THE CHURCH AND THK AKMT. 



197 



Christ which is independent of all creeds, which a man might have 

 though he sweated doubts at every pore, which a man might 

 certainly have though he were totally untaught and could give 

 no account at all of the matter of his faith. If the Church has 

 succeeded in leading her sons to regard their Saviour thus, her 

 failure in other matters is a small thing. If she has failed in this, 

 no other success, though she might claim many, would be of any 

 value at all. 



Some time ago I was sent by a Committee, of which the Bishop 

 of Winchester was one of the conveners, a paper of questions 

 dealing with the religion of the Army. Among them was this 

 one : "It has been said by an experienced observer, ' The soldier 

 has got religion. I am not so sure that he has got Christianity/ 

 How far does your observation bear this out ? " This is almost 

 exactly the question which I want to make some attempt to 

 answer now. 



At the very outset we are met by an amazing contradiction. 

 Jesus Christ does not come into the religion of the soldier. The 

 soldier admires and attempts to imitate just those virtues which 

 are most distinctive in the character of Jesus. Donald Hankey, 

 who was a direct observer at the closest quarters of the soldier's 

 life, has put this contradiction more forcibly than I can hope to 

 do in his Student in Arms. The Archbishop of Dublin, a careful 

 critic of the testimony of direct observers, has expressed the same 

 contradiction in another way, viewing it from a slightly different 

 angle. But I do not know that witness is needed. Everybody 

 who has known our soldiers, or cared to know about them, has 

 reached the same conclusion. They possess in the highest degree, 

 the virtues of patience, faithfulness, courage, cheerfulness, 

 unselfishness. They are prepared for extreme self-sacrifice. It is 

 men who possess these qualities in an eminent degree who win 

 the soldier's admiration and loyalty. These make up the 

 character which is the soldier's ideal, the kind of character which 

 the average man admires most. " "Who is the Happy Warrior ? 

 Who is he whom every man at arms would wish to be ? " The 

 answer is, a man very like Jesus Christ. The soldier does not 

 give that answer with his lips ; but he does give it, almost 

 exactly, in his life and his aspirations. I say almost exactly, 

 and in a few minutes I shall explain this qualification. In the 

 meantime, take St. Paul's list of the Fruits of the Spirit, surely 

 an authoritative description of the Christian character. Take 

 it and translate it into the language of the camp. " Love.'' 



