From
Crickmer's Journal:
No date but this "1860-61". By the dates of the other
letters, this one sits between
January 8th 1860 and June 6th 1860:
The reverend
has been living in Victoria with his wife and family
since the closure of St.
John's Derby in January of 1860. He received a letter from
Bishop Hills requesting him to take the parsonage in Yale.
The
Journal of Reverand Crickmer, January 20 1860:
"When
I got to the mouth of the Harrison river, it was eight
o'clock on Sunday Morning. I could have landed up at Hope by
the evening; and I had many reasons for making such a Sabbath-day
journey 'lawful', though deeper reasons for not making it
'expedient'. Encamped a few miles from the mouth was a
detachment of the Royal Engineers, engaged on works in the
Harrison river; and I
could not conscientiously leave them unministered to. I
recognized amongst the sappers many old Derby aquaintances; for,
by turns, nearly the whole of the sappers, both those engaged and
on the Boundary Commission, and Colonel Moody's corps, have been
under my charge, to a greater or less extent, as honorary
Chaplin. A very general feeling of gratification spread on
the passing along the news that they would have 'a parson and a
sermon', instead
of regulation devotions. It was a lovely day, bounded by a
circle of mountains, grassy, rocky and pine-crested. Through
this area wound the clear Harrison river, leaving the area of sand
sometimes on one side, sometimes on the
other, of the river. I selected my chapel in nature's great
blue-domed cathedral next to the commissariat depot, in case of a
scud. The pulpit was a plank on two barrels. The
congregation stood, forming three sides of a square, below the
river, and around us the 'everlasting hills'. The text was,
Act XV.26, - 'Men that have have hazarded their lives for the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ', and the subject, 'A Christian
Soldier'. Three sappers had been drowned lateley; and
over their graves a Maltese cross raised, near the camp, which
gave solemn illustration to the Word preached. The men paid
attention, and repeated the
responses, and sang like one man."
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