This text is part of:
Table of Contents:
Chapter
47
: freedmen's aid societies and an act of congress creating a Bureau of refugees, freedmen and abandoned lands
Chapter
55
:
first
appropriation by congress for the bureau; the reconstruction Act,
March
2
,
1867
; increase of educational work
Chapter
60
: opposition to Bureau and reconstruction work became personal; the
Congregational Church of
Washington
Chapter
62
: life in
Washington, D. C.
,
1866
to
1874
; assigned to duty in regular army as commander,
Department of the Columbia
Chapter
63
: in the
Northwest
, among the
Indians
; trip to
Alaska
; life in
Portland, Ore.
;
1874
to
1881
Chapter
64
: superintendent of the
United States military Academy
; commanding
Department of the Platte
,
Omaha, Neb.
Chapter
68
:
French
army maneuvers,
1884
; promotion to
Major General
,
United States army
,
San Francisco
1886
-
88
[564] By nine o'clock Monday morning the Huron was towing the Spree by two strong cables, and we were quietly dragged for eight days on a smooth sea back to Queenstown, Ireland. As soon as we touched land, the most of the passengers ran to the nearest church. It was of the Methodist persuasion and when the house was well filled, Moody mounted the pulpit and preached a sermon from the text, “God is love,” and we all gave thanks. Moody preceded me to the United States, going over by another line. I returned by the Harvel, a sister ship of the Spree. When I arrived, I found the newspapers filled with opposition to Moody's theory, which he expressed in the brief phrase, “Prayer saved the ship.” When correspondents met me and asked me for the facts, I said: “Mr. Moody's prayer had been, ‘Please send us a ship, and smooth the waves so that we shall not be drowned.’ The ship Huron did come in time to our rescue and we had a smooth sea for eight days back to Queenstown, Ireland. What we asked for came, but whether our Heavenly Father performed a miracle to bring this about I do not know. You ask for daily bread and receive it, and that is sufficient.” It was remarkable that only one man perished on the Spree. He jumped overboard and refused the help offered him; a German sailor said: “He murdered his-self.” That homeward trip had hundreds of incidents peculiar to such a situation, but whatever our belief, surely we were made to feel, as Moody said, that “God is love.” The long detention prevented our reaching home till after Christmas, and in that way I was made to overstay my two months leave of absence. Under the
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