The Portland daily press., 1892-05-30
SERMONS TO VETERANS.
The Beginning Of the Exercises Of
Memorial Day.
PORTLAND PASTORS PREACH TO
GRAND ARMY MEN.


Were Present in Body to Hear Rev.
Mr.. Lindsay-At the St. Lawrence
Street Church, Thatcher Post Listened
to Rev. Mr.. Wright's Appropriate Re-
marks.
Yesterday morning at st. Lawrence
street church Rev. Mr.. Wright preached
the memorial sermon to the members of
Thatcher Post, G. A. R., who attended
in body. The church was prettily dec
| GRATED with flowers and the insignia of
| the camp. Rev. Mr.. Lindsay of Congress
street was present. Rev. Mr.. Wright
spoke as follows:
| To everything there is season, and time to
| every purpose under the heavens: u a
time OF war and time of peace.-Eccl. III: 1, s.
| The logic of this Scripture is simple
and sound. In the plan and providence
of God all events have their appoint
ment and their use. There is nothing
haphazard in the divine government Of
the world. Birth, death, prosperity,
adversely, war and peace, all have their
time, place and use.
There is time Of war and time of
peace" We do not propose to moralize
upon these words, but to use them as an
| appropriate motto for our present re-
| Elections. The time of war imposes Pc
culiar obligations, and so does the time
of peace. A much quoted political max
i'm teaches that in time of peace we
should prepare for war. There is but a
mOiety of wisdom in this maxim, if it
| means that the proper business of peace
| full times is to build Notifications, invent
destructive engines of war, and amass
vast armies, but if it means that the busi-
| ness of peace is to beat swords into
ploughshares, spears into pruning hooks,
| and to restrain nation from rising against
nation, by teaching, not the art of war,
but the arts of industry; by promoting,
not the spirit of military ambition, but
| the love OF mankind, then there is the
wisdom both of reason and religion in
the maxim.
| The occupants and the adornments of
the sanctuary today suggest the time of
| war. Veterans occupy our pews, mus
kets are stacked in military array on this
sacred platform. Battlefags drape this
desk consecrated to the proclamation of
| divine peace. fragrant flowers memo
ralize dead patriots, all bear their wit
ness in this solemn hour to that direful,
yet fruitful conflict which thirty wears
ago was devastating Southern soil and
desolating Northern homes. There are
| children here who, when hoary hairs
and feeble steps shall have overtaken
them, will perchance tell their grand
childrensthat their eyes here looked upon
the survivors of the war of the Great
Rebellion, and speak to them of the mus
kets and the flags and the memorial
| flowers in the house Of God. The SER
mon and the preacher may be forgotten,
but these things they will remember
The time of peace now is, but the time
of war may come again. God grant the
day may be far hence. When it comes
the greatest need will be, not mighty
standing army, but the raw material for
| an invincible host, which shall spring up,
as if by a magician's wand, from the
hillsides of the country and the work
shops of the city, ready to be disciplined
in the actual experience of the camp and
the field. 1t was civilian army that
crushed the regular army and achieved
the Independence of America. The work
of peace is to produce strong young men
strong in those moral elements which
make heroeS-in love of country, truth
and God.
Religion is necessary to patriotism,
Christianity is the nations best protec-
tor in time of peace and strongest bull
wark in time of war. The aim of Chris
tianity is to promote peace, but she does
not condemn war. The New Testament
teaches that in the last times there shall
be wars and rumors of wars. 1t offers
no vision of universal peace on earth.
War remains, in spite of our Christian
progress, the only available means by
which a nation in peril of its life can de-
fend and preserve itself. War was the
only alternative for this nation in 1861
No court of nations or council of friendly
powers could have decided the issue.
War was inevitable and justifable, yea,
war was Christian duty. 1t was the
sacred, solemn duty of the United States
government to quell rebellion and pre-
serve the Union. ''There is a time of
war;" when mothers must yield their
sons, wives send forth their husbands,
| and maidens surrender their lovers for
the nations life. Such time of war and
| of sacrifice came 80 years ago, when
shells were booming over the battle
ments of Fort Sumter. Then the ma
tion's peril was the nations call. The
youth of the North and West heard that
call as the call of God, 1t was clearly
a Christian duty to take up arms against
those who in COOL. willful rebellion