Sunday, August 16.—To-day Dr. Quintard preached twice. As our chapel is not yet up, he had service under a large oak tree. In the morning his text was one I had heard him preach from in Chattanooga: “We are journeying on to the place of which the Lord hath said, I will give it you.” He asked me before preaching if I would object hearing it again. I told him, on the contrary, that I would be much pleased.
As the text is taken from Numbers, which is a history of the children of Israel and their wanderings, a more appropriate one to the scene before us, could not have been selected. Here we were, wanderers, pitching our tents, wo know not for how long. Nearly every patient in the hospital was there; among them the lame and the halt. The tents in the distance, and God’s messenger before us, delivering God’s commands, as Moses and Aaron did to the children of Israel, could not but be an impressive scene. It struck me as such, and I have no doubt many others who were there. O, how earnestly I prayed that we, with all the warning of that unhappy race before us, might not forget the Lord our God, and he cast us wanderers over the earth.
Mr. Green, our chaplain, sat with Dr. Q., and I observed he did not assist him with the service. This caused me to reflect on the diversity of the Christian religion, and I thought what a pity it is that there should be any difference about it.
I do not think that any one will deny the necessity of having a stable government in the church. Surely, as in every thing else, God has made order predominant. He never meant that his church should be without it.
Who can not see the evil effects produced by the many different sects which are constantly springing up around us?
And another evil, is ignorant men being permitted, as they are in many churches, to preach. I have seen men get up in the pulpit, and try to explain the Scriptures, in doing which they have made a perfect failure of it. Common sense ought to tell us, even had we not the Bible for proof, that God never meant that his Holy Book should be expounded by such men, and his holy church left to their care.
Many say, were not the apostles ignorant men? forgetting that they were so, like all others, until they were taught. They had no mean teacher; none less than our blessed Savior himself, who instructed them daily. And even then their education was not completed until the day of Pentecost, when a miracle was performed, and they spake in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. We have no miracles now-adays, but we have colleges and teachers, which answer the same purpose.
But I must drop this subject, it has carried me much further than I had any idea of going. I was only deploring this state of affairs, and wondering which body of Christians ought to yield. I must think, with religion, as with many other things, that which is the most stable and makes most use of the Bible, must certainly be the best.
I can not deny that I have seen good, yea, much good, come from the teachers of all denominations; and, in fact, I have met so few ministers and members of the Episcopal Church, that I have many a time said that if the soldiers had none but it to look to for light, they would certainly have been in darkness; and of all times in the world, this is the last to draw distinctions. I am so much rejoiced when a man tells me he is a professor of religion, and trying to be a follower of the lowly Jesus, that I never think or care of which Christian church he is a member.
I sincerely trust that all who now worship God in spirit and in truth may ere long be in one fold, as we have one Lord Jesus Christ. And that we may not forget that, as we are all striving for the one goal—all sinners alike—apt to go astray when left to ourselves—that whatever differences of opinion we may have on minor subjects, to exercise that Christian virtue toward each other which St. Paul says is the bond of perfectness; and, in the words of the venerable Bishop Green, never to speak unkindly of any, especially of one who is trying to serve Jesus Christ; and remember that it is no advantage, rather a curse, to be in the church, and at the same time a stranger to that holiness which all her ministrations are designed and calculated to produce in our hearts and lives.
Dr. Q. gave out that he would have service after dark; I did not see how he could, as we had no lights of any kind, but I was not long in finding out. He omitted the most part of the service in which the congregation joins, and read out the lines of the psalm and hymn, like a good Methodist, and preached a very fine extempore sermon.
I can now understand how it is that he is so popular and does so much good in the army. He suits himself and all he does to the times.
We had a call from Dr. Sizemore and his wife; he is now assistant surgeon in the Foard Hospital, in Ringgold; Mrs. S. is matron. We had a long talk about Corinth, and the terrible times we had seen there.
This morning Mrs. Dr. Gamble, Mrs. Bragg, and myself raised the tunes, but in the evening Dr. Q. did not give us the chance, as he raised them himself. General Bragg attended service. His health is very bad, which is no wonder, as he is so much harassed. He is a member of the church, and, I am told, a sincere Christian. He has done his utmost to have Christianity diffused in the army.
Mrs. B. has the appearance of being a very modest, lady-like person, as I am told she is. She is also in bad health. It is said she worries a good deal whenever she hears of the necessity of shooting any of the men, and pleads for them when she can.
