FullReads

V

I know that out of all this a serious problem emerges. The problem is this: why should Jock destroy his own personality in order to render himself an exact replica of every other man in the regiment? Is individuality an evil thing that must be wiped out and obliterated? The answer to this objection is that Jock is not asked to sacrifice his personality; he is asked to sacrifice his angularity. The ideal of British discipline is, not to turn men into machines, but to preserve individuality and initiative; and yet, at the same time, to make each man of as great value to his comrades as is by any means possible. In the church we do the same. Brown means well, but he is all gush. You ask him to do a thing. ‘Oh, certainly, with the greatest pleasure in the world!’ But you have an awkward feeling that he will undertake a thousand other duties in the same airy way, and that the chances of his doing the work, and doing it well, are not rosy. Smith, on the other hand, is cautious. He, too, means well; but he is unduly scared of promising more than he can creditably fulfil; and, as a matter of fact, this bogy frightens him out of doing as much as he might and should. Now here you have Brown running and Smith crawling. You know perfectly well that Brown will exhaust himself quite prematurely, and that Smith will never get there. And between Brown’s excited scamper and Smith’s exasperating crawl the main host jogs along at a medium pace. Now Brown’s personality is a delightful thing. You can’t help loving him. His willingness is charming, and his enthusiasm contagious. And Smith’s steady persistence and extreme conscientiousness are most admirable. They do us all good. But if, whilst preserving and developing their personalities, we could strip them of their angularities, and get them to walk in step at one steady and regular pace–tramp! tramp! tramp! tramp!–we should surely stand a better chance of making David king over all Israel!

VI

It is all a matter of discipline. The ploughman comes up from the country with a long ungainly stride. The city man, accustomed to crowded pavements, comes with a short and mincing step. They are drilled for a fortnight side by side, and away they go. Right! Left! Right! Left! Tramp! tramp! tramp! tramp! The harmony is perfect. Jock must submit himself to the same rigid process of training. He may be firmly convinced that the stride of the regiment is too short or too long. But if, on that ground, he adopts a different one, nobody but his gentle and admiring little sister will believe that he is right and they are wrong. Jock’s isolated attitude invariably reflects upon himself. ‘The whole regiment is out of step!’ he declares, drawing attention to his different stride. That is too often the trouble with Jock. ‘The members of our Church do not read the Bible!’ he says. It may be sadly true; but it sounds, put in that way, like a claim that he is the one conscientious and regular Bible-reader among them. ‘The members of our Church do not pray!’ he exclaims sadly. It may be that a call to prayer is urgently needed; but poor Jock puts the thing in such a light that it appears to be a claim on his part that he alone knows the way to the Throne of Grace. ‘Among the faithless faithful only he!’ ‘The members of our Church are not spiritually-minded!’ he bemoans; but somehow, said as he says it, it sounds suspiciously like an echo of little Jack Horner’s ‘What a good boy am I!’

In the correspondence of Elizabeth Fry there occurs a very striking and suggestive passage. When Mrs. Fry began to meet with great success in her work among the English prisons, some of the Quakers feared that her triumphs would engender pride in her own soul and destroy her spirituality. At last the thing became nauseous and intolerable, and she wrote, ‘The prudent fears that the good have for me try me more than most things, and I find that it calls for Christian forbearance not to be a little put out by them. I am confident that we often see the Martha spirit of criticism enter in, even about spiritual things. O Lord, enable us to keep our ranks in righteousness!‘

Tramp! tramp! tramp! tramp!

VII

‘And Enoch walked with God.’

‘And Noah walked with God.’

‘And Abraham walked with God.’

‘And Moses walked with God.’

Tramp! tramp! tramp! tramp!

‘All these men of war that could keep rank came with a perfect heart to make David king over all Israel.’

‘O Lord, enable us to keep our ranks in righteousness!’