Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1895-06-14
MEMORIAL SUNDAY SERMON
BY REV. s. 3. BLUNT, RECTOR OF ST.
STEPHENS, MIOOLEBURY,

Should we desire to measure the mag
ntude or gauge the grandeur of
mighty mountain, we would not stand
at its very base, but move away days
journey toward the plains, and then.
looking backward, measure its base by
the horizon and the outline of Its sum
NIT against the ethereal blue of the
lmitless sky. And thus it was with
those who lived in the days of the
prophets and patriarchs they were too
near these oracles either to comprehend
their greatness or appreciate their
power. They consequently stoned them,
sawed them asunder, and hurled them,
bound, into dens of wild beasts, frey
furnaces and caldrons of seethng oil;
or, perhaps, what was still worse, left
them to pine away in Loneliness born of
their own greatness.
AS one by one the stars of heaven APP
pear when the misty clouds have rolled
away, so gradually the greatness on
these men dawned upon the world, and
after twenty centuries the matchless
writer of the test arranges them, as it
were, in one great amphtheatre above
the arena of this world, and, sweeping
/ his hand around the circle, says, "Of
whom the world was not worthy" And
he was right. Thus also it was with
those whose memory we have so ylvidly
brought before US today; men who gave
up their homes and shed their hearts
best blood for the salvation of their
country.
Time is like a river. ever flowing on
ward, never hating: and as the tleeting
years remove us farther from the fields
of battle the names and deeds and sac
rifices of those who fought and those
who suffered and those who died shine
in letters of golden glory thousand
times brighter than at any time during
or Immediately after the war. And so
it happens that more monuments are
reared now, in single year, to fallen
heroes than IN the five years closely fol-
lowing the war. 1t has ever been so,
and so it will ever be. Cline only adds
new luster to deeds of love and vaor."
When the Omnipotent begins to paint Il
background for the acts of patriotism
and self sacrifice, then, for the first time,
we begin to see them in all their bright
and pristine beauty.
When you first went forth to warfare
you thought you were going only to
wash the blood-stans from the streets of
Baltimore, to avenge an insult to your
nations flag, or at least to see that that
flag was made to float over every town
and city. But afterwards you found
that yours was a more glorious work,
namely, that you were to be the liberia
tors of race of slaves. Then, when all
was over, you looked back and saw that
you had been participants in a conflict to
maintain the integrity of a Christian
civilization, for Christianity and freedom
walk hand in hand as sons of the same
mother.
But other nations were watching the
issue of this conflict; and now, after Il
quarter of a century only, look back and
see the background which God has
painted for your picture. In Russia
23,000,000 immortal souls are set at liber-
ty. In Poland 100000 men, women
and children breath the air of freedom,
while only a short time since the emper-
or of Brazil, like Moses of old, or like
our own noble Lincoln, looked oyer into
his Egypt and saw 100000 slaves set
free. And in all this you indirectly had
a hand and in another hundred years
from now, when the mighty deeds OF
charity and valor which you have done,
not only for your own beloved America,
but for the whole world, shall be fully
comprehended, the historian will close
his last chapter in the glowing words of
the Apostle, "Of whom the world was
not worthy
Now, if you will pardon me, shall
depart from the conventional sermon to-
day; for, unless do 50, must either
theorize, moralize or dogmatize. To
theorize in the presence of men who for
four years slept on the ground and drank
soup and coffee from the same canteen,
or who faced death in a hundred differ
ent ways-I say, to theorize in the pres
ence of such men would only show a
lack of commOn-sense. 70 moralize on
such an occasion would be equally out
of place; while to dOgmatze in the pres
ence of men and women of every shade
and color of belief would only degrade
oneself and harrow up resentment in the
minds of his hearers. What then am
to say you inquire. have thought this
week, when garlands are to be put upon
the graves of Northern and Southern
soldiers, and when we naturally refer
to the awful loss and suffering of our
civil war, it would be well if tried to
set you against the evil of strife and
bloodshed which has afflicted every ma
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