The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1900-08-28
VALUE OF THE CHURCH 10 YOUNG MEN,
BY CALVIN DILL WILSON, IN LEDGER MONTHLY.

The church, in the wide range OF
it's usefulness and in the largeness OF
it's power to help, has many gifts for
young men that are priceless, and
that are necessary to their we'll being.
In the light of all facts, in the light
of experience, in the light of their
future needs, it is incontrovertible
that every young man ought to at
tend church services and ought to
be actively engaged in its work.
Many young men do not believe
this in regard to themselves they
do not find the church interesting {;
they wish to spend Sunday in diver
sfons they do not see clearly just
what help they are to obtain they
find that many who attend church
are not obviously better than them
selves and they are not always inn
pressed by the earnestness and en-
thusiasm of church people.
Apart from the justice or injus-
tice of these views, let US look at the
actual benefits young men may OBJ
tain from the church. We may take
it for granted that all high-minded
young men are thinking ~anxiously
about their future, planning to make
the most of themselves, to live hon
orably, to build up character, and to
be not only successful in business,
but in personal attachments, in the
spiritual things of manhood.
CHURCH ATMOSPHERE.
The church, apart from its direct
teachings, makes a general impress
sion upon the young. 1t has its own
atmosphere it deals with matters
different from the daily life. To the
imaginative mind, the very church
building suggests the serious side
of things, something of the great
problems that all men and women
have to deal with in one form or
another. The service of the church
have that quality that we call religi-
business they remind US of the I'M
seen, of the soul, of divinity. Being
taken out of the hurly-burly of
everyday life into the church is to
enter a place where we are reminded
that we belong to humanity, to So
ciety-indeed, after a mannR, to
the universe. Such surroundings
open up thought that we are not
likly otherwise to have. One can
readily see that the going to an art
gallery at fixed hours every week
would modify ones life somewhat,
would make impressions that would
remain or that established habits
of walking in the fields, or visiting
hower-gardens or factories, or at
tending musical entertainments, or
frequenting libraries, would inevita-
bly, make permanent impressions on
the brain, stir certain emotions, pro
duce certain thoughts, and thus
create that which we call an atmos-
phere. So the church, habitually
attended, affects the spirit and tone
of the mind. This is done uncon-
sciously, until there gradually grows
up In the heart love for the church,
for its hymns, for the prayer-book
and the Bible, and for the good work
IN which the church is engaged.
When we consider what this at
mosphere is, we realize that a desir-
able result has been brought about.
1t is an atmosphere charged with
love of things good and true, with
unselfishness, with sacrifice. with
duty, with high ideals, with scorn
o h base and with admiration for
whatsoever is honest.
IT'S EDUCATING influence.
The quiet and subtle influence of
the church tends directly and pow
erfully to give young men an aver
Ion to vice it cultivates the spiri-
tual nature and shows the true joys
OF manhood, and raises US above the
brute. 1t enables young men to re-
alize that all vice causes degenera-
ton In themselves and their poster
lty. Nothing is more strictly scien-
tiic than the Bible teachings of the