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$Title{True Stories Of The Great War
The Bishop Of London's Visit To The Front}
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$Author{Smith, Reverend G. Vernon}
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$Subject{bishop
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hymns
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$Date{1915}
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Title:       True Stories Of The Great War
Book:        The Bishop Of London's Visit To The Front
Author:      Smith, Reverend G. Vernon
Date:        1915
Translation: Benington, Arthur

The Bishop Of London's Visit To The Front

I - Holy Communion At The Front

Taking the Message of Christ to the Battle Lines

Told by The Reverend G. Vernon Smith, Resident Chaplain to the Bishop of
London, Deputy Priest in Ordinary to the King

[This is an account of how a Bishop of the Church of England visited the
troops at the front.  He went to France as the guest of Sir John French, Field
Marshall of the British Army, to spend Holy Week and Easter with the troops.
The chaplain who relates these experiences was one of the guests.  He said
before he left London, the Bishop received most cordial letters of God-speed
from the Bishops of Canterbury and York.  The Bishop's first evening in France
was spent at the Soldiers' Institute at Boulogne, and this building was packed
with soldiers at a concert.  He then started in a motor car for the
headquarters of the British Army, where he was received by the Field Marshall
with all the members of the staff.]

[Footnote *: All numerals relate to stories herein told - not to chapters
from original sources.]

     It was in - that the Bishop for the first time came close to the
actual front and within range of the German guns.  The cars were at the
door of the house where the Bishop was billeted, in a quiet little
side-street, at 6:45 in the morning, for an early start had been arranged.

     We drove through the narrow streets to one of the large Hospitals in
the town, where he celebrated the Holy Communion at seven o'clock for
those of the officers and patients who wished to attend.  After this
service the other patients came in for morning prayers, at which the
Bishop said a few words to them.  It was invariably the case, when the
Bishop visited a hospital, that there were many patients who wished to
have a word with him.  There were always, also, some men to whom, for some
special reason, the Medical Officer or Chaplain wished to take him, and
not infrequently in the Officers' Hospitals there were men whom he knew
personally.

     It was, therefore, a hard task to keep up to time in saying
"Good-bye" at a hospital, and Mr. Macpherson, whom the Bishop soon called
his "nigger-driver," and who was responsible for seeing that the
time-table was strictly kept - a task of considerable difficulty - had
generally to remind the Bishop at a suitable moment that his car was
waiting at the door.

     In a few minutes we had arrived at the Jute Factory again, where
thirty men were ready and waiting to be confirmed in the little Chapel
which has been carefully partitioned off in one corner of the building.

     It had been arranged that on this day the Bishop should visit some of
the London Regiments that have recently gone to the front.  Naturally he
always looked forward with special eagerness to an opportunity of meeting,
in these fresh surroundings, London men, to so many of whom he has spoken
and preached in his diocese.  Fortunately he was able in the course of the
week to visit nearly all these regiments, although some of the men who
were in the trenches could not, of course, be present at his services.  To
us, coming out from London, it was a great source of satisfaction and
pride to hear of the high esteem in which these Territorial regiments are
held by the leaders of our Army.

     It was not a very long time, as the motors slipped along the quiet
country roads, before we began to hear the distant sound of guns, and as
long as we were within a short distance of the firing-line there was
seldom an hour in which guns could not be distinctly heard.

     Here and there, too, could be seen a battery hidden beneath a belt of
trees, or sheltered under the hedge by the side of the road.  We were
curious to see how the countryside would look after its long occupation by
the British Army.  We had expected, perhaps, to see more signs of war,
although we had not known what to anticipate.

     Beyond the fact that there were many bodies of troops moving on the
roads, and that many farms and other large houses had notices fixed up
outside to show they were the Headquarters of some unit, there was
nothing, as a rule, except in the areas which have been actually shelled,
to give any indication of the terrible nature of the struggle which is
being waged so close at hand.  Indeed, if the road took us to the top of
one of the few hills in that country, and we looked out over the
landscape, just beginning to show the first touches of spring, it was
almost impossible to realize that between us and the horizon stretched
that long valley of trenches which divides the two great armies.

     When we drove along the roads at some distance from the actual front,
it was often hard to believe that this was the real seat of war; but a
passing transport wagon or a patrol of cavalry riding by soon reminded us
of stern realities.  The recent absence of rain, and the warm sun, had
caused the roads to dry up considerably, and many officers seemed to be
quite disappointed not to be able to show us many samples of the mud to
which they had become so accustomed, and of which we had heard so much.
We wondered, also, very much how the men would look after their hard and
trying winter.  Certainly I was surprised to notice how very clean and
tidy they invariably appeared to be; although, of course, uniforms must
show signs of wear and tear.  In every case, except where the men were
actually fresh from the trenches, the Battalions presented a smart
appearance.

