The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1912-05-28
CHURCHES HONOR
SOLDIERS MEMORY
Sermon by Or. Anderson at
Union Memorial Service.


town united Sunday evening in a
union memorial service held ID the
South Street Presbyterian church. It
was attended also by Torbert post,
Spanish War veterans, the Boys
brigade and the Boy scouts. The Rev
Merle H. Aderson, pastor of the
church. preached an eloquent sermon.
He said, in part:-
with great and increasing appro-
priateness are We called year by year
to render our solemn service of loving
remembrance to those who made
life's noblest sacrifice and saved for
us a priceless heritage. In the very
flush of earth's glad springtime, when
nature decks each grave with velvety
greenness and causes fields once
stained with blood and marred with
wars debris to smile, with waving
grass and. bursting bloom,-in this
apotheosis of life and beauty We stay
awhile to think and speak of those
who in the freshness of manhood and
the exuberance of life stood face to
face with death and came no more
Time, natures magic medicine, has
we'll healed the gaping wounds of
years agone; but time can never
efface from the hearts and minds of
grateful people the memory of those
who fought and fell.
The nature is indeed depraved
which cannot sympathize with the
spirit of Memorial Day"
DR.. Anderson spoke of the war it |
self, telling of the patriotic feeling
that rolled from the Atlantic to the
Pacific and how the mighty hosts con- |
fronted each other.
"A moment" he said, "and then the |
battle broke. The world seemed on
fire. The land was drenched in blood. !
No sound was heard at the front save
the boom of cannon and the clash of
steel and the savage yell of men grap-
pling in deadly strife. None at home
but the tolling of bells In sorrow for
the slain, and the means and sobs of
mothers, wives and children for those
dear ones they would see no more.
"Thus the mighty tide of war surg
ed on for four long years. Now men
shouted for victory; now they wept
for defeat. At last came the end. In
the wild tempest of war the banners
of the south went down and the Con-
federacy ceased to be.
1T would not be well, however, If,
on this occasion, we thought only of
these great events and failed to see
the important principles that underlie
them. Memorial Day is, first of all a
memorial of immortal principles and
worldwide hopes. What, tell me,
have been the moving impulses of
these wars? Was it a contest for ter
ritory or desire for political power
that called you men from your homes
and sent you to court death on the
battlefield, or that life, worse than
DEATH in a Southern prison pen? Was
1T passion for conquest or longing
for glory that sent our young men
from college and Office to sicken and
die in the fever-l laden swamps of Cuba
or beneath the burning sun of the far
away Philippines? No, a thousand
times, no.
'These contests have simply been
the fighting out, upon new fields, and
under more enlightened auspices, the
strife that has been waged for centur-
les by the people from whose loins
we sprung. The love of liberty is the
ruling passion of our race. It is a
heritage growing richer with each
succeeding generation, which calls for
our most fervent love and our most
devoted support. 1t was mixed with
the purple tide of our fathers lives,
and circulating with that tide, has
come down through every generation
of their posterity. This was the voice
that spoke at Lexington and Bunker
Hill.
Another thought which must ever
be suggested to you by Memorial Day
is that of divine sovereignty and di-
vine help. That God rules in the
affairs of men is as certain as any
truth of physical science. Eternal
wisdom marshals the great procession
of peace and war.
But another message comes to us
more and more forcibly with every
passing year. This day is become to
us memorial of the mortality of
human life, and also, let us hope. of
blessed immortality beyond. The
boys OF Blue are growing gray
Little need you fear that the Amer
lean people will ever forget the deeds
that you accomplished. Your names
are writ too deeply on their hearts
may they also be inscribed in honor
upon. the Lambs Book of Life. Men.
you nave fought and won in the
greatest contest of all time; pray God
that you may also win in the death