St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1899-11-04
''BEHOLD THE SHIPS"
Dr., Talmage breaches on the Glory
Of the Navy.
Al Appropriate Sermon for Admifnl
Deuey's Home Coming - Use.
full Lessons from the Lives
of Naval Heroes.

Al ApprOpRlAte Sermon Tor AumihHA
Deuey's Home Coming - Use.
full Lessons from the Lives
of Naval Heroes.
copyright, 1893, by Louis Klcpsch1
Washington,
1t a time when the whole nation is
Stirred with patriotic emotion ut the re-
turn of Admiral George DeweJ and his
gallant men on the cruiser Olympia and
the magnificent caption accorded to
them, Rev. Dr. T. Dewitt Talmage, in
this sermon, preaching to 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 iii, 4: "Behold
also the ships"
If this exclamation was appropriate
about 1872 years ago, when it was writ
ten concerning the crude fishing smacss
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, cf 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 Gays. 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 throats that once
thundered 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 reminiscence we can cry
out 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 oft our American
fight, or as we see the ram Albemarle
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 Southfield, 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, un-
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-
son, and the Mississippi flows forever
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
Icannot suppress if would, and would
not if 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 bellsi
Never since the sea fight of Lepanto,
where 800 royal galleys, manned by 5o,-
600 warriors, at sunrise September 6,
1871, met $50 royal galleys, manned by
125,O0O men, and in the four hours of
battle 5000 fell on one side and $4,000
en- the other; yea, never since the day
when at Actium, 81 years before Christ,
Augustus with 260 ships scattered the
220 ships of Mark Antony and gained
universal dominion as the prize; yea,
since the day when at Salamis the ! 200
calleys of the Persiaps, manned by
100000 men, were crushed by Greeks
with less than a third of that force; yea,
never since the time of Noah, the first
ship captain, has the world seen such
a miraculous creation as that of the
American navy in 1861.
There were about 200 available sea-
men in all the naval stations end re-
ceiving ships, and here and there an
old vessel. Yet orders were given to
blockade $500 miles Of seacoast, greater
than the whole coast of Europe; and,
besides that, the Ohio, Tennessee, Cum
berland, Mississippi and other great
rivers, covering an extent of 1000 more
miles. were to be patrolled. No wop-
der the whole civilized world burst into
outlaws of laughter at the seeming inn
possibility. But the work was done,
done almost Immediately, done thor
oughly and done with speed and con-
summate skill that eclipsed all the his
tory of naval architecture.
recite to-day the deeds of our naval
heroes, many of whom have not yet re-
ceived appropriate recognition. BE
hold also the ships" As we will never
know what our national prosperity is
worth until we realize what it costs,
I recall the unrecited fact that the men
of the navy in all our wars ran especial
risks. They had not only the human
weaponry to contend with, but the
tides, the fog, the storm. Not like 9TH
er ships could they run into harbor at
the approach of an equinox or cyclone
or hurricane, because the harbors
were hostile. A miscalculationpf a tide
might leave them on bar, and fog
mig toverthrow all the plans Of wisest
commodore aLd admiral, and accident
might leave them not on the land ready
for an ambulance, but at the bottom of
the sea, as when in our civil war the
torpedo boat blew up the Tecumseh in
Mobile bay and nearly all on board per-
ished. They were at the mercy OF the
Atlantic and Pacific oceans, which have