Norwich bulletin., 1916-07-29
Sunday Morning Talk
PATRIOTISM AND RELIGION.

Said William F. Gladstone, T go to church on Sundays not only because revere religion, but because l love England" Is that 9 good reason, or merely good rhetoric?
 Was Daniel Webster right in his con tention that free institutions could not long survive the loss of the Amer ican Sunday and the neglect of moral Instruction in the church once each week? In other words. is it patriotic to go to church2
 I should be willing to undertake the affirmative side of the argument. l be- Ijeve that the church and it's message represents a foundation stone of the republic and that good churchman, therefore, are serving not alone their own spiritual welfare, but the welfare of the 'S-ate.
 As conservator of public morals, the church is entitled to regard. Life in a Churchless community would be unattraCtive and lack certain prime clements of safety and stability. Most of us would not care to have puS- ness interests or to own real estate there. l have a strong feeling that l should move out inside of six months, if I could get away, or if the sheriff had not come along before that and closed up the place.
 That reason that some communities seem, for @ time, to dispense with re ligiOus institutions and take to harm is that they can live, for Q period, on their inheritance from the past. The moral momentum gathered by genera tiOns of GOd-fearing men and women has not yet spent it's force. Respect for law and order survives the initial impulse that gave it birth. It can be counted on to carry over for gen. eTGEiOn or two.
 Morality, however, never reinforced r7r1 4, 2. ,,, a weak and blOOdless thing. The de- cay comes, not all at once, but grad UalIy. The faithIess son of faithful Sabbath keeping parents may still maintain au air of moral TecItude that is sort of hang over from his an- cestors. He is not going to hand down to his son. however, the same bias Cward virtue that he himself received. There is going to appear on that fam fly tree, by and by, a, limb that has cut loose from moral and religious restraints altogether
 have talked with a good many men who have ceased to go to church. For the greater part, they are ElIa5ble fellows. There is the tired business man." for instance, who needs all of Sunday to recuperate his physical en- ergies. Tired as he is l doubt whether he does any more work, or get any more exhausted in the doing of it than such men as John Wanamalzer or Will liam H. Taft or Woodrow Wilson or Charles E. Hughes. As a matter of fact @ quiet hour in church on Sun day morning might rest him.
 There, tOO is the man with a griev- ance. He knows that all preachers are a hopeless and belated lot be- cause 20 years ago he attended a ser vice and heard a rabid sermon on hell fire. Come again, brother. The con- gregatfon doesn't have to breathe sul- phur fumes every Sunday.
 There is the man whose father made him go to meeting when he was a boy and he got enough Of it, and it's case. of "never again" with him. He might reflect that his parents encour- aged him as a child, likewise, to eat three meals 8 day. But that is no good reason why he should. in manhood, abandon the practice of eating alto gether. He makes as big g. mistake by starving his spirit as by starving his body.
 The church is an imperfect institu- tion because it is made up of woe fully imperfect men and women. But, after you have admitted all that, it is still the guardian of a mighty treas ure. It is the true champion of every civic virtue and every private patriot ism. MT. Man, you owe the church support.
 THE PARsoN.