Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1895-05-30
Memorial in the Churches.

| Thirty veterans met at the Post
hall last sunday morning and with
the national colors draped in mourn
ing marched to the Episcopal church
At the kindergarten school building
met and escorted the Woman's Re
! lief Corps, the two bodies numbering
80 people. Seats had been reserved
for them and Il special song service
arranged. The earnest, patriotic SER
mon by the rector, Rev. NJ. Chase,
was enjoyed by every listener, and
warmed the hearts of the veterans
to the core. The following epitome
of the sermon is kindly furnished by
Bro. George Crawford
He took for his text, Ephesians 4; &
when He ascendcd up on high lie 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 ascenion; 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 ascended.
what is 1t but that He also descended" :"
This is the revelation of our life. May
it not be true that one at times has to
die to ascend. 1t is one Of the sad
that they may live in the hearts of
their fellowmen. In the dead soldier
we always fancy that the best national
character shines out. The poor per-
sonality is lost sight of in the fact
that the dead one was soldier, and
this lifts him above the common level
to which his personality might assign
him. And so long as the principle for
which he fought and died remains un-
changed his grave retains a 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 as patriots and heroes, and
saints and martyrs In such lives we
see the real value 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 SO invade the life,
that we can see nothing worth living
or dying for, outside Of this idea; and
all this had tendency to destroy all
the finer feelings of life so that there
are men who are not half so ashamed
to be caught drinking as they are to
be found yielding to a generous inn
pulse or waxing enthusiastic over a
patriotic song And when this is the
case, nothing but sordidness can stir
them; nothing but the profit of ten per
cent can canse them to cheer And il
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
dweIt 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 50 there
have been victories which have been q
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 1898, and asked
them to recall to mind the many lags
Of the many nations, which told rs that
this was the exposition of the worlds
victories in art, science etc, etc
And yet, these flags represented al
some time a national victory which
gave that nation an historical, if not d
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