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Introduction
INTRODUCTION
by the REV. J. GELSON GREGSON
I find it difficult to send a brief introduction to this memoir of my late friend Colonel Charles Ball-Acton, C.B., as I am writing from the camp at Kroonstadt, in the midst of noise and dust, in a small tent; but I feel so deeply interested in his remembrances that I desire to send a very hurried and imperfect introduction to this sketch of one of the truest Christian soldiers it has been my privilege to know, and whose personal friendship I esteemed very highly when in India.
My recollections go far back into the early days of the Soldiers' Total Abstinence Association in his regiment, when it was a difficult matter to get officers to become abstainers. At that time Major Acton was at Fyzabad, with his regiment, the old 51st, and wrote to me at Agra, asking for information regarding the formation of a Total Abstinence Society in his regiment. I suggested that it was a good plan to start such work by personally taking the lead, by becoming an abstainer and calling a meeting, inviting the men to join the society. This he very readily did, and soon after the formation of the branch society, I went over to Fyzabad, and made his personal acquaintance, which ripened into a lasting personal friendship. I repeatedly visited the regiment in different cantonments, and also at Jellalabad, in Afghanistan, where Colonel Ball-Acton commanded his regiment.
He was one of a type of Christian soldiers who seem to have passed away with the last century. Men like General Phayre, Colonel Oldham, Colonel Battye, Major C. Wolseley, and Colonel Ball-Acton are not so frequently found in the army as they were thirty years ago. As soldiers they were exact and reliable in the discharge of their military duties, while at the same time they faithfully served their Lord and Master. When it was uncertain in the minds of some of Colonel Ball-Acton's friends whether he would receive the Order of the Bath for his services in Afghanistan, one of them said,' Why, he is a C.B. already — a Christian Brother.'
As a Christian soldier he was able to maintain the discipline of the regiment without withdrawing from Christian work among the men. There was no bluster in his Christian enthusiasm ; it was calm and quiet, but clear and powerful as light, driving before it all mysticism and doubt — it was a force that touched men without raising their opposition, and influenced men without attracting them to himself. It wasn't a meteor that rushed through the darkness, leaving no trace behind, but a steadfast purpose that remained the same in the barrack life of peace and the camp life of war. His life illustrated and solved the difficult problem of a Commanding Officer considering his relationship to his men in the light of Christian responsibility — just the character that touches the soldier in the ranks, who desires a faithful decision in the orderly room, as well as a temperance address in the temperance room. If there is one thing more than another that touches the soldier, it is an officer who gives a righteous judgment. The discipline of a regiment does not depend upon severity on parade, but upon a righteous judgment in the orderly room ; and the effect of that righteousness will be felt by the youngest lance-corporal in the regiment, for there is nothing so sensitive among men as a regiment of soldiers to be guided aright by the righteousness of the orderly room. This is the discipline of character that secures good order in the ranks.
The work among soldiers thirty years ago was of a very different stamp from the work of the up-to-date worker. Men were quite satisfied with meetings for instruction rather than amusement. They made no parade of their religion, and had not learnt to blow the trumpet before their deeds of loving sympathy. They built their own meeting-houses, without violent appeals to the general public, who have a very poor estimate of soldier life, and know but little of a soldier's instincts. If workers knew more concerning the inner life of our soldiers, we should have fewer attempts to win them by amusing meetings and entertainments. Those who want such gatherings prefer the music-hall, where singers indulge in ribald rhymes concerning Tommy; but those who are bent on making their time in the army a season of self-improvement prefer meetings where men are addressed as soldiers — a name that is applicable to a Field-Marshal or a lance-sergeant, a name that represents his Sovereign and his country, while the term 'Tommy' only represents a Kipling rhyme at a music-hall concert. If we desire to elevate the character of the soldier, we must remember to treat him as a soldier and a man. I call to mind what the centurion said to our Lord — ' I am a soldier '; and the truest manliness that the world can recognise is that which is found in a typical Christian soldier: not displayed in frantic excitement or gushing manner, but that which is real, because it is true; that which is calm, because it is pure; and that which is Christ-like, because it is manifested in the power of His Spirit.
I can call to mind many gatherings of the old 51st at which Colonel Ball-Acton presided where the men would, with soldierly attention, follow every sentence in the address. It is one of the gravest problems of the day how to reach the manhood of our country, and Christian work in the army is doing it, though at present in great danger of dwindling down into an effeminate service of amusing young recruits, while the real soldier prefers the barrack-room to the meeting-room, which has almost lost its robustness of faith and reality of life.
The importance of the work can only be estimated as we calmly consider the nature of the work and the condition of the men. In touching the army the worker is touching the nation; its representatives are found within the
barrack-room from almost every town, and well-nigh every village, in the kingdom, and to reach the men is to send them back into civil life better in character than when they enlisted. For this great and desirable end to be accomplished, Christian work must cease to be amusing and entertaining, and be made as real and true as the discipline and training of the barrack square. As a Commanding Officer once described his work: 'It's my business to make men soldiers, and I find it a hard work.' How much more may we say that Christian workers among soldiers have, by the grace of God, to make men Christians; and the stern reality of this can never dwindle into pleasing Tommy with childish amusements or music-hall concert songs.
For such a work the service needs more men of the same stamp as the late Colonel Ball-Acton — men who knew God, and understood the nature of barrack-room life; men who could maintain discipline and order by righteousness in the orderly room, as well as by presiding at meetings in the temperance room. When this great reform takes place in the service it will not be a question of tailoring that is to change the character of the men in all ranks, from General to private; but that Divine reform which changes a man into a soldier of Christ who has learnt the lesson of obedience, and discipline, and order, and faithfulness to his Sovereign, because he knows what it is to be obedient to the law of his God. 'I am a soldier.' 'Speak the word.' And the instinct of his soldier life makes it a simple act of faith to believe what God has revealed and become ' a good soldier of Jesus
Christ.'
J. GELSON GREGSON.
Camp Kroonstadt, O.R.C., South Africa.
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