There is a movie that I show my students every year. It is a grand memorial play to Shakespeare's greatest hero - King Henry V. Just before the historic battle of Agincourt in October of 1415, Westmoreland, one of Henry's commanders wishes outloud that their tiny run down Army ought to have another 10,000 men from England. Henry appears and gives the following speech:

¹⁸ What's he that wishes so?
My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin.
If we are marked to die, we are enough
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honor.
God's will, I pray thee, wish not one man more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,

²⁵ Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires.
But if it be a sin to covet honor
I am the most offending soul alive.

³⁰ No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England.
God's peace, I would not lose so great an honor
As one man more, methinks, would share from me
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host

³⁵ That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made
And crowns for convoy put into his purse.
We would not die in that man's company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.

⁴⁰ This day is called the Feast of Crispian.
He that outlives this day and comes safe home
Will stand a-tiptoe when this day is named
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall see this day and live old age

⁴⁵ Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbors
And say, "Tomorrow is Saint Crispian."
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say, "These wounds I had on Crispin's Day."
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,

⁵⁰ But he'll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day, Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words -
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester -

⁵⁵ Be in their flowing cups freshly remembered.
This story shall a good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered -

⁶⁰ We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.
For he today that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition.
And gentlemen in England now abed

⁶⁵ Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's Day.

 

Exactly four hundred years ago, in 1599 did William Shakespeare pen these words in memory of the great christian soldier king known to history as the fifth Henry. Certainly, Shakespeare crafts the words, but the battle was real and the victory which was one of the fifteen great battles in world history was a lopsided battle much like our own Desert Storm not yet a decade gone! Barely five hundred of Henry's host was cut down. By contrast thousands were the dead that belonged to France. The French knights of the realm were pretty much wiped out on the plowed fields of Agincourt.

Why does this matter you may ask? Well, here in America we have our own Memorial Day set aside originally to honor the survivors who constituted the Grand Army of the Republic who fought in the American Civil War. My father told me when I was little that he could remember a few old faded blue coats still worn proudly by old men in Huntsville into the twenties.

The last encampment of the G.A.R. was held in Gettysburg in 1938 I believe. To that reunion were invited the old enemy, the surviving southern rebels who insisted upon walking across the wheat field to shake hands with the boys in blue at the bloody angle near the peach orchard. With the shaking of hands, the old animosities were put aside and veterans of both sides were finally one nation indivisible again.

The last veterans of that war passed on by the mid-sixties of our century. At some point, the Decoration Day set aside for their memory was renamed as Memorial Day and a three day Federal Holiday was established to mark the end of spring and the beginning of summer for the school students. Memories have grown dim and memorials are old hat. Veterans have become politically incorrect and military service represented as less than honorable. This attitude is nothing new, it has happened time and again in the English speaking world. But always and anew, another generation must prepare itself for the age old curse of war that our fallen world is so fond of.

And we well know this summer that peace, real peace is having a hard time getting out of the closet. Our own Republic is in grave danger, because our lean green military machine of the last decade has been run down by lack of funds for training, insufficient spare parts and tyrannical politically correct social experimentation within the ranks. General Stormin Norman is no longer in command. Generals and Admirals more appropriate to the present administration are in power. And if North Korea, Iraq and China begin military adventures together in concert or even separately - it will be spring before the first draftees are ready to go out and finish what the Regular and Reserve forces "MAY" be asked to do in late summer and early fall.

I have wrestled with this for several months this spring. I am reminded of an old nurse's tale told to me when one of my son's was born about twenty years ago. That year, the nurse said there were so many boy babies born that there must be a war coming in the future? I don't know, I am not privy to what will happen this year. I can only pray that common sense will prevail inside the beltway that surrounds Washington DC.

Did you hear that hope? Common Sense in Washington DC? I find it very strange that so many hawks who served in the Regular Forces are against this present military adventure! One of my friends was shocked that suddenly here was a war that I couldn't love! Even stranger is the fact that those who wore love beads and protested the Vietnamese conflict are now all for going into Serbia with guns blazing? Even if such a sad adventure is forced upon us, for those of you with sons and grandsons who may be made to fight, soldiering is an honorable profession.

