Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-06-11

1 Dedutllul painting Oh pdSS ulhS
-. of this issue of The Home Jour
nal is told by a California boy serv-
ing in the American Army in France,
and was published in the Los An
geles Times.
This American boy-Evans by
name-had gone into an old church
in France to have look at it; and
as he stood there with barred head,
satisfying his respectful curiosity,
gray man with the insignia of
general on his shabby uniform also
entered the church. Only one or
derly accompanied the quiet, gray
man. No glittering staff OF officers,
no encourage of gold-laced aids,
were with him; nobody but just the
orderly.
Evans paid small attention at first
to the gray man. but was curious to
see him kneel in the church, pray
ing. The minutes passed until full
three-quartSrs of an hour had gone
by before the gray man arose from
his knees.
Evans went out of the church at
the same time with the French gen.
eral and was surprised to see SOL
diers salute this man in great eX-
citem ent and women and children
stop in their tracks with awe-struck
faces as he passed.
1t was Foch. And now Evans
counts the experience as the great
est of his life.
Commenting editorially on the in
cident the Los Angeles Times says:
AS the tide of battle in the great
war turned more and more from
doubt and anxiety to the certainty
| nod with start
ling yividness in the worlds imagiR-
alton the figure of one man whose
genius has exceeded that of any
other soldier of whom time has
made record.
This man is General Ferdinand
Foch-the Gray Man of Christ.
This has been Christ's war -
Christ on one side, and all that
stood opposed to Christ on the other
side. Asd the generalissimo, in su-
preme command of all the armies
that fought on the side of Christ
is Christ's man.
The fact is, that the deeper we
question as to who Foch is, the
clearer is the answer that In every
act of his life and in every thought
of his brain he is Christs man.
If you were to ask him, Are you
CnTiSts man ho N"
yes"
1t seems to be beyond all shadow
of doubt that when the hour came
in which all that Christ stood for
was either to stand or fall, Christ
raised up a man to lead the hosts
that battled for Him.
When that hour came in which
truth and right, charity, brotherly
love, justice and liberty were either
to triumph or be blotted out OF the
world. Christ came again upon the
road to Damascus. Whoever does
not realize this and see 1T clearly as
a fact does but blunder stupidly.
There will be a crowding com
pany of critics when the war is
ended and they will all be hlled
with the ego of their own conclu-
sions. They will attempt to explain
the genius of Foch with maps ana
diagrams.
But while they are doing so, if
YOU will look for Foch in some quiet
church, it Is there that he will be
found humbly giving God the glory
and absolutely declining to attribute
| it to himself.
Can that kind of a man win
war? Can a man who is practlcal
soldier be also a practical Chris
tian? And is F'och that kind OF a
man? Let us see:
/ During the three-quarters OF an
hour that the generalissimo of all
the Allied armies was on his knees
in humble supplication in that quiet
church. 10000 guns were roaring at
his word on a hundred hills that
rocked with death.
Millions of armed men crouched
| in trenches or rushed across blood
drenched terrains at his command; 4;
generals, artillery. cavalry, engi-
{ neers, tanks. fought and wrought
across the map of Europe absolutely
as he commanded them to do, and
! in no other manner, as he went into
that little church to pray
Nor was 1t an unusual thing for
General Foch to do. There is no
day that he did not do the same
thing II there was a church that
he could reach. He never failed
during the war to spend an hour
on his knees every morning; and
every night 1t was the same.
! Moreover, 1t was not new thing
with him. He has done 1t his
whole life long.
If young Evans could have fol-
lowed the General on to haadquar-
fara xwharM rAnarka wArasl4& waiting