[Footnote 5:  St. Andrew, June 7, 1900.]

Chapter VII

THOMAS ATKINS ON THE VELDT

It will be a relief to turn from this sad record and give a sketch of Thomas Atkins upon the veldt as he appears to Christian workers.  Nowhere else have we been able to see him apart from the fierce temptations which particularly assail him.  Untrained, except in so far as military discipline is concerned, he is a child of nature, and nature not always of the best.

But the South African veldt has witnessed the remarkable spectacle of a sober army.  No intoxicating drink was to be got, and the cup that cheers but not inebriates has been Tommy’s only stimulant.

A further fact must be borne in mind.  War has a sobering effect even among the most reckless.  A man is face to face with eternal things, and though after a little while the influence of this to some extent passes off, and either an unhealthy excitement or an equally unhealthy callousness takes its place, it never wholly goes, and any serious battle suffices to bring the man to his senses again.

=The Soldier’s Temptations.=

The consequence of these things has been that we have seen the soldier at his best in South Africa—­and that best has often been of a very high order.  It is no kindness to him to make light of his vices, and they have been sufficiently pronounced even there.

We are afraid, to begin with, that we must confess to an army of swearers.  It seems natural to the soldier to swear.  He intersperses his conversation with words and phrases altogether unmeaning and anything but elegant.  It is his habit so to do, and even the Christian soldier who has belonged to this swearing set often finds it a great difficulty to break away from his old habits.

=’Old Praise the Lord.’=

An amusing and pathetic instance of this comes to our mind.  A soldier who worked at the forge was soundly converted to God, and as usual had to go through the ordinary course of persecution.  It was astonishing how many pieces of iron fell upon his feet, and how often a rod was thrust into his back!  At such occurrences prior to his conversion he would have sworn dreadfully, and he had to guard himself with the greatest care lest some ungodly word should escape his lips.  And so when any extra cruelty in the shape of a red-hot piece of iron came too near, or a heavy weight was dropped upon his toes, he used to cry, ’Praise the Lord.’  ‘Old Praise the Lord’ they called him, and truly he often had sufficient reason for some such exclamation.  He came to the Soldiers’ Fellowship Meeting one night, and told how he had been tested to the limit.  He had taken his money out of the Savings Bank, and locked it in his box; but the box had been broken open, and the money taken away.  He stood and looked at it, hands clenched, teeth set.  For a moment the fire of anger flashed in his eyes, and