u^nn^ui^piil' 
 
MEMORIAL 
 
 O F 
 
 LIEUT. JOSEPH P. BURRAGE: 
 
 A 
 
 iuntxKl S>nmon, 
 
 PREACHED DECEMBER 25, 1863, 
 B T 
 
 REV. DANIEL R. CADY, 
 
 II 
 
 PASTOR OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH, WEST CAilBRIDGE, MASS. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 GOULD AND LINCOLN, 
 
 5D WASHINGTOX STREET, 
 
 1 864. 
 
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 (\^b^^HE following sermon was written with 
 (St^ no thought of its use beyond the oc- 
 ^{[y^r c^sion for which it was prepared. 
 ^^^ But many having expressed a wish 
 f to possess it as a permanent memo- 
 
 rial, one who greatly loved him whom it com- 
 memorates proposed to print it for private dis- 
 tribution among personal friends. 
 
 For a purpose so grateful to many hearts, 
 the generous offer could not be refused. 
 
 D. R. C. 
 
 "West Cambuidge, J.vn. 25, ISGI. 
 
-~*^ .funeral ^mmn 
 
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 And this is the victory that overcometh the world, 
 EVEN OUR FAITH. — 1 John 5 : 4. 
 
 3j«« 
 
 MOMENTOUS truth underlies the 
 
 declaration of the text. This 
 ;^A earthly life is one of con- 
 flict. The human race has 
 
 brought itself into such a 
 moral condition that there is a constant 
 antagonism between the apparent and 
 
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MEMORIAL OF 
 
 the real, — between the present and the 
 future, — between the mdulgence of the 
 senses, the appetites, the passions, and 
 obedience to truth, conscience, God. This 
 is the " conflict of the ages ; " the contro- 
 versy perpetuated from generation to 
 generation. Now the apostle asserts that 
 in this great contest, Avhose battle-field is 
 every human heart, faith alone giveth 
 the victory. "The world," as used here, 
 includes within the scope of its meaning 
 all evil tendencies, desires, influences; 
 and "faith," which is placed in contrast 
 with it, is an affectionate confidence in a 
 personal God, in his being, his character, 
 his government. It recognizes his law 
 
LIEUTENANT BURR AGE. 
 
 as the rule of right to all moral beings, 
 and an obligation to obey it which noth- 
 ing can render void. It trusts implicitly 
 in him, as the wise and merciful Father 
 and Ruler of all, and in his son Jesus 
 Christ, our Lord. It believes that he has 
 purposes of mercy toward his children 
 individually, and toward the race collect- 
 ively, — purposes which he constantly car- 
 ries forward, sometimes by means whose 
 fitness we can discover, often by those the 
 reasons for which we cannot understand, 
 and whose beneficial efiects we arc un- 
 able to trace. Yet, seen or unseen, un- 
 derstood or not understood, faith accepts 
 them all as the wise appointments of One 
 
MEMORIAL OF 
 
 who cannot err, '^ whose ways are higher 
 than our ways, and his thoughts than our 
 thoughts;" and in the darkness and in 
 the Hght ahke, it strives to know and to 
 do his will ] and, looking upward, tries 
 ever to say, "Even so. Father, for so it 
 seemeth good in thy sight." Thus, in 
 the sunshine and in the storm, in joy and 
 in sorrow, in the hour of temptation and 
 of trial, in times of private calamity or of 
 public disaster, "this is the victory that 
 overcometh the world, even our faith." 
 
 Emergencies often occur in our per- 
 sonal experience and in the history of 
 nations, when nothing but an unwaver- 
 ing confidence in the truth, an unshaken 
 
 10 
 
LIEUTENANT BURRAGE. 
 
 trust in divine Providence, an unfaltering 
 beU/gf in the final triumph of right, will 
 sustain the heart and nerve the arm for 
 duty. 
 
