“This proposal the director immediately forwarded to the Bureau de la guerre, and received an immediate permission to grant us this accommodation; which he lost no time in completing. But when I came to pay the expence, I was agreeably surprised to find, that he had represented to the minister the inconsistency that there would be in allowing this expence to be borne by individuals; and he would not hear of my paying a farthing. I then applied to him for a large grenier, which was the only place sufficiently capacious for the purpose of divine worship. This again required some expense, and was attended with some difficulties. The colonel, however, made none. He gave immediate orders to the person who supplied bread for the barracks, to whom he had given this place as a storehouse, to empty it of the stores which he had laid up in it, and give up the key. And now the only fault that we had to find, was the reverse of that which we had before complained of. The place would have held several thousand persons; and being very low and unceiled, the heat in the summer was excessive, and the winter’s cold was not less severe. The men, however, did not complain; they were seeking the glory that shall be revealed, to which the light afflictions of the present, which are but for a moment, are not to be compared.
“We were now enabled to meet together in as large numbers as would; and as many as were so inclined, had full power of seeking, in the ordinances of God, and the hearing of the word, the grace which bringeth salvation. And they were not backward in availing themselves of the means which were thus offered to them. I was very anxious that they should not come there under any feeling of constraint, or for filthy lucre’s sake; that they should understand that it would be no advantage to them, as to the loaves and fishes. Yet the congregation increased; and there were few instances of those that had begun to run well, looking back, or returning into the way of carelessness and sin.
“Some of those who had never been received by baptism into the church of Christ, were anxious to receive this pledge of their profession. It was an affecting sight, to see the jetty natives of the East desiring, like the Ethiopian convert of old, to profess their faith in a crucified Saviour; and while they manifested already in their lives the grace that sanctifieth, receiving with desire of heart, the outward sign and pledge of the faith that was in them. But the Lord’s Supper was a still more joyful proof and evidence of the work which He was carrying on amongst these people. I shall never forget the first sacrament, which I administered in the barracks. The number of communicants was about fourteen, most of them old men. The greater part had never before attended at the holy table. Some, perhaps, had never been in a place of worship in their lives, until my arrival at the depôt. They could not contain their feelings, and most of them were in tears the whole of the time. It was a godly sorrow, working repentance unto salvation, not to be repented of.
“But the number of communicants did not long continue so small. It increased daily, as a sense of religion prevailed, and the seed of grace took root in their hearts. The spirit of enquiry was general, and hundreds were seeking. The table of the Lord was more numerously attended every month; and I was enabled there to attend to the instructions of the rubric in a way that is scarcely practicable in a large parish at home. In cases of baptism the sponsors were persons of decided piety.
“The persons who attended the Lord’s table, in the latter part of my stay at the depôt, amounted to above two hundred; and it cannot but be supposed, that amongst so many, there were some who, to say the least of it, must be considered very weak christians. But they were all professing to be serious; and there were none among them, as I believed, of that formal description so common among the communicants in England, who attend this sacrament because they think it decent, or that they are doing some good thing, that they may have everlasting life.
“Still there are, no doubt, those who have flying convictions, even of a very lively description, for a moment; many of whom, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness, and when temptation or affliction cometh, are as immediately offended, and have no part nor lot with them that shall be saved. I therefore required them to give in their names beforehand, that I might enquire into the consistency of their lives, if there were any whom I did not know; and exhort those whom I had any doubt of, or refuse them, if I thought them altogether unfit.
“There was but a single instance of one coming, who had not given this previous notice. I observed the man amongst the rest, and was surprised. I had seen him very constant at church, but I had had no direct intimation of his seriousness, and was in doubt of him: I therefore went up to him, to ascertain, at least, whether he was prepared to receive the sacrament with consciousness, of the body and blood of Christ. He was a man of extreme simplicity of mind and manners; but answered in such a way, as immediately to convince me, that he was not only desirous of shewing the Lord’s death until he come, but instantly serving God day and night. And from that time, I know not that he was ever absent from any of the appointed means of grace, whether on the Lord’s day or any other; and in life, as in profession, was a decided and consistent Christian.
“Such was the state of this Christian community, and so changed in a few short months was this numerous depôt, in which there were, sometimes, as many as 1500 prisoners. Formerly there was not a room, out of a number, sometimes exceeding ninety, where a man could have gone down on his knees to prayer. The consequences to him of such an attempt would have been profane abuse, or even serious personal violence. Now there was not one room, in which there were not pious men; and quiet and peace prevailed towards them, even on the part of those who did not themselves profess the truth.
“I remember an observation from Mr. Lee, when he went with me through the barracks, and into all or most of the rooms. ‘This,’ said he, ‘is a most extraordinary thing. I have been through a depôt of 1500 sailors, and not seen one drunken man!’ And the influence of their example was felt more or less, in a religious point of view, throughout all the depôts, in all which one or other of them had friends, with whom they were in habits of correspondence.