Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1906-09-14
THENAT|ON' 'SWELFARE
BROAD RELIGION A NECESSITY,
SAYS PRESIDENT.
MISSION OF THE CHURCH
Roosevelt Delivers Address at Oyster
Bay CeIebration-Assert Domin-
ant Tendencies Of Day Are
for Good.

Oyster Bay, N. Yin a half
hour address at the bi-centenary
celebration of the Christ Episco-
pal church here Saturday, President
Roosevelt talked of the necessity of
religion and clean living for the well
fare of the nation.
II cannot understand any American
citizen" he said, "who has the faint
est feeling of patriotism and devotion
to his country failing to appreciate
the absolute essential need of religion
in its broadcast sense, to the welfare
of this country.
"If 1t were not for the fact that
In our villages and towns as they have
grown up the churches have grown
up in them, and in the churches men
whose work is not for the things of
the body, but for the welfare of the
soul, 1t would not be a nation to-day,
because this nation would not be a
lit abode for civilized man."
Mission of the Church.
He said that our material founda-
tion OF wealth was but base for
the spiritual growth of the nation, and
while the material ought not to be
disregarded, its real object ought not
to be lost sight of. The mission of
the church was not to work in the in,
7terests of one sect, but for humanity
as whole. In this connection he
said he had been struck by the pre-
diction of Bishop Burgess, of Long Is
land, who had just said that in two
or three generations there would tse
but one church in this country.
=, Il wish to emphasize" said the
president, "the vital Importance to
this nation of our people being taught
to realize that Christianity manlfests
itself in the cond uct of its most hum
BILE professor"
Here the president read several
verses from the Bible to the point
that not the hearers but the doers
of the word were the true follow
'ers of Christ. The president took is
sune with former speakers who had
said that the dominant tendencies in
the nation to-day were evil, rather
than good 1T is perfectly true" he
declared, that In many things as
people, the tendencies at work among
us to-day are evil, but 1t is perfectly
etrue, also, that there are plenty of
other tendencies at work among us
which are good"
Condemns Religion az Cloak.
He spoke of the necessity of the
members of the Christian churches
condemning vigorously those who take
religion as a cloak for their evil
deeds. On the subject of riches, the
president said: There is nothing l
abhor more than the telling of an
untruth, whether a conventional un-
truth or not, and / would on no ac-
count be understood as affecting to
deprecate material well-being. To tell
men to disregard riches entirely is
to preach to them not only a doc
trine which 1t is impossible for them
Ito live up to, but which the preacher
knows perfectly well they will not
\ try to live up to. But put riches be.
low the things of the soul. Give to
the body what the body Is entitled
to. The multi-millionaire is not a
harm, but a good to the community,
If he appreciates that he is only
trustee for that wealth-that he is
trustee for the cause OF goodness"
The president emphasized the neces-
'sity of every man being thoroughly
life. He concluded with the sentiment
that the only life worth living was
one that made others better because
1t had been lived.