The Value of The Church for Progressive Towns, Citizens

1915

THE VALUE OF THE CHURCH

Above Theme Taken by Dr. Coburn, Preaches Tonight on Jesus of Nazareth.

The Confederate Veterans are to be the guests of the meeting on Wednesday at 2 p. m. of next week. The Daughters of the Confederacy have been also invited to attend in a body. It was found necessary to change the day from Saturday to Wednesday in order to make it possible for all who desired to do so to show their regard for the Veterans who still live and their regard for the memory of those gone before. Dr. Coburn tells us that this is always one of the great days of his meetings and that he is always glad to speak a good word for the old soldier and feels honored when these men attend and help him in his meetings. When patriotism goes out of a the heart of a people it has lost one of the best and most sacred things of life. The Hippodrome has been secured for this special service and Dr. Coburn will deliver the address. Subject: "Lest we forget."

Today is "Peace and Good-will Day," and everyone is expected to wear the smile that won't come off and to forgive everyone, lay aside every grouch and seek to be on good terms with every man, woman and child on earth. If any man's friendship is a little off color it is hoped that he will shake hands, treat his neighbor to a glass of soda or a cigar or a straw hat and be good friends and neighbors again.

As last night was prayer meeting night in all the churches, at the request of many Dr. Coburn will deliver his address on "Jesus of Nazareth" tonight. This address has called forth a great deal of discussion in other cities. A prominent lawyer of New York recently said, "I listened to Coburn as a lawyer who was not a Christian man. I tried to meet his argument and appeals. I found them like a coat of mail. There was no vulnerable point in them. His appeals to the reason and the conscience are simply irresistible. He must be heard to be appreciated and to understand the results of his great meetings and his power to sway and influence men."

At two o'clock today he spoke on the public square on the value of the church and the reason why it is so great a factor in making a town progressive and great. No intelligent man would for a moment think of living in a town where there was no church or seeking such a town for a home and a place to educate and bring up his children. If somebody writes to you about Commerce and you think he will make a good citizen and a valuable addition to the community you will sit down and write him about your church and school privileges and tell him you have a community that is law abiding and that the citizens of Commerce honor the laws of God and of the state. If you want him to go to some other city, you write him that your churches are not supported and are poorly attended and your family altars are fallen down and there is hardly a family that has grace at the table and that the Lord's Day is desecrated and your places of business and pleasure and your soda fountains and ice cream parlors take in more money that day than any other. If you doubt the truth of this ask the first good citizen you meet about it.

In my humble opinion Woodrow Wilson is the greatest American on earth at the present time. He would make the best citizen in any community. Any city would be honored if he saw fit to make his home there, and this great son of the South is a Christian man. A true Christian man stands by the Bible and the school and the church. The man who is not a Christian does not. He cannot. The founder of Christianity said, "He that is not with me scattereth abroad and is against me." If he had sufficient influence to persuade every man to live like him and to follow his example he would blot out every church, for the church would have no members. The Bible would be a book unread and might as well never be printed.

Oh, citizens of Commerce, I appeal to you. Let us not follow some will-of-the-wisp in seeking, as every man should, to make his town one of the best and to be a desirable citizen. Let us follow Jesus Christ. Let us build up our lives and our town about the Bible, the church and the school as did the fathers. Let us get into the church and live for God and for heaven and let us point our children to the skies and in unbroken families for generations grand-pa, father, mother, son, daughter and our children's children to the remotest generation gather never to part in the world where is no tears, no sickness, no death, no sin.

—The Commerce Journal, Commerce, Texas, May 7, 1915, p. 1.