A Resolve of 3ir"[}io(na5 Drowne , "To Tdk? occasion of praijinq upon ihe siqht of dnq church that I see or pass bij" Of orttell Ittittcraitg ffitbtarg THE GIFT OF ALFRED C. BARNES 1889 olin Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924032338075 THE RURAL CHURCH AND COMMUNITY BETTERMENT The Rural Church AND Community Betterment EDITED BY COUNTY WORK DEPARTMENT NEW YORK: ASSOCIATION PRESS 1911 V'V Copyright, 1911 by The International Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations Association Press 124. East 38th St. New York City MINUTES OF THE RURAL CHURCH CONFER- ENCE HELD UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE COUNTY WORK DEPARTMENT OF THE INTER- NATIONAL COMMITTEE OF YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS AT THE INTER- NATIONAL COMMITTEE BUILDING IN NEW YORK CITY, THURSDAY, DECEMBER FIRST, 1910 THE RURAL CHURCH In some great day The country church Will find its voice And it will say: " I stand in the fields Where the wide earth yields Her bounties of fruit and of grain; Where the furrows turn Till the plowshares burn As they circle again, again ; Where the workers pray With their tools all day In sunshine and shadow and rain. "And I bid them tell Of the crops they sell And speak of the work they have done; I speed every man In his hope and plan And follow his day with the sun ; And grasses and trees, The birds and the bees I know and I feel every one. "And out of it all As the seasons fall I build ray great temple alway; I point to the skies But my footstone lies In commonplace work of the day; For I preach the worth Of the native earth — To love and to work is to pray." Liberty H. Bailey. TABLE OF CONTENTS Program ...... 9 List of Speakers ..... 13 Introductory ...... 17 Rules . . . . 19 Opening Session ..... 21 Discussions : The Teaching of Religion in the Country . 23 Country Church Finances and Administra- tion ...... 41 Country Community Building 52 Cooperation and Integration of Community Institutions ..... 64 The Function of the Country Church 81 Summaries of Discussions .... 121 List of Delegates ..... 129 PROGRAM Prayer. Discussion: "The Teaching of Religion in the Country." Led by Warren H. Wilson, Ph. D., superintendent of the Department of Church and Country Life, Presbyterian Board, New York. 1. The best center for teaching the Bible in the country community: Is it within the church or outside of churches? 2. What are the best courses of Bible study for working farmers? 3. Is the present doctrinal training obsolete? 4. Does the philosophy and theology taught in colleges and seminaries unfit men for rural service by its individualism ? By teaching about exceptional instances, mira- cles, wonders, heroism and saints, instead of teaching obedience to law, average cases, standards of conduct, typical men, practicable, economical and ethical levels? 5. Is the seminary training for rural pastors unsuited by its traditions, viz., a prayer for rain in a region watered by irrigation ? 6. Does social efficiency suffer through the teach- ing of sectarian doctrines? 7. What course of seminary training would fit men for rural service? 8. Should the seminary or the agricultural col- lege train men for service in the country? 10 THE RURAL CHURCH AND Discussion: "Country Church Finances and Ad- ministration." Led by Prof. Thomas Cuming Hall, D. D., professor of Christian Ethics, Union Theo- logical Seminary. 1. Has the country minister a living wage? 2. How can a living be secured for him ? 3. Why do rural laymen manage so badly? 4. What use can be made in rural social service of modern means of communication and trans- portation ? 5. Is church federation made impossible by in- vested interests in country church property? 6. Would the endowment of country churches help? Discussion: "Country Community Building." Led by Prof. Edwin L. Earp, professor of Sociology, Drew Theological Seminary. 1. What religious service is needed for the non- Protestant, non-evangelical and the un- churched ? 2. How shall immigrants be socially and polit- ically assimilated, who are now economically employed ? 3. Emigrating families: for young men and young women leaving for the city? 4. Through what measures can religious institu- tions improve the schools? 5. What effective measures can be taken for good roads ? COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 11 6. Public sanitation. 7. How shall better agriculture be taught in the country community? 8. What teaching as to city life, if any, should be given in country institutions? How far shall city institutions and methods be imitated? 9. How can public libraries be provided in the country community? 10. Can farmers' clubs be organized to promote scientific agriculture? 11. How can public recreation be used to relieve the tedium and loneliness of country life ? To improve the morals of the young and of the working people and to eliminate the obscene and the impure from act and thought? 12. How can community leadership be developed in the country ? Discussion: "Cooperation and Integration of Country Community Institutions." Led by Presi- dent Kenyon L. Butterfield, Massachusetts Agri- cultural College. 1. Church cooperation, federation, consolidation: Is it necessary? Practicable? -Under what circumstances? On what principles? What can the Young Men's Christian Association or the seminary do to aid it? 2. Cooperation of church and Young Men's Christian Associations? Cooperation with the grange? With the public school? 12 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 3. Is the Young Men's Christian Association or the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ ih America the agency for federating rural churches and institutions? Discussion: "The Function of the Country Church." Led by Prof. G. Walter Fiske, junior dean, Oberlin Theological Seminary. 1. What is the church's function or business? 2. Does the crying need of federation throw light on the essential nature of the church? 3. Is the country community better served by a single church or a plurality of churches ? 4. In harmony with its function what can the church in the country do to promote physical, intellectual, economic and social welfare? LIST OF SPEAKERS Rev. William H. Allison, Ph. D., dean and profes- sor of Ecclesiastical History, Colgate Theological Seminary. Rev. W. L. Anderson, author of The Country Town. Rev. R. H. M. Augustine, pastor, Presbyterian Church, Hanover, N. J. C. A. Barbour, D. D., secretary. International Com- mittee Young Men's Christian Associations. Kenyon L. Butterfield, LL. D., president, Massa- chusetts Agricultural College. Rev. Andrew Campbell, pastor. Orthodox Congre- gational Church of Christ, Groveland, Mass. Rev. W. Russell "Collins, D. D., professor of Lit- urgies and Ecclesiastical Polity, Theological Semi- nary of the Reformed Episcopal Church, Phila- delphia. Dwright C. Drew, State County Work secretary of the Young Men's Christian Associations of Massachusetts. Edwin L. Earp, Ph. D., professor of Sociology and director of Drew Theological Seminary. Frederick E. Emrich, D. D., secretary, Massachu- setts Home Missionary Society. Rev. Charles R. Erdman, professor of Practical Theology, Princeton Theological Seminary. Elmer O. Fippin, professor of Soil Technology, New York State College of Agriculture, Cornell University. 14 THE RURAL CHURCH AND Prof. G. Walter Fiske, junior dean, Oberlin Theo- logical Seminary. Prof. Owen H. Gates, librarian, Andover Theo- logical Seminary. Thomas Cuming Hall, D. D., professor of Christian Ethics, Union Theological Seminary. Hon. Willet M. Hays, assistant secretary, United States Department of Agriculture. Alvah S. Hobart, D. D., professor, New Testament Interpretation, Crozer Theological Seminary. Arthur S. Hoyt, D. D., professor, Homiletics and Sociology, Auburn Theological Seminary. H. B. MacCauley, D. D., secretary Eastern Dis- trict Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America. D. Hunter McAlpin, M. D., chairman, Interna- tional County Work Committee, Young Men's Christian Associations. Prof. James McConaughy, Mount Hermon School. William D. McRae, state county work secretary of Young Men's Christian Associations of N. J. Rev. Paul Martin, registrar and secretary, Princeton Theological Seminary. Prof. Alexander R. Merriam, Department of Homi- letics and Pastoral Care, Hartford Theological Seminary. Richard C. Morse, general secretary of the Inter- national Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations. COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 15 Rev. Edward Tallmadge Root, field secretary of the Massachusetts Federation of Churches. Elias B. Sanford, D. D., corresponding secretary of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America. Josiah Strong, D. D., president, American Institute of Social Service. Prof. Robert W. Veach, dean of Bible Teachers Training School, New York. Rev. George F. Wells, research secretary. Depart- ment of Christian Sociology, Bureau of Field Work, Drew Theological Seminary. Warren H. Wilson, Ph. D., superintendent of the Department of Church and Country Life of the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America. INTRODUCTORY The Country Church Conference was called by the County or Rural Section of the Young Men's Christian Association to secure a consensus of opinion from church leaders and other authorities on country life as to the real function of the church in the country community, its relationship to other organi- zations and how there can best be established a basis of cooperation between the church and its supplementary agencies. The program was assembled from the more than two hundred questions submitted by the leading authorities, social, educational, economic and religious, on country life in North America, and even after the most rigid condensation was still so comprehensive as to make it necessary to treat many of the topics in a superficial manner. Several days could have been spent with profit in the discussion of the program, but unfortunately only one day was available. There were more than one hundred dele- gates and visitors, including, as will be seen in the list of names published on another page, representatives from nearly all of the 18 THE RURAL CHURCH AND theological schools of the East, agricultural colleges, the Department of Agriculture at Washington, the Bureau of Education, the Federal Council of Churches, the great de- nominational bodies and the leaders in Young Men's and Young Women's Christian Associations. There was a very general agreement that what is most needed in order that the country church shall function properly is, first, a specially trained ministry — a ministry that recognizes in the country church an oppor- tunity for a life service, a ministry so gripped by this opportunity that no appeal of the city church can supersede or equal it; second, a getting together of all the forces for good in the community; and third, the development of native talent in leadership equal to this con- structive program by which the country com- munity becomes new without losing the worthy ideals of the old. This is real com- munity building which recognizes the church as the fundamental agency of human welfare, but points out the necessity of a broader out- reach of the church in cooperation with sup- plemental agencies. RULES. A committee consisting of Dr. Warren H. Wilson of the Presbyterian Board, Dr. W. L. Anderson of Amherst, Massachusetts, Prof. Edwin L. Earp of Drew Theological Semi- nary and Dr. D. H. McAlpin of the Inter- national Committee of the Young Men's Christian Associations prepared rules to gov- ern the discussions as follows : 1. Leader of discussion will be allowed ten minutes for opening remarks. 2. Each subsequent speaker will be al- lowed five minutes and notified one minute before expiration of time. 3. On rising, the speaker must give name and the name of the institution he represents as well as his official title. 4. No man can speak twice on the same topic without general consent. These rules were presented to the confer- ence by Dr. Wilson, the first speaker, and unanimously adopted. THE MORNING SESSION Prayer was offered by Rev. R. H. M. Augustine. D. H. McAlpIn, M. D., Chairman of the County Work Department of the Interna- tional Committee, presided, and after a brief speech of cordial welcome to the delegates, asked Mr. Albert E. Roberts to state the object of the conference. Mr. Roberts : I wish to say that whatever good may come from this conference is due in a very large degree to the work of Dr. McAlpin, Chair- man of the County Work Committee, who has manifested a great deal of interest, given a great deal of time, and who more than any one man has made possible this gathering. Along with this has been the splendid co- operation of my associate, Mr. Israel, who has conducted much of the correspondence and has put in a great deal of time and hard work in assembling the program. We also owe thanks to the men who have counseled 22 THE RURAL CHURCH AND with US — Dr. Wilson, Mr. Hill of the New York State work, Dr. Fiske and Dr. Butter- field, Professor Coe of Union Theological Seminary and others who cannot be here. Many have contributed to make this program possible. We are looking for light. We are on a common platform, allies of the church. Because the church is so great a factor in the community, we desire to know where we can best cooperate; how to avoid duplication of effort and eliminate waste; and so with that purpose in mind, and with wholly open minds, as was expressed in the prayer, our desire is to get from the conference those things that will make us more useful in the work to which we have been called. We realize the limitations of this program. Over two hundred questions were submitted. We have missed many of them, but this is the beginning and not the end. We hope it is the beginning of a series of similar confer- ences. The chairman appointed the following delegates to bring in at the close of the after- noon period a resume of each discussion for the consideration of the conference : COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 23 Topic I. "Cooperation and Integration of Country Community Institutions," Mr. D. C. Drew. Topic II. "The Teaching of Religion in the Country," Dr. C. A. Barbour. Topic III. "Country Church Finances and Ad- ministration," Rev. R. H. M. Augus- tine. Topic IV. "Country Community Building," Prof. Ernest Burnham. Topic V. "The Function of the Country Church," Mr. Richard C. Morse. THE TEACHING OF RELIGION IN THE COUNTRY Dr. Warren H. Wilson: The "Religious Teaching in the Country Community" is a matter of pure pragmatism. In certain states they send out a "seed train" whose business it is to test the fertility of the seed corn. We have come today to do the same thing. We would have aboard our "seed train," which shall test the doctrine in the country churches, a professor of sociol- ogy and a professor of economics; a repre- sentative of scientific agriculture, a country 24 THE RURAL CHURCH AND doctor and a well-to-do farmer. These would test the doctrinal teaching of the coun- try minister, in a very practical way. Chris- tianity is a good gospel, but for some reason it is not always fertile in the country commu- nity. Why not ? The seed is planted in the mind by faithful preachers, but people are not induced to follow the gospel. The ques- tion is, "Does the gospel, as it is preached, make good, and if not, what is needed that it may make good?" We have to approach, therefore, the fundamental question which President Butterfield precipitates in his state- ment that the country life movement is a movement for the reconstruction of rural civilization. What gospel and what ministry will serve in this reconstruction ? Let us look at the four institutions which have been the nuclei of rural interests, the store, the school, the church and the family. The rural household is the traditional Ameri- can family. Everyone of these nuclei of country life is out of repair and in need of reconstruction. The personal character of country people is not out of repair. Nowhere is there a higher individual morality. The COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 25 relations of the sexes, in the country, as the investigation of the Rural Life Commission showed, are normal and the ethical stand- ards are high. Rural observers testify to the high standard of individual ethics, according to traditional tests of righteousness, but the social ethics of the country is very low. I have never known milk, farmers who had any ethical standard as to the quality of milk. They believe in giving quantity, but only a social standard would give us a better quality of milk. The milk farmer will fight against a higher social standard. The country store is closed. Sir Horace Plunkett says that the country above all needs better business methods. Very generally the country community has no