Flanders front, and I am afraid it is true that modern war knocks and
smashes any faith he ever had out of many a man. Yet in a hospital there
is much ground for believing that shining qualities which amid the
refinements of civilisation are often absent--staunch, and even tender
comradeship, readiness to judge kindly if judge at all, resolute
endurance, and absence of self-seeking, so typical of our fighting
men--have their root in a genuine religious experience more often than
is, in the battalions, immediately evident. It has been my experience,
again and again, that with dying men who have sunk into the last
lethargy, irresponsive to every other word, the Name of Jesus still can
penetrate and arouse. The hurried breathing becomes for a moment
regular, or the eyelids flicker, or the hand faintly returns the
pressure. I have scarcely ever known this to fail though all other
communication had stopped. It is surely very significant and moving.




THE AFTERMATH OF LOOS




CHAPTER IV

THE AFTERMATH OF LOOS


I