The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1891-06-04
Flowers For Both Sides
4 UNIQUE MEMORIAL DAY
SERVICE IN BROOKLYN
TABERNACLE.
DIR. Talmage breaches u Sermon
\ AbOut the Soldiers Ofthe Civ
il War, and Offers Il Car
land for the North and
One for the South.

DR.. Talmage this morning preached an
appropriate sermon. 1t was a novel
and unprecedented service, as in differ
ent parts of the audience were many of
those who had belonged to both Fed
eral and Confederate armies, the sub
ject having been previously announced,
namely, Two Garlands for Northern
and Southern Graves" Over the pull
pit were two wreaths of beautiful flow
ers, and they were linked together so
that they were an object lesson of the
subject presented Text: Isaiah xiii,
6-'I will say to the north, Give up,
and to the south, Keep not back"
AN APPROPRIATE TEXT.
Just what my text meant by the
north and south I cannot say, but in
the United States the two words are so
point blank in their meaning that no
one can doubt. They mean more than
east and west, for although between
those last two there have been rivalries
and disturbing ambitions and infelicities
and silver bills and Worlds fair contro-
versies, there have been between them
no batteries unlimbered, no intrench-
ments dug, no long lines of sepulchral
mounds thrown up. 1t has never been
Massachusetts, Fourteenth regiment
against Wisconsin zouaves; it has new
er been Virginia artillery against Mis-
sissippi rifles.
East and west are distinct wordS
| opH SopaIimoC NOV moan I;uorSitx- of
interest, but there is no blood on them.
| They can be pronounced without any
| intonation of wailing and death groan.
But the north and the south are words
that have been surcharged with TRACE
dies. They are words which suggest
that for forty years the clouds had been
gathering for a four years tempest
which thirty years ago burst in fury
that shook this planet as it has never
been shaken since it swung out at the
| first world building
1 thank God that the words have
lost some of the intensity which they
possessed three decades ago; that a
vast multitude of northern people have
moved south, and vast multitude of
southern people have moved north,
and there have been intermarriages by
| the ten thousand, and northern colo
nels have married the daughters of
southern captains, and Texas rangers
have united for life with the daughters
of New York abolitionists. and their
children are half northern and half
southern and altogether patriotic. But
north and south are words that need to
be brought into still closer ha1noniza-
tion.
thought that now, when we are halt
way between presidential elections, and
sectional animosities are at lowest ebb,
and now just after presidential jour
ney, when our chief magistrate, who
was chiefly elected by the north, has
been cordially received at the south
and now, just after two Memorial Days,
one of them a month ago, strewing
flowers on southern graves, and the
other yesterday, strewing flowers on
northern graves, it might be appropri-
ate and useful for Inc to preach ser
mon which would twist two garlands,
one for the northern dead and the
other for the southern dead. and have
the two interiocked in a chain of flow.
ers that shall bind forever the two sec.
tions into one; and who knows but
that this may be the day when the
prophecy of the text made in regard to
the ancients may be fulfilled in regard
to this country, and the north give up its
prejudices and the south keep not back
its confidence. Il will say to the
north, Give up. and to the south, KeeI
not back"
THE PARTINGS.
But before I put these garlands on
the graves l mean to put them this
morning a little while on the brows o1
the living men and women of the north
and south who lost husbands and sons
and brothers during the civil strife
There is nothing more soothing to g
wound than a cool bandage, and these
two garlands are cool from the night
dew. What a morning thatwas ON the
banks of the Hudson and the Savan
nah when the son was to start for the
warl What fatherly and motherly
counsel! What tearsl What heart
breaksl What charges to write home
often! What little keepsakes put away
, in the knapsack. or the bundle that wa:
, to be exchanged for the knapsack!
The crowd around the depot or the
steamboat landing shouted, but father
ard mother and sister cried And how
lonely the house seemed after they
went home, and what an awfully va
cant chair there was at the Christina
and Thanksgiving table! And afteI
the battle, what waiting for news
What suspense till the long lists of TIE
killed and wounded were made out
All along the Penobscot, and the Con
necticut, and the St. Lawrence, and the
Ohio, and the Oregon. and the James
and the Albemarle, and the Alabama
and the Mississippi, and the Sacramento
, there were lamentation and mourning
, and great woe, Rachel weeping for hel
children, and refusing to be comfortei
! because they were not The world ha
forgotten it, but father and mothe
have not forgotten it They may b
now in the eighties or the nineties, bu
it is fresh wound, and will always re
main fresh wound.
Coming down the steep of years tn.
hands that would have steadied thos.
tottering steps have been twenty-eigh1
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