It is evident, both from this neglect of the property and the meager

appropriation for school support, that the farmer to-day has no special

loyalty to the little red schoolhouse. In fact in some quarters there is

great dissatisfaction with the schools as distinctly hostile to rural

life, not in sympathy with rural ideals, and serving mainly as a

"gang-way" to the life of the town. The Country Life Commission reports:

"The schools are held responsible for ineffective farming, lack of ideals

and the drift to town. This is not because the rural schools as a whole

are declining, but because they are in a state of arrested development,

and have not yet put themselves in consonance with the recently changed

conditions of life."

The country people have a right to insist that their schools shall fit

their boys and girls for country life, inculcate in them a genuine love

for the country and an appreciation of rural values, with the natural

expectation that most of them will be needed on the farm. Even if a third

of the pupils should ultimately go to the city, it is unjust to the

majority and to the community, to make the country school simply a

preparation for city life.

_The Urbanized Country School_

"The education given to country children," says Sir Horace Plunkett, "has

been invented for them in the town, and it not only bears no relation to

the life they are to lead, but actually attracts them toward a town

career."

From the beginning, doubtless, teachers have been largely city-trained.

Though country-bred perhaps, they have caught the city fever and it seems

to be very contagious. They have brought city manners and styles in

clothing, the city standards and ideals and the love for city life.

Unconsciously perhaps they have impressed the minds of children with the

superiority of all things urban. Even the text-books are products of the

city. The city curriculum has been adopted whole,--contrary to all reason.

The teaching material often, instead of being connected with the farm,

echoes the distant city's surging life. It deals with stocks and bonds

and commerce, rather than problems of the dairy, the silo or the soil.

The suggestive power of such books and teachers is very great with

impressionable children. The lesson is quickly learned to honor commerce

above farming, city speed above country thoroughness, superficial success

above the homely virtues, and mere numbers, bigness, roar and hustle above

the lasting joy of tested friendships. With the young minds filled with

the tales of the wonderful city, which rival the Arabian Nights in

allurement, the wonder is, not that so many are dazzled and follow the

flame, but that so many remain on the farm. Insofar as the schools do

stimulate the two great disintegrating tendencies of rural life, the

townward trend of the boys and girls and the increase of absentee

landlords, the country folks have a right to complain. Let the schools

train for the soil rather than away from the soil. Let them exalt rural

ideals and develop rural interests. Let them open the eyes of the country

boys and girls not for fault finding and discontent, but to see the beauty

of the country, the privilege of country freedom and the vast

possibilities of scientific farming and soil productiveness. Before this

can be done, normal schools for rural teachers must move out of the city,

or import, straight from the country, enough country sense and sympathy to

fit the teachers personally for their tasks. Probably the latter. To meet

this evident need, progressive Wisconsin has established county training

schools which give prospective teachers distinctly the rural point of

view; and more than sixty normal schools have established special

departments for the training of teachers in country life and the

essentials of a rural education. Meanwhile some serious problems handicap

the rural school.[31]

_Inferior Equipment and Meager Support_

There are twelve million country school children in the United States and

only half that number of children in cities. Yet the city has invested

twice as much as the country in public school property and spends far more

for school support each year. The average country boy's education costs

but $12.52 a year; while the cities spend $30.78 annually on each pupil.

The question is a fair one, should the boy and girl be penalized for

living in the country? Why should the boy who happens by the accident of

birth to live in the country suffer a needless handicap? When our Puritan

ancestors established the free public school system, the purpose was to

maintain _equal rights for all_, the children of both rich and poor alike.

The welfare of a republic depends on the maintenance of this principle.

It was a significant way-mark of human progress when schools were

established in every community, in city or country, where all children

might have an equal chance before the law. But with the growth of great

cities and the decadence of once prosperous rural communities, the

country boy has been losing his share. The city's growth has in many ways

cost the country dear. It is certainly but fair that in return the state

as a whole should share the expense of the rural school.

_The Weakness of the District System_

A relic of pioneer days when rural life was closely organized within small

communities, the district unit for school management still persists in

most states to the present day. It originated in Massachusetts, but that

state was the first to discard it, thirty years ago. Long ago Horace Mann

declared the law of 1789 which established the district system "the most

unfortunate law on the subject of common schools ever enacted in the

state."

The school district is too small a unit either for school management or

taxation. It is democratic to a fault; but it is too easy for stingy

individuals to control the situation and weaken the schools by their

parsimony. Local jealousies and shameless favoritism also make the system

bad. The loss of population has naturally aggravated this evil, leaving in

many a once thriving school a little lonely group of children, devoid of

any enthusiasm or school spirit. The township is the smallest possible

unit for efficiency, and the county unit, so successful in Georgia and

elsewhere in the South, is better still. Ultimately the state is likely to

be the unit both of school taxation and administration. Only thus can

reasonable uniformity and standard of efficiency be maintained, in city

and country.

_Other Problems of the Country School_

Next to the blunder of the district unit, growing worse in the face of a

shrinking population, is the serious difficulty of securing capable

teachers and holding them long enough to gain real success. The problem of

maintenance is crucial here. So small are the salaries, men are rapidly

being crowded out of the ranks. In the North Atlantic states only one

teacher in seven is a man; and less than one in four in all the country.

There can be no hope for better rural schools till the salary is made

respectable. Maryland, North Dakota and other states have enacted minimum

salary laws which have decidedly raised the standard.

The problem of supervision is a serious one, especially when complicated

with politics as is often true of the county or state superintendency.

Professor H. W. Foght significantly suggests: "The man who supervises the

schools should have at least as good an academic and professional

preparation as the teacher working under him. _This is seldom the case._"

The incompetency of the school board, and the unwillingness of competent

men to serve, still further complicates the problem. In many a community

less earnest attention is given to the school which must train the boys

and girls for life than is given to the problem of breeding horses and

cattle.

In most rural communities the school building is still the little building

of the "box-car type," unattractive without and bare within, and as devoid

of practical utility in equipment as of aesthetic charm. Equipment is

less essential than personality, but to accomplish results with such a

handicap is heartbreaking work. Slowly the modern type of rural school is

making its appearance along the country-side; and by its sheer

attractiveness is winning back to the school something of local pride.

The great problem of what to teach, in order best to fit the pupils for a

satisfying and successful country life, is only beginning to be faced

frankly by many rural schools. In the past six years, however, the idea

has been slowly gaining attention that the country school does not need

the city curriculum, but requires a special program of its own. This

involves much more than the technical study of rudimentary agriculture,

but it must include that. By giving the reasons underlying the ordinary

processes of farming and introducing the boys to the elements of the

science as well as stimulating them to become proficient in the oldest of

the arts, the school is able to arouse a real ambition to remain in

country life and be a successful farmer on modern lines.

II. Modern Plans for School Improvement.

_Arguments for and Against Consolidation_

The centralization of country schools has been forced by the logic of

circumstances. "Suppose you start to a creamery with 100 pounds of milk,

and 45 pounds leak out on the way, could you make your business pay?" asks

Dr. J. W. Robertson, a Canadian leader. "And still, of every 100 children

in the elementary schools, 45 of them fall out by the way,--in other

words, the average attendance is but 55%. But the consolidated schools in

the five eastern provinces, with their gardens, manual training and

domestic economy, now bring 97 of 100 children to school every day, and

with no additional expense."

Consolidation is simply efficiency applied to the rural school situation.

Instead of perhaps eight separate schools, housed in badly ventilated and

insanitary buildings, with very poor equipment, there is one central

building, modern in construction and satisfactory in every detail. Instead

of eight teachers wasting time over six to fifteen pupils each, with no

enthusiasm, there are four teachers working splendidly in team-work, and a

fine school spirit, the pupils attending regularly, partly because they no

longer have to trudge two miles to school but are conveyed at public

expense and partly because they are more interested in a really effective

school. The saving of waste sometimes makes it possible to conduct such a

school at an actual reduction in expense over the district system, as is

the experience in South Carolina. The motive, however, is not economy but

to furnish the children better teaching and better facilities for

effective education.

While consolidation clearly spells greater efficiency, the plan is

obviously impossible under certain conditions and sometimes undesirable.

In a widely scattered country the small district school is the only

alternative to instruction at home, at least for children under high

school age. There is a reasonable limit to the distance to which pupils

should be carried. Opinions naturally will differ greatly in determining

this reasonable limit. Furthermore weather conditions greatly complicate

the problem, particularly where muddy roads are impassable or the northern

climate prescribes deep snow drifts which prohibit transportation. Of

course even the neighborhood school suffers under these conditions; but

the consolidated school in a large township would be obliged to close

during seasons of extreme weather.

[Illustration: Consolidated school at North Madison, Madison Township,

Lake County, Ohio. Eight conveyances filled with children may be seen

lined up in the foreground. (Courtesy of A. B. Graham, College of

Agriculture, Columbus, Ohio.)]

[Illustration: The John Swaney School, District 532, McNabb, Illinois.

Irwin A. Madden, Principal.]

Moral and social objections must also be faced in this connection.

Granting, as everyone must, the efficiency argument for the centralized

rural school, we must be careful that our teaching efficiency is not

gained at too high a cost. It is a rather serious thing for small children

to be far from home regularly through the day; and the usual viewpoint of

the mother easily wins our sympathy. We have less consideration for the

community pride which suffers when the district is abolished as a social

unit. But when we are reminded of the actual moral dangers to which

children are sometimes subjected in the privacy of the covered wagon, we

cannot dismiss the objection lightly. The solution, however, is not in the

direction of the inefficient district school, for that, too, has its moral

dangers; but in thorough supervision of the transportation under

trustworthy adults.

While the gospel of consolidation is rapidly gaining, all through the

country, closing thousands of unnecessary schools every year, the movement

often meets determined opposition, though advocated by all leading

educational authorities. In time, however, in a disintegrating community,

the scarcity of children forces centralization. The Indiana statute makes

this automatic by its very sensible provisions. The law enacted eleven

years ago permitted school trustees to close schools having less than 12

for an average attendance. The amended law of 1907 allowed the abandonment

of schools with an attendance of 15 or less and made it compulsory if the

number fell below 13. Consequently 679 rural schools in Indiana were

abandoned in 1904, 830 in 1906 and 1,314 in 1908 and in the latter year

16,034 children were carried to school.

