Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1869-07-02
Sermon by Henry Ward Beeoher at
West Point.


preached an able sermon to the gradu-
ates of tie Military Academy at West
Point, Sunday morning, taking for bis
text Ephesians w., Is. He closed his
discourse as follows:
"You ought to be nobier men than
most, because your work is vicarious,
you labor for the Government, you
stand by the country. 1t is for you to
be the right hand, the executive hand Of
the Government of the land. You need
not be cruel because you are warriors,
for war may be but discipline. 1t is
the symbol of law, of liberty itself. We
are but just passed through a war
which, with all its details, will be looked
back upon when we have drifted so far
on our way that we can see it in per-
spective, as q sublime war for liberty,
unity, liberty and human happiness.
And all its blood drops, and all its tears,
all its wrecks and desolations will pass
out of view, aud no man can measure
the abundance of that good which will
spring up in consequence of it. You
are part of the government; it be-
hooves you to represent man some-
thing better than common men do. II
is yours to guard flag which now has
more TO tell the world than any ether
flag. Now, thank God, it is clean.
Once there was blood on it. Not drop
now. Once the stars that are on it were
stars with background of barbaric slav
cry. Now they are stars of hope, the
world over. And these stripes that are
upon the flag are no longer stripes of
cruelty, and that of shed blood-they
are the aurora light that plays upon
them, for, as you bear it round and
round the globe, or upon the sea, that
flag means intelligence, liberty. 1t
is blessed thing to be the guardian of it.
You belong to profession honored,
not mean abroad, though there-but
already in our land we have those, and
those, too, happily, have sprung from
the loins of this venerable school-we
have those whose name rests clothed in
Immortality for their skill, for their en-
durance, for their wisdom, yet more for
their humanity, for their moderation
and for their unambitious patriotism.
Nor are any of the stories of battles or
sciges and marches so sweet to listen to,
to mo, as in the story Of the five chiefest
men whom this war has launched into
the present; there is not one but what is
a brother to the Without rival
ry, firm clasped in concord, they stand
| to show what an American man should
be. While Napoleon could scarcely
hold his armies together from conflicts
with his enemies, and the jeaIousies OF
his Marshals, behold we are twined to
gether like cord by the firm friend
ship of our chiefest men that the war
has brought forth. A goodly example it is.
"My young friends, l beseech you to
enlarge your conception of life. Ask
inspiration above the text book, above
the tea chers, that God may give you a
conception of what it is to live for a
freer manhood than you have hitherto
followed. And as you go forth, what
can ask better of you than that your
hopes may be larger, your ambitions
purer, your arms truer, than those you
had when you first started, and stood
upon the mountain top. May the bless
ings Of Almighty God go with you
Whenever you are ia burdens, in trials
in wounds, in sickness. in death, wheth-
er among friends or in the wilderness
far away among savage foes, or depart.
ing amid the burden of earnest battle,
may you never lack company. May He
who loved your father and your mother,
may He who has guided your steps all
the days Of your lives, may He never
forsake you in the hour of trial and an.
guish. From earthly manhood grow
more large and splendid. May there be
reached out to you the manhood of Christ
Jesus, which shall be perfected only in
salvation"