II - Soldiers Singing: "Jesus Lover Of My Soul"

     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.

III - "The Kingdom Of God" - Near The Guns

     To see a Bishop of the Anglican Communion preaching in France at the
door of a Roman Catholic church raised many thoughts in my mind.  I could
not but hope that these days of trial may draw the Allies together by
something that is deeper than the bonds of friendship.  We had heard not
infrequently of the sympathetic help which is being offered by many
priests of the Roman Catholic Church to our own Chaplains, and I thought,
as many are thinking at this time, that if the war could serve in any way
to help the two great Communions to understand better their distinctive
points of view, some real step will have been taken to advance the cause
of the Kingdom of God.  This service was reverently watched by a
considerable number of the inhabitants of the place.

     After holding a short service for two batteries near their guns, the
Bishop came to another open square where a Brigade was assembled, which
included a regiment almost, if not entirely, recruited from East London.
The East Londoner has his own unique characteristics, and his friends will
be glad to know that he is just as cheerful and bright in France at war as
he is in England in times of peace.  It was hard to distinguish faces, but
as the regiment swung by the place where I was standing, I saw many who
remembered me from the time that I spent at Oxford House, and they waved
just as hearty a greeting from the ranks as they used to wave from the top
of a van in the Bethnal Green Road five years ago.

     The deepest note on this day was struck when we came to a little town
filled with British troops, a very large number of whom had been recently
engaged in heavy fighting.  The Chaplain had sent a notice throughout one
Division that the Bishop would hold a short service in the evening for
officers, and that this would be followed by a service for
non-commissioned officers and men.  As he entered the large hall which is
used for a church in that town, he found at least five hundred officers,
including many Generals, waiting in silence.  They had come, some of them,
from considerable distances, and almost every officer who was off duty in
that district must have been present.  It was only a bare, whitewashed
building, with a hard stone floor, and a little platform at the end, but
in it were gathered together some of the flower of the British Army.

     There were Generals kneeling side by side with sub-alterns - men who
had faced together the terrible ordeal of battle.  Those who were present
will surely never forget the silence and reverence of that service.

IV - The Canadians - And A Benediction

     After so long a day the Bishop was naturally beginning to feel tired,
and his voice began to show signs of the great tax which frequent speaking
in the open air had placed upon it.  But there was one more gathering at
which he was to be present, and in many ways this was the most striking
and memorable of the whole Mission.

     The Canadians were there, and they wished to see him.  That was quite
enough for the Bishop.  His two visits to the Dominion have made Canada
very dear to his heart, and to Canada he will always give of his best.  It
was not far to go to the large open square in the town where the Canadians
were waiting for him.  The square was packed with men, and in the center
was a statue or fountain - I really could not distinguish which, so
completely was it concealed by the men sitting and standing upon it.

     The last rays of the sun came across the old tiled roofs, and lent a
touch of color to the scene.  On one side of the square was the Town Hall,
and the Bishop stood in the balcony, surrounded by the General and staff
officers.  It was a moving sight to look down from the balcony of this old
French Town Hall upon this great gathering of men who had come so many
thousands of miles from their homes to fight for the honor of the Empire.
There was no opportunity for an ordinary service.  The gathering darkness
would have made it impossible for the men to read, and, even if it had
been lighter, the men were so closely packed together that hymn-sheets
could not have been held.

     It is always difficult to estimate numbers, but someone said that
nearly ten thousand men must have been present.  When the Bishop appeared
on the balcony there was a Canadian cheer.  He is well known in the
Dominion, and the volume of sound left no doubt as to the warmth of
feeling with which he is regarded there.

     "This is a sight," he began, "which reminds me of Montreal and
Toronto."

     "How about Winnipeg?" came a voice from the crowd, and the men all
laughed.  It was a glorious chance to tell them of the way in which the
Mother Country appreciates the splendid loyalty with which her sons beyond
the seas have rallied at the Empire's call, and the Bishop was not slow to
let them know that we in Great Britain rejoice to feel that the men of
Canada and the men of Britain are standing shoulder to shoulder in France.
And then they cheered again.

     "Yes, you may cheer that," he added, "while I get breath for the next
sentence." He passed on to speak of the great cause of the freedom of the
world for which the Empire and the Allies are fighting to-day.  Canada,
the great self-governing Dominion - free, and yet part of the Empire -
would understand what freedom means.

     "Yes, you may cheer that too," the Bishop said, "while I get breath
again."

     And then, as he turned to deeper thoughts and closed, he added: "Now
we will all together say the Lord's Prayer." In a flash there was not a
cap to be seen in the square, but only the bared heads of that great
throng of men reverently bent forward in prayer.  Then, in absolute
silence, the Bishop gave the Blessing, and as he left the balcony a staff
officer turned to me and said: "That is a really great man."