The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1918-08-09

of each one of us with a new and
deep solemnity. On ocean and
stores they are enduring un- uttera-
BILE things and facing death unafraid
that we might be spared such
calamities, cease to be terrorized by
the menace of military domination.
They are fighting for you and me
for us. AS we read the sad mes
sages which come daily as it came
to this family-the question forces it
self onto us, Are We Worth It?'
This is the question with which
we must purge ourselves in this
hour of national crisis never was it
more true than now that we are not
fit to live unless we are striving to
live worthily. Our men are making
the supreme sacrifice. Sacrifices are
daily going on for us. Are we worth
them?
Their willingness to go down in
to the valley of the shadow of death
in defence of home, truth and right,
has added enormously to our respon-
sibility. For those who have ears to
hear and a heart to understand that
is the message of every company of
drafted men that marches along our
streets That is the point made palp-
able by the brave endurance of suf-
ferings and hardships well-night be-
yond belief That is the sermon
preached by all our fallen men ana
by our fresh made graves.
eve must put away sloth and
selfishness and sin, and begin to live
with a deeper earnestness for God
and right and humanity A nobler
way of living is the demand of the
lives laid down.
''Let us pay the debt. We owe it
to the lives laid down to seek lofti-
er life. Only as we possess kind
hearts, cultivate simple faith and
exercise our gifts for the benefit of
our fellowmen, can we move amongst
men today with faces unshamed..
There is the assurance of the
moral quality of the life laid down
land which makes such deeds of glori-
Jus valor. that give comfort at such
times as these.
Surely there is nothing to be
thought of more nobly than the self
sacrifice of those who have given
their lives for the noble cause of
God. Greater love hath no man
than this that man lay down his
life for his friends, said Jesus. And
now that the greater sacrifice has
been made, could ne think you have
done anything better on earth than
that?
"Then there is the knowledge of
life's relationship to God that
strengthens your faith and deepens
your hope. The assurance that as
God watched over him in life. so
was he with him in death. Lastly
our message this afternoon "bids
you and all of us to take comfort in
word and work in sympathy and
service.
I'VE must now be up and doing and
with a sympathy born of experience
we must go out and bind up broken
hearts and lives-bringing to them
consolation comfort and strength.
Determining again this afternoon
that we will not rest satisfied until
tie cause for which our loved ones
laid down their lives has been car
ried to a triumphant and glorious is
sue ard in this way we shall reflect
something of the Divine love our
selves, something Of the Divine pur-
pose i'm doing our share for the fell
fare of Others"
The family wishes to extend their
gratitude to friends who helped and
sympathize with them in this sad
hour and also to the military squad
which came from Mankato. MI. and
Mrs. E. p. Evans and family.