KURAL UPLIFT ELSEWHERE 241 



ditions. The Missionary Education ^Nfovement has 

 issued one of its textbooks iipou this problem. " The 

 Church of the Open Country," by Dr. Warren H. 

 Wilson. The Men and Religion Movement emphasized 

 country work. One of the seven volumes which record 

 the great Conservation Congress deals with this subject. 

 Rook I of the volume deals with " The Rural Church of 

 the Twentieth Century," and Book II with " Social 

 Religion in the Country." The treatment is scientific, 

 comprehensive and masterly. 



Outside of the church's organization but in closest 

 sympathy with it are found many promising movements. 

 The Hesperia Movement is a fine example. In 1886 a 

 public school teachers' association in Michigan sought 

 added strength for its work by having the farmers meet 

 with the teachers at their annual convention at Hes- 

 peria, a country village miles away from any railroad. 

 The Association meets yearly on a Thursday night and 

 continues its sessions until Saturday. An attendance of 

 twelve hundred is usual. The best speakers in America 

 address the Association, but its chief attractions are 

 found in the enthusiastic local talent it has evoked. It 

 is not simply educational in character, but literary, 

 musical, and social as well. A co-operative work for 

 rural-school uplift has given wholesome entertainment 

 to a wide district, created a taste for literature in school 

 and home, fostered the love of good music, and advanced 

 every ideal of citizenship. Rural lifo Ims becomo 

 sweeter, saner and satisfying. 



But it is chiefly in such instrumentalities as the Am- 

 herst Movement that promise is found, inasmuch as this 

 movement is based upon botterment of the fundamental 

 charartoristics of farm life and reaches after every clo- 

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