 Appetite and passion beset the young 
 and tempt them to idleness, to self-indul- 
 gence, to habits which prevent usefulness 
 and bring misery. Sensual allurements 
 spread snares about their footsteps. They 
 are solicited, upon the right hand and 
 upon the left, to turn aside from the path 
 of patient industry, of persevering study, 
 of sobriety, of virtue, of conscientious 
 obedience to the wishes of parents and 
 the laws of God. Alas ! how many listen 
 to the voice of the Tempter, and forego 
 
 11 
 
3IEM0RIAL OF 
 
 future good for themselves, and blight 
 the hopes of friends, and "bring down 
 gray hairs with sorrow to the grave." 
 Now what the young need to guard 
 them against temptation, to strengthen 
 them in virtue, to nerve their arms for 
 patient and conscientious labor, is that 
 faith of which the apostle speaks, wdiich 
 looks beyond the present, with its pleas- 
 ures and indulgences, to the future, 
 crowned with results of good or evil, 
 depending upon present choices, and la- 
 den with fruits golden as the " apples of 
 the Hesperides," or bitter as those " on 
 the Dead Sea side, all ashes to the taste," 
 — fruits whose seeds are planted by the 
 
 12 
 
LIEUTENANT BURR AGE. 
 
 6- 
 
 hands of the young. They need that 
 faith which recognizes an ever-present 
 and all-seeing God, whose perfect law is 
 binding continually upon the heart and 
 the life. 
 
 At all ages men are tempted to take a 
 present apparent good, a gratification, 
 an emolument, something which pro- 
 motes their ease, which increases their 
 wealth, which adds to their power, at the 
 expense of honor, of truth, of right; at 
 the sacrifice of the welfare and happiness 
 of others. And what multitudes yield to 
 this temptation ! It is this which causes 
 so many to make shipwreck of personal 
 character : which fills the world with 
 
 13 
 
a 
 
 ME2I0RIAL OF 
 
 fraud and rapine ; which oppresses the 
 hirehng in his wages ; which wrongs the 
 widow and the orphan ; which grinds 
 the face of the poor ; which enslaves the 
 bondman; which turns this green earth 
 into a very Aceldama ! What is needed 
 is a living faith in the great truth that 
 Jehovah rules in the armies of heaven 
 and amono; the inhabitants of the earth : 
 that a "Father of the fatherless and a 
 Judge of the widows is God in his holy 
 habitation;" and that, sooner or later, 
 "he abases the proud and lifts up the 
 bowed down." This is the victory that 
 overcometh the w^orld, even our faith. 
 The hour of sorrow comes. Those 
 
 14 
 
 l 
 
43 
 
 LIEUTENANT BURRAGE. 
 
 dearer to us than our own life die. 
 Hopes cherished and plans pursued for 
 years are blighted. We stand, stricken 
 and desolate, amid the ruins of all we 
 hold dear. In that dark hour, it is faith 
 in God which overcometh the world and 
 giveth the victory, — that faith which, 
 when it cannot see, sweetly trusts God's 
 wisdom and goodness ; wdiicli never 
 doubts his fatherly love and care, and 
 which, the thicker the darkness and the 
 fiercer the storm, but presses closer to 
 the side of him who reveals himself the 
 Elder Brother, the Saviour, and who 
 whispers to such as love him, " Lo, I am 
 with you alway, even unto the end of 
 
 15 
 
 "U 
 
Q- 
 
 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 the world;" "Let not your heart be trou- 
 bled, neither let it be afraid." Oh, when 
 Christ reveals himself to the heart agi- 
 tated, distressed, despairing, its sorrows 
 are assuaged, its tumults cease, serenity 
 and peace and calm, hopeful trust, are 
 its portion. Then faith overcometh the 
 world. 
 
 Some sharp hour of national trial and 
 conflict arises. Principles are assailed; 
 rights are imperilled ; cherished institu- 
 tions are endangered. Foreign invaders 
 or domestic traitors strike at the very 
 existence of the nation. Now, there is 
 a call of duty. On the one side, plead 
 ease, safety, personal advantage, the 
 
 16 
 
LIEUTENANT BURRAGE. 
 
 emoluments of business. On the other, 
 patriotism, conscience, the preservation 
 of social and civil rights, the defence of 
 institutions purchased by sufferings "and 
 laden with blessings for the race. To 
 determine duty aright there must be an 
 undoubting trust in the power of truth ; 
 an assurance, which nothing can shake, 
 in the final triumph of right, because the 
 Almighty is a God of truth and righteous- 
 ness, and sits sovereign arbiter among 
 the nations. There needs the faith of 
 the Swedish hero, Gustavus Adolphus, 
 who fell on the bloody field of Lutzen, 
 and whose armies went into the battles 
 fought for the Reformation, singing, — 
 
 17 
 
MEMORIAL OF 
 
 " Fear not ; be strong ! your cause belongs 
 To him who can avenge your wrongs ; 
 
 Leave all to him, your Lord : 
 Though hidden yet from mortal eyes, 
 Salvation shall for you arise : 
 
 He girdeth on his sword ! 
 
