cloth. The Machine
Gun Officer, owing to our close proximity to the enemy, was a little
doubtful as to the wisdom of our singing hymns, but finally allowed us
to do so. The tiny room and the passage outside were crowded with
stalwart young soldiers, whose voices sang out the old hymns as though
the Germans were miles away. Our quarters were so cramped that the men
had difficulty in squeezing into the room for communion and could not
kneel down. The service was rich and beautiful in the heartfelt
devotion of men to whom, in their great need, religion was a real and
vital thing. Not long after midnight, once again the pounding of the
old war was resumed, and as I went to bed in the dugout that night, I
felt from what a sublime height the world had dropped. We had two (p. 121)
more war Christmases in France, but I always look back upon that first
one as something unique in its beauty and simplicity.

When I stood on the parapet that day looking over at the Germans in
their trenches, and thought how two great nations were held back for a
time in their fierce struggle for supremacy, by their devotion to a
little Child born in a stable in Bethlehem two thousand years before,
I felt that there was still promise of a regenerated world. The Angels
had not sung in vain their wonderful hymn "Glory to God in the Highest
and on Earth Peace, Good Will towards men."

CHAPTER X. (p. 122)

SPRING, 1916.

At the end of March our Division was ordered back to the Salient, and
so Headquarters left St. Jans Cappel. It was with great regret that I
bid good-by to the little place which had been such a pleasant home
for several months. The tide of war since then has no doubt swept away
many of the pastoral charms of the scenery, but the green fields and
the hillsides will be reclothed in beauty as time goes on. We stopped
for a few days at Fletre, and while there I made the acquaintance of
the Australians, and visited the battalions which were billeted in the
neighbourhood.

It was always delightful to have the Division out in rest. As long as
the men were in the line one could not be completely happy. But when
they came out and one went amongst them, there was nothing to
overcloud the pleasure of our intercourse. One day I rode over to a
battalion and found a lot of men sitting round the cookhouse. We had a
long talk about the war, and they asked me to recite my war limerick