This book may be kept out 
 
 TWO WEEKS 
 
 only, and is subject to a fine of TWO 
 CENTS a day thereafter. T* «"" u„ j.._ __ 
 the day indicated belov\| 
 
 DATE DUE 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 CARD 
 
 m^S 
 
 si 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2011 with funding from 
 
 Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/modernmethodsinc03mcnu 
 
Modern Methods 
 
 In the 
 
 Country Church 
 
 THE NEW CHURCH BUILDING 
 
 By 
 
 Matthew Brown McNutt 
 
Modern Methods 
 In The Country Church 
 
 An address delivered before the 
 
 McCormick Seminary 
 
 Alumni Association 
 
 April 28, 1910 
 MATTHEW BROWN McNUTT 
 
 Pastor of the 
 
 DuPAGE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 
 
 PLAINFIELD, ILLINOIS 
 
 R. F. D. No. 4 
 
 The Board of Home Missions 
 of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. 
 
 156 Fifth Ave., New York. 
 1911 
 
Copyright 1911 
 
 by 
 
 Young People's Missionary Movement 
 
 of the 
 
 United States and Canada 
 
MODERN METHODS IN THE 
 COUNTRY CHURCH 
 
 Mr. President, Fellow Alumni and 
 Brethren : 
 
 More than half the people of our great 
 nation still live in the country. And until 
 some short cut is discovered for producing 
 food the agricultural regions will continue 
 to be peopled. These millions must be 
 supplied with the Bread of Life. The 
 country church, therefore, has and will 
 have a mision for years to come. 
 
 The methods employed in the country 
 churches to-day are, to a greater or less 
 extent, either those transplanted from the 
 town and the city or they are methods that 
 were in use fifty years ago — the one class 
 of methods is as ill adapted to the modern 
 needs of the country as the other. 
 
 Perhaps the country church of the past 
 was all that was needed in its day or was as 
 good as the country people could then af- 
 ford. But the new era of scientific farm- 
 ing and the introduction of the modern 
 comforts and conveniences into the country 
 homes have brought a new demand for 
 and made possible better things for the 
 rural churches. 
 
 What the country church needs is to 
 work out its own problems from the coun- 
 try point of view. It needs to devise ap- 
 
 5 
 
propriate methods and to evolve anci build 
 up a type of life fitting into the needs of 
 the country people as we find them to-day. 
 
 A great deal depends upon the methods 
 employed in doing any kind of work suc- 
 cessfully, though the mode and manner 
 has not everything to do with it. I am 
 not a crank on methods. It goes without 
 saying that without God we "can do noth- 
 ing," no matter how good the methods. 
 However, without placing any limitations 
 on the Almighty, I believe that God can 
 dispense his grace more advantageously 
 and effectively through common sense 
 methods and a first-class equipment than 
 he can through slipshod methods and a 
 poor equipment. He can and does some- 
 times use the weak and foolish things, but 
 he certainly does not prefer weak and' fool- 
 ish things to serve him rather than the 
 strong and wise. 
 
 The Jews brought to the altar of sac- 
 rifice the firstlings of the flock — that which 
 was without spot and without blemish — 
 and the custom was significant. It teaches 
 us that all church work should proceed on 
 the principle that nothing is too good for 
 service in the kingdom of Christ. From 
 nothing, nothing comes, is as true in the 
 kingdom of grace as it is anywhere else. 
 It has been said that "Order is heaven's 
 
first law." If that is true, then, if earth 
 is to become heavenly, the business of 
 earth must be done "decently and in order." 
 The country church has yet to learn the 
 value of modern methods and the superior 
 advantage of a first-class equipment. 
 
 I do not know that I can serve you any 
 better to-day, than to tell you of some ex- 
 periments which I have been conducting in 
 a country church the last ten years. And 
 I hope I can do it modestly without seem- 
 ing to exploit myself. So many men deal 
 in generalities in speaking and writing on 
 the country church that it may be refresh- 
 ing to you to hear a description of some 
 country methods in actual operation. 
 
 THE OLD CHURCH BUILDING 
 
 Ten years ago last spring I went directly 
 from McCormick Seminary to Du Page 
 
 7 
 
Church — a country field thirty miles west 
 of Chicago and six miles from the nearest 
 railroad. It is surrounded by no town or 
 village ; — the church and manse stand alone 
 on the open prairie. 
 
