The Complete Works of Brann, the Iconoclast — Volume 01 — John Shaqi
The Complete Works of Brann, the Iconoclast — Volume 01Brann, William Cowper
General
The Complete Works of Brann, the Iconoclast — Volume 01
Brann, William Cowper
Brann, William Cowper, 1855-1898; Essays; Reformers
During the Civil War a grizzly old Yankee sergeant and
a young Confederate soldier, both badly wounded, lay
near each other between the lines, while above their
prostrate forms the fierce flood of metal swept back and
forth, a whistling, screaming hurricane of death. The
sergeant had lain long unconscious, and he awoke racked
with fever and perishing with thirst. Do any of you know
the horror of that thirst which gunshot wounds, abetted by a
blazing summer sun and the stifling fumes of powder-
smoke, produce? It is the concentrated agony of hell.
Thirst will break the courage of the bravest. Even great
Caesar, upon whose imperial brow fear was afraid to sit,
cried for drink "like a sick girl." The sergeant found his
canteen almost empty,--just a few spoonfuls left,--drops
more precious to him than all the gold of Ophir, than all the
pearls of Ind. He was lifting the canteen to his parched lips
when his neighbor begged to share it. He glanced at the
gray uniform and hesitated. The Confederate was but a
boy and in his breast there stood a broken bayonet. The
sergeant crawled over to him amid the plunging shot and
shell.
"'Tain't much, Johnny, an' I'm dry as a mackerel; but I'll
whack up."
He divided the precious drops with rigid impartiality and
gave the young Confederate his portion. Then he raised
the canteen to his own lips, but again he hesitated. The
landscape swam before his eyes, the pounding of the great
guns fell but faintly upon his ear, the Angel of Death had
set his seal upon the bronzed brow. He handed the
canteen to his companion untasted.
"Take the rest of it, Johnny; I kinder guess I won't miss it
long."
Yet we imagine we are wonderfully charitable if we give a
few dollars from our abundance to feed the starving, or
send our cast clothing to the Relief Society! Charity is
not a virtue you can measure in money. Its abiding
place is not in the vest pocket. Its home is the heart, and
not the little 2 X 4 dog-kennel heart either. It only takes up
its abode where there is a mighty temple in which to
circulate itself and make grand music that rolls and
reverberates through all eternity--a temple flooded with
God's own sunshine and peopled with beautiful thoughts
and noble aspirations--a temple whose spires pierce the
highest Heaven and whose foundations are broad and deep
as humanity. Such is the home of Charity, queen of all the
virtues. Hear St. Paul:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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