Lee,
like Enoch, walked with God. He was offered the position of
commander-in-chief of the Northern forces. But he could not bear to lead
an invading army against his old college, his ancestral homestead, and
against Washington's house at Mount Vernon, or become the enemy of his
own people in Virginia. On April 17th, Virginia passed her ordinance of
secession, and on the 20th, Lee resigned his commission in the United
States army, because he could not take part against his native
State,--"in whose behalf alone," he said, "will I ever again draw my
sword." By the Calhoun doctrine, Virginia was his country, and no one
has ever doubted his sincerity. Lee is the Sir Philip Sidney of the
Civil War.

Wellington, the Iron Duke, is reported to have said, "A man of fine
Christian sensibilities is totally unfit for the position of soldier."
But Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. Jackson prayed as they fought; in
victory and in defeat alike they turned towards God. Jackson, who won
the name of "Stonewall," might have been the son of old Ironsides
himself. During his entire career he turned his camps into revival
meetings when he was on the Potomac and the Rappahannock, and was a
Puritan of Puritans. It is said that literally hundreds of men who
entered his regiments, careless, profane, drinking boys, went home to
join churches on profession of their faith in Christ. After the battle
of Bull Run, Jackson sent a letter home to his Presbyterian minister at
Lexington, Va. The people assembled to hear the minister read the letter
that would give an account of the conflict. It contained only one
sentence: "I forgot to send you my contribution for the coloured
Sunday-school of which I am superintendent." When Jackson lost his left
arm, General Lee wrote to him, "You have lost your left arm, but I have
lost the right arm of my army." Eight days after, Jackson lay dying,
having been accidentally shot by his own men at Chancellorsville.
Suddenly he cried out, "Let us cross over the river and rest under the
shade of the trees;" a companion had just read the great general that
verse in the Psalm, "There is a river whose streams make glad the city
of God." These two men have been a fountain of inspiration to Southern
youth, and their story makes a bright chapter in the history of all
heroism.

Southern leaders there were also who opposed secession as inexpedient
and wrong. One of the finest exponents of this group was Alexander H.
Stephens, a sel