 It is one of the oldest churches in Illinois. 
 The people are an average country folk of 
 Scotch, English, Irish, and German descent. 
 The congregation was then worshipping in 
 a frame structure built half a century be- 
 fore. It was the old type of church archi- 
 tecture — one room, boxy, straight board 
 seats, small plain glass windows and with 
 scarcely any furnishings. 
 
 The church and manse lots, enclosed 
 by the remnant of a wire fence, were veri- 
 table weed patches. North of the church 
 stood some old tumble-down sheds, the 
 sight of which made every passer-by shud- 
 der and think to himself, "Surely the Lord 
 hath deserted this place." The manse 
 had the same neglected appearance and 
 everything about the place reminded one 
 of a man who had gone away on a long 
 journey and had forgotten to leave any one 
 in care of his abode. 
 
 One of the elders, a farmer, had been 
 preaching for three years, or until he died. 
 The last minister had resigned with $400 
 back on his salary, which amount the church 
 borrowed to pay the debt. 
 
No one had united with the church for 
 five years. A club house has been fitted 
 up in the neighborhood to house an organi- 
 zation that called itself "The New Era 
 Club," but whose chief object and amuse- 
 ment turned out to be dancing, though its 
 original promoters had hoped for it some- 
 thing better. Many of the young people 
 of the neighborhood, including church 
 members, were spending evenings there. 
 The dancing element from the surround- 
 ing towns had also begun to frequent the 
 place. ! 
 
 The only service the church attempted 
 was to open the doors on Sunday for preach- 
 ing and Sunday-school. Collections were 
 taken once a year each for missions and 
 ministerial relief, and this was practically 
 the extent of the benevolent work. 
 
 Two-thirds of the Sunday-school teach- 
 ers were members of one family. The 
 three elders were also trustees, and each 
 taught a class in the Sunday-school. One 
 of these elders was also a Sunday-school 
 superintendent, Sunday-school treasurer, 
 church treasurer/ and treasurer of benevo- 
 lences. 
 
 All this very discouraging situation 
 existed in the midst of a thrifty and pros- 
 perous community where the public roads 
 are paved with gravel, with free delivery 
 
 9 
 
mail, good substantial houses and barns, 
 thoroughbred cattle and all the modern 
 farm machinery in the market. 
 
 This run-down condition of the church 
 was not a reflection upon the Church people 
 of the community nor upon those entrusted 
 with the leadership at that time. They 
 were good, earnest, conscientious men and 
 women. No one knew better than they 
 that; the affairs of the church were not 
 going well and none deplored more than 
 they the sad and apparently hopeless situa- 
 tion. Had they not been of the right kind 
 of stuff the church would doubtless have 
 disbanded years ago, as many such churches 
 have done. None were more anxious than 
 the Du Page people that the church should 
 grow and prosper, and as a rule they have 
 been ready and willing to adopt the new 
 plans and methods, and are still among the 
 most loyal and efficient workers. 
 
 The condition of this church at that 
 time was not exceptional. Other country 
 churches were and are, still, in the same 
 plight. Some people were saying the 
 country church has outlived its usefulness, 
 and that was and is true of the old type of 
 country church. Many such have given 
 up in despair and disbanded. Many others 
 still exist at the same dying rate. What 
 was the matter with this country church? 
 
 10 
 
What is the matter with that type of 
 country church? My diagnosis of the 
 case is, simply, a lack of vision, and the 
 want of adaptation to the new needs. 
 
 The Scotch elder that was preaching at 
 Du Page was a very good preacher, they 
 said, an able Bible scholar, and a man of 
 rare and charming personality. His pred- 
 ecessor was a good preacher too, accord- 
 ing to reports, but the methods of both were 
 inadequate. There are many good preach- 
 ers failing in the country to-day for the 
 same reason. They lack adequate con- 
 ception of the needs, they fail to see the 
 possibilities of country life. 
 
 There was a time when preaching and 
 an occasional pastoral visit was all that 
 was demanded of the country parson, and 
 the people were thought to perform their 
 part when they went to church and paid 
 the minister's salary. But it is not so 
 now. What was to be done ? 
 
