lence to be the law? Is the wretch who brandishes the torch of the incendiary recklessly, and scatters fire, arrows, and death through peaceful and loyal communities, to go on in his dreadful mission unchecked, unmanacled, unchained?

If such men escape justice, where can good citizens look even for mercy?

If the severity of Mr. Lincoln is complained of by treasonhatchers or treason-mongers, how infinite must be the allforgiving benevolence of that much-abused man!

No! no! a thousand times No! No blood rests on that troubled head.

VII.

Army Chaplains, and Old Mortality.

IT is supposed that every regiment has its chaplain. A large number of Congressional statutes have been enacted on this subject, for the regular army. By an act approved July 17th, 1862, the qualifications of chaplains in the army and volunteers are thus defined :

"That no person shall be appointed a chaplain in the United States army who is not a regularly ordained minister of some religious denomination, and who does not present testimonials of his present good standing as such minister, with a recommendation for his appointment as an army chaplain, from some authorized ecclesiastical body, or not less than five accredited ministers belonging to said religious denomination."

His allowances are: one horse, two rations, and twelve hundred dollars a year, or somewhat over fifteen hundred dollars. He is governed by the laws of discipline, like all other officers.

Such are the provisions made for this important class. Their duties are perfectly well known. They are pastors of their regiments, which constitute their congregations. All their duties begin and end with their "charge." To fulfil their oath of office, they must do all in their power for the temporal and spiritual good of their members. Every Christian man knows what these duties are, and especially do soldiers.

To a faithful and conscientious clergyman, who delights in doing good, no better or broader field of activity or usefulness is needed or desired. To look after the well-being of a

thousand men, exposed to an amount of danger, disease, and death fourfold, and sometimes a hundred fold, greater than they would be in the peaceful pursuits of civil life; to watch by the sick, or wounded, or dying soldier, with no bed but the ground; to win his respect and affection; to entertain him in his hours of weariness and pain; to write letters for him to his friends; to win the way to his brave heart, and inspire his soul with sublime aspirations for the better life to come; to administer to his parting spirit the infallible consolations of Christianity, secure a safe burial-place for the departed, and shed over the sepulchre all the solemn honors of Christian burial; and, finally, to send the whole record to his family;-such is the duty of an army chaplain. Nothing less was contemplated by Congress in creating the office, and God will accept nothing less from the minister, if He greets him on his advent to judgment with the words, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." Of our twelve hundred chaplains, how many such have we?

This is a painful subject to discuss; for I know of nothing that would cost me a keener pang than to appear to attempt to speak lightly of the ministers of religion, much less of the faith of the "Holy Man of Nazareth." Nay, it is chiefly because I attach such infinite value to revealed religion, as the only hope of man on both sides of the tomb, that I am jealous of this cause.

Our Government has sent these spiritual pastors, teachers, fathers, and guides, and commissioned them to look after the good of upwards of a million of men; and a great Christian Republic expects them to do their duty. The common impression is that they do

I am sorry to dispel the illusion; but I must. We will first probe the sore, and then look for a remedy.

If we divide the army chaplains into five classes, we may more readily comprehend the case.

First. There are some men who, by means best known to

They were not chaplaincy, but Of course, such It is hoped

themselves, stole their way into the service. only destitute of every qualification for the they were not fit to live in decent society. appointments were obtained by unfair means. that their numbers were few, and that most of them have been dismissed. But, as they were seldom seen by their regiments, they did little direct harm to their flocks. But they brought disgrace enough on the Government and their profession, by frequenting scenes of vice and pollution and indulging in the lowest forms of bestiality.

The second class was made up chiefly of men of faultless morals, perhaps, but who had no liking for the practical business of "saving souls," and least of all for the rough life of the camp. I have seen many such men, who in the longest conversations would neither make an allusion to the subject of the Christian religion nor recognize an allusion to it by others. Some of them had never gone any further in the clerical profession than to enter it; or if they had assumed pastoral relations, they had pocketed their salaries and walked through their parts. Against such chaplains no charges could be brought, for they seldom visited their regiments, except for an excursion of pleasure, to witness a dress parade and ride with the staff on a "grand review." They managed to keep their furloughs all right, and they lived as luxuriously as they could on good salaries. But if they ever thought of their regiments, thinned by battle or wasted by disease, the thought brought no serious twinge of conscience, nor was their honor wounded by skulking from a duty they had sworn to perform. This class is by no means a small one.

A third list embraces invalids and broken-down men, who, for the most part, were physically incompetent to the duties they proposed to undertake,-unsuccessful preachers, who, after years of failure, discovered at last, what everybody else always knew, that they never had "a call to preach." But the war broke out, and they must "join the army." Nobody

had any objection, and they went. Confirmed invalids, who had scrimped and eked out a lean kind of existence, now louching down on family relations, trying to teach the classics in some academy, or wandering about, living on their brethren in the ministry! Why, every kind-hearted person would aid so worthy and "so good a man" to get so good a place. It may seem all right; but in doing a kindness to one man, an eternal wrong is done to the souls of a thousand.

The fourth is a higher, but still inefficient, class. They are men who went to do good to their fellows and their country; their hearts were in their work; their every word and deed said to the bayoneted column marching to the field, "Where you go I will go; your country shall be my country, and my God shall be your God." Such men go with their regiments. They enter at once into all their interests and feelings. They make it their sole business to take care of the health, the comfort, the morals, the manners, the happiness, the very salvation, of their soldiers. They break down the first few days, or weeks, or months of a campaign; they are furloughed, and their regiments are left without any social or spiritual guide; no prayer is said by the sick-bed; no word of consolation is whispered in the ear of the dying, and the poor boy sinks into a neglected soldier's grave.

The fifth and last class are model chaplains,-the only men who are really qualified to fill the office, and whose usefulness, in the highest sense of the word, cannot be overestimated. No men in the army or the country are doing more good in the great cause. Their qualifications are peculiar; so are

their duties.

They are sound, able-bodied men, who can endure the hardships of a campaign as well as any officer. They know what they undertake, and they are not surprised when they find the hard work coming. Such a man starts with his regiment, and before one week is over he has won every heart in it. The first man that is sick finds the chaplain at his side. All