I am a Viet Nam era veteran. I rose to the rank of E5 in the Regular Army of the sixties. In spite of several attempts to get to South East Asia, the Lord in His sovereign providence posted me to Europe. The closest I came to real combat was when the Russians invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968. I was in the United Kingdom on a ten day leave, my unit, a Hawk Missile Battalion was sent out into the boonies as was most of our units. I can remember reading about the crisis in the English papers. A buddy and I stopped into Edinburough Castle to report in for service if necessary. A Sergeant Major of the Black Watch assured us that the trouble was only temporary. But if it had been real, he would have grabbed us on the spot and and taken us along! I think my friend was more afraid of wearing a kilt than shooting Russians - he was glad that the crisis was closing. We returned, and peace broke out again. Within three weeks, I was back home to the land of the big PX and round doorknobs. For real culture shock I traded an Army barracks for a college dorm!

I know people who had it much much worse. The worst thing I ever had to do was fill out some paper work at Fort Knox for a funeral. I had gone to school with him, and my Chaplain came up to Ohio to perform the funeral. The hardest part of being a veteran these last thirty-some years has been the cultural attitude against us six million losers who really truly did serve with honor and even distinction. In 1968 during the Tet Offensive - the Vietnamese went for broke. They attacked our forces throughout the whole of Southeast Asia. Even a little demoralized at that late date, our men performed like heroes. They cleaned Charlie's Clock as the saying goes. The offensive might of the communists was destroyed. The American fighting forces won hands down.

Sadly, our Media was allowed to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory. And the blood that was shed was polluted with politics. Going back a hundred years from that time. The Army of Northern Virginia surrendered in the spring of 1865. The rag tag band of scarecrows were without food, ammunition and the means of further resistance. They turned in their weapons to the solid well fed ranks of blue outside of that Virginia Court House. There they were saluted by the boys in blue. They went home to rebuild the south. Yes, we know that it has taken a hundred years to settle the brooding on that conflict.

But, did you know that in the last winter of the war, the Army of Northern Virginia went through a great religious revival and when the men returned home they created and built up what is now known as the Bible belt in the south. By contrast, here in the north - it was initially religious enthusiasm that filled the Union Armies with men who died that others might be free. The loss to Northern Churches was enormous and the Christian faith on our side of the Mason-Dixon Line was tragically weakened. All of that is history - and whether veterans win or lose - the final outcome is still as King Henry V understood it.

¹³² And how thou pleasest, God dispose the day!

The battle was joined and at the end when King Henry finally knew that victory was his, he announced in Act 4.8:

¹¹⁴ Come, go we in procession to the village.
And be it death proclaimed through our host
To boast of this or take that praise from God
Which is his only. ...

¹²² Do we all holy rites.
Let their be sung Non nobis and Te Deum,
The dead with charity enclosed in clay'
And then to Calais, and to England then,
Where ne'er from France arrived more happy men.

The Non nobis there mentioned is the Latin version of of Psalm 115 which was sung in the churches of the time. Here is the English translation of verse one:

"Not to us, O Lord, not to us
but to your name be the glory,
because of your love and faithfulness."

One last lesson from Shakespeare if I may. One he wrote a memorable line: "All the world's a stage"

As I remember the context of that line he was telling us that within God's sovereign providence there is a part for all of us to play. And in the doing of our duty, there is honor and perhaps even some gloria as the French would say. But as truthful theologians have known since the dawn of time, the only important thing is how you as an individual respond to the circumstance of your life experiences. Some are carried away to death, destruction and hell. Some fewer find the God of heaven who cares for them in the midst of trials and troubles.

To any troubled vets of the Viet Nam era - it is time to bring your wounds to Christ our savior. To those of you who have yet to serve, we pray that the God of Battles will preserve you eternally by bringing you to Himself. You see, it doesn't matter what takes place in history if you know one thing! Jesus Christ and Him crucified! Even King Henry V knew that in his day and Shakespeare would have us know what Henry knew. May the God of the Ages bless you and may He remember you this day. Amen!