The Soldier’s Dream of Home

CHRISTMAS and Home are blended together in the happiest recollections. The dear home circle, and the joys of reunion with loved ones appeal to every heart. The sleeping soldier sees himself in the embraces of his wife and children — happy in his dreams. He can say with the poet: —
“But for me, O thou picture-land of sleep!
Thou art all one world of affections deep;
And thy bowers are fair — e’en as Eden fair;
All the beloved of my soul are there
The forms my spirit most pines to see,
The eyes whose love hath been life to me.
They are there — and each blessed voice I hear,
Kindly and joyous and silvery clear;
But under-tones are in each, that say—
‘It is but a dream; it will melt away!’”

Alas! for many there will be no earthly home-corning. Christmas will be with us, but they will never come again. Breaking hearts at home are saying, as they see the empty chair:
“He is dead, the beautiful youth,
The heart of honor, the tongue of truth;
He, the life and light of us all —
Whose voice was blithe as a bugle call:
Whom all eyes followed with one consent,
The cheer of whose laugh and whose pleasant word
Hushed all murmurs of discontent.”
Yes, they went from us, at the call of the bullet — at the flash of the shrapnel — at the lightning stroke of the bomb — at the bursting of the mine. Death stood upon the battlefields, and sought and claimed his prey. As a writer pathetically says: “One moment the fiery mass of living valor rolling on the foe. The eager subaltern from Oxford and Cambridge; the dashing young Zouave from the southern sunlit lands; the heroic Belgian cuirassier making his last stand for his home at Liege, Louvain, Ypres; the strong, silent Slav... the world’s bravest — one moment keen for flag and freedom and home — the next gone —.”
Where? To a better home we trust. Thousands are being saved through reading the little Testaments that are sent to them. We want to help them all we can to get home to God at last.
Friends! I want ten thousand Testaments AT ONCE. Will you help me to get them today?
I received the following letter from France, in which the writer speaks of the longing for home this Christmas time. We have prayed for him and his friends every day since we had his letter: —

The Letter
“Dear Sir, ―I was reading your book, ‘A Message from God.’
Could you pray for myself and my comrades? We want to go home for Christmas to see our people and our mothers. I am writing this from an hospital. I have great faith in prayer. I pray for guidance and protection and mercy, and have found comfort in prayer. God is the only One that counts out here. I have proved it scores of times. My comrades and myself very often sing hymns in the trenches when we are weary and require comfort. For the sake of the ones at home who are dear to us and want to see us again, please pray for us... God is everything, and people would realize it if they were to come out here and see what is happening. Pray for my three best chums, B― P―, and K—. We pine for ‘Home, sweet home,’ and are constantly
thinking of it. We have faith that God will grant us to return
very soon. Pray for us. ― A Christian Soldier and Believer, Pte.
R. T. B.―
Do pray for them, my friends, that the soldier’s dream and longing may become a reality, and that they may be home with their dear ones this Christmas. But to those who cannot come I want to send the Word of God. Help me to do so.

A Lance-Corporal writes: —
“I am asking you to send me and two of my soldier friends a pocket Testament.”
A Corporal writes: —
“I wish to thank you for the two parcels you sent; they are always very acceptable.
I had a splendid time among some men last week. I gave away thirty-eight Testaments and ten Gospels—all I had. I could have given away another forty. I wish I had them.”

Dear friends, I want to be able to send parcels of Testaments to all who need them. I want ten thousand this Christmas.