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mit Sanbcq-Scfcoef tt= _i INTERNATIONAL LESSON COM¬ MENTS FOR AUGUST 2;5. Subject: Friendship of David anil Jon¬ athan, 1 Sam. 20—Golden Text, Pro v. 17:17—Commit Verse 42— Read 1 Sam. 18:1-5, 10:1-7. TIME.—1062 B. C. PLACE.— Gibeah. EXPOSITION.—I. Saul's rage at David and Jonathan, vs. 80-33. There is something singularly beautiful in the mutual love of David and Jona¬ than. The worldly interests of the two were opposed (v. 31). Jonathan was heir-apparent to the throne, but David w r as the divinely chosen king, yet each quite lost, sight of selfish am¬ bition in his love for the other. Jon¬ athan loved David as his own soul (v. 17; ch. 18:3) and at the peril of his own life protected him from the anger of Saul (vs. 32, 33). In doing this he voluntarily renounced his own aspirations to the throne. David on his part bitterly lamented the death of Jonathan, though that death clears his own way to the throne (2 Sam. 1:17-27). David had been perfectly safe in Naioth. Saul had sent three companies to take him, but the Spirit of God had come upon them and hindered them from carrying out Saul’s awful designs. Then Squl him¬ self had been humbled (ch.-19:20- 24). There seems to have been little need for David’s fleeing from such a place cf security as that (v. 1; cf. Ps. 91:1). Jonathan, it is true, was a true and mighty friend, but it was better to lean upon the arm of God than upon any arm of flesh. Jona¬ than covenanted to find out for David just what his father’s attitude toward him might be. lie was to tell him the exact facts, whether they were good or evil. How often we see moral or spiritual peril confronting those to whom we profess to be friends and yet do not w r arn them. Jonathan had been very confident at first that his father plotted no evil (v. 2), but David had shown him that be might be mistaken. Evidently his confidence in his father was not very deep. It is an appalling thing when a father’s character is such that even his own son, a son of so trustful a nature as Jonathan, is forced to dis¬ trust hita. Jonathan soon discovered how deep his father’s hatred of David was fv. 39). Saul, in his wrath at Jonathan because of his friendship to David, insults Jonathan’s mother. He no longer regards Jonathan as his own son (v. 30). His wrath at David will be satisfied with nothing short of David’s death. At any cost David must die. Jonathan sought to arouse his father to the baselessness of his wrath at David (v. 32). This only intensifies Saul’s anger. He will even murder his own son who seeks to de¬ fend the one he so intensely hates (v. 33). There had oeen a time when Jehovah had been with Saul (v. 13). But He was with him no longer (cf. oh. 18:12). The change in Saul’s experience was apparent to all who knew him at all intimately. So muen of the Bible record of Saul’s history is taken up with the dark picture cf his last days, the days of his disobedi¬ ence and apostacy, that we forget there was a better time in his history * when God was with him (ch. 10:7), when the Spirit of God was upon him (ch. 11:6), when he went out to do battle for Jehovah, when he was humble, brave, generous, large-heart¬ ed and obedient to God. It is this bright beginning of his public life that makes the dark ending so un¬ speakably sad. This awful change all came because he rejected the Word of the Lord (ch. 15:23). The saddest men on earth are those who are forced to say, “I once knew what it meant to have the Lord with me, but He is not with me now.” There are many of whom this is true. Jon¬ athan gave up at last his attempt to reconcile Saul to David (v. 34). His anger and grief were not so much for his father’s treatment of himself as for his treatment of David whom he loved. n. The Parting of David and Jon athsTi, vs. 33-42. It would not do for anyone to see Jonathan with David, for that would imperil his own life; so they had arranged a very simple plan so that Jonathan could let David know whether it was safe for him to come out of hiding and at the same time not let anyone else know there had been $ny communication between David and Jonathan (vs. 18-21). Whatever ‘.the perils might be, they must meet-at least once more. David did not for a moment distrust Jona¬ than’s fidelity. Jonathan might have good reason to play him false, but he knew he would not do it. Jonathan ought to have gone a step further and have come out of the camp of David’s enemies and cast in his lot with him he knew was God’s chosen man (cf. ch. 