 Jesus, the Head of the Church, once 
 said, "I came not to be ministered unto, 
 but to minister." Believing, therefore, 
 that he intended his church to be a minis- 
 tering church, I began at Du Page with the 
 idea that religion has to do with the whole 
 man — body, mind, and spirit ; that it deeply 
 concerns his social life, his business life, 
 
 11 
 
his education, his amusement, and every- 
 thing else that pertains to man's well-being. 
 I was brought up in a country church 
 and the idea I got of it in my boyhood was 
 that the church is a sort of a Sunday affair, 
 which dealt exclusively with men's souls 
 and good clothes. It was also a place of 
 long faces, for if there was any hilarity 
 among the boys at "meetin", we could al- 
 ways depend upon the hazel brush being 
 brought out when we got home ; a place 
 where dead men's bodies were carried, as 
 the funerals were invariably held in the 
 church. Well do I remember also how fear- 
 ful I was of the preacher, when, clad in his 
 long black broadcloth coat, he would make 
 his annual visits to our home. Two men I 
 greatly feared in those days. One was Mr. 
 Matteer, the preacher, and the other Mr. 
 Turney, the butcher. As boys and young 
 men we never associated our good times 
 with the church or the minister — except 
 the annual union Sunday-school picnic 
 which was really a delightful occasion. The 
 church did not seem to have much to do 
 with our daily lives, or our occupations 
 and amusements. It demanded nothing 
 of us, apparently, but to go to church and 
 sit still. Our companionships were out- 
 side of and independent of the church. It 
 was the day of the husking-bees, the apple- 
 
 12 
 
cuttings, the sugaring-offs and all those 
 most delightful, wholesome, and interesting 
 neighborhood pastimes in which old and 
 young alike engaged with such pleasure and 
 profit. What a pity they have gone out of 
 date ! It was before the day of commercial- 
 ized pastimes, — the amusement parks, the 
 public dance halls, the cheap vaudevilles 
 and the like. It is alarming how rapidly 
 these modern creatures are creeping in upon 
 the country people in these days of the 
 trolley, the automobile, and the horse and 
 buggy which every young man on the farm 
 now possesses — even the hired men. It is 
 far easier now for the country people to get 
 into the world current than it was forty 
 years ago. 
 
 But coming back to the old type of 
 country church, it did not seem to offer us 
 much but a long, dry sermon on Sunday — 
 and it was. dry to the boys and girls, — 
 hard, straight-backed seats, a book from the 
 Sunday-school library in which the good 
 boy and girl always died and went to 
 heaven, and those delightful annual visits 
 by the pastor ! 
 
 Now, I love that dear old country 
 church of my boyhood days, back in the 
 hills of Pennsylvania, and I like to think 
 that it did me a great deal more good than 
 I realized either then or now. It might 
 
 13 
 
have done worse. And it is furthest from 
 my purpose to speak disparagingly of it 
 or of the dear people who were its leaders. 
 I love them every one. It perhaps served 
 its day. But the point I am making is that 
 that type of country church will not meet 
 the needs of the country people to-day. 
 
 With these recollections of my child- 
 hood and the church, I resolved first of all, 
 when I went to Du Page, that I would get 
 next to the boys and girls ; that I would 
 make that old church a great center of at- 
 traction. Notice I did not say the great 
 center. I do not believe in the church at- 
 tempting to do everything or trying to do 
 things that might better be left to other 
 institutions. But I would make it a great 
 center of attraction; a hub of joys, of 
 happy memories and associations for that 
 entire community. I determined, with 
 God's help, to make it an indispensable 
 institution to every man, woman, and child 
 within its reach. 
 
 One of the good old Scotch elders, they 
 called him "Uncle Dan," — one of the dear- 
 est and best of men — put his arm around 
 me one day, it was a way he had of greeting 
 everybody, and he said very seriously, the 
 tears rolling down his cheeks, "Our young 
 people have got to dancing and they are 
 
 14 
 
 
being wooed away from God and the church. 
 How are you going to deal with them?" 
 
 I said, "Uncle Dan, I know from ex- 
 perience that young people will dance if 
 they have nothing better to do. I propose 
 to give them something better." 
 
