1902.] THE FARMER AS A CITIZEN. lOI 



there is on the farm. I have had a good neighbor say to me: 

 " Won't you lend me a watermelon? " (Laughter.) What if 

 they do? You must not remember all those little things. It 

 pays to be generous with everybody about you, and you will 

 be the better for it yourself. 



Most farmers live in a country school district, and the 

 farmer, if he wants to be a good citizen, has got to take an 

 interest in the district school. Now a person cannot pay any 

 attention to a public school in a city. The educational sys- 

 tem is different there from what it is in the country districts, 

 but it pays everybody in the country to take an interest in 

 the school whether he has children going there or not. Visit 

 the school occasionally. It does the teacher lots of good. 

 If you can do a little something for that school once in a while, 

 do it; it will not hurt you in the end to do something for it. 

 The good citizen not only takes an interest in the schools, 

 but there is another institution in the community he has got 

 to take an interest in if he is of the best sort: he has got 

 to take an interest in the church. I do not say but what 

 there are good citizens in the State of Connecticut, as I know 

 there are in New York, who are not members of the church, but 

 I know one thing, and that I do say, and you know it to 

 be true, and that is, that the best average of citizenship is the 

 Christian citizenship. You may find good men in all other 

 relations, good men and true men in all their relations to their 

 fellow men, but you must admit that the average of citizenship 

 is better among those who believe in and try to practice 

 Christianity than the average among those who do not. It 

 is the average that determines every c[uestion. It is the aver- 

 age which determines the thing. The best citizen takes an 

 interest in the church, and if he belongs to any particular 

 denomination I like to see him try to do everything he can to 

 build up that particular denomination. I have no use for any 

 of your milk and water business in the church. I tell you 

 what it is, when you find a man a Methodist I want him to be a 

 Methodist, and to believe that John Wesley was the greatest 

 man who has lived since the Apostle Paul, and to believe in 

 Methodism all the way down. And if he is a Presbyterian 

 I want him to believe in John Calvin and John Knox, and go 

 it the full length right straight through. If he is an Episco- 

 palian I want him to stand up for the church, and believe in 



