Bradford opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1874-1881, 1880-06-05

GRAFTON BY II. A. HUsE, ESQ, OF
MONTPELIER, W., AT BRADFORD,
MAY 30.
USE OF DECORATION DAY TO THE
LIVING.

| LIVlNG.
The good old ministers of Me-
England used to end their sermon
often times with what they calle
an improvement, that is with II
the application and sometimes th
body of one sermon called for sey
eral improvements or applications
In casting about what to say her
to day it has seemed that the use
Decoration Day to the Living is ,
subject that has in it much tlia
may well engage our attention fol
~ inw minutes.T Tha-ele~s~eyeF- "
this day while it honors the dead
should benefit those for whom they
died.
Where an occasion repeats itself
year by year it is u hopeless task
after a time to attempt, where so
much that is good has been said
and adorned in the saying, to say
new things that are worthy or to
say old things without putting them
in worse shape than others have be-
fore put them.
Talk is better than reading in
any public meeting and one read.
ing owes an apology. That apology
lies in this case-that while to con-
vince people one needs to look them
in the eye and to speak from the
heart instead of from paper, those
who assemble here need not to be
convinced. Each one here knows
it is well for him to engage in this
service and the speakers Office is
not to give information, to advance
new thoughts, to urge to things not
before considered of by his hearers,
but as one selected from among you
simply to give voice to the common
understanding of the matter dwelt
upon. 1t corresponds somewhat to
what is heard sometimes in meet.
ings for worship where brother is
called upon to ''lead in prayer"
And that calls to mind perhaps
the main reason why l read instead
of talk to you what deem to be
the common thought of us all about
the true uses of this day. He who
leads for the first time and who has
always before followed, sometimes
halts and stumbles and III trying to
do things beyond him does worse
than if he had kept along Oh his
every day level. He sometimes
finds himself where the boy who
asked the blessing did. His father
had always done it and being alb
sent one day when visitor was
present the youngest of the family,
a four-year old, took it on himself,
before remOnstrance could be made,
to do things as they should be done.
His blessing was "Oh Lord -
Amen. There's more to it than l
thought there was"
Some modern philosophers it is
true think they have found there
is nothing to that, but they may in
the end come to the opinion of the
boy after all.
One thing is certain there is more
to the day we now observe than is
dreamt of in the philosophy of any
careless Horatio, whose eye sees but
the form and movement of process
sions and the beauty of flowers
strewn Oh the green sward that
covers the dead.
The Indian who "sees God in
clouds and hears him in the wind'
is yet on a higher plane Of humanity
than he who reduces his own mind
to a somehow etherialized, some.
how aerated, somehow, mot infnites-
simally for this man does away
with the infinite,-but finitesimally y
refined, material emanation from
and of the cOmponentmaterialp parts
of his bodily being. The things
done to-day are done in honor OF
something that cannot be brought
to weight and measure-in honor
of patriotism by calling to mind by
outward things what men who are
dead did for its sake.
We cannot learn unless there is
a thing to learn, we cannot make
application without having some
thing to apply, we cannot tell the
good uses of this day to ourselves
without looking through its form OF
cOmmemoratiOn to the men and
their motives and deeds that aIt
cOmmemOrated.
In the law, the things that have
been done are kept recorded that
principles may be fixed for things
that are to be done in the future
In medicine 1t is the same. In al
branches of human endeavOr the
past is studied for its guidance il
present and future action.
So when history is recorded
whether on the pages of Macaulay
and Motley and Prescott, or il
monuments that lift themselves
80. l., a., N.