Class 
 Book _ 
 
 GopYiiehtN 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 
 
THE CHURCH AND 
 COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 REPORT OF CONFERENCE HELD BY THE COM- 
 MISSION ON CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE UNDER 
 THE AUTHORITY OF THE FEDERAL COUNCIL OF 
 CHURCHES OF CHRIST IN AMERICA. COLUMBUS, 
 OHIO. DECEMBER 8-10, 1915 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 PAUL L. VOGT 
 
 Professor of Rural Economics and Sociology, 
 Ohio State University 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 MISSIONARY EDUCATION MOVEMENT 
 
 OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA 
 
 1916 
 

 Copyright. 1916, by 
 
 Missionary Education Movement of the 
 
 United States and Canada 
 
 AY I9i9i6 
 ©CI.A433050 
 
CONTENTS 1 
 
 PAOE 
 
 Secretarial Preface v 
 
 Address of Welcome 3 
 
 Frank B. Willis, Governor of Ohio. 
 The Problem 6 
 
 Gifford Pinchot, Chairman, Commission on the Church 
 and Country Life, Milford, Pennsylvania. 
 The Country Church and Community Building . . .11 
 
 Rev. W. F. Richardson, Kansas City, Kansas. 
 
 * The Country Church as a Community Center. . . 21 
 
 Professor Edwin L. Earp, Madison, New Jersey. 
 The Overchurching of Rural Communities .... 50 
 
 Rev. Alva W. Taylor, Columbia, Missouri. 
 The Social Responsibility of the Church to the Com- 
 munity '' . 56 
 
 S. K. Mosiman, Bluffton, Ohio. 
 The New Country Church 66 
 
 Rev. Ward Piatt, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 
 
 * The Allies of the Country Church 75 
 
 Albert E. Roberts, International Committee, Y.M.C.A., 
 New York City. 
 The Country Church and the Country Girl ... 86 
 
 Miss Jessie Field, National Y.W.C.A., New York City. 
 The Country Church and Rural Activities ... 88 
 President W. O. Thompson, Ohio State University. 
 
 Memoirs of a Rural Church 94 
 
 Rev. Hubert C. Herring, Boston, Massachusetts. 
 
 The Larger Benzonia Parish 97 
 
 Rev. Harlow S. Mills, Benzonia, Michigan. 
 *The Function, Policy, and Program of the Country 
 
 Church 113 
 
 President Kenyon L. Butterfield, Massachusetts Agri- 
 cultural College, Amherst, Massachusetts. 
 
 1 The subjects marked (*) are the titles of reports, in each 
 case followed by the name of the chairman of the committee 
 presenting the same. In the body of the book the chairmen's 
 names are followed by the names of the other members of the 
 committees. 
 
iv CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Country Church 126 
 
 Rev. S. L. Morris, Atlanta, Georgia. 
 Organization of the Commission on the Church and 
 
 Country Life 130 
 
 Rev. Warren H. Wilson, New York City. 
 
 * The Training of the Rural Ministry 139 
 
 Dr. George B. Stewart, Auburn, New York. 
 Training for the Rural Ministry 153 
 
 Professor V. G. A. Tressler, Springfield, Ohio. 
 The Education of the Rural Ministry 164 
 
 Professor W. K. Tate, Nashville, Tennessee. 
 
 * Financing the Country Church 170 
 
 Professor G. Walter Fiske, Oberlin, Ohio. 
 The Country Church in the South 191 
 
 Rev. W. H. Mills, Clemson College, South Carolina. 
 Social Justice in the Rural Community .... 197 
 
 Rev. Harry F. Ward, Boston, Massachusetts. 
 The Crisis of Organized Christianity 204 
 
 Fred B. Smith, New York City. 
 
 * Church Federation and Cooperation 207 
 
 Rev. E. Tallmadge Root, Boston, Massachusetts. 
 Cooperation and Religious Education 212 
 
 President W. G. Clippinger, Westerville, Ohio. 
 Cooperation and Federation 224 
 
 Rev. John M. Moore, Nashville, Tennessee. 
 Land Tenure and the Rural Church 232 
 
 Rev. Henry Wallace, Des Moines, Iowa. 
 The Interdependence of Good Farming and Good Preach- 
 ing 242 
 
 Rev. George N. Luccock, Oak Park, Illinois. 
 The Functions of the Federal Council 256 
 
 Professor Shailer Mathews, President Federal Coun- 
 cil of Churches, Chicago, Illinois. 
 The Church as a Community Center 259 
 
 Bishop W. F. Anderson, Cincinnati, Ohio. 
 The Rural Church as a Vitalizing Agent .... 262 
 
 Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States. 
 A Last Word 273 
 
 Gifford Pinchot. 
 
SECRETARIAL PREFACE 
 
 In the years 1910-1912, under the supervision of 
 Research Secretary, the Rev. G. Frederick Wells, the 
 Federal Council maintained a " bureau and clearing- 
 house of research, information, and promotion, touch- 
 ing the various church and country life interests." 
 Since 19 13 a special committee, known as the Com- 
 mitte on Church and Country Life, has been in charge 
 of this work, and an executive has been employed to 
 give it his undivided attention. During the past year 
 the office of this executive has been in Columbus, 
 Ohio. It was the idea of the committee to make 
 Ohio largely a clearing-house of information and it 
 was thought desirable to be in close contact with the 
 rural work in a state which is fairly central and in 
 which there is a variety of rural conditions. 
 
 The executive has been of some assistance to those 
 interested in the organization for rural church and 
 country life in Ohio. In August, 19 14, an organiza- 
 tion called the Ohio Rural Life Association was 
 formed, including an Advisory Council made up of 
 persons who are in close touch with work for the bet- 
 terment of country life, while there is a Committee 
 on Interchurch Cooperation, consisting of bishops, 
 superintendents, and others, representing sixteen 
 denominations. A program for constructive work has 
 
vi SECRETARIAL PREFACE 
 
 been adopted. As soon as the church survey of the 
 state should be completed, it was planned that this 
 committee should meet for two or three days' session 
 to determine the best possible plan of action to im- 
 prove the serious rural church conditions disclosed by 
 the survey. 
 
 The main work during the year in Ohio has been 
 a state- wide survey supplementing the work of 19 12 
 and 19 1 3 by the Presbyterian Church and the Ohio 
 Rural Life Survey. The attempt has been made to 
 ascertain the location and denomination of every rural 
 church, its present membership, whether it is gaining 
 or losing in membership, and whether it ordinarily has 
 a resident pastor, and what part of a minister's 
 service it receives. Most of these facts have been 
 ascertained for the churches in more than 1,100 out 
 of a total of 1,352 rural townships, while the survey 
 is well under way in most of the remaining townships. 
 The data for 216 townships were taken from the 
 work of the Ohio Rural Life Survey, whereas many 
 data from nearly 200 additional townships, though 
 not the location of the churches, were ascertained 
 from the same source. So far as the data have been 
 tabulated, they indicate that nearly one fourth of the 
 townships of the state, comprising a territory of more 
 than 9,000 square miles, are without resident min- 
 isters and that a very large proportion of the 
 churches in this area are declining in membership; 
 that on an average there are nearly four churches in 
 each of these townships; that there is a church to 
 every 286 persons, while there is one minister to about 
 
SECRETARIAL PREFACE vii 
 
 800 persons. These persons, however, are divided in 
 different communities in such a way that rarely does 
 a minister have a community in which he has an 
 opportunity for unhampered leadership in community 
 betterment. 
 
 The surveys made during the last five or six years 
 indicate that conditions may be no better in other 
 states. However, there is ground to hope that 
 through interdenominational cooperation something 
 can be done for improvement. While betterment can 
 be brought about only by slow advancement, it is a 
 matter of great importance that, even though slow, 
 such advancement shall be made. If the Commission 
 in cooperation with the people of Ohio and through 
 correspondence with persons in other states can learn 
 ways and means for the solution of the vital and 
 fundamental problem of rural church decline, its 
 service should prove one of the most important of 
 those rendered by the Federal Council of Churches. 
 
 The demonstration that it is feasible to make a 
 state-wide survey is regarded as of some importance. 
 If, as anticipated, the survey shall point out ways of 
 betterment and the ecclesiastical forces of the state 
 shall act successfully upon the suggestions to which 
 it may lead, the survey work in Ohio and the program 
 of the Committee on Church and Country Life will 
 be justified by substantial results. 
 
 The high grade of accomplishment of many coun- 
 try pastors in various parts of the United States justi- 
 fies expectation that, as the direct result of a propa- 
 ganda, a great advance can be made in the work of 
 
viii SECRETARIAL PREFACE 
 
 country churches generally. The superior work is 
 often the result of a new understanding of the country 
 life problem and a new vision of the possibilities of 
 work in the rural parish. Many a pastor has revo- 
 lutionized his work and doubled his effectiveness be- 
 cause of information gained through surveys, through 
 the literature of the modern country church move- 
 ment, or through contact with persons active in the 
 movement. It is proposed in the state of Ohio, as a 
 chief part of the work for the next year, to make a 
 special study of successful work of country churches 
 and rural pastors, to publish a description of it in 
 bulletins, and to send these to every rural pastor in 
 the state and to students in theological seminaries. 
 Thus it is hoped out of actual accomplishment, on the 
 field itself to create higher ideals and standards for 
 rural church work. If this program is carried out in 
 all the states, the effect upon country life and on the 
 religious life of the nation will be of no small sig- 
 nificance. 
 
 It is proposed also to hold an increased number of 
 country church institutes in the various counties, and 
 where county organizations do not already exist to 
 stimulate the formation of County Committees to act 
 as coordinating agencies in the readjustment of 
 church life. 
 
 Interdenominational organization for country 
 church betterment has had an excellent effect upon 
 some of the country ministers. It gives an esprit de 
 corps to the country ministry, adds courage, and 
 increases confidence and respect for country church 
 
SECRETARIAL PREFACE i x 
 
 work. It has become influential in drawing good men 
 into the rural parishes. It increases the zest of the 
 country pastors for the peculiar type of work needed 
 in the country. A number of young men are now 
 entering the ministry with the purpose of devoting 
 their lives to work in the country. Pastors in the 
 rural districts are refusing calls to city churches. One 
 of my correspondents left his position as instructor in 
 an agricultural college to become pastor of a country 
 church; one country pastor of my acquaintance has 
 declined an invitation to become president of a col- 
 lege; while one has left a church in a town to devote 
 the best years of his life to work in a small country 
 parish. 
 
 In December, 19 14, the Executive Committee of the 
 Federal Council of Churches at its annual meeting de- 
 termined to create a Commission to whose direction its 
 rural work should be entrusted. At their meeting on 
 December 20th, the members of the Committee on 
 Church and Country Life were informed that they 
 had been appointed on the new Commission, and the 
 necessary steps were taken to secure the nomination 
 of other members by the constituent bodies of the 
 Federal Council. In order to secure the continuance 
 of the work already begun, a Committee of Direction 
 was appointed. The work is now under the super- 
 vision of this committee. 
 
 With the approval of the Administrative Com- 
 mittee of the Federal Council, preparations were made 
 for a Conference on Church and Country Life at the 
 time of this meeting. Eminent representatives of the 
 
x SECRETARIAL PREFACE 
 
 different denominations and of civic and moral 
 progress accepted invitations to participate. Among 
 them was the President of the United States, who 
 made a special journey from Washington to Columbus 
 in order to be present and make an address. Nothing 
 could more signally reveal the importance of the 
 church to the well-being of the country than this act 
 of the chief executive of the nation, with the added 
 emphasis thus given to the principles set forth in his 
 address. 
 
 The Committee of Direction prepared a program for 
 this Conference, the sessions of which were held dur- 
 ing the morning, afternoon, and evening of Decem- 
 ber 8, 9, and 10, 191 5, for the most part in the First 
 Congregational Church, Columbus, Ohio, Dr. Wash- 
 ington Gladden, pastor emeritus, offering the opening 
 invocation. Papers carefully written were read and 
 discussed, and in the light of the discussion have now 
 been revised for publication. The address of the Rev. 
 Ralph A. Felton, of New York City, on " The Present 
 Condition of the Rural Churches," is not included, as 
 no copy was available owing to unavoidable causes. 
 
 The general topics covered are as follows: The 
 Country Church as a Community Center; The Allies 
 of the Country Church; The Function, Policy, and 
 Program of the Country Church; The Training of the 
 Rural Ministry; Financing the Country Church; 
 Church Federation and Cooperation; The Church and 
 Rural Economy; The Rural Church as a Vitalizing 
 Agent. 
 
 The full range of material presented at the Con- 
 
SECRETARIAL PREFACE xi 
 
 ference, with the names of those submitting the re- 
 ports and contributing papers and addresses, can be 
 seen under Contents, on pages iii, iv. The report on the 
 Function, Platform, and Policy of the Country Church 
 is particularly worthy of note. The material upon 
 which it is based was gathered by correspondence with 
 one hundred and fifty persons from various parts of 
 the United States who are closely associated with the 
 country church and its work. A preliminary digest of 
 this material was made by Dr. Wilbert L. Anderson, 
 author of The Country Town. The sudden death of 
 Dr. Anderson occurred at the completion of this stage 
 of the work, but the undertaking was continued by 
 Dr. Butterfield and members of the subcommittee 
 especially appointed for this purpose, while a 
 final revision was made by the Committee on Direc- 
 tion. This report and the material upon which it is 
 based should become an important factor in Rural 
 Church progress. 
 
 It appears from our observation in Ohio that in 
 large areas the denominations working independently 
 of one another have failed to prevent serious decline 
 in the rural churches, and that it is entirely unlikely 
 that without interdenominational cooperation the 
 churches will be able to overcome the difficulties of 
 the situation. If this is true in Ohio, and in other 
 states also, the need of interdenominational organ- 
 ization is obvious. 
 
 Charles O. Gill. 
 
 Columbus, Ohio, 
 
 April 15, 1916. 
 
THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
ADDRESS OF WELCOME 
 Frank B. Willis 
 
 Because of the supreme importance of the welfare 
 of the country church to the social conditions of the 
 community, not only the people of Ohio but the people 
 of the nation everywhere are deeply interested in the 
 conference which begins at this hour. Close to the 
 source of our national power has been the country 
 church, scattered here and there everywhere through- 
 out this great land. The movement for its continua- 
 tion and preservation and for the increase of its power 
 is one of the most favorable signs of this decade. In 
 this movement the people of Ohio are very deeply 
 interested, and in their behalf it gives me much pleas- 
 ure to welcome to the city of Columbus to-day those 
 who are to participate in this most important gathering. 
 
 The state of Ohio has always been deeply inter- 
 ested in its rural churches. No other factors have 
 played a more significant part in the development of 
 the history of Ohio, in the making of its splendid man- 
 hood and womanhood, than the little churches dotted 
 here and there over every county and in almost every 
 township. The history of many of the most important 
 churches of the state extends back to the time when 
 the pioneers, amid great hardships, as one of their first 
 achievements, erected a log church and school in the 
 
 3 
 
4 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 midst of vast wildernesses. The struggle of the fa- 
 thers to rear and maintain their church homes, and the 
 influence of those church homes upon the development 
 of the people of this great state, cannot be estimated. 
 
 One of the most alarming phases of the splendid 
 development which has come in the last generation has 
 been the decline of interest in the country church. 
 The relief from the former isolation of farm life, the 
 coming of modern roads with the automobile and its 
 various distractions, the near approach to city connec- 
 tions, while they have been of inestimable benefit, have 
 created for the country church entirely new problems , 
 which it has somehow failed adequately to meet. 
 Carefully compiled figures seem to show beyond ques- 
 tion that the rural churches in Ohio have come upon 
 evil times — that they have ceased to grow, that eighty- 
 three per cent, have a membership of less than one 
 hundred, that one out of every nine country churches 
 has been abandoned in recent years, that only one 
 third are increasing in membership, and that two thirds 
 have either ceased to grow or are dying. It seems 
 especially significant to me that the figures show that 
 less than forty per cent, of the rural population are 
 church members. Such a situation is one that demands 
 the concerted and undivided attention of the leaders 
 in church thought and action. 
 
 Such a conference as this, therefore, which repre- 
 sents the best thought of the country with regard to 
 the interests of the rural church, commands the atten- 
 tion of every man interested in the welfare of this 
 and other states, I am told that this conference is 
 
ADDRESS OF WELCOME 5 
 
 especially significant because it is the first nation-wide 
 assembly of leaders from all churches, and represents 
 in particular all rural movements to consider the future 
 of country life with particular reference to the church. 
 Every state, I am informed, is represented at this 
 meeting, and plans are to be formulated for a local 
 campaign in each state to federate country churches 
 and to eliminate duplication of effort and expense. 
 It is exceedingly fortunate that this plan for increased 
 effectiveness of the country churches is to be a con- 
 certed plan, and that there is such universal interest 
 in it. The problems which it has to consider lie at the 
 very heart of national morality and accomplishment. 
 It would be an evil day for the people of this country 
 if those who live on the farms close to the heart of 
 nature and of God are to drift further from the former 
 enthusiastic and devoted worship of religious ideals. 
 This conference could present no greater achievement 
 than the adoption of a plan which would bring about 
 the former effective influence of the rural church. 
 
 But this cannot be brought about by old methods. 
 The day of three and four small churches in a com- 
 munity of two or three hundred people is past. The 
 times forbid the continuation of sectarian differences 
 that agitated and at times disrupted the churches of 
 former days. This problem must be approached in 
 a broad way. There must be unification of effort; un- 
 important sectarian distinctions must be wiped away; 
 the overlapping of territory and the maintenance of 
 small and weak churches must be abandoned; neigh- 
 boring churches of all denominations must work to- 
 
6 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 gether for the solution of their problems. Social con- 
 ditions must be given consideration. It is not enough 
 that the church do Sunday work; it must make its ef- 
 fectiveness felt in the every-day life of the community. 
 These are some of the key-notes for this convention. 
 It is not going to be easy to work out these problems, 
 and every man interested in the state of Ohio, as well 
 as in the nation, should give his vigorous support 
 toward reaching a wise solution of the questions to 
 be considered at this conference. 
 
 I am indeed glad to give this movement my hearty 
 support and to welcome the various members of this 
 convention to the city. It is my trust that your con- 
 ferences together may result in efforts of widespread 
 extent to increase the efficiency of the rural church. 
 
 THE PROBLEM 
 
 Gilford Pinchot 
 
 There can be no permanently sound and vigorous 
 life for the nation unless life in the country is vigorous 
 and sound. Country life cannot be morally strong, 
 physically healthy, attractive in its social opportunities 
 and business returns, and generally satisfying and ef- 
 ficient unless the country church does its full share 
 to make it so. And the country church cannot do its 
 part unless it is sound and vigorous itself. The coun- 
 try church is one of the great roots from which spring 
 
THE PROBLEM 7 
 
 national integrity, vitality, and intelligence. Its life 
 and power are of nation-wide concern. 
 
 The permanent strength of any civilization is best 
 measured by the soundness of life on the land. It was 
 the failure of agriculture far more than the decadence 
 of the cities that sapped the power of ancient Rome. 
 The farmer feeds and clothes us all. From the coun- 
 try comes the strong new blood which renews the 
 vigor of the towns. The tenacious spiritual ideals of 
 the open country constitute our most resisting barrier 
 against the growing laxity and luxury of our social 
 organization. It is the country church rather than the 
 city church which is in fact our best defense against 
 the advance of the evils of our time. 
 
 The country church can be made again what it was 
 during the early days in New England, the strongest 
 power not only for righteousness, which it is now, but 
 also for the general success of country life and for 
 the welfare of country communities. I believe that we 
 are standing to-day on the threshold of a great move- 
 ment which will bring back to the church in the open 
 country and in the smaller towns the greater power 
 for good which it used to have, and so will lead, both 
 spiritually and materially, to a new and better country 
 life. The country church can and should be the first 
 and strongest of all agencies in furthering the advance 
 of rural civilization. 
 
 The object of our conference is to strengthen the 
 country church. We are here to consider its present 
 and its future, the functions it should perform, the pol- 
 icy it should follow, the training of its leaders, the best 
 
8 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 ways to organize and support it. We shall discuss the 
 performance of its spiritual task, its relation to the 
 rural communities from which it draws its strength, 
 and its influence toward a right solution of the social 
 and industrial problems of rural life. In a word, we 
 are here to ascertain how best the country church can 
 help to bring about better farming, better business, and 
 better life, including religion, in the country. Nothing 
 that touches for good or evil the life of the country 
 people can be alien to the country church. 
 
 We are here also to call the attention of the Chris- 
 tian people of the United States to the existence of 
 the country church problem, and to ask them to con- 
 sider with us the needs of the country church, to find 
 out how best to meet these needs, how to strengthen 
 and vitalize, and, above all, how to fit the country 
 church for the actual modern task with which it is face 
 to face. 
 
 This conference, called by the Commission on 
 Church and Country Life of the Federal Council of 
 Churches, is the result, not merely of the work of the 
 Commission, but also of the far larger work, both in 
 amount and time, which preceded the creation of the 
 Commission, one year ago. It may be said to trace its 
 origin in part to the Roosevelt Commission on Country 
 Life, in part to the admirable work of the Presbyterian 
 Church acting through Dr. Warren H. Wilson, in 
 part to that of Dr. George Frederick W r ells for 
 the Federal Council of Churches, and especially to 
 the epoch-making investigations by the present Secre- 
 tary of the Commission, the Rev. Charles Otis Gill, of 
 
THE PROBLEM 9 
 
 the conditions and needs of the country church in parts 
 of Vermont and New York, and to the continuance of 
 these investigations in Ohio. But these are far from 
 being all. Our obligation is great to progressive coun- 
 try ministers and ecclesiastical superintendents; to the 
 Men and Religion Movement in the Methodist Church 
 and among the Disciples of Christ and the Baptists of 
 New York and elsewhere; to the work of the Home 
 Missions Council; to the social service work of the 
 Moravians and the Christians; to the Country Young 
 Men's Christian Association; and to the work of 
 others whom I have not named. 
 
 We are not here to advocate the weakening or the 
 strengthening of any denomination at the expense of 
 any other, nor have we any theory to exploit or ax to 
 grind. We merely seek the truth about conditions, and 
 remedies that are both wise and practicable. We have 
 come together as representatives of every phase of 
 country life to consider and discuss cooperation for 
 the common welfare of religious work in the country, 
 and for the general good of the individuals and the 
 communities which the church exists to serve. We 
 desire the prosperity of the country church, not only 
 for the sake of the church itself, but also for what 
 that prosperity can be made to accomplish for the ad- 
 vancement of every good cause in the country. 
 
 Under modern conditions the spiritual welfare and 
 progress attainable by any community are directly af- 
 fected by its material prosperity. Without a reason- 
 able economic margin there is seldom an efficient organ- 
 ized religious life. Good farms often mean good 
 
io THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 churches, and poor farms almost always mean weak- 
 ness and inefficiency in the country church. Where 
 the means for the support of the church are lacking, 
 its spiritual efficiency may be directly in question. For 
 its own sake the country church is deeply interested in 
 the economic success of its people. It is still more 
 deeply interested for the sake of the people themselves. 
 
 The problems which confront us can no more be 
 solved by the individual country church, or by the 
 country churches of any one denomination, than the 
 problems of rural life can be solved by the owner of 
 any one farm, or the farmers of any one state. In 
 this as in all other undertakings among men union is 
 strength. We work to best advantage when we work 
 together. 
 
 If cooperation among country churches for the gen- 
 eral welfare of the work is sound and wise, and if 
 cooperation among farmers will lead to a stronger and 
 richer spiritual, mental, and physical life on the farm, 
 then the country church as a whole is interested in co- 
 operation among farmers. I do not contend that the 
 church should take the functions of the grange or of 
 the agricultural school, but I do believe that the fre- 
 quent failure of the country churches through their 
 ministers to get into productive touch with the work 
 and the needs of the country people is one of the funda- 
 mental reasons for the present weakness of the country 
 church. 
 
 The movement we are met to further is sound and 
 practical in its purpose, and deeply needed. The work 
 which lies before the country church may well be sec- 
 
THE CHURCH AND COMMUNITY BUILDING u 
 
 ond to no other in the power of its thrust toward a 
 social order founded on the ethics of Jesus Christ. 
 
 THE COUNTRY CHURCH AND COM- 
 MUNITY BUILDING 
 
 W. F. Richardson 
 
 In the creed known as the Thirty-nine Articles, the 
 church is defined as follows : " The visible Church of 
 Christ is a congregation of faithful men, in the which 
 the pure Word of God is preached, and the sacraments 
 duly ministered according to Christ's ordinance, in 
 all those things that of necessity are requisite to the 
 same." Accurate as this definition may be, as far as 
 it goes, it is not complete without some such addition 
 as, " and by which the work of Jesus Christ in and for 
 the world is being done." The faithful men who com- 
 pose the Church of Christ must not only hear the Word, 
 and observe the sacraments, but bring the life of their 
 Lord to bear upon the world, and more especially upon 
 the immediate community for which they are most 
 largely responsible. The community does not exist 
 for the church, but the church for the community. 
 Like her Lord, the church exists in the world, not to be 
 ministered unto, but to minister, and to give up her 
 life for the ransoming of men. The great church is 
 the church that most effectively serves men. 
 
 A community is " a group of people living together," 
 
12 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 whether in city, village, or country. The church in, 
 such a community must be directly interested in all the 
 life of all the people who make up its population. 
 Their homes, their occupations, their schools, their 
 habits of life, their ideals of character, all must be the 
 concern of the church. May it not be that much of 
 the decadence of the country church is due to its neg- 
 lect of this divine law, and its effort to build itself up 
 at the expense of the community, instead of building 
 up the community at the cost of its own sacrificial 
 service ? 
 
 What is the present status of the country church? 
 A few suggestive facts may be cited, as a partial an- 
 swer. A few days ago an Associated Press dispatch 
 announced briefly some results of a survey by the com- 
 mission under whose auspices we are met to-day. A 
 study of rural church life in the state of Ohio led to 
 their report, that one in nine of the country churches 
 of this state had been abandoned during the past few 
 years; that only one in three of the remainder was 
 increasing in membership ; and that two thirds of them 
 had ceased growing or were slowly dying. The Pres- 
 byterian Church has recently conducted a similar sur- 
 vey, within several states, from Pennsylvania to 
 Missouri, through their Department of Church and 
 Country Life. This has led them to like results. In the 
 prosperous state of Iowa the rural churches of one dis- 
 trict reported a decrease in membership, in contribu- 
 tions, in resources, and in value of church buildings, 
 and an increase of debt, all in the same year. The 
 Disciples of Christ, a religious body which is distinctly 
 
THE CHURCH AND COMMUNITY BUILDING 13 
 
 rural in its predominant membership, is facing a 
 critical situation in its country churches. Seventy-five 
 per cent, of its congregations and over forty per cent, 
 of its membership are in these scattered churches. A 
 large proportion of these churches have preaching but 
 once a month, and their activities are often limited to 
 the occasion of this monthly visit and the Sunday wor- 
 ship of that one day. The total annual budget of these 
 " quarter time " congregations averages but $250, of 
 which amount $150 is paid to the preacher, $37.50 is 
 spent for a revival meeting, $25 is expended upon the 
 Sunday-school, $20 goes for incidentals, and $17.50 is 
 contributed to missions and benevolences. In view 
 of these figures, it is plain to be seen that such churches 
 are not building up their communities to any con- 
 siderable extent nor even themselves making any 
 perceptible growth. 
 
 Too many country churches have no larger ideal 
 than to maintain Sunday services, more or less regu- 
 larly, and a Sunday-school that closes during the winter 
 months, and to have an annual revival meeting. Its 
 ministry to the social, or neighborhood, life is seldom 
 more than an occasional basket dinner or picnic, a 
 possible social or two in the winter, perhaps a sewing 
 society for the women and a mission band for the 
 younger children, — and a constant watch over the 
 young people, to prevent their enjoyment of those 
 " worldly amusements " toward which the church holds 
 the unvarying attitude of hostility, and in the discus- 
 sion of which they are wont to condense the decalogue 
 of moral principles into the monologue of " Don't." 
 
14 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 What more than they are doing may the country 
 churches do for their several communities ? 
 
 First, there should be constant and sympathetic co- 
 operation between city and country churches. The oft- 
 occurring jealousy with which the country church re- 
 gards the city church, which is sometimes met by the 
 ill-concealed contempt of the latter for the former, is 
 as unfortunate as it is unholy. The city church is 
 swiftly becoming an expert in certain forms of com- 
 munity service, from which the rural churches might 
 well learn something of how to do their task. While 
 the environment is entirely different, the human nature 
 with which each has to deal is exactly the same. Then, 
 too, the country is constantly contributing to the young 
 and aggressive life of the city, into which flows a 
 steady stream that by its very volume threatens to 
 make the current of urban life a destructive torrent. 
 Ninety per cent, of the ministers and missionaries of 
 the church come from rural and village communities. 
 And it is a fact well known among social workers that 
 many of the young men and women who come from 
 the farms into the city help to fill the ranks of those 
 who fall victims to the evil forces of our modern so- 
 ciety. If every boy and girl from the farm and coun- 
 try hamlet were accompanied by a letter from the rural 
 church to the city church with which it is in regular 
 correspondence, it would save many a life to the vir- 
 tues of the home and the kingdom of heaven. 
 
 The country church must study its local environ- 
 ment with the view of adapting its ministry thereto. 
 The Salt River Presbytery in Missouri, a rural pres- 
 
THE CHURCH AXD COMMUNITY BUILDING 15 
 
 bytery, finding that it had during the last ten years lost 
 twenty per cent, in membership, adopted the following 
 recommendation : " We recommend that the churches 
 concern themselves with the farmer's road to the near- 
 est village, as well as his road to Glory Land. We 
 recommend that they concern themselves with the task 
 of promoting cooperative business among the farmers. 
 We recommend that they help in the war against dis- 
 ease. And, wherever there is such need, we recom- 
 mend that they make provision for the social life of 
 their people and provide wholesome recreation." Is 
 there a single item in this statement that does not 
 concern the church of the country district? Good 
 roads are as essential to the requirements of religious 
 worship and social brotherhood as to the profits of the 
 field and orchard. Cooperation of the farmers in their 
 business life will directly minister to their spirit of 
 social fellowship. Their united war against disease 
 will teach them new values in the life that now is and 
 certainly detract nothing from the value of that which 
 is to come. 
 
 The country church must provide for the social life 
 of the community. Rowdyism and immorality among 
 the young are due to misdirected energy. Young life 
 will not be inactive. The school and church are the 
 two natural social centers, and the church ought to feel 
 the double compulsion of human want and divine love. 
 To neglect the young is to invite their contempt for 
 the church. A study of ninety-one rural churches in 
 Indiana showed that twenty-five of them had not one 
 male communicant under twenty-one. In Illinois, only 
 
16 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 thirteen per cent, of the young people were found at- 
 tending the Sunday-school. In Maryland, fifty-seven 
 per cent, of the rural churches have no sort of organ- 
 ization for the young people of their communities^) In 
 the cities, the Young Men's Christian Association and 
 Young Women's Christian Association contribute their 
 splendid ministries to young life; but there is just 
 where the churches are themselves doing most to meet 
 this demand. In the country little chance is given for 
 such unsectarian service, because the churches are too 
 feeble to undertake the work alone, and have too much 
 of the sectarian spirit to attempt to do it together. 
 Why should not the country churches unite to do such 
 work in an effective way ? Then they could have their 
 baseball clubs, Scout bands, debating societies, stere- 
 opticon lectures, lyceum courses, and, everywhere, na- 
 ture study, that noblest pathway of all in which to lead 
 the young mind and heart up to a knowledge of and 
 love for the Creator and Father of all. If there could 
 be an elimination of some of the superfluous church 
 organizations in the rural districts, it would help to 
 attain this end. In the heart of Missouri, in one of 
 its richest counties, there are sixty-seven country 
 churches, or one for every forty-six farm families. 
 One fourth as many would be ample to meet the needs 
 of the county. There is but one resident pastor among 
 the sixty-seven churches. Many of them are minis- 
 tered to by preachers who travel weary miles to bring 
 them the monthly sermons upon which they try to live 
 their feeble lives. Cooperation and consolidation or 
 lingering decay and final death must be the result of 
 
THE CHURCH AND COMMUNITY BUILDING 17 
 
 such conditions. These churches must cease to be 
 rivals and become partners, or God will smite them 
 with barrenness and death. In many cities the people 
 are drawing more closely together in their social and 
 community life. Witness the community Christmas 
 trees in Washington City, New York, Houghton, 
 Michigan, and other larger and smaller communities. 
 With ringing of the church bells and the singing of 
 Christmas carols by chorus choirs, in which the hosts 
 that crowd the streets join lustily, the birthday of our 
 Lord is ushered in, and the brotherhood of men is made 
 a blessed fact of consciousness to thousands of human 
 hearts. Why should not this become the universal 
 practise among the churches that minister to the scat- 
 tered brothers and sisters in our Father's family? 
 
 That such ministry to the community on the part of 
 the country church is not an " irridescent dream " is 
 shown by many encouraging facts. The country 
 churches are waking to their opportunity and duty, 
 and in many quarters there is fruitful activity in the 
 direction of social betterment. In a general way it 
 may be said that in many cases where abandoned coun- 
 try churches draw forth the unfavorable comment of 
 the passer-by, investigation shows that the old building 
 has been left for a new and better one, adapted to 
 modern methods of church activity, and put to gen- 
 erous use for service to all around it. With the 
 growth in wealth and increasing thrift in many rural 
 districts, the farmers drive their carriages and auto- 
 mobiles into the adjacent towns, where their children 
 attend the high school, and their families are enabled 
 
18 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 to enjoy the ministry of abler preachers than they 
 were permitted to hear in the old country meeting- 
 houses. To quote the language of the editor of a great 
 religious weekly, written to a friend : " What I told 
 you even two years ago would not be true to-day. 
 The tide has turned, and religion has taken a fresh 
 grip on the country, where it seemed about to let go." 
 
 Let us come to specific instances, of which there are 
 not a few. In the rural village of Maroa, Macon 
 County, Illinois, the Presbyterian Church has a gym- 
 nasium, free baths, and a public reading-room; con- 
 ducts a cooking class for girls and women; makes 
 regular use of a stereopticon and moving-picture ma- 
 chine; and has given its basement story to the school 
 authorities to relieve the pressure on the public schools 
 of the surrounding district. This is a fine specimen of 
 community building. 
 
 At Yancey, in the western Blue Ridge district of 
 Virginia, was a rural mission church to which there 
 came, in 1905, a young and ardent home missionary, 
 the Rev. Mr. Ellis. He found a community steeped 
 in ignorance and cursed by wretched poverty. Their 
 homes were poor and unsanitary, their fields half- 
 cultivated, their children growing up without educa- 
 tion or moral and spiritual training. One small school- 
 room, where an average of fifteen children listlessly 
 studied for but five months out of the year, was the 
 only chance for education afforded by the community. 
 He opened a school in the church building he erected, 
 making it a social center to which all the people were 
 made welcome. Soon there were from eighty to ninety 
 
THE CHURCH AND COMMUNITY BUILDING 19 
 
 pupils, who sought to prolong the brief term of study 
 by several months. He raised money to build a mod- 
 ern three-room schoolhouse and hitched it up with the 
 public school system of the state. This school is now 
 graded from the kindergarten through the eighth 
 grade, employing five competent teachers. He estab- 
 lished sewing classes for mothers and daughters, and 
 their calico wrappers and sunbonnets are now replaced 
 with better and more attractive garments. Under- 
 clothing was unknown among the people until his 
 school began making such garments for the children, 
 to their universal delight and comfort. The first un- 
 dergarments the mothers saw they looked upon with 
 amazement, asking, " What are they for? " By cook- 
 ing classes the mothers have been instructed in the 
 preparation of palatable and nourishing food to take 
 the place of the former universal diet of greasy pork 
 and corn pone. Homes and public buildings have been 
 put in sanitary condition, and noticeable improvement 
 in the health of the entire community has resulted. In 
 a neighboring district an Episcopal Church sustains an 
 emergency hospital, where lives are often saved by 
 reason of its accessibility in cases of accident or sudden 
 illness. It needs no saying that the comforts of the 
 homes have been greatly increased; carpets, stoves, 
 and other common necessities, once unknown, are 
 found almost everywhere. Like transformations are 
 being wrought in many neighborhoods, in sundry states 
 of our Union. These will suffice as examples of what 
 is possible in community building, to the country 
 church that is conscious of and faithful to its mission. 
 
20 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 In closing, let me say that, in my judgment, the solu- 
 tion of this problem waits upon the provision of an 
 adequate pastoral care for the country church. 
 And this depends upon an adequate education of 
 a ministry for the rural field. It is not neces- 
 sary that the country pastor should be a specialist 
 in agriculture or in stock-raising. But he must 
 know something of the elements that enter into 
 the daily life and toil of his parishioners, he must be 
 familiar with such sociological principles as enter into 
 community life, and he must have a heart full of sym- 
 pathy with and interest in the children of the soil. 
 Prof. Alva W. Taylor, of the Missouri Bible College, 
 in his " Bulletin No. i of the Commission of Social 
 Service and the Rural Church, of the Disciples of 
 Christ," says : " The ultimate hope of the rural church, 
 as of every church, and of the school, and of every 
 other public institution, is in an educated leadership. 
 . . . The first requisite lies in the seminary and col- 
 lege that trains the ministry. The pastor needs a 
 knowledge of the field as well as of the things he is 
 to preach. . . . If we are to have an educated rural 
 ministry, we must have an education for the rural 
 ministry; that means a curriculum that gives the 
 knowledge of sociology and of rural life, as well as 
 of theology and sermonizing." It is well that certain 
 of our educational institutions are turning their atten- 
 tion toward the supplying of this need. Every such 
 institution that devotes special attention to the train- 
 ing of the gospel ministry ought to endeavor to lend 
 a hand in fitting our country churches better to fulfil 
 
THE CHURCH AS A COMMUNITY CENTER 21 
 
 their task of building up the communities where the 
 Lord of the church has planted them. 
 
 THE COUNTRY CHURCH AS A COMMUNITY 
 CENTER 
 
 {Report of Committee) 
 
 Edwin L. Earp, Chairman, Edmund de S. Brun- 
 ner, Fred Eastman, C. J. Galpin, A. R. Mann, 
 Anna B. Taft. 
 
 The subject of this report, as we understand it, 
 refers to the church in the rural community, or it may 
 imply the task of the country church in creating a com- 
 munity where there is none, or the task of giving 
 Christian leadership to a community already socially 
 conscious, but in danger, as in some cases, of becoming 
 pagan unless the church fulfils its function. 
 
 Clarence Poe says, " The chief task of the rural re- 
 former to-day is the creation of the rural community." 
 Mr. George W. Russell, in The Irish Homestead, says, 
 " The difficulty of moving the countryman, which has 
 become traditional, is not due to the fact that he lives 
 in the country, but to the fact that he lives in an unor- 
 ganized society." Why are we focusing our attention 
 to-day upon the rural life of the nation? Because it 
 not only includes over one half (fifty-three per cent.) 
 of the population of this country, but it also represents 
 
22 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 the great resource field of the nation's wealth. It is 
 here also we discover such splendid heroic individ- 
 uality as has produced the largest percentage of moral, 
 religious, industrial, and political leadership of all the 
 ages, and yet at the same time we discover national 
 waste of resources, natural, human, and spiritual, be- 
 cause here we find the least of community interest and 
 cooperation. 
 
 Why are we discussing so often in these days the 
 problems of the country church? Because in many 
 sections of our country it presents to us one of the 
 most difficult mission fields of the world to cultivate 
 because, like the slums of the great cities, it is a lost 
 home field. As one goes back to his home county in 
 the rural sections of the eastern, southern, and some 
 of the middle western states, what does he discover? 
 The splendid old circuit system broken up and the 
 fires of religious fervor gone out upon many abandoned 
 church and family altars, and the message of the min- 
 ister in the neglected pulpit of the dilapidated church 
 building about as effective in creating a community 
 spirit as the noise of a lone woodpecker on a dead tree 
 in a swamp. Why is this so ? Because of population 
 change through population movement, while there has 
 been little if any change in the methods of church 
 work to meet the changing needs of these localities. 
 The country church of the pioneer period selected 
 methods and men to meet the needs of that time. The 
 country church of to-day will succeed when it adopts 
 this policy. Then the preacher was a moving tie; 
 to-day he must be the central cell of a new social 
 
THE CHURCH AS A COMMUNITY CENTER 23 
 
 nucleus. The circuit system in most rural communi- 
 ties has ceased to be effective as it was then. The 
 meeting-house (may we preserve the idea if not the 
 name) is still essential; but it must be more than a 
 meeting-place — it must become the center for the or- 
 ganized expression of the whole community life. The 
 circuit rider was a heroic and necessary social agent 
 then; he is so no longer. To-day we need a new heroic 
 type of country preacher who has the courage to stay 
 camped in one community until by religious instruc- 
 tion and social service he has, like John Frederick 
 Oberlin, built up in one whole sweep of country a 
 new rural civilization in which the character of Christ 
 is the badge of good citizenship. 
 
 The country preacher of to-day confronting his 
 task, hard as it may seem, must have the vision of his 
 church as a community center and the sense of per- 
 sonal responsibility as to his work as the prophet 
 Isaiah had in reference to the religious center of a 
 rural folk living in a territory no larger than the state 
 of New Jersey : " For Zion's sake will I not hold my 
 peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until 
 her righteousness go forth as brightness, and her sal- 
 vation as a lamp that burnetii " (Isa. lxii. 1). Here 
 we get the conception that the church is an attractive 
 force and a saving agency in the community in which 
 the man of God most profitably can invest his whole 
 life. 
 
 We wish to present as briefly as possible (1) The 
 Community Church as it should be, (2) The Social 
 Center Parish Plan, (3) Some encouraging examples 
 
24 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 of Community Serving Churches, (4) Recommenda- 
 tions, (5) References to Literature on the subject. 
 
 I. The Church in the Community 
 
 Keep in mind the declaration of the prophet given 
 above. The church in the first place should stand as 
 an attractive force in the community. Its building and 
 equipment, its organization, its policy, the things for 
 which it stands, its ideals for membership and work 
 should all be arranged with the view of attracting the 
 people of the community, " Until her righteousness 
 go forth as brightness." 
 
 The greatest peril the church of the present has to 
 face in the community is not the hostility of the people, 
 but their indifference; the peril of unattractiveness to 
 those who need her fellowship — the peril of being let 
 alone by the multitudes. The building should be so 
 constructed as to attract the people. The work should 
 be so organized as to render service to the entire com- 
 munity. If there should exist any form of unright- 
 eousness in the community, the church should be so 
 organized as to create a public opinion that will hit it 
 hard, remove the evil, and establish righteousness. 
 
 Her policy should not be that of a class-conscious 
 group, but rather that of the community spirit which 
 stands for social justice. The community church must 
 have an ideal that should be more attractive at least 
 than the platform of any political party, or social or- 
 ganization, or socialistic program. 
 
 In the second place the church should be a saving 
 agency, an active power in the community. (Until 
 
THE CHURCH AS A COMMUNITY CENTER 25 
 
 her salvation go forth as a lamp that burneth.) This, 
 of course, involves what the church proposes to do in 
 the community. 
 
 Its first task should be the endeavor to reconcile the 
 erring souls to God through the person and work of 
 Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, but more and more 
 in our time should the church perform her teaching 
 function by acquainting the children at the earliest 
 possible moment with Jesus Christ their Savior. This 
 can be done by the well-organized Sunday-school, and 
 by special emphasis upon parental obligation in the 
 home. Later, when we get over the selfishness of 
 sectarianism, we shall be able to organize adequately 
 for religious instruction in connection with the public 
 school system. 
 
 The church should become a saving agency also by 
 organizing the recreational and play life of the people. 
 It should stand for wholesome and clean amusement 
 halls and the organized playground for school and 
 community at large. 
 
 The church should seek to give a religious signifi- 
 cance to all the legitimate forms of social service in 
 the community by furnishing intelligent Christian 
 leadership; for example, in the work of the depart- 
 ment of public health, the enforcement of welfare 
 legislation, the prosecution of the procurer in vice, and 
 in the support of all good means for the betterment 
 of the life of the wage-earner, and the men and women 
 in public employment. 
 
 In fact the time has come when the church can no 
 longer maintain its self-respect unless it burns as a 
 
26 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 lamp of righteousness in making quick the public 
 conscience with regard to human rights and social 
 justice. 
 
 If we are ever to have the rule of Christ in human 
 society — which means the kingdom of God on earth — 
 we must have every man and woman doing the 
 necessary and legitimate work of the world with the 
 consciousness that it is a part of the work of the 
 kingdom. This was Paul's ideal when he said, " What- 
 soever ye do, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus." 
 The church-members who have helped to formulate 
 the program of the church for the community must 
 stand together for action that will count in making 
 the work of the church real in the community. 
 
 In the well-organized community church it is no 
 longer possible for the membership to stand idle in the 
 market-place of Christian work and say, " No man 
 hath hired us," for there is some form of activity in 
 the church's program in which every member can take 
 an active part; and, besides, we are still left that broad 
 range of individual initiative to keep ourselves active 
 in doing the work of the kingdom so that we will be 
 without excuse. 
 
 The time has gone by when enlightened people are 
 going to be satisfied merely with church buildings and 
 programs. When Jesus announced his great social 
 program from a pulpit in Capernaum, the people said, 
 " What gracious words proceed from his mouth ! " 
 But Jesus said, " To-day hath this scripture been ful- 
 filled in your ears." We are not to stop there : we must 
 so speak and act — the church of the community must 
 
THE CHURCH AS A COMMUNITY CENTER 27 
 
 so organize its forces and work that the people will be 
 compelled to say, " To-day is Christ's program being 
 carried out in our community." 
 
 INDIVIDUAL VIEWS OF THE CHURCH AS A 
 COMMUNITY CENTER 
 
 Anna B. Taft 
 
 The first element in the church as a community 
 center is that its service should be to the whole com- 
 munity : the translating of the gospel to the neighbor- 
 hood through its members and organizations. It can 
 attain this end best by ministering, as our Lord min- 
 istered, to those in danger in the community, by the 
 saving of whom the prosperity and wholesomeness of 
 the community are assured. These are usually the 
 young people, newcomers, the poor, the defective, and 
 the sick. For the young, the church should recognize 
 and minister to the natural social and religious in- 
 stinct of the boys and girls; supply them with whole- 
 some forms of recreation through organized play, 
 clubs, and socials of various kinds ; and provide oppor- 
 tunities for religious education and worship. 
 
 For newcomers, the church should provide such 
 fostering care and welcome that they soon may become 
 residents having a part and interest in upbuilding the 
 kingdom in the community. 
 
