Report of Missouri Farmers' Week. 287 



congress; I was entertained by our pastor and he said that in his 

 church since the first of August — it was about the last of November 

 that I was there — ninety-eight Presbyterian famihes had moved 

 into Hutchinson, Kan., from the towns about there. Sixty of this 

 number are church members, identified with our church, and the 

 other thirty-eight are families that are naturally identified with 

 the church. There is a little church of itself that has come in from 

 the country roundabout. And so I say that the city church owes 

 it to the country church to send us strong men, her laymen up there, 

 to help in this work and to help preach in these country churches 

 and to help them see the vision. 



When you talk about the country church question do you know 

 we are only getting back to the old problem and things that we have 

 lost sight of? Take that word parson; ''parson" and "person" have 

 the same root meaning. The parson was the leading person in the 

 community in which he lived in those old Puritan times. He was 

 the leader in everything, in social life, in spiritual life, in educational 

 life. He was also teacher of the school. He was the one that 

 stood back of everything. He was the parson, the person of the 

 community, and when I am pleading today for the church to get 

 back in that old Puritan idea I am not pleading for new things, I 

 am not talking anything new, I am distinctly orthodox. It was 

 then that the parson was the adviser, he was the man that was 

 looked up to. I do not want you to look up to me, I am not talking 

 in that spirit, but I want you to realize today and I want you to 

 tell your minister, if he is not here, that he has a leading place in 

 that community, and I want you to help him get up into that place. 

 And so the task of the country church is largely getting back again 

 to this realization of the church's place in the world. And then 

 again, last of all, the church, as someone said, is the soul of civiliza- 

 tion, and if our civilization is to be safe from materialism if our 

 country is to be a great nation instead of a great congregation, if 

 our country, to my mind, is to stand and is not to fall, as other 

 Republics have fallen, it can only be, as we realize that the church 

 of Jesus Christ is the soul for all advancement, giving impetus, giv- 

 ing heart, giving love, giving vision to the boys and girls, and so 

 keeping their hearts and minds set upon the things that are infinite. 

 So do you not see the tremendous task we have before us for the 

 country church? 



Again, let me say that the church must minister to the 

 country. She must realize her obligation. Sometimes on our 

 church announcement we will see this statement : Services will be 



