FIFTY MILLION STRONG 



Cooperation stimulates fellowship. As congestion is one 

 of the drawbacks of urban life, so isolation is one of the 

 drawbacks of rural life. In one way isolation in the country 

 has increased during the past few decades, since the older 

 districts of Rural America show a gradual decrease in 

 population because farms are growing larger and the improve- 

 ments in farm machinery make it possible for fewer men to 

 cultivate the farms of the nation. But coincidentally with 

 the decrease in the population of many rural sections, numer- 

 ous movements have come into existence that have resulted 

 in a greater mingling of rural residents in all kinds of 

 activities business, social, intellectual, spiritual than has 

 been the case since the Golden Age of Homespun. This 

 mingling means cooperation, and cooperation stimulates fel- 

 lowship. How much finer this fellowship is, if it has a 

 distinctly religious basis ! In Northern Michigan there is a 

 church that is a bright and shining light in the rural field. 1 

 The pastor of this church worked for sixteen years without 

 realizing the wonderful opportunities for service that were 

 right within his grasp. Finally, to use his own words, he 

 got a vision, and since then he has greatly extended the 

 boundaries of his parish and wonderfully increased the work 

 of his church. The people of a large community area have 

 been welded into a religious unit. What has resulted from 

 the fact of the church having taken the initiative in the 

 development of a more perfect cooperation? All movements 

 of a community character have less of selfishness with which 

 to contend than have similar movements in other rural sec- 

 tions in which the church has either been unable or failed 

 to assume the leadership. The most beautiful feature of 

 this growing rural fellowship is that it has a place for all 

 the people adults, young people and children of both sexes. 

 Thus, larger opportunity is given for the ripening of 

 acquaintanceships into friendships and for the development 

 of intimacies into love and marriage. 



1 See H. S. Mills, " The Making of a Country Parish." 

 144 