 For the poor, she should offer such ministry in the 
 community that actual cases of want may be met by 
 the church and should establish such a neighborhood 
 life that poverty will be abolished, and the gospel of a 
 just economic condition will be established. 
 
28 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 For the sick and defective, she should furnish such 
 care as isolated cases demand and conduct such a cam- 
 paign for public health as shall abolish illness, as far 
 as possible, from the community. 
 
 In the open country and small village the numerous 
 religious and welfare organizations of the city and 
 large town are unnecessary and impracticable. The 
 church can be the community center. Where there 
 is more than one church, they should work together 
 for the common good of the community, but when this 
 is impossible, each church should make its service con- 
 tribute to the welfare of the community as a whole. 
 
 A. R. Mann 
 
 Every church is a community center in some degree, 
 for the fact that it represents a group interest consti- 
 tutes it a center around which persons sharing this 
 interest in sufficient degree group themselves. It 
 seems to me that this constitutes the basis on which 
 its influence as a community center is to be extended. 
 Only in so far as persons in the community can be 
 brought to share in this interest will the church be a 
 group center for them. The church must begin, there- 
 fore, by thoroughly leavening its present group, and 
 by gradual accretion extend its circle of influence. 
 
 The gradual working out of a consistent program 
 from within will, I believe, accomplish both more ef- 
 fective and more permanent results than any grand- 
 stand plan or assumption of community leadership. 
 Viewing the situation from this standpoint will aid 
 also in determining the possible limits to which the 
 
THE CHURCH AS A COMMUNITY CENTER 29 
 
 church can become a center, by revealing at once cer- 
 tain groups or interests that cannot reasonably be ex- 
 pected to be brought into the circle of interest about a 
 given Protestant church under our present organiza- 
 tion. The larger community of interest cannot be as- 
 sumed; it must be fostered and often created. The 
 church has a particularly vulnerable point of approach 
 because it has an appeal to the emotional and senti- 
 mental nature of man, through which the higher spirit- 
 ual nature may be aroused. 
 
 In order that a church may become a community 
 center in any large way it must engage a ministry 
 capable of discovering the community interests and 
 tendencies in their pure form, of ascertaining the pur- 
 poses for which men come together in the community, 
 and how the church can intelligently cooperate in the 
 furthering of those interests so far as they are legiti- 
 mate. A thorough and appreciative understanding of 
 the interests that move the community is a first step, 
 and the necessary foundation of any progress. Only 
 thus can the church know what activities it should im- 
 mediately promote or what it should leave to other 
 agencies. 
 
 Many churches will have to be content with being 
 a community center. Some, under special favorable 
 circumstances, can attain unto the community center. 
 There should be caution not to seek self-aggrandize- 
 ment at the expense of the highest welfare of the com- 
 munity or other existing interests, A church that un- 
 dermines another legitimate institution to promote its 
 own needs is likely to fail in the effort. The church 
 
30 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 should be viewed as a means, not as an end in itself. 
 Many a church has gone on the rocks through making 
 itself an end rather than a means. It can attain its 
 highest service side by side with other legitimate 
 interests. 
 
 Community center means not, as many have thought, 
 the bringing of everything into the church, but rather 
 spreading the influence of the church out into the com- 
 munity and into everything affecting men's lives. The 
 " bringing in " idea tends to make the church an end 
 in itself. The " bringing in " will be an inevitable 
 result of spending itself in service. 
 
 A church that is to be a center must consent to a 
 wider and freer use of its plant than is often the case. 
 An over-restrictive policy here is hurtful to the ven- 
 ture. Frequently the parsonage can supplement the 
 church in this respect; the parsonage contributes much 
 to the social center at the church, and we must con- 
 ceive of the parsonage in a larger way. The human 
 touch is here, and persons respond freely to the human 
 element. For some purposes the parsonage can be 
 made very much less impersonal than the church build- 
 ing. The houses of members are a close second to 
 the parsonage. The best center is where persons live. 
 The church can multiply its centrality through an in- 
 telligent use of its constituent homes. To many per- 
 sons the church building is too impersonal. By advo- 
 cating such use I do not mean to lessen the wider use 
 of the church plant, but to supplement it. 
 
 A center must have continuity. No success follows 
 centers with short pastorates. The possibility of being 
 
THE CHURCH AS A COMMUNITY CENTER 31 
 
 a center is directly proportional to the length of pas- 
 torates. Hence, also, arises the importance of mem- 
 bers' homes in helping to carry over changes in 
 pastorates. 
 
 The church should seek to set forward the larger 
 influences that will tie a community into a real group 
 and thus aid in a complete community socialization. 
 What these influences are will have to be determined 
 for each locality. Federation of local forces for com- 
 munity building will often be a needed task. 
 
 Edmund de S. Brunner 
 
 The church is a part of the community and as such 
 depends upon it for support and constituency. Every 
 phase of community life, whether it will or not, rests 
 on the church. 
 
 Ideally the church should affect all the adverse ele- 
 ments in the community life rather than be affected 
 by them. The struggle toward this goal will involve 
 a number of things. The church must have a sympa- 
 thetic interest in the economic, recreational, educa- 
 tional, hygienic, civic, and moral life of its community. 
 
 This means that the church will be the spiritual 
 dynamo, furnishing its members with power adequate 
 to the task of bringing the Christ spirit into all phases 
 of community life. The high responsibility of the 
 church is ever for spiritual leadership equal alike to 
 the heights and depths of human experience as well as 
 to the level of each day's need. 
 
 But it must also mean much more. The church may 
 have to translate its sympathy with community life in 
 
32 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 terms of service for it as an organization. Lacking 
 another place, it should open its doors to community 
 meetings of every worthy description. It should place 
 its plant in the hands of the community as a recrea- 
 tional asset, even though this may mean enlarging the 
 building; and in other ways it should meet all those 
 needs which, unmet, would react for ill upon the life 
 of the community and thus upon the church. 
 
 Conditions Favorable to Rural Church Centers 
 C. J. Galpin 
 
 A community church. — The most favorable condi- 
 tion for a church center is the existence of only one 
 church in the territory, either large neighborhood in 
 open country, or community of village center type, 
 where the church is well thought of, is backed by all 
 elements of the population, and is willing to assume 
 leadership in providing the building and equipment for 
 the people's social life and general recreative and in- 
 forming enterprises. 
 
 Clergyman a social middleman. — The clergyman is 
 in a sense a public servant paid by the people, and 
 should have many qualifications for social welfare 
 leadership. Where he has the confidence of his com- 
 munity as well as of his parish, he has opportunity for 
 the use of all his social surplus energy. 
 
 Family ideal. — The permanence and organization of 
 the church, comprising as it does the family circle, and 
 open as it is to all ages and both sexes, especially 
 adapt it to become the medium of a democratic social 
 
THE CHURCH AS A COMMUNITY CENTER 33 
 
 life, providing it has the liberality of view which will 
 open its building to all wholesome interests of the 
 people on the land. 
 
 A means of strength to the church. — A favorably 
 situated church, holding undisputed religious guard- 
 ianship in its region, if strong enough not to be swept 
 away from its moral and religious obligations by 
 assuming aggressive social obligations to its people, 
 might very easily find that it has a new lease of life 
 and power in this added responsibility. 
 
 It doubtless would be well to call attention to the 
 fact that just as the home has served a great function 
 as a place where boys and girls can get acquainted 
 at close hand under working conditions and intimate 
 living conditions with different individual types of 
 personalities, and thereby come to incorporate through 
 imagination and sympathy into their own mental habit 
 a completer racial life, so the church has always served 
 the social function of bringing families of different 
 types together for acquaintanceship under auspices 
 sometimes quite spiritual, at other times quite ordinary. 
 Probably for at least a generation now, this function in 
 the country, where acquaintance with human life is 
 narrow, somewhat shallow, and somewhat petty, 
 should be emphasized. In fact it can hardly be over- 
 done. This is why the country church should make 
 special occasions of as wide and varied a character as 
 possible to bring together people of many kinds and 
 occupations, so as to elevate the human experience of 
 country life. 
 
34 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 AFTER ONE YEAR OF SUCCESS IN A COMMUNITY 
 CHURCH CENTER THE YEAR AHEAD 
 
 Fred Eastman 
 
 Will you let me give you my dream for the year 
 ahead ? I see a church working with the same purpose 
 ■ — binding together all the divergent elements of our 
 changing population in Christian fellowship. I see a 
 band of women working faithfully, cheerfully on, 
 meeting together, planning festivals, picnics, and en- 
 tertainments, providing the children with the things 
 that make glad the heart of childhood and the grown- 
 ups with the things that only women can provide. I 
 see a Sunday-school one hundred and twenty strong, 
 studying together, under the guidance of conscientious 
 and earnest teachers, lessons that make for nobility 
 and strength of character. I see a crowd of men and 
 women filling this church, listening to lectures that 
 interest and inspire and arouse debates, and to music 
 that thrills and touches the most solemn chords of our 
 being. I see a music secretary in the community, 
 leading and directing not only the music in this church 
 but in the glee club and public school and the whole 
 neighborhood. I see a choir of fifty children crowding 
 that little balcony, a choir the freshness and sweetness 
 of whose voices will set these walls ringing with their 
 glad harmony. We will have musical services here — 
 vesper and evening songs sung by the children. And 
 I see the response which these services will call forth 
 from the hearts of this community. I see our church 
 
THE CHURCH AS A COMMUNITY CENTER 35 
 
 filled to the doors; I see men and women coming here 
 and hear them saying to one another that they would 
 rather be here when our doors are open than anywhere 
 else in the community, for it is here that they find rest 
 and peace and inspiration. They shall call it their 
 home — their House of Service. 
 
 II. The Social Center Parish Plan 
 Fred Eastman 
 
 It should be acknowledged at the outset that the 
 old circuit system was of great service in the pioneer 
 period and even later in the development of the coun- 
 try church in America. It should also be granted that 
 the circuit system is still a practicable method in many 
 parts of the rural domain even to-day, especially in 
 the newer and sparsely settled regions. But, on the 
 other hand, it should be frankly admitted by every one 
 who knows the facts that the changed conditions in our 
 rural life demand a change in our methods of minister- 
 ing to the people. 
 
 The emphasis of church work is no longer merely 
 upon the saving of individuals but also upon the saving 
 of the community; and, in a large sense, the saving 
 of our rural civilization from becoming pagan. Fur- 
 thermore, some of our leading thinkers and writers on 
 the rural situation declare that it will soon be a ques- 
 tion of whether the churches in the rural districts will 
 be able to save themselves if the present condition 
 and methods of church life continue. Professor 
 Carver says : " Unless the church makes itself a posi- 
 
36 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 tive factor in the building up of the rural community 
 and rural civilization, it will have to get out. And 
 in the main the church must rebuild the rural com- 
 munity through its own members by making them 
 better farmers, better citizens, of more value to the 
 community." * 
 
 To save individuals, to save the community, and to 
 save itself the country church must adopt an adequate 
 plan to meet the demands of modern rural community 
 needs. In my judgment that plan best suited to func- 
 tion in this field is what I call the social center parish 
 plan, or the circular system, as a substitute for the 
 old circuit system. I shall discuss this subject from 
 the point of view (i) of the plan, (2) of its value as 
 a socializing agency, and (3) of its method of working. 
 
 I. THE PLAN 
 
 The plan involves four essential things, the first to> 
 be a thorough social survey. The survey is so neces- 
 sary and fundamental that it must take precedence of 
 the other three. These are a chart, or map of the 
 entire parish or community, a program of work cover- 
 ing the details of the chart, and a staff of workers with 
 voluntary or paid assistants. 
 
 (1) The social survey should include all the facts 
 of the community: (a) those that may be termed the 
 assets, or life-giving and community-serving resources; 
 (b) those that may be termed liabilities; that is, those 
 that are life-destroying, or community-destroying 
 factors. It should be a geological, biological, demo- 
 1 Rural Church Message, p. 115. 
 
THE CHURCH AS A COMMUNITY CENTER 37 
 
 graphical, and sociological, as well as religious, survey 
 of the entire community. 
 
 (2) The chart, or map, should be carefully made 
 upon such a scale that every member of the parish can 
 understand it. It should be put in usable form for 
 distribution, but especially should it be placed in the 
 pastor's study, or in the assembly hall, where the facts 
 of the community as well as of individual interest and 
 responsibility can be pointed out. 
 
 It should not only mark out the present location of 
 farmhouses, schools, stores, shops, churches, roads, the 
 best soils adapted to certain crops, etc., but it should 
 include also the desirable location of these buildings 
 and the places where roads ought to be changed, or 
 reconstructed, or graded; those in which new bridges 
 should be built, and where all public improvements 
 should be made. All these should be so carefully and 
 graphically presented by charts, photographs, and let- 
 tering that it would be a means of public education 
 in what the community ought to be. Striking con- 
 trasts of what is and what ought to be in rural life 
 can be very easily and cheaply presented by paper and 
 ink, or by photographs and posters. And these are 
 often more convincing and saving than some sermons 
 I have heard in rural churches. 1 
 
 (3) A program of work. To illustrate: I have in 
 my mind our summer camp all charted and mapped 
 out, and a program of work for the next year, and 
 
 1 For a good community map see " The Social Anatomy of an 
 Agricultural Community," by Prof. C. J. Galpin, Research Bulle- 
 tin No. 34, Madison, Wisconsin. 
 
38 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 perhaps for several years. I know all the dead trees 
 that need to be cut next summer, the stumps and stones 
 I want to remove from the soil, the paths I am going 
 to make in the woods, the kind of treatment the soil 
 of the garden requires, the kind of boat-house I want 
 to build, the color and quality of the paint to be put 
 on the buildings, and many other details. So the rural 
 leader of the social center parish should have outlined 
 a program of work so that he will not only see things 
 done in the community, but will actually get the young 
 life at work, in order that it may function in the essen- 
 tials of rural leadership and community service. How 
 are you going to keep the boys in the church and train 
 them for real service in the Kingdom? That should 
 be planned out before there is a tendency for the group 
 to lapse from the Sunday-school and to leave the farm 
 for a prodigal experience. 
 
 How are you going to keep that rich old lady, a 
 little eccentric perhaps, from leaving her property to 
 the endowment of a dog kennel or a feline sanitarium, 
 and persuade her, instead, to endow some scholarships 
 for the country boys in some form of research that 
 will help the community, or to give it for the employ- 
 ment of a young man or a young woman to supervise 
 the play life of the community, so that the children 
 will not fight like cats and dogs at their play? In 
 every detail of community betterment this plan makes 
 possible a program and opens up the way to per- 
 formance. 
 
 (4) A staff of workers. This is absolutely neces- 
 sary, and where volunteers cannot be had it will re- 
 
THE CHURCH AS A COMMUNITY CEXTER 39 
 
 quire a paid staff, such as the County Work Depart- 
 ment is putting into some of the communities through 
 its statesmanlike program for rural community better- 
 ment. 
 
 The graduates of the agricultural college and rural 
 high school can be enlisted for this kind of work. 
 Instead of trying to get every young man to express 
 his religious experience in the same way, as in my 
 boyhood days, we will come up to the position of Paul 
 in recognizing that in the work of the Kingdom there 
 are varieties of gifts but the same spirit. 
 
 So I would have a specialist on soils, one on plant 
 pests and diseases, one on stock-breeding and dairying, 
 one on rural home planning, one on hygiene and sani- 
 tation, one on recreation and amusement in rural com- 
 munities, one on religious education and adolescence, 
 and one on any other important phase of the com- 
 munity need brought out in the survey and charted in 
 the program. 
 
 2. ITS VALUE AS A SOCIALIZING AGENCY 
 
 Such an institution as the rural church organized on 
 the social center parish plan has two essential social 
 aims as its function in the community : ( 1 ) to socialize 
 the community in consciousness, (2) to socialize the 
 community in its activity. 
 
 (1) Socializing a community in consciousness. — A 
 community is socialized in consciousness when it 
 comes to acknowledge the necessary facts in social 
 evolution of the need for social cleavage in com- 
 munity-building, and at the same time develops that 
 
40 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 social sympathy which keeps these class-conscious 
 groups in sympathetic cooperation with each other in 
 carrying on the work necessary to the fullest life of 
 the community. In other words, the church should 
 so broaden the people's definition of the kingdom of 
 God on earth that every man and woman who is doing 
 a necessary part of the world's work which has to do 
 with the health and happiness of the community as a 
 whole may be conscious of doing the work of the 
 Kingdom, and should, therefore, receive a just share of 
 the rewards society offers of social esteem and of 
 economic values, wages, or goods, produced by labor 
 of whatever sort. With such a chart and program as I 
 have described above, it would not be difficult to 
 develop such a social consciousness in the minds of all 
 the people of the parish. 
 
 (2) Socializing a community in activity. — When is 
 a community socialized in activity? When, awakened 
 to the consciousness of its needs, it has developed ade- 
 quate organization of its population, invented efficient 
 social machinery, and trained effective social en- 
 gineers to make use of its available resources for all 
 the people within the community so that they will be 
 in possession of that equality of opportunity which 
 means, not the chance to secure control of resources 
 and exploit them for personal or for corporate ends, 
 but the equality of opportunity to secure for each a 
 just share of the products of industry through dis- 
 tribution according to the measure of services ren- 
 dered. In other words, a community is socialized 
 when it has developed a social medium through which 
 
THE CHURCH AS A COMMUNITY CENTER 41 
 
 there is a reciprocal correspondence between human 
 needs and available resources. 
 
 To me this is, in brief, the function of the country 
 church as a socializing agency in the building up of 
 the community life that will correspond to the New 
 Testament conception of the kingdom of God on earth. 
 
 3. METHOD OF WORKING THE PLAN 
 
 No plan, however scientific and workable, will work 
 itself. It has to be worked, and the man who works it 
 must have the essential elements of social leadership 
 in his makeup. 
 
 (1) Such a plan must have a leader who loves 
 work, who can sense the needs of a community, who 
 has a constructive imagination, and who has will 
 power, or a persistent purpose to succeed when he 
 knows he is right. 
 
 (2) It requires an adequate financial plan of sup- 
 port. A fool project may succeed if properly financed, 
 while a reasonable plan may fail if not properly 
 financed. In most communities the people will pay 
 for what they get if they are convinced the goods are 
 worth the money. Sometimes it is necessary to intro- 
 duce the goods by gift, or cut the price to one half 
 the value. So in some rural communities it will be 
 necessary at first to get financial support for the cen- 
 tral parish plan from private gifts or from denomina- 
 tional funds outside the community to be served. 
 The County Work Department has demonstrated the 
 feasibility of this plan. 
 
 (3) Such a plan on a large scale involves a more 
 
42 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 statesmanlike policy of the administration of home 
 missions and church extension funds by some of the 
 Protestant denominations than has been evident hith- 
 erto. Instead of doling out drips to defunct churches 
 in over-churched communities, or for petty plans for 
 new enterprises of little importance, if these boards 
 would set aside a fund for establishing a few central 
 parishes in communities that would act as imitation 
 centers for other communities, it seems to me we 
 would make greater progress in home missions and 
 church extension than we are now making under our 
 present policy, which we have inherited from the 
 pioneer past. 
 
 (4) Cooperation by overhead organizations of 
 Home Missions Boards for the country church should 
 be secured as a definite policy for rural communities : 
 
 (a) by dividing the rural field into " spheres of influ- 
 ence," as has been done in the foreign field, and re- 
 cently in Mexico by foreign mission boards. This 
 would apply especially to rural fields not yet churched. 
 
 (b) By getting common consent to unite where the 
 people can be persuaded to follow the lead, leaving the 
 responsibility of administration to the denomination 
 agreed upon by the people; (c) by adopting the "give 
 and take" principle as between the denominations on 
 reciprocal terms, for different communities, where, in 
 the one, denomination " A " is stronger than denom- 
 ination " B," and in the other, denomination " B " is 
 stronger than denomination "A." Here we have an 
 exchange which leaves both denominations equally 
 strong as a whole, and locally stronger because of the 
 
THE CHURCH AS A COMMUNITY CENTER 43 
 
 elimination of competition and waste. This applies 
 only to fields where there is competition or stagnation; 
 where this cannot be secured the overhead organiza- 
 tions should agree (d) to adopt the law of adaptation 
 to environment, or the law of the survival of the fittest, 
 and help the church that is willing to organize its 
 work on a community basis; that is, with the aim to 
 serve the whole community without reference to de- 
 nomination, and then let the others die, or hustle to do 
 likewise. 
 
 III. Examples of Community Serving 
 Churches 
 
 It will not be possible within the limits of this report 
 to give a very large list of the country churches already 
 organized on the Social Center Parish Plan and doing 
 successful work as community centers. 
 
 Typical examples may be found described by Dr. 
 Warren H. Wilson in The Church at the Center, chap- 
 ter IV, and in The Church of the Open Country, 
 chapter VIII. 
 
 i. One of the most successful is the Presbyterian 
 Church at Hanover, New Jersey, under the leadership 
 of the pastor, the Rev. R. H. M. Augustine. Here we 
 see a splendid old parish with a central church building 
 in a territory given largely to dairying, truck farming, 
 and fruit-growing, and surrounded by four smaller 
 centers each with a chapel where a Sunday-school is 
 conducted in the afternoons, and where preaching is 
 held in the afternoon or evening. The parish has a 
 thriving agricultural league and a cow-testing associa- 
 
44 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 tion, holds community meetings in the church, and has 
 developed a community consciousness that is being ex- 
 pressed in many forms of helpful service to the whole 
 community as well as to the larger interests of the 
 kingdom of God outside the community. 
 
 2. The Methodist Episcopal Church of Leland, Il- 
 linois, the Rev. Willis Ray Wilson, minister, is an- 
 other illustration of a church that is organized on the 
 community center basis. The work of this church is 
 described in part in The Church at the Center, by 
 Warren H. Wilson, pages 59-61. Since this was 
 written the pastor has done even more successful work 
 in this interesting parish. 
 
 3. The Reformed Church of Locust Valley, Long 
 Island, New York, under the leadership of the Rev. 
 Fred Eastman. The work of this parish and its plan 
 of organization is described in a pamphlet entitled " A 
 Year's Work." The problem of this successful leader 
 was to make the " oldtimers " and the " newcomers " 
 see that the community and its institutions are theirs, 
 that they belong to both, and that each has a share in 
 the responsibility for the social and moral atmosphere 
 of the neighborhood. In this neighborhood denomina- 
 tional competition was given up by sister denomina- 
 tions as a result of splendid community leadership by 
 the pastor of this church. 
 
 4. The Presbyterian Church, Cazenovia, New York, 
 the Rev. Silas E. Persons, minister. The work of this 
 community center church is described in part by the 
 pastor in Solving the Country Church Problem, by 
 Bricker, chapter XIII. 
 
THE CHURCH AS A COMMUNITY CENTER 45 
 
 5. The Larger Benzonia Parish, in Benzie County, 
 Michigan, the Rev. Harlow S. Mills, minister. The 
 story of this interesting and successful community 
 church work is told by the minister himself in The 
 Making of a Country Parish, published by the Mis- 
 sionary Education Movement, New York. 
 
 6. One of the most interesting cases of the building 
 up of a community center by the work of a minister 
 with vision in a very discouraging situation on an old 
 broken-down circuit is that of the Rev. John S. Bur- 
 ton, Suflern, New York (Rural Delivery). A story 
 of this parish work is told by Fred Eastman in the 
 Survey for May 23, 19 14. The closing paragraph 
 contains this interesting characterization of the force 
 of this man as a social engineer in the community. 
 " This little Methodist preacher is on no committee; 
 he is not chairman, or secretary, or treasurer. He is 
 just a sort of two-legged prayer-meeting, going about 
 the community filling everybody full of the Holy 
 Spirit." 
 
 7. Prof. Galpin in Bulletin 234 (January, 1914), 
 of the Agricultural Experiment Station of the Uni- 
 versity of Wisconsin gives the description of St. 
 Peter's Roman Catholic Church, Ashton, Dane County, 
 Wisconsin, as a Rural Church Center. The parochial 
 school building is used as a community center. Series 
 of lectures are given by the priest to the young men 
 of the farms on such topics as " Scientific Agricul- 
 ture," " Taking the Short Course at the College of 
 Agriculture," " Beautifying the Home and Farm," 
 " Ornamental Shrubs and Flowering Plants." 
 
46 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 This church maintains a parish library on country 
 life, fairly up-to-date books on scientific agriculture, 
 country life bulletins from the Department of Agri- 
 culture, at Washington, District of Columbia, bulletins 
 from the State College of Agriculture, magazines, and 
 the like. 
 
 He also describes in this bulletin the work of other 
 denominations, such as the Pigeon Creek Norwegian 
 Evangelical Lutheran Church Hall, Trempealem 
 County, Wisconsin; Fairfield Baptist Church, Hall, 
 Sauk County, Wisconsin, and several others. 
 
 8. The pamphlet, " Country Churches of Distinc- 
 tion," published by the Presbyterian Board of Home 
 Missions, Country Church Work, gives brief sketches 
 of fifty churches in Ohio, a large number of which are 
 community-serving churches. 
 
 9. Many other examples could be given, but these 
 are sufficient to encourage those who are seeking to 
 enlarge the scope of the country churches they are 
 serving to include the whole community. 
 
 IV. Recommendations 
 
 1. That administrative Boards of Home Missions 
 having to do with rural fields make a more scientific 
 study of the rural domain with reference to> its actual 
 needs, available resources, and strategic centers where 
 permanent church enterprises of the community center 
 type may be established. This could be done coop- 
 eratively in a comparatively brief period by the leading 
 denominational boards without overlapping and at no 
 great expense, if the entire rural domain were divided 
 
THE CHURCH AS A COMMUNITY CENTER 47 
 
 into regions and surveyed by men and women of 
 ability according to a definite plan. 
 
 2. That the Social Center Parish Plan be adopted as 
 the ideal toward which all denominations should work. 
 This will give a system with a central plant and staff of 
 workers organized on the basis of service to the entire 
 community or countryside, and so insuring community 
 consciousness and promoting social solidarity. 
 
 3. That Home Mission Boards adopt the plan of 
 the foreign boards in the selection and training of 
 volunteers for the field, in order that we may make 
 the open country as impelling as the foreign field from 
 the new point of life investment, so that we may get 
 the best type of leadership to enlist for the country 
 church field. 
 
 4. That definite courses of study be given in the 
 theological schools and in colleges and universities 
 looking toward life-work in this field; and that courses 
 in Rural Bible Study, as well as courses on other forms 
 of mission w r ork, be given by the Christian Associa- 
 tions in these institutions. 
 
 5. That fellowships be established for key-men in 
 our theological seminaries who could, after graduation, 
 spend a year or two on the study of some rural church 
 field with the view of giving their lives to this kind of 
 work; and that scholarships be given to some country 
 ministers to attend a summer school on Methods in 
 Rural Leadership and the Country Church, so that on 
 their return they may become community leaders for 
 the central parish or rural region. 
 
 6. That administrative overhead organizations hav- 
 
48 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 ing to do with the expenditure of Home Mission 
 Funds encourage the formation of a parish budget for 
 the community center which would localize responsi- 
 bility and programs and expenditure, and lead ulti- 
 mately to self-support. And that no funds be appro- 
 priated to any church which has not made a survey of 
 its field, organized its work on a community basis, and 
 secured a staff of workers (voluntary or paid), and 
 chosen a leader capable of organizing the work of the 
 whole parish; unless it be a case of charity, in which 
 case the appropriation should come from a separate 
 fund for that purpose. 
 
 If the overhead organizations in Rural Church 
 Work will arrange themselves upon the basis of these 
 proposals, we believe it will not be long before this 
 vast resource field for the nation's needs will be en- 
 tirely reclaimed as a lost home field, and again will 
 be furnishing, as in the past, the largest percentage of 
 the economic, political, moral, educational, and relig- 
 ious leadership of our new civilization, which, we 
 trust, will be the realization of our hopes — the kingdom 
 of God come. 
 
 V. Selected Bibliography 
 
 Rural Social Centers in Wisconsin, Bulletin 234, by 
 C. J. Galpin, Madison, Wisconsin. 
 
 The Social Anatomy of an Agricultural Community, 
 Research Bulletin 34, May, 191 5, by C. J. Galpin, 
 Madison, Wisconsin. 
 
 The Story of John Frederick Oberlin, by A. F. 
 Beard, Pilgrim Press. 
 
THE CHURCH AS A COMMUNITY CENTER 49 
 
 Making of a Country Parish, by Harlan S. Mills, 
 Missionary Education Movement. 
 
 The Church at the Center, by Warren H. Wilson, 
 Missionary Education Movement. 
 
 Solving the Country Church Problem, by Garland 
 A. Bricker, Methodist Book Concern. 
 
 The Rural Church Movement, by Edwin L. Earp, 
 Methodist Book Concern. 
 
 The Church of the Open Country, by Warren H. 
 Wilson, Missionary Education Movement. 
 
 Cooperation in Coopersburg, by Edmund de S. 
 Brunner, Missionary Education Movement. 
 
 Country Church and Community Cooperation, by 
 Henry Israel, Association Press. 
 
 The Country Church and the Rural Problem, by 
 Kenyon L. Butterfield, University of Chicago Press. 
 
 The Country Church, by Gilford Pinchot and 
 Charles Otis Gill, The Macmillan Co. 
 
 Rural Church Message (Men and Religion Move- 
 ment), The Association Press. 
 
 The Challenge of the Country, by G. Walter Fiske, 
 Association Press. 
 
 The Day of the Country Church, by J. O. Ashen- 
 hurst, Funk and Wagnalls Co. 
 
 A Natural Community Center, article by R. C. 
 Keagy, in Successful Farming, November, 19 15. 
 
50 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 THE OVERCHURCHING OF RURAL 
 COMMUNITIES 
 
 A. W. Taylor 
 
 The rational approach to the rural church problem 
 is through a thoroughgoing survey of the rural church 
 situation and an analysis of the field and the forces at 
 work. Sufficient surveys have thus far been made to 
 indicate certain inescapable facts regarding the dupli- 
 cation of church efforts in the average rural com- 
 munity. Those who survey the whole field are agreed 
 regarding the necessity of making the rural church a 
 community church, and they are also agreed that there 
 are certain fundamental weaknesses in the present in- 
 stitutional situation. 
 
 No city church would expect to grow and prosper 
 without a settled pastor. Few country churches are 
 found to possess such a pastor, although the farmer 
 Christian is in no wise different from the city Chris- 
 tian in his spiritual needs, nor are his churches in any 
 wise different in their organic needs from those of the 
 city; yet the rural church is too small to support a 
 settled pastor. Again, it has been found that the 
 prosperity of the rural church is in direct ratio to the 
 number of its services and the size of its membership; 
 but the average rural church, whose membership runs 
 from sixty to eighty souls, has preaching only once a 
 month by a preacher who resides outside the com- 
 munity, and who gives it little if any pastoral atten- 
 tion. So small a church is unable to support a resi- 
 
OVERCHURCHING OF RURAL COMMUNITIES 51 
 
 dent pastor or even to support a man who will give 
 some time to pastoral work; thus without a shepherd 
 or an organizer the life of such churches is limited to 
 that of worship and to whatever organization may be 
 effected by unled local workers. The neighboring town 
 church has four to five times the membership and is 
 thus able to support a resident pastor, to conduct 
 services every Sunday, to have oversight, to effect per- 
 manent organizations, to rise to leadership, to train 
 the workers, and to< secure a shepherding of the flock. 
 And through them all it has a chance to succeed. Then 
 the impressiveness of its audiences, the formidable- 
 ness and energy of its organization, the constant at- 
 tention of its pastor, and the very success with which 
 its activities are carried on begets greater success. 
 Because it does things it is able to enlist both men 
 and money. Activity begets greater activity and en- 
 lists both patronage and financial support. In the 
 country small congregations beget small congrega- 
 tions, listless activities beget listlessness; occasional 
 services are unable to inspire activity; little to pay for 
 makes small challenge to generosity. 
 
 In a church survey made of Boone County, Mis- 
 souri, the home of the state university, sixty-seven 
 rural churches were found, or one to every forty-six 
 rural families in the county. Their average member- 
 ship is about eighty. Only one of them had a resident 
 pastor, and he preached for three other churches at 
 considerable distances. On the first of January, 191 5, 
 not one of them afforded preaching more than once 
 each month and many of them not so often. Almost 
 
52 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 one half of them had no Sunday-schools, and of those 
 who did only a few kept their schools alive during the 
 winter months. Few of them had any sort of mis- 
 sionary or young people's organizations. The average 
 pastor's salary was about $200, and the budget for the 
 entire work of the church was less than $250. There 
 is not a single one of these churches that does not 
 have from two to seven others within four miles of its 
 church site. What is true of this county is true of 
 multitudinous others. The overchurching may not be 
 so bad in many others, but it is of like type in prac- 
 tically all other farming counties, and thus the situa- 
 tion may be said to be fairly characteristic. 
 
 Now the most primary analysis of this situation in 
 the light of the necessities of church efficiency is con- 
 vincing. There are simply too many churches for any 
 of them to be efficient. They cannot afford resident 
 pastors because no one of them can support a resident 
 pastor, and no three or four of them in the same com- 
 munity can unite to support one because they belong 
 to different denominations. They cannot support a 
 live Sunday-school because there are not enough chil- 
 dren to make a live school in each and every one of 
 them, and inevitably the attempt of one to support a 
 good school begets a competitive attempt in the other 
 nearest by, and the field is divided, the cleavage run- 
 ning just as deep as the struggles to activity drive it. 
 They are too much concerned about the competitive 
 local conditions in keeping the various churches alive 
 to have much interest in missionary work, feeling that 
 the smallness of their membership puts upon them too 
 
OVERCHURCHIXG OF RURAL COMMUNITIES 53 
 
 great a burden for local support. If one of them un- 
 dertakes a community program, the community is im- 
 mediately divided through their sectarian loyalties, and 
 religion, instead of being the dominant force for unity 
 in the community, becomes ofttimes the greatest force 
 making for disunity. 
 
 This overchurched condition is a survival from the 
 pioneer days. In earlier days the sectarian shibboleth 
 rallied people. When the country was new, the pioneer 
 preacher came to establish churches of his peculiar 
 creedal persuasion. The question was not, Has this 
 new community a church that preaches Christ? but 
 Has it a church of our persuasion preaching Christ? 
 Thus the various small congregations were founded 
 side by side. In many cases the schools of these com- 
 munities are taking on the modern spirit. Agriculture 
 is catching the teaching of science. The business life 
 of the farm is being organized upon an efficiency basis. 
 All the other pioneer elements of community life are 
 giving way to the better and more modern regime, but 
 the church remains as a survival of the pioneer time. 
 It has the same insularity and lack of missionary spirit 
 and retains the old method of living upon preaching 
 alone. There is danger lest the growing community 
 spirit pass the church by. Many workers in the agri- 
 cultural and rural life field have already come to re- 
 gard the country church as a negligible factor in their 
 efforts to communize rural life and found it upon a 
 cooperative basis. The old sectarian shibboleths are 
 failing to rally the younger generation, and there is • 
 danger lest in the slow decadence of the rural congre- 
 
54 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 gation religion itself shall suffer. Christianity would 
 thrive much better in the rural community with one 
 fourth the present number of churches. The ques- 
 tion as to which should die will not be easily settled. 
 None will be willing to become a vicarious sacrifice 
 to the larger religious life of the community, and it is 
 possible that in many places they will all die together 
 through each struggling to retain its life; thus in the 
 struggle of churches that have ceased to function there 
 is grave danger to the religious and moral life of the 
 community. 
 
 One way out is suggested by those who have faith 
 that a movement can be inaugurated at the top and 
 the various denominations brought to agree on a reci- 
 procity of interest through an exchange of membership 
 in various fields; that is, by the willingness of one 
 communion to withdraw from one field and have its 
 communicants unite with a neighboring church, while 
 the other communion makes a like transfer in another 
 field. There are many difficulties in the way of this 
 solution: the more dogmatically inclined denomina- 
 tions will refuse to enter such a reciprocal arrange- 
 ment; the more democratic and congregationally 
 organized communions have no machinery able to 
 accomplish it, and any attempt by conventions or 
 supervisory agencies to effect it will be met with 
 vigorous protest from the rank and file; and in most 
 localities there will be a considerable minority that will 
 refuse to accept such an arrangement unless it is made 
 by the local congregations on their own initiative. 
 The best a movement at the top can expect to do is to 
 
OVERCHURCHIXG OF RURAL COMMUNITIES 55 
 
 agitate and educate and to effect an occasional exem- 
 plary union. 
 
 A thoroughgoing appreciation of the difficulties af- 
 forded by sectarian loyalty, independent polity, tradi- 
 tion, and indifference to the gravity of the situation 
 leads one to suspect that there will have to be a sort 
 of a " survival of the fit " selective process. The 
 local church that arises to the demands of the situation 
 by adopting a thoroughgoing community program will 
 gradually draw to its support all those elements in the 
 community life that cannot be interested in the older 
 doctrinal and individualistic program and will also 
 win many from their conventional loyalties to the 
 more virile life of a socialized church. The new 
 interest is intensely human and the old sectarian shib- 
 boleths will loose their clutch; the new program is 
 broad and in harmony with the spirit of the age, and 
 while it sacrifices nothing true in the old, it revivifies 
 it with vision and a good-neighborliness that will 
 bring the church into the spirit of the times in which 
 we live. The process will be a slow one, no doubt, 
 for institutions change slowly; but the institutions 
 of religion must readapt themselves to the larger spirit 
 and demands of the time or the old type of church 
 will have to give way to a new and more plastic type 
 that can better show forth the fraternity and broth- 
 erly love of Christianity and bring in the kingdom of 
 God. 
 
56 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 THE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY OF THE 
 CHURCH TO THE COMMUNITY 
 
 S. K. Mosiman 
 
 The average community in the Middle States is 
 made up of various groups of people bound together 
 more or less strongly by ties of common interest. The 
 stability of any particular group depends upon the 
 strength of the interest that forms the bond of union. 
 Time usually severs all bonds. Community groups ac- 
 cordingly are subject to change; they disintegrate or 
 coalesce as interest directs. The interests that per- 
 vade and dominate any particular group are of a social 
 rather than of an economic nature. It is always 
 difficult to get farmers to cooperate for mutual 
 advantage in buying or selling, or for any economic 
 advantage or improvement. It is easy, on the other 
 hand, for people to unite for social advantage, 
 provided always that the interests of the different 
 individuals and groups are common. 
 
 It is not easy to resolve a larger community into its 
 group elements. What may be true of one com- 
 munity may not at all hold true of another. Few 
 communities, however, are a unit in social interests. 
 The community of which I wish to speak on this oc- 
 casion is one that has been known to me for many 
 years from observation. I do not claim that it is a 
 typical community. I do claim, however, that it does 
 show the tendency of communities to divide along the 
 line of group interests. In this community that I have 
 
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY OF CHURCH 57 
 
 known for forty years the following groups may be 
 clearly traced. 
 
 Strongly marked are the nationalistic groups. 
 Originally this community was settled by the pioneers 
 who came in from the eastern states. Later, families 
 from foreign lands came in, notably Germans. The 
 original settlers built their churches, and when the 
 Germans came in they had little in common with the 
 old settlers. A new set of churches of various creeds 
 took the place of the older churches. In some cases, 
 too, the church that was displaced was of the same 
 faith as the one that took its place. National inter- 
 ests and feelings were clearly the forces that held the 
 groups together. We see here that the social instinct 
 or feeling is stronger even than the religious. It is 
 also stronger than the economic interests, for all the 
 men of the community, regardless of nationality, met 
 for transaction of business. 
 
 We notice in the next place the provincial group. 
 Families moved into the community from a neighbor- 
 ing state, or from other communities in the same 
 state. These families are not always received at once 
 into the existing social order. They form the nucleus 
 of a group, attracting to themselves other strangers 
 that may come into the community. 
 
 We must note, of course, the religious groups or 
 the denominational groups which are found in almost 
 every larger community. Sectarian differences are not 
 so strongly marked to-day as in former years. In 
 some sections, however, they are still strong enough 
 to make dividing lines for social meetings and gather- 
 
58 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 ings. Even to-day it is difficult for an outsider or 
 a newcomer to break into the social group of an ex- 
 clusive church. People are invited to attend church 
 services and even prayer-meetings much more readily 
 than they are invited to participate in the social activi- 
 ties of the church group. 
 
 Almost every community has its non-religious 
 group or groups. People who are out of the church 
 are frequently found associating together. Their in- 
 difference or opposition to religion forms the bond 
 which binds this group together. They, too, find 
 ways and means of associating with one another and 
 they are drawn together, not so much on account of 
 their indifference to religion, as from the need of 
 meeting with some one on a social basis. 
 
 Another group that may be mentioned and one that 
 has been growing in recent years is the class group 
 due to a division of labor. The various surveys that 
 have been made in Ohio show that a small per cent, of 
 the hired men go to church on Sunday. They do, 
 however, meet on Sunday with other hired men of 
 the community. Recently I had the experience of 
 hearing a hired man in a certain family calling up on 
 a Sunday morning over the telephone three or four of 
 his associates asking them to meet him in a neighbor- 
 ing town, to spend the Sunday. When I asked him 
 why he did not attend services with the family, he 
 replied that there was no one at that church that he 
 was acquainted with. We see here, again, that the 
 social interests draw men together. There is also a 
 growing disinclination on the part of landowners to 
 
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY OF CHURCH 59 
 
 meet renters on an equal social basis. This accounts 
 for the fact, also brought out in the survey of Ohio, 
 that, as compared with those who own their farms, 
 a small proportion of renters are interested in the 
 country church. 
 
 Other groups might no doubt be found in the same 
 community where these various groups mentioned have 
 held sway at one time or another. But in all the 
 groups we find the same tendency to meet on a social 
 rather than on an economic basis. People may unite 
 in business and in the every-day affairs of life and 
 yet be very far apart in their sympathies, or in what 
 they think constitutes their social interests. 
 
 It is of interest to note also that a group usually has 
 a meeting-place, or some rallying point. The church 
 does not afford the only meeting-place. That the 
 church services alone do not supply every human need 
 is clearly seen from the tendency to meet after church 
 for a few minutes of visiting that can be seen in any 
 typical country church. In this half hour of visiting 
 after a church service different social groups may 
 appear. The groups, however, that are not religious 
 find other meeting-places. I know of a certain group 
 who went to town on Saturday afternoon for the pur- 
 pose of meeting their friends on the street as regu- 
 larly as many people go to church. The saloon, the 
 lodge or club, or even a hay-loft, may be the meeting- 
 place to keep alive group interests. 
 
 There may be communities where these group in- 
 terests are of minor importance. In the community 
 that I have in mind, however, the church was ground 
 
60 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 to powder between the upper and nether millstones of 
 conflicting group interests. 
 
 Some Churches That Have Failed 
 
 When I speak of the church as having failed in this 
 community, I am not thinking of the church of one 
 denomination. In the community where I spent the 
 early years of my life one may count at least ten 
 empty country churches from the hilltop where my 
 home was situated. These churches were of various 
 denominations: Reformed, United Brethren, Baptist, 
 Presbyterian, Mennonite, and others. On the whole 
 one cannot say that they failed because the community 
 was overchurched. Nor can one say that the ministers 
 were not faithful, nor that the gospel was not 
 preached. It was neither that the churches were too 
 liberal nor too orthodox. Some of these things may 
 have entered as contributive causes. 
 
 We are living in a time of surveys. We make a 
 survey to ascertain the present condition of a com- 
 munity, or to find out the standing of a country 
 church. If we should make a survey backward, we 
 might learn something about the causes of the failure 
 of these churches. As I look back with a riper experi- 
 ence I can now see that conflicting group interests 
 were the chief cause of decline in every one of the 
 churches. In each case there was a lack of connection 
 between the old interests of the community or group 
 and the new interests that came in. These interests 
 were not always antagonistic, but they were unable 
 to break through the social walls erected. In some 
 
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY OF CHURCH 61 
 
 cases, of course, new churches took the place of the 
 old, while in other cases a country church was absorbed 
 by a town church. In each case, however, there was a 
 moral loss to the community when a church failed. 
 To some extent, of course, sectarianism contributed to 
 the decline of certain churches. But with the change 
 and readjustment that was constantly going on in this 
 community there was always a large portion of the 
 people that were outside of the church. In every case 
 where one church was absorbed by another, or where 
 new people came into the community and brought with 
 them their own church, a portion of the membership 
 of the old church lost all their church relationship 
 and interest. This is true because they placed group 
 interests above community interests and religious in- 
 terests. But as stated before, group interests are of a 
 social nature rather than of an economic or religious 
 nature. 
 
 Some Successful Country Churches 
 
 The successful country church is one where the 
 community interests and the religious interests are 
 larger than the group interests. On a recent Sunday 
 I attended a service at a country church that repre- 
 sented to me, to some extent at least, what a country 
 church ought to be. People came in from every direc- 
 tion, — fathers, mothers, grandparents, and children; 
 the whole family, in fact, came to church. The pastor 
 informed me that so far as he knew there was not a 
 family within a radius of five miles of the church that 
 was not Christian and that did not attend the Sunday- 
 
62 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 school or church. The whole atmosphere of the 
 church spoke of prosperity and contentment. The 
 church was in one sense a social center, ministering to 
 the social needs of the community as well as to the 
 spiritual, though I doubt if many of the members had 
 ever paid much attention to what we call social 
 service or community interests. 
 
 In central Illinois there are large communities of 
 Mennonites and Amish. Permit me to give an illus- 
 tration of one of the Amish churches and its standing 
 in the community. In fact the church and the com- 
 munity are identical. These people make their church 
 life a thing of vital importance. They have a very 
 large church building, costing perhaps $40,000. In 
 the church they have a very large basement that is 
 made use of every Sunday. On a Sunday morning 
 the families of the surrounding community may be 
 seen going to church. As a rule, all attend. During 
 the service some of the sisters are delegated to prepare 
 coffee in the basement of the church. At the noon 
 hour all partake of a common meal. After the meal 
 another service is held in the afternoon. The church 
 is serving the community, in that it supplies an oppor- 
 tunity to meet on a social basis. It is, however, an 
 exclusive church. It may be called a Brotherhood 
 that admits to its membership only those who accept 
 wholly and altogether its principles. This church has 
 solved the community problem by buying out all other 
 landowners of the community. Incidentally they have 
 advanced the price of land in central Illinois above that 
 of any other community. They have solved the com- 
 
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY OF CHURCH 63 
 
 munity problem in their own way. Their exclusive- 
 ness, however, makes it probable that their difficulties 
 will come from within. Nevertheless, these churches 
 do point out the way in which an ideal country church 
 might be conducted. 
 
