LAND AND WATER 
November 21, 1914. 
M possible for patriotic reasons, but because it ia our duty 
also to endeavour to ease the sufferings of these poor faithful 
animals. " Oui> Dumb Friends' League" started a fund in 
1912 called the Blue Cross Fund, which aimed at the care of 
wounded horses in war time. This branch is now firmly 
established, and the French Government have officially recog- 
nised its existence and gratefully accepted its offer of help 
for the horses. The French Minister of War has not only 
authorised the installation of base hospitals in France, but 
has given every possible facility to the Blue Cross for carry- 
ing out its work. Madame Millerand, wife of the French War 
Minister, has consented to be president of the French com- 
mittee. The Blue Cross hope to open eight base ho.spitals 
for wounded horses during this month. Will you kindly 
assist us in this good work by sending us a subscription J 
Yours very truly, 
Olivb Smith-Dorrien. 
Donations should be made payable to the "Blue Crosa 
Fund," and addressed to the Secretary, Arthur J. Coke, 58, 
Victoria Street, London, S.W. 
IN THE NAME OF GOD. 
By the Rev, Hugh B. Chapman. 
(Chaplain to the Royal ChaDel of the SaToy, W.C.) 
Every sort of appeal has been made to the available men 
of the nation to serve their King and country during the 
present war. Opinions may differ as to the response, but no 
one would suggest that the people as a whole has been enthused 
in any proportion lo the gravity of the crisis. We have been 
told ad nauseam that the spirit of an army vastly outweighs 
its organisation, however complete, and Napoleon, who was 
no idealist, asserted that the value of morale easily eclipsed 
that of countless battalions. It is no small comfort to learn 
that for the Russians this is practically a holy war, and that 
a religion amounting to splendid madness is bound to render 
the troops of the Tsar irresistible in the long run, and to 
sweep them to a glorious victory. As regards the French, we 
invariably think of their elan at a crisis, and whether their 
impulsiveness is necessarily coupled with anxiety as to their 
staying power or no, we put our money on their fervour, 
and a dash which is to spurn defeat. As for the Belgians, 
the soul of that little kingdom is on the lips of all, and but 
a few days ago we were thrilled by a picture portraying a 
real King before a braggart Emperor, over whom he towered 
in prospective triumph because of the flashing of his eyes. 
So far, so good, but for some quaint reason when we 
come to the Anglo-Saxon there is a sudden drop ; not, thank 
goodness, in facts so far as the elite of the Empire is con- 
cerned, but in the matter of this quality known as religion, 
which I earnestly maintain is the only lever powerful enough 
to raise the nation from an inertness or crass stupidity in- 
conceivable at such a moment. Given lack of imagination, 
an island home, a phlegmat/o temperament, the demoralisa- 
tion of cities, and the coniontional attributes of Hodge, all 
this is insuflBcient to account for a gross selfishness which 
would seem to ask for a Zeppelin or several army corps of the 
enemy. We British demand a good deal when it comes to 
the point, glorying in the fact of such a voluntary army as 
the world has never seen, yet, at the same time, eternally 
discussing from the fiscal side whether enlistment is calcu- 
lated to pay. The example of the best bred in the community 
is beyond all praise, and they have not only responded, but 
hare sprung to the call in a manner which should for ever 
render them immune from the cheap attacks of the man in 
the street, whose arguments in times of piping peace were 
difficult to answer. To the troops at the front and to the 
million or more who have donned the King's uniform, no one 
will deny their meed of applause, while it is also well to 
remember that, on land at least, they form a minority among 
masses of brave men, and that the greater we are as a people 
the less necessary it is to adulate what they, like all heroes, 
take for granted and perform as ts the manner born. 
It is about those who remain behind that I am moved to 
speak. _ We are aware that there have been plenty of in- 
eonvenicnces, that preparations for the early rush were not 
forthcoming, that many have suffered grievous disappoint- 
ments, and that murmurings and repinings have been often 
heard, but Uiis is the exception and not the rule, though 
that the endurance of hardness is in the commission go'es 
without saying. Speaking generally, the camps are an in- 
spiration to any visitor, and, from a military point of view 
have, I am told, gone far to surprise experts, though it is a 
cause for shame that the challenge of an ally as re-^ards 
vodka has certainly not been taken up in Great Brftain 
From a psychological point of view I am confident that the 
troops would welcome an iron discipline, if encased in a 
jrelvet glove. When England is in danger, drunkenness 
amongst our soldiers should be unknown. So unaccustomed 
arc we, however, to tlio application of the law of the cross, 
which is further reaching than that of discipline, so fright- 
ened are we of tlie brewer and the shareholders in the business, 
and BO timid do we still remain lest an absolutely moral 
question should be made a political one, that we allow thit 
evil to continue, because we have not the pluck to put our 
foot down and treat the recruit as if he were at the front. 
