The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-11-13
HUMPHREYS.

Familiar was each face, and dear as life,
That went unto the war
But thither, whence a warrior went of old,
| Doth not return,
Only spear and sword. and ashes in an
For Ares, lord of strife.
VINO doth Soth the swaying scales Of battle
Wars mopey-changer, giving dust fop
Sends back to hearts that held them dear.
scant ash Of warriors, wept with many =
Light to the haad, hut heavy to the soul;
sTit n what sliFyavsdahe flame
LEAN dusty measure of a hero s framel
TO- the Greek Christianity was I'M
known, and Immortality but a dream.
But the Christian hero also is the SOL
dier Everywhere in the Scripture.
, most of all in the New Testament, life
is pictured as a scene OF war, where
the training must be that of the SOL
der Every smile, the imagery by
which the great doctrines of life and of
eternity are to be made clear to the in
tellect and to the soul is drawn from
| this source-the drill the discipline, the
shield, the helmet, the breastplate. the
sword, the fighting, the good fight, the
obedience to orders, the standing fast,
the sound of the trumpet, the lofty
cheer, the victory and the crown
these are what true life is for and
what true life is made up of. The great
exemplar sent down from heaven to
men came down to see our captain
| not tosbring, peace on earth. but a,
| Sword-to show us how to be soldiers
and to lead us in the field
Edmund Benchley lived the soldiers
| life, but a few short weeks. But he left
! us an example of how the good soldier
| can die. A death like this brings into
sharpest contrast the value of what Is
temporary and fleeing and what is per-
manent; the value of what Is mortal
and of what is immortal On the one
| side is health, youth, pleasure, the joy
| of existence, human love, the satisfac-
ton and delights of this world; on the
other side, duty, service, country, vir-
| tue, Immortality. The heroes Of all
| ages are the men who, when the oppor-
| tunity came to them, have made the
noble choice and have not fiinched. In
that company our dear boy has taken
| his rightful place.
| Has there been any time when they
would not exchange the memory of this.
/ beautiful and pure life, abiding with
them, in it's immortal youth, for any
reality that might have been spared
| to them; that the time will not
come when not only Worcester, but
even this father and mother, may say.
as Burke said of his first born: i would
1 NOT give my uGdu SOn IOT ally HNttlS sui
in Christendom." His image is to abide
among the imperishable treasures OF
| Massachusetts and of Worcester. 1t is
a memory of immortal and glorious
| youth. He is to be remembered with
| Warren, with Lowell with Putnam,
with Spur, with Lincoln with Haven.
1.-THE children of the school where he
was educated will learn the lesson Of
patriotism from his silent, yet ever
speaking, marble lips better than from
the lips of any living teacher We shall
| lay him to sleep blythe banks of the
beautiful river where ois country
| taught him to live a soldiers life, and
to be ready to die a soldiers death in
| her service He has gone to his gravef
| innocent as he came from his cradles
The joy Of youth had crowned him. His
country educated him for i1er service.
| He has repaid her by the gift of 4
| precious life and the example of a slo-s
rfous death.
| Rev. DIR. Gunnison, who followed
| Senator Hoar, said in part: q
| Another act in the great tragedy OF
our nations life is closed In chs burial
of the brave man whose blood has
| been the price which has purchased /.
| freedom for an oppressed land. We
have had our rejoicings at The victories
of war-we are having now our LAM
entations over the costly martyrdomS
1t is one of the largest evils of war
that the lives it claims are not the
remnants of age, but the promise and
flower of youth. Youth, too, not only
of health and strength, but courage
and loyalty, the high qualities of mall
hood, which make the foundations or q
nations strength.
Among the great host of patriotic
youth who went forth to duty no higher
type of man went than that one around
whose dust we are gathered IN this ser
vice of memory. In earliest boyhood
there was the promise of the noble man
that was to be- Intelligent, brilliant.
with varied talents, he had sense of
honor which was q second conscience,
and he grew TO manhood with none of
the splendid visions of his youth
dimmed and none of its high ideals low
cred.
You know the story of his service in
the field. The unquestioning loyalty
with which he went forth to war; the
courage with which he entered into
battle; his being selected, because OF
his intelligent courage, to go back and :
bring up the reserves, q most perilous
service, and his death at the post of s
duty and the post of honor; his burial
there in that alien soil, by loving ana
thoughtful hands, and this return of
all that is mortal of him for this SER
vice of memory, and then his burial
upon tomorrow's holy Sabbath, be-
meath the shadow of the school where
he studied, in that beautiful resting
place of the nation, among the graves J
of the heroic men who have died for
the country whose servants they were.
His life is the memory and the in
SEPARATION of his friends; his patriotic
courage will be an Indictment to our
youth to like duty; his life was the
offering on the altar of his country, and
his name and fame will be held in ever
lasting remembrance by this city and
the land which he honored.