,,empty ,,churches ,by the ,same ,author ,,rural ,,life ,,rural ,,social ,,problems ,,empty ,,churches ,,the ,,rural-,,urban ,,dilemma ,,by ,,charles ,,josiah ,,galpin ,,in ,,charge ,,of ,,the ,,division ,,of ,,farm ,,population ,,and ,,rural ,,life1 ,,bureau ,,of ,,agricultural ,,economics1 ,,united ,,states ,,department ,,of ,,agriculture4 ,illustration ,,the ,,century ,,co4 ,new ,york ,london ,,copyright1 #aibe1 ,,by ,,the ,,century ,,co4 ,,printed ,,in ,u4 ,s4 ,a4 ,in ,memory of ,,my ,,father ,,and ,,mother ,who ,spent ,their ,lives ,in ,loving ,ministration in ,country ,parishes ,,preface ,this little book invites you to read it at a single sitting4 ,if read later1 a section at a time1 in the light of the whole story1 it will give you a better account of itself4 ,it is1 ,i frankly acknowledge1 written out of emotion4 ,it does not therefore1 ,i fear1 contain all the words it implies--half the time falling into symbols and incidents to force a meaning2 half the time taking for granted that you do not care to open or close every side gate along the way4 ,the view of a layman1 as this easily betrays itself to be1 may prove something of a shock to the rank and file of the clergy2 but it will serve1 at least1 to show that a section of laymen take religion more seriously after all than they do economics1 which forms their daily adventure4 ,deep in our hearts1 many of us know that business is the great masculine sport of the age2 and in comparison1 the rle of the priest and pastor and the function of the church lie in the far different realm of the heroic4 ,if ,i seem in this essay to expect too much of the church and too much of the preacher1 my only apology is my inability to read into the ,four ,gospels1 that stand on my desk along with the other tools of life and work1 a philosophy of ease or of complacent laissez faire4 ,although a confirmed lover of the country1 the farm1 the farmer and his children1 ,i am none the less a firm believer in the city--its necessity1 function1 and destiny4 ,rural social welfare1 as ,i see it1 is of utmost concern to the ,american city4 ,this is why empty churches along the countryside bring tragedy to city and country alike4 ,this is why ecclesiastical statesmen should go to the country and see with their own eyes the havoc wrought upon the farmer's family by competitive religion among ,protestants4 ,and this is all the little book sets out to do--to take everybody to the rural communities with wide-open eyes1 to see the empty churches1 the children without ,god1 the farm tenants without religion1 the parsons on the run for the city1 and the beginnings of a new type of rural church4 ,i wish gratefully to acknowledge my indebtedness in this essay to the staff of the ,institute of ,social and ,religious ,research1 ,new ,york ,city1 upon whose authoritative statements ,i have much relied4 ,to the ,curtis ,publishing ,company1 ,philadelphia1 ,i desire to express appreciation for their kindness in allowing me to reproduce here materials which have appeared in 8,the ,country ,gentleman0 during the past year4 ,c4 ,j4 ,,galpin4 ,march1 #aibe4 ,,empty ,,churches ,,empty ,,churches ,,chapter ,i ,recently1 in a cross-roads country church1 a minister of the ,gospel1 underpaid1 somewhat shabby1 but eager and inspired1 a man with a message to give1 stood before his congregation to present that message4 ,the flame of inspiration in his haggard young face flickered and died as he looked down at the scanty congregation assembled before him to hear the ,word of ,god4 ,at a glance he counted his handful of hearers4 ,six4 ,through a window on one side of the little church1 he could see two other meeting-houses nestling in the curve of the road4 ,through a window on the other side1 he looked out at a third--four country churches of four ,christian denominations1 almost identical in doctrine1 there within two stone's-throws of one another4 ,in three of these churches1 including his own1 he knew that the members of the congregation might be counted upon the fingers of each pastor's two hands4 ,the third church was closed that day2 its flock could afford only an occasional shepherd4 ,in all four of those churches put together1 not one fair-sized congregation4 ,in all four1 not one pastor paid a salary large enough to enable him to live on his income as a minister4 ,in all four1 men and women taxed by religion beyond their ability to pay1 yet unable to support their church without outside aid4 ,jealous ,denominations ,the young minister thought with pain of other sections of the country through which he had traveled all day without seeing one church of any denomination4 ,he knew that an appalling percentage of farm communities throughout the ,united ,states were entirely without churches1 that thousands of children1 hundreds of their elders1 had never listened to the preaching of the ,gospel4 ,yet here there were four churches at the country cross-roads6 ,that afternoon that young pastor wrote me a letter1 wrote it in pain and bitterness1 but also in hope1 in earnest desire to get the facts before the nation3 ,i saw in the paper the other day some mention of the chief rural problems of the ,united ,states4 ,may ,i call your attention to what ministers in every country district regard as the stiffest problem known to them and to their people8 ,i refer to the problem of the competitive religion1 which affects not only pastors1 but the entire rural population1 financially and spiritually1 as well4 ,the spiritual rivalry set in motion by well-meaning home-mission boards and zealous and jealous denominations is undermining the present and the future welfare of the country church by ignoring the law of supply and demand4 ,if you can suggest any solution for this great problem1 we shall all be grateful4 ,the case was in no way overstated by this young man4 ,it is quite true that there are few1 if any1 greater rural problems to-day than the problem of the country church4 ,it is undeniable that any honest student of conditions in rural churches is confronted by staggering and depressing statistics of overchurching and underattendance in some sections1 and of entire lack of attendance due to no churching at all in others4 ,any map that showed the present rural church distribution of the ,united ,states would be alarmingly reminiscent of a map of a country with large areas of sterile famine-land4 ,nine persons out of every hundred in rural ,america can not get to church because there is no church for them to attend4 ,this means that one seventh of all the rural communities of the ,united ,states are entirely without ,protestant churches4 ,pathetic reports of the spiritual hunger of these land dwellers1 living in a ,christian nation yet entirely shut off from ,christian organization of every kind1 come from these communities4 8,no ,protestant sermon has ever been preached in this locality10 is one ,s ,o ,s sent out from a neighborhood of two hundred persons4 8,not a child in this district has ever attended ,sunday-school10 deprecates another community of approximately the same size4 8,this back-to-the-land movement is fine1 but why should loyal land dwellers have to condemn their children to heathenry80 demands a distracted mother1 in a remote section of a ,western ,state4 8,my children are growing up to be little savages1 as far as religion is concerned4 ,they have never been inside a church in their lives1 and they don't know what ,sunday-school means40 ,only one fifth of the rural population goes to church4 ,two fifths of the rural churches of the country are standing still or losing ground4 ,a quarter of all rural churches have no ,sunday-school4 ,one fifth of all rural churches are kept alive by home-mission aid4 ,of these subsidized churches1 a large number are in active competition with churches of very similar doctrines4 ,seven out of every ten rural churches have only a fraction of a pastor apiece4 ,one third of all rural pastors receive so low a salary that they can live only by working at some other occupation4 ,one half of the rural churches of the country make an annual gain in membership of as much as #aj per cent4 ,in striking contrast to this churchless seventh of the country1 are the other six sevenths of rural ,america1 many of them so overchurched that they are crying out for relief from the burdens the churches are laying upon them4 ,there are ten times as many churches for every thousand persons in some of the rural districts of the ,united ,states as there are in ,new ,york ,city4 ,yet the percentage of attendance for every thousand persons is slightly lower in these rural sections than it is even in ,new ,york4 ,obviously1 such a showing indicates a startling lack of system in the distribution of rural churches1 a woeful waste of the religious potentialities of the country4 ,recently1 a thorough survey of the rural church problem of the ,united ,states was made for the first time in the history of the country1 under the direction of ,h4 ,n4 ,morse and ,edmund de ,s4 ,brunner1 of the ,institute of ,social and ,religious ,research1 of ,new ,york4 ,some of the statistics obtained by them are presented in the foregoing paragraphs4 ,these facts1 of course1 offer a severe shock to those who have the little white church of the countryside enshrined in memory along with the little red school-house4 ,we have fallen into the rut of taking it for granted that our country churches not only keep pace with the best religious life of the nation1 but even stay a step or two in advance1 if not in theology1 at least in interest in godly things and in piety4 ,we have come to think of country folk as the true church-goers of the ,united ,states4 ,to this sentimental point of view the facts stated offer a true affront4 ,fewer ,church-goers ,there are to-day approximately #aja1jjj rural churches in the ,united ,states4 ,a long time ago1 when there were only a hundred such churches1 virtually the entire country population attended them4 ,some time later1 when there were a thousand churches of the kind1 the average of attendance was still exceedingly high4 ,but of recent years the percentage of rural church-goers has almost seemed to be in an inverse ratio to the increase in churches4 ,one out of every five is not a showing that would have brought joy to the ,puritan ,fathers4 ,what is the reason for this precarious situation in the rural churches of our nation8 ,does it indicate that our country population is made up of a less ,god-fearing folk than in former years8 ,does it demonstrate that religion is less near to the hearts of the farm workers of the ,united ,states than is true of its city dwellers8 ,or are these conditions the logical outgrowth of a faulty system1 the inevitable result of a church distribution spiritually and economically unsound8 ,more than one thing must be taken into consideration in any fair-minded attempt to answer these questions4 ,for instance1 there is the fact that during the past few years the number of tenant-farmers in the ,united ,states has steadily increased1 until now thirty-eight per cent4 of the farms are tenant operated1 most often on the basis of the one-year lease4 ,any fact that tends to make the farmer more or less a transient in the community naturally deters him from forming social or religious relationships4 ,another reason frequently given for the low average of rural church attendance is that so high a percentage--nearly #cj per cent4--of the nation's land workers are new ,americans1 the foreign-born1 or the children of the foreign-born4 ,there are ,states1 such as ,north ,dakota1 where nearly every other farmer belongs to other than ,american nativity1 and whole sections of the country1 as in the ,middle ,west1 where foreigners are in excess of two-fifths of the population4 ,it is estimated that at the present time more than fifty per cent4 of these people are unministered to by any church1 ,catholic or ,protestant4 ,where anything like an earnest and comprehensive attempt has been made by churches to be of aid to them1 as among the ,mexicans of ,california1 it has been marked by astonishing results4 ,then why have the churches done practically nothing for the foreign-born in rural sections8 ,if the new ,american can make good on the land1 is it too much to ask the church to make good with the new ,american8 ,when ,i hear it said that no one is really interested in religion any more1 ,i cannot help thinking of an elderly ,yankee farmer in the ,state of ,vermont1 one ,j4 ,c4 ,coolidge1 father of our ,president1 a man who talks little about religion1 but who for years has given virtually all his leisure time1 and a considerable slice of time not leisure at all1 to keeping alive the little white church near his farm at ,plymouth ,notch4 ,he hauls the wood from his own land that the congregation of that little church may listen in comfort to the ,word of ,god2 he even1 ,i am told1 does the janitor work himself1 since the church has no funds for a janitor4 ,there is nothing especially remarkable in this4 ,there are thousands of such men all over our country1 men to whom the church is a thing to make sacrifices for1 to keep alive at whatever cost4 ,but in many districts it really seems that the fewer churches a county is able to afford1 the more it is apt to have4 ,out of the #baa churches financially aided by home-missions societies in several counties where intensive studies were made by the ,institute of ,social and ,religious ,research1 ,i am told that it was found that #adi of these churches could have been dispensed with without essential loss to anyone4 ,all but thirty-four were competitive4 ,untrained ,country ,preachers ,another grave charge is made against the church to-day in our country districts4 ,farmers feel that