 I should like to mention one more church that has a 
 membership of nearly a thousand, and a Sunday- 
 school of more than a thousand, that is solving the 
 country church problem. This church is in a town and 
 has many members living in the town. A new church 
 has been built that seats at least two thousand people. 
 Here, too, religious interests are made the dominating 
 force. This is possible and in a sense easy, because 
 the people are of one nationality, and have similar 
 interests and tastes, and social inclinations for both 
 town and country. One can only hope that such a 
 church will continue to hold fast to that which it has. 
 For it the ordinary country church problem does not 
 exist. The social needs of the community are being 
 met without special effort at organization for the 
 purpose. 
 
 We might examine every successful country church, 
 and we should clearly find that in each case the com- 
 munity is more or less united, not only in religious 
 views, but in their social ideas and interests as well. 
 The aim, then, of a country church should be not 
 only to work for unity in belief but to work to bring 
 unity out of the social chaos that is so often found 
 in a community. 
 
 The question arises of course as to how this can be 
 done. I can only point out that the church should 
 
64 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 present a program large enough to interest all the 
 people in the whole community. Is this possible? I 
 think it is. The last words of Jesus to his disciples 
 were : " Go ye, therefore, and make disciples of all 
 nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, 
 and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them 
 to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded 
 you; and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end 
 of the world." In these words we are told to teach 
 all things that Jesus has commanded us. Surely in 
 the teaching of Jesus there is a program large enough 
 to meet every condition, even the social condition 
 that may exist in any commimity. I sometimes think 
 that we have touched only the fringes of the teachings 
 of Jesus. 
 
 If the church wishes to have a program large 
 enough to unify the conflicting social interests in any 
 commimity, it must present large ideas. The revival 
 of the spelling-bee, which has been tried in Ohio, will 
 not solve the problem. Good as agencies and organ- 
 izations of such nature may be to draw people to- 
 gether in a social way, they usually are not large 
 enough. Especially is this true of institutions that 
 have perished because they ceased to serve their com- 
 munities. 
 
 May I just point out some of the teaching which 
 I think should be emphasized in our churches and 
 which is large enough to solve some of the problems? 
 
 First of these let me mention the brotherhood of 
 man. The church has forgotten to place sufficient 
 emphasis on the teaching of Jesus on the brotherhood 
 
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY OF CHURCH 65 
 
 of man and especially on the brotherhood of believers. 
 The brotherhood that Jesus came to establish is an 
 inclusive brotherhood, not an exclusive one. It is a 
 brotherhood which is willing to take the lowest and 
 raise him to the level of the highest. It is a brother- 
 hood for which there are no substitutes. No lodge 
 or club or any sort of an organization can take the 
 place of the brotherhood of Jesus. It rises even above 
 sectarian and denominational lines; yes, it rises above 
 national lines. To-day, when all the world is at war, 
 can there be any greater need to re-emphasize and 
 preach anew than that all men are brothers? This 
 idea alone is large enough to wipe out all minor dif- 
 ferences and to create a new interest in every com- 
 munity in the place of the group interests that destroy. 
 
 Another thought which needs emphasis to-day is the 
 sanctity of the home. There are forces at work which 
 tend to undermine the home. And when the home is 
 undermined, the very pillars of the state are threat- 
 ened. This idea, too, is large enough to be preached 
 in every community, and to overshadow any group 
 interests that may threaten the welfare of the com- 
 munity, and it will tend to unite the various conflicting 
 interests into one harmonious whole. 
 
 Finally, there is need to-day to draw our communi- 
 ties together through the emphasis which can be laid 
 and must be laid upon national righteousness. It is 
 righteousness that exalts a nation. There can be no 
 righteousness in a nation except as it is found in tne 
 individual. The preaching of righteousness and jus- 
 tice in relation to social conditions would do much to 
 
66 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 give men a larger idea of society, and it would help to 
 break down the special group interests. 
 
 The responsibility of the church to the community 
 is this : she must give the community a vision which 
 transcends the narrow group interests that are usually 
 found in a community. This must be done along the 
 line which divides communities into groups. The 
 gospel of Jesus Christ is human enough in its man- 
 ward aspects to meet every social condition that may 
 exist. In its Godward aspects it is divine enough to 
 furnish the motive which will lift men out of their 
 surroundings and place them on a higher plane. 
 
 THE NEW COUNTRY CHURCH 
 Ward Piatt 
 
 The country village church of boyhood days! We 
 stand again near the old farmhouse. It is a sunny 
 summer Sunday morning. The very air seems 
 charged with healing peace. It is vibrant with a single 
 note, the wave-like melody of the old church bell 
 whose call over the intervening miles seems to our 
 childish fancy — " come — come." 
 
 A ride in the family wagon, or, better still, astride 
 a farm horse, and we came to the church. A plat- 
 form was stretched across the entire front. It was 
 filled with men and boys visiting and noting the ar- 
 rivals. 
 
THE NEW COUNTRY CHURCH 67 
 
 One felt when he drove in at the church gate that 
 he was passing a weekly inspection. It was an occa- 
 sion. When the last bell had " tolled," and choir and 
 preacher and people were in their places, the preacher 
 read the first hymn as if a momentous message was in 
 waiting. Scattered among the company were com- 
 manding figures who even yet are our embodiment of 
 various Christian graces. 
 
 We date mostly from that company. They were 
 our sponsors and our tribunal if we wandered. A 
 fine new church has succeeded the old. The glory of 
 the latter house totally eclipses the former, yet to us 
 there is but one church preeminent — the old box struc- 
 ture of our boyhood. 
 
 This is the experience of thousands, and if the pres- 
 ent country church rises to its mission it will be the 
 experience of millions. To make to-day's rural 
 church to a countryside anything like what the hamlet 
 church has been to us would be a godsend to our 
 American life. 
 
 The great body of our Protestantism is rural. A 
 decided minority of us are in great cities. A new 
 country church that will fit these new times as well 
 as the old did past times — a church that will give the 
 equivalent of our former chance to the young in this 
 their year 19 15 — is a fundamental requisite of the 
 kingdom of God. But literally to restore for them the 
 church of our youth would prove a perversion. Our 
 church fitted our youth. It would misfit theirs. 
 
 This means, then, that a reconstructed rural church 
 in^oo many cases is an inferior copy of the old with 
 
68 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 almost no adaptation to the present generation. It 
 is much deserted. A museum is seldom crowded. 
 
 What changes have so antiquated the old rural 
 church? Generally speaking those which might be 
 expected in a virile, progressive nation, but especially 
 the new agriculture and its concomitants, — better 
 roads, rural mail routes, and modern country schools. 
 Rural intelligence, as ever, ballasts the nation. One 
 institution has lagged in the march — the country 
 church. It is not in the front of the procession as 
 formerly. It will, however, more than regain its 
 former preeminence. The new country life movement, 
 spreading over the nation, not only means a recon- 
 structed rural life but one which will demand the 
 highest type of Christian ministry. 
 
 The ministry itself will be the chief pioneer of this 
 new church life. It will adjust itself to modern, pro- 
 gressive community life. The agricultural college and 
 state educational leaders are master builders in this 
 new order, but when the arch of the social structure 
 is to receive its keystone they look for one man to 
 place it — the modern country preacher. 
 
 No question in Christian circles is more insistent 
 than " What of the country church ?" Just now it 
 overshadows discussion concerning city conditions. 
 The case diagnosed shows the utter dependence of the 
 city on the country. So helpless is the city in its 
 relationships to the country that a possible separation 
 would bankrupt the city, — materially, intellectually, 
 and morally, and this in short order. This makes clear 
 the debt of the city to the country. The city has ex- 
 
THE NEW COUNTRY CHURCH 69 
 
 ploited it. Its monstrous maw has with reckless prodi- 
 gality swallowed and wasted the resources of the open 
 country until now the city is in danger because of these 
 depleted sources of its life. Not only has the city 
 directly preyed upon the country; it has urbanized it. 
 That is, it has replaced the ideals of the country with 
 those of the city. The people of the country measure 
 rural life in terms of the city. In dress, social life, 
 recreation, home life, the country counts progress as an 
 approximation to city standards. 
 
 All this must be changed or our national founda- 
 tions will be undermined. We must have a country 
 life in every way satisfying, happy, and remunerative 
 or our Republic cannot endure. 
 
 What We Mean by " Rural " 
 
 By " rural " we mean any community of whatever 
 size whose outlook is dominantly agricultural. This 
 might include some towns of five thousand or more, 
 while suburban villages of one thousand or more could 
 be classed as urban. The United States census draws 
 the line between city and country at twenty-five hun- 
 dred, but this, while convenient, cannot replace the 
 really very irregular boundary. This applies equally 
 to churches. Some in towns of more than twenty-five 
 hundred are largely dependent on a rural constituency, 
 while in much smaller places the membership is mostly 
 city suburbanites. 
 
 However the country may be depleted in population 
 in spots, and especially in people who may help most 
 to build up a community, yet throughout the whole 
 
70 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 rural area there is no lack of people. In 1880, in com- 
 munities of twenty-five hundred or less, we had thirty- 
 five and one third millions, and in 19 10 nearly fifty 
 millions. The increase in the decade ending in 19 10 
 was 1 1.2 per cent. The farm directly supports almost 
 half our citizens, and nearly half our children are born 
 and brought up there. 
 
 The depletion of the country by removals to the 
 city has probably about ceased. That is, city growth 
 is now largely due to immigration and the birth-rate. 1 
 
 Country Life Possibilities 
 
 The country is not to set itself over against the city; 
 both are interdependent. It is, however, to have a 
 self-respecting life of its own which with all men will 
 rank with that of the city. This will reduce the ques- 
 tion of residence, urban or rural, to one of personal 
 choice. 
 
 Granting all this, it will at once be seen that the 
 difference between urban and rural life is not one of 
 people, but of organization. In fact, people of the 
 country rank in possibilities above city dwellers. But 
 this matter of the organization of rural life is a field 
 so wide and difficult as to challenge the highest gifts 
 of our best people everywhere. It means a new agri- 
 culture, a new rural school, and a new rural church. 
 These three are inseparable. Decadent agriculture 
 means inferior schools and churches. An inferior 
 school means the moving out of progressive families. 
 
 1 For these and other facts see Fiske, The Challenge of the 
 Country, chapters I, II. 
 
THE NEW COUNTRY CHURCH 71 
 
 An inferior church means low morals and a lack of 
 adequate life motives. These three at low ebb mean 
 economic, mental, and moral desolation. The nation 
 and states are becoming fully alive to the necessary 
 conservation of rural life. 
 
 An Awakened Government 
 
 Liberal national land grants and annual appropria- 
 tions to state agricultural colleges are bringing these 
 institutions to a level of efficiency shared by few 
 agencies anywhere. Recent large appropriations show 
 a quickened sense of emergency extension work. The 
 state now carries the agricultural college to the farm- 
 ing community and stays for a week. It goes out to 
 individual farms. It will there seek out the last de- 
 crepit fruit tree and prescribe a cure. We now have 
 the county agricultural superintendent. He is land 
 doctor and physician at large for the farmers' material 
 ills. One county adds to its superintendency a trained 
 woman to lead in household economics. The state, 
 through its persistent propaganda of soil salvation, 
 sets a pace for the church in soul salvation. 
 
 GOOD-BY TO THE LITTLE RED SCHOOLHOUSE 
 
 The present old-style country school will ere long 
 be on the scrap-heap. It educates indifferently or in 
 terms of the town. The new curriculum is not less 
 broad, but it walks and talks in the open fields. It 
 takes account of stars and old civilizations and moss- 
 grown languages, but it also helps us to know every- 
 
72. THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 day growing things and what concerns folks now and 
 what the animals and birds are saying. 
 
 The modern rural school introduces the child to na- 
 ture, and gets him on such intimate terms with her 
 that she imparts to him the wonder-secrets of world 
 life, and opens his eyes and ears to a thousand sights 
 and sounds which will so transfigure the open country 
 that for him to be away from it is to live in exile. The 
 consolidated country school is coming as swift and 
 sure as springtime. For one to connect up with the 
 currents which make for the new agriculture and the 
 new country school is to be jerked out of a groove 
 and set going in an orbit. Such a risk is marked 
 " dangerous " for those who so revere the old ways 
 that they are happier to die on the junk-heap. This, 
 however, is the last generation that will speak in polite 
 terms of that choice. 
 
 As prophets of this new century we do well to meas- 
 ure the enormous governmental push behind the farm 
 and rural school, that we may estimate the push neces- 
 sary to save the country church from stranding, — from 
 being in the next ten years the most belated institution 
 of the countryside. It will not be that, for God's 
 people will put it at the front. This will be done by 
 noble exploits and as heroic leadership as ever marked 
 the heavenly argonauts in pioneering days. 
 
 The Church the Crown of Country Life 
 
 Leaders in agriculture and education view with sym- 
 pathetic solicitude the future of the country church, 
 for they know that better farms and better schools 
 
THE NEW COUNTRY CHURCH 73 
 
 cannot alone furnish the crowning motive and ideal 
 of life. Only the church of God can do that; and 
 to fill this splendid office she must be there, in pro- 
 gram, equipment, leadership, and strength, holding her 
 place in the van. 
 
 How shall this be done when she cannot command 
 the vast resources of the state which stand back of 
 her handmaids, — agriculture and the school ? It shall 
 be done, first of all, by the country preacher. He will 
 see in his task the biggest God-commissioned enter- 
 prise of this generation. With slender means he may 
 hew his way as did the prophets and all great souls of 
 the centuries. The fact that he does this is his cre- 
 dential. A man who in poverty thinks he cannot thus 
 achieve has likewise his credential in his failure. He 
 is not one of the elect. Foreordination is full half 
 human grit. And how will he achieve? First, by 
 informing himself. The literature is knee-deep. 
 There is a long list of books. Not that he needs at 
 first to read them all. If he is a beginner, on applica- 
 tion, his home missionary office will name for him a 
 half dozen inexpensive books which, together, will 
 open up the new agriculture and rural school as re- 
 lated to the new rural church. But in this work we 
 counsel the broadest cooperation. If the grange or the 
 consolidated school be effectively operating, let him 
 find wherein his church may fail to be abreast of the 
 new countryside creation. Above all let the preachers 
 of a countryside form a study unit, dividing the three- 
 fold subject in such a way that each pastor is to head 
 up a particular department and lead in it. The coun- 
 
74 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 tryside is one, and when more than one homogeneous 
 church is there, they must cooperate in all that makes 
 for essential unity or prove obstructors of the King's 
 highway. 
 
 These pastors, by communicating with their state 
 agricultural college and state educational headquarters, 
 will find how alert and ready are these agencies to 
 cooperate with them in the introduction of better agri- 
 culture and better schools. This mining and sapping 
 must of course be done without advertising. To 
 preach directly on these themes might defeat a good 
 purpose. Yet, after all study and planning, the pastors 
 of a community must make their own program and 
 work it themselves. The leadership and helpers 
 should be indigenous. 
 
 To assume that the country pastor can be less able 
 in the pulpit and less fertile in resources than the city 
 pastor is to confess ignorance on the whole subject. 
 No audiences better know preaching when they hear 
 it or respond more readily to sane leadership than 
 those whose houses of worship adjoin open fields. 
 For years to come our leadership, religious and na- 
 tional, will come from the country. We must see to 
 it that this source of life to our nation, which in turn 
 leads the world, is kept at its best. Home mission 
 boards can do no better than to back picked men for 
 rural churches, financially and inspirationally, until 
 their work is self-supporting, as thus it may be. 
 
 We not only go back to the farm for the necessities 
 of life, but from the beginning there has been a sanc- 
 tity in soil. Man was started an agriculturist. The 
 
ALLIES OF THE COUNTRY CHURCH 75 
 
 Old Testament is a farmer's book. Amos was a man 
 of cattle. The divine Christ, while he beheld the city, 
 was a man of the country, and in his sermons are 
 landscape pictures of rolling fields and trees and living 
 water. There goes the farmer with swinging tread, 
 broadcasting seed, and the birds follow in flocks. 
 Growing things are there, mustard plants, briers, grass, 
 and wild flowers. Yonder hillside is flecked with 
 sheep, while near at hand is a farmyard where a cluck- 
 ing hen covers her chickens. All is framed in the 
 morning and the evening sky from which the preacher 
 reads the signs of fair or stormy weather. It is all 
 there, and more, and when we may restore to the 
 preacher of city or country the Master's rural note and 
 outdoor imagery — we shall help a weary world to be 
 young again, and life will be springtime. 
 
 THE ALLIES OF THE COUNTRY CHURCH 
 
 {Report of Committee) 
 
 Albert E. Roberts, Chairman, John Alexander, 
 Kenyon L. Butterfield, Thomas N. Carver, 
 Jessie Field, A. A. Heald, A. A. Hyde, Edward 
 Van Alstyne, D. C. Drew. 
 
 The allies of the country church are many, and 
 may be divided as follows : 
 
 I. — Those organizations that are an integral part of 
 church organisations } such as 
 
76 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 The Sunday-school. 
 
 The Young People's Societies, Junior and Senior. 
 
 The Men's Brotherhood. 
 
 The Missionary Societies, Home and Foreign. 
 
 Girls' Friendly Society. 
 
 Ladies' Aid Societies, etc. 
 
 II. — The national and state organizations which in- 
 stitute, supervise, and reenforce these organizations, 
 such as 
 
 i. The International Sunday-school Association and 
 the State Sunday-school Association. 
 
 2. The United Society of Christian Endeavor and 
 kindred societies; State and County Young People's 
 Unions and Guilds, etc. 
 
 3. National and State denominational brotherhood 
 movements, including Brotherhood of St. Andrew. 
 
 4. National Women's and Men's Home and For- 
 eign Missionary Boards. 
 
 5. Denominational Social Service bodies; Federa- 
 tion of Churches, etc. 
 
 6. American Sunday-school Union, etc. 
 
 III. — Those organizations, not an integral part of 
 the local church, but which are Christian in objective 
 and which are by their own rules controlled by church 
 people, such as 
 
 1. Women's Christian Temperance Union, local, 
 state, county, territorial, and national. 
 
 2. Young Men's Christian Association, local, 
 county, state, and national. 
 
ALLIES OF THE COUNTRY CHURCH 77 
 
 3. Young Women's Christian Association, county, 
 territorial, and national. 
 
 4. State Bible Societies. 
 
 5. Missionary Education Movement. 
 
 6. Laymen's Missionary Movement. 
 
 IV. — Those organizations which have the com- 
 munity service ideal but which are not distinctively 
 under church auspices, such as 
 
 1. The Grange, local, state, and national. 
 
 2. Village Improvement Society. 
 
 3. The Board of Trade, or business organizations. 
 
 4. Libraries. 
 
 5. Schools. 
 
 6. County Farm Bureaus. 
 
 7. State Agricultural Colleges, extension service. 
 
 8. Societies for Prevention of Cruelty to Children, 
 county and state. 
 
 9. Playground Associations. 
 
 10. State Boards of Health. 
 
 11 
 12 
 13 
 14 
 15 
 16. 
 
 Medical Society. 
 
 Free Public Library Commissions. 
 
 Civic Leagues. 
 
 Civic Federations. 
 
 Boy Scouts and Camp Fire Girls. 
 
 County Agricultural Associations. 
 
 The functions of I. and II. are generally thoroughly 
 understood; but there is without doubt a need for a 
 clearer definition of relationship, program, and plan 
 of cooperation of those agencies included in III. and 
 
;8 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 IV. Your Committee recommends that there be com- 
 piled methods of community service which the allies 
 of the country church have developed and found prac- 
 tical. It may lead up into an attractive printed book- 
 let prepared by this Committee under the auspices of 
 the Federal Council, which will give definite help and 
 information in these directions. There are some pub- 
 lications already available which the Young Men's 
 Christian Association, the Young Women's Christian 
 Association, and other organizations working in co- 
 operation with the church have used with success in 
 work with boys and young men and girls and young 
 women which would be helpful to country pastors, as 
 well as to all others who are interested in work in 
 country churches. 
 
 Every organization which can be considered as an 
 ally of the country church has a certain definite field 
 of its own in which it is more or less of a specialist 
 serving all the churches. There are many plans which 
 have been inaugurated with success by the various 
 agencies, such as those mentioned above, — the Mis- 
 sionary Education Movement, the Laymen's Mission- 
 ary Movement, the Women's Christian Temperance 
 Union, and others. For instance, there should be in- 
 cluded in some way and be made available to church 
 leaders material on the relationship of the church in 
 the country to the boys and young men and the girls 
 and young women in the community; the kind of op- 
 portunities for service which they should have in the 
 church; the kind of Bible study that would appeal to 
 them; and the kind of recreation they should be of- 
 
ALLIES OF THE COUNTRY CHURCH 79 
 
 fered; and how to develop leaders for all of these 
 activities. 
 
 In the report on " The Function, Policy, and Pro- 
 gram of the Country Church " it is stated that " the 
 church should regard itself as the servant of the en- 
 tire community, and should be deeply concerned with 
 all legitimate agencies in the community. ... It 
 should suggest and inspire rather than instigate and 
 supervise, but it may undertake any new service for 
 which there is not other provision." 1 
 
 This report also suggests that the Rural Young 
 Men's Christian Association and the Young Women's 
 Christian Association, the Young People's Societies, 
 the Missionary Education Movement, and similar or- 
 ganized allies of the country church, should be util- 
 ized, encouraged, and supported in their work by the 
 country church. This includes, of course, financial as 
 well as moral support, and sometimes the use of 
 church buildings for these allies of the country church. 
 
 Granted that this is a true conception of the church's 
 relationship to its allies, the twofold question arises: 
 first, as to how the church can help the allies; second, 
 as to how the allies can help the church. 
 
 Lest there be any misunderstanding in regard to our 
 position, let us say frankly that we believe the church 
 to be the vitalizing and fundamental agency for rural 
 redirection. From it should emanate the inspiration 
 and enthusiasm, not only to suggest and sometimes 
 initiate all good work, but to support it. Notwith- 
 standing the weaknesses and errors with which the 
 
 1 See page 120. 
 
So THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 country church is charged by many church leaders as 
 well as critics from outside, it is still the one organiza- 
 tion that persists in most communities, and it has, or 
 should have, the attitude of helpfulness toward every 
 agency for good. Its position should be, not what can 
 we get from the allies that will help us, but how can 
 we utilize and energize these allies to their highest 
 efficiency and for the extension of the kingdom of 
 God. 
 
 It should, therefore, encourage its men, if they have 
 special fitness for leadership of boys and young men, 
 to support and work with the Young Men's Christian 
 Association, the county Farm Bureau, the Agricul- 
 tural College, and other men's organizations. In the 
 same way it should encourage the women members 
 of the church, if they have capacity, to promote very 
 earnestly such community enterprises as the Young 
 Women's Christian Association, the Women's Chris- 
 tian Temperance Union, the Grange, arts and crafts 
 guilds, playgrounds, etc. 
 
 These specialized agencies, if properly used, encour- 
 aged, and supported will yield large dividends in the 
 vitality of the church life. 
 
 On the other hand, these agencies may be of tre- 
 mendous direct help in the promotion of church activi- 
 ties. The handbook, already referred to, may be used 
 by an energetic and progressive pastor, Sunday-school 
 superintendent, or leader of young people to splendid 
 advantage, but the largest service that can be rendered 
 to the church by its allies is the service of suggestion 
 or demonstration. 
 
ALLIES OF THE COUNTRY CHURCH 81 
 
 What the country community needs at the present 
 time more than anything else is a demonstration of 
 some of the fine theories that have been advanced in 
 the past few years. 
 
 It is generally conceded that the solidarity of the 
 community is to be greatly desired in the country. 
 The community approach to the problem of rural re- 
 direction can often best be made by an interdenomina- 
 tional agency. A demonstration of community-wide 
 play festivals, civic improvements, picnics, surveys, so- 
 cials, etc., is the finest incentive toward unity of effort 
 in things distinctly spiritual. 
 
 The activities promoted by the allies of the country 
 church are in themselves worth while, but the service 
 of suggestion which they render is of far greater sig- 
 nificance. Not the least important in this service of 
 suggestion is a demonstration of the possibility of 
 community cooperation or getting together. Many 
 local church leaders, because of repeated failure of 
 church cooperation, have come to believe that com- 
 munity cooperation is impossible. 
 
 A practical demonstration of community coopera- 
 tion, in a town clean-up, led to the uniting of two rural 
 churches, the improving of the parsonage, the con- 
 struction of a parish house, and the securing of an ef- 
 ficient pastor who was a real community leader as well 
 as pastor of a church which attracted and held the 
 interest and cooperation of practically all the boys and 
 men of the community. 
 
 A boys' group under the auspices of an ally in an- 
 other town brought together two churches that for 
 
82 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 over forty years had been a strong divisive factor in 
 community life. 
 
 In another community an ally promoted a survey in 
 which men who had been religiously antagonistic for 
 years were brought together, resulting in the awaken- 
 ing of a local initiative to get together on the part of 
 church leaders hitherto regarded as impossible in mat- 
 ters pertaining to church union or federation. 
 
 The promotion of interdenominational conferences 
 for older boys and girls, where world-wide vision of 
 the Kingdom are presented by broad-minded men and 
 women and where the basis of appeal is Christian 
 service, is doing much to produce a type of men and 
 women in the next generation who, with no less a 
 religious motive, will stand for a more timely and 
 practical application of Christianity to the problems 
 of the country church than their fathers could possibly 
 have done. It is obvious that no one church could 
 efficiently promote and direct such conferences, but 
 allies of the church are serving all the churches most 
 effectively in this way. 
 
 Authorities on country life everywhere agree that 
 its greatest need is leadership. This is conspicuously 
 true of the country church; and with this thing in 
 mind one of the allies of the country church has 
 brought out a text-book. The Challenge of the Country, 
 written by Professor Fiske of Oberlin. In this book 
 the opportunities for sendee in the country and the 
 challenge for the best of leadership are set forth in 
 a most attractive study. Six thousand of these books 
 were in use in classes promoted by the Young Men's 
 
ALLIES OF THE COUNTRY CHURCH 83 
 
 Christian Association and the Young Women's Chris- 
 tian Association in the colleges and the universities last 
 year, and, furthermore, at the Student Conferences 
 which are attended by representative student leaders 
 from all the colleges and universities, normal classes 
 were conducted in the study of this book by some of 
 the best rural life leaders of the country. The object 
 aimed at was to send back to the colleges young men 
 and young women qualified to teach this course. 
 
 It is not strange that at the close of these confer- 
 ences many country young men and young women have 
 said that they have never looked upon the country 
 before as a field of service for a life-work. The 
 writer knows at least seven young men who are pre- 
 paring themselves for the rural ministry as a result of 
 one such course covering a period of ten days in the 
 summer of 191 5. They are entering the rural min- 
 istry with the same enthusiasm that has characterized 
 the thousands of the very flower of our American 
 colleges and universities who have enlisted for service 
 in the foreign field in the last ten or fifteen years. 
 
 The allies of the country church have served and 
 will serve many denominations in this way much more 
 effectively than they could be served otherwise. 
 
 One of the problems of pastors and religious leaders 
 is to connect up with the city churches the large num- 
 ber of boys and young men who are leaving the coun- 
 try for the city. An effectual system known as the 
 Corresponding Membership System has been developed 
 by one of the allies of the country church, whereby 
 prominent laymen act as corresponding members in the 
 
84 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 rural communities and on blanks specially prepared 
 inform the state offices when young men are leaving 
 their homes to begin life in the city or the college. 
 Immediately on receiving this information the state 
 office gets it into the hands of the representative in the 
 place in which the young man is going, and at once 
 he is looked up and made acquainted with helpful 
 friends, and if possible representatives of his own de- 
 nomination. The same thing is done by another ally 
 of the country church for the young women. 
 
 No one denomination could do this work effectually, 
 but the allies of the country church serve all denomina- 
 tions. There are many accounts of young men and 
 y< >ung women helped at the very time they needed help 
 most — just at the beginning of their life in the city 
 or the large town — that read like romances. Through 
 training institutes and summer schools and conferences 
 conducted under the auspices of the allies a tremendous 
 service is being rendered the country church, for in 
 these gatherings thousands of young men and women 
 are seeing the vision of the possibility of service and 
 many who have been of little value as leaders are be- 
 coming tremendous assets. 
 
 One of the greatest needs of the country church is 
 to protect the efficient young pastors who, having given 
 their lives to service in the country, are constantly beset 
 with appeals to leave their charges and go to the city. 
 It is difficult to make many church leaders see that one 
 of the greatest handicaps of the church in the past has 
 been that it has been used as a stepping-stone or 
 training-school for the city. Only recently an unusu- 
 
ALLIES OF THE COUNTRY CHURCH 85 
 
 ally effective young pastor appealed to us to cooperate 
 with him in protecting himself from the good-will of 
 his friends. I know of no finer service that the allies 
 can render the country church than to encourage 
 young men not only to enter the rural pastorate but 
 to remain in it until the community is brought to a high 
 state of efficiency. 
 
 The allies recognize the fact that life has been taken 
 out of the country; and nothing will bring the church, 
 the home, and the school to its own like the reinvest- 
 ment of life. There are thousands of ways in which 
 the allies can and do help the country church. There 
 are places naturally where at times what is intended 
 for supplementing looks like supplanting and coopera- 
 tion is mistaken for competition, but most of the allies 
 with which we are familiar recognize the church as 
 the fundamental agency, and as such desire to give 
 it the very best help and cooperation. 
 
 What the Master said with reference to the life of 
 the individual holds true regarding the country 
 church. That church which loses its life in hearty 
 cooperation with these legitimate allies will find its 
 larger life in increased influence and power in the 
 community; and it is equally true that the allies which 
 desire to be of the largest possible use in rural redirec- 
 tion can never attain their greatest efficiency without 
 the recognition of the church as the final source of 
 inspiration in all true Christian leadership. 
 
86 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 THE COUNTRY CHURCH AND THE 
 COUNTRY GIRL 
 
 Jessie Field 
 
 In these days we are coming to know that the chance 
 for an abundant life for women and girls in the coun- 
 try is at the very foundation of the possibility of 
 making the country the best place in which to live. 
 A country girl, when asked if she liked the country, 
 replied: " Yes, the country is a line place to live — 
 when the work is done." 
 
 Many a farmer rents his farm and moves to town 
 on account of his wife and daughters. Surely there 
 is no point in raising more corn or better stock and 
 getting more money from farming unless that money 
 be used for better houses and churches and schools, — 
 for more life in the country community. 
 
 So the country church faces the big opportunity of 
 service to country girls, — the chance to bring to them 
 the chance for expression of their whole lives. 
 
 To do this the church must create the motive spirit- 
 power of leadership in teachers of schools and of 
 Sunday-schools and must work sympathetically with 
 every movement for scientific home making, for light- 
 ening the work in farmhouses, and for the bringing 
 in of music and literature, and the right kind of recrea- 
 tion and social life. The country church should use 
 to the utmost in its community the County Young 
 Women's Christian Association, calling on the county 
 secretary as a leader of girls, who is trained for the 
 
COUNTRY CHURCH AND COUNTRY GIRL 87 
 
 work, who understands girls, who is in touch with 
 present-day resources for girls, and who can help in 
 making Jesus Christ real in their every-day lives. 
 
 Certain it is that the country church that opens the 
 door for the biggest and best chances to its girls will 
 find added life for the present and for future years. 
 It will inspire the country girl to enter into the 
 breadth and sweep of this progressive ideal : 
 
 I am glad I live in the country. I love its beauty 
 and its spirit. I rejoice in the things I can do as a 
 country girl for my home and my neighborhood. 
 
 I believe I can share in the beauty around me; in 
 the fragrance of the orchards in spring, in the weight 
 of the ripe wheat at harvest, in the morning songs of 
 birds, and in the glow of the sunset on the far horizon. 
 I want to express this beauty in my own life as nat- 
 urally and happily as the wild rose blooms by the 
 roadside. 
 
 I believe I can have a part in the courageous spirit 
 of the country. This spirit has entered into the brook 
 in our pasture. The stones placed in its way call forth 
 its strength and add to its strength a song. It dwells 
 in the tender plants as they burst the seed-cases that 
 imprison them and push through the dark earth to the 
 light. It sounds in the nestling notes of the meadow- 
 lark. With this courageous spirit I, too, can face the 
 hard things of life with gladness. 
 
 I believe there is much I can do in my country home. 
 Through studying the best way to do my every-day 
 work I can find joy in common tasks done well. 
 Through loving comradeship I can help bring into my 
 
88 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 home the happiness and peace that are always so near 
 us in God's out-of-door world. Through such a home 
 I can help make real to all who pass that way their 
 highest ideal of country life. 
 
 I believe my love and loyalty for my country home 
 should reach out in service to that larger home that we 
 call our neighborhood. I would join with the people 
 who live there in true friendliness. I would whole- 
 heartedly give my best to further all that is being done 
 for a better community. I would have all that I think 
 and say and do help to unite country people near and 
 far in that great Kingdom of Love for Neighbors 
 which the Master came to establish — the Master who 
 knew and cared for country ways and country folks. 
 
 THE COUNTRY CHURCH AND RURAL 
 ACTIVITIES 
 
 W. 0. Thompson 
 
 The topic assigned to me was with the understand- 
 ing that I should present to you some conditions arising 
 out of the activities of the federal and state govern- 
 ments in rural life. Briefly, let me survey the three 
 great activities of the federal government. 
 
 First, the passage of the Act of 1862, commonly 
 knowm as the Morrill Act, or the Land Grant Act, 
 which provided for the endowment, support, and 
 maintenance of at least one college in each state in 
 the Union, where the real object should be, without 
 
COUNTRY CHURCH AND RURAL ACTIVITIES 89 
 
 excluding other scientific and classical studies, and 
 including military tactics, to teach such branches of 
 learning as are related to agricultural and mechanic 
 arts in such manner as the legislatures of the states 
 may respectfully prescribe, in order to promote the 
 liberal and practical education of the industrial classes 
 in the several pursuits and professions in life. The 
 donation of public lands to these institutions was to 
 provide a permanent endowment which would remain 
 unimpaired. As a result of this act there is now at 
 least one College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts in 
 each state in the Union. 
 
 This act was supplemented in 1890 by what is 
 known as the second Morrill Act, which provided an 
 additional income of $25,000 annually to each state. 
 The act was further amended by the so-called Nelson 
 Amendment of 1908, which increased the sum pro- 
 vided in the act of 1890 to a maximum of $50,000 per 
 annum. Thus there is given to each state for its 
 agricultural college the original endowment of public 
 lands and $50,000 annually. In response to this 
 endowment by the government the states have pro- 
 vided the buildings and in many instances several 
 times the revenue as provided by the federal govern- 
 ment. The result is that the colleges of agriculture 
 throughout the country are among the best endowed 
 and most amply equipped institutions in the country. 
 
 Second, the Hatch Act of 1887, which provided for 
 the establishment of Agricultural Experiment Sta- 
 tions in each state in the Union. This act provided 
 an annual appropriation of $15,000. An amendatory 
 
90 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 act in 1906, known as the Adams Act, doubled this 
 appropriation, making the present maximum of 
 $30,000 annually. 
 
 These institutions have been engaged in scientific 
 research upon the problems underlying agricultural 
 progress. They have published a large number of 
 important scientific documents that constitute the 
 basis of a great agricultural library for all agricultural 
 institute >ns. 
 
 Third, the Smith-Lever Agricultural Extension Act, 
 which was approved May 8. 19 14. This provided for 
 an initial appropriation of $10,000 to each state in 
 the Union, and for an additional sum of $600,000 for 
 the second year, and thereafter an increase of 
 $500,000 annually until it should be a maximum of 
 $4,100,000 in addition to the original appropriation 
 J i So, 000. 
 
 The purpose of this act was to bring, through co- 
 operative methods between the federal government 
 and the several agricultural colleges, the results of 
 scientific agricultural research to the home of the indi- 
 vidual farmer. The method of instruction is through 
 extension schools, — field demonstrations to persons 
 not resident in or attending agricultural colleges. For 
 one hundred years we have been sending our chil- 
 dren to school. It is now proposed to send the best 
 results of the school back to the home by way of prac- 
 tical demonstration in the great fields of agriculture 
 and home economics. It should be added that in 
 order to secure the increased appropriations provided 
 in the extension act each state must meet the appro- 
 
COUNTRY CHURCH AND RURAL ACTIVITIES 91 
 
 priation of the federal government by an equal appro- 
 priation for such purposes. This will result in a mini- 
 mum of nearly $10,000,000 annually expended in this 
 demonstration work which will be carried into every 
 nook and corner of the rural districts of the United 
 States of America. No more far-reaching act has 
 been passed in a generation. 
 
 To cite a few instances by way of illustration, I 
 may say that the state of Ohio under this act reaches 
 its maximum within five years from the present date. 
 There will be available for extension work about 
 $350,000 annually. In a neighboring state like In- 
 diana it will be not far from $275,000; in Illinois, 
 not far from $375,000; in a state like Alabama, not 
 far from $300,000. The distribution of this money 
 is upon a percentage basis, based upon the ratio of 
 the rural population of a given state to the total rural 
 population of the entire country. 
 
 Aside from these three great activities it must be 
 remembered that the Department of Agriculture at 
 Washington receives annually not far from $20,- 
 000,000, and that its activities are organized in the 
 interests of the agriculture of the country, including 
 research and the special consideration of regional and 
 nation-wide problems. 
 
 What now of the significance of these things? To 
 this conference let me say, first of all, that the admin- 
 istration of these funds in all the departments sug- 
 gested above has an immediate bearing upon the prob- 
 lems of rural life. Our colleges of agriculture, our 
 stations, and the Department at Washington recog- 
 
92 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 nize the social phase of rural life, the economic phase 
 and educational phase, and in fact every interest that 
 bears upon the large problem of rural maintenance 
 and improvement. 
 
 The Roosevelt Country Life Committee made an 
 elaborate study of rural life conditions. Every col- 
 lege and station in the country to-day is in sympathy 
 with the spirit of progress in that commission's re- 
 port and will move forward in every field offering 
 support for agricultural betterment. We must not, 
 therefore, conceive of these institutions as teaching or 
 scientific institutions devoted exclusively to soil fer- 
 tility, plant production, or animal husbandry. They 
 are, as a matter of fact, educational and scientific 
 institutions having within their scope economic, so- 
 cial, and educational problems. These activities will 
 continue and will arouse a large amount of rural 
 organization. The men and women engaged in agri- 
 cultural extension in any and all of its forms, includ- 
 ing farmers' institutes and county agent work, will be 
 among the best representatives of American agriculture 
 and thoroughly devoted to the social and moral better- 
 ment of our community life. 
 
 Associating as I do with educational organizations 
 of various kinds, I do not hesitate to say in this pres- 
 ence that I find no body of educators anywhere pos- 
 sessed of a more profound moral earnestness nor more 
 thoroughly devoted to the moral and spiritual welfare 
 of the people than the group of men represented in 
 the Association of Agricultural Colleges and Experi- 
 ment Stations. 
 
COUNTRY CHURCH AND RURAL ACTIVITIES 93 
 
 These facts seem to me to constitute the greatest 
 opportunity of the generation for the church to co- 
 operate with existing agencies in the accomplishment 
 of spiritual, social, and moral results. In fact, we 
 may say that this situation is a substantial challenge 
 to the church. To lay hold of an opportunity pre- 
 sented without expense to the church would seem to 
 be an imperative duty. 
 
 In presenting this urgent plea for the opportunity 
 before us, let me impress upon you that no fear need 
 be entertained about any controversy with the state 
 or government in these great issues. Our coopera- 
 tion will be most cordially welcomed. The people 
 engaged in these enterprises are already, to a very 
 large degree, the people now interested in our rural 
 schools and rural churches. The one thing we need 
 to guard against is the development of any tendency 
 for a narrow or sectarian use of this opportunity. 
 The state, in my humble opinion, is profoundly inter- 
 ested in religion and the peaceable fruits of religion. 
 " Righteousness exalteth a nation; but sin is a re- 
 proach to any people." The state, however, is not 
 interested in the perpetuation of particular forms of 
 religion. It owns no antagonism to any church or 
 creed, but the state, separate from the church in this 
 country, may not be brought into the controversial 
 sides of religion or church. Let us therefore regard 
 this great opportunity as one freighted with splendid 
 possibilities, provided we may lay aside the differ- 
 ences, however important they may be, and put our 
 emphasis upon the things upon which we agree. For 
 
94 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 after all these must be the fundamental and vitally 
 important things. 
 
 No such nation-wide extension movement in the 
 interest of agriculture has ever been projected as is 
 now in operation in the United States under the three 
 great acts, as suggested above. In my opinion no 
 such great opportunity has ever been given the 
 church to organize properly the spiritual forces of 
 the rural community in the interest of the Kingdom. 
 Let us hope and pray that this conference and subse- 
 quent conferences may open the way to a large utiliza- 
 tion of this opportunity and to the speeding of the 
 things that pertain to life and godliness. 
 
 MEMOIRS OF A RURAL CHURCH 
 
 Hubert C. Herring 
 
 I shall bring to you certain memories of a country 
 church in the Central West some forty years ago, with 
 their suggestions for the rural religious problems of 
 to-day. It was a church belonging to the best type of 
 its time. Round about were fertile farms tilled by 
 pioneer stock from New England and New York. 
 The church building stood on a hill in the place of 
 honor. On another hill near by was the district 
 schoolhouse. The traditional interest in education 
 was strong. Large numbers of the boys and girls 
 were sent away to academy and college. There was 
 
MEMOIRS OF A RURAL CHURCH 95 
 
 a keen interest in the problems of the larger world. 
 Among the things of which these memories speak are 
 these : 
 
 1. The influence of this church was potent. It 
 was not a large affair. A congregation of sixty was 
 the maximum. It did not run at high pressure. It 
 continued to draw home mission funds after it should 
 have been self-supporting. The thrifty farmers who 
 supported it were never zealous to pay more than 
 they were obliged to. The casual observer would 
 have said it was only an incident in the life of the 
 community. But to a considerable group of men and 
 women now in middle life scattered here and there 
 over the earth no proof of its power is required. 
 They know that all life holds for them here or here- 
 after has its roots back in that little church. 
 
 2. These memories confirm strongly the constant 
 assertion of students of rural life that the country 
 church suffers from lack of the cooperative spirit. It 
 was never easy to get the community to work together. 
 There were many feuds and factions. The sectarian 
 spirit caused some families to attend church outside 
 the parish. Individualism ran to seed. I cannot re- 
 call that ministers or church officers showed any clear 
 perception of the duty of the church to act as a unify- 
 ing force. 
 
 3. This church illustrated also the evils of a non- 
 resident ministry. At its organization the pastor 
 lived in the country, cultivated a small piece of land, 
 and drove on Sundays to the village for a second 
 service. But the next pastor and all who came after 
 
96 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 preferred to live within sound of the locomotive, and 
 even if they had not so chosen, the village church 
 would doubtless have insisted upon it. The inevitable 
 consequences followed. The minister who came to 
 preach on Sunday was in effect a stranger. Espe- 
 cially was he almost entirely outside the life of the 
 young, lie could have little share in the neighbor- 
 hood life. Xor, if the truth must be told, was he 
 as a rule the sort of man who could have taken de- 
 cided leadership even if living in the commimity, 
 being too academic and not human enough. 
 
 4. In like way the experience of this country parish 
 corroborates all that is said about the church as a 
 community center. There was not much definite pur- 
 pose to make it such. But, because there was no 
 other place to meet, the debating club met in the church 
 building, the singing school was held there, the social 
 gatherings were largely there. Even the Sunday 
 services had a community quality as affording the 
 only time when people had opportunity to talk over 
 cr< ps, taxes, school interests, and politics. Even 
 these small community services were a great blessing 
 both to the people around and reciprocally to the 
 church. 
 
 But it is easy to see, looking back upon the situa- 
 tion, wdiat boundless possibilities in this line lay 
 within easy reach of that church. Under competent, 
 broad-visioned leadership, with the ample materials 
 available, it could have shaped the entire community 
 life. Particularly in the educational field it touched 
 only the fringe of its possibilities. In sex hygiene, 
 
THE LARGER BEXZOXIA PARISH 97 
 
 in ideals of life-work, in acquaintance with great char- 
 acters, in civic patriotism, and in manners as well as 
 in personal morals and personal religion, it could have 
 shaped lives intrusted to it. 
 
 5. Last of all, this church has illustrated in the 
 most complete and painful way what happens to the 
 rural church or any other church which does not build 
 its life on a broad democratic basis. When the young 
 people began to go to the cities and the old people to 
 retire to the villages for their last years, the farms 
 were taken by families of various races and faiths. 
 Before long the old supporters were all gone. It 
 would have been a task sufficiently hard to keep the 
 church going even if its history had been of the wisest. 
 But, lacking hold upon the community at large, never 
 having taught all the people to count it their church, 
 it dwindled rapidly, and years ago its doors were 
 closed. Of late some signs of hope have appeared. 
 Services are held more or less regularly. But it is 
 the mere ghost of its former self. Whether it can 
 ever become what once it was so near being future 
 years must tell. 
 
 THE LARGER BENZONIA PARISH 
 
 Harlow S. Mills 
 
 I suppose I am asked to speak to-night because I 
 represent a vigorous country church in the as yet but 
 
98 
 
 THE CHURCH AXD COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 partially developed region of northern Michigan. We 
 call it " The Larger Benzonia Parish " because of its 
 more recently extended territory. It is a kind of an 
 " experiment station " where we are working out and 
 demonstrating a method of country evangelization and 
 rural betterment which promises to be successful, and 
 which we hope may be profitably applied in many 
 parts of the land. 
 
 The conditions of the Benzonia field were specially 
 favorable for such an experiment. The community 
 was settled by a high-minded and earnest-hearted 
 company of people from northern Ohio more than 
 half a century ago. The Pilgrims did not bring to 
 the New England coast a truer motive or a purer pur- 
 pose than they. It was their object to plant in the 
 northern Michigan wilderness Christian institutions. 
 They were willing to put into the enterprise their 
 lives and their fortunes. They stamped the com- 
 munity which they founded with the impress of their 
 ideals, and that stamp has persisted. Like Abraham, 
 their first work after entering the promised land was 
 to build an altar to Jehovah, and like him and their 
 New England ancestors, they built it on the highest 
 elevation they could find. One of the first things they 
 did was to select a site for a church and school, and, 
 standing under the tall beeches and maples, with hymn 
 and prayer, to dedicate that high hilltop to the cause 
 of Christian education. The church that they planted 
 was the first in all the Grand Traverse region. It has 
 now a membership of about three hundred in a village 
 of seven hundred, and is the center of the religious 
 
THE LARGER BEXZOXIA PARISH 99 
 
 and social life, not only of the village and the immedi- 
 ate community, but also of the territory known as 
 " The Larger Parish " — twelve miles long and ten 
 miles wide. It has been the mother of churches, and 
 now stands encircled by a number of younger organ- 
 izations which are growing strong and sturdy under 
 her cherishing influence. 
 
