Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1891-06-05

were not in earnest when they put
their life into awful exigency. Wit
ness the last scene at family pray
'ers up among the Green Mountains or
down by the fields OF cotton aud sugar cane.
Men do not sacrifice their all for fun. Men
do not eat mouldy bread or 20 without
bread at all for fun. Men do not sleep UNI
sheltered in equinoctal storms for fun.
There wee some no doubt on both sides
who enlisted for soldiers pay or expecting
opportunity for violence and pillage or
burning with revenge, and thirst for human
blood, but such cases were SO rare many OF
you who were in the war four years never
confronted such an instance OF depraVity.
But we must not detain the tw o garlandS
any longer from the pillows OF those who
for u quarter OF century have been ~r0s-
trate In dreamle.s slumber, never oppressed
by summer heats or chilled by winters
cold. Both garlands are fragrant Both
have In them The sunshine and the shower
OF this sprngtime. The colOrS OF both
were mixed by him who mixed the blue
of the sky and the gold OF the
sunset and the green Of the grass and the
whiteness 0f the snow crystal. And l do
not clre which you put over The Northern
grave and which over the Southern grave
Does any one say: "What is the use? None
of them Will know 1t; your Decoration
Days both sides Mason aud DiXon's line are
u great waste OF flowers" All! | see YOU
have carried too far my idea that praise for
the living is better than praise for the de-
arted. Who says that the dead do not
know OF the flowers! l think they do. The
dead are not dead. The body sleeps but
the soul lives and is unhindcred. No two
cities on earth are in such rapid aud con-
slant communication as earth and heaven,
and the two great Decoration Days of North
and South are better known in realms celes-
tial tnan terrestrial With what interest
we visit the place OF our birth and of our
boyhool or glribOod daye! And have the de-
y irted no intel est IN this world where they
were born and ransCm d and where they
suffered and triumphed! NV Bible does not
positively say senior does my eatechism teach
~, but my common sense declares it, The
departed do know, aud the hammered pro-
cessiOn that marched the earth yesterday 10
Northern graves and III, hammered process
sion that m irched month ago 10 South
ern graves were accompanied by two
grander though invisible professions that
walked the air, PROFESSIONS OF the assembled.
professions Of the martyred. process lions OF
the sain,ed and they heard the anthems of
the churches and the salyo OF the batteries,
and they stopped down To breathe the in
cense Of the flowers. These august throngs
gathered this morning in these
pews and aisles and corridors
and galaries are insignitc mt
compared with the mighter thongs OF
heaven who mingla In this service which
we render TO God Snd our country while
we twist the two garlands. Hail spirits
multitudinous! Hall spirits blestl Hail
martyred ones come down from tho Kings
palacesl How glad we are that you have
come back again. Take this Kiss of well
come and these garlInds OF "reminiscences,
We who languished in hospitals OF went
down under the thunders and the light
nings OF Fredericksburg and Cold Harber
and MurfreesbOrO aud Coriutl and York
town and above the clouds on Lookout
Mount ain.
Among the thousands of gatherings at
the North and ut the South for Decoration
Days, | am COM ciOus that this service Is
unique and that II is the ouly one IN which
there has been twisted two garlands, one
for the grave OF the Northern dead aud the
other for the grave OF the Southern dead.
%, Lord God OF the American Union, is Il
time that we busy forever our old grudges!
My My! Can we not be at peace OH earth
when this moment in heaven dwell in per.
feet love, Ulysses ). Grant and Robert l.
Lee, William T.. Sherman and SiOnewal
Jockson, an tens OF thousands OF Northern
aud Southern mel who though they once
looked askance ut e1ch other from the OPP
posite banks of the Pntom 70 ani the Chick
ahomjny and the James On the Tennessee,
now are on tho came 81 ie OF tue River,
keeping jubilee with some OF those old
angels who nelr nineteen centuries ago
cams down one Christmas night TO chant
over Bethlehem: "Glory t. God In the
highest; on earth peace. good W Ii 10 men,"
And now hand over the two girlands,
both OF which are wet with many tears
tears OF widowhood and Orphanage aud
childlessneSs tears OF suffering and tears OF
gratitude, and rs the ceremony must be
performed in syml oil, there not being
enough flowers u cover all tho graves take
the one garland 70 tie tomb OF some North
ern soldier who NAV yesterday have been
omitted In the distribution Of the sacrament
OF flowers, and the other gtrland 10 H.
tomb Of some Southern sol licr. who may,
q month ago, have been omitted In the
distribution OF the sacrament OF the fl0w-
ers, and put both the wreaths gently down
over the hearts that have ceased 10 beat
God bless the two garlandsl God save tn
United States OF Americal