The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1908-08-26
TIE PUIEMk
A SERMON 4%NEA&
3Y TAE REV. AyAH
IMWFtNDEHSoNWsf7
Subject: Foes of the Flag.

The lENluS OQudIS IISop1 lClloA
Church, Hamburg avenue and Weir
field 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
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
f%orefathers 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
typefies 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 a history and tells
a mighty story; every rudy stripe
Is dyed in the running fountain Of
O loyalty and willing sacrifice the
like of which history cannot sur
pass; every bar of white reveals the
purity Of the limpid. true ideals that
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 u country has
gained it's 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
m%ightiness. Ever remembering the
conservation for which it Stands, the
services Of which it speaks, the suf-
fering to which it bears mute tribute,
the hope eternal which it's 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 1t waves, 1t must be sedulously
guarded from subtle dangers IL we
are to preserve faultless for the well
fare of posterity the heritage which
we have received. No nation has
a greater, a more suspicious, 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 arts
ing, the glory of our flag has hnt
begun. What the limits of the flu
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 II 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 spotless integrity OF
our flag as the embodiment of our
national life and aspiration are sub.
tie dangers. They are not so much
overt as abstract, not so much ma
terial as intellectual and spiritual,
not so 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
one has any delusions as to the size
and the determination Of the organ
lied and defiant forces for evil which
aflict this land. But, after all, the
forces for evil that 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 to the destiny of
America, as the more subtle and ab-
stract dangers that are resident in
the hearts and minds Of people who
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;
lL1, IL Lava Tol fhav 1nn O RI coo
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 to the glory of Almighty
God. We nay leave it off our coins
or place it thereupon, it matters
little, but in our heart of hearts I'm
God we put our trust" Over against
that flag and opposed to 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. Butthey areno final,
their length Of days may be great but
they are not eternal. They make for
10th o,d not for life And they