The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-02-25

indulge me to- day I will say e few sentences about the column, by way of ex. planation, and then 90 on with something else.
 try not to have any invari- able rules In columning, because rules are bad for writers. So there is no rule that the Saturday column must be about e church. It's just customary.
 My illustrious predecessor, O. O, M, usually tried to make the Sat- urday column different from the others, writing 1t mostly UT alto- gether on one subject. He did this because he thought the readers are entitled to a bit of variety, even in such a column as this, Five days the prattle runs along much the same, but on Saturday we have e change of pace and tempo, as well as an informal and unconventional style.
 Many readers in many cities are not working on Saturdays, or at least not through the whole day. A great many are thinking of at tending church next day. It Is @ good day, according to my sched. ule, to talk about churches.
 In doing these Saturday columns l have learned e lot about New York churches and their ministers, Up to now I have not written much about the ministers, because space Is limited and 1t usually takes the whole column to tell about the church. I get as great c variety of churches as possible, great and small, rich and poor, of all denominations.
 A few readers have written in to say that they wish I'd quit talk ing about churches. These are people who are anti.churcll, just don't like religion, and don't mind saying so. l can see their point of view. If you don't like anything, you don't like to hear about 1t.
 However. no day has passed for many months without receipt of letters from readers who say they love to read these descriptions of churches. Some because of their interest in fine buildings, some be- cause churches seem such an ifn- portant part of any great city, and many because church Is Q part Of their lives and they want to know about the churches in which other people worship.
 I was discussing these things with c friend Of nine-a non- church man, recently, and he suddenly changed the topic slight- ly, saying What's 1t all about anyway Lif Is without mean- ing. There is no sense in life. It has no pattern, no logic. It Is something that has been imposed upon us against our will or with. out our consent, and there b no answer to any Of Life's riddles"
 Of course, VIC have oil heard this kind of talk. It is particular ly prevalent in big cities, among people who like to call themselves disillusioned.
 I wish I could get that friend Of mine to 90 to church regularly. Any church. He needs contact with people who have not lost faith. He needs the moral and spiritual support Of people who have no doubt about the meaning Of life. His life Is devoid Of inter- est, and he mopes. Not because of specific troubles, but because he has no faith in anything or any. body; no faith in God or man.
 This would Dc an insane and un. inhabitabie world if everybody be- came like that.
 had an anonymous letter tho other day from c man who resent. cd my saying that this Is c good world. He taunted me with being 50 simple and SO ignorant as to believe that. He went on 10 tell how his mother had died recently, and drew the conclusion that such things could not happen il good world.
 That seems to me to Do an m. realistic attitude that can only lead to madness. If we have not courage to face death as well as life, death Of the ones we love most as well as our own death, we have failed as human beings. Here too. faith, t seems to me, is essential.
 Anyway, my disiiiusioned friends gre welcome to their despair We who believe that churches help make America great and help make life interesting are happy ip our ignorance-if that's what t Is. Copyright, 1889. McNaught eyndi'
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