292 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



verts at all, merely accessions to the church. A quick conversion 

 leads often to a quick desertion. A few orthodox questions answered 

 in the affirmative do not necessarily make a convert. 



The tragedy of modern evangelism is not that converts are 

 hand picked, but alas , that they are handmade. Hand-picked fruit 

 ought to be the very best, but much unripe fryit is spoiled in the 

 picking. The personal work such as is usually perpetrated in the 

 evangelistic campaign is a fraud and a crime, and the prospective 

 convert gets a gold brick. This kind of evangelism may promote 

 outward prosperity, but brings inward decay. The membership of 

 the church grows, but the New Testament Church disappears. 



The time has come when we ought to be honest with the un- 

 saved. The only effective evangelism is the kind that grows out 

 of a warm heart, that honors the Word of God, that finds access to 

 a throne of grace, and that takes account of the necessity of a new 

 birth. This kind of evangelism is the glorious plan of God. 



The supreme need of the rural church today is the fear of 

 God. Without this all other remedies must fail. Whether in city, 

 town or country, the Lord's people have forgotten God. They have 

 few spiritual aspirations, they have little love for Christ and little 

 love for a lost world. The Presbyterian Survey in Illinois has this 

 comment: "The abandoned church is a silent witness to a com- 

 munity's decadence of faith in God and love of His House." With- 

 out repentance and a real turning to God there is no salvation for 

 the rural church. The Lord's people must learn to have less zeal 

 for gold and more zeal for God, less zeal for play and more zeal for 

 prayer, less zeal for self and more zeal for service. 



Another great need of the rural church is a vision of service. 

 The rural church sometimes lives very much to itself and has but 

 little concern for its own community and for a lost world. If it 

 will give itself to the service of the people — all the people — its per- 

 petuity is assured. Every member of the church ought to press the 

 claims «f Christ upon all, and the command is to go out into the 

 highways and hedges and compel them to come to the feast. 



The rural church must have frequent gatherings. At least 

 one meeting on every Lord's Day is absolutely essential to the 

 prosperity; and this service must be for all the people of the com- 

 munity. It ought to be the aim of the rural church to have every 

 family in the community in the Lord's House on the Lord's Day. 



It is a fact that there is much unconsecreted wealth in our 

 country churches. If country people would have the favor of God, 



