feels a
strange longing for that very good talk which he hated once, and so like
David of old, out of the deep he cries unto the Lord. And when that cry
comes up out of a sinful conscience-stricken, self-condemned heart, be
sure it does not come up in vain. The Lord hears it, and the Lord
answers it. Yes, I know it for certain; for many a sad and yet pleasant
story I have heard, how brave men who went out from England, full of
strength and health, and full of sin and folly too,--and there in that
blood-stained Crimea, when their strength and their health had faded, and
there was nothing round them or before them but wounds, and misery, and
death; how there at last they found Christ, or rather were found by Him,
and opened their eyes at last to see God's judgments for their sins, and
confessed their own sin and God's justice, and received His precious
promises of pardon, even in the agonies of death; and found amid the rage
and noise of war, the peace of God, which this world's pleasures never
gave them, and which this world's wounds, and fever, and battle, and
sudden death cannot take away.

And after that, it matters little for a man what happens to him. For if
he lives, he lives unto the Lord; and if he dies, he dies unto the Lord.
He may come home, well and strong, once more to do his duty, where God
has put him, a sadder man perhaps, but at least a soberer and a wiser
man, who has learnt to endure hardship, not merely as a soldier of the
Queen, but as a good soldier of Jesus Christ too, ready to fight against
sin and wrong-doing in himself and in his neighbours.

Or he may come home a cripple, to be honoured and to be kept too (as he
deserves to be) at his country's expense. But if he be a wise man he
will not regret even the loss of a limb. That is a cheap price to pay
for having gained what is worth all the limbs in a man's body, a clear
conscience and a right life. "If thy hand offend thee cut it off."
Better to enter into life halt and maimed, as many a gallant man has done
in war time, than having two hands and two feet to be cast out.

Or perhaps his grave is left behind there, upon those lonely Crimean
downs, and his comrades are returning without him, and all whom he knew,
and all whom he loved, are looking for him at home. There his grave is,
and must be; and "the foe and the stranger will tread on his head, and
they far away on the billow."

But at least he has not died like Ahab--a shameful and