I am writing this during an air raid at 12.30 at night, and I have just
finished a Foreword for the Bishop of Zanzibar’s new and tender little
book. He has been a water-carrier for the British force in German East
Africa, and Gipsy Smith has just come from the trenches in France.
You would not expect the two books to be similar, but they are: they are
both about “Jesus.” This devotion to “Jesus” binds all time Christians
together, and one day will bring us all more visibly together than we
are now. I love this breezy little book of Gipsy Smith’s; it is not only
full of the love of “Jesus,” but love of our “our boys.” They _are_
splendid. I spent the first two months of the war as their visiting
chaplain—went out to give them their Easter Communion the first year of
the war at the Front. Gipsy Smith and I made friends together, speaking
for them at the London Opera House on the great day of Intercession and
Thanksgiving we had for them when the King himself called us all
together.
Then I like the common sense of it! You must have robust common sense
if you are going to win “our boys.” Anything unreal, merely sentimental,
washy, they detect in a moment. You must draw them “with the cords of a
man and the bonds of love,” and those who read this book will find many
a hint as to how to do it.
A.F. London.