The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-06-08

Chicago. June 1-In this sermon the Rev. Frank De Witt Talmage shows how tho dead heroes whose graves are gar landed on Memorial Day live again in the spirit which their self sacrifice in- spires in the American people; text Eze- lsicl xxxvii, g. Can these bones liver
 A dark. grewsome valley. peopled with the strangest of all strange hosts great army of bleached skeletons, Is the scene of the prophets vision. Amid the mil lions and billions of dry bones there IS not the gleam of ono eye, the beating or one heart, the welcome of one hand- clash. All are motlonless. All are dead. Then. in the silence there comes voice asking the momentous question: can these bones nve?" And strange to say, as if in answer. the dry bones begin to move. the joints, the rusty hinges, creaking from long disuse. The differ ent skeletons lift themselves and stand up. Then stranger still, these skeleton forms stoop down. as we would bend to gather the fresh, clean linen after morning bath. and they clothe them selves 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 national Memorial day in reference to the bones, the dry bones of the soldiers who died In our civil war. I 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 honoraple as those of the men who wore the plue' Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson were Gods noblemen as certainly as were U. s. Grant and William T. Sher- man. Alexander II Stephens was obey ing the dictates of his own conscience as certainly as did Thaddeus Stevens. l ask this question the more boldly because among the last plans of our martyred President William Mckinley was one to do justice to the aged Confederate vet erans Can the bones of the northern and southern heroes who suffered deatn upon American battlefields live agalnF 1 ask the question because l intend 10 answer 1t myself I want to prove this morning that the men who met SOL diers death fighting bravely are hot dead They are more alive tooay 'iai, when their deeds testified to the "orlo that Americas heroes and herolhes-loI I shail speak In reference to both-shopiu be classed among the moral and 1nteliec- tual forces of their day and generation
 The inspiration of Example
 The dead of the American battlefields are intensely alive today in their m spring examples. Every true soidler knows what I mean by the overwhelm- ing power of a personal example It IS the ability which brave leader, py brave deed of heroism. has to instill the courage of his own life into other ives. There comes a crisis in the battle. what does the assaulting brigade commander do? Does he keep his position ln tne rear of his troops, where he mas d rienI to stay? Does he send one Of his stan officers to lead the charge? Does ne LOOK after his own safety? Oh, no. He draws his sword and steps to the front of his brigade. He hurriedly utters a few ln- spring words. He says: "Boys' the safety of the whole army depends upon this move. Either we must capture yon- der hin and break that opposing line, or else the whole force must retreat or sur render Some of us may lay doWh our lives there. Will you follow me, men I ask no man to go where 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 go? And all down the line of throats there comes the hoarse answer; Aye. general, we will go! We will go! This was the way General George Ed ward Pickett did when he stepped in front of his soldiers at the battle of Get tysburg and led his brigade across those bloody fields until at last his lines were almost annihilated. With tears streaming down his cheeks. Pickett returned to re- port to his commander, saying, General Lee. my noble brigade has been swept awayr' This was the way Marshal Ney did when he led the Old Guard down into the ravine of Chain, where the Wa terloo 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 routeu he rode to the top of the hill and dismount- ed There, within sight of his men, he drove his sword into the heart Of his noble war charger. Then, having cut orr all possibility of personal escape, he called his troops, saying: ''The comman- der of the English forces Is here to con ouer or to die! Will his men be willing to die with him? The retreating soldiers gathered around their noble leader and died by thousands as the Earl of War wick himself died. War may be hell, as an American general once bluntly declar- ed but by the geam 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 liv- ing among the glorified scenes of the past. We are ready to suffer for the old flag because its red folds have been dip ped in pools of human blood We are better fathers and husbands and sons be- cause the domestic hearth of many a family has been builded out of the tomb stones of Arlington Heights and Peters burg, of Nashville and Atlanta. We are bett CT men and women because our dead soldiers have shown us how to nobly live and how to gloriously die.
 A Battlefield Request.
 The dead of our American battlef1elds are intensely alive today in the influence of the sorrowing loved ones who were left bereft. Sometimes we are apt to erroneously believe that the only suffer- ings of war were to be found in the gun shot wounds and the swamp fevers, in the heartrending cries of 'Water Wa ter!' heard at night from the wounded lying between the contending lines, in the colds, the heats, the hunger, the wearines and the homesckness suffered by the men at the front. But I have al- ways believed that the wives and moth- CTS and the sisters and sweethearts who stayed at home to weep suffered far more than the husbands and sons and