_On the whole_, I venture to say, there is not a great revival of the
Christian religion at the front. Yet I am eager to acclaim the wonderful
quality of spirit which men of our race display in this war, and to claim
it as Christian and God-inspired. Deep in their hearts is a great trust
and faith in God. It is an inarticulate faith expressed in deeds. The top
levels, as it were, of their consciousness, are much filled with grumbling
and foul language and physical occupations; but beneath lie deep spiritual
springs, whence issue their cheerfulness, stubbornness, patience,
generosity, humility, and willingness to suffer and to die. They declare
by what they are and do that there is a worth-whileness in effort and
sacrifice. Without saying so, they commit themselves to "the Everlasting
Arms."
The metaphor of human nature being hardened or caked over by war must be
modified so as to allow that war lays human nature bare. It is a grand
fibre or grain of British nature which the war has exposed. It is
inwrought with Christian excellences of humility, unselfishness,
fortitude, and all that makes a good comrade. It is precious stuff. Let
there be no talk hereafter of the decadence of the race. Let no one dare
to disparage the masses of our people; nor let any one, through class
ignorance or prejudice or fear, speak of them contemptuously. They are
priceless raw material. As I have hovered in seeming priestly impotence
over miracles of cheerful patience lying on stretchers in
dressing-stations, I have said--I have vowed to myself--"Here are men
worth doing anything for."
There is a great heart in the people. It is not a great mind. In officers
and men there is little intellectual grip upon what we are fighting for.
Every one nearly is without a saving touch of rhetoric. Ideas are under
suspicion. "Padre, what you say is just ideal, it's all in the air." But
the objectors stick it and die for the unformulated and unexpressed ideal.
They are far wiser and better than they know.