Memorial Day Service, 1907, Concord, NW Church

MEMORIAL SERVICES, Concord (N. H.) Daily Patriot

By special invitation of the Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy, the Memorial service of the E. E. Sturtevant Post, No. 2, G.A.R., together with the allied organizations, Woman's Relief Corps, Daughters of Veterans, Sons of Veterans, and the Spanish War Veterans, was held yesterday (Sunday) afternoon at 4.30, in First Church of Christ, Scientist. It is said to be the first time in the history of the Church in this country that such an event has occurred.

The Post, the Sons of Veterans, and the Spanish War Veterans assembled at Grand Army Hall and marched in a body to the church. The Woman's Relief Corps and the Daughters of Veterans assembled in the Reading Room of the church, and at 4.30 took their places in the auditorium. National tunes were played on the beautiful chimes of the church for half an hour preceding the service. As the Post was marching from headquarters, "Onward, Christian Soldiers" was played, and was continued on the organ as they went to their seats.

The pulpit and chancel were handsomely decorated with palms, ferns, and a profusion of white flowers, which together with an artistic arrangement of the national colors added to the beauty of the noble church interior. Two of the flags in Mrs. Eddy's room were from the Peace Conference, and were provided for this occasion by one of the delegates.

Mrs. Cora Fuller Straw presided at the organ. The appropriate service consisted of: Organ voluntary; hymn, "Onward, Christian Soldiers;" Scripture reading, Philippians, 2:1–16; silent prayer, followed by the audible repetition of the Lord's Prayer, with its spiritual interpretation as given in the Christian Science text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy; hymn, "Saw ye my Saviour?" words by Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy; responsive reading, Psalm, 85:1–4, 6–13; remarks by the First Reader, Prof. Hermann S. Hering; reading of the Lesson-Sermon, consisting of selections from the Bible, with their correlative passages from the Christian Science text-book; also the correlative Scripture, according to I John, 3:1–3; benediction (Numbers, 6:24–26); organ voluntary.

The subject of the Lesson-Sermon was in harmony with the occasion, being, "Christian Warfare." The services were conducted by the First Reader, Prof. Hermann S. Hering, and the Second Reader, Miss Mabel C. Gage. Preceding the sermon, the First Reader gave the following able address:—

It is a pleasure to Mrs. Eddy to invite the esteemed members of the E. E. Sturtevant Post, No. 2, G.A.R., with the affiliated organizations, to hold its Memorial service this year in her church, and we consider it an honor and a privilege to welcome you here to-day and to be permitted to take part in assisting you to perpetuate the memory of your noble cause. We welcome also the auxiliary organizations, whose members have been so helpful to the veterans in the past and will be in the future. The work of the Woman's Relief Corps has been most noble and praiseworthy. Many were the wives, daughters, sweethearts, and relatives who made great sacrifices during the war to aid in relieving the suffering; and they have since been engaged in continuing this work by providing for the sick and needy and performing loving offices for the veterans and their families. In this noble work they are aided by the Daughters of Veterans, who together with the Sons of Veterans will follow in the footsteps of their ancestors for time to come and carry out these worthy precedents and customs. We also welcome the Spanish War Veterans, who so efficiently aided our Government to free a neighbor from the bondage of oppression.

The cause for which the Civil War veterans fought, and for which so many valiant lives were sacrificed, was indeed a noble cause, a most glorious one and a most vital one, not only in the history of our dear country, but of the entire world,—the cause of individual rights and personal liberty, the foundation or fundamental principle of progress. Personal animus and sectional feeling have so disappeared from the minds of the people that the great principle involved in the Civil War can be referred to without personal feeling, and indeed it is now understood and agreed to by very many who formerly thought differently. So also is the purpose of Memorial Day—a yearly reminder of this great moral struggle and of the faithful ones who sacrificed themselves on its behalf—a noble one, for it tends to emphasize the issue that was involved, educates the world to perceive its import, and gives opportunity for an expression of our deepest feelings, brotherly love, gratitude, and respect.

Mrs. Eddy, well known to us all as a most patriotic citizen, not only of this Commonwealth and city, but of our Nation, in many ways and for many years has shown her interest in this day and her sympathy with its purpose. In honor of this day her loyal heart unfurls the Stars and Stripes over her home, and her loving hands send to the Daughters of Veterans all the flowers in bloom on her estate.

It is most fitting, also, that a Memorial service is held at which the veterans and their friends may congregate for divine worship and lift up their thoughts to the infinite Father, the giver of all good, thanking Him for all His benefits and praying for more of that divine Life which makes them and all of us better soldiers of Christ. Gratitude to God for even a little good perceived is an acknowledgment, though feeble, of Him as the source of all being, and opens the heart to a great influx of that good.

The great struggle of which you beloved veterans are victorious survivors, and of which we all are the beneficiaries, was a struggle for principle and not for personality. The issue was the question of human freedom or human slavery. This country has been the arena of many struggles for liberty, both political and religious, and seemed early destined to become the land of the free. It offered a home to the politically oppressed, and also to the Puritans, Quakers, and Pilgrims from other lands, who desired to worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience. On its sacred soil were fought the two great issues,—the Revolution, which resulted in national independence, and the Civil War, which preserved our integrity as a Nation and committed us to the cause of universal freedom. The tendency of the Government of our land has steadily been towards greater freedom, and under God's guidance and protection it will so progress.

Allow me now to turn your attention to the Lesson-Sermon, which tells us of still another conflict, the Christian warfare, in which we all have enlisted under the captain of our salvation, our great peacemaker, Christ Jesus. Mrs. Eddy has translated his orders to us in unmistakable language, showing us how to fight the good fight of faith, how to overcome our adversary, the evil one, how to gain the victory, how to establish peace.

At the conclusion of the impressive service, while the large congregation remained standing, the Post and affiliated organizations marched out, after visiting Mrs. Eddy's room in the church.