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New York
State College of Agriculture

At Cornell University
Ithaca, N. Y.

 

The
Professor Dwight Sanderson
Rural Sociology
Library
LIBRARY
OF CHRISTIAN PROGRESS

   

Volumes Issued

The Church a Community Force. By Worth M. Tippy
The Church at the Center. By Warren H. Wilson

The Making of a Country Parish. By Harlow 8. Mills
Social Evangelism. By Harry F. Ward

Working Women of Japan. By Sidney L. Gulick

Church Finance. By Frederick A. Agar

Cooperation in Coopersburg. By Edmund DeS. Brunner

Cloth, 50 Cents, Prepaid

ADDITIONAL VOLUMES TO BE ISSUED
MAdOOD *S “LUN AO AONAAISAY

WIAA NN

 
COOPERATION IN
COOPERSBURG

BY

EDMUND DeS. BRUNNER

NEW YORK

Missionary Education Movement of the
United States and Canada
1916
re
Copyright, 1916, by

MISSIONARY EDUCATION MOVEMENT
OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA
CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE
INTRODUCTION ‘ ‘ ‘ . Vil
PREFACE . ; : : « Sill

I Historic CooperssurGc . , I
Il Tue Peropre, THE CHURCH, AND

THE Lire . ‘ ‘ ‘ » ¥

III Fair in Cooperspurc . 5 27

IV ASociat anv Reticious INVENTORY 35

V A Farta in PRactTiseE . i a 6

VI CoopersBuRG AND THE FuTuRE 69

VII Tue Messace or CooperssurG . 83

{v]
ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

Residence of Mr. T. S. Cooper. Frontispiece

Street Views . , . : ; 2
Public School . : 41
First National Bank Building a Post
Office . ‘ ; : aE
Moravian Church . ; ; ; 47
St. John’s Church ; ‘ é o. a
View from Station Avenue Bridge. 63
The Lake . ; ; ; ‘ =. 6g
Exterior of pribeecs a race
House ‘ 79

Floor Plans of peandl Neenhouadd
House s : ‘ : : 81

[vi]
INTRODUCTION

THE community dependent upon farming
has recently become a force in education
and in farm business. It is important that
its outlines and natural boundaries be recog-
nized. This survey of Coopersburg exhibits
such a community in action. It was per-
haps a surprise to the people of Coopers-
burg to confront their unity with one an-
other and their separation from those out-
side their bounds. Yet the community lay
latent all the time. It was even a common
matter of remark in conversation. It was,
however, left out of civic action. It was
ignored by the churches.

The basis of the rural community is the
fact that the American farmer is a stay-at-
home. His cattle, his crops, his buildings,

and his seasonal tasks require that he con-
[ vii]
INTRODUCTION

 

fine his wanderings to a limited habitat. He
can go from home only so far as the horse-
drawn vehicle can be relied on to bring him
home again the same day. The automobile
may lengthen this radius, but its influence
will not be recorded, by larger communities
in Eastern states, until two generations have
passed. Marriages have been formed within
this habitat, kinships have cemented the
families and attached the businesses, until
the rural community has become a social
whole, more real than county or township or
borough. These are made to work as civil
divisions by the law, but the rural com-
munity is spiritual. It is made to work by
the motives of the heart and the instincts
that lie deepest in the nature of men and
women.

The systematic investigation of rural
communities has occupied much attention
of late. Its purpose is to get an understand-

ing of the two rural institutions which are
[ viii ]
INTRODUCTION

 

under the control of public opinion and
subject to deliberate public action. These
are the church and the school. Each is pro-
fessedly a creature of the public, and open
to discussion. The school has a “district”
and the church a “parish,” each of these be-
ing an attempt to define the community,
though these ideas have been dimmed and
sometimes forgotten in recent educational
and religious thinking. The presentation
of the social realities on which both institu-
tions are founded necessitates a recognition
by church and school of their essentially
social character.

The publication of these facts about the
community is essential to the survey, be-
cause the community must act together. The
- church and school have been held back by
policies essentially private. Denominational
interest has seemed to justify the church in
carrying on its affairs without consulting

all the people for whom the church exists.
[ix]
INTRODUCTION

 

The dominance of a few over school affairs
has caused these few to forget that the
school exists for all within the habitat of
every farm household represented in the
school. The publication of the survey makes
it possible for all who read to see the com-
munity’s affairs in the same light and to
state its needs in the same terms.

The reorganization of the church and the
school will go forward only as fast as men
see the social facts upon which these two
institutions are based. Both church and
school are social. There would be need for
neither if persons only were to be converted
and if individuals only were to be educated.
American churches and schools, however,
are inherited from Europe, not created by
American social consciousness. The Amer-
ican mind has only lately acknowledged the
existence of social facts. The organization
of public institutions upon these social facts

will therefore be slow. Since leaders with
[x]
INTRODUCTION

 

eyes opened to these realities are not yet
many, it is well that the rebuilding go on
slowly. This book will contribute a light
for the eyes of some who might otherwise
see only persons and their concerns in the
old and closely organized population of
Pennsylvania.

The work done in preparing this survey
by the author and the investigator is a fine
example of the service which the ministers
of Christian churches alone can render.
In these days churchmen can investigate
schools and all other institutions, but
schoolmen cannot investigate churches. The
minister and the church have access to all
interests; but the officer employed by the
state has not so wide a range. In the rural
revival now beginning it is to be hoped
that the Church and the ministers of the
churches will take the place assigned to
them. For, without religious leadership

this movement, being essentially spiritual,
[xi]
INTRODUCTION

 

cannot command the universal assent it re-
quires. The leadership of the church is not
a dictation of others, much less a rebuking
of men in general, but it is an obedience and
a service, in which the church is first to
hear the word of the divine Spirit.
WARREN H. WILSON.
New York City
April 27, 1916.

[xii]
PREFACE

BACK of every record of achievement
there must lie the human forces that are
responsible for it. Because this is true, a
word is perhaps advisable to explain my
right to tell this little story of what some
far-visioned men and women wrought out
in a country village.

Not until my graduation from the Theo-
logical Seminary did I know that the peace-
ful rural side through which I chanced to
travel on train or trolley was struggling
with problems as acute as those which
pressed upon city communities.

Born and raised in a manufacturing com-
munity I had every interest centered in the
city. What work I did in sociology dealt
entirely with city conditions and the causes
which produced them. I dreamed of the
day when the plant of some institutional

[ xiii ]
PREFACE

 

church would be mine to direct, when I
could preach the fulness of the gospel to
the restless city throngs in terms of social
service as well as of individual salvation.
To this end I planned for one year of
postgraduate study in such courses as would
best assist me in attaining this ambition.
Then came a call—a call to a village church.
Both the congregation and the village
were small—very small in comparison with
the multitudes in the picture of my fancy.
But I accepted, despairingly, firmly re-
solved to make this church a stepping-stone
to larger fields of service. I went to work
and dwelt among a farming folk, went not
knowing that lima beans grew in pods as I
confessed later! I went and in the going
plunged into the rural problem. The relig-
ious, economic, social conditions of the
average rural community of which such a
village was the center came as an over-
whelming revelation. In a few weeks I

[ xiv ]
PREFACE

 

felt like a tired swimmer still many yards
from shore—and then came help and
“second wind.”

The village was Coopersburg, and there I
served for less than four years, but years
momentous in the community’s history and
filled with events that may prove of real
service to similar communities. For in these
years in Coopersburg some men and women
learned to cooperate, to sink the individual
for the sake of the common good, to apply
the gospel of Christ to community condi-
tions, to develop within themselves that
leadership which is latent in so many rural
communities, needing but the life-giving
touch of the Christ through his Church to
release it in service. Because I happened to
be there through these years and to work
with these men and women, and because I
am still associated with them, although no
longer in their midst, I have been asked to
set down the story of these years.

[xv]
PREFACE

 

I do so gladly. I am still in the rural
work. I have served my apprenticeship.
To transform and fuse the many types that
go to make up rural America into one great
people for the Lord is the task of the
Master’s disciple ordained or unordained.
It is a great task and a hard one, beset with
difficulties, discouragements, even dangers,
but the great day of triumph is coming when
the sum total of many such experiences as
are recorded here will be one of the assets
of that more glorious rural America upon
which God’s sun will some day shine.

EDMUND DES. BRUNNER.
Easton, Pa.
March 17th, 1916.

[ xvi |
I
HISTORIC COOPERSBURG

I the southwestern corner of Lehigh
County, Pennsylvania, lies the little
town of Coopersburg. It counts but forty-
five miles to Philadelphia and eight to either
Bethlehem or Allentown, but it conserva-
tively divides itself from the rest of the
world by low lying mountains to the north
and west. It is watered by numberless
springs and tiny streams and is beautiful to
look upon.

The original settlers of this county were
Mennonites. George Bachman, the first,
cleared his land in 1737 and he and his
neighbors united in building a meeting-
house in 1738-g—a typical “single cell”
church, bare and small but useful. An-
other structure that has since become his-

[i]
COOPERATION IN COOPERSBURG

 

toric was built by him—the first hotel—the
Barron House.

Coopersburg soon grew to be a place of
some importance. It became a stopping-
place on the stage route from Philadelphia
to Moravian Bethlehem. Later the road
from Allentown to Philadelphia effected a
junction with the original highway at Coop-
ersburg. It was no extraordinary thing to
find from thirty to forty teams in the stable
yard of the Barron House as night drew on.

The storm of the Revoluntionary war
seems to have passed around this quiet settle-
ment and there is no record of anything that
broke its calm before, during, or after the
troublous years of which that struggle was
the center. Certainly wounded soldiers on
their way to the hospital at Bethlehem must
have passed through, and also the many
prominent men that visited the settlement
there, but of these things Coopersburg took
no note.

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STREET VI
Gabriel Hosiery Mills in the

Middle
HISTORIC COOPERSBURG

 

With the opening of the nineteenth cen-
tury the family from which the village was
to take its name settled there and with them
came the cattle raising industry. It has
developed into the famous Cooper Jersey
Cattle Farm whose annual sales are known
the world over.

The village was made a post-office in 1818.
A blacksmith and wheelwright shop became
necessary and in 1820 a general store was
added to the group of buildings that lined
each side of the turnpike.

The growing importance of Bethlehem
proved a help to the community, for in
1856-7 a railroad was built to connect this
town with Philadelphia. Coopersburg by
this time had several hundred inhabitants
and was designated as a station. The road
was built three quarters of a mile to the east
of the turnpike which resulted in drawing
the village out in the shape of a T. This
road also brought the community into more

[3]
COOPERATION IN COOPERSBURG

 

intimate contact with the outside world.
Its beauties attracted well-to-do Philadel-
phians and Coopersburg for thirty years
was known as a summer resort. In 1890
the village, now for twelve years an in-
corporated borough, had a population of
454, increasing to 556 in 1900 and 683 in an-
other ten years, by which time there was
also a well organized national bank. In
1902 a trolley line was built connecting it
with Allentown, Philadelphia, and inter-
mediate points and thus opening still further
opportunities for association with its neigh-
bors. People in Coopersburg—especially
children of retired farmers—now began to
secure employment in the city. City in-
terests began to overshadow the funda-
mental interest of agriculture. City amuse-
ments began to attract. Life became more
complex. The time of testing that comes to
every rural village arrived.

In 1912 electricity was introduced into

[4]
HISTORIC COOPERSBURG

 

the village and the borough installed street
lights. This made a considerable difference
in the community life. People stayed up

 
 
  

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SHOWING LOCATION OF COOPERSBURG

later. Evening gatherings and meetings
became more attractive, labor saving devices
could be introduced into the homes and in
many ways life could be brightened.
To-day the community seems an ideal

[5]
COOPERATION IN COOPERSBURG

 

rural town, with its mixture of old and new,
its neat and shaded streets, its well kept
homes, its beautiful farm surroundings, its
attractive school and churches, its general
air of peace and solid prosperity.

A commonplace record is this—more
prosaic than that of many a country village.
For more than a century and three quarters
the people toiled hard and honestly and
played little, enjoyed their rest, helped their
neighbors, worshiped their God, loved,
married, and died, untroubled by conditions
that weighed upon the world outside. It
was a simple, quiet life, but concealed
within its routine, processes were being
wrought out of vital interest and promise.

[6]
II

THE PEOPLE, THE CHURCH, AND
THE LIFE

OOPERSBURG is in an unusual

degree homogeneous, ninety-eight

per cent. of the population being Pennsyl-

vania-German. ‘To understand the com-

munity and its achievements one must know

something of this race that comprises its
population.

For two hundred years the Pennsylvania-
Germans have sown their seed and har-
vested their crops. For two hundred years
significant processes have been working out
among them. For two hundred years the
rest of America has misunderstood them
and laughed at them.

The Pennsylvania-German immigration
to America was part of the same general
movement that brought the Quakers. This

E74
COOPERATION IN COOPERSBURG

 

race had been oppressed economically and
religiously. They came to the new conti-
nent dominated by the desire to be left alone.
They had no desire to mingle with the other
races that were making up the new nation.
William Penn was ready to welcome these
oppressed folk from his mother’s homeland.
The first who arrived from the Palatinate
settled near Germantown, Pennsylvania, in
1683. The second distinctive community.
arrived in the following year, and the curi-
ous company which first settled along the
banks of the picturesque Wissahickon near
Philadelphia and then later moved to
Ephrata on the Cocalico, near Lancaster,
came in 1694. As is well known, this was
buc the beginning of the immigration which
brought into Pennsylvania the many sects
it now has. Pressing into many localities
but ever following the limestone soil that
they had known in the land of their origin
these people settled upon the land and from

[8]
PEOPLE, CHURCH, AND LIFE

 

the first became an agricultural group. Re-
ligiously they adhered to many different be-
liefs. There were Mennonites and Schwenk-
felders, Dunkards and Seventh Day Bap-
tists, State Church Lutheran and Reformed,
together with representatives of the oldest
of the Protestant bodies—the Moravians.
In their strength and weakness together
the Pennsylvania-Germans have shown that
there is an “essential relation as far as
American agriculture goes, between suc-
cessful and permanent farming and reli-
gious life.” There are two types of Penn-
sylvania-Germans which have nothing in
common except the bond of almost identical
dialects and a similar view-point over
against outsiders. In all other things they
have grown apart to a greater or less degree.
The one type is found largely in York and
Lancaster counties, the other inhabits Berks,
Lehigh, Northampton, and portions of
AWilton, W.H., The Evolution of the Country Community, 68.

[9]

 
COOPERATION IN COOPERSBURG

 

Bucks and Montgomery counties. The
former type are the sectaries, the latter, more
generally members of the old state Church
bodies, are the credalists, so called for con-
venience because this term seems best to
differentiate them from the many small
and less known religious bodies, long com-
monly combined by observers under the
term “sectaries.” The term “credalist”
is used because the uniting bond of the old
state Church bodies was belief or creed,
some historic statement or confession,
whereas the uniting bond of the sectaries
became the many customs and habits which
have made them seem peculiar in the eyes
of the world. In the sectary type are in-
cluded the fourteen varieties of Mennon-
ites, such as the Amish and Dunkards, and
there are also the Seventh Day Adventists
and the Schwenkfelders. The last-named,
however, have their chief settlements in
Montgomery County. These different

[ 10 ]
PEOPLE, CHURCH, AND LIFE

 

sects have divided into conservative and
progressive wings but they are all remark-
able for their ability to rear stable com-
munities in the midst of adverse conditions
and in spite of outside opposition. They
have done this through cooperation between
their economic and religious habits. This
is their strength and the strength of their
rural churches.

Dr. Warren H. Wilson in his book, The
Evolution of the Country Community, has
given a very clear analysis of the conditions
pertaining among the sectaries. Their be-
liefs are simple in the extreme. They have
small use for theological hairsplitting but
have turned their attention to the practical
affairs of life down to the minutest details.
Strict abstinence from worldly finery is en-
joined upon women. The buggies and even
the automobiles of one sect must be painted
black. Hooks and eyes are used by the men
to fasten their clothes.

[ir]
COOPERATION IN COOPERSBURG

 

These things may seem ridiculous to us
but they are a part of a religious system that
also touches the weightier matters of the
law. The Pennsylvania-German farmer of
the sectaries shuns debt, not merely because
he dislikes to owe any man anything, but
rather because he regards debt as a sin and
knows that the church will rigidly enforce
the payment of all the obligations assumed.
Furthermore the church carefully safe-
guards the marriage tie which is one of the
reasons why among the sectaries the stand-
ard of conduct between the sexes has always
been good even if not quite perfect.

Another feature worthy of mention is the
economic cooperation of the sectary farmers
which extends from the function of selling
produce down to helping to rehabilitate the
unfortunate and marginal man in the com-
munity. The sectary type of Pennsylvania-
German has succeeded where others, even
of his own race, have failed and he has suc-

[12]
PEOPLE, CHURCH, AND LIFE

 

ceeded because he has consciously made
every act an expression of his religion. His
religion has entered into his whole life. To
him all days can be used in serving his God;
to him the land which yields him substance
is holy land and God is a very real Giver of
daily bread.

Representatives of both kinds of Pennsyl-
vania-Germans will be found anywhere in
the counties that these people have settled.
The first type predominates in York and
Lancaster counties. The second or credalist
type is the controlling element in the popu-
lation of the other German counties of the
state. It predominates also in Coopersburg.
Religiously this type belongs more largely
to the better known denominations. It has
had the advantage of freer contact with
other types and ideas and yet in some
respects it is weaker than the sectary type.
Among the farmers there is woful lack of
cooperation. They look upon their nearest

[13]
COOPERATION IN COOPERSBURG

 

neighbors as competitors in fact, if not in
word, and although they have not lost a
sense of neighborliness it is seldom that there
is any unity of action for the economic
benefit of the group. Not even the tie of
language nor the common persecution of
ridicule has given to the credalist the strong
community spirit of the sectary groups. He
is on exactly the same plane as the sectary
German when he finds himself in a com-
munity with other races and interests than
his own. Social consciousness is lacking
and the vision of the possibilities of the
whole group is not seen.

Furthermore, there is more farm tenantry
among the credalists than among the Lan-
caster County group. The one ambition of
the older farmers especially seems to be to
get atenant. There are very few of the old
men that have enough love for farming to
overcome the desire for village or city life.
About one half the farmers in Lehigh

[14]
PEOPLE, CHURCH, AND LIFE

 

County are tenants and it is an undeniable
fact that among the owners debt is in-
creasing.

The lack of ‘social consciousness that
this situation produces in countryside and
village is pathetic. It is true that neighbors
help one another at funerals—and indeed a
funeral is quite a social event. The annual
butchering also brings forth an exchange
of neighborly courtesies, although pay is in-
creasingly demanded for this help and
beyond these two events there is little
cooperation.

