THE COUNTRY CHURCH 417 



tended as the monthly meetings. It is taught by the pastor. 

 These same lads conduct a lecture-course not for pecuniary 

 profit, but for the sole purpose of bringing wholesome entertain- 

 ment within reach of all. Everybody attends, irrespective of 

 creed. 



The young men own and operate a small printing-press and 

 (with the assistance of the pastor) do all the church printing. 

 They hold religious meetings and entertainments in the public 

 school-houses during the winter and in a grove during warm 

 weather. In the pastor's absence a number of the men speak 

 at the Sunday service. This class and the young women's class 

 have become great powers in the church. From them we select 

 teachers and officers for the church and Sunday-school. 



If you were to accompany me to one of our young women's 

 monthly meetings, you would find thirty or more girls and young 

 women with needles, busily engaged in making little garments 

 for poor children in the city, chatting as they sew. Some mem- 

 bers of the society, who have completed courses in sewing, in- 

 struct the others. Or, if we arrive in time for the beginning 

 of the meeting, we might find them studying "On the Trial of 

 the Immigrants," "The Uplift of China," "Korea in Transi- 

 tion," or some other live book or subject. This study is sand- 

 wiched in between music and devotional exercises. At the 

 proper time, a signal is given and the young ladies arrange their 

 chairs in groups of four and have placed upon their laps lunch- 

 boards laden with good things to eat that have been prepared by 

 the member or members of the society at whose home the meeting 

 is held. Then, home they go. These meetings are much en- 

 joyed by our young women and it is no task to secure their 

 attendance. 



You would see similar proceedings at the monthly women's 

 meetings except that (if it were winter) you would find a sprink- 

 ling of men in the assembly. The husbands and fathers come 

 mostly for the sociability afforded, though they do discuss, in 

 a very informal way, the leading topics of the day and the busi- 

 ness of farming and stock-raising. The mothers, in addition to 

 their mission-study, consider topics pertaining to housekeeping, 

 the care and training of children, home-building, and other prac- 

 tical subjects. The society has forty members. 