_Advantages of Purely Rural Centralization_

In a closely settled township the natural center for the consolidated

school is the village, other things being equal. But if the center is a

city or a large town, results are not ideal. It is not good for country

children to be village or city commuters. If the driver is the right sort

of a man, the drive itself need not be harmful; but distance from home,

particularly in a village among strangers, day after day, is not a good

thing for most children. Furthermore, to add the country children to the

city or village school means one more method of exploiting the rural

neighborhoods and urbanizing the children. From the country view-point it

is not desirable. The town school does not pretend to fit for rural life,

but is frankly based on city needs.

The purely rural type of consolidated school is gaining in favor. To this

plan must country lovers look for a school which combines efficiency with

real training for rural life and avoids many of the objections to village

centralization. Professor Foght speaks of it with enthusiasm: "This is

the ideal type. It contemplates the establishment of the school right in

the heart of the rural community, where the child can dwell in close

communion with nature, away from the attractions and allurements of the

city. In such an environment establish the farm child's school. Build it

good and large; equip it with all the working tools necessary to the

greatest measure of successful work. Add broad acres for beautiful grounds

and garden and experimental areas. _And surely the rural school problem

will then be in a fair way to solution._"[32]

_A Thoroughly Modern Rural School_

The finest type of the modern rural school seems to have been at last

reports the "John Swaney School" in Putnam County, Illinois, located in

the open country two miles from the small village of McNabb. This school

was reported to the Cleveland Convention of the National Education

Association, by a special committee on rural schools "as affording the

best illustration of public sentiment, private liberality and wise

organization combined, that the committee was able to find in any

consolidated district in the United States." In making this report Prof.

O. J. Kern said further, "The building stands near the north side of a

beautiful campus of twenty-four acres of timber pasture. This campus was

donated by Mr. John Swaney, who is a farmer of moderate circumstances, a

man who believes in better things for country children. His was a worthy

deed in behalf of a worthy cause and should prove a suggestion and an

inspiration to public spirited farmers in other communities. The

consolidated school is an illustration of the fundamental fact that if

country people want better schools in the country for country children,

they must spend more money for education and spend it in a better way.

There is no other way."

The building is an attractive brick building located among beautiful shade

trees. It contains four recitation rooms besides a large auditorium used

for lectures, concerts and basket-ball; two laboratories, two library and

office rooms, girls' play room, cloak room, and a room in the basement for

manual training which is well equipped. It has apparatus also for teaching

cooking and sewing. It is equipped with steam heat, running water by

air-pressure system, and a gasolene gas generator. The campus is ample for

agricultural work besides the football and baseball fields and tennis

courts and the home for the five resident teachers.

_A Rural High School Course of Study_

In the high school department of this consolidated school a well balanced

curriculum is followed, based upon the special needs of rural life, strong

in vocational courses, yet not lacking in the liberal culture studies. It

includes the following: _First Year_, English I, Algebra, Physiology,

Agronomy I or Latin, Household Science or Manual Training, Physical

Geography, Horticulture or Latin. _Second Year_, English II, Algebra,

Geometry, Zoology, Ancient History, Botany, Animal Husbandry or Household

Science, Drawing and Music. _Third Year_, English III, Chemistry,

Agronomy II or Latin or Household Science, English History, Animal

Husbandry. _Fourth Year_, English IV, Physics, Household Science or

Agronomy III, American History, Bookkeeping, Arithmetic and Civics. The

farm laboratory work is in charge of experts from the Illinois Experiment

Station.

[Illustration: Domestic Economy Rooms, Macdonald Consolidated School,

Guelph, Canada.]

[Illustration: Manual Training Department of the Same School.]

[Illustration: Manual Training in a Small Rural School, Edgar County,

Illinois.]

As Dr. Warren H. Wilson states so well, "The teaching of agriculture is

not for the making of farmers, but men and women. It must be more than a

mere school of rural money-making. The teaching of agriculture needed in

the schools is for the purpose of training in country life. The country

school must make the open country worth while. It will teach agriculture

as the basis of an ideal life, rather than as a quick way of profits."

However, though this is strictly true of the boys who study agriculture,

if they can actually become proficient enough to give their fathers

points, the evident "practical" value of the modern school will appeal so

strongly to the farmers that its future support is assured. The farmers

cannot be blamed for having little love for the school which alienates

their children from country life; but schools which really train for rural

citizenship will be appreciated by the country folks. And in time there

will be more John Swaneys, men who will show their love for a real school

for country life by endowing it after the manner of the old New England

academies.

_Elementary Agriculture and School Gardens_

To delay the teaching of agriculture until the high school years would be

to lose its most strategic value. It should be a regular course in all

rural schools, beginning before the natural rural interests have been

turned to discontent. As a rural educator says, "Let them early learn to

know nature and to love it, and to know that they are indigenous to the

soil; that here they must live and die. Give us many such schools, and the

farm youth is in no danger of leaving the farm."

Although agricultural teaching has been slowly winning its way into our

American schools, it has been a feature of even the primary schools in

France since 1879 and in most other European countries more recently. The

wonderful agricultural revival of Denmark dates from the introduction of

this subject in the schools. Elementary agriculture is taught in every

rural district of the land, and it gives the children that love for the

very soil which makes Danish patriotism unique.

The Macdonald movement in Canada, backed by the government, has put that

country well in the lead on our continent in this matter. It is spreading

fast now in the States, however. Seven states in the South alone require

by law agricultural instruction in rural schools. Many states now require

normal school students to prepare to teach the subject as an essential

branch of rural education; so that its future is assured.

The laboratory work in school gardens is a most interesting feature of

great value. Only recently has the garden movement developed in America,

beginning in Roxbury, Boston, in 1891; but every European nation but

England popularized it long ago. Comenius believed that "a garden should

be connected with every school," and his country, Moravia, early enacted

this conviction into law. The rural schools of Prussia introduced school

gardens as early as 1819; and they are now common everywhere in

continental Europe. The movement is now spreading fast in this country and

has proved very successful in stimulating interest in listless boys. In

Dayton, Ohio, school gardens were established in 1903, and it has been

observed there that boys taking gardening make 30% more progress than

others in their studies. The moral effects are sometimes notable,

especially in vicious surroundings.

III. Allies of the School in Rural Education.

_School Improvement Leagues_

This movement started in Maine, where it has over 60,000 members, and has

spread to other states. It seeks to stimulate the loyalty of pupils,

teachers and patrons to the schools in every feasible way. It gives

coherence and direction to a rising local pride in a successful school and

helps greatly to develop a local school spirit. When once aroused, this

interest can be directed in any useful way which is most needed at the

time. It often finds most natural expression in beautifying the school

grounds with shrubbery, trees and flowers, and in furnishing the rooms

with pictures and artistic decorations of real merit. Rural communities

are proverbially lacking in aesthetic taste, and this is the best method

conceivable for developing it. From a well-kept schoolyard, and

schoolrooms relieved of their bareness by copies of the great

masterpieces, there will radiate all through the township the spirit of

order and beauty which will bless the whole community.

_Rural Libraries and Literature_

The state of Massachusetts, where the first free public library was opened

long ago, now has such an institution in every town and city of the

Commonwealth. In most states, however, libraries in rural communities are

not common; but in many states traveling libraries are obtainable from the

state librarian which vastly broaden the mental outlook of the country

people. In these days of abundant books, it is easier to secure books than

it is to be sure that the books will get read. Rural reading circles and

literary clubs can serve their communities well by helping to popularize

the reading habit, and advising in the choice of books.

So vast has the country literature become in recent years, one can little

imagine the great educational service of the numerous farm journals and

magazines of country life. Rare is the farmer's home where none of them

enters. They have apparently great influence in broadening the horizons of

the farm home as well as teaching the people the newer ideals of our rural

civilization. So popular has the topic of rural life recently become, many

non-rural magazines frequently bring it before their readers, notably the

_World's Work_. As a magazine devoted to all the interests of the country

life movement, and frankly religious in its purpose, _Rural Manhood_ is

unique in its sphere. It is the organ of the Rural Young Men's Christian

Association and by its remarkably broad survey of rural social movements

has made itself indispensable to lovers of the country.

_Farmers' Institutes and Government Cooperation_

Space forbids even the enumeration of all the agencies and methods by

which the standards of rural education are being raised. Both state and

national governments, the state experiment stations and the department of

agriculture at Washington are constantly reporting the latest results of

agricultural science and investigation both in the form of printed

bulletins and public sessions of Farmers' Institutes and similar

occasions. The great majority of working farmers have not yet learned to

value and to use these privileges as they should; but the appreciative

ones who do use them are becoming constantly better informed about the

secrets of country life and the wonderful ways of nature. The great

national organization of the Grange, by its local discussions of farm

topics and its effective lecture work, is another of the great educational

forces in rural life, and the rural church and minister often have a fine

educational opportunity, especially in country communities where the

educational equipment is meager and the unmet need is great.

_Agricultural Colleges and their Extension Work_

Essentially a part of the government service, the state colleges of

agriculture with their learned faculties of rural experts are the ultimate

authorities in agriculture and all rural interests, and therefore are both

the climax and the ultimate source of education for country life. With the

remarkable popularity the past five years of rural study and the strong

trend toward the rural professions, the agricultural colleges are probably

growing faster than any other schools in the land. The Massachusetts State

College has doubled in numbers and doubtless in efficiency in the past

five years, and many other schools have shown remarkable development. With

a faculty of a hundred men, and a budget this year of half a million

dollars, the New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell has become

in reality a great school of liberal culture interpreted in terms of

country life. Its enrolment has multiplied by five in the past nine years.

The extension work accomplished by these and similar institutions is

wonderfully broad and more and more serviceable to the people of their

several states, as their community of interest is increasingly

appreciated. The teachers are no longer "mere book farmers." They are

constantly out among the people for every variety of social service; and

the people, once or twice a year during the great "Farmers' Weeks" flock

to the college by the hundred with no feeling of restraint but of actual

ownership.

It is thus, from the humblest "box-car school" to the great university,

that the people of the open country are being educated to appreciate their

privileges and to live a more effective country life. It is a great

educational movement, weak and halting here and there, but moving on with

a better sense of unity and a clearer vision of the goal, with every

passing decade. It all gives us courage to believe that the providence of

God has in store for our rural America not the stolid domination of a

rural peasantry, mere renters and pirates of the soil, but ultimately an

enlightened, progressive citizenship, alert for progress and unswerving in

their loyalty to "the holy land."

TEST QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER VI

1.--Why do many rural communities take so little interest in their

schools?

2.--Show how most rural schools train country children away from the farms

to the city instead of fitting them for country life.

3.--How does the expense of American rural schools compare, per capita,

with the expense of the city schools?