economic center. The country school is the most retrograde of all educational institutions. The country church merely exists, struggling for survival alone. The rural family is in dissolution. The picture at the World's Fair, "Breaking Home Ties," gave artistic expression to this condition and showed the sore place in coun- try life. This condition of social dissolution, this 26 THE RURAL CHURCH AND sharp contrast between high individual ethics and low social ethics, describes the need of religious teaching in the country. It should be socially constructive. In the first place, religious teaching in the country should be systematic, but not dogmatic. The system should be thorough, but if possible it should not be sectarian. The aim of religious teach- ing in the country should be to unify, not to divide. The difference between higher criti- cism and conservative biblical teaching cannot deliver its values in the country. I have seen a Catholic population take on all the manners of a Quaker population, and yet remain good Catholics. I know the minister of a church covering twenty-four square miles. This church has taught the religion of unity, for no other church has come into its territory in two hundred years. Yet I know another com- munity where, in a radius of four miles, there are twenty-four country churches. Farmers need a unitary center of Christianity and they need it seriously. The question, "Where shall the Bible be taught ?" is to be answered with another ques- tion, "What leaders can we secure?" and COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 27 "What can the leaders do?" Leaders are few in the country and you must do, in the country community, that for which you have leaders. The Bible should be taught where the leaders available can best teach it. Teach about God, and not about the church. The essential thing is that the church, the Associa- tion, and other institutions be forgotten, and that we teach the divine message : the father- hood of God and the divine power of Jesus Christ. If we do so, the church and the Association will thrive. As has been suggested, we should not teach, in the country, about miracles or excep- tional instances, heroes, saints and wonders so much, but should teach obedience to law, standards of conduct, practicable, economic and ethical levels. The farmer is governed by law, and not by accident, and the rural economy develops regular action rather than impulsive and special action. Religious teaching in the country centers in the seminary. The need in the seminary is not to discredit the biblical and traditional training, but to add to it the teaching of the science of sociology. We have in the semi- 28 THE RURAL CHURCH AND nary a great body of knowledge, to which must be applied social and economic thinking and a training in social service. We need to supplement the seminary training, not to dis- place it, but the training in sociology must be scientific, scholarly, and the teacher of this science must be the peer of any other in the seminary. Dr. a. S. Hobart: I regret any seeming thrust at the life of the individual church. Whatever civilization there is in the country comes from Christian churches, and whatever morality is in the people comes from Christian teaching as given there. It has been given by ministers as taught in seminaries by the curricula as they are. I think we must be careful not to say Christian churches are not good for anything. My observations of moral conditions in the country lead me to different conclusions. I may be in error but my judgment is that In sexual matters the country is worse off than the city. I once supposed the city was very rotten, but since living in cities I think the evil worse In the country. COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 29 If you introduce much sociology and eco- nomics into our seminaries you must leave the Bible out for lack of time. This movement, if it goes on the lines indicated in this pro- gram, strikes at the whole organization of the Christian church. When you leave out of seminaries instruction in the Bible and theology you are taking the foundation out from under the Christian church. So far you have not found anything else to take the place of these. Agriculture won't do it, sociology won't do it. If you don't preach the Bible, the churches won't last. The Bible is the source of all and when you ask the ministers to teach sociology and agriculture and eco- nomics you are putting on them a burden which is too heavy. Hon. W. M. Hays: This question of the country church is bound up with the entire reorganization of the rural community and the rural commu- nity is making itself over and is adopting a new unit of organization. The size of area covered by the new unit is determined by the practicable team-haul to the public school. 30 THE RURAL CHURCH AND Five to eight one-room schools to which the pupils walk are being consolidated into one three- to six-room school to which the pupils are hauled in public wagons. The farmers In the open country during the past sixteen years have made more than one thousand experiments in consolidating rural schools. Not five per cent of the two or three hundred thousand parents who have had experience sending their children, both to the one- room rural school and to the consolidated rural school, would vote to return to the smaller unit. The consolidated rural school has won its way in American country life education. The farm families are recentered about the consolidated rural school. Once the people in this new school district all become acquainted they will gradually center many of their other country life interests beside the school. Heretofore the farm families have been but poorly centered about the one-room school, about the country church, which is rarely beside the school, and about the country stores, villages and towns. Under the new plan we shall have the COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 31 farm families all so recentered about the con- solidated rural school — ^with its district cov- ering twenty to forty square miles, instead of four to six square miles, as in the past — that a new community life will spring up. The sending of delegates to county and other associations and country life federations will tend to solidify this new consolidated rural school district. New functions will be assumed. Under my direction investigations have been made concerning these rural schools during ithe past several years. Those of us who have been concerned with this investigation believe the consolidated rural school district is to generally take the place of the one-room school district. It is succeeding from Florida to New England and from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. The new district provides conditions under which the organization of all phases of country life can be effected. Forty thousand of these country life consoli- dated schools will be required to take the place of the nearly three hundred thousand one-room rural schools. Nearly every question which has entered 32 THE RURAL CHURCH AND in your discussion today is to be greatly af- fected by this consolidation. The county Young Men's Christian Association and the Young Women's Christian Association, cen- tered at the county seat, can have at least committees at each of the twenty or thirty consolidated rural schools which make up the county system of country life schools. May we not expect that those who grow up asso- ciated with this Young Men's Christian Association and Young Women's Christian Association committee work, will eventually want a single union church centered at the same place as the school, so as to serve the same group of people as have become ac- quainted while together being educated in the public school? We need to make a few simple changes in the ecclesiastical arrange- ments of the Christian church so that this union may be made easy instfead of retarded as it now is. Prof. Robert W. Veach : "What are the best courses of Bible study for working farmers?" This whole question involves the ideal COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 33 reconstruction of country life. Any course of biblical study that would uplift the country must furnish that ideal ; it must give a vision of what is to be. The vision must be seen in its large historic perspective. If I under- stand the Bible aright it means precisely that thing, the history of a great social reconstruc- tion, which seeks to develop those higher and finer religious ideals which purify and uplift society. Therefore the Bible course that will best fit this situation is, first of all, one that sees the Bible in its large historic perspec- tive. Another thought : We believe now that out of social life and out of the interactions of social life all our religious development is bound to take its character. Therefore we must look to the Bible for the basic prin- ciples of social reconstruction; that is, we must have a biblical sociology. For instance, I was in the country two years ago talking to a brilliant young minister, and he said, "I want to start a men's Bible class in my church, but I am waiting until the International Sun- day School Lessons get out of the Prophets." He failed utterly to see the relation between 34 THE RURAL CHURCH AND the social message of the Prophets and social reconstruction in country life. Instead of sociology crowding out the Bible in the semi- nary it must spring forth from the Bible if it is going to be vital. There are two psychological principles that should also determine the best course of Bible study for country life. The first is that the will is the central function in all religious development. Bible study should therefore seek to bring out those great moral principles that grip the will and bring the daily life into conformity to the highest ideals. The Bible is a book that grew up in God's great out-of- doors. The Ten Commandments were deliv- ered in the open air. Jesus drew His illus- trations largely from country life, from sky and hill and field. Bible study should there- fore seek to make country life conscious of the religious significance of its open-air envi- ronment. Another feature: When Jesus was using that great example of the Parable of the Tares He made one significant statement, "the good seed, these are the sons of the Kingdom." Truth through personality. COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 35 The personality of the teacher lies back of the success of every course of Bible study. Prof. Arthur S. Hoyt: I am a country boy myself, born on a farm and raised on a farm. For twenty years I have tried to teach theology. We need, first of all, men who will be systematic teachers^ of the people. The new scientific agriculture should demand on the part of the pulpit, not spasmodic evangelism, but a well-trained, systematic ministry, who will instruct the people in a scientific way in regard to Bible truths and the truths of life, and can quicken the intellectual life of the people. My own pastor has no less than thirty men who are widely known in commercial enterprises of this country. That is the result of a well- trained man to pass on intellectual and spirit- ual life to the service of the country. I have no fear of the introduction of sociology in the theological seminary. We need more of it, and not less. We need to cull out the old non-essential courses of our curriculum. We must give the young men the right attitude toward this and then send them out as social 36 THE RURAL CHURCH AND Students to social service. Every seminary should have social training for theological students. Dr. Wilson: Let me say to the theological men present that four of the agricultural colleges will train your ministers this year in postgraduate courses. They are offering summer schools for country ministers. Massachusetts Agri- cultural College had thirty ministers present last year. President Butterfield is equal to any man in the seminary in his value to the country minister. Michigan, Iowa and Kan- sas are doing this work well. The seminaries must recognize the need of scholarly train- ing in rural sociology, which these agricul- tural colleges are satisfying. What is needed is a training in the schol- arly study of religious phenomena. Religion is the product of group life, not of individual life. Long ago the Young Men's Christian Association recognized this principle and acted upon it. It is coming clearly to adopt it in its perfect organization. In the second place, the religion to be COMMUNtTY BETTERMENT 37 taught in our day must be that of adaptation to environment. Professor Carver said this summer, speaking to Association men, that the country church has the key to the problem of country life, because the universities have the body of knowledge, but the spirit to use that knowledge must be supplied by the churches. Almost all education has been secularized. We are confronted with secu- larization of religious education in this action of the agricultural colleges. At the head of the leading agricultural colleges of the North- ern and Eastern States are Christian men who are demanding the help of the churches in the spiritual leadership of country people. Their message is heard by the country churches today. In our discussion last year among Presbyterian churches I was able to use many agricultural college and university professors, but practically no professors in theological seminaries. These men in the agricultural colleges are concerned with the struggle of the farmer for survival. This struggle is affecting every situation in the country and every institution. It is for this struggle that the farmer needs religious help. 38 THE RURAL CHURCH AND If the theological seminaries will not give him help, he will get it elsewhere. The prob- lem before this conference is the question which confronts the farmer: "Is the country church worth while?" "What is the function of the country church?" Dr. Hugh B. MacCauley : In my district of thirteen states, from Maine to West Virginia, I have an oppor- tunity to see the condition of things in the country in a way that is very broad. I am concerned with these questions as related to the formation of local federations. In the county seat of one of the most rural counties of one of my states, they told me that there were one hundred drunkards. I am prepared to believe that if there is any place which needs the remedy that Jesus Christ alone can give, that place is the country. What is needed more than anything else is that God's remedy for sin be pressed with power upon all members of the parish in the country dis- tricts by the country pastor. I yield to no one in believing that we should emphasize social service, but I also feel that the ques- COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 39 tions that pertain to the social service occupy a subordinate position. Now two things : It is not sectarian to im- press upon men that Jesus Christ is Lord and that He is the only Saviour whom God has provided for the sinner. It is not sectarian to claim that the Word of God is the only authority in matters of morals and religion. As we press home upon men the need of Christ, it is then and only then that we are going to get down to the roots of this diffi- culty which is so fearful. We ought to en- courage our country pastors to evangelize the country districts, and work through the school, grange, social service, etc., all splen- did arms of the main body, all fingers on the saving hand of the church. Beyond and be- hind all other means is the paramount duty of the country pastor to press home the need of Christ. We must maintain clearly before all minds and hearts the fact that Jesus Christ is the only hope and the only Saviour from sin, and the only guide. Prof. Charles R. Erdman : As the discussion has drifted toward the 40 THE RURAL CHURCH AND Storm center of the theological seminary, and as I have the fortune or misfortune to serve one of these particular institutions, I may venture one or two remarks: First, as to sociology, it should be afforded a place in every theological curriculum and is already being taught in most of our seminaries, but the place must be a subordinate one. Amid the multiplicity of topics to be considered not much special treatment can be given to rural sociology, nor is it so much needed, as the large proportion of theological students come from the country and are familiar with rural conditions and problems. Secondly, this sociology must be definitely Christian. Some of the questions before us for debate might seem to imply that the be- lief in miracles or in all which is supernatural, is to be regarded as obsolete. Most of us believe in the supernatural and feel that only a religion which is definitely supernatural and truly Christian can form a true basis for so- ciology or for ethics. Such doctrines must be taught and are as readily