422 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 



One thing more. The prosperous country church requires that 

 there be an agreement among the members as to the big things 

 for which the church stands: the sinfulness of men; the possi- 

 bility of redemption from sinfulness ; growth in Christian graces ; 

 the efficiency of the gospel to make better husbands, better wives, 

 better parents, better children, better farmers, better business 

 men, better neighbors, better citizens. Success need not be ex- 

 pected if minor things of which Jesus said nothing and upon 

 which the apostles laid no emphasis, such as forms of church 

 government and modes of baptism, are regarded as the essential 

 things for which the church stands. If the church is to be suc- 

 cessful, there must be toward these matters a body of sentiment 

 which makes hearty cooperation and Christian fellowship possible. 



These, as I see it, are the conditions of the prosperous rural 

 church. These conditions prevailed when the rural church was 

 in the height of its prosperity in the early part of the last century. 

 There was then a dense population per square mile in the settled 

 portions of the country, because the farmer was then a child 

 of the woods, hewing his way painfully through the forests of 

 the Eastern and Middle States, and requiring a lifetime to clear 

 up a quarter section or even an eighty. He was a man of the 

 ax and cradle and scythe and flail. Rural congregations were 

 large then ; and the spirit of the farmer of that day is reflected 

 in the names that he gave to his church, names fragrant of 

 the spirit of piety and devotion and showing close acquaintance 

 with the Bible, Bethel, Rehoboth, Mount Zion, Ebenezer. 



There was then no pull to the city, for the cities were small, 

 as they must needs be, since there was not the wherewithal to 

 feed a large city population, nor adequate means of transporta- 

 tion. Labor was cheap, land was cheap, living was cheap ; and 

 the farm was mainly a means of supporting a large family 

 cheaply. There was no landlord, no tenants. While no one was 

 getting rich, all but the incompetent were getting ahead, and the 

 minister was the outstanding big man in the community "guide, 

 philosopher, and friend" to all, a consoler in sickness or sorrow, 

 an adviser in trouble. There was unity as to the great doctrines 

 of Christianity. Not that all were agreed; but the various na- 

 tionalities, with their forms of worship and religious thought and 

 customs, grouped themselves together in localities the Pennsyl- 



