Tombstone epitaph., 1890-07-12
LOVE OF COUNTRY.

The Rev. l.. D. Mansfield, rector o } St. Pauls church, preached a patriotic sermon on Sunday evening, July 9th
 to an attentive audience, some of the
 more salient passages of which we re
 produce for the readers of the EPI
 TAPH:
 The reverend speaker said that love
 oi country Is as natural, as deeply
 rooted in the human heart, and as
 divine as any other sentiment or affec-
 tion. The same all-wise Providence
 which ordained that man should not
 dwell i'll isolation, and wear away a
 weary life alone, but gathered him
 into the family and constituted him
 as society, also ordained the state and
 created the nation. Men are, there
 fore, not only born into the family
 and into society, but into the nation i;
 and the ties of kindred and the bonds
 of society are not more natural, ne cessary, and divinely ordered than the love of country.
 We may not always be conscious of the patriotic sentiment,-at times it seems to sleep, and, like our love for kindred and friends, is only awakened by some threatened peril or calamity. While our loved ones in the home move about us in health, we may scarcely be conscious of the sentiment which rules us; but let calamity threaten, or sickness smite them, and we realize fact which had lived al- most in unconsciousness-that ten thousand silken cords of love bind us together, and that their lives are a part of orr own. Before the war for the defense of the Union, while all was peace, and no enemy abroad or traitor at home had "lifted up his heel against her," we enjoyed our country's blessings, and took them as a matter of course-scarcely knowing what the sentiment of patriotism was like; but when hostile guns were trained on Fort Sumter, and the national flag was trailed in the dust, the people of the North awoke to the consciousness of love for their coun- try, which was as strong as death. Yes, they awoke as from dream, to feel such mighty throes of patriotic feeling as no people ever before felt, for no people under heaven ever had such a country to love, and no coun- try ever had such a people to love her.
 Noting the reasons why Americans especially should love their native land, the speaker said:
 "The natural beauties and fertile re- sources of country constitute no in considerable part of it's attractive feat ures. The Scotchman loves his high lands, the Irishman his green isle, and the Swiss his Alpine peaks, capped with eternal snews, and his smiling valleys nestled in between the grand old mountains; and the people of all lands find something to awaken pa triotic sentiment in the natural feat ures of the land which gave them birth but no nation of ancient or modern times ever possessed so magnif- icent land as ours. If we compare the geographical features of our own country with those of other nations, we must confess that God has planted the American people in the very gar den of the world-the choicest and grandest inheritance ever given to 8 nation. We may say of our own country what Moses said of Canaan,- and with greatly amplified meaning that it is a good land, land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of the valleys and hills; land of wheat and barley, and vines and figs and pomegranates; a land of oils, olive and honey; land wherein thou shalt eat bread without | scarceness; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou shalt dig brass' Embracing the climate and productions of every latitude, with it's magnificent mountain ranges, its majestic rivers, it's fertile prairies and varied and inexhaustible mineral re- sources, our native land, in its natural | features, is second to none on earth, and is worthy to call forth the en- thusiastic admiration and love of her l sons, in the language of our national hymn:
 ''I love thy rocks and rills,
 Thy woods and templed hills.
 But the love of country is pre-emi- nently love of the people of the country. We may find beautiful lands which are possessed by most debased peoples, but in our land we find peo- pie worthy of the noble inheritance into which they have entered, We do