Your Boys | Page 2

living straight in
spite of their surroundings. They are the bravest, dearest boys that God
ever gave to the world, and you and I ought to be proud of them. If the
people at home were a tenth as grateful as they ought to be they would
crowd into our churches, if it were for nothing else but to pray for and
give thanks for the boys.
They are just great, your boys. They saved your homes. I was recently
in a city in France which had before the war a population of 55,000
people. When I was there, there were not 500 people in that
city--54,500 were homeless refugees, if they weren't killed. I walked
about that city for a month, searching for a house that wasn't damaged,
a window that wasn't broken, and I never found one. The whole of that
city will have to be rebuilt. A glorious cathedral, a magnificent pile of
municipal buildings, all in ruins; the Grande Place, a meeting-place for
the crowned heads of Europe, gone! "Thou hast made of a city a
heap"--a heap of rubbish. Your city would have been like that but for
the boys in khaki.
I was saying my prayers in a corner of an old broken château, the
Y.M.C.A. headquarters for that centre, with my trench-coat buttoned
tight and my big muffler round my ears. Presently I heard some one
say--one of the workers--"A gentleman wants to see you, sir," and
when I got downstairs there was a General, a V.C., a D.S.O., and a Star
of India man--a glorious man, a beautiful character. He was there with
his Staff-captain, and he said,
"I've come to invite you to dinner to-morrow night, Mr. Smith. I want
you to come to the officers' mess."
"What time, sir?" I asked. "I cannot miss my meeting at half-past six
with the boys."
"Well, the mess will be at half-past seven. We will arrange that."

"Before you go, sir, I should like to ask why you are interested in me."
"Well, I'll tell you, if you wish," he said. "Men are writing home to
their wives, mothers, sweethearts, and they are talking about a new
power in their lives. 'We have got something that is helping us to go
straight and play the game,' they write. And so," said the General, "we
should like to have a chat with you."
I went the next night, and for an hour and a half I preached the Gospel
to those officers. It was a great chance; and it was the result of the
note-paper which I have sometimes given out for an hour and a half at a
time to your boys.
There are lots of people think you are not doing any spiritual work
unless you are singing, "Come to Jesus." Put more Jesus in every bit of
the day's business. Jesus ought to be as real in the city as in the temple.
If I read my New Testament aright, and if I know God, and if I know
humanity, and if I know Nature, then that is God's programme. God's
programme is that the whole of life should be permeated with Christ.
God bless the women who have gone out to help your boys. Women of
title, of wealth and position, serving God and humanity behind
tea-tables.
In one of our huts I saw a lady standing beside two urns--coffee and tea.
She was pouring out, and there were 150 or 200 men standing round
that hut waiting to get served. The fellows at the end were not pushing
and crowding to get first, but waiting their turn. They are more
good-natured than a religious crowd waiting to get in to hear a popular
preacher. I have seen these people jostle at the doors.
But your boys don't do that. They just sing, "Pack up your troubles,"
and wait their turn.
Well, these boys, wet and cold, were waiting for a cup of coffee, and
one of those red-hot gospellers came along, and he said, "Sister, stop a
minute and put a word in for Jesus. This is a great opportunity."

"But," she replied, "they are wet and tired; let me give them something
hot as soon as I can."
"Oh! but let's put a word in for Jesus," urged this chap.
Then a bright-faced soldier lad called out, "Guv'nor, she puts Jesus in
the coffee." That is what I mean when I say you have got to put Jesus
into every bit of the day's work.
* * * * *
I have never once been asked by your boys to what Church I belonged.
They don't stop to ask that if they believe in you. They want the living
Christ and the living Message. It isn't creed; it's need. And