Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-09-18

Donald Hankey was an English University
student who fought in the trenches of Flanders for
two years, and killed about year ago.
While in the field he wrote book entitled "A
Student in Arms, which has attracted deservedly
no little attention.
He discusses with candor the moral conditions
of army life. He shows how the more ordinary re-
fnements of life absent in the camp and in the
field points out the spiritual perils which beset
the soldier on every side.
When he comes to indicating the remedies for
the situation he says
Army life of the average is i'm
moral both in thought and deed. Let us be
frank about this What doctor might call
the 'appetites and padre the lusts of the
body, hold dominion over the average man.
whether civilian soldier, unless they are
counteracted by stronger power. The only
who are pure are those who are absorbed
in some pursuit, or possessed by great love;
be it the love of clean, wholesome life, Whlcn
is religion, or the love of noble man, which
is hero-worship, the love Of true woman.
"Those who trying to help the soldier
can do so with a good heart II they realize
that in him they have foundation on which
to build. Already he is half hero-worshipper.
Already he half believes. in the beauty OF sac
rifice and in the life immortal. Already ne Is
predisposed to value exceedingly all that savors
Of clean, wholesome home life. On that
foundation it should be- possible to build
strong idealsm which shall prevail against the
flesh. And this is my last word-it is by
building up, and not by casting down, that the
soldier be saved from degradation. The
devil that possesses so many can only be cast
out by an angel that is stronger than he"
Unconsciously Mr. Hankey teaches in unscrip-
tural phrases what Jesus taught centuries ago,
when He said when a strong man armed keepeth
his palace his goods in peace. But when
stronger man than he shall upon him, and
overcome him. he taketh from him all his armor
wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils"
duke XII: 21-22.)
The palace of pure soul, with all its precious
contents, cannot be secured against the assaults
of the strong foes the outside unless One dwell
within 1t who is stronger than all Its assa1lantS
Christ in the heart is the defense OF the moral
life of soldiers in the field and of men everywhere.
Evil is cast out and kept out of the heart most
effectualy by what has been aptly called the lex
pulsive power of n great Affection
Dissolute men have been reformed by love for
little children The birth of child has been
known to transform man. who had been thereto
fore hayward and wicked.
If such results follow human affection spring
ing UP in the heart, how much more effectual must
be a great love for God in the soul? Hence the
power of the religion of Christ to the moral
ity and orderness of men amid the demoralizing
influences and tendencies which seem to be in
separable from army life. Religious armies have
always been powerful armies and victorious armies.
Lecky cannot be accused of anything akin to
fanaticism, yet he compelled to note the power
of the Wesleyan revival in the English Army fight
ing in Flanders in 1744. In his History of Eng
land in The Eighteenth Century" he records how
blessed the influence on the British troops at
the battles of Dettngen and Fontenoy.
John Haime one of the leaders in the religious
movement in the army and one of the bravest OF
soldiers, has left account of the effects of
ligion even more vivid and interesting than that
of Lecky. He says: ION the 1st of May, 1745
had full trial of our faith at Fontenoy. Some
days BEFORE of our brethren, standing in his