4.--How can the country boys and girls be given a fair chance in our

public school system?

5.--In what ways does the district school plan work badly as a unit of

management and of taxation?

6.--What is wrong with the construction of most country school buildings?

7.--Why is the consolidated school in the town or village a bad thing for

children from the farms?

8.--State the efficiency argument for consolidation of rural schools.

9.--Describe the Indiana law on this subject and give your opinions about

it.

10.--Show the superior advantages of the purely rural type of centralized

school.

11.--Describe the consolidated rural school in Illinois, known as the

"John Swaney School," and tell what you like about it.

12.--How do you think a high school course of study in the country ought

to differ from that in the city?

13.--Why should agriculture, domestic science, animal husbandry, et

cetera, be taught in rural schools? How early would you begin?

14.--Compare the history of specific education for rural life in Europe

and in America.

15.--What can you say about school gardens as a feature in rural

education?

16.--How can "School Improvement Leagues" become powerful allies of the

country school forces?

17.--What are some of the educational possibilities of rural libraries?

18.--In your experience what educational service can Farmers' Institutes

render the farming community?

19.--Show something of the broad field of the agricultural colleges and

their extension work, and the part they take in rural education.

20.--Write out concisely the best statement you can make of the immediate

needs in rural education and the constructive policy you would propose to

meet these needs.

CHAPTER VII

RURAL CHRISTIAN FORCES

CHAPTER VII

RURAL CHRISTIAN FORCES

_The Community-Serving Church and Its Allies_

I. _Opportunity and Function of the Country Church_

Its necessity to rural progress.

Stages in its evolution, and its changing ideals.

The test of its efficiency.

The church's broad function: community service.

Its high responsibility: spiritual leadership.

II. _Some Elements of Serious Weakness_

A depleted constituency. Economic weakness.

Lack of social cooperation. Wasteful competition.

Poor business management. Moral ineffectiveness.

Narrow vision of service. Inadequate leadership.

III. _Some Factors Which Determine Its Efficiency_

A worthy constituency.

Local prosperity and progressive farming.

Community socialization. A community serving spirit.

A broad vision of service and program of usefulness.

United Christian forces in the community.

A broad Christian gospel; not sectarian preaching.

A loyal country ministry adequately trained and paid.

A liberal financial policy. Adequate equipment.

Masculine lay leadership developed and trained.

A community survey to discover resources and needs.

IV. _Some Worthy Allies of the Country Church_

The country Sunday-school.

The Rural Young Men's Christian Association.

The County Work of the Young Women's Christian Association.

V. _Types of Rural Church Success_

Some real community builders.

The church in the open country.

Oberlin, the prince of country ministers.

CHAPTER VII

RURAL CHRISTIAN FORCES

THE COMMUNITY-SERVING CHURCH AND ITS ALLIES

I. The Opportunity and Function of the Country Church.

_Its Necessity to Rural Progress_

The city man's judgment of many things rural is apt to be warped. The

country is a better place than he thinks it is. Country institutions are

doing better than he thinks they are; and the country church is by no

means as dead and useless as he is apt to imagine. Ridiculing the plan to

federate three village churches, a typical city man remarked, "What is the

use? Three ciphers are just as useless together as alone!" Such a

superficial verdict must not be accepted. The church in the country is

certainly involved in a serious and complex problem. In many places it is

decadent. In most places it is easily criticised for its meager successes

in this age of progress; but it is still essential in spite of its

defects.

No amount of unfavorable criticism can refute the fact that a

community-serving church is the most essential institution in country

life. Criticise it as we may for its inefficiency, it is to the country

church that we must look to save the country. Even though it may be

usually a struggling institution, inadequately equipped, poorly financed,

narrow in its conception of its mission, slow in responding to the

progressive spirit of the age, wasting its resources in fruitless

competitions, and often crude in its theology and ineffective in its

leadership,--nevertheless it is blessing millions of our people, and

remains still the one supreme institution for social and religious

betterment. It may be criticised, pitied, ridiculed. It has not yet been

displaced.

Because the rural church is absolutely essential to the rural community,

it must be maintained, whatever be the cost. Let _surplus_ local churches

die, as they ultimately will, by the law of the survival of the fittest.

The community-serving church must live. The man who refuses to sustain it

is a bad citizen. Dr. Anderson rightly claims "The community needs nothing

so much as a church, to interpret life; to diffuse a common standard of

morals; to plead for the common interest; to inculcate unselfishness,

neighborliness, cooperation; to uphold ideals and to stand for the

supremacy of the spirit. In the depleted town with shattered institutions

and broken hopes, in the perplexity of changing times, in the perils of

degeneracy, the church is the vital center which is to be saved at any

cost. In the readjustments of the times, the country church has suffered;

but if in its sacrifices it has learned to serve the community, it lives

and will live."[33]

To condense diagnosis and prescription into a single sentence: _The

country church has become decadent where it has ceased to serve its

community. It may find its largest life again in the broadest kind of

sacrificial service._

_Stages of Country Church Evolution_

In this rapidly growing country, particularly in the past century of

empire-building in the great West, four rather distinct stages of

development may be traced in the history of the country church. As the

railroads have pushed out into all sections for the development of our

natural resources, the apostles of the Christian faith have usually been

in the van of the new civilization. Too often they have been apostles of

diverse sects, pious promoters coveting for the church of their zeal

strategic locations and a favorable advantage in the conquest of the

country for The King. But in general, the story of beginnings in the

planting of our American churches has been a tale of real heroism, of

devotion to the highest welfare of humanity and the glory of God, and of

untold sacrifice. In brief these stages of church evolution are as

follows:

1. The period of pioneer struggle and weakness, through which practically

all churches have had to pass.

2. Usually a period of growth and prosperity, sharing the growth of the

community; or, if the new town failed to justify its hopes, a period of

marking time, under the burden of a building debt.

3. The period of struggle against rural depletion, the rural church

meanwhile losing many members to the cities. Apparently a majority of

country churches are now in this stage and for many of them it is a noble

struggle for efficient survival. Thousands of churches however have

succumbed, 1,700 in the single state of Illinois.

4. The ultimate stage of this evolution is the survival of the fittest,

the inevitable result of the struggle. Most churches have not yet worked

this through, but when they do, it is by _readjustment to a redirected

rural life_. It costs much sacrifice in time and money. It requires the

church to study frankly its situation and to surrender cheerfully old

notions of success and to broaden its ideals of service.

_Old and New Church Ideals_

The pioneer type of the circuit-rider church may still be found among the

mountains and other neglected or scattered sections of the country. Its

ideal of success is very simple: a monthly preaching service when the

"elder" makes his rounds; and an annual "protracted meeting" in which the

leader "prays the power down" and all hands "get religion," presumably

enough to last them through the year. For this kind of success only three

factors seem to be essential: a leader with marked hypnotic power, an

expectant crowd ready to respond to his suggestion, and a place to meet.

The place may be simply a roof over a pulpit. Results are meager and the

same souls, may be, have to be saved next year.

We would not deny the itinerant heroes of pioneer days the credit they

deserve for their self-sacrificing labors. Unquestionably they served

their generation well, as well as conditions allowed. But most churches

have outgrown this low ideal of success. They plan a more continuous work.

They desire more than merely emotional results. They appeal to

intelligence and to the will and make the culture of Christian character

the great objective. Such work is vastly important; but a still higher and

broader standard must be raised to-day for country church success.

A few weeks ago there came from an ambitious and active country minister

(who evidently wanted a city church) a tabulated, type-written statement

of his work for the year. According to widely accepted standards it was

evidence of his efficiency and the success of his church. It gave the

number of sermons he had preached, the calls he had made, the prayer

meetings he had led, the Sunday school sessions attended, the number of

conversions and additions to his church membership, the number of families

added to his parish roll, the number of people he had baptized, married

and buried; the average attendance at all services, the size of his Sunday

school, the amount of money raised for church expenses and for

benevolences, the sums expended for repairing the property,--for all of

which we were asked to praise the Lord. To be sure, it was a rather

praiseworthy record, and, on the strength of it, this particular country

minister was called to a city church! He will not be any happier there,

his salary will not go any farther there, and he will probably have less

influence; but he has attained the dignity of a _city_ minister, the goal

of many a man's ambition. Alas that so many of us seem to forget that the

Garden of Eden was strictly rural; and that it was only when mankind was

driven out of it that they went off and founded cities!

This case is a typical one. We are still too apt to reckon the success of

a church in statistics reported in the denominational Yearbook. The book

of Numbers is a poor Gospel. Let us not disparage the importance of adding

forty people to the church membership, or doubling the size of the Sunday

school, or tripling the benevolences, or increasing the congregations.

These things are all splendid, every one of them, and indicate a live

church and an active, consecrated minister; but they are not ultimate

tests of a church's efficiency.

_The Test of Its Efficiency_

We must admit that the real business of a Christian Church is not to swell

its membership roll or to add to the glory of its particular sect or to

raise enough money for its own support and keep its property painted, nor

even to get the community into the church. _The business of the church is

to get the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ into the community and thence

into all the world._ If it is not doing that it is not succeeding. It is

succeeding only in proportion as it is accomplishing that; for its

business is to Christianize that community.

Dr. Gladden is right when he says that the test of the efficiency of the

church must be found in the social conditions of the community to which it

ministers. To be sure the church should emphasize evangelism and the need

of church membership. Let it add to its strength, in order to become a

strong, effective organization. But let it remember that this is but a

means to an end. Let it keep in mind the immediate object of its work, to

_Christianize its community_.

I would say then, a country church is efficient if it not only gets its

people "right with God" but also right with one another; if it not only

saves them for the life of heaven, but helps them to begin the heavenly

life right now; if it not only furnishes opportunity for the worship of

God, in simplicity and truth, but also proves the sincerity of its worship

in deeds of Christian service; if it furnishes spiritual vision and power,

faith, hope and love, those unseen things that are eternal, but also mints

these essentials of religion in the pure gold of brotherly sympathy and

kindness.

_The Church's Broad Function: Community Service_

The efficient church will not only perform the priestly function of

mediating between God and men, until in the holy place men feel the hush

and peace and power of God's presence. It will also inspire men in a

practical way to perform the duties of life. It will not only bring men

into the conscious presence of God. It will somehow bring the love of God

into the lives of men. It will increase the kindness and brotherliness and

sympathy of men and women toward each other. It will stimulate

fair-dealing in all business relations and put an end to injustice toward

the weak. It will help to reduce poverty, vice and crime. It will

encourage pure politics and discourage graft. It will set a high standard

for the play life of the community and make amusements purer and more

sensible. It will even endeavor to raise the level of practical efficiency

on every farm, making men really better farmers because they are real

Christians. It will help to make more efficient homes and schools, to give

every boy and girl a fair chance for a clean life, a sound body, a trained

mind, helpful friendships and a useful career.

