The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1899-10-07
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.

gallant men on the cruiser Olympia an
the magnificent reception accorded {
them, Rev. DIR. Il. Dewitt Talmnge, il
this sermon, preaching TO a vast audi
ence, appropriately recalls for devon
and patriotic purposes some of tn
great naval deeds Of olden and more re
cent times. Text, James iii. A.: "Bchol'
also the ships"
If this exclamation was appropriate
about 1872 years ago, when it was writ
ten concerning the crude fishing smack
that sailed Lake Galilee, how mucl
more appropriate in an age which ha!
launched from the drydocks for pur
poses of peace the Oceanic, of the Whit,
Star line; the Lucania, of the Cunarc
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
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
nowaIl silent of the feet that trod them,
their rigging all silent OF the hands
that clung to them, their portfolios 81
lent of the brazcn throats 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 "Reminiscences we can cry
out rs we see the Kcarsarge lay across
the bows of the Alabama ana sink il,
teaching foreign nations they had bet
ter keep their hands OFF our American
fight, or as we see the ram Albemarle
of the confcdcrates running out and in
the Roanoke and up and down the coast,
throwing everything into confusion as
10 other craft ever did, pursued by the
Miami, the Ceres, the Southield, the
SassacuSs, the Mattabesctt, 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 Monongahcla, with other gunboats,
sweep past the batteries of Port llud
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 Cervcra Surrcndcrs,
| cry out with n patriotic emotion that
cannot suppress if would, and would
not if | could: "Bchold also the ships"
Fun 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-
fcred all things. Lord God of the rivers
and the sea, help me in this sermon!
So. We admirals, commanders, captains,
pilots, gunncrs, bontswains, sailmak-
ers, surgeons, stokcrs, messmatcs and
seamen of all names, to use your own
parlancc, 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 So
600 warriors, at sunrise September 6,
1871, met $50 royal galleys, manned by
$4,000 men, and in the four hours of
battle 5000 fell on one side and $4,000
On the other; yea, never since the day
when ut Actium, 81 years before Christ,
Augustus with 260 ships scattered the
goo ships OF Mark Antony and gained
universal dominion as the prize; yea,
since the day when at Salamis the 200
ealleys of the Persians, manned by
100000 men, were crushed by Greeks
with less than third of that force; yea
never since the time of Noah, the first
ship captain, has the world seen such
n miraculous creation as that of the
American navy in 1861.
There were about 200 available sea
men in all the naval stations and re
ceiving ships, and here and there al
old vessel. Yet orders were given Il
blockade $500 miles Of seacoast, create
than the whole coast of Europe; and
besides that, the Ohio, Tennessee, Cum
berland, Mississippi and other grea
rivers, covering an extent OF 1000 NOR
miles, were to be pntrolled. No won
der the whole civilized world burst int
outlaws OF laughter Mt the seeming i'm
possibility. hut the work was done
done almost Immediately, done thor
oughly and done with speed and con
summate skill that cclipsed all the his
tory of naval architecture.
In the cemeteries for federal ant
confederate dead arc the bodies of mos
1 OF those who fell on the land. Blu
where those are who went down in tn
war vessels will not be known unit
the sen gives up its dcnd. The jack tar
knew that while loving arms nigh
carry the men who fell on the Liant
and bury them with solemn liturgy ant
the honors OF war. for the bodies o
those who dropped from the ratline
into the sen or went down with all OF
boord under the stroke of a gun bol