With Our Fighting Men The story of their faith, courage, endurance in the Great War

Enlisting--"Good-bye"--Excitement and Drunkenness--Then came Kitchener's Army--The Churches gave of their Best--A Canvas City--Not for Pay, These--What the Churches Did--The Home Church in the Camp--A Powerful Christian Leaven--Theological Students Volunteer--What the Boys Did--Organising Religious Work--Fifty Men Stood Up--The Y.M.C.A. Tents--A Proud Boast--At Work in the Tents--A Typical Service--The Canadian Y.M.C.A.--What the Salvation Army is Doing--The Church Army at Work--Huts of Silence--W.M. Hut Homes and "Glory Rooms"--Hymn 494--Teetotal Soldiers--Lord Kitchener's Message--The Work of the Navy Chaplains--The Sailors' Homes--Work among the Wounded in Hospital--Hospital Stories.

A troop train slowly passing through Winchester Station. Heads out of every window. One great shout by hundreds of eager young lads, "Are we downhearted?" And then, not waiting for those of us on the platform to answer, the emphatic response "No!"

Winchester Station looked strange that morning, early in August 1914. Its dignified quiet had gone. No one would have dreamt that this was the station of an ancient cathedral city. Armed sentries were posted at every point of entrance and departure. With fixed bayonets they guarded the signal-boxes. Their beds were in the waiting-rooms. The whole station was given up to the military.

And this was not the only case. All down the line it was the same, while every few yards by the side of the metals, all the way to Portsmouth and Southampton, soldiers with fixed bayonets were on guard. Here and there Boy Scouts were assisting, and enjoying themselves immensely.

Portsmouth Harbour at that time was closed to ordinary traffic. The few passengers who still ventured to the Isle of Wight, in what should have been the height of the holiday season, had to betake themselves to Southampton, and be thankful if after long waiting they could get across from there.

The Solent was full of troop-ships. We counted over forty at one time waiting to take troops across, while many more were in Southampton Water. The Isle of Wight was an armed camp. At night search-lights played all over it.

What touching farewells there were! Stand on almost any platform and see--that is if you have the assurance to look on at that which is sacred. A mother brings her little ones to say good-bye to their soldier father. An old woman with difficulty slowly comes to the edge of the platform to give her blessing to her soldier son. A wife is locked for a few brief moments in a loving embrace.

The father, or son, or husband brushes the sleeve of his tunic across his eyes, and then, as the train begins to move, says "Good-bye. I'll soon be back!" And as the train steams out those brave lads ask again, "Are we downhearted?" and the mothers and wives and sweethearts, with tears streaming down their faces, strive to answer "No!"

Those were stirring times at Aldershot. The old scenes at the outbreak of the war in South Africa were re-enacted, only on a larger scale. That was mere child's play to this, and every one realised it. Incessant coming and going as troops gathered from all parts of the country. Military bands marching detachments to the station on their way to the front.

At first there was much drunkenness, for this is generally the case where there is much excitement. But soon a serious feeling crept over all, and the town grew more sober in every respect. Our troops were going to fight the greatest military power in the world, and every man realised that it would be a struggle such as this country had never known before.

By and by our regular troops had departed, and the "Terriers" began to come in. A workman-like lot of men these, shaping like good soldiers. In their thousands they had volunteered for active service, and to active service after a period of training they should go.

And then came Kitchener's Army. And what an army! The appeal had gone forth for half a million men, and then for another half million, and by and by for still another million.

The response was magnificent. Never was our country so great as in those days when Kitchener's Army was being formed. The rush of recruits was overwhelming. It seemed as though the whole body of young men in the country would volunteer.

The churches were to the front in this matter. All suspicion that the churches would prove unpatriotic was blown to the winds. They had been training their young people for peace, but when their country was threatened they were ready for war. They had, many of them, been strongly opposed to conscription, but it was no conscript army which was being embodied; it was an army of free Englishmen.

The churches gave of their best. The vicarages and manses of the country were denuded of their sons. In some Sunday-schools the young men's classes volunteered to a man. In many places it was only with great difficulty that the work of the Sunday-schools was carried on, because the male teachers had enlisted. From the Nottingham Wesleyan Mission went five hundred young men.

All sorts and conditions of healthy young manhood responded to their country's call. Kipling's lines, true of the regular army, were prophetic when applied to Kitchener's Army of those days:

Parson's son, lawyer's son, son of the parish squire, Garden hand, stable hand, hand from the smithy fire, Counter boy, office boy, boy from the dock and mine, Eat together, sleep together, follow the drum in line.

