The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1914-02-27
YOU SHOULD ATTEND
CHURCH and why
YOU SHOULD

Many have been and could be men
toned. Let us emphasize now but
lone and chief one. The church is
the greatest agency in the world for
the promotion of human fellowship,
drawing people together. Why is
promise made to the two or three
who are gathered together in Christ's
name ? Is it not because they are
together with one mind and one
heart?
The greatest need of the world is
real fellowship. The greatest and
dlrinest force in the world is love,
heart drawn to heart and life to life.
"Fcl lowship is Heaven" said the ear
~ English preacher, John Ball. Lack
OF fellowship he continued rs hell.
Fellowship is life. Lack OF fellow
ship is death"
Why are these words spoken over
hive hundred years ago still remem-
bered and quoted? Because they con-
tam 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 of any
men of any class, in the slumS or on
the boulevards, the more we find to
love in them. God made men to live
together, as brothers.
The church OF Christ is the greatest
influence on earth to promote sympa-
ness between man and his fellows; be-
tween rich and poor, ignorant and
learned; the morally strong and the
morally weak, 1t is the supreme train
ing school for social service. This is
"a hat tIA ,b,,r,I, Il
what 1t cultVates. 1t is not always
and everywhere true to its mission.
There are cliques in the churches and
sometims caste distinctions and some
times race prejudice. But these are
contrary to its own ideas and stan
dards. The faulty human beings who
compose the churches realize that
they are wanting in these respects.
Meantime the ideals live and are
steadily influencing the minds of men.
Today there is no body of men ex-
erting so great an influence for hui
man brotherhood worldwide bro
therhood, overlapping race distinc-
aons, crossing national boundaries 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
fullest extent only by gathering to-
gether" in the common faith in the
one Father of all Staying away from
the gathering together" is robbing
oneself of this supreme social train
ing.
The man who will not go to church
is in a 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, gather together" in this fine
school of human fellowship, the re-
suits would soon be felt in anti-soc-
ial influences working human havoc.
They are felt today wherever human
social expression is declining.
One reason then for going to church
is because we are social beings need
ing the culture and guidance of our
social natures and needing to work
together for the widest understanding
and the widest possible spread of the
spirit of fellowship and brotherliness.
The only means by which we develop
,ully the social nature for which in its
perfect estate we are made, is by en-
tering as fully as possible into the in
fluence of the great ideals of the
church, the fellowship which it teach
es, to which it invites, and which,
more abundantly than any other orga-
nlZation, it exhibits.