The efficient country church will definitely serve its community by

leading, when possible, in all worthy efforts at community building, in

uniting the people in all cooperative social endeavors for the general

welfare, in arousing a real love for country life and loyalty to the

country home; and in so enriching the life of its community as to make

"country living as attractive for them as city living, and the rural

forces as effective as city forces."

_Its High Responsibility: Spiritual Leadership_

The inaugural program of Jesus in Luke 4:18-19 suggests the business of

his followers: to minister to the vital necessities of needy men. Broadly

speaking, every work for human betterment is "our Father's business," yet

the supreme function of the church is spiritual. It stands in a material

world for an unseen God and an eternal life. It must constantly furnish

spiritual vision and inspiration to weary men and women for the living of

their lives. To do this, the church must provide the opportunity for

public worship, in sincerity, impressiveness and truth. It must somehow

bring the life of God into the lives of men.

Surely the church owes the community a prophetic service also, bringing

God's great messages to human lives, throbbing with divine sympathy for

all human needs, courageously challenging the man to whom the vision

comes, to live the better life, and offering practical and immediate help,

the help of Christ, to live that life. The spiritual service of a vital

church will include a vivid portrayal of the Christ, his person, his

teachings, his radiant character, his saving power, the dynamic for life

which flows from him into every life which accepts his comradeship. All

this and more.

We should avoid however the dangerous distinction between the sacred and

the secular. The superficial exaltation of the spiritual function of the

church is sometimes merely a cloak for laziness. Often a well conducted

church social has spiritual results and a boys' camp becomes a "means of

grace." Unless a man is pure spirit, the work of the church is more than

"saving souls." Soul and body are in this life inseparable and

interdependent. A saved man must be redeemed soul and body, in mind and

spirit, as well as in all his social relations.

A religion which aims merely to save a man's soul, and otherwise neglects

him, is superficial, and fails to appeal to a whole man's manhood. The

subtle reactions of life warn us that the _soul's environment_ must be

redeemed, or it stands little chance of permanent salvation. Here is the

nexus between individual and social salvation. Christian social service is

necessary to conserve the results of evangelism. Unite them, and the

Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.

_Let the Church Furnish Dynamic and Leadership_

But the church should not scatter its energies and "dilute its evangelism"

by attempting to do everything as an organization. Let it discharge its

responsibility for social welfare _indirectly_ when possible, through

other organizations or individuals. Its broadest service will ever be, as

in the past, to furnish the inspiration and the dynamic for many secondary

agencies for social service and human betterment. But the church must

either do the needed work or _get it done_.

It should duplicate no social machinery or effort, but should supplement

all other local institutions and perfect their service by its own service

of the higher life of the community. Let the church be the climax of the

social, educational, philanthropic, health-restoring, peace-preserving

forces of the community. Ideally it will federate them all in community

leadership. Where these forces are lacking, the church should assume these

functions, if the community welfare demands it; as actually takes place on

many a mission field.

Well might every country church adopt this platform, adapted from the Open

Church League: "Inasmuch as the Christ came not to be ministered unto but

to minister, this church, moved by his spirit of ministering love, seeks

to become the center and source of every beneficent and philanthropic

effort, and to take a leading part in every movement which has for its end

the alleviation of human sorrow and suffering, the saving of men and the

bettering of this township as a part of the great Kingdom of God. Thus we

aim to save all men and all of the man, by all just means; abolishing so

far as possible the distinction between the religious and the secular, and

sanctifying all means to the great end of saving the world for Christ."

II. Some Elements of Serious Weakness.

It is with no lack of sympathy for country ministers or churches that we

offer these suggestions as to what is wrong with the country church. Often

the conditions of the environment are largely responsible, and sometimes

the churches are not to blame. Many of them are facing their difficulties

nobly, not a few of them successfully. In fact many country churches are

doing better than most city churches. By way of diagnosis the following

brief suggestions are offered to account in part for the serious

difficulty in the present situation.

1. _A Depleted Constituency._ The first element in the problem is the

_inevitable isolation_ in the open country and the depletion of population

in thousands of villages. We find often not merely loss of numbers, but

impoverished vitality in many of those who remain. This is _weakness in

personality_, always an ultimate problem.

2. _Economic Weakness._ Impoverished soil, poor agricultural conditions,

and bad farming are found all too frequently. The church immediately

suffers. It is no mere coincidence that the best country churches are

always found among successful farmers. The church can hardly be more

prosperous than its community.

3. _Lack of Social Cooperation._ Extreme individualism is still the curse

of the open country. There has been little cooperation yet in industry,

recreation, or religion. Consequently the church has been too often merely

an occasional congregation of separate individuals with few interests in

common; instead of a working body of vitally interested people, organized

for the redemption of the community.

4. _Wasteful Competition._ This particular factor is not very serious in

the South; but elsewhere there are usually found too many rival churches,

selfishly struggling for life, but doing little to serve their community.

This condition is the result of excessive individualism, selfishly

insisting on its own peculiar sect; or the depletion of a once populous

village; or the early blunders of denominational "strategy," starting a

church where it never was needed.

5. _Poor Business Management._ We are seldom likely to find any business

system in the country church. As a rule they have no financial policy, no

plan for the future, small salaries for the ministers and often in

arrears. Their short-sighted method is simply "the short-haul" on the

pocket-book, with a subscription paper; planning only for the current

year. Inefficiency of course results from such poor business.

[Illustration: This chart shows a portion of Center County, Pennsylvania,

in which there are 16 churches within a circle with a radius of three

miles. There are 24 churches within the larger circle having a radius of

four miles. Several other churches are in close proximity, making in all

the 29 churches shown in this sparsely settled community.]

6. _Moral Ineffectiveness._ Many country churches have lost the respect of

their communities and their local support, because of their lack of vital

religion which makes character and deeds of spiritual power. They do not

prove their genuine brotherliness in an unselfish service of the

community. Amid their petty rivalries, they are struggling merely to save

themselves rather than the community, forgetting the words of Jesus: "He

that would save his life shall lose it."

7. _Narrow Vision of Service._ The country church is seldom progressive

and has little idea of the modern social vision. Few churches have yet

seen their great chance to serve broadly the interests and needs of the

whole community. They flatter themselves upon their faithfulness to

spiritual standards; though the fact is, they are neglecting a great

opportunity and hence missing the loyal appreciation of their people.

8. _Inadequate Leadership._ The country ministry is too apt to be an

untrained ministry, sadly lacking in professional preparation. Lack of a

strong personality in pulpit and parsonage makes church success difficult.

But the main weakness here is the fact that a majority of the country

churches actually have _no pastor at all_. They have a preacher, part of

the time; but he lives in the village seven miles away. He supplies the

pulpit, marries the living and buries the dead. _The lack of a resident

pastor living on the land with his people_ is almost a fatal weakness in a

country church. The most eloquent preaching never compensates for this

loss.

III. Some Factors Which Determine Country Church Efficiency.

Surely this matter of making a country church successful is no simple

problem. It is complex enough to be fascinatingly interesting. Its very

difficulty is a challenge to strong men. We shall attempt to state the

most important factors which make for efficiency. All are important; some

are quite essential. A church is efficient in proportion as it has

developed these elements of strength.

1. _A Worthy Constituency_

It is very evident that the first essential factor is folks. The reason

some earnest ministers prefer to work in the city is because there are

more people there. A congregation to lead in worship and to inspire with

ideals for Christian service is quite essential. A minister must have

people to whom to minister. Churches can live without bells, organs,

pulpits, fine architecture, or even ministers for awhile. We can sing

without hymn books or choir; pray without missal, prayer book or surplice;

worship comfortably without cushions or carpets; commune without silver

plates or golden chalices or individual glasses. The one thing which is

the _sine qua non_ is a congregation. The church must have people.

This does not mean that success will depend upon great numbers, though

depleted numbers cause serious discouragement. A country minister has a

splendid chance for a thorough, _intensive_ work with individuals and

families, which is denied a pastor with a larger flock. Yet the church

must have a constituency or it is not needed and of course cannot succeed.

2. _Local Prosperity and Progressive Farming_

Some one may ask, "Why haven't you mentioned first of all the blessing of

God, as the great essential to success?" Surely unless the Lord builds the

house he labors in vain that builds it. We are simply assuming this as an

axiom. Our work must always be done in partnership with God. Success

itself is the evidence of His favor. To win that favor we must take the

natural steps to win success.

Our second suggestion is local prosperity and progressive farming. Dr.

Wilson calls the country church "the weather vane of community

prosperity." It might be more accurately called the _barometer_, for the

church shows promptly the degree of the pressure of economy due to poor

crops or bad farming. Impoverished soil, poor agricultural conditions and

bad farming explain the failure of many a country church. You can build a

city on a rock (like New York) or even on the sand (like Gary); but you

cannot hope to build a prosperous country community or rural church on

_poor soil_.

Professor Carver tells us forcibly that "the world will eventually be a

Christian or a non-Christian world according as Christians or

non-Christians prove themselves more fit to possess it,--according as they

are better farmers, better business men, better mechanics, better

politicians." It is certainly the wisest kind of policy for the church to

help to make its community prosperous. It is not only a fine way to serve

the community; it is a prime essential to its own ultimate success. Many a

rural church is languishing because of bad economics in the community. Let

it face the problem man-fashion and do something besides pray about it.

Let it prove the sincerity of its prayers by earnest plans and deeds to

make its community prosperous.

This is exactly what was done in a certain Wisconsin village. By the fiat

of the railroad, which suddenly changed its plans, half the people moved

away in a day, leaving community institutions maimed and everybody

discouraged. It was the wise minister who saved the day by organizing the

farmers and planning with them a new local industry. He induced a pickle

factory to build in the community provided the farmers would raise

cucumbers on a large scale. He was even able to turn the village store

into a cooperative enterprise which succeeded in running at a profit. This

minister saved his church by saving the community.

That prince of country ministers, Johann Friedrich Oberlin, laid the

foundation of his sixty years of pastoral success in the Vosges Mountains

in the new local prosperity which was developed under his leadership. He

was utterly unable to succeed until he had taught his people how to become

better farmers, and thus to rise above the low level of incompetence and

ignorance which had kept them almost immune to religious appeals and had

kept their churches pitiable failures. His astonishing success won for him

the official recognition of the Legion of Honor from the King of France.

