[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—The letter signed " Anglo-Scot " prompts me to write of the other side of the story. I remember returning from an early service which had been held not far from Kemmel, and getting into conversation with one of my sergeants, who had also been at this service. At home I knew him to be almost a typical repre- sentative of the " stage " idea of the sternest part of the Church of Scotland—an elder of that Church, I think, to whom I should not have been surprised had the lighted candles on the improvised altar, the cross, the genuflexions, and the Anglican service been anathema. War had softened his sternness. He spoke more reverently and with more appreciation of the service than many a strict Catholic would. It made him think, he said, of his wife' and people, comtuunications in the old kirk in his Border parish, particularly of his last Communion with his wife on his last leave. He told me how he had asked the padre if he might come. and had been bidden and welcomed. Many of my men who at home on Sunday would be " dour " Presbyterians communicated in the Church of England in various parts of the line, and were always welcomed. I think they preferred a parade service with a Presbyterian minister to a Church of England parade service for this reason. Many, too many, padres forgot that a very large percentage of men know no service and no ritual. " I cannot hear what he is praying about," is the feeling. The men want to pray, and there have been many prayers written (though not in the Prayer Book), and they are sometimes used, which, if clearly said or intoned, give them the chance to pray for their comrades, wounded, sick, dying, the suffering, and above all, for their own People. It is then that coughing ceases. We take lots of pains to learn things material, but we are all supposed to know and have without trouble the things spiritual and helpful towards things spiritual. Let the padre teach us to pray—no easy matter; but the first lesson is surely to pray for something which has a personal appeal.—I am, Sir, &e., A SCOTTISH C.O.
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