Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1895-05-30
MEMORIAL SUNDAY SERVICES.

Memorial Sunday was duly observed
in Mineral Point. In compliance
with the request Of George II. Legate
Post, thirty members Of the G. A. r.
met at Post headquarters at ten
o'clock, on Sunday morning, and
marched to Trinity Episcopal church
At the first ward primary school build
ing, they were joined by members OF
the Woman's Relief Corps, both
orders numbering about sixty. The
services consisted of morning prayer
sermon, and special hymns, selected
for the occasion. The sermon was de-
livered by the rector Rev. M. Chase,
and was able and full Of patriotic
thoughts. Below we give synopsis:
He took for his text, Ephesians a; 8:
"Whcn He nsccndcd up ON high He lead
captivity captive and gave gifts unto men,
The preacher opened by giving an
account of our Lords ascension. and
the gifts which came through that
ascension. But he said he would give
the text wider application than the
scriptural connection would seem to
indicate. And he would think OF the
national ascension which the presence
Of these veterans, whom he welcomed
that morning, may suggest. In the
church calendar, he said, this was the
Sunday after the aScenlon; in that OF
the Grand Army Of the Republic, it
was the Memorial Sunday; and this
word, memorial, carried the idea Of
death. But death could suggest
ascension. st. Paul said, in speaking
of Christ, "NoW that He a5cended,
what Is it but that He also descended"
This Is the revelation Of ourlife. May
it not be true that one ut times has TO
die to ascend. II is one Of the sad
features Of life, that some must die
that they may live in the hearts Of
their fell0Wm0n. In the dead soldier
we always fancy that the best national
character shines out. The poor per
sonnlity Is lost sight of in the fact
that the dead one was u soldier, and
this lifts him above tho common level
to which his personality might assign
him. And 80 long as the prlnci pie for
which he fought and died remains I'M
changed his grave retains national
interest, even when his friends and
comrades have passed away and new
generation has long claimed its life,
At this point the preacher took up the
different points of the text, the
bestowal of gifts, and "the leading Of
captivity captive" In the first, he
saw the revelations of the value of
things and of truths which come to us
in the lives and characters of those
who have assembled above ordinary
men rs patriots and heroes, and
saints and martyrs. In such lives we
see the real yaIne of certain things,
whose value we could not find out of
ourselves. And If we should shut
ourselves up to the value of the things
which we alone could discover, the life
would be very meager. The man alb
sorbed In the small affairs of his little
life does not see the value of patriotism
in the abstract, until we see how Wash
ington and Lincoln loved the country;
and through them he Is taught the
value Of patriotism. And further, he
said, out of the idea of such lives
came good heartedness, and noble and
and generous impulses, which
strike at the purely commercial and
sordid idea of life. Upon this he
spoke, at length, and showed how the
idea of money may 80 invade the life,
that we can see nothing worth living
or dying for, outside Of this idea; and
MI this had tendency to destroy all
the finer feelings of life; 80 that there
are men who are not half so ashamed
to be caught drinking rs they are to
be found yielding to II generous i'm
pulse or waxing enthusiastic over n
patriotic song. And when this IL the
case, nothing but sordidness can stir
them; nothing but the profit of ten per
cent can cause them to cheer. And If
all men had been like these, 1861
would have seen no volunteers, because
there was no money In this kind OF
service. And there would have been
no veterans here today.
The next point upon which he
dwelt was, the leading Of captivity
captive which implied victory. He
spoke of Christ, and of His victory,
and of the great blessing which came
to the world through it. And so there
have been victories which have been II
victory Of conquest, or of lust, or of
power. At this point the preacher
took his hearers back to the worlds
fair in Chicago, in 1893, and asked
them to recall to mind the many flags
Of the many nations, which told us that
this was the exposition OF the worlds
victories in art, science etc, etc.
And yet, these flags represented Mt
some time II national victory which
gave that nation an historical, If not a
present power and greatness, But the
painful fact of history is, that If some
of those flags could speak of what
sorrows, what tyranny, what wrong,
they could boast. In some respects we
may not be equal to some of these