The heavenly vision

There is a story told by a soldier of the Civil War in America, that, in a critical pause in one of the great battles, a regiment to which he belonged was lying down in a wood, in imminent peril of collapse, when suddenly, in the tense silence, a bird sent forth a joyous trill of song. Instantly the soldiers in their agony of suspense thought of homes and little ones, and all that depended on their remaining firm and immovable under attack, and instantly they regained their confidence, and when the rebel attack was renewed they invincibly sent it rolling back on the foe. So, in the battle of life, we need a glimpse of Divine incentives, of human love, of the ideal purity of holiness, to quicken our swooning hearts, lest we utterly fail in the hot and teeming strife (Acts xxvi. 19).