received in the rural districts as in the cities. The supreme work of the church must ever be the teach- COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 41 ing of such revealed truth and the cultivation of resulting spiritual life. Prof. G. Walter Fiske : A word on the "sociology" issue. What- ever differences of opinion may be developed in the course of our discussions today, it seems to me we need not split on this propo- sition, for I do not believe there is any essen- tial difference in our fundamental meaning. No one of the speakers has in any sense pro- posed sociology as a substitute for the gospel. I think no one has ever claimed that you could save a man by sociology, any more than you can "give a man a bath by brushing his clothes." Social study gives a man a vision and a spirit and a method; but in no sense is it any substitute for the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. COUNTRY CHURCH FINANCES AND ADMINISTRATION Prof. Thomas Cuming Hall : My function is simply to raise the ques- tion which must be taken up next. Almost any of the questions might be answered by a 42 THE RURAL CHURCH AND Still more fundamental question. If any one asks, "Has the country minister a living wage ?" it is easy to ask the still more funda- mental question, "Has the country farmer a living wage?" In the long run the wages of a country minister will depend upon justice being done to the farmer. I think almost any thoughtful man in this country must admit that the farmer is bearing an undue burden of taxation, and the country minister suffers with him on this account. And yet this question is but part of a still larger ques- tion concerning the distribution of all the products of human toil. Again, if it is asked, "Why do rural lay- men manage so badly?" it is easy to retort, "Why do we all manage so badly?" "Why does the city manage so badly?" "Why does the state manage so badly?" T(ie question is, in fact, very fundamental. Now one diffi- culty in the financial management of the country church is the lack of proper church federation. And what is the difficulty in the way of church federation? At bottom, I am sorry to say, it is all too often a selfish prop- erty interest. We are face to face then with COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 43 one of the most serious questions of our own day. My interest in the financial management of the country church arises out of my part in the endeavor to attain local autonomy in the financial management of the churches under the Home Mission committee of my denomination in the western section of our land. Several of us in early days struggled hard to get state independence on the Home Mission field. This was not because we did not believe that the financial wisdom of the central committee was not properly superior to the financial wisdom of local churches ; but because it is more important that a man make his own mistakes, and learn his own lessons from his mistakes, than that he be success- fully and wisely guided even by omniscience. It is God's plan to let us make our own mis- takes and suffer for them. What the country church needs is autonomy and at the same time wise counsel and guidance so far as that can be given without interfering with its autonomy. Every one of our denominations is in danger of making a mistake in the financing of a country church. And the mis- 44 THE RURAL CHURCH AND take lies in challenging the local autonomy in the endeavor to supply the guidance which undoubtedly young churches need. This challenge is sometimes by centralized govern- ment, as in the Roman Catholic and Episco- pal and in some instances the Methodist churches, in other cases there is an indirect challenge through societies that control the collection and distribution of benevolent funds. But the evil is mainly done in teach- ing the country church the fatal lesson of constantly receiving rather than giving. The church should be constantly rather a dis- penser than a receiver, I would, there- fore, rather prefer relative inefficiency in the financial arrangements of an autonomous church, than high efficiency and churches de- pendent upon a central organization. Hence, one of the ideals must be to get the country church self-sustaining on however modest a scale; and where this is not possible, to give only such supplementary support as may be absolutely necessary, and to give that support in such a way that the local autonomy will be as little undermined as possible. I cannot but try to point out that one of COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 45 the reasons why the finances of a country church are a difficulty is that our whole sys- tem of taxation is making for the extension of our cities and the relative impoverishment of the country. Hence the finances of the country church are but a part of the great question of the uneven distribution of our national wealth, and we have a direct interest not only in a science of a new society, but in a science of a new Christian society. The complete rebuilding of a reconstructed so- ciety is a large task, but only when the bur- dens of life are more evenly distributed will it be possible for the country church to do its work unhampered. A step in this recon- struction is, of course, the federation of country churches. This will have to be made on the basis of some doctrinal compromise; but the most important and most difficult compromises will be the compromises in the community interests, compromises in social arrangements, such compromises as grow out of the struggle to learn how men and women may live together in love that is heavenly, a love of one another because we are the erring children of one Father, Who 46 THE RURAL CHURCH AND has called us to love as men and women and brethren. Rev. Edward Tallmadge Root : There are ministers who are leaving the ministry. In one Massachusetts Congrega- tional Association four men left within the past year. Why do they leave ? In the first place they leave because of the small salary. They are unable to educate their children. I know one, however, able to earn far more, who returned to the ministry for a less in- come. But a deeper reason is that they feel that in spite of all of the sacrifices, they are not working for the Kingdom of God. Several of these ministers who left this Con- gregational body in Massachusetts did so because while working under such conditions of church competition they felt that they were simply wasting their lives. The only solution is that pointed out by Dr. Hall — the federa- tion of local churches. In Massachusetts we have made an investigation of one hundred smaller towns, classified as one, two, and three-church towns. Among these groups we took ten towns of equal population. They COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 47 were selected for this reason simply. Then the statistics of the churches selected were compared. Salaries declined from $842 in the average one-church town to $483 in the three-church town. The three-church town received ten times as much home missionary aid as the one-church town. In view of these facts is it not perfectly evident that there is no solution for the country church question as long as we multiply churches in small com- munities? Is it not ridiculous to attempt to maintain more than one church for a popula- tion of one thousand or less? Rev. Paul Martin : As secretary of a theological seminary and so in touch with students and younger min- isters seeking churches and with churches seeking ministers I speak on the country church problem. There was a time ten or twenty years ago when the farmers were generally in hard straits financially, but in large sections of the country this is no longer true. Crops have been large, prices good; mortgages have been paid off ; the automobile manufacturers report large sales to farmers. 48 THE RURAL CHURCH AND Not long since I attended a conference of the officers of a country church to which the fifteen men came in one buggy and three auto- mobiles, and the wealthiest man present did not have occasion to use his; but they were not equal to devising liberal things for their church. There is often money enough in the rural church; the further economic de- velopment of the resources of the farm may be safely left to the activities of the agricul- tural department, the agricultural college and like influences. The country people need training in the more liberal and wiser expen- ditures of their money on the church and its associated work. A larger church unit is a needed step toward the solution of the country church problem. There are too many churches in our rural communities, in their rivalry each eking out a meager existence and living at a poor dying rate. Dividing a field not too large for one church and minister, they fail to give sufficient support to the several pastors, not merely in salary, but in equip- ment, workers and congregation to bring out the best in the minister or to make the work COMMUNITY BETTERMENT +9 of the church effective. The community does not truly respect the minister who is content to occupy the third or the fourth of what is properly one man's field; and not being able to maintain his own full self-respect in it, he becomes discouraged and restless. Theo- logical students and ministers are not afraid of work or hardship — witness that they can be secured for foreign or city missions far more readily than for rural church work. This is especially true of the stronger men in the seminaries. A first necessity in the solution of the rural church problem is the amalgamation of the little rival churches of the village or neigh- boring hamlets into one church large enough and strong enough to give permanent scope for a strong, well-trained ministry; with vitality enough to maintain itself with dignity, and with energy to spare for aggressive Christian service to the community, for the evangelization of the stranger within the gates and for participation in the great work of the church for the evangelization of the world. 50 the rural church and Rev. Wilbert L. Anderson : Just a word from the point of view of the agricultural colleges that have taken the lead in making some suggestions in regard to church work and ministerial training. Now it is not any thought of the agricultural col- lege that the college should supersede the seminary in the teaching of the great truths of the Christian religion, but it is the thought of the agricultural college that there is a great new movement coming on in country life, and that persons who are interested in that great new development call to the country church for help. As I conceive it we are coming to a crisis in this matter, a crisis not so much for rural prosperity as for the Christian church. When the Christian church responds to these calls and provides the leadership that is de- manded, then it makes good its opportunity for generations to come. If you limit the teaching by the pastors in the country church to religious doctrines, however true they may be conceived in the older spirit, sympathy for the life of the people may limit your financial support of the church to a small portion of COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 51 the population. Just at this point this topic matches on with the one that went before. What is wanted is that the country minister should be sympathetic with this new move- ment of country life, that he should under- stand and appreciate it. As a trained theo- logian, he will face the truth as other theo- logians do. We still are loyal to the truth and not altogether pragmatists. The demand is that the country minister shall understand rural life, and when he does that sympa- thetically, he will gather to the church new support. If the country church will respond to this cause and give its vital message to the people, there will gather to the church the support due. The country minister is per- haps the only one in command of the forces that can solve these problems. What shall bring them together? The gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel of love, the gospel, if you please, of love even to the extent of the atoning cross, — that is the necessary solvent of the irritation and antagonism that prevent the social development of our rural com- munities. What we want is that the church shall understand that gospel of love. We 52 THE RURAL CHURCH AND want the country church to furnish ideals to the community. Making these adjustments, the community church can be supported in nine cases in ten without outside help. COUNTRY COMMUNITY BUILDING Prof. Edwin L. Earp : The general topic is "Country Community Building." I will attempt in a general way to speak on the subject of community building as related to the church. I think we all feel that one of the hardest fields in the church work today is the rural church community. The hardest missionary fields today are the lost home fields, and the country church represents one of those fields. I think that as one goes back to his home community where there once thrived under his denomi- nation a country church and sees the building now dilapidated and very little work going on, he feels that the country church problem for him is a vital one. I can give the reasons why we have not a successful church com- munity life in my own state, and in my own country district. I think that as I have fol- COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 53 lowed it since I left school and gone back on vacations, the real reason why we have not a successful country church is not that we have not as many people there as formerly, but that while the character of the population has changed somewhat, yet the character of the methods of meeting the religious and social needs of the community have changed very little. Furthermore, the men who are sent to man these churches (I speak for my own denomination) are, because of their training, often unfit for the mastery of the problems of the country districts. In a con- ference the other day, following the discus- sion of a paper, I related this : a farmer told me they had a minister in his neighborhood who hadn't get-up enough in him to eat the fried chicken they offered him. I think one of the most essential things in the whole problem of the country church is to have clearly in mind a program for com- munity work that will be put into the course of training for the men who are to be sent into the country. I hope the time will come when we will make an appeal direct, and make provision in our theological semina- 54 THE RURAL CHURCH AND ries; an appeal that will move men to invest their lives in the work of the country com- munity as they are moved now to invest their lives in the foreign field, or in the so-called slum districts of our cities, or to man the bigger churches in every community. To do this we have got to put the emphasis on a new kind of minister, which I like to call the religious-social-engineer, for if there is any place where we need a community of inter- ests, it is in the country where the financial support has not yet been put upon a paying basis. It seems to me that the first essen- tial is to have a community plan and to have the call of a man who is willing to make a sacrifice, even like Paul, be a "tent-maker" at his own expense, until he can build up a constituency in the country districts that will support his movements in ministering to that community in every phase of its economic, social and religious life. It is not so hard to get money in a country community as it may seem, because the coun- try is not so poor as it may appear. I was in the West this summer, and was given more automobile rides in the central part of Kan- COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 55 sas by farmers than I have ever had around my home section, inhabited by millionaires. I see no difficulty if I were to re-enter the pastorate (and I may do it) in succeeding in a community like that, for I think it would be an easy thing for one to get those splendid farmers to rally to him and help minister to the life of the whole county. It should be our aim, however, to get some central organi- zation that would minister to the whole county's needs. It would be harder in states like New York and New Jersey to do this because of the character of the roads. One of the questions we have to consider in the country is how to secure better roads. It seems to me that we must have first of all a man who is educated for the community life of church work. I made this suggestion in a question that I offered in response to the correspondence sent out previous to this con- ference, and it was, "Shall the community social center substitute the old circuit system?" In one of the counties of my own state I once served six appointments of a circuit that had twelve. Six of those appointments, 56 THE RURAL CHURCH AND scattered in out-of-the-way