The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1891-03-17
RELIGIOUS.

Pulpit Review of Current Events by Rev: ThOs.
Dixon, Jr., for Sunday, March l, 1891.
THROUGH THE EYES OF NEW
GENERATION.
Rev. ThomasD Dixon, Jr., pastor ofthe
Tw~enty-third Street Baptist Church,
preceded his sermon, this morning, at
Association Hall, by the following re-
view of Current Events.
The nation the loss of its
last great warrior. The nation pays
to this man the tribute of a genuine
heart sorrow. We love the warrior.
The world pays it's highest tribute to
the man of war. Not for wars sake
do we love him, but for the character
which the fiery furnace Of war only can
reveal. The prOudeSt monument of
earth, built to the memory of man,
commentaries the life of a warrior.
The first beams of the rising sun kiss
it's lofty crest, and the last beams of
the setting sun linger around its silver
capstone, when the valley below is
wrapped in twilight. We regard the
warrior so, because of his sincerity and
honesty of character. The man who
goes into battle takes his life in his
hands. His life thus staked is the
pledge of his truth and honesty. We
know that he is what he processes.
Belonging to a new generation of
men, it was not my privilege to know
General Sherman. | never saw him.
know him as an historic figure only.
| know him as l know Caesar, Hannibal
and Napoleon, Grant, Sheridan, Lee
and jackson. | have always loved to
look upon this grim old Generals pic
ture. He looks like the persOnitied
.o.s,,1 &c 1v0, IL 1@ol~C H. - 10
davit. He looks like a cannon.
g. That was a magnificent tribute-the
vast crowds of people who silently
waited along the line of march to honor
the occasion that bore his body from
the city. The people knew that afriend
of the people, a man of the people, had
fallen in the battle of life. They knew
he was earnest and true. He despised
shams and hypOcrisies. He had Opin-
ions and convictions. He held them in
a manly way. He had the courage to
live them and express them simply and
fearlessly. He lived his own life in
his own way. He recognized his limi-
tatlons andpowers with simple honesty.
He eve sought to use his reputation
as the lever of personal gain, and he
refused to allow any man or any party
so to use it.
The old South did not like him. It
were asking too much of human nature
to expect it. Sherman swept the South
with the dash and fury of a cyclone of
blood and flame! Those who were left
amid the CHASTITY chimneys and desc
lated fields to bury the dead could not
forgive and forget. We are not sur
prised at this. People will persist in
believing that you can butcher men in
human way. For the life of me l
never could see it. Humanity and war
are as utterly irrecOncilable as Heaven
and nell. No man knew this more
thoroughly than General Sherman.
his meUnOds were terrible. But after
all, there was In them a grim and awful
b~enevolence. IL was the benevOlence
OF dynamite. 1t was the benevOlence
of a JOhnstOwn flood. The dynamite
cartridge demolishes in an Instant a
whole block of magnificent BUILDINGS
the prOudest monuments of human
genius and wealth; but the c~onfagra-
ton is stayed and the city saved. The
JohnstOwn flood sweeps two thousand
INTO eternity in a moment, but strength
ems every dam in the world and saves
more lives than are destroyed, besides
opening the HOOd-gates of human love,
winch pour millions of dollars into the
stricken valley baptized with tears and
Sanctlhed by the prayers of redeemed
humanity.
Sherman did not love war. He saw
through all its glitter and tinsel. He
knew 1T was hell. He said SO. He
knew war was irreconcilable with
humanity. He said twas the ''Science
OF Barbarism." He used war not as an
end, but as a means. He used war as
the surgeon uses the knife. With true
scientific instinct he never WINGED or
turned pale, when his glittering knife
with singing, c~austic, merciless touch
crashed through nerve, muscle, sinew
n artery. He cut to the bone.
n young South loves this reunited