d sobbed like a child, and in his agony cried out, 'I had a
good mother once; I've been a damned fool. May God forgive me!' Could
God possibly hear and answer a prayer like that? Of course He could, and
He did! Possibly He would rather have even a prayer like that, than the
meaningless prayers with which we sometimes mock Him, and if any man
ever gave evidence of his conversion to God it was that trooper. He
stayed only four days longer in that reinforcement camp in the
Harfleur Valley, but if he could help it, never for a moment would he
let our leader out of his sight, and in a hundred ways he helped him
with his work. He would go methodically and frequently round the hut,
gather up the dirty mugs, bring them back to the counter and help to
wash them. He would go down on his hands and knees under the tables,
pick up scraps of paper and cigarette ends and help clean up the floor.
Four days later he was sent with a detachment up the line; three days
later still, with his company, he was ordered 'over the top,' and
literally he went into the 'Valley of the Shadow of Death,' but he did
not go alone, for 'there went with him One the form of Whom was like
unto the form of the Son of God!'

[Illustration: Y.M.C.A. FOR INTERNED PRISONERS OF WAR, LEYSIN,
SWITZERLAND]

The Y.M.C.A. is a Christian Association, the Red Triangle a Christian
emblem, and for that very reason the freedom of the Association is
given to every enlisted man. Protestant and Catholic, Anglican,
Free-Churchman, Jew, Hindoo, Mohammedan--men of any religion, every
religion, and no religion at all, are equally welcomed beneath its roof,
and no man will ever hear unkind or disrespectful things said from a
Y.M.C.A. platform concerning the faith he holds dear. At the same time
we can never forget that the greatest need of every man, amongst the
millions we serve in our huts, is that he should have a Friend who will
never fail him nor forsake him, who will stand shoulder to shoulder with
him in his fierce fight with temptation in camp or city, will be with
him in the trenches, in the firing line, as he goes over the parapet, or
even into the dread 'Valley of the Shadow,' and there is only One Who
can thus meet every need of every man, and that One is the strong Son of
God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the best Friend, the truest Comrade we can
have.

We often fall far short of our aim, alas! but the primary aim of the
Y.M.C.A. always has been, and is, to lead men to