The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1911-07-22
THE GETTYSBURG OF YOUR LIFE.

Text, 1ney De many lnAt lBnt against
me. Psalm wi, 3
Doesn't seem forty-eght years since
Gettysburg. Not many under sixty
have an adequate remembrance of it,
You're nearly half century older
comrade. And you. my lady-well I've
seen your daguerreotype taken in the
sixties. | don't wonder certain
young officer narrowly escaped court
martial for over staying his farlough.
And he nearly missed Gettysburg by
4 it, too. To have missed the girl and
the battle would have been calamity
And that was battle In all the cen
turtles with their innumerable wars
there have been few great decisive
battles. Greasy names only fifteen be-
tween Marathon and Waterloo. Get
/ tysburg was fought since. but none
greater or more decisive before or aft
er. This is halOwed ground. Ever
been to Gettysburg? | wish you could
before you are year older. To see
its 600 monuments and tablets, visit
Cemetery hill, Round Top, Little
Round Top, Culp's hill, cross that
mile wide plain over which from Sem
mary ridge Numbered Pickett's awful
charge Walk through the devils den,
the peach orchard and the wheat
field If your heart doesn't swell al.
most to bursting, If your nerves do not
thrill almost to exaltation, If you do
not say to your guide, II must walk or
SURROGATE" then l do not know the
youth Of our generation.
Life a Warfare.
1 have recently been over the ground
''just once more" 1t is changed where
shot and shell crashed through forest
then-the birds are now building their
nests. The drumbeat is hushed, the
bugle peal has died away, the hosts
that endured hunger, thirst, weary
marches, charged up mountain sides.
faced death In camp and field and
filed the world with their glory are
passing away. The blue and the gray
lie together in death. The green corn
OF spring is now breaking through their
commingled dust, The dew from heav-
en- falls upon their union in the grave.
From the battlements of peace in the
clearer light of the spirit world they
surely say, 1T is we'll" So shall we.
But, brother, all life is warfare
There is the tumult of perpetual con-
fict; every year its campaign, every
day Its battle. Enemies without, with
in. Those without cannot harm us
much. No man who does his duty will
escape enemies. If you make them
through your meanness, selfishness,
unkindness, then feel ashamed and
right the wrong. The battle without
Is fierce one-sickness, trouble, dis
grace. Even the wolf has shifted at
your door. 1t has been hard fight
with enemies without.
The Greatest Battlefield.
The greatest battlefield on which
man ever fought is within himself.
The greatest defeats are there and the
mightiest victories. Victory on the
field Of ones own heart means victory
elsewhere. The greatest mastery is
self mastery. Every true man, every
true woman recognizes this. Sin first
stole our self mastery away. 1t must
be charged and flanked and gripped
What the particular enemy is each in
d1vidual knows, openly or secretly.
gossip, mischief making, selfshness?
You, o man, blasphemy, temper ap
petite, pasSiOn2 Have you gone down
to defeat again and again? Seen your
colors drag at the very time you
should have been most easily the tri
umphant victor? That's good Then
you know the weak point on your line.
That's where the hottest conflict is 10
be fought There's the key to the
whole situation. You'll have to mass
your batteries there. Temptation to
dishonesty? Fight it. Are these goods
all wool?' said a Denver woman to a
little shOpkeeper. They were, mad
am, before the revival at our church
They are not now" Uncleanness,
cowardice and Encouragement are the
soldiers weakest points. Find out
that point and defend it with all your
strength. Victory consists in holding
ON a moment longer
Your Gettysburg.
How have your campaigns gone?
Very unsatisfactory Then you are
at good place to listen. Now comes
the crisis. The conflicts are coming
thicker and faster. Now you must
light the battle Of your life. All be-
fore have been only skirmishes. This
Is the cruX of the whole warfare-you
VIII now have to decide In this life's
warfare whether you will be a Chris
dan In the fight or not. You will fight
three enemies ut one time-the world
the flesh, the devil. You have come
to your Gettysburg! This is the en-
gagement that decides your war.