The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1917-05-31

The Rev. o. w. Taylor, pastor of
Park Avenue M. e. Church, made 8
strong appal for the higher patrio-
tism on Sunday evening when he
preached thrilling, inspiring sermon
to the members Of the Grand Army Of
the Republic and allied organizations
at the annual memorial service held at
Park Avenue M. E. Church. Speaking
from the text, "'I Have Fought a
Good Fight, he paid glowing tribute
to the memory of the American
soldier and sailor and made an appeal
for the men Of today to guard the
liberties for which these men fought
and died, He said in part:
''These words are especially sugges-
tive ON this memorial sabbath day
when the nation is about to lay flow
ers on the graves of her honored dead.
We cannot and we ought not to forget
that the men who wore the blue in '61,
sacrificed home, barred their breasts to
shot and SHE'LL shed their blood and
gave their lives on southern battle
fields in behalf Of humanity's noblest
cause. Well, Paul did not do less when
he became a soldier Of the Cross on
the road to Damascus nearly two
thousand years ago He sacrificed
home, friends, liberty and eventually
life itself in behalf of the cause for
which he fought. 1t was near the
close of more than thirty years of
heroic struggle he wrote the thrilling
words Il have fought a good fight,
words that still throb with the spirit
of cOnqueror across twenty centuries
Of history. What do these words mean
rs related to the inner life of true
mene To my mind they are indicative
Of the blessed experience of man who
has the inner consciousness that he has
done his best to do the right as God
has given him to see the right, an ex-
perience touched with the sublimest
exaltation possible to man. In June
1915, the English mobiles met their
angry King John and at the point of
the sword wrested from him the Magma
Charta, the splendid document which
lies down at the basis of Anglican
liberty. In 1864 the same hardy Eng
lishmen took up arms again against
their despotic king, added the House
of Commons to the English parliament
and representative government began.
Who shall say that these Englishmen
were not guided and inspired by Divine
Providencee I think that they were
and that when they returned to their
homes, exultant on that eventful
day, they could understand how
Paul felt when he said, 81 have
fought goot fight
The same truth is Illustrated in
American history. Our fathers who
founded the American republic be-
queathed to us the richest heritage in
human history. How precious it was
men never dreamed until the crisis of
'61 came. Then they knew it was
dearer than home, or even life itself.
No sacrifice, not.even death itself, was
hard when the republic hung in the
balance. The men whose memory we
honor tonight met the test half
matched by the immortal three humid
red at the Pass of Thermopylae. They
snatched the old flag from the dust and
waved it high at Shiloh, Vicksburg,
Gettysburg and finally at Appommat-
tox, the sgladest day of the nineteenth
century, when the war clouds were
swept back and the sunlight of Heaven
kissed the land again with peace.
When these army veterans came
marching home again under the folds
of Old Glory, bequeathing to us ma
tion, purified and consecrated to God
and humanity by the blood of half
million men, did they not experience
the rapture and exuftation that
Paul felt when he said, Il have
fought good fight
In good fight there is always a
great principle at stake. 1t was true
of the battle which Paul fought two
thousand years ago. The struggle that
he made determined the character of
civilization for the unborn generations
yet to come. 1t was just as true of the
pdt1leS 1uuSHb rOV JHS heroes OF oil.
They settled the question that a ma
tion conceived in liberty and dedicated
to the proposition that all men are
created equal, can endure. They
opened permanently the channels of
self government, freedom and happi-
ness to the nations of the world.
What did they fight forg Have
we not all heard the old battle
hymn that they sang,
Union forever, hurrah boys, hurrah
Down with the traitors and IN