places, were then thinking how they could build a church out on the main road as a central church to the whole community. The people should be educated to make the church, itself, the center of activity, and I think the farmers could be made willing to give up their property inter- ests and prejudices for the establishment of a central building that would correspond to what the Young Men's Christian Association is in some of the counties of New York State; from this central bureau all points could be served and a man big enough to understand his job could be put in charge for a lifetime. Another point is the interest that the farmer himself and the farmer's wife and his children would have in such a center, where they can feel they are some- body, rather than be off in a small commu- nity by themselves. Mr. Hays : There is a constant discussion of church federation and of church union and of organ- izing around centers. Those of us who have been especially working with the consolidated COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 57 rural school, believing that that center is practically coming, expect the country church to be placed at the same center, both as a matter of economy and as a matter of effi- ciently serving the recentered rural com- munity. The people of this larger district will all know each other. When you have a large community thus organized into various associations, each with power to send dele- gates to county meetings, county associations, and able to pay the expenses of these dele- gates, effective county organizations and co- operation will be secured. The county country life federation, for example, will be practicable. Each local or consolidated rural district association, as the dairy association, the horticultural association, the women's club and the poultry keepers' club, will be able to send a delegate to the county federa- tion. These different local organizations will doubtless also in many cases have county associations, as county dairy associations, county women's clubs, etc. These county organizations will also naturally be repre- sented by delegates to the county country life federation, where all the consolidated rural 58 THE RURAL CHURCH AND school district associations and the county country life organizations can send delegates. We need simple systems of country life organization and of church organization. The Young Men's Christian Association with its center at the county seat is building up an effective scheme of cooperative work and promises to become a great power in many counties. It is suggested that around some similar plan of organization the country church can be so organized that it will thrive. It may be that the Young Men's Christian Association will be able to help federate all churches in the county, or at least to have a representative federation based on all the churches in the county, with which federation local country union churches may have their primal ecclesiastical connection. Some such scheme can doubtless be worked out so that we may have in the country union churches which may have a church relation to all the people in the rural community. Our present system of church organization makes church union very awkward and too often tempo- rary. If the denominational state and federal bodies would deal fairly with the rural com- COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 59 munity let them federate their rural church denominational interests. Possibly this can be done through some sort of a county de- nominational federation which will serve as an ecclesiastical holding company, to borrow a phrase from the business world. Dr. Hobart : I have no hostility to sociological teaching in seminaries provided it is based on the New Testament. I teach it myself. Our confer- ence today is in reference to country churches. I doubt very much whether we shall make any progress if we say any outside organization is competent to make them do their work right. Our inquiry is, what, as country churches, can they do on the basis of their constitution and in line with their work? What religious service is needed? First, the New Testament teaches us that our Saviour prayed that we may all be one. We all feel that it is wrong to be divided. We should inquire earnestly whether the differences are vital; whether they are such that we cannot maintain the Sabbath together or lie down together in the cemetery. I belong to one of 60 THE RURAL CHURCH AND those narrow churches, supposed by some of you to be the most narrow of all denomina- tions, the Baptist. I have been active for several years in this business. The last five years I have been hard at work helping to get Baptists and Free Baptists together. We have succeeded in the formal work. It will be a good while before all will get together in some places, but It is decreed and will come. No new "Free" Baptist churches will be formed, nor any "regular" ones, but all: are Baptists. I did not have anything to do with creating the spirit of union. It existed. I was simply the channel through which the great movement acted, all I had to do was to adjust matters so that they ran smoothly. There is a great deal of wisdom in the way these questions are stated. We cannot get rid of federation and ultimate consolida- tion. If you believe in these things you must consolidate. But, of course, we meet diffi- culties. How shall we overcome them? There are financial difficulties. I was pastor of a church that had a building costing $160,000. The articles of faith were in- corporated in the deeds. We will get to- COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 61 gether, not by denying the other fellow his right, but by saying, "Let us have a platform broad enough and high enough for all to stand on without any man giving up his con- victions." We can never confederate well until we stand on a common platform. Dr. E. B. Sanford: There is a man in this audience who has achieved remarkable results in federating the Christian forces of a rural community. Four or five years ago Mr. Wells graduated froni Drew Seminary. He began work up in Ver- mont in a mountain town where conditions were discouraging. He found there three churches not one of them able to support a pastor and all asking for outside aid. With rare wisdom and tact he secured the interest of the members of these churches in con- sidering the advisability of uniting their forces. Articles were drawn up and agree- ments were made by which they came to- gether. By unanimous decision Inasmuch as the Baptist church was the largest in re- sources and membership, the others came and gathered around it, under a simple but effec- 62 THE RURAL CHURCH AND tlve plan of affiliation, and today that church is in a real sense a prosperous community church in the town of Lincoln. What has been done there can be done elsewhere. Rev. Edward Tallmadge Root : An example of the need of community building. In the rural half of Rhode Island, in a strip twelve miles wide next to the Con- necticut line, it was estimated a few years ago that out of fifty-nine church buildings, only nine had resident pastors. What is the secret of the decline of that region? One reason is that the Rhode Island towns were laid out in big rectangles without any church center — mere political divisions. The church ideally ought to be the center of a community. The churches of Western Rhode Island are small and often only one or two miles apart. Denominationalism has failed to meet the situation. Only by cooperation can the de- nominations meet the need of community building. COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 63 NOON RECESS After adjournment of the morning session the delegates became very much interested in an exhibit which the International County Work Department had displayed. There was a Country Life book shelf, which in- cluded the latest books on various phases of country life; then there was a prolific dis- play of the agricultural press covering the entire country; there were a number of charts showing the rural aspects of various states and the possibilities of organizing rural life as it is being pursued by the Young Men's Christian Association. Photographs of rural play picnics and athletics; printed matter from the departments at Washing- ton; census department reports and exten- sion bulletins from the various agricultural colleges helped to make this exhibit most illuminating. There was a conference pho- tograph taken on the roof of the building, after which the delegates joined in an In- formal but most profitable noontime lunch- eon at the Park Avenue Hotel with Dr. Mc- Alpin as their host. The very Informality 64 THE RURAL CHURCH AND of it did much to acquaint the delegates one with the other. AFTERNOON SESSION Prof. James McConaughy offered prayer. COOPERATION AND INTEGRATION OF COMMUNITY INSTITU- TIONS Dr. Kenyon L. Butterfield : Two problems are suggested by this topic, "Cooperation and Integration of Country Community Institutions." The first problem Is that of the integration of the church. I suppose that theoretically this ought not to be a problem ; the church ought to present a united front. But practically, of course, this unity is a crying need of most rural com- munities. I know of no better statement of this problem than that made by Mr. Root of the Massachusetts and Rhode Island Federa- tions of Churches — "consolidation some- where, cooperation everywhere." In this matter of "cooperation everywhere," which probably for the next generation will be the COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 65 more Important of these two phases of church integration (because the consolidation of churches is bound to move rather slowly when we look at the country as a whole), we must call both for a pretty definite program of country church work, and a pretty definite program of cooperation among churches. The time has arrived when some church body, or some conference made up of representa- tives of church bodies, ought to make a care- ful study of the needs and conditions in our average rural communities in America, for the purpose of outlining in a general way, a practical plan of cooperation among country churches. Our country church work awaits just that sort of program. There are plenty of men who are coming to see this need. There are many who see the need who do not quite know what to do. Let me say, too, that we need a new spirit in many communi- ties — a real spirit of cooperation. The second problem of integration is the problem of bringing together into a coopera- tive work the various institutions and forces of the community. Now for this three things are necessary. First, we ought to have a 66 THE RURAL CHURCH AND definition, that may be fairly well accepted by workers in country communities whether in the church or out of it, of the prime func- tion of each one of the institutions of com- munity life. This function ought to be de- fined in terms of the community life. We have heard a great deal of discussion in the past ten years about the social function of the school. Yet we are, I think, still lack- ing a sufficient definition of the function of the rural school expressed in terms of the community aim, and expressed in such a way that there may easily follow a program for that school expressing the community func- tion. With other social institutions like the church it is the same, even including the family. We are in great need in this country of an institution or institutions which have for their definite objective the study of the conditions and problems of farm home life, not merely the matter of home management, or home keeping, but the fundamental rela- tionships of the family to the development of a better community life in our rural regions. We will have then, first of all, a definition COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 67 of the prime functions of the institutions of the rural community in terms of the commu- nity life, aim or spirit. In the second place, we must secure a real federation of the forces of the community. Now there are at least three ways in which this may be brought about. It may be done under the direct leadership of some one institution or organi- zation. The church may do it. The county Young Men's Christian Association may do it. In some communities already the central- ized school is doing it. In the State of Wash- ington there is projected an institution called the Country Life School, and one of its main features is to bring together people of the community for all sorts of purposes, and consequently to integrate the institutions of the community in behalf of a general com- munity life. It may be that the rural libra- ries in some regions, as in some towns in Massachusetts, may be the integrating force. That is one way to bring this about. A second method is to establish a new organization (we may call it what we please) , but it will be an organization definitely for the promotion of the social life of the com- 68 THE RURAL CHURCH AND munity. It will be a civic league, or a com- munity league, an institution made up of individuals who may and very likely will represent the different institutions and agencies and associations of the community, but which is a new organization entirely dis- tinct from anything else, and which attempts to do all its work on a community basis, which sets a community goal, tries to improve com- munity standards, endeavors to develop com- munity spirit, and seeks to give common direc- tion to the efforts of all the institutions of the community. A third method is to bring together repre- sentatives of existing institutions in their representative capacity and to form a sort of committee, or board, or league, or federa- tion, or clearing house, made up of accredited representatives from all of the institutions and agencies of the town or community — whatever the community elements may be. Now, it seems to me that we may well expect that each one of these three methods of integration of rural social institutions may be utilized. I am partial to the last one because, theoretically, the ideal is not to mul- COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 69 tiply organizations, but to bring together the organizations that now exist. Moreover, the idea of community life, the definition or func- tion of these different institutions, is simpli- fied and aided by this representative principle, this principle of federation. Recently a criticism was made of this Idea by a foremost social worker in Massachusetts who said that experience had shown that this principle of representative federative organi- zation was not practical in city work. Of course our work in rural districts is yet too new for us to say whether it will succeed. In Massachusetts, however, we have two or three movements based on this principle of a representative committee made up of dele- gates from all the different social organiza- tions in the community. I think that as a practical matter, however, a great many cases will exist where the church, or some existing organization, will take this leadership and will do the work. The third suggestion in regard to this matter of integration is to develop a com- munity program and to secure a general com- munity center. We need to preach to our 70 THE RURAL CHURCH AND people in the country the idea of community ideals, community standards and community purposes. We need to supplement the idea of individual responsibility and initiative and success with the idea of community jinterests and success. Sooner or later we must come to have an institution, a building (it may be the church, or the school, or the town hall, or a special building) , but we need something that people can see, a place where they can gather, and where all these ideals of the com- munity and all the forces that make for inte- gration can actually meet in common and there discuss and plan for the common wel- fare. Dr. William H. Allison : In the use of existing agencies we want what from one point of view may be called a new institution, and yet from another point of view is no new institution at all. We are overworking the word "new." We are speaking about a new theology, new Bible, new this, that and the other. Yet may I suggest another new thing, a new church, a new ecclesiology, and I believe we are moving COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 71 toward it. I happen to belong to a congre- gational denomination, a body which is learn- ing a few things through experience and see- ing that there is a larger idea of the church that is demanding recognition from us. It seems to me we are drawn together through the various ecclesiastical organizations. We are recognizing that there is such a thing as a local community growth. We are also recognizing that there is the church universal that is not merely an ideal but a reality. Now as we are speaking of the church as a factor in the community, how are we looking upon it ? As being merely one of several existing agencies to be placed alongside of the school, grange and so forth? If so, I think we are doing an injustice to the church. There is a larger idea of the church. What I would like to see would be the recognition of a church that is not to be placed merely alongside of other existing institutions in a local com- munity, but a church whose religious power and efficiency and spirit shall transfuse every institution that exists in the community. It is for this larger conception of the church and this conception of the vital relationship be- 72 THE RURAL CHURCH AND tween the local body and the church universal that I would plead. We have been speaking of individualism and the social law and forces as though they were two separate things ; it seems to me that they ought to be fused into one, though we may, for purposes of discussion, separate the one from the other. When we come to the reality they are so united we cannot separate them. And so when we think of the various forces at work in any given com- munity, let us bear in mind that there is a great church whose spirit must transfuse and infuse the whole life of the community. Dr. E. B. Sanford: I am in full sympathy with the spirit of this conference, but I desire to say a word with a certain sense of special responsibility as secretary of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America. Just a word regarding the third point under discussion, "Is the Young Men's Christian Association or the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ In America the agency for federating churches and institutions?" COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 73 I am thankful that we have lived to see the hour when nearly if not quite two thirds of the evangelical Protestant church life of the United States is constitutionally federated. Three men present in this conference are today giving their services at this time in the care of work directed, and financially sup- ported, by this official council of the churches. I rejoice in all that the Young Men's Christian Association has accomplished in the interest of Christian unity and cooperation. Let us, however, never lose sight of the fact that the church, of which Christ is the head, cannot delegate to other agencies its special mission of caring for the spiritual need of every community. I am glad to take part in a conference like this that calls us to consider our mutual re- sponsibility as well as the limitations of our activities. In this presence I do not hesitate to affirm my conviction that the Federal Council officially representing the churches, holding to evangelical and historical Chris- tianity, should be the chief agency in federat- ing the churches and affiliated institutions. I gladly bear testimony to the aid which the 74 THE RURAL CHURCH AND Young Men's Christian Association is giving us in this work, especially in affording the use of its assembly rooms as a place for confer- ence and business meetings. It seems to me that the secretaries of local Associations are in a position to render most effective aid in the work of interchurch federation. Rev. W. Russell Collins : I believe most heartily in the Federal Council and in the Young Men's Christian Association. I am not much in sympathy with the great outcry that is being made for organic church unity. I believe that the church, the Holy Catholic Church, the church of Jesus Christ is one, never will be divided. Christ is not divided and the church is not divided. The church is divided into families which have their own preference as to mode of worship, and these families do sometimes get one into the way of the other in the course of their work, and to prevent that is the subject of our discussion. Illustrations sometimes afford solutions of problems. I was told the other day of a very happy solu- tion of this problem in a little town. In this COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 75 town there were three churches, Methodist, Baptist and Congregational, and in the course of time these three once prosperous churches lost a great deal of help and became weak and faulty. Finally, a Congregational min- ister went to the Congregational church to seek retirement and ease, but found more work than he had expected. A little later on the Baptist church found itself without a pastor, and in the course of time the Metho- dist church was also without a pastor. Now these three churches came together in the conclusion that the town was not large enough for three large churches, and in the spirit of the Federal Council they came to- gether. They concluded they would adopt the pastor of the Congregational church and use as the house of worship the Baptist church, taking as the parish house the Con- gregational church, and would sell the pro- perty of the Methodist church and turn its funds Into general church support. There is a solution of one problem. Now if that town should go one step further instead of using the Congregational church as a parish house, would adopt the 76 THE RURAL CHURCH AND Young Men's Christian Association and the Young Women's Christian Association and give them the social work and secular duties, and leave the church to minister and preach, we would have the ideal state of church com- munity. Organic unity will never come. I doubt if it ever could come otherwise, but federation of the churches in this manner answers, I think, the questions we are trying to solve. Prof. E. O. Fippin: The question is raised by this conference as to whether the same standards which are applied in city organization are applicable to the country organization of religious work; if the same principles apply, are the same methods to be used? It seems to me that the same principles of religious teaching are applicable in the country and city, but that the methods of operation must be totally differ- ent. One coming from a college of agriculture to a gathering of this sort would not presume to discuss theological phases of the question. I am here because the problem has technical COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 77 and business relations different from those which most of us know in the city. It is perhaps the function of the agricul- tural college man to call attention to some of these limitations in rural Christian work which must be taken into consideration. We would also direct attention to another fact, which we are inclined to overlook, namely that our point of departure should be the purpose to be attained and not the perpetua- tion of any institution. The functions to be performed in country life are two : one of these is economic; it must provide for the physical existence of the individual. He must have the means to live, just as this conference rests fundamentally upon the people who participate having funds to enable them to reach the place and some one providing these quarters. The first factor which must be solved is a financial one — that of giving to the country man more adequate maintenance. The economic difficulties are of three sorts, and we as individuals concerned with the rural problem must take these into account in endeavoring to put the rural residents on a 78 THE RURAL CHURCH AND more independent basis. First, they must be able to produce things; second, they must have a market for their produce and means of reaching that market, and third, there must be a reasonable margin of profit from the market price, above cost of production. Until you have these fundamental elements on which the family or the institution rests, you cannot possibly expect to have an effi- cient church or Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation. While prices may seem good, it is pretty definitely settled that farming as a business is not as prosperous as it ought to be. The other function of country life is asso- ciative living. People must not only have the physical necessities of life, but they must asso- ciate with each other, and they must have cer- tain standards of honesty and outlook. There is an ethical problem, a life problem, a social problem involved. In the country, more than in the city, there is an intimate connection between social and religious affairs, and the purely business affairs. One cannot be carried on independently of the other. One is limited or assisted by the other. The prob- lem of deepening the religious life of the COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 79 country, whether In young or old, must be linked with their financial and social better- ment. Our system of technical training has been deficient in not providing enough for the associative functions of life, and the de- velopment of these latter has been largely controlled by the physical limitations. The farmer no more than the city man can be reached in a missionary spirit — not if he knows it. Any system which reaches him must show its sympathy for his position, and intelligently help him to better his physical life, at the same time that it leads him out along lines of greater spiritual activity. The rural social worker has the opportunity as well as the necessity of coordinating these and must especially recognize the business end of the proposition in its broadest lines. Prof. Edwin L. Earp : The problem of integrating the social institutions of the different rural communities (discussed by Dr. Butterfield) is going to be an educational problem for theological schools and agricultural colleges to deal with, for these institutions have within their halls 80 THE RURAL CHURCH AND of learning those who are to be leaders in community life. As an increasing number of men from the country are going to college, it seems that we ought to recommend that many of our secondary schools, our agricultural colleges and theological schools as well as the universities, should have courses that would embody the ideas that have been brought out in this discussion, as to how we may organize a social center that would be the result of the integration of all these social activities, and yet maintain the integrity of each different institution. I will be glad as one, if somebody in authority will authorize me to do it, to introduce a course in rural sociology in order to train men specifically for this field. We ought to send somebody out into our colleges and universities to call men, or to give them a motive force, to go into this field as a matter of life investment, not as a makeshift to get into a bigger church in the city, but to stay in the country for a lifetime if necessary and make the country church a paying institution. COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 81 THE FUNCTION OF THE COUNTRY CHURCH Professor Fiske : I realize that In so varied a company as this, with every Important stripe of theo- logical opinion and social sympathy repre- sented, this subject of the function of the church is a very delicate question I How significant it Is, that. In the twentieth century, Christians are still debating the function of the church 1 We have not yet settled the question as to what is "our Father's busi- ness." Some of us here are high churchmen, perhaps, with the high church Idea of the church as the custodian of the sacraments, the sole channels of divine grace. Others possi- bly are very low churchmen, with the notion of the church as merely one sort of social service club. I wish to avoid both extremes and place myself frankly on the broad church basis. Let me offer as a working definition of the church, whether in city or country, the primary agency for human welfare. No amount of unfavorable criticism can refute the fact that the country church Is 82 THE RURAL CHURCH AND easily 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 con- ception 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 mil- lions of our people, and remains still the one supreme institution for social and religious betterment. It may be criticised, pitied, ridi- culed. It has not yet been displaced. I think Dr. Anderson is entirely correct when he says, in The Country Town: "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, neighborli- ness, 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 COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 8S 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 com- munity, it lives and will live." If I were to condense diagnosis and pre- scription into a single sentence, I would sug- gest this : The country church has become de- cadent where it has ceased to serve its com- munity; and it may find its largest life again in the broadest kind of sacrificial service. In all life problems the fundamental matter is personality. We have repeatedly dis- covered, in our discussions today, that our fundamental problem in this whole matter of the country church is the problem of leader- ship. Given the finest kind of leadership, the problem would solve itself. The difficulty is securing and training the right sort of leaders for the country churches. On the average, they are far from adequate to meet their task today. I suggest that two things must be guaranteed before you can expect the highest leadership in our country ministry. These two items are a united church and a broader scope for the church's influence; that is, a 84 THE RURAL CHURCH AND greater leverage for the country minister, a sufficient opportunity to attract our strongest, finest men. Today such men are avoiding the country parsonages, because they are looking for a real field and do not propose to get pocketed in a hole. Subquestion three under my main topic is one I am almost ashamed to take your time for, it is so rudimentary. Yet it is essential. "Is the country community better served by a single church or a plurality of churches?" Theological convictions no longer, to any extent, separate the churches. Wealth, social standing, differences in taste and tempera- ment as well as mere habit, account for most local church affiliations today. City condi- tions may justify this for the present, but in depleted country sections such wasteful split- ting up of meager Christian forces is a blunder and a crime. The argument that churches need the stim- ulus of competition is very superficial. There is plenty of stimulus in their big task, as soon as they frankly and honestly face it. Anyway, competition is not "the life of trade." It is always wasteful, compared with COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 85 the economy and profit in consolidation and concentration. If in union there is not strength; and if friction means increased power, then several little churches are better than one. If church rivalries and quarrels are needed to promote the peace of the community; if three church buildings, unattractive and un- painted, and bristling with mutual hostility, are more impressive in the warfare with evil than one adequate church home, the center of the united faith of a community; if three half- starved, poorly educated ministers, silently pitied by everyone, are more effective than one strong, well-equipped and well-paid com- munity leader, everybody's pastor — then let us have not merely three churches in place of one; let us have as many as the trade will stand! The argument is a reductio ad absurdum! It is very evidently false. Blessed is the country community which has but one united, self-supporting, self-respecting church. It is needless, however, to debate such a question; for, whether we like it or not, country church federation and ultimate union 86 THE RURAL CHURCH AND are already in process of evolution. Almost everywhere in rural sections you may observe the process, in its various stages, as surplus churches are uniting in work as well as worship, alternating in the use of buildings or of pastors, yoking with neighboring parishes temporarily, getting closer together every year, until by judicious elimination, by fair-minded arbitration and reciprocity, and ultimately by the grace of God, they awake to discover themselves a united church. Federation of country churches is in the air. You cannot stop it if you try. It is an in- evitable evolution which makes for modern efEciency, like the consolidation of banks and the centralization of schools. And when it comes completely, we may expect a higher kind of leadership in the country ministry. We shall also need a broadened scope for that leadership. That is, a broadened con- ception of the function of the church itself. The mission of the church is to propagate the religion of Jesus and Christianize the world. Its business is to glorify God by following the Christ in the service of men. As the executive agency of the Kingdom of COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 87 Heaven, Jesus' great commission to the church (Matt. 28:19) defines its mission; and its charter (the inaugural program of Jesus in Luke 4: i8ff.) outlines Its business: to minister to the vital necessities of needy men. Broadly speaking, every work for human betterment is "our Father's business." The church Is the primary agency for human welfare. Need I emphasize here that the supreme function of the church Is spiritual? It stands In a material world for an unseen God and eternal life. It must furnish spiritual vision, spiritual power, faith, hope, love — those unseen things which endure forever. It must constantly furnish inspiration to tired men and weary women, for the living of their lives. To do this, the church must furnish the opportunity for public worship. In sim- plicity, sincerity, Impresslveness and truth. It must 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 and go away re- freshed and inspired for life's duties. It must bring the life of God Into the lives of 88 THE RURAL CHURCH AND men. It owes the community also a pro- phetic service, bringing a genuine message from God to human lives, throbbing with divine sympathy for all human needs, coura- geously challenging the man to whom the vision comes, to live the better life, and offer- ing 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, by union with Him, into every life which accepts His comradeship. All this and more. Yet the church, particularly the country church, seriously errs, which interprets its function as exclusively spiritual. Unless 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. 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 re- actions of life warn us that the soul's environ- COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 89 ment must be redeemed, or the soul stands little chance of permanent salvation. Here is the nexus between individual and social redemption ; separate them and the Kingdom of Heaven is a remote improbability, unite them and the Kingdom comes. In so intelli- gent a body as this, the above statement ought to be a mere truism, though it is still challenged by the narrow-minded. If the church is the primary agency for human welfare, it dare not deny its vital interest in and ultimate responsibility for every serious human need. The church has lost the love and loyalty of men just in pro- portion to its avoidance of this broad respon- sibility. But it must not be hastily inferred that the church must itself attempt to do everything. It may discharge its responsibility directly or indirectly. Its broadest service will ever be, as in the past, to furnish the inspiration and dynamic for many secondary agencies for social service and human betterment. But it must do the needed work, or get it done. It should duplicate no machinery or efFort, but should supplement all other local institutions 90 THE RURAL CHURCH AND and perfect their service by its own service of the higher life of the community. It should be the climax of the social, educational, phil- anthropic, cultural, health-restoring, peace- preserving as well as economic forces of the community; and ideally, it should federate them all, in community leadership. Where these forces are lacking, it should assume these functions if the welfare of the com- munity demands it. The country church must not simply aim to prepare its members for a future heaven. It must do its part in making its little corner of this world a comfortable and respectable place for humanity to grow; that is, it must bring the Kingdom of Heaven here. I believe that the vital function of the country church is not only to minister to all the needs of men, when occasion demands it, but to lead in that ministry. Where there is only one church in the place, it may rightly exercise the broadest kind of community leadership. Where there are several, they simply must cooperate, or be self-condemned and forever ridiculed by the ungodly. The larger vision of the church's mission COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 91 will force them out of the petty, jealous atti- tude of mind which regards every other social institution as in competition with them. The burden of the task of saving the com- munity and making it better in every way, until it becomes a part of the Kingdom of Heaven here and now, will so weigh upon them that they will gladly welcome two things : the most cordial federation, and ulti- mate union, of all Christian churches in the village; and hearty cooperation with every welfare agency. If we could agree upon this broad Interpre- tation of the function of the country church, we should have no serious difficulty with the fourth subquestion. If the church is the primary agency for human welfare, and its scope as broad as the vital needs of men, then every country church might well adopt this platform, adapted from the familiar plat- form of 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 92 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 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 in 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." In other words, for a specific answer to subquestion four, I should say without any hesitation it would be entirely in harmony with the country church's proper function to undertake to promote any sort of work for the physical, intellectual, economic and social welfare of the country community, which is really needed and is being neglected, and might be done by the church directly or indirectly. But I would emphasize this con- cise statement of Dr. Anderson: "The insti- tutional expansion of the church is proper only when the social outfit is defective ; then the church ought to fill the gaps." Most churches in the city community need not undertake institutional methods, because of the rich social and philanthropic equipment of its immediate environment. But the COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 93 country sections, with their meager social equipment, often with their manifold human needs absolutely unmet, demand the broadest kind of brotherly service on the part of the churches, for the common good. It will put a heavy burden on the church, already stag- gering in inefficiency. But it is the burden of privilege, and I have faith to believe that the very burden, with its vastly broadened chance for real leadership, will diaw strong men to the country pastorate. So long as nothing is allowed the church in the way of local leader- ship except the cut and dried routine of preaching, Sunday school and prayer meeting, with nothing to vary the monotony but baked bean suppers and funerals — so long we must not expect our most virile college men to enter the country ministry as a life work. Yet we must have a permanently loyal country-ministry for life. Nothing less will solve our problem. With a broadened scope for manly leadership, already possible now in many places, I have faith to believe there is a real chance which will appeal to strong men. Already I am convinced there is a better opportunity for broad leadership in 94 THE RURAL CHURCH AND the ministry of the average village church than in the average city church; and many of the least attractive pastorates are in the little one-too-many city churches which make so little impression upon the life of the city wilderness. In detail, then, as to definite suggestions on the above principle. Let the country church (either the single church in its community or all the churches acting in federation as a close, practical, working unity) assume as its inherent right the leadership in community building. Let it coordinate all agencies already working for human welfare and inspire them to greater efficiency. Then let it study thoroughly the local needs, resources and defects, and plan to develop neglected interests. Let it plan first for the physical health and well-being of the people; insure against contagious disease by improving water supply and sewage and setting high standards for pure milk; enlist in the anti- tuberculosis fight with a campaign of intelli- gence which is often as much needed in the country as in the city; set high physical stan- dards for the boys and young men, and the COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 95 girls as well, with simple out-of-door gym- nasium equipment, if needed, and competitive games under wholesome leadership, ensuring clean sport. A shower bath connected with the church heating system, as in Lovington, 111., might be just as efficacious as a baptistry. Closely related to these activities are the girls' club and boys' club plans, which in small churches may well be simply extension work of the Sunday school, without any additional machinery. This is fundamental work, how- ever, and its neglect certainly results in boy waste. Rural Sunday schools must and will ulti- mately be developed so as to be comparable with the local day schools, and be recognized as actually educational and vitally helpful. The public schools themselves may easily be vitalized by a strong personality in the coun- try parsonage. I have in mind a vigorous pastor who exerts a splendid influence upon local school ideals by meeting weekly the entire force of school teachers in the town- ship in a club for Bible study and literary interests. The church may wisely furnish the commu- 96 THE RURAL CHURCH AND nity a high-class lecture and entertainment course during the winter if no other agency does this. Preferably it should not be a money-making course, but simply and ob- viously a community-serving proposition. If the right sort of leadership can be secured, the country church should undertake a defi- nite program of community teaching in im- portant matters of country economics and sociology, unless in some adequate fashion this is undertaken by the grange or some other secondary agency. The opportunity is infinite for genuine enrichment of local life, for raising new community ideals, develop- ing local pride in local history or prospects, in discovering and developing all unutilized resources, in introducing up-to-date methods of agriculture, adapted to the soil; in arous- ing a new pride in home-keeping and village- beautifying, in stimulating the loyalty of the young people to their homes, and making the older people more contented. One country pastor has made himself an expert on coun- try life and given illustrated lectures on such topics as, "Corn and Its Culture;" "Insects Injurious to Crops;" "Milk;" "Beef Cattle;" COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 97 "Horses;" "Chickens;" "Birds and their Economic Value," etc. I forbear to multiply details in these sug- gestions and thus limit the valuable time which should be given to general discussion. Plenty of objections can readily be brought against this broadening of the usually narrow function of the country church. Some of them are doubtless valid, I will grant. Few country churches have yet either the means or the leadership for such extension plans; and under such circumstances they ought to attempt them very sparingly. Clearly they ought rather to enlist the help of people who can do these things effectively. Right here, in my judgment, comes the call for the county secretaries of the Young Men's Christian Association. They are experts in rural life, many of them college educated men, and often with theological training as well. They understand boy life and are natural leaders of boys and young men. They know rural sociology and eco- nomics and they know "the rural mind." They believe in the country and propose to do their life work in the country; they have 98 THE RURAL CHURCH AND no desire to live in the city. Furthermore, although they are deeply earnest Christian men, they are free from sectarian handicap and in the midst of church rivalries they are free to act as neutrals, as the trusted agents of all the local churches. Just as the city Associations have rightly relieved many churches of the necessity for doing institutional work, likewise the county secretaries can plan and organize and exe- cute an interdenominational, non-sectarian campaign for righteousness in the whole county, in physical, intellectual and spiritual training for the boys and young men, and in economic uplift and efficiency as well as in broad social betterment. In my judgment the very best leverage upon this important matter of country church federation and union and vital efficiency is the work of the consecrated men in the employ of the county work department of the Young Men's Chris- tian Association. In their tactful, considerate way they can render a vast service to our rural townships and country villages in inte- grating community resources and uniting COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 99 Christian forces in a genuine work of com- munity building. When in the course of inevitable evolution, and survival of the fittest, country churches are combined and united in a single church in each community, then, without embarrass- ment, much of this social work can be di- rectly undertaken by the logical and respon- sible community leader, the community church. At all events, there is nothing to fear, but very much to be gained, in making the church actually the social center in every community, so far as leadership and local resources will allow. Rev. George Frederick Wells : The Country Church and the County Work The question which I am asked to discuss is the relation between the county depart- ment of the Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation and the country churches of America. Let us at the outset be reminded that the United States has probably no fewer than 100 THE RURAL CHURCH AND 80,000 country churches served by 70,000 or more Christian ministers. These churches are constantly increasing both in numbers and in the strength and breadth of their work. The ministers are the products of the churches themselves ; they are inspired by the Christian faith which is the controlling force, not only of Christianity but of modern civili- zation; they are trained in hundreds of colle- giate and post-coUeglate institutions both civil and ecclesiastical, and they, with the churches which they serve, form an ever growing agency which Is conserving, stimula- ting and multiplying all of the constructive factors of human society. The modern movement of Christian missions and church extension is the world's foremost exhibition for organized human uplift, and in this mighty propaganda the country churches, in spite of their many failings, stand In the front ranks. In the second place is the county work of the Young Men's Christian Association. The modern church, In doing so well her ser- vice of keeping clear the channels for the growth of the Christian spirit, is producing COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 101 year by year an increasing group of young men who in observance of the Christian view- point are seeking for American life an en- during rural base and are associating them- selves in what we call the county work. The county department is an association of Chris- tian men, the purpose of which is to discover, enlist, train, and use strong leadership in the development of non-urban counties. Their association makes special recognition of the county as the most favorable sociological unit of organization and expert cultivation. At the present time sixty men are employed to give control to this work in almost fifty counties of twenty states and provinces. The county workers are the sons of the churches. As sons they are more than chil- dren or adolescents. Since they have re- fused to be dependents, learners and follow- ers in every sense in order to be providers, teachers, and leaders, we judge that they have passed their majority. They are men and boys working especially for men and boys. They do not assume the prerogatives of teaching theology or of providing the sacraments. They cannot propagate the 102 THE RURAL CHURCH AND churches as such. Neither can they be classed among the fundamental social insti- tutions. They are the churches working in- directly. The county work is doing nothing that the churches cannot do and in many places are not doing directly. The county work, therefore, must be classed among the voluntary associations which seek to supple- ment the church, or, where the churches are very deficient, to act as temporary substitutes for them. Prof. Alexander R. Merriam: One thing to be emphasized is that the matter of personality lies at the very center of the problem. If we can get the men into these churches, the thing will move. I want to add one other word to personality; that is "hope." We have got to enter into this work with hope. There are facts that dis- courage us and there are facts that encour- age us. A great deal is doing as well as be- ing done. Here is a man who has been long in one country parish in Connecticut, with a church doubling in membership. Another man forty years in his parish with a church COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 103 membership of one hundred and