From the archive: The ways of love
Janet Scott writes about the resilience and faith of Friends in adversity
As the first world war approached the end of its fourth year, and with the German advance in France reaching its greatest extent, there was a sense of weariness and frustration. The following appeared in the Friend on 5 July 1918:
Though the crown of the year is come and the glory of the world is unfolded before us in flower and fruit, and the time of the reaper is here… still the Angel of Death stands at our side, and our hearts are heavy-laden, and dark shadows lie athwart land and sea. Dear children full of laughter and heavenly music are laid out suddenly, white and cold and silent; two courageous boys of the Ambulance Unit rest in a foreign field, and George Hodgkin in Mesopotamia… and a multitude of mothers’ sons of all races, over there in the Low Countries; and death and desolation, division and perplexity, imprisonment and travail are a common lot here at home; and weariness, and sickness and old age creep over us, and all the unintelligible burden and broken-heartedness of the time, lie heavy upon us.
Yet the writer found hope, peace and inexpressible comfort in the illimitable love of God:
It is there, of all great things in the world, the greatest; seen or unseen, known or unknown; source of power, source of comfort, source of life and death; from which we came, to which we go; the assurance of the past, the promise of the bright future.
[It is] wide like the wideness of the sea… expansive… all-pervading, all-forgiving; without restriction of name or race or religion or frontier… broader than our opinions or our creeds, broader than our claims, broader than our aspirations of duty or of service, enfolding all men, women and children… in crowded city or tropical jungle or in the far-off lonely outpost of missionary and traveller and herald and soldier – they may all be covered by His wing, by the love of one Shepherd, by the Father of us all.
…out of the depths we cry to Him, and He brings us His love. Down to… the depths of that new grave, down to the bottomless pit of the sin and disappointment and failure and despair of the human heart, where lie the ruined hopes and cherished aspirations, the unfilled promises, the dead memories of long ago – down to all that, dips the sweet and healing and warming and redeeming and victorious and everlasting love of God.
The spirit and purpose of the FAU
The Friends’ Ambulance Unit (FAU) also suffered from what Herbert G Wood described in one report as ‘fed-up-ness’. In the 5 July edition of the Friend he wrote:
That there is real difficulty in securing and maintaining the unity of the spirit is manifest… All or most of the members of the Unit have had enough of the business… and ideals wear badly under the strain of war.
In analysing the situation Herbert G Wood looked at two elements: one was the changes in personnel when under the stress of the work; the other was the different circumstances in which men joined:
The motives are varied… The Unit was founded long before… any Military Service Acts, by a group of men who wanted to be doing something helpful… which would bring them within the sphere of the war’s dangers and hardships… They did not wish… to break with Quaker tradition and practice… Others have joined, especially since the Military Service Acts, who had no primary enthusiasm for the Unit: men who honestly thought and think that the work they have left was not only more congenial but also more important than that to which they have come. Some are in France in obedience to a judgement of their fellow-citizens which they accept but do not endorse.
In restating the aims and values of the work, Herbert G Wood drew attention to the significance of four main points. The FAU, he wrote:
…enables men to offer much needed service to civilians in the war area. It permits them to share the life and experience of the soldier and to render him help and healing in his trouble. It clears the conscientious objection, entertained by Quakers to war, from the charge of lack of public spirit. Its very existence is a humble testimony to the truth that not by war can our moral problems be solved.
On this last point, he stated:
To me the fundamental consideration here is the attitude of Jesus Christ. He came to draw men, not to drive them; to persuade, not to compel… no one who is trying to follow Jesus can entertain either the fear of defeat or the trust in victory which sway the man in the street… I am clear that to a Christian, defeat can never mean the overthrow, victory never secure the establishment, of the Kingdom of God. Jesus has shown us that not by the method of war nor by the spirit it engenders can righteousness prevail in the earth.
Changes in Russia
The Friends’ War Victims’ Relief Committee reported the return home of several workers from Russia. This enabled full reports of the work to appear in the Friend on 26 July. This work, too. had suffered from frustrations and difficulties. The urgent need caused by the famine in the winter had elicited a generous response from both England and America:
Unavoidable delays owing to the interrupted telegraph service compelled us to wait for over two months until the necessary confirmation from England enabled the first installment of money to be handed out to us. During that period the congestion on the Siberian railway made it impossible to transport wheat by rail. Our only alternative was to go down to the Cossack country… where our doctors were known… We bought there many tons of wheat, all of which had to be carted for long distances as there was no railway.
The wheat was used partly for seed corn and partly for food. Fifteen tons of potatoes were also planted, to be sold at cost price to refugees and poor peasants:
The problems of housing, feeding, sanitation, provision of boiling water and so on, were occupying the whole time of two of our women workers.
Florence M Barrow, in the same edition, reported:
Work in Russia in these days demands a great deal of adaptability, for circumstances are constantly altering.
With the return of men from the front, there were now doctors to staff the hospital at Buzuluk, and this work was handed over. Mogotovo House was also closed:
Many of the children in the house were motherless and had been taken in when the father had had to go to the war. The father and older brothers having returned, they could, with a little help resume responsibility for their children. Some of the old people too could now be maintained by their sons who had come home… The old people and orphan children who could not be settled in the villages were transferred to the home by the Monastery in Buzuluk.
The relief work now concentrated on providing homes and employment for refugees. Later reports tell of children starving in Moscow and of the struggle to find suitable accommodation and food for them.
France
In France a new threat was emerging. On 12 July the Friend carried reports that mentioned the prevalence of influenza in the district. The FAU said that ‘influenza has laid a number of men low, particularly members of the office staff’.
A call to prayer
In a letter published in the 28 June edition of the Friend Joseph J Green and Thomas Neale wrote:
In common… with a large majority of our Society, we have felt our insufficiency and helplessness in contemplation of the awfulness and magnitude of the war in which so large a portion of the world is engaged, and which is decimating mankind and making this fair earth a shambles.
Whilst we are thankful that so many members of our Society are engaged… in humanitarian and remedial measures… [and the] conscientious objectors are upholding… Friends’ ancient protest against war… we think that still more might be accomplished, namely, by the greatest of all weapons – earnest and believing prayer… we can make our requests to God that the might of His Holy Spirit may so work upon the minds, consciences, and hearts of mankind… that a lasting and prevailing peace may be secured, to the praise and glory of God and His Christ.
