soldiers lay wounded on the field. All night and all next day the
space was swept by artillery from both armies; and no one could venture
to the sufferers' relief. All that time, too, there went up from the
field agonizing cries for water, but there was no response save the
roar of the guns. At length, however, one brave fellow behind the
ramparts, a Southern soldier, felt that he could endure these piteous
cries no longer. His compassion rose superior to his love of life.

"General," said Richard Kirkland to his commander, "I can't stand this.
Those poor souls out there have been praying for water all night and
all day, and it is more than I can bear. I ask permission to carry
them water."

The general assured him that it would be instant death for him to
appear upon the field, but he begged so earnestly that the officer,
admiring his noble devotion to humanity, could not refuse his request.
Provided with a supply of water, the brave soldier stepped over the
wall and went on his Christ-like errand. From both sides wondering
eyes looked on as he knelt by the nearest sufferer, and gently raising
his head, held the cooling cup to his parched lips. At once the Union
soldiers understood what the soldier in gray was doing for their own
wounded comrades, and not a shot was fired. For an hour and a half he
continued his work, giving drink to the thirsty, straightening cramped
and mangled limbs, pillowing men's heads on their knapsacks, and
spreading blankets and army coats over them, tenderly as a mother would
cover her child; and all the while, until this angel-ministry was
finished, the fusillade of death was hushed.

Again we must admire the heroism that led this brave soldier in gray so
utterly to forget himself for the sake of doing a deed of mercy to his
enemies. There is more grandeur in five minutes of such
self-renunciation than in a whole lifetime of self-interest and
self-seeking. There is something Christly in it. How poor, paltry,
and mean, alongside the records of such deeds, appear men's selfish
strivings, self-interests' boldest venturing!

We must get the same spirit in us if we would become in any large and
true sense a blessing to the world. We must die to live. We must lose
our life to save it. We must lay self on the altar to be consumed in
the fire of love, in order to glorify God and do good to men. Our work
may be fair, even though mingled with self; but it is only when self is
sacrif