they are neglected by the ministers of their churches4 ,it is also charged that many rural pastors lack both adequate training and ability for their high calling4 ,the real marvel is that so many of these men are of the high type they are4 ,it has to be admitted that there is ground for the charge of incompetency among some of the rural pastors of the ,united ,states4 ,these men1 it is true1 are most inadequately prepared for their work4 ,how are they to afford more training for a calling which will never pay them any returns upon it8 ,that these men can develop into able preachers has been demonstrated by those who have had the opportunity to complete their courses in the summer school for ministers1 inaugurated1 ,i believe1 by the ,presbyterian ,board and now conducted by several denominations4 ,but most of them do not have this chance4 ,it is competitive religion that is largely responsible for these two dangerous factors in rural religious life--the non-resident pastor1 too occupied to be a true spiritual shepherd2 and the incompetent pastor1 too incapable to be a leader of his people4 ,but ,christianity will not vanish from our country districts4 ,nowhere is there better soil for the seeds of true religion than in the sturdy soul of rural ,america4 ,it is not so much isms or ologies that the rural population wants as it is religious facilities for themselves and for their children4 ,some time ago1 when a study of fifteen ,western ,states was made by the ,home ,mission ,council1 it mentioned the following fact3 8,the general feeling manifested by the returns shows little care for denominationalism4 ,what these people want is some one to present ,bible facts in an acceptable manner40 ,the ,call ,can ,be ,met ,this is as true to-day as it was when it was written ten years ago4 ,sunday-schools for their children2 an adequate number of churches1 not fewer than will meet their needs or more than they can support2 usable churches1 open the year round1 with able ministers in charge--these are the things the population of our rural districts wants4 ,how are they to get them8 ,by the installation of system into the religious life of the country sections4 ,there are enough churches in the ,united ,states to-day1 if they were distributed on the basis of a real need rather than on the grounds of competitive religion1 to reach the remotest sections of our country4 ,the money now expended on nonproductive churches would purchase real vitality for essential churches all through rural ,america4 ,,chapter ,,ii 8,ill fares the land1 to hastening ills a prey1 ,when wealth accumulates1 and men decay40 ,,goldsmith4 ,regular men and women long for children as they long for good luck1 long life1 and sweet happiness4 ,but they do not want just children1 any kind whatever so that they be children4 ,no indeed6 ,it is always a whole1 healthy child1 a bright1 intelligent child1 a loving1 obedient child1 a beautiful1 virtuous child1 that lives warm in their dreams4 ,and a child with such characteristics costs more than many men and women can pay2 for a well-bred child1 like a well-bred colt1 is the product of many favoring tides of good fortune4 ,farms1 ,the ,place of ,children ,so it is that the ,johns and ,marys who leave the farm and its open spaces for city life give up having children of their own1--often without knowing it when they leave the country1 to be sure1--and find themselves later doomed to work out human contentment in some other way2 for the high cost of city space1 of just sufficient elbow-room for a child to grow in and acquire the human characteristics desired1 is almost as prohibitive as if a law were on the statute-books forbidding the rearing of children in city blocks4 ,while my critic is biting his thumb at this 8exaggeration10 gravely asserting that he knows there are many families of children in our ,american cities1 ,i have caught his eye and will hold it long enough to tell him a thing disclosed by the last ,united ,states ,census report1 viz41 among the thirty millions of farm people1 there are #d1jjj1jjj more children under twenty-one years of age than there are among any thirty millions of city people4 ,and this bald fact virtually declares the truth ,i am uttering--that the country contains the children of the nation1 that the farm is the natural rearing-ground of well-bred children1 and that the city core--the stamping-ground of business and adults--abhors children as 8nature abhors a vacuum40 ,my story will not reach home1 however1 unless one pauses a moment to let this census fact soak in4 ,here is an excess of children living on our farms that would make a small nation1--bigger than ,switzerland1 bigger than ,chili1 than ,norway1 than famous little agricultural ,denmark4 ,cities ,get ,youth from ,farms ,and what will become of this excess of children8 ,what else than this8 ,the farms will manage to feed them1 clothe them1 educate them until they come of age1 when1 possessed of the strong right arm1 they will turn their backs on the farm and farming1 and go to recruit the nerve-fagged industry of cities4 ,the farms feed industry1 professional service1 and city life with muscle1 intellect1 and imagination4 ,this is the romance1 and there is not a word in it of wheat1 corn1 cotton1 or cattle4 ,this every-day function of the farm1 often spoken of lightly1 almost as if it were a poetic fiction1 is the solid stratum of fact upon which the plot of my story rests4 ,the annual editorial blast1 8,keep the boy on the farm10 never concerns this slowly moving stream of young adults cityward1 for these are a surplus1 an excess4 ,and they must go1 as sure as fate4 ,a legion of editorials could not dam back this flow4 ,we are not without some definite information1 moreover1 as to how this surplus of farm population works its way to the cities of the nation2 for a unique study has been made by the ,united ,states ,department of ,agriculture--of the movement of #cjjj young people from a thousand farms in one community--over a period of one hundred years--a community where 7and this fits into my story7 the ,god of the ,puritans has been known by the children from the days of the first log cabins4 ,we know just which farms sent their surplus crop of young folk away4 ,we know exactly where they went in the ,united ,states4 ,and1 furthermore1 we know what vocations they recruited1 and what achievements in these vocations they made4 ,in a nutshell1 we know in some measure what the contribution of human force and influence was from these thousand farms1 farm by farm1 to the upbuilding of the cities of the nation4 ,the unfolding picture of this farm community's impact upon the nation's life during the century just passed is precisely the thing many persons have looked for to put national meaning into the daily disappearance from the farms of the surplus of young adults which every few years amounts to a strong small nation poured into city industry4 ,i cannot pass this remarkable study by without naming some of the men who as 8exportable surplus0 left the old farmstead to work out careers in cities4 ,i will name only those whom you know1 and know to honor4 ,you remember ,governor ,george ,peck of ,wisconsin4 ,you knew him as the ,peck of 8,peck's ,bad ,boy40 ,farm number #eee among these thousand farms gave ,governor ,peck to ,wisconsin4 ,governor ,reuben ,wood of ,ohio came from farm number #aai4 ,governor ,cushman ,davis1 of ,minnesota1 afterward ,united ,states ,senator1 was the product of farm number #eef1 just as much as the wheat from that farm was a product and went into national trade4 ,farm number #fah gave ,charles ,finney to ,american ,christendom and to ,oberlin ,college as its honored president4 ,farm number #gja raised ,charles ,n4 ,crittenton1 gave him to the wholesale drug business in ,new ,york ,city1 in which he accumulated wealth with which he put into operation his ideal for friendless girls4 ,the ,florence ,crittenton ,rescue ,homes for girls in seventy-two cities of the ,united ,states tells his story4 ,one of the little hamlets in the community produced ,daniel ,burnham1 ,america's leading architect1 at home equally in ,chicago1 ,new ,york1 or ,rome1 ,italy4 ,but these brighter lights of the exodus do not by any means convey what is perhaps after all the greater influence and might of the majority of the human surplus who went forth and found their places and played their rles as less widely known personalities in enterprises of banking1 manufacture1 teaching1 or merchandizing1 where they helped weave the fabric of ,america and its institutions as we know them in every-day life4 ,the force of this plain story of the human product of good farms1 in a community where ,god was known1 lies not in what might be considered the exceptional character of the community1 but rather in the fact that the story of this particular community of farms is the story1 in one respect or another1 of all ,american farm communities4 ,this study convinces both men of the farms and men of the cities1--as it sets their memories to work about the migrants from the land whom they have known--that as the farming communities wax or wane1 so wax or wane the cities and the nation4 ,many ,children ,virtual ,pagans ,and here an unsuspected villain enters my story4 ,do not laugh in your sleeve when you discover that the villain is a fact1 merely a fact2 but1 by the by1 a very stubborn and blistering fact4 ,of the fifteen millions of farm children--children under twenty-one years of age1--more than four millions are virtual pagans1 children without knowledge of ,god4 ,if1 perchance1 they know the words to curse with1 they do not know the ,word to live by4 ,this saddening fact is the solemn disclosure of the recent study1 already mentioned1 made by the ,social and ,religious ,institute of ,new ,york ,city4 ,a survey of #agi counties in the ,united ,states1 representatively selected1 enables the ,institute with confidence to assert that 8#a1fjj1jjj farm children live in communities where there is no church or ,sunday-school of any denomination10 and 8probably #b1gej1jjj more who do not go to any ,sunday-school1 either because the church to which their parents belong does not have any1 or because they do not care to connect themselves with such an organization40 ,one does not get the real inwardness of this fact until one appreciates that these #a1fjj1jjj of pagan children are not scattered evenly1 or more or less evenly1 among the other millions of children who are in contact with the ,bible1 but are in a great measure homed in bibleless1 godless communities4 ,the nation might possibly assimilate a million bibleless children if they were brought up among several millions of children who know the concepts of religion2 but absorbing godless children in great numbers from whole godless groups is a bird of a different feather4 ,what is still more disconcerting1 the trend1 we are led to suppose1 is not from bad to better1 but from bad to worse4 8,there is no national passion for seeking out the godless community and setting the ,bible there10 we hear on every hand4 8,the promoters of ,bible study are too apologetic to business1 to education1 to pleasure1 even1 and go not about their tasks as those who have a commission from the nation10 many say4 ,but these bare statements fail1 perhaps1 to get hold of us4 ,we must have particulars and the pulse of the thing4 ,and so ,i wish to take a page out of my own experience and let you read it4 ,trapped in a ,godless ,community ,my duties1 a while back1 took me into the clover-bearing hills of a promising county in a dairy ,state4 ,i stayed the night with a farmer's family1 enjoying the hospitality and confidences of the home4 ,never shall ,i forget two episodes of the evening4 ,the milking was finally over--twelve mighty good cows4 ,i had been allowed to milk three1 taking the mother's place on her favorite milking-stool4 ,certain cows were 8tender0 and responded kindly to her gentler touch4 ,the house was on a side hill sloping steeply to the road1 and across the road was a thinly timbered twenty-acre lot4 ,the warm milk had been poured into ten-gallon cans and carried up to the house1 where stood1 in a neat little milk-house1 a cream separator4 ,when all was ready1 the separator began to sing1 the cream came trickling out1 the skim-milk poured into a ten-gallon can1 as the gaunt six-foot-three1 narrow-shouldered farmer turned the crank4 ,at the first whirring tune-up of the separator1 ,i hear a scurrying of feet in the timber lot below1 and soon a regiment of hogs and pigs were at the fence1 standing with hind feet in the long trough1 front feet over the top rail of the fence1 black heads in a row1 beady little eyes peering up the hill1 open mouths giving vent to a long-drawn squeal of jubilant petition4 ,as the whir of the separator grew into a liquid hum1 the squealing chorus rose to heaven1 filling the valley1 investing the farm1 like a piece of symbolism1 with the imperious demands of animals and crops upon the total energies of the family4 ,finally the last drop of milk went through the separator4 ,then the father put his hands to two handles of two ten-gallon cans of skim-milk2 one son grasped the other handle of one can2 another son caught hold of the handle of the second can2 while each son in his remaining hand held a pail of the milk4 ,then they three1 with two cans and two brimming pails1 took up their stately march abreast down the hill to the squealing chorus at the trough4 ,it looked for all the world like some priestly ritual4 ,the milk was poured into the trough4 ,the pigs ceased to chant and began to suck1 guzzle1 push1 and grunt4 ,so the day's work was over1 and we sought the house4 ,darkness fell over the hill and valley and the filled pigs lay