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SYMBOL OF LIFE
Men talk sometimes as if the passage of a ship through the sea or a bird through the air is a fit symbol of man’s passage through this world. I do not think so. A better symbol would be the passage of a plow through the soil leaving a furrow behind. What does the furrow include? All the memory of every beautiful picture and landscape you have ever seen. It includes the memory of every experience, every sweet association, every tie of love, whether of father, mother, wife or children. All these, whether living or dead, speak to you. They have a voice, a language that you will understand.—George L. Perin.
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Symbol of Life, The Tree a—See [Tree a Spiritual Symbol.]
Symbol of Sacrifice—See [Memorial of Lincoln].
SYMBOL, POWER OF A
The waving folds of an American flag are credited with saving a house in the midst of the fire following the earthquake in San Francisco in April, 1906. The house stands at 1654 Taylor Street. As the fire crept up to it, its owner determined it should go gloriously and ran up a flag on the roof pole. The eaves had caught fire, but a company of the Twentieth United States Infantry, under a lieutenant, passing a block away, saw the banner waving proudly amid the smoke. “A house that flies a flag like that is worth saving,” is the expression the narrator puts on the lips of the young officer. The men ran to the place, beat off the flames and saved the house.
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SYMBOLIC PREACHING