The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1897-03-19

~ ureu years dSO, just
for the glory OF
striking down a Hessian. For rusty
swords hung up on the rafters ana pui-
lets cut out of log houses in whlch they
were lodged during the great striie we
had unbounded admiration, or on some
public day, clothed in our grandfather
soldierly accoutrements, we felt as
grave as Garibaldi or Miltiades. we
are wiser now, for we make a vast DIS
tinction between the poetry and the
prose o; war. The roll of drums ana
the call of bugles, and the champing OF
steeds foaming and paving for the bat
tie; hundred thousand muskets GIT
tering among the dancing plumes
God Save the King" waving up from
clarionets and trumpets and rung back
from deep defiles or the arches OF
PROSTATE city, distant capitals OF king
doms illuminated at the tidings: gen
erals returning home under flaming
arches and showering amaranths ana
the shout of empires: that is poetry.
Chilled and half-blanketed, lying on
the wet earth: feet sore with the march
and bleeding at the slightest touch:
hunger pulling on every fiber OF flesh
or attempting to satisfy itself with a
scanty and spoiled ration: thirst lick
ing up the dew or drinking out of filthy
and trampled pool: thoughts of home
and kindred far away while just on
the eve of a deadly strife, where death
may leap on him from any one of
| hundred bayonets: the closing in or
two armies, now changed to hundred
thousand mani2cs the ground slippery
with blood and shattered flesh: fallen
ones writing under the hoofs of un-
bridled chargers maddened with pain:
the dreadfulness of night that comes
down when the strife is over: the
struggle of the wounded ones crawling
out over the corpses: the long, fever
ish agony of the crowded barrack and
| hospital, from whose mattresses the
| fragments of men send up their groans,
the only music of carnage and butch
| cry: desolate homes from which
fathers and husbands and brothers
and sons went off: without giving any
dying message or sending a kiss TO the
! dear ones at home, tumbled into the
soldiers grave trench, and houses in
which a few weeks before unbroken
family circles rejoiced, now plunged
in the great SORROWS of widowhood and
orphanage: that is prose.
But there is now on the earth a king
dom which has set itself up for conflicts
without number In its march 1t tram
Piles no grain fields, it sacks no cities,
it impoverishes no treasures, it fills no
hospitals, it bereaves no families. The
courage and victory of Solferino and
Magenta without carnage. The kingdom
of Christ against the kingdom of Satan.
That is the strife now raging. We will
offer no armistices: we will make no
treaty. Until all the revOlted nations
of the earth shall submit again TO King
Emanuel, IN the name of God we will
set up our banners" ~
Every army has It's ensIgns. Long
before the time when David wrote the
text they we're in use. The hosts of
Israel displayed them. The tribe of
BENJAMIN carried a flag with the in
scription of wolf The tribe OF Dan
a representation of cherubim. Judah
a lion wrought into the groundwork of
white, purple, crimson, and blue Such
flags from their folds shook fire into
the ht;rts of such numbers as were in
the field when Abijah fought against
Jehoranl, and there were twelve hum
dred thousand soldiers, and more than
five hundred thousand were left dead
on the field. These ensigns gave hero
ism to such numbers as were assem-
bled when Asa fought against Zerah,
and there were one million five hun
dred and eighty thousand troops in the
battle. The Athenians carried an in
scription of the owl, which was their
emblem of wisdom. The flags of mod
ern nations are familiar to you all. and
many of them so inappropriate for the
character Of the nations they represent
it would be impolitic to enumerate
them. These ensigns are streamers
borne on the point of lance and on
the top of wooden shafts. They are car
| ried in the front and rear of armies
They unroll from the main-top-gallant-
mast head of an Admiral's flagship to
distinguish 1t among other ships of the
same squadron. They are the objects
of national pride. The loss of them on
the field is ignominious.
The three banners of the Lords hosts
are the banner of proclamation, the
banner Of recruit, and the banner of
victory. When nation feels it's rights
infrinsed or its honor insulted, when
fits citizens have in foreign chimes been
oppressed and no indemnity has been
offered to the inhabitants of the repub-
lie or kingdom, proclamation of war
is uttered. On the top OF batteries and
arsenals and custom houses and rev.
enue Offices flags are Immediately
swung out. All who look upon them
realize the fact that uncompromising
war is declared Thus IL is that the
Church of Jesus Christ, jealous for the
honor of its Sovereign, and determined
to get back those who have been car
ried off captive into the bondage of
Satan, and intent upon the destruction
OF those mighty wrongs which have SO
long crushed the earth, and bent upon
the extension of the Saviour's reign of
I l.. - IL - 49,. a :.