“Over the Top With the Stars of God.” A sermon by Rev. Edwin Keigwin, D.D. (Pastor, West End Presbyterian Church, New York). In the Christian Herald (Chappaqua, New York), 1918-04-10, page 440.

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TEXT—Dan. 12:3. “They that be wise shall shine as the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever.”

This is prophecy. Here is the service flag in the Old Book. More than twenty-four hundred years ago it is described with great minuteness by a man of inspired vision.

The book of Daniel is a state paper, so to speak. It resounds with clashing armies, the noise of heaven’s artillery, the collapse of mighty empires and the fall of thrones. But it ends with a shout of victory, and the ushering in of an era of peace and righteousness by a procession of service stars.

The text is from a chapter entitled, “The Last Things.” We are now entering the era of last things. Wherefore I believe our soldiers are the embattled stars of Daniel’s vision. Think of it! They play a part in the greatest chapter of history. The spotlight of prophecy and revelation is upon them. The centuries look down from the galleries. The boxes are filled with seers, apostles, heroes, martyrs. It is a moment of breathless suspense—a great act in the drama of human destiny. They that are stars shall shine.

Now, it is really quite remarkable that the identical symbol of Daniel’s prophecy should have been thus chosen. Each star is a soldier. An unprecedented use of the star. Stars have long emblemized nations, colonies, states, official stations. But so far as I am aware, this is the first instance where man has been honored by a place in the starry field of a national flag. Is this chance? Is it coincidence? I doubt it. To my mind, we have in the flag before us a striking example of the unconscious harmony between the work of man and the plan of his Maker.

When I returned from the mountains last fall and saw so many of these service flags displayed throughout the city, my curiosity was greatly aroused. It was several days before I found any one who could even tell me the significance of the flag. None was able to enlighten me as to its origin. Did it originate with the government? No. Had Congress legislated it into being? No. Yet here it was, this flag of mystery, floating from residence, business house and church.

Then came the surprising revelation that the emblem was born in a father’s heart. In a moment of inspired patriotism, Captain R. L. Queisser, of the Fifth Ohio Machine Gun Company, conceived the idea. Says he, “The thought came to me that both my boys, who were officers in the Guard, would be called out, and I wondered if I could not evolve some design or symbol by which it might be known that they were away in their country’s service, and which would be to their mother a visible sign of the sacrifice her sons were making.”

Whence came this idea to Captain Queisser? I venture to believe that the source of the inspiration was the same as the source of Daniel’s vision. The inspired are those who think God’s thoughts after him. There is something so natural and normal about God’s workings The Divine purposes ripen so unostentatiously that one is sometimes tempted to question the fact of supernatural influence.

The designer was probably quite as unconscious of any divine leading as he was of the sweeping popularity of this invention of his heart. But what of that? It is doubtful if any who fulfil the great purposes of God realize at the time what they are doing. When King Cyrus liberated the captives of Babylon, and bade them return to their native land and rebuild Jerusalem, his motives were probably purely political. Nevertheless, he thereby fulfilled, to the letter, words spoken of him by the Hebrew prophets one hundred and thirty years before Cyrus was born and one hundred and fifty years before the Jews had become captives.

Certainly it is a service flag of which Daniel writes. Certainly, in America the Service Flag has made its first appearance. Therefore I conclude that these stars which turn many to righteousness must at least have some reference to the flag upon which we are looking, some message for soldiers before me in person or in spirit, some compensating hope for the relatives of those who have joined the colors.

Our soldier boys are the embattled stars in God’s Service Flag. As such they take their stand on yonder firing line, beside Joshua, Gideon. David and men of like stature. A thrilling moment it should be when a young man steps from the monotony of private life into a world movement pulsating with eternal possibilities. To be a soldier in such circumstances is to be thrice armed, with inspiring vision, abiding faith, intrepid confidence.

After a memorable victory of democracy over militarism, long, long ago, a poetess composed an immortal song celebrating the battle, in which occurs the line:

“The stars in their courses fought against Sisera.”¹

Sisera was the war-lord of his day. Whether Deborah’s allusion is to the prowess of General Barak’s soldiers, or to some unusual astronomical influence which turned the tide of battle, I am unable to say. The words may embody a bit of poetic fancy. Or they may record a prevailing belief that supernatural influences nerved the patriotic endeavors of her countrymen in that unequal grapple between unprepared idealism and military efficiency. Be that as it may, we know this much at least: the men who followed Barak went forth as champions of a great ideal, to stamp out the barbarism of a mad imperialism. And they did it. Somewhere in America a modern Deborah, at this moment, is tuning her harp that some day she may sweep its strings and sing of our Service Flag, “The stars in their courses fought against Germany.”