 For more than fifty years this church has had the 
 central place in that community. The village life has 
 clustered about it, and from it have gone forth those 
 influences that have been most potent in molding the 
 character of the people, and in giving them their ideals. 
 A fine body of Christian men and women have been 
 trained up, sturdy and strong, with well-grounded 
 principles and large ideas, and to them more than to 
 anything else is due the work which has been done. 
 They are splendid followers, they work well together, 
 and are ready to cooperate in any sane movement to 
 promote the kingdom of God. 
 
 For fifteen years I worked away in this, my country 
 parish. They were happy years of glad, harmonious 
 work, and I was satisfied with my work. Though 
 remote from the great centers of population and liv- 
 ing in a small village with people of very modest 
 means, I had never been visited by that restless feel- 
 ing that spoils the peace and mars the work of so 
 many ministers. There was a good understanding be- 
 tween myself and my people. 
 
 At the close of this period, however, I was called 
 to pass through deep affliction. My home was broken 
 up with a sudden stroke. Into the dark valley of 
 
ioo THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 sorrow my people accompanied me as far as they 
 were able to go, and the effect was to unite ns with 
 bonds that were very strong and tender. Every home 
 in all the parish was mine. All the children belonged 
 to me. There was a chair for me at every fireside, 
 and a plate at every table. 
 
 But as the years went by there came some tempting 
 opportunities to engage in work elsewhere. I was not 
 without my ambitions and aspirations. I wanted to 
 fill out the full measure of my ability and do my best 
 work; and when some opportunities came that made 
 the little country parish seem by comparison rather 
 small and meager, I was not proof against them. I 
 spent some weeks in considering the propositions 
 fr< in the city and the state, and finally refused them. 
 I could not bring myself to sever my connection with 
 those to whom I had been so long and closely related. 
 The personal tie was too strong, and I decided to 
 remain with my people. 
 
 With the decision came a thorough heart-searching. 
 It marked a turning-point in my spiritual history. I 
 was impressed with the thought that, if it was God's 
 will that I should remain in my present work, it must 
 be for a special purpose. Things could not be in the 
 future as they had been in the past. If it was the 
 Lord's will that I should remain in that country 
 parish, there must be some work there which it was 
 worth while for me to do; some work that in some 
 degree, at least, w r ould approach in importance the 
 large opportunities offered by the city and the state. 
 Was there anything to be done among those hills and 
 
THE LARGER BENZONIA PARISH 101 
 
 in those rapidly disappearing forests that could fire a 
 man's ambitions and satisfy his high aspirations ? 
 
 Just here the vision came. At first a whole town- 
 ship was revealed as a possible parish. Then the vision 
 expanded until it took in another township and parts 
 of three or four more. It became plain that almost 
 half a county was tributary to the church, that five 
 hundred families and twenty-five hundred people were 
 waiting for its ministry. It dawned upon my mental 
 vision that I was called upon to be the pastor of all 
 these people, and that the Benzonia Church was re- 
 sponsible for them all; that they had a right to look 
 to us for service and help, and that if we failed to 
 give it we should be unfaithful to our Master and 
 recreant to our trust. Then I said, " Here is some- 
 thing worth doing. Here may be wrought out an 
 experiment in country evangelization and rural better- 
 ment that may help to arrest the downward trend that 
 has become so alarming in these days. It was for 
 this that God kept me here. If I can make this vision 
 a reality, I need not pine for a larger field. If I can 
 help others to see the vision, and inspire them with 
 enthusiasm to make it real in larger fields than mine, 
 I shall never be sorry that I stayed by the stuff." 
 
 The church had for many years been much inter- 
 ested in both home and foreign missions. In fact 
 those who were well acquainted with the churches of 
 the state have often said that in proportion to its re- 
 sources, its gifts were larger than those of any other 
 church. Not only did its members give money, but 
 they gave their own sons and daughters to carry the 
 
102 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 gospel to less favored regions. Many of the young 
 women of the church had gone to teach in home 
 mission schools, and there came a day when my fa- 
 vorite niece, brought up in my home as an active and 
 useful member of the church, beloved by all, was con- 
 secrated with solemn services in the little church on 
 the hilltop to the foreign work, and was sent forth 
 with the prayers and blessings of all the people to 
 represent them among the awakening millions of 
 China. 
 
 As I was sitting in my study one day, pondering 
 upon these things, the absurdity of the situation came 
 over me all at once. " Here we are, gathering money 
 to send our sons and daughters to the distant parts of 
 the earth, but we are doing absolutely nothing for 
 scores of families almost within sound of our church 
 bell. We are anxious to give the gospel to the mil- 
 lions of other lands whom we have never seen, and 
 never shall see; but we have not felt very much re- 
 sponsibility for those who are separated from us by 
 only a few miles. There are many families and hun- 
 dreds of people within five or six miles of our church 
 that are practically without the gospel as truly as are 
 the Chinese or the South Sea islanders. We have 
 made no systematic effort to interest them in these 
 things." Then I heard the Master say: " These ye 
 ought to have done, and not to have left the other 
 undone." And then came the vision of the Larger 
 Parish. I saw the church reaching out and touching 
 tenderly, but effectively, all the people in the sur- 
 rounding country. I saw every family in that wide 
 
THE LARGER BENZOXIA PARISH 103 
 
 region tributary to the church. I saw the church 
 laying systematic plans to carry the gospel to all 
 these outlying neighborhoods. I began to think of all 
 those people as my parishioners as truly as were those 
 who lived near the church and who were members of 
 it. In my own mind I annexed all the surrounding 
 country and began to make plans for the evangeliza- 
 tion and helping of all the people who dwelt therein. 
 So under the stimulus of foreign missions the vision 
 came of the work that could be done and should be 
 done nearer home. 
 
 The next thing was to bring the vision to the earth 
 and to make it a reality. How was it to be done? 
 
 The first thing was to make a survey of the field. 
 I started out to visit all the families in this wide terri- 
 tory. I tramped over the whole parish. I lived with 
 the people and was often absent from my home for 
 two or three days at a time, until there was scarcely 
 a home in all that region where I was a stranger. 
 This was most delightful and satisfying work. There 
 was a welcome everywhere, and, almost without ex- 
 ception the people seemed pleased to come in touch 
 with the representative of the church. Such an op- 
 portunity to get up close to the people is worth a score 
 of sermons. This visiting tour occupied many weeks; 
 in fact, a large part of the autumn months I spent 
 in this way. I came to know the people as I had never 
 known them before. My touch with them was warmer 
 and closer. I came to think of them in a different 
 way, and there was established between them and my- 
 self a bond of sympathy that did not exist before. 
 
104 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 My task with the church in bringing it to get my 
 point of view, to see the vision as I saw it and to 
 cooperate with me in making it a reality, was not dif- 
 ficult. The people were ready for the larger work, — 
 at least they were ready to be made ready. 
 
 All they needed was light and leading. This I un- 
 dertook to give. 1 told them my vision of the Larger 
 Parish. I held it up before them continually, preach- 
 ing it on the Sabbath, and talking about it in the 
 prayer-meeting. From week to week I could see the 
 kindling flame of enthusiasm in the congregation. 
 The people began to see the reasonableness of it. 
 They began to feel some responsibility for it, some 
 joy and hope, as the possibility of doing it dawned 
 upon them. 
 
 But how should we begin? How should we move 
 out into this Larger Parish, and get hold of this 
 greater work? I began to hold one meeting each 
 week in some distant schoolhouse, taking with me 
 some of my men. for I considered that the success of 
 the work depended, not so much on what I said, as 
 upon the attitude of the church toward it. The pres- 
 ence of the men with me in these services greatly in- 
 creased the effectiveness of the effort. I was a 
 preacher, and was simply on my job. They repre- 
 sented the church and proclaimed to the people in the 
 outlying regions its attitude toward them. 
 
 At first I had no definite thought of how the work 
 w r ould develop. I simply started out to do what I 
 could for the people in that wide territory. The need 
 of a helper began to press heavily upon me. The 
 
THE LARGER BEXZONIA PARISH 105 
 
 matter was brought before the representatives of the 
 state work. The superintendent came and visited the 
 field, and the result was such cooperation with the 
 Home Missionary Society as enabled us to secure an 
 assistant for our work. And as it developed, it was 
 not long till another helper was needed, so that now 
 the work is carried on by three men, each of them 
 responsible for a certain portion of the territory. 
 They work in most delightful harmony, and the fel- 
 lowship which they have with one another is one of 
 the best things about it. 
 
 A fine example of what may be done in the way of 
 denominational comity, when a really Christian spirit 
 prevails, was shown on this field, and it did much to 
 make the work of the Larger Parish possible. Two 
 small Methodist churches within the territory men- 
 tioned were exchanged for two Congregational 
 churches of a similar grade in an adjoining county. 
 This was worked through by the representatives of 
 the two denominations, and with the churches them- 
 selves without difficulty, leaving a free field for the 
 Congregationalists in one county, and for the Metho- 
 dists in the other. A commission was appointed con- 
 sisting of a Methodist and a Congregationalist from 
 a distant town, who appraised the properties belong- 
 ing to the various churches and reported the basis of 
 exchange. The Methodist man thought the Congre- 
 gationalists ought to pay $250 to boot. The Congre- 
 gational man thought the Methodists ought to pay a 
 like sum. So they traded even, and every one was 
 satisfied. If some such exchange could be made in 
 
106 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 many country neighborhoods, it would be a most 
 happy arrangement, and one of the greatest hindrances 
 to the progress of the kingdom of God would be 
 removed. 
 
 Having shown the plan in successful operation, I 
 may speak of some methods used and some things 
 done which show religious progress. This must be 
 the crucial test of any church work. It must bring 
 people into harmony with God and his truth. It must 
 line them up on the side of Jesus Christ, or it cannot 
 be said to be successful, however many other desirable 
 things it may accomplish. Spiritual results cannot be 
 tabulated, but a few things can be mentioned that 
 show pr« egress. 
 
 The w< >rk has been fairly well organized through- 
 out the whole parish, and is moving on steadily in 
 definite directions. 
 
 There are now eleven points where regular Sunday 
 services are held in this territory, which comprises one 
 whole township and parts of five others. These 
 services are held in one church, eight chapels, and two 
 schoolhouses. Other points are asking for service, but 
 with our present force no more w r ork can be under- 
 taken. These preaching points are so arranged that 
 no family with the exception of a few who live in one 
 remote comer of the parish, need go more than a mile 
 and a half to find a place of worship. The aggregate 
 attendance on these services will average not far from 
 six hundred in a population of twenty-five hundred, — - 
 about one fourth of the population of the parish being 
 present with some degree of regularity. There are 
 
THE LARGER BEXZOXIA PARISH 107 
 
 three small country churches affiliated with the village 
 church at Benzonia in carrying on this work, with a 
 combined membership of about four hundred. Ten 
 Sunday-schools are maintained within the parish with 
 six hundred in attendance. The clerical force is com- 
 posed of the pastor and his two assistants, and each 
 of them preaches three times on the Sabbath, so that 
 there are nine preaching services. The three pastors 
 usually get together on Monday and talk over the 
 work, spending part of the day in the most delightful 
 fellowship. They make frequent exchanges, taking 
 each other's work for a Sunday and thus giving the 
 people a change, and themselves some variety of ex- 
 perience. In this way they promote acquaintance and 
 fellowship throughout the whole parish. This is a 
 most profitable combination. The older pastor helps 
 the younger men with his wider experience, and the 
 boys put new life and fresh spirit into the heart of the 
 older man. 
 
 If the amount of money which people are willing 
 to give for religious purposes is an index of their 
 interest in the Kingdom, one must conclude that there 
 has been a very significant revival in that respect 
 throughout the Larger Parish. More means for carry- 
 ing on the work are now in sight than one would 
 have supposed it possible to raise five years ago. 
 The total salary of the pastor and his two assistants 
 is two and a half times the pastor's salary alone 
 before the wider work was undertaken. This, how- 
 ever, is made possible only through the help of the 
 Home Missionary Society. The contributions to home 
 
io8 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 and foreign missions have more than doubled in this 
 period, and the number of contributors has increased 
 
 twofold. More than twice as much in- nicy is raised 
 on the whole field now than was the case before the 
 wider work began, and it comes with just as little 
 . Nobody now objects to the work on financial 
 ground. It has paid Eor itself in every way. 
 
 Two or three times a year all the services in the 
 out-stations arc omitted, and all the people are invited 
 to come together Eor a Sabbath service on the seminary 
 campus at Benzonia. These arc most enjoyable and 
 profitable occasions. They assemble under the great 
 beech and maple tree-, a sermon is preached by some 
 noted minister from abroad, there is a picnic dinner 
 with time Eor sociability and fellowship, and then in 
 the afternoon another service of a more varied char- 
 acter. These general services are well attended, and 
 the\- tend to bind the whole parish together with a 
 larger sense of community interest. 
 
 Believing that the church should minister to the 
 whole man and have something to say and something 
 to do with his social as well as his spiritual nature, 
 we have paid considerable attention to some things 
 that have often been considered as lying outside of the 
 sphere of religion. Realizing the tendency of country 
 life to isolation and extreme individualism, and the 
 danger of its becoming barren and monotonous, we 
 have thought it important to provide for social and 
 literary functions, and for wholesome recreation and 
 healthful pleasures. It has been our effort to make all 
 our out-stations social centers, and to encourage fre- 
 
THE LARGER BEXZOXIA PARISH 109 
 
 quent meetings where the people might mingle in a 
 free and friendly manner. They have responded 
 heartily to these efforts and have appreciated very 
 much the opportunities that have been afforded them 
 in this direction. 
 
 Neighborhood clubs have been organized in some of 
 the out-stations whose function it is to provide for 
 these social necessities. The name " Neighborhood 
 Club " quite well defines their object. The work is 
 carried on in three departments under the direction 
 of three committees: (1) the Social Committee, whose 
 business it is to arrange for picnics, parties, excur- 
 sions, etc.; (2) the Literary Committee, which pro- 
 vides lectures, debates, and the like; and (3) the Team 
 Work Committee, which leads out in any movement of 
 a public or a charitable nature in which the people 
 need to cooperate. The meetings of these clubs are 
 w r ell attended and they are a profitable source of im- 
 provement and recreation. 
 
 Lecture courses are arranged, usually by home tal- 
 ent, and upon subjects of local and practical interest. 
 The pastor has done a good deal of work with the 
 stereopticon, illustrating the story of a trip to Pales- 
 tine and a cruise of the Mediterranean. These clubs 
 soon develop talent and resources of various kinds 
 which are quite sufficient, and they require but little 
 help from the outside. 
 
 Some attention has been paid to athletics. The 
 young men have been organized into athletic clubs, and 
 they have been headed up in an athletic league. They 
 hold occasional field days, with sports and contests for 
 
no THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 the boys and girls. This we find is very profitable 
 when we have seine one who has the training and the 
 other qualifications of a suitable director. 
 
 One more way of working has also proved valuable 
 and well worth while. Like most small villages, we 
 have a weekly newspaper which finds its way into 
 ni si of the homes of the parish. The pastor and 
 the editor work together in the effort to make it an 
 organ of helpful power in the community life. For 
 five years I have had a column, usually a column and 
 a half, in this paper each week. It is my regular 
 Monday forenoon work to write " The Pastor's Col- 
 umn." I put into it whatever I think will be useful 
 t<> the people, bringing them many a message that 
 would hardly come appropriately in the pulpit, and 
 reaching in that way many whom I should not often 
 come in touch with otherwise. The themes are vari- 
 ous, but a few will serve as specimens: " How to 
 Keep One's Religion and Make It Pay "; " The Back 
 Yard"; "The Test of the Summer Time"; " The 
 Man You Happen to Meet "; " Plan Your Work, and 
 Work Your Plan," etc. Any local topic of general 
 interest is taken up and discussed, and the activities of 
 the church and the social and literary doings in the 
 various out-stations are kept before the people. I con- 
 sider this one of my most valuable ways of working, 
 and I find that The Pastor's Column is eagerly looked 
 for and widely read. This suggests the question 
 whether in the past the pastors of our churches have 
 sufficiently appreciated the value of printer's ink as 
 an adjunct in carrying on religious and community 
 
THE LARGER BENZONIA PARISH in 
 
 work. If the pastor can speak through the press as 
 well as from the pulpit, he is doubling his influence. 
 What do we find to be the result of the five years' 
 work of the Larger Parish? They have been the five 
 most prosperous years of the church's history of more 
 than half a century. Two men have been added to 
 the clerical force. The expenses of the church have 
 been met, and the bills have been paid when due. The 
 contributions for home and foreign missions have 
 more than doubled. More members have been received 
 than during any other similar period. There has been 
 perfect harmony, and the people have been glad and 
 happy in their common work. Ten places of worship 
 have been established in the country around where 
 regular services are held. The people in these neigh- 
 borhoods attend their own services, and do not come 
 to the central church as many of them formerly did. 
 The present arrangement does not tend to build up a 
 large central congregation, but has the opposite effect. 
 Thirty former central members have become part of a 
 newly formed church three miles away. There has 
 been no great increase in the population, either of the 
 village, or of the country around. But the congrega- 
 tion and Sunday-school of the central church were 
 never so large as they have been during this period. 
 It has been found impossible to accommodate all those 
 who wish to worship in the church, or properly to 
 care for those attending the Sunday-school. A larger 
 building became an actual necessity, and in the summer 
 of 19 1 3 an addition was made, increasing the seating 
 capacity more than one third and providing a number 
 
ii2 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 of rooms for Sunday-school and social purposes. The 
 building has been painted, reshingled, and thoroughly 
 renovated; even thing about is in good shape, and it 
 has all been paid for. The congregations fill the 
 larger building as well as they did before the addition 
 was made. Can we doubt that the blessing of God 
 will attend any church that sees the vision, and with 
 faith and courage and sacrifice gives itself to the work 
 of making it a reality? 
 
 I believe we are beginning to see the dawning of 
 a better day for the rural regions; that the fountains 
 of physical, moral, and religious strength which have 
 seemed to be failing in these latter days are about to 
 be " reopened," and that we may soon expect to see 
 them Mowing with new force and volume to refresh 
 the earth. Perhaps there is no movement just at pres- 
 ent that is more vitally related to the progress of the 
 kingdom of God in the world. God grant that the 
 fair and blessed vision may dawn upon every heart, 
 that the village churches may see their opportunity, 
 and that the work of rehabilitation may proceed at a 
 rapid pace in the years that are just before us ! 
 
FUNCTION, POLICY, AND PROGRAM 113 
 
 THE FUNCTION, POLICY, AND PROGRAM 
 OF THE COUNTRY CHURCH 
 
 {Report of Committee) 
 
 Kenyon L. Butterfield, Chairman, Jessie Field, 
 G. Walter Fiske, Charles O. Gill, Albert E. 
 Roberts, Henry Wallace. 
 
 Your Committee began its study on the assumption 
 that there were three aspects of the work of the coun- 
 try church that needed stating: 
 
 1. A definition of the function of the country 
 church, in order to gain if possible a clear notion of 
 what the fundamental work of the church is, particu- 
 larly in relation to the work of other social institutions. 
 
 2. An outline of a general policy for the country 
 church as a whole, in trying to carry out its function. 
 
 3. A suggestive program, embodying many con- 
 crete plans and suggestions for the work of the local 
 church, appropriate to the carrying out of the general 
 policy. 
 
 A preliminary statement was prepared by the com- 
 mittee, giving a definition of function, an outline of a 
 country church policy, and a program of detailed work 
 for the local church. This statement was sent to about 
 one hundred and fifty leading men in country life work, 
 including pastors, country church organization officials, 
 and professors in colleges and theological seminaries. 
 Nearly a hundred replies were received. A few pre- 
 sented excuses for failure to answer; others expressed 
 approval without criticism or suggestion. The com- 
 
ii 4 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 munications more or less extended that were critical 
 or suggestive numbered nearly seventy. Some of these 
 were very full, and indeed so suggestive and important 
 are they that your committee is fully warranted in 
 saying that it is doubtful if there is any other collection 
 of opinions about the country church so valuable as 
 those contained in these seventy replies. The general 
 attitude in these replies is most appreciative of the 
 purpose sought, while it is critical only of forms of 
 statement. 
 
 The committee secured the invaluable service of Dr. 
 Wilbert L. Anderson, author of The Country Town, 
 to edit this important material. Dr. Anderson's 
 sudden death last spring deprived us of his final edit- 
 ing, but fortunately, a few days before his death he 
 had completed the first draft of his study of these 
 replies, and had formulated new statements in the 
 light of his study. Your committee has considered 
 this material carefully, and while rearranging Dr. An- 
 derson's edition of the statement, has made little 
 change in the substance. 
 
 It is agreed by your committee that some such state- 
 ment as this should be made after thorough study by 
 the Commission on Church and Country Life of the 
 Federal Council, and promulgated with their approval, 
 together with a plan for revivifying the American 
 country church and of assisting to organize its work 
 on broad but vital lines. 
 
 It is recommended by your committee that this state- 
 ment be carefully studied by the whole Commission, 
 and that it be not published until it has the practically 
 
FUNCTION, POLICY, AND PROGRAM 115 
 
 unanimous approval of the Commission, but that, when 
 published, it be sent if possible to every country church 
 in America, accompanied not only by a letter from this 
 Commission expressing the hope that it may be used 
 as a basis for discussion of plans for a forward move- 
 ment, but that it may also be accompanied by official 
 communications from authoritative church bodies, 
 urging action and outlining plans for carrying out a 
 definite country church campaign. 
 
 The Function of the Country Church 
 
 God's great purpose for men is the highest possible 
 development of each personality and of the human 
 race as a whole. It is essential to this growth that 
 men shall hold adequate ideals of character and life. 
 The Christian believes that these ideals must spring 
 from a clear appreciation of God's purpose, and from 
 a consuming desire to reproduce the spirit and life of 
 Jesus. 
 
 Therefore, the function of the country church is to 
 create, to maintain, and to enlarge both individual 
 and community ideals, under the inspiration and guid- 
 ance of the Christian motive and teaching, and to help 
 rural people to incarnate these ideals in personal and 
 family life, in industrial effort, in political develop- 
 ment, and in all social relationships. 
 
 The church must bring men to God, and at the 
 same time must lead in the task of building God's 
 kingdom on earth. 
 
 The mission of the Christian church is that of its 
 Founder: To teach the fatherhood of God and the 
 
n6 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 brotherhood of man as the ideal of life for the indi- 
 vidual, the family, the community, and the nation, and 
 to point out the best way to make the ideal the actual. 
 
 The Work of the Country Church 
 
 The Committee has divided the work of the country 
 church into the following heads : 
 i. Knowledge. 
 
 2. Preaching and worship. 
 
 3. Religious educate >n. 
 
 4. The church ministering to all the people. 
 
 5. The church, the servant of the community. 
 
 6. Cooperation among the churches. 
 
 7. Division of labor. 
 
 8. Administration and finance. 
 
 9. The preacher and his helpers. 
 
 10. The preacher, a community builder. 
 
 11. The country church circuit. 
 Under each one of these heads there is : 
 
 1. A statement of general policy : 
 
 Intended to apply to the church as a whole, or to 
 any church. This policy is expected to be broad 
 enough on the one hand to make the church " func- 
 tion," and on the other hand practical enough to serve 
 as a guide for local church work. 
 
 2. A program for the local church: 
 
 This is by no means complete, but is a list of specific 
 things that might be done by the local church. Prob- 
 ably no one church will do all of them, but every 
 church can do some of them. Each church should 
 adapt its program to its own needs and conditions, 
 
FUNCTION, POLICY, AND PROGRAM 117 
 
 but should always test the program in the light of 
 a broad policy. 
 
 3. Suggestions and examples: 
 
 Under this head there is given a list of practical 
 helps, either indicating literature or mentioning actual 
 instances that show the practicability of many of the 
 items in the suggested program. 
 
 I. Knowledge 
 policy 
 
 ( 1 ) Country church leaders, both preachers and lay- 
 men, should have a clear view of the fundamental as- 
 pects of the rural problem, and should broadly define 
 the relationship of the church to that problem. 
 
 (2) The country church should make a survey of its 
 field, to discover neglected individuals and families, to 
 ascertain the conditions which determine its work, and 
 to learn what movements are entitled to its guidance, 
 interest, and support. Two or more churches serving 
 the same community should cooperate in such a survey. 
 The main results should be made public, but the rights 
 of privacy should be duly guarded. 
 
 PROGRAM FOR THE LOCAL CHURCH 
 
 (1) a. Put books, bulletins, and magazines on 
 country life into public libraries and church libraries. 
 
 (See lists furnished by Rural Department of Y. M. 
 C. A.) 
 
 b. Import lecturers on country life from the agri- 
 cultural colleges, church societies, Y. M. C. A., etc. 
 
 c. Have speakers on the subject of the rural prob- 
 
n8 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LiFE 
 
 lem, at church conventions, conventions of young 
 people's societies, etc. 
 
 d. Hold county or district conferences of rural 
 preachers to study the rural problem. 
 
 (2) a. Promote the community survey. Use some 
 good standard survey such as that furnished by the 
 Federal Council, by the Presbyterian board (Dr. Wil- 
 son), by agricultural colleges. 
 
 b. Encourage self -study by the community. 
 
 c. Chart results in graphic form so that material 
 can be preserved and also made available for actual 
 use. 
 
 II. Preaching and Worship 
 
 The country church should foster private and public 
 worship of God. Through its preaching it should 
 bring a ringing spiritual message to the community, 
 and interpret the gospel for the uplift of motive and 
 the trans formation and development of character. 
 
 PROGRAM 
 
 1. Preaching every- Sunday in every field. 
 
 2. Emphasis on congregational singing. 
 
 3. Topics and texts with rural setting. 
 
 4. Religious use of special days, like Harvest Home, 
 Rural Life Sundays, Thanksgiving, Farm Mother's 
 Day, Easter, — with reference to rural environment. 
 
FUNCTION, POLICY, AND PROGRAM 119 
 
 III. Religious Education 
 
 policy 
 
 The country church should develop definite means 
 of religious education, both of adults and of children, 
 interpreting personal and social duty in terms of rural 
 life, and applying what is learned in actual social 
 service. To this end, the pulpit, the home, and the 
 Sunday-school should definitely cooperate. 
 
 PROGRAM 
 
 1. Graded Bible instruction for children; adapted 
 to the average country Sunday-school. 
 
 2. Instruction of adults through consecutive studies 
 in sermonic material. 
 
 3. Mid-week and monthly conferences. 
 
 4. Rural Bible study. 
 
 IV. The Church Ministering to All the 
 People 
 
 policy 
 
 While the country church should minister to the ef- 
 ficient and successful, to the end that it may hold the 
 community through competent leadership, it should 
 minister with special zeal to the ineffective, the poor, 
 and the degenerate, since they also belong to Christ. 
 The rapidly increasing instability of the rural popula- 
 tion lays upon the church the special duty of religious 
 and social helpfulness to the tenant farmer and the 
 hired man. 
 
120 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 PROGRAM 
 
 1. Organize clubs within the church for community 
 service projects; bring in outside speakers at club din- 
 ners, etc., to discuss community work. 
 
 2. Utilize existing women's organizations for 
 larger and more effective service. 
 
 3. Encourage use of the church building by organ- 
 izations and societies. 
 
 4. Give public advocacy to various forms of social 
 service, such as clean-up days, community picnics, play 
 festivals, town improvement, Arbor day, beautifying 
 cemetery or common, etc. 
 
 5. Preach contentment with rural life and ade- 
 quacy of country as a life investment. 
 
 6. Make church sociables community affairs, if pos- 
 sible, with all welcome. 
 
 V. The Church the Servant of the 
 Community 
 
 policy 
 
 The country church should regard itself as the 
 servant of the entire community, and should be deeply 
 concerned with all legitimate agencies in the com- 
 munity; it should give them support and promotion as 
 there may be opportunity or need. It should suggest 
 and inspire rather than instigate and supervise, but it 
 may undertake any new service for which there is not 
 other provision. 
 
 Cooperation with Other 'Agencies. — The church 
 should recognize a division of functions in the com- 
 
FUNCTION, POLICY, AND PROGRAM 121 
 
 munity, and should cooperate with other institutions 
 and organizations. Such adjustments are made indi- 
 vidually for the most part, but by public advocacy and 
 by its educational methods the church may exert its 
 collective influence for all ends that may help to up- 
 build the community. 
 
 PROGRAM 
 
 Community movements should be instigated or aided 
 by active cooperation, as the need may be, for such 
 ends as the following: 
 
 1. Temperance, wherever the community is suffer- 
 ing from intemperance or lawlessness ; a campaign for 
 no-license or prohibition; law enforcement; Sabbath 
 observance. 
 
 2. Public health and sanitation. 
 
 3. Good roads. 
 
 4. School education for rural life, and ordinarily 
 consolidated schools. 
 
 5. Intellectual development by means of libraries, 
 lectures, reading circles, clubs, and similar agencies. 
 
 6. Provisions for public recreation, and a Saturday 
 half -holiday for agricultural laborers. 
 
 7. Promotion of demonstrations of recreation on 
 church grounds if no better place can be had. 
 
 8. Better farming and better farm homes, with 
 special stress upon extension work of agricultural 
 colleges. 
 
 9. Beauty of village, roadsides, and private 
 grounds. 
 
 10. Celebration of religious and patriotic holidays, 
 
122 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 observance of old home week, and production of his- 
 torical pageants. 
 
 11. Education of the people by preaching on com- 
 munity planning. 
 
 12. Establishment of a supervised social center or 
 community house. 
 
 13. Local federation for rural progress and other 
 community programs. 
 
 14. In general, promotion of cooperation among 
 farmers in their production, buying, and selling. 
 
 VI. Cooperation among the Churches 
 
 POLICY 
 
 ( rroups of country churches, with natural and social 
 affiliations, should unite for the study of their special 
 field and for the more effective use of their resources 
 in meeting its needs, thus forming a church federa- 
 tion. Churches may consolidate where only one 
 church is needed in a community. In some communi- 
 ties a federated church may be practicable, an arrange- 
 ment by which all churches in a community unite for 
 worship and work, but each church society preserves 
 its corporate identity. 
 
 PROGRAM 
 
 i. Union meetings for religious and patriotic pur- 
 poses, song service, etc. 
 
 2. Community projects for various forms of com- 
 munity welfare, Christmas tree, etc. 
 
 3. Evangelistic campaign on the cooperative basis, 
 
FUNCTION, POLICY, AND PROGRAM 123 
 
 preceded by survey and followed by effective organized 
 work. 
 
 4. Union campaigns on moral issues like temper- 
 ance. 
 
 5. Cooperative surveys. 
 
 6. Cooperative boys' and girls' clubs. 
 
 7. Cooperative play festivals. 
 
 8. Cooperative community pageants. 
 
 9. Cooperation in athletic contests. 
 
 VII. Division of Labor 
 policy 
 Oftentimes the greatest efficiency of the church re- 
 quires specialized agencies for special tasks. The rural 
 Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A., the young people's so- 
 cieties, and other similar organized allies of the coun- 
 try church should therefore be utilized and encouraged 
 where needed, and supported in their work. 
 
 PROGRAM 
 
 1. Furnishing leaders for special community tasks. 
 Encouraging financial support. 
 Special work with boys and girls. 
 Special work with young people. 
 Athletic league and recreation features. 
 Use of church buildings for these " allies of the 
 
 country church." 
 
 VIII. Administration and Finance 
 policy 
 A sound business organization and an adequate 
 financial policy are essential to the conduct of the 
 
i2 4 THE CHURCH AXD COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 country church. This involves utilizing the available 
 resources of a community, the relation of the local 
 church to the Home Missionary Aid, the matter of 
 minimum salaries for the resident ministers, and 
 proper methods of financial accounting. 
 
 PROGRAM 
 
 i. Official boards and organizations regularly and 
 completely organized with proper program of work. 
 
 2. Carefully kept records and regular reports of 
 work in finances. 
 
 3. Systematic, community-wide, and adequate 
 financial plan for local church support and benevo- 
 lences. 
 
 IX. The Preacher and His Helpers 
 
 A resident ministry is essential to the highest ef- 
 ficiency of the country church. He should be ade- 
 quately trained to meet rural needs. Permanency of 
 tenure should be sought by every possible means, 
 including the payment of salaries commensurate with 
 present economic needs and proportionate to ability 
 and service. One of the greatest tasks of the pastor 
 is to inspire, enlist, and train all available leadership 
 on behalf of the full measure of the service of the 
 church to its members and to the community. 
 
 PROGRAM 
 THE TRAINING OF CHURCH WORKERS 
 
 i. Every effort should be made to train leadership 
 in the local church, such as Sunday-school teachers, 
 
FUNCTION, POLICY, AND PROGRAM 125 
 
 lay readers, elders, deacons, leaders of young people's 
 societies, officers of the various organizations for old 
 and young within the church. 
 
 2. Training in young people's meetings. 
 
 3. Training in Bible school. 
 
 4. Normal class leader and lectures. 
 
 5. Conferences and institutes. 
 
 6. Reading and correspondence courses. 
 
 7. Personal interviews. 
 
 8. Practice work for novices, including apprentice- 
 ship system. 
 
 9. Interchurch visitation. 
 
 X. The Preacher a Community Builder 
 
 policy 
 
 The immediate work of the pastor is with the local 
 church to which he is responsible, but his efforts 
 should by no means be confined to the church. The 
 church should, as it were, lend its pastor to the com- 
 munity for such helpfulness to individuals, agencies, 
 and causes as will definitely contribute to the building 
 up of the community as a whole. 
 
 PROGRAM 
 
 The pastor may help in many or all of the tasks of 
 rural community building that have been suggested 
 heretofore in this outline on behalf of " better farm- 
 ing, better business, and better living." 
 
126 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 THE COUNTRY CHURCH 
 S. L. Morris 
 
 Changed conditions, economic, social, educational, 
 moral, and religious, are tremendously affecting 
 modern life from every angle. A new era, dominated 
 by new thought, new problems, new environs, and 
 new ideals, lias created a new world of thought and 
 life. It is as if the old dispensation had passed away 
 and a new dispensation had been ushered in. 
 
 Whether for better or for worse, leadership has 
 passed from the country. Once it contained the mass 
 of the people. Now the city is attracting not simply 
 the floating population but the mechanical genius, the 
 business skill, and the intellectual talent of the country. 
 Once the country church, pastored by the highest type 
 of intellectual and spiritual ministry, influenced the 
 national life, setting the standard of morals and lead- 
 ing great revivals, resulting in religious upheavals, 
 reaching to the remotest nooks and corners of the 
 country. Now the scepter of leadership, moral, intel- 
 lectual, and spiritual, is passing to the city. Is it the 
 survival of the fittest? 
 
 The influence of the country on life and character 
 can be only partially apprehended, even after an array 
 of facts and figures as familiar as twice-told tales. 
 Rural scenery and honest toil are calculated to make 
 strong men physically, gigantic men intellectually, and 
 clean men morally and spiritually. It is the psycho- 
 logical explanation of the recognized fact that the 
 
THE COUNTRY CHURCH 127 
 
 country church was formerly the mother of teachers, 
 statesmen, and theologians. 
 
 City churches are being recruited from the country 
 not only in numbers but in moral fiber. " What are 
 you doing, away out in the backwoods ? " asked a city 
 pastor of a country minister. " I am engaged, " re- 
 plied he, " in the work of helping you to save your 
 city." If the church but appreciated the significance of 
 this statement, it would recognize that the gifts of the 
 rich city church to evangelize the country are in reality 
 an indirect investment for its own salvation. If coun- 
 try life degenerates and the rural church disinte- 
 grates, where will come the moral force to counteract 
 the degenerating influence of our increasingly corrupt 
 cities ? 
 
 Roosevelt's Country Life Commission sounded the 
 keynote of the first great reform needed : " Any con- 
 sideration of the problem of rural life that leaves out 
 of account the function and possibilities of the church 
 and of related institutions would be grossly inade- 
 quate, . . . because, from the purely sociological 
 point of view, the church is fundamentally a necessary 
 institution in country life." 
 
 One need not travel far afield to discover the causes 
 resulting in the disintegration of the country church. 
 Shifting populations are perhaps the most potent 
 factor. Cities do not grow phenominally by means of 
 their own natural increase. At the beginning of the 
 nineteenth century less than four per cent, of the pop- 
 ulation was urban; but at present over forty-six 
 per cent, live in the city. 
 
128 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 The growth of the city is at the expense of the 
 country, which is drained of its best blood and 
 talent; and the social, educational, and commercial 
 advantages of the city lure to these more attractive 
 fields. 
 
 The tenant system of farming is paralyzing the 
 energies of the religious forces. Men who do not 
 own homes and who in all probability will change their 
 dwelling-place by another year have no great incentive 
 either to build or to maintain neighborhood churches. 
 Xo wonder then that it has been said that greater 
 than war, pestilence, and famine is the curse of land- 
 lordism. 
 
 The spiritual interests of the rural districts are sub- 
 jected to absent treatment. The absentee pastor af- 
 flicts the church with his presence on Saturday even- 
 ing, for once a month preaching, and he takes his 
 flight by the earliest train on Monday. Only in the 
 remotest degree does he touch the social or spiritual 
 life of the community. The tenant system of farming 
 is no greater curse to the country than the tenant min- 
 istry is to the country church. 
 
 This criticism of the tenant system of the ministry 
 has no reference whatever to the noble army of itin- 
 erant preachers who have served as pioneers in desti- 
 tute regions, nor to the self-denying pastors of groups 
 which could not in any other way secure the services 
 of the sanctuary. Such men are making the supreme 
 sacrifice of life and are making the care of souls their 
 chief concern. 
 
 The facts are easily ascertained and the reasons for 
 
THE COUNTRY CHURCH 129 
 
 the disintegration of the country church will scarcely 
 provoke debate. The chief consideration is the 
 remedy. The effective remedy is the evangelistic 
 pastor, whose earnest messages are inspired by genuine 
 love of souls, inducing a revival all the year round, 
 and who in every house ceases not " to teach and to 
 preach Jesus as the Christ." 
 
 Definite sacrifices must be made. " The preacher 
 and his family must make their sacrifices as definitely 
 as if they went to China or to Africa to preach the 
 gospel." It is easier to die a martyr's death than to 
 endure the lifelong martyrdom of a sacrificial life in 
 an obscure pastorate. Let the church challenge her 
 most promising men and see how many will respond. 
 If the church can secure volunteers of this character 
 it will be comparatively easy to save the country 
 church; and it would carry conviction to the world if 
 the greatest of all Christ's works were reproduced, — 
 the preaching of the gospel to the poor. 
 
 The key to the situation is the country pastor. Il- 
 lustrations are on record of marvelous results accom- 
 plished by such men as Matthew B. McNutt, C. O. 
 Gill, Harlow S. Mills, and others. The same men 
 with the same equipment and the same methods would 
 succeed in almost any community or denomination. 
 If we could secure a sufficient number of such men 
 so as to constitute a chain, linking neighborhood to 
 neighborhood, we can well imagine resuscitated com- 
 munities and revived churches, till the country church 
 becomes once more a great moral standard and a 
 spiritual force throughout the bounds of the nation, 
 
130 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 while the thrill of its revived life and expanding 
 activities would reach " unto the uttermost part of the 
 earth." 
 
 ORGANIZATION OF THE COMMISSION ON 
 
 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 Warren II. Wilson 
 
 In proposing the form of organization of this Com- 
 mission one must first consider what is the function 
 of the Federal Council itself. It is one of several 
 federations, each of which has a place as a service 
 organization in united Protestantism. These organ- 
 izations do not rule or govern one another, and they 
 avoid competition with one another. This results in 
 a division of function. The Federal Council is, there- 
 fore, one of the agencies in the list in which belong 
 the Young Men's Christian Association, the Mission- 
 ary Education Movement, the Laymen's Missionary 
 Movement, and recently the Men and Religion Move- 
 ment. These are financed separately, possess the al- 
 legiance of the churches, and serve, each of them, a 
 definite purpose. 
 
 This is very characteristic of rural organization 
 throughout the world. In the best organized country 
 life we know the multi-cellular type prevails. Co- 
 operative creameries have attached to them egg- 
 gathering associations. Rural credit societies are as- 
 
ORGANIZATION OF THE COMMISSION 131 
 
 sociated with cooperative stores. But these various 
 organizations are independent of one another. They 
 do not govern one another, and they avoid com- 
 petition. 
 
 What, therefore, is the function of the Federal 
 Council among the great service organizations of 
 American Protestantism ? 
 
 I. It gets isolated workers together. It warms the 
 heart of the aggressive Christian leader with a larger 
 fellowship. It gives him a sense of wholeness where- 
 with to heal the individualism of denominational 
 action. Our independence has forfeited for us our 
 right to experience Christianity as one. We do not 
 regret the price we pay for 'our religious liberty, but 
 we value as a precious thing the meetings afforded us 
 by the Federal Council. 
 
 II. The Federal Council in its various gatherings 
 publishes the testimony of the churches to the unity of 
 Christendom. It exalts the oneness of all these 
 churches in the interests committed to various Com- 
 missions of the Council. 
 
 III. The Federal Council publishes a literature on 
 unity. 
 
 IV. It investigates and publishes the conditions 
 which affect all the churches alike. 
 
 V. The Federal Council sends deputations to cer- 
 tain civic and economic powers. It is a body big 
 enough to command the attention of the President of 
 the United States and its dignity is sufficient to enable 
 it to represent the churches in the American Federa- 
 tion of Labor. 
 
132 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 VI. The Federal Council regulates and guides the 
 forces which work toward federation. I do not 
 think the Federal Council has, or any of these federa- 
 tions and quasi- federation " in the churches has, the 
 power to initiate federation, but we have in the Coun- 
 cil an agency capable of guiding the forces in the 
 churches whenever federation is needed. This great 
 body purges proposals of their false and unsound fea- 
 tures. Jt furnishes typical forms, provides informa- 
 tion as to experience, and is itself a great clearing- 
 house whereby the forces working for federation may 
 avoid competition with one another. 
 
 VII. The Federal Council does not at any time 
 impair the influence of the church, but strengthens it. 
 It works for the churches and confers upon them a 
 great benefit in giving to each communion the weight 
 and the support, the sanction and the fellowship, of 
 every other communion. 
 
 Furthermore, let us ask what this Commission has 
 done as a preliminary to suggesting what form of 
 organization it most needs to-day. 
 
 First, this Commission has inherited the Gill and 
 Pinchot Survey of Windsor County, Vermont, and 
 Tompkins County, New York, which was published by 
 the Macmillan Co. under the title, The Country 
 Church. This Commission has collated, in the second 
 place, and has at this meeting presented, reports, some 
 of them careful and thorough, upon certain static as- 
 pects of the country church. This investigation has 
 looked upon the church as an existing thing rather 
 than as a progressive institution. They present a 
 
ORGANIZATION OF THE COMMISSION > 133 
 
 static, not a dynamic view of the church. Third, 
 through Mr. Gill's office in Columbus this Commission 
 has investigated rural conditions in Ohio, with a view 
 to county and state federations. And, fourth, it has 
 assembled this Conference. 
 
 In view of this definition of the place of the Federal 
 Council, and in view of the needs of the time, it 
 seems to me that this Commission should organize 
 along the following lines for the coming two years : 
 
 1. Avoiding duplication with the Missionary Edu- 
 cation Movement, the Laymen's Missionary Move- 
 ment, the Young Men's Christian Association, and 
 other bodies of similar type, and utilizing their service 
 as if we were an organic part of their work, the Com- 
 mission should continue for the future to investigate 
 rural conditions within definite limits. The brilliant 
 record made by Mr. Gill as an investigator justifies 
 a continuance of this function. There will for years 
 to come be need of thorough and convincing work in 
 the investigation of rural conditions. It is to be said 
 here, however, that there is no longer need of investi- 
 gation for propaganda purposes alone. The attention 
 of the public has been commanded. We can now get 
 a hearing when we ask it. We do not need to investi- 
 gate every general appeal to the public as once we did. 
 The time has come now when investigation should be 
 harnessed to particular tasks. I believe, therefore, that 
 the Commission should decide to limit the work of 
 investigation to the function of preparing for definite 
 action proposed. In Ohio we propose a definite action, 
 namely: to organize the state and to organize the 
 
134 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 counties of the state in the interest of the country 
 church. In this state, therefore, investigation directed 
 toward that end is being made. I believe that the 
 Commission should direct its energies to the investiga- 
 tion of those fields in which federations may be pro- 
 posed, and in which the service of this Commission is 
 sought with that end in view. 
 
 2. The G mmission should continue to publish in 
 books and pamphlets and in newspaper articles the re- 
 sult of these investigations, and the reports otherwise 
 made to it. There is a continuing need of printed 
 matter on the country church, and a constant propa- 
 ganda should be carried on in the interest of the 
 country church. 
 
 3. The Commission should hold conferences for 
 getting together the people who are interested in the 
 country church. The annual conference held by the 
 Young Men's Christian Association until last year 
 rendered a great service, and, if the way is open, such 
 a conference ought to be held by the Federal Council 
 in a way to avoid interference with the Young Men's 
 Christian Association. The Federal Council represents 
 the churches organically, and, in spite of the fact that 
 conferences do not legislate for the churches, their 
 value is very great in bringing together those who 
 have been working in lonely places without the privi- 
 lege of intercourse and interchange of experience. 
 
 4. We believe that the Commission should cham- 
 pion the country church in legislative proposals now 
 being considered. For instance, the discussion of rural 
 credit is of great concern to the churches. No indi- 
 
ORGANIZATION OF THE COMMISSION 135 
 
 vidual church has the right — which the Federal Coun- 
 cil has — to approach government officials, from the 
 President of the United States to the humblest assem- 
 blyman. Such a Federal Council as we are should 
 arrange for the advocacy of those legislative pro- 
 posals which will assist the country church and for 
 opposing those whose vicious character would injure 
 the country church and community. 
 
 In the same connection, the Commission should de- 
 fine its position on the country school and should take 
 active measures wherever opportunity offers, espe- 
 cially at Washington and at state capitals, to promote 
 such reorganization of the country school as shall 
 strengthen the country church of all denominations. 
 With all frankness we should face the fact that we are 
 working for those churches which are not in the Coun- 
 cil as actively as for those churches which are within 
 the Federal Council. 
 
