The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1911-01-25
HUMANITARIAN EFFORTS OF
THE FEDERAL COUNCIL OF
CHURCH OF CHRIST TOLD.
CHRISTIANS GOOD CITIZENS
Bishop Says Christian Work Should
Be Pushed as Never Before-Tells
of Checking Race Track Gambling
and Other Evils in America.

Washington, d. c., Jan. 25.-Hu-
manitarian and philanthropic efforts
OF the Federal Council of the
Churches of Christ in America
were outlined by Bishop E. R. Hen
dirk, of Kansas City, Mo, presi-
dent of the Council in a speech be-
fore President Taft at the White
House today.
Bishop Hendrix presented the
greetings of the Council on the oc-
casion of the annual meeting of its
executive committee. He said:
"Our fathers in the very first
amendment to the constitution for
bade congress to make any law re-
specting the establishment of reli-
gion, wisely deeming it the duty OF
the church to establish the state
and not the duty of the state to
establish the church. Thus from the
beginning, in the free exercise of
their religious views, the various
churches have expressed their devo-
ton to the best interests of our
common country, notably to Wash
ington and Lincoln, when our ma
tional government began and when
it was in greatest peril. The men,
orable responses to these greet
ings showed how grateful they were
to the highest executives in our
land in the two preceding centu-
ries. Representing more than 100,-
900 ministers of the gospel and
some 100000 communicates, or
nine-tenths of the Protestants of our
country, federated in permanent
organization known as "The Fed
Grated Council of the Churches of
Christ in America" we bring Chris
tian greetings to the Chief Ruler of
the greatest nation IN history stand
ing for self-government.
"As former greetings were made
by individual churches and were well
coined by our rulers when the fate
of the nation was yet undecided,
much more we believe will be wei
coined this Christian greeting to our
chief magistrate by the federated
churches as the sign of the compact
and growing strength of our nation
al union. The late Mr. Justice Brew
er declared that such a federation
of churches was also an unmistak
able proof that ours is a Christian
nation despite the fact that we have
no established church.
I'VE are happy to state that the
growing spirit of Catholicity and the
belief that the work of the churches
could better be done in cooperation
than in separation ripened into this
notable and permanent federation,
not of individual Christians but of
churches, and that by the authority
and the unanimous action of the
highest ecclesiastical assemblies OF
the land.
Believing with Webster that what
makes good Christians makes good |
citizens. we are glad to state that |
in addition to the distinctively re-
ligious work which is sought to be |
done by all the churches as never
before such as Home and Foreign !
Mission and the vital work of evan
gelism, the Federal Council OF
Churches is doing in unison human
itarian and philanthropic work cal
culated at once to bless and to
the nation. Thus through
our large standing committees of
some two hundred leading ministers
and laymen, careful study is being
given to the advancement of such
great interests as Sunday Observ-
ance, Temperance, the iSanctity of
the Home. the Church and Social
Service. and Literature and Educa-
ton.
Happy results have attended these
efforts in checking race-track gamb-
ling, in annulling loose divorce laws,
in stopping twelve-hours-a-day labor
and that for seven days in the week
in certain industries, in bringing
about kindlier relations between the