What he was able to do under great difficulties could be done to-day by

thousands of rural churches and ministers, if they determined to do it.

Let them first make their community prosperous; then their church will

share the prosperity.

3. _Community Socialization_

Prosperous and happy rural communities have outgrown the selfish

independence of the pioneer past and have learned how to live together

effectively in a socially cooperative way. But a great many rural places

are still scourged by grudges and feuds and other evidences of

individualism gone to seed. This accounts also for many small churches,

the result of church quarrels. Country churches cannot succeed until the

people learn how to live together peaceably and effectively, to cooperate

in many details of the community life, to utilize the various social means

for community welfare. To be sure the church can greatly help in this

socializing process. It can lead in making the local life cooperative,

educationally, agriculturally, socially, morally; and, if it succeeds, the

church will be the first to reap the rewards of a finer comradeship.

4. _A Community-Serving Spirit_

Many a country church is dying from sheer selfishness. The same of course

is true in the city. Many people doubtless think the church exists for the

benefit of its members only. If this were true, the church would be simply

a club. Selfishness is slow suicide for an individual. It is equally so

for a church. A self-serving spirit in a church is contrary to the spirit

of Jesus and it kills the church life. It is a bad thing for a church to

have the reputation for working constantly just to keep its head above

water, struggling to keep alive, just to go through the motions of

religious activity, yet making no progress. Many a church is dying simply

for lack of a good reason for being. Can you not hear the voice of the

Master saying, "The church that would save its life shall lose it; but the

church that is willing to lose its life, for my sake, the same shall save

it"?

Let the church adjust its program to a larger radius. Let it be a

_community-wide_ program. If there are other churches, it will of course

not invade the homes of families under their care. But aside from this, it

will plan its work to reach out to all neglected individuals as well as to

serve all social and moral interests of the community as a whole. Let its

motto be "We seek not yours but you." The church will not be able to save

the community until it proves its willingness to sacrifice for the sake of

the community.

5. _A Broad Vision of Service and Program of Usefulness_

This next factor making for efficiency is very closely related to the

last. _A useful country church will not die._ A church that is really

serving its community in vital ways will so win the appreciation of the

people that they will support it because they love it. Some churches and

ministers seem too proud to include in their program anything but

preaching, praying, hymn-singing, with an occasional funeral, wedding and

baked-bean supper to break the monotony. In a social age like this, with

multiplying human needs, such a church is on the way to death. The church

must recognize its responsibility, as its Master recognized it, to meet

all the human needs of its people. Many country communities with meager

social equipment, often with manifold human needs absolutely unmet, demand

the broadest kind of brotherly service on the part of the church, for

their mutual good. The church need not do everything itself as an

institution. Its great work will ever be the work of inspiration. But

where there are serious gaps in the social structure, the church must

somehow fill the gaps. It must do the work or get it done.

It rejoices us to find churches all along the country-side to-day that

have welcomed this great opportunity for broad usefulness, and have gained

a new vitality and an increasing success by facing all the needs of the

community and broadening their vision and program of service accordingly.

6. _United Christian Forces in the Community_

We are confronted now by one of the most serious factors in our problem.

The pitiable sub-division of rural Christendom into petty little

struggling, competing churches makes religion a laughing-stock and a

failure. We are saddened by it. By and by we shall get so ashamed of it

that we will stop it! Many men of leadership and influence are working on

the problem and we can see improvement in many directions.

Wasteful sectarianism is a sin in the city; but it is a crime in the

country. It is a city luxury which may be justified perhaps where there is

a wealth of people; but it is as out of place among the farms as sheet

asphalt pavements or pink satin dancing pumps. Sectarianism is not

religion. It is merely selfishness in religion. A sincere country

Christian will be willing to sacrifice his sectarian preference, as a city

luxury which the country cannot afford.

The great Puritan movement against conformity to an established church

settled forever the great principle that any company of earnest Christians

have a right to form a church _when conditions justify it_. But we have

seen in this country, as nowhere else in the world, the absurd extremes of

this great liberty. Sects have been formed to maintain the wickedness of

buttons and the piety of hooks and eyes; and for many another tenet almost

as petty. Churches of "Come-Outers," "Heavenly Recruits" and "The

Hephzibah Faith" appeal to the fancy of theological epicures. Colonies of

"Zionites" and "The Holy Ghost and Us Society" have been established,

mainly for the exploiting of some shrewd fanatic and his pious fraud.

With 188 sects now in America, we have come to the point when sensible

people have a right to insist that an unnecessary church is a curse to a

community. Its influence is sadly divisive. Its maintenance is a needless

tax. It embodies, not true piety, but pharisaic selfishness. The community

has a right to keep it out for self-protection. The social consciousness

has now developed enough to teach us that the right of individuals to form

endless churches must be curtailed, for the general welfare, exactly as

other individual rights, such as carrying pistols, public expectoration,

working young children, and riding bicycles on city sidewalks, have to be

surrendered in a social age. Thus social cooperation is displacing

individualism and religious cranks should not be immune to the law of

progress. To insist upon individual rights to form a new sect or to burden

an overchurched community with a needless church is a grave social

injustice and a sin against the Kingdom of God.

A small village in South Dakota applied the referendum to the question

whether they should have a Methodist or a Congregational church. The plan

was proposed by the village Board of Trade. It was entered into by the

whole community as a sensible proposition and the losers accepted the

verdict, under pressure of public opinion. The village has but one church

to-day. When denominational leaders agree to force no church upon such a

community as this, and to help support no church with home missionary

funds where it is neither needed nor wanted, the cause of religion in

small communities will be greatly advanced. Fortunately some of the larger

churches are frankly accepting this principle and are working with a large

measure of comity and denominational reciprocity.

_The New Christian Statesmanship_

For many years the leading churches in Maine have had an

"Interdenominational Comity Commission" which has kept out unnecessary

churches, and has reduced the number in overchurched communities by a sort

of denominational reciprocity. Other states in New England and the West

have adopted the plan, and now the Home Mission Council has recently

organized on a national scale, in the interest of all Protestant churches.

The Interdenominational Commission of North Dakota includes the Baptist,

Congregational, Methodist Episcopal and Presbyterian churches of the

state. This simple statement of their working agreement is an excellent

one:

(1) No community in which the concurring denominations have a claim should

be entered by any other denomination through its official agencies without

conference with the denominations having such claim.

(2) A feeble church should be revived if possible rather than a new one

established to become its rival.

(3) The preference of a community should always be regarded in determining

what denomination should occupy the field.

Such a plan wins our respect. We may have faith that the next few years

will see much progress in reducing the disgrace of unholy competition

between Christian churches that ought to be working together.

May denominational reciprocity soon relieve our country communities of

their unnecessary churches which are simply a burdensome tax and a

hindrance. Local churches often would unite if the outside subsidy were

withdrawn which prolongs their separate existence. Church union is a

question, not of mechanics, but of biology. It is a matter of _life_. It

is useless to unite churches forcibly which have not been _growing

together_. They would fall apart next week! But they are doubly certain to

grow together if encouraged from their denominational headquarters.

And by and by, through the new Christian statesmanship of denominational

reciprocity, we shall have a Baptist village, and a Methodist village, and

a Congregational village, all contiguous, and with united Christian forces

in each community. It will be a great boon to the Kingdom of God,--and it

will not even disturb the equilibrium of the denominational year books!

Blessed is the rural community that has but one church. But where there

are several, let them work together as closely as possible, presenting a

united front against the forces of evil in an aggressive campaign for

righteousness. Local church federations, and township or county ministers'

unions greatly help to develop a spirit of unity and really good results.

A local federation of men's church brotherhoods, uniting all the churchmen

of a township, is a splendid thing. It affects the whole church and

community life. It speedily puts friendliness in the place of suspicion,

and enthusiastic cooperation in place of jealous rivalry.

7. _A Broad Christian Gospel, in Place of Sectarian Preaching_

One of the signs of a decadent church is excessive emphasis upon sectarian

trifles. When adult Sunday school classes have not studied the lesson for

the day they fall back on denominational hobbies! A holy zeal for

righteousness costs something. The selfish zeal for one's sect is cheap.

There is little of this now in the cities; but the country is scourged by

petty sectarian teaching both in the pulpit and in the Sunday school; and

the country is very tired of it. Ordinary mortals are simply bored by it

and will no longer come to hear it.

People are still hungry for the real gospel. The great affirmations of

religion: The priceless value of human life, the reality of God our loving

Father, the immortality of the soul, the law of the harvest, the gospel of

a Saviour, et cetera, still challenge the attention and win the hearts of

men. Let us emphasize the great Christian fundamentals on which most

Christian people heartily agree. Let us add to these high teachings of

universal Christianity the simple social teachings of Jesus, his every day

practical teachings for human life in mutual relations, and we shall have

a winning message for the sensible minds and hearts of country people.

8. _A Loyal Country Ministry, Adequately Trained and Supported_

This is one of the ultimate factors in our problem, perhaps the most

difficult of all. Leadership is always of utmost importance in social

problems. A splendid leader often brings real success out of serious

difficulties. There are hundreds of such splendid leaders in country

parsonages to-day, and they deserve all the high appreciation and cordial

recognition they have won. But when we consider our 70,000 rural

ministers as a body, we find three things to be true: They are miserably

paid. They are usually untrained. Their pastorates are too short to be

really successful. The churches are of course more to blame for this

condition than the ministers.

We must have a permanently loyal country ministry for life. Making the

country ministry simply the stepping stone to the city church has been a

most unfortunate custom even up to the present day. The country ministry

must be recognized as a specialized ministry, fully as honorable as the

city ministry, demanding just as fine and strong a man,--possibly even

more of a man, for many a minister has succeeded in the city after failing

in the country. The country minister must somehow get a vision of his

great task as a community builder, like Johann Friedrich Oberlin, that

greatest of country pastors. He must find an all-absorbing life-mission

claiming all his powers and demanding his consecration as thoroughly and

enthusiastically as the call to the foreign mission field. Then let him

_go into it for life_, determined to do his part, a whole man's part, in

redeeming country life and making it, what it normally is, the best life

in all the world to live. Staying year after year in the same parish is

the secret of success in the case of most of the conspicuously successful

country pastors. Only thus can a man really become the parson of the

village, a person of dominant influence in all the affairs of the people.

