The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1956-05-31
One Man Looks
At God
(By Charles w. Carlson, Pastor,
St. Marks Evangelical Lutheran
Church, Oakland Maryland0

AS we pause during the year OF
special anniversaries and occasions
to think about Memorial Day, a
few thoughts cross my mind. The
first of these, of course, is just
what view God would have of such
an observance among the affairs
of His creatures.
In respect to what God must
think my first reaction to His reve-
lation is this: Just because person
is dead is no reason to hallow him.
There seems to run through the
course of human history the trend
to revere and honor a person, just
because he has passed on to his re-
ward, whatever that may be. This
in ancient and modern religions
alike, is particularly prevalent in
the oriental peoples of the world.
For instance, most of us realize
the tremendous importance the
Chinese people place on ancestor
worship. In our western society,
with its oft pagan funeral practices,
the evidence of this oriental super
stition is noticed in the funeral par
lor, where people bend over back
wards to say some nice thing about
the body which is stretched out
for the curious to stare at, in re-
Election of some mysterious, often
misguided feeling of awe in the
presence of the dead, as if they
would perhaps haunt" us if we
are honest in our rendered opin-
ions of these people, letting the
chips fall where they may. l would
think, and this is my own personal
practice in regards to funeral SER
mons, that this would be the time
to take stock of our own lives,
examine ourselves in our relation
ship to our God, and of His promise
of eternal life through the gift of
His Son, and let the departed soul
TO the mercy of God, for this is the
only thing we actually can do
Rather than worship our dead,
let us learn from them. | would
think that an excellent way to OBJ
serve Memorial Day would be to
review the history of our nation, if
time allows, brief glance through
the history of our world, looking
at the basic movements within
history. learning how better to con-
duct the affairs of our world today
and in the future Though we would
perhaps want to do this sometimes,
we cannot in any sense of the word
live in the past" We must live to-
day and tomorrow We can make
today and tomorrow better by
learning from yesterday.
When we apply this lesson to our
own nation, we can look into the
past and find other great nations,
Israel of the time of David, Rome
of the CaeSers, the empire of Alex
ander the Great, and many others.
They were all as great as our own
nation, in their height They all
fell-need we look any further than
the miserable example of Italy to-
day-Greece today and the others
to see this? And in modern times,
look at the Great Britain of 1880
and look at her today, an empire
that is slowly but surely crumbling.
When we look at these historical
facts, the question can and must
be raised, can this also happen to
our great nation? If so, what can
we do to prevent this? Whether it
be nation that consider, or an
individual, one thing and only one
thing matters-have they followed
the Will of God in running their
affairs. Israel learned through the
horror of destruction and captivity,
bondage and slavery, that all of