When I joined my regiment in North Carolina, I found there a young lieutenant who in his Connecticut home had had the reputation of being an active earnest Christian.
I called on him in his tent, and said something of my hope to have his help in work for my Master.
"No, no!" said he, "I've given up all that stuff. I know now there's no truth in it, and I don't want to hear a word on the subject."
How tempted most of us would have been to argue the point with the backslider; but I simply said:
"You are not saying now what you believe, Lieutenant."
This came with startling unexpectedness, and his assurance was all gone as he asked, in genuine surprise,
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that I know you well enough to understand that what you said and did for years has not been given up by you in your inmost heart. You can talk this way to me now, to try to stiffen up your courage of resistance, but when the camp is quiet and you are alone in your bunk in the darkness, you would never talk in this way to God, who you know is near you always."
"Well," he said somewhat gently, "I don't want to talk about this subject, at any rate."
"But I must talk about it," said I. "It is very real to me. And I am here because of my belief. I love you too dearly to refrain from speaking to you."
After a little there came on a battle in which our regiment lost severely. Several temporary hospitals were opened in small dwelling-houses in different parts of the field of action. As I was occupied in one of these hospitals, I heard that the lieutenant lay wounded in another. As soon as I had opportunity, I went to see him. His right leg had been amputated near the hip. He lay on a cot among many wounded. Looking up as I appeared, he said cheerily:
"The Lord has got me. I wouldn't serve Him with two legs, so He took away one. But now I'll be more of a man with one leg than I was with two."
Then as I spoke warmly of my sympathy with and interest in him, he told of his experience and feelings.
"As my leg went out from under me and I felt I was gone, I said,
`The Lord's got me, and I'm glad of it.'
"You were right that day you came to my tent first. I never really gave up my belief, or had any rest in my soul trying to live without God. And now I believe I shall live nearer the Lord than ever, and have more comfort in Him."