The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1899-10-06
"BEHOLD THE SHIPS"
DR.. Talmage breaches on the Glory
of the Navy.
An Appropriate Sermon for Admiral
Dewey's Home Coming Use
full Lessons from the Lives
of Naval Heroes.
copyright, 1899, by Louis Klopsch)
.yTvo CD, in Got


stirred with patriotic emotion at the re-
turn of Admiral George Dewey and his
gallant men on the cruiser Olympia and
the magnificent reception accorded to
them, Rev. DR.. T. Dewitt Talmage, in
this sermon, preaching to a vast audi
ence, appropriately recalls for devout
and patriotic purposes some of the
great naval deeds of olden and more re-
cent times. Text, James ill., A: Behold
also the ships"
If this exclamation was appropriate
about 1872 years ago, when it was writ
ten concerning the crude fishing smacks
that sailed Lake Galilee, how much
more appropriate in an age which has
launched from the drydocks for pur-
poses of peace the Oceanic, of the White
Star line; the Lucania, of the Cunard
line; the st. Louis, of the American
line; the Kaiser Wilhelm der Crosse,
of the North German Lloyd line; the
Augusta Victoria, of the Hamburg
American line, and in an age which for
purposes of war has launched the Ore
gon, the Brooklyn, the Texas, the Olym-
pia, the Iowa, the Massachusetts, the
Indiana, the New York, the Marietta of
the Iowa, the Massachusetts,, the In
diana, the New York, the Marietta of
the last war, and the SCARED veterans
of war shipping, like the Constitution,
or the Alliance, or the Constellation,
that have swung into the naval yards
to spend their last days, their decks
now all silent of the feet that trod them,
their rigging all silent of the hands
that clung to them, their portfolios ST.
lent of the brazen threats that once
Numbered out of them.
If in the first century, when war YES
sells were dependent on the oars that
padded at the side of them for propul-
sion, my text was suggestive, with how
much more emphasis and meaning and
overwhelming Renaissance we can cry
ont as we see the Kearsarge lay across
the bows of the Alabama and sink it,
teaching foreign nations they had bet
ter keep their hands off our American
fight, or as we see the ram Alhemarle
of the confederates running out and in
the Roanoke and up and down the coast,
throwing everything into confusion as
no other craft ever did, pursued by the
Miami, the Ceres, the Southfeld, the
Sassacuss, the Mattabesett, the White
head, the Commodore Hull, the Louisi-
ana, the Minnesota and other armed YES
sells, all trying in vain to catch her, IN
til Capt. Cushing, 81 years of age, and !
his men blew her up, himself and only |
one other escaping, and as see the flag |
ship Hartford, and the Richmond, and |
the Monongahela, with other gunboats, |
sweep past the batteries of Port Hud- |
free to all northern and southern craft,
and under the fire of Dewey and his men
the Spanish ships at Manila burn or
sink, and the fleet rushing out Of San.
tiago harbor are demolished by our
guns, and the brave Cervera surrenders,
| cry out with patriotic emotion that
I cannot suppress if l would, and would
not if l could: "Behold also the ships!"
Full justice has been done to the men
who at different times fought on the
land, but not enough has been said of
those who on ships deck dared and suf-
fered all things. Lord God of the rivers
and the sea, help me in this sermon.
So, We admirals, commanders, captains,
pilots, gunners, boatswains, sailmak-
ers, surgeons, stokers, messmates and
seamen of all names, to use your own
parlance, we might as well get under
way and stand out to sea. Let all land
lubbers go ashore. Full speed now!
Four bells!
Never since the sea fight of Lepanto,
where 300 royal galleys, manned by 50,-
300 warriors, at sunrise September 6,
1871, met $50 royal galleys, manned by
l25,000 men, and in the four hours of
battle S,0Oo fell on one side and $4,000
IN the other; yea, never since the day
when at Actium, 81 years before Christ,
Augustus with 260 ships scattered the
20 ships of Mark Antony and gained
universal dominion as the prize; yea,
,ince the day when at Salamis the 1900
,alleys of the Persians, manned by I
100000 men, were crushed by Greeks
With less than a third of that force; yea, !
never since the time of Noah, the first
hip capttin, has the world seen such
4 miraculous creation as that of the
American navy in 1861.
There were about 200 available sea-
men in all the naval stations and re- ]
'eiving ships, and here and there an !
I'D vessel. Yet orders were given to I
blockade $500 miles Of seaceast, greater {
han the whole coast of Europe; and, !
besides that, the Ohio, Tennessee, Cum !
,erland, Mississippi and other great |
'ivers, covering an extent of 2,OCO more [
niles, were to be patrollcd. No won !
Ter the whole civilized world burst into c
outlaws of laughter at the seeming i'm |
possibility But the work was done, i
lone almost Immediately, done thor L
ughly and done with a speed and con- S
skill that ecliPsed all the his |
DRY of naval archii ecture. q
In the cemeteries for federal and {
confederate dead are the bodies of most f
f those who fell on the land. But /
where those are who went down in the il
var vessels will not be known until
he sea gives up its dead. The jack tars t
new that while loving arms might /