, 1898, there was
issued by the Commander-in-Chief of the British Army a memorandum
which would have done no discredit to the Religious Tract Society if
published as one of their multitudinous leaflets. A copy was supplied
presumably to every soldier sent to Africa; and the first few
sentences which refer to what may happily be regarded as steadily
diminishing evils, read as follows:--

It will be the duty of company officers to point out to the men
under their control, and particularly to young soldiers, the

_disastrous effect of giving way_

to habits of intemperance and immorality. The excessive use of
intoxicating liquors unfits the soldier for active work, blunts
his intelligence, and is a fruitful source of military crime. The
man who leads a vicious life

_enfeebles his constitution_

and exposes himself to the risk of contracting a disease of a
kind which has of late made terrible ravages in the British army.
Many men spend a great deal of the short time of their service in
the military hospitals, the wards of which are crowded with
patients, a large number of whom are permanently disfigured and
incapacitated from earning a livelihood in or out of the army.
Men tainted with this disease are

_useless while in the army_

and a burden to their friends after they have left it. Even those
who do not altogether break down are unfit for service in the
field, and would certainly be a source of weakness to their
regiments, and a discredit to their comrades if employed in war.

[Illustration: _From a photograph by Mr Jones, Pretoria_

Soldiers' Home at Pretoria.]

As one of the most effectual ways of combating these evils, and of
providing an answer to the oft-repeated prayer, "Lead us not into
temptation," Soldiers' Homes are now being so freely multiplied, that
the Wesleyan Church has itself established over thirty, at a total
cost of more than L50,000.

[Sidenote: _Mr and Mrs Osborn Howe._]

Some of those engaged in similar Christian work among the soldiers
were gentlemen of ample private means who defrayed all their own
expenses. Mr Anderson was thus attached to the Northumberland
Fusiliers, and soon became a power for good among them. Mr and Mrs
Osborn Howe did a really remarkable work in providing Soldiers' Homes,
which followed the men from place to place over almost the entire
field