down to sleep2 while the farmer gathered his family about him1 took up his ,bible and read the ,scriptures1 even as did the cotter1 whom ,burns1 the farmer ,scot1 made us know3 ,the priest-like father reads the sacred page1 ,how ,abram was the friend of ,god on high2 ,or ,moses bade eternal warfare wage ,with ,amalek's ungracious progeny2 ,or how the royal bard did groaning lie ,beneath the stroke of ,heaven's avenging ire2 ,or ,job's pathetic plaint and wailing cry2 ,or rapt ,isaiah's wild1 seraphic fire2 ,or other holy seers that tune the sacred lyre4 ,conversation in the morning brought out the fact that this hillside home was virtually the only one1 in this clover community1 struggling to bring up its children in the knowledge of ,god4 ,no church1 no ,sunday-school1 no parochial school1 no ,bible class4 ,the gaunt father1 gathering emotion as he overheard his own story1 said3 8,i have only one problem now4 ,in twelve years my cows and hogs have paid for themselves1 paid for my farm1 built my barn and house4 ,the one problem is not money any longer1 but it is my boys and girls4 ,they are just now at the point where the home can no longer hold them1 and they will1 ,i fear1 sink into the mire of this godless community40 8,what do you mean1 #8mire'80 ,i inquired4 8,well1 it is hard to put into words10 he continued4 8,perhaps this will give you some idea3 since ,i have been here1 now twelve years1 not a wedding has taken place anywhere hereabouts that has not been forced4 ,and this is not the worst of it40 8,why don't you start a ,sunday-school80 ,i urged4 8,too late60 he sighed4 8,my children are almost beyond me4 ,i was1 ,i fear1 too busy with my cows and pigs1 and the children just grew up before ,i knew it40 8,what will you do80 ,i could not refrain from asking1 more to myself than to him1 in my own perplexity1 as ,i tried to share in the problem4 8,the only thing ,i can do10 said he1 as if the conversation had strengthened a previous resolution half-heartedly entertained1 8is to yield to my wife's judgment2 sell the farm1 go to some safe community where there is a church1 ,sunday-school1 and a high school4 ,we people here in this community made our great mistake in starting out wrong4 ,we made a religion of our pure-bred hogs and cattle1 and let our boys and girls go to the dogs40 ,this tale of children1 who turned out to have been unwittingly sidetracked by cows and hogs1 recalled my own experience in breaking some new land in the ,skims at a period in my life when the doctor had said3 8,what you need is to get close to the land4 ,crawl around on the soil a year or two and you will learn over again how to sleep40 ,well1 with my old horse ,the ,cid and a mail-order one-horse plow1 ,i went through the motions of plowing that pine cut-over from which the pines had been skimmed off like cream from a milk-pan4 ,surveying the scratched and torn field1 somewhat bruised and bleeding1 ,i will declare it was1 ,i said to myself3 8,it doesn't look really plowed2 but it will be all right when ,i get it dragged40 ,then ,the ,cid did his very best at dragging4 ,dutifully--with an inner chuckle1 ,i am sure1 at my green expectations1 for he was a seasoned old ,skims horse himself--he plodded along and over the field4 ,at last ,i stood sweating and weary1 looking it over1 and was obliged to own up3 8,it doesn't look dragged2 but it will be all right when ,i get it cultivated40 ,i went through the form of marking and planting1 and though ,i couldn't see the rows very well1 ,i quieted my discontent by saying to myself1 8,it will be all right when ,i get it hoed40 ,but when the corn came up1 it was accompanied by such a community of weeds1 briers1 grass1 and small bushes1 that ,i couldn't cultivate because ,i couldn't see the corn4 ,after ,i had in much perplexity stared at the cultivator and then at the field1 ,i looked that piece of work square in the face and averred3 8,if ,i ever plow again1 ,i am not going to kid myself into thinking that the cultivator will straighten out the sins of the plow40 ,this raw-boned farmer and his wife1 possessed of the fairest intentions in the world for their children1 had become trapped in a godless community before they were aware of it2 all because the seed-bed of human life had not been plowed deep with social religion at the very outset4 ,is this community a fair example of bibleless country groups8 ,i believe it is4 ,i am sorry to admit it1 but ,i believe it is a fair type4 ,when the ,bible ,has ,no ,interpreter ,if a nation can not build civilization securely without a knowledge of history1 neither can children build character without a knowledge of those men and women of history who have essayed to know ,god4 ,the ,bible is the story of such persons4 ,it is biography4 ,it is lives of those in whom the soul of man in his search for ,god has risen to its highest levels4 ,there is no substitute for this ,bible biography1--except1 if you please1 another ,bible4 ,and perhaps1 in point of ,bible illiteracy1 next to the community which has no ,bible in it1 lies the community in which1 though there is a ,bible1 the leaders in teaching the ,bible1 or rather in explaining the ,bible to the children1 are themselves grossly ignorant1 if not demoralized4 ,the ,bible is a book of many stories1 of a host of incidents1 of innumerable ideas4 ,selection is vital4 ,to select from the ,bible and hand on its meaning in grave ignorance is to run the risk that all ignorance runs4 ,here is where many a rural community suffers1 when it is commonly thought to be provided with a knowledge of ,god4 ,it fell to my lot recently to visit a small rural community of twenty-five families of this type4 ,only three of the families were totally without church connections1 or at least church traditions4 ,one church building has fallen in4 ,one lies torn down4 ,the third1 still standing1 is rotting4 ,it is supposed to be 8haunted40 ,splits disorganized and discouraged the people4 ,a fourth rude church structure has come1 but splitting up from within has begun4 ,ignorance of a crass sort rules4 ,the ,bible has had no well-balanced soul to interpret its wonderful truths4 ,the family histories of this settlement run--to speak very grimly indeed--like an anthology of despair and depravity4 ,listen3 8,she drowned her babies regularly in the creek40 8,he was said to be the father of his own daughter's first child40 8,this woman was subnormal and has three illegitimate children40 8,this other woman is a menace to every man in the community40 8,he committed suicide40 8,she poured kerosene on the cat and set fire to it40 8,boil nails in water to find out if person for which water is named committed a crime4 ,if nails crackle and knock against the pan1 then person named is guilty40 8,a person dies hard on feathers4 ,we took mother's bed out from under her three times when we thought she was dying40 8,our children don't need to go to school to learn to read4 ,the ,spirit teaches them to read40 ,the people of these families looked1 in the face1 like people you meet in any fair group of folks2 but their minds1 their deeds1 their hopes1 their fears6 ,there's the rub4 ,is this group of twenty-five families typical of country communities where the ,bible is fought over by blind leaders of the blind8 ,i am afraid it is4 ,i admit it with shame1 but ,i admit it4 ,the ,bible1--as if it were a plow found by persons who knew not its use1 but who scrapped hard for its possession as an ornament of their dooryards1--the life-giving ,bible in these hands is still a closed book and a locked-up treasure4 ,pedigreed ,austerity ,better ,than ,ignorance ,human life at its best is no mere accident which may happen anywhere under any conditions4 ,the best has its pedigree4 ,it is the result of infinite pains with children as with crops and animals4 ,even the austere1 narrow-gaged leadership having a pedigree is far better than this ignorant1 illiterate type4 ,i remember well as a lad how my father1 a country minister1 collegebred and trained in the theological school of his particular denominational stripe1 stood rock-like in his parish for temperance4 ,it was a grape country1 with several wine distilleries4 ,my father taught abstention from wine-drinking and preached against the distilleries4 ,one church pillar was in the wine business and furnished the sacramental wine4 ,my father finally carried his logic to the point where he made announcement3 8,next ,sunday at the ,communion we shall not use fermented wine40 ,sunday came4 ,a larger congregation than usual assembled4 ,there was a tenseness of silent emotion in the stiff ,sunday-dressed village and farmer folk1 which ,i can feel yet1 after forty years4 ,the communion-table was set4 ,i see my father now1 as he picked up the flagon of wine and poured into the chalice4 ,he paused--on his face a sudden look of bewilderment4 ,then slowly he poured the chalice of wine back into the flagon1 strode to the door1 and emptied the contents on the ground4 ,quietly resuming the ceremony he said3 8,we will commune without wine to-day40 ,the distiller had done his dirty work and put one over on the country parson4 ,but the parson1 although he caused a sense of consternation to creep over the church folk1--akin to the horror in the multitude when ,count ,antonio1 in ,anthony ,hope's tonic story1 laid hands on the ,sacred ,bones in midstream1--by this daring act helped plug the bung-holes and spike the spigots in the cellars of that county4 ,and the whole countryside1 be it said1 responded to the resolute will of my father to make ,god known to a community steeped in wine4 ,my father probably shared the narrow-mindedness of his particular pedigree1 but he certainly hewed to the line like a prophet of old4 ,his crop of young converts came usually in winter2 but the snow and ice had no deterring chill for him4 ,he never thought of postponing the baptismal rite till summer4 ,he had a large hole cut through in the little river near by1 for water helped mightily in his system of doctrine4 ,he didn't spare me either4 ,at eleven years of age1 he led me1 as he did my country playmates1 out of the sleigh1 down the snowbank1 into this ice-water4 ,there was no softening of the ideals of life in that parish1 ,i can tell you4 ,and the ,god of ,daniel was known and acknowledged there in fear and trembling4 ,when1 in after years it fell to my fortune to live on the ,skims and to woo sleep with logging1 stumping1 and 8scratching0 the land1 ,i saw what a real ,sunday-school would do even in a submarginal community for the children of the pine cut-over4 ,there was the farmer widow woman with the man's hands4 ,what would have been her chances of rearing her seven children to usefulness and self-respect without that weekly community-school under good leadership8 ,i hear again her breezy1 cheery call to her brood as she drives up to the little church4 8,pile out40 8,pile in10 when ,sunday-school is over4 ,a slap of the lines1 and a piece of rural ,america goes back to its cabin1 minds sprayed with race lore4 ,a mighty wholesome sight in a community of tools with broken handles1 of harnesses toggled with hay-wire1 of fortunes 8busted01 of the blind1 and of those who could not sleep4 ,there was the old retired farmer1 ,scotch ,mc,dugle1 too1 eighty years old4 ,he would come over from next door of an evening and swap ,skims stories for a cheery welcome and a listening ear4 ,it would be midwinter4 ,the sheet-iron stove showed red4 8,come in1 ,mr4 ,mc,dugle10 my wife would say4 8,take off your hat and mittens40 8,oh1 no1 no10 he would reply1 8just stepped in to say #8howdy4' ,can't stay a minute40 ,then ,mc,dugle would settle down for the evening close to the red-hot stove1 mittens drawn tight1 ,scotch cap pulled close down over his ears4 ,as he got limbered in memory1 he would go through a set of queer antics with his lips and tongue--little dry1 staccato sputters4 ,he reminded me in this of a courtly neurasthene ,i once met who said1 as he went through similar tongue motions1 8,i beg your pardon1 but ,i have a hair on the tip of my tongue which ,i seem never able to get off40 ,farmer ,mc,dugle's favorite theme was the making of great ,american men out of 8hard knocks0 and 8a good pinch of ,god40 ,he reveled in ,lincoln1 whom he had known2 and he never got tired of weaving the people he knew in with the race-heroes of all time4 ,as ,i think of ,mc,dugle and his ilk in these later days1 ,i can not help suspecting that bleak little ,scotland and ,god in the life1 despite the stain of the 8wee drap o'rye10 account for many of ,america's man-making rural communities4 ,when ,catholic and ,protestant ,agree ,the chairman of the ,board of ,directors of the ,national ,catholic ,rural ,life ,conference1 in a call published 7in the ,april #aibd number of 8,st4 ,isadore's ,plow07 for the second annual ,catholic ,rural ,life ,conference1 says3 8,we have two distinct entities of population1 and1 we might say1 of civilization in the ,united ,states--the urban and the rural4 ,the church is decidedly urban4 ,so far as the ,church is concerned1 the country towns and villages are still #8pagani4'0 ,thus you see ,protestant and ,catholic agree in seeing the menace of rural paganism within the borders of ,christian ,america4 ,this is not the moment to settle the blame for this condition on any persons or sects4 ,it is rather the time for a statesmanlike move to meet the menace4 ,bible instruction of worth1 dignity1 intelligence1 in every community1 made accessible to the last child1 is an aim which alone can meet the case4 ,but this is an herculean stunt1 and requires some of the same sweep of coperative1 universal momentum as drove out yellow fever1 malaria1 and is fighting pellagra1 hook-worm1 and tuberculosis4 ,bible