"He was but would have run any risk to save his life." a brother to me," wrote his servant in the 97th. "I cannot but regard the death of Captain Vicars as a national calamity," wrote Lord Panmure. The loss to beloved friends, they only know. But theirs is a blessed hope when Jesus comes. His body lies near the Woronzoff road to Sebastopol, marked by a humble stone, and by shells and flowers placed there by his men. His example is embalmed in the church of Christ and in the British army. "THIS WAY" is its burden, as it bids us follow those who, "through faith and patience, inherit the promises." Reader! have you found Christ, so freely offered you? Then bind the same colours to your profession, and go through the world as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, making war with sin, and bringing sinners to the Redeemer whom you love. BLESSED IS THAT SERVANT, WHOM HIS LORD, WHEN HE COMETH, SHALL FIND SO DOING." 66 Few have ever run their course with greater brilliancy, or been more useful to souls. Hedley Vicars was a military man, surrounded by many temptations, many careless men, and many difficulties; yet he overcame them all. Nor was he less brave that he was godly. He was the foremost in the strife when duty called him. If his was a right decision, how, reader, do you stand? Have you accepted Christ? Have you put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand? Are you in the conflict with sin as it is found in yourself and in the world? Strive with it until you gain the victory. Every sin you conquer makes you braver for the conflict. "It is the belief of the savage that the spirit of every enemy he slays enters into him, and becomes added to his own, accumulating a warrior's strength for the day of battle; therefore he slays all he can. It is true in the spiritual L warfare. Every sin you slay, the spirit of that sin passes into you, transformed into strength; every passion, not merely kept in abeyance by asceticism, but subdued by a higher impulse, is so much character strengthened." It is true of the warfare against sin without you. Every soul you win to Christ you gain to the ranks of the cross. Enter on this crusade, and, like Captain Vicars, die in victory. Servant of God, well done! Rest from thy loved employ: Tranquil amidst alarms, Death found him on the field, A veteran resting on his arms Oft with its fiery force His arm had quell'd the foe, Bent on such glorious toils, The world to him was loss; At midnight came the cry, "To meet thy God prepare!" He rose-and caught the Captain's eye Then, strong in faith and prayer, His spirit with a bound Left its encumbering clay; His tent at sunrise on the ground A darkened ruin lay. The pains of death are past, Labour and sorrow cease, And, life's long warfare closed at last, Soldier of Christ, well done! Praise be thy new employ; Rest in thy Saviour's joy. CHAPTER V. CAPTAIN ALLEN GARDINER, THE NAVAL OFFICER. " Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me."-Isa. vi. 8 "Not to be wearied, not to be deterred."-SOUTHEY. WHEREVER the gospel of Jesus Christ is truly believed, there are not wanting living epistles to illustrate it. Apostolic zeal is inherent in Christian faith, and circumstances are ever occurring to call it into exercise. The necessities of heathendom have developed out of enlightened lands heroes suited to the need, as strikingly as when the thraldom of any country sent forth a patriot to break its yoke. The love of Christ has stirred the ardour and sustained the efforts of the missionary among people foreign to his own, and degraded by the vices of their gross idolatry. It has been the leverpower in the elevation of the world. To the bright names which recent times have added to the apostolic band of saints made perfect, who now rest from their labours and their works do follow them”—to the galaxy where shine VANDERKEMP and WILLIAMS, CAREY and JUDSON, MARTYN and SCHWARTZ, MORRISON and BRAINERD, there was welcomed a few years ago as indefatigable a pioneer of the gospel as any age has produced, when CAPTAIN ALLEN GARDINER, amidst want and blighted hope, passed away from inhospitable Fuegia to the "better country." Since the martyr of Erromango" sealed his testimony with his blood, 66 no event has saddened British Christians more sorely than when tidings came that every man in the "forlorn hope" of the Patagonian mission had perished by starvation. ALLEN F. GARDINER, the missionary pioneer, was born on the 25th June 1794, at Basildon, Berkshire. He was educated for the navy, and entered the service in 1810. Early fondness for adventure was gratified by his first voyage to Valparaiso, and by the capture of an American frigate by the vessel in which he was midshipman. His various voyages, from this period to 1834, led him far from home, and introduced to his notice the nations of South America, Africa, and the Indian Archipelago, among whom he afterwards went on another mission. Having been favoured with pious parents, whose faithful instructions and earnest prayers impressed him in his tender years, many anxieties were felt regarding his spiritual state by those who loved him, while he was exposed to such temptations as naval life presented. For a season, and in the excitement of rising manhood, he was gay and careless, associating with infidel companions, and living without God and without a Bible. But the prayers and labours of believing parents were owned. Like Hedley Vicars, when convictions seized him, Allen Gardiner purchased a Bible. To do so was his trial. Long he walked in the street before he could summon courage to enter the bookseller's shop, and only when no customers were in did he make his bargain. But this was the decision of his soul. He became an anxious inquirer. A letter from his father, and another from a Christian lady, had been instrumental in his awakening. From China he wrote home, to gladden his father's heart with the tidings of his conversion. It was a thorough change that now passed over him. Subsequent years continued to reveal its reality and the marvellous results it was fitted to produce. After witnessing some sad scenes in the war of independence in South America, and the happy effect of the gospel in Tahiti, he was invalided at Sydney, and returned home in 1823. 66 The homeward voyage," says his biographer, "became a heavenward course. The young naval officer was being instructed by the Captain of his salvation. From this time, we have not only the usual journal which is kept while abroad, but also a series of sacred meditations, written at intervals, chiefly on Sundays, and extending over a period of nearly thirty years." A week after his arrival, he proposed to go out to South America to preach the gospel, if the London Missionary Society would establish a station there; but the way was not opened. Neither was another for his desired entrance into holy orders. Therefore, after his marriage in 1823, he served his country on the coast of North America till the end of 1827, when he was made Commander. During the seven succeeding years he lived in retirement, ripening, by study and domestic trials, for the work he had yet to do for the Lord. At the bedside of his dying wife-taken from him in 1834-he made a solemn act of self-sur 66 render, to seek out openings for the introduction of the gospel in any region where no attempt had been made." From this resolution he never swerved. It was the guiding star of his life, and, seventeen years afterwards, he died in its prosecution. It led him among most uncivilized and even savage people, exposed him to perils of peculiar severity, demanded personal sacrifice of substance and of comfort; often failing to secure the sympathy and support which such devotedness might have expected from Christian friends, yet he never was scared by disappointment, nor failed when door after door was shut, nor once regretted |