Prayer of a Soldier Prisoner Answered

It has often been the case that one who, in the face of impending death, promised that his life, if spared, should be devoted to God’s service, has forgotten that promise when God has given him safety. But, on the other hand, there have been those who made such a promise in the hour of peril, and afterwards redeemed it faithfully. Such an instance, in the case of a young army comrade of mine, stands out as memorable in my life recollections.

During all my three years of army service, my regiment was brigaded with the Twenty-fourth Massachusetts Regiment. During portions of the time that regiment had no chaplain, and I was privileged to be on terms of kindly intimacy with both its

officers and its enlisted men. Among those III

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men who, on Seabrook Island, in the spring of 1863, kept up a praying circle in order to promote their Christian life and growth, there was a young corporal who interested me by his intelligence, his frank and hearty ways, and his Christian devotedness. On the Sunday before he left for the war, he had stood up alone in his country home church and made a public profession of his Christian faith, and from that hour he had been faithful to his profession. He also had a good name for bravery and fidelity, and readiness to perform every soldier service to which he was summoned.

When, in the early summer of 1864, we were in Virginia as a part of the Army of the James, co-operating with the Army of the Potomac, General Butler called for a volunteer scout to venture through the enemy’s lines, at Bermuda Hundred, and obtain information as to the position and movements of the enemy. In response to

this call, this young corporal of the Twenty- 112 fourth volunteered, although it involved the peril of being taken and treated as a spy.

Having scouted successfully within the enemy’s lines for two or three nights, and obtained important information that would have been invaluable to his commander, he was captured just as he was about attempting a return to his command. When captured and brought before a Confederate commander, the first proposition was to hang him at once as a spy, without a formal trial. But it was decided to confine him in the jail in Petersburg until he should be formally tried and condemned by a courtmartial. In this emergency his chief prayer to God was not that his young life should be spared, but that he might be faithful even unto death; and God heard his prayer, and gave him strength.

Rapid movements of troops from Virginia to Georgia were frequent just then within the Confederate lines, in consequence of Sherman’s march to the sea. The young

captured scout was sent, with those having 113

fieing” death in ie ial in wien! e was then and there that the young soldier’s

new consecration to God occurred. On his knees, behind the grated door of

his hope-barred cell, he pleaded that he 3

might have prolonged life and restored liberty. In no mere selfish love of life and liberty, he promised that, if his life be spared, it should be given wholly and

heartily to the service of Christ. In speaking to me long afterward of this longing prayer, he said sincerely: “I told God that, if my life were spared, I should know he

did it; for there was no other hope for me

then;” vain was the help of man.

At the very time that the officer having in charge his case, as an alleged spy, was preparing to come to the jail to take him

out for trial, there was an alarm outside of

the city. A portion of Sherman’s army had made a circuitous movement in that

direction. This officer, among others, was 114 hurried to the front, and in the changes that followed he was removed elsewhere, and the papers in the case of the captured scout were not to be found in Macon; and he was thenceforward held as an ordinary prisoner of war.

He could never have any doubt, from that hour onward, that, in response to his faith-filled prayer, God had given him prolonged life when, except to the eye of faith, such a thing seemed impossible. Although afterwards he had weary months of imprisonment and varied vicissitudes of soldier service, he was ever confident that he was living to serve God as he had promised to, and he longed still to be true and faithful unto death.

After the war I knew him, as, for years, he was striving to make good his vow of consecration; and I have rarely met a young soldier of Christ who was more zealously true to the blood-stained banner under which he was enrolled. Having secured a hundred dollars through lecturing Ulustrative Answers to Prayer

‘on his army and prison experiences, he started with that sum to work his way through Phillips Academy at Andover. As he pursued his studies, he swept out the schoolroom, and performed other tasks, at fifteen cents an hour. In the early morning, and at other odd times, he did farm work outside of the village to eke out his support. At times he found difficulty, even with all his hard work, to support himself in the Academy.

On rising one morning he found himself without a cent of money in the world. Going to God, he prayed earnestly for help, and, a few minutes later, he found fifteen dollars between the pages of a book which he took up for study. Some friend, knowing his need, had taken that delicate way of aiding him. As the young student told of this fresh experience of God’s goodness, he said gratefully, and in faith: “God will do so again, if it is best. If God wants me to stay at school, I have no fear

but that he will find a way for me to get 116 along there.” Why should any child of God feel any other way about his Father’s care of him?

Counting his life as spared in order that he might devote it wholly to his Saviour’s service, there was nothing that he enjoyed more than special work for his Master during the years when he was studying hardest to fit himself for future work. At Andover he taught in a mission school, took active part in prayer-meetings, and conversed on the subject of personal religion with his schoolmates. Two evenings in every week he spent with the pupils of his mission school, in order to promote their spiritual welfare. All this was not from a mere sense of duty, it was a delight to him. “How much real enjoyment it gives me to work for Jesus!” he said. “All other pleasures fade away, and are lost, by the side of it.”

Again he wrote, “I don’t see how any one can help doing all the good he can....

I have an insatiable thirst after perishing 117

souls, and hope and pray

that lead me to do good wherever lam....

at oe

am thankful for the hope that perhaps, erelong, I can throw aside all other things, and enter with my whole heart upon the work of saving souls.... My heart pants to be wholly engaged in my Master’s service.”

There was no room for doubt that he was faithful to the promise which he made when he prayed for prolonged life on his knees in Macon jail, as he faced the gallows. It was this way to the last.

At one time he told me of his disappointment, through failing health, in his plans for Christian effort. He had gone to a place in Vermont where there was great lack of such endeavor. He thought, as he said, that even he could do something there. But the day he reached the place he was taken ill, and had no power to do any work there. As he expressed it, “Jesus didn’t need me in Vermont. He

has never needed me anywhere, but he 118

Py ., 4 “cat has let me work for him sometimes. Oh, if I ever get well enough to work for him again, sha’n’t I be thankful for it!”

But his health was hopelessly broken down by his long imprisonment in jail and stockade, his privations and endurances in swamp and dungeon, and his severe army service, and he had to give up his endeavor to enter the ministry or to engage in any active Christian labors. After a season in the Massachusetts General Hospital he returned to his old home in the country, and lay down to die.

To the last he had no thought of complaining, but he found constant cause of thanksgiving. When, in his humble home in Northern Massachusetts, he was simply waiting his summons for muster-out from earthly service, he told gratefully of God’s goodness in sending to him, unexpectedly, relatives and friends whom he had desired to see once more.

Again, when he was pressed for means to supply his daily necessities, a sister came {llustrative Answers to Prayer

to him one morning to say that a letter had been received, covering a gift of thirty dollars for his use. A pleasant smile came over his face as he responded, “I prayed for money last night. It was the first time I had asked for that in a good while.”

At the young soldier-scout’s request I visited him in his home, and, as I sat by his dying-bed, he asked me if I would conduct his funeral service, and tell his old friends and neighbors of God’s wonderful goodness to him. It was that truth which he wanted me to impress on those who had known him, and who were now to know of his experience. I did as he desired, and I never tire of repeating that story as an illustration of God’s loving readiness to do for his children according to their needs and their faith.