The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1912-05-30
TRIBUTE TO HEROES
Rev. e. B. Service Delivers an Able
and Patriotic Sermon to the
Veterans of I86I-'6s.
Memorial Services at the nethodist
Church Impressive and nusi-
cal Numbers Inspiring.

On Sunday morning, at the Metho-
dist church, union services were held
in honor of the soldiers Of the civil
war who have answered the last
bugle call. The veterans in atten-
dance numbered but 1O-15 less than
were present at Memorial services
last year. A musical program of
rare excellence and particular ap-
proprlateness, prepared by Mrs. G.
A. Galley, was rendered, and the
floral decorations, together with the
standard of the Grand Army of the
Republic and Old Glory, produced a
most pleasing effect.
Rev. E. B. Service delivered the
address, and it was an Grafton which
not only appealed to the old soldiers
but to the entire congregation. The
reverend gentleman kept his large
audience in rapt attention from the
beginning to the end of his dis
course. His address was as follows:
Text: ''He maketh wars to cease
unto the ends of the earth: He
breaketh the bow, and cutteth the
spear in sunder; He burneth the
chariot in fire. psalm 46, verse g.
''It would seem as if nature has
been hushed into silent awe as we
bow our heads in the presence of
these intrepid warriors, while nature
has draped the sky with a white,
f1eecy mantle and flung from her
hand gentle breezes to cool the day.
GAS we enter upon this memorial
service and past events we would
say, with the Shepherd Warrior, If
[ forget thee let my right hand for
get its cunning This day is in
tended to educate the fifteen mil
lions of children who enter our pub
lie schools every week, and the
foreigner within our shores, in the
patriotisna of -nnr. fathers and to
deepen the spirit of liberty in the
land we love.
1T has taken thousands of Years
to make possible the government we
enjoy today. All the political and
religious struggles of all nations have
entered into the spirit of the Decla-
ration of independence. We are in
debted to the liberators of all ma
lions. They rocked, unseen, our
cradle into liberty. The results of
all great battles of the past were
freedom-the conquest of William
the Conqueror, Oliver Cromwell
against Charles II-all the results of
these battles have entered into our
late civil strife.
WAR is both necessary and an
unnecessary evil. Everywhere war
has sacrificed human life. Forty-six
years ago the late civil war came to
a close. To the men in blue the
call to arms, the sound of hurried
feet, the shrieks of the wounded
soldiers and the awful conflict seems
but yesterday. In the remote past
war was one of the means which
God employed to clear the track-way
OF civilization and one of the means
to punish evil doors. No viler evil
existed than slavery amonga people
who loved liberty and patriotism.
''The first great war on record was
fought in heaven, when the angel
Michael encountered the dragon, but
the devil surrendered and there has
been peace in heaven ever since. g. E..
'''War is good thing sometimes
to settle disputes, but God intends
that there shall be peace on earth.
There is something awfully grand
about war. 1t has fired the genius
Of the painter, the imagination of
the statesman and the historian.
1t has strung and swept the poets
Tyre. 1t has rolled it's garments in
blood, leaving it's footprints on the
brow of the nation.
1t would seem that war with the
southland could not be ayerted. The
election of Lincoln in 1860 began to
fan the fires already smouldering on
the affairs of the south. The smoke
ascending formed war clouds in the
southern sky. Then followed the
bombardment of Fort Sumpter on
April 2, 1861, and the troops were
called out and the war was on. For
a long four years the struggle lasted,
but the God of battles was behind
the north. Four million slaves were
in bondage. Not Moses this time,
but Abraham Lincoln, was to be the
emancipation to. break the shackles
on the wrists of the crouching
slaves, solving the problem of the
colored race once and forever. Two
hundred and forty Thousand of
Americas bravest sons gave their