What stories they have of their experiences. Here is one who writes to the Rev. J.H. Bateson:
"I want you to praise and thank God with me for sparing my life last Thursday, when I had a narrow escape from death. The enemy started to shell our trenches at 3 P.M. and continued until dark. One shell burst just outside the trench which I occupied with my section, blowing the trench right in and burying me in earth and mud. I was fast suffocating when God heard my prayer, and sent a corporal and private of my company who dug me out alive. Four of my section were buried up to the hips, but, praise God, they also were got out safely. Further along a shell burst right in the trench, blowing two men out of the trench, who were killed on the spot; a third was buried alive; a fourth was stunned and wandered out in front of the trench, and was shot through the head by the enemy and killed. We have had twenty-five days in the firing line out of the thirty days of November."
This soldier goes on to say that, when at last relieved from the trenches, he had held services in barns with some of his comrades, and had even been called upon to bury the dead. He closes his letter with the verse:
All the way my Saviour leads me;
What have I to ask beside?
Can I doubt His tender mercy,
Who through life has been my Guide?
Heavenly peace, divinest comfort,
Here by faith in Him to dwell!
For I know, whate'er befall me,
Jesus doeth all things well.
Mr. Bateson sends to the Methodist Times a letter which he received from a Christian sergeant at the front in January 1915. I quote it in full because it describes in such vivid detail the experiences of a Christian soldier in the trenches and during the charge. Only by listening to the men themselves can we fully realise what Christ is to the soldier, and how gloriously he is sustained in the most trying times.
"We are having some good times in serving the Master, both in the trenches and during rest periods in billets. It matters not where we are—we can still laugh and sing the praises of Him Who died that we might live. During the retirement, at the commencement of the campaign, when fatigued to the utmost, when drowsing or at least stumbling along as best I could, halts were given, and officers, non-commissioned officers and men simply fell down exhausted, you could notice here and there some kneeling in prayer. I have done the same, and after a few minutes in silent prayer, thanking our beloved Saviour for preserving us, I have gone off sound asleep, and have awakened and gone on again. Then with fresh vigour and a determined effort have managed to pass up and down the ranks under my command, to speak a few encouraging words and turn their thoughts heavenwards. At rest intervals I have managed to get one or two together for a Christian song and prayer, thank God for keeping us so well, and ask for strength to endure it all.
"Now, again, we are in the trenches. It is Sunday morning, my thoughts are of all in the Homeland, and more so about Him Who died for us, and as I think of it all out comes my Bible, and those who are near join in listening to a passage of Scripture; then a few words of prayer, then a chorus or two that we all know. We sing as heartily as if we were at home in our churches. Then over comes 'Jack Johnson.' For a time all is silent, excepting that lips are moving in fervent prayer—not through fear, but with thankfulness and praise. Glory! Glory!
"Another time we are in a different part of the country, and called upon to go into the attack. As we go, not seeing any danger, suddenly over us bursts a shrapnel and shells of the 'Jack Johnson' type, ploughing up the ground, and comrades fall. Some are killed outright; others are severely wounded. I rush here and there to assist with a handshake or a 'God bless you.' I pass on to lead those left, and then right into the thickest of the fray with heavy rifle and machine-gun fire. But nothing daunts the British soldier, and on we press until at last the enemy turns and runs in fear. Then we thank God for all His goodness in protecting and sparing us, and on we go, administering to the wounded and those whose life is fast ebbing away, and in a few words get the assurance that they hear the Saviour's welcome voice. I have felt Him so near at such times as these. Tears of joy and gladness—maybe of sorrow—well from the eyes. Jehovah is present, and after the busy day is done and the shades of night are falling, I again pursue my duties, collecting here and there a few men to establish a firing line and join up the gap between our regiment and those on the right. We start to work to dig ourselves in. When all is complete, we kneel reverently with a heart full of praise and thanks for being enabled to accomplish a little more for King and country, and, above all, to do something for others by grace and strength from on high.
"One day we had just finished trenching in a wood; it was Sunday afternoon. All was complete. I had been reading to four others in my 'dug-out,' and prayed. We were holding a short service. I had just finished speaking, and we were heartily singing that beautiful hymn, 'All hail the power of Jesu's Name,' and had got through the third verse, when we were suddenly called to man our rifles, as the sentry had seen the enemy approaching and given us the warning. Over us scream harmlessly the big shells; some fall in front, some behind. Over comes the shrapnel and bursts over us; then the spurt of rifle-fire begins. But the beauty of it is we are not troubled with fear at all—who could be in the presence of the Master?—but go on singing the chorus 'Crown Him' right on to the finish, although the enemy is only 150 or 200 yards away."
"The beauty of it is we are not troubled with fear at all—who could be in the presence of the Master?" That sentence seems to sum up the situation. Christ is there and He is all-sufficient. Strong in His strength the Christian soldier goes anywhere and faces anything. How grandly old "Diadem" would sound as these Christian soldiers sang it in the battle charge—"And crown Him, crown Him Lord of all." There was nothing in the situation incongruous to them. They did not think of the Germans—only of their Lord and Saviour. And so they went right on. Some of them were sure to fall, but they did not think of that. The fact of Christ dominated them. Every other idea was "a grand impertinence." He was with them here, and He would be with them—yonder.