Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1891-06-05
HONOR THE DEADHEROES
DR.. TALMaGE breaches ON
DECORATION DAY.
Carlnnds to tie Heroes OF the NORTH
and south, and TO the Heroines
and Young Heroes Who
Remained at Home.

their meaning that no one can doubt. They
mean more than East anu West for al
though between those two last there have
been rivalres and disturbing ambitions
and infelicities and Silver Bills and
Worlds Fair contl OVERSEES there have been
between them no batteries unlimbered, no
entertainments dug, no long lines OF sepul-
chral mounds thrown up. Ii has ne 7er
been Massachusetts Fourteenth regiIE snt
against Wisconsin ZOuayes: Il has ne yer
been Virginia Artillery against Mississippi
Rifles. East and West are distinct words
and sometimes may mean diYeGaitY OF inter
est, but there is no blood on them. They
can bo pronounced without any intOnation
OF wailng and dcath-grOan. But the North
and the south are words that have been sur
charged with tragedies. They are words
which suggest that for forty years the clouds
had been gathering for four years tempest
which thirty years ago burst into fury
that shook this planet as It has never been
shaken since 10 swung out at the first world
building. / thank God that the words
have lost some of the intensity which they
possessed three decades ago; that Il vast
South and vast multitude OF Southern
people have moved North and
there have been intermarriages by tho
ten thousand and Northern colonies
have married the daughters OF Southern
captains. and Texas rangers have united
aDOlitiOnists 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 harnoniZation. l thought that now
when we are half way between presiden-
tial elections and sectional anlmOsities are
at the lowest ebb, and now Just after q
presidential journey. when our chief mag
istrate, who was chiefly elected by the North,
has been cordially received NJ the South,
and now just after two memorial
days, one of them a month ago strew-
ing flowers on Southern graves and the
other yesterday strewing flowers OH North
ern graves, it might be appropriate and
useful for me TO preach sermon which
would twist two garlands, one for the
Northern deld and the other for the South
ern dead, and have the two interlocked In q
chain OF flowers that shall bind forever The
two sections Into one; and who knows but
that this may he 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.
But before put these garltnds on the
graves, mean to put them this mornIug n
little while on the brows OF the living men
aud women of the NOrtb aud South. who
lost husbands and sons and brothers during
the civil strife. There is nothing more
soothing TO u wound than "a cool handage.
and these two garlands are cool from the
night dew. What morning that was OH
the banks OF the Hudson and tho Savannah
when the son was to start for the war What
fatherly and motherIy COUNSEL What tears
What heart-breaks! What charges 10 write
home oftenl What little keepsakes put
away in the knapsack or the bundle that
was to be exchanged for the knap>ack! The
crowd around the depot or steamboat land.
Ing shouted, but father and mother and
sister cried. And how lonely the house
seemed after they went home und what an
Rwfully vacant chair there was ut the
Christmas and Thanksgiving table! And
after the battle what waiting for news
What suspense till the long lists OF killed
ana wounded were made out
the Connecticut and the st. Law
renee and the Ohio and the Oregon AMI the
James and the Albemarle and the Alabama
and the Mississippi and the sacramento
there were lamentation aad mourning and
great VICE. Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comfortod because they
were not. The world has forgotten il, but
father and mother have not forgotten IL.
They may be now in the eigh ties or the
nineties, but it Is fresh wound aud will al
ways remain fresh wound. Coming down
the steep of years the hands that would
have stead'ed those totterlng steps have
been twenty-eigbt years folded into the lat
sleep. The childlessness, the widowhoOd,
the orphanage, who has a measuring line
long enough to tell the height OF it, the
depth of 1t. the infinity OF ity What a
mountain, what an Alps, what 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 tho South were
slain, and hundreds OF thousands long
afterwards through the eXhaustions thore
suffered going down to death!
4 H.. 4
two garlauds that | am twisting for q little
while that may with them soothe the brow
OF the living. over the fallen the people
said: Poor fellowi What pity lie
shoGid have been struck DOWN. We did
not however, often enough say: "PoOr
father Poor mother! Ppor wife Poor
childV and so say 1t now. Have You
realized that by the wholesale massacre
hundreds OF thousands OF young people ut
the North and the South have never nad
any chance! We who are fathers stand be-
tween our children and the world.
We light their battles, we plan
their livelihood, we give them the adj.
vice OF our superior years. Among the
richest blessings of my life l thank God
that my father lived to fight my battles un-
I'll l was old enough 10 fight for myself.
Have you realized the fact that our owl
war pitched out upon the farin-fields of The
I
multitude that 10 man can number chill
dren without fatherly help and protectlony
Under all the advantages which we had of
fatherly guidance, what Il struggle life has
been to the most OF us! But what of the
children, two aud five and ten years Of age,
who stood ut their mothers lap with great,
round, wondering eyes, hearing her read
Of those who persisted in the battle Of the
Wilderness, their father gone down
amid the dead host? Come, young men and
women VINO by such disaster have had to
make your own way IN life, aud | will put
the garland on your young and unwrinkled
brow. Yes; you have had your own Nal
vern Hill and your own South Mountain
and your own Gettysburg all along these
twenty years. Come. And, IL l cannot
spare a whole garland for your brow. will
twist In your locks at least two flowers,
one crimson and one white. the crimson for
tho struggle OF your life which has almost
amounted to carnage, and the white for the
victory you have gained.
Before | put the two garlands l am
twisting upon the Northern and Southei n
tombs 1 detain the garlands q little willis
that may put them upon the brow OF the
| living soldiers and sailors OF the North and
South, who though In variance for a long
while, are now ut peace and IN hearty loy-
atty TO the United states government and
ready IL need be to march shoulder 10
shoulder against any foreign foe. The
twenty-six winters that abve passed since
the war, 1 think, have sufficiently
i gf. nj laA 1.ue. hat