Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1906-09-13
THE NATION WELFARE
BROAD RELIGION A NECESSITY,
SAYS PRESIDENT.
MISSION OF THE CHURCH
Roosevelt Delivers Address at Oyster
Bay Celebration-Asserts Domin-
ant Tendencies OF Day Are
for Good.

Oyster Bay, y. Yin 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 falling to appreciate
the absolute essential need of religion
in its broadcast sense. to the welfare
of this country.
IF il 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
fit abode for civilized man"
Mission Of the Church.
He said that our material founda-
ton of wealth was but base for
the spiritual growth of the nation and
while the material ought not to be
iisregarded, it's real object ought not
to be lost sight Of The mission of
the church was not to work in the in
terests of one sect, but for humanity
as a 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 IT,
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 manifests
itself in the conduct of It's most hum
BILE professor"
Here the president read several
verses from the Bible to the point
that not the hearers but the doors
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 a
people, the tendencies at work among
us to-day are evil, but it is perfectly
true, also, that there are plenty of
other tendencies at work among us
which are good
Condemns Religion as a Cloak.
He spoke of the necessity of the
har ~ hA h,;c oh, 10,
condemning vigorously those who take
religion as a CLOAK for their evil
deeds. On the subject Of riches, the
president said There is nothing !
abhor more than the telling of an
untruth, whether 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 it is impossible for them
to live up TO, but which the preacher
knows perfectly well they will not
try to live up 10. 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 good to the community,
If he appreciates that he is only a
trustee for that wealth-that he is a
trustee for the cause of goodness"
The president emphasized the neces-
sity OF every man being thoroughly
self-supporting as basis for spiritual
life. He concluded with the sentiment
that the only life worth living was
one that made others better because
II had been lived.