[Illustration:  1.  CHURCH OF ENGLAND SOLDIERS’ HOME, ALDERSHOT.]

[Illustration:  2.  GROSVENOR ROAD SOLDIERS’ HOME, ALDERSHOT.]

Here then was a sphere for the work of the new awakening.  And one by one all the agencies mentioned above took up their duty, and entered upon the enterprise.  Mrs. and Miss Daniel founded the Soldiers’ Institute.  The Wesleyans, guided by the Revs.  Dr. Rule, Charles Prest, I. Webster, and C.H.  Kelly, built their first Home at the West End, where, like another ‘West End,’ so much of vice had congregated.  Subsequently it was transferred to the site in Grosvenor Road, and another Home put up at the North Camp, on a site secured by Sir Hope Grant.  Then came the Church of England, with its splendid premises in Aldershot and its church rooms in the North and South Camps.

Meanwhile the camp itself has been reconstructed, so that at last the empire can look without shame upon it; and the brave spirits who first caught the awakening, or saw that it should not die,—­many of whom have joined the majority, but some of whom are still enriching their country by their lives,—­can rejoice in the work they have been permitted to accomplish.

And the result?  ‘Ah, sir,’ exclaimed a sergeant, as he entered one of the Aldershot Homes, ’you are at last giving us a chance.  Hitherto you have provided for us as though we were all bad, and all wanted and meant to be; and bad we became.  But now, sir, you are giving us a chance, and you will see what will be the result.’

And truly we do; for the life of the nation is enriched, not enfeebled, by the men who return to it from the Army and the Royal Navy.  And all ranks of society are becoming convinced that religion is the prime factor in the service efficiency and in the national well-being.  Thus God is, after all, seen to be the greatest need, and the one true enrichment of human life and character—­the vital force by which alone the commonwealth can live.

The wonderful records which will be found in the succeeding chapters of this book, telling as they do of Christian life and service in the South African War, will still further show the fruits of this great awakening.

Chapter II

ALDERSHOT

A raw, cold morning in the late autumn!  A weird-looking train, slowly drawing into the station out of the mist, with carriages altogether different in appearance from those we were accustomed to see!  A battalion of brawny Scotchmen, travel-stained and sleepy.  And then a somewhat lazy descent to the platform.

’Twenty-four hours in this train, sir, and never a bite or a sup.  What do you think of that?’

But as the speaker could not quite keep the perpendicular, and found it absolutely impossible to stand to attention, it was evident that he had had more than one ‘sup,’ whether he had had a ‘bite’ or not.  All along the line, sad to say, ‘treating’ had been plentiful, and this was the result.