The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1903-05-28
TALMAGE
SERMON
By Rev.
FRANK DE wITf TALMAGE. DID,.
Pastor Of Jefferson Park PTesby-
terrain Church, Chicago

Chicago, May 24.-In view Of the
approaching celebration of Memorial
day and the decoration of soldiers
graves DR.. Talmage recalled in his ser
mon this morning the services rendered
to the nation by American sailors and
pleaded that they, too, be remembered
in the patriotic tribute. His text was
Isaiah xxxiii. 81. Neither shall gallant
ship pass thereby"
The old Brooklyn navy yard used to
have many interesting sights. There
were its museum and its antiquated
cannon mounted in the yards and its
piles of empty shells. There were its
famous dry dock and the great sheds
under which lay the keels and the
skeleton ribs of those massive frames
that were laid and knit together to-
never finished. There We're also its
uniformed sailors and marines and its
buildings, filed with food and clothing
soon to be sent to the different naval
stations of the world. There often lay
the training ships and the great men
of-war just in from foreign ports. But
to me the most interesting place Of all
in the Brooklyn navy yard, where !
used to play as a boy, was Rotten
row. Alongside of it's wharfs were
tied some of the decaying vessels that
had helped to make Americas valor
respected and admired around the
world. These ships We're too old to
voyage the sea and too weak to defy
the enemy's shells. They We're also
too sacred to be split up for kindling.
There they lay, with sentimental but
not an intrinsic value. Their decks
were deserted. their bulls empty, their
masts cut down. But there they float
ed at the docks, magnificent reminders
of glorious past,
Isaiah has been walking in magma
ton along the Rotten row" Of mil
lennial dawn. With prophetic vision,
he has been looking ahead to the time
when all the nayies Of the world shall
go out of commission; when every
quarter deck of every man-of-war shall
be playground for the pattering feet
of the little children; when the war
ships decks shall no longer be slippery
with human blood. Neither shall gal
liant ship pass thereby" translated
into the language Of ordinary life,
means Neither shall gallant men-of-
war ever again sail to destroy life"
And yet Isaiah, speaking of this glad
some day, cannot refrain from paying
d well earned compliment to those
patriotic sailors who have always been
willing to fight and. if necessary. to
die for their country's cause. He
speaks of the man-of-war in words
of martial praise. He calls the naval
vessel gallant ship"
Heroic Deeds of BluejacIxets.
Ought the jack tars of old to be
more honored than those of the present
time? Cannot we afford, on this Me-
mortal Sunday, to praise the heroic
deeds of American bluejackets who
fought under John Paul Jones in the
Ranger and the Bonhomme Richard,
under Captain Hull in the Constitution,
under James Lawrence in the Chesa-
peake, under Decatur in the United
States. under Farragut in the Hart
ford. under Dewey in the Olympia? II
the most conspicuous monument in all
London was reared in Trafalgar
square. to the memory of Admiral Mel
son. surely we, on this last Sabbath
preceding our annual Memorial day.
q lff,
the noble tars who, in the American
wars, won immortal fame upon the
high seas. Gallant ships is a term
we can well apply to the great nun-
Der Of man-of-war vessels which have
composed the American navy from
1776 down to the present time.
The American navy was always will
ing to fight oslr wars with the material
1t had on hand. Its officers in the past
did not estimate the strength Of the
enemy. They gathered together what
vessels and men they could, and then
they went forth to battle, no matter
how great the odds were against them.
We are ali able to recognize this kind
Of valor when 1t is found beating under
the breast Of an American. When some
years ago a tourist was being shown
about the heights of Quebec a French
guide fauntingly said, And these are
the cannon we captured on Bunker
HILL eyes," answered the American,
..you got the guns. but we have the hill.
And we finally got possession Of Bun
ker Hill with soldiers who wore no uni
form and, for the most part, had no
military education. We won with
farmers boys. led by farmers like Put
nam and Nat Greene. But is the Rev.
dictionary soldiers bravery to be prais-
ed more than that of the Revolutionary
sailors? Were the most heroic deeds OF
Lexington and Princeton and Saratoga
and Valley Forge any more brilliant OF
heroic than that Of Captain Paul Jones.
who with an old tub set sail for Eng
land and set fire to the British ship
ping at White Haven on November.
TIT? Was George Washington cross,
Ing the Delaware more glorious fig.