Milford chronicle., 1902-06-06

heroism than that exhibited upon the |
field Of battle when the ambulance !
corps found among the wounded a boy |
in blue with both of his eyes shot out. |
There he sat, holding in his arms the
dead body of another boy in blue. They
were brothers. AS the surgeons aid
came near they heard the blind boy
whispering to the dead boy: Poor Bob
byi Poor Bobby! Mamma told me to
look after you. and I will. Poor Bob
by! Poor BObbyw All, in this land Of
the free and the brave we do not want
a greater standing army! We do need,
however, more cOnsecrated homes; we
do need more fathers ami mothers who
will build the right kind of family al
tars; we do need the right kind Of
Christian churches. where those chill
dren can be brought in contact with
God; we need those Christian boys and
girls started in the right kind of avO-
cations. Then when war comes, If it
must come, the Christian homes Of the
north and the SOUTH the east and the
west, will yield up their sons for the
battle and their daughters for the field
hospitals.
The Christian dead of our American
battlefelds are intensely alive today
in the heavenly recognitiOns which
have been given to them. Impossible
is 1t to suppose that God would allow
his servants who were to be found in
both armies and who died upon the
American battlefields to go unreward-
ed. In the beautiful sermon upon the
mount Christ pronounced blessing OH
those whose lives were full Of tears
and heartaches, poverty and persecu-
ton, SANDER and death. Do net ChriSt's
words apply to those brave men? Did
they not suffer enough? Were not their
wounds deep enough? Did not they
hunger enough and have inconsistencies
enough? Did not many a fair checked
boy under his blanket at night sob
himself to sleep, or, unable to sleep, keep
on crying, ooh. mother, mother, if !
could only see mOtherw In one of the
national museums / saw Bible which
had saved a soldiers life. When the
young man left home, his mother gave
it to him. In battle he was carrying it
in his coat pocket just over the heart
A flying bullet almost cut its way
through that Bible, but it 9yas stopped
at one of the leaves of the Four gospels
Did not many a dying soldier have one
Of these Bibles in his hand? Did he
not weep over it when he was dying
far away from home? Can God forget
his Christian soldiers who died upon
the American battlefelds? No, no.
The Bible describes the entrance into
heaven Of a mighty host marching
through the gates as before the review
ing stand Of an earthly ruler. St. John
in apocalyptle vision cried out in rap.
tuTe as he saw them, ''Who are these
who are arrayed in white robes, and
whence came they% There must have
been many seen by his prophetic eye
who came from our American battle.
fields to whom the answer that he re
ceived would apply, "Thelss are they
which came out of great tribulatiOr
and have washed their robes and made
them white in the blood of the Lamb
An Incident of the Crimea.
When the English soldiers came bacl
from the Crimean war, all London
turned out to greet them. After they
had marched past the reviewing stand
| Queen Victoria and the prince consort
arose to receive those heroes who were
o be decorated with medals. AS each
bldier approached, the queen, with her
own hand, pinned the medal upon the
! breast of the man she wished to honor.
Some of those soldiers had an empty
sleeve; some came on crutches; some
had their heads bandaged. At last
there came a litter. In it was carried
the physical wreck of a man. Both OF
his legs had been shot away. One OF
his arms was gone. His body had sim
ply been riddled with bullets. TheT
the queen, with tears in her eyes, bad'
the bearers halt. She left her place
and descended the steps Of her stanC
to the side of the litter. She bent Owe
the poor veteran. On account Of hi
sufferings the queen wished to homo
him more than any of the rest. So tn,
more the Christian dead of our Ameri
can battlefields suffered the more Chris
has hOnOred them. Therefore the NOR
are they alive today in the heavenl,
reunions.
My fellow cOuntrymen from tn
north, the east and the south and til
west, this Memorial day let US go fort
to decorate with flowers the graves 0
the American soldiers who died upo
the fad Of battle because their glor
GUS memories still live in our hearts
Let "; decorate all the graves alike
let us put just as large a wreath upo
the grave of the unknown picket VIII
was shot by the sharpshOOter in til
moonlight when doing sentinel duty q
upon the grave of the most noted gel
eral of the war-Albert Sidney JOhl
ston, who fell at Shiloh; LeOnidas Poll
who fell at Pine Mountain, GeOrgi;
Jeb Stuart, the cavalry leader. WI
fell in Virginia; John Fulton Reyl
Olds, shot at Gettysburg; James Bird
, eye Mcpherson, killed at Atlanta,
George Armstrong Custer, who VIZ
scalped by the Indians a short tin
{ after the close of the civil war, recei
ing the same need of honor and Il
l same floral tribute at the hands
their countrymen as the humble col
/ bearer who when the regiment was I
t treating rallied the men just before
e was struck by a bullet and leaped I
= into the air. crying. "Oh, my God; I
a gOnew and fell dead. Give a hero
} garland to the farmer boy who kiss
J. his mother for the last time under t
L shadow of the apple tree when he we
d forth to die.
o Greater love hath no man than tn
n that man lay down his life for /
n friends" Every one of the dead hero
n paid the greatest of all sacrifices (
r his country. They gave their lives
= order that others might live. And
we, one and all, fellow countrymC
from the north. the east, the south Il
the west, kneel down to place I
Memorial day flowers upon the gray
of the boys in blue and of the boys
gray, may we swear before God by t
affairs of the dead that we will OppC
: with inhexible determination any O
!, who will ever again try to stir up S
= tiOnal strife. The civil war is de-
= By the blood of our loved ones
- swear it. The civil war is dead!
=, the northern regiments which follow
- Fitz-Hugh Lee and Joe Wheeler and
southern regiments that followed La
~ ~ ton and Merritt in the Spanish-Am
- lean war, when north and south fOui
-. side by side, we know it.
- The Lesson Of Memorial Day.
m Then, as we kneel on Memorial
W by the affairs of the dead soldiers Y