The Newtown bee., 1901-07-05
leeds of Jehovah, for I will remember

UeeuS Ol JeuOVdn, TOT Will FeneInD per Thy wonders of old.' This is the meaning of the psalmist's words, and so, as thousands of good men have done when in trouble, he set himself to re- call Gods mighty deliverances of old, for Israel, and to mediate upon them, until his psalm ends in a very shout of victory and peace.
 But, my brethren, seasons of captiv- ity and sorrow are not the only seasons when we should recall and mediate upon Gods deliverances and mercies in the past. We should often do this, even in our safest and happiest mo- ments. There is no time more appro- priate for such thoughts than on this Memorial season, which our nation has set apart for decorating with sweet spring flowers the graves of all her fallen soldiers and sailors, the heroes who have died for their country, in all wars and struggles of our history.
 But it was especially to commence rate the heroes of the recent great war for the overthrow of the Great Pro- Slavery Rebellion, and for the preser- vation of this glorious union, that this Memorial service was instituted, at it's origin; and so the memories that lin ger around
 THAT TREMENDOUS CONFLICT
 are still, and naturally, uppermost in our minds at this season. Gods hand has wrought as great deliverance for us, in the salvation of this American Union, as he ever wrought for any nation of history, sacred or profane, and one of as vital interest to the vel fare of all the world. Why should not we recall that story, for our own sake, and for the instruction of our children, and our children's children.
 The story of the war of the great Rebellion has often been told, and l shall not dwell much upon that, but rather on some of the causes that led to it, and on some of the results that have flowed from it, as more appropri. ate to this occasion, and especially fol the information of the young. For we must bear in mind that whole gen. eration and more mas grown up since that great conflict was all over and 1 closed, and that the children and grandchildren of those of us who were only from our lips, or from books, o1 those events which are so vivid in oul memories who took part in them.
 Forty years ago, on the 12th day o1 April, 1861, at 4.30 o'clock in the morning, the rebel cannon of South Carolina fired the opening shot of the Great Rebellion, in the deliberate attack upon, and bombardment of the l United States Fort Sumter in Charles ton harbor. That shot against the American flag on it's own soil, by the hands of deliberate treason and rebel. lion, reverberated over the whole American continent, and it's echoes rolled around the world. No other cannon ever fired, from the hooped "Bombards" that heaved huge stone balls against the crumbling walls of Cambray and Constantinople, to the modern 100-ton Krupp rifle with a range of 15 miles, ever shocked and awoke the world like that shot fired at Fort Sumter. Those who fired that shot looked to see it demolish the SUI premacy of the Federal union as one nation, and restore the original chaos of "State sovereignty" as under the old Articles of Confederation be. fore the adoption of the Constitution and the Union. But, on the contrary, the effect of it's impact was to weld all the loyal states forever into one com. pact and irresistible mass beneath whose sublime momentum the motley image of "state sovereignty" was ground to powder and scattered to the winds, and the miraculous rock of our ONE AND INDISsOLUBLE AMERICAN
 NATIONALITY
 became the steadfast mountain that is to fill the whole New World. Those who fired that shot looked to see it rivet the chains of eternal slavery not only on the already enslaved black millions of the South, but upon the prosperous, and therefore hated, free