 "As sure as Gk)d's own promise stands, 
 Not earth nor hell, with all their bands. 
 
 Against us shall prevail : 
 The Lord shall mock them from his throne ; 
 God is with us, we are his own ; 
 
 Our victory cannot fail." 
 
 Such faith overcometh the world. This 
 animated the breasts of those of whom 
 the apostle writes, "Who through faith 
 subdued kingdoms, wrought righteous- 
 
 18 
 
LIEUTENANT BURR AGE. i 
 
 ness, obtained promises, out of weakness 
 were made strong, waxed valiant in figlit, 
 turned to flight the armies of the aHens." 
 
 These truths find their iUustration in 
 the Hfe and character of one whose 
 early death we mourn, and in the cir- 
 cumstances, private and public, which 
 surround us to-day. 
 
 In speaking here of Lieutenant Jo- 
 seph P. BuRRAGE under the solemnities 
 of the place and of the hour, I but 
 yield to the promptings of my own 
 heart, and pay a deserved though lui- 
 worthy tribute to a character of rare so- 
 cial and Christian excellence. And you 
 will allow me to say that I speak what 
 
 19 
 
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MEMORIAL OF 
 
 I personally know, for my acquaintance 
 with him was of the most familiar char- 
 acter. During the four years of his col- 
 lege life, there was scarce a week in 
 which he was not at my house. His 
 hopes and Welshes and aspirations w^ere 
 perhaps known to me as well as to any 
 one, so that I can speak of him confi- 
 dently, from an intimate personal ac- 
 quaintance. 
 
 The outward facts of his life are soon 
 stated. 
 
 After a quiet and obedient boyhood, 
 he pursued his preparatory studies at 
 Phillips Academy, Andover. In the au-" 
 tumn of Eighteen Hundred and Fifty- 
 
 ^ _ 
 

 
 LIEUTENANT BURRAGE. 
 
 eight, he entered Harvard College. In 
 September of the same year, he united 
 with this church, upon a profession of 
 his faith in Christ. In the spring of 
 Eighteen Hundred and Sixty-one, Avhen 
 traitorous hands assailed the institutions 
 of freedom, and the old flag, under which 
 our national glory had been won and our 
 national rights maintained, was shame- 
 fully stricken down on Sumter; and es- 
 pecially when the tidings came, which 
 electrified the whole nation, of the cow- 
 ardly massacre in the streets of Balti- 
 more, his whole soul was stirred within 
 him, and he pondered long and prayer- 
 fully the question, whether it was not 
 
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 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 his duty to join the gathering hosts of 
 the free. With his usual good judgment 
 he came to the conckision that he ought 
 to complete his college course, and then 
 hold himself in readiness to do whatever 
 his country required at his hand. Ac- 
 cordingly, he remained in the University, 
 and graduated with honor in the class of 
 Eisrhteen Hundred and Sixtv-two. He 
 pronounced an oration at the Commence- 
 ment exercises on Wednesday. On Sat- 
 urday of the same week, he enlisted as 
 a private in the Thirty-third Regiment 
 Massachusetts "\'olunteers, and on the 
 following Wednesday, one week from his 
 graduation, entered upon his duties in 
 
 ^ _ 
 
s- 
 
 LIEUTENANT BURRAGE. 
 
 camp at Lynnfielcl. Thus '<\t once ex- 
 changing the ease and dignity of an aca- 
 demic life for the hardships and perils 
 of a private soldier. 
 
 He was immediately appointed a Ser- 
 geant ; was soon after made the Orderly 
 of the company ; and in May last re- 
 ceived a commission as Second Lieuten- 
 ant. All who knew him felt that his 
 promotion was fairly and honorably won, 
 and was but the earnest of still higher 
 honors. Indeed, his captain writes, that 
 had he survived the engagement in 
 which he fell, he would at once have 
 been promoted. 
 
