Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-05-27
PULPIT TOPICS.
REV. DIR. FILBEN ON sMEMORIES
OF THE REBELLION"
An Interesting Discourse On an
Appropriate Subject-Dr. Mas
sey's Sermon Yesterday.

At the Central M. E. Church last night
the pastor, Rev. Thomas Filben, preached
a sermon appropriate to Memorial Day.
The text was: "Ye shall teach them to
your children" He said: We pause
as people, after year, to recall the mem
cries of the most memorable conflict per-
haps of all history, as we carry garlands to
cover the graves of our soldier braves who
fell in the strife. Circumstances make the
occasion delicate. They are strange mem
cries many that rise, and their recounting
cannot yet go without show of feeling.
But it is history we recall, not in rancour
and resentment, but in warning and for
encouragement. 1t were ingratitude and
unwisdom to let them die. What vision
they bring. War, always terrible, came
clothed to US with double terror. We were
a people of peace and the first dark coming
of the spirit of war and violence was to
nerve the arm OF countryman against
countryman. almost of brother against
brother. No wonder that the masses
halted at the fearful prospects, and that
those recently raised to authority by our
system shuddered at the responsibilities
that were settling down upon them with
the relentless certainty of fate, as the long
brooded national dangers quickened into
life.
o, the memory of those dark hours prior
to the precipitation of the conflict, Those
days when that which was most loved of
all true men of the North, and most priced
of us all, North and South, now hung in
tho holo O&ok1
clared itself out of the Union. And one
| after another of our Southern forts and
arsenals were appropriated. And one after
another of those educated to the arts of war
In our military schools joined the forces of
secession. While the loyal North stood
watching and blindly trusting still a peace
| full settlement of the matters at issue. and
| the Administration would hardly dream of
war. So that it was not till after Sumter
that we awOke people and rulers to the
thought that war was actually upon US.
1t came upon the nation strangely unpre-
| pared. Northern leaders and statesmen
had been asleep while the arch-conspirators
of that time had been only too active The
countrys army and its fitting were on the
soil OF the conspiracy, and the navy was on
the post OF treason or at the ends of the earth,
while Northern arsenals were empty and
Northern dockyards without ship. Our
enemies better forewarned, at least in the
person of their leaders, stood armed and
ready to mock our helplessness. In such
circumstances the dark history of the wars
| first year is not remarkable. Indeed, with
| out skilled generals, as we were at first
though we had scbooled legion for our
| foe; without discipline among our troops
| fighting on strange soil, it was strange if
there had been no Bull Run or Balls
| Bluff disasters. And we had them.
| and repeated and they brought
| with them gloom to our people.
You remember the gloom and uncertainty,
| and the almost darkness of the wars early
| and middle periods, and how the first grey
of the dawn came with the Emancipation
Proclamation. o, those dark hours of the
conflict When, under the disgrace of
| shameful defeat and seemingly-neediess
disaster, the Republic seemed tottering on
the very brink of destruction, while loyalty
wavered in many hearts, and the nations
OF Europe gleefully pronounced the Union
lost. But Lincoln braved emancipation.
| and with it cut the Gordian knot. And
after victory crowded victory to the last,
| and nothing seemed able to resist the ad-
| vance of our forces, whether led by Sher-
| man, as he moved swath thirty miles
| wide through the heart of the rebellious
territory to the sea, or by Sheridan, as he
streamed through twenty miles of foam
and dust, to organize victory out of defeat
or by Hooker, in his memorable charge on
the enemy above the clouds of Lookout
Mountain or by Grant, the silent man of
the wars destiny, as he grappled and held
ON to the throat of the rebellion till no re-
source was left it but surrender. Victory
on victory came to our arms, till after all
its laggard dragging and uncertainty, the
rebellion was crushed, the Union was
indicated, the great work of free
dom was wrought, peace was come |
and amid national reioicings the army |
was dispanded, and the citizen host |
after strange schooling, returned |
to their homes, schooling they who had |
it never can forget, a schooling whose les |
sons the fearful experiences of that time |
were sufficient to burn in upon the men, |
cries of us ALL God grant those lessons |
may not soon be forgotten. But however |
much the conflict was dreaded and deplored |
we OF the North had no cause for shame in |
the character OF the encounter. 1t was a |
great and memorable confiict-as great as |
any in history. Great in the principles il |
was fought TO maintain; in this greater. |
perhaps than any war earth ever had
men never fought on battle fields so for |
principle before, and for principle so |
clearly and intelligently grasped. This |
was one of the wonders of the conflict, the |
intelligence of the men that carried mus
kets in its armies. There were men in the |
common ranks that were fit to be advisers |
of the President.
The war was great in the size of its armies |
and in its loss OF life and treasure |
When Grant became Lieutenant General |
OF all the forces of the Union he COM
manded more men than any other General |
had commanded since the introduction of |
firearms, and they were mainly volunteers |
This is one of the greatest memories of the |
war, the splendid and spontaneous re-
spouse OF the nations citizens to the call |
.or help IN the hour OF need. That April |
morning that Sumter was fired on and the |
old flag was dishonored by the hasty con-
spirators and trailed in the Southern dust, |
that day saw the stars and stripes lifted on |
every hillside of the loyal North, and as |
the President spoke the long columns of |
war began TO move as if they were even |
now ready; 10000 answered in the |
hours closing the day of the first call. |
Other calls were made and the thousands |
cried, I'VE are coming Father Abraham.
the nation to restore; we are coming |
Father Abraham, 800 600 more" / |
think how this manifestation must
| have thrilled Lincoln. / think of that
great soul of the conflict, wrapped
| as he had been in the gloom of suspense in
| all those months of darkness since his
election, walking on his way only by the
light of an abiding faith in the wisdom
and loyalty and sure integrity of the peo-
| pie of the Republic, permitted by this dem
| onstration TO catch the glow of the surely
coming dawn. II was grand spectacle
| the world never saw its like before. This
| spontan eous rise of grand peoples army,
OF legions of pure volunteers. is the most
| sublime picture of the rebellion, as it is
| the most assuring and cheering as we look
| upon it now. 1t proved that devotion to
our institutions was an impulse so lofty and
true thst only the blowing of the breath of
danger was needed to rouse myriads to its
| defense The speaker then dwelt on the
bravery shown by the armies and paid
tribute TO those who fell, closing with
euiogy on the great leaders of the conflict,
and with reference to the lessonsit should
teach US.
THE DIVINE FATHERHOOD.