Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1863-05-20
MERCY FOR THE SOLDIER.

There is mercy for you. You are sinner you
have deserved Gods wrath; you may, till this
hour, have resisted every influence and turned
deaf ear to every voice that would have directed
you to God. By all the memories Of childhood and
youth; by all the tenderness of parental anxiety;
by all the religious influences which have sur.
rounded your life; by all the dangers through
erances by which you have been preserved-by all
these call on you nou, in the name Of God, to
pause and think-to repent Of your sins; to 60
alone before God in prayer and ask His mercy for
Christs sake, to gice yourself to Him.
All you have to do is this: AS q poor sinner,
able to do nothing to merit your pardon or saliva
ton, trust what Christ has done, and with loving
viour. If you thus seek Him ana trust in HIM;
you are certain of salvation. Here are His own
words in John, 3d. 18th: "For God so loved the
world that he gave his only begotten son that who
soever believeth in him should not perish but have
everlasting life" There is your warrant Believe,
tina: is trust with pentent loving heart, in what
Jesus suffered for you, and you are saved man.
Let your language be "God be merciful to me
sinner" or in the language Of the hymn
just as am, without one plea
But this: that thou hast died for me-
And that thou bid me come to thee
Oh, Lamb of God, come I come!
And the plying eye of God will, behold you
your prayer will enter the ear of the Almighty,
and pardon and peace will be yours. Oh, may God
aid you by his spirit to thus seek and find him.
You may fall in the next battle; you may die
far from home and friends in the hospital; you
may sink down on the weary march, or may be
prisoner and die among strangers aud foes but if
You have trusted in Christ and found pardon
through Him. death will be sweet release. Heav-
IN will be the glorious termination of all your hard.
ships and sufferngs.
But should you be spared to return to your
homes and your friends, to enjoy among your CRATE
full countrymen the blessings for which you have
risked all to maintain, you will oe an ornament
and blessing to your country. The demoralizDg
influences of camps have ruined many an army and
many country. You went forth from your homes
not hireliug scum but the flower of your country,
our sons and brothers from enlightened commune
ties and pious homes. What will your return be
Wen honor and love you. Your influence on the
rising youth, upon society in general, will be
whelm"g; for good or evil will, indeed, give tone
and form to socity for generations to come. In
deed the moral and relig gious standing to our lib.
Grated country must be graduated to your level be
that high or low. Will you return hardened by
the dangers through which you have passed, in
stead of being impressed with humble gratitude to
Cody You cannot return as you went forth. All
you have seen and suffered will make you either q
better or worse mana believer or skeptic. If
you cannot discern the Providence of God in all
you have experienced; if you fail to recognize His
hand in all you have Witnessed if all He has done
for you in shielding and delivering you fail to ava
ken your hearts gratitude and love to Him, then
indeed may all hope of affecting that heart be aban-
doned Never can any scenes, can any mercies,
reach him, VINO remains 9.t.<scued after all which
you have felt sad seen.