River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1896-06-04
MEMORIAL SERMON.

M EMstlAh DHhMVNs
Delivered Before the g. A. Il. and til,
w. II. C. at the C0ng'l Church. River
Falls, Wis.,, Sunday, May "a, 1896, b,
Rev. w. NJ. Baleh, Pastor of the NJ. Z
Church.
'For they that say such things make
it manifest that they seek after ;
country OF their own. But now the,
desire better country, that is,
heavenly; wherefore God is not
ashamed of them, to be called theil
God; for He hath prepared for them
a Hebrews IL: IA and is.
Some themes are too great fol
words. The memory OF heroes who
have died or hazardcd death for the
sake of God and home and native lane
is too sublime for the cheap praise Of
words. Any eulogy but silence would
be akin to mockery at such a solemn
memorial as this. Therefore what
cannot be done will not be attempted
and / will be content IL able at this
time to relate the lives deaths anc
campaigns Of our soldiers to the course
of a great and all-inclusive warfare
waged since the very dawn Of human
history for the sake OF an eternal, a
heavenly dominion over all the sons
of men.
Our text tells us of the first patriots
men who in the dimness of the long
ago, having no country, loved coun.
try enough to seek one; men who
called none king save God, and who
felt that they were organizing a ma.
tion in whose eternal and universal
authority the blessedness of all the
ages of all the earth was involved;
men who sought heavenly country
not in the heavens, but from the
heavens and on the earth; such were
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, patriarchs
and patriots at once. For such a mo-
tive they left Mesopotamia and went
to Palestine,--a country their own by
Gods decree, and yet by Judgment of
men not their own.
And our own patriots, what took
them to the front some five and thirty
years ago? Was 1t the lust of con-
quest, such as moved the phalanxes of
Alexander? Was it fierce fanatacism
such as famed in the breasts of Ma
hornets hordes OF Arab horesemen?
Was it the thirst for glory like that
which led Napoleon's iron legions into
almost every capital of Europe? No,
none of these; it was the love of lib
erty and justice, and their very war had
something Christ-like in it, for though
they took human lives they did so I'M
willingly, while they offered their own
lives for the sake of love and peace.
They marched to the South with the
same motive that brought the patri-
OTIS OF our text into Palestine; the
same motive that fills the infinite
heart of God. This thought is illus
trated by many facts concerning the
late war. We will notice a few of
them.
I.--Ine Country Of the Patriots.
The community and fellowship Of
patriotism extends back to the call of
Abraham. 1t cannot be divided by
the arbitrary lines of geography or
chronology; between all true patriots
of all lands and times there is COM
mon tie and for them a common
country. What was the country for
which our patriots fought and died?
Was it the United States of America?
Yes, that and something more. Just
as truly as these veterans and those
ancient patriarchs had the same mo-
tives and the same destiny of fulfill
ing the righteousness OF God in the
affairs of earthly sovereignty, just so
truly were the former as well as the
latter, patriots Of the one heavenly
kingdom, and even, when knowing
it not, did they all march under the
invisible banner Of the cross. To be
an American is the highest political
privilege in the history Of the world,
but the sublimest significance Of
America lies in the fact that our
country is simply portion, we trust
the browning portion, Of the Kingdom
of God,-the commonwealth eternal
and divine.
The Kingdom Of Heaven" is the
most significant expression found in
the Bible. Strange that for two
thousand years men have overlooked
it a. the mass of speculative rubbish!
1t is within the memory of most
of us that 1.-THE Kingdom of Heaven"
was carelessly supposed to mean the
Heaven of the sainted dead, or more
carelessly yet, simply the Church.
The glory Of these years in which we
live is that prophets are again in the
old sense proclaiming that Gods
is at hand. 1t is not the
it IS not heaven. 1t is that
state of human society i'm which Gods
will is done on earth as in heaven.
1t is that condition of humanity when
every man loves his neighbor as him.
self. 1t is that millenniai state in
which all the children Of earth are to
know them selves and one another as
heirs of heavenly things on earth and
In which all human power and influ-
ence, in church, state, trade, and
home, is used for the same sacred pur-
pose that brought Jesus To this world.
Alta critical moment in the late war
a New England regiment holding a
strategic point in battle was assailed
by overwhelming numbers. The regi-
ment seemed about to be decimated
If it did not retreat; just then, when
whole platoons were being swept into
eternity, one Of those sons Of the old
Puritans raised the hymn
There is a land OF pure delight,
Where saints immortal reign;
Eternal day excludes the night
And pleasures Danish pain,b-
And there In very furnace Of fiery
death they stood, and sung the old
hymns their mothers had taught them
in childhood, until hundreds had died
but the battle was saved. And no
more appropriate battle songs were
ever sung; the noblest, truest mean
ing Of the war was written out In let
tiers of blood, fire, and smoke in that
solemn scene, for it was no small
event in the coming OF Gods King