On Sunday, 13th November, just as the bells of St. Mary’s were calling together the worshippers to service he passed away.  He had accepted an invitation to preach a course of four sermons, and would have delivered the second of the course on that very afternoon.  I am permitted, by the kindness of the Rev. H.C.G.  Moule, from whose delightful biography the foregoing sketch has been compiled, to reproduce a page from this address.

“Who would ever have thought I should behold such a day as this?” wrote Simeon.  “My parish sweetly harmonious, my whole works stereotyping in twenty-one volumes, and my ministry not altogether inefficient at the age of seventy-three....  But I love the valley of humiliation.”

In that last sentence, perhaps, lies the secret of the man’s far-reaching and undying influence.

A SOLDIER MISSIONARY.

THE STORY OF HEDLEY VICARS.

It was the 22nd March, 1855, just outside Sebastopol.  The night was dark and gusty.  Close to the Russian entrenchments was an advanced post of the British forces, commanded by Captain Hedley Vicars.  Fifteen thousand Russians under cover of the gloom had come out from Sebastopol and driven our French allies out of their advanced trenches.  Then a portion of this force stealthily advanced, seeking to take the British by surprise.

The first to discover the presence of the enemy was Hedley Vicars.  With great judgment he made his men lie down till the Russians were within twenty paces.  Then, springing to his feet, he shouted:—­

“Now, 97th, on your pins and charge!”

His force was about 200, that of the enemy nearly 2000!  Wounded in the breast at the first onset, he still led the charge.  “Men of the 97th, follow me!” rang out his voice above the din of battle, and leaping the parapet of the entrenchment he charged the enemy down the ravine.  “This way, 97th!” was his last command—­still at the head of his men.  His sword had already dealt with two of the foe, and was again uplifted, when a musket shot, fired at close quarters, severed an artery; and the work on earth of this gallant man was over.

Hedley Vicars was a true soldier and earnest Christian.  The last words he wrote, penned the night before he died, were:  “I spent the evening with Cay.  I read Isaiah, xli.; and he prayed.  We walked together during the day, and exchanged our thoughts about Jesus.”

He spent a busy time in the Crimea, doing plenty of hard work in the trenches; and when off duty engaged in hospital visiting, tract and book distributing, attending prayer meetings and mission services, constant in his Bible reading, and always endeavouring to do good to others.