French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1916-1919, 1918-06-13
RELIGIOUS PEOPLE OF
ANY COMMUNITY BEST.

yesterday on Religion" he salo
that creeds differ, but he held that
the important thing was in being re-
ligious, and not in the matter Of ex-
actly what belief was adhered to.
The simple visit to a church, to sit
with religious people and listen to an
earnest, unselfish man, is of great
value in stimulating the best impulses
of men, he stated. One is apt to be-
come absorbed in the pressing mate
rial things of life and overlook the
significance of that greater estate IN
spirituality, he said.
"Some years ago, remember read
ing a book that told a story of Rome
just after the time of the crucia
, fixion," said Mr.. Cone. "The apostles
were just beginning to spread the
gospel and teach the religion Of
Christ. Rome at that time was the
greatest empire of the world. She
had conquered all the other nations
within reach and made them subject
and tributary. England did not then
exist as nation. America had not
yet been discovered. Germany was
at that time a series of dense forests
inhabited by semi-barbaric tribes. In
Rome centered the power of the
world and Rome was pagan. 1t had.
magnificent temples, but all to-
strange gods. They worship material
gods. There was nothing spiritual
about their religion.
'That is what distinguished Chris,
tianity from the pagan religions, it's
spirituality.
"Well, the book started to speak
of described those times and practi-l
cally the difficulties that beset the
apostles and their early followers;
how they had to meet in secret places
| land worship secretly, for to be. dis
covered meant to be seized and put
into prison and tortured and thrown
to the lions. That was one of the
cruel amusements of those days. 1t
seems unbelievable to us that men
could ever have been so cruel, so de-
praved, as to find enjoyment in a
spectacle of that kind. Today we
shudder at the very thought of it.
"And if you ask what it is that has
changed human nature so that things
of that kind can never be re-enacted,
the answer is that the very religion
which at that time was so prosecuted
has itself risen upon triumph and
worked the change. It is the teach
ings of that religion that have en-
| lightened men and made them to
know right from wrong and good
from evil and made them love the
good. And there lies the value of
religion. 1t uplifts and ennobles. 1t
makes US better men and women. It
civilizes nations. But it took long
time to accomplish all this-centuries
and centuries. And the work, I am
sorry to say, is still incomplete.
''The paganism and the iniquities
of the Roman empire brought about
its destruction. That was about 500
years after Christ. But still for CEN
turies persecution and religious intol-
erance continued. A great many of
those early Christians were decend-
ants of the pagans who had been con-
verted and some of them were inclin-
ed to be as cruel and severe in the in
terest of spreading the religion they
had adopted as their fathers has been
in trying to crush it out.
''They say history repeats itself
and the early protestants had the
same thing to go through as the early
Christians. To be hereto, as they
were then called, was worse than to
| be an infdel. It was the religious
prosecutions of those days that drove
many of those people to America. So
came the Hugenots from France, the
Puritans from England, seeking re-
! Egious freedom on our hospitable
shores. But the history of protestant
ism does not reach far before there
was further division and subdivision,
till today we have churches, sects and
denominations almost innumerable.
But as l said before, it doesn't
matter so much to which denomina-
tion you belong or which religion you
follow as that you follow some relig-
ion. The basic teaching of all of them
IS good. And experience shows that
the religious people in any commu-
nifty, the church-going people, are on
the average the best people in that
community, that they are the most
| upright and the most moral noonIo