Page:Memorials of Capt. Hedley Vicars, Ninety-seventh Regiment by Marsh, Catherine, 1818-1912.djvu/24

18 with a family who showed him great hospitality, and in maintaining social intercourse with them, and sharing their pleasures, he had involved himself beyond his means. It was the first and the last time that his unselfish nature thus transgressed.

In the depth of his penitence for his errors towards an earthly parent — called forth by the patient bearing of her forgiving love — do we not see the foreshadowing of that prostration of soul with which he humbled himself, when once the kindness and long-suffering of his God and Saviour were manifested to him in the fulness of redeeming love? And thus it was first through the raising of his moral nature by means of the holiest affections of man's heart, that he was eventually, after many a fall and rising again, to be drawn up into the higher life of fellowship with the Father and with his son Jesus Christ.

The depth and tenderness of his feelings at this time are well spoken again in the following letter to his mother:—

"What a difference there is between the crowded sea of the Mediterranean and the broad and dreary expanse of the Atlantic! On the former sea we passed hundreds of vessels, but from the day we left Giblaltar to enter into the Western Ocean, to the time we sailed up the Carribean sea, not more than two vessels hove in sight, and they were nearly hull down with their top-spars alone visible. On, on we went through the monster ocean of the western hemisphere, with the glorious sky above, and the rolling restless waves beneath. A huge whale kept us company for one day — no one on board had ever seen one like it. Porpoises and dolphins enliven us also by their presence every day, affording great delight, by their clumsy gambols, to the seamen and soldiers.

"Our watches were kept day and night. I had my vigil to keep for four hours every night, and often have