The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1906-06-06


Thus the heroic lives of our soldiers did not
make future folly impossible but they
mrde the Nation so thoughtful and great
that IL cannot easily sink under the mis-
fortune of q few crimes and vices. Under
the vice, crime and incapacity that now
hold sway in the cities and the Nation
there is lying q sublime example of patriot
ism which asks for lilies from full hands.
Patriotism in the tomb has often fought
against a living vice and ignorance. When
the present loses all great speech the dead
often become eloquent. Nor do we bring
our flowers simply TO celebrate deed in
which Grant triumphed and a Lee fell
but we come to bless the soldiers that help
ed liberty to touch all doorsills, the soldier
that helped Georgia and Mississippi to be-
come the loving friends Of New York and
Pennsylvania; we come to baptze the
scattered States into one freedom and one
love. This May day comes with pity for
all the dead and living soldiers but with an
iuexpressble Joy that from these battle
fields came the divinest principals for which
men can live their years in this world.
The words "friend" and "foe" "North" and
South" Blue and Gray are drowned out
by the voice of the millions welcoming n
full liberty and Justice. Time has furled
the flags forty years have silenced the guns
and have silenced the passions that once
famed in all hearts; thirty years have TAX
en- away all boasting over fallen foes; but
the same flight of time makes only the
more glorious the country that has no
dividing line and the alton that has no
slaves. When the battle opened men were
slaves; when the battle closed they were
free. The South has reach state of civili-
zation, which they could never have reach
ed under human slavery. Thus next We'd
nesday flowers will be scat tered not only in
memory of the dead but in the name of
new greatness. Memory and hope will go
hand in hand to those sacred places Of
silence. Tears and gladness will mingle,
tears because the soldiers sleeps, gladness
because new moral greatness lives. When
our political conventions and General As
sembies are held in the East aud North,
the South is represented with new mental
enthusiasm and new mental beauty. The
intellectual power of Old and New Eng
land is spreading southwerd and the land
once adorned with orange blossoms and
fair skies is TO receive from this day on
ward the blessed decorations of the intel
lect and the soul The new law, the new
principles. the new privileges are slowly
creating greater civilization. Lot us re-
member the dead heroes. They belong 10
those whose blood reddens all the paths and
highways of honor; those who died upon the
field, in the charge, in prison pens, or in
Famine's clutches; those who gave their
lives that liberty should not perish from
the earth. And today we remember the
great leaders; Sherman, the reckless, the
daring, the prudent, and the victorious;
Sheridan, a soldier fit to have stood by
Julias Caesar, and to have uttered the
words OF command; and Grant, the silent,
the invincible, the unconquered, and rising
over them all, Lincoln, the honest, the wise,
tho patient. the merciful; we remember
them all today, and hundreds of thousands
of privates, deserving of equal honor with
the plumed leaders OF the host. No eulogies
can enhance their glory; no laurels can
make brighter their deeds. They are be.
yond human speech or human embellish.
ments. The war is over and we have a
new civilization. Let us hope for still
greater; let us hope for new era. But re-
member when we speak of new era we
must use the words make and create. A
new era does not grow like tree nor rise
like tide. Man can watch tree from
year to year, or he can sit down and watch
the rising tide, but a new era he must
create. He must watch only so far as he
works. This strange tide rolls in only at
mans bidding. AS a song will not sing
itself, as n statue will not hew itself out of
marble, so new age will not come of its
own will out of the places where our SOL
diers fell This high tide will roll in from
the human hearts that are here in life. Let
us hope for high tide of morals. New
leaders; new armies; new flags. The SOL
diers of literature, the heroes of a high and
noble politics, the regiments in the pursuit
of beauty, the volunteers of Nazareth, the
soldiers of the infinite God, the vast army
Of the highest happiness and the highest
right, must come and march and remarch,
not with guns and with garments dyed in
blood, but arrayed in all the jeweled drap-
cries of peace. These must be eloquent to
atone for those who are silent; these must
advance with bosom full of all high pur-
pose. and must step with living foot and
inspired heart among the three hundred
thousand graves Of the dead.
81 will not cease from mental fight
Nor shall the sword sleep in my hand,
TIL have built Jerusalem,
In this fair and pleasant land"
When all other needs has been mentioned
there remains our chic fest need, return
of obedience TO the life and teachings Of
Jesus Christ, loyalty to the Captain of our
salvation. Veterans let me commend you
10 Christ You saved the country. Are
you saved yourselves? 1t is sad thought
that the carpenters who built Noah's ark
did not themselves get in. 1t is sadder
thought that any who fought to save this
country from great sin, should himself
be destroyed by sin. have stood by death
beds, and have learned that it is hard to die
without Christ. l have often thought how
hard it must be to die upon the battle.
field, no hand TO caress, no voice to com
fort, no pillow upon which to rest; but
tell you in sincerity, l would rather die
alone upon the field, cold and drear; my
pillow a stone, my bed of ice, my covering
the drifting snow, the only voice the
shrek of the wintry blast; would rather
die thus with Christ than in home of
luxury without Him. Veterans let me
commend you to Savior who, when life's
battles are over will give you the palm of
victory and the crown of life. Many a
weary, lonely, tired, tramp, tramp, tramp,
have you had upon the the field of battle.
But over yonder you shall not be tired,
or lonely or hungry; for Christ is rest TO
the weary friend TO the friendless, bread
TO the hungry; Christ is love, home hap.
piness, heaven.
-Thompson's Barosma cures Nervous