THE NEED OF FAITH.
[TO THR EDITOR 07 TER " SPECTATOR.")
ire,—Most of us out here are no tacticians : we have not been schooled In the arts of war: we have gone through no Staff College; but I do not think that it needs much military erudition to see that the task with which we are confronted in the West is so colossal and vast that, were ft not for our confidence that our cause is just, we should not be averse to listen to proposals of peace. As it is, the idea of peace is utterly preposterous ; and the bare thought of parleying with the enemy is squally impossible. We, at least, can never dream of entering into a treaty with the Hun. We have heard much bombastic talk from the *amp of the enemy, and we have been forced to listen to a few of our own loud-sounding Goliaths who come out, week by week, and win the war with words ; but out here our friends and kinsmen die all the day long. Not an hour passes but the shadow of bereavement flits from the fields of France and Flanders across the intervening seas to some anxious home, and with its cold and silent entry shatters the vial of some precious earthly hope. Those who leapt over the trenches or streamed through the sally-ports a week ago, full of youth and life and those high expecte, lions that form the most sustaining part of every soldier's fare, where are they now 7 The burying party that has spent its hideous hours in laying to rest the awful remnants of their shattered humanity can partly answer. The rest lie in the " no-man's-land " between the two fierce walls of fire and steel So we go on, and we don't grumble. We laugh and play and carry on. We smile at Bruce Bairnsfather's weekly caricatures. We paste French .rtoons that we wouldn't allow in our studies at home upon our billet walls. We keep smiling, and we see no change at all in our trend of thought. How long can we continue ? Till the " foe be vanquished " . . We are quite ready to go on to the last man sooner than yield an al to the hideous and horrible thing with which we are confronted. But is there not a something lacking ? Is our levity altogether sound and wholesome ? The spirit that jests with death, that calls out through the din of the attack : " Sixpence, the front row 1"—ie it the spirit of true strength ? Doesn't it lack something somewhere 7 For myself, I feel sure that we do lack the inspiration both in leaders and in led. We have not seen the hand of God in the business. A few who had open and watching eyes have seen and understood, but to the majority it is war, war in a right cause, abstractedly, and not war definitely and absolutely in the Cause of Right and for the Kingdom's sake. I believe that the germ of discernment is in the heart of every true Briton, and that we only need the inspiration to start it into active life. But this inspiration does not come along unasked. It needs the understanding of the simple saying of the Lord : " If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children : how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him ? " What is wanted is a renewal of the Covenant ; and in this alone can we find the strength of the faith that will enable us to tread in the victorious steps of those peat forebears who, " through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. . . ." When the spark of this faith is kindled it will find in the Army ready food for such a flame as the world has not yet seen ; and victory will be the product of the fire.—I am, Sir, &e.,
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