The Church and the Grange. 



By Kev. John Kincaid, Rodman, N. Y. 



When asked to prepare a speech or a paper for this Farmers' 

 Institute^ the first and most difficult question to decide was " What 

 shall it be about?" — trusts and expansion, Dewey and the Filli 

 pinos, the Boers and the Transvaal — these are hackneyed subjects. 

 The}' meet us in big headlines in the newspapers every day. The 

 farmers, I thought, will want a rest from this class of questions. 

 Of soils and siloes, blooded stock and sugar beets, Bohemian oats, 

 orchards, meadows, grains and taxes, what is a preacher sup- 

 posed to know? But there is one subject I have noticed which 

 is of interest to everyone. Talk about politics and some will 

 turn away in disgust. Talk of religion and some will yawn. 

 Expatiate on the beauties of art and the blank look on the faces 

 of your auditors may betray their lack of appreciation. Speak 

 of business and the idler is unconcerned; expound science and 

 many are bored; but talk to people about themselves and they 

 are all ears. If a man be honest, he must confess that of all 

 things which the Lord has made in the earth or the waters there 

 is nothing of such absorbing interest to him as himself. It has 

 been said that the greatest bore in the world is he who persists 

 in talking of himself when you wish to talk of yourself. So I 

 decided to say something about ourselves. Hence my subject, 

 " The Church and the Grange." You represent the grange, I 

 the church. 



This is an age of fraternities, guilds and associations. Never 

 since the Lord formed the first society, by putting the hand of 

 Eve in the hand of Adam, has there been such a multiplicity of 

 unions, fellowships and fraternities as at present. I heard a 