illiteracy ranks as a problem with book illiteracy2 and as great a unanimity is required to root it out as to eradicate book illiteracy4 ,a hundred different religious bodies in the ,united ,states have striven more or less fitfully in the past with this problem4 ,but far more is needed than the hundred-headed effort4 ,when1 in the late war1 the ,allies came to their senses and found that their struggle was not a rope-pull nor a barbecue1 but a life-or-death struggle1 they elected ,foch to give universality of will to the cause of defense4 ,the children of rural ,america deserve by good rights a ,foch to lead the forces of ,bible literacy against a creeping1 godless paganism4 ,i have refrained from presenting the religious case for this crusade4 ,the menace is so great that the social appeal should be sufficient--and should reach every intelligent lover of ,america1 be he fundamentalist1 modernist1 ethicist1 or just plain man4 ,,chapter ,,iii ,william ,james1 the ,harvard psychologist1 used to say in his class-room3 8,i must fight the devil and his wiles1 for ,god needs me4 ,i may help save the day40 ,in the same room1 the next hour1 ,josiah ,royce1 the philosopher1 would say1 8,i must set my heel on ,satan's neck1 for ,god's victorious spirit is in me40 ,whichever of these two schools of moral action one belongs to1 one is bound1 you see1 to fight the devil and his guile2 and in country life this is no joke1 for as it turns out1 the devil waved a mighty wicked wand over the ,american farm tenant when he jockeyed him on to the land into the shoes of the departing farm owner4 ,it was a devilish1 cunning trick to decoy the owner1 body and soul1 into town and into the town church--away from the little country church of his fathers4 ,it was1 however1 the meanest lick of ,satan against the peace of the tenant to bewitch him into flitting from farm to farm and from community to community4 ,and now the situation has come to such a pass that1 unless the ,american church has the grace and backbone and subtlety to outgeneral the devil in his game1 the devil wins2 for in matters of religion1 the landless man is between the devil and the deep sea4 8,churches ,detour--,tenants ,ahead0 ,it is old stuff1 in a way1 this cheerless story of farm tenants and religion4 ,pick up1 as ,i have done1 either at random or quite methodically1 booklets1 chapters1 articles1 or pamphlets dealing at first hand with the farm tenant1 and the tale of his religious handicap runs drearily1 hopelessly to the same sad end4 ,for example1 take this rather mild statement from a member of ,roosevelt's ,country ,life ,commission3 8,the farm owner who has moved to town and is renting his land cannot be expected to be a real1 vital force in the rural church4 ,nor can the tenant who has a one-year lease1 or whose tenure is uncertain1 be expected to cultivate the ,christian graces by intimate fellowship with his neighbors and associates2 in other words1 to take root in the community and become a part of it40 8,why1 then10 it will be asked1 8try to dress up the outworn subject again80 ,the plain answer1 without any apology1 is simply this3 ,the farm-tenant case1 as a phase of religion in eclipse1 has not yet cast an image on the ,american mind4 ,the ,american church1--and ,i class together all the ,christian bodies in this sweeping term1--the ,christian conscience of the ,american church has apparently reversed itself and 8passed by on the other side0 of this bedeviled situation4 ,now such an attitude1 such collective behavior1 is ruthless1 well nigh unforgivable1 and in fact incomprehensible4 ,words must continue to be spoken until the church ceases to detour around the tenant4 ,the ,flood of ,tenancy ,unabated ,and first of all1 in order to see the gravity of the case as it stands1 one must sense the resistless character of the sweeping flow of tenancy itself4 ,decade by decade the flood has risen4 ,in #ahhj1 #be4f per cent4 of the farms in the ,united ,states were tenant farms2 in #ahij1 #bh4d per cent42 in #aijj1 #ce4c per cent42 in #aiaj1 #cg4j per cent42 in #aibj1 #ch4a per cent4 ,if one looks a little closer at the regions where the flood is highest--almost over the dikes1 so to speak--the truth strikes home a little stronger4 ,in the east ,south-central ,states1 containing ,kentucky1 ,tennessee1 ,alabama1 ,mississippi1 the percentage in #ahhj was #ce4b2 in #ahij1 #ch4f2 in #aijj1 #di4a2 in #aiaj1 #eb4h2 in #aibj1 #di4f4 ,in the west south-central area1 containing ,arkansas1 ,louisiana1 ,oklahoma1 ,texas1 the percentage in #ahhj was #ce4b2 in #ahij1 #ch4f2 in #aijj1 #di4a2 in #aiaj1 #eb4h2 in #aibj1 #ec4b4 ,in the west north-central area1 containing1 as a very vital part of ,american agriculture1 ,minnesota1 ,iowa1 ,missouri1 ,north ,dakota1 ,south ,dakota1 ,nebraska1 ,kansas1 the percentage in #ahhj was #bj4e2 in #ahij1 #bd4j2 in #aijj1 #bh4f2 in #aiaj1 #cj4j2 in #aibj1 #cd4a4 ,when the ,united ,states ,census ,report for #aibj came out and was scanned1 it was discovered by every one that in the decade between #aiaj and #aibj the flood of tenant farms had in number gone down in some ,states a little1 as in ,alabama and ,mississippi1 a fact which brought a decline in the east south-central area from #eb4h per cent4 in #aiaj to #di4f per cent4 in #aibj4 ,but lest the friends of agriculture in ,america should be put under ether by this disclosure1 ,dr4 ,c4 ,l4 ,stewart1 now professor in the ,university of ,illinois1 while a member of the ,united ,states ,department of ,agriculture1 in a statement entitled1 8,the ,persistent ,increase of ,tenant ,farming10 called attention to the fact that the bare number of tenant farms is a less accurate index of the sweep and meaning of tenancy than the acreage involved and the value of that acreage3 8,when measured on the basis of acreage and value1 the number of rented acres per thousand and the number of dollar's worth of rented land per thousand was not only higher 7in #aiaj and #aibj7 than that shown on the preceding basis 7number of rented farms71 but has been growing at much faster rates during both of the decades since #aijj1 especially during the decade just ended4444 ,in the light of this analysis1 the tide of tenancy is shown by the latest census to have continued with little or no abatement40 ,in sober truth1 this flood-tide of tenancy is no mere passing phenomenon in the adolescent experience of ,america1 but is a settled characteristic now being wrought into the texture of ,american life4 ,as a social and economic force1 tenancy is here to stay4 ,statesmen may well build their dikes higher against it2 but ,american religious leaders--the makers of ecclesiastical policy--must from now on gravely take farm tenancy into their reckoning1 or assume spiritual responsibility for its continued religionless character4 ,locating the ,devil's ,quarry ,let us draw a bit closer to these tenant folks and look them in the eyes4 ,there they are1 in round numbers two and a half millions of tenant operators2 or1 perhaps1 better reckoned for our purpose as twelve millions of people1 counting all persons in the tenant families both old and young4 ,but1 as almost everybody knows1 there are a few vast differences among tenants1 and we must sift a little and sort out the group that the devil is laying his finger on and claiming as his own4 ,a tenant who is a son or daughter of the landlord1 or otherwise related to the landlord by blood or marriage1 is without question not only a privileged person and his family a privileged family among tenants1 but1 what is more to the point1 living on family lands as he most generally does1 the 8related tenant0 is so often an owner in prospect with a deed 8in escrow0 as the law would put it1 that while nominally a tenant1 he is an owner in thin disguise1 and virtually has in the community the status of an owner4 ,the census does not declare what percentage of the twelve millions of tenant folk belongs to this favored class2 but whatever the percentage is1 it is obviously decreasing with the decreasing percentage of owner-operating families4 ,representative studies made by the ,united ,states ,department of ,agriculture indicate that #bc per cent4 of the tenant population belongs at present to this group4 ,if we accept this estimate1 then1 in #aibj1 there were #b1gfj1jjj persons in the families of 8related tenants40 ,to protect my story against the will to exaggerate the landless element1 let us call the total number of 8related tenants0 three millions2 and then let us deduct this whole group from the twelve millions of tenant folks4 ,this leaves nine millions of tenants unprivileged by birth or marriage in respect to land4 ,lest any one should feel1 furthermore1 that ,i am trying to make1 under cover1 a case of the colored tenant1--whose situation is confessedly special and should not1 for obvious reasons1 be confused with that of white tenants1--let us sift and sort again and take out three and a half millions of colored tenant folk1 old and young4 ,the residuum is five and a half millions of white tenants4 ,this is the group that has swelled in numbers during the past four decades4 ,this is the group that is all the time spreading over more and more acres1 all the time creeping on to more and more valuable land4 ,this group of landless men1 women1 and children 7,i do not mean to say that this is the only landless group of white farm people1 for the agricultural-labor class makes another story71 occupying more and more the strategic positions in agriculture and country life1 contains the devil's quarry4 ,tenants ,on the ,go ,we must add one more particularly distressing feature to our general picture4 ,in ,december and ,january in the ,south1 or in ,march in the ,north1 there is a great stir among these tenants1 for moving-time has come4 ,during the year between ,december #a1 #aiba1 and ,december #a1 #aibb1 according to a statement put out by the ,u4 ,s4 ,department of ,agriculture1 entitled1 8,farm ,occupancy1 ,ownership1 and ,tenancy1 #aibb10 8nearly #ffc1jjj shifts on farms exchanging tenants0 occurred of which 8nearly #bej1jjj tenants were indicated to have either discontinued farming for some other occupation or moved out of their communities40 ,in this exodus1 poverty tags along1 poverty carrying in her apron all the witch's ills--hard luck1 dimmed lights of the mind1 illness1 inferiority written in behavior1 stolid despair1 indifference to improvement1 insensibility to refinements4 ,in the ,south1 poverty hangs on to the coat-tails of the 8,cropper0--him of the lowest estate of the tenant4 ,in #aibj1 according to the ,united ,states ,census ,report1 there were #bbg1cgh white croppers1 more than one million white cropper folk4 ,behold a host1 comparable with the host of ,israel on the way to ,canaan4 ,the roads are filled with teams1 with jags of household belongings1 with led or driven cattle1 horses and mules1 with loads of women and children4 ,a small nation is folding its tents and moving on ere its tents have fairly got pitched4 ,white tenants alone1--and mind you1 out of the group of five and a half millions of landless people1--an army of #a1cge1jjj souls2 and of these1 more than a half a million going across the border of the community into a strange land for another short sojourn4 ,this is the picture you will see every year--over a quarter of all tenants moving1 and ten per cent4 of all tenants moving into strange associations among strange people4 ,outcasts ,from the ,church ,in their recent study1 8,the ,town and ,country ,church10 ,dr4 ,h4 ,n4 ,morse and ,dr4 de ,s4 ,brunner1 of the ,institute of ,social and ,religious ,research1 have this convincing word to say about the church and the farm tenant3 8,the church in the country areas is not1 generally speaking1 the church of the landless man4 ,in a study of all the churches in #agi counties1 located in #dd ,states1 the situation1 which we believe is reliably representative of conditions in the ,united ,states as a whole1 is this3 ,the percentage of farm owners who are members of churches in the ,south is #ei4e1 while of tenants who are members the percentage is #cc4e2 in the ,southwest1 of owners1 #bf4b1 while of tenants1 #i4b2 in the ,northwest1 of owners1 #af4d1 while of tenants1 #g4d2 in the ,middle ,west1 of owners1 #dg4i1 while of tenants1 #bj4c2 in the ,prairie1 of owners1 #ee4f1 while of tenants1 #ae4h40 ,these two authorities on the farmer's church1 draw from their study of the high and low tenancy areas in #age counties this further conclusion3 8,the larger the proportion of farm tenants in an area1 the more conspicuously unreached by the church is the landless man40 ,here are their figures1 see for yourself3 8,in counties where tenancy runs from #j to #aj per cent41 the percentage of farm owners who are church members is #ac4g1 while the percentage of tenants who are church members is #ab4d2 where tenancy runs from #aa to #be per cent41 the percentage of owners as church members is #bf4h1 while of tenants1 #ai4h2 where tenancy runs from #bf to #ej per cent41 the percentage of owners is #dh4b1 while of tenants1 #bc4f2 where tenancy runs over #ej per cent41 the percentage of owners who are church members is #fc4f1 while the percentage of tenants who are church members is #bc4i40 ,when we look into this statement1 it is plain that in the low tenancy areas the 8related tenants0 on 8family lands0 bulk large1 and they rank1 as we know1 with owners themselves2 but when we get into the high tenancy areas1 we strike the core of tenants unrelated to the landlord4 ,here is the mass of our #e1ejj1jjj landless tenant folk1 and here is where the church has weakened and fallen down4 ,five millions of these white landless tenants are in the high tenancy areas4 ,and applying this church study