The out-take concerning the Christian Commission centered on a mysterious phrase I discovered in a newspaper article. The article reported a meeting of the Commission on Tuesday, February 2, 1864, and included a synopsis of remarks by G. H. Stuart, the president of the Commission. Part of the work of the Commission dealt with providing soldiers with Bibles, religious tracts, library books, pamphlets, and religious newspapers. Stuart gave an accounting of the numbers of each item that had been given out. Among these items, there was a notation about 3,285 "silent comforters." I had never heard this term used before, and I have asked many Civil War scholars since learning of this if they had heard of it. I have yet to find one who has. Most surmised that the silent comforter was some kind of blanket or afghan. No one was sure.
Fortunately, in the Bailey/Howe Library at the University of Vermont, I discovered a book called Incidents in the U.S. Christian Commission. Unlike many books published just after the Civil War, this one included a very good index, and there was an entry for silent comforters. What follows is the extract where silent comforters are explained:
After we had occupied Atlanta, a Delegate was sent for by a nurse to see a man who was about to die in one of the warehouse hospitals. He found him a young man of Christian education , but struggling with painful doubts as to the truth of the Bible and the way of salvation through Christ. He wanted to believe, but could not. The Delegate had frequent interviews with him, but seemed to make no progress in the attempt to lead him to the Saviour. One night the soldier called the nurse and asked him to set a candle at the foot of the bed, so that the light might strike upon a "Silent Comforter" hanging upon the wall. The leaf that had been turned over for that day bore the verse: "Whoso cometh unto Me, I will in no wise cast out." In the morning early the soldier again sent for the Delegate and asked him to feel under his pillow for a letter from his mother. It was an affectionate entreaty to her son to accept Christ. As the Delegate read, he came to the words, "Whoso cometh unto Me, I will in no wise cast out."
"There," said the sick man, "that’s what I want. I thought mother said that. Read it again." It was read.
"Mother says that, does she?"
"Yes."
"And it’s in the Bible too?"
"Yes."
"Then it must be true. Jesus will receive me. I will come to Him. Here, Lord, I give myself up."
So far as could be determined from the few days of remaining earthly experience, it was a genuine surrender of the will to its Lord.
From what I can deduce from this passage, the silent comforter was a kind of calendar of religious sayings printed in large enough type that a soldier lying on a hospital bed could read the message for the day. I assume that somewhere there still exist some old silent comforters from the period of the Civil War. If someone out there sees this message and knows where to find one, please e-mail me at once.
Copyright © 2000 by Robert Willis Allen