The Topeka state journal., 1919-12-02
Abernathy Tells Work of Coun'
try's Evangelical Institutions.
Powell Scores ssSinful Indul-
gence" in American Homes.
WARNS INFIDELITY IS RUIN
Churchmen Urged to Get Be-
hind Smith-TOwner Bill.
Education Only Guarantee of
Democratic Government.

Democratic Government.
One million patients are treated and
100000 aged people and children are
cared for annually by the evangelical
institutions of the country. DIR. S. w.
Alternately, pastor of the First Baptist
church, Kansas City, told TIE dele
gates to the Kansas training confer
ence of the Interchurch World Move
ment of America in the First Baptist
church this morning. An equal num-
Der are refused admission to hospitals
and homes each year because of insult
ficient room and equipment. he said.
Christian atmosphere and the best
surgical treatment for rich ] poor
were reasons given l. Doctor Aber-
nathy why the church should conduct
hospitals and homes. In most homes,
he said, the requirements are age,
health and money and the most needy
go to the poorhouse or pass lonely.
suffering old age. Civic institutions
are not adequate and do not provide
religious teaching, he said.
In his address on "Christianizing
Community Life" Doctor Alternately
named three principles which he de-
clared can safely be used. They are:
The inestimable value of the individual
and his right to the fullest develop
ment of personality: service as the su-
preme motive of human activity and
only true test of human achievement;
the inescapable responsibility of all in
dividuals for complete devotion to the
welfare of the whole social order to
the end of establishing a genuine
human brotherhood.
Powell on Home Perils.
DR.. Lyman P. Powell, OF New York,
roundly scored the American home in
his address on THE Enthronement
of Christ in the Home Life of Amer
to- Mi r4 A ~ fnoy y
are in peril, he asserted. Homes where
each member goes his own way; where
there is no sacred bond of unity;
where pleasure is the chief objective
and sinful indulgence too often the
rule.
.Infidelity means ruin; divorce men
aces and neglect leads on to family
disaster Doctor Powell said. 1.-The
title to the worlds spiritual wealth de-
scends from parent to child only when
the parent fully discharges his respon-
sibility. Father and mother share the
leadership of the family. The spiritual
ideals of children rise no higher than
theirs. Their duty Is to have the
noblest ideals and impart them to
their children"
Plans for releasing the power of the
church in the great world movement
were outlined by Doctor Powell, con-
sisting of mobilizing the prayer power
of all the churches during the closing
| hours OF 1919 and the first months of
1920. Super-human as well as human
forces must be at work in carrying out
| the huge program. he said.
Support Smith-TOwner Bill.
The unittd strength of Evangeli-
cal Christianity should be used to Sc
curesthe passa ge of the Srnith-Towner
bill now pending before congress,
Doctor Abernathy told the delegates
this afternoon. 81
The bill would create department
of education in the national govern
| ment and place secretary of educa-
| ton in the presidents cabinet For
| the first time in American history it
| would provide national educational
| policy.
"Universal education is the only
| guarantee of democratic govern
| ment," said Doctor Abernathy. THE
fundamental elements of a nations
strength are the intelligence and
| moral insight of its people. The pres
ent emergency in American education
constitutes a national crisis. The ef-
feet of the war has been to withdraw
teachers, decrease normal school en-
courses. Taxation for educational
purposes has been made more diff
cult.
The democratic state has estab-
| lished the machinery for the admins
trauon of justice and equal rights and
| for the transmission of intellectual and
vocational values to posterity. Thru
the public schools the state obtains an
| efficient, socially minded homogene-
| Gus citizenship. 1t develops common
skills, common ideals and common at
| titudes. Its curriculum. besides pro-
| viding for individual needs. contains
| common elements which become the
basis of the likemindedness of the peo-
pie and insures united and collective
activity. It is thus that social solidar-
| ity is secured in a democracy"
Proper Support of Ministers.
| The proper support of ministers now
in the pulpits and provisions for the
care of retired ministers and their
widows and orphans is the object OF
| the survey of ministerial support and
relief now being made by the Inter-
church Movement. DR.. A. N. Ward
| chancellor of Kansas City University
| explained this afternoon.
'It is the Intention" he said, .'to
place before the public an exact and
authorized acturial statement of the
present provisions and of the amount
required to enable the Christian
church to fulfill its sacred obligations
/ to retired ministers"
Tonight DR.. Archibald Mclean will
explain the foreign mission survey. its
purpose. value. manner of conduction
| and what il shows.
|