Catoctin clarion., 1918-11-14
Informal Memorial Service
In Honor of those Who Died OF
+bo JnHunuzo Endemic,

the Influenza Epidemic.
The service on Sunday morning NOV
ember 3rd, at Trinity Reformed Church
was very solemn and impressive consist
ing of prayers and hymns of penitehce'
confession and Thanksgiving and an ao-
dress on "My Times are in Gods hands'
Ps. 81: Is. .
If WAS a remarkable coincidence that
Rev. DR.. Wentz of the Lutheran Church
nreached from the same text ana am
told our minds ran along the same hhe
of thought, in this case more because Oh
the common experiences undergone DUR
ing the last month, ! presume than that
great minds run in the same channel.
During the beginning of the week very
kind comments were made OF our aooress
and the writer was requested by several
of those who suffered the loss of dear
ones to write up brief account OF the
address as community comfort and IN
terest and so brief account in gen.
eral way.
A After the observance of the 25th ami
versary happy event to all concerned
we found ourselves confronted with the
most serious. epidemic in our ministry.
On Sept. 23rd, we laid to rest Mrs. Nam
mie Seiss Ohler, the first victim OF the
reigning disease though no one was aware
of then. This was followed by the death
of our highly esteemed member, Miss
Grace Smith, a model of virgin maiden
hood; still not conscious of the dangers
we were exposed to. But when our 10y
al and devoted Miss Mary Smith fell and
was buried the day following Grace $
burial the community and pastors aWoKe
to the seriousness of the attack and Il
pail of grief and fear began to overhang
US.
Then we passed through the most sol
emn period of our ministry, and to many
of US the most serious of our lives, our
youths succumbing one after another
not abating until some forty had fallen
asleep in the sleep that knows no waking.
One could see in peoples faces and
hear in their voices that they were ink
ing seriously and asking themselves is
this sickness upon US by chance or by
our fatherly hands. Are my times IN
Gods hands? The affliction OF bereave-
ment was heavy but if it drives Us to ask
ourselves such questions and thereby
nearer to God in these days when men
are actuated the world over by dreams
of wealth and power ana when money
and the sword are the insignia of success
then the loss and suffering may have its
atonement, and pity the man and womsn
who can not think soberly and seriously
in times like those experienced latterly.
Surely it is loud call to the Christians
of today in whom the hope of the world
lies. Have we rot forsaken God and are
we not playing with Christ and his church
and no longer realize that our times are
in his hands.
We today are calling upon Germany to
repent, make restitution and reform po-
litically. Does not God call from heaven
for christians to do likewise morally and
spiritually SO that the crimes like those
of Germany can never again be inflicted
upon mankind. SO in all seriousness 1t
seems TO Us. May We all think on these
things at this crucial time.
n,,,,.. Il, ,.iI,,,in Tripitv ('burpb
lost five members, four young girls and
one devoted mother Mrs. Edward Baxter.
A very sad occurrence was that while on
Sunday afternoon of Oct. 3rd, we We're
burying Miss Margaret Fleagle her twin
sister was dying. In the charge we had
nine deaths and assisted in the burial
services of four, making thirteen in all,
and was present at the funeral of our
dear young friend and neighbor James
S. Waters. Though not a member of
our church our esteem of him nevertheless
for his open heartedness and friendliness,
his ambition and industry; his loyalty to
his country in whose defense he died and
climactic of it all, his youthful devotion
to his God and Christ is warm and our
sorrow sincere, and our sympathy tender
for the bereaved parents, whose star of
hope has sunk beneath the horizon.
But our times are in His hands and we
must be resigned, believing he and all of
our dear ones whom we have laid TO rest
Have gone to battle their weary souls
in seas of heavenly rest, where not a
wave of trouble rolls across their weary
breasts.
And now that the virulent epidemic
and pestlence hes abated after its toll
of victims, may we thank God he has
spared so many of US and all turn to God
both in worshiping, him in the sanctuary
and in holy toll, which is faithful service.
Rev. p E. Heimer. Ph. d.