Bristol news. [volume] (Bristol, Va. & Tenn.) 1867-189?, 1879-10-14


solemn guard over the warrior at rest
forever. On the Continent saw many
impressive altars in crypts and corners
and dramatic situations, but l remember
none in the unique position of this one
raised into the air on level above the
main altar of the church, and looking
down on ali around 1t.
But why lengthen out detached pic
lures where every foot is illustrative,
where every stone is eloquent, every
aisle and corridor and archway is tremu-
lous with the memories Of centuries?
THE SERMON IN STONE.
Westminster Abbey with its pictur-
esque old English architecture, so thor
oughly ecclesiastical, so rich, so elegant;
with its cloisters and venerable aisles,
shadowy with the associates of legend,
history and tradition; with its stately
tombs, the grand records of England's
glories, learning the faith; with its his
toric chapels and crumbling stones, and
time stained walls hung with dropping
banners or crowded with suggestive in
scriptions, is one of those places, which,
like Niagara, cannot disappolnt. One
need not fear to see it lest the sight
should dissolve cherished dreams of
beautiful images. No matter what ones
range of reading, no matter what ones
sweep and realm Of imagination, the
fair fabric of fact stands forever, grand
er than dream or fancy.
could not help thinking whenever
passed this historic spot of the riches
with which England is endowed in this
single church, and my mind reverls to
the reflection again and again as ! think
how long, long, long it must be before
we can be equally favored. 1t is foun-
daton with which no collegeI
can ever be endowed-a perpetual les
son and education of "Remember the
days of old; consider the years of many
generations. "Thelr souls are with the
Lord, we trust"
Wandering through Westminster Alb
hey as in all the churches of England,
there Is forced on one II sense of the
great honors which England pays to her
soldiers. | think that in the cathedrals
and churches of the kingdom u larger
proportion of soldiers lie buried IN state
or their names recorded in memorial le-
gend if they have died on foreign fields,
than any one other class, not even cX-
ce2tlng the clergy, the custodans of the
buildings. At every step these stately
tombs or eloquent tablets arrest you;
their still, stone elllgics rest under the
gathering dusts Of every century; "thelr
good swords rust ON every wall.
1t is this culture Of courage Gud force
which has made England, and It Is these
honors which make her men soldiers
While there Is something IN her military
organization and structure which seem
to produce deficient genemlship or pre-
vent the development and coming for
ward of the real military genius which
Is surely IN her armies, the soldlerly
qualities of the body Of her officers are
something wonderful and worthy OF the
highest admration--thclr fidelity; their
personal chlvalry in moments of danger;
their perfect willingness and readiness
to die. Her gentlemen leave homes OF
loveliness, and cultivation, and refine
ment, unequaed on the face Of the globe,
and die every year, every day almost,
old and young, on the plains of Asia, IN
the forests OF Africa, In fever swamp
and desert sands, checrlully and uncom-
planingly. Hardly n country home In
England but has It's soldiers grave som,-
where In the utmost parts of the earth,
where England Is pushing her Imperial
arms. And that all this sacrifice Is made
In the face of n general sense Of unease-
mess and want of confidence In the aDlI-
l.y of the directing power makes II oll
the more wonderful. Somebody DluIl-
dcred" at BalaklayO, just as they dld at
Braddock's Field and Bunker llill, ANA
before the cotton bales at New Orleans
in 1912, and among the kraals ofZululahd
this fatal year; but still the British sol
dier, gentleman aud yeoman, Is ever
ready, with his life In his hand, to go
forward. It Is these tombs In The old