to our problem1 while the church reaches #ee per cent4 of the owners in these areas it reaches only #bd per cent4 of the tenants4 ,that is1 #a1bjj1jjj of these landless tenants only are inside the circle of direct religious influence1 and #c1hjj1jjj are outside4 ,if these #e1jjj1jjj persons had been owners of land1 or inheritors of land in waiting1 the church would have reached #b1gej1jjj of them instead of #a1bjj1jjj2 in other words here are #a1eej1jjj tenant people who are outcasts from the church simply because they are landless folk4 ,and these outcasts--these religionless pariahs--are on the increase from year to year as tenancy increases its hold upon the nation4 ,one ,hundred ,per ,cent4 ,material for ,religion ,it surely will not be misunderstood if a layman should call to mind that the genius of ,christianity is its perennial ,gospel--just good news--to the poor1 the broken in life's struggle4 ,if a fitter multitude than these tenants for the good tidings of the ,christ can be found on the face of the earth1 ,i would like to learn of them4 ,the ordinary life of these outcasts1 these wanderers from spot to spot seeking the sun that refuses to shine1 has precisely all of those breakdowns which the ,christian religion promises to repair--poverty1 invalidism1 death1 sin4 ,it seems to me that these pariahs are just naturally made to order for the kind of religion that the ,american church has to offer2 but as ,i see it1 and ,i have looked this thing in the face from angle after angle1 they haven't got a ghost of a show at it the way the church system of the country at present works out4 ,speaking straight from the shoulder1 the devil wins1 unless--,and where is the person who will rise and name the great 8unless0 that can fix this church system up and set the heel of the church on ,satan's neck8 ,the history of the church1 running back through the centuries1 is1 as ,i read it1 dotted with awakenings1 with the rise of a thought1 of a hope-dream1 with the rise of a man who out of the very fog and blackness of popular waywardness1 wantonness1 unbelief1 depravity1 has stood up and successfully denied that human life must be all to the strong and that the poor must live unillumined4 ,this has been the type of man who has lit the torch of love and solicitude and faith in the world that has lighted the race generation after generation4 ,is this not the time in the life of the ,american church and this the occasion in ,america for such a man to arise and call a halt upon the detour of the church around the farm tenant8 ,,chapter ,,iv 8,hireling60 ,a sour epithet to hand a preacher2 but the word is not mine4 ,look at it1 if you will1 in its original setting and judge for yourself3 8,i am the good shepherd2 the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep4 ,but he that is an hireling1 and not the shepherd1 whose own the sheep are not1 seeth the wolf coming1 and leaveth the sheep1 and fleeth4444 ,the hireling fleeth1 because he is an hireling1 and careth not for the sheep40 ,so spake the ,man of ,sorrows1 who1 as he went about preaching the ,gospel of the ,kingdom1 spake as never man spake4 ,and nineteen centuries of unbroken ,christian usage look down upon 8pastor and flock0 as an almost perfect characterization of preacher and parish4 ,passing quickly through the gateway leading up to the porch of my tale1 let me in a few words taken from 8,town and ,country ,church in the ,united ,states10 set before you the pastor-and-flock-hard-luck story in rural ,america3 8,the total number of communities within the town 7town refers to places of #e1jjj people or less7 and country area is #gc1bcj40 8,there are #cc1hjh communities1 or #db per cent4 of the total number1 that have churches1 but do not have within them any resident pastors40 8,it would require #cd1aha more ministers giving their full time to the work of the ministry to provide one for each community1 if they were evenly distributed40 8,the great advantage of the town over the village1 and of both town and village over the country1 in the matter of resident pastors1 is a characteristic of all regions and of virtually all counties4 ,thus1 while #gh out of every #ajj town churches have resident pastors1 and #fj out of every #ajj village churches1 only #ag out of every #ajj country churches have them1 and less than #e out of every #ajj country churches have full-time resident pastors40 ,in a nutshell1 this is the inglorious fact3 #cj1jjj flocks in rural ,america have no shepherds4 ,thirty thousand rural flocks are open to the wolf--because 7for it so appears7 ,american preachers care not for country sheep4 ,sentenced to ,purgatory ,an eminent rural-life leader a few weeks ago came back from a country-life conference of rural ministers1 reporting that these ministers had a saying among them1 8,a country charge 7pastorate7 is a sentence to purgatory40 ,this report sounds like a piece of clerical humor2 grim1 maybe1 but harmless and meaning nothing4 ,would to ,god this were true6 ,then perhaps the picture of these #cj1jjj shepherdless flocks might turn out to be only a nightmare4 ,i tried to shake the thing out of my mind2 but immediately the long line of my ministerial acquaintances passed unwillingly before me2 and ,i solemnly affirm that1 with a few princely exceptions1 these men after being plunged into their ministry1 coming up for air1 as it were1 faced toward the city parish as flowers turn toward the light2 from the country1 they struck out for the village2 from the village1 they struck out for the town2 from the town1 they struck out for the city2 from the city1 they struck out for the metropolis4 ,the ,preacher's ,flight ,the more ,i struggled to free myself from a conclusion on this matter1 the deeper into conviction ,i sank4 ,i recalled1 much against my inclination1 a bad half-hour several years ago at the headquarters of one of the great religious bodies of ,america4 ,the occasion was the meeting of the ,national ,social ,service ,commission of that denomination4 ,i had just finished reading a report1 which expressed the idea that we might look forward to the day when country parishes would be put up in packages containing people enough supporting one church1 so that churches in the country would be as powerful1 ministers in the country would be as influential1 as city churches1 on the one hand1 and city ministers on the other4 ,a captain of city industry was a member of the commission4 ,during my paper1 hands in pockets1 he paced the floor up and down--somewhat to my discomfiture as ,i recall4 ,when ,i concluded reading1 he broke out with3 8,bosh6 ,all bosh6 ,the country church will always be of little account4 ,it gets culls for ministers--it always has2 it always will4 ,just as ,i left the farm for the city to improve my lot1 so every country minister who can will leave the country parish for the city parish to improve his lot40 ,that ,i suffered a shock as if by lightning may easily be imagined4 ,the steel-blue tone of this man did something to my heart2 did something to my faith in human nature hard to define4 ,this captain of industry--and ,i suspect that this is what did the damage--never seemed to question the legitimacy of the preacher's flight4 ,representing1 as he did1 the leading laymen of his denomination1 quietly accepting the exodus of country preachers as perfectly normal--because running true to the economics of good business instinct--he appalled me with his cynicism4 ,and it took me many a month1 ,i confess1 to get back my belief in humankind4 ,but it came back1 and came back strong in the following manner3 ,around the ,glover's ,cot ,by accident1 one summer1 ,i made a find2 in one of the #cj1jjj pastorless parishes1 a man lying prone on a cot2 the cot standing on a stone-boat2 the stone-boat lying close to a deep pool in the bend of a little river1 in the shade of a great elm-tree2 the man all alone1 flat on his back1 silently whipping the trout-pool with his fly4 ,i came to believe in this helpless fisherman1 and again all things good and beautiful seemed possible4 ,i got the story from his sister1 but can give only hints of it here4 ,as a boy on the farm he had made up his mind to get an education4 ,at sixteen he was looking forward impatiently to beginning his courses of study1 when one day in the woods a tree which the men folks were cutting down fell on him and broke his back4 ,he never walked again1 nor1 in fact1 ever again sat up4 ,doomed to lie on his back1 all his hopes blighted1 he asked for something to do with his hands4 ,they gave him needle and thread1 shears and a piece of buckskin4 ,he made a pair of clumsy buckskin gloves4 ,he made a less clumsy pair4 ,he made pair after pair1 better and still better4 ,then dozens of pairs1 until his skill built up a small business4 ,but his ambition mounted with success1 and he asked whether he couldn't study something4 8,can't ,i study law80 he pleaded4 ,they got him law-books4 ,he read law1 he made buckskin gloves2 he made gloves1 he read law4 ,he was admitted to the bar4 ,he became justice-of-the-peace in his backwoods settlement4 ,men got to coming for miles to the glover's cot to tell their troubles and look into his deep eyes1 hear his counsel1 and feel his glad hand4 ,he was a real peacemaker under the guise of a lawyer4 ,his ethics backed up to and rested upon the ,sermon on the ,mount4 ,he bought land1 hired it tilled1 built himself a better house1 and settled into the character of a country squire4 ,he was of the little church flock1 and the rest of the flock came to set great store by his good sense1 his wholesome cheer1 indomitable activity1 and1 withal1 his straight reliance on ,god4 ,in fact1 the helpless glover's dwelling was the meeting-place for the flock about as often as the church building2 for everybody said1 8,we get new strength to keep a-going when we meet around the cot40 ,the ,modern ,wolf a ,playful ,cub8 ,see how ,i got back my faith8 ,the prone fisherman on his stone-boat was a godsend to me4 ,i saw that personal life is so rich that no one can be broken in body to the point where1 in case he 8layeth down his life for the sheep10 he will be making a mean gift4 ,i half suspect that ,god raises up out of the ground1 as it were1 in many of these pastorless communities a proxy for the parson that1 beholding the wolf1 leaveth the sheep and fleeth to the city--a proxy1 like the glover-lawyer1 who is no quitter4 ,and in some parishes where the preacher still sticks 7his face set1 however1 toward the city7 ,i fancy a man or a woman or a child can be found who is navely scaring off the wolf4 ,norris ,shepardson was such a man4 ,farmer1 poet1 refined spirit1 he went about his work making everybody believe that a new day is fresh from ,god4 ,ambrose ,brimmer1 a member of the community1 didn't happen to be much of a churchman1 and his ,sunday haymaking teased the parson mightily4 ,i remember well one perfect trout day1 when ,ambrose was showing me the holes in a stream strange to my rod1 that we got to talking about preachers4 8,i don't care a damn if the parson does see me haying on ,sunday10 said ,ambrose2 8but if ,i get a sight of ,norris ,shepardson driving up the road1 ,i skedaddle and hide1 you bet6 ,you know ,norris ,shepardson4 ,well1 ,norris ,shepardson is a ,christian and no quack40 ,and ,ambrose was right4 ,norris ,shepardson was a ,christian from his eyelashes to his finger-tips2 and his sweet belief in you put you straightway under obligation to goodness when he cast a glance your way4 ,it is probably true that ,i have been something of a modern-life fan4 ,but when ,i try to think of the ,master's parables of the shepherd1 the sheep1 and the wolf1 and of the one sheep that was lost while the ninety and nine were safe in the fold1 ,i confess that ,i am troubled about my modern-life philosophy4 ,are modern sheep any the less in need of a downright shepherd because they are modern8 ,isn't there a wolf any longer in times that are modern8 ,or may he perhaps be just a playful cub8 ,or possibly1 by this time1 a toothless1 plain1 doddering beastling8 ,has the age of lofty heroism in religion--the age of sheer contempt of some of the traditional goods of life--clean passed away8 ,and does economics furnish the better clue in modern days to those who are called of ,god to preach8 ,do we need any #cj1jjj more preachers in the country trenches8 ,do we need any shock troops at all8 ,isn't it perfectly orthodox pacifism in these days for all the picked soldiers in the war on the devil to fall back into comfortable winter quarters8 ,side-stepping the ,law of ,hire ,i try to find my answer to these troubling queries in a glance down the centuries4 ,there are the barefoot ,black ,friars of ,dominic and the ,gray ,friars of ,francis of ,assisi 7him who took poverty for his bride7 in the thirteenth century4 ,they gloried in mean clothes1 mean shelter1 mean food1 as they ministered out of their own poverty to the poor1 the overlooked1 the no-accounts 7in cities1 then1 because the troop of comfortable parsons were fattening in the popular country districts74 ,there are the visionaries and enthusiasts3 ,john ,bunyan in the seventeenth century2 ,john and ,charles ,wesley in the eighteenth4 ,in the very face of the plentiful1 complacent clergy1 they fought the wolf as if they had been apostles living in the first century4 ,there is ,jean ,frederick ,oberlin1 in the early part of the nineteenth century1 who protested1 8,i do not wish to labor in some comfortable pastoral charge where ,i can be at ease4 ,i want a work to do which no one else wishes to do1 and which will not be done unless ,i do it40 ,oberlin had just won his degree of ,doctor of ,philosophy at the ,university of ,strasburg1 at a time when ,strasburg was a city of ,france4 ,his 8call0 to pastoral duty came all of a sudden with the wind of a ,february evening rushing in at the door as a stranger stepped into the bare room4 ,struck with the poverty of the place1 ,pastor ,stuber introduced himself4 ,beard's translation from the ,french presents us with the picture3 8,i have learned about you1 ,herr ,oberlin4 ,your name has been mentioned to me as one who does not follow the beaten paths of ministerial candidates4 ,you have studied surgery and medicine4 ,you have a knowledge of botany and herbs4 ,is this not so80 8,in my leisure hours ,i have paid some attention to botany1 to blood-letting1 and the experiences of the anatomical room10 replied ,oberlin4 8,will you be kind enough to explain to me what this little pan means that ,i see here by your lamp80 asked ,stuber4 ,a deep blush ran over ,oberlin's face4 8,pardon the cooking1 ,herr ,pastor4 ,i take my dinner with my parents1 and ,i bring away some bread which my mother gives me4 ,at eight o'clock ,i put this little pan over my lamp1 place my bread in it1 with a little water and salt4 ,then ,i go on with my studies40 8,you are my man60 exclaimed ,stuber1 rising from his chair4 8,you live on the diet of ,lacedmon4 ,yes1 you are my man4 ,i see you do not understand me2 but ,i have got my man1 and ,i shall not let you go4 ,i want you for the pastorship of ,waldbach in the ,ban-de-la-,roche4 ,there a hundred poor and wretched families in want of the bread of life2 four or five hundred to shepherd and to save1 poor1 wretched1 friendless40 ,oberlin's heart was in a tumult4 ,this was just the field of labor he had wished4 ,but what of the difficulties8 8,the parish must be in a very cold region10 suggested ,oberlin4 8,my dear ,oberlin1 ,i do not wish to exaggerate anything4 ,six months of winter2 at times the cold of the ,baltic2 sometimes a wind like ice comes down from the mountain-tops above2 the sick and dying are to be visited in remote1 wild1 solitary places in the forests40 8,and the parishioners1 are they well disposed80 inquired ,oberlin4 8,not too much so1 not too much4 ,they are frightfully ignorant and untractable1 and proud of their ignorance4 ,it is an iron-headed people1 a population of ,cyclops40 ,oberlin was taking in the situation4 ,he slowly lifted his large blue eyes and asked3 8,you say most of the parishioners are extremely poor8 ,are there resources to aid the poor80 8,the parishioners have nothing4 ,four districts even poorer than the mother parish are to be served4 ,not a single practicable road4 ,deep mud-holes among the cabins4 ,the people1 abandoned to indifference1 have not the least concern to meliorate their condition40 8,every one of your words has knocked at the door of my heart like the blows of a hammer10 said ,oberlin4 ,and it was settled that ,oberlin would go to the mountains2 and on ,march #cj1 #agfg1 in his twenty-seventh year1 ,oberlin arrived at ,waldbach4 ,no single piece of literature equals the story of ,jean ,frederick ,oberlin's pastorate in the ,ban-de-la-,roche as an interpretation of a country minister's social1 economic1 and religious relation to his parish4 ,overture after overture came to him during the years to give up his laborious cares in the hills and take charge of a church where cultured life would bring with it superior advantages1 greater recognized honor1 and a satisfactory salary4 ,his answer was the same to all3 8,no1 ,i will never leave this flock4 ,god has confided this flock to me4 ,why should ,i abandon it80 ,and in that out-of-the-way parish he played the shepherd and the man for nigh on to sixty years4 ,like the ,venerable ,bede in the eighth century1 he died with the shepherd's crook in his hand4 ,preachers' ,alibis ,pass ,inspection ,now tell me1 was ,oberlin--remember he is only a hundred years away from our time--temperamental and absurdly heroic8 ,was the nineteenth-century wolf any less tender with the nineteenth-century flock than the first-century wolf with the first-century flock8 ,is the modern 8world-the-flesh-and-the-devil0 just a bugaboo to frighten children8 ,is modern sin a whiter stain on the soul and more easily washed out than in any previous century8 ,it would take a braver man than ,i am to champion modern life to such lengths4 ,these #cj1jjj runaway ,american preachers1--they all have good reasons for running4 ,as alibis go1 they are perfect--humanly speaking4 ,i have often heard the recital3 8,easier life for the wife10 8education for the children10 8an ,american standard of living10 8congenial parish10 8books10 8travel10 8art10 8greater opportunity for service40 ,just such reasons as bankers1 clerks1 teachers1 merchants give for their economic movements--to better themselves1 following the law of hire4 ,and nobody protests2 for nobody is in a position to protest1 as the law of hire seems to regulate the life of all4 ,the protest--the only great protest--comes everlastingly up from the first century3 8,a certain scribe came1 and said unto ,him1 ,master1 ,i will follow ,thee whithersoever ,thou goest4 ,and ,jesus saith unto him1 ,the foxes have holes1 and the birds of the air have nests2 but the ,son of man hath not where to lay his head40 ,the ,plight of ,him ,who ,stays ,the preacher that sticks by the farm community takes pot-luck with the farmer himself2 and the socio-economic plight of the farmer has had front-page head-lines since the time of ,president ,theodore ,roosevelt4 ,to-day1 in the time of ,president ,calvin ,coolidge1 those head-lines have become bigger and blacker4 ,the farmer's dollar1 meanwhile1 has become small and weak4 ,his taxes have risen overnight like a spring freshet4 ,his debts stare him in the face4 ,his children are forsaking him for the high wages and high life of the city4 ,he cannot pay the wages of labor in competition with automobile factories4 ,the farmer's social system in ,america has broken down under the strain of new forces4 ,he needs the social help of men and women who will share his life1 his privations1 his hopes and fears4 ,but they are to be men and women who see the farmer's plight and1 giving themselves to the task1 struggle to organize a modern rural social system4 ,it is fruitless here to recite the tale of an underpaid country clergy1 with its sequel of a socially visionless1 untrained set of honest parsons2 fruitless to point out how denominational strife has cut down the preacher's salary to less than a living wage4 ,true1 the country parson has his poverty1 and needs not to take any extra 8vow of poverty40 ,this sort of thing will go on and on until there is a right-about on the part of those preachers who flee the country as if it were the plague4 ,strong men of social vision1 men who have come to understand the farmer's social and economic plight1 must turn their back on the city1 and take up labors for the country flock4 ,a ,new ,type of ,training ,school ,but will there ever be such a right-about-face of virile1 holy men until we have in ,america a new type of theological seminary for the training of country-bound ministers of ,christ8 ,i doubt it4 ,the present schools of training are city-set1 city-wise1 city-satisfied2 not but that a score or more of them give some 8rural courses02 not but that a trickle of men has started already from them toward the country4 ,you can better understand the case if ,i were to ask what hope there would have been for agricultural science1 if total reliance had been placed upon the great city universities1 ,harvard1 ,yale1 ,columbia1 ,chicago1 ,pennsylvania1 to develop the practice of farming4 ,each of these universities has already made some notable contribution to agriculture in one form or another2 but the great hope of agriculture lay in a farming college1 and fortunately1 the common sense of this country perceived this truth4 ,in like manner1 the hope of the rural ministry1 in my estimation1 lies in a rural theological seminary under the eaves of one of our great colleges of agriculture--preferably a college of agriculture in close proximity to a great state university4 ,here is the farmer's intellectual center4 ,here are gathered men and women of hope for farm life4 ,here are the men and women who have social vision for rural society4 ,in touch with these men and women1 under the spell of the intelligent hope for the ,american farm and farmer1 a school of religion can grow up which will train men to go into the country and help redeem it from its present social chaos4 ,they can carve out community churches of distinction4 ,they can create a line of such churches1 wholly in rural territory1 which will furnish steps of promotion for the most strenuous and ambitious pastors4 ,flight is not the cure of the plight of country parsons4 ,the cure is rather intelligent consecration to the country flocks4 ,,chapter ,v 8,but10 went on the author of ,christian idealism1--mind you1 in the same breath in which ,he had paid to ,his followers the superb compliment1 8,ye are the salt of the earth10--8if the salt have lost its savor--0 ,and the story of ,protestant home missions in rural ,america during the last two or three decades has in it the taste of this 8lost savor40 ,let me lay bare before you1--with the shame of a churchman very much embarrassed1 it must be confessed1--not so much the facts of this unsavory home-mission story1 for the facts have been public property for some years1 as an interpretation of the facts and an appraisal of the damage done to ,american churchdom4 ,for the benefit of him who does not understand the situation at all1 a word is necessary4 ,here is the picture1 and here are the essential features in the picture1 whatever variations there may be in minor details4 ,twice ,too ,many ,churches ,a community of rural folk of a definite population is spread out before you4 ,christian churches1 usually from two to ten in number1 are alive1 if not all going concerns in the community4 ,whatever differences there may be in the membership rolls--and of course we shall expect many points of difference here--or in the number of services per week or per month1 or in the presence or absence of resident pastors1 or in the organization of the churches into ,sunday-schools1 mission societies1 clubs1 social committees and the like--whatever the variations may be1 ,i say1 the number of persons in the community1 counting every single soul1 is far short of enough to man all of the churches1 use any reputable standard of church organization you please to measure by4 ,furthermore1 in the type community in question1 some or all of the churches are weak and ineffective1 if not virtually down and out4 ,moreover1--and this is the central feature of the picture1--one church is1 or several or all of these churches are1 receiving subsidies in the form of money from the home-mission funds of the respective denominational state body or national body or both1 the sum of money being just enough to keep the particular church competitively in the running in that community4 ,the essential fact in this situation may be stated thus3 ,in a community where there is known to be a mass of persons 7in commercial parlance1 8volume of business07 sufficient to build and maintain only from one to five churches1 there are actually found to be from two to ten2 and the excess of churches over and above the number which the volume of business justifies is the direct result of the injection of home-mission money into the community4 ,veiled ,hate ,it does not require a clever mind to know what will happen4 ,when from two to ten kernels of corn are planted in a piece of soil which has nutritive elements sufficient to bring only from one to five stalks to maturity1 we know that a struggle for life is on which may doom one stalk1 several stalks1 or even all stalks4 ,it is so with the competitive churches2 but the corn simile fails to illustrate the case at the really tragic point4 ,the subsidized churches1 which make up the redundance1 create in the community what is known by everybody there to be a case of veiled malignancy4 ,self-respecting persons either hold themselves aloof from formal religion there1 or1 conscience-stricken1 stand helplessly bewildered1 or in plain disgust they pick up and leave4 ,and the community turns sour4 ,the salt has lost its savor4 ,if you would sense the disaster of this competition1 please read between the lines of the following resolution1 passed within the last year1 by a minister's association in a small rural community where six ,protestant churches are breathing the air that is hardly enough for three6 8,whereas we are joined together as ,christian ministers in the association of brotherly fellowship and helpful co-working1 we hereby agree that the following principles shall guide and control us individually1 and1 so far as our proper influence can go1 our several congregations in our mutual relationships4444 ,i4 ,that we decline and discourage proselytizing in any form4 ,,ii4 ,while we recognize that every man is free to worship where and as he wills1 yet we realize that shifting from one denomination to another save from absolute religious conviction is not edifying1 but harmful4 ,wherefore1 we will not encourage those who from pique or temporary dissatisfaction with ministers or people of their own local congregations wish to unite with ours4 ,,iii4 ,that we will not1 save in exceptional cases1 receive into our ,sunday-schools as regular members thereof1 children of families who are affiliated with other congregations of the town4 ,,iv4 ,that whenever we come across new-comers to the town who are affiliated with1 or declare preference for1 some ,christian body other than our own we will not 7if the church of their choice be represented by a congregation here7 ask them to unite with our congregation or send