At our first halt a Battalion of the London Regiment was drawn up on
parade in a field, and for the first time we opened the large red box
and handed round the hymn-sheets. It was here that we were to begin to
understand the wonderful uplifting power of our great English hymns
when they are sung on great occasions. After all, the heart of a nation
is often to be found in its hymns. They express a simple theology in
simple terms, and words and tunes of hymns learned in childhood are
very dear to men, even if in the rush of life they have not, as many
said, "found much time for religion before I came to France." The
Bishop had chosen hymns which he knew would be familiar to all the men
of all denominations.
Only four hymns were sung throughout the week--"When I Survey the
Wondrous Cross," "Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me," "There Is a Green
Hill Far Away," and "Jesus, Lover of My Soul"--hymns which are known
throughout the world wherever British men have gone. There was no
necessity to have an accompaniment, for everybody knew the tunes. Once
or twice a band was present, and now and then a small harmonium was
used, but as a rule the hymns were sung unaccompanied, except by the
thunder of the guns.
It is always moving and inspiring to join in hymns when they are
sung by large bodies of men, especially when those hymns have been
associated with great moments in our lives, but never before can these
familiar tunes have had such a setting; never, certainly, have they
been sung more reverently or with greater earnestness. Perhaps, as
children they liked the tunes best, but now that they have become men
and put away childish things, the soldiers think first of the words.
How much those words meant to many hearts no one but He to Whom all
hearts are open can ever know; but that they moved thoughts too deep
for words was clearly written on every face in those great gatherings
of men. As they must have raised many memories of childhood in the
hearts of many of the men, so now they will in future years be sung by
many with another and a deeper memory of the occasions when they were
sung upon the battlefields of Flanders in the days of the Great War.
There was one verse in the Gospels which was continually in my mind at
these great services. In Holy Week, of course, we were often thinking
of that last night of our Lord with His disciples in the upper room at
Jerusalem before He went out to His great battle in Gethsemane, and on
the Cross: "When they had sung an hymn, they went out into the Mount of
Olives."
We were with men at the great moments of their lives, many of them
having come straight out of the trenches, many going back to the
trenches in but a few moments after we had left them--men who had
been in battle, and men who were preparing for battle. Nobody who was
present at those services would ever forget what it meant to say: "And
when they had sung a hymn, they went back to the trenches."
Every service, of course, was closed with the National Anthem. At
the front, men seem instinctively to know that this great hymn is in
reality a prayer, and on not a few occasions the whole body of men
reverently sang "Amen" at the conclusion of the last line. So also "God
Save the King" will have won for itself an even deeper place in the
hearts of men than that which it has held for so many generations.
From the open field, it was not far to pass on to a little French town
where another regiment was drawn up in the principal square. No more
suitable place could have been chosen for a service, and a wagon, which
served as a pulpit for the Bishop, was just in front of the western
door of the fine old church.