Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1905-06-08
MEMORIAL SERMON.
Continued from first page.

God help us to do whatever we
know to be our duty whatever God
has commanded in his word, what
ever he may indicate by his provi-
dence and thus prove ouselves good
soldiers of Christ.
A good soldier is also courageous.
We honor the soldiers of the union
army not only for their patriotism
put their courage. Never did any
army show more sublime courage
than they. 1t was not mere blind
physical courage but courage born
of an intellent appreciation OF the
issues involved and love for the
principles commended. For"The armies
of Europe" said Grant, are machines
the men are brave and the officers
capable but the majority of the SOL
diers in most European nations are
taken from class of people who are
not very intelligent and who have
very little interest in the contest in
which they are called to take part.
Our armies were composed OF men
who were able to read, men who knew
what they were fighting for and could
not be induced to serve as soldiers ex-
cept in an emergency when the safe
ty of the nation was involved. Their
intelligent devotion to principle made
them truely brave and not merely
reckless. Americans have no need
to look back to ancient Greece or
Rome for examples of heroism.
There is scarcely a village within
the lines of the loyal states that can
not produce characters worthy of the
bravest and best of ancient times.
To be true christian courage is a
great necessity. The courage to tace
the sneers of ungodly men, the cour-
age to be true to your convictions and
contend for the right, the courage to
openly confess Christ and espouse his
cause, the courage of young Cadet
Calvin p. Titus, the hero who
FIRST unfurled the American flag
on the walls of Peking, who on his
| first night in the barracks said, to his
comrads, 81 don't know whether
you fellows pray here but do" and
he suited the action to the word and
dropped on his knees. "Am | a soldier
| of the Cross and a follower of the
Lamb and shall L fear to own His
cause or blush to speak His name. !"
Lastly we see the analogy between
the two conflicts in the grandeur of
the results achieved. Today we look
out upon a country stretching in I'M
broken contiguity from the Atlantic
to the Pacific and from the Canadian
line to the Gulf of Mexico, nation
of SO. 600. 900 freemen and not legal
slave within its vast domain; world
power debating policies etfecting the
remOtest east; commercial power
sending her products to the markets
of mankind in successful competition
with the rest of the world; young po-
litical giant before whose tread the
mightiest tremble and at whose bid
ding the proudest bow; moral power
whose influence is for the uplifting of
the race and the diffusion of the high
est form of civilization the world has
ever known. Behold this great re-
public of the western hemisphere
with. her sisterhood of sovereign
states 'seperate as the pillows but
one as the sea-; "One hope, one hand,
one heart, one land, one nation ever
more': with its hills and dales and
fertile rolling prairie smiling in the
sunlight of liberty; this republic of
self-gOverning free-born citizens; this
hope of the down trodden and refuge
of the oppressed. AS you look, you
feel thrill of patriotic pride. You
are proud of your American citizen
ship whether you were born here or
brought here, but remember that for
all this you owe a heavy debt of graf
itude to the men who left their peace
full pursuits in the early sixties and
faced danger and Jared hard and
fought long and on many a field OF
blood and death laid down their prec-
ious lives. Verify the results are
glorious and to them is all honor due.
But far more glorious will be the
results achieved by the faithful sol
diers of Jesus Christ. We are now in
the thick of the fray and at times
the outlook is not the most encourag-
ing, "But with such a captain we are
sure to win," and the ages yet to
come will witness a mighty triumph
over wrong, the redemption of the
race from worse than southern
slavery, the extension OF the domains
of the kingdom of Christ from east to
west and north to south until the
whole wide world shall own Him king
and crown Him Lord of all; and when
at last we all appear in the capital
city of our Great King there to lay
our trophies at his feet the angels
and archangels will chant our ac-
claims and ours will be the hOnors we
now bestow upon the soldiers of the
union.