The record-union., 1899-05-30
GRAND MEMORIAL ADDRESS.
DELIVERED IN FLORTN LAST
SUNDAY.
A Woman's Eloquent Tribute to
the Nations Heroes, Living
and Dead.

"A memorial service was uelo d. 1d0
M. Z. Church in Florin on Sunday even
ing. at which Mrs. E. M. Barrett OF
Port Townsend preached an inspiring
sermon. The house was beautifully dec
grated and the singing excellent.
Mrs. Barrett's sermon, or Grafton, IS
one that cannot be read without thrill
of the old fire that warmed loyal hearts
thirty to forty years ago.
Speaking from the 1st Chron., u, 16:
And David lifted UP his eyes and saw
the angel of the Lord stand between
the earth and the heaven, having a
drawn sword in his hand stretched out
over Jerusalem" Mrs. Barrett said:
David had sinned against God. and
retribution must always follow sin.
God had given David the choice Of
three things-three years famine, or
three months to be destroyed before his
foes. or three days the sword of the
Lord in the land and the angel Of the
Lord destroying with it.
And David cried, II am in a great
strait; let me fall now into the hand
of the Lord, for very great are His
mercies; but let me not fall into the
hand of man" So the pestilence ragged
until 10000 of the people fell, and the
sacred chronicler says: "And the Lord
commanded the angel; and he put his
sword into the sheath thereof"
So the sin of this republic had called
unto high heaven for vengeance, and
the sword of the Lord cut great grave
trench through this nation, from the
Atlantic to the Pacific. into which sank
100000 Of the youth, the beauty and
chivalry of this nation as sacrifice
for that SIM And then the sword of
the Lord was sheathed; and as David
set UP an altar to the Lord in the
threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusitei in
commemoration, so the American ma
ton has set up q memorial of that day,
when from the battlefield our soldiers
returned triumphant and the sword Of
retributive justice was sheathed
Our children should know the signifi-
canoe of Memorial Day. They should
be taught that its exercises are not
mere form, but that every memorial
service is to recall the sacrifices which
2,OOOOOO Union soldiers made 10 save
the nation, to preserve liberty and teach
the nations Of the earth that the ex-
pertinent of free government is a sue
cess on this side of the sea-
1t is to teach the true history of that
war, as our Fourth of July is to teach
the history of the signing of the Dec
iaration of Independence, and the birth
or this American republic. It makes a
certain impression when from the print
ed page our children study the history
OF our country; but it makes a fan.
deeper impression when the story comes
leaping warm from loyal hearts and be-
meath Haunting banner, and with i'm
posing ceremony and with patriotic
song we celebrate the noble deeds of our
brave defenders.
Patriotism will die when our nation
ceases to celebrate the Memorial Days
in our national history.
This is the great use of Fourth of
July and Decoration Day services. The
roses and lilies on the graves soon turn
to dust like the clay that lies under
meath them, but the story of coura ge
and self-sacrif1ce and patriotism, told
on Platforms and by the fres;des. in
churches and cemeteries, keep alive in
the hearts of our children what our
American institutions cost, what thew
are worth and how they should be pre-
served.
Let our children. after we are dead.
be able to say with the psalmist, 1--WE
nave Hcdlu Win our ears, q God. orr
fathers have told us what work Thou
didst in their days and in times of
old.'
As in the days of old, God set ND a
memorial commemorating the feast of
the passover, so these days have be-
come holy days to be observed in our
generations forever
They lead us back in memory to the
day when our Pilgrim fathers landed. on
Plymouth Rock. They did not come in
gilded yacht, with gay streamers flying.
No, 1t was on cold December day. and
from a ship in which we would not
want to cross the San Francisco Bay.
The scalping knife of the savages
were ready to receive them, and the In
dian war whoop their only welcome.
But with brave, steady hand they push
ed back this aboriginal hostility and
they proceeded to take possession of
this fairest continent under the sun.
The skies are genial. the soil so fer
tile, the rivers so populous with finny
life, the acreage so immense; surely
when they have wrested it from the
hand Of the savage they may have un-
disputed sway
But mol Across 5000 miles of water
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