The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1881-06-09
Eltsce11a
REV. 7. DEWITT TALMAGE.
HEART's-EAsR FOR THE SILENT
HEART OF OUR DEAD.
Putting Upon Our sOldler.TOmbs the AiSs
Patriotic ARectlOn..-The Typical Blue and
GRAY Of War Times Blended Once More.
DECORATION DAY.

The church is here compared to an ar
mory, the walls hung with the trophies
of dead heroes. Walk all sbout this
tower of David and see the dented shields
and twisted swords and rusted helmets of
terrible battle. So we turn our church
today into an armory adorned with the
memories of our departed braves. Bios
som and bloom, 0, wallsl with stories Of
sell sacrifice, the shadows gathered into
this drapery typical of our grief for the
dead, and the light clustered into these
consultations symbolical of our national
deliveranCe. Ycu see it is not the black
ness of darkness, but night with stellar
illumination. By unanimous decree OF
the people of the United States the graves
of all the Northern and Southern dead
are every year decorated. all acerbity
and bitterne have gone cut of the ma
tional olemnity, and as the men and
women of the South one month ago for
allied the cemeteries and graveyards, so
tomorrow we, the men and women of
the North, shall put upon the tombs of
our dead the kiss of patriotic affection.
Bravery always appreciates bravery,
though it fight on the other side, and if
so der of the Federal army had been
a month ago at Savannah he would not
have been ashamed to march in the
floral professions to the cemetery. And
if tomorrow there be confederate sold
ier walking in Greenwood, he will be
glad to put a prig of heartease on the
silent Leart of our dead. In a battle dur
ing our late war, the Confederates were
driving back the Federals, who were in
swift retreat, when a Federal officer
dropped wounded, One of his men
stopped, at the risk of his life, and put
his arms around the dead officer to carry
him from the field. Fifty Confederate
muskets were aimed at the young man
who was picking up the officer. But the
Confederate Captain shouted "HOld!
Don't fire! That fellow is too brave to
shoot" and as the Federal officer, held
up by his Irivate soldier, went limping
slowly off the field, the Confederates
gave three cheers for the brave private;
and just before the two disappeared be-
hind a barn, both the wounded officer
and the brave private, lifted their caps
in gratitude to the Confederate captain.
Shall the Gospel be less generous than
the world? We stack arms, the bayonet
of our North ern gun facing this way, the
bayonet Of the Southern gun facing the
other way, and as the gray of the morn
ing melts into the blue of noon, 80 the
typical gray and blue Of old war times
have blended at last, and we quote in
the language of King James translation,
withou any revision, "Glory to God in
the highest, and on earth peace, good
will to men," That you may act intelli-
gently in this matter shall make this
an ordination service to the beautiful
ceremonies of tomorrow. What do we
mean by this great observance?
First, we mean instruction to one |
whole generation. Subtract 1854, when |
the war ended, from ur 1881, and you |
will realize what a vast number of peo'
pie were born since the war, or were so |
young as to have no vivid appreciation.
No one under twenty six years Of age has |
any adequate memory of that prolonged
horror. Young mar, do you rememS er it?
"Well," you say, II only remember that
mother swooned awav while she was
reading the newspaper, and that they
brought my father home wrapped in the
flag, and that a good many people came
in the house to pray, and that mother IA
ded away after that, until again there
were many people in the hO7se, and they
told me she was dead" There are OH.
ers who cannot remember the roll of a
drum or the tramp of regiment or
sigh or tear of that tornado Of woe
that swept the nation again and again
until there was one dead in each house,
Now it ia. the religious duty of those who
do remember it to tell those who do not.
My young friends, there were such part
ings at railCar windows and steamboat
Wharves, and at front doors of Comforta'
BILE homes, as, l pray God, you may neV'
er witness. Oh, what time it was when
fathers and mothers gave up their sons,
never expecting to see them again,
and never did see them again un-
til they came back mutilated and crush
ed and dead. Four years of blood; four
years of hostile experiences; four years
of ghastliness; four years of graVe'dig'
Eing; four years of funerals, shrouds,Cof-
fms, dirge9, hearses. Mourning mourn.
ingl mourningl mourningl 1t was hell
let loose. What time of waiting for
newel Morning paper and evening pa
per scrutinized for intelligence from the
boys at the front. First, announcement
that the battle must occur next day.
Then the news of the battles going on
On the following day still going on. Then
news of thirty thousand slain and The
names the great Generals who had
fallen, but no news about the private
soldiers. Waiting for newsl After many
days load of wounded going through
the town or city, but no news from our
boy. Then long list ofwounded, and
long list of the dead, and long list of
the n issing and among the last list our
boy. When missing, how missing, who
saw him last7 Missing, missingl Was
he in the woods or by the stream? How
was be hurtP Missing What burning
prayers that he may yet be heard from.
In that aWfIll waiting for GeWs MANY q
life persisted. The strain of anxiety was
too great. That wife's brain gave way
that first week after the battle, and ever
and anoa she walks the floor of the Asy
lum, or looks out of the window ss tho
she expected some one to come along the
path and up the stairs, as she soliloqui-
yes: "Missingl missingp What made
matters worse, all this might have been
avoided. There was no more need OF
that war than that this moment l sho'd
plunge a da ger through your heart.
There were few Christian philai thro