Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-06-04
Appropriate Morning Sermon
by DR.. Talmage in Brooklyn.
AN UNPRECEDENTED SERVICE.
His Text 81 viii Say to the North, Give Up,
and to the South, Keep Not Back"
Two Wreaths of Beautiful Flowers Sus-
pended Over the Pulpit, Linked To-
gether, Served as An Object Lesson
to The subject Presented
DECORATION DAY.

BRooKLYN. May 3l.-Yesterday having
ben observed as decoration day Dr. lal-
mage this morning preached an appropriate
sermon. II was novel anC unprecedenteu
service, as in different parts of the audi
ence were many OF those who had belonged
to both Federal and Confederate armies,
the subject having been previously an
nounced namely: Two Garlapds for
Northern and Southern Graves" Overthe
pulpit were two WreathS OF beautiful now
ers. and they We're linked together so that
they were an object lesson OF the subject
presented Text: ISiah xiii, 6: Il will say
TO the North, give up, and to the South,
keep not back"
just what my text meant by the North
and ST It'll, J cannot say. but in the United
States the two words are so point blank in
their meaning that no one can doubt. They
mem more than East and West, for al
though between those two last there have
been riva}ries and disturbing ambitions and
infcicities and silver bills and " Ord's
fair controversies there have been between
them no batteries numbered. no cntrench-
ments dug, no long line Of scpulchur mounds
thrown up. 1t has never been Massachu-
sets Fourteenth regiment against WiscOn-
sin ZDUdvcs; il has never been Virginia
artillery against Mississippi rifles.
EAST AND WEST
are distinct words and sometimes may mean
diversity OF interes-. but there is no blood
on them. They can be pronounced without
any int-aation Of wailue and dcath-groan.
But the North and South are words that
have been surchargcd with tragedies. They
are words which suggest that for forty
years the clouds lad been gathering for a
four wears tempest which thirty years ago
burst in 1t fury that shook TINS planet IS 1t
has never been SL.i-eu since il swung out
a. the first world building. | thank God
that { g words have lost some Of the inten-
Bity which they possessed three decades
ago: that vast multitude of Northern peO-
pie have moved South and a vast multitude
Of Southern people have moved North and
there have been In'ermarriageS by the ten
Thousand. and Northern col-uel' have mar
ricu the daughters of Southern captains.
and Texas rangers nave united for life with
the daughters of New York abolitiOniStS
and their children are half Northern and
half Southern and altogether patriotic. Bat
North and South are words that need to be
brought into still closer harmonization. |
thought that now when we are half way be-
tween presidential elections and
SECTIONAL ANIMoSITIES
are at the lowest chb and now just after
presidential journey when our chief magis-
trate. who was chiefly elected by the North,
has been cordially received at the South,
and now just after two memorial days, one
of them d month ago strewng flowers on
Southern graves and the other yesterday
StreWiug flowers on Northern graves, it
night be appropriate and useful for me to
prc-Ch u sermon which would twist two
garl?uds. one for the Northern dead and
the other for the Southern dead, and have
the two iutcrlockcd in Il chain of flowers
that shall bind fOrcvcrthe two sections into
one; ami who knows but that this may be
the day when the prophecy of the text,
made in regard to the ancientS may be full
filled in regard TO this country and the
North give up its preudices and the South
keep not back It's confidence. Il viii say TO
the North give up, and 10 the South, keep
not uack.
But before put these gurandS on the
graves, ] mean to put them this morning Il
little while ON the brows of The living men
and women Of the North ana South Who
lost husbands and sons and broth
ers during the civil strife There
IS nothing more soothing TO a
wound than a cool baudagc, and these two
carlandS are cool from the night dew.
What morning that was on the banks of
the hudson and the Savannah when the
son WAS to start for the war What faith
erly and nothctiy counsel!
WHAT TEARS, WHAT HEART-BREAKs!
What charges 10 write home often!
WAat little kccpsakes put away
that was 10 be exchanged for the |
Imapsac5, Tho crowd around the depot or |
the Steamboat landing sh utcd, but father |
and mother and sister cried. And how |
lonely the house seemed after they went |
home. and what an awfUlly vacant chair !
there was a. lhe Christmas and Thanks |
giving table, And, after the battle. what |
waiting for news What suspense till the |
long lists ~ tn" killed aud wounded were |
made ont. All along the PenObscOt and the |
Connecticut and the ST Lawrence aud the |
Ohio and the Oregon aud the James and |
III" AIhemarle and the Alabama and |
the Mississippi and the Sacramento there |
were lameutatioH and mourning and great |
WOO. Rachel weeping for her children and |
refusing % bc comfOrted because they were |
not. Thg world has forgotten it, but father |
and mother have not forgotten ii. They |
may be now in the eighties or the ninetieS, |
but Il is a fresh wound ard will always re-
main a. fresh wound Comicr down the
steep Of years the hands that would have
stradicG those lettering steps have been |
tweuty-cight years folded" into the last |
sleep The childlcsSueSs. the widowhoOd. |
the urphanagc. who has 4 measuring line |
long enough to tell the height of il. the
depth of il, he iutiuity OF it? What a
mountain, what an Alps, what Himalayah
g pllcu-up agony of bereavement III the
simple statement that 100000 men of the |
North were Slain and 100000 men of the
South were slain, ar3 hundreds of thou
sands long afterwards through the exhaus-
GOING DOWN TO DEATH.
detain from the top of the tomb these
two garlaudS that | am twisting for u little
while that | may with them sooth- the
brow of the living. Over the fallen the |
people said. Poor fellow! What a pity
that he should have been struck DOWN.
We did not, however. often enough say:
"Poor father! poor mother! poor wife.
poor child. and So l say it now. Have
you realized that by that wholesale massa-
ere hundreds of thousands of yOung people
Al the North and the South have never had |
any Chance2 We who are fathers stand be-
tween our children and the world. We
fight their battles. we plan for II cir wei
fare. we achieve their livelihood. we give |
them the advice of our superior wears
Amonghthe richest blessings of my life |
thank God that my father lived to fight my
battles until | was old enough TO fight for
myself Have YOU realized the fact that our
civil war pitched out upon the farm-fields of
the North and the plantations of the South
Il multitude that no man can number, chill
dren without fathcrly help and protectionl
Under all the advantages which
we had Of fatherly guidance. what
a struggle life has been to the
most OF US But what Of the children. two
and five ana ten years of age, who stood at
their mothers lap with great, round, Won
dcring eyes, hearing her read of those who
persisted in the battle of the Wilderness, |
rhcc father gone down amid the dead hostl |
{ 'Dup VOuuu men ana women who hv Sunh |