Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1904-06-02
Calnna9e
Sermon
BY Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmaee, d. d.

served their country in its crisis as
faithfully and periodically as ever did
soldier at the front Of the battle line.
The text is Matthew xix, 80, MANY
that are first shall be last, and the last
shall be first
From time immemorial nations have
honOred their military cheftains. All
Carthage knelt n reverence before the
tombs Of Hamilcar and Hannibal. All
Sweden donors the sacred dust Of Gus
tavus Acolphus ai;a Of Marshal Berna-
dotte, WHO afterward assembled the
throne .,r C.-i: Charles XIV. All Ger
many reveres the name OF Frederick
the Great and Count Won Moltke. All
Italy praises Garibaldi and Victor
Emmanuel. in England the Duke of
Wellington and Lord Napier sleep
within St. Paul's cathedral under the
most magnificent dome of all London.
Westminster abbey is the last resting
place Of scores of generals and adj
mirals who have made England's name
famous upon the land and upon the
sea.
Not only do the modern nations hon
or their dead military chieftains, but
also the living soldiers who have shed
Their blood upon hard fought battle
fields. They honor not their generals
only but the humble privates who
once carried the muskcts in the ranks,
or the petty noncommissioned officers,
or the lieutenants, or captains of small
company commands. When these SOL
diers die they are laid in the grave
with military honors. When as worn
out veterans they are unable to look
after themselves. then the best Of
soldier homes" are provided for their
housement. England has placed the
royal palace. in the Isle of Wight,
where Queen Victoria passed most Of
her life, at the service of her cOnva-
descent sailors. France has her beauti-
full retreat Of the Invalides for her
aged soldiers. in the midst of which is
the huge sarcOphagus of her greatest
warrior, whose dying request was this:
1T is my wish that my ashes may re-
pose on the banks of the Seine. in the
midst of the French people whom |
own national capital and Milwaukee
and Danville and Santa Monica are fill
ed with the veterans Of our own army,
who We're just rs brave as any that
wore the Confederate gray or the Fed
eral blue, who laid down their lives
upon the blood soaked soil Of Viclis-
burg, charlottesville, Lookout Noun
tain or Atlanta
Though on this Memorial Sabbath
we specially honor the heroes who laid
down their lives on the battlefield or
who survived the war to die afterward
of their wounds or of disease brought
on by the exposure and the hardships
of the war. want to call your at
tention this morning to mon who rem
dered other kinds Of service in the
great struggle. That conflict could
never have been fought out if some
who did not 20 to the front had not
Loyalty done their duty in other spheres.
There We're some who would gladly
have shOuldcrcd Il musket and gone to
the war, but renowned their share in
the danger and the glory of the battle
that they might render less conspicu-
Gus but no less essential service to
their country. Let us give them, too,
their need of praise
The Unpraiscd Heroes.
On this Memorial day praise the
appraised southerner as we'll as the
appraised nortberner l believe the
civil war. bloody as il was, awful and
terrific as it was, mortal as it was,
with 100000 dead, was worth all the
sacrifice it cost. Why? Because once
and for all it settled the vital and far
reaching question that the United
bounded on the east by the Atlantic.
on the west by the Pacific. on the
north by the great lakes and 90 the
south by the gulf. Though the United
States proper comprises an area OF
S,O2o,G COO square miles. yet in that vast
area great as it is. there will never be
room for more than one government
any more than two queens can live
within the same beehive. This ques-
ton of one government had to be set
tied once for all by the sword II it
had not been settled by bloody con-
! flict between the north and the south
it certainly would have had to be set
tied later by n bloody conflict between
the east and the west. Thus | honor
Today the unpraised hero who in 1861
| lived below the Mason and Dixon line
rs we'll as the unpra ised hero of Mich
igan and Pennsylvania and New York
and Maine
First on this Memorial day, let us
honor the statesmen in the cabinet and
the legislators i'm the capitol who con
Quoted the national government during
those four years of trial. In the north
crn capitol at Washington and in the
Confederate capitol at Richmond there
were men AZ brave as those in the
yrmies. Their duties were onerous,
| thcr responsibilities serious, their
patriotism intense. Let Ms raise the
national flag over the dead bodies Of
the senators and the congressman who
vnliantly stood ut their posts during
those awful years of carnage. rs well
ms put q wreath of flowers upon the
graves Of the men who died at South
Mountain, Antietam or Fredcricks-
burg,
1t Is 50 easy to speak sneeringly OF
Dur Washington legislators. 1t is q,
easy to call the United States senate
the 'millionaires assembly or thu