The daily sentinel., 1908-06-02


one of the most thoughtful memoir
Junction was that delivered on Sun
day afternoon by Rev. Davis, the
able and eloquent young pastor of
the Baptist church, at the annual
memorial services of the Grand juno
ton Aerie of Eagles.
There have been many requests
made of The Sentinel to publish the
address, and knowing that it is of
interest to all, the splendid address
is given in full as follows:
"One of the noblest traits common
to humanity is it's regard for its de-
parted dead. 1t stands as a perpetual
monument to the sincerity of friend
ship and the reality of love. 1t is
witness to the fact that our senti-
ments toward relatives and assoc
iates are not founded upon selfish
ness. We care for them for
reasons other than that they may be
useful to us. There are other grounds
for faith in the disinterestedness of
human affection it is true, but the
perpetual testimonies raised to the
memory of our dead in marble,
in bronze, in institutions and on
special occasions Like these furnish
us with undeniable and imperishable
witnesses to the fact. Though now
passed from sight, to love they are
ever present-their handclasps, their
words of kindness and good cheer,
and their deeds born of love and
self-denial persist in recollections as
present experience, most vivid and
real. We say of them as Tennyson
said of his dead
"Thy voice is on the rolling air;
| hear thee when the waters run;
Thou standest in the rising sun,
And in the setting thou art fair.
What art thou then? cannot
guess;
But tho l seem in star and flower
To feel the same diffusive power,
| do not therefore love thee less
my love involves the love before;
My love ds vaster passion now;
than
Tho mix'd with God and nature
| seem to love thee more and more.
Far off thou art, but ever nigh;
have thee still, and | rejoice;
prosper. circled with thy voice;
| shall not lose thee tho / die"
"In coming to speak to you con-
cerning your dead and in their MEM
ory permit to suggest that should
they with their backward view of
human life. and the view we trust
that they have of things as they are
and are related could tell what they
would have us do, 1T is quite probable
that even our manner of honoring
their memories would be radically
...t. 10, hon Il
fame is mere emptiness and eulogies
upon whose sentiment and eloquence
we pride ourselves are but mockeries.
1t is possible, could we see as they
see, that we should recognize the
fact that we honor them more in
noble lives lived for their sakes than
mere words spoken, however charged
with feeling.
ITO the dead of your order l
make bold to say no words had for
them deeper significance than the
four inscribed. upon your banner
Liberty, Truth, Justice, Equality. In
my opinion you could pay to them no
more fitting tribute than to eontin-
ually order your lives according to
the principles set forth in the four
words of this motto. Nor could you
more surely bring the order and your
men in it into dishonr in this com
munity than by neglecting these
principles. For we are coming to
feel that not only is he disgraced
whose life is positively bad, but also
he whose life is not positively good.
We are the recipients of vastly more
than we earn for ourselves. We re-
ceive from the past its heritage; un-
less We pass this heritage to those
who come after us uncorrupted and
unriched, We are not even honest,
but every whit as dishonest as he
who receives food and clothing on
trust and repudiates the debt. What
men are asking of each other as in
dividuals. they are asking of each
other as groups. We receive much
of our contemporaries. No man or
institution lives an isolated or self
subsisting life. 1t behooves you
therefore to put these four princi-
pies, than which name is better, into
active operation in personal life and
service to society.
These four words are mutually
limited and limiting. Liberty that
denies justice is no longer liberty
but is license and crime. Truth that
is not free is only half truth. Unless
justice and equality are viewed in
the light of liberty and truth and of
each other. they become oppression
and caste.
There are two or three aspects
of liberty that | think profitable to
emphasize.
1. Perfect liberty in the sense
of owning no source of authority
over us is positively bad. The world
old struggle for civil liberty. at least
where it has been wisely and ethical
ly directed has simply been an effort
to be free from the sway of oppres-
sors, that the proper authority might
hold its legitimate and benificent