^-tf^' 1#- / ) ■*! LIBRARY OF THE MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE sour BV 638 C6 V-3 W, m- ^a m sKfiBlse This book may be kept out TWO WEEKS only, and is subject to a fine of TWO CENTS a day thereafter. T f ,„;ii u the day indicated beloW DATE DUE CARD m m & ^ PAMPHLETH OH THE COUITTRY CHURCH Volume 3 6 3 0.30* % 3 v. 3 Federal council of the churches of Christ in America, What every church should know about its community, General Association of Congregational Churches of Massachusetts, Advance reports of various committees, 1908 and 1909 McElfresh, F, The country Sunday school McTTutt, M. B. Modern methods in the country church McUutt , M, B. A post-graduate school with a purpose Massachusetts Federation of Churches, Quarterly "bulletin. Facts and factors. October 1910 "The part of the church in rural progress as discussed at the Amherst Conference." Root, E, T. State federations Taft, A, B. The mistress of the rural manse Taf t , A. B. The tent mission Taylor, G. Basis for social evangelism with rural applications Wells, G. F. An answer to the New England country church question, Wells, G. F. What our country churches need Wilson, W. H. The church and the transient Wilson, W. H. Conservation of boys Wilson, W. H. The country church Wilson, W, H. The country church program Wilson, W, H. Don't breathe on the thermometer Wilson, W. H. The farmers* church and the farmers' ^2 college CO co Wilson, W. H. Getting the worker to church 03 Wilson, W. H. The girl on the farm Wilson 9 W. H. How to manage a country life institute Wilson, W. II, "Marrying the land." Wilson, W. H. 1T0 need to "be poor in the country Wilson, W* H. Synod's opportunity Wilson, W. H. What limits the rural Evangel • « « H 9 The church and country life. Pamphlet issued by the Board of Home Missions of the Presby* terian Church* Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries http://www.archive.org/details/dontbreatheonthe03wils DON'T BREATHE ON THE THERMOMETER Warren H. Wilson, Ph, D. The state of the country church is a good register of the state of country life. Churches respond to any deficit in the prosperity of the people. They record to a nicety the economic and social experiences of the population in which they stand* Throughout the Middle States , the country churches exhibit at the present time, the evidence of industrial disturbance. They are affected by the retirement of farmers from the countryside to the towns and by the wrong methods of agri culture , which have impoverished the community life in the farming sections, Some ministers think to remedy this condition by reviving the church alone, When I was a boy, I remember breathing on the thermometer. It had the effect of heating up the thermometer for a time, but it did not improve the weather, and the mercury fell immediately afterward to as low a figure as be- j fore. The only way to revive the country church is to revive the rural community. Christian people are bound to warm up the town who assist in the re- vival of rural prosperity. Then the temperature of the church will rise and the spiritual life of the whole people will partake of the social prosperity which has been effected in the community. For this purpose the missionary agencies of our churches are working in the Eastern States in close co-operation with agricultural experts. Such men as Gifford Pinchot, President of the Conserva- tion Commission; L, H.Bailey, Dean of the Agricultural; Department of Cornell; Kenyon L, Butterfield, Presi- dent of Massachusetts Agricultural College; Harry Hayward, Director of the Agricultural Department of Delaware College, are acting in recognition of *the principle stated by a great agricultural editor; "There will never be a revival of rural prosperity without a revival of religion. w "The One Day Conferences on the Country Church", i which are being held in the great agricultural centres by the Presbyterian Department of Church and Labor, express this co-operation of all interests for the revival of the rural community. It is not enough that the soil be made more productive, nor even is it enough that the farmer shall secure bet- ter profits. The social life of the country communi- ty must be itself elevated, and to effect this all who have to do with the life of the people in the country must work together . This co-operation is based on the fact that country Jlife is one. The whole country community meets and is embodied in each resident in the country town or farming section. It is impossible to secure even agricultural prosperity or increased profits without a better country church and a better country school. < The duty of the Church in this emergency is the i duty of agitation. Religious people must be brought I to the acceptance of a higher standard of country life. Scientific agriculture itself is the beginning in this higher standard. A thorough knowledge of the country population is 9 however , the Church's great duty for without the supreme sanction of religious institutions the improved country school will never come into general favor | and without the approval and forwarding of the country church scientific ag- riculture will always labor under the stinted ap- proval which has come to the farmers* institute in the past. ^J^is the duty of the country church to di re c_t__the ..highest social and economic life of the countrxJ5_QJ?ulation» This duty from her own point of view means the problem of actual survival. But from the viewpoint of the community as a whole , it is the largest religious problem that can be pre- sented to ministers and officers of country churches.