100 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



Du Page with the idea that religion has to do with the whole 

 man — body, mind and spirit; that it deeply concerns his social 

 life, his business lite, his education, his amusements, and every- 

 th'ng else that pertains to man's well-being. 



I was brought up in a country church and the idea I got of 

 it in my boyhood was that the church is a sort of a Sunday 

 affair, which dealt exclusively with men's souls and good clothes. 

 It was also a place of long faces, for if there was any hilarity 

 among the boys at "meetin'," we could always depend upon the 

 hazel brush being brought out when we got home; a place where 

 dead men's bodies were carried, as the funerals were invariably 

 held in the church. Well do I remember also how fearful I was 

 of the preacher when, clad in his long black broadcloth coat, he 

 would make his annual visits to our home. Two men I greatly 

 feared in those days. One was Mr. Matteer, the preacher, and the 

 other Mr. Turney, the butcher. As boys and young men we never 

 associated our good times with the church or the minister — 

 except the annual union Sunday school picnic, which was really 

 a delightful occasion. The church did not seem to have much 

 to do with our daily lives, or our occupations and amusements. 

 It demanded nothing of us, apparently, but to go to church and 

 sit still. Our companionships were outside of and independent 

 of the church. It was the day of the husking bees, the apple- 

 cuttings, the sugaring-offs and all those most delightful, whole- 

 some and interesting neighborhood pastimes in which old and 

 young alike engaged with such pleasure and profit. What a 

 pity they have gone out of date! It was before the day of com- 

 mercialized pastimes — the amusement parks, the public dance 

 halls, the cheap vaudevilles and the like. It is alarming how 

 rapidly these modern creatures are creeping in upon the country 

 people in these days of the trolley, the automobile and the horse 

 and buggy which every young man on the farm now possesses — 

 even the hired men. It is far easier now for the country people 

 to get into the world current than it was forty years ago. 



But coming back to the old type of country church, it did 

 not seem to offer us much but a long, dry sermon on Sunday — 

 and it was dry to the boys and girls — hard, straight-backed seats, 

 a book from the Sunday school library in which the good boy 

 and girl always died and went to heaven, and those delightful 

 annual visits by the pastor! 



Now, I love that dear old country church of my boyhood 

 days, back in the hills of Pennsylvania, and I like to think that 



