National Republican., 1883-05-28
THE CHRISTIANS WARFARE.

q sermon appropriate TO memorial day serv-
ices. Kit Carson Post No. 2, q. A. R., and
large delegations from various other posts
were in attendance. The ext was Ephesians
chapter vi, 10. "Take unto you the whole
armor of God, that ye may be able to with
stand in the evil day, and having done all, to
stand"
The preacher dwelt upon the old-fashioned
character of the Bible; the homely style in
which its truths were put, but none the less
forcible because homely; tho naturalness of
Its spirit. No matter how antique be its dress,
and It's frequency of illustration drawn from
the soldier life. God is q shield; Christ the
captain of our salvation we are under orders
to fight the good fight of faith and thousands
Of similar phraseology. The reason was OBJ
vious. Life is a battle. Out Of Gods armory
must we be equipped for the contest2 And
then the preacher continued.
But now / am going to turn aside for n
moment TO speak few words especially ap-
propriate to the occasion that calls us together
to-day.
In the general order of the department
commander respecting the Observance of
memorial day occurs tho following most ap-
propriate sentence:
" 1t is recommended that comrades of all
the posts attend divine service on the Sunday
preceding memorial day, thus reminding our
selves that the matchless blessings won for
us by the sleeping comrades, whose memory
we are about to honor, were sought for by all
the loyal people with fasting and supplica-
ton"
The history of the custom Of decorating the
graves of those soldiers who fell in tho strug-
gle twenty years ago is much like the history
of every such observance. 1t takes its origin
in the instructive promptings of the soul. At
first without any preconcerted plan
then later a few here ann there
agree to do this thing on some
set day Others at other times but
all of them in the spring or early summer,
when flowers are in abundance and the now
life of nature seems to whisper of the new
life that shall be to all the dead; that has
been to all the living because of the dead.
From these isolated cases arises the sugges-
tion that day shall be agreed upon by all (;
then legislation touches IL to mako the day a
national holiday; thus the custom becomes
universal. Out of what began as the instinct
i've promptings of few souls we get an or
ganic law, a fixed day, and a universal GUS
tom. This is the evolution Of a rite, the
development of an idea, and exactly describes
great many of the fixed things ordinances,
we call them) in religion.
They yexistexternally because they are rooted
in our instructive needs. For the instinct
must always, in the very nature of things, be
older than the custom or rite. The ordinance
is divine because it is human. And in one
way you eau understand how the rigid rule
may seem to subtract from the Intensity of
the first promptings of the soul. To deco
rate the graves, according to act Of congress,
is frigid, and all the beauty of the first un-
studied offering is gone. To cat bread in
remembrance of Christ, because He commands
it, is transfxing the soul with the spear of
duty. But let us see! Let men and women
60 only when they are moved to, and carry
flowers as often as they are prompted by
feelings of kindliness and gratitude for the
Nf fl,No atrtn
rs to lay down their lives in defense of the
nation, and what will happen2 You will
get for time, from a few more spontane-
Gus, purer offering. But 10000 graves will
lie untouched by any flower of affectionate re-
membrance And in little while there will
he none to perform the simple office for any
The continuance of the custom, therefore,
depends upon enactment. Each one wishing
TO make sincere offering, may; and thou
sands who otherwise would not, do; and the
multitude is made, at least onco in the
rolling year. to stop and think, and bestow
q flower or tear upon those who gave the
last full measure of devotion" that las was
eloquently said by the commander of all tha
armies in consecrsting the national cemetery
at Gettysburg) thus government OF the peo-
pie, for the people, by the people, might not
perish from the EARTH" follow this out in
detail for the sake of the light it throws upon
the genesis and development of religious Gus
toms. At first they are the simple motions OF
sentiment and instinct in an isolated few,
Some pray, some build affairs, some offer sacri-
fees, and from the blind groupings of the few
there is by and by law laid down for the
many. Souls, separated by thousands of years
of differing nationality, speak of an inner
voice, and call to their fellows in tones of en-
couragement, consolation, postiveness, de-
claring that God is with them We call II in
spiration. We say the world is wilder
ness; but SO many rare souls have
explored in it before us that they
have worn path for us in which we may
walk with confidence. We say the life OF
every thinking, conscientious man is battle,
but the result is not doubtful, seeing there are
the same old enemies of evil and doubt which
have been put to fight thousand times. II
is good omen therefore that this memorial
day is given religious Interpretation and is
kept in a religious spirit For all the most
serious things Of life-all things of sentiment,
all Of instinct and affection, all are naturally
linked in some way with religion. Indeed
they are Of themselves religious How can
we so to any grave with hope divorced from
faith? But let me give You two or three
thoughts called out especially by the recur-
renee of this day. And for one thing think
we are impressed with
l. The rapid flight of the years. 1t Is
twenty years since Gettysburg, A genera
tion grown up since then. OF the 100000
who enlisted even the youngest are passing
lhNo NO OiucI OHcs uIb gray
haired. All are veterans now. And year by
year many drop out of the ranks and sleep by
the wayside. What little thing is life if we
look at ii in this way.
>. And yet to look at it in another way
what great thing it is since duty and de-
votion are after all the only things of worth.
II seemed hard for the moment that SO many
should be compelled to perish.
But from the point to which we have come
to-day we look back to get at least this light
on IL; OF all who fell in the war large pro
portion would now be in their graves at any
rate, In twenty years more the grand army
will not be very large one, And, living OF
dead, it is the best thing always that can bC
said of man, :" He did his duty"
3. think as we lay flowers on the graves
of the dead we may note the fact that grow:
daily more evident-that all sectional animos
ties are being rapidly buried. The joint reunion
ofa Virginia and New York regiment, and the
return of the captured flags during the past
week, was significant of the spirit that is in
the air. 1t does not mean, as some mistak
emily infer, that the war was for nothing; oil
that to decorate the graves of the fallen il
robbed of all significance.
My attention has been called TO a commu-
nication in a leading New York daily paper
In which it is intimated that the north has
forgotten not only all animosity, but all graft
tude as we'll. But ii is not so Two causes
are at work TO dimished in this generation
the volume Of gratitude to the dead, gauging
IL by an interest in memorial day.
(d) The survivors (who naturally take the
most lively interest in memorial day. are be
ing rapidly reduced in number.