Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1902-06-06
TALMAGE
SERMON
By Rev.
FRANK DE WITT TALMAcE, DID,,
Pastor OF Jefferson Park Presby-
ee-ian Church, Chicago


Rev. Frank De Witt Talmage shows
how the dead heroes whose graves are
garlanded on Memorial day live again
in the spirit which their self sacrifice
inspires in the American people; text,
Ezekiel xxxyii, 3. "Can these bones
liveT"
A. dark, grewsome valley, peopled
with the strangest of all strange hosts,
a great army of bleached skeletons, is
the scene of the prophets vision. Amid
the millions and billions of dry bones
there is not the CLEAN of one eye, the
beating of one heart, the welcome of
one handclasp. All are motionless.
All are dead. Then. in the silence,
there comes n voice asking the momen-
tous question, Can these bones live?"
And, strange to say, as if in answer,
the dry bones begin to move, the
joints. like rusty hinges, creaking from
long disuse. The different skeletons
lift themselves and stand up. Then,
stranger still, these skeleton forms
stoop down, as we would bend to gath
er the fresh. clean linen after a morn
ing bath, and they clothe themselves in
garments of flesh and blood. God first
asked Ezekiel whether the dry bones
could live. Then God showed the
prophet by visual manifestation that
they could.
The same question which was asked
the ancient prophet ask you this ma
tional Memorial day in reference to the
bones, the dry bones, of the soldiers
who died in our civil war. ask it i'm
reference to the dead soldiers of the
northern and southern armies alike.
Now that the civil war is forty years
past, all are agreed that the men who
wore the gray fought from motives
just as honorable as those of the men
q who wore the blue. Robert Il. Lee and
Stonewall Jackson were Gods noble
men as certainly as were u. S. Grant
and William L. Sherman. Alexander
II. Stephens was obeying the dictates
OF his own conscience as certainly as
did Thaddeus Stevens. / ask this Ques-
ton the more boldly because among
the last plans of our martyred Presi-
dent William Mckinley was one to do
Justice to the aged Confederate yeter-
ans. Can the bones of the northern
and southern heroes who suffered
death upon American battlefields live
again? / ask the question because
intend to answer ii myself / want to
prove this morning that the men who
met soldiers death fighting bravely
are not dead. They are more alive to-
day than when their deeds testified to
the world that Americas heroes and
heroines-for / shall speak I'm reference
TO both-should be classed among the
moral and intellectual forces OF their
day and generation.
The Inspiration of Example.
The dead OF our American battle
fields are intensely alive today I'm their
Inspiring examples. Every true soldier
knows what mean by the overwhelm-
Ing power OF personal example. 1t is
the ability which n brave leader. by n
deed OF heroism, has to instill the cour-
age or his own life into other lives.
There comes n crisis in the battle.
What does the asSaulting brigade COM
mander do? Docs he keep his position
In the rear OF his troops, where he has
right TO stay? Does he send one OF
his stan officers TO lead in the charge?
Does he look after his own safety?
oh, no. lie draws his sword and steps
TO the front OF his brigade lie hurried.
ly utters n few inspiring words. lie
says: Boys, the safety OF the whole
army depends upon this move. Either
we must capture yonder hill and break
that opposing line, or else the whole
force must retreat or surrender. Some
OF us may lay down our lives there.
VIII you follow me. men? i ask no
man TO so where L am not ready to
lead ask no man to charge where
IL may not be possible for him TO step
over my dead body. Men, will you go?
VIII you goT And all down the line
or throats there comes the hoarse an
swer: AYE, general we will 60, We
Will gop" This was the way General
George Edward Pickett did when he
stepped in front of his soldiers at the
battle OF Gettysburg and led his bril-
gade across those bloody fields until at
last his lines were almost annihilated.
With tears streaming down his checks.
Iickett returned TO report to his COM
mander. saying, General Lee my no.
Die brigade has been swept awayr' This
was the way Marshal Ney did when he
led the Old Guard down into the ravine
or Chain, where the Waterloo tragedy
was practically ended. This was the
way Richard Neville, earl of Warwick.
did upon the battlefield or Barnet.
When the great kingmaker saw that
his troops were being routed, he rode
TO the top of hill and dismounted.
There, within sight of his men, he
drove his sword into the heart OF his
noble war charger. Then, having cut
OH all possibility of personal escape. he
called his troops, saying: 1.-THE COM
mander of the English forces is here to
conquer or diei Will his men be will
Ing to die with him? The retreatinp
soldiers gathered around their noble
leader and died by thousands as the
Earl OF Warwick himself died. War
may be hell, as an American general
once bluntiy declared, but by the CLEAN
or the hot. kissing, demoniac flames OF
that awful inferno are seen the heroic
deeds OF many whose noble lives have
been tried and purified by the fires OF
an earthly martyrdom.
This national Memorial day we are
living among the glorifed scenes of the
past. We are ready to suffer for the
OLD nag because its red folds have been
0ippeo In pools or human blood. We
are better fathers and husbands and
sons because the domestic hearth of
many q family has been builded out
or the tombstones of Arlington Heights
and Petersburg, of Nashville and At
ianta- We are better men and women
because our dead soldiers have shown
us how to nobly live and how to glo-
riously die.
A battlefield Request.
The dead of our American battle
nelds are intensely alive today in the
influence OF the sorrowing loved ones
who were left bereft. Sometimes we
are apt to enormously believe that the
only sufferiDgs Of war were to be found
In the gunshot wounds and the swamp
ievers, In the heartrending cries of
water. Waterg' heard at night from
the wounded lying between the con-
tending lines, in the colds, the heats. |