Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1905-06-16
MEMORIAL SERMON
DELIVERED BY REV. w. 7.
FORSYTHE MAY %.
Text Taken From Joshua I;9, Story of
Civil War. Lessons Drawn From
the Conflict.


Civil War. Lessons Drawn From
the Conflict.
Owing to a lack of space during the
past two weeks we have been unable to
present sooner the following sermon de-
livered at the Opera house on Sunday,
May %, by Rev. w. I. Forsythe, rector
of st. Stephens Episcopal church. Mr.,
Forsythe took his text from Joshua l; 8.
''Be strong and of "a good courage, be
not afraid, neither be thou dismayed;
for the Lord thy God is with thee
whithersoever thou goest."
"No nation is fonder of national holt
days than America and no people are
more patriotic than it's citizens. By the
observance of these holidays, patriotic
memories are kept alive and intensified.
And patriotic memories are the strength
of nation, chiefly because they keep
before us those nation builders who have
made a country what it is. The two
great American holidays are 1ndepend-
ence Day and Decoration Day. And
there is a close and intimate connection
between the two. Independence Day
brings to our mind the memory of those
heroes who founded a country, conceived
in liberty and dedicated to the propo-
sition that all men are equal" Deco
ration Day immortalizes those who
when this principle was assailed and
aspersed took their lives in their hands
and fought and bled for its preservation
in this land Circling around Decoration
Day are two other days, each of which
has its appropriate lesson-Memorial
Sunday and pre-Memorial day. On pre-
Memorial day our children are taught in
the public schools the sacred duty of
patriotism by the example of the soldiers
of the great war. On Decoration Day
itself our thoughts are directed more
especially to the political aspects of the
struggle, the events leading up to it and
the reconstruction period following.
Memorial Sunday reminds us chiefly of
the moral and spiritual side of this crisis
of a national life, and bids us see the
hand of God in this as in all the history
of the nations. 1t brings before us moral
and spiritual problems and issues which
although of the past are yet ever working
in the present. The civil war of 1861
!, was one of the greatest events of the
political life of the ninteenth century
1t was the greatest event since the
dehnitive fall of Napoleon in 1919, 1t was
no isolated occurrence which can bt
! looked at and studied in and by itself
but it was led up to by issues which had
been slowly ripening since the beginning
of our national life. The cleavage be
tween north and south always existing
had been growing wider and deeper witt
the widening years. Underlying al
> other causes was the burning question
of slavery This was brought prominently
| 70 10 nv no n
the country. If the United States o
America were simply to consist for eve
of the thirteen original colonies per
: chance they might have continued as il
the same condition. But the country wa
widening west and south, the free vigor
Gus life could not be confined within
fixed area. What of the new states ant
e territories thus brought into existence
= What of California and Kansas: Shoul'
= these new lands be free or should the,
g, be tainted with slavery's horrid poison
l Should the new stars on our nation tlaj
e be dark with bondages hue or bright witt
: freedoms light:The Missouri compromis
like all other compromises ever must be
was only temporary. The great struggl
= for final settlement had to come and tn
: issue at stake had to be fairly AM
i squarely faced. Should slavery be pei
= mitted, legalized and protected unde
the folds of the banner of the free: w
l. cannot dear friends understand tn
!. history of the war unless we grasp tn
q moral nature of the underlying question
1t was not merely political contest bu
. a social revolution. How strange to a
d readers of the history of this period mus
seem the attitude of many Europea
powers, especially England, at the tim
of the war The popular opinion i
j. England was doubtless in favor of tn
e south And this in country which ha
only comparatively recently emancipate
y her slaves at no small pecuniary sacrifice
y Even that statesman, the greatest i
n English history of the nineteenth Ger
b fury, the advocate of the oppresse
wherever they were found, whethe
from Turkish tyranny or Austrian mi.
y rule the advocate of truest liber5
l. measures in the mother land, VIM Eval
Gladstone, even he whose voice W
should have expected to have been raise
y in defence of the northern cause and {
l. the enslaved negro, even he seemed {
d waver and to sympathize with tn
v Southern Confederacy. He re-echoe
g the words of another English statesma
- 1.-THE South fight for independence, bI
d what do the North fight for, except
y crafty passion and pride:" Can W
If find a reason for this seemingly iney
plainable phenomenon: In book recen
ly published which is really history
ie English political life for the latter tw
d thirds of the nineteenth century, write
d by one who while an ardent admirer
:. his hero can yet see his faults and mi
:, takes, the real cause of this attitude