eighty-five has fifty-one men who can lead in prayer in his prayer meeting. There are things of this kind going on the country over. Let us reahze the fact that we have got to have in these communities the right kind of personal- ity and when the time comes for federation, that man can afford to stay in the parish then, and we shall have personality that can solve this problem. Then things will move. Now, remember that things are moving al- ready by personality that has stayed long enough in its field. With momentum in the future, what cannot be done in the churches of Christ? Rev. Owen H. Gates : Whenever I think of the country church it is not of the country church in general, it is a particular country church. I find myself closing my eyes to generalities and looking at some particular church which possesses a personality of its own. It is not to be studied in the abstract. And it is not a peculiar type of church. Its problems Involve the whole problem of the Kingdom of God. 104 THE RURAL CHURCH AND Our theologies are built many stories high as we build our cities. In them we discuss sin and the social problems of life in many stories, partly above ground and partly below, but we do not get many stations out into the country before this many-story structure comes down, and up, to the ground floor. The sin that had been several base- ments deep under ground comes to the sur- face again, and we have to deal, not now with sin and the plan of redemption, but with the sinner to be redeemed and transformed to a saint. It all resolves itself into a ques- tion of personality. I cannot think of the country problem as a Problem with a big initial letter. It is a local affair, and a per- sonal affair. As we turn our thoughts to the country and the needs of the country church, we are getting back to the essential needs of the church as a whole, to the very essence of Christianity. When we are describing the function of the country church we are simply describing the function of the church as such. It is the complex organization of the city which is the departure from the norm. I feel most in- COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 105 cited to personal Christian service when I consider the problems and possibilities of such service in connection with the country church. Moreover, I wish we could get over the idea that this or that unpleasant feature of country life and work constitutes a limitation to the service there. Is the load on the wagon a difficulty that the horse has to reckon with? Is the train of cars the limita- tion of the locomotive ? It is rather its task. Country conditions constitute the task of the church. It must not only try to reach the drunkard by the roadside, but must convert the deacon who stands in the way of progress to an active cooperation in the aggressive work needed. These "hindrances" are a part of our work, and we must renew our courage as we confront them. With regard to the seminaries, I think our theologies would be clearer and simpler if we could formulate them with our minds upon the simplicity and plainness of country Christians ; with this or that person, or group, on our hearts waiting to be fed from the gos- pel message which is to be brought to them, 106 THE RURAL CHURCH AND if at all, by the students whom we are going to send out to those fields. The seminaries are considering these questions which are being discussed today. We are earnest and serious here, but if you want earnestness of discussion, and loyalty to the cause of the Master, if you want to understand how men wrestle with these prob- lems through the years, listen to the discus- sions in our theological seminaries. The problems are not discovered in such confer- ences as these. We have been studying them, and propose to study them until some solution is reached. When the real, essential need is discovered, you will find the semi- naries ready to meet it, even if they have not already anticipated your finding. Certainly we are ready to use all our resources upon these problems, which are so fundamental to the interests of the Christian church. Dr. F. E. Emrich : Here is something about the work as it comes to us in Massachusetts. As Congre- gationalists we have one hundred and sixty- COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 107 five home missionary cliurches. A word for the theological seminaries. Professor Gates is librarian of Andover Seminary. There are over 2000 books at the disposal of every country minister in Massachusetts, to be taken out for four or six months, the newest and best books, and he has but to pay the car- riage one way. Last year 2500 books were distributed. The average country minister does some reading and thinking for himself. The country minister in Massachusetts does something for the library. In the par- sonage, in the chapel, in the vestry, we have our branch libraries. We have a public library in every town in Massachusetts. We have four institutions in the old Common- wealth: town meeting, country meeting- house, consolidated school, and public library. In one little town on the Cape, where there are nine little villages, there are nine public libraries to meet the demands of the town. In regard to the church and county work, we are doing something. Here are four towns : Otis, Monterey, Sandisfield and Becket. We would like to put in a young man who can preach, pay him $1000 a year and parsonage 108 THE RURAL CHURCH AND and have him superintend the county work of the surrounding towns. He would do just what a school superintendent is doing in Massachusetts. He goes once in two weeks to the teacher to help her out. Our worker would take up these towns and help the pas- tor, giving him expert advice. I think we may do this in time. The boy in the country is a chief prob- lem. We want a young man who is able to help the pastor to meet the boy problem. How are we to get them together? As has been said, it is ultimately a question of per- sonality. Make the minister everywhere a resourceful man. Give him power to over- come loneliness by love of books. Give him all the knowledge you can. Then he should be the community leader. You are not to judge the church's power in the community by church attendance alone. The pastor must be pastor of every home in the commu- nity. Three or four times a year he should go in with a bit of the Word, a bit of prayer and thus make the whole parish feel the in- fluence of the minister. All the work is not done in the church. community betterment 109 Mr. Richard C. Morse: Just a word regarding this matter of per- sonality that has been referred to and its relation to the county work of the Young Men's Christian Association. The relation is a very vital one. The path of the Associa- tion into the county work was opened in re- sponse to a demand for qualified personality in our work among country young men. In the early decades of our history the perma- nency of the country Association was a diffi- cult problem. For many years we called it the insoluble problem. But the record of the country Association was fruitful in the story of young men reclaimed. Many personali- ties of power and efficiency in our work were traced back to the country Association. There was never for a moment doubt in our minds that we had need of the country Asso- ciation and the country community had need of us, but owing to incessant emigration of its volunteer workers the country Association without a secretary to enlist new workers was liable to great fluctuation. One of our leading supervisory secretaries said years 110 THE RURAL CHURCH AND ago that he had learned to look with resig- nation upon the death of country Associa- tions. First, because he knew they would rise again; second, because of the fruitage yielded by those Associations though they might temporarily pass away. When Robert Weidensall conceived of the county secretary he conceived of a personal- ity solution of the problem of the country Association. It was along the pathway of a search for the county secretary and the personality represented by that office that we have been developing the county or rural work of the Association. This work is yet In its very infancy, only fifty counties being as yet organized. In our city work we had the same problem half a century ago. The question then was. Can we get secretaries of qualification for the city Associations ? I was once asked whether the city of Buffalo was a large enough community to call for an Association secretary. But we worked out the solution in the city work on the line of personality and we are now try- ing to work out the country problem on the same line. It is because with the county as COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 111 a unit we can get a man, that we make the county our unit. It seems to be the smallest country or rural unit in which we can get the qualified man. Now, as to the relation of the country Association to the country church. Of course it is a subordinate relation always if the Young Men's Christian Association is true to Itself and its record. The develop- ment of efficient personality for the county work dignifies work In the country. The county or rural secretary must rank with the secretary in any other department of the Young Men's Christian Association. He will give that dignity to Association work in the country which is one of the things that the county work stands for. This cannot be happily done without also dignifying the country church and the country pastor. The county work secretary, therefore, cannot and must not be regarded as substituting or rival- ing the country church and pastor, but as a reinforcement of both and as helping to bring in the church and pastor that the country needs in order that both may come to their own in the country. 112 the rural church and Rev. Andrew Campbell: I am still in the country church. I am sat- isfied to be there. A brother suggested an economic basis which he believed to be the fundamental basis. It is an economic ques- tion with the country parson. The first question under the third topic is, "Is the country minister getting a living wage?" I think most country ministers are not getting a working wage. There are not many Coun- try ministers here for the reason that they cannot afford it. You who come from semi- naries or from other institutions have your ex- penses paid, but we ministers have to do without some things, and perhaps borrow the money. We can live on $800 or $1000, but we cannot work on that when we have to put a good percentage of it back into the church to carry on the work. It cost me $2.50 last month for postage. There is no provision made for that in the country min- ister's salary. This is where the county work helps out the country church. It comes into the town and it supplies a great lack. It sends a splendid speaker. It comes ithere with its secretary to help us out along social COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 113 and athletic lines, things we ought to be do- ing. There are places in which the county work and country church are not mutually antagonistic, but where they are cooperative. A great many things have been done in the past year that we could not have done had it not been for the work of the county de- partment of the Association. I am glad to bear this single word of testimony. I am also glad that I borrowed the money to come here, because I shall get something to take back that will be worth to me at least the price of two books for next year. Mr. W. D. McRae: I am here today with the four county sec- retaries, all we have in New Jersey, first of all because we are interested in the upbuild- ing of the country church of Jesus Christ. We are out for the upbuilding of the country church first, last and all the time. The man who is brought up in a country community, as I was, who never rode on a railroad train until nineteen years of age, is naturally most interested away back there where he was brought up. The thing that helped him 114 THE RURAL CHURCH AND most was the country church, of course. Theoretically we never organize in a town unless the pastors and churches want us to organize. Practically, we organize when pastors oppose. They do not oppose openly. It is the ideal basis as set forth. We would like the cooperation of the churches. The last three months I have put in a great deal of time, trying to get the churches in a certain town in a certain county of New Jersey to do the work that ought to be done. The county secretary and myself met a group of boys who were asking for Christian lead- ership from the Christian men of that town. I tried to get Christian men to take hold of the proposition. The boys, from fifteen to seventeen years, met without Christian lead- ership or supervision. You can imagine the things the boys did. The first men who sat down and met with those boys were the county secretaries of the Young Men's Christian Association. We have been work- ing hard for twelve months. We say we must do this work, and the boys ask us to do it. By the grace of God we are going to do it, if not officially, then unofficially. community betterment us Professor Fiske : In closing the discussion I wish to speak of but two things. First, I wish to challenge the idea that there is any real mutual antag- onism between the county work men and the country churches. It would be unfortunate to have any such idea go forth from this con- ference. Sometimes, of course, there is a little suspicion on the part of the country pastors, until they learn more what the county work really is. And sometimes the county work secretaries feel obliged to go ahead with their plans without much church coop- eration, but this must not be called antago- nism. I presume I know a majority of the county work men in the eastern section and some in the Middle West, and I can testify to their splendid spirit of earnest consecration and, in general, to their tactfulness. They are not rivaling the church. They are all church men themselves. To be sure, they love the Kingdom of God more than any church; but they are faithful to their church. I met in conference ten nights ago a group of earnest county work men in Ohio, where the work 116 THE RURAL CHURCH AND has the support of the business men and pro- gressive farmers of the entire county. The county work secretary was a member of the ministers' union at the county seat, and sec- retary of the union. And he surely had a right to be, for the county Association work is simply a specialized form of country min- istry. It may be that sometimes there is a little impatience on the part of the Associa- tion men with the slowness of the country churches, but there is no real antagonism. Just as our city Associations have learned that they could not consider their work as in competition with the churches, but supple- mentary to them, likewise I think it is true that the county work has passed through the former stage and is now everywhere anxious to cooperate and help, and not to antagonize. The other thing I wish to say is this: Representatives of at least fourteen theologi- cal seminaries have been called to this con- ference ; on the assumption, I presume, that we are training the country ministers. We are not. We are training the city and the village ministers. The rural ministers are seldom trained at all, particularly In the COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 117 West. Doubtless we should not expect a fully trained man to live on a rural church salary at present. There will surely be more hope for the country church when, by closer feder- ation and union, the churches are able to secure and support stronger ministers, men who can afford time and money for an ade- quate training for their profession. Until then the seminaries can not be held respon- sible for the shortcomings of the country ministry. Dr. Josiah Strong: Brethren: I should not have ventured to say a word, for your time is too precious for me to occupy. I have a great fund of igno- rance on this subject. You are in direct con- tact with the problem. I am not. You have first-hand knowledge. I have second-hand knowledge. I have been compelled to miss your discussions, which I greatly regret. I must express my very great gratification in the fact of such a conference. I have been very deeply interested in the country problem for twenty-seven years, and such a confer- ence as this would not have been possible 118 THE RURAL CHURCH AND twenty-seven years ago and many years this side of twenty-seven. It is an exceedingly encouraging fact that such men as are gath- ered here are discussing intelligently the great problem of the country church. I would like to emphasize my conviction that there is no occasion for discouragement. Is not everything possible in the Kingdom of God? The salvation of the rural district is not to be accomplished without the aid of the rural church. You have touched a great many points that appeal to me very strongly indeed, and if I had been here I should have been exceedingly glad to have participated in their discussion. I will simply call atten- tion to the fact that I have in my hands here an article written by Mr. Wells and also a very valuable bibliography prepared by him which you are welcome to so far as they will go around. Prof. James McConaughy, head of the de- partment of the English Bible at Mount Hermon School, gave a most helpful talk covering his experience in cooperating with the country churches in the neighborhood of COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 119 Mount Hermon, emphasizing the impor- tance of continuous service of a pastor or any other rural leader and of cooperative effort. Professor McConaughy's address had a deep spiritual tone which brought real inspiration into the meeting. SUMMARIES OF DISCUSSIONS The following are the summaries of dis- cussions reported by the several gentlemen appointed for this purpose at the beginning of the conference : The Teaching of Religion in the Country Dr. C. A. Barbour The gospel is good seed. It is not always productive seed. Its productiveness is con- ditioned by the soil. What of the soil for the seed as sown in the rural districts ? Rural civilization is in process of recon- struction. It gathers about four centers — the store, the school, the church, the family. All of these are out of repair. There is a difference of opinion regard- ing character and life conditions in country districts, some maintaining that personal morality is at high level while standards of social ethics are low, some contending that the standards of personal morality are by no means ideal. 