The Comrade in White | Page 6

were brought up, you and I, on the
theory of a healthy mind in a healthy body, and, of course, it's a good
theory so far as it goes. But it did for me what it does for many a fellow.
It made me forget my soul. Sport did a lot for me, I know, but sport
became my world. The life I lived there was wholesome enough, but at
the best what a poor, contracted, limited thing is the body, and its joy.
And what a big, splendid world I've found the door to now."

"How did it come about, Harry?" I said, and the frost and the bitterness
and the anger against God were all gone out of my heart and voice.
"Well, I don't quite know. That's the queer thing about it. I don't deny I
was a bit savage at first at what had happened. And I often wished I
were dead, for I saw my old self wasn't much good for this new life I
was up against. Then one Sunday the padre, who was a very decent sort,
gave us a straight talk that opened my eyes a bit. He was speaking
about Paul and the difference Christ made in his life. Paul was a
splendid fellow, and as good as good could be, and just like many a
man to-day who seems all right without Christ. But what a difference
Christ made in him for all that! And how He made the old Saul of
Tarsus seem a poor thing in comparison with Paul the apostle! There
was something, too, about Paul's thorn in the flesh, but I forget that bit.
Anyhow I did some furious thinking that Sunday in Cairo, though I saw
nothing clearly, and didn't lay much store by my own future.
"That night the strange thing happened. I woke up in the early hours
when no one was astir, and I saw a man come in by the door and walk
down the ward. He gave a sort of understanding, tender look at every
face as he passed, and when he saw that I was awake he came close
beside me and held my hand for a moment. Then he said, 'Will you let
me help you with this burden of yours?' I thought at first it was the new
doctor we were expecting. Then I knew quite suddenly that it was The
Comrade in White, and that He wanted me very much to say 'Yes.' And
as I said it I felt the first real happiness that I had known since I was
wounded. And then He smiled and went away.
"I told myself next day that it was a dream, and perhaps it was, but that
strange, odd happiness has never left me since. I wouldn't be back again
in the old way, not for all the world could give me, not even to have my
leg restored."
"And is He really helping you with your burden?" I whispered.
"Why, Mary child, can't you see," he exclaimed, with his merry laugh;
"can't you see that He has carried my burden quite away? I was but half
a man before. He has made me whole."

IV
THE PRAYER CIRCLE
" ... More things are wrought by prayer Than this world dreams of.
Wherefore, let thy voice Rise like a fountain for me night and day. For
what are men better than sheep or goats That nourish a blind life within
the brain, If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer Both for
themselves and those who call them friend? For so the whole round
earth is every way Bound by gold chains about the feet of God."
--The Passing of Arthur, ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON.
"Fight the good fight with all thy might, Christ is thy strength, and
Christ thy right, Lay hold on life, and it shall be Thy joy and crown
eternally."
* * * * *
"Faint not, nor fear, His arms are near, He changeth not, and thou art
dear: Only believe, and thou shalt see That Christ is all in all to thee."
--J.S.B. MONSELL.

IV
THE PRAYER CIRCLE
Lieutenant Roger Fenton had a lump in his throat when he said
good-bye to his boys. There they were in a bunch on the station
platform, the ten wayward lads into whom he had sought to instil the
fear of God on Tuesday evenings in winter, and with whom he had
rambled and played cricket every Saturday afternoon in summer. Boys
of fourteen to seventeen are a tough proposition, and though Fenton
would answer for their bowling and batting he wasn't over sanguine
about their religion. But they had filled a big place in his lonely life in

the dull little country town, and now he