Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1905-06-03
IN MEMORY OF
THE heroic DEAD
Memorial Day Exercises Largely
Attended. Eloquent Sermon
Preached by DR.. Hays.

Sunday the Pullman Auditorium was
filled to its utmost capacity by the
hundreds of our citizens who gathered
to participate in exercises in memory
of the nations heroic dead.
Year by year the list of those who
no longer answer to the roll call grows
apace, but the love of nation finds
fitting expression the day set apart
" the memory of the dead.
All the churches of the city united
IN the service which was held at
Eleven o'clock. The sermon, an elo-
quent and scholarly address, was deliv-
cred by Rev. DR.. Hays of the United
Presbyterian church, and we regret
that lack of space forbids the publica-
alton of more than a brief outline.
1t was pronounced by all to be a
sermon worthy in every way of the oc-
casion it commemorated.
The following is brief synopsis of
the sermon:
''It is to be regretted that on such
a solemn occasion some minister who
was a companion in arms of our he
roic dead might not speak to us. Such
an one could alone speak most fittingly
the appropriate message of the hour.
The speaker of the day belongs to a
generation that had not entered its
teens when our great civil war closed,
hence cannot speak out of his heart /
xperience of scenes and memories OF
Jented fields ard battle ground. Ithas
occurred to him that the celebration
this memorial Sabbath is charac
teristic event of long series Of
events, transactions, institutions thai
illustrate the influence of Christian
faith in American History. You will
permit him to rehearse, crudely as il
may be, some of the events that show
the increasing purpose of God in mould
ing us as a nation for his own.
1t has been truly pointed out that
it is utterly impossible to tell the
story of American history while ignor-
ing the element of religion. The only
common bond that runs through the
biographies of American explorers,
pioneers and founders of states is the
thread of a Christian faith. 1t was
the power of religious purpose that
inspired Columbug to discover the
western continent. He felt, says
Washington Irving, that he was divinity
commissioned to find out new pas
sage to the Indies and to rescue the
Holy Sepulcher from the Turks. He
even went so far as to believe that he
certain passages in the Holy Scrip
lures referred to him. 1t was his
Christian faith that sustained Columbus
through his eighteen long years of tria.
! which ended in his sailing in three
small ships for unknown shores. His
first act as he stepped on the shores OF
the new world was that of devout
praise and thanksgiving.
The same religious spirit animated
nearly all the early explorers. 1t is
seen in the life of such men as Sill
Walter Rauleigh and in the early
French discoveries. The first colony
plantedin Florida by the French were
Hugenots escaped from religious op.
preston. The discoveries along the
great lakes and down the Mississippi
made by devout French Catholics
who desired to requite the churct
for her loss by the Reformation and tc
bring under the influence of the
: mother church at Rome the natives Of
the new world.
every school boy knows how CON-
pletely religion dominated the life anC
character of the Pilgrim fathers. The
time would fail me to tell of VIM
Penn and his Quakers in Pennsylvani;
and New Jersey, or Of Lord Baltimore
the founder of Maryland, or of Ogle'
thorp. the founder of Georgia. These
men as founders of states were actu
ated By the religious idea. Further
more, it was the influence of Christian
faith that united the early colonists
consisting of such diverse sects a;
Puritans, Quakers, Huguenots, anc
Catholics. II has been pointed ou
that at the time when each separat'
colony felt the need Of throwing of