Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1898-03-09


approach Of an equinox, or cyclone, or
hurricane, because the harbors were hos
tile. miscalculation of a tide might
leave them on a bar, and fog might over
throw all the plans Of wisest Commodore
or Admiral, and accident might leave them,
not on the land ready for an ambulance,
but at the bottom of the sea. Everywhere
at the mercy Of the Atlantic and Pacific
Oceans, which have no mercy. Such tenn
pests as wrecked the Spanish Armada
might any day sweep upon the squadron.
No hiding behind the earthworks; no dig
ging in OF cavalry spurs at the sound OF re-
treat Mightier than all the fortresses of
all the coasts is the ocean when it bombards
D flotilla.
"In the cemeteries for Federal and Con-
tederate dead are the bodies of most OF
those who fell on the land. But where
those dead are who went down in war ves-
sells will not be known until the sea gives
up its dead. The Jack Tars know that
while loving arms might carry the men
who fall on the land and bury them with
solemn liturgy and the honors of war, for
the bodies of those who dropped from the
ratlins into the sea, or went down with all
on board under the stroke of a gunboat,
there remain the shark and the whale and
the endless tossing OF the sea, which can
not rest. Nothing but the archangePs
trumpet shall reach their lowly bed. Can
non ball threatening in front, bombs threat
ening from the bluffs. torpedoes threaten
ing from Denedtn, ana tnt ocean Will It's
reputation of 5000 years for shipwreck ly-
ing all around. Am L not right in saying
1t required special courage for the navy,
as it requires special courage now?
1T looks picturesque and beautiful to
see war vessel going out to sea. Sail
ors in new rig singing A Life on the
Ocean Wave, Home on the Roaring
Deep the colors gracefully dipping to
passing ships, the decks Immediately
clean, and the guns at quarantine firing
parting salute. Bat all the poetry has
gone out of that ship as it comes out of
the engagement its decks red with blood,
wheel house gone, the cabins a pile OF
shattered mirrors, and destroyed furni-
ture, steering wheel broken, smokestack
crushed, 100 0-pound Whitworth rifle shot
having left its mark from port to star
board, the shrouds rent away, ladders
shattered, smoke-blackened and scaded
corpses lying among those who are gasp
| ing their. last gasp far away from home
and kindred, whom they love as much as
we love ours. o, men who once belonged
| to the Western squadron, or the Eastern
! squadron, or the South Atlantic squadron,
I or the North Atlantic squadron, or the
! Mississippi squadron, or the Pacific
| squadron, or the West India squadron,
hear our thanks! Take the benediction
of our churches. Accept the hospitali-
ties of the nation. II we had our way we
would give you not only pension, but
| home, and a princely wardrobe, and an
! eauipage, and a banquet while you live,
and after your departure a catafalque and
| a mausoleum of sculptured marble, with a
model of the ship in which you won the
/ day. .-t--
1T is considered gallant thing when in
| the naval fight the flagship, with its blue
ensign, goes ahead up river or into bay,
! its Admiral standing in the shrouds watch
| ing and giving orders; but l have to tell
you, veterans of the American Navy, if
| you are as loyal to Christ as you are to the
I Government, there is flagship sailing
! ahead of you of which Christ is the Admir-,
! and He watches from the shrouds, and the
/ heavens are the blue ensign, and He leads
| you toward the harbor, and all the broad
sides of earth and hell cannot damage you,
and We whose garments were once red with
! pain and blood shall have a robe washed
and made white in the blood of the Lamb
Then strike eight bellsl High noon in
heaven! With such anticipation, o veterans
eff the American Navy, cheer you to bear
up under the aches and weaknesses that
you still carry from the war times. You are
| not as stalwart as you would have been but
for that nerve Of strain and for that ter
rifle exposure. Let every ache and pain,
instead Of depressing, remind you of your
fidelity.
But God never forgets. He remembers
the swinging hammock; He remembers the
forecastle; He remembers the frozen ropes
| of January tempest; He remembers the am
putation without sufficient anasthetics;
| He remembers the horrors of that deafen-
| ing nigl< when forts from both sides
| belched on you their fury and the heavens
giowed with the ascending and descending
missiles of death and your ship quaked un-
der the recoil Of the 100 -pounder while all
| the gunners, according to command, stood
on tiptoe, with mouth wide open, lest the
concussion of the ship shatter hearing or
brain. He remembers it all better than
you remember it, and in some shape reward
| will be given. God is the best of all pay
masters, and for those who do their whole
duty to Him the pension awarded is an
everlasting heaven.
! "But will it not be grand when all these
I scenes of earthly struggle are forever
gone? 1 went down to the seashore very
early one morning to see the sun rise over
the sea. The night had not yet gathered
up all its shadows. Four or five sails
against the sky seemed like the spirits of
the night walking the billows. The gloom
of the hour and spot was so great tried to
break it by saying aloud: Thy will, o
God, Is in the sea, and Thy path is in the
great waters 1t grew lighter. The
clouds were hanging in purple clusters
along the sky, and as if those purple clus-
ters were pressed into red wine and poured
out upon the sea, every wave turned into
crimson. Yonder flre-wave stood opposite
fire-wave, and here a cloud, rent and
tinged with light. seemed like palace,
with flames bursting from the windows.
as If the angels of God were ascending and
descending upon stairs of fire, and the
wave crests, changed into jasper, nd crys-
tai and amethyst, as they were flung
toward the beach, made me think of the
crowns of heaven cast before the throne o
the Great Jehovah. l threw myself upon
the sand and uttered it again: THY way, O
God, is in the sea, and Thy path in the
great waters So will come the Forming
of the worlds deliverance. The darkness
will fold its tents and away. The golden
feet of the rising morn will come skipping
upon the mountains, and all the wrathful
biilows of the worlds woe break into ths
|, splendors of eternal joy. Until the day
break and the shadows fee away, turn,
My beloved, and be thou like roe OF
young hart upon the mountai1sso
Bether." -s'H
And one song employ all raeions, and the,
sing,
I Worthy is the lamb that was slain:
And the dwellers ON the rock shout t.
DIV Hers on the plain,