“There was a certain man in Cesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band; a devout man, and one that feared God with all his house; which gave much alms to the people and prayed to God always." Acts X, 1 & 2

      [NOTE: the capital X is a symbol used by Lay to designate the name of Christ].

    Some persons of timid and uninstructed conscience have doubted at times whether the profession of arms is compatible with a just regard to the spirit and the precepts of our holy religion. But the well weighed and mature judgement [sic] of Christians has very generally affirmed the position assured by the Church of England in one of her articles "It is lawful for Xn men at the commandment of the magistrate to wear weapons and to serve in wars".

    The clearest proof of this proposition is found in the [unclear]of soldiers mentioned in the N. T. For instance John the Baptist that stern and faithful preacher, received soldiers to his baptism, and admonished them not to forsake their called, but to resist its peculiar temptations to injustice and complaint. "Do violence to no man," he said "neither accuse any falsely, and be content with your wages."

    The centurion, or Roman captain whose servant our Lord healed is represented as a man of lovely religious character. Many came to our Saviour to procure healing for their children: but this is the only one we know of who sought this benefit for a servant. Such was his humility and so just were his concessions of Christ's power and goodness as to win from our Lord that singular commendation. "I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel." That is, this Gentile soldier had a livelier, clearer faith than God's most favored people.

    The instance mentioned in the text is equally striking. When the privileged of the church hitherto confirmed to one people, were to be offered to all nations, Almighty God designated a soldier as the first Gentile to whom the Gospel should be preached and Holy Baptism administered. He is described as "a devout man": he made faithful use of those three private means of grace which our Lord commends to us in the Sermon on the Mount, prayer, alms and fasting: "he gave much alms to the people and prayed to God always". He "was fasting" when the angel appeared to him and bade him send for Peter. And his influence pervaded those around him. He "feared God with all his house": "a devout soldier of them that waited on him continually" was his messenger to Joppa. His kinsmen and near friends were blessed through him, for on all of them the H. G. did fall.

    When we remember moreover that the O. T. worthies are Moses and Joshua, Samuel and David were warrior Saints, as famed for their valour as for other virtues, we have abundant illustration of the truth that the pulses of the Christian heart may beat calmly and earnestly beneath the breast plate of the warrior.

    It may be that some one of tender conscience still enquires, how are these things to be reconciled our religion breathes always the accents of gentleness and peace. It forbids bloodshed and violence: it tells us not to resist inquiry and wrong: it bids us love your enemies and pray for them which despite fully use you and persecute you. It sets out for our imitation the sublime example of One, the most cruelly sinned against and outraged of all the martyrs, whose last breath was expended in the entreaty "Father forgive!"

    Does it not seem a contradiction for use with the memories of Calvary in my mind, and the cross, badge of patience signed upon my brow, to uplift the weapon of violence against a fellow creature, and to crimson my hands with the blood of the stranger? To this we answer, that the spirit of revenge, the love of bloodshed, the redressing of individual wrongs at the expense of human life, is expressly forbidden by the precepts of the Gospel. That is no Christian warrior who delights in carnage and who is animated by hate and malevolence.

    There are three cases, and I believe only three, in which it is lawful for men to destroy life viz, in self defense, in the protection of the helpless, and at the mandate of the civil power.

    We may destroy life in self-defense: for this is a right secured by the law of nature, confirmed expressly by the law of Moses And in nowise taken away by our Saviour. He bids us submit to injuries, but then he specifies the sort of injuries: a buffet on the cheek, the robbery of a garment or such a matter, the imposition of a mile or two of travel--He does not exact passive submission when the injury proffered is a deadly blow, a desolation of home and substance, a shameful and prolonged violation of personal liberty. Manliness is a part of our religion, and he is no true man who does not defend the life and liberty which God has given him against the violence of the wicked.

    The protection of the helpless is not only a right, but a sacred duty. Our religion is not all mercy: it is justice as well as mercy. God himself prompts that generous wrath and indignation, that honest uprising of the soul which good men feel, in the view of pride insulting over helplessness and brute power grinding the faces of the innocent. As Moses smote the Egyptian and delivered his oppressed brother, so is it the duty of every Christian man to oppose the protection of his strong arm between the helpless and the oppressor.

    We may also bear arms at the commandment of the magistrate. The Bible everywhere speaks of the civil authority as being God's representative: to it is committed the power of life and death for the preservation of the social order & for the terror of evildoers, and he beareth not the sword in vain. Without this right to arm its citizens, Society would lie at the mercy of the reprobate: and when Summoned by its authority, the citizen acquires a new character. He is no longer a private man repelling private injuries, but becomes an official of the State, acting under its authority, obeying its mandates and not his own wishes.

    We cannot indeed conceive that a Christian man should for revenge or for anger add one pang to the mass of human suffering, or shorten one life brief and sorrowful enough at best. But it is entirely consistent with our Sense of right and with the teaching of our holy faith that a man of gentlest nature and tenderest sensibilities, a man the freest from hate and rancour, the fullest of kindness and forbearance, shall yet in a case of inevitable self-defense, or to ward off injury from those who look to him for aid, or at the Solemn Summons of the country which has given him birth, shall assume the character of the stern warrior, and smite fiercely until the aggressor desists from his injury.

    Every conscientious man, my Hearers, ought to define to himself the grounds on which he acts in any serious matter: should be able to give a rational and religious account of his conduct. And surely it is enough for the Confederate Soldier to rest upon the principles just laid down. He need not enter into speculation as to the nature of government, or touching the origin and causes of the war. It presents itself as a practical matter--what is my duty under God to myself, my neighbors and my country?

    Yours is the plea of self-defense. You stand on your soil, next your own hearth-stones, to repel the invasion, not to make aggression. The enemy is here, at your doors in hot and angry pursuit of those who would live at peace; his firebrands are scattered along your border, and the course of the beautiful river may be traced in the darkness by the flame of his incendiary fires. If conquered you are reft of property, reduced to social degradation, nay robbed even of your conscience: for submission is not accepted unless you will add perjury to obedience, Swearing Such oaths and praying such prayers as the conqueror shall dictate. The only mercy for you is the base liberty to crawl dishonored on the earth, and to breathe the common air, so long as you mould into voices that will displease your masters.

    You are fighting for the helpless. In this war there are none of these alleviations which knightly courtesy and Christian kindness had grafted on the barbarism of the past. The unarmed citizen is driven from his home and [unclear] in the felon's cell. The man of grey hairs and tottering steps is insulted and jeered, while the torch is applied to his unoffending habitation. The poor widow is surprised as she labours for the bread of her children, and sees every domestic animal slain, every implement of husbandry destroyed that she may be reduced to starvation: and this not occasionally and by a few soldiers, but Systematically and by orders from the Supreme authority. Every where throughout our land, innocent and helpless people are weeping bitterest tears, and with hands upraised to heaven exclaim how long O Lord shall the ungodly triumph: how long shall the enemy do me this dishonor! And you under God are their vindicators and protectors.

    Nor would I forget another class of helpless persons in whose defence [sic] you stand forth. I mean our negroes. That is a low and ignoble view of unworthy of any Christian Southerner, which would regard them as mere animals for labour to be bartered in for profit. There is a nobler sentiment among the good men of the Old Dominion, and of other states as well. They are an inferior race committed to our guardianship by divine providence for our mutual benefit. They are members of our families, Sharers in our Sustenance, often the affectionate nurses of our children, faithful watchers by our beds of Sickness. In prosperous times we have reaped the avails of their labour: now we are called to render them their due, and to protect them against the Seductions of the of the crafty, and the refined cruelty of those who first tempt them to betray their masters and then in their distress reply "what is that to us" and leave them to perish.

    Alas! how brave they died of want by thousands in every fence corner near their dismantled homes, or shivered and frozen beneath the cold charities of a Northern sky! What ruin of body and soul awaits them, when they exchange kind masters for pretended friends--Leaving all other considerations apart, this one alone seems decisive of our duty. This war is in a true and holy sense a war for the negro: and we would be false and craven if we did not stand forth in defence of our dependents and preserve them from demoralization and extermination. But chiefly, my friends, you are fighting for your country, and that word comprehends all. The commandment of the magistrate or civil power is entitled to be reverenced and obeyed. Its enlistment or commission invests you with rights which a private man has not--Among the Romans it was considered infamous for a man to smite an enemy before he had taken the sacramentum [sic] or military oath: and the public law of later times affirms the principle teaching that while private persons may snatch up arms to defend their homes in case of sudden invasion, none is competent to make war who has not been delegated by the sovereign power and sworn to obey its wishes.

    You can readily See how necessary this is to lift war above the level of personal malignity and private revenge. The strife becomes one of principles instead of persons. It is the public enemy you smite and not your own. This view encourages a loftiness and generosity of sentiment along with it, and adds to valour in combat, mercifulness in victory.

    It is for your country you are fighting: a fair and lovely land, too fair to be the mere convict settlement of a foreign power. A country which by its heroism and endurance, by its adherence to right and justice, by its noble refusal under every provocation to barbarize [sic] itself by imitating the outrages it has suffered, has won already a glorious name. Could our cause be overthrown tomorrow, and three brief years sum up our national history, the exile in any foreign land should never blush to own I was a soldier of the Confederacy.

    I have said this much, not to Strengthen your convictions , for that it [sic] not needed: but that in the hope of assisting you to explain to yourself your own motives. Perchance my words may be recalled in some moment of Solemn interest when you are to charge upon the ranks of living men, and facing death yourselves to carry it to others. And surely it will nerve your arm and strengthen your heart to appeal to almighty God for the justice of your motives--that you strike not in wanton aggression, but for the defence of dearest rights" not to carry wo [sic] to others, but to avert it from millions of helpless brethren; not with personal malice but as the sworn soldier of an honored country.

    I have urged thus far that the military profession in general, and the engagement of the Confederate soldier in particular, are entirely consistent with the Spirit and precepts of our holy religion. And now I invite tou to consider another question--what there is in your peculiar circumstances as soldiers to help and what to hinder your religious welfare? It is a practical question and deserves to be weighed.

    Some circumstances are in your favor--For instance it cannot be doubted that some of you occupy a much more unselfish position than before the war. And the more elevated are a man's moral sentiments, the more capable is he of readily receiving impressions strictly religious and spiritual. Every young man preparing to enter upon the active duties of life must needs arrange his plans. Shall I remain in Virginia, for instance or remove to the West? Shall I become a farmer, a mechanic, a merchant or shall I prepare myself for one of what are called the learned professions.

    Now in deciding these questions you ought to be guided mainly by the consideration that one or another of these paths seems to afford a better opportunity to serve your God and Saviour, to be extensively useful to others, and to promote your own growth in grace and godliness. This ought to be the controlling argument: for whatever inducements any other career may hold out, it will profit you nothing to gain the whole world and lose your own soul. But how few young men do this! How common is it for our youths to ask this question only, in which of these directions can I soonest get rich, or attain the most reputation, or find the most comfort and enjoyment: and to determine their actions by these considerations only or chiefly. And this when you sift it down is selfishness pure and unmitigated. I do not deny that some place may be allowed for duties to God and man, but they are entirely subordinated. Self stands first: God and man stand far below. Bodily ease, human praise, increase of wealth are the main objects of life: religion must reconcile its claims with theirs if it can. And thus many a man at the very outset of life makes the terrible mistake of setting his face in the wrong direction.

    Now the war has done you good in this regard. It has enlarged the scope of your vision, and lifted you out of your petty selfishness. You have felt there is a debt greater than that due to Self. Generous ideas have invaded your minds. You have appreciated the beauty and nobleness of Self-Sacrifice. You have rallied cheerfully at your country's call. You have resigned your ambitious schemes and consented to endure the hardness while the extortioner and the laggard win the profit. If you have said world thou must not tempt me: I cannot afford to make money: flesh thou must not murmur: it is in behalf of my country that I endure the weary vigil and the sharp hunger pain. This Self-conquest is not necessarily religious in its character--it may be due to inferior motives: but you are better men for it, nobler men: your moral vision is cleared by it so that you can see something of the sublimity of Self-conquest. You are the better prepared to hear of him, that lonely chieftain Sublime in his love and in his sorrow, who undaunted Stood between the living and the dead until the plague was stayed: who stepped forth with noble boldness and stood patient while there settled on his devoted head that awful curse which would else have Sunk us body and soul in hell.

    You have borne privation and losses and felt the comfort of them. You are the more accessible to the entreaty come take up the cross and follow me. And oh that this very day you may rise from this mere stepping stone of duty, to the noblest [unclear] of all: and resolve that you will live all henceforth for Christ, his Church and man's salvation.

    Again--There are circumstances in your experience which tend directly to promote religious belief. Do you any of you for instance doubt the doctrine of a Special Providence now?

    You have in former days perchance heard some argue that God does not concern himself with everyday matters: that the universe is like some great clock with its movements pre-arranged, wound up once for all, and interfered with only under circumstances of peculiar embarrassment. Such teachers are no longer listened to. In nothing have the people of this great nation been more unanimously agreed, than in recognizing a Supreme Providence, ever watchful, never idle, working all things according to the counsel of his will.

    Standing alone and friendless among the nations we have been led to cry there is none that fighteth for us save thou only O our God--we have ascribed to him the glory of every Success, and acknowledged his chastening hand in every reverse.

    All have confessed that the future is too inscrutable for us to predict. The wonderful combination of events has baffled the wisdom of the most sagacious: we have felt our littleness and insignificance as unknowing actors in a drama of wonderful incident and unknown results, and have said with one voice "if the Lord delight in us, then he will save us."

    Each of you has some story of special providence to tell: each one of you has in his thought been brought face to face with God, as one on whom you are dependent and with whom you have to do. The hair-breadth escape from danger imminent, the garment peirced [sic] by balls which avoided the body, or the strange course of missiles which reached the frame, but travelled [sic] curiously as though avoiding each vital part: these and Such like things have brought Divine Providence home to your thoughts and assisted you to realize that the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

    We believe that has been also much in your experience to commend to you Specially the religion of the Gospel. Yourselves exposed to dangers and trials, you need a religion of plain and familiar promises: for yourselves and for the sake of the dear ones at home you need a religion of sympathy: with little time and opportunity for close thought or severe neutral application you need a religion of certain facts and principles easily comprehended. And how do all these characters combine in the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ!

    What a comfort it is, Christian Soldier, to be permitted to look upwards and say, "Our Father which art in heaven"--To remember that you and yours are in the hands of a merciful Saviour who sympathizes with you, who has know by personal experience what it is to hunger and to be weary, to be lonely and persecuted.

    A venerable professor of divinity is reported to have said upon his dying bed "My theology is all reduced to this, that X. J. came into the world to save sinners." Ah, my friends, how have you felt that the simple scheme of redemption just meets the need of men anxious and harrassed [sic], in peril and in fear. Vain is the hope to such that they can atone for their misdeeds, and by reformation blot out transgression. That dear word come unto me all ye that travail and are heavy-laden just meets their need: and it is not hard for them to believe that if saved at all, it is as miserable and guilty sinners by the free blood, of the atonement and by the tender mercy of God in X. J.

    but I must not forget that there are many things in a Soldier's life unfriendly to godliness. It is a great misfortune to see separated from home influences: these gentle us and civilize us and tent to keep us pure. Mother and wife and sisters are guardians to us, as a general rule they are more unselfish and heavenly-minded than we are. And little-children with their pure minds and loving hearts are useful preachers to us. It is a misfortune to be separated from all these.

    And men gathered in large crowds are apt to become coarse and rough in manners; to lay aside the delicacy and courtesy they observe at home. Unable to avoid unseemly and blasphemous talk, they become familiarized with it and ceases to shock and offend them. Nay, one who seeks to keep himself pure, will sometimes excite prejudice and lay himself open to the charge of pride: a charge by which some seek to destroy every man who preserves his self-respect and refuses to let himself down to the level of the vicious. How necessary is it for the good soldier to guard against their influences: to resolve that under any and all circumstances he will still be the Christian gentleman, and carry back to his home a heart as pure, hands and tongue as undefiled as when he left it.

    And so also of the publicity which attaches to your mode of life, and the irregularity of it, interfering so much with fixed habits of reflection and devotion. Often you have no closet to which you can retire, Save the Sanctuary of your own heart: you cannot read your bible or say your prayers without interruption and distraction. The day of rest comes with no hallowing influences, and is often occupied with week-day cares and employments that you almost lose the habit of counting it Sacred. And yet you must keep the thought of Christ and his love fresh in your heart: you must pray without ceasing, you must in heart and mind thither ascend where X has led the way--what energy of purpose, what special grace and help to enable you to resist these hindrances and to preserve a religious temper. We are all apt to think that our peculiar state of life is specially unfavorable to religious improvement: and I suppose it is hard for any one to form a correct and fair judgement [sic]. It is enough for you to recognize whatever there is in your State and calling to favour religious endeavour and to use it well: to consider well your difficulties and use every precaution against them. We trust we have proved to you, however the balance may seem to incline, that a soldier can be a Christian: a devout man, a burning and shining light to those around him. Your own observation has found living examples not unlike those which we have cited from the N. T. days. For the Spirit helpeth our infirmities: He is with us abroad as at home, in war as in peace. He works by means and Seemingly without means. And when a Sinner cries "take not thy Holy Spirit from me", this dove of purity and peace come to nestle in his bosom, even amid the discords of horrid war, and the tumult of the crowded camp.

    And now my Hearer, suffer us to ask you plainly what sort of a soldier you are: patriotic, brave, uncomplaining, Subordinate to authority--we trust you are all these. The Powhatan troop has won a good report. Among the first to step forth, it has blanched before no duty or danger: it will stand enduring to the end. But there is a deeper question. Are you such a soldier as Cornelius--a devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people and prayed to God always? Death has already made mournful gaps in your company: Some of you will probably yield up your breath in the hospital or on the field, before another campaign is over. Consider well, that is the devout soldier only: the God-fearing man, the charitable man, the praying man to whom belongs the promise of a better life after death. Let not any one say that this suggestion discouraged men, and promotes fear and cowardice. For if you have not made your peace with God, or are uncertain of it, still is it better for you to play the man. The post of duty is the place of safety. It is safer for a man to rush up to canon's mouth with only time to say "God be merciful to me a Sinner", than to seek a longer probation by evading his duty as a man and a citizen. He has no right to hope than such a wilful [sic] and presumptuous abandonment of his trust, will ever be repented of or forgiven. But to return, You may be [fired] with generous principles, and win a glorious name, and die an honored death: and yet after all perish for ever. There is mentioned in the Gospel a young man who lived a very upright life, and whom our Lord loved when he looked upon him: he was so amiable and honest. And yet he could not enter into the kingdom of heaven because he would not take up his cross and bear it.

    Our hearts yearn over the gallant defenders of their country: God forbid that in so good a cause, spending so much, you should win no more than man's applause; whereas you may so live and die, that at the last God himself: think of it my Hearer: how proud is a private to be praised in General Orders: that God himself shall say to you before an assembled universe "Well done, good and faithful servant!" What must you do to be saved? The answer is plain and familiar. Believe in the Lord J. X and thou shalt be saved: repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out. Do you not know what these precepts mean? Believe in the Lord J. X. Do you not know what it is to believe in man? Is there no physician in whose skill and kindness you have such confidence, that you would submit to his prescription without a question? Is there no military leader in whom you so believe that you obey his order gladly as well of necessity, and approve his designs when you least comprehend them? Now reason upward. Your soul is sick and X is the good physician. You are a Soldier in an enemy's land, beset with many dangers, and Christ is the captain of your salvation. Believe in him then: trust him with all, submit to his every commandment: do just what he tells you, follow just where he leads you. Expose your sins to him that he may wash them away in the blood of his cross: bow your neck before him that he may bind upon you his yoke.

    Do you not know what Repentance is? Its chief element is Godly sorrow for sin: not mere Sorrow, but Godly sorrow: the sorrow that comes when you survey your Sins in the light of God and of eternity: when you stand by the cross and see how terrible is the punishment they deserve, how prodigious the mercy that forgives them all. You have not been sorry because you have been thoughtless and inconsiderate; you have not asked for the help of the Spirit to show you their enormity, to break your hard heart, to give you the grace of grief and tears. But now consider your ways and call to mind your doings: count up your mercies, consider how patient God has been with you, how much X loves you, how tenderly he reproaches you for avoiding him, how lovingly he invites you and you will repent. And "be converted". This you say is my stumbling-block: conversion seems to be such a strange something: you associate it perhaps with an unnatural excitement, and transcendent ecstasy, a miraculous and instantaneous release from the bands of Sin and Sorrow. Conversion is nothing of the sort. God's service is a rational service: his ways are heavenly and spiritual, but they unite sobriety with fervor, and good sense with tender emotion. Conversion, Brn, is properly the outward and visible effect of the inward repentance [and] faith. It does not describe the experience of any one moment, but is used to describe that change of mind and will and affection and purpose, which is wrought in us by the Spirit of God, when we come to him according to the terms of the Gospel. Conversion is not something which we must wait to happen to us: it is a duty to be performed at God's command and with his gracious help. Be converted, X cries to us all. We may well express it in military phrase "face right about". You have mutinied against your lawful sovereign, and deserted your standard. You have fought against God, and are rushing to give yourself up body and soul to his enemies. X, as a warning angel meets you on the way: with the imperiousness [sic] of authority, with the tenderness of love he withstands you. Repent & be converted he cries: remove your shameful purpose and face right about. And when you see your crime and loathe it, when you recognize the drawn sword in his hand & adore his forbearance when from the depths of a convicted and sorrowful heart you cry "Lord if it displease thee I will get me back again". When you do turn back, and renew your allegiance, and acknowledge your ill-desert--This, this my H[earers] is conversion.

    My H you ought to understand these matters. If yet in the dark, devout study of God's word and careful meditation over it, constant and earnest prayer for the help of the Holy Spirit, whose office it is to open blind eyes, to teach dull souls & to give heavenly wisdom, that you must seek to know these mysteries on which your life depends. And as an additional means I beseech you to use the counsel and advice of the godly ministers of the Church. Let not shame or diffidence hinder you from coming to us and opening your grief. Our holy office has brought us unto contact with men as erring and as despairing as any of you can be: and the good physician has furnished us with medicine for their diseases. The turning point in many a man's religious history is found often in the moment when he unburdened his Soul to the minister of X.

    I have said [that] among the Romans no man was allowed to fight, until he had taken the Sacramentum or military oath. Hence comes our word Sacrament. The Church caught up the word and sanctified it for her own uses. If you would fight in X's army and be carried by him into his glory, you must take his Sacrament. You must Solemnly, in the presence of his people, swear allegiance to him, and by a vow uttered with the mouth, announce the purpose formed by his grace in your heart.

    You cannot keep your religious purpose a secret: it is a rash and presumptuous thing to encounter temptation without the help offered you in the Church, and without the spiritual benefits covenanted and conveyed to us in Baptism & in the H. Communion. (Note--Confirmation in Richmond March 20)

    Some of you are baptized members of the Episcopal Church: others are inclined to enter her sacred fold. As her accredited representation, as the ambassador of Christ, I say to you one and all, Come thou with us and we will do thee good. She has many chains upon you. It is the old time Church planted first in England by Apostolic men, and brought by our fore-fathers to Jamestown when first they came to Virginia. It is the Church which teaches the faith as once delivered to the Saints, and as constantly held by all orthodox persons in the ancient creeds. It is a Church of devout ceremonial, of authoritative ministry, of boldest and yet gentlest evangelic teaching. It is the Church which framed the translation of the Bible which we do so highly prize, a Church of many learned doctors and Saintly children and to which have adhered many of the wisest and best leaders of the American revolution and of this young republic. Come with us, my brother and we will do thee good.

    Not that we can do good to the careless and impertinent, to the prayerless men who love not the Lord J. X. For these are condemned already and the wrath of God abideth on them.

    But if you are sorry for your Sins: if you are grieved and wearied with the burden of them, and determined by God's help to abjure and forsake them: if you have a thankful remembrance of X's death, and are willing to trust your all to his power and goodness, then do the Spirit and the Bride say come, and whosoever will let him come & take of the water of life freely.

    Thus, dear friends, have I sought to address to you such affectionate counsel and exhortation as the occasion seems to demand: remembering that we shall never all meet again, until at the bar of God we give our several accounts as preacher and as hearers. May these teachings fall as good seed upon good and honest hearts and bring forth fruit abundantly.

    May God almighty set his angels to guard you in all perils and hardships: avert every danger and lighten every sorrow. You carry with you the sympathies and the prayers of families and friends: if you fall in battle, oh let them not experience the bitter grief of those who sorrow without hope: if you return, bring with you a pure mind, an unsullied reputation, a holy heart, a Christian character matured by temptations resisted,
[torn page] [inaugurated] by unfaltering and manly endeavors.

    Sooner or later death must come to all. It matters, much indeed to us, but little to you, whether you be cut off in youth or survive to grey hairs, provided only it may be said at your grave: "He was a devout man, and one that feared God with all his house. He gave much alms to the people and prayed to God always."

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