Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1891-06-01
TALMAGE'S SERMON
DEALS WITH TRg SERVICES ATTENDING Dc
GRAFTON DAY.
&c Selects Notable Text and Then Draws His In
is7eneas-A REUNITED Countrywide Brooklyn
Divine on Memorial Services for the
Dead Soldiers.

day having been observed as Decoration
Day, DR.. Talmage this morning preach
ed an appropriate sermon. II was a
novel aud unprecedented service, as in
different parts of the audience were
many OF those who had belonged TO both
Federal and Confederate armies, the sub
ject having been previously announced;
namely: Two Garlands for Northern
and Southern Graves" Over the pulpit
were two wreathS of beautiful flowers
and they were linked together so that
they were an object lesson of the subject
presented. Text: Isaiah 1876: Il will
say TO the North, Give up, and 10 the
South. Keep not back"
Just what my text meant by the
North and South l 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 two last there have been rivalrieS
and disturbing ambitions and intellect
ties and silver bills and Worlds Fair
controversies, there have been between
them no batteries numbered, no en-
trenchmentS dug, no long lines of
Sepulchral mounds thrown up. IL has
never been Massachusetts Fourteenth
Regiment against Wisconsin ZOuaveS;
il has never been Virginia Artillery
against Mississippi Rifles. East and
West are distinct words, and sometimes
may mean diversity Of interest,
but there is no blood on them.
They can be pronounced without any
information Of wailing and death-grOap.
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 temp
est which thirty years ago burst in
fury that shook this planet as it has
never been shaken since it swung out
at the first wOrldbuiIdiAg. l 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
a vast multitude of Southern people
have moved North and there
have been intermarriageS by the
ten thousand, and Northern COlOuelS
have married the daughters OF South
ern Captains, and Texas rangers have
united for life with the daughters OF
New York abOlitiOniStS and their chill
dren are half Northern and half South
ern and altogether patriotic. But North
and South are words that need 10 be
brought into still closer harmOniZatiOn.
| thought that now when we are half
way between Presidential elections and
sectional animOSitieS are at the lowest
ebb and now just after a Presidential
Journey 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 month ago Strewing
flowers on Southern graves and
the other yesterday Strewing
flowers on Northern graves.
il might be appropriate and useful for
me 10 preach sermon which would
twist two garlandS, one for the North
ern dead and the other for the Southern
dead, and have the two interlOcked in
chains OF flowers that shall bind forever
the two sections into one; and who
knows but that this may be the day
when the prOpheSy of the text, made in
regard 20 the ancientS, may be fulfilled
i'm regard 10 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 10 the
South, Keep not back
THE LIVING ONES.
But before put these garlandS on the
graves. mean 10 put them this morn
inc little while on the brOwS OF the
living men and women OF the North aud
South who lost husbands, and sons and
brothers during the civil strife. There
is nothing more soothing TO wound
than a cool bandage, and these two gar
lands are cool from the night dew.
What a morning that was on the banks
of the Hudson and the Savannah when
the son was to start for the war. What
fatherly and motherly counsel, What
tears What heart-breakS. What
charges 10 write home often, What
little keepSakeS put away in the KNAPP.
sack or the bundle that was 10 be eX-
changed for the knapSack. The
crowd around the depot or
the steamboat landing shouted,
but father and mother and sister cried.
And how lonely the house seemed after
they went home aud what an awfully
vacant chair there was at the Christmas
and Thanksgiving table, And after the
battle. what waiting for news. What
snspenSe till the long lists of the killed
and wounded were made out, All along
the PenobScOt and the Connecticut and
the St. Lawrence and the Ohio and the
Oregon and the James and the Albemar-
lie. and the Alabama and the Mississippi
and the Sacramento there were lamen-
tatiOn and mourning and great woe.
Rachel weeping for her children and
refusing 10 be cOmfOrted because they
were not. The world has forgotten it,
but father and mother have not for
gotten il. They may be now in the
eighties or the ninetieS, but IL Is fresh
wound and will always remain a fresh
wound. Coming down the steep of
wears the hands that would have
steadied those lettering steps have
been twenty-eight years folded into the
last sleep. The chilSleSSneSS, the
widowhOOd. the Orphanage who has
meaSuring-line long enough 10 tell the
height OF IT, the depth of il, the intnity
of il? What mountain, what an
Alps. what a Himalayah OF piled up
agony of bereavement in the simple
statement that three hundred thou
sand men Of the North were slain and
five hundred thousand men OF the
South were slain. and hundreds of