And the young women would have gone too, if they could. It went hard in those days with a sweetheart who was not disposed to volunteer. And the young women did go. The rush of volunteer nurses was tremendous and had to be checked. We shall hear of their good work as we progress.

Aldershot was taken by storm by Kitchener's Army. At one time there were a hundred and fifty thousand men in the camp. Seeing that the barrack accommodation in the camp is not for many more than fifteen thousand in normal times, it was evident that the only way to meet the new conditions was to create a canvas city, and a canvas city it became. There were many miles of tents.

It was a sight indeed to see Kitchener's Army drill. The rush was far too great to be met by the Army clothing factories, and for many weeks there were no uniforms, and the men drilled and were drilled by other men in ordinary civilian clothing.

One could see the varied occupations of the men who had enlisted. Here is a man, great of girth, who will need to have his size reduced considerably ere he rushes at German trenches, and he still wears the leggings with which he trudged across his fields. Here is a man who evidently a few days ago held in his hand the yardstick with which he measured his calico. He is bent on sterner work now.

Here, again, is one from the pit and another from the mill, and a third who looks as though he had been a lawyer or a lawyer's clerk. And drilling them all is a man who evidently a few days since was hewing coal from a Welsh mine. He is back to the colours now, but will have to wait for his transforming uniform.

But all eager, all intense. No work for pay this. "Mercenaries" the Kaiser called them, but no mercenaries these--England's best and noblest ready to give their lives for the land they love so well.

It was a happy thought which allowed men who had been accustomed to live and work together to form their own battalion or regiment; and so we had the Public School Corps, and the Pals' Brigade, and many another. Fastidious young men from West End drawing-rooms proved that they had the hearts of true Englishmen, and worked hard as the rest. Later on, in one hut were men whose income was said to average £2000 a year. They were just privates.

From the religious point of view it was a great opportunity. Nearly every church in the land had sent of its best and had done its best to honour those who went. "Rolls of Honour," containing the names of those who had gone from that particular church, hung in the porches. In many, Sunday by Sunday, the names on the Roll of Honour were read out and special prayer offered for them.

The young men had left their homes and churches with the voice of prayer ringing in their ears. They knew that they were going to serious work and that many of them would never return. The most careless of them were serious now, and were ready, if the impression did not pass away, to give themselves not only to their King and Country, but to the King of Kings.

And right earnestly was the work begun in the Home Church continued in the camps. These camps were established all over the country, for Aldershot and Salisbury Plain were altogether inadequate. To all such camps chaplains were appointed, and, for the first time, the Baptists, Congregationalists, Primitives and United Methodists, who, except in the great military centres, had stood out of the Army work, had their appointed chaplains--not many as yet--but sufficient to show that they also felt the need and were ready to do the work. They have since joined forces for this service, and are carrying on their united work by Free Church chaplains.

The entry of the Free Churches into the Army work is of such general interest that I asked the Rev. J.H. Shakespeare, M.A., Secretary of the Baptist Union of Great Britain and Ireland, to send me a brief account of the facts. Mr. Shakespeare replied under date of February 10, 1915.

"Up to ten years ago, the sentiment among Baptists and Congregationalists was not very sympathetic towards the Army, and there was no provision on the Attestation Sheet for the entry of men as belonging to these two denominations. I then secured a column for this purpose, which has been in use ever since, but I do not think it has been very effective.

"When the war broke out, our churches were practically unanimous in their support of the Government. At that time about three thousand troops were entered under our two denominations. I went to see the late Mr. Percy Illingworth, who interested himself very warmly in the proper recognition of Baptists and Congregationalists. Large numbers of our young men began to enlist. The Rev. R.J. Wells and I, through interviews at the War Office, secured that orders were sent out directing that men were to be entered according to their religious professions. Mr. Lloyd George brought the matter under the notice of Lord Kitchener, who strongly resented any sort of sectarian unfairness and wished our recruits to have the same facilities as those of other denominations. Meanwhile, Mr. Wells and I collected the names and regiments of Baptist and Congregational recruits, with the result that we are able to announce the following figures, though more than a third of our churches have made no reply:--

Bloomsbury 113 Hampstead, Heath Street 92 Plaistow, Barking Road 400 Hornsey, Ferme Park 160 Peckham, Rye Lane 116 Glasgow, Hillhead 210

"In spite of what had been done, a great mass of certified evidence began to reach us that recruiting sergeants were refusing to enter our recruits as Baptists or Congregationalists, but were putting them down to some other church. Of this we have exact evidence. Further orders were then issued by the War Office that this must not be done.