This ideal suggestion of long country pastorates meets with two

objections. Laymen are saying, "How can you expect us to keep a minister

after he has said all he knows?" And some of the ministers will say, "How

can you expect us to stay, on less than a living wage?" At present both

objections are perfectly valid. Too many ministers are untrained men, and

therefore fail to succeed for more than a year or two. And certainly an

underpaid minister cannot be blamed for taking his family where he can

support them respectably.

As near as can be determined, about 20% of rural ministers the country

over (including all denominations) are educated men; though probably not

over 10% of them have had a full professional training.[34] They are about

as successful as any other professional man can be who lacks his special

training for his life work. There is a great demand for _trained_

ministers. The writer receives very many more requests from churches in a

year than he can furnish with men. Yet the theological seminaries are

training few men for the rural churches. Most of the graduates go either

to the cities or the villages, where there is a living wage. Dr. Warren H.

Wilson figures that a country minister with a wife and three children, in

order to educate his family, keep a team and provide $100 annual payment

for insurance for his old age, must have at least $1,400 salary. There are

ministers who are able to do this on less,--but not very much less. There

certainly ought to be a _minimum_ wage of $800 and a parsonage, or $1,000

cash, for every minister. A church paying less than this is simply

stealing from the minister's family. Churches unable to pay this minimum

living wage ought to unite with a neighboring church or close their doors,

except for itinerant preaching.[35]

In several denominations the plan of maintaining a minimum salary for

their ministers is being attempted. We have space for a single

illustration. The East Ohio Conference, Cleveland District, of the

Methodist Episcopal Church, under the direction of Rev. N. W. Stroup, as

district superintendent, has succeeded in raising the minimum to $750. It

was estimated in advance that $2,500 would have to be raised by the

stronger churches in the district to accomplish this result; but in the

very first year only $1,000 of this sum was actually required. As soon as

the movement was made public, many of the weaker churches developed

courage and grit enough to raise their own pastor's salary to a

respectable figure, and maintained their self-respect. Other churches are

expected to do the same next year.

At the writer's urgent suggestion, in a public address last fall, a

Michigan church, paying its minister only $350 a year, raised the salary

to $800 and secured a bright young college graduate as pastor. They now

report that it is just as easy to finance the church on the present

self-respecting basis as it was to run a cheap church last year!

9. _A Liberal Financial Policy_

This reminds us very forcibly that one factor essential to country church

success is a liberal financial policy. In the smaller country churches we

seldom find any business policy, and no plan at all for the future. The

most common method is the annual subscription paper, with special

subscriptions for repairs or emergencies. The motive is apparently strict

economy rather than efficiency. It never pays to run a cheap church, for

it cheapens the whole enterprise. More and more the weekly-payment pledge

system is coming into use and with it a careful planning of the budget at

the beginning of the year, guided by an earnest purpose to keep the church

business-like, the minister promptly paid, the property well in repair and

the enterprise spiritually successful. Often the new consecration of the

pocket-book has been the first symptom of a thorough-going revival.

10. _Adequate Equipment_

A large proportion of country churches are simply one-room buildings. This

explains many failures. In order to serve the community at all adequately,

the church must have social rooms for a variety of neighborhood purposes,

and it must make provision for its Sunday school. About four-fifths of the

boys and girls in the Sunday schools of America live in the rural

districts. They should be given good rooms. Without an effective building

for social and educational purposes,--a parish house or at least a

vestry,--the country church is seriously handicapped. With a good

equipment the church often becomes the social center for the whole

neighborhood.

11. _A Masculine Lay Leadership Developed and Trained_

It takes more than a minister to make a church successful. The King's

Business requires MEN. Women are usually active and loyal. The men are

often just as _loyal_ but less active because of lack of opportunity. The

most enthusiastic meetings the writer has attended for months were in a

rural county in Michigan, a county without a trolley. The meetings were

held for three days under the auspices of the Men and Religion Forward

Movement and all the forty-five Protestant churches of the county were

represented by ministers and laymen. The laymen outnumbered the ministers

about ten to one and they showed the keenest interest in the proposition

to make the work of religion in their county a man's job.

Those men caught the vision of service, and every month during the winter,

meetings led by laymen were held in every school house of that county,

carrying the five-fold message of the great Men and Religion Movement into

every rural neighborhood; the messages of personal evangelism, of definite

Bible study, of world-wide missions, of social service to better their

community, and constructive personal work to save their boys. This is a

program of religious work for MEN. Only men can do it; but men _can_ do

it, with a little training and wise leadership. The results no man can

foretell. But it must result in great blessing for the men and for their

communities, and new efficiency and appreciation for their country

churches.

12. _A Community Survey to Discover Resources and Community Needs_

Without multiplying further these factors which make for efficiency, we

mention but one more. Until recently country churches have been conducted

on the principle that "human nature is the same everywhere," and "one

country village is like all the rest." But scientific agriculture has

suggested to us that we should make a scientific approach to our church

problem as well as to our soil problem. Country communities are _not_ all

alike,--far from it. Social, economic, moral, educational, political,

personal conditions vary greatly in different localities. Churches miss

their aim unless they study minutely these conditions. There is in

progress now a religious survey of the entire state of Ohio. Quite a

number of counties in Pennsylvania, New York, Missouri, Indiana and

elsewhere have been carefully studied for religious purposes. Valuable

reports of these studies are available as guides for similar work

elsewhere. The best of this work has been done by the Presbyterian Board

of Home Missions under Dr. W. H. Wilson's direction.

The general purpose of the survey hardly needs to be defended. It is

simply the application to the work of the church of the modern social

method of finding the facts in order to prevent wasted effort, in order to

utilize all available resources and minister to all real human needs. It

augurs well for the church of the future.

We have every reason to hope that with the progress of the great Country

Life Movement the Country Church is coming to a new day of usefulness;

with people living under modern conditions, with local prosperity and

progressive farming, with their communities well socialized and

cooperating, with a community-serving spirit in the church, guided by a

broad vision of service and program of usefulness; with united Christian

forces and decreasing sectarianism; with a loyal country ministry

adequately trained, and sustained by a liberal financial policy; with an

adequate equipment making the church a social center; with an enthusiastic

masculine lay leadership developed and guided by a community survey to

undertake the work which will best serve the needs of their people, the

Kingdom of Heaven will surely come. It sounds like the millennium! Perhaps

it will be, when it comes! But in many respects we can see it coming, as,

one after another, these factors come to stay. May God speed the day of

the broadly efficient country church. It will mean the redemption of the

country.

IV. Some Worthy Allies of the Country Church.

_The Country Sunday school_

Foremost among the allies of the country church is the Sunday school.

There are few churches that lack this most important auxiliary, and there

are tens of thousands of independent schools for Bible study located in

the open country where there are no churches or preachers at all. Often

the Sunday school, being non-sectarian, unites all the people of the

community, and is an institution of large influence.

Three-fourths of the total Sunday schools of the country are in the rural

sections (villages under 2,500 population). They are much more

representative of the population than are the city schools. They are

usually really community institutions. Men of local influence preside as

superintendents and many adults attend as regularly as the children. While

the preachers come and go, and are usually non-residents anyway, Sunday

school officers and teachers remain in the community as the permanent

religious leaders. Thus the Sunday school is dignified as not merely a

child's institution but one that includes men and women of all ages and

ministers to the deepest needs of all.

The Sunday school in the country is far more important relatively than it

is in the town. In fact the country people in many places think more of

their Sunday school than they do of the church. The Sunday school meets

every Sunday of the year. It is a layman's institution. But church

services are held only when they can get a preacher; which does not

average oftener than every other Sunday. On the average Sunday throughout

the year, in two denominations only in the South, there are 17,000

churches without preaching services. But their Sunday schools are

doubtless in session regularly. Sometimes the Bible school superintendent

does not attend the preaching service even when there is one. His Sunday

school is his church.

A careful religious survey of three typical counties in Indiana by field

investigators of the Presbyterian church revealed the fact that the

Sunday school is far from being a child's institution, there being nearly

as many members over 21 as under 14. The total enrollment was found to be

divided into almost equal thirds, children under 14, adults over 21, and

youth between those ages. There were more men in the Sunday schools than

in the churches. 40% of the church membership were males; while of the

Sunday-school membership over 14, 45% were males. Two-fifths of the

teachers in these country Sunday schools were discovered to be men,--a

much larger proportion than in the cities.

_Country Sunday-school Teaching_

With a vast opportunity, the country Sunday school really succeeds only

moderately. There is great room for improvement in its methods.

Occasionally you will find a country school conducted on as modern lines

as the best in the city; but usually they are fully as defective as the

local public schools, and for similar reasons. The state Sunday-school

associations are making real progress in standardizing the schools,

introducing semi-graded lessons and something of the modern system. But

the teachers are usually untrained, though well-meaning, and teach mostly

by rote. Stereotyped question and printed answer are consistently recited

by the younger classes, without stirring more than surface interest. The

older classes often make the lesson merely a point of departure and soon

take to the well-worn fields of theological discussion on trite themes of

personal hobbies. Or if the teacher happens to be fluent and the class

more patient than talkative, he makes the teaching purely homiletic, and,

like the apostles of old, "takes a text and then goes everywhere preaching

the gospel!"

About 90% of churches in the open country have only one room. This means

utter lack of adequate Sunday-school equipment, and often ten to twenty

classes jostling elbows in the same room. There is seldom intentional

disorder, but the _noise_ is often very distracting, as all the teachers

indulge in loud talking simultaneously in order to be heard.

The country Sunday school surely has a great future. It has the field and

the loyalty of its people. It is gradually being rescued from the monotony

of fruitless routine. The teaching is becoming less a matter of

parrot-like reciting and weak moralizing and more a matter of definite

instruction. The teachers are here and there being trained for their task,

not only in a better knowledge of the Bible but of boy life and girlhood

at different stages. Definite courses of study are more and more

introduced, planned to run through a series of years, culminating in a

graduation at about the age of seventeen, with annual examinations for

promotion; making due allowance for graduate classes and teacher training

groups. So thorough is the work, in some places practically the entire

population of a rural community is connected with the Sunday school.

_Bible Study in the Country_

It is an unfortunate fact that most Sunday-school quarterlies and lesson

studies are produced in the city; yet the Bible itself is a book of rural

life, with the exception of some of the writings of Paul. No wonder

country folks appreciate it. As Dr. Franklin McElfresh well says, "The

Bible sprang from the agonies of a shepherd's soul, from the triumph of a

herdsman's faith, and the glory of a fisherman's love. Its religion keeps

close to the ground, and interprets the daily life of sincere men who live

near to nature. One of the great days in the history of religion and

liberty is on record when a vine-dresser named Amos stood up before the

king of Israel to speak the burden of his soul. 'Prophet,' said he; 'I am

no prophet, only a plain farmer, but I came by God's call to tell you the

truth.' This was the day-dawn of Hebrew prophecy.

