumstances, Christian work in the trenches would seem impossible, but the apparently impossible has been accomplished. The chaplains are from time to time with their men in the trenches. The experience of Mr. McLean has already been quoted, and many another might be added.
Christian men are there also in ever-increasing numbers, and these are themselves unofficial chaplains. We hear of at least one Methodist class meeting regularly held in the trenches, and there is many a prayer meeting there. Yes, and many a man has found his Saviour there, for the Lord Jesus is very near those who seek Him in the trenches.
Here is a sacred little letter scribbled in the trenches by a man who there gave himself to Christ:
"To my darling wife and children. Daddy fully surrendered to Jesus 20.11.14 at Ypres. Sudden death—sudden glory. Safe in the arms of Jesus."
A soldier, who has recently returned home for a brief rest after many weeks in the firing line and in the trenches, says that he is quite an altered man as the result of the war. As a boy he was never taught to pray; but in the trenches he began to pray, and prayed regularly. Hundreds of men, he says, are doing the same thing day by day. He also says that the men at the front expect and reckon upon the prayers of the people at home on their behalf.
And now a Salvation Army story. One day a man came into a Salvation Army hall in the East End of London, and when the officers were speaking to him they found that he had never been to a Salvation Army service before. They asked him what brought him there.
"In the trenches," he replied, "I made up my mind that the very first chance I had I'd come. You see, I was fighting next to a Salvationist. One morning he was hit and fell fatally wounded. I knelt beside him in the trench and asked if I could do anything for him.
"'Yes,' he said. 'In my pocket there is the address of my father and mother; if you live to get home, tell them how I died, and tell them that religion was good for me away from home in the trenches, and death has no terror for me.'