 The Federal Council should also promote church 
 activity, or, more precisely perhaps we should say, 
 guide church activity along three lines, 
 
 1. It should further the organization of depart- 
 ments in the leading religious communions which shall 
 advance the interests of the country church and con- 
 serve the rural congregations. 
 
 2. The Commission ought to prepare for the so- 
 cieties that are in the churches such literature and 
 lesson studies, and ought to push the use of such meth- 
 ods as shall make the Sunday-school, the Endeavor 
 Society, and kindred organizations directly useful to 
 the country church. 
 
136 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 3. The Commission ought to assist in the formation 
 of state and county federations, where the churches 
 are inclined to form these bodies. I do not think that 
 the Federal Council can undertake, as a rule, to fed- 
 crate the churches. These local federations will arise 
 of themselves. Furthermore, the Federal Council has 
 a Commission to which is assigned the work of " fed- 
 erated movements." It will be the business of this 
 Commission to promote federations, county and state 
 in character. It should be our business to cooperate 
 with these bodies and to direct along rural lines the 
 work that they shall do. 
 
 To this end the Commission on the Church and 
 Country Life ought to have, it seems to me, the fol- 
 lowing committees, and these committees should be 
 intrusted with the right to pass upon all actions of the 
 Commission or of its secretary within the lines of 
 work assigned to these various committees re- 
 spectively : 
 
 1. A Committee on Survey. 
 
 2. A Committee on Denominational Organizations 
 and Societies. 
 
 3. A Committee on Legislation and Education. 
 
 4. A Committee on State and County Federations. 
 
 5. A Committee on Literature. 
 
 These five committees will do unpaid labor and, as 
 far as we can see, for the future the most of the work 
 of this Commission must be unpaid labor. Resources 
 do not now appear for extending the work of the 
 Commission through paid employees. The important 
 thing is, therefore, to extend the Commission's work 
 
ORGANIZATION OF THE COMMISSION 137 
 
 by the hands of volunteers, and this will be secured 
 when these volunteer, committees are trusted, and 
 when the Commission and its Secretary and its Presi- 
 dent take action only as approved by these various 
 committees. 
 
 The financial problem of the Commission is an im- 
 portant one, but it does not seem wise that the Com- 
 mission's work should be limited by the ability or 
 inability of this Commission to raise a separate fund. 
 Let us face the future with reliance upon the volunteer 
 work of men who> value this Commission so much that 
 they are willing to spend some of their own money on 
 car-fare, and some of their own time in service to the 
 general cause. 
 
 It then remains that the Commission must find the 
 means for certain definite work, as follows, that will 
 require to be paid for: 
 
 1. Surveys. 
 
 2. Holding of conferences. 
 
 3. The publishing of the results of investigation. 
 
 4. Organization of federations. 
 
 5. The exerting of influence upon legislation. 
 
 All these cost money. We gratefully recognize the 
 generous support which the Commission has had in 
 the past from the large-hearted man whose foresight 
 has created this work and called us together. In volun- 
 teering our services we recognize that the greater the 
 body of volunteer work, the greater must be the ex- 
 pense of the central office. We believe this expense 
 should be reduced to a minimum. There are too many 
 causes now asking for money, and the Commission has 
 
138 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 not found itself skilful in raising money. We recom- 
 mend, however, that a Committee on Finance be ap- 
 pointed, to consist of live members, including the 
 chairman, secretary, and three other members of the 
 Commission appointed by the chairman. 
 
 In short, the scope oi the Commission on the Church 
 and Country Life should be national, representing all 
 the churches, which shall cooperate with religious de- 
 nominations in the nation. It shall investigate coun- 
 try conditions with a view to action exclusively. It 
 shall publish the results of investigation and other ma- 
 terial of interest to the churches of all denominations. 
 It shall hold conferences for getting men together, at 
 least one country church conference of national char- 
 acter . mce a year. It shall champion the country 
 church in legislation for rural credit, for suitable edu- 
 cational reform, and it shall push the organization 
 throughout the various churches of departments of 
 church and country life, aiming to secure such a depart- 
 ment in every one of the leading denominations. It 
 shall advocate also suitable organization and litera- 
 ture, such as country churches need in Sunday-schools 
 and young people's societies, and it shall also promote 
 the interest of state and county federations. These 
 interests will sufficiently occupy the Commission dur- 
 ing the next two years and will lay a foundation for 
 the future work of this body. 
 
TRAINING OF THE RURAL MINISTRY 139 
 
 THE TRAINING OF THE RURAL MINISTRY 
 {Report of Committee) 
 George B. Stewart, Chairman, Kenyon L. But- 
 
 TERFIELD, EDWIN L. EARP, G. WALTER FlSKE, 
 
 Arthur S. Hoyt, Frank A. Starratt, Warren H. 
 Wilson. 
 
 Your Committee on the Training of the Rural Min- 
 istry would respectfully report as follows : 
 
 It has not been possible for the Committee to hold 
 a meeting, but it has carried forward its work by cor- 
 respondence. The conclusions of this report, while 
 not the unqualified expression of the opinion of the 
 members of the Committee, may be said fairly to sum- 
 marize the several opinions held by them. 
 
 We take pleasure in presenting in its entirety for 
 the careful consideration of those concerned with the 
 solution of the important problems covered by this sub- 
 ject, " A Tentative Program for the Better Training 
 of Rural Ministers," prepared by a committee of the 
 Massachusetts Federation of Churches. This com- 
 mittee is a pioneer in this field of education and has 
 given much attention to its task. This tentative pro- 
 gram has much to commend it to favorable considera- 
 tion and has already received approval in its main 
 items of the seminaries of Greater Boston. 
 
 " A Tentative Program for the Better Training 
 of Rural Ministers, Massachusetts Federation of 
 Churches : 
 
i 4 o THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 I. For Theological Students 
 
 " A. Principles of Preparation. 
 
 " Students who look forward to the rural ministry 
 should have : 
 
 " i. A thorough knowledge of the English Bible, as 
 fundamental to their interpretation of the Christian 
 religion. This would include the history of the life 
 and thought of the Hebrew people, both in Old and 
 New Testament times, an intimate acquaintance with 
 the life and teachings of Jesus and the Apostles, and 
 correct methods of interpretation. 
 
 " 2. A resonably good command of the philosophy 
 of religion, and the doctrines of Christianity as they 
 have developed in the church, and of the influence of 
 Christianity upon society at large. 
 
 " 3. An understanding of religious psychology and 
 rural sociology, that they may enter intelligently and 
 sympathetically into individual, family, and community 
 life, and be of spiritual and social service to each. 
 
 " 4. Training in methods of approach to the people 
 as preachers, pastors, and religious educators, and in- 
 struction in the best methods of effective organization 
 of the forces of the church and the community. 
 
 " 5. Instruction in making rural surveys and experi- 
 ence with pastorates in the country, in order to acquire 
 adequate material for community leadership. 
 
 " 6. A conviction of the importance of the rural 
 ministry as a life-work, and willingness to give at 
 least five years to the building up of a single com- 
 munity in the true missionary spirit. 
 
TRAINING OF THE RURAL MINISTRY 141 
 
 " B. Course of Study. 
 
 " 1. Their curriculum in the seminary should in- 
 clude biblical literature, history, and interpretation; 
 the history of Christianity, especially in its modern 
 period in America; with research work and reports on 
 rural movements and biography; theology — biblical, 
 historical, and systematic; homiletics and pastoral 
 methods; general sociology and the specific problems 
 of the rural church; and psychology and pedagogy, 
 with special study of the rural Sunday-school. 
 
 "2. Elsewhere than in the seminary, they should 
 make a study of agriculture, including farm practice 
 and management and the application of science to farm 
 problems; agricultural economics, including coopera- 
 tion and market distribution; farm business methods; 
 and advanced rural sociology, including rural educa- 
 tion, art, and literature, recreation, sanitation, and 
 social organization. These may be pursued by means 
 of summer schools, correspondence courses, or one or 
 two years in an agricultural college. 
 
 II. For Settled Ministers 
 
 " Men already in the ministry should have an oppor- 
 tunity to supplement their previous training and to re- 
 ceive occasional stimulus. 
 
 " 1. Through Summer Schools, in sessions of two 
 weeks or more, consisting of forenoon lectures, one 
 of which shall deal with a phase of the rural church 
 problem; afternoon conferences and excursions, and 
 evening addresses of an inspirational nature. 
 
 " 2. Through Addresses and Conferences at church 
 
142 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 associations and conventions, wherever representatives 
 of rural church interests come together. 
 
 " 3. Through Rural Institutes, where speakers from 
 seminaries, the Young Men's Christian Association, 
 the agricultural college, and other rural agencies may 
 discuss their common interests and lay plans for co- 
 operation. 
 
 "4. Through Correspondence Courses, maintained 
 by seminary and agricultural college, through which 
 the student may keep in touch with the most recent 
 investigations and conclusions. 
 
 "5. Through such local groups as reading clubs, 
 improvement societies, and other agencies of local bet- 
 terment, which shall unite all the progressive forces of 
 the community." 
 
 Tt will appear from what follows that your com- 
 mittee is in substantial agreement with this Committee 
 of the Massachusetts Federation of Churches. It 
 would seem that this report assumes an antecedent cul- 
 tural course and general theological training. Other- 
 wise, it would be open to serious criticism, as lacking 
 in necessary foundation preparation for the special 
 training admirably outlined in it. 
 
 Your committee finds that the task set for it falls 
 naturally into four divisions. 
 
 I. The Training of the Theological Student 
 
 1. The country minister must be as strong a man 
 and as thoroughly equipped as any other minister. 
 In the treatment of the country church and the coun- 
 
TRAINING OF THE RURAL MINISTRY 143 
 
 try minister this vital fact is too frequently over- 
 looked. It is an initial blunder that is responsible in 
 a large degree for the pitiable plight of many rural 
 parishes. Those charged with the preparation of 
 young men for ministry in the country must recognize 
 that it is a waste of effort to train men who have not 
 initiative, capacity for leadership, intellectual endow- 
 ment. It goes without saying that the young man 
 must be good, for spiritual qualities are indispensable. 
 But he must also be good for something, if he is to 
 be a country pastor. 
 
 This conviction that the rural minister must be a 
 man whose endowment is of a very high order is 
 fundamental to the satisfactory solution of the coun- 
 try church problem. The men who in the past have 
 adequately served the country church, the men who 
 are doing it to-day qualify in this respect. It must be 
 understood that no other grade need apply. 
 
 2. The curriculum should provide for the thorough 
 training of the country minister in things fundamental. 
 It is difficult to think that he can have a too complete 
 scholarly equipment for his task. Above all things his 
 training should be of that quality which would culti- 
 vate his powers of observation, reflection, concentra- 
 tion, and persistent intellectual toil. If he is to func- 
 tion properly in his sphere he must have his intellectual 
 powers well in hand and at his command. He cannot 
 be too well informed. He cannot be too accurate a 
 thinker. He cannot be too intellectually forceful. It 
 would, therefore, be the poorest sort of pedagogy that 
 would sacrifice his general culture for specialized prac- 
 
144 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 tical training. Therefore, all those biblical and other 
 studies which are regarded by any seminary as funda- 
 mental to the Christian ministry should be regarded 
 as fundamental for him. 
 
 In no case should he be thought to be inferior in 
 social attainments or intellectual gifts and still be 
 thought to be suited to a country parish because of 
 this inferiority. Our country ministers and our coun- 
 try churches must be made to feel a self-respect that 
 is not possible so long as they are regarded as not 
 quite the equals of their city contemporaries. 
 
 3. In specializing f< >r this work the seminary might, 
 with great profit, add to its general courses, elective 
 courses in " the country church as a community cen- 
 ter," "rural sociology," "rural social organization," 
 " rural social engineering," with a view to informing 
 the student in the social problems he will face in the 
 parish and the position he must fill as the leader. He 
 must be trained for leadership. 
 
 This should not require him to be trained in agricul- 
 ture. It is unreasonable to ask the seminary to add 
 this large department of culture to its already over- 
 crowded curriculum, and it is equally unreasonable to 
 exact of the minister, of whom already so much is 
 required, that he should be informed in the farmer's 
 job. All that is required of him is that he should be 
 sympathetically and intelligently interested in the work 
 of the farm. The farmer, no more than the city pew- 
 holder, expects or desires his minister to be an expert 
 in any other than his own job. If he is this he will 
 meet all the demands of his country parish. And he 
 
TRAINING OF THE RURAL MINISTRY 145 
 
 should be an expert in his own sphere. He must know 
 his own job down to the smallest detail. Time taken 
 from perfecting himself in this, even if it is spent in 
 learning the job of the farmer, is misspent. 
 
 4. The student for the ministry must have a vision 
 of the new country church. The day is past, if it 
 ever really existed, when the country minister can 
 meet the demands of his parish solely in the conven- 
 tional pastoral way. The country church must adjust 
 itself to the community as its servant, and its pastor 
 must be the leader of this social group and the director 
 of it as a community force. To give him this vision 
 and to prepare him for this leadership is essential in 
 the preparation of the theological student. 
 
 5. The student for the ministry must be alive to the 
 religious character of his mission. He and his church 
 are to utilize the religious forces, present the religious 
 ideals, promote the religious interests, and develop the 
 religious life of the community. They are the repre- 
 sentatives of religion, and it is for them to make re- 
 ligion effective. This is the point at which the church 
 and the minister are to function. The community de- 
 pends upon them to furnish . the religious ideals, 
 religious motive, religious inspiration, religious power. 
 If they fail to do this, the community is deprived of 
 the most potent forces for its uplift, for the furnishing 
 of which they are constituted. 
 
146 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 II. The Training of Young Men who Omit 
 
 the Seminary 
 
 It is said that there is a large body of men who go 
 direct from college, or from high schools, to the coun- 
 try parishes without any theological training. The 
 number is reckoned by some of our committee as high 
 as eight\ -five per cent, of those entering the ministry. 
 This body of country ministers creates a field for the 
 scminar\ which must not be overlooked or neglected. 
 
 Your committee is of the opinion that it is more a 
 denominational than a seminary matter, as there is 
 wide divergence among the denominations in their 
 practice at this p< >int. The theory and policy regarding 
 the training of ministers is widely divergent, and it 
 would seem that it is incumbent upon those denomina- 
 tions that encourage this practice to provide the train- 
 ing that these members of their clerical body need for 
 the discharge of their professional duties. Your com- 
 mittee does not feel itself sufficiently advised as to the 
 various elements in the problem thus presented to be 
 qualified to make suggestions that would have more 
 than general value. Some of the suggestions made in 
 other parts of this report may be of service to the class 
 of men referred to in this section. 
 
 III. The Training of Country Pastors for 
 
 Larger Efficiency 
 
 Your committee offers the following suggestions to 
 this end : 
 
 i. These ministers need refilling along all lines of 
 
TRAINING OF THE RURAL MINISTRY 147 
 
 their intellectual life. Whatever special equipment 
 they may need in view of their immediate work they 
 must, above all things, avoid the narrowing effects of 
 intensive specialization. They, therefore, must pre- 
 serve their interest in intellectual matters apart from 
 and beyond those immediately involved in the rural 
 life and work which are theirs. They ought to do 
 general reading. They must do strenuous study on 
 some theological, scientific, literary, or other subject. 
 
 2. They should also follow some well-devised 
 scheme of reading and study in rural matters. Here 
 they should become specialists, and they can only be- 
 come such by severe toil. As has been said, they do 
 not have to become farmers or even know much about 
 farming, but they do need to> know the economic, so- 
 cial, moral, and religious problems of the rural com- 
 munity and know how to utilize the economic, social, 
 moral, religious forces for the uplift of their rural 
 communities. What they knew last year will not an- 
 swer for this year. They must progress. To remain 
 stationary is fatal to their effectiveness. 
 
 3. The country minister must supply himself with 
 the inspiration, the enthusiasm, the facilities for keep- 
 ing up his equipment and preserving himself at the 
 highest efficiency. There is not much of these to come 
 to him from his field. His great peril is intellectual 
 inertia and indolence. He must sit constantly as a 
 sentinel over his life, or he will without perceiving it 
 drift into a helpless and hopeless state of self-satisfac- 
 tion and laziness. Perhaps his most serious problem 
 is himself, for it is a most difficult thing to keep one's 
 
i 4 8 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 self to concert pitch, when there is little or no stimulus 
 to do it from one's surroundings. Yet he must do it. 
 The one hope of the rural minister against the fatal 
 peril of stagnation is that he himself will seize every 
 Opportunity to stimulate and enrich his mental and 
 spiritual life. 
 
 4. Summer schools offer excellent opportunities for 
 help to the country minister. 
 
 There are many of these schools in various parts of 
 the country, and some of them are connected with 
 theological seminaries. The seminary furnishes an 
 Ideal atmosphere Eor this kind of professional revival. 
 It is an educational center where the ideals are intel- 
 lectual, and at the same time are chastened and en- 
 riched by the religious spirit. The inducements to 
 Study are potent, while the inducements to pleasure or 
 rot are reduced to a minimum. The classroom and 
 not platform are featured. Work is the watchword 
 and work is what the minister needs most. Work 
 under the wise guidance of expert teachers, work in 
 some severe theological or other discipline, w r ork in 
 the midst of surroundings that suggest and provoke it. 
 The seminary summer school furnishes this atmos- 
 phere and these stimuli to the rural minister. 
 
 There should be due recognition in the curriculum 
 of the school of both general theological studies and 
 specialized practical courses. 
 
 The ministers who are alive to the possibilities of 
 their calling will be the first to see the value of such 
 schools and will allow nothing trivial to deprive them 
 of their benefits. To men on small salary the item of 
 
TRAINING OF THE RURAL MINISTRY 149 
 
 expense is often felt to be prohibitive. Churches could 
 hardly make a wiser investment than by sending their 
 pastors to one of these schools. They should put the 
 item in their annual budget. 
 
 5. Short courses at theological seminaries are de- 
 sirable for ministers. 
 
 For pastors in service there is the greatest need of 
 educational provision. Of all professions the ministry 
 has the least attention from the university or from the 
 theological seminary. After the minister is once gradu- 
 ated he is left to shift for himself and nothing much 
 is done to make him a better preacher, a better shep- 
 herd of the flock, a better administrator of the affairs 
 of the parish. 
 
 To this end short courses should be provided by the 
 seminaries for the ministers in service. They might 
 be for a semester or a half of a semester. In these he 
 should have teachers rather than text-books, seminar 
 or laboratory work in addition to lectures. Every 
 man who has been out in the pastorate for five years 
 should aim to get this sort of a release from his pastoral 
 work and go up to a seminary for eight or fifteen 
 weeks. The emphasis that he needs is not inspira- 
 tional but intellectual and therefore the seminary is the 
 place to which he should go. The seminary might 
 easily arrange the schedule of the undergraduate 
 classes so as to make some if not all of these short 
 courses part of the undergraduate work, and thus 
 bring these pastors into the scholastic atmosphere of 
 the regular seminary classroom, which would be a 
 great gain to the pastors. 
 
150 THE CHURCH AXD COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 The wider the range of these short courses the 
 better for ministers, as in this way they will have a 
 large range of subjects from which to make selection, 
 and a larger variety of needs and desires may be met. 
 If a narrow range vi subjects is alone possible, then 
 there should he a fair division between fundamental 
 subjects, such as some biblical course or a church his- 
 tory course, and specialized subjects, such as rural 
 economies or rural sociology. 
 
 6. Correspondence courses for ministers are desira- 
 ble. Extension work by the seminaries, through cor- 
 respi ►ndence, ought to be well organized and vigorously 
 prosecuted. In this way the seminaries might carry 
 a d mtinuous stream of influence from the centers of 
 sacred learning to many parish studies where outside 
 intellectual influences might not otherwise penetrate. 
 These courses might cover as wide a range of the- 
 ological and allied disciplines as the seminaries might 
 find themselves able to manage. 
 
 IV. The Training of Lay Leaders 
 
 This is an important and at the same time a dif- 
 ficult part of the task of bringing the country church to 
 its best development. It is all too frequently the case 
 that the most serious obstacle to the efficiency of the 
 country church are the men and women who by every 
 consideration should be the progressive leaders but are 
 in fact obstinate obstructionists. These persons are 
 often found among the officials. Many a pastor has 
 come to his task with a vision of the opportunities and 
 the duties of the church, or has received a fresh vision 
 
TRAINING OF THE RURAL MINISTRY 151 
 
 of these, and with enthusiasm and hope has sought to 
 put his vision into form and substance, only to find 
 that the men and women who could help are deter- 
 mined upon hindering him. 
 
 Even under the most favoring conditions of pas- 
 toral efficiency, the effectiveness of the country church 
 depends in large degree upon trained lay leadership. 
 Earnest attention must be given to the task of provid- 
 ing adequate training for these leaders. This may be 
 accomplished in the following ways : 
 
 1. The pastor should establish classes for the study 
 of local church and community problems, economics, 
 sociology, church history; organize committees for 
 community betterment along one or more lines; ar- 
 range for lecture courses with a view to community 
 enlightenment; and in other ways utilize local facilities 
 and talent. 
 
 2. Little schools of religion should be organized by 
 theological seminaries in successive communities under 
 the administration of some member of their faculties. 
 They should be held for a week for the serious study 
 of the Bible, church finance, church efficiency, soci- 
 ology, economics, religious education, and other sub- 
 jects according to local needs and conditions. Possibly 
 the more mature students could be used as helpers in 
 these schools, and local people should be largely used, 
 even though they may be poorly qualified. Wisely 
 managed, these schools may be immensely helpful to 
 both pastors and people in many ways and would con- 
 stitute a most valuable form of seminary extension. 
 
 3. Seminaries should maintain summer schools for 
 
152 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 laymen. There are already many conferences and 
 assemblies which are of value and there is small need 
 to add to their number. But there is need for real 
 schools where laymen may be systematically instructed 
 in things pertaining to the present church problems 
 and their solution. There is no better place for these 
 schools than the institutions where their pastors are 
 instructed in the same subjects, and there are no better 
 teachers for them than the teachers at whose feet their 
 pastors have sat. The atmosphere of the seminary is 
 favorable to the ends of schools Eor laymen. Under 
 the conditions thus suggested the benefit to the lay 
 student of a two-weeks' serious study and the resulting 
 advantage to the churches and communities are not 
 easily measured. 
 
 It may seem that your committee has elaborated an 
 extensive program, one, in fact, so extensive as to be 
 practically impossible. YVe are not so optimistic as to 
 think that all of these things can be done at once by 
 any one institution, or one man, or one group of men. 
 But it is our hope that out of these various suggestions 
 different pastors and churches may be able to make a 
 selection of something that is adaptable and workable 
 in the conditions in which they have to work. We 
 venture to think that every minister and every church 
 that wish to come to larger efficiency may find a way 
 to accomplish this desire, if they seek for it with all 
 their heart. It may be that in this report they may 
 find some suggestions that will be of help to them in 
 their search. 
 
TRAINING FOR THE RURAL MINISTRY 153 
 
 TRAINING FOR THE RURAL MINISTRY 
 V. G. A. Tresslcr 
 
 It goes without saying that there must be training, 
 and already there is great advance; for not so very 
 long ago a great part of the American Church was 
 quite dubious as to the necessity of much, if any, 
 ministerial training for the country worker. But we 
 are in the age of training — training, if you please, for 
 efficiency — and all of us are restlessly alive to its value, 
 its insistency, its primacy. The church is, and it is to 
 be. We are not alarmed about its future. It has a 
 mission, a message, and a ministry. 
 
 There is to be a church, and it is to have a min- 
 istry. We will grant these two points. This ministry 
 is for all the world, and this ministry is to be equipped 
 for all the world, country and city. How? It is a 
 problem, not easy, and yet not so difficult as to defy 
 solution. 
 
 The difficulty very largely is our own. We are de- 
 fining ministry in the terms of specialization sheerly. 
 I am frank to say that in this I hold we mistake. But 
 must we specialize for efficiency? Yes and no! Re- 
 cently a questionnaire came to my notice on the effect 
 of the present world war on higher education. Al- 
 most all the educators felt that the effect of the war 
 educationally would be very great — great biologically, 
 sociologically, economically, historically, and peda- 
 gogically. That is, the teaching of these subjects 
 would be shifted somewhat owing to the new condi- 
 
154 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 tion caused by the war. But no one thinks that 
 biology will have changed its principle because of the 
 war, or that philosophy will have shifted its cate- 
 gories, or that history will be enabled to dispense with 
 any of it- totality of historic fundamentals. The 
 principles of all these subjects abide — only the emphasis 
 shifts. Is it not just so with the rural ministry? 
 It is rural; yes, — that is merely locative, incidental. 
 Rural is the qualitative term only; but ministry — 
 that is the determinative, the fundamental, the 
 character-giving, significant thing. It is a rural min- 
 i-try. That is tlie application in time and space. But 
 it is a ministry; that is the essential content. It is not 
 a thing of shreds and patches, of township lines or 
 county bounds or confines of a commonwealth. This 
 rural ministry is really not a rural ministry at all in 
 its most cogent definition. It is only a rurally local- 
 ized ministry of an inherently illocalized grace. 
 True, it deals with a situation — the situation 
 and condition of the century, the year, the local- 
 ity, the season, and all that. Granted. It cannot 
 overlook the character and condition of its populace, 
 whether miners or farmers or shopmen or schoolmen. 
 Certainly not. Yet we must insist that the rural is 
 not the determining factor. That factor is ministry — 
 " the ministry," the gospel ministry, the " apostolos," 
 the " sent one," the " karux," the herald, the " an- 
 gelos," the messenger; the man who truly, like the 
 early apostles, goes out and is quite confident that 
 " we are witnesses of these things." So we notice 
 after all the real minister is not a rural minister; he 
 
TRAINING FOR THE RURAL MINISTRY 155 
 
 is a rural minister. It is not the country condition 
 that is the chief thing; it is the human condition. Ah, 
 yes ! But the situation is bad, you say — poor crops, 
 renters, bad land, mean spirit, little cooperation, gen- 
 eral lassitude, inhibition of the civic motor centers. 
 A bad situation ! Let us see. It may be even captious 
 to remark that the ministry of the gospel is not said 
 to save from a situation at all, though it incidentally, 
 doubtless often, does that also; but rather to save from 
 — let me say it — to save from sin. " Being made free 
 from ' the situation.' " " You being dead through 
 your ' situation.' " " Where remission of these is, 
 there is no more offering for ' the situation.' " It 
 scarcely sounds natural, does it ? 
 
 It is not social service as such the ministry con- 
 serves, but a deeper thing, and one which undoubtedly 
 results in social service. The Old Testament speaks 
 of the poor, but Christ of " the poor in spirit," and to 
 them is a kingdom — the kingdom of heaven. The 
 Old Testament speaks of hunger, but Christ of " those 
 that hunger and thirst after righteousness." " The 
 gospel is the glad tidings of benefits that pass not 
 away. Its end is redemption and not social improve- 
 ment." This is the characteristic way in which Adolf 
 Harnack begins his treatise on the " Social Gospel." 
 No one thinks that Professor Harnack is theologically 
 straitened, nor that he is cramped in his definition by 
 dogmatic presumptions. 
 
 The rural ministry, then, is to be, and, by rights, 
 ought to be, prepared for its end. That end, accord- 
 ing to Harnack, is redemption. 
 
156 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 But this redemptive end has also its corollaries with 
 reference to this life. There is the quietistic principle 
 — " Fear not " — acquiesce in the leadings of God. But 
 the same authority that commands, "Love not the 
 world, neither the things that are in the world,'' turns 
 to other men among whom we live and says, " Love 
 thy neighbor as thyself.'' Here we have the principle 
 of love as a social regeneration. " I was hungry, and 
 ye gave me to eat; ... I was in prison, and ye came 
 unto me." 
 
 H. A. Franke, who did Christlike orphan work in 
 Halle in [694, received the impulse to his world-famed 
 work by Paul's word: " God is able to make all grace 
 abound unto you; that ye, having always all sufficiency 
 in everything, may abound unto every good work." 
 The rural minister of the gospel gets his cue, like the 
 rest of us, here. The cup of cold water — that is for 
 the twentieth century. The social uplift necessary 
 must be given. But it must be given in his name, and 
 the recipient must know it. The rural minister must 
 be trained to see; and hence must be sharp to see the 
 need. He ministers. It is to the man and for the man 
 in the country, but it is in the power of the Son of 
 man, and with his sanction. It is to the community 
 and for the community, in the power of the kingdom 
 of God. 
 
 Pastor Wichern, the founder of the Inner Mission, 
 so greatly helpful to Europe and America, puts it this 
 way ; It is " the collective and not isolated labor of 
 love which springs from faith in Christ, and which 
 seeks to bring about the internal and external renewal 
 
TRAINING FOR THE RURAL MINISTRY 157 
 
 of the masses within Christendom who have fallen 
 under the dominion of those evils which result di- 
 rectly and indirectly from sin; and who are not 
 reached, as for their spiritual renewal they ought to 
 be, by the established official organs of the church. 
 It does not overlook any external need, the relief of 
 which can be made an object of Christian love. It 
 recognizes the Christ-bought and indestructible unity 
 of life in state and church, in the nation and family, 
 in all the ranks of Christian society, and lays hold of 
 it with its saving powers. And amid the extraor- 
 dinary and distorted conditions of the present, before 
 which those in authority are impotent, and the church 
 is silent, it distinguishes the voice of the people as 
 those who ask for its saving work." The rural min- 
 ister must be trained for this. Again Wichern says: 
 " The Inner Mission is the unfolding and active ex- 
 ercise of the faith and vital powers of the entire body 
 of believers . . . for the conquest of everything un- 
 christian and antichristian that seeks or has found a 
 place in the home or community." Also for this the 
 rural minister must be trained. 
 
 May I quote again the Lutheran Church's idea as to 
 how this rural minister has to be trained, — an idea 
 expressed in a report adopted in May, 191 5, in devel- 
 oping and urging upon the church this cult of the 
 Inner Mission? "The primary idea is the aim to 
 realize a wonderful vision of the Christian church — 
 one which the present age can well understand. It is 
 a true vision of what the church must be. It is one 
 which has been seen in our country very dimly by 
 
158 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 institutional churches, Men and Religion Forward 
 
 Movements, social service, men's and women's and 
 young people's societies, etc.; but they have been be- 
 holding very narrowly and uncertainly what Inner 
 Mission has for years been seeing. 
 
 " This idea is to realize the universal priesthood of 
 all believers; to reestablish the primitive ideal of Chris- 
 tianity, s<> that I iving service to a needy world becomes 
 the manifest sign wherever there is a Christian; to 
 have the church ( the entire church, mark it) prove her 
 faith by her saving love. It is thus the idea of Inner 
 Mission to put the entire so-called laity into the Sa- 
 maritan attitude of vital, personal touch with need. 
 The prime aim must, therefore, always be congrega- 
 tional development. The unused strength of mem- 
 bers is to be developed and the minister must be trained 
 for this. There must be an increased force of real 
 Christian ministry in every rural congregation. Inner 
 Mission's ideal is to have the entire conscious church 
 in sendee. It emphasizes the constantly forgotten, de- 
 spised fact that it is the cJiureh (not just pastors and 
 deaconesses) to which the commission is given of car- 
 rying out Christ's work upon earth. Rural congrega- 
 tions must more largely gain the idea of personal, 
 loving service of men for Jesus' sake. Inner Mission 
 is the church's endeavor to make real to-day what 
 Christ was in his day — a person going about doing 
 good; it is the Christ of yesterday and to-day, going 
 about in the person of his members, applying the balm 
 of Gilead to the world's open sore, whether mental, 
 moral, or physical — and always, as with Christ, for 
 
TRAINING FOR THE RURAL MINISTRY 159 
 
 the purpose of reaching the depth of the wound, sin. 
 
 " It is manifest thus that, were this ideal of Inner 
 Mission fully realized, many present institutions of 
 mercy would not be needed at all. For instance, no 
 homes for orphans or for the aged would be needed; 
 for every orphan and lonely aged person would find 
 that some Christian household was glad to provide in 
 its own circle a loving home. No hospice would be 
 needed in any city, for every strange young man going 
 to a city from the country would be welcomed to the 
 fireside of some Christian family." 
 
 But what has this to do with the training? Every- 
 thing, — for we must first have the diagnosis and then 
 the prescription. Now then, we come to the training 
 for it ! 
 
 At least one fact is patent. There must be certainty 
 about the thing which the rural minister has to do with. 
 Principal Forsyth says the church has exchanged cer- 
 tainty for sympathy. Mr. Berle in his Christianity 
 and the Social Rage well says : " The prevailing theory 
 of religious teaching seems to be that the facts of re- 
 ligion, and especially the facts of biblical history, can 
 be preached in a perfectly dispassionate way, and that 
 this is religious teaching. But, as a matter of fact, 
 this is not religious teaching, and cannot ever become 
 such. . . . Mr. Webster, in his great speech on Samuel 
 Dexter, uses these words : ' He had studied the Consti- 
 tution that he might defend it. He had examined its 
 principles that he might maintain them. . . . His in- 
 ference seemed demonstration. The earnestness of his 
 own conviction wrought conviction in others. One was 
 
160 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 convinced, and believed, and assented, because it was 
 gratifying, delightful, to think, to feel, and believe, in 
 unison with an intellect of such evident superiority. 
 . . . He studied the Constitution that he might defend 
 it.' This is no accidental choice of words. Mr. Web- 
 ster knew exactly what he meant when he chose the 
 word 'defend.' Now the teaching of religion, in a 
 peculiar and exceptional sense, requires just this ele- 
 ment. Religious opinions, and especially religious 
 faith, are always in danger of assault by the careless, 
 the unbelieving, and the ungodly. It is notorious that 
 no opinions in this world have to run the gauntlet of 
 indifference and hostility to the degree that religious 
 opinions do. Therefore it requires, in a peculiar and 
 exceptional sense, an underpinning of conviction 
 girded with weapons of defense. . . . Observe again, 
 if you please, the vocabulary which Mr. Webster em- 
 ploys in speaking of Samuel Dexter's persuasiveness 
 in his pleading : ' One was convinced, and believed, and 
 assented.' Is not this the language which we habitu- 
 ally employ in religion? Is it not the supremest pur- 
 pose of all Christian teaching to convince, to cause to 
 believe, and to win assent? And if, as Mr. Webster 
 says, conviction, namely, a position to maintain and 
 uphold, is necessary to secure these results in the law, 
 how much more true is it in the matter of religion! 
 The attitude of intellectual catholicity in these matters 
 is the merest pretense. Men cannot be colorless in 
 religion. Convictions are convictions precisely because 
 they have color, and are differentiated from other con- 
 victions. The idea that religion can be taught, or that 
 
TRAINING FOR THE RURAL MINISTRY 161 
 
 anything but the barest facts of religious history can 
 be taught, without at the same time having in the 
 preacher a great passion to win his hearers to his own 
 attitude of obedience and reverence, is as absurd as to 
 imagine that merely to cause a sick man to look at a 
 prescription is to take effective measures for his 
 restoration. . . . The objective point in rural or city 
 religious instruction is to convince: that involves ad- 
 vocacy. Its purpose is to secure belief : that involves 
 conviction. Its aim is to gain assent: that involves 
 faith in the thing expounded. . . . Better far inde- 
 fensible doctrine with a brave heart and an unswerving 
 faith behind it, than a defensible doctrine with a wa- 
 vering, insecure, dilettante proclaiming of it. We 
 plead for conviction in teaching." 
 
 But a recent report of social conditions in New Eng- 
 land states that seventy-five per cent, of the ministers 
 were inadequate in general educational equipment. 
 This is to be remedied — is already remedied — by the 
 focalizing of the attention of the whole church upon 
 the vast importance of the rural field. If the church 
 holds it important, then young men in the ministry 
 will do the same. They will look toward it buoyantly, 
 ardently. They will esteem what the church esteems. 
 But the minister holds the key to the situation. He 
 must beget a new rural consciousness, a new unity and 
 community. He must deepen the sense of the church's 
 mission, life, ideals, service, and sacrifice. He must 
 raise the church's estimate of itself, of its local power, 
 because it is a church. The rural ministry must get 
 the country's strong men, its stored-up vitality, its 
 
162 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 reserves of energy, and its independence, and hook 
 them up in and for the gospel. But how? First, the 
 rural ministry must have a native strength — no cheap 
 men. no low-grade men for the rural church. No 
 low-grade men for the church anywhere; in any event, 
 not in this time of ours. Our rural minister, fitted 
 naturally, must be further fitted by a general the- 
 ological education, a theological education of the 
 twentieth century, but still a theological education, and 
 not, preeminently, any Other. For the minister must 
 be equipped in the field of the spirit; that is his 
 specialty. "On its divine side it includes God in 
 Christ; on its human side the soul. From the near 
 view it is concerned with the commonplaces of conduct 
 and character; from the far view with the mysteries 
 of immortality and revelation/' And hence the min- 
 ister must have a wide range of knowledge, for all 
 problems are included in his function in the country 
 as well as in the city. 
 
 The rural minister is to be trained to be a preacher. 
 Phillips Brooks has said that preaching is " the com- 
 munication of truth by man to man. It has in it the 
 two elements, truth and personality." The rural min- 
 ister must have both. The training, therefore, must 
 consist, first, in that natural selection which will find 
 and develop proper personalities — men who under- 
 stand the quality of the task and are not daunted 
 thereby; and, second, in the injection, if you please, 
 into these ministerial workmen the graces of the gos- 
 pel, that is, the present-day applications of an abiding 
 grace. In other words, they must have that training 
 
TRAINING FOR THE RURAL MINISTRY 163 
 
 which will hold them to the distinctly spiritual point 
 of view. 
 
 May I here append a most expressive excerpt from 
 a recent widely read periodical ? " There are certain 
 spheres of influence in which a minister is at a dis- 
 count because of his professional standing. But he 
 is not thereby shut out from a part in the development 
 of modern society. Jesus did not legislate by specific 
 acts, regulations, and by-laws, but by the proclamation 
 of determinative principles. Those principles are as 
 applicable to-day as they were sixty generations ago. 
 
 " It is the minister's privilege to show the relevance 
 of those principles to modern life; to bring them to 
 bear upon such problems as local option, factory regu- 
 lation, child labor, workmen's compensation, capital 
 and labor, trade competition, penology, and a hundred 
 kindred themes. If he can lay the divine compulsions 
 of such principles upon the men who fall within his 
 pastoral domain, he will have become a social, civic, 
 and political power of the first order without jeopardiz- 
 ing his influence by plunging into a game for which 
 he has had no training and to which he cannot give 
 adequate time without sacrificing his own unique re- 
 sponsibilities and privileges. The minister's chief op- 
 portunity, therefore, lies in filling his lay units — men, 
 women, and children — with the ideals and enthusiasms 
 of righteousness, that they may carry the gospel in- 
 carnate into every engagement and relationship of 
 every day. 
 
 " Now if the clergyman can flood the souls of men 
 and women with the life of God, all the problems of 
 
1 64 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 the church will be mere minor affairs; just questions 
 of methods and mechanics of application. The 
 standard of the minister to-day is to keep his people 
 in touch with the Source of spiritual energy, and thus 
 make the spasmodic, forlorn-hope revivalistic cam- 
 paign superfluous. When men and women are athrob 
 with divine motives, they will quickly find effective 
 modes of expression, and the church will serve the 
 D mmunity in many forms of constructive, social, civic, 
 and ameliorative service. It is the deliberate opinion 
 of those who have studied the church most carefully, 
 from both the inside and the outside, that its problem 
 is qualitative rather than quantitative, an organic ques- 
 tion rather than a question of organization." 
 Very well, then, we will train for this! 
 
 THE EDUCATION OF THE RURAL 
 
 MINISTRY 
 
 jr. K. Tate 
 
 In the admirable report just presented by the Com- 
 mittee I find this thought which I shall use as my text : 
 " The main perils of the country minister are intel- 
 lectual indolence and stagnation, and if he is to escape 
 these perils he must be his own guardian and guide." 
 I should modify the sentence to read as follows: The 
 main perils of the country minister are intellectual 
 indolence and stagnation and a failure to interpret the 
 
EDUCATION OF THE RURAL MINISTRY 165 
 
 message of Christ in terms of rural life; if he is to 
 escape these perils, he must catch a new vision of the 
 country and must have a different sort of education 
 from that which he has received in the past. 
 
 It is conceivable that any kind of education to which 
 a man earnestly devotes his energies might give him 
 the capacity of persistent mental toil, might cultivate 
 his powers of observation, reflection, and insight, might 
 produce what we ordinarily call a well-disciplined 
 mind, and might give to the possessor a keen relish 
 for intellectual pursuits related to his field of study. 
 It is difficult, however, to think of intellectual mo- 
 mentum generated in a special realm of ideas as able 
 to project itself into an unfamiliar realm dominated 
 by strange ideas and to continue there its energy in- 
 definitely. The education which we have been giving 
 our ministers has not intellectualized the country en- 
 vironment and activity. 
 
 I once knew a Jewish scholar who came over from 
 Russia to America. He was well educated in the lan- 
 guage and lore of his people. By chance he was 
 thrown into a commercial community into whose ac- 
 tivities he could not enter with knowledge or sympathy. 
 Deprived of the impulse of old associations, his 
 scholarly habits gradually disintegrated without a cor- 
 responding adaptation of mental life to new stimuli. 
 The result was stagnation and decay. This is a 
 common tragedy among our immigrant population. 
 The minister trained in the ordinary theological sem- 
 inary who goes to a country charge is in like manner 
 an immigrant into conditions which his course of 
 
1 66 THE CHURCH AXD COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 study does not enable him to interpret intellectually. 
 In the city he is associated with men of similar training 
 in an intellectual world where symbols are not habitu- 
 ally reduced to hard, plain realities, where checks, com- 
 mercial, intellectual, and spiritual pass freely at face 
 value and the substantial gold is rarely demanded. In 
 this environment he is able to maintain a certain con- 
 tinuity in mental life which at least conceals the evi- 
 dences of bankruptcy. When he goes back to the 
 country, however, he enters a world in which his 
 scholastic counters are not accepted as coin of the 
 realm. The gradual retirement of these counters from 
 circulation we call mental stagnation; " the indisposi- 
 tion or inability to acquire a capital of solid realities 
 based on the eternal facts of nature and life, we call 
 " indolence." 
 
 We are not surprised at the discomfort of such a 
 man in the country. For years he has lived in the 
 world of Moses, Isaiah, and St. Paul, in a laudable 
 effort to discover the spiritual message of the ages. 
 He has studied the customs, philosophies, and lan- 
 guages of ancient peoples as the media through which 
 divine truth has been revealed to man. Gradually he 
 comes to live in this ancient world; it becomes his 
 source of story and illustration; his speech is filled 
 with conventional phrases taken from its literature, 
 phrases which were once pregnant with meaning but 
 are now empty symbols. He forgets that the truth, 
 to become vital in the lives of modern farmers, must 
 be delivered to them in the living language of today. 
 How otherwise can it be recognized as a message? 
 
EDUCATION OF THE RURAL MINISTRY 167 
 
 We forget too easily that the entire life and teaching 
 of the Master Teacher were a protest and a revolt 
 against formalism, tradition, and ritualism in religion 
 and a statement of eternal truth in the every-day lan- 
 guage of his hearers. They " were astonished at his 
 teaching : for he taught them as one having authority, 
 and not as their scribes. " 
 
 The country preacher must know the country and 
 country people. As he walks by the wayside the 
 plants, the flowers, the birds, the insects, the crops, 
 and the people must appeal to his eyes and his ears. 
 The flower in the crannied wall and the stars overhead 
 must help reveal God and man. The commonplace 
 things around him must suggest thought and prevent 
 mental stagnation and indolence. Christ delivered his 
 message to farmers in terms of their farm activities. 
 The sower who went forth to sow, the grain of mus- 
 tard seed, the wheat and the tares, the sheep that had 
 gone astray, and all the other matchlessly simple stories 
 of the Kingdom conveyed truth to farmers in the lan- 
 guage of farm life. If he were to speak a personal 
 message to American farmers to-day, he would doubt- 
 less deliver these truths in terms of silos, crop rotation, 
 animal husbandry, seed selection, cooperation, and the 
 other facts of modern agriculture. 
 
 The training of the country minister should include 
 the following: (1) the sciences underlying farm life, 
 especially the biological sciences; (2) enough agricul- 
 ture to allow the free use of this subject as a source 
 of illustration; (3) constructive rural sociology; (4) 
 rural recreation; (5) a study of the changing ideals of 
 
1 68 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 rural education; (6) rural economics, especially as it 
 relates to community organization. 
 
 These subjects should he included in the course 
 even if their inclusion should make necessary the elim- 
 ination of Greek, Hebrew, comparative religion, or 
 other subjects which are now a part of the theological 
 course. That the old course of training for ministers 
 does not meet country needs is evident from the fact 
 that the churches which have insisted most strongly on 
 an educated mini-try have all but disappeared from 
 the country. The type of education which the min- 
 ister received really unfitted him for rural service and 
 left this field to denominations which are less exact- 
 ing in their educational demand. The trouble has been 
 not too much education but the wrong kind. 
 
 The church and the school are the two social institu- 
 tions of the country. These two institutions must 
 divide between them the field which in the city would 
 be parceled out among a dozen social organizations. 
 The training of the country minister must be much 
 broader and more general than that required of the 
 city preacher. His activities must be much more 
 varied. In assuming some of these new duties the 
 church has numerous precedents. The Roman Cath- 
 olic priest was the original farm demonstration agent 
 in America. The church has always exercised some 
 supervision over amusement and recreation. The rural 
 clergyman in Ireland, in Denmark, and in Germany is 
 usually the leader in the great cooperative movement 
 which has revolutionized rural life in those countries. 
 The country church is the primary source of church- 
 
EDUCATION OF THE RURAL MINISTRY 169 
 
 membership both for country and city; that church will 
 survive which trains its ministers to meet the new con- 
 ditions which now confront rural life in America. 
 
