or lost. Men are certainly ready to listen to a living message
and are probably more open than ever before in their lives to religious
influences, because of their desperate need. They are between the nether
and upper millstones of sin and death. On the one hand they meet the
pressure of terrible temptations, and on the other they have to face the
awful fact of death, unready and unprepared. But although the men are
open to a religious message and to the Christian challenge presented by
one who has a real message, it could hardly be maintained by anyone that
there is a revival of religion at the front today. Rather the opposite
is true.

A friend of the present writer, a chaplain in charge of the religious
work in one of the five armies at the front, well says:

"On the whole, I venture to say, there is not a great revival of the
Christian religion at the front. Deep in their hearts is a great trust
and faith in God. It is an inarticulate faith expressed in deeds. The
top levels, as it were, of their consciousness, are much filled with
grumbling and foul language and physical occupations; but beneath lie
deep spiritual springs, whence issue their cheerfulness, stubbornness,
patience, generosity, humility, and willingness to suffer and to die.
There is religion about; only, very often it is not the Christian
religion. Rather it is natural religion. It is the expression of a
craving for security. Literally it is a looking for salvation."

It may be asked, To what extent are the men thinking of religion and
discussing its problems? One friend of the writer, a young Anglican
chaplain, says: "The men are not thinking at all. They are 'carrying
on.' They spend hours in playing a game like House because it requires
no thought." However, it would probably be fairer to say that at times
all of them think about religion, although they do not talk very much
about it. It is not, however, consistent thought leading to action.
Rather they have moments of deep impressions, vague longings, intuitions,
and hunger of heart. But the minute anyone starts a discussion or begins
to attack religion, men show that they have been thinking, or that they
have ideas of their own in private.

Most of them believe in God, although they do not know Him in a personal
way. They believe in religion, but have not made it vital and dominant
in their lives. They have a vague sense or intuition that there is a God
and that He is a