DOES DEATH IN BATTLE WIN HEAVEN?

Alas! There are preachers of foremost rank in the religious world, who have been to the front, and told the brave soldiers in the trenches, that if they fall in battle, their heroism will win them heaven.

Never was there a more cruel lie coined in hell than this. It has been made to do service among the heathen for centuries. Mohammedans are promised a sensual paradise as the reward for laying down their lives in battle. Heathens generally have this idea.

Such a pagan idea should be kept out of so-called Christian lands. But, alas! What a horrible stoop from the simplicity and purity of the Gospel it is that it should be preached to brave men about to face the enemy, or whispered to dying heroes on the battlefield, or in the hospital, that death in battle saves. No wonder a well-known clergyman described this idea as “PAGANISM REVIVED.”

Nurse Cavell, when awaiting her martyrdom in Brussels at the hands of the Germans, said to the British chaplain, “I know patriotism is NOT enough.” Surely her death was as courageous and heroic as that of any soldier, but she knew that only faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as her personal Saviour could save her. In that trust she passed away, thank God.

No; it is not the death of the soldier for his country, wonderful as that is, that can save him; but the death of the Lord Jesus Christ for the sinner that can save.

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31) That is

THE ONLY WAY.

The Saviour said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by ME” (John 14:6)