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THE KING’S BUSINESS t do not believe it possible that men who go into battle knowing they are fighting for a righteous cause and unafraid of death can be beaten back forever. Some day, at some point, the enemy must weaken, and then we will sweep over the tops and nothing will hold us back. We know it just as truly as we know the sun will rise tomorrow.” But if belief in a future life is necessary to produce the best type of soldier, it is a well founded belief in future life and future blessedness through the acceptance of Christ as a personal Saviour, and the well-grounded assurance of eternal life that comes from that that is necessary to make a man the very best type*of soldier. The United States Government is wise in doing so much to encourage and foster a real work of God among the soldiers. Much good is coming incidentally to our young men in this country from being drafted into our army and sent to our cantonments. We have visited a number of these cantonments and seen much that made for the moral and spiritual welfare of the young men there gathered, and we have traveled in trains packed with soldiers and we have never traveled with a more orderly crowd of young men than these. They were quiet, respectful, orderly, every thing that could be desired. What we have seen leads us to' think that the average young man is more likely to be truly1converted in our cantonments at the present time than he would be in almost any college in America of which we know, or in any community of which we know. Indeed, they are being con verted in some of our cantonments by the hundred. But there is evidently another side to the matter. Pastor D. J. Findlay, in the October 11th number of The Christian, (London, England), writes o f experiences that he has had in the camps in France. He writes: “ Alas! for the thousands of fair young lives'" from the homelands, and from all our dependencies and colonies, which have been blighted and broken in France! Crowds of young men who left their sheltered homes utterly ignorant of such sins have here learnt to yield to drink and worse evils, the very existence of which some of them scarcely knew of. Friends at home have no idea of the awful temptations to-which these boys are daily exposed. In France licentious sin is no more thought of than drinking a glass of beer is in England. What this leads to, the enlightened will readily understand; jn every camg there are large hospitals for specific diseases, and these are kept filled to the doors. The wrecks of today, and the entail of tomor row are too sad to contemplate with quiet mind.” However, Pastor Findlay adds: “ But here again the sympathetic and expert soul-winner has his chance, and not a few of these shamed and broken-hearted boys have—through their very sin—been led to Him who is mighty to save.” He says further: “How much worse the state of'matters would have been had it not been for the hun dreds of Huts, erected by many organizations within and without the Church, and scattered all over Northern France.” He speaks in especial praise of the “ Soldiers’ Christian Association.” He says: “ All the workers have come out for one purpose/and have most of the day free to help the poor fellows along the line of their highest well-being,” It would be difficult to give too. high praise to our own Y. M. C. A. in their work in the cantonments. The writer had some experience in their work during the Spanish-American war, but he has been HPHE MORAL WRECKAGE OF THE WAR.
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