THE FLAG WITH NINE STRIPES.
By Armory
THE chairman of the Boston school board, Mr. Gallagher, visited a school, and seeing an artistic drawing on the blackboard, asked what it was. "Why, that is a flag," said the teacher. "The United States flag, of course. It was drawn by one of our brightest boys." "But," said the visitor, "I see there are only nine stripes on it. Now suppose you ask that bright boy to add four more stripes before you call it the United States flag." A casual observer might not know the difference between a flag with nine stripes and one with thirteen, or between a flag with thirty stars and one with forty-five, but a flag is not the United States flag unless it conforms strictly to the United States law. It must be precisely according to the regulations that have been issued. And if earthly governments are so strict and stringent in their requisitions and prescriptions and will allow nothing substituted for that which the army regulations prescribe, what shall we say of Christians who profess to change and alter and regulate the affairs of the church after their own will, mind, way, and fashion, without regard or respect to the commands, the precepts, the example of Christ and of His apostles? To Moses it was said, when he was set to prepare a tabernacle, "See that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount." Ex. 25:40; Heb. 8:5. He was not to follow any whims or fancies of his own. The form, the shape, the dimensions, the materials, the methods, were all prescribed; nothing was left to chance, nothing to judgment. Everything must be done strictly according to the rules and patterns shown him in the mount. Is it not possible that many a system which men have made may be no more the Gospel of Christ than a nine-striped flag is the flag of the United States? Is it not possible that men will find at last that many of their inventions have been mistakes, that many of their helps have been hindrances, that many of their improvements have been disadvantages, and that they will need to put them away before their work can be accepted of God?—Armory.