nd wounded.

I spent one night there ministering to the wounded as they were
unloaded from the great American Red Cross train. I watched the
process with pride and amazement. So well organized was the army Red
Cross that when a train was announced the ambulances loaded with
stretcher bearers were rushed to the unloading platform. In seven
minutes three hundred helpless men were gently taken from their
comfortable berths in the train and carried on stretchers to the
platform from which the ambulances speedily bore them to the waiting
wards.

During the night of which I speak five trainloads of gassed men from
the Chateau-Thierry fight were thus unloaded at Bazoilles.

CHAPTER VII

MORAL FLASHES

This chapter is plainly labeled so that anyone who chooses may escape
it.

A preacher without a preachment is a paradox. We do not fear the
paradox, much less the criticism of the over-religious. But we frankly
believe that the solution of the moral and spiritual problems of the
soldier, as the army attempted to solve them, gives a hint to the
churches which dare not be ignored.

The soldier was more truly religious "over there" than he was before
he "fared forth" on his great adventure. And the reason was not merely
in the fact that fear of death drives men nearer to God. That reason
has been present in every war. The history of all wars proves that war
engenders such hatred, recklessness, and immorality that fighters
have come out of the conflict more godless than when they entered. The
veterans of our own Civil War bear abundant testimony to the
debauchery of youth during the four long years of that struggle.

What is the story of the morality of the American army during the
struggle just ended? Already statistics have been compiled showing
that the percentage of disease resulting from immorality was so small
in comparison with the percentage even in civil life as to be almost
negligible. If we could compare the army life of the present with the
army life of the past, I am confident the contrast would be even more
startling.

Our army was a clean army--an army whose actions and modes of life
squared with the highest standards of moral and religious teachings.
That there were notable exceptions no one will deny.

Why were our soldiers in this bitter world conflict better and
stronger than the soldiers of previous wars? The answer I want you to
think about (there are other answers) is that the army and navy