cams_benton_b029_f011_014

11. [upper right corner]

When their circumstances allow the full expres-
-sion, a people's house of worship expresses much
of their character, & many of their ch ideas as
connected with religion & worship. Their build-
-ing speaks for them. It is a fixed utterance
which they have made. If however it fails to satisfy them,
then it is not, in all respects, the true utterance
of their hearts; & but it proclaims also their poverty,
or their disagreement, or something else, that
has clogged & hindered the full & complete
expression.

This building is to be out utterance to
men of our view of God's demands on us,
our sense of propriety, our taste, & our judgm-
-ent – as modified by our ability, the state
of the community, & so on; since as it is a building
into the outward of our religious natures,
which thus seek a home for themselves, in
a world where so much of life & labor is, and
where are such alternations of sorrow & joy,