23:16-18). There are many to-, day who are willing to help David but who are not willing to go to Him without the cam;) bearing His re¬ proach (Heb. 13:13). The parting of David and Jonathan was exceedingly touching. There were demonstrations of affection on the side of each such as was rarely seen. David seems to have been the one who was most over¬ come (v. 41). Though they went dif¬ ferent ways they were to be united by an everlasting covenant (v. 42; cf. vs. 13-17). David remembered the cov¬ enant when he came into power (2 Sam. 9:3). As it was an everlasting covenant that Jonathan wished David to make with him, so it is an evarlist¬ ing covenant that our David makes with us, and our David also makes a ■covenant, not with us alone, but with «ur seed as well (Acts 16:31; 2:3 9). VTbePuOo/Tl A SERMON' 8 Y tAe re\4- Hr Subject: Foes of the Flag. Brooklyn, N. Y.—Preaching at the Irving Square Presbyterian Church, Hamburg avenue and Weir field street, the Rev. Ira Wemmell Henderson, pastor, took as his text Psalms 2 0:5: “In the name of our God we will set up our banners. M 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 militated 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 flutter of the na¬ tion’s 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 unon the altar of a true devotion to this land of promise a meed of service, for the welfare; of the country and the glory of Al¬ mighty God. Ho 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 ruddy stripe is dyed in the runnifig fountain of a 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 nation’s 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 nation’s suffer¬ ings and dedicated .to a nation’s lib¬ erty, the flag, of our country has gained its power and will wield 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 consecration for which it stands, the services of which it speaks, the suf¬ fering; to which it bears mute tribute, the h.orre eternal which its proud folds counsel, we sha|l never stray afar or trail its beauty: in the dirt of indi¬ vidual impurity or of. national dis¬ honor. ' ,, history v : of .But glorious* as is the the flag and’, magnificent as is the progress and • achievement over which it wav.es, euSftRft.’dangers Ifemust be sedulously guarded froth if we are to preserve fmrapss for the wel fare of posterity heritage we have received. No nation has a greater, a more auspicious, 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 aris¬ ing, the glow 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 to be ignored, for no proohecy can tell the half of the glory God will reveal in and through America in the coming days if we guard our hearts from evil, our minds from wilful error, and our flag f4om 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¬ tle 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 heinousness of the material sin v/hich threatens our flag to-day, no one has any delusions as to the size 'and the determination of the organ¬ ized and defiant forces for eVil which afflict 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- danger'ous to the pub¬ lic welfare and tq the - destiny of America, as the more subtle and ab¬ stract dangers thatvare resident in the hearts and minds.. of people who want to maintain the glory of the flag, the integrity ofjtbe nation and the glory of Jehovah in our midst. When all is said and done there are mora people whose faces are set for heavfen 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 heedless of the claims of the spirit of the living God in the individual and national life. The flag of America, as the ban¬ ners cf the psa.lmist, is set up in the name and to the glory of Almighty God. We may leave it off our coins or place it thereupon, it matters little, but in our heart of hearts “In Gcd 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 na¬ tion. They are strong, they are armed, they are entrenched, they do not care to die. But they arenot Anal, 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 d’esperate and determined as in the disposition of good men and true, -who love the land as they love their God, to despair and todoubtand to disperse. A greater danger to tho flag than all the sins that assail it is the weak-heartedness of the peo pie of God. A bad thing is of no effect for long against the efforts of the organized militant armies of God Almighty, if they will take heart and keep it, and keep the fight everlast¬ ingly up. What of Valley Forge and the first Bull Run? Remember