The Roll of Honor

“I can’t stand it,” said an old gentleman to me the other day, the tears standing in his eyes. “I have been looking at the photographs of those on the Roll of Honor in an illustrated paper. To think of those brave young fellows dead!” Yes, the toll of death is terrible — officers and men. And the wounded! They crowd our hospitals; we see them limping along our streets, or with arms in slings, and we feel we want to take them by the hand, and look into their faces, and say to them: ―
“You’ve looked into the face of death,
And God has called you back;
Now look into the face of Christ,
And nothing shall you lack.”
Dear fellows! Would to God they were all saved! The other day, when I had posted sixty parcels that our dear brother had packed, I went on my knees and asked God to bless every parcel, and I felt assured that God would bless everyone. I could seem to see them unpacked and distributed — eager hands taking them, and eager eyes reading them — and God answering our prayers all the time. “There are no infidels in the trenches,” a wounded soldier said to a chaplain. “God is jolly near you in the trenches,” said another. And in the “Sunday at Home” we are told of a letter written in the trenches by a man who gave himself to Christ there. “To my darling wife and children. Daddy surrendered to Jesus 20/11/14, at Ypres. Sudden death — sudden glory. Safe in the arms of Jesus.”
Ah! I do thank God for all who are working for Him among the soldiers now. I feel what an unspeakable privilege it is to be able to respond, even in a small way, to their appeal for Testaments, Gospels and books.
The “roll of honor” is kept in heaven in the Book of God. In the Lamb’s Book of Life the name of every believer is inscribed, and when the “roll is called up yonder,” thank God, many a man who went into eternity scarred and wounded in the War will answer to his name. Let us work on, and know more and more what true soldiership is. Let Wesley’s words ring in our ears and sink down into our hearts: —
“Soldier of Christ, child of God! walk worthy of the vocation wherewith thou art called. Remember the faith; remember the Captain of thy salvation. Fight, conquer, die, and live forever!”
He stands best who kneels most.
He stands strongest who kneels weakest.
He stands longest who kneels lowest.