previous next
‘ [187] Baptist Church. I have also spent a week at Liberty, where I found a deep interest as to religious matters among the soldiers. Many of them begged me to hold a protracted meeting there.’

Richmond, Virginia, December 19.
Messrs. Editors: It was my privilege to attend a meeting for soldiers on last Sabbath, in one of the hospitals in Staunton, at which some twenty-five asked for the prayers of God's people, and all seemed to be serious in regard to the things which make for their peace. I was assured by the post chaplain (Rev. G. B. Taylor), that a great and blessed reformation had been effected in the hospitals. He said that in the early stages of the war it was very difficult to secure the attention of the men to the preached word. Many would sit with hats on during religious services, engage in conversation, smoke, walk about, etc. But now the room is filled with earnest, solemn, and often weeping listeners, while multitudes eagerly embrace any and every opportunity for securing the prayers of God's people. What is stated by this chaplain of his hospitals is substantially true of almost every hospital (and of many camps) throughout the Confederacy. Brother Taylor, with the aid of the Sundayschool and Publication Board, has established two large libraries for the soldiers at Staunton. The books are loaned out to such as will appreciate and return them. You would be surprised to see how admirably this plan is working. As I walked through the hospital, I found almost every man poring over a book, presenting very much the appearance of a college or university. Among the books selected for one of the libraries were ‘Bunyan's Practical Works;’ and in a day or so after the enterprise began nine volumes of Bunyan had been taken out.

A. E. D.

Rev. W. L. Fitcher, Petersburg: ‘There is still much religious interest here among the soldiers. I handed, this morning, to an aged soldier, the tract, “The sick and the Physician.” “That means the Saviour,” said he; “Oh, that he were my Saviour!” “Many of my company have become Christians,” said another, “and I too wish to learn what I must do to be saved.” He requested me to visit him, and aid him in securing life everlasting.’

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide Places (automatically extracted)

View a map of the most frequently mentioned places in this document.

Sort places alphabetically, as they appear on the page, by frequency
Click on a place to search for it in this document.
Richmond (Virginia, United States) (1)

Download Pleiades ancient places geospacial dataset for this text.

hide People (automatically extracted)
Sort people alphabetically, as they appear on the page, by frequency
Click on a person to search for him/her in this document.
Bunyan (2)
George B. Taylor (1)
W. L. Fitcher (1)
Editors (1)
hide Dates (automatically extracted)
Sort dates alphabetically, as they appear on the page, by frequency
Click on a date to search for it in this document.
December 19th (1)
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: