Remarks in Alexandria, Va., at the Cornerstone Laying of the Westminster Presbyterian Church.

Reverend Dr. Johnson, Reverend Clergy and distinguished guests, and members of the Westminster Presbyterian Church:

I am glad you have invited me to come here and take part in laying the cornerstone of your new church. You are a young church, but your growth has been rapid and vigorous. In many ways this ceremony has more significance for me than it would have if you were a large and long established congregation, with a lengthy history.

For one thing, you symbolize the growth of this great country of ours. In the 12 years since the founding of this church our country has experienced tremendous growth in population, in industry, and in national wealth. You were founded to serve a relatively new community, but since your founding that community has increased, and new developments have been added in a wide circle all around this area.

Even more important, you demonstrate that the churches are growing and expanding in this country. This is a fact of the greatest significance.

As our forefathers pushed the frontier into the wilderness, they took their churches with them. The spires of the meetinghouses rose in the midst of the new settlements--in the Appalachians, across the plains of the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys, and on to the Pacific coast.

Today, the main stream of our growth is no longer into the wilderness. Frequently, it is taking place in the oldest communities in our land, as it is right here in Alexandria. But churches are still going forward with the new internal expansion of our country. And as an example, a few years ago there was only one church of your denomination in this city of Alexandria. Today, there are four, and the other denominations have increased as well as the Presbyterian. I am happy to say the Baptists have, too.

There are some who foolishly say that religion is dead or dying in this country. They have not consulted the statistics. The facts are that the churches, and the church memberships, are growing. Perhaps this growth is not rapid enough--perhaps it is not as great as we might wish. Real Christians can never be satisfied with the progress of their faith. But growth there is--and vitality, and widening influence.

It is just as important for the future of this country that the churches keep pace with our present expansion as it was for our forefathers to carry their faith with them when they laid the foundations of this great Nation. Democracy is first and foremost a spiritual force. It is built upon a spiritual basis--and on a belief in God and an observance of moral principles. And in the long run only the church can provide that basis. Our founders knew this truth--and we will neglect it at our peril.

You can see this truth demonstrated in the history of your own denomination. Every denomination has made its particular contribution to our Nation, and certainly the Presbyterians have done their share. One of the great Presbyterians of colonial times was John Witherspoon, the president of Princeton University and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He taught the doctrines of complete religious liberty and national independence. And today many of the finest men and women in our Government, as this congregation bears witness, are Presbyterians. Indeed, the democratic nature of our Government owes much to the democratic forms and the democratic experience of the Presbyterian church. I can brag a lot on the Presbyterians because I started a Sunday School in the Presbyterian Church when I was 6 years old, and that is where I met Mrs. Truman.

This is the Sunday before Thanksgiving. In Thanksgiving, we have a purely American holiday--fashioned out of our own history, and testifying to the religious background of our national life. That day expresses what we mean when we say that out form of government rests on a spiritual foundation.

Yet, we must not congratulate ourselves too much upon the past, or upon the purely physical growth of our churches in the present. Our churches must keep pace not only with the changes in our physical development, but also, and more importantly, with the changes of social problems. Our churches must not become a place to hide from the facts of the world about us, nor a mere badge of social respectability. Too often our churches have been blind to their most important function, which is to bring about the application of religious principles to our daily lives and in our work. We must all wage a ceaseless war against injustice in our society. The churches in particular are a force which should fight for brotherhood, and decency, and better lives for all our people.

In foreign affairs, as well as in our domestic affairs, the churches should hold up the standard and point the way. The only hope of mankind for enduring peace lies in the realm of the spiritual. The teachings of the Christian faith recognize the worth of every human soul before Almighty God. The teachings of the Christian faith are a sure defense against the godlessness and the brutality of ideologies which deny the value of the individual. We must try to find ways to carry these spiritual concepts into the field of world relations. The point 4 program is one of the ways in which we can do this. That program reflects our belief that we are all our brothers' keepers. And it is an evidence of our faith that by following the path of justice and righteousness we can turn back the dark forces that seek to plunge the earth again into savagery.

It is from a strong and vital church--from the strength and vitality of all our churches--that government must draw its vision. In the teachings of our Savior there is no room for bigotry, for discrimination, for the embittered struggle of class against class, or for the hostilities of nation against nation. St. Paul, in writing to the early church at Colosse, said, "Here there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, freeman, but Christ is all, and in all."

Here are the seeds of our vision of society. But we cannot keep that vision strong, or carry it out, without God's help. And the churches must help us to keep that vision always before us. Religious faith is the strength of our Nation, and the hope of all mankind.