 The country church not only needs preachers who 
 appreciate country life and who are especially trained 
 to work in country communities, but it also needs in- 
 telligent lay workers and teachers who have been espe- 
 cially trained for rural service. Evidently the training 
 of these workers offers the finest field of service for 
 the church college in America. Many of these colleges 
 have not yet found themselves. They are merely lib- 
 eral arts colleges of the older type whose aims are to 
 develop Christian character and to disseminate the 
 principles of religion. They occupy positions of influ- 
 ence and their patronage is largely drawn from the 
 rural section. If their aims and purposes were made 
 more definite and their curriculum included courses in 
 rural sociology, rural education, agriculture, rural eco- 
 nomics, and other subjects offering definite training for 
 rural leadership, they might easily within fifty years 
 revolutionize country life and the country church in 
 America. 
 
i;o THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 FINANCING THE COUNTRY CHURCH 
 
 (Report of Committee) 
 
 G. Walter Fiske, Chairman. C. P. Dodge, A. R. 
 Manx, A. K. Roberts, J. P. Sanderson. 
 
 In studying this problem your Committee realize that 
 they are c< mfri >nted by one of the two most serious and 
 persistent difficulties of the country church. The trite 
 witticism that the rural ministry is " trying to live on 
 earth and board in heaven " is not far from the facts. 
 How thousands of country ministers live is a mystery 
 this Committe will not attempt to explain, for they 
 are certainly not paid a living salary, a salary sufficient 
 to support a family. When it is true that the average 
 salary of country ministers is less than $600, it is seen 
 at once that thousands of men must be receiving con- 
 siderably less to bring the average so low. Hod- 
 carriers in Xew York earn $900 a year; but in one 
 large denomination in America the country ministers 
 are reported to receive on the average $325. It is 
 obvious that these ministers must supplement their in- 
 come by other work during the week or else depend 
 upon the labor of their wives and children. 
 
 It is not necessary for this report to recite stories of 
 hardships endured by country ministers, often heroic- 
 ally suffered uncomplainingly, and shared by patient, 
 devoted wives who bear the burden even more directly 
 than their husbands. We will not waste time proving 
 an axiom. The pitiably meager salaries paid by thou- 
 sands of country churches are below the level of un- 
 
FINANCING THE COUNTRY CHURCH 171 
 
 skilled laborers' wages, below the minimum wage on 
 which a family can be decently supported, and far 
 below the level of efficiency. The primary question is, 
 Why are these salaries so low? A variety of answers 
 should be suggested. It is fair to admit that some local 
 churches are too poor to pay larger salaries. It is true 
 that most professionally trained ministers are receiving 
 living salaries and that the smallest salaries are paid 
 the untrained men. It is evident that there is an over- 
 supply of untrained preachers, and this is depressing 
 salaries just as wages are depressed in any trade by a 
 surplus of labor. In most denominations it is so easy 
 to get into the rural ministry, with standards so low 
 and requirements so meager that any pious man who 
 has some talent as a speaker can readily find an oppor- 
 tunity to supply some pulpit. This is not saying there 
 is an oversupply of ministers. There is a constant need 
 of trained men everywhere in the country churches; 
 but there are far too many unprepared and poorly 
 equipped. There is doubtless a real field for lay 
 preachers. But too many of them have received ordi- 
 nation with no more than a layman's training. 
 
 Financial Effect of Non-resident Preaching 
 
 The chief reason for the low salaries of rural min- 
 isters is the absentee preacher system. We speak of 
 it as a system because it is such a wide-spread and set- 
 tled custom. In many parts of the country the ma- 
 jority of country pastors are really not pastors but 
 preachers only, not living on the land with their people, 
 but in near-by villages or even far-away towns. In 
 
172 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 Ohio only six per cent, of country churches have resi- 
 lient pastors, and the proportion is doubtless smaller 
 than that in most Western and Southern states. Very 
 many of these non-resident preachers are engaged six 
 days in the week in other employment, as teachers, 
 students, lawyers, insurance agents, real estate dealers, 
 merchants, and in various other lines of business. 
 Even though their service in the pulpit be high grade, 
 it is usually simply Sunday work, and often covers but 
 three or four hours altogether, so that the fee they are 
 paid seems to the people quite adequate in payment 
 for the service rendered and the time spent. This ex- 
 plain- a great many low salaries. In many cases no 
 special hardship is involved, for the minister is a 
 tradesman or business man the rest of the week and 
 is presumably earning a living for his family. This is 
 a perfectly honorable thing for him to do, and we are 
 not criticizing him. But it is poor policy for the coun- 
 try church to hire him as a substitute for a real pastor 
 who lives with his people. If the church will not pay 
 more than a one-seventh salary, however, it must be 
 contented with one seventh of a minister's week. A 
 great many of these absentee preachers are earnest 
 men who would gladly give all their time to the church 
 and community if a fair support could be assured them. 
 Many of them have had several resident pastorates, on 
 small salaries, but with the growing needs of their 
 families they have been obliged to retire from the pas- 
 torate and enter some form of business. There is a 
 constant and apparently an increasing leakage from the 
 ranks of the ministry, year after year, of such men. 
 
FINANCING THE COUNTRY CHURCH 173 
 
 Doubtless a man's first responsibility is to his wife and 
 children, and if the church will not give him adequate 
 support, we cannot criticize him for giving up an im- 
 possible struggle and getting an honorable living as 
 best he can. We see, however, in these numerous 
 cases a serious symptom which may not be over- 
 looked. 
 
 To be sure, a large proportion of absentee preachers 
 with meager salaries, or rather, with the single day's 
 wage, are ministers in charge of a circuit, dividing 
 their time between two, three, four, or even seven 
 churches. This circuit system has been too long estab- 
 lished and has had too honorable a record in American 
 church history to be lightly appreciated. A distin- 
 guished list of faithful leaders of the church might 
 be recalled of men who have begun as " circuit- 
 riders " and have rendered great service to the king- 
 dom of God. Unquestionably in pioneer days the 
 circuit system was necessary, and it is still required 
 for a widely-scattered rural population; but in the 
 large majority of cases where it is still found, the 
 circuit system seems to be serving sectarian interests 
 rather than community welfare. The circuit system 
 is not a good thing for the community. It is surely 
 better for the rural community to have one strong 
 church, uniting the Christian forces under the leader- 
 ship of a resident pastor, than it is to lack the com- 
 munity pastor and to have three or four little strug- 
 gling preaching stations, manned once a week or twice 
 a month by preachers who live elsewhere. Can we 
 blame such a community if it refuses to pay more 
 
174 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 than a pittance for such meager service? Especially 
 unfortunate are the cases where it is evident that 
 services are maintained at the little church at the 
 cross-roads, not because there is any real need there, 
 but because the contributions of the little church are 
 needed by the denomination to eke out the salary of 
 the minister at the village five or ten miles away who 
 includes this church in his circuit. Thus the open 
 country community is exploited in the interest of the 
 village. 
 
 These facts are cited simply to explain some of 
 the reasons lot the low average salary of the rural 
 ministry. If statistics were available, we should prob- 
 ably be able to prove that most ministers who are 
 adequately trained and are devoting their full time to 
 the work of a single church are receiving a fairly 
 reasonable support. Such ministers and churches, 
 however, form a very small minority in the rural 
 church life of America, particularly in the West and 
 South. In general we find the situation extremely un- 
 satisfactory both for the ministers and the churches, 
 with really efficient service of the country communities 
 all but impossible. The large majority of rural min- 
 isters are making a great struggle to care for their 
 families, with inadequate support, while every year 
 the struggle is getting more difficult, and many are 
 giving it up as impossible. 
 
 Is the Rural Ministry a Life Work? 
 
 This problem of financing the country church in- 
 volves the question of the permanency and status of 
 
FINANCING THE COUNTRY CHURCH 175 
 
 the rural ministry. Too long it has been lightly re- 
 garded as merely a stepping-stone to the city min- 
 istry, a temporary makeshift for young ministers 
 while they are making their first blunders and experi- 
 ments in the pastorate. Some of us have come to feel 
 that the efficient rural ministry is a specialized min- 
 istry, just as the city ministry should be, requiring 
 some special fitness and specialized preparation and 
 adaptation. If so, it should be a ministry for life. 
 It would be a distinct waste to fit a man for effective 
 rural work only to have him devote the years of his 
 prime to the city field. Meanwhile, earnest young 
 men who love the country and have heard the coun- 
 try's call are asking, " Is there a life-work for me in 
 the rural ministry?" Some of them are making the 
 venture of faith and propose to give their life to the 
 rural work. For many this will be essentially home 
 missionary work. In one of the oldest denominations 
 in America one third of the ministers are home mis- 
 sionaries. Several large denominations are prac- 
 tically all rural. Is it not reasonable to argue that 
 the young man considering the home mission field as 
 a life-work should be respected as much as his brother 
 who goes to the foreign field for life? Is it too much 
 to expect that the church should treat the home mis- 
 sionary as well as the foreign missionary? Foreign 
 mission boards guarantee the support of their mis- 
 sionaries. The stipends which they pay them are not 
 regarded as salaries but simply as support, and they 
 usually are adequate. This committee wishes to sug- 
 gest the same consideration for the country minister 
 
i;6 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 who enters the rural work for life. If he is a thor- 
 oughly consecrated and well-equipped man, let us 
 treat him as well as we treat the foreign missionary. 
 Let the church sustain him and his family. How can 
 any denomination lie self-respecting and do less? 
 
 Home and Foreign Missionary Finances 
 Compared 
 
 And yet the fact is we are sending many of our 
 ablest college and seminary men to the foreign field 
 and very lew of them into the country ministry for 
 life. This is partly because there is a decent support 
 for an educated man and his family on the foreign 
 Held, whereas the financial struggle is twice as dif- 
 ficult in the average country parsonage. If this 
 condition c< >ntinues indefinitely, how can we escape 
 getting a peasant ministry in our own rural America 
 inferior in even- respect to the leadership of 
 the church in foreign fields? This is a real menace 
 which threatens us at no distant date unless organ- 
 ized Christendom in America unites to solve this prob- 
 lem of financing the country church. Interest in all 
 phases of country life is rapidly developing. Splendid 
 young men in our classical colleges and our agricul- 
 tural schools are anxious to go into the rural ministry 
 for life. But they want a life chance. They must 
 have a living wage. 
 
 The. issue of comparison between rural ministers' 
 salaries and foreign missionaries' salaries having been 
 raised, a few words more must be said to justify our 
 suggestion. In raising the issue we must not be mis- 
 
FINANCING THE COUNTRY CHURCH 177 
 
 understood. We do not believe any worthy missionary 
 is overpaid. No one can accuse any foreign mission- 
 ary board of being too generous with the men and 
 women who go into voluntary exile for Christ's sake. 
 The most generous stipends paid by any missionary 
 board are none too generous; but the fact remains 
 that they are far beyond the salaries of the rural 
 ministry. This committee has courteously been fur- 
 nished full statements by the leading foreign mission 
 boards of America as to their financial provision for 
 their missionaries on the field. We have also ascer- 
 tained the salary status in every American foreign 
 mission board six years ago. In every instance, 
 though differing in details, the policy is the same. A 
 living salary is guaranteed the missionary. Current 
 costs of living are carefully studied and compared, 
 in the different fields, on the basis of which a definite 
 sum is allowed an unmarried man or woman, a married 
 man without children, and a man with a family, an 
 additional allowance being provided for each child. 
 All this is thoroughly reasonable and Christian. No 
 church can honorably do less. It would be criminal 
 to send more young men and women to China, Africa, 
 or Turkey than we can support. 
 
 And yet that is exactly what we have been doing 
 in rural America. Probably all denominations, in 
 the eager days of church promotion in the pioneer 
 development of our country, started far more local 
 churches than they can adequately man with trained 
 ministers now, and are ordaining far more men for 
 these churches than they are able to support with a 
 
i;S THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 living wage. We hare had too much church expansion 
 at the sacrifice of ministerial efficiency. The cost of 
 it all is the pinching poverty in the country parsonage. 
 
 Comparisons are of course dangerous and never 
 quite fair; but making all due allowance, let us com- 
 pare the family budgets of the rural minister and the 
 foreign missionary. The lowest foreign missionary 
 salary we have been able to discover now paid by any 
 strong church board to an ordained married man is 
 i in a station in Africa; but in addition to this 
 " basal salary " he is given an extra allowance for 
 rent, free medical attendance, and a children's allow- 
 ance of $100 for each child under ten and $150 for 
 each child between ten and twenty. The average in- 
 come of a foreign missionary is considerably above 
 this. One prominent board reports " average total 
 salary" in Ceylon, $ 1,700; other parts of India, 
 $1,500 to $1,600; China, $1,200 to $1,600; South 
 Africa, minimum $1,265, maximum $2,500; Japan, 
 minimum $1,665, maximum $2,500. 
 
 Another denomination, paying very low salaries to 
 rural pastors at home, pays its foreign missionaries as 
 follows; In Japan, basal salary $1,400 to $1,900; 
 Korea, $1,200; China, $1,050; North China, $1,200; 
 Africa, $1,000. In addition to the above basal salaries, 
 an allowance of $100 to $150 is granted for each 
 child, according to circumstances. We realize of 
 course the difficulty of making adequate comparisons 
 of the costs of living in various mission fields and in 
 America. Opinions differ as to the facts. Missionary 
 secretaries find it difficult to strike an average in a 
 
FINANCING THE COUNTRY CHURCH 179 
 
 situation where butter costs seventy-five cents a pound 
 but where servants can be hired for a few cents, or 
 from a nickel to a dime per day. In treaty ports 
 abroad, living is doubtless expensive, but elsewhere it 
 will probably average cheaper than in America. Un- 
 questionably the cost of living is now rising in most 
 mission stations, and several leading foreign boards 
 are about to raise their salary scale accordingly. 
 
 These missionary salaries are all too small when 
 one considers the high character and ability of the 
 men receiving them and the high cost of maintaining 
 an American home in foreign lands; but it is a sure 
 and steady support for the family, with old age usu- 
 ally provided for. One foreign board pays the mis- 
 sionary's wife an extra allowance of $400 to $600, 
 and all boards pay married men more than single, 
 which is only fair recognition of the wife's services. 
 In the home missionary field unmarried men are not 
 wanted at all; and, although ministers' wives are al- 
 ways expected to help earn the salary, who ever heard 
 of one being paid for her services? While living 
 abroad is expensive in the mission stations, domestic 
 service is plentiful and very cheap, whereas the home 
 missionary's wife can seldom afford such a luxury as 
 any sort of servant. The foreign missionary allow- 
 ance of $100 to $200 for each child is small compensa- 
 tion for the great tragedy of the missionary's home, 
 the separation of the family when the children have 
 to go home to America to be educated. But the 
 tragedy in the rural minister's home is sometimes more 
 serious than that. He is usually forced to live where 
 
i8o THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 the schools are poor, often where there is no high 
 school; and he has no income to educate his children 
 away f n an h< ime. Consequently he must go to an- 
 other field or find ether work; otherwise, as frequently 
 happens, his children grow up with less educational 
 advantages and a poorer start in life than their father, 
 and so the social status of the family is lowered in 
 the next generation. Hundreds of rural pastors are 
 pleading for a change of pastorate so that they can 
 provide better school privileges for their children. 
 For this vital reason many leave the rural ministry 
 altogether. 
 
 A Living Salary for Country Pastors 
 
 Enough has been said to show how much more 
 considerately the great churches have provided for 
 their foreign missionaries than they have for their 
 home missionaries. Yet all they have done for the 
 foreign missionary is to furnish him a living. We 
 plead for a living salary for the rural pastor. This 
 committee sent to one hundred and fifty representa- 
 tive men, vitally interested in rural welfare, including 
 all the members of this Federal Council Commission 
 on the Church and Country Life, the following ques- 
 tion : " Should country pastors be guaranteed at least 
 the ' minimum wage ' ? " (meaning of course an income 
 on which the average American family of five can 
 live). Only one emphatic negative was received, and 
 that from a country minister who said, " Some of us 
 are not worth $.85 a year." Another minister said, 
 " I doubt it. Some get all they are worth." A large 
 
FINANCING THE COUNTRY CHURCH 181 
 
 number of replies favor the adoption of the minimum 
 salary for pastors as a matter of simple justice, the 
 figures suggested varying from $750 to $1,000. One 
 conspicuously successful country minister suggests: 
 " I am sure that no country pastor can support a 
 family and do efficient work on less than the ' mini- 
 mum wage ' of $750, though I do not like to call it 
 a wage. I think a minister's living should be on an 
 average with his people. As that varies in different 
 localities, it is difficult to standardize it in terms of 
 money." A distinguished member of our Commission 
 suggests that the minister's income should not be less 
 than that of the local school principal or superin- 
 tendent, when the two men are " of equal character, 
 education, and experience." A similar suggestion 
 comes from several, that the minister's salary should 
 be on a par with that of married teachers, doctors, 
 and other professional men in the community. 
 
 The root of the matter is tapped by this reply from 
 a general superintendent on the Pacific coast : " I be- 
 lieve in country pastors being guaranteed not less 
 than a minimum salary, providing there may be se- 
 cured in return a fixed level of efficiency." This 
 touches the weak spot in the rural ministry. It cannot 
 be denied that standards of efficiency are low and that 
 any sort of a guaranty, universally applied, would be 
 a reckless policy, unless standards of preparation and 
 of service can be raised. It is possible for closely 
 organized denominations to set a standard for their 
 local churches; and likewise home missionary boards 
 can decide upon the minimum salary they will guar- 
 
[82 THE CHURCH AXD COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 antee their pastors. This is already done in some 
 quarters, and where the hoards can guide the selec- 
 tion of the men, it is just as feasible as in the case 
 of the foreign boards. But self-supporting churches 
 
 will continue to select their own pastors and deter- 
 mine their own salaries. They will not brook dicta- 
 tion, and least of all on this question of finance. The 
 campaign that wins with them must be a campaign 
 of education. We must prove to them that they cannot 
 afford to run a cheap church; that efficiency demands 
 a well-paid minister who can earn his salary; that it 
 is ca-ier to raise $1,000 a year for a man who is worth 
 it than to pay $600 to a man who really earns no more. 
 Let us advocate the simple justice of a living icage for 
 live ministers. Then let us discover, through country 
 church commissi' ins and committees in conferences and 
 syn< ds, what a respectable living salary in that section 
 must be, and suggest this as a minimum point below 
 which the worthy minister should not be asked to live. 
 In general the pastor should be assured at least the 
 average living enjoyed by his people. 
 
 Yet in every instance the pastor must prove him- 
 self worthy of his support. It would be folly to take 
 away incentive by too easily assured income. Doubt- 
 less it must remain true that an unskilled, poorly 
 equipped minister will receive an unskilled laborer's 
 wage. It is probably fair that a non-resident preacher 
 should receive but one or two days' pay per week. In- 
 efficiency or laziness must not be condoned or rewarded. 
 But a concerted effort should be made to safeguard the 
 family of the worthy pastor from suffering and pov- 
 
FINANCING THE COUNTRY CHURCH 183 
 
 erty. The difficulty involved does not excuse us from 
 undertaking it if it is just and right. As one of our 
 Commission suggests : " Churches receiving stated aid 
 from mission boards may be brought to accept a better 
 plan without difficulty. Churches which are attempt- 
 ing to support themselves can probably be led into it 
 through the persuasive influence of their state organ- 
 ization," 
 
 Larger Salaries Make for Efficiency 
 
 When the country church honestly desires to do 
 more than merely keep the church machinery going, it 
 is not difficult to apply the efficiency argument. It 
 never pays to pay less than a workman is worth, not 
 simply because of the danger of losing him, but be- 
 cause he cannot do his best work. It is folly to pay 
 less than a living wage, for it keeps body and mind 
 below par, incapable of maximum service. If a min- 
 ister is worrying over money matters and hampered by 
 family cares and actual hardships, how can he preach 
 vital, inspiring sermons or radiate strength and hope- 
 fulness in his parish work ? Sometimes a minister, on 
 the point of leaving a pastorate because he must have 
 a larger income for his growing family, is kept a year 
 longer by a salary increase of $100. It makes it possi- 
 ble for him to stay and to accomplish results that no 
 other man could accomplish. In this way he reaps the 
 results of his own faithful sowing, so that his third 
 year is more effective than the previous two. Larger 
 salaries make possible longer pastorates and far greater 
 efficiency. More fundamental still is the undoubted 
 
iS 4 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 fact that success must be deserved, and appreciation is 
 the reward of real service. When the country church 
 becomes more definitely and concretely a community- 
 serving church, it is more appreciated, and the farmers 
 pay for what they believe in. The Mid-fashioned dis- 
 trict school is bankrupt, because it does not deserve 
 much appreciation or support. The new country 
 school, which really educates the children for rural life, 
 is winning more liberal support because it is appre- 
 ciated. It is surely true that a useful church does 
 not die. and the more it helps the community the more 
 easily the money is raised for its maintenance. We 
 need more demonstration churches, centers of com- 
 munity service and usefulness, to prove that our prob- 
 lem is usually solved when the church and the minister 
 make themselves indispensable to the community. 
 
 Questions of Business Method 
 
 It seems to be true very generally that much need- 
 less financial weakness of rural churches is due to poor 
 business methods. Just as church federations in our 
 cities are helping to standardize the business methods 
 of the city churches, it ought to be possible without 
 serious difficulty to educate financial boards of the 
 country churches in approved methods of church 
 financing. Many country churches are already as sys- 
 tematically financed as any in the city; but in general 
 the weaker the church the more hopeless the system. 
 The " short-haul on the pocketbook " is the customary 
 policy, usually by way of the subscription paper. The 
 annual budget system, the every member canvas, some 
 
FINANCING THE COUNTRY CHURCH 185 
 
 regular and adequate system of income, such as con- 
 tinuous or annual pledges, with definite and regular 
 payments, a simple system of accounting, regular audit- 
 ing, and public reports, will go far toward toning up 
 not only the finances but also the spiritual life of the 
 church, as the two are so vitally connected. The 
 science and art of church financing is something which 
 can and should be taught. Many churches do not 
 seem able to discover it without help. A traveling 
 auditor or financial expert representing the state office 
 of the denomination could render great assistance. 
 This service is being done quite generally already by 
 district superintendents and state officials in some de- 
 nominations; but regular auditing or anything savor- 
 ing of outside supervision would be delicate business 
 in many of our independent churches. 
 
 More Vital Rural Religion 
 
 In all this consideration of ways and means the 
 primary fact will not be lost sight of, that the funda- 
 mental difficulty is not one of method but of life itself. 
 The country church needs its religion vitalized and 
 made more unselfish. The great motives underneath 
 the life of the church and its activities must be taught 
 and emphasized. The whole level of this subject of 
 church finances must be raised. It must be rescued 
 from its sordidness and selfishness and be spiritualized. 
 The doctrine of Christian trusteeship must be accepted 
 by Christian people. Not merely self-denial but the 
 joy of sacrifice should be the key-note. People should 
 be reminded that money given for the support of a 
 
1 86 THE CHURCH AXD COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 real community-serving church is never chanty, but 
 simply investment, for the benefit of the giver himself 
 and his awn community. Money given for a useless 
 or unnecessary church is neither investment nor charity 
 but money thrown away. There is no use denying 
 the fact that thousands of country churches are quite 
 unnecessary, because the community was amply pro- 
 vided with churches before these churches ever came. 
 Money for such institutions is either a dead waste or 
 an unju>titiable luxury. Yet vast sums are being 
 wasted in supporting such needless enterprises. Rural 
 business men have a right to refuse to support such 
 churches and to focus their support on such churches 
 as are actually efficient in community service. 
 
 In a representative assembly like this, holding such 
 diverse views on church polity, it would be remarkable 
 if any report on financial policy could be wholly satis- 
 factory. We cannot help feeling, however, that the 
 problem is such a serious one, involving so deeply the 
 welfare of the country churches everywhere, that it 
 would be a great gain if this body with its far- 
 reaching pow r er of moral suasion could go on record 
 as advocating a strong financial policy for increased 
 church efficiency. 
 
 Your Committee, therefore, in the light of the fore- 
 going discussion, beg leave to offer the following 
 suggestions, as 
 
 A Financial Policy for the Country Church 
 
 i. The welfare of every country community de- 
 mands a prosperous and efficient church at the heart 
 
FINANCING THE COUNTRY CHURCH 187 
 
 of the community life. It deserves support in propor- 
 tion to its usefulness. Such support is not charity, but 
 investment in the community's welfare. 
 
 2. If the church is needed in the community, a 
 worthy church building should be provided, suitable 
 for purposes of worship and religious education, and 
 equipped with social rooms which can be made broadly 
 useful to the community, as a center of joyous social 
 life for young and old. A one-room church is usually 
 a poor enterprise. 
 
 3. The church or its board of trustees should be 
 legally incorporated. For trustees or financial com- 
 mittee only men of integrity, tested business ability, 
 and willingness to work should be selected. Upon 
 their skill and faithfulness the prosperity of the church 
 will largely depend. They should take pride in its 
 success and should determine to make it " a going 
 concern." 
 
 4. A selfish church is a failure and a cheap church 
 never pays, If religion is worth having, it is worth 
 paying for, and on a generous basis. For the sake 
 of saving the boys and girls and giving the young 
 people a wholesome social life and making the com- 
 munity a safe place for a home, the church is worth 
 while. For Christ's sake and the sake of humanity 
 the church stands and serves, with faith in God and 
 immortality. It should be made worthy of the loy- 
 alty and whole-hearted support of the country people, 
 on a self-respecting basis. 
 
 5. A better paid ministry makes for efficiency. It 
 is easier for most churches to raise $1,200 for a man 
 
1 88 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 who really earns it than to pay $700 to an inferior 
 man; and that difference in salary makes possible a 
 better educated pastor, a longer pastorate, with more 
 permanent results. A live minister deserves a living 
 salary. It should at least give him as adequate a 
 living for his family as the average cultured home in 
 the d immunity enjoys. 
 
 6. ( >ne local pastor living with his people is worth 
 more to the community than three preachers whose 
 homes arc elsewhere. The community needs preach- 
 ing, but it must have life-sharing. It can afford to 
 sacrifice much to unite its Christian forces and main- 
 tain one strong church with a well-paid pastor, paying 
 for the whole time of a live man who shall be a com- 
 munity leader, not a visitor. 
 
 7. Country churches should adopt a businesslike 
 system of finance. An annual budget should be care- 
 fully prepared in advance and an " every member can- 
 vass " be made to meet it. The pledge system with 
 weekly or monthly payments furnishes a regular basis 
 for church support which is steadier and usually more 
 generous than the subscription paper. Paid suppers 
 and entertainments for revenue, though valuable in 
 moderation and for social purposes, are poor de- 
 pendence for church support. Direct giving is always 
 the cheapest policy. 
 
 8. To keep church finances steadily efficient pub- 
 licity is desirable, with regular quarterly reports to the 
 people, and annual reports to the presbytery or district 
 association. Regular auditing, quarterly or annually, 
 by church authorities at state headquarters, furnishes 
 
FINANCING THE COUNTRY CHURCH 189 
 
 a wholesome incentive and helps the local officials to 
 keep abreast of the most recent methods of successful 
 church work. 
 
 9. The spiritual welfare of a church is closely re- 
 lated to its financial self-respect, and its vital religion 
 will grow with its generosity. Even the weaker 
 churches should have some share in the world-wide 
 work of missions and should strive to meet their ap- 
 portionment, adopting it definitely as a part of their 
 regular budget. 
 
 10. If the resources of the community warrant it, 
 every church should speedily grow to self-support. If 
 the help of a home mission board is continuously 
 necessary, it may suggest that the church itself is not 
 needed in a community that will not support it. Per- 
 haps for the glory of God and the welfare of the com- 
 munity it should unite with a neighboring church. In 
 case of actual poverty in the community the problem 
 of developing local resources should be vigorously 
 studied, as the basis of future prosperity and com- 
 munity self-respect. 
 
 Continuation Work Suggested 
 
 Your Committee feel that they have been able to do 
 little more than study the causes of financial weakness 
 in the country churches and discuss business aims and 
 standards of efficiency. There is much continuation 
 work which should be done. We would suggest that 
 the following lines of investigation be pursued the 
 coming year : 
 
 I. To gather further data as to the possibilities of 
 
190 
 
 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 a life service for fully trained men in the country min- 
 istry with the idea that such a ministry may be made 
 a specialized field of Christian leadership with adequate 
 support for a growing family. 
 
 2. To study the cost of living in different rural 
 sections of the country for the purpose of determining 
 the actual living salary required for an average family 
 of five. 
 
 3. To correspond with church extension boards and 
 home missionary societies of various denominations, to 
 discover their basis of assisting rural churches, their 
 policy of cooperation with other boards, and the basis 
 on which their aid is withheld; also to gather data 
 concerning the effect of this home mission policy upon 
 the rural communities involved. 
 
 4. To discover to what extent denominations and 
 home mission boards have already standardized rural 
 ministers' salaries and on what basis; also to find out 
 what efficiency tests are exacted of ministers to justify 
 the guaranty of the living salary. 
 
 5. To collect and standardize the financial sugges- 
 tions of the rural church commissions of the various 
 denominations and to report the most successful plans 
 of country church financing. 
 
COUNTRY CHURCH IN THE SOUTH 191 
 
 THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN THE SOUTH 
 W. H. Mills 
 
 It is a message of good cheer that I bring to this 
 Conference from the far South. 
 
 The country church in the South has suffered as else- 
 where from the exodus to the town and city. It 
 suffers to-day all the evils of absentee landlordism 
 and one year tenantry in most aggravated form. It 
 is " troubled and perplexed on every side," but it is 
 ''not in despair"; it is "cast down, but not de- 
 stroyed." 
 
 The country church in the South begins to realize 
 that new conditions demand new methods. It is en- 
 deavoring to prove all things that it may hold fast 
 that which is good. 
 
 The oldest theological seminary in the South At- 
 lantic States is the Presbyterian Theological Seminary 
 at Columbia, South Carolina. It may properly be 
 regarded as ultra-conservative in many respects, yet it 
 has introduced courses in sociology. Its students have 
 already been addressed this year by the State Com- 
 missioner of Agriculture. A series of lectures are 
 planned on such subjects as " The View-point of the 
 Illiterate White Man," and I myself have been invited 
 to give five lectures there on " The Country Church," 
 early next year. Ten years ago such courses and 
 lectures were quite impossible at this seminary. 
 
 The Atlantic Theological Seminary * has also given 
 
 1 Of the Congregational Church. 
 
192 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 me the privilege of addressing its students on the same 
 subject at a conference to be held there in the same 
 month. I believe it may be truly said that every the- 
 ological seminary in the South is responding to the 
 feeling abroad in the whole church, which demands 
 investigatii >n into the underlying causes of present con- 
 ditions, and which culminates in just such conferences 
 as this, but upon a smaller scale. 
 
 The agricultural colleges and state universities are 
 also feeling and answering this demand. Clemson 
 Agricultural College, the State Agricultural and Me- 
 chanical College of South Carolina, was the first, so 
 far as I know, in the South to enter actively and sys- 
 tematically upon the assistance of the country church 
 by every means in its power. It held a conference on 
 the country church some years ago, to which it invited 
 all the ministers living in the adjacent counties, and 
 entertained them free of all expense. Last summer, 
 in connection with its summer school, it arranged a 
 ten days' course for country ministers, and obtained 
 from the State Bankers' Association the promise to 
 pay the railroad fare of all rural ministers who should 
 attend. It may not be amiss to say just here that this 
 course was successful beyond our expectations. The 
 ministers who came went home saying that they had 
 been greatly profited, that they would try to return for 
 the next summer school, and that they would be 
 " boosters " for it during the whole year. 
 
 Clemson College has a mailing list of all the min- 
 isters in the state. It has sent to them letters begging 
 their assistance in the form of prayers at farmers' 
 
COUNTRY CHURCH IN THE SOUTH 193 
 
 institutes, and asking them to further the planting of 
 grain in the fall, and to aid in the diversifying of 
 crops. Thus the college has suggested to every min- 
 ister the wisdom and propriety of his taking an active 
 part in all that makes for the agricultural development 
 of his community. 
 
 The college is now considering the possibility of 
 adding a minister to its Extension Division, to have 
 charge of its country church work, to do just such 
 work for South Carolina as Messrs. Gill and Pinchot 
 have performed for New York and Vermont. Just as 
 the thoughtful farmer turns more and more to the 
 agricultural college, so the country minister is begin- 
 ning to find that the agricultural college can help him, 
 and indeed is anxious to make him more efficient. 
 The greatest ally of the country minister is the state 
 agricultural college, and here and there our ministers 
 are beginning to appreciate its ready and tremendous 
 assistance. 
 
 The church organizations are waking up to the new 
 demands. The General Assembly of the Southern 
 Presbyterian Church has officially declared that the 
 Assembly of 19 16 shall be known as the " Country 
 Church Assembly," and has appointed a committee to 
 prepare a suitable program. Piedmont Presbytery in 
 South Carolina a year ago took similar action. An- 
 derson District Conference of the Methodist Epis- 
 copal Church has committed itself to a like course; 
 and here and there a church has carried out the plan. 
 Augusta Presbytery in Georgia took like action with 
 respect to immigration. 
 
194 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 I am free to say that just now I am concerned, not 
 so much with the practical results of these steps as 
 with the spirit in which they were conceived. I re- 
 joice heartily in this new spirit. I think it is the spirit 
 of Christ; and from such a spirit results are sure 
 which will make the South more and more a part of 
 the kingd on of G >d. 
 
 The local churches in all the denominations are en- 
 deavoring more than ever before to be community 
 servant-. I assure my hearers that the church in the 
 South is not behind the times. Of course there are 
 many churches — perhaps still a large majority — that 
 would have all things continue as they were in the old 
 days, when the fathers fell asleep. But the leaven of 
 the new spirit of community service is at work. God 
 grant that it may spread until the whole church shall 
 be leavened. 
 
 Let me give a few illustrations. Carmel Church, in 
 Pickens County, is the oldest Presbyterian Church in 
 upper South Carolina. It had suffered the loss of all 
 things, almost, except its building and its cemetery. 
 This year it is taking on new life — because it has 
 sought to advance both the social and the agricultural 
 development of the people by the cultivation of a 
 church farm. The largest Presbyterian Church in the 
 country in South Carolina is Bethel, and here a few 
 years ago was organized an Improvement Association, 
 whose members agreed to invite new people into their 
 community and sell them good land on reasonable 
 terms. 
 
 Steel Creek Church, near Charlotte, North Carolina, 
 
COUNTRY CHURCH IN THE SOUTH 195 
 
 is the largest country church in the Southern General 
 Assembly. It has maintained itself and grown largely 
 because of the fact that when a young man of that 
 community wants to get a home, it has been for years 
 the custom of the officers of that church to help him 
 to acquire it. The pull of the town can be overcome 
 when church officers stand ready to back worthy 
 young men in their efforts toward home-ownership, 
 not simply on business principles but for the sake of 
 both the man and the church. 
 
 I must hasten on to tell of the efforts ministers are 
 making to be, in a new sense, the servants of all. I 
 know a minister of the Congregational Church who 
 has had in his churches in northern Georgia a series 
 of church and country life institutes; another in South 
 Carolina planned a picnic for the whole community on 
 the church grounds, and the speakers came from the 
 agricultural college. I helped, in August, 191 5, in a 
 meeting of this sort. In the morning at eleven there 
 was preaching, after which dinner was served on the 
 grounds. In the afternoon one day we had a dairy 
 demonstration ; on the next afternoon we had a poultry 
 demonstration; and on the third afternoon an orchard 
 demonstration, with the introduction of the country 
 farm demonstration agent to the people of the com- 
 munity. On two nights we had lectures with lantern 
 slides on community building. We held all the meet- 
 ings in the church itself, and I have met no one who 
 thought that we ran the risk of committing sacrilege. 
 
 This is the new idea that is seizing the mind of the 
 church in the South, — that the local church has the 
 
iy6 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 right to live only as it spends its life in community 
 service. Some of us in the South believe that, if a 
 church in the country does not serve its whole com- 
 munity by making hotter fanners as well as making 
 the farmer- Letter, it ought to die. We believe the 
 church has a very definite word to speak on the tenant 
 system and landlordism, as well as on prohibition and 
 " worldly amusements." We have come to believe 
 that the second great commandment needs to be so 
 put into practice by the church that rich man and poor 
 man, white man and black man, shall each have equal 
 opportunity to work and live safely under his own 
 vine and fig-tree. 
 
 Finally, I beg to assure you that " away down 
 South in Dixie " we have no new gospel. Our preach- 
 ing is still the preaching of the cross, our appeal is still 
 to the individual man to believe on the Lord Jesus 
 Christ and be saved, both himself and his house. But 
 we do ask with intensest desire that along with this 
 evangelistic appeal the church shall seek the physical 
 and mental and spiritual welfare of the whole com- 
 munity, that it may present it in soundness and whole- 
 ness before the throne of God. So only shall the 
 church be animated by the spirit of the Master who 
 came " not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and 
 to give his life a ransom for many." 
 
SOCIAL JUSTICE IN RURAL COMMUNITY 197 
 
 SOCIAL JUSTICE IN THE RURAL 
 COMMUNITY 
 
 Harry F. Ward 
 
 I am afraid that I cannot follow the last speaker 
 with an equally glowing account of rural church prog- 
 ress in this section. I know of a country church not 
 fifty miles from here where the preacher put in a 
 course of lectures by experts on better farming. On 
 the first night he found that the sexton had left the 
 church locked and dark, and he was forced to break 
 a window to get in. On the second night of the course 
 the sexton met him at the door and threw the keys in 
 his face, telling him that if the church was to go to 
 the devil by discussing such subjects he would have no 
 part in the iniquity. 
 
 It is my misfortune that I have been prevented by 
 other duties from attending all the sessions of this 
 Conference, but it is apparent even to a casual ob- 
 server that this Conference is committed to the propo- 
 sition that the church can only find itself through its 
 ministry to the life of the community. Theological 
 seminaries used to teach that the church was a place 
 where the gospel was preached and the sacraments 
 administered. In many rural communities it is still 
 considered solely as a place of worship. Sometimes 
 even that is not an ideal. A year or two ago I met 
 a young preacher who had gone to a rural church just 
 after its congregation had adopted plans for a new 
 building. He found inadequate provision for the 
 
198 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 Sunday-school, the primary room being in the darkest, 
 dampest corner of the basement. He urged a change 
 of plans and was t ild, " Young man, in our old church 
 we could never conduct a funeral properly; there was 
 no room to turn the casket around and we always had 
 to back it out Now we have got a plan that lets us 
 take the casket out properly, and we are not going to 
 change it for anything or anybody." So they built 
 the church for the dead and let the living go. 
 
 The term social justice is a vague and mouth-filling 
 term. It needs just now to be made concrete. The 
 preaching of the God of righteousness has developed 
 a certain amount of justice between individuals. It 
 must now develop justice between the various groups 
 that compose the community life; between producers, 
 middlemen, and consumers; between the groups 
 engaged in agriculture, manufacturing, commerce, 
 transportation, mining, and personal service in the pro- 
 fessions. There must be no handicaps of special privi- 
 lege for one group involving disabilities for another. 
 When the prophets found the growing merchant class 
 in Israel encroaching upon the men of the countryside, 
 they thundered the wrath of God against them. They 
 might pile high their gifts upon the altar, but Je- 
 hovah's word was " Though you make many prayers, 
 I will not hear you. Though you stretch forth your 
 hands all the day long, I will turn away mine eyes 
 from you." Why ? Because the price of the very gifts 
 upon the altar was the depleted lives of the men of the 
 soil whose little landholdings had been taken away 
 under cover of the law, — duly signed, sealed, and sane- 
 
SOCIAL JUSTICE IN RURAL COMMUNITY 190 
 
 tioned, but nevertheless against the righteousness of 
 Jehovah, — to swell the great estates of the rich mer- 
 chants. While this continued, God did not desire 
 temple worship; what he wanted was that justice 
 should flow through the land as a mighty stream and 
 fall down as water. In the same spirit did Jesus con- 
 front the monopolists of the temple courts. To his 
 flaming words he added the strength of his good right 
 arm, denying those who secured special privilege to 
 tax the religious necessities of the common people 
 any place or part in the house of God. So to-day 
 must the preachers of the gospel thunder against any 
 group in the community which seeks or secures the 
 privilege to profit at the expense of other groups or 
 of the whole community. 
 
 Social justice is perhaps easiest understood in con- 
 nection with child life. Whatever else it may mean 
 it can mean no less than this — that all children must 
 have equal access to the things necessary for their 
 development. If one group of children have a better 
 chance than another for health, education, moral pro- 
 tection, and religious development, this is fundamental 
 social injustice. Social justice demands that the chil- 
 dren of one group in the population shall have as good 
 a chance as the children of another to develop the life 
 more abundant that is the Christian ideal. A Persian 
 proverb declares that when an injured child cries in 
 the dark the throne of God rocks from side to side. 
 If any state lets that cry go unheard and unanswered, 
 the government of that state will soon begin to shake 
 to its foundations. 
 
200 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 The weight of social injustice that presses upon the 
 children of a certain section of the industrial wage- 
 earners is easy to be felt. The bitter cry of these chil- 
 dren has been coming up from below until it has 
 
 reached the ear of the church. These children live in 
 bad air, amid poor surroundings; they are under- 
 nourished and compelled to leave school when half 
 educated. Upon their enfeebled lives the organized 
 vices of the city mass their attack. It is obvious that 
 social justice demands that this group of children be 
 emancipated. The same need exists for a smaller 
 group of children in rural communities. There child 
 life is not so much destroyed by frontal attacks as it is 
 wasted through lack of development. In the country- 
 side there are often undernourishment and unsanitary 
 conditions, improper child labor, and the denial of 
 education and recreation. The fact that in the country 
 these conditions are more largely due than in the city 
 to the ignorance and greed of parents does not lessen 
 the social injustice from which the children suffer. 
 The program of social welfare which seeks to give 
 equal opportunity to all child life must be carried into 
 the rural districts. 
 
 Present tendencies in rural America are rapidly 
 increasing the pressure of economic conditions upon 
 a section of its child life. Two new groups are grow- 
 ing in the rural population of this country — landlords 
 and tenants. So rapidly do they grow that some 
 students insist that we are heading straight toward 
 the farming of large tracts of land intensively by con- 
 centrated capital, with hired men doing the work. 
 
SOCIAL JUSTICE IN RURAL COMMUNITY 201 
 
 Passing through Iowa the other day, I picked up a 
 paper and found a statement by an agricultural au- 
 thority estimating that one half the population of 
 Iowa was composed of either tenant farmers or hired 
 men. The children of the tenant farmers have not 
 an equal chance for development with those of the 
 landlords. Even where their educational privileges 
 are the same, they are not as well able to take advan- 
 tage of them. I was recently in a rural community 
 where the retired farmers were objecting strenuously 
 to paying the tax required to make the rural school 
 efficient, a school which was to serve, not their chil- 
 dren, but the children of their tenants and hired men. 
 One man even proposed that this latter group should 
 not be permitted to vote on school questions. 
 
 The continuance of the handicap upon the develop- 
 ment of child life involved in the increase of tenant 
 and wage farming means that the rural communities 
 will cease to supply men of strength to the national 
 life. It is the free men of the soil who have always 
 fought for progress. They largely secured the lib- 
 erties of England. They were the men who drove 
 their wagons for two or three days to hear Lincoln 
 and Douglas debate slavery. They were the men who 
 saw the war through to the end. When you take 
 out of the national life the free men of the soil, you 
 have taken out the most of its backbone. 
 
 It is not likely, however, that in the atmosphere of 
 democracy in this land we shall develop a subservient, 
 pauperized peasant group such as exists in England, 
 offering a background for My Lady Bountiful of the 
 
202 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 manor hall. What is more likely to develop is a re- 
 bellious group of agricultural workers and the growth 
 of class hatred in the rural sections even as it now 
 exists in some quarters in industry. With the Indus- 
 trial Workers of the World organizing the seasonal 
 agricultural workers, and farm owners becoming ab- 
 sentee capitalists, it looks as though the conflict that 
 is developing in this country between those who re- 
 ceive income merely from ownership of property and 
 those who receive it from service rendered would 
 gather strength in the rural districts. Already in some 
 agricultural regions the attitude of the farmer in the 
 conflict between property income and service income, 
 his attitude toward the seasonal workers that aid in 
 gathering the harvest, is that unsympathetic and in- 
 human attitude which is held by some captains of in- 
 dustry. Some recent brutal incidents in the labor con- 
 flict have occurred in rural sections. The increase of 
 class hatred and strife in rural America is inevitable 
 unless religion can stem the tide by securing social 
 justice. 
 
 Social injustice roots in economic inequality, and 
 the beginnings of economic inequality are in unequal 
 opportunity for the ownership of the land. The ques- 
 tion of social justice in the rural community is the 
 land question, which is older than civilization. Our 
 religion never dodged it. From the day of the Hebrew 
 lawgivers it has developed a body of teaching designed 
 to secure justice in land ownership and use. The 
 fundamental task for religion to-day in the rural com- 
 munity is to develop a body of teaching adapted to 
 
SOCIAL JUSTICE IN RURAL COMMUNITY 203 
 
 the present situation. If it fails here no program of 
 social welfare can be carried through. The basis of 
 religious teaching on this question must be the old 
 Hebrew word that " the earth is the Lord's " (not the 
 landlord's). The corollary of this is that it is to be 
 used for the good of all the people, that it is a com- 
 munity inheritance in which all the people of the com- 
 munity have a share. Another corollary is that the 
 title to individual control and use of the land must 
 rest only on the basis of service rendered to the com- 
 munity. If it can develop a body of religious teach- 
 ing on the land question, the country church will be- 
 come not a local but a world-wide force. It will reach 
 out and touch the whole issue of the relation of the 
 people to the natural resources upon which all industry 
 depends. It will reach out still further and touch the 
 whole world life. For the possibility of ordering the 
 life of the world in security and in peace depends upon 
 the recognition of the fact that in the economy of God 
 there are no superior races or nations even as there 
 are no superior classes; upon the willingness to work 
 out a world-wide plan of social justice based upon the 
 rights of all the children of men the world over to 
 the earth and its resources as the common inheritance. 
 
204 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 THE CRISIS OF ORGANIZED CHRISTIANITY 
 Fred B. Smith 
 
 That man must be dull indeed who fails to observe 
 the peril which confronts the organized forces of the 
 Christian religion in this generation. So acute has this 
 become that many of the ablest students of religion 
 arc prophesying the utter collapse of the present order 
 unless Si me very prompt readjustments are made in 
 the present system. This is not an indictment of 
 Christianity as a truth or doctrine. The precepts of 
 Jesus Christ were never so radiant with supreme ef- 
 fectiveness and practicability as now. Jew and Gen- 
 tile, Occidental and Oriental, are alike turning to the 
 unequaled Beatitudes as the only hope for the present 
 world chaos. But where is there an organization equal 
 to the hour in the adequate application of these ideals ? 
 is the paramount question. There has never been such 
 a solemn hour in the world's history as the present one. 
 Can the human family survive in concord under the 
 strain of modern methods, which have eliminated time 
 and space and brought into striking reach the frictions 
 of classes, races, and nations that two decades ago were 
 remote enough to make momentary outbreaks impossi- 
 ble ? is the question uppermost in the minds of thinking 
 men. 
 