 His regiment, for a few months, did 
 
 23 
 
MEMORIAL OF 
 
 duty as provost-marshal's guard at Alex- 
 andria, and then joined the Army of the 
 Potomac, with which it remained nearly 
 a year, sharing its vicissitudes. 
 
 The Thirty-third bore its part in the 
 bloody but fruitless battle of Chancellors- 
 ville. It participated in the long and 
 exhausting marches which attended the 
 concentration of our troops at Gettys- 
 burg, and shared the perils and the hon- 
 ors of that glorious day, which turned 
 back the thwarted and discomfited hosts 
 of Eebellion. 
 
 After the disaster at Chickamauga, it 
 was sent to reinforce the imperilled 
 Army of the Cumberland. On the even- 
 
 24 
 
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 .._D 
 
 LIEUTENANT BURRAGE. 
 
 ing of the 28tli of October, the regiment, 
 wearied with the fatigues and hardships 
 of a long passage, reached Brown's Ferry, 
 in the vicinity of Chattanooga, Tennes- 
 see, and encamped with the hope of an 
 unbroken night's rest. 
 
 It was soon discovered, however, that 
 the rebels had obtained possession of 
 a hill, near Lookout Mountain, which 
 commanded the road and the railway, 
 — thus virtually separating two corps 
 of the army. It was necessary they 
 should be dislodged. They were evident- 
 ly in force, carefully intrenched. The 
 sides of the hill were abrupt, in many 
 places precipitous. To assail them was 
 
 25 
 
MEMORIAL OF 
 
 f 
 
 a work of difficulty and peril. But, at 
 all hazards, it must be done. So, at 
 midnight, the weary Thirty-third, just 
 beginning to taste the sweets of repose, 
 were called out. Willingly they obeyed 
 the summons, and sprang to arms. In 
 the bright moonlight, the brigade was 
 formed; the Thirty-third Massachusetts 
 and Seventy-third Ohio in the advance, 
 the One Hundred and Thirty-sixth New 
 York and Fifty-fifth Ohio as a support. 
 At the w^ord of command, with a cheer 
 which echoed along the rocky heights 
 " the battle-cry of freedom," they moved 
 forward. As they clambered up the 
 steep ascent, the light of that full Octo- 
 
 26 
 
 h 
 
o 
 
 LIEUTENANT BURR AGE. 
 
 ber moon made them but too visible 
 marks for the foe. Yet, with fixed 
 bayonets, faltering not in their perilous 
 work, on they went, with repeated charg- 
 es, in the face of rifle-pits and breast- 
 works blazing with murderous fire, till 
 the routed enemy, who outnumbered 
 the storming party three to one, were 
 driven in confusion from their strong- 
 holds. The success was rapid, — the 
 achievement brilliant. Colonel Under- 
 wood writes that the Massachusetts Thir- 
 ty-third that night won the applause of 
 the veteran army of the Cumberland. 
 
 But, ah ! how much was crowded into 
 that brief hour's strife ! The assault, the 
 
 27 
 
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 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 fierce rattle of musketry, the bloody 
 charge with the bayonet, the shout, the 
 groan, the wounded, the dying, the dead ! 
 And when the brief struggle was over, 
 two-thirds the way up the ascent, falling 
 in the second charge while cheering on 
 his men, lay peacefully — wrapped around 
 with the soft, white moonlight, as if 
 shrouded for his burial by angelic hands 
 — that youthful form, tenderly nurtured, 
 over which scarce twenty-one years had 
 passed, least fitted of all, it would seem 
 to us, for scenes of strife and blood. In 
 his early prime, on that distant battle- 
 field, struck by a ball which broke the 
 stem of his watch and pierced his heart, 
 
 28 
 
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 LIEUTENANT BURRAGE. 
 
 our young brother fell, a martyr to his 
 country. With no suffering, caught up 
 almost as in a chariot of fire like the 
 prophet from the plain of Jordan, he 
 in a moment exchanged hardship, peril, 
 anxiety, strife, for rest, peace, joy. One 
 moment, the roar of battle; the next, 
 the "song of Moses and the Lamb." 
 Young, pure, patriotic. Christian, he laid 
 himself a willing sacrifice upon the altar 
 of Liberty. Among the thousands of 
 the pure and noble dead, none purer, 
 few nobler than he. He had learned, 
 on the classic page he loved so well, that 
 "it is sweet and fitting to die for one's 
 country ; " and the gospel had taught 
 
 29 
 
MEMORIAL OF 
 
 him, in defence of truth and right, not 
 to count his Ufe dear unto him ; and he 
 wilHngly gave it to his native land. 
 
