It will be a relief to turn from this sad record and give a sketch of
Thomas Atkins upon the veldt as he appears to Christian workers. Nowhere
else have we been able to see him apart from the fierce temptations
which particularly assail him. Untrained, except in so far as military
discipline is concerned, he is a child of nature, and nature not always
of the best.

But the South African veldt has witnessed the remarkable spectacle of a
sober army. No intoxicating drink was to be got, and the cup that cheers
but not inebriates has been Tommy's only stimulant.

A further fact must be borne in mind. War has a sobering effect even
among the most reckless. A man is face to face with eternal things, and
though after a little while the influence of this to some extent passes
off, and either an unhealthy excitement or an equally unhealthy
callousness takes its place, it never wholly goes, and any serious
battle suffices to bring the man to his senses again.


=The Soldier's Temptations.=

The consequence of these things has been that we have seen the soldier
at his best in South Africa--and that best has often been of a very high
order. It is no kindness to him to make light of his vices, and they
have been sufficiently pronounced even there.

We are afraid, to begin with, that we must confess to an army of
swearers. It seems natural to the soldier to swear. He intersperses his
conversation with words and phrases altogether unmeaning and anything