From Battlefield to Heaven

A sergeant at the Front sends me this incident, one of the most beautiful I have heard for a long time. He says: ― “One incident at the battle of H―will be impressed on my memory forever. I went out over the Parados of the tiring line to a poor fellow who was on a stretcher mortally wounded. One of the stretcher-bearers had been shot down while carrying him, and I bandaged up his wounds as well as I could. The poor-fellow on the stretcher was calling for water. The only drop of water belonged to Sergeant J―. I fetched it and took it out under fire, and gave it to the dying man. I placed my hand in his and asked him, ‘Do you belong to the Lord Jesus? ‘Yes.’ he murmured. Again I gave him a little water, and then said, I hope you feel that the Lord is with you now.’ Again he gasped out ‘Yes.’ He could not swallow the next drop of water I gave him, but seeing he was dying I said, ‘Do you know you are going to be with the Lord Jesus?’ His only answer was a slight pressure of his hand on mine. One last question I asked was, ‘The Lord is with you, isn’t He?’ Again I felt the pressure of the hand. Then on a sudden his eyes glared upward to the sky―I shall never forget that moment―then he outstretched his hands and arms towards the heavens above him, and kept them in the same attitude for some moments with his eyes fixed, looking upwards all the time. Then the arms dropped lifelessly down to the sides of the stretcher and he was gone. How delighted I was, and yet how hard it seemed to me to have to leave him behind, when I went back to the trench again under fire. His name I never knew. He was not in my regiment; he was in the Rifle Brigade.”
Thank God for an end like this upon the battlefield, and there are many such. The sergeant who writes me had had enough Testaments from me to give every man in his platoon one, and he is hoping to be able to give one to every soldier in the battalion. We shall be glad to help him to do this.

And now, dear friends, “Goodbye” for another month. A lady of seventy-three writes to me: ―
“I had saved a few pounds in the Post Office Savings Bank for an emergency, but will transfer one pound to God’s Bank, to be used in His service, and rather than the brave soldiers should be deprived of a Testament, I will send another if really needed. I know my God will supply all my need. We thank God for the self-denying work you have so nobly undertaken for Him, and ask Him to bless you all abundantly for His name’s sake.”
The second pound came about a week after. In the presence of such faith and love I feel ashamed at the little one does. We are told that those who go forth weeping, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing their sheaves with them (Psa. 126:6). Will those also come rejoicing who have no sheaves to bring? What are we doing in these never-to-be-forgotten days?

The Diary of a Soul
By the Editor