Longing to Save Others

WE were awaiting the order to go. “Over the top, boys, and the best of luck,” was the cry, and from the trench one could hear the cries of the wounded who had already fallen down under the heavy hail of lead that the machine guns were sending forth, sweeping the parapet. One of the section, Pte. Gordon, seeing on our left men of the same regiment lying and groaning in pain, wanted to go over and bring them in. “He could not,” he said, “stand it any longer.” Again we heard his plea, “Let me go; I want to save them.” It was an impossible job, to have reached any man the other side of our barbed wire, but as we left him for a moment he jumped over the top, to be immediately killed by the side of our own wire. He wanted to save men, and died longing to bring them in. When our order came to go over we passed him on our way, and we all thought him a hero. When I saw his grave later on I could not but say, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
Reader, Pte. Gordon died longing to save others; wishing that he could only reach those dying ones. Around you men and women are dying in their sins, are you longing to try to get them saved? Are you trying to bring them in to the doctor or the dressing station (mission room), where they can get first aid help―to the only One who can cure them? Jesus calls for helpers. He calls for volunteers. Who will answer His call? Who will go into the highways and byways and bring them in? It may not be your privilege to have to go over the top; you may not have to go over into “No Man’s Land” to bring them in, but God wants you to go into the homes, into your tents, your huts, and by His grace and power win men for Christ. Have you today that deep longing to get men in? If not, then ask God to give you that desire. Oh! that today you might go out and win one man for Christ, what a glorious harvest we should have!
I was standing one day at the corner of a hut somewhere in France when a comrade came by. He had been at the canteen drinking, and Itie said, “Hello, Bun-wallower! daren’t you say a prayer for me?” and believing it to be God’s will I placed my hand on his shoulder and said, “Yes, for God loves you.” That night I had the joy of seeing him give himself to God. Since that time he has gone to meet Jesus, but not before he himself had led others to Him, who is so ready and willing to save. Today then, let us hear His voice and go out, with a burning desire to win men for Christ and to bring glory and honor to Him who gave Himself for us that we might be His forever.
J.R., Lance-corporal

Incidents of the War
READ the casualty lists, and think! Look at the black garments in the streets, and the silent agony on the faces of the bereaved, and think! Go to a munition works, see the bombs and shells in the making, and think! Think of the human agony begun ere each has run its course, and such are made and fired by the million. War is Hell indeed! Every moment we live is a moment of slaughter and agony. Every breath we breathe some fellow human being is being killed, mutilated, or torn in pieces by some abominable invention of the devil! Who says “Business as Usual,” or Pleasure? None but the devils of hell or elsewhere. To every thinking soul with a heart the last thought at night and the first in the morning and throughout the day is “Hell as usual.” And the worst is we are becoming accustomed to it. ― C.T.S.