The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1870-08-11
PRAYING UNDER DIFFICULTIES.

! PleaodutlJ IeldieS tue story OF / prayer
in the congregation of Southern church
during the first part of the war;
cit was in the summer of 1862. 1t
was in little, old, rusty depot town. 1t
was in the midst of the war The popu-
lar fury had not quite spent its force, nor
the passion nor the gloss of arms worn
off, like gilt braid, and lost their shiny
charm. In those days the Confederate
gray was full of stuff and coler, and the
stars and bars of gold lace on a mans
coat were neither dimmed nor revealed by
service: so that, if he saw fit, he might
get himself up wondrous brave and
| spruce. In those days the girls of the
| South were not reduced to window cur
taius for dresses, nor to the more ignomin-
! ious ripping up of certain unmentionable
neither garments for collars, cuffs and
| handkerchiefs The bloom Of hope was
! on the yolor of the men the glow Of the
new glory was in the hearts of the women.
! The star of the South rose like balloon
! to It's full meridian and even there in
| Chattanooga---in the dusty, out of the way
storehouse, with its mass of combustibles
and non -combatants, its hospitals. and
| magazines, and qUartermasters, surgeons
and dead beats-even there, in that rear
and cul de sac, as one may say, of Bragg's
army, which was stretched like party
! of accommodating horse marines along the
Tennessee river from the Narrows down
| 10 Bridgeport-eVent there, among the un-
developed martial spirit Of commissary
clerks and the undetected military genius
of the provost guard-even there might
be found fair women and brave men over
flowing with the wild enthusiasm of the
time and overfowed by the rosy atmos-
phere of day which was rosy only with
the red reflection of blood. Ii was in the
golden prime of the August Of 1862. 1t
was p; Chattanooga. 1t was under the
guardianship Of that beautiful brown peak
from whose fair lookout not note, save
notes Of love, have yet been seen. 1t was
on the banks Of that great stream whose
silvery, many multiplying horseshoe had
never a hostile pontoon bridge, for we
thought we had something to be thankful
about. Now, in those days we were easy
TO please, and withal, somewhat genial,
if not jocose, in our dealings with Provi-
dence. Be this as it may, it was day
of thanksgiving, and a great number of
officers and soldiers had come up from
the front to little church going and
little courting, and more especially, after
this combination Of piety and sentiment to
hear the famous DR.. Palmer, of New Or
| leans.
The church was crowded. Not a
pew was vacant, not a seat unoccupied,
and chairs had been placed up and down
the aisles. Gold lace and cooked hats
and cavalry boots and prettily mounted
sabres were mixed up indiscriminately
with ribbons and muslins and the profuse
WITNESSES, jim cracks and fal-las that enter
into the mysterious and ambitious finery
of woman's, of many woman's, summer
dressing. 1t was, OF truth, sight 10
see Without, five hundred horses hitch
ed carelessy to trees, and dusty streets and
quiet pasture lands hanked about by the
picturesque Tennessee hills. Within,
tropical flower garden, quite peaceful in
its loveliness and warlike in its splendor. |
BE sure the perfidious thought of the hated !
Yankee perished before it entered there.
Be sure there was not in the mind Of all
that multitude so much as the echo Of the
idea of an advance of the enemy.
''Dr. Palmer was in the pulpit. The !
congregation had been looking and listen
ing with curious attention while he read /
some announcements and gave out hymn.
The hymn was sung stentoriously, and
then began the long prayer, everybody |
standing, and not the rustic of trock nor /
the clank of spur disturbed the serenity |
of the moment. 'Oh Lord the good |
man was saying, give US grace in the |
midst of war, to do Gods service on
earth of peace and good will TO men +;
make US, amid the tumult and rack of
arms, as still and fixed in tie service of
God as the everlasting hi'-bang! 'hills' |
-whewl 1t was the report of cannon,
and it came over the river, fetching
twelve pound schrapnel with it. This it |
deposited in the centre of a group of star
tied darkies outside, who were watching !
the horses and carriages of the white folks. |
Two more followed before the preacher had |
time to complete his sentence. He did |
complete it, however, in a measured and
solemn way but the spirit of the Lord |
could not wholly and on the instant sub /
due the impulse of poor weak human
nature. The CONSERVATION was immedi- !
ate and intense, and yet, strange TO say,
not noisy. There was a single cry of
alarm. A number of officers, who had |
posts of duty to fill, quilted the place two
or three ladies approached the door, but
DR.. Palmer did not bulge muscle nor
alter his tone. He proceeded with prayer
as the shells came faster and the din grew
louder There was just never such
prayer prayed out of pulpit. The man
stood up there glowing in the summer
light and answering every hostile shot
with message of Christian love, and the
noise, great as 1t was, did not drown a
word. He prayed for everything, and
for everybody. At one time it seemed |