The Monitor-register., 1896-06-05

ONC ALV1oA40g
enylous OF our. prosperity, may want to
give us q wrestle. During our civil war
there were two or three nations that
could hardly keep then, hands off us. 1t
Is very easy to pick national quarrels,
n II Jul nation escapes much longer il
Will be the exception.
Ii foreign foe should come, we want
men like those of 1912 and like those of
1862 to meet them. We want them all
up and down the coast, Pulaski and
Fort Sumter in the same chorus of
thunder as Fort Lafayette and Fort
Hamflton-men who will not only know
how to fight. but how to die. When
such a time comes, if it ever does come.
the generation on the stage Of action
VIII say; My country will care for my
family as they did in the soldiers asy-
luhl Tor the orphans in the civil war.
II my country will honor my dust as
1t honored those who preceded me in
patriotic sacrifice, and once a wear at any
rate, on Decoration day, 1 shall be res
directed into the remembrance of those
Tor whom died. Here l go for God and
my countryl Huzza!''
Ii foreign foe should come, the old
sectional aaimosities would have no
power. Here go u regiments into the
battleheld-Fifteenth New York yolun-
teers. Tenth Alabama cavalry, Four
teenth Pennsylvania rifemen. Tenth
MASSACHUSETTS, artillery, Seventh South
Carolina sharpshooters. I do not know
but it may require the attack of some
foreign foe to make us forget our absurd
sectional ~wranglinS. 1 have no faith
IN the cry, "No north, no south, no
east, no westP' Let all four sections
keep their peculiarities and their pref
e%ronces, each doing its own work and
not interfering with each other, each of
the four carrying its part in the great
harmony-the bass, the alto, the tenor,
the soprano-in the grand march of
Union.
Promise of the Resurrection.
Once more. this great national cere-
mony means the Identification of the
tombS, whether of those who fell in
battle CT accident, or who have expired
i'll their beds, or in our arms, or on our
lapa. I suppose you have noticed that
manly VI JIG ldIllllcS bdkc llIS SCdSOu DIS
the time for the adornment of their
family plots. This national observance
has secured the arboriculture and f1ori-
culture of the cemeteries, the straight
ening up of many a slab planted 80 or
40 years ago, and has swung the scythe
through the long grass and has brought
the s~tonecutter to call out the half OBJ
1ttGr.fG1 arlita,ob Tbic dow ic tho homo
iiction of the resting place of father,
Elother, son, daughter, brother, sister.
1t is all that we can do for them now.
Make their resting places attractive, not
absurd with costly outlay, but in quiet
remembrance. You know how. If you
can afford only flower, that will do.
1t shows what you would do if you
could. One blossom from you may mean
catifalque. Oh, we cannot afford to for
get them. They were SO lovely to us.
We miss them so much. We will never
get over it. Blessed Lord Jesus, comfort
our broken hearts. From every bank of
flowers breathes promise of resurrection.
In olden times the Hebrews, returning
from their burial place, used to pluck
the grass from the field three or four
times, then throw it over their heads,
suggestive of the resurrection. We pick
| not the grass, but the flowers, and in
stead of throwing them over our heads
we place them before our eyes, right
down over the silent heart that once
beat with warmest love toward us, OF
over the still feet that ran to service, OF
over the lips from which we took the
kiss at the anguish of the last parting.
But stopl We are not infidels. Our
bodies will soon join the bodies of oul
departed i'll the tomb and our spirits
shall join their spirits in the land of the
rising SUI We cannot long be separated.
Instead of crying with Jacob for Joseph,
81 will go down into the grave unto my
son, mourning" let us cry with David,
81 shall go to him."
On one of the gates of Greenwood is
| the quaint inscription, ga nights lodg-
ing OH the way to the city Of the New
| Jerusalem" Comfort one another with
these words. May the hand of him who
shall wipe away all tears from all eyes
wipe your cheek with its softest tender
I ness. The Christ of Mary and Martha
and Lazarus will Unfold you in his arms.
The white ROBBED angels who sat at the
tomb of Jesus will yet roll the stone
from the door of your dead in radiant
resurrection. The Lord himself shall de-
scend from heaven with a shout and the
voice of the %archangel. So the "Dead
March" in saul" shall become the
"Halleluiah Chorus"