 A world reduced to a neighborhood demands a 
 common religion, and a common religion it is to have 
 very rapidly. If Christianity is to be the faith, its 
 leaders have no time to lose in meeting one funda- 
 
CRISIS OF ORGANIZED CHRISTIANITY 205 
 
 mental requirement, namely, to present a United Chris- 
 tian Organization. We have to learn at once to move 
 the Christian forces of the world as a compact unit 
 upon the new tasks or be content to accept defeat at 
 the end of the road. Segregated sectarianism will 
 not win the Christian conquest of the twentieth cen- 
 tury. Every modern problem before the church de- 
 mands unity in effort. 
 
 The present war, worse than all the other com- 
 bined wars of the world's history, is a fruit of divided 
 Christianity. There was in the world Christian senti- 
 ment enough, if it had had a method which could 
 have brought its full impact to bear upon the con- 
 tending nations, absolutely to prevent this outbreak; 
 and if the old order is to be continued, the same up- 
 heaval will occur again, earlier or later. Not poli- 
 ticians, nor kings, emperors, or other rulers, but a 
 united voice of the believers in the gospel of Jesus 
 Christ will some day fix the standards of world's 
 peace, and this alone is sufficient to demand a united 
 church. The extension of the gospel to the non- 
 Christian world has been piteously slow in the past, 
 but will be more hideously retarded in the future 
 unless a united Christianity is called into action. 
 
 Every world issue is crying for combined effort in 
 the name of Jesus Christ. Not less insistent are the 
 demands within our own shores. The refreshing 
 streams of our life — economic, social, political, and 
 moral — have from times immemorial flowed from the 
 countryside and the open field. The church ought to 
 be strongest in the rural places where the genesis of 
 
206 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 things is to be found. It is proverbially and horribly 
 weakest there. 
 
 The cold denominational attempt at this problem 
 has proved a flat, ridiculous failure. The hope of any 
 kind of success in solving it may be grounded only 
 in a united Christianity. 
 
 The task of proper, forceful, continuous religious 
 education is left undone up to this date. We have 
 been depending upon a thirty-minute period per week 
 in the Sunday-school for a few children, a smatter- 
 ing in the home for a yet smaller company, the pulpit 
 for another group, and an annual spell of hysterical 
 revival for the least number, as means for teaching 
 the truths of God. For the mass they have failed. 
 The universities of every kind, the public and private 
 schools alike, are awake and open-minded to this need. 
 A united Christianity can enter this door and meet 
 the need. " Fifty-seven different varieties " will be 
 repudiated. 
 
 The civic problems, the law enforcement issue, the 
 child life program, and, indeed, every vital, burning, 
 compelling call to Christianity are of such a nature 
 that the hope of their successful handling is vain 
 unless there is grace and genius enough in the church 
 to evolve a plan by which the forces can move as a unit 
 with an eye single only to the kingdom of God. 
 
CHURCH FEDERATION AND COOPERATION 207 
 
 CHURCH FEDERATION AND 
 COOPERATION 
 
 {Report of Committee) 
 
 E. Tallmadge Root, Chairman, Henry A. Atkin- 
 son, Lemuel Call Barnes, Anna B. Taft, George 
 Frederick Wells. 
 
 Analysis 
 Federation includes: 
 
 I. Federation of all Betterment Agencies. 
 II. Church Federation, embracing 
 
 1. Federation of Churches. 
 
 2. Federated Circuits. 
 
 3. Community Churches. 
 
 (1) Federated Churches. 
 
 (2) Denominational Churches. 
 
 (3) Union Independent Churches. 
 
 1. Cooperation is a general term, and federation is 
 used in so many senses that our first step must be to 
 distinguish and define. 
 
 2. Federation is used in a broad sense, including 
 all institutions, civil or voluntary, interested in rural 
 betterment; for example, The New England Federa- 
 tion for Rural Progress, and similar organizations in 
 states, counties, or townships. In these, the churches 
 may and should have a part, by direct representation 
 in townships and through their own Federations in the 
 larger territories. There is a gratifying recognition, 
 on the part of betterment movements, of the fact that 
 all social problems are, in ultimate analysis, moral, 
 
208 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 and therefore insoluble without the aid of the institu- 
 tions of religion, which alone can bring adequate mo- 
 tives. This gives the church to-day an opportunity 
 unsurpassed in history. With the proper attitude, as 
 R. Fulton Cutting has shown in his Church and So- 
 ciety, they may even cooperate with, and use, the 
 '* institutions of the democratic state." 
 
 3. " Federation," again, is applied to organizations 
 composed of churches only. The term " Church Fed- 
 eration " should be strictly limited to organizations in 
 which churches, or their denominational conferences, 
 are represented by official action: no body of indi- 
 viduals or non-ecclesiastical societies should receive the 
 title. Following the analogy of our Federal Govern- 
 ment, Church Federation attempts to combine the max- 
 imum unity of action with the complete independence 
 of the constituent bodies, denominational or local. It 
 implies no endorsement of others' doctrine, policy, or 
 ritual, and no compromise of one's own. Relying on 
 practical motives, it seeks a pragmatic unity. It thus 
 meets the obvious necessity that in every community, 
 commonwealth, and nation, the churches shall, to the 
 maximum extent possible, act unitedly in the face of 
 the pressing religious and social tasks. There is no 
 place where such united action is more needed and 
 promising than in the rural township. 
 
 4. But here again, various types and methods 
 must be distinguished. The end, — combined action 
 of all Christians, — may and must be attained in 
 varying ways according to the conditions of the com- 
 munity. 
 
CHURCH FEDERATION AND COOPERATION 209 
 
 5. In a township where the population requires, 
 and financial resources can support, more than one 
 church and pastor, that end is to be secured by a local 
 Federation of Churches; that is, a joint committee of 
 pastors and delegates, officially appointed by the sev- 
 eral churches, to learn and meet all needs, religious 
 or social, which require cooperation or concerted 
 action. The simpler problems and closer acquaintance 
 of its churches give the rural township advantage over 
 the city, and experience has already proved that, in 
 proportion to expenditure of time and money, town- 
 ship federations accomplish the largest results of any. 
 Every rural town with more than one church ought to 
 have such an organization. 
 
 6. In a township where population and resources 
 are inadequate to support more than one pastor, but 
 where the population is so distributed that more than 
 one place of worship and organized church is neces- 
 sary, such a joint committee should be organized and 
 a common pastor employed. This may be called a 
 Federated Circuit. Similar circuits are common in 
 some denominations. Interdenominational circuits 
 have been arranged in some states. But wherever 
 possible, they should follow civil boundaries so as to 
 secure the obvious advantage of a resident township 
 pastor. (In all types, it will be noted, we assume that 
 organizations shall strictly follow civil divisions. ) 
 
 7. What population justifies fully-equipped sep- 
 arate churches? Here the standard obviously needs 
 to be raised. The limit set by one state federation, 
 three hundred and thirty-three to a church, is obviously 
 
210 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 too low. With all the growing demands of missions 
 and social service, the churches are not justified in 
 asking a trained man to devote his life to less than 
 one thousand souls, except where the population of 
 an entire township is less; or to live on a salary of less 
 than $1,000 anywhere. 
 
 8. In communities whose compactness permits, and 
 wh( >se population and resources require, that there be 
 only one congregation and pastor, but where several 
 churches actually exist and are not ready to unite as 
 one denominational church, a Federated Church may 
 and should be formed. Like a Federation, this type 
 preserves intact the legal existence and denomina- 
 tional connection of the churches, while securing 
 united action through a joint committee. It differs 
 from the Federation in that this united action includes, 
 as its first and main object, worship as one congrega- 
 tion and the support of one pastor. Complex as a 
 Federated Church seems, experience demonstrates that 
 it works harmoniously and secures marked increase of 
 efficiency over the field. It may prepare for full union 
 as a church of one or the other denomination ; but it 
 may also be a permanent solution. The limitations of 
 trust funds often make it the only solution. Denomina- 
 tions which differ widely in forms of worship, while 
 they heartily cooperate in a Federation of Churches, 
 may not be able to unite in a Federated Church. 
 
 9. As implied in the last paragraph, where a new 
 church is being formed, or where existing churches 
 can agree to unite organically, one church may and 
 should be formed. This is obviously the simplest and 
 
CHURCH FEDERATION AND COOPERATION 211 
 
 the best solution. Such a community church may 
 either be denominational or undenominational. If it 
 is possible to agree upon a denomination, the former 
 is undoubtedly the better, as giving the church the 
 missionary outlet counsel, and perhaps aid which it 
 requires. Denominations are the most effective 
 agencies yet existing to advance the kingdom of God. 
 Success depends upon such an understanding between 
 the denominations of the state that the one holding 
 the field shall make it an acceptable church-home to 
 every one who is a true Christian, and other denomina- 
 tions shall advise their adherents there to identify 
 themselves with it at least as "associate members"; 
 that is, members retaining ecclesiastical connection 
 elsewhere. 
 
 10. The union or undenominational church is neces- 
 sarily independent. It suffers from lack of denom- 
 inational aid and counsel. It may, however, readily 
 share in missions through denominational or interde- 
 nominational boards; and secure fellowship, counsel, 
 and perhaps even aid ultimately, through the state 
 Federation of Churches. Even with their present iso- 
 lation many union churches are successful, as appears 
 from the fact that from 1890 to 1906 independent 
 churches which include union churches, increased in 
 the United States five hundred and ninety-six per cent., 
 while the number of Protestant Churches as a whole 
 increased only twenty-seven per cent. 
 
 11. Of course the single church of either type is 
 not an example of Federation in the technical sense; 
 but its success evidently requires the spirit of inter- 
 
212 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 denominational cooperation; and therefore comes 
 within the topic assigned to your committee. 
 
 M [NORITY Report 
 
 The Rev. George Frederick Wells dissents from 
 paragraph 8, saying: "A one-minister federation 
 (Federated Church) is justifiable only when some 
 form of organic union has become the settled purpose 
 of the federation and the minister is secured expressly 
 to help attain that end." 
 
 He would change paragraph 7 into " a guarded 
 statement of the great importance of the question of 
 numerical size of parish," and holds that paragraph 10 
 leans too much to the side of the independent church. 
 
 COOPERATION AND RELIGIOUS 
 EDUCATION 
 
 //'. G. Clippinger 
 
 It may not be amiss for me at the outset to state 
 frankly and yet with the fullest sympathy a fear which 
 I entertain with regard to the emphasis of meetings 
 such as this. We have shared very enthusiastically 
 the new spirit of awakened interest in social service, 
 and the call of the country is so strong and loud that 
 its appeals have stirred our hearts with a great deal 
 of enthusiasm. This meeting is significant for its de- 
 gree of interest in the federation of churches and par- 
 
COOPERATION AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 213 
 
 ticularly in the interest in country life. The inspira- 
 tion is running high, and what I am about to say must 
 not be interpreted as being a criticism from one who 
 is outside the circle of friends of the movement. I 
 share with you heartily in the enthusiasm of the hour, 
 but at the same time I claim the right to be a friendly 
 critic and reserve the privilege of pointing out some 
 of the possible dangers of an overemphasis upon one 
 phase of the problem, or rather non-emphasis of an- 
 other and vital phase of the problem. It is said that 
 a man's worst enemies are they of his own household. 
 I should like to say that a man's best friends are they 
 of his own household, and further that a man's safest 
 and sanest critics are they of his own household. 
 
 In the matter of federation, as it pertains to both 
 the city and the country problem, it seems to me that 
 one important thing has been overlooked — that of the 
 federation in things which are essentially religious in 
 their bearings. This must not be interpreted as criti- 
 cism of the splendid emphasis upon methods in social 
 service and expressive activity. The one thing which 
 this program and most of our programs have over- 
 looked has been that of deliberation upon the special 
 problem of religious education. It is to this problem 
 that my topic commits us for consideration at this 
 moment. 
 
 That I may set before you more clearly what I mean 
 I may be permitted to quote a text. It is a rather long 
 one, but expresses better than I could my conception 
 of our strength and our weakness. I refer to that 
 part of Dr. Francis G. Peabody's address before the 
 
214 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 Religious Education Association some years ago, en- 
 titled "The Social Conscience and the Religious 
 Life." The following is my text: 
 
 " Religious education, it may be said, deals with the 
 child, the individual, the church; social duty deals with 
 the community, the industrial order, the state. Re- 
 ligious education leads to a better knowledge of God; 
 social duty leads t<> a better service of man. 
 
 " The two enterprises stand near together, but they 
 face, as it were, opposite ways. Religious education 
 looks toward the eternal; social duty looks toward the 
 contemporary. It is not, then, a questionable use of 
 our opportunity, not to say a perversion of our trust, 
 if even for a single session an organization pledged to 
 religious education should be invited to consider the 
 perplexing problems of social duty, which so gravely 
 divide and distract the thought of the modern world. 
 The hesitatii in winch may be thus expressed concerning 
 our immediate purpose reflects a much more general 
 skepticism which many religious people frankly con- 
 fess. The absorbing interest of the present age in 
 social duty, its desire for social service, and its dream 
 of social revolution have been, it is admitted, a sum- 
 mons to the Christian church, as to the modern world, 
 to new forms of duty; but have they not, it is asked, 
 diverted the church from its original and permanent 
 purpose of redeeming and sanctifying the individual 
 soul ? Is not the church tempted to diminish its devo- 
 tion to worship and to apply its energies to work ? Are 
 we not substituting clubs, gymnasiums, and social set- 
 tlements for prayers, conversions, and revivals? Is 
 
COOPERATION AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 215 
 
 not the church in our day less frequented than the 
 parish house, and the preacher drawn to a gospel of 
 social reform rather than to a gospel of salvation? 
 And where, if anywhere, shall we escape from this 
 peril of secularized and truncated Christianity if not 
 in an assembly expressly devoted to religious educa- 
 tion ? Shall not the clamorous demands of social duty 
 be, for the moment, hushed while the soul of man 
 listens for the instruction of God? 
 
 " Much there is, no doubt, in the temper of the 
 present time which justifies in devout people this 
 sense of apprehension. The awakening of the social 
 conscience has been so abrupt and startling, and the 
 reaction from an individualized and self -centered re- 
 ligion so marked and compelling, that the church as 
 a religious shrine may be easily supplanted by the 
 church as a social laboratory; and the practice of the 
 presence of God may be forgotten in the practice of the 
 service of man. The tremendous force of the social 
 renaissance sweeps Christian teachers into restate- 
 ments of Christian doctrine which identify a social 
 program with the essentials of a Christian faith. 
 
 " Where, it may be asked, is the place for personal 
 piety among these pressing demands of social service? 
 Are the economists, sociologists, philanthropists, or 
 revolutionists to represent all that is left of Christian 
 faith? Is the Christian church to teach an industrial 
 revolution instead of a spiritual evolution? Are we 
 to be so busy in doing good that we have no time to 
 be good? Is the old-time issue between faith and 
 works to be revived, and must another Paul preach 
 
216 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 again the vanity of nnspiritualized conduct, and the 
 power of the risen life? The situation is certainly not 
 without gravity, when many circumstances of the time 
 conspire to transform the Christian church into a 
 charity-bureau, or a lecture-platform, or a recreation- 
 ground, or a medical clinic.'' 
 
 There are three existing agencies for religious in- 
 struction in most communities, the Sunday-school, the 
 Christian Endeavor Society, and the home. Of these 
 the most important is the home, which is at the same 
 time the most neglected. The most effective in its 
 organization is the Sunday-school. There is no com- 
 munity where it has not gone; no hamlet it has not 
 reached. The hi >me, which is the primitive and natural 
 agency for religious instruction, has surrendered its 
 right to instruct in things religious to an artificial 
 organization kn< >wn as the Sunday-school. Here under 
 varying and often unfavorable conditions our children 
 receive most of the religious inspiration and training 
 they will get. 
 
 The Christian Endeavor Society and other young 
 people's organizations are designed more for training 
 than for instruction and yet may have a share in giving 
 and receiving the inspiration to be derived from co- 
 operative and federated movements. 
 
 The chief agency for religious education in the rural 
 communities, then, is the Sunday-school. The Sunday- 
 school has likewise been the most effective agency in 
 producing federation and cooperation among the 
 churches. Indeed an anomalous situation presents 
 itself in this, that whole congregations will mingle in 
 
COOPERATION AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 217 
 
 an interdenominational Sunday-school convention, sub- 
 scribe to plans, purposes, ideals, and methods, and 
 even to fundamental doctrines in religion, but refuse 
 to come together on other occasions and in other cir- 
 cumstances. At the same time it must be admitted 
 that, much of the bigotry and narrowness of sectarian- 
 ism is being dissipated through the organized Sunday- 
 school work. The World's Sunday-School Association 
 represents an organization of the leading Christian 
 denominations in this and foreign lands. It has 
 succeeded in pressing itself into pagan countries. Fre- 
 quently the Sunday-school has been the pioneer in mis- 
 sionary activity. The same spirit of comity and co- 
 operation is prevalent in all communities in the home 
 land. It is the finest democratizing and socializing 
 agency known in religious circles. There is about it 
 a freedom and an ease unknown in other organizations. 
 
 The remarkable effect of the international uniform 
 lesson system has been to unify the sentiment of a 
 score or more of Christian denominations. The con- 
 sciousness that at the same time, under the same con- 
 ditions and by the same system twenty to thirty mil- 
 lions of people are studying the same Biblical material 
 in a uniform lesson is the finest illustration of coopera- 
 tion and federation the world has yet seen. Al- 
 though the graded system is supplanting the uniform 
 system, the results and the spirit remain, and the re- 
 ligious world will forever be the heir of this rich 
 heritage of fraternal spirit. 
 
 The Sunday-school has not only contributed to this 
 spirit of federation and cooperation, but it is also 
 
218 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 receiving and sharing in the new spirit which the 
 movement represented by this organization is produc- 
 ing. The Sunday-school has given and received much 
 of inspiration and is becoming the center of a new 
 spirit of unselfish devotion to the cause of religion. 
 It has become the most popular and socializing organ- 
 ization. It is the easiest and cheapest medium through 
 which cooperation and federation may be effected. 
 
 At the same time it has failed to accomplish much 
 that lies within its province, Its degree of federation 
 has been secured chiefly through conventions, insti- 
 tutes, and ci nferences. These have extended from the 
 w rid'- i rganization down through the international, 
 state, district, county, and township divisions. It has 
 faikd, however, of projecting the spirit of federation 
 int<» its practical operations for the benefit of its own 
 work. It has created a spirit, but has not in full 
 measure produced tangible results. To be specific, the 
 same condition that is notorious with regard to the 
 church as a whole affects particularly the Sunday- 
 school operation. This is to be seen ( i ) in the ineffi- 
 ciency of its teaching force when confined to denom- 
 inational lines, and | 2) in the lack of efficient material 
 equipment. 
 
 The fact that so few efficiently trained teachers are 
 available for the average rural Sunday-school has be- 
 come a matter of great concern to the religious forces 
 of the country. The classes, if pedagogically ar-. 
 ranged, are necessarily small and the number of teach- 
 ers relatively large. Moreover, by the very nature of 
 the case, not many qualified teachers can be secured 
 
COOPERATION AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 219 
 
 from numbers so small as the average rural congrega- 
 tion. Much of the ignorance of Biblical facts, to say 
 nothing of the failure to vitalize religious truth, is 
 doubtless due to the inefficient methods of our instruc- 
 tion. Trained leadership coupled with a universal and 
 popular conviction that religious instruction is not only 
 desirable but necessary for the welfare of the indi- 
 vidual and of society will help to solve the problem. 
 
 Now let me say a word with regard to the method 
 of cooperation and federation in religious education. 
 There are three distinct media of cooperation possible 
 in rural districts : first, the community training school ; 
 second, the federated Sunday-school; and third, the 
 correlation of Sunday-school and day-school in relig- 
 ious instruction. There might be also added a fourth 
 — cooperation for religious instruction in the home, 
 which of course would be more difficult of execution. 
 
 In city communities a new movement is now being 
 promoted for interdenominational community train- 
 ing-schools in which are employed a half dozen ex- 
 perts drawn from all denominations, sometimes im- 
 ported from other communities, carrying on through 
 a series of months a systematic course of instruction 
 and training for both teachers and officers. In this day 
 of quick transit by automobiles, of easy communica- 
 tion by telephone, and of other socializing agencies, it 
 is indeed possible for a community training-school 
 including a half dozen parishes to be carried on in the 
 winter as easily as the old-fashioned spelling-bee or 
 debating society. Let the work in the Bible be con- 
 ducted by the minister who is best trained to teach 
 
220 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 the Bible. Let the work in psychology be carried on 
 by the best school-teacher or superintendent in the 
 community. Let the topic of administration be taught 
 by the best Sunday-school superintendent. Still fur- 
 ther Specialization could be made if necessary. Illus- 
 trate >ns ( 'f the splendid way in which this is done in the 
 cities are shown in Oak Park, Chicago; Dayton; Cin- 
 cinnati; Cleveland; and other cities. 
 
 On the second point, the matter of equipment, it 
 may be said that it is hardly fair to this generation 
 of young people that centralized school-buildings with 
 modern heating, lighting, and ventilating systems and 
 comfortable seating should be provided for the day- 
 schools, while the leaders of religious work are un- 
 willing t<> provide similar conditions for the Sunday- 
 school. This would probably call for centralization of 
 religious education. It would require the laying down 
 of denominational lines and the establishment of a 
 new spirit of federation and cooperation of the 
 churches. Nevertheless, the greatest advertisement 
 the Christian religion could ever have would be the 
 announcement of a centralized Sunday-school con- 
 ducted by trained experts, with Sunday-school wagons 
 to bring the children from neighboring districts in 
 numbers sufficient to create enthusiasm and inspira- 
 tion in the work of teaching. One reason that so few 
 young people go to Sunday-school in the rural dis- 
 tricts is that the numbers in the average church are 
 not sufficient to awaken interest. The churches are 
 cold and poorly lighted and ventilated. The music is 
 dull and uninspiring. The numbers in his own group 
 
COOPERATION AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 221 
 
 do not inspire and awaken social sympathy on the 
 part of the pupil. The teacher feels that because the 
 class is small there is little need of special preparation. 
 The consequence is that the interest in religious educa- 
 tion and, of course, in religion dies. 
 
 One mark of the shortcomings of the Sunday-school 
 in its present system is the limitation of time to be 
 given to actual religious instruction. Usually one 
 hour or one hour and a quarter at most is given each 
 week to the Sunday-school program. This time is 
 necessarily reduced, by the elimination of the periods 
 given to the opening and closing exercises and to other 
 necessary features of the program, to twenty or thirty 
 minutes for actual instruction. In the average 
 Sunday-school it is a question whether more than 
 twenty minutes of positive instruction are given. Bar- 
 ring the four Sundays in the year which are usually 
 given to special programs, we have left forty-eight 
 regular sessions. This would allow sixteen full hours 
 per year for religious instruction in the Sunday-school. 
 Add to this the fact that the average attendance in 
 the Sunday-school is only about two thirds of the en- 
 rolment, the further fact that the average teacher is 
 not well prepared for religious instruction, and the 
 still further fact that most scholars do not spend any 
 time in preparation of their lesson at home, and you 
 have a situation which demands serious attention on 
 the part of people who are interested in religion and 
 religious instruction. 
 
 All of these features and more that might be named 
 are not to be interpreted as a reflection upon the sys- 
 
THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 tem as much as a comment upon its limitations and a 
 plea for a larger program, better training, better equip- 
 ment, more time, greater reverence, and a more serious 
 attitude toward the most vital thing in our church and 
 educational activities. It calls for federation and co- 
 operation in our activities, without which the largest 
 results canrn >t be i Obtained. 
 
 May it be that the Sunday-school in the inspiration 
 of tlie movement for federation and cooperation will 
 develi p in these new directions in the days soon to 
 come. 
 
 The latest and one of the most striking illustrations 
 of cooperation in religious education is to be found in 
 the correlation of the work of the public schools with 
 that of the Sunday-schools. This is accomplished in 
 three ways which may be designated as the Greeley 
 (Colorado) plan, the Gary (Indiana) plan, and the 
 X' nth Dakota plan. 
 
 By the first plan a system of cooperation in the prep- 
 aration of teachers is provided between the state 
 normal school and the local city churches. It has been 
 so satisfactory that it may be commended to any com- 
 munity where training agencies for teachers in the 
 public schools exist. 
 
 In the Gary plan certain hours of the children com- 
 ing to or going from school may be unclaimed by the 
 public schools at given periods each week and the 
 action of their parents may direct the children to the 
 church, the parish house, or the synagogue to receive 
 religious instruction by the preacher, the priest, or the 
 rabbi. According to this plan, neither school property 
 
COOPERATION AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 223 
 
 nor school employees are used for religious instruction, 
 and neither Jew nor Christian, Catholic nor Protestant 
 has ground for complaint. All of them are working 
 in complete harmony with the spirit of the state to all 
 the state furnishes equal opportunity. 
 
 Another form of cooperation, which was inaugu- 
 rated some years ago in North Dakota, has proved 
 successful in that state and elsewhere. In this plan 
 the high schools accept for credit a certain amount of 
 work done in the Sunday-school or synagogue or 
 by other church societies or agencies, if the work 
 including material, method, and examinations, is 
 approved by the school authorities. Here, again, 
 high-grade religious instruction is obtained by all who 
 desire it without the use of public funds or the en- 
 croachment upon the principle of religious freedom. 
 These all afford illustrations of cooperation in religious 
 education. 
 
 A word may be said concerning religious education 
 in the home through cooperation. Is it not possible 
 that parents' clubs or associations may be formed for 
 the awakening of interest in home religion? Special 
 addresses and lectures on children's religion, the family 
 altar, and parental piety might be procured. Oppor- 
 tunity for distributing religious literature, too, might 
 be provided by this means. All of these things would 
 tend indeed to a. finer religious life. 
 
 These are a few of the ways in which some of the 
 vital things of life as found in real religious study and 
 inspiration may be procured through cooperation in re- 
 ligious education. They need not supplant but cer- 
 
224 THE CHURCH AXD COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 tainly can supplement the splendid work now done in 
 practical and expressive lines of social service. 
 
 COOPERATION AND FEDERATION 
 
 John M. Moore 
 
 Cooperation and federation are terms that compre- 
 hend far-reaching and multiplied activities based upon 
 high ideals and directed to noble ulterior ends. They 
 arc not words to be used by men of little heart and 
 selfish purpose. To apply the principles which they 
 involve is to usher in a period of reconstruction of 
 church life in methods of operation, in the alinement of 
 forces, and in the recognition of the objects to be 
 achieved. Reconstruction is never child's play, for 
 aside from its positive labors there is always strenuous 
 opposition, and even serious conflict, from many hon- 
 orable and devout persons who conscientiously and 
 tenaciously hold to the things and conditions that are 
 and look upon any change as revolutionary, mischiev- 
 ous, and even ruinous. Reconstruction that involves 
 the church has to meet not only the deeply grounded 
 convictions and prejudices of the people, but also the 
 vigorous protests and frequently open hostility of 
 strongly entrenched and widely dominant ecclesiasti- 
 cism. Recognition of this fact will lead to discretion 
 in the inauguration of new movements, to generous 
 sympathy in dealing with the people and institutions 
 
COOPERATION AND FEDERATION 225 
 
 to be affected, and to a genuinely educational process 
 with sufficient time allowed to make seeming icono- 
 clasm impossible and the normally new conditions a 
 certainty. The leaders of the churches in America to- 
 day are called upon by the conditions of divided Chris- 
 tendom to undertake with courage and caution a great 
 program of reconstruction that has for its objective the 
 unifying and effectualizing of the Christian forces of 
 this nation in city, town, and country, so that the church 
 may have its rightful place in the leadership of all 
 phases of national life and in the religious development 
 of a great people whose Christian responsibilities are 
 commensurate with the greatest of religious oppor- 
 tunities, and whose obligations are world-wide. 
 
 In no place does the church need greater strengthen- 
 ing than in the rural sections, where divisions are most 
 pronounced, where neglect is most common, and 
 where its leadership is most essential not only to re- 
 ligious life, but to every effort at social, intellectual, 
 moral, and even industrial betterment. The rural 
 church to-day is being called upon for a service which 
 in its present state it cannot possibly render. It has 
 not the spiritual vigor, the missionary outlook, the 
 religious convictions, nor the intellectual qualifications 
 for making it a mighty force in community direction 
 and uplift, social, mental, and moral. It cannot com- 
 mand its environment nor grip the forces that control 
 in rural progress. 
 
 For this there may be many reasons, but unques- 
 tionably one of the chief causes of its weakness and 
 one of the greatest hindrances to the religious prog- 
 
226 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 ress of man}' rural communities is the ever-existing 
 assertive and exclusive denominationalism. Denom- 
 inationalism grips the church and religious life of the 
 rural people as a vise and asserts its authority as a 
 despot. It is no new power. It came with the blood 
 of the fathers and has grown in the very mental and 
 moral fibers of the people. It has rooted itself in the 
 conscience of the best men and women and even dom- 
 inate- the prejudices of the worst. The hard con- 
 flicts of the fathers of a century ago over the tenets 
 of the various sect< may have passed to oblivion in 
 the t< >wns and cities, but not so in many sections of 
 the country. The battle no longer wages in fury, but 
 the lines are still intrenched and the suggestion of a 
 demobilization would be treated with gross indiffer- 
 ence if not with open contempt. This stubborn con- 
 dition cannot be ignored in any program of reconstruc- 
 tion. It must be faced and judiciously and religiously 
 met if any success is to be hoped for. 
 
 The past value and present merit of denomination- 
 alism must be recognized and appreciated. Denom- 
 inations are the direct and inevitable outcome of re- 
 ligious liberty. The middle section of the North 
 American continent was the providential meeting- 
 place of the various sects who left their respective 
 European birthplaces to seek a new land where con- 
 science might be free and religious thought and wor- 
 ship might be untrammeled. The superiority of 
 American Christianity, whether Protestant or Roman, 
 is due in no small measure to the very conditions that 
 have produced a self-respecting and self-assertive de- 
 
COOPERATION AND FEDERATION 227 
 
 nominationalism. Denominationalism is not to be de- 
 spised because of the narrowness, arrogance, and self- 
 sufficiency of some boastful sect, or belated and lim- 
 ited class. It must be judged in the light of history 
 and valued by its present force in giving to the world 
 the light, truth, and power of the gospel through its 
 representatives and the institutions which it produces. 
 Denominationalism has on the Christian people of 
 America a righteous hold that must be respected. In 
 the course of time its devotion may be transferred to 
 a larger and more comprehensive unit, but it should 
 never be destroyed. 
 
 Men who are ambitious to bring in a new era for 
 the farmers' church must take into account not only 
 the need of a united Christianity and a unified church 
 life in the country, but also the existing assertive and 
 exclusive denominationalism in many communities, the 
 larger, fuller, finer, and forceful denominationalism 
 of American church life, and the great ecclesiastical 
 activities of these denominations to maintain and pro- 
 mote their own standing in the religious world. Sen- 
 timent may dictate an action which self-interest, and 
 that not wholly unrighteous, may oppose. What is 
 the way through this labyrinth of church interests, 
 with their historical and holy foundations ? The pres- 
 ent state cannot continue if rural progress is made 
 possible. 
 
 The time has come when denominational coopera- 
 tion in rural church life is practically essential to 
 any great social and religious movement. The place 
 to begin, however, it would seem, would not be in 
 
228 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 the local community but in the denominational coun- 
 cils of those organizations that are directly involved. 
 An attitude of fraternity, a sense of respect, a spirit 
 of cooperation must be developed in the governing 
 bodies and administrative agencies of the denomina- 
 tions before local cooperation and federation are pos- 
 sible. Some denominations have an exalted opinion 
 of their providential and predestined importance and 
 are not inclined to cooperation of any kind. They 
 claim to be the Lord's peculiar people — and they are. 
 Where such a denomination asserts itself in a com- 
 munity, federation is impossible and even religious 
 harmony is rare. Denominational conceit seldom 
 lends itself to the promotion of other than self- 
 interests, however large or small the sphere in which 
 it operates. The peace program of denominational 
 comity and mutual respect must be carried out in 
 every section before any great plans of cooperation 
 can be entered upon. This will not be accomplished 
 by the instantaneous process. It will require the long- 
 time exposure, like the photographing of slowly mov- 
 ing stars. 
 
 Federation may be regarded by some persons with 
 suspicion because it is a term implying compact, united 
 government, headship, and a measure of control; but 
 that suspicion may be dispelled by proper interpreta- 
 tion of the term. The Federated Church can scarcely 
 be less than an independent union church and does 
 not recommend itself to churchmen who are accus- 
 tomed to connectionalism. Such a combination lacks 
 vital relations. It is a convenience, and as such it 
 
COOPERATION AND FEDERATION 229 
 
 seldom inspires devotion, loyalty, and religious pur- 
 pose. The finer and stronger virtues of the Christian 
 life are, as a rule, not developed in such a church. 
 The world moves in systems and in them man finds 
 himself. The breaking down of denominations is no 
 more to be sought in the rural districts than in the 
 towns and cities. The cooperation of denominations, 
 however, is not only merely desirable and feasible; it 
 is now absolutely essential to any adequate religious 
 life and service. Where more than one denomination 
 is found in a community, the ministers who serve them 
 should agree upon a common program which they will 
 seek to carry out. No minister has a moral right to 
 preach a sermon in such a way as to give offense to 
 persons holding different doctrines, or so to express 
 his beliefs that such persons are offended. He may 
 teach his own doctrines when he feels impelled to it, 
 but in doing so he may not decry and combat the 
 views of others of his congregation who look to him 
 for spiritual guidance and leadership, and thereby 
 create an abiding disturbance in the community life. 
 As a Methodist I make bold to say that a Methodist 
 preacher who cannot preach from Sabbath to Sabbath 
 to Baptists and not give offense, even when he pro- 
 claims Methodist views, has no business in the min- 
 istry. The narrow, offensive sectarian and the de- 
 nominational bully can no longer represent Christianity 
 in this country, whatever their church affiliations. Co- 
 operation will at once rid all communities of such in- 
 tolerant men. 
 
 Cooperation in its local application is best developed 
 
230 THE CHURCH AXD COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 by an association or federation of churches which has 
 for its purpose the establishment and promotion of 
 social fellowship among the ministers and other 
 church leaders, and the agreement upon a county and 
 D immunity program of religious activity and social 
 service. Every county in the nation, excepting the 
 cities, should have such an association or federation, 
 and every minister laboring in a county should wel- 
 come the opportunity of cooperative effort which the 
 federation would insure. When a new minister comes 
 t< i a county, he should seek the association at once or 
 be sought by it. Ministers of whatever faith and 
 order laboring in the same county should not be al- 
 lowed to remain strangers to each other. Harassing 
 denominationalism is due in no small measure to a 
 lack of esprit de corps among the various ministers 
 and of a program of community service which will 
 demand for its execution the concerted action of all 
 religious people. 
 
 Federation will help to Christianize rural denom- 
 inationalism and give ecclesiasticism a sense of neigh- 
 borly obligation. It will reveal to the intense sec- 
 tarian the beauty and force of genuine Christian 
 unity. It will clear away dividing walls, make plain 
 the common task, and give Christian honor and broth- 
 erly love a chance to develop in rural communities the 
 sacred things and purposes of life and genuine re- 
 ligion. Federation, or rather cooperation, will not 
 only banish strife and unite the Christian forces, but 
 it will bring to light and correct religious neglect and 
 operate to promote a real cultivation of Christian vir- 
 
COOPERATION AND FEDERATION 231 
 
 tues and experience. Denominational independence, 
 or individualism, is responsible for a large measure 
 of the rural neglect of to-day. It is this that has 
 divided the Christian people into feeble bands and 
 made the support of competent ministers an impossi- 
 bility. A consolidated Christianity is indispensable to 
 the churches in the open country if they are to pro- 
 mote rural progress and furnish leadership in the 
 highest interests of country life. This consolidation 
 will be possible only when the emphasis is transferred 
 from denominational success to the religious develop- 
 ment of all the people, when the program of the coun- 
 try church shall be large enough to include all neces- 
 sary community service, and when the gospel preached 
 by all ministers shall bring life and immortality to 
 light and usher in the kingdom of God wherein dwell- 
 eth righteousness. The moral and religious needs of 
 thousands of rural communities in our great country 
 furnish unmistakable evidence of the futility of de- 
 nominations operating individually and alone and 
 without regard to others; and they cry out against 
 further postponement of great cooperative efforts on 
 the part of the churches that will respect the religious 
 beliefs of all and neglect the social, moral, and re- 
 ligious needs of none. 
 
232 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 LAND TENURE AND THE RURAL 
 CHURCH 
 
 Henry Wallace 
 
 The prosperity of the rural church has in all ages 
 and in all countries been determined largely by the 
 tenure by which farmers hold their lands. A pros- 
 perous country church means a relatively large rural 
 population — large enough to support a minister, to 
 push the work of the church vigorously, to impress its 
 ideals of life and character on the community, and to 
 do its part in extending the gospel to outside sections 
 and to foreign lands. 
 
 It requires, second, that farming be on an economic 
 basis; that is, that farmers are making money. For 
 the church is always and everywhere supported, not 
 by capital, but by profits; and if the farmer is not 
 making a comfortable living or is sinking his capital, 
 he does not have the means of supporting the church. 
 And if he does not have the means, his will to support 
 the church will be ineffective. 
 
 In the third place, the prosperous rural church re- 
 quires a reasonably stable population. So much of 
 the Christian life lies in Christian relations with neigh- 
 bors, with employees, with employers, with the whole 
 community life, that a roving farm population cannot, 
 even if it would, develop Christian graces or impress 
 itself favorably on a community of unbelievers. The 
 farm owner who has moved to town and is renting 
 his land cannot be expected to be a real, vital force in 
 
LAND TENURE AND RURAL CHURCH 233 
 
 the rural church. Nor can the tenant who has a one- 
 year lease, or whose tenure is uncertain, be expected 
 to cultivate the Christian graces by intimate fellow- 
 ship with his neighbors and associates or fellow church- 
 members; in other words, to take root in the com- 
 munity and become a part of it. 
 
 One thing more. The prosperous country church 
 requires that there be an agreement among the mem- 
 bers as to the big things for which the church stands : 
 the sinfulness of men; the possibility of redemption 
 from sinfulness; growth in Christian graces; the ef- 
 ficiency of the gospel to make better husbands, better 
 wives, better parents, better children, better farmers, 
 better business men, better neighbors, better citizens. 
 Success need not be expected if minor things of which 
 Jesus said nothing and upon which the apostles laid 
 no emphasis, such as forms of church government and 
 modes of baptism, are regarded as the essential things 
 for which the church stands. If the church is to be 
 successful, there must be toward these matters a body 
 of sentiment which makes hearty cooperation and 
 Christian fellowship possible. 
 
 These, as I see it, are the conditions of the pros- 
 perous rural church. These conditions prevailed 
 when the rural church was in the height of its pros- 
 perity in the early part of the last century. There 
 was then a dense population per square mile in the 
 settled portions of the country, because the farmer 
 was then a child of the woods, hewing his way pain- 
 fully through the forests of the Eastern and Middle 
 States, and requiring a lifetime to clear up a quarter 
 
234 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 section or even an eighty. He was a man of the ax 
 and cradle and scythe and flail. Rural congregations 
 were large then; and the spirit of the farmer of that 
 day is reflected in the names that he gave to his church, 
 — names fragrant of the spirit of piety and devotion 
 and showing close acquaintance with the Bible, — 
 Bethel, Rehoboth, Mount Zion, Ebenezer. 
 
 There was then n<> pull to the city, for the cities 
 were small, as they must needs be, since there was not 
 the wherewithal t<> feed a large city population, nor 
 adequate means of transportation. Labor was cheap, 
 land was cheap, living was cheap; and the farm was 
 mainly a means of supporting a large family cheaply. 
 There were no landlords, no tenants. While no one 
 was getting rich, all but the incompetent were getting 
 ahead, and the minister was the outstanding big man 
 in the c« immunity — " guide, philosopher, and friend " 
 to all, a consoler in sickness or sorrow, an adviser in 
 trouble. There was unity as to the great doctrines 
 of Christianity. Not that all were agreed; but the 
 various nationalities, with their forms of worship and 
 religious thought and customs, grouped themselves to- 
 gether in localities — the Pennsylvania Dutch here, the 
 Scotch and Scotch-Irish there, the Quakers elsewhere, 
 the Yankees in other groups. 
 
 All this changed when the farmer emerged from 
 the woods and drew long furrows in the rich, fertile 
 soil of the prairies; and still greater was the change 
 when, at the close of the war, the government gave 
 one hundred and sixty acres of land at the cost of 
 surveying ($1.25 an acre) to any landless man in the 
 
LAND TENURE AND RURAL CHURCH 235 
 
 wide world who wanted it and who would become 
 a citizen of the United States. 
 
 Then began the rush for these cheap lands, a rush 
 from New England, from the Middle States, from the 
 South, and from Europe. The farming population 
 began a game of leap-frog. The church organizations, 
 awake to the importance of securing a foothold in this 
 new land, pushed their missionary enterprises, aiming 
 to occupy strategic points. These missionary opera- 
 tions were not for the conversion of the unsaved or 
 of the stranger; they resulted in the transfer of 
 church-members from the older countries to the new 
 and in grouping them together in the choicest por- 
 tions of this newly opened paradise. The result was 
 a mingling together of men who, while they agreed 
 on fundamentals, gave special importance to distinc- 
 tives; and a still further result was the overchurching 
 of the entire prairie country. 
 
 Then the rural church began to decline; for the 
 introduction of railroads and of farm machinery and 
 a far greater use of horse power decreased rural popu- 
 lation per square mile. It has constantly been decreas- 
 ing ever since from purely economic causes. Still the 
 rural church did fairly well, although gradually de- 
 clining in the size and number of congregations, until 
 the last thirty years, when another set of economic 
 conditions began to render it less efficient. 
 
 When thoughtful men began to see that there was 
 no more choice land to be given away ; when the great 
 growth of city population not merely in the United 
 States but in the Old World (the result of cheap food 
 
236 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 furnished by the farmers of the United States at less 
 than the cost of growing it) began to bring the price 
 of grain up to the cost of production and above it, land 
 began to advance. In the corn belt, the wheat belt, 
 and the fruit belt land has increased at the rate of 
 about ten per cent, per annum. 
 
 The country church then began to decline more rap- 
 idly. Farmers began to rent their farms and move to 
 town. Capitalists began to invest in lands as soon as 
 the net income would equal the interest on savings, 
 and speculators began to buy land far in advance of 
 Its productive value, on the assumption that this ten 
 per cent, per annum increase in price would continue. 
 One result of this was an enormous increase in ten- 
 ancy, until about thirty-seven and one half per cent, 
 of the tillable lands of the United States was farmed 
 by tenants. In the corn belt from forty to fifty per 
 cent, of the land is farmed by tenants, and in the 
 cotton belt from fifty to seventy per cent. 
 
 Meanwhile the use of improved machinery and of 
 horse power instead of man power tended to increase 
 the size of farms and to decrease the population per 
 square mile. A recent investigation by the Iowa Agri- 
 cultural Department shows that, while the increase in 
 the size of farms that are farmed by their owners is 
 less than four per cent., the increase in the size of those 
 farmed by tenants is sixteen per cent. It shows fur- 
 ther that in sections in which land is bought for specu- 
 lation tenancy has increased very rapidly. We have 
 three main classes of landlords : retired farmers, 
 capitalists, and speculators, or speculating capitalists; 
 
LAND TENURE AND RURAL CHURCH 237 
 
 and the lands of all these classes are necessarily 
 farmed by tenants. 
 
 Inasmuch as we have not yet really begun to farm 
 in the West, but are simply mining our soil and selling 
 its fertility (at present at a profit), the tenure of the 
 tenant is mainly for one year; this condition makes 
 about forty-five per cent, of the population of the 
 open country in Iowa more or less unstable. The 
 tenant who goes into a new community for a year does 
 not usually aline himself with a church unless he is a 
 man of very positive religious convictions. Neither 
 does the church look upon the tenant as anything 
 more than a pilgrim and a stranger, and hence it is 
 apt to think it not worth while to gather him into the 
 fold. 
 
 Another influence is powerfully effective. Mem- 
 bers of churches who bought land, especially in the 
 corn belt, at from $25 to $50 an acre thirty years ago, 
 could not resist the temptation to harvest the un- 
 earned increment and invest it in the newer lands of 
 the spring wheat belt, or the plains, or the Northwest. 
 They moved to the new country, taking their families 
 with them. This has decreased the financial ability 
 of the congregation of the country church, has reduced 
 the salary of the minister to the starvation point, or 
 has perhaps compelled the congregation to have preach- 
 ing for but one half or one third of the time, and, in 
 certain sections, for only one fourth of the time. This 
 deprives the community of the pastoral labor and the 
 example of a Christian leader and his family; and 
 the result is that the church declines and then dies. 
 
2 3 8 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 In fact, the churches in the towns of the corn belt are 
 largely built up by the removal of members of country 
 churches to the towns. 
 
 The farms are becoming larger, and the population 
 of the rural community smaller and more unstable 
 because of tenantry. The population remaining is 
 divided up into various denominations and sects 
 through difference of opinion about church govern- 
 ment and baptism and other things, the inheritance of 
 a past generation, but of which Christ said little or 
 n< 'thing and on which the example of the apostles 
 differs. 
 
 There are two remedies for this condition, one in- 
 dustrial and the other spiritual. Neither is capable 
 of instant application, but each is certainly applicable 
 in the somewhat distant future. The first is such a 
 system of leasing as will make the tenant a reasonably 
 permanent citizen in the community, — in other words, 
 longer leases. There is nothing permanent in this 
 world, for as the poet has said : 
 
 " Pale death treads with equal foot 
 The palace of the rich 
 And the hovels of the poor." 
 
 So he " treads with equal foot " in our day the home 
 of the landlord and the home of the tenant. 
 
 Tenancy is not in itself an evil, but uncertainty of 
 tenure and short leases are evils that vex humanity. 
 We cannot expect to see a prosperous rural church 
 until the tenant can make some arrangement with his 
 landlord by which he can stay on the same farm in- 
 definitely, take root in the community, become an ac- 
 
LAND TENURE AND RURAL CHURCH 239 
 
 tive member of the church, and make of his children 
 real members of the Sunday-school and rural school. 
 
 Economic causes themselves will force upon the 
 landowner this system of longer leases. The constant 
 decrease of soil fertility through the bad farming of 
 the short-lease tenant and the fact now becoming evi- 
 dent that it is more profitable to the enterprising 
 farmer to rent land than to own it, must work for the 
 greater permanency of the tenant. The first will wipe 
 out speculation and reduce land values in the richer 
 sections until it will be possible for the tenant by rent- 
 ing land to become the owner of the land. This will 
 give us a stable population and greatly increase the 
 efficiency of the rural church. 
 
