Page:Memorials of Capt. Hedley Vicars, Ninety-seventh Regiment by Marsh, Catherine, 1818-1912.djvu/69

Rh Father, which are so necessary to the keeping alive of religion in the soul."

In the month of August, not without regret, he resigned the Adjutancy of his regiment, in consequence of circumstances which need not be mentioned here. His best friends not only fully justified him in taking this step, but valued him the more for the reasons which led to it.

In the following letter, he alludes briefly to his painful feelings on this occasion:

"— I remember well the unenviable state of my feelings, whilst stretched on the straw, with nothing to disturb me but the tramp of the sentry in front of my tent door. I fancied myself deserted by every one, even by my God. I cannot tell you what I suffered then. At last I thought, 'Oh, for some Christian friend to converse with me!' Just then I heard a voice saying, 'Mr. Vicars, are you at home?' I jumped up, and saw a Mr. Rigby, a home missionary, whom I had seen in the tent on Sundays. I invited him in, and we sat side by side on the straw for more than an hour, conversing on those delightful subjects, the Sinner's Friend and the Christian's Home. Oh, the comfort of meeting with a child of God, when Satan has been assaulting you and tempting you to despair! We knelt on the ground, and leaning against the tent-pole, prayed together. What a soothing influence has prayer over the soul! But it is the Holy Spirit who prompts us; and to Him be all the glory.

"A Christian has certainly his moments of bitterness and anguish; but I would not change even these for the world's moments of jollity and mirth. The former generally precede happy hours of peace and calm; and the latter, I know, end in trouble and remorse.