Page:Memorials of Capt. Hedley Vicars, Ninety-seventh Regiment by Marsh, Catherine, 1818-1912.djvu/152

Rh ed to awaken the poor fellows who were stretched asleep on the guard-bed in the adjoining room to pray with them, and to talk to them of the love of Christ! And thus it is (for it seems so selfish to keep all this happiness pent up in one's own heart when it might be shared by others), whenever I have been brought nearest to my Saviour, even 'into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,' I have been constrained and forced, 'while the fire burns,' to 'speak with my tongue,' and to make use of the golden hours of communion with Jesus in the solitude of my chamber, to publish, when 'I go without the camp,' what the Lord Jesus has done for my soul; even for me than whom a man more undeserving of his mercy does not exist. I felt so merry and happy in that miserable guard-room yesterday. I always make it a rule, after reading to the men the 'orders of the guard,' to warn them against the too prevalent habit of swearing, and, to my great delight, during my whole tour of duty, I did not hear one oath; and, in addition to this, I had the pleasure of hearing several times the rustling of the leaves of the tracts I had given them: and two or three times as I passed through their room I could see them poring over them; and about nine o'clock in the evening, Sergeant Stephens, drawing his chair (an empty cask turned upside down) near the fire, proposed to read aloud, to which a general assent was at once given, and he read a tract called 'The Young Naval Officer' to a most attentive audience. I was reading my Bible when he commenced, and I could not help stopping and listening. I cannot tell you how happy I felt as I heard him recounting the history of a soul brought to Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit, and earnestly did I pray that some of those poor fellows might also be led to behold that same Saviour bleeding for them on the cross.

"It grieves me to think of the sorrow it will cause