Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1917-10-19
LETTER TO SOLDIER SON.

Communication in recent issue of
Southern Churchnfan from pen of
well known resident of Lexington, adj
dressed to his SOM.
My dear son: l thank God from
the depths of my heart that You have
felt Gods call and humanity's call,
your countrys call and expect to 20 to
France to help beat down the savage
foe of civilization. send you forth as
a good soldier of Jesus Christ. | well
know that some good people think it
is wrong to engage in any war. But
have never heard that these people
clamored for the removal of the po-
lice. They want well ordered and pro-
tected communities to dwell in, and
they know that criminals have to be
restrained. You and | think about
war what the Bible teaches us. In
Joel 3:8 you find this: proclaim We
this among the nations. Sanctify war
mot prepare it: The Hebrew has the
same word used of sanctifying the
seventh ray; sanctifying the first
born, etc. Beat your plowshares into
swords and your pruning hooks into
spears" Aan so with rejoicing
heart, your earthly father sends you
forth to do the bidding of your heav-
emily father. Play your part like II
noble, true. God-fearing man. The
work has to be done: it is Il great
work for humanity and for civiliza-
ton. They are threatened with over
throw at the hands of a savage mer-
CHESS, brutal foe; a foe that tramples
under foot all honor, all sacred pledg-
cs, all feelings of humanity. all respect
for childhood, or womanhood. So far
from being sorry for you to go to
France, you and | humbly thank God
hat rs yet the broad Atlantic rolls
between that foe and this country. Go
to France-hcroic, suffering, bleeding,
accomplishing France-and do what
you can to rescue her and Belgium
and Armenia and other countries. You
know that have tried to train you to
be true to God and to your fellow
men in every relation of life, and
also to be ready to carry more than
your part of the load, because that
means sacrifice; and we cannot fol-
low in Christ's footsteps unless we do
make sacrifices. We ought to lay
down our lives for the brethren.
Cry From Brethren Across the Sea.
Do you not hear the agoniZing cry
of your brethren from across the sea
Does not the anguish of the Arme-
mans stir every generous emotion in
you? Are they to be left to the cruel
ties of the fiendish Turks, that great
tice their unsueakable atrocities and
deviltry unless they were upheld by
Germany? If you did not feel these
things or if you felt them and yet
were willing to play the laggard, and
to leave the needful and noble work
to be done by others, should mourn
exceedingly, because / tried to rear
my boy to be man ready to spring
forward to difficult, disagreeable, dam
gerous tasks, if God calls you to them
and / devoutly thank Him that you
have heard His call in this matter,
and are willing to lay down your life
if need be, to help save the world
from becoming n prey to ferocity and
brutalized, deiiicd might. Fight hard,
my dear son, and if you find grave
in France, will still thank God that
had such son to send, and shall
expect to be congratulated; whereas,
if you were Stacker, in these times
that are testing mems souls, | should
feel like hanging my head in deep hui
initiation.
You remember our eighbor, Mrs.
, how she was bcreaved a year
ago of the oldest of her two sons,
promising lad at school You know of
the heartbreaks there. and her pro-
longed i'll health.And yet she encour-
aged her husband to enlist for the
war. though he is beyond the age at
which he could be drafted, and though
he leaves her and the remaining lad
and IL lucrative business in order to
do so. And saw her at the railroad
station wave goodbye, her face
smiling, though it was easy to guess
what was in her heart Thank God
that we have some such heroic wom-
en-. With enough of that sort God
will yet save the world from Ger
many's cruel. brutal and lustful
clutch. If that army were ever to
land on these shores | should thank
God devoutly if + could see your moth
er's body lowered in tho grave before
their polluting touch could reach her.
So, go forth boy, and may God
richly bless you.
Your fieyOtpd father