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Jerusalem seemed to rise up before me in all its beauty and attractiveness.
I could almost hear the songs of the angels.
My all-absorbing thought, however, was about the Divine Redeemer, whose arms were stretched out to receive me. So completely overwhelming and exclusive was the thought of heaven, that I was wholly unconscious of any tie that bound me to the earth.
I was still standing within a few steps of where I was wounded, and yet I utterly forgot my danger, and thought of no means of preserving my life.
There I stood in the midst of men, and where deadly missiles were flying thick and fast, and yet my thoughts were completely abstracted from everything around me. So fully was God's love shed abroad in my heart, and so delightful was the contemplation of the offices of the blessed Saviour, that I could think of nothing else.
Rev. J. M. Stokes, chaplain in
Wright's Georgia brigade, says of the religious condition of the troops:
I am happy to state that the health of our troops seems to be much better than it was a few months since.
It will be a source of delight to Christians and all thinking people to know that the religious element among our troops is much greater now than at any time previous since the war began.
I believe sincerely that there is less profanity in a week, now, than there was in a day, six months ago. And I am quite sure there are ten who attend religious services now to one who attended six months ago. I speak principally with reference to our own regiment, but I have been informed by those who have travelled among the different parts of the army in Virginia that such is the case everywhere.
This was the case not only in the army in
Virginia, but in almost every other department of the South.
Rev. B. H. Perry, writing from
Columbus, Miss., of the state of religion in the 37th Alabama regiment, under the command of a sincere Christian,
Col. Dowdell, says:
