[25] the sympathy and co-operation of the pious, the colporter could through them reach even the most irreligious. We invite earnest, prayerful attention to the subject. It is one of unspeakable importance. Let our pious, self-sacrificing men be urged by the constraining love of Christ: to say, “Here I am, send me;” and let patriotism, as well as religion, afford the means for their support.
A colporter writes:
I have been visiting the volunteers in this county, and I find them very anxious to obtain pocket Bibles and Testaments. Some of these brave men have wept as I have spoken to them of the claims of the Gospel, and they have asked me to pray for them. I lose no opportunity for speaking to them of their soul's salvation, and I do think that good is being done.
A Southern Methodist bishop wrote with respect to the state of things in his vicinity:
There is more prayer among the people generally than heretofore. Prayer for the country and for brothers, sons and husbands, calls the people so often to the mercy-seat that it must almost necessarily increase the spirit of devotion among them. Hence there is a good deal of religious feeling in our congregations.
The following will illustrate a phase of Southern society and the kindly relations and sympathies between master and slave which none can appreciate who did not witness them, but illustrations of which could be indefinitely multiplied. The incident is related by the Texas Christian Advocate:
A Texas planter having responded in person to one of the late calls of Colonel Van Dorn for service in the West, his negroes were left in the care of the overseer. One night, at a late hour, the overseer was aroused by a noise at the “quarter.” He immediately arose and went in the direction of the noise far enough to ascertain that it was the voice of prayer. Drawing still nearer, he discovered that the prayer-meeting was a special occasion, for the benefit of the master who had “gone to the wars.” Earnest prayers ascended that his health and life might be spared, and that God would grant him a safe return.
The following was from a soldier on duty at Manassas Junction, who professed conversion and was baptized after he enlisted in the struggle for Southern independence:
I have received and distributed the greater portion of the tracts among my brother soldiers. May God's word be blessed to the turning
