The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1891-06-10
TABERNACLE PULPIT.
REV. DR., TALMAGE,S SERMON FOR ME-
MORAL DAY.

the South, Keep Not Back"-lsaiah
xiii, 6, the Text-A Notable Discourse.
BROOKLYN, May 3l.-Yesterday hav-
Ing been observed as Decoration Day,
DR.. Talmage this morning preached an
appropriate sermon. It was novel and
unprecedented service, as N different
parts of the audience were many ofthose
who had belonged to both Federal and
Confederate armies, the subject having
been previously announced, namely.
1.-TWO Garlands for Northern and South.
ern Graves" Over the pulpit were two
wreaths of beautiful flowers, and they
were linked together, so that they were
an object lesson for the subject present
ed. Text: Isaiah xiii, G-''I will say
to the north, Give up, and 10 the south.
Keep not back"
Just what my text meant by the north
and dsouth 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, 1or
although between those last TWO there
have been rivalries and disturbing ambI-
tons and infelicities and silver bills and
Worlds fair controversies, there have
been between them no batteries unlim-
bered, no intrenchments dug, no lonS
lines Of sepuichral mounds thrown up.
It has never been Massachusetts Four
teenth regiment against Wisconsin
zouaves; it has never been Virginia
artillery against Mississippi rifles.
East and west are distinct words, and
sometimes may mean diversity Of in
terest, but there is no blood on them,
They can be pronounced without any IN
tonatlon of weiling and death groan. But
the north and the south are words that
have been surcharged with tragedies.
They are words which suggest that TOR
forty years the clouds had been gather
ing for 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. thank Gcd that the
words have lost sone Of the intensity
which they possessed three decades ago;
that vast multitude of northern people
have moved south. and vasS multitude
of southern people have moved north,
and there have been intermerrlages by
the ten thousand, and northern colonies
have married the daughters of southern
captains, and Texas rangers have uni ed
lor life with the daughters ofNew York
abolitionlsts, and their children are halt
northern and half southern and altogeth"
er patriotic.
But north and south are words that
need to be brought into still closer har-
monization. T 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 Me-
moral Days, one Of. them month ago,
strewipg flowers on southern graves, and
the other yesterday, strewing flowers
on northers graves, it might be appro-
pirate and useful for me 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
interlocked in a chain of flowers that
shall bind forever the two sections 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
fulfill in regard to this country, and the
north give up its prejudices and the
south keep not back its confidence? 81
VIII say to the north, Give up, and to
the south, Keep not back"
GARLANDs ON LIVING BRoWs.
But before put these garlands on the
graves I mean to put them this morning
q little while on the brows of 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 a wound than a cool
bandage, and these two garlands are
cool from the night dew. Whata morn.
ing that was on the banks Of the Hud-
son and the Savannah when the son was
to start for the war! What fatheriy aAd
naotherly counsel! What tears! What
heartbreaks! What charges to write
home often! What little keepsakes put
away in the knapsack, or the bundle
that was to be exchanged for the KNAPP
sack! The crowd around the depot or
The: steamboat landing shouted, but
father and mother and sisters cried.
And how lonely the house seemed af-
Ter they went home, and what an awful
y vacant char there was at the Christ
mas and Thanksgiving table: And at
ter the battle, what waiting for news!
What suspense till the long lists Of the
killed and wounded were made out! All
along the Penobscot, ana the Connecti.
cut, and the st. Lawrence, and the Ohio
and the Oregon, and the James, and the
Abemarle, and the Alabama, and the
Mississippi, and the Sacramento there
were lamentation and mourning and
great woe, Rachel weeping for her chill
dren, and refusing to be comfvrted be-
eause they were not. The world has
forgottensit, but father and mother have
not forgotten 1t. They may be now in
the eighties or the ninetes, but it is
fresh wound, and will always remain a
fresh wound.
Coming down the steep ofyears the
hands that would have steadied those
tottering steps have been rwen.y-elght
years folded into the last sleep. The
chldishness, the widowhood, the Or
phanage, who has a measuring line
long enough to tell the height OF it, the
depth of it, the lnfnity of it? What
mountain, what an Alps, what Hina-
iayaef piled up agony Of bereavement
in the simple statement that three hun
dred thousand men of the north were
slain and FIVE hundred thousand men of
the south were slain, and hundreds Of
thousands long afterward, through he
exhausslons there suffered, going down
to death!
UNPROTECTED CHILDREN.
I detain from the top OF the tomb these
two garlands that I am twisting for a