Connecticut western news., 1902-06-05
TALMAGE SERMON
By Rev. FRANK DE WITT TALNlAGE. DID,. Pastor of Jefferson Park Presby- tsrian Church, Chicago

Chicago, June In this sermon the 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 xxxvii, 3, Can these bones livef'
 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 gleam 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 voice asking the momen- tous question, Gan these bones liveW 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 CT 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 I ask you this na- tional Memorial day in reference to the bones, the dry bones, of the soldiers who died in our civil war. ask 1t in 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 who wore the blue. Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson were Gods noble men as certainly as were U. s. Grant and William T. Sherman. Alexander Fl. Stephens was obeying the dictates of his own conscience as certainly as did Thaddeus Stevens. I ask this ques- the last plans of our martyred Presi- dent William Mckinley was one to do justice to the aged Confederate veter- ans. Can the bones of the northern and southern heroes who suffered death upon American battlefields live again? l ask the question because I intend to answer it myself. I 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 America's heroes and herOtnes-for l shall speak in 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 in their inspiring examples. Every true soldier knows what mean by the overwhelm- ing power of a personal example. 1t is the ability which a brave leader, by a deed of heroism, has to instill the cour- age of his own life into other lives. There comes a crisis in the battle. What does the assaulting brigade com mander do? Does he keep his position in the rear of his troops. where he has right to stay? Does he send one of his staff officers to lead in the charge? Does he look after his own safety? Oh, no. He draws his sword and steps to the front of his brigade. He hurried ly utters a few inspiring words. He 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? 1 ask no man to go where I am not ready to lead. I ask no man to charge where it may not be possible for him to step over my dead body. Men, will you go? Will you goY' And all down the line of throats there comes the hoarse an- swer: faye, general. we will go! We will gow 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 bri- gade across those bloody fields until at last his lines were almost annihilated. With tears streaming down his cheeks, Pickett returned to report to his com mander, saying, General Lee, my no- ble brigade has been swept awayw This was the way Marshal Ney did when he led the old Guard down into the ravine of Chain, where the Waterloo tragedy was practically ended. This was the way Richard Neville earl of Warwick, did upon the battlefield of Barnet. When the great kingmaker saw that his troops were being routed, he rode to the top of a hill and dismounted. srGA oA F.. I,a drove his sword into the heart of his noble war charger. Then, having cut on all possibility of personal escape, he called his troops, saying: 'The com mander of the English forces is here to conquer or diel Will his men be will ing to die with himT' The retreating 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 bluntly declared, but by the gleam of the hot. hissing, 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 glorified scenes of the past. We are ready to suffer for the old flag because it's red folds have been dipped in pools of human blood. We are better fathers and husbands and sons because the domestic hearth of many family has been builded out of the tombstones of Arlington Heights and Petersburg, of Nashville and At lanta. We are better men and women because our dead soldiers have shown us how to nobly live and how to glo- riously die.
 Battlefield Request.
 The dead of our American battle fields are intensely alive today in the influence of the sorrowing loved ones