their children to our ,sunday-school until we have given to the minister or church officials of the church of their preference the name and address of such persons1 and allowed reasonable opportunity for them to claim their own40 ,it is clear on the face of it that the recognized principles of ,christianity have failed to keep these churches sweet to one another2 and resort is1 therefore1 had to a contract--a perfectly human document of agreement1 such as governs sinners in mundane business--in hope that an-out-and-out bargain may accomplish what ,christian love can not4 ,these ministers agree not to proselytize1 not to encourage lifting members from another church1 not to receive children into the ,sunday-school from families of another flock1 not to pick up new-comers without advertising them and waiting a reasonable length of time for a claimant4 ,this document of 8nots0--of things not to be done--navely uncovers the teasing things that were done behind curtains4 ,dispensing ,with ,mission ,aid ,before reading further1 you will wish to know whether there is much of this sort of thing going on in rural ,america2 whether1 in fact1 it is not fussing over trifles to beckon anybody to look at this thing4 ,the best authorities1 after a long study on this subject1 are quoted as estimating that the amount of ,protestant home-mission money annually wasted in competitive religion in rural communities is at present #c1jjj1jjj2 and if we may generalize from twenty-five thoroughly studied counties1 widely separated1 where there are #baa churches aided by home-mission money1 of which #adi are disastrously competitive1 8most of the home-mission aid which is now granted could be withdrawn without any danger whatsoever of leaving communities 7rural7 with inadequate facilities40 ,the official report goes on to say1 8,aside from any possible loss in denominational prestige1 which a purely objective study such as this can not undertake to measure1 on a careful examination of all the data at hand1 it seems that #adi of the #baa aided churches in these counties might be dispensed with1 to the general advantage of the religious life in their communities and to the greater glory of the ,kingdom of ,god40 ,this thing1 look at it from any angle you please1 is as rust on the wheat1 a rot in the potato1 a blight on the peach-tree1 a boll-weevil in the cotton4 ,god knows that the farmer already carries along enough of a handicap in community matters without being afflicted with this canker on his religion1 as a discipline4 ,it certainly looks like jumping on the man that's down4 ,but this sin against the farmer is not the worst of the wicked business4 ,worse ,than ,wasted ,what hurts most in this paradoxical practice is the prostitution of the most beautiful gift in all religion4 8,missions60 ,the very word conjures up angels of mercy4 ,it brings to mind the last words of ,christ to his disciples and to his followers of all time4 ,and this mission money 7it is not so pathetic that it sometimes is the widow's mite or that it is sometimes earned in feebleness with many a pain7 is the purest money handled by men4 ,it is the visible sign of tears of longing for love to govern men4 ,missions are the church's great romance4 ,when out of the barrenness and weakness of my little life1 ,i put into the hands of the church a gift for the whomsoever1 in faith1 ,i do it with a prayer that it will help bring peace to some soul1 harmony to some family1 blessing to some community which is beyond my power otherwise to help4 ,to think1 then1 that the tip of your prayer and mine1 the sweetest thing we can give1 is poisoned1 and shot into a rural community1 there to hurt--,well the words are not so much wanting to express my indignation and yours1 as the mind fails to comprehend how such tactless blunders can happen4 8,why do these church bodies do this wicked thing80 you enquire4 ,let the words of a high church official ,i once knew convey to you not so much the real reason1 as the state of mind out of which the thing grows6 8,so long as there is a family of our faith in that village1 that family shall have the sacraments of our faith ministered to it40 ,he might just as well have added1 8even though the heavens fall02 for what he did was to force a subsidy into a community to help a small faction of his particular church to survive when the majority of the people1 even the majority of his own little church organization1 had voted voluntarily to cut down the number of churches and eliminate the unnecessary one4 ,the high church official just ripped open a community sore1 when it had begun to heal4 ,he poured gall in again after somebody had sweetened community life for a moment4 ,a ,new ,religious ,ethics ,between ,churches ,the egotism of a particular church group2 the flaunting individualism of a particular denominational combination of persons1 whose personal egos are1 religiously1 to be subjected1 but whose combined ego is to be exalted6 ,here is an uncharted sea of ethics and religion between church groups4 ,shall it not be discussed8 ,especially when it grinds the rural community to powder8 ,shall it be good ,christianity for one ,christian sect to crowd and shove just like a bully in a mob8 ,the day and generation is getting suspicious of pietists of all sorts who can tell sinners how to behave individually to one another2 yes1 who can even tell the labor group how to behave to the employer group and the employer group to the labor group1 but who have no conception of what ,christian principles apply as between one church group and another church group in the realm of religion1 except to beat the other church group at all costs4 ,if ,i were not heart and soul captured by the character1 life1 philosophy1 and guidance of ,jesus himself1 if ,i were not thrilled by his words1 and electrified by his life and death1 more and more the older ,i grow1 ,i should be tempted to see in this cutthroat group egotism of competitive ,christian church groups a decline of ,christianity itself4 8,they all do it0 is a lame excuse for sinners2 but for a church body1 it is tragic4 ,think of a million people1 more or less1 possessing one shibboleth1 trying to embody earnestly the ,christ1 while deliberately hamstringing another ,christian church body which is doing the same thing6 ,but who is to blame8 ,whose sin is this prostitution of a holy thing8 ,did you ever happen to know the officials at the head of a ,protestant church body1 either national or state8 ,did you ever know the persons who distribute home-mission money after it is once collected8 ,did you ever get a glimpse of the inside8 ,well1 if so1 then you know how intensely human this situation is4 ,you know how complex are the forces that operate1 how like politics are the powers behind the locked doors4 ,you know then that when you try to track this sinner1 you can't find him4 ,nobody does the thing4 ,nobody does anything4 ,nobody is to blame4 ,the ,christian leaders are not leading on such matters4 ,they are fighting the individual sins of the people4 ,what would ,america think of a great ,christian leader who should come out and insist that ,christian churches ought to love1 respect1 defer to other ,christian churches8 ,what a stir in ,christendom it would make for a great man carrying his own church with him1 let us say1 to go up and down the land preaching that membership in one ,christian church should thereby make us members in all ,christian churches2 preaching that we should discount all the differences among ,christian churches and love all ,christian churches for their likenesses8 ,look at this straw3 ,in ,canada an outstanding movement is nearing completion to unite organically three great ,protestant bodies1 affecting more than three quarters of a million of church members4 ,the daily press recently in explanation of the union1 carried this item3 8,the ,union had its origin in the conviction that many separate churches of each denomination1 especially in the rural districts1 were handicapped in limited membership and were unable to maintain properly separate buildings and ministers4 ,it is therefore a part of a tendency in many other countries to submerge religious differences in an effort at wider and more effective service40 ,this looks on the horizon like the peep of dawn of a new ,christian day--and what a dawn for the rural community that would be6 ,but--lest we be too sanguine--that dawn has some climb to make yet4 ,has not the ,home ,mission ,council of the ,federal ,council of ,churches in ,america put into practice on the ,western frontier for several years principles of denominational courtesy8 ,have not the phrases of their documents on 8,overchurching10 8,underchurching10 and 8,wasteful ,competition0 seeped very generally throughout the settled portions of the ,united ,states1 as well as into the frontier8 ,have not the ,foreign ,mission ,boards of the various denominations for years gained conspicuously the confidence of their laymen by the intelligent distribution of territory among the missions of different church bodies abroad8 ,the fact is and must be reckoned with that all the words and phrases and ideas and logic on this subject1 pro and con1 have been bandied about until they are almost threadbare4 ,the will to do1 however1 is still very stubborn in old1 established communities4 ,,chapter ,,vi 8,what is the difference between a state university and an ordinary university80 ,a rather silly question1 perhaps2 but the answer that came back1 lightning-like1 gave me the jolt of my life1 and incidentally picked out in my mind the pattern for the community church4 ,here is the occasion and what took place3 ,a reception for the distinguished regents of the ,university of ,wisconsin at the home of the president4 ,in due time ,i found myself approaching that awful reception line1 terrifying1 indeed1 to me1 a new-comer4 ,suddenly ,i became aware that ,i was shaking hands with the president1 whose newness to the job of presiding over a university had not entirely worn off4 ,it was up to me to say something1 and so1 after the manner of a pedagogue1 ,i blurted out a question3 8,mr4 ,president1 will you tell me the difference between a state university and an ordinary university80 ,president ,van ,hise didn't hesitate an instant with his answer4 8,i cannot speak for all state universities10 said he1 8but this university is run not for the students who happen to be here1 but for the persons who may never see the university--even to the last man1 woman1 and child in the last community of the ,state40 ,i had become unconscious of the reception line1 for ,i was startled with an idea foreign to my bringing up1 and ,i must make sure that ,i perfectly understood4 8,mr4 ,president10 ,i interrupted1 8do you mean to say that the ,university of ,wisconsin is not proud of turning out highly developed personalities80 8,only as carriers10 ,president ,van ,hise quickly replied1 in his characteristic jerky manner2 8carriers of ideas and attitudes even to the isolated community and to the unpromising man4 ,the students who are here are here1 as it were1 by accident4 ,but the university is run for ,wisconsin's people at work40 ,i passed on down the line1 and eventually out into a world strange to me1 where being a 8carrier0 of intellectual goods to the 8isolated community0 and to the 8last man0 was an academic commonplace4 ,fourteen years of that day-by-day commonplace1 however1 never rubbed off the beauty of its bloom for me2 for here was a university running at least neck and neck with church ,christians in love for1--or duty to1 if you prefer it so1--the ,gospel's whomsoever4 ,having seen with my own eyes these last communities of a ,state quickened into intellectual fervor through the devotion of university men and women1 do you think ,i do not know what would happen to the spiritual life of these out-of-the-way communities if the supreme love of devoted church men and women were brought to bear upon them8 ,a ,forecast ,founded on ,fact ,i will venture to forecast some of the things that would happen4 ,every rural community would have a community church--a church for the whomsoever1 even to the last man1 woman1 and child in that community4 ,if topographically possible1 every such church community would stretch the bounds of its parish to include a thousand souls all told4 ,in communities of two thousand souls1 there would be two churches--two only1 and both community churches4 ,in communities of three thousand souls1 there would be three community churches1 and three churches only1 every church1 a community church2 and no more churches than one to one thousand of the community population2 for it takes one thousand of the population to maintain an effectual modern church2 and every church is to be a ,christian community church as a safeguard against paganism4 ,but why am ,i so foolish as to foretell what would happen when ,i can tell what is happening8 ,there are to-day1 we are told by those who keep informed on the matter1 a thousand community churches in the ,united ,states1 of which the greater part are in rural territory4 ,in fact1 it is reported that new community churches are being organized at the rate1 at present1 of six a month4 ,to say that there is a community church movement well-started is no exaggeration4 ,some ,states such as ,massachusetts1 ,vermont1 ,connecticut1 ,ohio1 ,california1 ,colorado1 ,iowa1 ,illinois1 are outstanding in the movement4 ,of course1 the community church is not yet standardized1 but it is shaping up4 ,to affirm that there are three types1 as some say1 or five1 as others put it1 is more or less arbitrary4 ,still1 for the sake of the man who understands better by types1 ,i may say that some community churches like to be known as having