Recently a typical Pennsylvania-German
community, centering about a small village,
was offered a three-day winter Chautauqua
by the Pennsylvania Chautauqua Associa-
tion. ‘Twenty guarantors were required.
The effort failed for the lack of four names.
Not a single teacher, not a member of the
Board of Education would lift a finger to
help in the effort. Only one farmer was

[15 ]
COOPERATION IN COOPERSBURG

 

represented among the sixteen who were
willing to serve on the guaranteeing com-
mittee. Half of those who signed had lived
in other communities. Practically all the
rest were members of the only church in the
community with a resident pastor on full
time. In a similar community three years
ago a furniture dealer, two millers, two
small manufacturers, two farmers and a
minister were discussing a most important
forward step in the life of the community.
Summing up the conservative and typical
position one of the farmers said, “I mind
my business and I want other people to mind
theirs.”

These tendencies show themselves in
many ways but most of all they seem to have
affected the country church instead of being
affected by it. For the country church of
the credalist type shows the same weak-
nesses that are found in rural churches the
country over. The churches are losing both

[16]
PEOPLE, CHURCH, AND LIFE

 

in membership and attendance. A survey of
one community which was in many respects
above the average, disclosed the fact that
fifty per cent. of the people seldom entered
church except for a funeral. Quite a
number of these people frankly confessed
that the church as such had no hold upon
them, but the inborn “religiosity” of the
Pennsylvania-German was not entirely gone,
for some that had not attended a service nor
paid dues for years declared loyally for the
denominational name. Under the circum-
stances it is not surprising to learn that,
though the community had increased five
per cent. in population in the last decade,
church-membership had fallen more than
ten per cent., while church attendance aver-
aged only fifteen per cent. of the member-
ship. This is far from being an isolated
instance. The attendance at communion
services has fallen off in the last decade to
a marked degree.

[17]
COOPERATION IN COOPERSBURG

 

Of course, there are reasons for this. A
century and more ago religious privileges
were few in Pennsylvania and the Moravian
home missionaries went hither and thither
preaching once or twice at many different
points. ‘They held together these groups
of worshipers as a sacred trust, refusing to
admit them to their own communion and
turning them over to the ministers of their
respective denominations as soon as these
could be brought over from Germany. The
circuit system had to be maintained in order
to cover the large field. Germany was slow
in following up those who had left her, and
it was due almost entirely to the energy of
Muhlenberg and Michael Schlaetter that
any provision at all was made. The circuit
system which they found they were forced
to continue for many reasons. To-day it is
grievously abused. Services once or twice
a month and no oftener are an opening
wedge for Sabbath-breaking. The min-

[ 18 ]
PEOPLE, CHURCH, AND LIFE

 

ister lives in the town or city with his people
there and drives out to three or four rural
charges. Ceasing to have pastors living
among them the people grow apart from
their ministers. There is more insistence on
belief than on life. How could it be other-
wise, when teaching the catechism becomes
in fact, if not in thought, as it does in so
many instances, a more important function
of the church than translating the gospel
into terms that apply to the modern life of a
farming population, especially to its young
people? The latter, growing up into a
vastly different age than their fathers and
grandfathers ever knew, look to the country
church and find nothing, except the preach-
ing of a dogmatic Christ and the oppor-
tunity once in a lifetime for twelve weeks of
perfunctory study of the catechism. When
that has been accomplished and they have
made their credal confession, both the young
people and their church have complied with

[ 19 ]
COOPERATION IN COOPERSBURG

 

custom and both continue on their way.
Whatever may be the weaknesses of the sec-
taries in taking their pastors directly from
among the people, they have certainly given
religion a life emphasis, instead of a credal
emphasis and to do that is the outstanding
need of the credalist Pennsylvania-German
to-day.

Sad indeed is the gradual breaking away
from the church in many a family. There
was one grandfather, known and loved the
country round, who was the pillar of his
church back in the pioneer days. As often
as there was service he drove his big family
to church in the large farm wagon with its
rough bench seats. The years have passed.
But two sons and one daughter, a widow,
reside in the community. The others are
scattered. The two sons still belong to the
church of their father. They have taken his
place on the church boards, they remain
loyal to the traditions of the past, but they

[ 20 ]
PEOPLE, CHURCH, AND LIFE

 

are not so often seen in the family pew nor
at the board meetings. The complete break
has come with the third generation. Regu-
larly the many sons and daughters of these
brothers come for instruction, and regu-
larly the boys and some of their sisters break
away from the church. They hate their
farm life. Their pleasure is a trip to one
or the other of the near-by towns for the
enjoyment of degrading recreations—de-
grading because the Pennsylvania-German
has never learned to play. Their confessed
ambition is to get away from their present
life and go elsewhere. Self is at the center
and circumference of their view. The
fathers sadly recall “the good old times” and
lament the degeneracy of these present days
for which the past is responsible. They do
not see in the sagging roofs of a near-by
church’s horse-sheds the emblem and sign
of the real trouble.

This then is the people who dominated

[21]
COOPERATION IN COOPERSBURG

 

Coopersburg in 1912, and these are some of
their characteristics. They are storekeep-
ers, mill-hands, clerks, professional men,
farmers, and retired farmers. They have all
the weaknesses of the credalist type but they
have also all the strength and promise
of that type. The story of how weaknesses
once discovered can be overcome is the story
of the rest of this record.

Coopersburg had a community spirit
adverse to much that younger people
idealize. It had not yet felt the socializing
forces that are binding together the peoples
of the world. The newer ideas in regard to
education, the sense of the value of the
newer professions for men and women, had
not as yet taken possession of the entire com-
munity—nor any community like it. Lead-
ership seemed to be lacking. There was no
vision.

One Sunday afternoon in December,

[ 22 ]
PEOPLE, CHURCH, AND LIFE

 

1913, a young Christian woman of Coopers-
burg was surprised by her pastor in the
empty Sunday-school room of the church.
The children had all gone home. The girl
was troubled. ‘Touched by the spirit of
service that is preached in all America to-
day, this young woman longed for some
opportunity to express her altruism and
idealism in practical Christian effort. There
seemed to be no outlet. The handicaps and
restrictions of the sheltered village life shut
her in. With the simplicity of tragedy she
bared before her pastor the details of her
routine life. Here was a Christian life,
touched, uplifted, possessing faith, hope,
and love, but shut off from the full expres-
sion of Christianity by insufficient education
and all the other things which go to make
up the environment of any unawakened
village.

More than mere vocational guidance or
its lack lay back of this case, for the

[ 23 ]
COOPERATION IN COOPERSBURG

 

terms by which we designate social ideas
are too coldly impersonal when they
touch the living tragedy of an imprisoned
soul.

The incident made the pastor very
thoughtful. The individual case might be
dealt with and was. There was no guaranty
that similar cases would not arise. Grad-
ually there grew in the minds of the pastor
and the mistress of the rural manse the con-
ception of a community organization which
would be able to meet the varying needs of
the village as they arose, which would be
able to develop and utilize leadership in
awakening Coopersburg to a “sense of
things not realized.”

The plan was thoroughly discussed with
the church boards and then with a group of
twelve representative citizens in a meeting
called by the church. The plan was en-
dorsed as its details became better known
to the group to which it was proposed. As

[ 24]
PEOPLE, CHURCH, AND LIFE

 

they talked it through they began to see
the possibilities of cooperative effort, the
strength of their combined influence. There
was born a faith in Coopersburg undreamed
of before. The dynamic of it was a girl’s
tears. The result of it was a new community
life.

[25 ]
III
FAITH IN COOPERSBURG

HE idea to which these dozen men

pinned their faith called for a central
organization to be known as a Neighbor-
hood Association. This organization was
to meet every social and religious need in
the community as it arose.

To do this, the work was to be divided
among committees covering the following
phases of village life: Industry, Recreation,
Home and School, Civic Improvement,
Health and Hygiene, Religion and Morals,
and Publicity.

An association so organized would not
have to wait for the arousing of public
opinion before acting in any given instance.
The machinery for expressing the com-
munity’s mind would exist within the com-

[27 ]
COOPERATION IN COOPERSBURG

 

munity itself. Through any committee the
neighborhood could speak at least a pre-
liminary word on any question that arose.

Such an association, too, precluded the
necessity of ever forming separate organiza-
tions for the different forms of community
endeavor that arise in growing towns. It
would be difficult to find any matter of
common interest to such a neighborhood as
Coopersburg which could not be properly
referred to one or another of the seven
standing committees.

While being thus all-inclusive, the plan
of organization was simple enough not to
overburden a rural community such as
Coopersburg is. By it Coopersburg is and
will be saved the financial appeals of several
organizations, for the Neighborhood Asso-
ciation presents only one financial appeal
based upon budgets turned in by each com-
mittee to the directing body of the organiza-
tion. This is composed of the chairmen of

[ 28 ]
FAITH IN COOPERSBURG

 

the committees and the usual officers of any
association.

After due consideration a mass-meeting
of all the men of Coopersburg was called
to which the plan was to be proposed.

It was a great meeting in many ways. A
city editor and a number of city social
service workers were there to speak briefly
and to offer suggestions. The town band
was there. It met the speakers at the
trolley station and escorted them to the hall
offered by one of the lodges for the occasion.
Into it crowded the men of Coopersburg
over one hundred strong. Some were skepti-
cal, some indifferent, some interested, some
curious, and in the hearts of some fear and
faith and hope held sway.

The burgess presided and the plan was
unfolded. The city workers encouraged
the undertaking, the band played stirring
tunes. A number of citizens spoke and
finally it was unanimously voted to proceed

[29 ]
COOPERATION IN COOPERSBURG

with the organization of the COOPERSBURG
NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION.

The step was taken amid considerable en-
thusiasm. Strong leaders were elected to
fill the various offices. There was more
music and the meeting adjourned.

It was a great meeting. It was the begin-
ning of the community’s first socializing ex-
perience. For the first time the men of
Coopersburg as a body had taken a step
which showed their united faith in the place
in which they lived. As a city editor wrote
in the leading editorial in his paper the next
morning: “The town is united on the prop-
osition. When it is considered that well
over half the population of the town eligible
to vote were at the meeting and decided
with practical unanimity to form the organ-
ization, the stability and worth of the senti-
ment can be realized. If we in were
to have had a meeting like that at Coopers-
burg and turned out a proportionate number

[ 30 ]

 

 
FAITH IN COOPERSBURG

 

of people the crowd would have filled the
biggest hall in the city and left enough over
to fill with its overflow every other hall
in the city. If we had such a meeting
we would conclude that business was
meant. In other words Coopersburg means
business.”

The editor was right, and the Executive
Committee lost no time in getting to work.
It was found that the men chosen repre-
sented all churches and lodges and all types
of business interest. This happy situation
was made still more noticeable when all the
committee appointments were made. One
sixth or more of the population over school
age are serving on committees. For the
first time recreational needs were treated on
a par with industrial interests and considera-
tions of community health took equal place
with questions of education. As never
before the leaders themselves caught a vision
of the oneness, the interrelation, of all com-

[31]:
COOPERATION IN COOPERSBURG

 

munity interests. They became united,
fused together as one on a common basis and
under a religious impulse. The impulse of
that vision has kept them hard at work in a
spirit that will overcome all obstacles.

For there have been obstacles and dis-
couragements. One of the first acts of the
Executive Committee was to open the mem-
bership of the Association to the women of
the community.’ This aroused the antago-
nism of some. Others opposed the entire
scheme simply because it was something
new. Some feared that undue influence was
to be exerted on the village council. Others
thought that it was planned to interfere
with the work of the existing governmental
machinery—such as the school, health
board, and council. Again some believed
that the effort was a veiled attack upon the
saloon.

*The Association admits to its membership any man,
woman, or child, regardless of creed, race, or position, liv-
ing within the bounds of the community.

[ 32]
FAITH IN COOPERSBURG

 

Some of the misunderstandings were per-
fectly natural and time has removed them.
Others have persisted through the months.
There are many reasons for this, and these
reasons will arise wherever such a work is
undertaken. They find their root in old-
time disagreements, the desire of industrial
interests to try to control the situation to the
detriment of other interests, the danger of
the domination of one man or small group
of men, the self-complacency of partial suc-
cess, even to personal jealousies. Despite
these things, however, the community as a
whole stands united for progress and the
achievements of the two years that have
passed since the organization meeting are
the best attest to the fact that “Coopersburg
means business.”

[ 33 ]
IV

A SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS
INVENTORY

T is a curious fact, that while the average
member of any rural community
knows every one in it by name and could
find his way to any house on a dark night
without a lantern, yet he does not know his
community. He may hear of a scandal,
know of a fertile field, realize that church
attendance is stationary—or worse; these
and a hundred similar things may be his, but
the knowledge of their significance, of the
part they play in the community life and the
light they shed on it—that is not his. He
does not know his community.

Coopersburg was no exception to the
rule, and hence one of the first acts of the
Neighborhood Association was to have a
social and religious inventory taken. The

[35]
COOPERATION IN COOPERSBURG

Rev. T. Maxwell Morrison of Bellona,
New York, who made the Pennsylvania
Survey for the Presbyterian Department of
Church and Country Life, was secured for
this purpose and with him cooperated
workers of the Moravian Country Church
Commission and, of course, the people of
Coopersburg.

The territory included in this survey
went beyond the borough limits of Coopers-
burg and included all the neighborhood
which traded in the village stores.

A soil survey of the county had recently
been made by the Department of Agricul-
ture and all three varieties of soil found in
the neighborhood were declared to be pro-
ductive. The land ranges in price from
$35 to $100 an acre. All the staple crops are
grown and the soil is also suited for alfalfa.
The loam soil is excellent for peaches,
apples, and small fruits, and there are a
number of fine orchards in the vicinity.

[ 36 ]

 
SOCIAL, RELIGIOUS INVENTORY

 

The external appearance of the village it-
self is in keeping with the beauty of the
surrounding country. The houses are set
back from the shaded streets. ‘They are
surrounded by well-kept lawns and attrac-
tive gardens. Everything speaks of the
tidiness of the Pennsylvania-German house-
wife. The sidewalks and the streets are
better than those of the average borough of
equal size and everything is kept in good
repair. Running through the town is a
small stream of pure water which at one
place has been dammed into a pond. The
survey discovered further uses for this little
creek.

So much for externals. Coopersburg is
good to look upon and this very fact ac-
counts to some degree, perhaps, for the
health record of the community. The alti-
tude is 600 feet and the rolling land renders
drainage easy. The water supply is superb,
the water coming from a spring without the

[ 37]
COOPERATION IN COOPERSBURG

 

borough limits. The death-rate for the
nine-year period preceding the survey was
14.8. The rate for 1914 was 11.8. The aver-
age rate is a better record than that for rural
Pennsylvania and New York, but a poorer
record than that for New York City in 1913
—13.7. These figures brought home the
warning needed in all rural communities,
that fresh air and water and plenty of sun-
shine contribute to, but do not guarantee
good health if other conditions are favor-
able to the growth of disease and disease
carriers. The rate for the last few years,
however, is encouraging so far as Coopers-
burg is concerned. With care it can be
made one of the healthiest places in the
country.

A laxness in quarantine was uncovered
due to the fact that parents have not under-
stood the really serious character of some
children’s diseases, and also because the
lack of community spirit makes the in-

[ 38]
SOCIAL, RELIGIOUS INVENTORY

 

dividual convenience in multitudes of such
cases of more importance than the social
need.

“Tf one were asked to describe the main
feature of the life of Coopersburg it would
probably be summed up in some such words
as, ‘industrious’ and ‘tired,’” writes Mr.
Morrison in his survey report. The house-
to-house canvass showed less than a dozen
men without some employment. Even the
“retired” farmers are working a few acres
of land somewhere. The hosiery mill, the
tobacco factory, the farm, and the railroad
claim the largest number of hands. The
carriage factory, shoe factory, casket fac-
tory, bending works, and machine shop all
employ their quota of from twelve or fifteen
to two or three. A number go to Allentown
and Bethlehem to work in the city store,
mill, or office. There are, of course, the
usual number of professional, commercial,
and trades people, all busily occupied in

[39]
COOPERATION IN COOPERSBURG

 

their various pursuits and in the up-keep
of their homes and gardens.

The hours of labor range from eight and
nine to fourteen for the railroad watchman.
The average is ten.

Coopersburg does not feel the pinch of
periodic labor. The farming season over,
the unemployed find work in the city fac-
tories, and the wages paid are up to the
average for such communities. Despite the
widespread feeling of pessimism the eco-
nomic situation found by the investigators
seemed ideal, except for the farmer, who
suffers at times from the ills that affect
American rural life everywhere. There
was no complaint about wages. Three
quarters of the population have bank
accounts and control about that percentage
of the quarter of a million dollars deposited
in the local bank.

The housing situation in Coopersburg is
also good. The property valuation is about

[ 40 J
 

PUBLIC SCHOOL
FIRST NATIONAL BANK BUILDING AND POST OFFICE
SOCIAL, RELIGIOUS INVENTORY

 

$400,000—the number of taxables 258.
There are no rural slums in Coopersburg.
There is not a house in the neighborhood
which is not in good condition. Rents yield
a fair return on the investment. More
houses are needed. Many men from the
neighborhood work in the community and
must board there during the week to the
loss of their own home life. They would
bring their families into the town if pos-
sible and could they do so it would
strengthen the community life in many
ways.

Coopersburg has advanced beyond the
little red schoolhouse stage. The public
school building stands out as one of the
most prominent buildings in the community
and stamps the people as placing a higher
estimate upon the value of education than
is sometimes found among the Pennsylvania-
Germans. Nine full months comprise the
term, the average attendance percentage is

[ 41 ]
COOPERATION IN COOPERSBURG

 

94, and the salaries for both male and female
teachers are higher than the average for the
county or state.

The interior arrangement of the rooms
and conveniences in the school are good.
The only fault with the building is the bare
condition of the white walls of the rooms.
The rural school needs to learn the health
and moral value of attractive interior dec-
orations and to understand the influence
such decorations, or their lack, will have
on the future homes of the boys and girls.
Defying analysis but yet ever present as an
element in some children’s dislike of school
is the rebellion of their natures against the
unbroken monotony of white walls and
blackboards.

The grounds around the building are also
unfinished. More shade trees need to be
planted. The school stands in an ideal sit-
uation and can readily become a part of the
community center that is being planned, and

[42]
SOCIAL, RELIGIOUS INVENTORY

 

of which more will be said in a future
chapter.

The recreational situation was found to
be typical of that existing in thousands of
rural communities to-day. There is a
pathos in the significance of the matter-of-
fact recital with which the various diver-
sions are presented.

“The people reveal the desire for recrea-
tion in a number of ways. When picnics
are held by the churches in adjacent groves,
they are well attended, and the people enter
into the sports and games with real earnest-
ness and pleasure.

“A number of people go frequently to
near-by towns to take advantage of the
amusements offered for commercial gain,
such as moving pictures, theaters, dances,
ball games, etc.

“There are a few young men who fre-
quent the hotels of Coopersburg to play
pool at tables owned by the proprietors.

[43 ]
COOPERATION IN COOPERSBURG

 

“A small group gathers almost daily to
pitch quoits.

“Another group frequents regularly a
well-known rendezvous for card-playing
and gambling.

“Still another group gathers and spends
the evenings in drinking and exchanging
low stories and smutty talk.

“A company of young men have formed a
baseball team.

“About thirty boys have been organized
into a Boy Scout patrol.

“A company of young women have
formed a club known as ‘The Eight Week
Club’ in which Y. W. C. A. methods are
taken up for the time.

“Other companies of ladies have gathered
to read, and to cultivate friendship ties.

“But there is no central moving power to
encourage and direct by suggestions in any
way the recreational spirit and endeavors
of the community aright.”

[ 44 J
SOCIAL, RELIGIOUS INVENTORY

 

Under the circumstances it was no
wonder that here as in many other places
to-day there were some that had mistaken
the purpose of recreation and thus been led
into temptation and vice. The churches
had not been negligent in preaching against
sins, but nothing had been done by Chris-
tians for insuring plenty of wholesome good
times.

The social and moral conditions of Coop-
ersburg were found to be similar to those
of many rural communities. The lack of
life emphasis among the credalist Pennsyl-
vania-Germans is apt to show itself in moral
laxness. There were other undeniable
weaknesses, startling when viewed in their
aggregate but there were also superior
sources of strength.

The loyalty to the denominational name
shown by the Pennsylvania-German cre-
dalist was plainly disclosed in the fact that
84 per cent. of the population over 15 years

[45 ]
COOPERATION IN COOPERSBURG

 

of age are church-members. Contrasted
with this moral asset is the fact that of the
forty-one signers to the liquor license appli-
cations of the three hotels two thirds were

        

84% of the
population over
IS years of age
are church
members

    
     
   

church-members. As is apt to be the
case in Pennsylvania-German communities,
where a man’s “keeping company” with a
woman is looked upon as almost as binding
as a marriage, the number of forced mar-
riages was shown to be high. On the other
hand the number of illegitimate births is

[ 46 ]
 

MORAVIAN CHURCH
SOCIAL, RELIGIOUS INVENTORY

 

very low. The dreg element was not, there-
fore, exceptional compared with any similar

rural community. It can be diagramed as
follows:

WHICH SHALL RULE?
THE BIBLE or THE BOTTLE?

 

 

 

2 3
CHURCHES HOTELS
E DolyBible % of
P The Bottle was

! filled at the request
wi

 

 

 

 

of church-members

Of the 41 signers to the liquor license applications
28 were reported to be church-members.

The religious aspect of the community
is a concrete illustration of the two types
of Pennsylvania-Germans. There are two
church buildings in the town itself and six
within two miles of it. All of these churches

[ 47 ]
COOPERATION IN COOPERSBURG

 

are substantial and in good repair and all
of them are examples of the typical rural
church. In most of them the Sunday-school
is held in the main auditorium of the
church for want of even the right sort of a
basement. They are churches trying to doa
twentieth century task with the equipment
of a hundred years ago.

There are four ministers residing in the
borough itself. One is pastor of the Men-
nonite Church and combines his work with

the cultivation of a farm and other interests. -

The German Lutheran pastor serves three
rural charges beside his town church, and
the Reformed minister also has three other
congregations. The Moravian pastor gives
his full time to his congregation.

The survey disclosed the fact that 464
people in the community professed to be
church-members, half of whom were Lu-
therans, a little more than one quarter Re-
formed, and the remainder divided between

[ 48 ]
SOCIAL, RELIGIOUS INVENTORY

 

the Moravians, Mennonite Brethren in
Christ, United Evangelicals, Roman Cath-
olics, Baptists, and Dunkards. A study of
the records shows that 157 of the professing
Christians of Coopersburg hold their
church-membership in churches located out-
side of the community. In many instances

 

 

Population of Coopersbury, community-751 ico

Professing Christians-464 | 62%

Members of Coopersburg, 40%
Churches-307
Average Attendance
in Evening- 283 we
Average

——* 16%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

these people had to pass two churches in
order to get to their own and some of them
even went by a church of their own denom-
ination.

Here is a concrete illustration of one of
the difficulties in the church work of Amer-
ica to-day. People live in a community,
enjoy its religious atmosphere and its other
privileges but they do not hold themselves

[ 49 ]
COOPERATION IN COOPERSBURG

 

responsible for sustaining the religious insti-
tutions of the community. Furthermore it
is impossible to reach them through the
churches for any forward steps in com-
munity work. Considerations of sentiment,
family, or lower expense keep the member-
ship in churches elsewhere, but whatever
the considerations, be they more or less
worthy, such a condition makes for a cheap
religion. When the annual check is mailed
to the church treasurer there is a comfort-
able feeling that the Kingdom’s obligations
have been met for another twelve months,
that righteousness has been fulfilled, that the
premium of their eternal life insurance has
been paid for another year. The Church as
such must paraphrase the slogan of the town
stores and sound the challenge, “Worship
at home churches.”

Just how this situation affects church con-
ditions in Coopersburg can be seen in the
chart on page 49.

[ 50 ]
 

ST. JOHN’S CHURCH
SOCIAL, RELIGIOUS INVENTORY

 

The benevolence figures of the group of
churches in Coopersburg show that the
credalist congregations averaged less than
one dollar per year per member for home
and foreign missions, while the sectaries
gave about $8 a member. The one church
with a full time resident pastor was shown to
raise about sixty per cent. of the money
given for religious purposes. Some day
rural communities and home mission boards
of all denominations will be convinced of
the practical value from every standpoint of
an undivided resident pastorate.

Each professing Christian in Coopers-
burg gives on the average of $3.48 a year
for the sustaining of Christian worship in
the community and $1.01 for the spread of
the kingdom of God elsewhere. The total
of the two is not very much more than the
price of a soda, a glass of beer, or a package
of chewing gum a week! It is to be remem-
bered that this is a record made by a people

[51]
COOPERATION IN COOPERSBURG

 

particularly forward in their religious pro-
fessions and notably loyal to their denom-
inational affiliations.

These figures are the more significant
when compared with the educational
budget. In the year of the survey $3,709
was spent for educational purposes exclu-
sive of the state appropriation. In the same
period $1,617 was raised for religious work
of all kinds. The combined salary of the
ministers resident in Coopersburg is less
than the average salary for male teachers in
the public school.

Recalling again the fact that one church
having nine per cent. only of the professing
Christians in its membership gave sixty per
cent. of the amount raised for religious
work in Coopersburg, and remembering
that a man gives in proportion to his interest
rather than in proportion to his ability, and
the failure and task of the churches in |
Coopersburg will be seen. Then, viewing

[52]
SOCIAL, RELIGIOUS INVENTORY

 

the problem in the large, realize that the
situation in Coopersburg is distinctly better
than in many other credalist communities
of Pennsylvania-Germans and in many
other country churches all over the land,
and it will be clearly seen that rural Amer-
ica to-day needs urgent recalling to the
power, the comfort, and the value of the
gospel of Christ for the daily life.

The study of the religious statistics com-
pleted the scope of the investigation.
Coopersburg had boldly said at the begin-
ning of the inventory, “A village surveyed
is a village unafraid.” When the finished
social photograph was presented to view
some cringed. Others, including the Board
of Directors of the Neighborhood Associa-
tion, realizing that the very making of such
a survey was a sign of promise, went to
work on a program which was to use the
discovered strength in overcoming the
recognized weaknesses. They put the faith

[53]
COOPERATION IN COOPERSBURG

 

they had in Coopersburg into practise aided
by the best results that were attained by
the survey,—results not to be diagramed
and plotted,—the lives that were enlarged,
invigorated, and put to work in Christian
service in and for the community.

L 54]
V
A FAITH IN PRACTISE

HE significance of whatever contri-
bution Coopersburg is to make to the
work for rural progress lies not in the facts
disclosed by the social inventory. Many a
rural community, surveyed and unsurveyed,
can show similar conditions. The signifi-
cance of the work lies in this—that an ap-
preciation of the real situation caused the
formation under religious impulses of a
well-nigh ideal piece of community ma-
chinery and decided the way in which that
machinery was to be used to meet the situa-
tion. It is the story of what has been done
thus far that this chapter tells.
From the first the Neighborhood Asso-
ciation realized that the only impulse which
could permanently unite the people was a

[55]
COOPERATION IN COOPERSBURG

 

religious one. ‘There were those who be-
lieved in the new move simply for the
economic advantage that it might bring to
them and their town. Only religion could
transform overreaching selfishness into that
form of enlightened self-interest which sees
that the individual rises and falls with the
community and that the community pros-
pers in proportion to its moral and religious
health.

To meet the religious needs of the work,
therefore, monthly religious mass-meetings
were held, and the services of speakers well-
known in rural America were secured. To
a great extent these meetings have accom-
plished their purpose. Life decisions have
been crystallized as a result of some of the
words that have been spoken. Through
these union services the churches have been
brought closer together. There are tales in
Coopersburg of bitter jealousy between the
congregations. That state of affairs is over,

[ 56]
A FAITH IN PRACTISE

 

and if any cherish that attitude they must
do so in secret.

One tenet of Coopersburg’s faith has been
that there can be no completely saved com-
munity life that does not include every
feature of the community’s work, play, and
living. To this end the Industrial Com-
mittee has been considered important.

Its first act was the formation of a Build-
ing and Loan Association; and it is signifi-
cant that at this and other meetings of the
committees men put away their cigars and
ceased their talk while one of the town’s
clergymen asked the divine guidance in the
work that was to be done and the divine
blessing upon the homes that were to be
built.

New houses were certainly needed in the
town and the formation of such an associa-
tion seemed one of the ways to get them.
An energetic canvass was made and special
efforts were directed to the young men,

Lael
COOPERATION IN COOPERSBURG

 

many of whom for want of a better place to
invest, were wasting their wages. The can-
vass proved successful and the Building and
Loan Association was most favorably
launched on a course that has proven ex-
ceptionally prosperous. ‘The new houses
have come, too, as a result of the agitation
—more in the last two years than ever
before.

The Industrial Committee was no sooner
organized than it began to receive offers
from firms wishing to be induced to settle
in the community. Such offers presented a
temptation but they were one and all re-
jected. Coopersburg does not care to be-
come an imitation city nor does it wish that
whatever growth it attains shall be of the
mushroom variety. Furthermore the sudden
increase in the number of industries with
its consequent increase in the town’s popu-
lation would have only aggravated the
housing and moral conditions and brought

[ 58]
A FAITH IN PRACTISE

problems still harder to solve than those
suggested by the survey.

What was done was a careful investiga-
tion of the existing industries. One or two
seemed to need assistance and the committee
conceived it to be its duty to help to
strengthen existing concerns rather than to
aid foreign enterprises. This was done. It
backed a reorganization of one small com-
pany, brought about its incorporation and
it is to-day employing more men and turn-
ing out more work than ever before.

One public-spirited citizen has placed in
the Association’s control a score or more of
acres to offer as free sites for such concerns
as are locating in rural communities. This
will enable the community to control to
some extent the character of its future popu-
lation and to furnish employment for, and
thus hold a larger portion of its young
people.

The survey showed the Coopersburg

[59]
COOPERATION IN COOPERSBURG .

 

neighborhood to be small. Other towns
further away seemed to be making more of
an effort to cater to the more distant farmers.
The Industrial Committee has, therefore,
performed all the usual functions of a Board
of Trade. Together with other committees
it is working to make the farmer feel an
interest in the village, to influence him to
market his products in the town so that the
community will not get its green groceries
from Philadelphia but from the neighbor-
hood. It has contributed to the community
spirit by issuing a Coopersburg envelope, it
is advertising the community and its prod-
ucts, and in every possible way is seeking to
promote on farm and in town a strong,
honest industrial life.

The old-time countryman never used to
believe in play. What man of to-day has
not heard his grandfather say: “Tf it’s exer-
cise you want, why don’t you go chop some
wood? That’s all I used to play when I was

[ 60 |
A FAITH IN PRACTISE

 

a boy.” Through the Recreation Com-
mittee there is an increasing emphasis upon
a proper recreational life in Coopersburg.
The moral value of play has been recog-
nized, but the work of the committee has
been hard. It has not always been easy to
find facilities for working out some of the
plans, but there has been progress.

The committee has cooperated to the full
with existing organizations such as the band,
baseball team, and the Boy Scouts. Under
its impulse a good orchestra and Glee Club
have been added to the recreational re-
sources of the town. A number of home
talent entertainments have been worked up
—of value to the performers and of great
interest to the entire community. Young
and old have taken part in these activities.
It was a great sight recently to see the be-
loved president of the Neighborhood Asso-
ciation, whose head is almost white, take
part in the town’s first minstrel show with

[61 ]
 

VIEW FROM STATION AVENUE BRIDGE
THE LAKE
COOPERATION IN COOPERSBURG

 

some of the community’s young folks, in-
cluding his own children.

A number of outside entertainments have
been brought in by the committee, such as
musicals, lectures, and plays, and it has also
acted as a clearing-house for the various
church entertainments, each one having its
place in the program for the season.

At present the Ladies’ Auxiliary is doing
splendid work in supplying recreation.
This body, organized with a view to assist-
ing in the erection of the Neighborhood
House, is divided into four sections. Each
section is responsible for some money mak-
ing recreational features during the three
months of its sway. Some elaborate func-
tions have been carried through by these
women.

To the left of the school is a large tract
of ground which has been leased as a base-
ball field. On the other side of the school
tennis courts have been built and to the rear

[ 62]
A FAITH IN PRACTISE

 

is the pond. It is planned some day to turn
this land into a community park, one block
from which the Neighborhood House will
soon stand, and in this locality, therefore,
the community’s recreation can center,
summer and winter, indoors and out.

Besides the proposed park the community
has had given to it by a generous minded
citizen a seven acre tract of woodland on
the outskirts of the village which will be
used as a picnic ground. Here the annual
community picnic is held under the auspices
of the Sunday-schools in a day given over to
the good, old rural games, combined with
supervised athletic tests. Here also family
and lodge picnics can be held.

The Home and School Committee has
performed all the functions of a Parents and
Teachers Association. Its meetings have
been helpful in creating a better sentiment
between school and town. The May-day
celebration arranged by this and the Recre-

[ 63 J
COOPERATION IN COOPERSBURG

 

ation Committee was a real event in the
town’s history, not merely because of the
enjoyment it brought but also because of
the social value to the community and the
children. Working in cooperation with the
High School Alumni Association and with
the Young Women’s Christian Association,
the committee installed electric lights in the
public school, displacing the time honored
oil lamps.

The first task of the Health and Hygiene
Committee has been an educational one.
This must be done before the larger features
of the program can be attempted and it is
being done consistently. Health articles are
printed weekly in the town’s newspaper and
health literature is freely distributed, espe-
cially that dealing with rural sanitation,
destroying the fly, and the prevention of
tuberculosis. There have been lectures on
health topics by doctors of the state staff
and others. Clean Up days have been held

[ 64 ]
A FAITH IN PRACTISE

 

each year and excellent work done in co-
operation with the Boy Scouts.

The Civic Improvement Committee’s big
task was planning for and carrying through
the survey. When the railroad station was
slightly damaged by fire the committee,
working in conjunction with the station
agent, was enabled to secure conveniences in
the repaired depot as well as the promise of
a fine, new station as soon as the industrial
depression had sufficiently passed away.
The plans and specifications for this station
have now been prepared. The committee
has also declared against bill poster adver-
tising and is working further to develop the
community spirit which the very forming of
the Neighborhood Association called into
being. To this end contests have been car-
ried on for a town hymn, slogan, motto, and
colors. The hymn, which follows, is often
sung in the school and always at community
gatherings.

[65 ]
COOPERATION IN COOPERSBURG

 

MY COOPERSBURG

My Coopersburg! Of thee
Home of my childhood’s glee,
Of thee I sing;
Haven of peaceful rest,
Village of all most blest,
To every parting guest
Thy praises cling.

My native Coopersburg!

Dear, fostering, homelike burg!
Thy name I love;

I love thy rolling farms,

Thy quiet rural charms;

My heart with ardor warms
For thee I love.

Dear God, we plead with thee,
Drive all adversity
Far from our town;
Long may her glory rise,
Her praises fill the skies;
Bless thou the town we prize,
Grant her renown.

The religious impulse that is back of all
this work is manifesting itself in many Ways
and the service rendered in carrying out

[ 66 ]
A FAITH IN PRACTISE

 

whatever has been done has conversely re-
acted for good on the religious organiza-
tions, instead of adversely as some feared.
There is an increased Sunday-school enrol-
ment and attendance and greater efficiency
attends the work of the schools. Passages
of the survey now and then form pertinent
illustrations for the lesson, and the religious
and moral applications can then be made
and carried right into the current expres-
sion of every-day life. Church attendance
also seems better. One most interesting
effect has been in the changed topics of the
high school graduates in their commence-
ment addresses. No longer are abstract
virtues made the theme of platitudinous
oratory. The subjects of the last two years
have largely concerned themselves with the
practical social and religious problems of
the rural community. The essays show an
idealism and an altruism that is refreshing.

The significance of all this is not merely

[ 67 ]
COOPERATION IN COOPERSBURG

 

in the things that have been done. They
have been done elsewhere, some here, some
there. It is in the fact that al] these things
have been achieved within two years in a
rural village through the cooperation of
practically two thirds of its people of
various denominational and social alle-
giances, and in one central organization
working under local leadership. That is
worth while, because it attests a faith in
God that expresses itself in service for the
home community.

[ 68 J
VI

COOPERSBURG AND THE
FUTURE

HE future—that to which we are ever
looking—is being carefully planned
for and considered by the Coopersburg
neighbors. They are planning for the con-
tinued carrying on of the work in the village
and countryside on the basic principles thus
far laid down, but on ever-widening avenues
of effort.

The Industrial Committee through its
control over the free factory sites will secure
a few more industries of the right sort as
rapidly as any influx of population can be
adequately housed. It will provide indus-
tries in which the young people of Coopers-
burg can work to economic advantage in
useful occupations amid surroundings that
will not impair health or morals.

[ 69 ]
COOPERATION IN COOPERSBURG

 

Another task on its program is to organize
a local industrial fair. The industries of
Coopersburg are few compared with those
of any fair-sized town and the total output
is not large, but the products are varied,
interesting, useful, and are shipped to many
countries. An exhibition of these products
in the various stages of manufacture would
be informing and calculated to awaken still
more community spirit and healthy pride.
Along with this effort will be the attempt to
call public attention to the various indus-
trial anniversaries—to the progress that the
several concerns have made in the years gone
by and in their prospects for the future.

It must never be forgotten in considering
the industrial situation in the village that
Coopersburg is distinctly rural, not only by
government classification but in life and
thought as well. The industries and the
farms are closely linked, because the busy
season of the two largest employers of labor

[70 ]
THE FUTURE

 

comes when the farm season is slack. The
surplus farm help thus earns its daily bread
in the factory in the winter.

This is an added reason why the Indus-
trial Committee is charged with the task of
making Coopersburg a center for the ship-
ment of farm produce to the city and for
generally catering to the needs of the farm
neighbor. A rest room for farmers’ wives
and a free shed for their horses—something
that does not now exist in the town—are
planned for in connection with the Neigh-
borhood House soon to be erected.

The recreation program is one of the
most difficult to push forward. The only
auditorium in the town is too small for the
needs of the village and its neighborhood.
Much could be done with considerably in-
creased funds but no effort has been made
to raise them because the campaign for the
erection of a Neighborhood House is now
under way. Until this building is finished

[71]
COOPERATION IN COOPERSBURG

 

the committee’s task will be confined largely
to sustaining the work already initiated.
Not so with the Home and School Com-
mittee. Cooperating with the Board of
Education and the Alumni Association they
have already shown what can be accom-
plished, and the cooperation will continue.
The school grounds, as already noted, have
the possibility of being turned into an attrac-
tive campus. The walls of the schoolrooms
now brightened with the best of pictures
need to be treated to a coat of soft color that
will tone down the glare of the white plaster.
Higher education is winning its way slowly
in the countryside and the Pennsylvania-
German is no exception. This sentiment is
to be fostered in Coopersburg by this com-
mittee, which is also chargéd with encour-
aging the addition of one more year to the
high school course. Many, however, can
never reap the advantages of this work.
Necessity. real or imagined, perhaps pre-

[72]
THE FUTURE

 

vented them from even finishing the local
high school course. For them night work
is to be planned, as is also manual training,
domestic science, and other work of a simi-
lar character for those desiring it. The
high school library is to be supplemented
by traveling libraries from the state. It is
also planned to help the school better to
meet the needs of the farm children.

The Civic Improvement Committee
found an unusually fine and attractive town
with which to begin work. Its program,
however, contains some big features—
features which will mean much in the life
of the borough—or any community. It is
hoped to have an Old Home Week even
more ambitious than that recently held in
connection with a cluster of religious anni-
versaries. Coopersburg has sent out its
quota of useful citizens few of whom have
lost their love for the Saucon Valley.

To bring them home again, all at the same

[73]
COOPERATION IN COOPERSBURG

 

time to their old town, to let the neighbor-
hood receive the inspiration of their varied
contacts with the outside world, to let them
see what the old home town has done in the
last years, to let all, young and old, great
and humble, mingle as of old in one big
community family, giving voice to the
common Father for his mercies, this is the
aim of the committee. But before that time
comes a history of the neighborhood now
being written will have been published and
the celebration of various significant events
such as the coming of railroad and trolley,
will have become a part of the community
life.

In many respects the future of the Health
and Hygiene Committee will be the most
difficult to work out and the slowest to show
definite results. With the gradual increase
in the population and the steady increase
in the number of homes using running water
and modern conveniences there has come a

[74]
THE FUTURE

 

danger to the neighborhood’s wells. The
Health Committee has been charged with
looking from an immediate, though scarcely
recognized situation far into the future, with
not only the guarding of the wells in view
but also with the actual working out of a
plan for sewage disposal. The beginning
of a sewerage system already exists in the
town, having been constructed more than a
decade ago by private means. An innova-
tion which this committee must also bring
about is the introduction of physical culture
in the schools. Two other difficult pieces of
work are the creation of a sentiment for the
strict enforcement of quarantine and the
guarding of food and meat supplies.

The rural American, and especially the
Pennsylvania-German with his old desire
to be let alone, believes in personal liberty.
More than that, when farms were isolated
and every one believed that it was a blessing
if children caught measles, whooping cough,

[75]
COOPERATION IN COOPERSBURG

 

scarlet fever and similar diseases early to
have them over with, the word quarantine
did not exist. These feelings have survived
as the children of these people have moved
into the closer contact of rural village life,
and health application of the old proverb,
“Circumstances alter cases,” must be in-
culcated.

The same thing applies to food supply.
Since time began, flies have been as much a
part of farm life as chickens and live stock.
City congestion turned the guns of science
against the fly, but the sound thereof is
heard only faintly in the rurally minded
community. It has so long held the
supremacy in health matters despite its
methods of food production and prepara-
tion, that naturally it would be impossible
to move rapidly to the fulfilment of this de-
partment’s program. And yet marked prog-
ress in the thought of the people can be
noted within the last two years.

[ 76]
THE FUTURE

 

The Board of Directors itself is acting
as a Religious and Morals Committee, and
apart from keeping up the work already
done its program is all in the future and
rivals that of the Health Committee in its
difficulty.

Rural communities have long been cursed
with rivalry between the churches, due to
the crime of overchurching. This condi-
tion existed in Coopersburg in the last cen-
tury but it has gradually disappeared, which
is to the credit of the people. Church efforts
are more unified than in times past. Union
services are held frequently—often on such
occasions as Thanksgiving Day, Rally Day,
Mothers’ Day and the like. With this as a
basis it is purposed some day, when the op-
portunity offers for the full and free co-
operation of the committee with all the
churches, to campaign for increased church
attendance and enlarged religious invest-
ment in money and service. There is a

[77]
COOPERATION IN COOPERSBURG

 

great opportunity for a country church con-
ference of the sixteen congregations located
in the eight square miles of territory of
which Coopersburg is a part. It is felt that
the district Sabbath-school organization,
now moribund, presents an opportunity for
constructive service; one perhaps too little
utilized in progressive rural work.

The Association as such is looking for-
ward to two steps as the crown of the pro-
gram—steps by means of which much of
what is now planned for may be easily
accomplished.

The possibilities for a community park
of rare beauty and usefulness can be readily
seen by even the casual observer of the high
school grounds.

Mr. Morrison writes in the Survey Re-
port, “I think I have never seen a public
school ground which would lend itself more
readily to scenic effects with less outlay of
effort and money.” To the left of the school

[ 78 ]
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EXTERIOR OF PROPOSED NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSE

East Elevation
Front Elevation
THE FUTURE

is the baseball field already leased by the
Association. From it, on the left, is a view
of beautiful farm lands bounded by a low
’ range of mountains which receives a nightly
kiss from the setting sun. Back of the school
is a meadow with its large pond, on one
shore of which is a cluster of trees. Here
the boys and girls could swim and skate
under proper supervision. On the right
side of the school are the tennis courts,
volley ball, and croquet grounds. Just one
block from this proposed park lies a large
plot of ground which has been donated .as
the site of the Neighborhood House. The
plans for this building have already been
drawn. Much of the money needed to
build it has already been pledged in advance
of the actual campaign for funds. It is
expected that ground will be broken before
this book leaves the press and active prepa-
rations are being made for the event that
will mean so much to the community.

[79]

 
COOPERATION IN COOPERSBURG

 

The building will be a simple but
spacious and substantial structure contain-
ing facilities for basket-ball and other
winter recreations, the floor space for these
to be convertible into the floor of an audi-
torium for lectures, plays, and similar activ-
ities. ‘There will be a small but complete
stage at one end. Committee rooms, dress-
ing rooms, reading rooms, and a rest room
for farmers’ wives will be provided. In the
basement there will be provision for
Domestic Science and Manual Training.
The building will also furnish a place for
band and orchestra practise and a wing can
be built for the fire company. To the rear
will be free horse-sheds for the farmers.
The location near the school, the baseball
field, playground, and pond is well-nigh
ideal.

Coopersburg is fortunate in having the
local leadership to utilize such a plant. No
paid secretary will be necessary although

[ 80 ]
 

JOOP

 

puosag OOP WILT qaUasRg
ASNOH GOOHNOPHDIAN GHSOdOUd AO SNVTd WOOT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
THE FUTURE

 

some day one may have to be employed to
give executive attention to the multiplying
phases of the work. Some couple will at
first be given quarters in the building in
return for supervision. Equipment is often
a weakness to the Young Men’s Christian
Association in the smaller communities and
the Rural or County Work Department of
the organization has built up a work with-
out equipment that is one of the greatest
single powers for good among the young men
of rural America to-day. Communities are,
therefore, apt to fight shy of such plants as
are proposed by the people of Coopersburg.
Coopersburg, however, feels that such
equipment can only be beneficial. The
school has already proven insufficient for a
community social center. ‘The proposed
building, moreover, is more than a Young
Men’s Christian Association. It is for boys
and girls, men and women, young and old.
It will be used by practically every organ-

[81]
COOPERATION IN COOPERSBURG

 

ization in the neighborhood. There is no
doubt about its ability to be self-sustaining.
Bowling, moving pictures, lectures, rentals
and other receipts will easily meet the cost.
The Neighborhood House is the crown of
the program. There is an evident need that
the program be completed to the last jot and
tittle. The things that have been achieved
merely show with increasing clarity the need:
of the things still to be done. The victories
thus far won give confidence in the eventual
success of the entire program. ‘The esprit
de corps that is always created as an en-
deavor of this kind swings along makes
failure ever more unlikely; triumph ever
more sure. It is the condition out of which
this feeling grew and the processes by
which it is being attained that contribute
to the message of Coopersburg to rural
America.

