leading part. There it is the problem of vitalizing and "warming" what has become a cold and austere religion. Country ministers are getting together in conferences and conclaves to think through and plan out what shall make for national spiritual well being for the folks in villages and on the land. A national organ of the country church and an expression of what it stands for "Die Dorfkirche" (The Village Church) just tingles with suggestions of what these heralds of a restored rural Christianity are doing and thinking and preaching.

If our own new country ministry can command a title of D. C. L. (Doctor of Country Life) then there must be some such closely related degree as M. R. E. (Master of Religious Education). Certainly no rural ministry can escape the teaching function. Not through some indirect method as the young people's society and the Sunday School, but here is the opportunity where the country minister is the principal and teacher of a "public school of religion" or "religious training school." It needs to be worked out. The dire need is apparent and there is every reason for the village

century there were some ethical teachers and moralist leaders who gave their lives to the youth in the villages to impress them and teach them by precept and example in little groups wherever they could be gotten together of their own particular code of morals and ethics. Missionaries testify how

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rial contribution to this great national problem. Some weekday afternoon, perhaps Saturday morning, a two hour session can be devoted to simple Bible story telling. elementary, secondary and more advanced Bible study in carefully organized courses to suit the peculiar needs of different groups, catechetical drills in the fundamentals of religion and ethics, elementary and unbiased church history, and some introduction to the "expression" of religion in social service. But above all this, and this on a well organized basis covering a period of years stands the personality of the teacher. He inust be called of God.

In Japan in the sixth and seventh

Growth in attendance in the Young Men's Christian Association day schools, "to enable parents who so desire to secure that training for their boys in facilities which are permeated by the social atmosphere and Christian spirit of the Association life." Fifty-two city Associations are conducting such work at a cost of over 138,000 dollars

immovable these rural dwellers of Japan are from their old pagan beliefs.

For a permanently rooted and grounded vital religion we must look to the country. As a basis concrete training and educational programs must be worked out. It rests finally upon an intelligent and consecrated rural ministry.

I

N suggesting a home missions policy for the Rural Life Movement

I am not unmindful of the faithful men on the boards of home missions who acknowledge the need of a change of method in administration, but are tied up by constitutional limitations in the law of the church to which they belong, or are prevented by the natural conservatism of those who have been accustomed for years to do things in a certain way and are incapable of change, even when shown that their methods are useless, so far as permanent results are concerned. For example, it would have been difficult during the last two decades of the nineteenth century when one of the most successful secretaries of home missions and church extension was saying, "We're building three a day, dear Tom," to have convinced him, or the church at large, that during the same period, as recent rural surveys have proven, we were losing practically three a day, so that the net result in church extension in some rural sections, as has been shown in Iowa, Colorado, Missouri, Ohio, Maryland and in New England, was on the minus side.

In the first place, I believe there should be given to a strong overhead organization in home missions the authority and responsibility to work out

a policy of direct action in the fields of need so that there could be no ecclesiastical twilight zone, so to speak, where responsibility for results could hide away in the verbiage of annual reports. In other words, we must abolish the pious pork barrel policy of appropriating home missions funds in lump sums to conferences, synods, dioces, etc., to be divided up by the districts and subdivided into dribs to support inefficient ministers, or competing moribund churches, or chapels, in already overcrowded communities; and we must adopt a more statesmanlike plan of adequate appropriations to needy fields where the rural survey has made known available resources, and a community movement has already secured trained leadership on the field to assure economic administration of a central parish plan.

Apart from the above changes in the overhead organization, I would include four other factors of vital importance in a home missions policy in the rural life movement. Emphasis should be placed (1) upon trained leadership for the country church work, (2) upon a Social Center Parish plan to supplant the old circuit system, (3) upon the rural social survey as an indispensable requirement for appropriations of money and the inauguration of new work in the rural

field, (4) upon Bible study courses, in the rural mindedness of the Old and New Testament writers, for students in our colleges who are looking toward the ministry in the open country.

In view of the new movement in rural education with the consolidated school under expert management by a college graduate trained for rural leadership; the state farm bureau with its extension work centering in rural communities; and keen graduates from the colleges of agriculture taking charge of farm management; and an educated woman taking control of the domestic science and home economics department in the rural high school; and besides these, the County Work secretaries of the Christian Associations building up whole communities upon the basis of the latest experiments in rural sociology which they have learned in colleges, universities and summer schools for rural leadership, it becomes a matter of urgent haste that the home missions boards of the church lay supreme stress upon the education, training and choice of religious leadership in the country churches. If as much money had been spent in training competent leaders for rural churches as has been spent on supporting men untrained and inefficient for the tasks, we would not have now such an appalling record of church decline in rural regions. While eighty-five per cent of our ministers were born and reared in the country districts, we have by our educational policy been unconsciously, if not at times deliberately, educating them. away from the country until few strong young men and women, until recently, ever thought seriously of choosing the country church or school as a life work. In fact our whole educational system in college, theological seminary and public school has been suffering from "urbanitis": the city interest has swallowed up

the

country interest, and as a result our strongest men and women (with some splendid exceptions) have gone to the cities and large towns, and we have sent to the country churches in many cases the superannuates, the incompetents, or the novices to guard and work this vast resource field of the kingdom.