 "Well," he continued, "just before you 
 came here our session passed a rule that 
 there w T as to be no dancing by members of 
 the Church, but I fear there is going to be 
 trouble when we come to enforce it." 
 
 I replied again, "Uncle Dan, it is im- 
 possible to shut off a stream entirely unless 
 you give it some other outlet." 
 
 I set to work, first, and organized an 
 old-fashioned singing school. It might 
 have been anything else just as well — a 
 class in scientific farming, annual husban- 
 dry, domestic science, or nature study. I 
 chose the singing-school because I had 
 some knowledge of music. The idea is to 
 have something that will afford a point of 
 contact between the leader and the people, 
 and also to get everybody interested in 
 doing something. The singing-school met 
 one night in the week, in the church. There 
 was some good musical talent among the 
 young folks and this new enterprise proved 
 to be a great hit. Out of it grew a good 
 strong chorus choir, a male quartet, a 
 ladies' quartet, an orchestra, and some 
 
 15 
 
good soloists. Besides, it improved the 
 singing in the church and Sunday-school a 
 hundred per cent. 
 
 We began at once to observe all the 
 special days — a dozen or more. This kept 
 our musicians busy. And the first thing 
 we knew the young people and many of the 
 "outsiders," as they were called, were tak- 
 ing part in these special services. They 
 just couldn't keep out. And, of course, 
 the fathers and mothers had come to hear 
 their children sing and play and speak, and 
 likewise the doting grandparents, and the 
 uncles and aunts and cousins and sweet- 
 hearts all had to come. 
 
 Next we started what we called a gospel 
 chorus. We got some live new song-books 
 and went singing around from home to 
 home. At first some of the people were a 
 little shy of the gospel chorus, but soon 
 they were vying with each other to see who 
 would secure these singers. The chorus 
 went to the homes of the aged who were 
 too feeble to come to the meeting-house. 
 It sang for the sick. It sang in the homes 
 of those who never heard any other music. 
 
 An athletic association already existed. 
 We encouraged the boys in their field-day 
 sports. Two or three baseball teams were 
 organized. We played successfully many of 
 the surrounding towns including Chicago. 
 
 16 
 
 
We never challenged the Cubs but we did 
 challenge a team from The Fullerton 
 Avenue Presbyterian Church, Chicago, and 
 beat them on our grounds one Fourth of 
 July, 20 to o. The pastor of the 
 church had come along with his boys, 
 and he kept insisting that we must have 
 some professional players from outside, 
 but they were just the husky farmer lads. 
 
 The church building was not suited for 
 social gatherings, so a series of sociables 
 was planned at the different homes. These 
 were not the money-making kind ; they 
 were sociables indeed. The older people 
 often attended and engaged in the play 
 with the young folks. Refreshments 
 were served free. At these gatherings 
 special attention was given to strangers and 
 to the backward boys and girls, and a few 
 of us always had upon our hearts those who 
 were not of the fold of Christ. They grew 
 to be a sociable lot of folks, I tell you ! 
 They became well acquainted. And such 
 fellowship ! Such friendships ! Such 
 companionships ! And all centering around 
 the church. 
 
 The women of the parish had long had a 
 missionary society. One of the mothers 
 said to me one day, "Pastor, don't you 
 think it would be a good thing if we had 
 some kind of a little social circle for our 
 
 17 
 
girls? They are just aching for something 
 to do." I said, "Yes, let us have it." She 
 invited them to her home one afternoon 
 and nine responded. They had a delightful 
 time and they called themselves "The 
 Girls' Mission Band," deciding to meet 
 thereafter once a month. In these little 
 gatherings were combined the devotional, 
 social, educational work, and club fea- 
 tures. After the program they would sew 
 and make garments for the poor in the city. 
 A meal is always served at these meetings 
 by the hostess. The "Band" grew and so 
 did the girls. When they became women 
 they changed the name of the Band to "The 
 Young Women's Missionary Society," 
 which now has nearly forty members. As 
 the young women marry, they are trans- 
 ferred to the Women's Society. 
 
 A similar work was begun for the young 
 men. It is simply the young men's class 
 in the Sunday-school organized, and is 
 called "The Young Men's Bible Class." 
 It has upwards of fifty members. This 
 class meets every Sunday morning with 
 the Sunday-school for Bible study and is 
 taught by the pastor. Besides, it meets 
 the first Tuesday of each month for fellow- 
 ship, fun, business, devotions, and for 
 literary and social purposes. Much has 
 to be combined in one meeting, because it 
 
 18 
 
is difficult for people to get together very 
 often in this country. 
 
 This class, and the Young Women's 
 Class have become the strong right arm of 
 the church. We are now selecting our 
 teachers and officers for the Sunday-school 
 and church from them. 
 
 The young men conduct a lecture 
 course, not for pecuniary profit, but for 
 the sole and only purpose of furnishing 
 wholesome entertainment for the com- 
 munity. We have had some hundred-dol- 
 lar attractions. The entire community 
 patronize this lecture course without ex- 
 ception and regardless of creed. The 
 Catholics and the German Lutherans at- 
 tend. People from the surrounding towns 
 are frequently seen in the audiences, driv- 
 ing sometimes ten miles or more. 
 
 Another enterprise which the young 
 men's Bible class has introduced and sup- 
 ported is a bureau of publicity. The boys 
 invested in a small printing-press. They, 
 with the assistance of the pastor, do all 
 the church printing and issue a local church 
 paper. 
 
 This class has developed some very good 
 speakers and singers. Under its auspices 
 open-air gospel and song services are held 
 in a grove in the summer-time and in the 
 public schoolhouses in winter. These 
 
 19 
 
meetings have been a great blessing to the 
 young men as well as to those to whom 
 they minister. In the pastor's absence on 
 Sunday his Bible class has frequently taken 
 charge of the service, three of four of them 
 giving short gospel talks. 
 
 You are wondering what became of the 
 dancing? Well, they forgot all about it in 
 about two years, and there has not been a 
 dance in the New Era Hall for over eight 
 years. The building stands idle and is 
 crumbling to ruin. The pastor never 
 mentioned dancing in the pulpit or to a 
 single individual in private. It was simply 
 starved out. 
 
 Our Sunday-school is well organized and 
 graded and has three hundred members in- 
 cluding the Cradle Roll and the Home De- 
 partment. 
 
 The pledge system of finance has been 
 introduced for the local work and for ben- 
 evolences as well. Our ideal is a pledge 
 from every man, woman, and child. We 
 have devised an envelope for making pay- 
 ments which answers all purposes. A 
 financial secretary keeps an account with 
 each individual and sends statements at 
 the end of each quarter if necessary. We 
 have found that the pledge system is a 
 great improvement over the old way of 
 taking collections once a year for the 
 
 20 
 
"Boards." This church in the last ten 
 years, in addition to building a $10,000 
 edifice, remodeling the manse, making other 
 improvements, and increasing the minister's 
 salary forty per cent., has given to benevo- 
 lences $5,270, as against $6,407 in the fifty 
 years preceding. 
 
 As a rule the various societies in the 
 church are not made money-raising insti- 
 tutions. The system for raising money by 
 sociables, fairs, and other devices has been 
 almost entirely abolished. 
 
 As an ideal we are working toward the 
 entire support, ourselves, of both a home 
 and foreign missionary. 
 
 The Sunday-school and the morning 
 preaching service are the only meetings 
 held on Sunday. A Sunday evening ser- 
 vice is not adapted to the conditions in 
 this community at the present time, and 
 we do not attempt it except on special 
 occasions. Nor is there a mid-week ser- 
 vice held for the same reason. 
 
 The cottage prayer-meeting is the best 
 for the country, dividing the parish into 
 groups of twelve or fifteen members each, 
 all the groups meeting on the same evening 
 and each having its own leader, organist, 
 and chorister. The leaders may form the 
 pastor's cabinet. The various business 
 
 21 
 
plans of the church may be talked over at 
 these meetings. 
 
 There have been no evangelistic ser- 
 vices in this church by professional evan- 
 gelists for ten years. Formerly, this was a 
 favorite method. Such distinguished evan- 
 gelists as Moody and Sankey, and Majors 
 Cole and Whittle have conducted meetings 
 in the Du Page Church. And these were 
 successful too. But there is not another 
 ten year period in the history of the church 
 that shows as many accessions as the last 
 decade. 
 
