The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1908-08-06
L Toe PULLoI/ 4
NnSs-SlRS S-Slec,-,s>STN\
A SERMON G%$GsEA
pY TAE REV MESEsM
hRAWflrNDERSONWsT
Subject: Foes of the Flag.

Church, Hamburg avenue and Weir.
held street, the Rev. Ira Wemmell
Henderson, pastor, took as his text
Psalms 20:5: ~In the name Of our
God we will set up our banners"
He said:
The flag OF America is the symbol
OF her conception and of her pro-
gress. Its stars and stripes and
held 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
tion's 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 upon the 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 history and tells
a mighty story; every ruddy stripe
is dyed in the running fountain of
a loyalty and willing sacrifice the
like of which history cannot sur
pass: every bar of white reveals the
srff - kn
run, though often hidden. at the core
and centre of our nations life. Blue
as the arching heavens her star
strewn field is redolent with a hope
as vast as the profundity 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 suf-
fering to which il bears mute tribute,
the hope eternal which its proud folds
counsel, we shall never stray afar or
trail its beauty in the dirt of indi-
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
1nutao11y F,,t,
America. The deeds of yesterday
bespeak larger capacities and oppor-
tunities as vet 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 hu-
man history. And America stands in
the vanguard OF progression. OF our
coming eminence We may but dream.
No prophecy is 10 be ignored. for
no prophecy can tell the half of the
glory God will revea! in and through
America in the coming DAYS If we
guard our hearts from evil, our
minds from wilful error, and our
flag from shame.
The dangers to our national great
ness and to the spotlass integrity OF
our flag as the embodiment of orr
national life and aspiration are sub.
tie dangers. They are not so much
overt as abstrscr. not so much ma
terial as intellectual and spiritual,
not 50 much objective as subjective,
not so much outward as internal
No sane man would underestimate
the Nervousness OF the material sin
which threatens our flag to-day, no
da1nefgue al - ha eta
and the determination of the organ
lied and defiant forces for evil which
afflict this land But. after all, the
forces for evil thai are allied and
aggressive and overt that are de-
termined TO rule or ruin, TO gain
their ends by foul means or fair
are not half so dangerous to the pub
lie welfare and 70 the DESTINY of
America. as the more subtle and abb
stract dangers that are resident in
the hearts and minds of people VINO
want TO maintain the glory of the
flag, the integrity Of the nation and
the glory of Jehovah in our midst
When all is said and done there are
more people whose faces are set for
heaven than toward hell. The great
host Of the people want the right;
they do love God. they long to see
the beauty Of His glory in the land
Of the living. And the danger is
that these good people. seeing the
size OF the enemy and taking the
measure OF his power. may too
often and too long accept evil con.
ditiOns as necessary simply because
they are ancient or fixed that they
shall be too careless and Indifferent
concerning the value Of a stern fight
for the right in the face of in
trenched iniquity; that they shall be
slovenly and inexact and dishonest in
their thinking; and needless OF the
claims Of the spirit OF the living God
in the individual and national life.
The flag of America, as the ban
ners OF the psalmist, is set up in the
name and 10 the glory of Almighty
Goo. We may leave it off our coins
or place 1t thereupon, 1t matters
little. but IN our heart OF hearts "In
God we put our trust" over against
that flag and opposed 10 the laws OF
Deity we have in our midst to-day
organized and aggressive dangers
that threaten the vitality Of the ma.
ton. They are strong, they are
armed, they are entrenched, they do
not care'to die But they are not final,
their length of days may be great but
they are not eternal. They make for
death and not for life. And they
will go, as they must. The danger
lies not so much in the fact that they
are desperate and determined as In
the disposition of good men and
true, who love the land as they love
lhQir God IN daanafr and 70