The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1893-05-29
SERMON TO G. a. R. VETS.

pOFl.-
Ad memorial
SERMON TO G. A. R. VETS.
Pastor jackson Tells of the Soldiers
Noble Work.
Grand Army men besiegsd the Hedding
Methodist Episcopal Church last night,
and at half past seven were in complete
and undisputed possession. The Grand
Army men were all members of G. Van
Houten Post No. g. Upon effecting an
entrance the veterans found to their sur
prise that the church was handsomely
decorated for their reception. Pastor
JACKSON was in the hands of friends and
to tue veterans delivered an address
which aroused within them familiar in
cldents, scenes exciting and pleasant, and
others about which hangs gloom and sad
regrets. The remarks of Jhe Pastor were
delivered exclusively to the veterans. and
among other interesting things he said:-
THE SLEEPING BRAVE.
More than four hundred thous-
and brave and loyal men sleep to-
day i'll near or distant graves, who per-
lshed that the country we love might not
perish. The graves of some of this vast
army lie around us with peaceful villages
of the deaa and We Will soon 20 in This
pleasaat sprinEtime on q day appointed
py Il grateful country, TO scatter flowers
upon their last resting places. We shall
go. not simply In obedience TO legal man
date or civic custom, but because we are
prompted by the deepest and hottest feel
Jugs that have their home within the
human heart. Fathers will 60 to view
the tombs of sons who shrank not
from the call Of duty in the time of ilerY
trials. mothers TO bedew with tears the
little grassy mounds that cradle boys
dearer TO them than their own hearts
blood; brothers. TO learn 80 emulate the
gallant devotion and lofty seIf-sacrifiee
OF the heroic dead; sisters, to dwell with
foaa regret upon these brave young lives
that went out all 100 soon. And there
will go these other ones-neArer still aud
Cearer-the children and widows, and
those others widowed in fact though not
in name. tnat they render on memory's
tear-diuined tablet the dear Ifnements OF
unreturning father, or husband, or
lovers. And over this land, we
the surviving comrades of these
meu, will once more gather our thinned
and scattered ranks. aud march to pay a
soldiers honor to a soldiers grave,
and to reconsecrate ourselves to
those high principles for which
we all fought, and for which
our brethern SO nobly died. And then
we will return and leave them for an-
other year To the tender keeping of
nature. that heroic army of the Union
dead, which, with all it banners set, and
ali its battle harness on, by ranks aud
regiments, by hundreds aud by thou
sands, soldiers aud officers are holding
its last, loug, solemn bivouac. beneath
those low green tents whose curtains
Lever outward swing
UNMARKED GRAVES.
'Nor will our kind remembrances
linRer alone around these grassy mounds.
We will not forget that largest army of
the Union dead. scattered tar abroad
from the burial grounds OF their native
States. Thousands have been gathered
by tender hands into national ceIneteries.
Their graves are marked by stones; some
bearing the name and memorial OF him
who sleeps his dreamless sleep below,
and others inscribed only with the short,
said legend, Unknown"
Though far removed from the homes
they loved, their graves do not lack
adornment on Memorial Day. Bat We
will remember most and ktndliest these
other thous ands, scattered further still,
who iepose In unmarked graves.
They are sleeping on aud the
battle fields of the war. on the wide
prairies, on the wild wilderness, on lofty
mountain sides, and in the deep waters.
Well do we, their comrades, remember it
all, where we lett them behind, the hasti-
ly followed bed. the blue cape drawn over
the face, the piece OF paper with name,
company and regiment pinned on the
hands that would never again shoulder
the musKet or swing the musket, decent
ly folded, the weary feet that would
march no more composed to rest, the
piece OF pine board from the cracker box
or bark torn hastily from the tree a5 the
head and another at the foot. There
were thousands OF such who were never
found.
1.-The proposltion to which the soldiers of
the Union devoted their lives was great
hut yet simple one. Ii was that the
United States were a nation. and not
crum bling confederacy that could be dis
solved at the pleasure of any one of its
parts. Long had the tranquility of our
people been disturbed at tptervals by.the
theory that each state was sovereign IN
III itself; that it c,ultt nulltfy the laws OF
! the general government, shd that il the
attempt were made to- force them BY
arms ir could secede. in, short We foTesaw
that the nation would be hurled Into the
chaStic condition OF Europe, from which
theL county has not been able TO emerge
by all the wars of five hundred years.
We clearly perceived that to avoid such a
ate TO use the pregnant phrase OF our
Piers, The Union must be preserved.
1 by the affairs of our country we
re that it should, and in this cause
,rothers died. and the Union is pill
l Upon their graves.
n THOSE OLD DAYS.
we. can we, ever forget those old
"a the war. even in our dreams?
I'd In the perpetuation of the Union
le destruction of slavery. Long aud
4 ,stly had patriotic statesmen from
.sN6sth and South tried to reconcile the
security of the country with the presence
of this anomalous element in free GO
vernmeuG period -
The Pastor at this point spoke at length
upon the prominence Of slavery III the
war as an incentive for rebellion, and
coutiDuiug, said
"Thus. tnen, he two great ends at
faiDed by the wa were the establlshment