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of the camps comes to the altar of prayer and ‘mourns his follies past,’ praying God for pardon.”
“We have,” says another, “two hundred volumes of religious books which are let out to the regiment upon rules adopted by our Sunday Schools.”
Among the most touching scenes were the sacramental occasions in the army.
At such times all denominational lines were forgotten, and Christians of all the
Churches knelt together and received the emblems of a Saviour's love.
Rev. A. G. Haygood describes such a scene in the Army of Tennessee:
We invited all of God's children to join with us in this holy feast.
As hundreds joined in that oft-used hymn-That doleful night before his death,
The Lamb for sinners slain,
Did, almost with his dying breath,
This solemn feast ordain,
many Christians wept, and sinners looked seriously and wonderingly on. It was so unlike the rude scenes of war. I shall never forget, and I shall always feel it, when I remember how these rough-bearded, war-worn, and battle-scarred veterans of three years fierce conflict crowded around the log — the rude altar improvised for the occasion — to celebrate the death of their gracious and adorable Redeemer.
Three-fourths of the communicants-and they were from the various denominations represented in the command — were in tears.
The religion of the soldier was of the best type.
Rev. C. W. Miller says:
My observation is that the religion of the army approximates more nearly that of the primitive days of Christianity than anything which I have witnessed in the halcyon days of peace.
The soldier's situation is peculiarly favorable to the growth of a benevolent, unselfish,