122 THE RURAL CHURCH AND Certain conclusions find general agree- ment: 1. The teaching of religion in rural dis- tricts must be systematic but not unwisely divisive. Emphasize the great fundamental and universal phases of truth, not the points of difference. 2. Fit leaders are necessary. If they are country born and equally well trained, so much the better. In any case, they must find the Intelligent and sympathetic point of view for country work, if they are there to succeed. 3. Greater insistence upon the teaching in our theological schools of a social gospel, founded on the teaching of Jesus and the standards of the New Testament, is emi- nently desirable. The truest social gospel is based upon revealed religion and has due recognition of the supernatural. 4. The coming of the community rural school may be very influential in the location and the work of the community rural church. 5. The pastor in the rural districts should enter upon a course of systematic teaching and training of his people, minister- ing not only to the distinctively religious life, COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 123 but to the quickening of the intellectual life as well. For the accomplishment of this end the minister himself must be a man of spirit- ual and intellectual resource. 6. The multiplication of weak and strug- gling churches in any community is an ob- stacle and a reproach to the cause of reli- gion. The chief objective of such multiplied churches will inevitably be, or become, the effort for the self-perpetuation of the indi- vidual church. There should be cooperation, which will eventually lead to confederation and consolidation wherever the most states- manlike policy for any community directs. Country Church Finances and Admin- istration Rev. R. H. M. Augustine 1. That the financial support given to the Christian ministry in the country church should at the least be equal to the living wage that obtains among farmers of the commu- nity. 2. That as the lack of proper support for the country church is due not so much to in- 124 THE RURAL CHURCH AND ability as to the lack of liberality and as a more generous support financially is not only desirable but necessary, appeals for increased support that would be instructive and states- manlike should be more frequently made. 3. That local independence and auton- omy in finances, in government and in deter- mining local policies be encouraged. 4. That it is vital to the life of all of our country churches that an attempt be made to adapt the work of the church to the need of the community. 5. That the work of the agricultural colleges in supplementing the work of the seminaries in the further equipment of the country ministry be approved and encour- aged. 6. That the church and country ministry be looked upon as being in command of the forces and in a position to direct the move- ment for community betterment. Country Community Building Prof. Ernest Burnham Further progress in country community building calls for a more adequate provision COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 125 through institutions founded for such pur- poses of men selected, specifically trained, and enlisted for life in rural community ser- vice. Native talent enriched intelligence, tried sympathies, resolute will; in short, an individually refined and a socially cultured personality — these are the presuppositions of a leadership equal to the constructive pro- gram by which the new country community is to emerge out of the old without losing the worthy ideals of the old. Cooperation and Integration of Coun- try Community Institutions Mr. D. C. Drew That some agency is necessary to coordi- nate rural social institutions. That a practical demonstration in terms of country life be made in rural communities, resulting in the federation of all the uplift forces in the community. The federating and unifying power of the Young Men's Christian Association is recog- nized. 126 THE RURAL CHURCH AND The economic problem and the associative problem are fundamental to all progress in rural uplift. There must be men in the ministry who are loyal to the country and thus make a dis- tinct profession known as the country min- istry. That a clearer definition of the community be established in terms of country life. SUPPLEMENT BY DR. H. B. MacCAULEY We call the attention of all the pastors and churches, especially in the country, to the desirability of forming interchurch federa- tions In all the counties as an important means of carrying into effect the program outlined at this conference. The Function of the Country Church Mr. R. C. Morse That capable leadership of the country church is of primary importance. That the church is the fundamental agency of human welfare. That the broadening of the church is necessary to its maximum of service to the COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 127 rural community. The county work of the Young Men's Christian Association is sup- plemental and cooperative in its relation to the country church. Upon the personality in its leadership and upon the efficiency of this personality must depend efficiency in the work of both church and county Associations. SUPPLEMENT BY DR. T. C. HALL It is the sense of this conference that this county work of the Young Men's Christian Association seek cooperation with the Council of Church Federation, asking also the authoritative ecclesiastical bodies for their aid and counsel. SUPPLEMENT BY DR. H. B. MacCAULEY This conference would welcome some kind of official cooperation between the local Interchurch Federation and the committee of the Young Men's Christian Association county work, and to this end we recommend that this matter be forwarded to the Federal Council and to the International Committee of the Young Men's Christian Association for their mutual consideration. 128 THE RURAL CHURCH AND The following resolution by Dr. H. B. MacCauley was unanimously adopted: That the thanks of this conference on the country church held at the International Committee Building, New York, December I, 1 910, be tendered to the county work de- partment of the International Committee of the Young Men's Christian Associations for the holding of this conference and the ar- rangements of the program, together with their splendid hospitality, all of which things have brought us closer together and closer to the Master. On the evening of the Conference day the annual dinner of the International Commit- tee was held at the Waldorf-Astoria and a majority of the delegates accepted Dr. Mc- Alpin's invitation to attend. Two of the delegates. Dr. Butterfield and Secretary Hayes, were honorary guests. LIST OF DELEGATES Ernest H. Abbott, The Outlook. E. L. Allen, County secretary of Westchester County, N. Y. Miss Mary L. Allen, National Board of Young Women's Christian Associations. Rev. William H. Allison, Ph. D., dean and pro- fessor. Ecclesiastical History, Colgate Theological Seminary. Rev. W. L. Anderson, author of "The Country Town." Rev. R. H. M. Augustine, pastor, Hanover (N. J.) Presbyterian Church. Prof. W. B. Bailey, instructor in Sociology, Yale Divinity School. C. A. Barbour, D. D., secretary. International Com- mittee of Young Men's Christian Associations. Miss Helen F. Barnes, National Board Young Women's Christian Associations. Wallace Batchelder, member of County Committee of Windsor County, Vt. W. H. Baxley, county secretary, Westchester County, N. Y. John R. Boardman, New York. Miss Elizabeth Boies, National Board of Young Women's Christian Associations. Dr. Charles H. Boynton, professor of Homiletics and Pedagogy, General Theological Seminary. 130 THE RURAL CHURCH AND H. S. Braucher, Playground Association of America. Rev. J. Lee Brooks, pastor, Methodist Episcopal Church, Anderson, N. J. F. E. Burgess, secretary. International Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations. Prof. Ernest Burnham, director. Western State Normal School, Kalamazoo, Mich. Kenyon L. Butterfield, LL. D., president, Massa- chusetts Agricultural College. Rev. Andrew Campbell, pastor. Orthodox Congre- gational Church of Christ, Groveland, Mass. W. J. Campbell, state county work secretary of the Young Men's Christian Associations of Penn- sylvania. Miss Julia F. Capen, general secretary of the Young Women's Christian Association, Lakewood, N. J. E. C. Carter, secretary. International Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations. Daniel Chase, county secretary, Eastern Delaware County, N. Y. Rev. S. C. Coale, pastor. Union Church, Littleton, N. J. Rev. W. Russell Collins, D. D., professor of Litur- gies and Ecclesiastical Polity, Theological Semi- nary of the Reformed Episcopal Church, Phila- delphia. William Knowles Cooper, general secretary of the Young Men's Christian Association, Washington. Miss Mabel Cratty, National Board of Young Women's Christian Associations. COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 131 Miss Caroline B. Dow, dean of National Training School of Young Women's Christian Associations. Dwight C. Drew, state county work secretary of the Young Men's Christian Associations of Massa- chusetts. Edwin L. Earp, Ph. D., professor of Sociology and director of Drew Theological Seminary. Dr. Frederick E. Emrich, secretary, Massachusetts Home Missionary Society. Rev. Charles R. Erdman, professor of Practical Theology, Princeton Theological Seminary. Elmer O. Fippin, professor of Soil Technology, New York State College of Agriculture, Cornell Uni- versity. George J. Fisher, M. D., secretary, International Committee of Young Men's Christian Associa- tions. Prof. G. Walter Fiske, junior dean, Oberlin Theo- logical Seminary. A. W. Fismer, Ph. D., professor Practical Theology, German Theological Seminary. Rev. Greorge C. Foley, D. D., Jay Cooke professor of Homiletics and Pastoral Care, Philadelphia Divinity School. E. L. Fullam, member. County Committee of Wind- sor County, Vt. C. A. Gammons, county secretary. Western Dela- ware County, N. Y. P. W. Garrett, county secretary, Monmouth County, N.J. 132 THE RURAL CHURCH AND Prof. Owen H. Gates, librarian, Andover Theo- logical Seminary. Rev. F. F. German, St. Thomas' Church, Mamaro- neck, N. Y. C. C. Gerow, member, County Committee of Orange County, N. Y. Rev. C. O. Gill, Hartland, Vt. Guy D. Gold, county secretary of Rockland County, N. Y. Dr. W. A. Granger, president. New York State Baptist Convention. Thomas Cuming Hall, D. D., professor of Chris- tian Ethics, Union Theological Seminary. Clarence L. Harding, member. County Subcom- mittee of the Interstate Committee of the Young Men's Christian Associations of Maryland and Delaware. Hon. Willet M. Hays, assistant secretary, United States Department of Agriculture. Ernest J. Hewitt, member Windsor County, Ver- mont County Committee. C. J. Hicks, associate general secretary of the Inter- national Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations. Fred M. Hill, state county work secretary of the Young Men's Christian Association of New York. Alvah S. Hobart, D. D., professor. New Testament Interpretation, Crozer Theological Seminary. Arthur S. Hoyt, D. D., professor, Homiletics and Sociology, Auburn Theological Seminary. COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 133 A. C. Hurd, county secretary, Windsor County, Vt. Henry Israel, county work secretary. International Committee Young Men's Christian Associations. Wayne C. Jordan, county secretary, Sullivan County, N. H. Rev. William B. Ladd, Colt professor of Church History, Berkeley Divinity School. H. B. MacCauley, D. D., secretary, Eastern District Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America. Edgar MacNaughten, secretary. International Com- mittee of Young Men's Christian Associations. D. Hunter McAlpin, M. D., chairman, Interna- tional County Work Subcommittee. Prof. James McConaughy, Mount Hermon School. William D. McRae, state county work secretary of Young Men's Christian Associations of N. J. Prof. A. R. Mann, registrar. New York State Col- lege of Agriculture, Cornell University. Rev. Paul Martin, registrar and secretary, Prince- ton Theological Seminary. H. D. Maydole, county secretary, Camden County, N.J. Prof. Alexander R. Merriam, Department of Homi- letics and Pastoral Care, Hartford Theological Seminary. Lyford A. Merrow, chairman. State County Work Subcommittee of New Hampshire. Hon. A. C. Monahan, Department of the Interior, Bureau of Education. 134 THE RURAL CHURCH AND J. Sterling Moran, county secretary, Addison County, Vt. F. S. Morrison, interstate secretary of Young Men's Christian Associations of Maryland and Dela- ware. Richard C. Morse, general secretary of the Inter- national Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations. Frank W. Ober, editor Association Men. Rev. G. Phillips Payson, Katonah, N. Y. Thornton B. Penfield, Ph. D., secretary, Interna- tional Committee of Young Men's Christian Asso- ciations. J. W. Pontius, secretary. International Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations. Otis B. Read, county secretary, Burlington County, N.J. G. A. Reeder, secretary. International Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations. Albert E. Roberts, county work secretary. Inter- national Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations. Peter Roberts, Ph. D., secretary. International Com- mittee of Young Men's Christian Associations. E. M. Robinson, secretary, International Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations. Rev. Edward Tallmadge Root, field secretary of the Massachusetts Federation of Churches. Allen M. Ruggles, Columbia University. COMMUNITY BETTERMENT 135 Elias B. Sanford, D. D., corresponding secretary of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America. Miss Anna Seaburg, secretary, National Board of Young Women's Christian Associations. F. E. Shapleigh, interstate county secretary of the Young Men's Christian Associations of Maryland and Delaware. Rev. William Shedden, assistant librarian, Princeton Theological Seminary. F. B. Shipp, secretary. International Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations. Fred B. Smith, secretary. International Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations. Jefferson C. Smith, state secretary of Maine Young Men's Christian Associations. C. W. Stetson, county secretary, Greene County, N.Y. Josiah Strong, D. D., president, American Institute for Social Service. Ezra S. Tipple, Ph. D., professor of Practical Theology, Drew Theological Seminary. James F. TurnbuU, American Baptist Home Mission Society. Prof. Robert W. Veach, dean of Bible Teachers Training School, New York. Rev. George F. Wells, research secretary. Depart- ment of Christian Sociology, Bureau of Field Work, Drew Theological Seminary. 136 THE RURAL CHURCH AND James A. Whitmore, secretary, International Com- mittee of Young Men's Christian Associations. Z. L. Wilcox, county secretary, Orange County, N.Y. Warren H. Wilson, Ph. D., superintendent of the Department of Church and Country Life of the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America. Henry Yeigh, chairman, County Subcommittee of the Provincial Committee of Young Men's Chris- tian Associations of Ontario and Quebec.