We should seek for volunteers in home missions in rural life and organize them into study classes just as we have the volunteers for the foreign fields, and the city slums. Such leaders for the rural church field should be sought preferably in the colleges of agriculture among those who were born and brought up in the open country. They should have ability to sense and perceive human needs, should possess a constructive imagination so as to plan their work on a community basis, they should have engineering skill and tact in co-ordinating individuals and groups so as to avoid social friction, and they should maintain a persistent purpose to win in a good cause. These are the essentitials of all successful leadership.

service.

In the next place all home mission enterprises in country life to-day must be based upon a community plan of I prefer to call it The Social Center Parish Plan. The reasons for this proposal are quite evident. The rural schools in all progressive states are being consolidated upon a community plan; the grange has its hall at some community center, and the Christian Associations are organizing their work on this basis with the whole county as the unit.

Again we discover the interesting fact from surveys that have been made in rural communities that where the greatest amount of home mission funds have been expended has been in towns where there are five competing denominations rather than in one-church towns where there is no competition,

or in no-church villages where new work is needed. Also we have discovered that the denomination that was weakest in the pioneer period, when the old circuit system was most effective, is the only denomination now gaining in membership and attendance, while at the same time, in one important community the denomination that was leading in 1870 is now gaining in membership by a smaller percentage than the other Protestant denominations, and has a less number of churches now than ten years ago. The former is organized on the central parish plan, the latter still uses the circuit system in rural communities. Time will not permit a detailed statement of the social center parish plan, but we can furnish the facts and the plan to justify the adoption of this policy by home mission boards, namely, not to give to any church enterprise in rural life which has not a workable plan for service to the entire community, in co-operation with all other legitimate social forces.

In the next place we would suggest that the rural social survey be made the indispensable basis of all appropriations of home missions funds either for old or for new enterprises in the country districts. And not only so, but we must, by actual portrayal of the facts, produce a moral equivalent of the war-spirit of the pioneer period. Such a policy has produced the student volunteer for the foreign fields.

The rural social survey, when properly presented, will furnish the basis for such an appeal as will enlist a new type of men for the task of redeeming our lost rural domain for the kingdom of God.

The character and the function of the rural church and of the country minister must both be made to harmonize with the actual conditions discovered by the survey.

Such a survey to be successful must do two things: (1) it must make such an inventory of all rural resources for human betterment, and make such a classification of the normal wealth and life-producing forces in soil, climate, water power and in animal and human husbandry, that any man with normal mental faculties can appreciate the possibilities for human betterment in our vast rural domain; (2) it must also take into account all the opposing forces that destroy human health and happiness in rural life, and portray in good red colors all the rural devils that contend with those who seek to help folks in need of a richer social gospel.

When this has been done, and the churches and other associations for the betterment of rural conditions make their appeal for men to volunteer for the task, then from the colleges of agriculture, from the universities, and from the theological seminaries, and from the rank and file of those who have seen service in the field will come the response, "Here am I, send me!"

Again, such a policy must include the adoption of Bible study courses based upon the rural mindedness of the writers of the Old and New Testaments-especially that of the prophets and of Jesus. One reason for this recommendation is the fact that the country folk are extremely conservative about adopting any new methods in church work unless they can be convinced of their scriptural sanction; and, to win their support is the nub of the whole rural life movement so far as securing the co-operation and support of the country people is concerned.

Another reason for such study is that we find in the Scriptures the record of social surveys in rural regions that are in principles actual models for us to-day. Take, for example, the

rural survey of Canaan outlined by Moses in Numbers, chapter XIII, verses 17-20.

Read also the account of the rural survey and program of Jesus recorded in Matt. IX:35-38; X:1, 5-10, 16, 28; and XI:1, 20-24, 28-30. This survey of Jesus began with work (Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching, preaching, healing). It developed vision (He saw the multitude distressed and scattered). It moved the will (He was moved with compassion for them, He prayed for laborers). It resulted in a program (He called unto Him his twelve disciples, gave them authority, instructed them in method, and sent them forth).

The Old Testament Prophets abound in teachings in rural life, and the historical books, the wisdom literature, and the poetic books are full of illustrative material from rural facts.

When we come to the New Testament we find the parable of the sower recorded by Matthew XIII furnishes a text for study of soils, preparation for seeding, and gives us a catalogue of the natural and destructive forces with which the farmer has to contend, and also suggests to the rural minded the modern principle of intensive farming to reach the maximum yield.

The parable of the tares, in the same chapter, furnishes us a splendid background for the study of personal

feuds and social friction in rural life. Mark, in chapter IV, records those lessons of Jesus on the naturalness of the growth of the kingdom, and Luke, in chapter XII, records that wonderful description of the fool farmer who filled his belly and his barns and then died with a shriveled soul. He also records that story of the one lost sheep and of the shepherd's anxious hunt throughout the night, and of his tender care in bringing it warm in his bosom back to the sheep fold again. He tells us also of the younger brother who went wrong, repented, and returned home to find his father's forgiveness and favor. These two stories of Jesus, in Luke XV, have furnished the spiritual dynamic of many a revival in the open country that has brought back to a clean life many a prodigal son of the rural homestead. In closing, allow me to express the hope that some

may

young men receive instruction and inspiration that will lead . . to life ministry in the open country and help make the rural life movement Christian; also let me express the wish that

men

may in wisdom help the church at large to work out a home missions policy that will adequately meet the problems of our vast rural domain in which dwell more than half the good people of our beloved land.