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Christianity in Khaki
59

Paul Kruger had been charged with wedging a young girl between two pieces of wood and sawing both wood and girl through the middle because she refused to divulge the military secrets of her own tribe. That charge had not been denied.

It is, however, not only by the priests that Jesus has been hailed as a 'Prince of War.' Our generals have not been slow to utilize the religious sentiment for military purposes, and every soldier going to the front has been furnished with a talisman in the form of a New Testament decorated on the front with the Union Jack, accompanied by texts about 'the blood,' well attuned both to the occasion and the habitual language of Tommy Atkins.

To this khaki Bible a brief preface by Lord Wolseley is appended, recommending the book in the following terms: 'In my opinion, there could be nothing more suitable for the spiritual comfort of a soldier on active service than this Testament.' A caviller might be disposed to smile at the italics of Lord Wolseley, which seem to imply that an army on a peace footing gets its spiritual comfort from some other source. But the patronage thus extended by the late Commander-in-Chief to the New Testament suggests a more serious question. Does not Lord Wolseley presume too much upon

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