196 KURAL LIFE IN CANADA 



is to lead men into fellowship with Christ and His 

 church; its second, to seek the welfare of men in their 

 relations with each other and with the world as a place 

 for all men to live ; and its third to give all men, especi- 

 ally in times of need, the help of Christian comrade- 

 ship. Other church agencies adapted to such services 

 are the Young People's Guild and the Christian En- 

 deavor Society. 



The Young Men's and Women's Christian Associa- 

 tions are fitted to supply permanently the needs of the 

 marginal classes in the country as in the city along re- 

 creative and educational lines ; brotherhoods and guilds 

 to supply permanently within the congregation similar 

 needs. But a direct and immediate duty lies before the 

 church to fulfil another temporary social want institu- 

 tionally. She needs to avail herself, for the present 

 crisis, of a new agency, the social centre. In my native 

 village of Ormstown, Quebec, is a building bearing 

 my family name, MacDougall Hall, built as a memorial 

 to a beloved uncle, a farmer, by his brother, another 

 farmer, and presented to the Presbyterian Church in 

 Ormstown as a home for the social activities of the 

 church — the first of its kind in Canada. The donor was 

 in advance of his time in providing such a social centre. 

 Moreover, in his presentation of the hall to the church, 

 he expressed the wish that the trustees should hold the 

 building not for that congregation's use alone, but for 

 any social activities the sister denominations might wish 

 to engage in ; not only so, but that the building should 

 be open for any community gatherings also. Macdonald 

 College opened its recent Provincial campaign of " Tak- 

 ing the Agricultural College to the Farmer " in Mac- 

 Dougall Hall. 



