412 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 



manse seemed to be about the only house in the community that 

 was void of all comforts and conveniences. One of the elders, 

 a farmer, had been preaching for three years, until he died ; and 

 the last regular minister had resigned with $400 due on his 

 salary, which the church borrowed to square the account. Six 

 of the nine Sunday-school teachers were members of one family 

 and they were good teachers, too. The three elders were also 

 trustees, and each taught a class in the Sunday-school. One 

 of these elders was also Sunday-school superintendent, Sunday- 

 school treasurer, church treasurer, and treasurer of benevolences. 

 A hall had been fitted up in the neighborhood to be the home 

 of an organization that called itself "The New Era Club." 

 But dancing seemed to be the only amusement, though the club 's 

 original promoters had hoped for better things. No one had 

 united with the church for five years. The only services were 

 preaching and Sunday-school on the Sabbath, and a meeting of 

 the Women's Missionary Society. Collections were taken once 

 a year for missions and ministerial relief, and this was practically 

 the extent of the benevolence. 



Here was a church that had lived in a community for sixty- 

 seven years. Its organization had been effected beneath some 

 trees with a tribe of Indians curiously watching the proceeding 

 from a distance. Many of the original Scotch, English and 

 Yankee families had moved away or died; and their places had 

 been often filled by Germans, who were invariably of a different 

 faith. How to sustain the life of this institution had become a 

 serious problem that worried those who were responsible for its 

 direction. Some of the people were thinking that the country 

 church had outlived its usefulness. None knew better than the 

 leaders that things were not going well with their kirk, and 

 none were more grieved about it. 



I preached that Sunday and was invited to preach again the 

 following Sunday. I did so, and at the close of the service was 

 asked if I would consider a call. I replied that I would finish 

 my work in the seminary in May and would then be ready for a 

 job somewhere; and that I saw no good reason why I should 

 not become the pastor of a farmers' church. The salary pro- 

 posed was $600 a year, with a manse and fiv^ acres of land. In 

 the meantime a letter came from a presbytery in the West (where 