As for the temptations to vice among this mass of youngish 
men, which are increased by their very physical strength, 
here again the same liesitation prevails, whereas women who 
dare to emasculate and drag down our warriors in the mak- 
ing, for the pittance of their pay, ought to be given short 
shrift and taught to feel that their blandishments are a deadly 
danger in our midst. 
But what surprises mo more than all the rest is that no 
joint religious appeal has been made to the nation by the 
constituted authorities in tliat department, as, unfortunately, 
it must b© called in tlie British Isles. Temperamentally we 
lack the points hinted at in Rus.s.ia, France, or Belgium, but 
the grave question is whctlier this is not as much due to the 
teaching as to the trend of the people. It would seem to 
be taken for granted that tlie only standard bearer of the 
fiery cross is an eloquent Chancellor of the Exchequer who, 
in addition to Cymric zeal, has the advantage of popularity 
among the masses on political grounds. The journals of every 
colour properly applaud his sentiments, and we hear on all 
sides that at last the right note has been struck, but our 
enthusiasm is slightly damped when a whole page in one of his 
special supporters is devoted to league football and to racing, 
which are wholly opposed to that patriot's teaching. Again 
and again satire has been heaped on the thousands upon 
thousands of onlookers, but whatever be the recognised forms 
of pleasure, their publ'ic, which is extraordinarily thick- 
skinned, refuses to alter its habits, though within 80 miles 
our best are shedding their blood like water to defend its 
shores. 
Was there ever in our history such a chance for a sublime 
union amongst religionists of every sliade and descrip- 
tion in a supreme effort to call fortli the soul of tlie British 
race and, forgetful of differences and shibboleths that have 
done much to empty our places of worship, to speak with a 
single voice, and proclaim a national crusade? 1 can imagine 
nothing more eloquent than a stirring letter signed by the 
Jew and Gentile chiefs of our various creeds, netting forth 
the fact that the war is nothing less than a call to take up 
arms in favour of liberty and goodness as against the cursed 
doctrine of tyranny and brutality. There are numberless 
youths among footballers, knuts, farmers, mechanics, peasants, 
and those who have something to wipe off the slate, who would 
enlist to-morrow, if not for Britain, then for Jesus Christ. 
The spirit of martyrdom is enormously abroad if we dare to 
believe in and to tap it, whilst we have no desire either for 
a gloomy silence or for sugar-plums, but for facts, however 
grim or glorious, and for facts alone. The harder these aro 
the more calculated are they to evoke the valour and, as I 
prefer to call it, the underground Christianity of the mob. 
This is why I hope that in every pulpit in the land, in 
synagogue, cathedral, church or chapel, down to the humblest 
Bethel, the preacher may ad'dress burning words to his audi- 
ence, directed not so much to their fear, or even to tlieir 
self-defence, as to the God-given chance of winning im- 
mortality through death on the battlefield. If only it were to 
come home to men that sins were washed away in blood will- 
ingly shed, that passions were alone satisfied in sacrifice, and 
that life was not a rotten banal thing, made for philandering, 
drinking, or loafing, but that now, at least, the veriest dolt 
could do the work of a demi-god, tlie war would be shortened 
by half the time, the King would be gladdened, and the Empire 
would be saved without becoming proud. 
What we have to remember is that among so-called repro- 
bates tliere are patches of gold often lacking in the respectable 
and self-satisfied, and I plead for the using up of this reck- 
lessness in the service of the Throne. The greatest kindness 
to men who have been either morally or actually cashiered 
would be to allow them a place in the trenches, which is 
certainly the way we are treated, not by Mrs. Giundy, but 
by God in the realm of the soul. Let men be inspired by the 
motive of repentance, and they will stand the stress cf a 
campaign better, fire straightcr, and behave througliout with 
greater chivalry and steadfastness unto death than those who 
are moved by vanity or by a hateful hatred of the enemy. 
If we are out for the cause of Christ, let us not be ashamed 
to say so, and I reckon that if the churches combined to this 
end, with a proviso tliat only voluntary losers can recommend 
■with any force the elixir of self-dedication, the answer should 
be a death-blow to the Kaiser, or else, for heaven's sake, 
let us have conscription, and be done with it. 
1G» 
