Norwich bulletin., 1917-05-28
MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR VETERANS
Rev. Edward S. Worcester Addressed Members of Sedgick Post, Sons of Veterans and Womans Relief Corps Broadway Church-Cans Citizens of German Origin Defend the Honor of the United States

CTS. tyranny imposed upon us; 1t is | what it is by our free and united will | said Rev. Edward S. Worcester in his
 sermon at the Memorial service for<the mem1ers of Sedgwick post. No. 1, c. A 1 R., the Sons of Veterans and Sedg-
 wick Women's Relief corps. No. Is
 at Broadway Congregational church or Sunday morning. There was a large
 representation of the members of all
 three organizations at the service I Freedom and Unity was the topic oi
 Rev. Mir. Worcester's sermon which l follows in part:
 -'The moral value of sacrifice is de- termined entirely by the object of it-' The mere negation of selfishness is not | the height of virtue. What is the sacrf- | flee for When Jesus said of the pros- | pective disciple, Let him deny him. self' He said also. Let him come 1 and follow me" It is what is affirmed i that gives point to what is denied. The
 man who has a larger thing to love purpose.
 The great war which we have watch ed and are now to enter has called men to pain and sacrifice in unparal- answered-but on opposite sides. Un- less their self sacrifice IS an end in itself and justified regardless of any object. men must needs search among the aims and motives of natur- al life for that which may give their devotion point and validity. What is this passion of patriotism? Whence it's precedence over other normal in terests? What is the Christian pa triot's duty, Loyalty subject to a state On earth and to an eternal King of kings? Questions like these have crowded on mems conscience. These memorial days, that summon up the past, and your presence, comrades of to answer.
 Loyalty Not A Surface Attitude.
 For past and present conspire to make it clear that loyalty of wordy elo- quence. We owe our country not mere praise. but service. There is something for patriots to do, and the doing of it may be very costly, a devo- tion Of living energy in life, and some times a devotion unto death Yet even Of costly sacrifice we must ask what it is for. Not what happens to us but xhy is the finally significant item. A worthy end matched by a worthy gift of self to serve it-that is the heart of patriotic. or any other greatness.
 What is ones country. then. that he is moved to die for it? Plainly not so many square milos of territory, so much iron and timber. so many tons of soil. The Englishmar1 pulse beats quick at the name of England, not alone for the cliffs and beaches, the wales and hills, of an island amid the seas. but for an indefinable spiritual something he has known there. more real than all. "Vive la France" implies in it's terms not a geographical en- tity, but a living soul. Deutschland ueber alles'' means nothing taken lit orally. The '1and' a man lives and dies for is not land but an idea.
 What Is The Nation?
 From the confusion of places and races, customs and faiths, which maps and text books show, the nation emerg- es to be the object of that particular loyalty which we call patriotism. And what is the nation? The natural group of which we are a part Ask Po- land and Alsace! The governing di- recting and defending us?-Ask the Armenians amid their murderers! Is the State" an abstract some thing which is above all nor ality, which exists only for it. self, for whose sake children must be Tbegotten and men must labor and die? Is it the governing organiza- tion that we must maintain at every hazard, even if it chance to be in the control of self-seeking grafters, a ruling cause or a downright despot? Or is the nation the sum Of tre peo- pie in it, just folks like you and me, mon tradition. a common hope. to man owes his kin and his neighbors Or, finally, is that common spirit with in the folks the essential nation, the half unrealized ideal of their fraterni- ty and striving the true American, Britain, Russian, France?
 It is partly over that question that