Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1883-05-28
Memorial Day Sermons.


s%s--
An Able Discourse by Rev. MIR. Samson of |
Calvary Baptist Church-LtkeSvfseb by |
Rev. Mr.. Harris at the St. John Street |
:, MI. n. Church-The Grand Army Attend |
Both Services in a Body.
According to usual custom yesterday,
which is the Sunday preceding Memorial |
day, was observed by members of the Grand |
Army of the Republic by attending church
in body. In the morning Admiral Foote
post attended st. John street M E. church
and in tho evening Calvary Baptist church.
At the latter church there were about two
hundred members of the post present, occu-
plying the body of the church. The church
was crowded to overlooking and hundreds
went away. who could not gain admission.
The platform back of the preachers desk was
very handsomely decorated with flowers,
while at either side Of the desk were beauti-
full bouquets. The exercises opened with an
invocation by the pastor, followed by an an
them from the choir, 1--WE acknowledge thee
to be the Lord" The choir is a quar-
tette of Miss Gaffney soprano, Mrs. Blinn
alto, Mr.. Knowlton tenor, and Mr.. Strong
bass. The anthem and in fact all the selec-
After the opening exercises Rev.
Mr.. Samson announced as the basis
of his remarks, Psalms 1877: 5-6,
eff forget thee, o Jerusalem, let my right
hand forget her cunning. If I do not re-
roof of my mouth; if prefer not Jerusalem
above my chief joy.'
The preacher said: In the fulillment of
pious and patriotic purpose we are assem-
bled to commemorate the valor of our sons
and brothers displayed on many fields of bat
tie in the dark days of civil war. Nearly
quarter of century has gone since the echo
ing thunder of the guns at Sumter aroused
the people of the land to the startling reality
of an impending conflict, the ingratitude,
the limit the cost of which in
life and treasure none could foresee, much
less foretell We are in the presence to-
night of men who have survived the perils of
war; who live to remember the thrilling
scenes and to tell the thrilling stories of
carnage; men of the rank and file who have
braved the storm, who have risked their
lives for the maintenance of the Union.
Manned, mutilated and unscarred they have
returned to the pursuits of peace. We un-
cover ourselves in the presence of these brave
men who have breasted the shock of
battle, to whose heroism we are indebt-
ed for the peace, the prosperity, the
perpetuity of the Union of the
States. We join them in paying
reverent homage to the memory of those
who did not come back with them, who fell
upon the field, giving their lives as a sacri-
fee We invoke the offices of religion in aid
of our pious and patriotic purpose and in the
house of God, by the help of his word and in
the services of his day, we meet to learn
those truths, to exercise those emotions, to
express those purposes and to perform those
acts which the occasion demands. We have
not come hither to- night simply to mourn the
dead, to extol their patriotism and commem-
crate their virtue This has already been
done and amply done. The monu-
mental shaft in almost every city
and hamlet of the land will speak to the gen
erations after of their valor and patriot
ism, and the sweet and simple service which
is yet to be rendered, of strewing the reses
of June upon their green graves, will speak
more eloquently of their virtue than the
finest phrases we can make.
Our duty and privilege at this hour relates
rather to ourselves and the passage of
Scripture which is used as text, which COM
memorates the loyalty and patriotism of the
ancient Jews in their exile, may be suggestive
to US of some religious duties, the considera-
ton of which may not be altogether unbe-
fitting the occasion.
| As the character of God is exalted above
the reach of human thought and word, SO it
is impossible to portray that spirit of love
aud reverence and conservation to him which
men ought always to exhibit. The strongest
imagery which we can conceive, the loftiest
sentiments of which we are conscious, may
be employed to illustrate that devotion to
God which men should exercise, but the i'm
agery, however glowing, the sentiment,
however inspiring, must fall short of the
reality.
The world has never known a sublimer
sentiment than true patriotism. His
II
| than true devotion to ones country. It is
more than an idea, more than a sentiment; it
is fact. 1t is q sentiment, however, which
| is sometimes simulated and which, therefore,
| is not always appreciated. The child expe.
rienees its thrilling influence as he reads of
the patriotic and heroic spirit of Leonidas, of
| Cato, of Tell, of Washington. To this sue
| ceeds, indeed, the skeptical age, the period
| of youth and dawning maternity, when the
| dark side of life and the wrong side of hu-
| man nature is presented in our earliest con
| tact with men; when suspicion and doubt is
| awakened concerning the things which in our
| childhood we had reverenced in our moral,
social and religious life. But speedily,
| sooner in some minds than in others, the
| stlittle learning" which 'leads to skepticism'
| is enlarged and corrected by that more COM
prehensive view which embraces the whole
| character of man, and We return to the faith
| of our childhood, more confirmed because il
Il
l sentiment as patriotism animating the hui
man soul; mingled, it may be, with other
| more selfish emotions, yet ever distinct from
| them all. There is such sentiment as true
patriotism, and it is rational and exalted.
| God appeals to this sentiment within US In
| order to stimulate similar spirit towards
| himself At the basis of the Old Tes
| lament organization of the Jewish ma.
ton lay this design. By means OF
/ this feeling of nationality, of love of coun
4 try, and of reverence for a monarch which
the Jews felt in common with all men, God
sought to draw their love and devotion tc
himself as their law giver, their judge and
monarch, the proprietor and bestower of the
land in which they dwelt with all of its com
| forts. And when the inspired Psalmist wrote
| of Jerusalem, the city of the Great King
/ and portrayed the glowing attachment which
the exile had for it, it is not of love of coun
| try alone that he speaks, but of love OF
country based purely upon love to God and
his cause. invite you, then, to consider to-
| night the true patriot as the type of the true
Christian. PATRIOTISM" some one has
said, sis constituent element
/ in the human constitution. That
man does not live who has not ex-
perienced in his childhood and in his maturer
years an emotion of love to his country The
man does not live who can doubt the reality
| and the sincerity of that exalted principle
1 which, in days gone, has inspired the Greek,
the Roman, the Switzer to brave danger and
to court death in defence of the liberties OF
his native land, which, in the memorable
days of our nations infancy, and again of it,
manhood vigor, has burned like purifying
4 fire in the hearts of our fathers and our sons
/ consuming all the dross of selfshness within
them. Surely then no man should doubt
that there may be and that there has been
| aye that there is-a genuine spirit of devotion
| to Christ among the ~citizens of tha
kingdom in which he rules; slaves whom he
has emancipated, whose liberty he has pur
chased with his blood.
We speak for example of our native lane
| and we know that we love it. We shall
presently sing the inspiring hymn,
| ssMy native country, thee,
Land of the noble free,
| Thy name love;
1 Hove thy rocks and riI1s,
l Thy woods and tempted hills:
| Ny heart with rapture thrills
1 Like that above"
| The Jew, an exile in distant Babylon,
| born and reared an alien, who had
| never seen the hills in which Jerusalem lay
| embosorned did see, nevertheless, in his
| minds eye, the real soil which his ancestry