 Another is added to the Hst of the 
 fallen, whose names a grateful country 
 will not w^illingly let die. And, dear 
 friends, the roll of our own martyred 
 dead is lengthening out, — Ingalls, Locke, 
 Brooks, Clarke, Kenny, Hill, Frost, Bur- 
 rage, — we honor them all. And it is 
 meet that those nurtured amid historic 
 scenes,, upon soil which drank the first 
 blood of the Kevolution, within sight of 
 the graves where sleeps the sacred dust 
 of heroes stricken on the fated day of 
 Lexington and Concord, should answer 
 
 30 
 
CL 
 
 43 
 
 LIEUTENANT BURRAGE. 
 
 to the call of freedom, if need be with 
 their lives. 
 
 Standing over these remains, I have 
 no wish to speak mere words of eulogy. 
 We " come to bury, not to praise." Yet 
 Lieutenant Burrage had characteristics 
 of so marked and special excellence that 
 they deserve more specific statement 
 here. 
 
 He had great simplicity of character. 
 He put on no airs. He made no preten- 
 sions. He was no boaster. Even his 
 family friends knew of some college 
 honors only when they were announced 
 in the papers or mentioned by others. 
 j He was thoroughly honest, transparent 
 
 a 
 
 31 
 
MEMORIAL OF 
 
 as crystal. What lie was, you saw and 
 knew. There was no attempt at con- 
 cealment or double-dealing. In this lay 
 .one great charm of his character, — his 
 naturalness and guilelessness, his unaf- 
 fected modesty and truthfulness. 
 
 He had, too, great kindness of heart. 
 No one was readier than he to do a fa- 
 vor, and to do it without seeming to im- 
 pose an obligation. While in college, — 
 what most young men would have felt 
 beneath them, — he would come daily 
 and sit by the bedside of an invalid 
 much younger than himself to lighten 
 and cheer the loneliness of the sick 
 room. Indeed, he bore that severe test 
 
 32 
 
 "O 
 
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 -P 
 
 LIEUTENANT BURRAGE. 
 
 of true kindness of heart, the judgment of 
 children. He was a favorite with them. 
 He was greatly esteemed in the families 
 with which he was intimate. In at least 
 three households the remark has been 
 made in my hearing, " No one could 
 have died, outside of our family circle, 
 whom we should miss so much as Jo- 
 seph." 
 
 At home, he was always a dutiful and 
 affectionate son and brother. We ad- 
 mired the mingled delicacy and manli- 
 ness with which he bore himself toward 
 one with whom he was brought into 
 new and intimate home-relations ; and 
 the grief, like that of a mother for her 
 
 83 
 
MEMORIAL OF 
 
 own childj which follows the sundering 
 of these recently-formed ties, is an im- 
 pressive testimonial to his worth. 
 
 This young friend of ours was remark- 
 ably pure-minded. I think the instances 
 are exceedingly rare of a young man 
 • spending eight years in public institu- 
 tions, surrounded by men of all grades 
 of moral character, exposed to subtle yet 
 powerful temptation, subject to tests of 
 virtuous principle under which multi- 
 tudes fail, yet preserving such purity of 
 mind and purity of heart as he. He 
 came out from college, — where many 
 become really corrupted, and a larger 
 number put on the airs of men of the 
 
 ^ V, 
 
LIEUTENANT BURRAGE. 
 
 world, — as the three young Jews did 
 from the furnace of the Babylonian king, 
 "upon whose bodies the fire had no 
 power, nor was a hair of their head 
 singed, neither were their coats changed, 
 nor had the smell of fire passed on 
 them." 
 
