Page:Suggestive programs for special day exercises.djvu/58

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Spring, with her sunshine and showers, has lifted the wintry mantle from Mother Earth and bid the buds and blossoms come forth in all their fragrance and beauty to fill the outstretched hands of the Union veterans, who, with their sweet spirit of fraternity, will place them above the last resting places of their comrades-in-arms that sleep in the City of Peace&mdash;whose boundaries extend from ocean to ocean, from the mountains to the gulf. With tenderness in our hearts let us remember those who sleep where no loving hands can bear them a garland of memory. But whether their requiems be sung by the restless waves of the ocean or by the sighing winds through the Southern pines, they are all on God's roll call; he knows them all. He covers the Southland with his choicest verdure, and plants with lavish hand the wild flowers among its grasses. He bids the song birds thrill their sweetest notes in out-of-the-way places. So, throughout the year, every day is God's Decoration Day for those that sleep where they fell.

We should signify by our presence at the Sunday services preceding Memorial Day that whatever is of interest to the Grand Army of the Republic claims our attention and respect.

Let us stand ready with willing hearts and hands to render the comrades every assistance that they may require of us on Memorial Day — whether it be to weave the laurel and the pine into chaplets for our heroes dead or to make glad the day for our heroes living&mdash;let all be done quietly as befits a day hallowed by tender associations.

Remember the graves of the nurses that may be in your midst&mdash;by their presence in the hospitals they gave back to many homes the sunshine instead of the shadow. Do not forget those that will no longer respond to our greetings in our own halls, but have laid down to rest with life's burdens for a pillow. Gather the children together to be present or to take part in the services of the day. It will be to them an exemplified lesson of patriotism; teach them the day is to be held sacred to the Grand Army of the Republic as long as courage and liberty are held sacred by the American people.

 

