The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1912-03-06
10th YEAR mo. 10
MEMORIAL SERVICES FOR
FIREMEN
'ather John O'Toole Delivers I'M
pressive Sermon TO Two Hundred
and Twenty-Five Uniformed
Firemen Sunday.

3 III Dls JOuH ; NdluOIlC W
he tiremen of Honesdale and vicin-
ty Two hundred and twenty-five
lembers of the various companies
esponded, the majority being in
inform. The services were of ex-
optional interest. Solos were i'm
ressiNely rendered by Miss Annie
liley, John j. Carroll, and Joseph
+ Monaghan, Miss Beatrice Havey, or
anist. Joseph Spellman, James
lyan and John Cautield were ushers.
At the close of the service Father
Edward Burke gave benediction of
he most blessed sacrament.
Father O'Toole said in part, choos-
ng as his text:
Am i my brothers keeper?"-
enesis 4:19.
God asks Cain where his brother
Eas. Cain did not wish to admit his
rime, and tried to shield himself
behind the question-"Am my
|rother's keeper" If Jesus had pat
orth that pagan doctrine we would
Pe still cropping along the road of life
n endless darkness like travellers in
traCkless desert without any one to
uide us or any place to protect us
rom the gathering storms.
We cannot initiate our Divine
Model by performing miracles as He
lid, but We can perform miracles of
blessings which gladden. the heart of
iod, give pleasure to others, and
hereby pleasure to ourselves.
When we cause the flowers of Joy
md gladness to grow in the hearts
bf others, we have performed the
browning miracle of a good life.
We are our brothers keeper and
l. Lot,
ally follows that no man was Great
Fd by God for himself. The strong
est man is weak without the help
bf his neighbor Every one is a link
n the chain of the human family
whose common Father is Cod the
reator of all things. We all belong
family larger than the one COW
bred by the paternal roof. We have
b fatherland to which our hearts in
tine lively cling, and to whose we'll
being we devote our lives and best
Energies. The man in this town who
ives for himself alone, lives for the
meanest man in Honesdale, Wayne
county, Pa.
In the Colonial days or days of the
folonists, when conditions became
tryannicaI and they decided to throw
down the rules of King George III
and raise up the rules of the people
the volunteer soldiers flocked from
Ihillsides and valleys to aid in the
Triumph of civil and religious liber-
ty and many of them sealed with
their lives the liberties we now en-
joy in the land of the free ana the
home of the brave. If the graves of
the volunteer soldiers were placed
side by side one could walk by step
ping from grave to grave across the
continent from the Atlantic to the
Pacific. Next in order to the volun-
teer soldier comes the volunteer fire.
men, whose graves are numerous
throughout the land. The volunteer
soldier fights for the state; the vol
unteer fireman protects the home.
If the colonists said: q am not my
brothers keeper" and refuse to bat
tie for the right, history perhaps
would have to be written in this
country Of ours. If the volunteer
. firemen of Honesdale last night,
when the fire gong sounded the alarm
turned over in their comfortable beds
and said, I'VE are not our brothers
keeper" Honesdale to-day perhaps
would be smouldering in ruins and
ashes. The firemen, knowing that
they were their brothers keeper, re-
sponded TO the call and fought brave
ly with the destructible flames and
saved the property.
The volunteer fireman stands next
to the volunteer soldier-the one
protects the home; the other, the
| state. As the state cannot exist
without government, neither can the
vol nteer fireman's company exist
without government. In your or
ganizauon you have a head and
members; for If all were the head,
where would the members have
place? To rule and be ruled, to gov
ern and be governed, TO command
and be obeyed is the law of life which
the Prince OF Peace brought from
heaven to earth in the long, long
ago.
Man is made or unmade by his
surroundings. He is mentally, NOR
ally, and physically impressed, il not
altogether shaped, by it.
The life of every man has its pur-
tpose and conseqr ent duties. Some
people are satisfied to exist merely,
and not to live in the best possible
manner. Not a plant that springs
from the earth but performs some
part in the design Of creation; and
~ ''4' oppI4t5 10 tue llOSl
insignificant items in the Divine
plan, what reason or excuse can man
have TO evade the universal respon-
sibility?
We have many cawbers"-men
who are waiting for something to
t"rn Up in their favor; many oh
beioyfuls," and an army of day
dreamer" s"-iust going to do some
thing all their life time, and sudden
ly the undertaken comes along and
does II for them-buries them under
a heavy mound OF earth.
The life OF the humblest blade OF
grass growing on the hillside is
nobler in comparison tnan the man
who Tasses his time to no purpose.
To live here on earth as God in
tends everv one OF rs to live, is TO
be an active force in the worlds
destiny, and whether one be a great
or an humble factor in what his time
accomplishes, a factor he must be to
fulfill the purpose OF his creation.
He only truly lives whose life
TOaanc apnnDnn1iahad apa