Connecticut western news., 1921-12-08
FINE ADDRESS BY
 DR. R. H. POTTER "The Meaning and Worth of the Christian Church" the
 Topic of Address

"Why does Smith go to chufch!
 That was the question asked and answered by Dr. Rockwell Harmon Potter of Hartford in splendid ad- dress on "The Meaning and Worth of the Christian Church" at the meeting for men held Sunday after noon at the Alhambra theatre, Tor rington, under the auspices of the inter-church committee.
 The question usually is discussed | by preachers and writers, said Dr. Potter, from the viewpoint of "Why doesn't Smith go to Church?" but the Smith who does go to church is a far more interesting problem than the Smith who doesn't. The remark able thing is not that so many people do not go to church, he declared, but that so many do go.
 He referred to the slim attend ance at the average political rally and asked what would become of even this slim attendance if rallies were held week after week, year in and year out, decade after edcade, instead of in brief series every four years. Yet people by the tens and hundreds of thousands are going to l church Sunday after Sunday, month after month, year after year. The attendance at any one Torring1on church on a Sunday may number only hundred Or so but this church is only one of thousand in the state of Connecticut and only one of tens of thousands in the country. Why do the people go? What is the reason?
 One way to arrive at the answer he said, is to first consider the ey- cuses given by those who don't go. The favorite excuse is 'I don't have the time. l have so much to do on week days that by the time Sunday comes am all used up and don't feel like going to church." This is be- cause we all want an unlimited meas ure of the material things. We are speeded up to the point where we say that we have no time for the in tangible, inaudible things, the things that we cannot eat, or wear or see, but it is upon these intangible, spirit ual things that all our material civil ization depends. All our industries \ commerce and transportation, all Of our institutions for civil control in town, state and nation depend upon the elemental law of spiritual truths for their existence. If these truths are ignored, these institutions will disappear and we will go back to the law of the jungle, every man for himself and the devil take the hind most. Smith goes to church because he realizes this tremendous fact. He goes that he may feed his soul with these spiritual truths and he will keep on going in spite of dull preachers and discordant choirs because he ed O. neglected the structure of our material civilization will come 39'"n.
 Another excTse of the person ~'h2 }oos 2ct TO to church is that so long os everybody knor,s the ten aom- 7?o13r:en1s, the golden rule and the o'r7's n~c~er t'12re ie no further
 .uc., -e o2;r@ t. ii 1rch The speak .-' ,'.@l : 57oe arecSotc cf two men, '-7.> z vA0n2 con&erde 'hat evnrv- Ao3y l,nc-j the LorI's prayer. "Why 7~~11 don't know 1t yolreelf." th2 other replied. They male bet. Th> first man then recited the praVoc. "H5nw I lay me down to sleen.' c*". wheronrcn the ether immediately paid the bet. "I didn't think y2-7 knew it." he said
 The ten commandments and the golden rule are under all human pro gress, Dr. Potter declared The Christian chHrch has been preacEiGp them for 2,OOO years. If the churches were to stop preachino them our children and our children: children would not know they exist Smith knows that. That is the reason he helps the church to continue its ministry. Upon it depends the sal vation of the future.
 Still another excuse for non-at, tendance at church is that one can worship God anywhere. The man says "When I was a boy my parents dragged me to church every Sunday , morning and I sat there while Inc minister prayed for an hour nc preached for another hour, then ir , the afternoon I was dragged to Sun, } day school where the minister prayed , for another hour and preached fol still another hour, and I determined : that when I became a man l would , never go to church." That's the l meanest excuse a man can give fol not going to church-to lay the blame on Godly parents who tried tc give to him those things which made