94 The Rural Church and the Young People 



people solely by means of teaching them the Sunday 

 school lesson or preaching to them, no matter how 

 true the gospel may be. The evidence is ample 

 to show that boys and girls who attend church and 

 Sunday school are nevertheless falling into many 

 vicious habits of conduct, and are growing up without 

 many of the forms of discipline and training essential 

 for stable Christian character and social and moral 

 efficiency. In fact as a means of temporal salvation 

 the old-fashioned church and Sunday school are 

 proving more and more a failure. 



Now, as soon as the church realizes the meaning 

 of the foregoing situation and acts accordingly, just 

 so soon will this splendid old institution be enabled 

 to do efficient work in vitalizing the practical affairs 

 of the community in which it is located. To illus- 

 trate this point : The great curse of boyhood to- 

 day is the tobacco habit, and this vitiating practice 

 is slowly working its way among the country youth. 

 The youth who acquires the smoking habit before 

 becoming physically matured thereby depletes his 

 physical health to a marked degree, reduces his 

 mental efficiency ten to fifty per cent, and almost 

 completely destroys his power of initiative. Such 

 a youth is never found contending for any moral 

 issue or any high and worthy cause of the people. 

 His constructive instinct is made more quiescent, 

 while his disposition to condone evil is greatly and 

 permanently increased. Boys who attend church 



