The million-peopled city
Garwood, John
1853
Gratitude of the Pensioners for Religious Instruction, and their Visit to City Missionaries, when the latter had been ill.
At one period it used to be said, " the greater the rogue, the better is he fitted for the ranks of the British army." But great improvements have taken place. It is to be hoped that the old saying was never strictly correct. At all events, there are now many privates who are men very respectable in their own station. | |
The testimony of , with reference to , is,-" He who writes can testify, that nowhere are | |
155 | the visits of one who comes with a message of peace more thankfully received or more gratefully acknowledged." |
The same testimony is borne by those who have, as lay agents, sought to supplement the efforts of the chaplain. One gentleman is employed in the Hospital for two days in the week, and meets everywhere with a ready acceptance. A City missionary, who is in the habit of visiting the Hos- pital periodically, also state-,--" Several times, when I have been ill, some of these old men, in their best red coats, have found their way to my house, to try, in rather a clumsy way, to comfort me. Only last week, being unwell, a friend took for me my meeting. An old pensioner, whom I met afterwards, said to me, ' I began to think you were ill, and I was just coming off to see you.' Nothing can exceed the kind manner in which some of them inquire after my poor sickly wife, when she is too ill to attend the meetings. And a few weeks before this, one of the old men sent for me to ask me whether I could give him my card, that he might apply to me if he was taken ill, as he had a little money which he had saved, and he would like me to convey it to the , not being able to trust it, as he said, with others." The soldiers' missionary of this Society, visiting occasionally the Hospital, when unwell some time since, although living many miles off, was visited by some of the pensioners on a bleak, cold day, with snow, several inches deep, on the ground, for the purpose of inquiring after him. | |