CHAPLAINS.
[To mai EDITOR or TUB " Merman
Sm,—With reference to " J. N. 11's " hasty generalizations regarding chaplains at the front in your issue of the 16th inst., and to your own note appreciative of their difficult work, it may be of interest to send you an extract from a chaplain's journal just received. The writer, an honours man of Balliol, has served for a year, and has resigned his Church in order to continue with the forces in France.—I am, Sir, &c., PRESBYTER.
"5th September. We had a great day to-day. General —, who commands the — Army, had asked all the chaplains to meet him at his Headquarters. I got there, first on a field ambulance and there- after on a London 'bus, and it was a great pleasure to meet one's col- leagues. All the way 'buses came along with their freight of parsons.
The meeting was in the Y.M.C.A. Hut at At least 200.250 chaplains from every part of the — Army were present. The General gave us a splendid address, quite the finest lecture on pastoral theology I over listened to. He is evidently a deeply religious man, and he spoke with authority from the greatness of his position. I only wish I could reproduce his remarks. He referred with great sympathy to a chaplain's difficulties, especially in the cage of those viho were young and inexperi- enced, and who felt they could not make an impression. He said that, speaking for himself, he was not much affected by oratory. He told us the sermons which affected him most were the very carefully prepared, but nervously delivered, discourses of a young curate, a padre somewhere out here. He analysed, so to speak, the soldier's soul for us, and spoke of the best lines of approach. And then he proceeded to say that we had two great opportunities. The first, the greater of the two according to him, lay in informal talks with groups of men ; and he emphasized the need of sympathy; of which, he said, the greatest example was, The Master Whom we all try to serve.' The other opportunity was the parade service. He spoke of the great n in sermons to soldiers of sticking to one point clearly, briefly, and 1Millustration. To me it was a memorable occasion—to see a General, a great General, with many orders, on a platform with some notes in front of him, addressing, say, 250 chaplains of every denomination, and speaking to us the words he did. Thereafter he entertained us to tea. So, a long journey back to the shattered village and the noise of the guns. But that General knows what he is talking about."
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