The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1886-05-29
DKCoRAIION DAY.
Thoughts Suggested to Private DalEsll or
tho UhAFaotoF Of the Day.

Thoughts Suggested 70 PFiVAto uAlEell OF
the character Of the Day,
Up they rise, the dear dead faces OF
quarter Of a century ago. In all the
beauty Of their youth, as young and beau
tilul as they looked as they kissed mother
and sister and marched away in theil
coats Of blue, Not a gray hair, not q
wrinkle, every eye bright and clear ''in
the morn and liquid dew Of YOUTH
beautiful aa they looked before they as
Cended the Mount oil Sacrifice. Ihear the
music of their songs, the glorious burst OIL
their Gheers as they rally round the flag
| see them coming back out Of the shadow
unchanged in any feature, at the call oil
memoIy's recollection reveille.
AT this muster OF memory not q boy IN
blue is missing. They arc risen to-day,
They stand before us in their shining
ranks, our martyrs and redeemers, at the
resnrrecting touch Of this Memorial Day.
Death released them for this day on a
furluugh to our hearts and hearthstones.
Out Of the shadow, in the light, in the
blessed light OF memory, the only light
left in all our gloomy thought OF the past.
Hope is dead, memory 10 living, Thick
clouds and darkness render the future
gloomy and forbidding, but memory, "the
only friend that grief can call its own"
comes 10 our relief and calls back the
years that are flown forever, Memory Ia
sweeter than hope. 1t cannot summon
them from the cold embrace Of the un'
waking sleep Of the grave, but 1t antedates
their entrance to its portals and reveals
them to our minds onCe more in all the
glory Of their youth. Memory cannot
call them back, or II it does they cannot
answer at roll-Call, because their lips are
sealed and their heads aEe In the dust;
but 1t IAN do the only one poor thing In
mental power, 1t can flash It's light across
the gloom OF the grave and reveal their
faces for a moment to assu0g4 our griel..
As Ingersoll has 30 beautifully said:
1.-THE past rises before US like a DREAM"
on this Memorial Day. And this would
we dream forever until the dream shall
ripen into realization "past BY the throne
ofGod." We will not surrenderthe hope
that we shall meet again. ut is an anchor
sure and steadiast 10 the soul" and We
cannot let 1t 70. Shall NAH remember the
heroic dead and God forget them at last
Shall man prove in the cycles Of eternity
more faithful to their dust than their
Maker2 As tho springs return, as the
sweet May days come in quick succession
and the centuries pile upon each other
their weight Of years, and the nations do
homage TO this sleeping dust, fragrant
with virtue Of the highest, hottest type, and
these kind rites are annually celebrated,
and these graves are strewn with flowers
and bedeCked with tears, Is not the eye Of
God still on them and will He forget 10
awaken them at last2 Why Is 1t, as De
ToCQueville has remarked, that "the most
durable monuments Of nan are those
which celebrate his nothingness?"
Is this last best proof Of mans frailty
the highest evidence also Of his faithful.
ness to the memory OF the dead? Shall
man thus cherish the memory Of the good
and the brave and the true Of those
"whose memory blossoms and is fragrant
in the dust" and the Book OF Gods re-
membranCe contain no record Of them?
viii God who created and who destroyed
them not raise them up againP Shall He
prove as feeble and impotent as we% viii
God forever from bis cruelty and neglect
and im~potenCy, while man is faithful 10
their memory, yet unable to raise them
from the dead2 No, no, a thousand times
no. They sleep in the sight Of Heaven
and will rise again. PRIyATE DAL2EIL.