One great error committed by many of us in the 

 past is that of regarding work and things as arbi- 

 trarily high or low. But the author does not see 

 why plowing corn may not be made just as sacred 

 and just as divine a calling as preaching the gospel, 

 provided the former be regarded in the light of serv- 

 ice of some high spiritual purpose ; as indeed it may 

 be. So, here is a distinctive part of the function of 

 the rural church ; namely, to spiritualize work as well 

 as workers to urge upon the attention of the rural 

 inhabitants the thought that their work must all 

 be regarded as a means to the transformation of the 

 community life and of each individual life into a 

 thing of transcendent worth and beauty. 



A SUMMARY 



Now, here is the proposed plan in a nutshell. 

 The country community is the best place in the world 

 for bringing up a sturdy race of men and women and 

 the country church is or can be made one of the 

 greatest agencies in the achievement of this work. 

 But such achievement can best be brought about 

 only when the country church goes to work to save 

 the whole boy and the whole girl. And that means 

 that the church must understand better how human 

 life grows up that it must meet these growing boys 

 and girls on their own level of everyday interest and 

 socialize and spiritualize these interests through close 

 contact with them. Then, make the rural church a 



