The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1908-04-03
APPEAL
FOR CIVIC PRIDE
CLEANLINESS NEXT TO eooll
NESS, THEME or DR.. GEO. II.
MAcK's SERMON.
AT FIRST c. P. CHURCH SUNDAY
Takes Rap at The Meandering And
Filthy BoVines.-Filth
And Sin.

To a large congregation on Sunday
morning, Rev. George H. Mack at the
First Cumberland Presbyterian church
made an earnest and eloquent plea
for cleanliness and civic pride. He
took occasion in the course of his
sermon to refer to the filthy COW and
incidentally to other matters that de-
tract from the appearance of the city.
DR.. Mack spoke in part. as follows:
1.-TWO things must be said at the
start to-. show the limits of our
thought. The presence of dirt does
not always denote the absence of a
nobler life within. The interior may
not always be judged by the exterior.
In a world of work dirt is inevitable
I'm the muck and dirt of things, some
thing always, always sings"
Nor must it be thought that one
would speak derogatory of work. In
the high light of this good century
the dignity of honest labor needs no
defense. And if dirt comes with that
toll that too is honorable.
This is the gospel of labor, ring 1t ye
bells of the kirk;
The Lord of love came down from
above,
To live with the men who work"
Van Dyke.
OF necessary dirt in the course or
our work | do not speak, but of that
unclean condition, that filth and foul
ness that we tolerate because of our
Iaziness or our low standards,-of the
dirt that binders a healthy self-re-
specting life,-that is what We fight
Cleanliness and religion are vitality
connected. The systems OF ceremon-
iaI cleansings in Babylonia, Egypt,
Israel and all the old countries have
instructed the people in cleanliness
and hygiene and have assisted civil
ization in it's upward march. A pure
heart will seek clean exterior and
a healthy environment. The religion
that dwells in homes of squalor is
always under suspicion. 1t may be
thereof a kind-but soap is more
needed than preaching.
and what shall we say OF houses
of worship that make treaties OF peace
with dirt? Where cobwebs nang
from the wall and dust lies thick? A.
church that leaves the doors open so
the stock may roam about at Will,
where the graveyard is overgrown
with grass and weeds and the fences
are down,-such church is denying
its own teaching. For men say there
is some connection between filth and
foulness and sin, and the church that
either one can bear no
testimony for purity in the homes or
the community and in the lives OF the
young who go forth from its gather
ings.
But cleanliness has wider appll-
cation,-it is a mark of culture ana
civilization. The record of mans
progress is also a record of his con-
fict with dirt Living in material
world, he has tried to make for HIM
self a place of cleanliness, health and
environment In harmony
with the life within
I'm this conflict man has seen IN /
dirt an fnveterate enemy for two rea- |
sons. One is that filth means disease |
10 the race, and death. Dirt makes |
a breeding place for deadly germs In
iecaying animal and vegetable mat
ter. See the ravages of tuberculosis
# thr5yes in the close unventilated
house and is carried in many forms
On the street. Our city should re-
spond to the movement of the Tu-
Exhibition now being held |
In Nashville. and we should join ac-
lively in the crusade against this COM
preventable and curaDle |
plague. The bubonic plague starts In
the "warrens of the poor" Our fac
tories and the quarters about them
are depriving our American boys and
girls of the sanitary conditions es-
sential to a healthy life.
'In the second place the race hates |
filth because it kills self-respect. A
decent self-respect is necessary to any
true manhood or womanhood and the
ground for any respect from others |
But this needed quality cannot flourish
where dirt and filth are tolerated. the
home of "honest poverty" If clean
will send forth sons and daughters TO
bless the world, but not SO the home
where foulness Is allowed. Children
who seldom see the mirror-that won
derful aid to civilization-or the bath,
can never become self-respecting men