174 CHAPTERS IN RURAL PROGRESS 



relation of the rural church to these needs and 

 to the agencies designed to meet them? In 

 dealing with this phase of the subject, we may 

 best speak of the church most frequently in 

 terms of the pastor, for reasons that may appear 

 as we go on. 



There are three things the country pastor 

 may do in order to bring his church into vital 

 contact with these great sociological movements. 

 Of course he may ignore them, but that is 

 church suicide, (i) He may recognize them. 

 This means first of all to understand them, to 

 appreciate their influence. There is a law of 

 the division of labor that applies to institutions 

 as well as to individuals. This law helps us to 

 understand how such institutions as the Grange 

 and farmers' institutes are doing a work that 

 the church cannot do. They are doing a work 

 that needs doing. They are serving human need. 

 No pastor can afford to ignore them, much less 

 to sneer at them as unclean; he may well apply 

 the lesson of Peter's vision, and accept them as 

 ministers of the kingdom. (2) He may encour- 

 age and stimulate them. The rural pastor may 

 throw himself into the van of those who strive 

 for better farming, for a quicker social life, for 

 more adequate educational facilities. He can 



