This is an expression we often use when we want to be out and out for
any cause we wish to represent.
When the World War was on we pinned a small flag on our coats because
we were glad we were Americans and wanted to be out and out for our
country; we "displayed our colors."
Let us all try to show our colors as good Americans. Produce a flag
from an inside pocket and say: "As an American citizen I will now
show my colors; our text says, 'That it may be displayed because of
the truth.'"
When I was traveling in Europe I always had a little flag in my hotel
room. I did not keep it in the bottom of my trunk, nor did I keep it
shut up in the closet, but I placed it in a conspicuous place where
everybody who came into the room could see it.
I can show my colors also by obeying my country's laws and always
speaking well of its President and those in authority. I am not
ashamed of them, so I show my colors as an American citizen, I now
will place this flag over the pulpit where you can all see it, and
place my hand on it and vow I will always show my colors as an
American; and lifting up the other hand I say, "So help me God."
From another pocket produce a white piece of bunting with the figures
"18" marked on it, and say: "I am a temperance advocate. I believe
in the Eighteenth Amendment, and I will support it with all my heart.
It is a glorious part of the Constitution of the United States. I
will not call it a failure, and thereby cause the wicked to jeer at
it. I will not speak slightingly of it, and thereby cause the weak to
disrespect it. I believe it came from God and it has come to stay. I
am for it with all my soul."
A visitor once came as a stranger to a Southern town on the eve of "a
license" or "no-license campaign," and was asked by one of the liquor
men which side he was on, He replied: "You just step up to God and
ask him which side he is on; step up to the wives and children of the
drunkards, and ask them which side they are on; I am on the same
side."
He was out and out a defender of the glorious Eighteenth Amendment.
Now place this flag over the pulpit next to the Stars and Stripes. At
this time produce from another pocket the church flag, which is the
white flag with a red cross in its center, and as you display it,
say: "I am out and out for the Church of God. I love its walls and
its glorious old songs. I live in it and live for it, because I want
to do good by my example. I need the church. There is mighty power in
'the assembly.'"
This I say with my lips, and this I say also by my example. Jesus was
a church-goer, and I want to be like him. It was his custom to go to
the assembly. It was a good custom. The Church is "the
meeting-place," not the place where we meet each other only, but
where we meet God. It is good to be there. Jesus went there to meet
his heavenly Father, for "God is in his holy temple." Heaven bless
the meeting-house.
God feels hurt if we do not come to see him, because we are the
children of his heart. Let us go to church.
When Mr. Moody was converted he went out every Sunday morning and
collected half a dozen boys and brought them into the church, and
they sat in the same church pew with him, "He showed his colors."
Here wave the church flag and place this flag beside the Eighteenth
Amendment flag.
Draw out now from another pocket a missionary flag (the conquest
flag) and say, "I believe in spreading the good news of the gospel to
all the world." Here is a good story about a missionary potato. A
little boy, a son of a rich and prosperous farmer, came home one day
from Sunday school very much excited about the stories he had heard
about the heathen people who worshiped idols. "Never mind about them,
John," said the father, "we have no money to send them, besides we
have heathen enough at home."
This did not satisfy John, and he puzzled his curly head with his own
plans to help them.
One day he said to his father who seemed to be in a good humor,
"Daddy, if you will not give me money to help the heathen will you
give me a potato?" "Why certainly, son, I will give you a peck if you
like." John said, "No, daddy, only one good one, and give me land
enough to plant it in, and all it will produce in four years."
This pleased the father greatly and he promised him he would be glad
to do this and he said to himself, "This lad of mine will make a good
farmer some day." So John planted his potato, and the first year it
rewarded him by producing nine. These he carefully kept for planting,
and the second year he had a peck. These became seven and a half
bushels the third year, and when the fourth harvest came, lo, the one
potato had increased to seventy bushels. When he took them to town he
told the store-keeper that he had some missionary potatoes to sell.
"That must be a new kind of potato," the store-keeper said, "well,
bring them over and if they are all right I'll take 'em." So he sold
his potatoes for a good price and gave the money to missions. His
father seeing this, concluded he would become a missionary helper
also, and gave liberally each year of his money for the cause. So
John showed his "missionary colors" and won his father by so doing.
Jesus wants us to come out into the open and tell the world the story
of his love. "Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee, that
it may be displayed [show your colors] because of the truth" (Ps. 60:
4). We are the flags in full view of the people. Let us display our
colors.
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THE BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
IN STORY FORM