 Lieutenant Burrage was faithful to all 
 his duties. This was so in college ; he 
 rarely missed an exercise. It was so as 
 a scholar and teacher in the Sabbath 
 school ; he was always punctual, always 
 prepared. He was seldom absent from 
 the prayer-meeting ; but was ready to 
 stand in his place and do his part. He 
 exhibited the same faithfulness to duty 
 
 35 
 
ME 310 RIAL OF 
 
 in the army. His captain writes thus to 
 his father : " You have lost a noble son 
 and the country a noble soldier. He 
 was a good officer. He was strictly con- 
 scientious in his duties, and w^as beloved 
 by all in the company and the regiment. 
 While mourning his loss, you have the 
 satisfaction of knowing that he died a 
 Christian." And two privates in the 
 company of which he was so long 
 Orderly, and who are present at these 
 services to-day, bear witness to his faith- 
 fulness and his impartiality. Wherever 
 he was, he had an earnest desire to be 
 useful. He strove to do good while with 
 us and when separated from us. I have 
 
 36 
 
LIEUTENANT BURRAGE. 
 
 recently seen a most touching letter to 
 a young friend, dated but a few months 
 ago, urging an immediate attention to 
 personal religion. We have listened to 
 his letters from the army addressed to 
 the Sabbath school, entreating its mem- 
 bers to come to Christ. Even the be- 
 nevolent collections of the church were 
 not forgotten; but he wrote his father 
 to contribute for him of the money he 
 had sent home. 
 
 Lieutenant Burrage, to a degree which 
 few of any age are, was conscientious. 
 He acted from a • sense of duty, because 
 the action was right and he ought to do 
 it. This was eminently shown in his 
 
 37 
 
MEMORIAL OF 
 
 enlisting. He, tenderly brought up, ac- 
 customed to refined society, fond of 
 books, with all the associations of aca- 
 demic life fresh upon him, enlisted as a 
 private soldier, to endure labors and 
 hardships and perils, which he must share 
 with a multitude of others, and in which 
 he could scarcely hope to find distinc- 
 tion. He knew what he must meet. 
 He counted the cost. His act w^as from 
 no transient excitement, no love of nov- 
 elty, no restless desire of cliange j but 
 from the stern convictions of duty. He 
 saw the crime of this great treason. He 
 recognized the claims which his country, 
 in the hour of her peril, has upon her 
 
LIEUTENANT BURRAGE. 
 
 sons. He believed that God's voice called 
 him to the field of strife. And so, calmly, 
 resolutely, unflinchingly, with the cour- 
 age of a hero and the faith of a martyr, 
 he entered upon that path which proved, 
 alas ! but a short road to the tomb. His 
 conscientiousness was carried into all his 
 relations to his fellow-men and to his 
 God. His moral and religious character 
 was untarnished even by the breath of 
 suspicion. 
 
 Now let it be said to the young here, 
 to all, this character of him whose 
 death we mourn, — his purity, his faith- 
 fulness, his conscientiousness, his Chris- 
 tian irftegrity, — are an illustration of 
 
 39 
 

 
 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 the text, and led to its choice. " This is 
 the victory that overcame th the world, 
 even our flxith." It was his confidence in 
 truth, in God, in the final triumph of 
 right, which made him what he was. 
 He was subject to the same tempta- 
 tions to idleness, to sensual indulgen- 
 ces, to take present gratifications instead 
 of future good, to which others are 
 exposed. But he had ^^fiiith," and it 
 gave him the "victory." lie believed 
 there was something higher, purer, bet- 
 ter, nobler, than present indulgence ; and 
 that was truth, duty, usefulness, love 
 to God and obedience to his law. He 
 remembered that " The things wliich are 
 
 40 
 
p 
 
 LIEUTENANT BURRAGE. 
 
 seen are temporal, while the things 
 which are unseen are eternal." And so, 
 when temptations assailed, when evil in- 
 fluences were about him, when godless 
 companions sought to lead him astray, 
 this was the victory which overcame the 
 world, even his faith. And his letters 
 from the army, breathing as they do a 
 deeply-religious spirit, show that there, 
 amid all the surrounding defilements, he 
 kept his robes clean and walked " as see- 
 ing Him who is invisible." 
 
 It is sad to see one so pure, so consci- 
 entious, so desirous of usefulness, cut off 
 in the morning of his days. It is a loss 
 to the country, a loss to the world, a 
 
 41 
 
MEMORIAL OF 
 
 loss especially to this community ; and 
 the presence here to-day of the authori- 
 ties of the town, and of this large audi- 
 ence, proves that the loss is deeply felt. 
 Yet let us not say that he lived in vain. 
 His life is no unfinished fragment, to be 
 symbolized at his grave by a broken 
 column. We are not compelled to turn 
 away from his life-work as from some- 
 thing just begun and then left incom- 
 plete forever. 
 