"The Bible can best be interpreted in the country. It sprang from a

pastoral people. It is full of the figures of the soil and the flock and

the field. Its richest images are from the plain face of nature and the

homely life of humble cottages." Country Sunday schools need a lesson

literature which can interpret to them the wonderful messages of the Book

of books in terms of rural life; but meanwhile they are doing their best

to discover these messages of life themselves.

_The Rural Young Men's Christian Association_

A most valuable ally of the country church, in many parts of the country,

is the Rural Young Men's Christian Association, or the County Work, as it

is usually called, because it is organized on the county basis. It is

serving the interests of the young men and boys of the village and open

country in a most effective way. It is successfully supplementing the work

of the country churches where they are making their worst failures, and it

is often uniting rival churches in a common cause, to save the boys; which

results in a new sympathy and an ultimately united religious community.

It is developing young manhood in body, mind and spirit, furnishing

wholesome social activities and recreation, conducting clean athletics,

encouraging clean sport and pure fun, stimulating true ambition and

intelligent, constructive life plans for the discontented farm boy,

cleaning him up morally and opening his eyes to see new religious ideals.

Through well-directed groups for Bible study and through quiet personal

work, the country boys are led to the discovery that religion is "a man's

job" and that it is essential to a well-rounded life; and they come to a

frank and normal religious experience which profoundly changes their

outlook on life and gives them a new life efficiency.

This Association work is no experiment. For years it has been widely

successful in many states and is promoted by the State and International

Committees on scientifically sound principles, based on a close study of

rural sociology and tried out by years of patient endeavor by well-trained

men who are specialists in their field. It is one of the most promising

just now of all the various lines of Young Men's Christian Association

work; and it is certainly as much needed as any branch of their work in

the cities.

_Working Principles_

The County Work aims to save the country boy and develop him for Christian

citizenship, not by the use of costly equipment, but by personality,

trained, consecrated leadership; not by institutions but by friendship;

not by highly-paid local secretaries, but by enlisting and training

volunteer service; not by patronage and coddling but by arousing and

directing the boy's own active interests; always remembering that by the

grace of God the redemptive forces in each community must be the resident

forces.

It is good policy to make the county the geographical unit of this

effective work. The county is the social unit politically, industrially,

commercially; it should also be the unit of religious endeavor,

particularly in rural sections. A county-wide campaign for righteousness

under the direction of a trained Association Secretary, usually a college

trained man and an expert in rural life, is a great thing for any county.

Every rural county in the land ought to be organized speedily to get the

benefit of this business-like modern plan of Christian service. The

difficulty is to discover, enlist and train the necessary leaders.

_A Campaign of Rural Leadership_

It is doubtful if there is any organization working for the betterment of

rural life which has a better chance to serve the interests of the whole

countryside to-day than the Rural Young Men's Christian Association. It

represents a united Christendom, being representative of all the churches

and their right arm in social service. In a county where there may be

twenty-nine varieties of churches, few of them strong enough for any

aggressive work, and most of them mutually jealous and suspicious, the

Rural Association Secretary comes in as a neutral, is soon welcome in

churches of every name and gradually gains great influence. He is possibly

a better trained man than most pastors in the county, and as he quietly

develops his work they discover that he is a man who knows rural life,

keeps abreast of the best agricultural science, is an expert in rural

sociology and in the psychology of adolescence. He rapidly gathers the

facts about the history and the present needs of the different townships

in the county and constructs a policy for developing a finer local life,

not only among the boys but the entire community.

If he stays long enough in the place, and is a man of the right sort, he

speedily grows into a position of recognized leadership, gaining the

confidence of the working farmers as a man of good sense, and of the

professional men because he understands scientifically the underlying

needs of the locality. Quite likely he is able to bring the ministers

together in a county ministerial union of which he is apt to be made

secretary or executive; and in some places he is able to federate most of

the churches of many sects into a working federation for the religious and

moral welfare of the county. Because he is a neutral, not working for the

aggrandizement of any special church, though vitally interested in all and

consecrated to the larger interests of the whole Kingdom of God, this man

has the best possible leverage on the country church situation. He can

advise weak churches about their difficulties; and when two or more local

churches ought to be gradually united, he can often tactfully and

successfully bring them together, as no other individual or group of

individuals could possibly do. He can with the grace of God develop the

spirit of cooperation among the people without which any hasty or

mechanical plan for union of diverse churches would be but a temporary

experiment.

Under the direction of his County Committee, which includes some fifteen

to twenty of the most influential Christian men of the county, this

Association Secretary is often able to set scores of local leaders at work

and train them for the special service to which they are best adapted;

thus utilizing local leadership which has been largely going to waste

through modest self-depreciation.

Gradually the office of the rural secretary becomes a sort of clearing

house for all the popular interests and organizations in the

county,--churches, schools, granges, farmers' institutes, boards of trade,

medical societies, Sunday schools, boys' clubs of every sort, athletic

clubs, civic associations and village improvement societies. Thus these

various agencies are brought together for cooperative service of the

countryside, learning to work together harmoniously with modern methods of

efficiency.[36]

_The County Work of the Young Women's Christian Association_

So successful has been the work of the Rural Young Men's Christian

Association, it has encouraged the National Board of the Young Women's

Christian Association to begin Christian work among women and girls in the

country villages. There is unquestionably a wide field and a great

usefulness for this branch of the Young Women's Association work. It ought

to be rapidly promoted and doubtless will be as fast as consecrated young

women can be trained for it and their challenge met by people of wealth to

consecrate their money for this purpose. Efficiency would be gained by

working in practical union with the rural Young Men's Christian

Associations.

_The Primacy of the Church in the Country_

In all these activities it must be borne in mind that the Young Men's and

the Young Women's Christian Associations are but auxiliaries of the

church. The secretary is frankly a servant of the church, of all the

churches. The main reason for emphasizing these agencies for rural

redemption is the present divided condition of religious forces in the

country. Where the churches are well united and cooperative; or better,

where the community has but one church, a strong, influential

organization, there is no valid reason why the church itself may not

rightly assume the position of leadership in all matters of community

welfare. Community building is the great work of the church after all;

developing and strengthening the vital issues of life in order that the

community may become an efficient part of the great Kingdom of God. As

rural Christendom becomes better united and better socialized, the church

will come to its own again, as in the old days when it was the only

outstanding institution in the community and rightly assumed the effective

leadership in all matters vitally affecting the welfare of the people.

Here again, the problem is mainly one of personality. Given adequate

leadership, the church can accomplish wonders as a genuine community

builder. But a gun must be a hundred times heavier than the projectile it

fires; else it will burst the gun. Small, petty personalities cannot hope

for large results in real community leadership. The church needs masterful

men, men of power and vision, ministers thoroughly trained for the work of

their profession and men whose hearts are kept tender and humble by the

spirit of the indwelling God.

V. Types of Rural Church Success.

_Some Real Community Builders_

With so many faithful men in country parsonages to-day who have seen the

vision of broader service and permanent success, it would be invidious to

suggest a list of names. It will be fully as safe to suggest something of

their program. These prophets of the new day for the rural church are

doing two distinct types of work. Some are making the village church the

center of outreaching endeavor for the redemption of the surrounding

country; others are vitalizing the church in the open country as a center

of vital religion and broad service.

In Cazenovia, New York, for instance, we find a splendid instance of the

effectiveness of the village church in overcoming its handicap with the

people outside the village. In most places there is a two-mile dead-line

for religion. Outside that limit the church's influence is seldom felt.

But here we find a pastor who has by friendly evangelism in school houses

miles from his church, supported by social methods for enriching the daily

life of the people, won scores of people to his Lord and Master, and

greatly enlarged his church membership and its usefulness. There are many

places where similar success is won by the same kind of earnest, efficient

work by pastors and their laymen. Unquestionably the village church has a

regal opportunity, as great as ever in the past.

_The Church in the Open Country_

There are many people, however, who doubt the possible success of the

church in the open country. Some are advising concentrating efforts in the

villages and centralizing church work there on the plan of the

centralization of the public schools. In some places this may be wise; but

to deny that a church in the open country can be successful is to fly in

the face of the facts.

Given an adequate equipment for service, and a well-trained, tactful

pastor who knows and loves country folks and lives with his people,

splendid results may be expected. A church on the open prairie at

Plainfield, Illinois, six miles from a railroad, has become famous in

recent years as an illustration of real success in community building.

City people would say there is no community, for there is none in sight.

But the people for miles around are bound vitally to that church as to

their home, for it not only has served their many needs and won their

personal appreciation and love, but it has set many of them at work in a

worth-while cooperative service.

Ten years ago that community had an unsuccessful church of the old type,

gathering a small congregation from week to week but with little influence

outside. No one had joined the church for five years. The last minister

had resigned in discouragement, with six months' arrears in salary. The

"New Era Club," a mile away, was wooing all the young people away from the

church to its frequent dancing parties; while the church offered no

substitute, and helplessly grew weaker year by year.

But in the past ten years a fine modern church building has been built,

with fourteen rooms for all purposes, and paid for in cash; the manse has

been remodeled; the pastor's salary nearly doubled; about as much given to

benevolences as in the half-century preceding; the Sunday school has grown

to 300 members; the people from miles away flock to the preaching

services, the lectures, concerts and socials; large numbers have been

added to the church; while the "New Era Club" has been crumbling into

ruin, simply starved out by religious competition! There has not been a

dance there for eight or nine years, though the pastor has never preached

against it.

This all began with an old-fashioned singing school which gathered

together the young people socially at the church; and from this simple

beginning, other plans developed which met the needs of the people and won

their loyalty. Though the pastor modestly disclaims special merit or

ability, the man who cannot only keep his preaching services at a high

standard of success and keep up a system of cottage prayer meetings

throughout his parish as centers of the spiritual life, and also gather

over 2,000 people for the annual community plowing contest (more than

double the population of the whole township) must be a personality to be

reckoned with! There is, however, nothing in the situation or in the

program of successful achievement which could not be duplicated elsewhere

in thousands of purely rural communities, given the same kind of

intelligent leadership and consecrated cooperation.

_Oberlin: The Prince of Country Ministers_

With all the resources of our modern church life, it is doubtful if there

has ever been a country pastor more strikingly efficient or broadly

influential than Johann Friedrich Oberlin, who died nearly a century ago.

