Soldiers of the Empire

You know there is no salvation apart from Christ. He is the ONLY way to heaven, and the Door. He says, “No man cometh unto the Father but by ME.” If what this preacher says is true, there is no need for any Chaplain, or Minister of God, to go and work among you; there is no need of any of these splendid gospel efforts that are being made for you at home or abroad. This preacher tells you that death in battle is “a passport to heaven,” and “a modern re-enacting of the sacrifice of Christ Himself”!
What an awful thing to send you into battle with this sin against Christ ringing in your ears! The Mahommedan leaders have said to their soldiers, “The gates of Paradise are under the shade of swords; he who dies fighting for the faith will assuredly gain admission there.” And men today in Christian England would send you forth to fight telling you that your death will be an expiation for all your sins, and a modern re-enacting of the sacrifice of Christ!
You will not be deceived. Brave and gallant as you are, you know you cannot save yourselves. You need a Saviour. You feel it in the trenches, and in the hour of battle; you feel it when you read that your mother is praying for you at home, and when you kneel in prayer face to face with death. Thousands are praying for you. We love you too well to seek to give you comfort by a lie against your Redeemer. We know He is near you wherever you are. He is saying, “Come unto Me... and I will give you rest.”
We shall never forget what you have done for us, and you must never forget what Christ has done for you.
He is the only Saviour, and faith in His finished work is the only “passport to heaven.” There can be no “modern re-enacting of the sacrifice of Christ,” for He appeared once in the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. He alone, who knew no sin, could bear the sins of others. The work of man’s redemption was done twenty centuries ago when Jesus said, “It is finished,” on the cross.