Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1927-04-07
RELIGION AND LIFE
Ru REV. A. II RApKING

Last week had the privilege of as
| sisting with Country Life Schools held
4 at Sycamore in Harrison and Warren
] Center in Upshur. The attendance at
/ both schools was very good. The ave-
erage for Warren Center for the five
nights was over one hundred.
/ In the Sycamore School, d. r. Dodd,
soils specialist, and J. H. Hopkins,
dairy specialist, discussed the prob
lens of soils and dairying. Other
! topics discussed were Community
/ building, "An Adequate Philosophy
of Life, 1.-THE Value of Good Read
| ing", and ''The Value of Recreation.
4 In the Warren Center School Prof. j.
! H. Shafer discussed Poultry, and on
Thursday Mr.. Chas. E. Rea, the Sec
rotary of the Buckhannon Chamber of
Commerce, spoke on The Relation of
Town and Country" The other topic
discussed every night was that Of
Childhood and Youth.
In both Schools recreation took
prominent place. At Sycamore Roy
Underwood, of Clarksburg was in
charge, while at Warren Center, Mar
tina Bonar supervised this part of the
program. In both communities there
was keen interest in recreation.
Sycamore has a most excellent COM
munity building for this purpose,
while Warren Center has very sat-
isfactory basement under the school
building.
The School closed at Sycamore with
q basketball game on Friday night
while at Warren Center members of
the West Virginia Wesleyan's Y. M. C.
A. and Y. w. C. A. gave most ex~
cellent program as the final number
of the School. Both Schools were
great inspiration to me, and l wish
that it were possible to hold similar
Schools in every community in the
State during the year
Folks need to get together and
study their economic problems; they
need to study literature, history, and
other cultural subjects. They need to
learn to enjoy wholesome recreation.
recreation. They need the comrade-
ship and companionship of their
neighbors. Young people need dem
onstrations of happy, wholesome com
munity life; they need to feel the
glow that comes when hearts are
strangely warmed, interests stirred,
and the imaginations kindled. They
need assistance in the realization of
the fact that there is much poetry in
life in the country, if folks have eyes
to see and ears to hear. They should
be surrounded by community atmos-
phere charged with sympathetic, kind
", intelligent attitudes, the soil in
which intelligent, cultured personal
tiles grow.
Farmers are tilling the soil and
planning their crops Intelligent farm
ers have been studying the needs Of
the soil and buying the fertilizer to
meet the needs of the crops. So folks
in the communities need to study the
soil in which the personalities of the
on-coming generation are to grow. As
crops have needs that must be met,
SO boys and girls and men and women
have needs that must be met.
Our Creator is interested in the
growing of our crops, but He is also
interested in the development of our
personalities. In different commune
ties will be found various kinds of
soil in which to grow crops. and so
the soil in which personalities grow
also varies. Hatred and petty ZEAL
ousies make the soil acid in which the
best development of personalities is
greatly retarded. Evil thoughts, at
titudes, and deeds are the weeds that
strangle and smother the growing
souls of the innocent boys and girls.
Hope, faith love, and the right use of
our minds and the energy of our bo-
dies produce will put into the soil in
which our souls are growing those e.
ements that will help to make tilm
vigorous and strong, joy to our Cee-
ator and blessing to the world.
Our communities can be beautiful
gardens in which to grow healthy
souls or they can be briar patches in
which we exc out mere existence.
Are we assets or liabilities in the
building of the Kingdom of God in our
cOnmunlty2