of their men than ever before; but it is due in even
larger measure to the great interest the Churches have taken in the men,
and especially in the multiplication of Soldiers' Homes.

At Aldershot there are, in addition to the military and civilian
churches, which are all of them centres of vigorous Christian work, six
Soldiers' Homes, viz., three Wesleyan, two Church of England, and one
Salvation Army, in addition to the Primitive Methodist Soldiers' Home,
now used chiefly as a temperance hotel. At these Soldiers' Homes there
are refreshment bars, reading rooms, games rooms, smoking rooms, bath
rooms, and all other conveniences. They are for the soldier--a home from
home. Here he is safe, and he knows it. They will take care of his
money, and he can have it when he likes. They will supply him with
stationery free of charge. They will write his letters for him, if he so
desires, and receive them also. In fact, while he considers himself
monarch of all he surveys as soon as he enters, he is conscious all the
time that he must be on his good behaviour, and it is rarely, if ever,
that he forgets himself.

A counter-attraction to the public-house, an entertainment provider of a
delightful order, a club, a home, and a Bethel all rolled into one is
the Soldiers' Home,--the greatest boon that the Christian Church has
ever given to the soldier, and one which he estimates at its full value.

During the mobilisation days these Homes were crowded to the utmost of
their capacity, and chaplains and Scripture readers vied with each other
in their earnest efforts to benefit the men. In those solemn times of
waiting, with war before them, and possibly wounds or death, hundreds of
soldiers decided for Christ, or, as they loved to put it, 'enlisted into
the army of the King.'

=Barrack Room Life.=

Somehow or other the average Englishman never thinks of the soldier as a
Christian, and soldier poets bring out almost every other phase of the
soldier character except this. As a matter of fact the recruit when he
comes to us is little more than a lad. He has been brought up in the
village Sunday school, and been accustomed to attend the village church
or chapel. He has all his early religious impressions full upon him. He
is excitable, emotional, easily led. If he gets into a barrack room
where the men are coarse, sensual, ungodly, he often runs into riot in a
short time, though even then his early impressions do not altogether
fade.