The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-12-18
CHURCH AS FACTOR IN 4. COMMUNITY Camp Hill Is Strong Center of
 Universalists HAVE HANDSOME EDIFlCE Camp Hill Man Won Second Prize For Largest Yield Of Oats to
 Acre-Facts About the
 Town. fif
ev WALTER HARPER.


 camn Hill. December 1.-(Special)- The church Is the greatest institution on the face of the earth
 It is the civilizer of all nations, the true protector of the people, the comfort of the poor and the refuge of the weak.
 It is the bulwark that stands between the hosts of evil and the struggling child of God. It is the city of refuge, stand ing in the wilderness of humanity's Israel That Is should become contaminated with the selhshness, greed and jealousies of human narrowness should not condemn the institution It is the most natural thing in the world that these things should be.
 Hypocrisy, envy and selfish intolerance find their most fruitful elements in the church of the living God. They are not a part of the institution but like para sites they find their frmest Judgement on the branches of the olive trees Of spirituality.
 Ambition for numbers on the member ship rolls, collections for church furnish ings, handsome and costly edifices often overshadow the zeal for spiritual infiu- ence.
 Jealous rivalry, sometimes between churches of the same denomination, be- comes so intense that it reaches out and lays its poison begrimed hands on the business and social fibre of the town and community. It poisons everything with which 1t comes in contact. IT is repulsive and disgusting to the stranger. The wrangling and striving for church SUI premacy in material things among the very people who should be meek and charitable leaders of the poor and needy, and who should stand as examples of charity and meekness for the weaker and poorer. is repeling rather than persuasive
 I visited a town not long ago where the striving and jealous ambitions of the several churches overcame the good that might have been accomplished. This jealous rivalry is at once the most prom inent characteristic of the community. The people themselves do not seem to be conscious of the blight that hangs like a curse over the town.
 Some of the church buildings are among the finest in the state. They would do credit to any city in Alabama. They are a credit to the enterprise of the peo- pie but those weaker churches that are not able to build such magnificent struc- lures are envious of the others. The big churches are envious of each other. They have placed sore burdens on their mem- bership and the community to outrival each other III the display or ma&nlncence.
 It may be that God is more pleased with the open chapel under the waving trees, walled in by the thin haze piled against the cardinal points of the com- pass and roofed over by the spreading branches and the starry network of heaven than by some of the most mag nificent churches in the land.
 Camp Hill is a beautiful little town of 1000 inhabitants in the southern part of Tallapoosa county on the Central of Georgia railroad.
 It is in the midst of fine and well developed agricultural section. It claims to have the finest ginnery in the United States. The town handles about 5000 bales of cotton annually. It Is 8 fine corn and oats section. By scientific cultivation and careful selection of seed these products have been brought to high state of per lection.
 Tallapoosa county captured two of the prizes offered by State Commissioner of Agriculture Wilkinson for the largest amount of oats grown on one acre. Dada- vile captured the first prize and Camp Hill the second.
 C. F. Aiken of Camp Hill. who cap- tured the second prize, raised S3 bushels and Ii pounds on one acre. Mir Aiken died some weeks ago before he was ap- prised of the fact that he had won the trophy. His estate has been awarded $50 cash.
 Besides the Southern Industrial school of which I will write in a later article