 Look at what he accomplished. In a 
 few brief years he developed a personal 
 character of rare beauty. He wrought 
 carefully his own spirit. It was God's 
 most precious gift. He recognized its 
 
 42 
 
_o 
 
 LIEUTENANT BURRAGE. 
 
 worth, and strove to make it what the 
 Master would approve. He sought dil- 
 igently to fit it for the Lord's hand, " in 
 that day when he maketh up his jewels." 
 And that work of mental and spiritual 
 culture, that process of growth and de- 
 velopment, commenced here, shall be 
 carried on, under more favorable con- 
 ditions, and with constantly enlarging 
 powers, forever. 
 
 He was a constant comfort and bless- 
 ing, while he lived, to all with whom he 
 was intimately associated ; and his mem- 
 ory is embalmed in their hearts, and 
 they will cherish it ever as a precious 
 legacy. 
 
 43 
 
MEMORIAL OF 
 
 Then he was permitted, for more than 
 a year, to assist in defending and main- 
 taining the endangered institutions of 
 his country. They were dear to him.. 
 He was ready to hazard all he loved in 
 their support. And, ah, at what a price 
 are they being preserved! These thou- 
 sands of precious lives! And yet, are 
 not these great interests of freedom, of 
 humanity, of religion, worth what their 
 preservation costs? Who shall estimate 
 the value of that which is at stake in 
 this contest ? And the name of each 
 one who, in a spirit of true patriotism, 
 gives himself to the service of his coun- 
 try shall be imperishably associated with 
 
 44 
 
LIEUTENANT BURRAGE. 
 
 its redemption. If he live, we will pay 
 him the tribute of our praise, and will 
 teach our children to revere him; and 
 if he fall, his grave shall be but the 
 bed of honor. With the patriotic and 
 immortal dead our young brother now 
 sleeps. 
 
 Oh, say not that his life was in vain ! 
 Say not that the hopes and aspiration^ 
 of years have been all defeated ! He 
 still lives! Lives in the beauty of his 
 example, in the purity of his influence : 
 lives in the hearts of those who loved 
 him, and who will be strengthened 
 against temjDtation and stimulated to 
 duty by the remembrance of what he 
 
 45 
 
MEMORIAL OF 
 
 was : lives in the very perpetuity of the 
 institutions he died to save : lives in that 
 immortal life on high. 
 
 Four years ago, in the dark, silent 
 hours of a December night, a devoted 
 Christian wife and mother lay breathing 
 out her life. As a few of us surrounded 
 her death-bed, she spoke calmly, trust- 
 ingly, with holy peace, of her wishes 
 for her children. Her thoughts dwelt 
 upon her first-born. " Joseph — yes, Jo- 
 seph must be a missionary." Ah, little 
 thought that dying mother, little thought 
 that weeping boy, who hid his face in 
 her pillow, what his mission was to be ! 
 
 46 
 
LIEUTENANT BURRAGE. 
 
 Amid the perils of civil war, to defend 
 the rights of freedom ; on the field of 
 conflict, to lay down his young life ! 
 But, if it be indeed allowed the departed 
 still to take cognizance of those they 
 love on earth, and to be "ministering 
 spirits, sent to minister unto such as are 
 heirs of salvation," — if it be, who shall 
 say that in the camp, or on the march, 
 or in the hour of peril, that mother did 
 not w^atch over him as lovingly and ap- 
 provingly as if he had been laboring for 
 Christ on the plains of India or amid the 
 islands of the Pacific waste ? And who 
 shall say that she did not greet his freed 
 spirit, going up from that field of mid- 
 
 47 
 
MEMORIAL. 
 
 night strife on the banks of the Tennes- 
 see, with as holy joy and as approving 
 welcome as if it had ascended from the 
 shores of the Ganges or the Nile ? And 
 may we not believe that as the young 
 soldier, his armor just laid aside, bowed 
 himself before the throne of God and of 
 the Lamb, it was said to him, as to any 
 fallen missionary of the cross, "Well 
 
 DONE, GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT; THOU 
 HAST BEEN FAITHFUL OVER A FEW THINGS; 
 ENTER THOU INTO THE JOY OF THY LoRD." 
 
 48 
 
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