Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1883-05-30
HEART rs KING
When Flowers Arc Laid Over the
Fallen Dead.
flowers for All Alike, for Blue and Grey, for
Captain and Observation-Disclosures
ton to Rev. MuIford's elo-
qusnt Sermon.

Last Sunday Rev J. B. Milford preached
an eloquent sermon. at the Baptist churca.
| on the theme, "a Warriors Grave Thst
Needs no Flowers The introduction,
besides being beautiful and eloquent, is so
abr ropriate to Decoration Day. that it will
be read with interest. II was a. follows:
Now In the place where he was crucfied
there was garden and IN me gs, ,h fs neS
sepulchre Inere ialu hncy Jesus-
John XIX: il-i2.
All the creations of God are purposeful.
Whether it pe blazing sun or ftful fire
fly, whether star in the sky or stone in the
brook, whether forest OF pine or jungle Of
moss, whether majestic man, standing
erect beneath the cope OF Heaven or re-
pulsive worm tunneling beneath the sur
face of the earth. Purpose like double
rainbow oyerarches and undergirds the
globe and in royal ATTITUDES and lousi-
tudes unites the poles and binds the zones.
MANS FIRST HOME WAS A GARDES.
Delighted with its fruits and RECALLED with
its flowers, he wandered through its YER
dant fields and beneath its fragrant bowers,
holding secret converse with his God. aud
in happy harmony with the unsullied
works OF his Makers hand.
That which tapestried the walks OF para
disc and raptured the vision OF our first
parents, still linger to adorn the earth and
refresh its many inhabitants. The flowers
are Gods gifts, rich with the beauty Of
Heaven and fragrant with love that has
no equal. They bloom to remind US Of
what paradise was and to tell US what
paradise is to be. They are memories
OF happy past and prophecies Of biissiui
future. Wherever they blush and watt
their sweet odors, We see the footprints OF
God and learn with clear meaning that
there was once time when Jehovah walked
with men. The seeming condescension In
their creation testIfies to the fact OF pur-
pose. We esteem il worthy of the great
God to pour the floods till the seas were
full; 10 pile the rock till the mountains
rose; to plant the trees till the forests
waved; to multiply the stars till the vast
expanse was islanded with planets and
continented with suns. But how wonder
full for this same mighty God to
sTooP TO FASHION THE LILY,
to paint the violet and pour eternal fra
GRANGE into the royal raiment OF the rose.
Such creative skill and care reveal Gods
thought for mans enjoyment. The grand
and majestic in unchanging display would
soon tire US. The mountains high and
awful would soon Cypress our spirit, and
so God sketches the valley between. The
oceans, broad and forbidding, would soon
sadden us with their ceaseless lash and
roar, and so God frames them with circles
of verdant plains and wooded hills. The
cold, and glittering, and far distant stars
would chill our hearts with disappointment
and SO God puts the flowers on the earth
in multitudes as great as the stars. There
is as much divine purpose in butter cup
as in planet: as much kind thought
and marvellous skill in the humble
violet as in the proud mountains. 1t was
because the divine hand had fashioned the
lily Of the field that il surpasssedthe Splen-
dor of Solomon in all his glory.
Revcrent!y accepting the flowers as the
gift of God, man has universally conse-
Grated them to holy and happy uses. They
are found in the
TREssEs OF THE BRIDE
and in the cold hand of the dead. Gods
House and mans house are alike adorned
with their presence. The winter OF SUI
ferine that chills the chamber OF the sick,
is changed into profound summer by the
breath OF the flowers; and the graves OF
our dead are robbed of their ghastliness by
their silent bloom.
They are employed as silent expressions
OF love, as symbols of tender memory
and as evidences OF gratitude which gold
cannot cancel.
In these modern times, beautiful GUS
tom has arisen, unknown in other lands,
of placing upon the graves Of soldier heroes,
floral tributes of praise to the memory OF
those who have fallen in the fray. Deco
ration Day is peculiar TO our own
land, and is the most beautiful and signii-
cant custom among the nations OF earth.
In its simple but sublime ceremonies the
valor Of heroes is applauded, and the gift
of those who gave their lives for the main.
tenance OF law, the honor of principle, and
the safety of country is gratefully remem-
bered For us they fought, for us they
died and their graves are the treasures ola
nation that delights TO honor their memory
with garlands OF Gods most beautiful Gre
atons. With martial strains and beneath
floating banners, their comrades, who fought
with them and saw them fall, march in re-
gal rank to their resting place to lay fra
grant chaplets on the graves OF earth's I'M
crowned kings.
THE HANDS OF THE FAIR
and the voices of the young unite in the
service the living pay TO the dead, and de.
parting from the city of sepulchres not
only leave behind them redolent testimo.
malls of reverence and affection but bear
away with them new impulses OF patriot
ism and grander conceptions OF the dignity
OF man and the immortality OF deeds OF
sef-sacrifce. Thus generations yet unborn
will know Of the glory of the past. and in
their turn do honor TO the memory OF those
who stood for the right and died for the
true. Nor is this beautiful custom limit
tied to certain portions and peo-
Piles of our land. The North cannot
Law claim to all honor in this service TO the
dead comrades and heroes of many bloody
field. The fair South as we'll, wreaths the
monuments and decks the graves OF its
buried sons. They, with us, would not
forget the debt of gratitude they owe to
the brave men who stood where they might
have stood and fell where they might
have fallen. And, though it is regarded as
a lost cause, yet, to
oUR BRETHREN OF THE SOUTH,
il was az grand cause as that which reused
the North 10 arms. They have their heroes
as we'll as We do, and the graves Of their
dead are as sacred and sublime to them as
ours to us. And the spirit which prompts
our actions on these memorable days Is
not one of hatred and hostility. The flowers
we spread upon the soldier graves Of North
and South are not intended to keep alive
the spirit of rebellion, nor to hand down
TO posterity the memory OF the wrongs
sustained, but rather 10 bury beneath the
flowers we strew the animosities OF the
past, and by them do honor to the virtues
of the dead rather than TO the principles
Of cause. Every flower is therefore a
symbol and prophecy; symbol, that as
il dies, SO perishes every bitter feeling
and revengeiul impulse, and as they
bloom sgain when winter is past,
so do We hope for resurrection
OF nobler sentiments and close fraternal
sympathies. Once North and South strug-
gled for the supremacy of empire. Once
they Wed with each other on fields OF
blood and fought with a deadly purpose
with shot and she'll, but in the later years,
in cslmer thought and kinder feeling, a
different battle is fought-a battle in
which Christian sentiments are ranked in
which beautiful competition in reverence
and esteem exists; in which North and
South
RIVAL EACH OTHER ~ DOING HoSoE
to the memory OF heroes. A silent and
significant battle, indeed, fought with
flowers from the armory Of human graft
tude and Christian love- Where, instead
of the shrek and she'll and the roar OF
cannon, there falls the quiet voice OF