The Death of Christian Britain

— Men in Discourse and Narrative 1800–1950 —
Luther, Knox, Chalmers, Wycliffe, Cromwell, Wesley, and Christ, ‘the
perfect man’. 29
The masculinity of soldiers and sailors was seen by evangelicals as the
severest of tests. One woman who specialised in evangelising at Aldershot
found soldiers were hindered in coming to Christ: ‘They tremble, but they
do not decide; they come a certain length, but no farther.’ Religious meetings
were well attended at the garrisons, but at after-meetings only small
numbers fell under ‘great contrition’ and wept on account of their sins.
Lack of emotionalism was a key stumbling block. But the two distinctive
problems with soldiers was fear of ridicule and love of sin: ‘Many a man
would rather encounter the enemy’s fire in open line, “than be laughed at
in the barrack-room.” He would “die for the colours,” but he cannot live
for Christ.’ This was intensely frustrating to the true evangelist. Tracts were
taken and ridiculed in the barrack-room, and all the vices of the male world
reigned: lust, the ‘fast life’, ‘sowing wild oats’, and above all drink. This
gave rise to two big moral problems in the army: desertion and suicide,
each the product of absence of true religion. Soldiers would not kneel for
appearing foolish: ‘I’m quite converted, thank you,’ one soldier was quoted
as saying, ‘but there’s no occasion to kneel down; I can praise the Lord in
my heart.’ Pride would not take the soldier further, even on his deathbed.
This type of converted soldier was reported as common, displaying an
‘outward reformation’ or a mere ‘turning over a new leaf’. The lady evangelist
reported: ‘It goes by the name of “Ladies’ Religion”.’ 30
As a result, the way in which the strategy of feminising male piety was
constructed in discourse to men was very important. To attract a man’s
attention to feminine piety, the language of discourse had to be ‘manly’.
This was evident in the masculinity in which the evangelical ‘spoke’ to his
unreformed brothers in tracts. Religious tracts were particularly targeted at
men, and adopted a virile, ‘fellow-sinner’ tone and a bold presentation. The
voice of the tract was male, a man of the world who had known the sins
of drink, the flesh and moral corruption, and was no wilting violet. This
is especially true of the plain didactic tract, usually of one, two or four
pages, which tended to be based on straight exhortation. These were characteristically
on the themes of drinking, Sabbath profanation, swearing,
prayer, and failure to come to a decision for Christ. Tracts were forthright
and challenging, using large letters and block printing in forceful text. They
presented opposites in clear form:
Reader! – There are two ways of beginning the day:– with prayer or
without it. You begin the day in one of these two ways. WHICH?
There are two classes of people in the world: – the righteous and the
wicked. You belong to one of these two classes. WHICH?
There are two places to which people go:– Heaven and Hell. You
will go to one of these two places. WHICH? 31
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