The Adair County news., 1914-06-03
MEMORIAL DAY.
A Splendid Address Delivered by
Rev. Frederick A. Hamilton.
Other Exercises.

of Columbia assembled in the GENE
terry, the annual custom, to decorate
the graves of their dead, ones they
loved in their lifetime, and whose
memory they revere.
After the graves had been decorated
the congregation was called together
by singing which was followed by
fervent prayer by Rev. ]. S. Chandler.
Mrs. Ray Montgomery then rendered
a solo, most beautifully, and at the
conclusion of which came Rev. Hamil-
tons address which follows:
'Graves are not new in the eKper-
fence of the race. They are contempt
raneous with sense of bereavement and
the falling of tears. They are old as
life itself. Truly, life is different to-
day in many Of its aspects and rela-
lions than in the days of our fathers.
1t is more varied and myriad in its
interests, more complex in its adjust
ments. 1t is swifter in its movement,
a d the stream has widened and
deepened. Yet the habitation of the
heart tenants, as of yore, the issues of
life. The determining motive and ulti-
mate satisfactions of men and women
are much the same as ever they were.
The soul, in its hungers and longings
and aspirations, must achieve = its
quietetude in the attainment of the
same far off goals that were set for the
men and women of the past.
"Consideri 1t is verify true we do
many things differently from the ways
of doing when our fathers lived and
loved and worked. We hold converse
by wire or without it. We are whirled
here and there and everywhither in
carriages driven by controlled light.
ming. Bird-men make conquest of the
air. But, essentially, we have done
no more than quickened the pace-the
character of the journey and its desti-
nation remain the same. We come at
the last, some sooner and some later,
TO the scant measure of earth, and the
grssy mound shaped and smoothed
above US by ministration of loving
hands, as our final inheritance. Mean
tine, manhood is crowned by the same
old virtues, stained by the same old
sins, and laden by the same old sor-
rows. Childhood with song n d
laughter, youth with its dream and
visioning, mature life bearing as of
old the burden and heat of the day,
old age stepping westward into the
lengthening shadows Of the setting
Sun-thiS even unto now is the sum of
the tale of human life. Times have
changed and customs altered, but we
die as our fathers died before US. No,
the graves are not new.
$50 we are here this afternoon in
tbs beautiful acre of God that we may
memorable those Of our dear ones
whom we have loved long since and
lost awhile We have Strewn their
graves with sweet forgetmenots and
fragrant immorteles, being unwilling
that their memories should fade into
any languor of foEgetfulneSs. And this
motive in the human heart that would
uprear monuments and mark the last
resting place of the dead has an history
that stretches from now back into the
twilight of conjecture and dawn Of
time. In the UombS of the Egyptian:
and the urns of the Babylonians anC
the century. defying sarcophagii of the
immemorial East we meet this pa
thetic testimony to the human in
Stinct that will not let die the memo
ny Of those journeyed on before. The
memorial instinct is an instinct i'm
memorial And all over this our lane
to eastward and northward and west
ward today, and earlier still to TIT
southwark, once every year, men ant
women and little children go out Il
the cemeteries reverentially to place
on the graves of soldiery mute token.
of love and honour, in foliage anC
blossom, to those who wore the gray anC
to those who wore the blue, and whit
locked arms in deadly conflict half {
century ago. So we fill our Arlington
and New Orleans and Gettysburg acre:
with monuments, wreathing these
with flowers every little while, to the
end that those who on the field of bat
tie dared and died perish not in mem
DRY from the minds of men.
"Rut more enduring, as l take it
than bronze and marble is the instinct
rising from out the heart in such sim
pie and fortnight fashion, and thai
brings US here this afternoon as neigh.
bors and friends in this community
service Of memorial and offering OF
decoration. For this is peculiarly ;
service and a commemoration of love
It is custom that is perennial, ;
custom that may not stale or withe
or die. 1t is deathless as the instinc
which prompts it, an instinct vita
and fundamental because fed out o
the tides of hearts affection. For whai
..,1-~Ak,loor o q lown on o1 a. ;vo~o.