Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-07-05

is one thing, real, pressing, intensely
important. The creed is another
thing. very excellent in its way. de-
serving of a certain respect, but be-
loging to a different region. not con-
cerned with. or at all bearing upon
practical affairs.
Another chaplain says-and these
quotations are taken from THE
Church in the Furnace" by Church
OF England Chaplains-"It is start
ing, no doubt, and humiliating, to
find out how very little hold tradi-
tional Christianity has upon men. II
is not only their confounding ignor-
ance of the elementary Christian
facts-not one in ten, should think
has clear idea of what our religion
is or implies or offers-bu that they
fail to see how it bears upon or helps
then, in our present circumstances.
Anc very many have an honest feel
ing that it would be a positive handi-
cap. So far as l am able to eSti-
mate, Christian life, combined with
a pagan creed One of the
greatest difficulties we have to face
out here is the superstition which
prevails, chiefly with officers and n.
c. O.'s, that If men begin to turn
religious they will at once begin to
get the wind up"
From the Soldiers Viewpoint
AS If TO support this structure upon
self-centuered type of Christianity,
another chaplain writes, Il have
heard men praying in the line when
l wished they would swear instead,
because their prayers. which were
purely selfish, expressed nothing but
] broken nj nd nf
death. 1t is a dreadful thing to see
men whimpering out prayers for per-
sonal protection in time of stress.
| The hard-btten man beside him still
unbroken and unbeaten, swearing
/ through his teeth puts such a man to
! shame One cannot afford
prayers for personal safety in times
of stress; it is not what one ought
to be thinking about. That
is the very essence of the Spirit of
Christ: His job first. His pals next,
and Himself last, and, compared
with the other two. nowhere" This
! parson drops into verse:
1T amt as I thinks Ell keep me
safe
While the other blokes goes down.
And it amt as 1 wants to leave this
earth
And wear an eros crown:
1t amt for that as 1 says my pray
erS
When 1 goes to the attack;
But pray that whatever comes my
way
l may never turn my back.
l leaves the matter of life and death
To the Lord as knows what's best,
And 1 pray that 1 still may play the
| man
Whether 1 turns East or West.
I'd sooner that it were East. ye know,
To Blighty and my girl Sue.
I'd sooner be there, wi the sun in
'er air
| And the summer skies all blue.
But grant me. God, to do my bit,
And then, If l must turn West.
I'll be unashamed whey my name
is named.
And I'll find a soldiers rest
The Worlds Super-Quest
| Clearly, every teacher of religion
| has a responsibility to state the es-
sentials of faith in unmistable and
| livable terms. All the unreal phrase
olosy of the pulpit, the language of
Canaan" as it has been called, and
all the righteousness of thinking, and
the general tendency to substitute
/ lessons" for truth and facts. must
give way under the pressure of the
new day for genuineness and SIM
plicity. We are bound to state
Christianity in terms that anybody
can grasp.
That is exactly what these two
great passages from the New Testa-
ment do. if we let them have their
own way and meaning. Becoming
Christians means becoming disciples
of Jesus. Disciples were simply
learners and followers. That is to
say. the people who thought so much
| of Jesus that they gave up their own
ways in order to go His way, and to
! be near Him, and to accept His
method of looking at things, and to
| be patterned after Him. and to catch
| His spirit, gradually came to be call
ed Christians. At first. the Jesus
crowd were simply named followers
of the Way, His way.
Nothing more was necessary than
this. They did not have to pass a
theological examination. or accept a
system of theology. They merely
| joined Christ. The number of these
grew so large, and the power of His
multiplied life became so great, that
| it changed the whole world. Now
adays, the Jesus way is in life and
death struggle with the heather way.
OF a sudden, civilization has realized
that il has been called to enter upon
the great quest. Wrapped up in the
| issues of this war are all the great
social and economic and humanitar-
ian issues that have lifted their lure
before the eyes of forward looking
men and women. When we erect
the Jesus way for the world by our
armies and our statecraft and our
newer, nobler mind, we shall have
esta blished truly a way of life for
earth's remotest and neediest inha BIZ
tant.
The Greatest Call of All
AS our enlisted hosts of best young
men have proved the lure and power
of a sublime call to a sacrificial serv-
| ice, so we may yet see a response,
on never, nobler scale, to the great
and Virile call to walk the Jesus way,
to keep company with Him and His
friends, and to help carry on the
Work He came to do. For becoming
Christian is no such small a thing
as joining a church, with the obliga-
ton to attend a certain set of meet
ings, and to abstain from specified
practices, and to putter along, in a
smali-minded way, about a lot of
petty interests and petty tasks. 1t
means an enlistment, an entrance
upon the knightliest of all under
takings, an offering up of life itself
for the holiest of goals. a dedication
of self to ends worth while.
Turning again to the meaty book
already quoted. 1 find one chaplain
| saving "At last | believe we knour