 The one by one method as illustrated 
 by the Master and by Andrew and Philip, 
 has been used. A great deal of the evan- 
 gelistic work is done through the Sunday- 
 school. Every class is a personal work 
 class. The teachers are encouraged to lead 
 their pupils in personal work. 
 
 Great care is taken to press the claims 
 of Christ and the church upon the young. 
 The parents co-operate with the pastor in 
 this work of dealing with the young. This 
 is done through pastoral visitation and 
 through pastoral letters. Occasional ser- 
 mons are preached to the children, and a 
 Christian training-class is conducted for 
 those who are about to enter the church. 
 There have been few communion services 
 when there was not somebody to unite with 
 
 22 
 
the church, and between communion sea- 
 sons members have been received. There 
 is scarcely a person in the parish between 
 the ages of ten and twenty-one years of age 
 who is not a member of the church. 
 
 This church has learned the value of 
 inspirational meetings. Two principal ones 
 are held each year. One takes place on 
 New-year's eve, when the whole com- 
 munity, old and young, gather at the 
 church as one family to watch the old year 
 die and to welcome in the new. This is 
 no common "watch service." The even- 
 ing is planned to overflow with good and 
 interesting things. 
 
 The other great inspirational meeting is 
 held at the close of the church year. It 
 is an all-day meeting, and the whole coun- 
 tryside turn out to help round up the year's 
 work. The ladies serve a banquet at noon, 
 free of charge. There is always good music 
 on the occasions and two or three good 
 participants from outside supplement the 
 home talent. These big meetings are a 
 great uplift to the country people. They 
 promote friendship and good fellowship, 
 and the dead-level gait always receives a 
 severe jolt. 
 
 Other inspirational meetings are held 
 for particular organizations in the church. 
 The Young Men's Bible Class held one not 
 
 23 
 
long since, attended by one hundred young 
 men. 
 
 Eventually this church outgrew the old 
 building, and it rose up and erected a new 
 one, costing, including furnishings, $10,000 
 in money and the equivalent of another 
 thousand in hauling which the farmers did 
 gratis. Practically all the money was sub- 
 scribed before a shovelful of earth was 
 moved for the foundation. No offering was 
 taken at the dedication for building pur- 
 poses or for furnishings. Every person in 
 the community was given opportunity .to 
 help build the new church. And all re- 
 sponded heartily. The Catholics and Ger- 
 man Lutherans contributed to the building 
 fund and helped to haul the materials. 
 
 The new structure is Gothic in design 
 and is built of brick. The interior is fin- 
 ished in red oak. A handsome fresco in 
 water-colors adorns the walls, with panels 
 of burlap below the surbase molding. This 
 with the beautiful art glass windows gives 
 the interior a most pleasing and homelike 
 appearance. The floors are covered with 
 cork carpet. The main auditorium has a 
 bowl-shaped floor and seats three hundred 
 people. The assembly-room of the Sun- 
 day-school apartment, which is separated, 
 from the auditorium by accordion doors, 
 has an additional one hundred and fifty 
 
 24 
 
sittings. There are fourteen rooms in all, 
 including a number of classrooms, choir and 
 cloak rooms, toilet, pastor's study, vesti- 
 bule, kitchen, dinjing-hall, cistern, and 
 furnace and fuel rooms. The building is 
 heated with hot air furnaces and lighted 
 with gas. A system of water-works sup- 
 plies water wherever needed about the 
 building. 
 
 A library has been started which al- 
 ready has a thousand volumes. It is pur- 
 posed to put in a line of reference books. A 
 number of study courses are being planned 
 in scientific agriculture, civil government, 
 sociology, nature study, and domestic 
 science. 
 
 There is a prevalent idea among the 
 country people that the young folks must 
 go away from home to get an education. 
 When they get it they seldom come back 
 to the farm. A very large per cent, of the 
 country boys and girls never complete the 
 eighth grade in the common schools. They 
 think their opportunity for getting an edu- 
 cation is past when they leave the pub- 
 lic school to work on the farm, if they think 
 about it at all. We are seeking to revive 
 the "fireside university" and to teach the 
 country people the possibilities of home 
 study. It is not the purpose of the church, 
 in doing this, to become a knowledge- 
 
 25 
 
imparting institution, but rather to create 
 an atmosphere of research in the commu- 
 nity, to foster the spirit of inquiry and 
 investigation cf truth, and to afford oc- 
 casion and opportunity for such investiga- 
 tion 
 
