The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1915-04-10
WHY 1 GO TO CHURCH.
nv OR. FRANK CRANE
Copyright. 1915. by Frank CraneD

First. let us define. We always save
a deal of useless dispute if we begin by
defining.
BY CHURCH mean that group Of
people who get together for the purpose
Of worshiping God. This, you win see,
includes Hebrew, Brahmin, Buddhist, and
Mahometan. as well as Christian, any
organization whose nucleus is thinking
about the soul or spirit and its functions
as distinct from the body and mind.
Using the term in this sense, we must
acknowledge. that the Church is the old
est continuous organization on earth. II
bs older than any lodge, order or insti-
tuition. The little company of men and
women going apart TO pray. sing and
talk Of their duty TO God aAtedates any
other company of people with any other
purpose. =.
Even the most forward futurists, with
the most advanced ideas, should love TO
maintain their connection with the past;
for millennial fruits will grow best IL the
tree that bears them has roots deep in
antiquity. In the Church feel that
am part Of a movement which represents
a continuous evolution coeval with the
human race
Secondly, : go to Church because. as
a rule. church-goers are the most con-
scientious, high-minded, honest, kind
and law-abiding party of society. OF
Icourse there are low, even vicious church
members. Being composed of human
creatures tx Church naturally is not
free from human faults. But AS A
RULE the unclean. the british, the GRIM
inal, and the perverted classes are not
church goera
The various creeds do not bother me.
ind that all sects stand for certain
things which they have in common. In
any Church there is emphasis upon these
things: Love for mankind, reverence to-
ward Deity. self-discipline, unselfshness,
honesty, conscientiousness, purity, 10y
atty TO conviction, duty to family, and
all those traits which go to make up a
real man. These things always have
been in the Church, they always will be,
they are those elements against which
the gates Of hell shall not prevail.
All sectarian contentious and the fan
tastic beliefs" in this, that and the
other viii pass, as they have passed,
from change to change.
In the Church find the frank accep-
lance of mans immortality. like that
outlook. Any ethics is impotent when
based on man as merely a thinking an
imal. In the Church is the best concep-
ton Of the nobility Of a human being.
There is much that Is grotesque, pro-
vincial, intolerant and narrow in the
Church. But there is quite as much OF
the same outside Of il. They balance.
So set 1t all aside, as human natures
necessary flaw, and ask what is beneath.
B. l.. Taylor, the funny man of the
Chicago Tribune, writes this common
sense: THE stoutest intellect is not
damaged by taking it to Church oc-
OCCASIONALLY. Preachers are assumed to
be dull. But the Church has no monop-
oily Of dullness. There was proportion
ally as many duh writer's as preachers,
or as many dull painters or lawyers. And
there is one thing which may be got from
almost any preacher reminder that
you owe something to humanity. Ser
vice seems to be, more than ever before,
the keynote of the Church, and it is pos
sible to combine this notion Of service
with q positive disbelief In the story Of
Jonah and the whale"