The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1911-09-22
WHY THE COMMUNITY OUGHT
TO BE LOYAL TO ITS
CHURCHES

wherever there are any number of
men gathered into community there
is some sort of religious institution.
This is the necessary expression of
a universal religious impulse. In our
own land among the first institutions
born in every community is the
church The church is at once the
necessary. expression of the religious
life of the people and the safeguard
of their highest welfare. No commu-
nifty, civilized or uncivilized, could
long endure if the religious impulse
were suppressed, and no community
among us could long survive the re-
moval of all it's churches. No other
human instinct than the religious abb
solutely demands the right of express
sion and inevitably works ruin where
denied that right-ruin not only to
the individual, but to the community.
The history of religion reveals the
fact that the higher the form in
which the religious instinct express
es itself the higher the type of civ
ilization. The church is the highest
form of religious expression, and
those nations whose religious life
has centered in the church have at
tanned the highest civilization in the
history of the world, and those COM
munities which most love the church
and are most Influenced by its prin-
ciples and are most loyal to it's in
terests are the best communities, act
uated by the highest motives, inspir-
ed by the noblest purposes and pos
sessed of the finest moral sensibili-
ties.
If these things are true, it follows
that it is the duty of every citizen to
encourage in every legitimate way
the support of the churches in the
community and to seek to stimulate
full and free expression of the re-
ligious life of the people.
2. The church is the only unselfsh
champion of the highest interests of
the community. There is no other
institution that stands with absolute
unselfshness for everything in the
community that is good and right
The essential effect of the church is
to make better citizens, and hence a
better community. This is it's aim.
This is the promise it holds out to
all whom it invites to become it's dis
ciples. The church, therefore, asks
and deserves the respect and support
of every citizen, whether he be a pro-
fessor of religion or not. The man
who sneers at the church and seeks
directly or indirectly to hinder it's
work thereby shows himself unfriend-
ly to the best interests of his commu-
nifty.
3. The church is the loyal friend
of every legitimate enterprise of the
community. There is no good thing
that itsdoes not seek to make better.
1t is friend to business because it
demands honest dealing and seeks to
inculcate principles of uprightness.
1t is a friend to society because it
seeks to cultivate a taste for that
which is noble and good and substan-
tial in the social life 1t is friend
to education because it advocates the
true education of the whole man
body, mind and soul 1t is a friend
to the professions because it recog-
nizes that these are legitimate ayoca-
tons and constitute, in large meas
| ure, the determining force in the
shaping of the ethical as we'll as the
| moral standard of the community. 1t
| believes that the professions are a
means of establishing justice and al
| leviating suffering. 1t is a friend to
everything in the community that
seeks in any way to improve the con-
ditions under which the people have
to live 1t brings comfort to the sor-
rowing, relief to the needy, food to
the hungry. care to the sick and de-
cent burial to the dead. 1t every
where and on all occasions proclaims
itself friend and yet asks for no
consideration for it's own sake.
! OF all the institutions in our midst
| the church ought. therefore, to have
our most unselfish support No man
| engaged in honorable enterprise can
afford to be unfriendly to the church,
because he thereby Injuries the most
important agency for the making of
! favorable conditions for his business,
and yet men, good men and good citi-
zens, not only ignore the church, but
often treat it with contempt as sim
ply thing to afford an opportunity
to sentimental women and children
to effervesce And even members of
| the church, prominent citizens and
business and professional men, have
sometimes been known to display
| moro infar0Sf in ctrnpf Y al