Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1890-08-22
THE STARS AND STRIPES.
They now AdOrn the Front of the
New nj. 4. Sunday School.
The Presentation OF nhe National EN-.
bIem Last Evening and Rev. g. w
Cues Kemarks-RelIgtous ana Pa
triOtic Music.

The ceremonies attendant upon the
presentation of beautiful thirty foo,
American flag by the Sunday school Of
the First M. E. church occurred last
evening The Sunday school room OF
the handsome new sto ne edifice at the
corner of Fifth avenue and Nineteenth
street contained large congregation
the exercises opening with the rendition
by the church choir Of "All Hail the
Power of Jesus Name after which the
pastor, Rev. G. w. Cue. offered PRAYER
and then read portion of the Twentieth
Psalm. Beautiful Zion" was sung. The
dag, which had been gracefully
festooned across the front of the
room was then presented by Mr.
J. F. Robinson. the superintendent
of the Sunday school. as su emblem If our
christian civilization. Mr.. Cue in ac.
cepiing the banner spoke of it as an ex
preston of patriotism and devotion.
There should be place Tor the Ameri.
can flag in our churches rs well as in oul
hearts. There was something inexpres.
sibly beautiful about il W wherever 1t ap.
peared. 1t had right in the churches as
an emblem of christian liberty, of the
protection that this country gives to all
manner of religious devotion and wor-
In 40 of tl.at q.
would be no lines of secta-ianism drawn
on the subject of reverence and
love for il: all creeds and all shades
of political faith should rally about il
as the standard of religious and polit-
zeal freedom. under whose beautiful
folds protection is guaranteed to all law
abiding people. 1t is the standard of
everything that is sacred and pure and
glorious. the only flag, said Mr.. Cue, tn st
has a right in this county. Nd other
flag. he continued, has right on our
streets, and 1t properly belongs wherever
the lessons of christianity are taught. 1t
belonged in every church. and the preach
er said he would not GO into church
where the stars and stripes were denied
admission. and termed all opposition to
placing it oyer Gods altar, sickly senti-
mentalities. He spoke in condemnation
of recent incident where an Iowa
church refused to admit within its portals
the body of dead soldier wrapped in the
stars and stripes. He thought every sci.
der should be covered over with the
American flag as beautiful tribute, such
as would be imperishsble long years
after flowers had withered and the
body had turned to dust He was
surprised that such thing had
happened in Iowa as the one just
alluded to, but he would not have
wondered at it in southern Illinois. Pa
triotism was part of Methods ism and the
Methodist church through many of its
conferences had already authorized the
placing of the American flag in its
churches. The central Illinois conference
to which the Rock Island church belongs.
had been one of the first to ornament this
movement and the pastor proposed to
have another flag for the new church
when the time came to dedicate it 10 the
worship of Almighty God. The flag
which had been presented on This occa-
sion. would. he said, have a cross placed
over it, as the American flag is second
only as an emblem Of christian love, TO
the cross of Christ
Mr.. Cue spoke of an incident during
the recent teachers institute here, where
teacher from abroad asked If the flag
craze had struck the schools of Rock Is
land yet, to which he said a Roman
Catholic teacher in our public schools
had replied sneeringly, "Oh. yes. it has,"
Mr.. Cue said he hoped the flag would ret
strike those two teachers IN q manner
that would bring them to a realization of
their senses and their obligations to this
country, and that he proposed to follow
them both until the teacher was removed
from her position in the schools of Rock
Island, and the instructor who ad asked
the question should be known al Normal
as he should he. He again returned
thanks for the beautiful and appropriate
emblem of Christian civilization.
Miss Ella M. Wilcox sang the "Star
Spangled Banner" the congregation
joined in singing America" and with
the benediction by Mr. Cue. the services
LII