One of the best church flags is the flag of invitation.
Let me tell you how you can make one to hang from your steeple point,
and decorate your meeting-room. You can also carry it in your church
parade, and hang it over the pulpit when you give your lesson.
It is a set of signal flags which spell out "Come." Here are the
flags arranged as a streamer. They can be made of bunting or silk and
fastened on a cord in the following order.
These flags say "Come" to the outside world. It is your invitation in
the air.
The colors can be made to mean "White--Purity". Here is the church to
which you are invited. You will be taught that purity is a gift from
God, through Jesus Christ. It is given away in the church at the
meeting. Come, and receive it.
The Red stands for the blood of Jesus, which makes black white, and
takes away sin.
The Yellow stands for Glory. Yellow is the dominating color in the
sunset which shows forth the glory of God. The glory of life is
produced by the forgiveness of sin. The glory we can take with us to
the City of Glory. The life all-glorious is the life offered by the
church. The salvation of the soul makes the soul shine forth like the
sun.
[Illustration: Diagram describing four flags: a white triangular flag
with a red circle in the center, a rectangular flag split diagonally
with yellow and red halves, a blue rectangular flag diagonally
crossed with white stripes, and a triangular flag divided into red,
white, and blue thirds]
Note that the last flag of the word "Come" contains the three colors
of our flag, the red, white, and blue; so in the church the best
citizens are made and stay made. The flag calls you to the ascending
life.
These flags are like the bells around the high priest's garments--the
bells of invitation. When the Jews heard the clang of those bells in
the hem of the high priest's garment they knew it was a call to
worship. The bells said, "Come, worship!" The word "come" occurs six
hundred and forty-two times in the Bible. It is "Come to the supper";
"Come to the waters"; "The Spirit and the Bride say, Come"; "Come,"
"Come _now_"; "Come to Jesus." The call is for all. Hang this signal
on the top of the world, the highest mountaintop, it tells the same
story to all people, "Come." A minister of the gospel hastening to
the train with only a moment to spare, was stopped by a gentleman,
who ran after him, and asked him this question, "O, sir, stop a
moment, I am anxious about my soul, and I want to know what to do."
"Well," said the pastor, "my train is just here, and I can only say
turn to Isaiah 53:6. Go in at the first 'all,' and go out at the last
'all.'" "What does he mean," said the stranger. He went to the Bible
and read the text: "All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have
turned every one to his own way, and Jehovah hath laid on him the
iniquity of us all." So he repeated to himself the minister's message
"Go in at the first 'all,' come out at the last 'all.'" So he read
the text again, "All." "All _we_ like sheep have gone astray." That
was the first "all." "Yes, that is where I am to 'go in,' I'll go."
He believed it. "Hath laid on him the iniquity of us _all_." The
second "all." "Jesus bore the sins of 'all,' so he bore my sins. That
is where I go out, through the last 'all.' I go in as a sinner on the
first 'all,' I come out through the last 'all' because my sins were
all laid on him"; and in so doing he rejoiced in Christ, his Saviour.
That is what the signal "Come" says. Hear it singing, "Come." Listen
to the call of the signals which, interpreted by Isaiah 53:6, rings
out, "Come in at the first 'all,' go out at the last 'all.'" And so
make your church flag, and as you read its meaning, go and tell it to
all the people.
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