George Billany

“ But if you despise the offer of a Saviour now, and put off these things to a death-bed, which many never see, but are called suddenly out of the world, the probability is, that when you are actually laid upon it, however old you may be, and however evident the approach of your latter end may be to all who see you, you will not think you are going to die yet, but will still indulge the hope of longer life;—until death lays his cold hand on your heart, and closes your eyes for ever on a present world. ”

“ I who never beheld Jesus, as the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world, could not point him out, in that soul-reviving character, to others; neither did there appear to be in this house of death, any one that could point his dying comrades to a Saviour, nor any among the dying throng, that were asking after a Saviour. Whatever emotions might be passing through the minds of any, the question as to what became of the soul after death, the hope of heaven, or the fear of hell, the way to attain the one and escape the other, never became a subject of conversation ”

“ Upon each side of the river, as far as the eye could reach, we saw fields of corn and rice, with such beautiful groves, seeming to rise out of the watery plains, and to shade innumerable settlements in the Delta, amidst never-ending plantations of melons, and all kinds of garden vegetables, that, from the abundance of its harvests, Egypt might be deemed the richest country in the world. ”

“ I would begin with stating, that the belief of that doctrine which gave peace to my troubled conscience, gave also a degree of stability to my conduct, such as I had never before been able, with my utmost efforts, to attain. Not but that I have still to lament, that sin dwells in me; but, by the grace of God, it does not reign over me, as formerly; and the less I think of myself, and the lower I estimate my own strength, and the more I trust to the gracious promise of imparted strength, from the compassionate and all powerful Redeemer, the stronger I am. ”

“ The Frenchman was fairly strangled; his eyes were out of their sockets; his tongue was greatly swelled, and thrust far out of his mouth, into which the blood from the wound of the Highlander was running. Each still held a firm hold of his firelock with his left hand; and when the Highlander was removed from the Frenchman, and laid along-side of him, he still kept such a firm grasp of his throat, that he raised the body of the Frenchman from the ground, and it was with difficulty it was extricated from the hold. ”

“ If any soldier read this, let me beseech him to lay seriously to heart the immense value of his soul, and to believe in the grace and power of a Redeemer, and, although there should not be one godly person in his regiment, let him not be afraid to believe in Jesus, and to regulate his conduct by his word. Do not be afraid of the mocking of your comrades: it is indeed not easy to bear; but if you really trust in Christ, he will enable you to live down their reproaches by a consistent and steady course of life. ”

“ I passed close by a man who had been struck with a cannon ball upon the knee joint; the ball had carried away the joint, and left a ligament of skin on each side of it, which held the leg suspended to the thigh. A little farther, I passed near a man who lay stretched upon his back, dead;—his eyes and countenance had something in them peculiarly dreadful; yet he appeared to be only shot through the thigh with a musket ball:—but it was the centre of it, and it had proved instantly mortal. ”

“ I saw that Christ is his people's strength; that the power which enables them to perform duty, to resist temptation, and to overcome their spiritual enemies, is wholly derived from him; that therefore when they conquer their enemies, and bring forth the fruits of righteousness, the glory of the conquest belongs to him through whose strength they have been performed. I therefore esteem it my high privilege as well as duty, to "count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord;" ”

“ I saw there was no salvation without pardon, and no pardon without repentance. I wept for my sins, and earnestly besought God to forgive them. I read the Scriptures, and found, as I imagined, pardon promised to the penitent. I followed, as far as circumstances permitted, in point of form, Baxter's directions. I devoted myself to God, and vowed to forsake sin, and to live a godly life for the future. I made this resolution in sincerity of heart, my understanding being convinced that it was my duty to hate sin, because God hated it ”

“ This freed the government from the resistance of the Protestant insurgents of the north; who, from the superiority of their intelligence, were more to be dreaded than the Catholics of the south. Want of subordination in the insurgent armies, also, contributed materially to render the insurrection abortive. Their notions of liberty, for which they ignorantly pretended to be fighting, were of such a nature as to render every attempt to train them to arms utterly vain. They said, we are the sovereign people—we are free—we will not be drilled like those slaves of government, the red coats. ”

“ The pain continued to increase; the discharge from the wound was great; I was reduced to a skeleton, and my strength was failing fast; I was at the gates of death; and, with eternity before me, I was destitute of that discernment of the merits and grace of the Great Redeemer, which alone can form a sure ground of confidence, and a true source of consolation to a poor sinner, ready to perish. I again reflected on my past life, and accused myself of want of firmness in my resolutions. I thought God had now afflicted me in order to make me hate sin, and love righteousness ”

“ A situation of this kind is the most irksome for a soldier to be in; for when actively engaged, the fury and bustle of action, to a considerable degree, banishes the dread of danger from the mind.
During the march along the beach, and the frequent pauses we made, my mind had time for serious reflection; I was alive to a sense of present danger; and having no well grounded hope for eternity should death be the issue, was led to pray earnestly to God for mercy. ”

“ Tufts of strong straw are set in the sand in regular rows, like plants in a garden, the whole breadth and length of the embankment. The tops of the tufts rise upwards of a foot above the surface of the sand, and the sand that is washed up by the tide or blown by the wind, lodges about their roots, and as the tufts are regularly renewed, they not only preserve this bank of light sand from diminishing, but also increase its size and solidity. The left of the enemy's army was posted at the commencement of the sand-hills. ”

