gly applied to the performance of their professional duty.

Notwithstanding the unexpected length to which I have already extended
this narrative, I cannot allow myself to close it without offering to my
late companions on board the _Kent_, into whose hands it may possibly
fall, a few very plain and simple observations, which I think worthy of
their serious consideration, and the importance of which I desire to
have deeply impressed upon my own mind. None of those soldiers who were
in the habit of reading their Bibles can have failed to notice that
faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is therein made the great pivot
on which the salvation of man hinges; that the whole human race, without
distinction of rank, nation, age, or sex, being justly exposed to the
wrath of Almighty God, nothing but the precious blood of Christ, which
was shed on the cross, can possibly atone for their sins; and that faith
in this atonement can alone pacify the conscience, and awaken confidence
towards God as a reconciled Father. If, therefore, "he that believeth in
Christ shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned," be
the unequivocal language of Jehovah, either expressly declared or
obviously implied in every page of that record which He has vouchsafed
to us of His Son; is it not a question of the deepest concernment to
every one professing any regard for divine revelation, whether he really
understands and believes that record, and whether he is able to give,
not only to others, but to himself, a reason of this hope that is in
him?

From the influence of education or example, the absence of serious
reflection, an attention to the outward ordinances of religion, a regard
to many of the proprieties and decencies of life, and a forgetfulness
that the religion of the Bible is a religion of motives rather than one
of observances, minds easily satisfied on such subjects may persuade
themselves that they are spiritually alive while they are dead--that
they are amongst the sincere disciples of the blessed Redeemer, and
fully interested in His salvation, while they may have neither part nor
lot in the matter. But if, at the hour of death, when all external
support shall slide away, the soul shall be awakened to the
consciousness of its real condition; if it should be made to see, on the
one hand, the spirituality and exceeding breadth of the divine law, and
be quickened, on the other, to a sense of its unnumbered transgressions;
if t