Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1908-08-20
The 2uI1i/ 4
A SERMON &S&a
BY THE REV. M'x@a8
1AMHENDEeSpdW
Subject: Foes Of the Flag.

IN. 1.-E a.
the Irving Square Presbyterian
Church, Hamburg venue and Weir
field street, the Rev. Ira Wemmell
Henderson, pastor, took as his text
Psalms 20:5: I'm the name Of our
God we will set up our banners. T"
He said:
The flag of America is the symbol
Of her conception and of her pro-
gress. It's stars and stripes and
field OF blue bear eloquent though
silent testimony to the method OF
her making, the character of her
sons and the influences that have
initiated for all that is best in her
national life. Whether we be de-
scended from the long line of the
forefathers who laid the foundations
of America deep and broad and
strong in the everlasting rock of the
truth of the living God or are but
lately naturalized citizens Of the
land we love, the futter of the ma
tons ensign finds responsive pulse
within our hearts. For the flag
typefes the soul of the people, the
hope of the nation, the sacrifice of
the host who, living and dead, have
poured out uponthe altar Of a true
devotion to this land of promise a
need of service, for the welfare of
the country and the glory of Al
mighty God.
No true patriot Is he who can
gaze upon the beauty of "Old Glory
without pride and a warming heart.
For every star has a history and tells
a mighty story; every rudy stripe
is dyed in the running fountain of
a loyalty and willing sacrifice the
like of which history cannot sur
pass; ver bar of white reveals the
purity of the limpid. true ideals that
run, though often hidden, at the core
and centre of nations life. Blue
as the arching heavens her star
strewn field is redolent with a hope
as vast as the p%rofundity of zenithal
skies. Bathed~ in a nations suffer
ings and dedicated to a nations lib
erty, the flag of our country has
gained its power and will WELD a
future strength because it was set
up in the name of God and will be
upheld by the efficiency of His
mightiness. Ever remembering the
conservation for which it stands, the
services Of which it speaks, the SUI
fering to which it bears mute tribute,
the hope eternal which its proud folds
counsel, we shall never stray afar or
trail its beauty in the dirt of iDdi-
vidual impurity or Of national dis
honor.
But glorious as is the history of
the flag and magnificent as is the
progress and achievement over
which it waves, it must be sedulously
guarded from subtle dangers if we
are to preserve faultless for the well
fare of posterity the heritage which
we have received. No nation has
a greater, a more auspicious, a more
logically magnificent future than
America. The deeds of yesterday
bespeak larger capacities and oppor-
tunities as yet unused. The sun OF
our national greatness is just aris-
ing, the glory of our flag has but
begun. What the limits of the fu-
ture may be no man may mark. We
are entering the sublime age OF hui
man history. And America stands in
the vanguard of progression. OF our
coming eminence we may but dream.
No prophecy is to be ignored, for
no prophecy can tell the half of the
glory God will reveal in and through
America in the coming days if we
guard our hearts from evil. Ou1
minds from wilful error, and GU,
flag from shame.
The dangers to Jul national great.
ness and to the spotless integrity Of
our flag as the embodiment of oul
national life and aspiration are sub
tie dangers. They are not so much
overt as abstract, not SO much ma
%or;o1 oo rtn11aat,,o ond cririf,1o I
not so much objective as subjective
not so much outward as internal
No san man would underestimate
the Nervousness of the material SIT
which threatens our flag to-day, NJ
one has any delusions as to the siz'
and the determination Of the organ
lied and defiant forces for evil whicl
aflict this land. But, after all, tn
forces for evil that are allied ant
aggressive and overt, that are de
termined to rule or ruin, to gal
their ends by foul means or fail
are rot half so dangerous to the pub
lie welfare and to the destiny o
America, as the more subtle and ali
stract dangers that are resident /
the hearts and minds of people VIII
want to maintain the glory OF tn
udS, LIE VI LllS udLlOu du
the glory of Jehovah in our mids'
When all is said and done there ar
more people whose faces are set fc
heaven than toward hell. The grea
host of the people want the right
they do love God, they long to sc
the beauty of His glory in the Ian
of the living. And the danger
that these good people, seeing th
size of the enemy and taking th
measure of his power, may tc
often and too long accept evil col
ditions as necessary simply becaul
they are ancient or fixed; that the
shall be too. careless and indifferel
concerning the value of a stern figl
for the right in the face Of il
trenched iniquity; that they shall
s%lovenly and inexact and dishonest
their thinking; and needless Of Il
claims Of the spirit Of the living c.
in the individual and national life
The flag of America, as the ba
ners Of the psalmist, is set up in II
name and to the glory Of Almigh
God. We may leave it off our col:
or place it thereupon, it matte
little, but in our heart of hearts g
God we put our trust" Over again
that flag and opposed to the laws
Deity we have in our midst tod
organized and aggressive DANCE