Putnam patriot., 1914-02-06
WHY GO TO CHURCH


 Let us for the present moment em- phasize one point of many that nave already mentioned The Church Is the greatest agency in the world for the promotion of human fellowship. drawing people together. Why is the promise made to the two or threo who are gathered together" in Christs name? Is it not because they are to- gether, with one mind and one heartg
 The greatest need in the world ia real fellowship. The greatest and di- vinest force in the world is love, heart drawn to heart and life to life. Eel lowship is heayen,' said the old preacher, John Ball Lack of fellow ship is hell. Fellowship Is fife. Lack of fellowship is death.e
 Why are these words, spoken over five hundred years ago, still remem- bered and qaoted4 Because they con tain vital truth. Sin separates men. Alienation of men from their fellows is the cause of half the misery of the world. The better we know men of any class. in the slums or on the bou- leyards the more we find to love in them. God made men to live together, as brothers.
 The Church of Christ is the great est influence on earth to promote sym- pathy, kindliness, friendliness, broth erliness between man and his fellows: between rich and poor, ignorant and learned; the morally strong and the morally weak. It is the supreme train- ing school for social service. This is what the Church stands for; this is what it cultivates. It is not always s.I1 cliques in the churches, and sometimes caste distinctions and sometimes race prejudice. But these are all contrary to is own ideals and standards. Tho faulty human beings who compose the churches realise that they are want ing in these respects. Meanwhile the ideals live and are steadily influencing the minds of men.
 Nothing else stands for universal brotherhood None of the great sec uiar fraternities are "brotherly" out hide their own fellowship. The Church is and always has been. In the begin- ming this was felt In the outside world. See how these Christians love one another" men said. But nor only that, "these Christians" also loved all men in trouble-plague stricken men, wounded men, outcasts, who were not of their number. So today there Is no body of men exerting so great influ- enee for human brotherhood, world wide brotherhood, overleaping race distinctions, crossing national bound aries to carry help everywhere, as are men reared in the churches.
 The Church alone gives this train ing at its best. Men get it to the full est extent only by gathering together" in the common faith in the one Father of all. Staying away from "tne gath ering together" is robbing ones self of this supreme social training.
 "The man who will not "go to church" is in way antagonizing this greatly needed social expression and culture. If many men stay away, If all men were to refuse to go to church, that is, to gather together in this | fine school of human fellowship, tho results would soon be felt in anti-socia1 | influences working human havoc They are felt today wherever this Christian I social expression is declining.
 "One reason why we should go to church, then, is because we are social l beings, needing the culture and guid- 1 ance of our social nature and needing to work together with others for the widest human understanding and the broadest possible spread of the spirit of fellowship and brotherIiness. The only means by which we can develop | fully the social nature for which in it's | perfect estate we are made, is by en- l tering as fully as possible into the in- | huence of the great ideals of the church, the fellowship which it teaches to which it invites us and which, more abundantly than any other organiza- ! tion, 1t exhibits"