The record-union., 1896-05-31

Romulus and Remus. Achilles, Aga
memnon. is hero-worship. The Bible
| is a book of heroes. Abraham and ia
cob Moses and David, are heroes of
various types, about whom numerous
| legends have grown, and who, in the
affectionate remembrance of their pos
terity. were crowned with the laurel
wreath of Immortality.
| Christianity has found am ideal
among mankind-a hero whom she
worshiped. He was the embodiment OF
| the heroic 1.-The varlike attitude of the
soul" He was fighter for justice and
right He thundered against wicked
ness in the high places, and won
greater victory without arms than all
others have with them. This worship
/ of Jesus is nothing short of a refined
hero worship.
All wars and crises in history are
productive of great intellects and
giant hearts The hero is the one who
seizes the opportunity of the hour and
becomes the incarnation OF the spirit
of his age. Thus throughout the Mid
die Ages, whatever was the spirit of
the times, there always arose men equal
to the emergency-men who could speak
wished, but could not utter.
Is hero worship a thing of the past?
Is it a survival of paganism in the eyes
| of the cultured nineteenth century?
Have we to-day heroes worthy of our
admiration and reverence? 1t might
be supposed that, in these days, wherein
the search-light of criticism is turned
on the lives of great men in their mi
hof lo, i,,fn iny,
every great deed, that regards every
genius as but a product of heredity, it
might be supposed, / repeat, that now
when war as an ideal is no longer glor
flied, hero-w worship would be dying out.
On the contrary we have heroes to-
day, have them, admire them, have
faith in them and revere them. The
sense of our humanity demands that
we love the high types of our human
Iity
These heroes for the time become
idols, and then as time rolls on, our
appreciation of them becoming refined
and exalted, they become our ideals.
We shall always worship great men.
When we shall fail to do so, it will be
either because we have all become
| heroic, or, on the other hand we all be-
come degenerate.
A positive proof of our modern hero
worship is given by our gathering this
evening. May these memorial services
never cease. May the time never come
when we shall fail to bow our heads
before Gods anointed that walk the
earth; may the time never come when
we shall cease appreciating their hero
ism and reverencing their lives and
their deaths. May America never grow
so wealthy that pride, selfishness, in
gratitude shall tempt her to forget her
heroes of 1776, 1912 and 1865.
To keep alive and aglow this love for
our departed heroes of the Civil War is
the object of Memorial Day. What
grand heroes we have had, Grant and
Sherman, Sheridan and Mcclellan, to-
gether with thousands of unnamed
martyrs. These were men with souls
whose enthusiasm and valor swept
aside all fear of death. Our Grand
Army is grand army of heroes.
To me the letters ''G A. R." represent
the cause for which they struggled so
nobly. To me these letters &c. A r."
stand for God And Right Under the
flag of God and with the banner of right
did these men sally forth to win or lose
They fought for God; by this I do not
mean a sectarian God, not the God of
the Catholic, nor the God of the Pres
byterian or Methodist, but the God
that makes for righteousness" the
Father of all men. Him, our heroes
recognized as the source and inspira-
ton of all noble endeavor, as the Gov
ernor Of the destinies of all nations: as
low of MN, l.,
They trusted in him as the God of truth
and right, for truth and right must ever
be victorious. Let those who now
clamor for God in the Constitution and
who cannot believe unless they see him
black on white, take this ito heart
Those heroes fought-not as Method
lists, nor Presbyterians, nor Catholics,
nor Jews, they fought as citizens, chill
dren of one Father. They had no idea
of setting up any sectarian conception
of the deity as the ideal toward which
| all men should strive. Not the name of
God in the Constitution, but the spirit
of God pervading it entirely was their
idea
Secondly, they fought for right. This
is a broad term, for it embraces all the
rcoblest and highest aspirations of the
soul Of man. To fight for right means
TIC fight for justice and truth, for free
dom and equality. To fight for right
means to fight for all rights of speech,
thought and action. To fight for right
means to fight for equal rights, equal
opportunities, equal responsibilities. To
eht for right means to fight against
every interference of religious or politi-
cal questions. To fight for right implies
a struggle for all that is just and holy
and for the inalienable rights of 6, free
citizen. Only under these conditions
can happiness be pursued and the high
est type of humanity be developed.
| Thus to fight for God and right
sums up in my mind the highest and
roblest for which man can labor. To
| attain these no sacrifice is too great;
no life too valuable.
| A purified divinity and a sanctified
humanity Is and must ever be the ul-
| innate goal of our present and all fu-
ture struggles. These then, are our he
| roes. For these they died. They died
not because they loved life less. but be-
cause they loved the republic more
| Theirs was the true stamp of man.
| hood. Let us ever cherish their mem
| ory and learn from them the meaning
of love of country. They, having little
to live for, loved their land so dearly;
Row much the stronger should be our
love who have everything to live for.
Let us strew their graves with flowers.
Let us bind fresh garlands about their
| tombs. Their lives were as pure as
these flowers, the fragrance Of whose
| patriotism rises like sweet incense to
| God. All honor to them