The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1891-06-10
THE FLOWERS OF MEMORY.
AN ELOQUENT MEMORIAL SERMON.
Two GarIands for Northern and Southern
Graves-Garlands for the Living as
Well as the Dead-obIiterate
All sectionalism.

1t was novel and unprecedented service,
as IN different parts of the audience were
many of those who had belonged to both
federal and confederate armies, the sub
1ect having been previously announced,
namely: 1.-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 pre-
sented. Text: Isaiah xxxxiii, 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 South, can not say, but in the
United States the two words are so point
blank in their meaning that no one can
doubt. They mean no more than East
and West, for although between these
two last there have been rivalries and dis
turbing ambitions and infelicities and sill
YER bills and worlds fair controversies
there have been between them no batter
les unlimbered, no entertainments dug,
no long lines of sepulchral mounds
thrown up. 1t has never been Massachu-
sets Fourteenth regiment against Wiscon-
sin Zouaves; it has never been Virginia
artillery against Mississippi rifles. East
and West are distinct words and some
times may mean diversity of interest, but
there Is no blood on them. They can be pro-
nounced without any information OF wall
ing and death 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 in q
fury that shook this planet as it had
never been shaken since 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 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 colonies
have married the daughters of southern
captains. and Texas rangers have united
for life with the daughters of New York
abolitionists and their children are half
northern and half southern, and alto
gether patriotic. But North and South
are words that need to be brought into
still closer harmOnization. / Thought that
now when We are half way between
presidential elections and Sec
tlonal animOsities are at the
lowest ebb, and now, just after presi-
Dental journey, when our chief magis-
trate, wAO was chiefly elected by the
North, has been cordially received at the
South, and now, just after two memorial
day enc of them a month ago strewing
flowers on southern graves, and the other
yesterday strewing flowers on northern
graves, 1t might be appropriate and useful
tor me to preach a sermon which would
twist two garlgnds, one for the northern
Head and the other for the southern dead,
and have the two interlocked in chain
Of flowers that shall bind forever the two
Bectlons 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 fulfilled in regard to
this country, and the North give up its
prejudices and the South keep not back
its confidence. II will say to the North,
Give up, and the South, Keep not back"
But before / put these garlands on the
graves l 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
dunng the civil strive. There is nothing
more soothing to a wound than q cool
b2ndage, and these two garlands 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 to write home
often What little keepsakes put away in
the knapsack or the bundle that was to be
exchanged for the knapsackl 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, and what an
swfully vacant chair there was at the
Christmas and Thanksgiving table And
after the battle what waiting for news I
What suspense till the long list of the
killed and wounded were made out All
along the PanOhscot and Connecticut and
the st. Lawrence and the Ohio and the
Oregon and the James and the Albemarie
and the Alabama and the Mississippi and
the Sacramento there were lamentation
and mourning and great woe, Rachel
weeping for her children and refusing to be
comforted because they were not. The
world has forgotten it, but father and
mother have not forgotten it, They may
be now IN the eighties or the nineties, but
il is a fresh wound and viii always remain
a fresh wound. Coming down the steep
OF years the hands that would have
steadled those tottering steps have been
twenty eight years folded into the last
sleep. The childlessness, the widowhood,
the orphanage, who has a measuring line
long enough to tell the height OF it, the
depth of it, the infinity OF it? What a
mountain, what an Alps, what Himalaya
OF piled-up agony of bereavement in the
simple statement that 100000 men of the
North were slain and 100000 men OF the
South were slain, and hundreds OF thou
sands long afterward through the exhaus-
tons there suffered. going down to death
detain from the top of the tomb these
two garlands that / am twisting for
little while that may with them soothe
the brow Of the living. Over the fallen
the people said: "Poor fellow What a
pity he should have been struck down %
We did not, however. often enough say /:
'Poor fatherl Poor motheri Poor wife
Poor chi.dp and so say it now. Have you
realized that by that wholesale massacre
hundreds of thousands of young people
at the North and the South have never
had any chance? We who are fathers
stand betweenl our children and the
world We fight their hattles, we
plan for their welfare. We achieve
their livelihood, we give them the advice
of cur superior years. Among the richest
hlsrzinOa IF nv lifa thank God that m ~