He was pastor of four rural parishes in the Vosges Mountains for over

sixty years and became the most beloved and influential person in the

entire section. He was a graduate of Strassburg University and declined a

city pulpit in order to accept the most needy and difficult field of

service which he could find. The people of Ban-de-la-Roche to whom he came

were a rude mountain folk isolated from civilization; but since Oberlin's

work of transformation they have been a prosperous, happy people with many

of the marks of culture.

Seven years before his death, Pastor Oberlin received the gold medal of

the Legion of Honor from the King of France, "for services which he has

rendered in his pastorate during fifty-three years, employing constant

efforts for the amelioration of the people, for zeal in the establishment

of schools and their methods of instruction, and the many branches of

industry and the advancement of agriculture and the improvement of roads,

which have made that district flourishing and happy." The National

Agricultural Society gave him a gold medal for "prodigies accomplished in

silence in this almost unknown corner of the Vosges,... in a district

before his arrival almost savage," and into which he had brought "the best

methods of agriculture and the purest lights of civilization."

In the early stages of his remarkable career his narrow-minded people

opposed every step he took in the direction of community progress. They

resented his doing anything but preaching. When he proposed that they

build a passable road over the mountains to civilization they jeered at

the idea. But he shouldered his pick and began the task, and ere long they

joined him. Together they built the first real highway and bridged the

mountain stream. Out of a salary of $200 a year he paid most of the

expense of two new schoolhouses, because the people refused to help. The

other villages, however, saw the improvement and built their own. He

gradually revolutionized the educational methods, and even in the course

of years, succeeded in supplanting the mountain dialect with Parisian

French. He studied and then taught agriculture, and horticulture,

introducing new crops, new vegetables (including the potato), and new

fruits; even reclaiming the impoverished soil by scientific methods which

gradually won the respect of even the dullest of his people.

In all his reforms he kept his religious aim and purpose foremost and his

church never suffered but constantly grew in influence and popular

appreciation. Gradually he became the honored pastor, the "Protestant

saint," of the whole mountainside. Lutherans, Catholics and Calvinists

attended his services. They would even partake of the sacrament together

and he furnished them with three kinds of bread, to suit their diverse

customs, wafers for the Romanists and bread leavened for the Calvinists

and unleavened for the Lutherans; and thus they lived together in peace!

_The Force of Oberlin's Example_

Few modern ministers perhaps will need to follow in detail the example of

Johann Friedrich Oberlin, but the sacrificial spirit and working

principles of his life ministry are as necessary as ever. As President K.

L. Butterfield states so well, "Rural parishes in America that present the

woeful conditions of the Ban-de-la-Roche in 1767 may not be common, though

of that let us not be too sure. The same underground work that Oberlin did

may not need doing by every rural clergyman. Schools are busy in every

parish. Forces of socialization and cooperation are at work. The means of

agricultural training are at hand. Yet the underlying philosophy of

Oberlin's life work must be the fundamental principle of the great country

parish work of the future. Oberlin believed in the unity of life, the

marriage of labor and learning. He knew that social justice, intelligent

toil, happy environment are bound up with the growth of the spirit. They

act and react upon one another.

More than a century ago this great man labored for a lifetime as a country

minister. He knew all the souls in his charge to their core. He loved them

passionately. He refused to leave them for greater reward and easier work.

He studied their problems. He toiled for his people incessantly. He

transformed their industry and he regenerated their lives. He built a new

and permanent rural civilization that endures to this day unspoiled. The

parishes about the little village of Waldersbach thus became a laboratory

in which the call of the country parish met a deep answer of success and

peace."[37]

TEST QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER VII

1.--How important do you consider the country church as an agency for

rural betterment?

2.--How important might it become if it lived up to its opportunity?

3.--What four stages do you find in the development of the rural church in

America? Describe this evolution.

4.--Contrast the old and the new ideals in country church work.

5.--What is the main business of a church in the country community and

what do you regard as the real test of its efficiency?

6.--Describe what you think is the broad function of the church in serving

the rural community.

7.--If the church meets its opportunity in this broad way what will it

gain by it?

8.--What do you think about the church's responsibility for spiritual

leadership?

9.--Take some country church of your own acquaintance and tell what you

think it ought to be doing to build up its community.

10.--Name the chief reasons why many rural churches are so weak and

ineffective.

11.--Make a list of factors which would help to make these churches

successful.

12.--If local prosperity is at low ebb or the farmers are unsuccessful,

what can the church people do about it? Illustrate what has been done.

13.--Why should the church not merely serve its own membership but the

whole community?

14.--Why is sectarian competition particularly bad for the country

sections?

15.--How can a country village get rid of its surplus churches?

16.--What can a church federation accomplish in a community? In a county?

In a state?

17.--Why is a permanent resident pastor so necessary to country church

success? What must be done to make this to any extent possible?

18.--What should be the "minimum wage" for a country pastor and how can

this be secured? Illustrate how this has been accomplished near Cleveland.

19.--Should denominational home mission boards help pay the salary of

their ministers in over-churched communities? What can be done about this?

20.--Draw a rough practical plan of a modern church building costing not

over $10,000, and suited to rural needs.

21.--Suggest a practical plan of work for laymen in the country church.

22.--Discuss the religious usefulness of a community social survey. What

local facts would you try to gather?

23.--What do you think of the opportunity and importance of Sunday-school

work in the country?

24.--Why is the Bible particularly well adapted to people living in the

country?

25.--Why are rural Sunday schools often so unsuccessful?

26.--Discuss possible improvements and suggest how you would accomplish

them.

27.--What do you think of the general plan of the Rural Young Men's

Christian Association work?

28.--Tell how it is helping the country boy.

29.--Discuss the working principles of this "County Work."

30.--Describe the broad opportunities for community Christian service

which come to the County Work secretary.

31.--What Christian work in country villages needs to be done by the Young

Women's Christian Association?

32.--Why do you find so often to-day a "two-mile dead line for religion"?

33.--What work in the surrounding country can be in a prairie church at

Plainfield, Illinois.

34.--Do you believe in the permanent usefulness of the church in the open

country?

35.--Tell the story of modern country church success in a prairie church

at Plainfield, Illinois.

36.--What were the secrets of the success of that particular church in the

open country? Is there any reason why 10,000 other rural churches cannot

learn to do the same?

37.--Who was Johann Friedrich Oberlin?

38.--Discuss his remarkable life work as a country pastor. What do you

think of his rural church program?

39.--Make a list of the successful country churches and ministers you have

known and the chief reasons for their success.

40.--Describe the ideal country church of the future.

CHAPTER VIII

COUNTRY LIFE LEADERSHIP

CHAPTER VIII

COUNTRY LIFE LEADERSHIP

A. A Challenge to College Men

I. _The Relation of the Colleges to This Problem_

A new interest and sense of responsibility.

General college neglect of the rural call.

The stake of the city in rural welfare.

Rural progress waiting for trained leadership.

II. _Rural Opportunities for Community Builders_

The call for country educators.

The call of the country church:

Large tasks awaiting real leadership.

The modern type of country minister.

The call for Christian physicians:

The special need of country doctors.

The unique rewards of country practice.

The rural call to the legal profession.

Life opportunities in agricultural professions.

The call of the County Work secretary.

B. A Challenge to College Women

I. _Some Responsibilities Shared with Men_

A necessary partnership, and its increasing burden.

Responsibility for rural education.

Responsibility for rural health and sanitation.

Opportunities for religious leadership.

II. _Unique Opportunities for Rural Social Service_

The opportunity of the village librarian.

The specialist in household economics.

Demonstration centers of rural culture.

Womanly leadership in church and club.

The rural Association secretary.

CHAPTER VIII

COUNTRY LIFE LEADERSHIP

A. A CHALLENGE TO COLLEGE MEN

I. The Relation of the Colleges to This Problem.

_A New Interest and Sense of Responsibility_

It has been plain from the start that this book is a book with a purpose.

Its object was frankly stated in the preface and the author at least has

not forgotten it in a single chapter. These seven preceding chapters have

condensed the facts of country life in its strength and weakness and have

voiced the modern call for rural leadership. Every call for trained

leadership must come ultimately to the college man. Both the need and the

worthiness of rural life, its social and religious crisis and its

strategic signs of promise, bring the challenge of the country to the man

in college.

For two or three years past there have been groups of men in various

universities meeting weekly to discuss this problem. In comparing the

needs of various fields of service and weighing their own fitness for

various tasks, they wished to study the opportunities in rural life for

consecrated leadership. These groups are certain to multiply. Alert

college men even in city colleges have discovered that we have to-day not

only a complicated country _problem_ but a great rural life

_opportunity_; a problem intricate enough to challenge earnest

investigation by thoughtful students, and an opportunity for a life

mission worthy of strong men.

_General College Neglect of the Rural Call_

The writer firmly believes that the city has been claiming too large a

proportion of college graduates in recent years and that the needs of

country life are not receiving due consideration. A large majority of

students in most colleges come from the country. Has not the country a

right to claim its fair share of these young men and women after they have

been trained for a useful life? If only 15% of the students at Princeton

come from the country we cannot complain if practically all of them after

graduation go to the city; but when nearly all the students at Marietta

College (Ohio) come from the country and 65% of them go to the city, we

wonder why. Likewise 70% of the students at Stanford University (Calif.)

were country bred, but only 25% return to country life after college days.

At Williams (Mass.), a city boys' college, only 24% come from the country

and about 15% return; but at Pacific University (Ore.) 95% come from the

country (80% from very small communities) yet only 45% resist the city's

call. Bowdoin (Maine) gets but 47% of its students from the city, but

returns 70%; The University of Kansas receives but 44% of its students

from cities, yet contributes to cities three-fourths of its graduates;

while Whitman (Wn.) receives but 40% from the city yet returns 80%.

Hillsdale (Mich.), a country college with a fine spirit of service, does

better; receiving 95% of its students from small towns and villages, it

returns all but 26%. "Practically all" the students at Adelbert College

(Ohio) enter city work on graduation, though 30% of them are country bred.

It is entirely natural in institutions like the University of Illinois,

Ohio State University and Cornell, where there are strong agricultural

colleges, that there should be the keenest interest in the welfare and

needs of country life; but is it not time that other institutions faced

more frankly the responsibility of training more of their students for

country life leadership? Certainly, with the splendid signs of promise in

country life to-day and the opportunities for a life mission there, no

thoughtful man can refuse to consider it.

_The Stake of the City in Rural Welfare_