The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-05-28
Liberal Christian Spirit
Catholics and PrOtestants Unite In
Memorial Services.
FATHER COMERFORD'S SERMON
A Remarkable Discourse, feeming With
Eloquence and Patriotism-Lofty
Thoughts for Memorial bay
Tribute to the Soldier.
Special to the Scranton Tribune.

The occasion was memorial service
Tor the soldiers and sailors who fought
and died that the blessings Of equal
liberty might be preserved to us. There
were no services i'm the Presbyterian
church, and nearly all that congrega-
ton, as well as many of other denomi-
nations from Archibald and Peckyille,
were present. Uniformed members Of
Lieutenant James G.. Stephens post,
Grand Army Of the Republic, occupied
seats near the altar, and the audi
torium and gallery of the spacious
church, which was specially decorated,
was crowded by an Interested audience.
The services were opened with a pa
triotic hymn by the choir and the offer
ing of the prayer of the Catholic church
for the protection ofo our institutions and
the preservation of the president and
those in subordinate authority. Father
Comerford then ascended the altar and
for mOee than an hour interested his
audience by clearly and forcibly ex-
planning our duties as citizens of a free
government. He told why we should
love our country and why we should
protect It against influences that tend
to subvert the principles on which 1t is
founded. After a few preliminary re-
marks he said:
"The practice, which with us has
grown to be national of appointing one
day of the year to strew flowers, testi-
monials Of love, upon the graves Of
our dead heroes, and returning thanks
to God for the blessings He has granted
us through them is certainly consist
ent with the principles of faith, and
the promptings of the heart of great
people. Thus the nation, in public
and solemn way, gives forth its thanks
to the spirits of the men who fought
and gave their lives in the cause of their
country. and the custom declares our
dependence on God, both as a nation
and as individuals, while 1t tends to
strengthen the spirit and increase our
confidence in the all wise and fatherly
Providence We thank God for it; the
nation is one, and the heroes of war are
honored throughout the length and
breadth Of the land. The acrimony of
civil war has died the death of all
things evil, and has given place to a
common participation in the glory of
the past, the assurance of the present,
and the bright hopes of the future.
Brotherhood and citizenship is
the sentiment of tOday-we thank God
for this too-and parties and partisan
ship cannot disturb it. The Grand Army
of the Republic, the organization of
Of the Union, do right in keeping alive
the memory of the great deeds they
participated, in and they do right, too,
in honoring the memory of the heroes
who fought and died to perpetuate the
great principles of our government.W
too join them in gratitude.
Bravery Virtue.
bravery is n virtue commended by
religion, and no men in any country
displayed more than those who fought
in our civil war. We Catholics partici-
pate in the ceremony of strewing fiow-
ers over the heroic dead, but we do
more than that--for the church remem-
bers at her altars. the souls of the
faithful men who died on the battle
field-and next to love for God she COM
mands love for our country. We
bow to no foreign power, nor is
it commanded, as is sometimes
foolishly asserted. in things civil or
political, and we are ever ready to shed
our hearts blood in defence of liberty
equality and union for which our heroes
died. Surely, therefore, we, without
distinction of class, or creed or color, we
as American citizens, can never lack
reasons for gratitude or thankfulness
we have here a home and a country
where every man can worship God ac-
cording to the dictates of his own con-
science. Here we have liberty and
equality, and are entitled to the rights
of freemen and the opportunities that
God has given us in way never before
granted to men, nor offered to them
now even, except in America. We can
look with delight upon the noblest ex-
pertinent of self-government ever made
Inv kF. .;
from three millions to moro than sixty
millions-rising from obscurity to the
most powerful and influential nation on
earth; where men of every race, color
and creed enjoy the blessings of liberty.
equality and peace under the sway of
wise and just laws.
when we reflect that we, the frecst
of people, have probably the most sta
BILE government in the world that the
terrible conflict which arrayed in bat
tie the North and South has only served
to strengthen the bonds OF national
unity and bring the whole people into
fuller harmony with the great princi-
pies which underlie our civil constitu-
ton, our belief in the sublime destiny
of our country is strengthened; we look
with higher hopes and serener conf
dence to the future, and we turn in
pious, loving affection to those dead
heroes who sealed with their hearts
blood their patriotic devotion to our
common country.
True Patriotism.
After reverence to the Deity love of
ones country is unpuestionably the
highest emotion of the human heart.
Indeed. true patriotism is so inter
woven with the religious sentiment
that when the one Is apparent the other
may be assumed. 1t IL potent and
without argument that true patriotism
does not by any means consist in dema-
goguery or political buster. The lofti-
est type of genuine patriotic spirit, de-
scribed in history or existent in our own
times Isl that displayed by him to whom
Memorial Day Is sacred-the American
soldier. The American soldier is type
that any man on earth may be right
eously desirous of realizing; one which
reaches out to and lays hold uppn the
highest aspirations of the American
mind and gathers in its grasp the ten
derest chords of the American heart.
Ever fitted for the highest, ever ready
to discharge the lowest duty that de-
wolves upon his citizenship he has no
prototype In the antecedent civiliza-
tions and no peer in the ranks of
earth'S contemporaneous millions. He
is suigeneris--of himself and his own
kind, at once the creator and creation
of "a country to which he Is devoted
with an affection that is paramount to
all considerations under God. At her
first instance he comes forth to engage
In sanguirary war, and. the emergency
passed, he relapses into habits OF de-
corous repose or industrious enterprise,
the most law-abiding subject of the
state, the most companionable man in
the communicative embodiment Of do
mestic love and the exemplar Of domes-