THE COUNTRY CHURCH 429 



religion itself is worth preserving, that is, provided it becomes 

 a positive factor in the conservation of human energy. 



As has already been suggested, there is a great deal more in- 

 volved in making a good farmer than in the teaching of scien- 

 tific agriculture. Mr. Benjamin Kidd has done well to empha- 

 size the importance of moral qualities as compared with intel- 

 lectual achievements. In the first place, intellectual achieve- 

 ments, or their results, can only be utilized where there is a sane 

 and wholesome morality as a basis. In the second place, the 

 results of intellectual achievement of one race or one man may 

 be borrowed freely by the rest of the world, provided the rest 

 of the world have the moral qualities which will enable them to 

 profit by them; whereas moral qualities can not be borrowed 

 from one race by another. Japan, for example, could easily 

 borrow from European nations the art of modern warfare, to- 

 gether with its instruments of destruction ; but it did not borrow, 

 and could not borrow, that splendid courage and discipline which 

 enabled her to utilize so efficiently the inventions which she bor- 

 rowed. So, one nation can easily borrow farm machinery and 

 modern methods of agriculture, but it cannot borrow the moral 

 qualities which will enable it to profit by them. Saying nothing 

 of mental alertness and willingness to learn, which might be 

 classed as mental rather than moral, it could not borrow that 

 patient spirit of toil, nor that sturdy self-reliance, nor that fore- 

 thought which sacrifices present enjoyment to future profit, nor 

 can it borrow that spirit of mutual helpfulness which is so essen- 

 tial to any effective rural work. Again, a nation cannot easily 

 borrow a sane and sober reason, a willingness to trust to its own 

 care in preparing the soil rather than to the blessing of the priest 

 upon the fields, nor can it borrow a general spirit of enterprise 

 which ventures out upon plans and projects which approve them- 

 selves to the reason. And, finally, it cannot borrow that love 

 for the soil, and the great outdoors and the growing crops, and 

 the domestic animals which marks every successful rural people. 

 These things have to be developed in the soil, to be bred into the 

 bone and fiber of the people ; and they are the first requisites for 

 good farming. After them come scientific knowledge. In the 

 development of such moral qualities as these the church has been, 

 and may become again, the most effective agency. 



