180 



Missouri Agricultural Report. 



Rev. C. B. Green. 



THE CHURCH IN COUNTRY LIFE DEVELOPMENT. 



(Rev. C. R. Green, Ravenwood. Mo.) 



Friends, the story that I have to tell you this afternoon is a 



very simple one. It is so simple that it 

 is fully within" the province of each 

 representative to realize the values 

 contained in it. I shall endeavor to 

 keep well within the request of the 

 management when writing to me. 

 Somehow — I don't know why — the 

 management seemed to be a little sus- 

 picious of the ministry, reserving the 

 right to dictate the bounds of our 

 speech, no doubt being influenced by 

 the fact that we have the name of be- 

 ing considerably long on theory. Hence 

 I was requested to deal in the realm 

 of fact rather than theory. 



So this afternoon it is my earnest desire to speak from 

 demonstrated fact, of the things that I have seen and realized in 

 my own experience. I have no apology to offer for the relation 

 which I sustain to the subject that I shall discuss, because it is 

 no egotism for a person to feel assurance in a known fact though 

 he, himself, might in a measure have demonstrated the fact. 

 Therefore I desire that you divorce my personality from the 

 story and get the concrete facts as if they were applied to your 

 own community. I beg of you that you do this, because the 

 story that I have to give is not a story that can be accomplished 

 only by one person in one place, but I am convinced that it can 

 be realized in the average community by proper leadership. 



There is a Place in the Scheme of Things, in Country Life 

 Development, for the Church. — The church in the open country 

 and its place in the development of country life with me has 

 passed the experimental stage, so much so, at any rate, that I 

 regard that the church has a place in the scheme of things for 

 the development of country life, just as much as any other factor 

 or force. I realize that there are many forces entering into the 

 development of country life. The civil engineer occupies a 

 prominent place as he comes out into the country and shows how 

 we can grade our roads, how we can build our bridges, how to do 