There is an even more striking resemblance between Daniel’s service flag and our own. Both stand for righteousness. “They that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars forever and ever.” Surely, two parallelisms in one brief text could hardly be mere coincidence.

Righteousness! When did America send her soldiers into battle with that particular word upon their lips and graven upon their hearts? Not conquest, empire, nationalism, or defense, is the word of rousement. Not even liberty, fraternity, equality. The challenge of the hour is “Righteousness.” It strikes at the very root of the disease of which all the other words are symptoms of either decline or recovery. “Remember the Maine” was vengeful. “Righteousness” is ennobling.

This is an unusual, I may almost say, an unprecedented battle cry. Truly heaven hath inspired both the starry emblem and the new purpose of which the Service Flag is symbol and sign.

Righteousness! Could there be a more inspiring word for a moment of supreme dedication? Could a loftier note be struck? Is there a chord in the human heart more soulful, more uplifting, than the one upon which we are now playing? Might it be that America has found the lost chord of which Sir Arthur Sullivan sings so poignantly? Is this the ”Grand Amen“ (so be it) that came from the soul of the Infinite One and enters into ours?² Who knows? We can but hope that it is.

We take up the gauntlet and draw the sword with righteous indignation set aflame by the long, indisputable record of vows broken and barbarities practiced by the enemy. Our hearts have been steeled for this gruesome task by the perfidy and intrigue of false friends. Our purpose is made resolute by the memory of Belgium, the Lusitania, and Edith Cavell.³

These are stirring and inspiring thoughts for this occasion. There must be no misgivings, no uncertainty as to the justice of our cause, or the ultimate outcome of the service we are about to render. We are on the winning side because it is God’s side. It was Thomas Carlyle who declared that righteousness is nature’s own law; in that direction move all the tendencies of the universe, and they cannot be conquered.⁴

The Central Powers boast that tyrants are secured upon their thrones by the favor of God. But that is not true, because it is not righteous. They tell us that nations are born to be ruled by a superior nation. But that is not true, because it is not righteous. They loudly proclaim from the housetop that might is right. But that is not true, because it is not righteous. God and righteousness are synonymous throughout the Bible. So I do not hesitate to affirm most dogmatically that America is on God’s side in this war.

What have I to say of Germany’s claim that God is on her side? Simply this: It is not true. Her every plan and effort in the war thus far has been in the opposite direction from that in which the tendencies of nature and God are moving. She is battling against a current of influences destined to grow broader, deeper, and more swift as they near the confluence of designs human and divine.

Furthermore, there is a vast difference between “Myself and God”⁵ and “God and myself.” To the German mind, God is an appendage to human foresight and efficiency. With Americans, the thought is different. We take upon our lips the words with which Gideon and his little company of three hundred went forth to meet the hosts of Midian: “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon.”⁶

Thousands upon thousands of our young men have already joined the colors, and more are mobilizing. I know the spirit of these men and the motives that actuate them. It is not too much to say of them that they are entitled, by every preparation of mind and heart, to a place in the starry field of such a service flag as Daniel has described. And I have reason to believe that what I say for our own soldiers is equally true of the rank and file of that vast Allied army at the front.

In fact, the American contingent which is now overseas has given noteworthy evidence of the holy purpose for which the Service Flag stands. Stacy Aumonier, a British writer,⁷ read it in the faces of our boys as they recently marched through Trafalgar Square. “They came, marching in fours, the vanguard of Uncle Sam’s army. They were solemn, bronzed men, loose of limb, hard and strong, with a curious set expression of purpose.

“Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!

“And they looked neither to the right nor to the left; nor did they look up or smile, or apparently take any notice of the cheers we raised. We strained forward to see their faces, and we cried out to them our welcome. Fully a thousand men passed in this solemn procession.”

There is a delightful little story of a Boston miss which conveys so beautifully the thought I have been seeking to impress that I tell it at this point: This little girl was gazing upward from a southern window as night came on, and noting resplendent Venus in the sky, she ran to the door of another room and called, “Mamma, Mamma, come quick and see! God’s hung out his service flag and it has one star in it.”

When I read this incident, my mind went back to the time when God raised the window of heaven and, leaning far out, spread a wondrous service flag with one dazzling star upon Bethlehem’s sky, because of his interest in the cause of Righteousness. And I seemed to discern, with new and unusual clearness, the mission of God’s only begotten Son, as also the highest mission of the sons of men. If Righteousness be sincerely our goal, then the service which we are now rendering must make us co-laborers with God; and sometime, somewhere upon the field of conflict, we shall surely meet with Jesus, the Captain of the world’s salvation, the King of Righteousness.

Ye sons of brave sires, if ye be as noble as they, and worthy of the inheritance whereof ye boast, baptize your souls in the spirit of pure service which this flag emblemizes; then, rising from knees of dedication, go over the top with the Stars of God.