invoked upon them, as the only assurance of their success." All
who were personally associated with these men came to know that this was
the spirit of their lives; and many times, in religious services, in
camp, these men, so idolized by the army, and so great in all human eyes
but their own, could be seen bowing humbly down beside the private
soldiers to receive the holy sacrament of the Blessed Body and Blood of
Christ.

Now, when the men, who had been so indifferent to religion at home, as
so unnecessary for them, came up against this fact, and came to look up
to these three men as their highest ideals of manhood, they got an eye
opener. If men like Lee, and Jackson, and Stuart, and others, felt the
need of religion for themselves, the thought would come, "Maybe I need
it, too. No man can look down on the manhood of these men; if they
esteem religion as the crown of their manhood, it is not a thing to be
despised, or neglected, or treated with indifference. It is a thing to
be sought, and found and taken into my life." And this train of thought
arrested the attention, and got the interest and stirred to truer
thoughts, and finally brought them to Christ. Thousands of these men
were led to become devout Christians, and earnest members of the church
through the influence of the three great Christian leaders, and other
Christian comrades in the army.

Now, when these men got back home after the war and the survivors of
those groups got settled back in their various communities, there was a
great difference in the religious situation, from what it had been
before the war. There had taken place a complete change in these men, in
their attitude toward religion, and this wrought a great change in this
respect in their communities, for the returned soldiers of any community
were given a place of peculiar honor, and influence. They had their
record of splendid, and heroic service behind them and they were held
in affectionate, and tender regard--not only by their own families, and
friends, but by all their neighbors and fellow-citizens. What that group
of soldiers thought, and wanted, _went_ in that town, or countryside.

Now, that group of men who set the pace, and made the atmosphere in that
community were Christians. The serious phase of life; the seasoning of
hardships; the discipline; the oft facing of death; the stern habit of
duty at any cost, which they had passed through during the war had made
them very strong me