The Mena weekly star., 1913-06-05

made .he massive pile immortal by these words:
 There's for my lady'S bower,
 Buit the lofty tower.
 ] Which to this very hour
 Stands looking >eaward.
 But why was the poem written? ] Why have poets sung in all ages, and men builded but for this desire? ! To be remembered. In view of this We ill art galleries and our homes
 with familiar forms and faces. His ! tory and biography have been ! written. and are still being writ ten. because of this desire.
 We mark the graves of our dead because the great pathetic cry of every soul is. Remember me" The mariner filings his farewell
 kiss to his loved ones on land, ex- pecting to be kept in remembrance, Jesus our Divine Lord. as he sat
 at the table with his sorrow-smit- fen disciples for the last time. in >tituted the Lords Supper, giving them the wine. a type of his shed blood. and the bread. a type of his broken body.
 The valiant soldier. with his best
 blood, writes upon the hearts of his countrymen. whose minds are sat urated with the memory of his mo- 5le needs. the words. Remember me" And next after the appeal to Christ himself. the world needs the wish of her brave soldiers who lost their lives on the field of battle.
 To this end for ages past na- lions have set apart certain days upon which to hold services in memory of their heroic dead. Per haps this custom was first observed by ancient Greece, where the great est of old-time heroes fought and fell. On a fixed day each year the bodies of an those who had fallen since the previous memorial day were gathered together. placed in collins of cypress and covered with flowers. were carried together with an empty casket wreathed with gar land in memory of the unknown dead to a great sepulcher. There some famous orator. like pericleS OF DemoSthenes delivered a funeral ordti0n in honor of the brave war riors. and the people brought flow CTS and scattered them over the last resting place of their fallen heroes.
 As Greece was the greatest of nations of the ancient world, so the United States of America stands in these modern times without a peer And as the Old World country had its days of battle, its fields of car mage and its warriors tOmbs, so has the New World nation it's rec ords of warfare, it's fields of battle and soldiers graves.
 So today multitudes of Americas teeming millions will be touched by sympathy, sorrow and love as they are gathered in the sanctuaries, while thousands of ministers are speaking of our fallen soldiers, of loyalty. patriotism, bravery, battle, victory. freedom and peace.
 Ii Is but right and justly due 10 those who surrendered their lives that these yearly services be held in church and cemetery. We can do nothing more for them now than to keep them in holy remembrance, and the memory of a grateful na- tion will not prove recreant to it's sacred trust.
 Thus shall they live forever among the heroes of the past in the sacred memory of their Fatherland. and we pray in the glory to God.
 We have heard the story of dan ger confronted. of the weary march, of hunger and suffering. pestilence and death: the story of fearful partings, sad good-byes, waving of handkerchiefs and the last long look after departing loved one.
 To us the love of country is next to the love of God But while we are called by patriotism and love to remember those this morning who gave their lives for the preserva- ton of the Union. should we not also keep in remembrance the brave men who died fighting for the lost cause? Not that we favor dis union; oh. mol No sentiment favor able to divided country has ever for moment nestled in my heart. I believe in one flag. one glory. a union of the states. one and insep- arabic, the Union forever.
 The war was settled for all time hy the surrender at Appomattox. and all sectional strife must cease. In North. South. East and West there must exist one universal brotherhood Today the flag that. was torn is whole again. No seam marks the rent it once had. and the scars of war are covered with the green of spring Over all the shot plOwed sod the corn and cotton wave. Where bloody men once lay in the dreamless sleep of death. the violets open their blue eyes to the morning light. Where once the cannon stood and balzed it's mes sage of death and destruction. the busy blacksmith's forge now stands.