Putnam patriot., 1911-12-15
4 "Push, Don't knock Sermon for the
 Whole People

NHDlG fE0ptE
 The shoreiLine Times has in re. cent issue an article headed" AThanks- giving Appeal to Reason in which il remarks that "chronic pesslmism is what keeps many a town in the rear rank when by community effort and liberal doses Of groueh efadicator, growth and prosperity would inc it's reward. 2 The article is 50 bright aud readable and full of ruth that we re- print 1t.
 "Mankiud is beginning to under stand that the spiritual atmosphere of any given community has Juat us DO tent an effect upon it as does it's pnysl- cal environment; that more depends upon the mental attitude oi it's people than upon its situation or physical ad- Vantages. Perhaps several instances in this stale may be cited, such as Wa terbury and New Britian, cities which have made phenomenal growth of late years. Why city should have grown at either place is hard to see Tor neither haB the natural advantages possessed by such towns on the shore as New London, Old Saybrook, Guil- v in the population of Waterbury be- tween 1900 and 1910 nearly equals the combined population of the shore towns mentioned. If Waterbury has any natural advantages they are not especially prominent. It's water pow CT is nominal and it's water supply is poor. It has no port like New Haven or Bridgeport and is not in the center of d fertile farming section like Hart ford. IL has grown through the faith and optimism of it's leaders and that alone has made it thrive despite it's hills and despite the fact that'it has been virtually bottled up by the rail. roads ever since they contrived to wriggle into the place. New London, on the other hand received more from nature than any other town in Con necticut, and yet 1t has only about three times the population II possessed when Arnold burned good share of IL in l7Sl. What is the trouble?
 Perhaps this, that the attitude of some towns is that of a perpetual groueh, not perhaps, manifesting it. self in chronic i'll temper but in n chronic pessimisIn, in a belief that things are going to the bad, that tho good days were the old days and that things are growing steadily worse in- stead Of better, that somehow or other St is possible to worship both God and Nammou and that, finally, while your neighbor may be honest it is better 10 assume that he Is thief and hypo. eTite. Perhaps this last and very common article of faith plays the mis- chief with more New England towns than any other belief because the peo- pie who hold to it do not see that 1t naturally follows that if \ and E re- gard the rest of the community as crooks the rest of the community will hold the same opinion of A and B. With such a feeling prevalent in a 30wn what chance has 1t to prosper and who can make headWay in such an atmosphere of mental malaria? The trouble does not stop there either be- &ause the man who hates and distrusts his fellow men will take the next step and distrust the providence which placed him and them here. Is tt un- reasonable to say that this feeling of distrust of God and man has held back many a town? It will continue to do so until death finally puts underground a whole generation with it's hatreds, it's neighborhood quarrels, it's childish ieuds and its pessimism, and retills the rank with wiser and younger gener ation, possibly one of foreign birth. Now New London is showing healthy signs of an awakening and il is coming because death has been busy with the older folk.
 This unhappy frame of mind is not unceasing for every Yankee can recall how hts home town responded with noble and generous sympathy,to some call for aid such as comes from fire, sickness, or sudden death. Surely there can be nothing finer than the aid and sympathy of a New England com munity when its people give way to their bitter feelings and disregard caste and creed in works of charity. Why not make that the normal eondi- ton and not the occasional Why not set out today to consider how many and how unmerited have been the mercies of the past year instead of trying to strike bookkeeper's bal ance between ones self and divine providence with the hope of bringing lhe latter considerably in debG Wealth is, after the last word is said, a mental condition, and has no reier- ence to q bank account, Does any body suppose the people Of New England town would go bankrupt If ghey tried for year 10 see what they could give to others and do for oih IS? And how long would some of IS last if God paid us back on the wara scale we have established by CT pping a dime on the contribution plate of Sunday
 Suppose all of us turned over a new leaf now, writer as we'll as reader, without waiting for New Years day, and tried to reach that degree ot yhankfuiness where we should begin 10 radiate instead of absorb blessingsg Et would shock some of the pastors to the verge of apoplexy. It would start Men and Religion Forward Move fnent which would not need financing by J. P. Morgan because it would finance itself, and il would put an end To socialism because it would eiimi- mate the evils hich makes socialism