Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1927-03-24
RELIGION AND LIFE
BY Rev. A. n. Rapking

4 IVAN ~ 10 chL PlAciiAS " 1Aiiu ~ tlluI3l
of the new road in such bad condi-
ton. The holes, the slips, the cracks
are so numerous that there hardly
seems to be really good half mile
of road between Buckhannon and
Morgantown.
Then, add to these the bad curves,
the narrow bridges, the railroad and
street-car crossing, and the places so
narrow in several instances that the
street-car track and the road are the
tsame, and the road, as whole, does
not score very highly. No doubt in
twenty-five or thirty years from now
we will think of this period in road
building as the Kindergarten stage.
Those in charge of building the
roads are, suppose, doing the best
they can, but their best seems to be
poor enough. Certainly mistakes have
been made in building hard-surfaced
roads on dirt that was not given time
enough to settle. Any observing farm
er without technical training in en-
! gineering knows that it takes dirt a.
bout SO long to settle. In too many
instances this well known fact has
been ignored, and roads have been
built on unsettled dirt, and the re-
suit IL broken piece Of road.
| Evidently there are forces that the
engineers do not know how to calcu-
late, or the material used is faulty.
The long stretches of cracked and
| broken cement roads are abundant
evidence. ! noticed the new long
cracks particularly between Fair1nont
and Morgantown 1t seems as though
the roads built several years ago at
the time the road was built out of
Buckhannon toward Weston are
standing up better than the roads
built more recently.
1t is going to take considerable
money to keep these roads in any
kind of shape In fact good part Of
the new road will have to be rebuilt
before the present roads are half
paid for.
Certainly the roads in the condition
they are now in will not impress the
tourists very favorably.
Then, too, many Of the scenes along
the way are very primitive. Think of
the human beings who are living in
the barracks between Clarksburg and
Fairmont. What does it mean to have
the billboards throw into our faces
from the bleak and barren places a.
long the way, eve are fighting for
the spirit of '76' or We are fighting
for the standards God would have us
live up to" or We are Fighting for
our children" or Union means intel
ligence"?
/ Yes. there are MANY sha@'r SUI
rounded by unsanitary conditions in
which folks live. Is this the price we
have to pay for our modern civiliza-
ton?
/ All, methinks that we are not only
bungling in building roads, but we
are also laundering around consider
ably in building road over which
the on-coming generation viii have
! to travel We do not seem to under
stand all the forces that have to be
taken into consideration. The slips of
selfishness are ever crowding In on
this road. The cracks of ignorance
| and superstitution are constantly
making their appearance. Too often,
we are building into the on-coming
generation through the movies, the
pool-rooms, the schools, and the
churches, material that is faulty.
Many times / am afraid we are not
mixing that are for our best develop
ment in the proper way. A lack of
vision results in our building narrow,
crooked roads which will cause future
generations to use up an unnecessary
amount of energy in making pro-
gress. The unborn generations will
have to pay for some Of our plumbers
and our shortsightedness.
In building the roads over winch
we drive our cars and in building our
lives, our homes, our state, our ma
ton, and the world, we need to live
by the spirit and the principles of
Him who said, II am the Way, the
Truth, and the Life
1t is quite evident that we need
better understanding in the matter of
building roads, and it is also just as
/ evident that we need more truth in
the development of lives worthwhile.
Without the guidance of the spirit of
Christ, our lives tend to become shall
low, and we are building on sand in
| stead of on the solid rock.