THE CHQRCH AND THE AKMY. 



201 



Spirit. Many men will say it is impossible to be a Christian in the 

 Army or Navy. I had an example, talking to a sailor on the top 

 of a *bus, and to a soldier a few minutes afterwards, whilst waiting 

 for a tram. The sailor said : " It is impossible to be a Christian," 

 and the wounded soldier said : " It is impossible to be a Christian over 

 there." One sad feature in the Army is that many a man who has 

 lived quite an upright life gets led away by the bad language and 

 erroneous teaching, but this is not to be wondered at, if the heart 

 has not been changed. A Christian worker was distributing Gospels 

 in a camp. A soldier said to him : " We do not want anything like 

 that : if we die at the Front, we shall be all right for heaven." 

 Another man said : " We are not giving our lives for the country, 

 we are fighting for our own. Why should our faith be undermined ? 

 I have often wished I could believe, but it seems to me all an awful 

 muddle." Unscriptural teaching does indeed produce an awful 

 muddle. 



One young man writes from Edinburgh : " One Sunday a soldier 

 was seen outside a tent, with unmistakable signs of sin and 

 depravity on his face, while a service was being held, to which he 

 was listening attentively. At the close I went up and wanted to 

 shake hands. He said : " You would not shake hands if you knew 

 who I was : I am the worst man in the camp, and only came out of 

 prison yesterday." After a few minutes, he drew a dirty copy of 

 St. John's Gospel out of his pocket, and said : " I would like to be 

 a good lad." He soon believed in Christ, and before leaving for the 

 East gave a splendid testimony for Him. We are all very grateful 

 to Canon Hannay for his interesting paper, and even if we do not all 

 agree with much that he says, our thanks are still warmly given to 

 him for his very good paper. 



Captain MacNaughton : Canon Hannay has stated that the 

 Church of England is at least conscious of failure in dealing with 

 men in the Army. That is a tremendous step, but I think we should 

 make a very clear distinction between the Church of England, the 

 Church of Rome, and the Nonconformist bodies. For my part, in 

 an experience of nearly three years in the Army, the Church of Rome 

 has not failed. She makes tremendous claims, and says to the men : 

 " You only trust in us, we will see you straight through earth and 

 through Heaven." I confess I really believe that Nonconformist 



