igion, whatever
church he belongs to. The same kind of character, the same general
line of conduct, are expected in all padres. We shall get a side
light, if no more, on the much-discussed question of the religion of
the army if we can arrive at an understanding of the way in which the
padre strikes the average man.

The statistical method of arriving at knowledge is chiefly useful for
purposes of controversy. Any one with access to official records
might set out for admiration the hierarchy of padres, ranging from
the Chaplain-General to the humble C.F. Fourth Class, might enumerate
the confirmations held, the candidates presented, the buildings
erected, perhaps the sermons preached. It would then be possible to
prove that the Church is doing her duty by the soldiers or that the
Church is failing badly, whichever seemed desirable to prove at the
moment.

That is the great advantage of the statistical method. It establishes
beyond all possibility of contradiction the thing you want to
establish. But if you do not want to establish anything, if you
merely want to find out something, statistics are no use at all. You
are driven to other ways of getting at the truth, ways much less
definite and accurate.

I wish there were more pictures of army chaplains. There are a few. I
do not recollect that Bairnsfather ever gave us one, but they turn up
from time to time in the pages of _Punch_. There was one in which a
senior curate in uniform--the story is told in France of a much more
august person--is represented waving a farewell to a party of French
soldiers, expressing the hope _que_ _le bon Dieu vous blesserait
toujours_. We need not concern ourselves with his French. Staff
officers and even generals have made less excusable blunders.

What is interesting is the figure and face of the young man. He is
alert and plainly very energetic. He is full of the spirit of
comradeship. One glance at him convinces you that he means to be
helpful in every possible way to every human being he comes across.
He is not going to shirk. He is certainly not going to funk. You feel
sure as you look at him that he will keep things going at a
sing-song, that a canteen under his management will be efficiently
run. He is a very different man indeed from that pre-war curate of
_Punch's_ whose egg has become proverbial, or that other who confided
to an admiring lady that, when preaching, he liked every fold of his
surplice to tell. He is not inte