 The second remedy is in the change of view of the 
 Christian ideal. In the pioneer days the ideal of Chris- 
 tianity was the salvation of the individual soul. 
 Those were the days of the circuit-riders, of pro- 
 tracted meetings and basket meetings, and sometimes 
 of hypnotic influence which passed for the work of 
 the Spirit. 
 
 As the country became settled and the farmer 
 ceased to be a nomad, the ideal of Christianity was 
 that of the Christian family. Large families were to 
 be reared cheaply on low-priced land owned by the 
 farmer himself; they were to be baptized, catechized, 
 and pastorally visited, all in the expectation that when 
 they came to years of maturity they would take upon 
 themselves the vows of the parents. If infant baptism 
 was not practiced, it was thought that the growing 
 children would become members of the church through 
 
2 4 o THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 immersion. In those days the church was an aggre- 
 gation of these families, and the minister was ex- 
 pected to voice the doctrinal convictions of the mem- 
 bers, lie was not expected to pay much attention to 
 community salvation. 
 
 We must now get back to the original Christian 
 idea: that salvation is for every man and for every 
 part of the man — body, soul, and spirit; that it involves 
 loving " thy neighbor as thyself," and cooperation in 
 every good work instead of competition. When the 
 rural church gets a firm hold of this idea and insists 
 on the great essentials of Christianity — free salvation 
 to all who will accept it, temperance, righteousness, 
 judgment to come, — people who have the love of God 
 in their hearts will be drawn together, and they will 
 forget about the differences that have separated them 
 and rendered them inefficient 
 
 I have great hope of the union of churches; for 
 churches do not believe in their distinctive principles 
 sufficiently to carry them to their logical conclusion. 
 And the life of the church is not after all in the things 
 upon which churches differ, but in those on which they 
 agree. When it comes to these, Ephraim will no 
 longer covet Judah nor Judah vex Ephraim, but com- 
 bining their forces, they will advance on the Philis- 
 tines and win the unbelievers. 
 
 As it is now, not fifty per cent, of the people living 
 in the open country attend church with any degree of 
 regularity. Why should they, unless religion is so 
 taught that it bears upon their farming, upon their 
 trading, upon their home life, upon their recreations? 
 
LAND TENURE AND RURAL CHURCH 241 
 
 Really, it is not worth while for the churches to 
 spend money to propagate what are known as their 
 distinctive principles. One sort of church government 
 works out practically about the same as all the rest, 
 and none of them have any Scriptural warrant. The 
 ethical code, the real spiritual life of the churches, is 
 much the same in all its branches, including the 
 Catholic. 
 
 The thing for the church to do is to get a vision 
 e of the gospel that fits like a self -grown garment or 
 covering to every part of life. A reasonably perma- 
 nent tenure of lands by ownership or by lease will do 
 much to advance the kingdom of God; but the great 
 push will come from a higher ideal of Christianity and 
 the Christian life. This will draw or pull those who 
 are really hungry and who feel in their bitter mo- 
 ments that no man careth for their souls. 
 
 Even though the rural church should make great 
 advance, it will not have the large congregations of 
 fifty or seventy-five or a hundred years ago because 
 the people are not there. Farming will be more pro- 
 ductive than ever before when we really learn how to 
 farm; and the church will then be on an economic 
 basis. The wiping out of divisions over things that 
 really do not matter will unify the sentiment not 
 merely of the churches but of the people who have not 
 heretofore united themselves with the church. A re- 
 ligion that appeals both to the intellect and the emo- 
 tions, that can sanctify the sports and recreation of 
 the people, will have a powerful drawing influence 
 over the farmer. For the farmer is at heart a religious 
 
242 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 man, whether he belongs to the church or not. He 
 resp »nds promptly to every appeal to his better nature. 
 He is not interested in " higher criticism M or in theo- 
 logical speculation. He is not the least interested in 
 negations. He lives too near God for that. A church 
 united on the fundamentals, and with a reasonably 
 permanent tenure of lands by ownership or lease, will 
 enable us in time to build up a civilization on the 
 prairies and the cleared timber lands more satisfying 
 than that which can be found anywhere else on earth. 
 
 THE INTERDEPENDENCE OF GOOD 
 FARMING AND GOOD PREACHING 
 
 George N. Luccock 
 
 The farm problem is not solved by a satisfactory 
 return at the market, and the preacher's task is not 
 consummated in the praise of pulpit performance. 
 Both farmer and preacher are vitally concerned, and 
 with tremendous mutual interest, in a great life move- 
 ment. At bottom, both men's responsibility is how 
 to make the country a better place to live, and better 
 people to live there. Good buildings, good fences and 
 fields, good soil, good crops, good stock, good mar- 
 kets, good roads, and like things are all worth while 
 and to be striven after as means to good living among 
 good people. 
 
 After all, the big thing in the country, to be reached 
 
GOOD FARMING AND GOOD PREACHING 243 
 
 there as elsewhere by adapted methods, is just like the 
 big objective in the city or wherever men and women 
 and boys and girls live. Human nature is the same 
 everywhere, and the fundamental good is the common 
 need of all. And God has shown us what is good, 
 and one who spoke for him put that good into very 
 beautiful words. To do justly and to love mercy and 
 to walk humbly with God — that is the great community 
 ideal. That is good farming and that is good preach- 
 ing which combine to produce that ideal. That ideal 
 worked out in daily life will make landowner and 
 tenant happier in each other, will sweeten the relation 
 between those who hire and those who are hired, will 
 provide for the poor and the stranger, and tend to 
 make all human life the expression of divine life in 
 that best of all environments, God's wonderful out- 
 of-doors. 
 
 The indispensable inspirational center for such liv- 
 ing is the farmer-supported country church. The man 
 with the plow and the man with the Book must be 
 mated for effective team work. Each must be sensi- 
 tive to the mood and method of the other, or friction 
 and wasted energy and disheartening results will 
 follow. The preacher who uses his country pulpit as 
 a practice park for the city game, dreaming, amid 
 the fields, of promotion away from them, is the same 
 sort of a hinderer to good living in the country as the 
 farmer who takes his family in the automobile past the 
 cross-roads church to the fashion-filled pews of the 
 city church. The net result is a discouraged preacher 
 and a discontented neighborhood. No preacher was 
 
244 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 ever ordained to break his heart and batter out his 
 brains on the baeks of empty pews. Farmers who 
 neglect their community churches are doing their best 
 to depress the value of land by filling country pulpits 
 with depressed preachers. 
 
 Of all men the progressive farmer is best furnished 
 to appreciate team work. Students of the soil tell 
 us that in the beneficence of our Heavenly Father 
 vast stores of plant food are already present in the 
 bosom of mother earth, ready for the uses of the 
 infant plant Certain important elements must be pro- 
 vided by the beneficiary of earth's bounty. It has 
 been found further that plant growth is limited by 
 the I west element in the supply of plant food. Even 
 a superabundance of phosphorus and nitrogen will not 
 produce their best unless adequately supplemented by 
 potash. The lack of one element actually limits the 
 efficiency of the other elements present in such abun- 
 dance. Y<>u cannot get capacity service from even the 
 most vital element of plant food save in combination 
 with its proper supplements. The same law of inter- 
 dependence governs, in a larger way, the relations be- 
 tween the parson and the plow r man. Neither can 
 render capacity service to the community except in 
 combination with the other. 
 
 So simple a matter as the faithful, loyal attendance 
 of the farmer and his family upon the services of the 
 community church quickens the preacher to his pulpit 
 best. The assurance of that attendance stimulates him 
 in the wdiole process of preparing his sermons, glad- 
 dens him in all the round of his pastoral work. For 
 
GOOD FARMING AND GOOD PREACHING 245 
 
 all his hard labor in the study he cannot be one hundred 
 per cent, efficient in the pulpit without the support of 
 his people, any more than phosphorus can be one hun- 
 dred per cent, efficient without the support of sufficient 
 companion elements of plant food. I can take you to 
 farms all over the country where people have covered 
 their land with expensive fertilizer without getting 
 commensurate returns for their labor and their sacri- 
 fice, because the returns from the things they provided 
 are limited by the lack of the things they failed to pro- 
 vide. And I can take you to country churches where 
 some of the ablest and hardest working of the Mas- 
 ter's servants are wearing themselves out in fruitless 
 toil because so many of the farmers will not supple- 
 ment that great element in community betterment by 
 keeping up church attendance. And whether in town 
 or city, the man who habitually neglects church atten- 
 dance is doing his wicked best to blight the land with 
 the curse of a churchless community. 
 
 Turning now to the other part of this team, I wish 
 to state clearly that good preaching is equally indis- 
 pensable to the most fruitful farming. Without what 
 the preacher gives him no farmer can be at his best. 
 He also needs heart for his work. For one thing, the 
 blue devils seem to have a particular spite toward the 
 farmer. Anyhow, he does more complaining about the 
 weather than any other citizen in the kingdom of God. 
 And like every other mortal he needs to be sharply 
 summoned from the sordid. 
 
 The greatest service a preacher can be to a farmer 
 is not to teach him how to raise better crops. The 
 
246 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 preacher ought to inspire the farmers to become so ex- 
 pert in their calling that he himself will feel but an 
 amateur in their presence. That, I'm saying, is the 
 ideal. His contribution to the forces of fruitfulness 
 in their common task is different from theirs. Some- 
 times men of the soil become so obsessed by the idea 
 green manuring that this becomes the panacea for 
 all land complaints. And there are times when the 
 sick land, if it had a voice, would cry out to the plow- 
 man, "For the land's >ake, quit it. I've got all the 
 green stuff 1 want. Give me some more potash and a 
 whole 1< >t m< >re ph< «ph< >rus." And a situation can very 
 easily be imagined in which the precious half hour of 
 the pulpit was perverted to a learned argument on soil 
 improvement, and the work-weary audience of farmers 
 felt like crying right out in meeting, " For goodness' 
 sake, pars- >n, quit it. We have all the green stuff now 
 that we want without your handing us any more. 
 Give us something for mind and heart." 
 
 But while the farmer does not need a preacher to 
 tell him h< >w to raise better crops, or teach him better 
 farm management, or to be to him the advance agent of 
 newer methods, the preacher can and ought to be an 
 inspiration to the farmer in all that has to do with 
 making him more successful in subduing the earth. 
 The preacher ought to make himself intelligent on the 
 occupations and ambitions of his people. He ought to 
 be in fullest sympathy with them in their tasks 
 and problems. He ought to be the first to warm 
 up to forward movements and to praise a success- 
 ful experiment. He ought to be a man of vision 
 
GOOD FARMING AND GOOD PREACHING 247 
 
 for his community, seeing clearest and feeling deepest 
 where old customs retard progress, and making 
 vivid the promise of better things. He, better 
 than any other man in the township, should be 
 able to inspire the youth of the neighborhood with 
 a great and growing love for the land. He himself, 
 beyond the power of his sermons, by his mere presence, 
 whether in church or in the fields or in the homes or 
 on the road, should quicken the enthusiasm of the 
 whole community for the chance God gives to them 
 there. He must love farming and love farm people 
 so deeply and genuinely that when they see him draw 
 near they will feel the approach of good cheer. Just 
 as the farmer's presence in the pew reacts on the pulpit, 
 quickening the preacher to a better sermon, so the 
 farmer feeling the optimism of the preacher will both 
 plow a straighter furrow and put more heart into his 
 task, not because of the man himself, but because of 
 a heightened sense of the values of life, unconsciously 
 suggested by the man whose calling it is to guide men 
 in the walk with God. 
 
 The very calling of the preacher, with the whole 
 church program, honored in a community beyond any 
 other influence, strengthens the tie that binds the lad 
 to the land. No worth-while young fellow ever left 
 the country because of its hard work. He left because 
 of the feeling that life elsewhere was not easier, but 
 better, more worth while, less narrow and choking, 
 more free and gladsome. He was driven by a craving 
 for something he was not getting in the country. He 
 felt life had something he was losing. 
 
248 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 Here is the preacher's supreme chance to serve the 
 fanner. Certainly he will be a leader in all social 
 activities, in institutes, in lecture courses, in all com- 
 munity betterment m< vements. But back of and under 
 and working through all these he will be something 
 bigger. He will as a good minister of Jesus Christ 
 be interpreting life in terms of the higher good, in 
 terms of service, keeping ever before him the mark 
 for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ 
 Jesus. And he will find that the farmer is his best 
 ally, that the very laws of successful soil tillage are 
 likewise the laws of the kingdom of God, the laws of 
 the spiritual life. 
 
 To the old adage that there is no excellence without 
 great labor, modern agriculture has added the realiza- 
 tion that there is no excellence without great sacrifice. 
 It is indeed quite indispensable that the preacher to 
 farm people be able to give his message in terms of 
 farm life and experience. But to be able to do that 
 spontaneously and helpfully he must first of all see 
 nature herself in terms of theology. No one can 
 teach theology, or, if you please, preach the gospel, in 
 terms of agricultural thinking who is not first fas- 
 cinated by the spiritual lessons taught by agriculture 
 to his own heart. 
 
 Let me here bear my testimony to the homiletic 
 value of a course of reading along the line of scien- 
 tific farming. For several years, besides books and 
 bulletins, I have read, with keenest interest, a half 
 dozen farm papers every week, and to me no line of 
 reading has been equally stimulating in pulpit prepara- 
 
GOOD FARMING AND GOOD PREACHING 249 
 
 tion. Any preacher, in the city or in the country, will 
 both know and feel the meaning of his Bible better by 
 some initiative into the secrets of the soil. 
 
 And I think the preacher who is a specialist to the 
 country church may be and of right ought to be for 
 years to come the best read man on agriculture in the 
 community. For one thing, he has time to read, time 
 when he is not too physically exhausted to enjoy read- 
 ing, and he has the trained habit of reading. For 
 another thing, this reading is in line with the most 
 immediate interests of his people, and it is also directly 
 in line with his own high spiritual calling. Such read- 
 ing gives him a richer acquaintance with God and 
 therefore manifolds his spiritual power. 
 
 For example, one of the commonest newer words in 
 the vocabulary of the farm to-day is humus. But 
 humus is just agricultural self-denial, the great sacri- 
 fice hit in the big game with nature. Humus produces 
 a condition in which the soil below is aerated, has a 
 chance to breathe, and the life that is there gets its 
 liberty. Besides, it sets free certain elements of plant 
 food already there, but not hitherto available. Just 
 watch a man with a plow turning down his splendid 
 clover field and sacrificing tons of valuable hay ! But 
 suppose that turning it under results in so much better 
 soil condition that he doubles his corn crop ! 
 
 But there you have the heart of the gospel. If ever 
 it seemed that the world was losing much by a life 
 sacrifice, it was when Jesus Christ was crucified in 
 early manhood. But that was love's way of renewing 
 the wornout soil of human hearts by the humus of 
 
2 5 o THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 heaven. What world liberties followed that sacrifice! 
 What elements of strength were set free for world 
 service, elements oi power already there but not hith- 
 erto available. 
 
 When people get held of that gospel, whether in the 
 country <>r in the city, life has a new meaning, work 
 has a new meaning, harvests have a new value. For 
 therein is revealed the greatest of all secrets of sue- 
 namely, the wonderful law of conversion of 
 values. No man wants to work for nothing, and nature 
 t ask any man to work for nothing; but rather 
 good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and run- 
 ning over, does nature give back to a man's bosom. 
 Suppose a man takes hold of a field that never pro- 
 duced more than fifteen bushels of wheat per acre 
 and makes it yield twenty-five. Of course he is ten 
 bushels an acre happier by bin measure. But he has 
 a bosom as well as a bin. And by the bosom measure 
 he is away ahead of the game. He swells with a 
 proper pride. He has surprised the neighbors, and that 
 is worth while. He has made good in his venture. 
 His sacrifice has justified itself. And there is joy in 
 that. But best of all, he has proved the promises of 
 nature, and there is thrill there, the birth of a larger 
 hope. He had heard the cry of the neglected and mis- 
 treated earth, — " Bring ye all the points of efficiency 
 in soil management, — a properly prepared seed-bed, 
 and a balanced ration of plant food, that there may 
 be food in my furrows and prove me now herewith 
 if I will not open to you the secrets of the soil and 
 grow you a harvest such as your bins shall not be able 
 
GOOD FARMING AND GOOD PREACHING 251 
 
 to contain it." And because he made good in his ven- 
 ture, nature made good in her promises. No trouble 
 about keeping that boy on the farm. You could not 
 pry him loose. What's happened ? Well, something's 
 happened to his bins. They are fuller. But something 
 bigger has happened to his bosom. He has a new faith 
 in nature. He is willing to trust her. Willing? Nay, 
 he finds the good and the glory of life in becoming a 
 colaborer with nature. 
 
 That's one lesson. Here's another and a bit deeper. 
 One gets another kind of return to his bosom by his 
 investment, and learns a little more of the great law of 
 the conversion of values. A man sends his boy to 
 college and expects value received on a pretty big in- 
 vestment. But he does not expect that value to come 
 back to his bins or to his bank account. It comes back 
 to his bosom, and he has learned how much more 
 money is worth than the bank balance shows. And 
 no man is a good farmer until he has increased the 
 productiveness of the land as he ought to do, and devel- 
 oped his marketing efficiency as he ought to do, and in 
 addition to all that learned to put the right valuation 
 on his dollars. And the farmer who has this higher 
 sense of the worth of a dollar, and is not satisfied until 
 he has realized its bosom value in the service of his 
 fellow man, is the man God meant for the farm. 
 
 How slow we all are to accept progress under the 
 law of self-sacrifice! We want to pay little and get 
 much. And we keep forever trying to beat down the 
 price. Out yonder in the field, the farmer is asking the 
 price of a hundred bushels of corn per acre. " Tell 
 
252 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 me, O field, the price of one hundred bushels of corn 
 per acre." And across the face of the field there 
 sweeps a rippling smile as it had been the face of an 
 angel. For the earth is the Lord's and glows with the 
 good-will of God, eager to give bread to the eater and 
 seed to the sower. The price? " Just one price to all. 
 First the plow and then the harrow and every tool to 
 make a pn per seed-bed. Plenty of air by proper 
 drainage. Plenty of plant food for the increasing 
 needs of the growing grain. And then you must keep 
 plowing to kill the weeds, and more important than that 
 to conserve my moisture. After every shower, you 
 must break up my surface, else the capillary chimneys 
 will let the moisture escape, and I'll suffer from thirst 
 when the summer drought comes." And then the 
 farmer begins to press down the price. ''Can't I," 
 he wheedles, u can't I cut out some of those cultiva- 
 tions? We shall be awfully busy. Father used to 
 quit tending his corn in early July. And can't I get 
 along with a little less fertilizer? Times are hard. 
 Taxes are terribly high." The old human habit, which 
 we call jewing down, but which really antedates Ju- 
 daism by several thousand years, asserts itself at every 
 demand of nature. What is the result? A reduction 
 in the bushels per acre exactly in proportion to beating 
 down the price. And a consequent sterner penalty 
 comes too, — a relaxed sensitiveness to the value of 
 scientific farming, a losing out in the larger game of 
 agricultural life. On the other hand the man who 
 gives to the earth his best will find the earth giving 
 back to him, good measure, pressed down, shaken to- 
 
GOOD FARMING AND GOOD PREACHING 253 
 
 gether, and running over. But he gets back vastly 
 more than just increase in kind. He gets a new heart 
 for his work. He gets a new and vaster outlook upon 
 his vocation. He gets a new conception of his place 
 and chance in the scheme of things. 
 
 Other kinds of sacrifice than those for personal 
 profit come with their call. Higher applications of 
 the law of conversion of values enter his thoughts. 
 He becomes a dreamer of dreams. A man of visions. 
 He gets to seeing things for the common good. The 
 spirit of service takes hold of his heart. He is coming 
 to think in terms of ideals. He is coming to place a 
 higher value upon the returns that come back to his 
 bosom than upon those that come back to his bins. 
 He looks beyond an increased output from his fields 
 and from his yards, beyond a better handling of the 
 marketing end of his task, beyond his own better house 
 and barn and better equipment, and thinks of a better 
 schoolhouse, of a better church, of better roads, of a 
 more beautiful countryside, of shorter days in the 
 fields and longer evenings with the neighbors, of com- 
 munity organization not only for its own higher bene- 
 fits but for the higher satisfactions afforded in a wider 
 service. 
 
 And here it is that the preacher's best and the 
 farmer's best are merged into one. For here it is that 
 the proper ambition of the one and the proper message 
 of the other find their common ground. For just as 
 the preacher declares that Christ sacrificing himself 
 to rise again in the glory of a fruitful life 
 is the hope of the world, so the farmer finds that 
 
254 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die 
 it abideth alone, and that to sacrifice one's personal 
 good for the common benefit is to find — not only to 
 find that life again but to find it in a better world to 
 live it in. 
 
 And thus working together this man of the Field 
 and this man of the Book create that best of all com- 
 munity assets, an atmosphere of contentment and 
 peace, an atmosphere in which one thanks God to have 
 been born and for the precious privilege of abiding. 
 And for the purpose of maintaining that let the 
 preacher count as possibly his highest privilege to go 
 from home to home and guide the household devotions 
 at the family altar. 
 
 Several wars ago I journeyed toward a peach coun- 
 try with the liveliest anticipations of delight. In the 
 morning I thought my eyes would be feasting on thou- 
 sands of peach-trees in full bloom. But that very 
 morning there came a killing frost, and every opening 
 bud. betrayed into bloom by the false promise of 
 spring, was caught in the embrace of death. Far more 
 tender and sensitive to the chill of a frigid atmosphere 
 than the delicate bloom of peach-trees is the heart of 
 a child, opening to the will of God. What if the 
 warmth and glow of natural affection be only as the 
 false promise of spring, summoning the dormant life 
 of undeveloped mind and heart into the bloom of self- 
 consciousness, of intelligent inquiry as to life's values, 
 and when the awakened heart of the child turns with 
 glad choice toward Christ, the Sun of righteousness, 
 the atmosphere of the home, instead of being warm 
 
GOOD FARMING AND GOOD PREACHING 255 
 
 and fostering, is toward the eager impulses of the 
 child like the dreadful coming of a frost that kills ! 
 
 The great orchardists are finding it practicable to 
 prepare against the sudden frosts that often in a night 
 destroy the expectation of a year and the fair promise 
 of a favoring springtime. They have a system of 
 heaters, ready for instant lighting, distributed through 
 the orchard and electrically connected with ther- 
 mometers among the trees and an alarm mechanism 
 in the home, so that when the temperature approaches 
 the danger point, the home is aroused and the fires 
 lighted; immediately the ascending smoke among the 
 trees arrests the descending temperature and the tender 
 bloom is saved. By word and life let the preacher 
 say to the farmer : " Are not children, your children, 
 of more value than many orchards ? " God has placed 
 in the home the most delicate, the most sensitive of all 
 alarm mechanisms, — a mother's heart. Only let that be 
 connected by the electric current of watchful love with 
 the family altar, most heavenly of all heaters in the 
 home, and the ascending incense from that will be 
 potent to stay the descending temperature of a cold 
 world above the point of menace to the life of the 
 spirit. 
 
256 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 THE FUNCTIONS OF THE FEDERAL 
 COUNCIL 
 
 Shatter Mathews 
 
 The Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in 
 America is a body composed of representative officials 
 drawn from thirty different Protestant churches or 
 denominations, and represents a constituency of some- 
 thing like seventeen million church-members. It is 
 not seeking to produce organic union among these 
 various bodies, but to help each to represent its com- 
 mon interest in those great tasks which those who 
 believe in Jesus Christ as the divine Lord must face. 
 Through its commissions it is engaged in various in- 
 vestigative and constructive operations, but it does not 
 seek to produce any minimum creed to which all may 
 assent. It is not a theological body, but believes that 
 the way evangelistic Christians can get together is for 
 them to work together. 
 
 The Federal Council represents in a way this grow- 
 ing spirit of cooperation which is to be found through- 
 out the United States. The problems which Chris- 
 tianity faces are both local and national, both those 
 of thought and those of action. The Federal Council 
 has no panacea for the difficulties which religion must 
 face, but it does undertake to express the common 
 Christian attitude tow r ard such problems as must be 
 faced cooperatively if they are to be answered ef- 
 ficiently. 
 
 During the past year the Council has been giving 
 
FUNCTIONS OF THE FEDERAL COUNCIL 257 
 
 attention to such highly important matters as the ap- 
 plication of Christianity to international affairs, the 
 problems and future of the rural church, the advance- 
 ment of religious education, and the federation of 
 various movements which have themselves undertaken 
 to unify other movements. We who represent this 
 policy are not intoxicated by any theory of centraliza- 
 tion. Much less do we undertake to exert authority 
 over the bodies who chose our constituent members. 
 We do believe, however, that the Christian spirit of 
 the United States must find its expression in the spirit 
 of social transformation and the evangelizing of the 
 forces which are to reconstruct the various communi- 
 ties which go to make up our nation. Certain of these 
 forces cannot be transformed. They must be de- 
 stroyed. The Christian spirit cannot endure the exis- 
 tence of vice, much less the agencies which undertake 
 to make commercial profit out of vice. In such under- 
 takings as these, doctrinal differences play no part. 
 Hostility to evil is a fundamental trait of all denomina- 
 tions and churches in Christianity. 
 
 But there are other fields into which our Christian 
 spirit must move, where destruction is less important 
 than transformation. The present crisis in the world 
 particularly brings home to us the need of the applica- 
 tion of the principles of Jesus to international affairs. 
 The great basis on which we stand as Christians im- 
 plies the belief that Jesus Christ is to be taken seri- 
 ously, that his teachings have application to nations 
 as truly as to individuals, that the extent of success 
 we have already reached in applying them to economic 
 
258 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 questions must be duplicated and exceeded in the build- 
 ing up of good-will among nations. To give justice 
 rather than to fight for rights, — that is the center of 
 the ethical teaching of Jesus, and such sacrificial 
 social-mindedness must be the aim of nations as well 
 as of individuals. That which concerns us as 
 churches is not primarily peace, but that attitude of 
 mind, those social conditions, those economic policies, 
 upon which peace depends. The Christian is not a 
 peace-at-any-price man, but he is a righteousness-at- 
 any-price man. To bring this into our national life is 
 a part of our Christian duty. We wish to keep the 
 church abs< >lutely distinct from the state, but we do not 
 want to keep Christianity out of our statesmanship. 
 
 The same feeling applies to patriotism. We wish 
 to transform patriotism from a belligerent into a co- 
 operative virtue. To that end we can see patriotism in 
 paying taxes as well as in going to war, and in the 
 cooperation of churches as well as in the mobilization 
 of armies. Our country communities as well as our 
 city communities must receive more attention from 
 the earnest Christian spirit. We wish to save individ- 
 uals, not merely to rescue them, and we believe that 
 the power of Jesus is not limited by geography or 
 race. Thus the Federal Council stands not for a new 
 ecclesiastical authority, but as an agency of denomina- 
 tional cooperation, Christian fellowship, and efficient 
 evangelization. 
 
CHURCH AS A COMMUNITY CENTER 259 
 
 THE CHURCH AS A COMMUNITY 
 CENTER 
 
 William F. Anderson 
 
 The importance of the rural life movement is at- 
 tested by many facts. Probably more than half of 
 the population of the country lives in rural communi- 
 ties, that is, in towns and villages of twenty-five hun- 
 dred people and fewer. That the movement has taken 
 a strong grip upon the life of the nation, is apparent 
 by the attention which it is receiving from leaders of 
 thought and life everywhere. The literature which 
 has already developed upon the subject is extensive 
 and of high grade. It scarcely seems possible, when 
 one considers the widespread interest in the move- 
 ment, that the first rural life commission was created 
 by the authority of the United States government so 
 recently as 1908. 
 
 By common consent the church is the center of the 
 community life. The fact is that man's entire life 
 centers in the religious ideal. The providential ar- 
 rangement of affairs places a primal emphasis upon 
 religion and its relation to the other phases of human 
 life. The incarnation of God in the person of Jesus 
 Christ is the central fact of history. All time preced- 
 ing it was simply a preparation for it; all time subse- 
 quent to it has been given for the development of the 
 significance of the fact, for the development of the life, 
 customs, and institutions of mankind. 
 
 If the church is to be the center of the community 
 
260 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 life, it must get the right conception as to its mission. 
 The church is not an end within itself, but a means 
 t< ward an end. It would not be strange if there should 
 be those who advance the objection that this is an un- 
 worthy appraisal of the church's standing. I would 
 remind such of that profound basic principle of human 
 life, stated in the words of our Lord, regarding the 
 significance of the life of the individual: " He that 
 would save his life must lose it; and he that loseth his 
 life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall find 
 it." If it be true of the life of the individual that he 
 must attain his highest spiritual significance by the 
 gift of his life in service to his fellow men, I hold that 
 it is equally true of that aggregation of individuals 
 known as the church. The church must lose its life 
 in service to the community; and the church that gives 
 itself to this ideal of life is the church of the future, 
 by whatsoever name it may be known ecclesiastically. 
 Now the question may arise as to whether the 
 church, if it fills this ideal, may not lose touch with 
 the broader world movements of denominational life. 
 Such an objection has sometimes been urged. Cer- 
 tainly it is not necessary, in strong communities, that 
 such should be the case. Such a church, for instance, 
 as the Epworth Memorial Church in Cleveland has 
 found its interest in the world movements intensified 
 by a more direct application of its activities to the 
 needs of the community. The objection undoubtedly 
 is more valid in the weaker communities; and I see 
 but one solution of the problem in these weaker com- 
 munities, namely, that the church which predominates 
 
CHURCH AS A COMMUNITY CENTER 261 
 
 in strength shall have right of way; and that thus it 
 may develop not only a local strength, but have suf- 
 ficient vitality also to keep up its interest in world-wide 
 missionary movements. 
 
 A survey of the situation in the state of Ohio has 
 brought to light some rather startling facts. For ex- 
 ample, a large number of townships in the rural parts 
 of the state are almost entirely destitute of provision 
 for the religious life of the community. There rests 
 upon the leaders of the different denominations in this 
 situation a perfectly tremendous responsibility. The 
 principle which should guide us all in the administra- 
 tion of the affairs of our respective denominations is 
 not a narrow sectarian policy which obtained in the 
 past but the interests of the kingdom of God. The 
 kingdom of God is the really big thing which must 
 by all effort be conserved. That we have our de- 
 nominational affiliations and loyalties is of course to 
 be expected ; but the man who places .a sectarian, de- 
 nominational ideal before the interests of the Kingdom 
 is not abreast of the larger redemptive movements of 
 the day. 
 
 The several Annual Conferences of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church in the state of Ohio have already, by 
 formal action, voted to cooperate with our sister de- 
 nominations in this regard. And indeed the leaders of 
 the respective denominations in certain communities 
 have already been cooperating in the interests of the 
 larger Kingdom by a policy of mutual consideration 
 and yielding. 
 
262 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 THE RURAL CHURCH AS A VITALIZING 
 
 AGENT 
 
 Woodrow Wilson 
 
 I want first to express my very deep gratitude to 
 you for the cordial manner in which you have greeted 
 me, and my sense of privilege in standing here before 
 you to speak about some of the things in which we 
 are mutually interested. You, gentlemen, are perhaps 
 more interested in those matters of policy which affect 
 the business vi the country than in any others; and yet 
 it has never seemed to me possible to separate the 
 business of a country from its essential spirit and the 
 life of its people. The mistake that some men have 
 made has been in supp sing that business was one thing 
 and life another; whereas, they are inseparable in their 
 principles and in their expression. 
 
 I must say that in looking back upon the past there 
 is something about the history of business in this 
 country which is not wholly satisfactory. It is inter- 
 esting to remember that in the early years of the 
 republic we felt ourselves more a part of the general 
 world than we have felt since then. There is no real 
 antithesis; a man lives as he believes he ought to live, 
 or as he believes that it is of advantage to live. He 
 lives upon a doctrine, upon a principle, upon an idea, — 
 sometimes a very low principle, sometimes a very ex- 
 alted principle. 
 
 I used to be told when I was a youth that some of 
 the old causalities reduced all sin to egotism. And I 
 
RURAL CHURCH AS VITALIZING AGENT 263 
 
 have thought as I have watched the career of some 
 individuals that the analysis had some vital point to it. 
 
 An egotist is a man who has got the whole per- 
 spective of life wrong. He conceives of himself as 
 the center of affairs; he conceives of himself as the 
 center of affairs even as affects the providence of God. 
 He has not related himself to the great forces which 
 dominate him with the rest of us, and therefore has 
 set up a little kingdom all his own in which he reigns 
 with unhonored sovereignty. 
 
 And so there are some men who set up the principle 
 of individual advantage as the principle, the doctrine, 
 of their life, and live generally a life that leads to all 
 sorts of shipwreck. Whatever our doctrine be, our 
 life is conformed to it, but what I want to speak of 
 is not the contrast between doctrine and life but the 
 translation of doctrine into life. 
 
 After all, Christianity is not important to us because 
 it is a body of conceptions regarding man and God, 
 but because it is a vital body of conceptions which can 
 be translated into life for us; life in this world and 
 a life still greater in the next. 
 
 And except as Christianity changes and inspires life 
 it has failed of its mission. That is what Christ came 
 into the world for, to save our spirits ; and you cannot 
 have your spirit altered without having your life 
 altered. 
 
 When I think of the rural church, therefore, I 
 wonder how far the rural church is vitalizing the lives 
 of the community in which it exists. We have had 
 a great deal to say recently, and it has been very 
 
264 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 profitably said, about the school as a social center, by 
 which is meant the schoolhouse as a social center; 
 about making the house which, in the daytime, is used 
 for the children, a place which their parents may use 
 in the evenings and at other disengaged times for the 
 meetings of the community; where the people are 
 privileged to come together and talk about anything 
 that is of community interest, and talk about it with 
 the utmost freedom. 
 
 Some people have been opposed to it because there 
 are some tilings that they do not want talked about. 
 Some boards of education have been opposed to it be- 
 cause they realized that it might not be well for the 
 board of educati< m to be talked about. Talk is a very 
 dangerous thing. Community comparisons of views 
 are a very dangerous thing to the men who are doing 
 the wrong thing. But I, for my part, believe in making 
 the school the social center, the place that the com- 
 munity can use for any kind of coordinating that it 
 wants to do in its life. 
 
 But I believe that where the schoolhouse is inade- 
 quate, and even where it is adequate, the most vital 
 social center should be the church itself. And that, 
 not by way of organizing the church as a social church. 
 That is not my topic to-night. That is another topic. 
 I speak of the need of making communities realize that 
 the congregations, and particularly the pastors, are 
 interested in everything that is important for the com- 
 munity, and that the members of the church are ready 
 to coordinate and the pastor ready to lend his time 
 and his energy to the amount of organization which 
 
RURAL CHURCH AS VITALIZING AGENT 265 
 
 is necessary outside the church as well as in, for the 
 benefit of the community. 
 
 It seems to me that the country pastor has an un- 
 paralleled opportunity to be a country leader; to make 
 everybody realize that he is the representative of 
 Christ; to prove himself related to everything human, 
 to everything human that has as its object the uplift 
 and construction and inspiration of the community for 
 the betterment of any of its conditions. If any pastor 
 will make it felt throughout the community that this is 
 his spirit and this is his interest, and that he is ready 
 to draw his elders and his deacons and his vestrymen 
 with him as active agents in the betterment of the 
 community, the church will begin to have a dominating 
 influence in the community such as it has lost for the 
 time being and which we must find means to regain. 
 
 For example, one of the things that the department 
 of agriculture at Washington is trying to do for the 
 farming community is to show the farmers of the 
 country the easiest and best methods of cooperation 
 with regard to marketing their crops; to teach them 
 how to handle their crops in a cooperative fashion, so 
 that they can get the best service from the railroads 
 and learn how to find the prevailing market prices in 
 the accessible markets. Thus they will come to know 
 where it will be best and most profitable to send their 
 farm products and will draw themselves together into 
 cooperative associations with these objects in view. 
 
 The church ought to lend its hand to that. The 
 pastor ought to say : " If you want somebody to look 
 after this for you, I will give part of my time, and 
 
266 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 I will find other men in my congregation who will help 
 yon without charging von anything for it. We want 
 you to realize that this church is interested in the lives 
 of the people of this country, and that it will lend itself 
 to any legitimate project that advances the life and 
 interests of the people of this country." 
 
 Let the rural church find that and then discover, as 
 it will discover, that men begin to swing their thoughts 
 to those deeper meanings of the church to which we 
 wish t<> draw their attention; that this is a spiritual 
 brotherhood; that the pastor and his associates are in- 
 terested in them, because they are interested in the 
 souls of men and the prosperity of men as it lies deep 
 in their hearts. There are a great many ways by 
 which leadership can be exercised. 
 
 The church has too much depended upon individual 
 example. " So let your light shine before men " has 
 been taken to be " put your individual self on a can- 
 dlestick and shine." Now the trouble is that some 
 people cannot find the candlestick, but the greater 
 tr< aible is that they are a very poor candle and the light 
 is very dim. It does not dispel much of the darkness 
 for me individually to sit on the top of a candlestick. 
 But if I lend such little contribution of spiritual forces 
 as I have to my neighbor and to my comrade and to 
 my friend, and we can draw a circle of friends to- 
 gether and unite our spiritual forces, then we have 
 something more than example. We have cooperation, 
 and cooperation, ladies and gentlemen, is the vital 
 principle of social life. 
 
 I think I know something about organization. I 
 
RURAL CHURCH AS VITALIZING AGEXT 267 
 
 can make an organization, but it is one thing to have 
 an organization and another thing to fill it with life. 
 And then it is a very important matter what sort of 
 life to fill it with. If the object of the organization is 
 what the object of some business organizations is, and 
 the object of many political organizations is, to absorb 
 the life of the community and run the community for 
 its own benefit, then there is nothing profitable in it. 
 But if the object of the organization is to afford a 
 mechanism by which the whole community can co- 
 operatively use its life, then there is a great deal in it; 
 and organization without the spirit of cooperation is 
 dead and may be dangerous. So the vital principle is 
 cooperation, and organization is secondary. 
 
 I have been a member of one or two churches that 
 were admirably organized and were accomplishing 
 nothing. You know some people dearly love organ- 
 ization. They dearly love to sit in a church and pre- 
 side. They pride themselves upon their knowledge of 
 parliamentary practice. They love to congregate and 
 write minutes. They love to appoint committees. 
 They boast of the number of committees that their 
 organization has, and they like the power and the 
 social influence of distributing their friends among the 
 committees. And then, when the committees are 
 formed, there is nothing to commit to them. 
 
 This is a nation which loves to go through the mo- 
 tion of public meetings whether there is anything par- 
 ticularly important to consider or not. It is an inter- 
 esting thing to me that the American is actually born 
 knowing how to conduct a public meeting. I remember 
 
268 THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 that when I was a lad I belonged to an organization 
 which seemed to be very important, " The Lightfoot 
 Baseball Club." Our club-room was an unoccupied 
 corner of the loft of my father's barn, the part that 
 the hay did not encroach upon. And I distinctly re- 
 member how we used to conduct orderly meetings of 
 the club in that corner of the loft. I had never seen 
 a public meeting, and I do not believe any of the other 
 lads with whom I was associated had ever seen a 
 public meeting. But we somehow knew how to con- 
 duct one. We knew how to make motions and second 
 them. We knew that a motion could not have more 
 than two amendments offered at the same time, and 
 we knew the order in which the amendments had to 
 be put, the second amendment before the first. How 
 we knew it I do not know. We were born that way, 
 I suppose. 
 
 But nothing more important happened with the 
 Lightfoot Baseball Club than with some church organ- 
 ization meetings, and I remember distinctly that my 
 delight and interest was in the meetings, not in what 
 they were for. I delighted merely in the sense of 
 belonging to an organization and in doing something 
 with the organization, it did not very much matter 
 what. Some churches are organized in that way. 
 They are exceedingly active about nothing. 
 
 Now why not lend that organization instinct, that 
 acting instinct, to the real things that are happening in 
 the community, whether they have anything to do with 
 the church or not ? 
 
 We look back to the time of the early settlement of 
 
RURAL CHURCH AS VITALIZING AGENT 269 
 
 this country and remember that in New England the 
 church and the school were the two sources of life of 
 the community. Everything centered in them; every- 
 thing emanated from them. The school fed the 
 church, and the church ran the community. It some- 
 times did not run it very liberally, and I, for my part, 
 would not wish to see any church run any community; 
 but I do wish to see every church assist the community 
 in which it is established to run itself in such a way 
 as will show that the spirit of Christianity is the spirit 
 of assistance, of counsel, of vitalization, of intensive 
 effort in everything that affects the lives of men, 
 women, and children. 
 
 So I am hoping that the outcome of this conference 
 and all that we say and do about this important matter 
 may be to remind the church that it is put into this 
 world not only to save the individual soul but to save 
 society also. The church must go to work in society 
 with a realization of the greater exigency of society 
 than that of the individual, because if society is to be 
 saved it must be saved in this world, not in the next. 
 I hope that our society is not going to exist in the next. 
 It needs amendment in several particulars, I venture to 
 say, and I hope that the society in the next world will 
 be amended in those particulars which I will not men- 
 tion. But we have nothing to do with society in the 
 next world. We may have something to do with the 
 individual soul in the next world by getting it started 
 for the next world, but we have nothing to do with 
 the organization of society in the next world. 
 
 We have got to save society, so far as it is saved, 
 
2;o THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 by the instrumentality of Christianity in this world. 
 It is a job, therefore, we have got to undertake imme- 
 diately and work at all the time. This is the business 
 of the church. 
 
 Legislation cannot save society. Legislation cannot 
 even rectify society. A law that will work is merely 
 the summing up in legislative form of the moral judg- 
 ment that the community has already reached. 
 
 Law records show how far society has advanced, 
 and there have to be preceding a law instrumentalities 
 which advance society up to that point where it is ready 
 for record. Try the experiment of enacting a law that 
 is the moral judgment of a very small minority of the 
 community, and it will not work. Most people will 
 not understand it, and if they do understand it, they 
 will resent it. But whether they understand it and 
 resent it or not, they will not obey it. 
 
 Law is a record of achievement; it is not a process 
 of regeneration. Our wills have to be regenerated and 
 our purposes rectified before we are in a position to 
 enact laws that record those moral achievements; and 
 that is the business primarily, it seems to me, of the 
 Christian. 
 
 There are a great many arguments about Chris- 
 tianity. There are a great many things which we 
 freely assert which we can't, in the ordinary scientific 
 sense of the word, prove; but there are some things 
 which we can show. The proof of Christianity is 
 written in the biography of the saints; and by the 
 saints I do not mean the technical saints — those whom 
 the church or the world have picked out and labeled 
 
RURAL CHURCH AS VITALIZING AGENT 271 
 
 saints, for they are not very numerous. I do mean 
 by the term the people whose lives — whose individual 
 lives — have been transformed by Christianity. 
 
 Christianity is the only force in the world that I 
 have ever heard of which does actually transform life. 
 And the proof of that transformation is to be found 
 all over the Christian world, and is multiplied and re- 
 peated as Christianity gains fresh territory in the 
 heathen world. Men begin suddenly to erect great 
 spiritual standards over the little personal standards 
 which they heretofore professed and will walk smiling 
 to the stake in order that their souls may be true to 
 themselves. There really isn't anything else that does 
 that. 
 
 There is something that is analogous to it, and that 
 is patriotism. Men will go into the fire of battle and 
 . freely give their lives for something greater than them- 
 selves — their duty to their country. This analogy be- 
 tween patriotism and Christianity is a fine one indeed. 
 The vitalizing principle of each is the devotion of the 
 spirit to something greater and nobler than itself. 
 
 These are transforming influences. All the trans- 
 forming influences of the world are unselfish. There 
 is not a single selfish force in the world that is not 
 touched with sinister power, and the church is the only 
 embodiment of the things that are entirely unselfish, 
 the principles of self-sacrifice and devotion. Surely 
 this is the instrumentality by which rural communities 
 may be transformed and led to the things that are 
 great; and surely, there is nothing in the rural com- 
 munity in which the rural church ought not to be the 
 
THE CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE 
 
 leader and in which it ought not to be the vital actual 
 center. 
 
 That is the simple message which I came to utter 
 to-night, and as I began by saying that it would proba- 
 bly be no message, I repeat that it is no new message; 
 I dare say it has been repeatedly said in this confer- 
 ence. 1 merely wanted to add my testimony to the 
 validity and lire of that conception, because we are in 
 the world to do something more than look out for 
 ourselves. 
 
 The reason that I am proud to be an American is 
 that America was given birth to by such conceptions 
 as these; that its object in the world, its only reason 
 for existence as a government, was to show men the 
 paths of liberty and of mutual serviceability; to lift the 
 common man out of the paths, out of the slough of dis- 
 couragement, even despair, and set his feet upon firm 
 ground; to tell him here is the high road upon which 
 he is as much entitled to walk as any that walks; to 
 make him realize that here is a free field and no 
 favor, and that as his moral qualities and his physical 
 powers are, so will his success be. No man shall make 
 him afraid, and none shall do him an injustice. 
 
 These are the ideals of America. We have not al- 
 ways lived up to them; no community has always lived 
 up to them, but we are dignified by the fact that these 
 are the things that we live by and swear by. And 
 America is great in the world, not as she is a success- 
 ful government merely, but as she is a successful em- 
 bodiment of a great ideal of unselfish citizenship. 
 That is what makes the world feel America draws it 
 
A LAST WORD 273 
 
 like a lodestone; that is the reason that the ships which 
 cross the sea have so many hopeful eyes lifted from 
 their humbler quarters toward the shores of the new 
 world; that is the reason why men, after they have 
 been for a little while in America and go back for a 
 visit to the old country, have a new light in their faces, 
 the light that is kindled here in the country where they 
 have seen some of their hopes fulfilled — the light that 
 shines from America. 
 
 God grant that it may always shine, and that in 
 many a humble heart in quiet country churches the 
 flames may be lighted by which this great light is kept 
 alive. 
 
 A LAST WORD 
 
 The statement of Gifford Pinchot, chairman of the 
 Commission on the Church and Country Life, conclud- 
 ing the conference, was as follows : 
 
 This conference has set the country church problem 
 in a new position and has shown that the time is ripe 
 for a united, vigorous, and promising effort to give the 
 country church the power and influence which right- 
 fully belong to it. 
 
 It has proved that the denominations represented in 
 the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in Amer- 
 ica are ready and eager to work together to give new 
 strength to the country church. It has shown the value 
 of the Federal Council at a new angle, and it has pro- 
 cured for the country church problem a hearing and a 
 place that is national in every sense. 
 
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