J. William Jones, Christ in the camp, or religion in Lee's army

[378] camps, and if we remain here for some days longer, there is every prospect of an even more glorious work than we had last summer and fall. A brother told of a captain in a Georgia regiment who had been a very wicked man, but who, on making a profession of religion, recently, called his company together and told them that they had followed him into many hard-fought battles—that he had also led them into sin, and that he now called upon them to follow him into the service in which he had just enlisted. A large proportion of that company have since professed conversion, and are following their brave captain as he follows Christ.

Another brother mentioned a fact, confirmed by others, that the gambling and profanity in his brigade was almost entirely confined to the new recruits fresh from home. This is but one of the many proofs that might be given to show that the usual demoralization incident to camp life is very greatly counteracted in our noble army.

And one of the most interesting facts elicited was, that in almost every brigade there are young brethren (many of them among the young converts) who have decided that, if the Lord spares them to the end of the war, they will devote themselves to the work of the Gospel ministry. Many of these are highly educated, and, before the war, were preparing themselves for, or actively engaged in, some secular calling. These young men should be remembered in the prayers of God's people all over the land, that the Lord would shield them in the hour of danger and prepare them by His Spirit for the glorious work of preaching the ‘glad tidings’ of salvation—and earnest prayer should be made to the ‘Lord of the harvest’ that He would raise up yet many more who, coming from this school of self-denial and privation, shall form a ministry more worthy than we to follow in the footsteps of the ‘people's preacher.’

I had the privilege of baptizing eleven candidates again on yesterday—making sixty-seven that I have baptized within the past month. Rev. Dr. Burrows is again laboring in our camp, Rev. A. Broaddus, Sr., arrived on yesterday, and I learn that Rev. Dr. Jeter (who has recently spent several weeks of very successful labor in the artillery), and Rev. H. W. Dodge (pastor of our Church in Lynchburg, and one of the brightest ornaments of the Virginia Baptist pulpit), will be on in a few days to remain some time with us.