Yorktown and Appomattox and keep on! Such spirit and such hope are invincible as they are unquenchable. Without them the very fabric of our national civilization is endangered as no other foe can harm. No sin has a longer mortgage up¬ on the future than we care, under the grace and empowerment of the living God, to allow. We may not see the breath leave sin as we have planned, but if we will struggle sin will die. It is for us to labor. It is for God to direct. It is for us to follow. He shall lead. However insurmountable the obstacle or time-honored the grievous sin, God will enable us to overcome through the might of His power if we will but serve with steadfastness and fidelity. But God Himself cannot bring the victory to an army that will not follow, or success to a pious host that is afraid of a long fight and a hard one. No, my friends, weak-kneed and weak-hearted piety is a more subtle and dangerous foe to the nation than all the forces of wickedness combined. Another danger is the danger of indifference. Men do not care about the public good, they are too busy or too lazy or too seif-consumed and centered to think about the public weal. When sin stalks the street they stay at home with an easy chair and a cosy nook for comfort, saying to themselves, “I have enough. What can I do? Let others battle; I am content.” It is as though the hand said to the foot, as Paul declared, “I have no need of thee.” Such men are enemies, twofold enemies, to the republic. A still more subtle danger is that of loose, careless, slovenly, dishon¬ est thinking. The glory of our schools is that they fit men to think. But how few of our citizenship take the time or the trouble to think deeply, thoroughly, conclusively, with a real and painstaking effort not to justify a theory or a precon¬ ception, but to ascertain the facts and to comprehend the truth. In the press and in the pulpit, at the bar and in the business world, dG honest and lazy intellectual effort is a s rife as it is appalling. Jesus said 4 ' Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” Jesus never dignified thought as a means to force facts, to justify preconcep¬ tions or as a means to stultify the truth. Jesus was a clear thinker, a close thinker, an honest thinker. He wanted the truth. He was not ic terested in supporting theories. He gave His life to the revelation and the comprehension of the eternal truth of God. But to-day how other wise it is, even after centuries of ex ample of the unwisderri of dishonest thought, among even the very fol lowers of the Christ who was the em bodiment of the truth. The pre ?3 twists fact and truth to justify the lie, too often, for the public good. The pulpit descants with scant wis dom, too often, upon the errors and inconsistencies of movements and principles that bid fair to challenge or to overthrow, not religion, but the ecclesiastical status quo. The lawyer defeats justice by the maze of unhealthy and obnoxious techir calities and oerversions of the spirit of the law. The business man glosses sin for a consideration. And so it goes. Close thinking is too hard, clear thinking is uncomfortable, hon est thinking is unprofitable. There fore, let us think loosely; let us think good is bad—for profit: let us clothe the ancient lie anrl call it truth, that the status quo may be preserved. The danger is evident. May the God of truth protect us Another danger is the prevalent inclination to forget and, to dismiss religion. No theory of no system of economies, no discio line of philosophy, method of life, can endure wholesomely and vigor onsly_ except there be foundations laid in the religious consciousness „t man. Without tho saving, con serving, transforming and inspiring presence and power of the spirit of the living God as a resident fact and force in the individual and national life we cannot maintain the mteg rlty of our flag or tho health of the people. No nation can rea ize its greatness, as can no individual, with out God. In Him we live and move so n urre £ of alight'and progress. fJ clesiasticism may misrepresent Him as it has aforetime done. But let us never forget Him. I' or He is inescapable. He is giea .er and ■ ,h«rie“ ahou? fflm guide, Ho * our shield, oar defense, our our love and our friend. We can i do nothing without Him. With Him | we may do anything. This is ele- i mental it is simnle It is infinite ami confuse everlasting dieaffections truth. with Let us churches never j and ministers and creeds with : atheism. However unsatisfactorily and faltaringly God’s children may I reveal Him to their fellows, let us , ♦ ANTHOINES’ MACHINE WORKS * We have put in the latest m improved O-V * Turning & Block Machine m and at e fitted up to get out round, square and octagon Balusters, Porch Spindles, j - ; v « Base and Corner Blocks. 