William W. Bennett, A narrative of the great revival which prevailed in the Southern armies during the late Civil War

[84] of like character that preached silently but powerfully and successfully, in camp and hospital, in tent and bivouac. The following incident is a simple, truthful, and touching illustration of the good that may arise from the humble work of a tract distributer:

Richard Knill did not become a subject of the grace of God until he was twenty-six years of age. A sermon preached by his pastor, in which various extracts were given from “Buchanan's Christian Researches in the East,” had a powerful effect on the heart of Knill, and he resolved to prepare himself for the work of a missionary.

While he was considering the question of future duty, opportunities for usefulness, presenting themselves in various directions, he was not backward in improving them. On one occasion he heard that a military company of a thousand men were about to be disbanded and sent to their homes. He resolved to distribute among them the choicest religious tracts, with the hope that they would benefit not only the soldiers themselves, but the families and the homes to which they were about to return. “ I proceeded,” he tells us,

to the grenadiers, who were all pleased, until I came to one merry andrew kind of a fellow. He took the tract and held it up, swore at it, and asked, “Are you going to convert me?”

I said, “Don't swear at the tract; you cannot hurt the tract, but swearing will injure your soul.”

“ Who are you?” he exclaimed. “ Form a circle round him,” said he to his comrades, “ and I will swear at him.”

They did so; he swore fearfully, and I wept. The tears moved the feelings of the other men, and they said, “ Let him go; he means to do us good.”

So I distributed my thousand tracts, and left them in the care of Him who said, “My word shall not return unto me void.”

Many years after I had taken leave of these soldiers, I returned from India to my native country and visited