“ Beware of another delusion;—that the army is a place in which it is impossible to live a godly life. This is not true. However hard it is, yet it is possible, and has been done. If indeed you attempt to live a godly life in your own strength, as I did, you will fail; but remember, so would you in any situation in which you could be placed. But if you believe in the Lord Jesus, and take him for "righteousness and strength," he will fulfil to you his promise, that "as your day is, so shall your strength be." Remember that the way that leadeth to eternal life is a narrow way to all ”

“ I acted under all the motives I could collect from a sense of the glory, goodness, justice, and general mercy of God, as displayed in the works of creation and providence; and also from what I had learned from the Bible of the requirements of the moral law, which was often like a fire in my conscience; and from a fear of hell and eternal judgment, and a desire of heaven and eternal life ”

“ I contrasted time with eternity, and said to myself, Surely eternity is of such vast importance, as to be worth all the sufferings that can be endured, and all the exertions that can be made, in the narrow bounds of human life. I again set out in a new course of obedience, resolved to watch all the avenues to temptation; and, under the influence of this resolution, I avoided, as much as I could, in my present situation, those whose conversation I wished to shun ”

“ As matters stood, however, I conceived it to be my duty, seeing I was disabled from keeping my place in the ranks, to make the best of my way, as long as I was able, to a place where I might be out of the reach of shot, and get my wound dressed, that it might not receive injury by delay. I got as quickly as I could to the rear, keeping my arms, accoutrements, and knapsack which I had on when wounded. The battle at this time was raging upon the right with terrible fury; and the brigade of guards immediately on the right of ours, were closely engaged. The roar of the artillery was dreadful. ”

“ I rejoice that the army is beginning to be more attended to of late, in a religious point of view. I rejoice to see Bible Societies in operation for the benefit of the army and navy; and wish them an increasing measure of success. The attention of the religious world has not yet been sufficiently drawn to the importance of the object. I hope that the stimulus that has been put in motion will continue to increase, and that a succession of prudent measures will be adopted for the promotion of the fear of God in the army and navy. ”

“ Your being in the army does not give you a greater security of long life to be an excuse for delay. On the contrary, you, above all men, ought to secure the salvation of your immortal souls. And blessed be God, that salvation is offered as freely to you as to others. Jesus, the King of kings, offers you his free and unmerited favour, in the same way that he does to others ”

“ I believed that had Christ not died, there would have been no pardon for sin, but that his death had opened the door of mercy to penitent sinners of all descriptions. I thought all the design of God, was to bring men to a sense of their moral duty, and to put them once more in a fair way of discharging their moral obligations to him, as their Creator and Preserver ”

“ Vessels going up the Nile carry a press of sail, and go at a great rate during the day, and stop at night: vessels going down the river lower their sails and yards, lay their broadside to the stream, and drift along with it. On the morning of the 30th, the wind and surf were so high, that it was unsafe to attempt passing the bar; so that we returned to Rosetta and lay it the quay three days, waiting for moderate weather. The Nile was still considerably above its banks: the extensive fields of rice, and corn, particularly on the east side, excited my admiration. ”

“ Remember that it is the power of God and not of man that enables any to persevere unto the end; and will you say that it is not in the power of the Almighty to enable a soldier to serve him in the army, and to lead a Christian life in it? ”

“ While in this state of mind, I went one evening to the meeting-house, and as I was returning to the barracks, pondering in my mind my guilt, as a sinner, and the goodness and sparing mercy of God, the powers of my mind having been buoyed up by the fervour of the exhortations and prayers I had heard, a sudden emotion started all at once into my mind, that my sins were pardoned by God, that God had promised pardon to such as me ”

“ When you are laid on a sick-bed, you may find that you have no hope of heaven if you die at present; you may wish to recover, that you may change your conduct; you may cry to God to spare you; but he may not hear you; and when you see that death is actually approaching, you may be driven to despair, and die without hope: or, in order to calm a troubled conscience, you may persuade yourselves, that you have repented, and that, as you are not allowed to live, God will accept of the sincerity of your repentance ”

“ Unless your repentance be that of the Bible, and your faith in Jesus genuine, arising from a scriptural understanding of your own character as a guilty and helpless sinner in the sight of God, and a scriptural discernment of the rich grace and almighty power of Christ, you will not be able to stand: for the army is not a place for hypocrites, formalists, and self-righteous professors, to prosper in. The professions of such will generally vanish like smoke. The genuine believer in Jesus alone is able to abide the trial ”

“ The latest descendants of Pharaoh are not yet delivered from the evils which fell upon the land, when it was smitten by the hands of Moses and Aaron; the 'plague of frogs,' the 'plague of lice,' the 'plague of flies,' the 'murrain, boils, and blains,' prevail so, that the whole country is 'corrupted,' and 'the dust of the earth becomes lice, upon man and upon beast, throughout the land of Egypt.' This application of the words of sacred Scripture affords a literal statement of existing evils, such an one as the statistics of the country do now warrant. ”

“ If I did not now find ability to keep the commandments of God, in the way that I proposed to myself, and upon which I founded my hope of meriting and enjoying his favour, I could not expect to find any situation more favourable. ”