Page:Memorials of Capt. Hedley Vicars, Ninety-seventh Regiment by Marsh, Catherine, 1818-1912.djvu/38

32 tion to come to Jesus for pardon, peace, and eternal life, without giving him an immediate response to the injunction, "Let him that heareth say, Come," Accordingly, he began to teach in a Sunday-school, to visit the sick, and to take every opportunity of reading the Scriptures and praying with the men singly. Of three of these, whom he describes as "once great sinners, nearly as bad as myself," he could soon say confidently that they had followed him in turning to God. At the same time he was also the means of awakening some of his brother officers to make the earnest inquiry, "What must I do to be saved?"

"As he felt he had been much forgiven," writes the friend before alluded to, "so in proportion was the ever-burning and increasing love to Him whom he had so long grieved by his sins. The name of Jesus was ever on his lips and in his heart. Much grace was given him to confess Jesus boldly before others; and when he was Adjutant, his example and his rebukes to the men for swearing carried great weight, and showed his zeal for the honour of God."

The Adjutancy of his regiment was offered to him by his Colonel in the spring of that year (1852), with these flattering words: "Vicars, you are the man I can best trust with responsibility." This appointment appears to have given universal satisfaction amongst officers and men, although one of the officers remarked, jestingly, "He won't do for it — he is too conscientious."

This conscientiousness was not only evinced in his military, but also in his private life. Every amusement which he found to be injurious in its effect on his spiritual condition was cheerfully relinquished. In a letter to his eldest sister, he inquires her opinion of balls and other public entertainments, and adds: "I have of late refused every invitation to such amusements, on finding they made me less earnest