Show for consecration and remembrance great lesson of memorial day for all of Us OUGHT to be possible in the V light ot experience or under the of a sacred tradition to develop a loyalty that shall be a spiritual force and not mere per cent americanism love of coun try means service to country and for it the love that does not thus express itself Is not love not anything even faintly resembling it A roan inay stand at attention and dou his hat as the flag goes by and yet rob the government and graft on it ho one can be a patriot who seeks or 4 ins or even desires ate gain at the expense of public weal patriotism of this sort Is which doctor johnson denounced as the last refugo of a scoundrel and there Is much of it more certainly than there ought to be for there ought not to be any purpose of memorials it has been said that memorials to good and great men to true servants of their fellows and to inspiring causes clothe the past with a life that it might not without them have and in tills way influence and ennoble the present but they do more than that for they roach into the future and mold it nearer to the pattern of which the memorials speak and they are designed to perpetuate it should be so and may be eo with conr memorial day it Is a d ly of consecration as well as a day of remembrance and points to the path which our people should tread if they would be worthy the sacrifices made in their behalf considering the day thus what seems to be a growing indifference to it Is greatly to be deplored if I 1 do not remember thee to quote the psalmist gain let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth yea if I 1 do not prefer jerusalem in my mirth do we prefer our jerusalem in our mirth the question 1 important rind hns important implications not to care 1 almost bad and ma be as fatal to abe true spirit as to despise ideals of consecration this idea of consecration nas the keynote of abraham Lincol ns get the great prest dent to the living rather than of the dead it la or us the living lie rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly it Is rather for to be dedicated to abe groat task re kalning before us that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave their last full measure of devotion that we here highly resolve that thes dead shall not have died in vain that this nation under god shall havo a new birth of fret doro and that government of the people and by the and for the people shall not perish from the earth weighty obligation on each memorial day indeed on every day americans should highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain the ought to be regarded as directly personal to every citizen of this highly favored land as the obligation Is personal no obligation can be more weighty except only the obligation to god of all this and much more this day speaks thinking of the men both dead and living whom we honor of the great work that they did and of alie blessings that we owe to them we surely ought to be able to put of their heroism into our dally tasks and in their spirit should face our duty to the country of their love and one trusts of ours A nation can be only what its citizens o 0 it and the quality of the product Is determined by the character of chwe citizens and that character is determined by the ideals that control and by the loyalty to them of those who profess to follow and be led by them do this in remembrance of me with those words the great memorial was instituted it was more than a memorial as Is memorial day tor both arc inspirations to right ing and right action and each in its way Is a comeyer of grace and power indianapolis ew |