Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1870-07-01
From tho Louisville Courier. Journal.
Praying Under Difficulties.
a CONFEDERATE STORY OF TIE REBELLION.

OF 1862. 1t was at Chattanooga. It was un-
der the guardianship of that beautiful brown
peak from whose fair lookout not note, save
notes of love, had yet been sent 1t was on
the banks of that great stream whose silver,
many.multiplying horse shoe had never known
hostile pontoon bridge. 1t was day of
thanksgiving, for we thought we had some
thing to be thankful about Nay, in
those days we were easy to please, and, withal,
somewhat genial, if not jocosc, in our dealings
with Providence. BE this as tmay, it was day
Of thanksgiving, and great number of off.
GERS and soldiers had come up from the front
to do little church. going and little court
ing, and moro especially, after this combna-
sion ofricty and sentiment, to hear the fa.
NOUS DIR. Palmer, Of New Orleans
The church was crowded Not pew was
vacant, not a scat unoccupicd, and chairs had
been placed up and down the isles. Gold
lace and cooked hats aud cavalry boots and
prettily mounted sabr,s were mixed up in.
discriminatory with ribbons and musins .nd
the profnse whimsios, jim.cracks and fallals
that enter into the mysterious and ambitious
tinery of a woman's, of many womrn's sum.
nler dressing. 1t was, Of truth, sight to
see Without, five hundred horses hitohcd
careessly to trees, and dusty streets and
quiet pasture land Aankcd round about by
The picturesque Tennessee hills. Within, a
tropical flower garden, quite peaceful in its
lovelincss aud warlikc in its splcndor Bc
sure tho pcrGdious thought of the hated Yam
kcc pcrishcd before it entered there 30
sure there was not in the mind of all that
multitude so much as the echo Of the iGoa Of
an advance of tic enemy.
DR.. Palmer was in the pulpit. Tho con-
grcgation had been looking and listening with
curious attention while lie read some al
nounccmcnts and gave out hymn The
hymn was sung stcntoriously and then began
the long prayer, everybody standing, and not
tiic rustic of frocl nor the clank of spur
disturbing the serenity Of tho moment "Oh,
lord" J" the good man was saying, "givc us
grace in the midst of war to do Gods scr.
vice on earth of peace and good will to men;
mako us, amid the tumult aud rack Of arms,
ms still and fixed in the service of God as the
everlasting bi-(bank D-hills" x (whcw y
1t was the ringing report Of cannon, and it
came from over the river, fetching twelve.
pound schrapncl with it. This it deposited
Ii the centre of a group, who were watching
the horses and carriages. Two more follow
cd before the preacher had time to complete
His sentence lie did complete it, however,
in a very measured and solemn way. But
tho spirit of the Lold could not wholly and on
the instantsubduc tho impulse Of poor weak
human nature. The CONSERVATION was imne-
diate and Intense, and yet strange to say, not
noisy. There was single cry of alarm. A
number Of officers; who had posts of duty to
fill, quilted the place; two or three ladicsap.
preached the door, but Dr. Palmer did not
bulge muscle nor alter his tone. lie pro-
oeeded with his prayer as the shells came fas.
terand the din grew louder. There was just
never such prayer prayed out Of o pulpit. -
( The man stood up thcrc glowing in the sum.
mer light and answcaring every hostile shot
with message of Christian love, and the
noise, great as it was, did not drown word.
e!prayed sor everything, and for everybody.
At one Amo itgcmed that ho was about to
turn his attention to tho gentlemen on tho
other sido Of tho water and pray for their
poor. souls, too. 1t was, indeed, "long
prayer AS tho leaden devils came whizzing
over tho roof and cracking through the trees
l--.tho ungodly rasca!s had got the range of
tho church exactly--as they buried themsel:
ves sullenly in tho ground under tho windows
or exploded frightfully among the beams Or
against tho stonowork, the hearers might have
thought tile preacher would never come to an
end, To be suro, this was well enough for
(, DR.. Palmer IIo had, an uncommon good
thing, albeit the pulpit was themost exposed
position, md every ono expected to SEQ him
drop any moment; for, paying he was, he had
only TO dio and 60 to heaven straightway in a
Hand d,basket, or any othcr ready conveyance,
surc Of blessed immortality for his fame in
,tl;a world, and his spiritin tboworldto come
Tho rest we're, Howevef, not SO sure, ana il
will hardly surprise tile reader to learn that
they waited neryously. They may be said to
haYc been very nervous. Bnt finally, after