Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1877-05-23
ElOQuence of Patriotism.

We venture to say that in all the memoir
ial services of the past there has never oeen
paid, nor will there ever be, more eloquent
or patriotic tribute to the gallant heroes
who gave their lives to their country than
the following, by the late Rev. DR.. Lord de-
livered in 1866. 1t was embodied in a New
Years discourse, and refers to two brothers,
members of his congregation, who fell one
at Mobile and the other at Orange Grove,
Virginia. No such language ever came
from the lips of man whose heart was not
literally burning with the fires of patriotic
devotion:
al cannot but remember two bright and
pleasant youths of this gation-both
members of the Sabbath-school, one of them
its librarian for time, over whose SCARED
bodies no tear of father or mother was shed,
and no service of religion or love was said
Many who hear me will recall the face
and figure of -- and of his younger
brother -, like scores of thousands of
Others in the past few years, who have
offered themselves up as the price of oui
welfare and happiness, as the ransom of our
national existence, and of all the untold
blessings which are EMBODIED in it. They
persisted bravely, amid the din of battle, and
found their graves unknelled, uncofined
without prayer and without tear, within the
lines of their enemies. Over their unknown
resting-places shall grow the effacing YER
dure of hundred years, and though no man
can tell where they sleep, that on that spot
of earth love might rear their memorial, yet
many thousand generations shall not see the
end of that for which they gave their lives a
sacrifice, and each drop of their blood will
cement in its measure the structure of our
national life and of our individual security.
The grass oil the sod which covers them shall
grow green and wither, and the flowers which
the spring time brings upon their hidden
graves shall bloom and fade, but the work
which they contributed their all to further
shall be their constant and sublime mon
ument
"lf our beloved land comes out safely from
all her trials and moves forward on brighter
career, to better destination, the coming
generations may look upon its massive and
extended proportions, its towering and won
derful fame, and say of each of its thousands
OF uncrowned and persisted sons, who rest
securely in unknown graves, through the
orange groves and by the broad and deep
rivers of the South, and all along its valleys
and hills, 'All this shall be thy memorial; this
shall be thy monument Beneath many
marble piles shall lie less honored forms, and
many a gilded epitaph shall describe less
worthy names and recite less noble deeds,
Excuse me, then, if | speak now OF those
of whom no other minister has spoken and
lay thus late (now that affection has given
up its last hope that the dead may be alive
upon their memories the tribute of their
pastor and friend. Pardon me if | speak to
now chidless hearts that never can forget
their sorrow such words as shall temper the
edge of their grief Let me commend to
them the exhaustless fountain of divine
love, and invoke for them the highest fruits
of tho chastsninu hand of Cod "