Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1883-05-28
MEMORIAL SERVICES.
Rev. Mr.. Upj0hn DELIVERIES the Memorial
sermon In Granite Church.

ing able TO obtain only standing room. The
Post was escorted to the church BY Harry
NJ. Stinson Camp, Sons of Veterans, and
nearly every member was present. Gov
Robe, being in the city, was in attendance
The services opened with a voluntary from
the organ, followed by an anthem which was
well rendered by the choir. Rev Charles
w. Bradlee made fervent prayer. The
hymn 'God Bless our Native Land" was
sung. Rev. A. C. White read selections
from the scriptures, after which an earnest
prayer was offered by Rev. Geo.W Fields.
ID. D., followed by singing the hymn Nearer
Ny God to Thee" Rev. Mr.. Upjohn then
delivered the memorial sermon, occupying
about half an hour. The sermon ended,
the hymn "America" was rendered with fine
effect, the audience joining 10 the singing.
The services closed with the benediction of
Rev. Mr.. Tilden. The following is the me-
mortal sermon almost entire:
Subject: National Anniversaries and the
use Of Decoration Day" Text: Phil.
3:l3.-"Forgetting those things which axe
behind, and reaching forth unto those things
| which are before"
These words are the words of St. Paul
They are familiar to Christians, and
the more familiar, 1t is to be hoped the more
helpful. Forgetting those things which are
behind and reaching forth unto those things
which are before - Their KEY note is hope
fulness. As words Of divine inspiration they
bear with incisive force upon the inner ex.
perence and the outward habit of the dici-
pie of Christ.....Man is a creature of ex-
pectation He turns away from what il
passed. He anticipates what is to come
His thoughts are continually trendng
to the future, wishing, hoping, pray
ing, laboring for something not yet attained
He is restless until he has attained it, And
when he has attained new object takes the
place of the old. This is especially true of
the young. What lies behind, is but brief
| pace what stretches out before is a wide ex-
panse, full of attractive possibilities. "When
the blood is at high pressure in our veins and
the future lying all before us, it is very diff
cult TO turn back, and force ourselves into
contemplation of the scenes that have passed
over" with which we, personally perhaps,
have had little or connection. What is
thus true OF the individual is also true of the
Nation A Nation hurries away from its past
| to make a new history. 1t it studies old prec-
edents, it is yet more eager to make new ones
| A new Nation is impatient of the old it pre-
fers the new. Our Nation is new one
America is yet young. 1t has only lately at
tanned what may pct inapty be called its
majority. The centennial marked an era
from which the Nation passed into the full
possession of its great and highly gifted heri-
rage. Not but what much had gone before.
The period Of its adolescence, (if we may
for the sake of the figure, call i: so,) had
been a season of travail and labor, of suffer
ing and trial, of education in every great
sense of the word. The younger days were
under the Providence of the God of Nations
DAYS not of mere quiet learning, and peace
full seclusion, but rather of intense thought,
of stern discipline and hardy exposure. The
first hundred years of its history is filed full
with vast searching experience, of mental. :
moral, material trial and growth. Still, I'M
posing and significant as this experience has
been, the Nation is yet young. and it feels it,
youth. What it has been taking to itself in
the past. is its equipment for and solid
acquisitions. Ii is now settling down to its
work, surveying its resources, measuring its
powers, and its eve is~on the future. The
blood is at high pressure still within the
veins, and with all that lies before us, it is
only by an effort that we turn back. to review
the past, so we follow on to 1.-THE things which
are before. This is all perfectly natural, and it
is right it is but following ont the law of the
living thing.
} Still every rule has its exceptions, and the
rule il best observed and understood when
the exceptions are noted. If with our habit
| ual self confidence and our strong enthusiasm
we occasionally forget the dignity which be-
longs to our manhood and go hop, skip and
jump pace, know well enough we can
not 20 forward at this rate all the time.
Even \ lightning express train must stop oc-
casionallv on the road, not only TO take in a
| fresh supply of fuel, but to examine the ma
| chinerv And if the man with the long handled
hammer goes around in a sort of underhand
way tapping the wheels. we folks who are
sitting comfortably in our parlor cars or bid
, ding good bye to friends and settling our
selves down to a comfortable ride, are not
bv any means sorry tor these ominous sounds.
and this rather surreptitious examination.
We feel the safer for it, and speed along on
, | our way with a more assured sense of secur-
uy.
Well a Nation like ours. so young. so buoy
J ant, So rapid in its movements, so ambitious
to get on, NAV well have its pauses, its sta
tons of momentary cooling off and refresh
ment, Of self inspection. OF counting the miles
, it has run. If it is bad thing for a
man to cut himself utterly loose from
, the past it is revolutionary madness In
a Nation We need not live in the past
but it would be folly of the worst
kind, to so live in the present, or so hurry
! forward to the future, as to ignore the mo
| m. ntous experiences which have gone before.
and which have brought us up to our present
standpoint. and indeed made us what we are.
use my text, therefore, TO point not only its
| own but also its counter moral. would rec
| ayuze the habitual bent of American charac-
ter and life, by emphasizing what may, well
he its occasional and exceptional employment.
We NAV make halt now and then, in cur
J onward march. In doing so. we stand in no
great risk of getting behind the age. On the
contrary. such pauses for retrospect may be
b he wholesome preventive against running
| ahead of time, which if INDUCED in sapt Ia
result as disastroaslv as running behind time.
On stations then for this sort of thing. while
I hev are few, may not be rushed through, as
, though there were no such thing. We have
come TO one of them now. The present &C.
rasion is case in point. We call it Me
I mortal Day. We have one or two others,
which have been long observed after Il fash
ion. with the same general purpose. Our
Fourth of July is day of remembrance, and
so is our 22d of February. We call them
D National holidays, and they are reminders OF
something gone before, recalling to our minds
pregnant facts and crises in our history. They