260 THE BUSINESS OF FAEMING 



is needed. The dogmatic doctrine of a dogmatic 

 church should have no place in any community. 



The great movement now being put forth to up- 

 lift the business of farming will be a failure if it 

 fails to include in its panacea for the uplift of the 

 business, a genuine religion for the farm. But it 

 is up to the farmer to provide these means by 

 which this religion can be secured, and he will do it 

 if he can be made to see the need of it to himself 

 and to his family. He must be made to see, how- 

 ever, just as the city church must be made to see, 

 that the church must be a place where the social 

 side of life must be properly developed, and that 

 the problems of his business are as sacred as re- 

 ligious topics and that there is no harm in dis- 

 cussing them in the church at opportune times. 



The country church should be the social and 

 educational as well as the religious center of every 

 farm community. 



We hear it so frequently said that the country 

 church decays in proportion as the number of farm 

 tenants increase. If this be true it is indeed a 

 sad state of affairs. Is there a reason why the 

 church should not appeal to a tenant and his 

 family? Is he any less a human being because he 

 is not a land owner? He and his family are sub- 

 ject to the same laws of life and being. He cer- 

 tainly needs the consolation, the uplift and the 

 peace of the simple church religion, and if the 

 tenant and his family get the notion that they do 

 not need this religion, they have gotten the false 

 view of life. If the tenant and his family will but 

 faithfully practice the religion of the country 

 church they will become better tenants and better 