arrived at the community ideal by 8federation0 of two or more denominational churches1 the new church preserving connection with a national church body4 ,other community churches pride themselves on being 8union0 churches1 each having originated from the organic union of two or more churches1 or having been established as a 8union0 church in a community possessing no church1 but containing families of various denominational connections in the past4 ,the union church once formed usually stands alone1 without any denominational affiliation4 ,then there is the regular 8denominational0 church1 which either just happens to be or has come purposely to be the only church in the community2 and which makes the boast of existing for the whole community rather than for its particular denominational group4 ,and there are other varieties1 which could indeed be dignified into types1 if we were pushed to it4 ,the important thing1 however1 is that out of a general unrest and dissatisfaction with churches that aim to keep breeding up within themselves a highly pedigreed group of personalities which possess decidedly exclusive1 if not aristocratic1 characteristics1 have arisen overnight1 as it were1 churches which admit to the inner circle all the pedigrees and aim at the democratic ideal of acting in the realm of religion for the last man1 woman1 and child in the community4 ,churches for the ,whomsoever ,here we have before our very eyes1 then1 a kind of a church which is run1 as ,president ,van ,hise said his university was run1 not for a select few within its walls1 but for the whomsoever within its own territory2 a church that views every single member as a 8carrier0 of the goods of life to the last man1 rather than as a precious mechanism in which should be lodged all the mysteries of a peculiar cult4 ,look over some of the stories of these churches which are confessedly trying to find their way to a new expression of social religion designed to prevent the wastes of competitive ,christianity4 ,here are the high points in an ,idaho community church3 ,rural1 in a town of #fjj souls4 ,presbyterian by connection1 but with members formerly of sixteen different denominations4 ,membership1 #djj4 ,plant worth #ej1jjj1 with eighteen separate class-rooms for ,sunday-school use4 ,a community house1 with gymnasium4 ,rest room for women and girls4 ,a week-day church school using one hour a week of school time4 ,in summer1 a daily vacation ,bible school4 ,a ,boy ,scout troop4 ,a ,campfire ,girls' organization4 ,potato growers and fruit men freely using the community hall4 ,high moral standards reflecting the unity of the people4 ,take another community church of farmers in ,iowa1 in the open country3 ,an architecturally commanding building1 providing1 like a well-organized school-house1 many separate rooms for religious instruction4 ,the church has deliberately packed into its conception of 8community church0 the idea that1 assuming ,christianity to have contact with every phase of living1 the church has responsibility for providing the auspices under which all social activities of the community take place4 ,what more natural1 then1 than that the ,fourth of ,july celebration should be around the most beautiful spot in the community1 the church8 ,farmers' ,institute in the church8 ,young people having a place for good times at the church8 ,a church committee looking after the matter of bringing good families on to farms that are for sale or rent in the community8 ,take a certain community church in ,indiana4 ,here is the story of an honest struggle on the part of four church pedigrees to burn their bridges behind them1 and1 pooling their resources1 to start in anew4 ,the peculiar traditions of each cult1 however1 cling desperately to each group1 until1 after trying in vain to carry these psychological contradictions along in an artificial unity1 in a moment of supreme devotion to the good of their community1 they strip off their trade-marks1 forget their shibboleths1 and step forward into religious freedom4 ,the community-church movement is not going to create1 ,i surmise1 new sects1 leaving a residuum of several more denominations4 ,rather it is a real step towards the organic union of kindred church bodies on the one hand1 and so a reduction of sects2 and on the other hand1 a step towards democratizing every church and making it a real community church4 ,the ,rural ,dilemma and the ,way ,out ,it will require only another thousand of these brave1 venturesome community churches to turn every select-bodied denomination to looking itself over4 ,this self-criticism will lead the great ,protestant church bodies1 let us hope1 to a church conscience in regard to destructive church competition4 ,then it will be an easy step to coming to terms with one another in any locality1 so as to give the community a chance to have a community church4 ,the community church1 if we can have any faith in mankind1 is sure to come along strong4 ,if high officials become obstructionists1 they will be swept away2 for the people1 when they once clearly see1 will have their way in churches and religion as in the long run they do in government and politics4 ,the sooner the great ,protestant bodies confess their sins of competition and put their houses in order1 the sooner the new day will come for the remote community and the last man4 ,some of us know what it is to be a devotee of a great church sect4 ,the absolute rightness of our cult has been no more questionable than our own existence4 ,when our sect was in parallel columns with any other religious sect1 we did not1 could not yield right of way4 ,but when we are all consciously confronted with the problem of working out the religious life of #cj1jjj1jjj of isolated farm people1 we wake up to the fact that we occupy a position where cult pride1 cult individualism1 and cult exclusiveness break down4 ,then we find ourselves in a dilemma2 we must leave the farmers to rot1 a thing which is unquestionably abhorrent to our cult2 or we must modify our cult1 a thing which on the surface seems a sacrilege to do4 ,but there is a way out of every dilemma2 generally1 however at the cost of a bit of human pride4 ,the community church shows the various noble church cults one way out of the rural church dilemma4 ,read these bold words from a group of fifty young ,methodist rural workers penned to bishops3 8,to the ,bishops of the ,methodist ,episcopal ,church3 ,we the undersigned members of the ,methodist ,episcopal ,church appeal to you to give prayerful consideration to the following suggestions3 #a4 ,that the bishops1 district superintendents1 and other administrative officers of our denomination cordially coperate with the leaders of other denominations in an effort to so organize rural church geographical units that not more than one ,protestant church to every one thousand population shall prevail as a standard4 #b4 ,that service to the community rather than to the denomination be the basis on which ministers shall be trained1 appointed1 and promoted4 #c4 ,that the ,methodist ,episcopal ,church take the lead in the give-and-take method with other denominations1 even to the extent of encouraging the discontinuance of small1 struggling1 competing ,methodist churches in the interest of rural ,christian service to the communities involved4 #d4 ,that zeal for service to the entire community and a sympathetic consideration for those whose background and training are non-,methodist shall characterize the efforts of the ,methodist ,episcopal ,church wherever it alone occupies a rural field4 #e4 ,that the conference membership of a ,methodist ,episcopal minister shall not be jeopardized by appointment as pastor of a federated or undenominational church where such a church is required for the largest service to the community40 ,theological students and college students are not to be outdone by their elders in bravery4 ,read the following document for circulation among the officials of the various church bodies--a document which sounds like the 8first call0 for the rural community church3 8,we the rural college student delegates at the ,american ,country ,life ,association ,student ,conference believe that the minister who serves in a church which has no right to exist loses respect for his profession and can not do outstanding work2 we believe that our denominational boards which appropriate money we give to keep churches going in overchurched communities and which send leadership into such communities are only making people feel that the ideals of ,christianity are no higher than those of pagan religions4 ,we would apply the principles and teachings of ,jesus ,christ4 ,therefore we recommend3 #a4 ,that students preparing to enter the rural ministry refuse to serve charges in overchurched communities4 #b4 ,that we1 as rural students1 do all in our power in our communities and in places of leadership that we may attain to prevent denominational church boards from pouring money and leadership into communities1 which is to be used to perpetuate denominational strife that is destroying the religious life of our communities4 #c4 ,that we pledge ourselves to endeavor to substitute the principles and teachings of ,jesus ,christ for narrow denominational creeds and doctrines4 ,in view of this1 we shall try to obtain an atmosphere and physical equipment of rural churches1 as well as church services themselves1 that shall be designed to meet the physical1 social1 mental1 and spiritual needs of the people who worship there1 regardless of their denominations40 ,the press carries the story that down in ,georgia five hundred farmers last season dedicated an acre of land apiece1 with all it grew1 to the ,lord4 ,these pieces of land are spoken of generally in ,georgia as the 8,lord's ,acres10 and the 8,lord's ,acre ,plan0 is hailed as a hundred per cent4 way to finance the country church4 ,the story goes on to say3 8,farmers in the ,south are firmly convinced that the ,lord's ,acre yields better crops than surrounding land1 and that the entire farm of the one giving the acre is more productive than those of his neighbors40 ,the ,community ,church as a ,democracy ,the community church strikes me as a ,lord's ,acre in rural ,christendom bearing a crop dedicated to ,god4 ,and1 if ,i read the returns aright1 the comparative yield justifies the belief4 ,it is a church of the people--a democracy in very truth4 ,any subtle influence that would tend to wash in upon this democracy and wear it down to a dominating set of people or to a group of negligible folk or to a loose aggregation of nondescripts must be walled off with reinforced concrete4 ,a single type of religious temperament will not govern the range and character of the community church4 ,a constant sort of ideals that appeals only to the seraphic souls or to other minds only in moments of exalted pitch will1 by a natural process of elimination1 soon reduce the church to a temperamental sect4 ,no1 the church is made up of all temperaments3 the matter-of-fact1 active1 and practical2 the poetic1 sentimental1 imaginative2 the strenuous2 the easy-going2 the enthusiastic2 the petty2 the anxious2 the generous1 self-denying2 the jolly1 optimistic2 the gloomy1 conservative2 the militant1 crusading2 the important2 the retiring4 ,their interests1 too--the interests of the whole church are as broad and various as human nature4 ,a cross-section of ,christianity will reveal a ten-thousand fold variegation of human streak and human color wherever religion has filtered into actual life4 ,this meeting-ground of all the higher interests of the community will1 therefore1 be home for each interest4 ,as no single type of temperament should repulse the others and shrink the church1 so no single activity of the church should monopolize the focus of attention4 ,the mission interest1 the ,bible interest1 the educational interest1 the interests social1 musical1 ceremonial1 disciplinary1 the evangelistic interest1 the civic and industrial interest1 the financial interest1 the idealistic interest1 both personal and social--all these and the rest will have good footing in the community church4 ,a church which should undertake to be a democracy in fact would find that there is only one way of 8maintaining interest0 enough actually to keep bringing the people together4 ,this way is sounding ,god's summons to keep going the redemption of its community at every point4 ,the summons to definite undertakings to improve community life is like the summons to a pioneer homesteader to make a home fit for his family4 ,he gears his hands to ax and saw1 to plow and hammer1 and he knows that he can change the wilderness4 ,besides stereotyped church procedure1 a steady look at living conditions in the community1 with the determined expectation of changing these conditions for the better2 a look for the moral clues to whole wretched situations2 a look to disentangle from the chaotic mass single1 great1 unmistakeable moral issues--these steady looks1 under ,god's summons1 must be given anew in every generation to the kaleidoscopic facts of human life4 ,the church that shall go into the business of becoming self-conscious and of realizing its democracy will hear ,god's summons to community redemption and begin to re-scale the map of church importance and usefulness in the community on heroic lines4 99 99 99 99 99 ,transcriber's note ,minor punctuation errors have been changed without notice4 ,inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized where appropriate4 ,other spelling has also been retained as originally published except for the corrections below4 ,page #abg3 8pinked out in my mind the0 8picked out in my mind the0 ,page #add3 8which appopriate money we0 8which appropriate money we0