THE COUNTRY CHURCH 413 



I had preached during two summer vacations), strongly urging 

 me to go there and take charge of three churches at nearly 

 double the salary offered here. That looked like a much larger 

 proposition financially and otherwise and I was drawn to- 

 ward it. 



The Du Page people were to decide by vote the following Sun- 

 day whether or not they wanted me. Sick from a cold that I 

 had contracted on the first trip, I had asked a classmate to go in 

 my stead requesting him to wait at his room until I had pre- 

 pared a message asking the congregation not to consider me as a 

 candidate. For some reason the classmate did not wait. I 

 hastened downtown, tjiinking that I could overtake him at the 

 station, but I reached the gate just in time to see the train dis- 

 appearing round the bend. The vote was taken and the result 

 came to me two days afterward in a letter from one of the elders, 

 saying that out of forty-eight ballots there had been only one 

 "no." A letter from the same man came the next day explain- 

 ing that the one negative vote had been cast by a little 13-year- 

 old girl who had not understood how to prepare her ballot. 



Here was truly a great opportunity, looking me squarely in 

 the face a call from the country ! I reconsidered the matter 

 and concluded that I would cast my lot with those country-folk 

 for better or for worse. 



Why I came to this country church, six miles from a railroad 

 and without even a village surrounding it, I cannot explain. I 

 had received no special training for it other than that I had 

 been born on a farm and brought up in a country church. The 

 days spent in college and in the seminary were so full of hard 

 study that the thought of where my "homiletic bias" should 

 eventually be turned loose never once entered my mind. I sim- 

 ply had a general feeling that in due time there would be some 

 good, hard work for me somewhere, I cared not where. 



When I came to the field the first of May, I was surprised 

 and not a little disappointed to find that these good people would 

 not consent to an installation until they had tried the new min- 

 ister at least a year. This was the Scotch conservatism that was 

 lurking in the congregation. However, I did not feel so badly 

 when I discovered that this was their regular custom. 



There was no one to occupy the manse with me, so I furnished 