 To sum up the principles underlying 
 these methods : Make the church a minis- 
 tering institution. Let it be many-sided. 
 Let it seek to serve the whole man, body, 
 mind, and spirit, rather than the spirit 
 alone. Let it seek to make this a new earth 
 by teaching the people to do all things to 
 the glory of God. Let them know that 
 honest toil is sacred, that innocent amuse- 
 ment is holy, and that these are also ways 
 of praising and glorifying God as well as 
 the Sunday devotions. Let the church 
 seek to discover to men their talents, and 
 then encourage and help them in their de- 
 velopment. Distribute the responsibilities 
 as widely as capacity for efficiency will 
 warrant. Lead everybody into doing some- 
 thing useful for somebody else. Make the 
 church to minister to the whole community 
 rather than to a particular body in the 
 community, the aim being, not to make 
 Presbyterians or Baptists or Methodists 
 or Catholics, but to create an atmosphere 
 in the neighborhood to breathe in, which 
 will help Presbyterians to be better Presby- 
 
 26 
 
terians, Baptists better Baptists, Metho- 
 dists better Methodists, Catholics better 
 Catholics, and all better men and women, 
 — an atmosphere that will inspire to higher 
 thinking and nobler living. 
 
 Let there be as much preaching of the 
 gospel as ever — and more — for the gospel 
 of Christ is still "the power of God unto 
 salvation to every one that believeth," 
 but let there be more of the spirit of Christ 
 in ministering to men. Make it easy for 
 people to do right, and as hard as possible 
 for them to do wrong. 
 
 There is plenty of good solid work to be 
 done in the country church. "The har- 
 vest truly is plenteous but the laborers are 
 few." It is astonishing how few men the 
 Lord seems to be calling to our country 
 churches. I say it reverently. How many 
 ministers are preaching in the country 
 churches because they love the work and 
 realize its importance? Too few. A great 
 many ministers are staying in the rural 
 churches not from choice, but from force 
 of circumstances. They are old and almost 
 worn out, or they are sick, or have missed 
 their calling and imagine the country folk 
 will not know it, or if they are young they 
 feel too inexperienced to tackle a city 
 church. So they practise awhile on the 
 farmers until they learn their business and 
 
 27 
 
the Lord calls them to a larger (?) sphere 
 of usefulness in some city. 
 
 The country needs ministers of strength 
 and vigor in body and mind, who choose 
 the rural work first of all because of its 
 importance and because of the great need, 
 and who come determined to stay it 
 through. 
 
 Here is a work that calls for dauntless 
 courage, the brightest talents, and the 
 most heroic and self-sacrificing spirits. Let 
 no minister of the gospel be afraid or 
 ashamed to take charge of a country church 
 and "be buried from the world," as some 
 have put it. 
 
 And if any one undertakes such a work, 
 let him stick to it. The hope of the country 
 church is the long pastorate. And let no 
 one engaged in this work be keeping his 
 head up in the air all the time, looking 
 around for a bigger place. The chances 
 are the man who does that is not big enough 
 to fill the place he has. Magnify the work ! 
 Make of the little church a big church, — 
 large in helpful ministries, great in discov- 
 ering and utilizing opportunities for ser- 
 vice, wonderful in seeing and realizing the 
 possibilities of country life. Whoever does 
 this will be doing one of the noblest and one 
 of the most needed services for his country 
 and for mankind. 
 
 28 
 
Colonel Roosevelt has well said: "In 
 the last analysis the man on the farm is the 
 man upon whom our whole civilizaton 
 rests. The growth and progress of the 
 country depends upon him. I want to see 
 conditions kept favorable for him and for 
 his wife." 
 
 Does a mother feel that her sphere is 
 narrow or that her work is in vain when she 
 rears noble sons and daughters for her 
 country? It is the supreme prerogative of 
 the country minister to shape the early 
 lives of presidents, statesmen, preachers, 
 teachers, missionaries, and business men, 
 and to conserve the physical strength and 
 the moral and intellectual vigor of the 
 whole human race by leading the country 
 people in truth and righteousness, and it is 
 one of the biggest businesses on earth. 
 
 29 
 
*&& 
 
 S>