8 We also have, a first-class A- \ji Lathe r ood for all kinds of » hand turning. BB owf t IS ■V We are prepared to get out all -.4 if kinds of Dressed Lumber for N;- f; buildings. Rough and Dress¬ I V ed Lumber, Flooring, Ceiling * •* ?. <>4 and Shingles on hand at all $ '1 times. Don’t forget that we are still in m ■■v\ I®## HI u '1 the Repair Business of Engines, ♦I » M *t> Boilers and other Machinery. ANTHOINE S MACHINE WORKS. For.t Valley, Ga. Everything to Build With. We have recently purchased the Harris Manufacturing Company’s lumber plant and stock and will devote our exclusive attention to the builders supply busines in tho future. Our very complete stock includes Brick, Lime, Sand, Cement, Fiber Wall Plaster, Paris Plaster, Laths, Framing—rough or sized to order; Weatherboarding—several grades; Sheeting. Shingles, Prepared Roofing, Kiln Dried Flooring and Ceiling, the kind that don’t crack open—several grades; Doors— plain, and fancy glass front doors; Sash and Blinds— in usual sizes; Window Cords, Weights and Pulleys; Mantels, Columns, Balusters, Brackets, Mouldings, Wainscoting, Corner and Plinth Blocks; Turned and Sawed Work Made to Order; Door and Window Frames; Sherwin-Williams Paint, Oils and Varnishes; Guaranteed Roof Paint. IN FACT 4 ;4<, -*-Sv/'! ♦ Ulith Bring us a list of-the material that you want, or a plan of • the house yon anticipate building, and let us convince you that our prices are right. IFort % Lumber j VALLEy Company. SAM LOO, FI1SKLASS LAUNDRY FORT VALLEY, GA. PRICE LIST. Shirts, plain.............. 10c Shirts, plain or puffed with r-nllnr ' ‘ ......... J2 l-2e | c . Cleaned....... . 50 & $1 Pants pressed,. . ^. - i . .25c Collars................ 2 1-2 n. £ „„ S ’ ,-nllor cu ‘ iar nr or f-inr-v Idncy 5c Lulls each per pail* 5c Chemise........... 10c Drawers........... 5c Hridpr-shirts* ........ 5 c oocks, „ , per pair . .. 5c Handkerchiefs..... 2 1-2 Handkerchiefs, silk 5c flin Chirte ts, nio-ht, night,* nloin plain. 10c Lqats...... ...........lutO-OC Vests..................15to20c ow.L’........... Pants.................25 ’ * W \ to 85c 1* 9 f 7° r . £ r table p , , Cloths............IU i ’ V.......... to ^3 Sheets....................7 1-2 Pillow cases, plain..........5c •vr papains.. .- ...a 9 i--.o 9 ........... Bed spreads. .........Jo to 2 DC Blankets,./.-..........25 to 50c Lace Curtains.... v .... 20 to 25 c Ladies shirt -... *•%}.:> to 2 dC Skirts... 2%, tjtxr.;.$£C ?*T®! ^Him .__nc'rfoW dangfiyL *»««« J The chS&mn that mil £ L ^ 0 ^ 4 t ^ WSaS? » . , . ‘“"“f of the ^ rcae --> \ r til*;/'shall lose the vision 10 rionv , • ^ )st . could be ™°‘ fl e dangerous Gai £p to America than .. £«• ^“f . f S a f mast For in His truth . her greatness g J and in nation the appro- lies f Him by the the hope of the ages that are yet to come - . . . ____—, What is Life? odr business ”SS5 is «pSu not V to build id*- quick lr. but right Is turn and In a right spirit Lile more than a mere competition as tween man and man; it_ is-not \h can done first, but w’ho can * best; not wno can rise highest, but who is working most patiently and lovingly in accordance with the do signs of God.- Joseph Parcel. fou are not likely to set ?. rBsi by searching your mirror. W. H. HAFER, DENTIST. Fort Valley, Georgia Office over First National Bank. C. Z. McArthur, Dentist FORT VALLEY, GA. .'-Office over Slappey’s Drug Store. A. C. RILEY, ATTORNEY-AT-LAW, WRIGHT BUILDING, Fort Valley, Qa. Practice in all the courts. Money loaned. Titles abstracted. Tire $1 Cife Insurance K D. Skellic. Office Phone No. 54. FORT VALLEY, GA. r C. L. SHEPARD, \ ATTORNEY-AT-LAW, ' j * *' Fort Valley, Ga. ' Flr»t Nntfynal Bank, T TONSORIAL ARTIST For anything in the tonsorial line don’t fail to call on WILLIAMS ' Next Door to Post feffice. Experienced workmen and courteous at* s tention to all. Everything up-to-dato. - ^ - j Of Course. | j “M a dear'” “What is it, pet?” ! "This paper speaks of a receiving ! teller who has lun away. What is a ,evolving toller • < phonograph." j nvhv-lliat means a . Clt\-land Ltcdei. j | Knows, pa ; i “Pa, whaj is this here Prussian j Diet anyhow . • 1 believe, my son, tha- it consists . principally of sauer kraut, sausages and pretzels. Anything else?”—Kan ! sas City Times. i