, 1886-06-01

mon hope, common interest and common
destiny.
To day is our national memorial of the
dead. By command of our law all the
quiet and peaceful avocations of business
life are laid aside, an as il by one univer-
sal pulse of sympathy and sorrow the
nation with bowed head and hottest feel
ing stands among its graves. A general
celebration at this same time, wherever
the stars and stripes are kissed by the
breezes or blessed by the sun, is being had
Of this great day, so pregnant with his
torlc memories and lofty legends. the pre-
sent significance of which is moving the
minds and hearts of this community with
a generous enthusiasm.
Wherever the dead have been gathered
together in Gods consecrated acre, or
wherever the lonely grave shrouds in its
earthly folds the uncofined dust Of some
poor private soldier 1.-THE greater the hero
the grander the martyr, because his de
votion and his death were not sustained
by being in sight of Glory's eye) who
moaned out, all alone, his death rattle ON
the mountain, the plain, or beside the
sad sea. either by a multitude of voices,
or from the depths OF some single, bruised
heart, the prayer is breathed, the anthem
sung, or the funeral service said above the
dead. Not only the memories and deeds
Of the dead, who fell in battle, died in
hospitals, or persisted in prisons, are
lifted in praise and blessings from
these affairs in our human hearts.
where incense breathing fires burn pcrpet
ually Tor if these fires of gratitude to the
noble dead could perish in the cold ashes
which sometimes smother out even the
embers of noble sentiments in men, still
they would be guarded and preserved by
the faithful women of this land, with the
same vigilance and sacred care which i'm
PEELED the Roman vestal virgins to guard
and feed the fires which burned on the
national altar of their protecting divinity.
because they knew that if that fire should
die out the life of the nation would ex-
pire, because the gods had decreed that
no human power could relume the light
or kindlc again the sacred spark handed
down from Heaven, but also the deeds
and memories of the soldiers from whose
ranks the armies of the dead have been
recruited. Those who surviving war were
allowed to live out their allotted days and
died, full of years and honors under the
benignant and blessed wings of that peace
which was purchased by the blood of their
brothers in battle-not only the grain
which was cut down and persisted before
the bosom of war. but also the sheaves,
which ripened and were gathered in by
the Father of all mercies. no alone the
leaves and branches which were broken
by the tempest and storm, but also those
on which the sunshine and calm OF peace
full years photographed a color and II sheen
of virtue which Wed with the rainbow $
beauteous form, ny or,
The evening beam which smiles the clouds
away,
And tints to-morr " with prophetic ray.
All, all are preserved and embalmed
with a sacred love to animate and revive
our patriotism, as Christians are rebap-
TIED to a new birth of holy zeal and love
at sight of the bones OF the martyrs or the
relics of the cross.
Oh, the wondrous meaning and power
of sacred Dust Oh, the unscarchable
riches of association and feeling aroused
by the contemplation Of the graves of the
good and the great
Our patriotism is revived, our rcsolu-
ton to preserve and transmit undi-
minished the priceless heritage of
our constitutional liberties to our
children, is firmly fixed by a thought
full contemplation of a ruined fort,
of a dismantle1 breastwork, a broken
cannon, a tattercd flag. a faded Jacket. with
its ragged doorway where death entered
in. or any of the evidences or emblems OF
the struggles which have brought about
the birth or preservation Of our institu-
tons, but over and above all the
sacred significance and deep philosophy;
the measureless delicacv and humanizing
power of such a national memorial as this,
when the country is communing with the
spirits of its dead, moves the streams of
our patriotic devotion to their very foun-
tains. Such a day as this brings national
healing on its wings. trust and | feel
that all of us here to-day have caught
the heavenly inspiration, which Is breath
ing on this air; that all feel that we are
moving here among these graves with the
dead and the divine. There can be no
human interpreter Of the sweet influences
which are now playing through our eolian
hearts unsyllabled, unuttered, but felt
as we here at this national
yearly trysting place of the Hriag the
dead and the dirine.
Go and see Trial by .Jooy tonight.
I'LL 4