BY THE REV. ALEX. MACKAY.
DEAR MR. EDITOR,—In giving an account of my second visit to naval men in England, it is unnecessary for me to enter into details which have been so often brought before the readers of the Magazine. I succeeded Rev. Alex. Macrae at the beginning of November of last year and remained two months in England. At the outset I may say that to carry on the work among the naval men during the winter months is by no means a holiday. I gave four Sabbaths to Chatham and four to Portsmouth, and I shall first refer to the work at Chatham.
In Chatham the naval authorities are very kind to our deputy, and, like Mr. Macrae, I was while there an honorary member of the officers’ mess. I had good gatherings at the official service, and also on Sabbath night, all the time I was there—an average, I should say, of eighty-five. A good number of them were young lads, newly called up, and some of them were very careless young men. In fact, a certain proportion of the class of men who were in Chatham this time were quite different from the class I had there in 1914-15. These latter are now scattered all over the war zone, and they were, almost to a man, solemn and serious about religious matters. I may say that since my return I have a good few of them in my congregation here who are patrolling the West Coast, and I am glad to testify that the seriousness that characterised them then did not by any means leave them. At the same time, I had in Chatham the last time a few God-fearing young men, and the indifference of the others was as great a sorrow to them as it was to me. Then I felt this about them—that the more careless they were, the more need they had of being looked after; and I am convinced that the labours of our ministers among them shall not be fruitless.
In Portsmouth, I had about an average of ninety at the official service, and, while I had the same experience there of having a good few young lads very careless about their salvation, yet the number of such was not large. The most of those who attended the services in Portsmouth were seriously inclined, and there were a good few among them who feared God. I had very encouraging conversations with some of them, especially with a young Lewis lad who is now in the Mediterranean. I noticed that in Chatham and Portsmouth—especially Portsmouth—any one who had the fear of God in him felt very depressed over the prevailing ungodliness of these ports. Our boys in the Highlands and Islands are accustomed to reverence the Lord’s Day even yet, but in these ports the Lord’s Day is the day on which men and women and children enjoy themselves as on any ordinary holiday. Then, the public-houses are open on the Sabbath Day in England, and they are crowded to the door by men and women. These things are new to our boys, and to those of them in whom the grace of God is, such things are very painful.
I stayed while at Portsmouth in Miss Weston’s Sailors’ Rest, and I have to thank that kind, noble-hearted Christian lady, and her staff, for their great kindness to me. The Sailors’ Rest is a huge building, and it is a great blessing for the poor sailors that such a home is before them. Our official services are held in the large hall in the Rest, and Miss Weston takes a motherly interest in the sailors. To give your readers an idea of the numbers who frequent the Rest, I may say that one of the staff told me that four hundred letters have been posted in the Rest letter-box in a single night.
I visited the Naval Hospitals both at Chatham and Portsmouth, and communicated with the parents of some of those I there visited. One of the men I went to see had a very serious trouble, namely, a plague called beri-beri, and I am sorry to say that I heard of his death since my return home. The others were very serious cases, but they recovered.
In conclusion, I may say that, when I look back on my last visit to these ports, notwithstanding the fatigue I had to endure during the severe weather of November and December, I would not hesitate to return to the work, for I never opened my mouth to address the men but I felt that the Lord was exceeding my expectations, and always disappointing my fears.—Yours, etc.,
ALEX. MACKAY.
SERIOUS fits of religion avail nothing unless we have an abiding sense of God on our hearts. And we have never any sense of God or His mercy to us-ward, unless we have a sense of our duty to Him, and study to perform it in its proper time: hearing while God speaks, believing while He promiseth, praying while He hears, and obeying while He commands. Religion may be much talked of, but is never understood till our conscience be awakened and we know the worth of our soul and our need of a Saviour. Nor doth it ever flourish till we can naturalise spiritual things and spiritualise natural things. And if we expect to live with Christ in heaven, we must live in Him, on Him, with Him, and to Him on earth.—John Brown.