The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1897-05-28
MEMORIAL SERMON.
DR.. Cleveland breaches Ably at the
Presbyterian Church.
Offers Some Excellent Thoughts to
his Hearers.

of the Methodist church. Union
Sunday evening byDr.H. A.CleVeland,
services were held, pastors of other
churches assisting, and the audi
forum and lecture room were filled
with large and interested congrega-
tion. Alexander Wilkin Post, G.. A.
R., marched in in body and took
seats that had been reserved for it in
front of the pulpit, in the center of
the church. ~
DR.. Cleveland took as his text
Hebrews. lib, "These all died in the
faith, not having seen the PROMISE"
etc. 1t would be impossible to give
an adequate synopsis of the sermon in
limited space, and only few of the
many excellent thoughts presented
can be given mere. DR.. Cleveland
said that as an event, the war ended
Ghirty-three yecEs ago, but in our
hearts it has ri}N yet closed, and we
see the maimeSt all about US. We
have erected I"onuments for the
dead, but the years have not brought
US anything to sake the place of those
who died. Mer Of my age are a be-
reaved generation. Half of our
neighbors died in the war, and sorrow
sentinels our hearts. Tens of thous-
ands of mothers gave their boys to
the war and never saw them again.
The names aIc7 homes of thousands of
the dead are forever unknown. We
bow in revereEt grief over the graves
of 1000 fallen men. Each country
church yard has a corner for these
graves, and each city it's multitude of
plain white slabs and monuments.
The men who trifie and blunder above
these graves are full of weakness, but
the graves will trump. The church
and pulpit should march as penitents,
because, bearing the name OF
Christianity, they made for so long so
Door an estimate of the rights and
dignity of man.
To vast mu ltitudes all days are
memorial days. All honor to those
who went out and did not return; and
to their brave companions who still
live we should give thousand
huzzahs. By their great deeds we are
still free and united people. They
showed what men can do when free
from greed and secularism; they
showed that there are moral qualities
beyond the reach of cupidity. The
Grand Army of the Republic did not
begin the war. but it ended it.
1t is to be hoped that this country
has had it's last great war. The
horrors of war are known to some of
you, Stephen Crane, writing back
from Greece, spoke of recent great
battle as being beautiful. He is the
only man in Christendom who would
call it so. Battle is revolving. If
any war was ever justified by the
court of reason it was ours. If there
is sadness on memorial day, there is
great joy in the midst of our sorrow
that from the battle field sprung the
grandest principles that men can lay
down their lives for. Many OF the
great wars have been barren of
worthy motives or result, and of the
1000 battles that have been fought in
the world, in only few have princi-
pies oeen involved.
The victories of peace will in the
future be considered of more import
ance than those Of war. Russia and
England. the two greatest military
powers, permit the crescent to out
shine the cross in the East. Great
men have not been made great by war.
The war found Lincoln and Grant
great and made their greatness pro-
minent. Bismarck and Won Moltke
were great before the Franko-German
war. Gladstone attained his great
ness through the care of Oxford. We
can be great patriots and even
martyrs without war. Our great man
is the great thinker-one who solves
our problems and fills onr wants.
The soldier requires courage, and
there are few things needed more
than courage in peaceful matters. In
every walk of life we need the cOur-
ageous mantle man having the
courage of truth and justice and
conscious for the public welfare. We
need men who can be trusted and
who will do we'll whatever they
undertake, and whose conduct is al
ways and everywhere honorable. The
virtue of the commonwealth depends
upon that of it's citizens. We can
have courageous soldiers in war only
if we have courageous citizens in time
of peace. The rising generation
should be taught the lesson of courage
by pointing to the example set by the
dead and living. Do not wait until
the living heros are dead and classic
before you recognize them.
Too long has the earth been the
playground of the ignoble and selfish