[ 82]
Vil
THE MESSAGE OF COOPERSBURG

HERE is a village side to the rural

problem. The single economic in-
terest of the open country is agriculture,
using that term in the broadest sense of
the word and including such departments
as stock raising and poultry. Even in by-
gone times, when shoes and clothes were
made upon the farm the chief interest was
still agricultural, for these things came
from the products of the farm.

Just as soon as a village forms itself out
of what was once farm land, just so soon
other interests are introduced—few yet
diversified. The single interest of former
years may remain the dominant one still for
a majority of the population, but it shares
the ground with the others. Gradually the
professional, commercial, and artisan

[ 83 ]
COOPERATION IN COOPERSBURG

 

classes appear. Then comes the retired
farmer. The source of supply shifts. The
soil no longer directly supplies the com-
munity. Many of its necessities come from
the city. A new field of life, new economic
interests, centers, and attractions are thus
injected into the situation. New ideas are
sure to come in. The dominance of the
agricultural interest which can never be
changed until the community becomes self-
supporting on the manufacturing basis may,
nevertheless, be lost sight of by the vil-
lagers. If this happens, a lack of sympathy
is sure to arise between the village and the
farm neighbors, to the spiritual and eco-
nomic detriment of both, but even this does
not alter the fact that the village is still a
rural community. Its stores still sell to
the farmer, its doctors still treat him, its
artisans still build and repair his barns,
houses, and machines, its churches still
preach to him, and its people with the in-

[ 84]
THE MESSAGE

 

grained habits of generations are still
rurally minded. The future of the chil-
dren of all the classes in the rural town and
the scope of its church work is limited to
a large degree by the “simply complicated”
life of the village. This is especially true
of the children and it is they who feel the
pull of the city to a greater degree than
their parents. They can see no future for
themselves in the few petty industries that
the home town may have, and perhaps
these industries present no stronger appeal
than do the long hours behind the counter
of a country store.

The child of the open country can re-
main in his home community with profit.
He can study the science of agriculture and
then take his place among those through
whom the Father in heaven answers the
people’s prayer for daily bread. The vil-
lage offers no such attractive, profitable,
idealized life-work. The newer vocations

[85]
COOPERATION IN COOPERSBURG

 

for men and women have no place in the
restricted village life. The school training
seldom fits the village pupil either for going
out on the farm or for taking any perma-
nent place in the village life. One must
even leave home to learn enough stenog-
raphy to work the single typewriter in the
office of the village’s largest industry. Is
it any wonder that the shining rails of
interurban trolley and railroad invite the
village boy and girl to go elsewhere? Who
can blame the boy and girl in the average
village for being dissatisfied? "They are
born into a socializing age, an age marked
by commercialized recreation, aggressive
advance in religious life and correspond-
ingly stubborn resistance to the Kingdom’s
progress; an age demanding efficiency and
power in all activities. They feel vaguely
the surge and urge of great world move-
ments, and with nothing to tie to in the
home town, who could expect any twentieth

[ 86 ]
THE MESSAGE

 

century young man or woman to settle down
to the type and life to be seen in the average
country village?

The older generation, accustomed to the
order of a passing age, products of a period
of individualism, imbued with all the eco-
nomic, historical, and religious conceptions
of the pioneer and household farmer, fails
utterly to grasp and meet the situation in the
typical rural town. This accounts for the
poor community spirit in most villages and
for the selfishness of its churches. For gen-
erations the responsibility of these people
has ended where their lane ran into the open
road. For generations they have worshiped
in different and often competing churches.
Even economic necessity cannot quickly
change village conditions. Thus the vil-
lage side to the rural problem arises. The
open country community can find itself
and forge ahead. Its dominant interest
ever remains the same and to that interest

[ 87 ]
COOPERATION IN COOPERSBURG

 

can be related the best idealism, the best
religion of the ages. The greater challenge
to-day is to bring the same gospel to the
village, in terms that coincide with the vil-
lage life and experience. The message of
Jesus must permeate village commerce and
industry, cleanse its recreation, purify its
morals, better its health, uplift its schools.
The rural villages of America call for a
demonstration of that gospel which alone
can meet their need for these things.
This program does not have to be ca--
ried out by the Church as such, but it does
have to be carried out by Christians in-
spired by the spirit of the Master. It must
be done as these Christians, seeing the
vision, work together toward the goal. In
his lectures before the Rural Leadership
School of the Young Men’s Christian Asso-
ciation at Silver Bay in 1914, out of the
riches of his experience as Vice-Chairman
of the American Commission which went

[88]
THE MESSAGE

 

abroad in 1913 to study rural cooperative
efforts, President Kenyon L. Butterfield said
this:

“The ideal rural community must be
self-sufficient, so that a complete life can
be lived there. In so far as any restricted
part of civilization can have the resources
of all civilization, it will have them. It
will be an essential social cell made up of
all elements. The welfare of this organ-
ization is of primary importance. The
community is the beginning and end of
rural social development. If we cannot
build up little civilizations we cannot have
a big one. A community is a neighborhood.
... It is the getting together ability of a
family of families. To build a rural com-
munity there must be a study of it. Then
there must be a long term plan, a policy,
but there must also be some immediate
steps. From the standpoint of machinery
a community council is important. There

[ 89 ]
COOPERATION IN COOPERSBURG

 

should be community conferences, demo-
cratic in tone. Each community should
have a community engineer—probably a
minister. We must incarnate ideals in a
person and a building. There must be a
community center... . Once accept the
idea of community building and we re-
direct all our social agencies. It also
affects personal leadership. The peculiar
institution of the man becomes the means
to the end of community building—be it
church, business, school, or lodge. This
does not minimize but rather puts new dig-
nity on these institutions and their leader-
ship, for with every individual improve-
ment there is also social improvement.”
In Locust Valley, Long Island, New
York, Fred Eastman has been doing re-
markable work in a community of twelve
hundred people, combining a rich summer
colony and American and foreign artisans
and laborers. But the impetus for this

[ 90 ]
THE MESSAGE

 

work which has transformed Locust Valley
in the last six years did not come from the
natives of the place.

The people of Coopersburg did not know
of the Locust Valley work, nor had Presi-
dent Butterfield given the lectures from
which we have quoted, when they formed
their Neighborhood Association. The de-
mand for it sprang from among themselves.
Every leader in it was Pennsylvania-Ger-
man to the core and had been born and
raised in the county. Is not the message
of Coopersburg just this—that the ideal
type of rural community organization is
possible, that it can be started and led
among rural people themselves, that
through it the challenge of the rural vil-
lage can be met and all its demands satis-
fied? The Coopersburg plan, substantially
the same as that outlined by President
Butterfield, who used a New England hill
town as an illustration of the ways in which

Cor]
COOPERATION IN COOPERSBURG

 

it might be applied to a particular situation,
was conceived and initiated by a church.
It sprang from a spiritual motive. It
united the people of all churches and all
commercial and fraternal interests on a
common platform of community better-
ment that included all community needs so
far as they could be discovered. It offered
an opportunity for Christian service, for
an individual working out of the best spirit
of the age in terms of the best religion of
the ages.

Such a work could not have been done
from any other than a religious impulse
fostered by the church. No other interest
is broad enough and inclusive enough to
see and to make others see the interdepend-
ence of every form of community life. And
usually, as was the case at Coopersburg, it
had to be an impulse so thoroughly religious
that it could become larger than the church
organization which happened to initiate it,

[92 ]
THE MESSAGE

 

larger than any church organization in the
community, large enough therefore to unite
all the people, regardless of other affilia-
tions, in community service from thoroughly
Christian motives—thus teaching them that
the Kingdom of heaven was a bigger thing
than the denomination and also that King-
dom progress helped each denominational
organization.

This plan is working to-day at Coopers-
burg among a community of Pennsylvania-
German credalists. Better than any theo-
retic defense it shows the strength and
promise of this type of that much misunder-
stood people. Of course, there has been
and there still is opposition. There have
been discouragements and troubles, but
victory is certain if the leadership remains
and if new leadership is trained. The
chief result of this experiment in neighbor-
hood work has been the welding together
of the community. The Pennsylvania-

[93 ]
COOPERATION IN COOPERSBURG

 

German has always been branded as the
most conservative of all the conservative
people that have lived upon the land; and
even for a Pennsylvania-German town
Coopersburg was once branded even by its
own citizens as “slow,” “conservative,”
“hidebound,” “hopeless,” “pessimistic,”
and “impossible.” To-day the spirit is
decidedly optimistic. The citizens are true
to their motto, “Cooperate for Coopers-
burg.” They believe in the slogan that
characterizes their community as “The
Town of Possibilities,” and they think of
those possibilities as of more than industrial
import. Lives are being touched, aroused,
set to work in community service from a
religious motive. Religion has taken on
enlarged meanings. The working out of
the program in human and religious values
is accomplishing a real fusing of the com-
munity into one people for the Lord. If
such a thing can be done in Coopersburg

[94]
THE MESSAGE

 

it can be done anywhere. Coopersburg’s
message to those of similar communities
that may chance to read these pages is this:
“Go thou and do likewise.” “AII things
are possible to him that believeth.” “This
is the victory even our faith.”

[95]
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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