Northern light - 01.07.1941, Qupperneq 6

4
XORTHERN LIGHT
PADRE’S LETTER
Most of us are engaged at the moment
on a task very different from our proper
job in life. We are temporary soldiers.
Many of us dislike the job, but it is nec-
essary, and here we are in Iceland.
This war is different in many ways
from the last. Very few of us have been
in action for more than a few days, and
this gives us something which our fathers
had not got — time for thought. Many
of us are using this time to picture some-
thing of the world after the war. We are
determined that this shall not happen
again, but we are very vague as to how
it is to be prevented. I hear many a dis-
cussion in which it is assumed that if
Germany is put down and kept down all
will he well. But will it? The causes of
the war lie deeper than that. War is only
the outward sign of the evil things which
have existed in the world all the time.
Until these are eradicated there can be
no security from future war. Poverty,
ionelincss, hatred must go, and love and
fair dealing take their place. The real
“war to end war” will start when this
fight is finishpd, but we are foolish if
we wait till then to start our training and
the building of our “armaments”. Now is
the time for this and Toc H provides an
opportunity — one of many opportunities
— which inay appeal to you.
At some of the Tuesday meetings of
Toc H we are openly discussing the post-
war world, but at all of them we are
preparing for it. We are learning by deve-
loping habits of fellowship and fair think-
ing to work for a good and stable peace.
The more we think of the task ahead
the bigger it becomes and the more we
realise that we depend on One greater
than ourselves. We come to realise the
need for prayer. But this realisation has
come at a time when crowded Nissen huts
make concentration very hard. Again Toc
H offers something. The beautiful little
chapel in the outbuilding at the back of
the Club — cunningly fashioned from an
old loft — is open to all ranks at all
times, whether the Club is open or not.
It is a place where we may seek God
the Holy Spirit to guide and strengthen
us in our battles for a New World.
R. N. Craig,
EMBARKATION LEAVE
Before I leave we have a little space
Between impatient travel to and fro,
When I can kiss your eyes and touch your face —
Yet we have hardly met when I must go.
But why should we measure time in terms of days,
And dull our forty-eight short hours with tears,
When we have known eternity, in ways
That love has, stretching seconds into years?
Why should we worry that our love might die,
The vision fade before the heights are seen?
Whatever happens, this was you and I;
It is outside of time where we have been.
J. C. Sully.