No. 4.] RURxVL PROGRESS. 147 



You need them as spokesmen of the farmers' wishes, and in 

 order that they may bring the class influence and class intel- 

 ligence to bear upon the general question of citizenship and 

 development of our American civilization . 



Finally, the church. The country church oft'ers a hard 

 pro])lem. Most of the country churches are small, and 

 must have very small financial resources. Many of the 

 country parishes are regarded as undesirable. Sectarianism 

 is one of the worst foes of the country church. There are 

 too many churches. I wish we could have in every com- 

 munity one strong, united church. I regard the question 

 of the rural church as equally vital with any of these others 

 I have mentioned, and I l)elieve, for one, that there lies 

 before the church in our rural districts one of the most 

 splendid opportunities that the church has anywhere. And 

 the time has come when the church as a whole ought to take 

 hold of this question of the country church ; ought to realize 

 that the country church has a function not only in trying to 

 save individual souls, but it has a function also in trying 

 to bring about better conditions generally in the farming 

 communities. The country church is intimately related to 

 all the other elements of rural prosperity. I don't believe 

 the church anyAvhere is so closely related to the industrial 

 development of the country as it is in the rural districts. 

 You can't maintain a good church, if you have a deca- 

 dent agriculture ; and if you have a i)rosperous agriculture, 

 it doesn't follow that vou Avill have a g'ood church. The 

 rural parish offers a field of service scarcely efjualled. The 

 pastor who Avill train himself for the country parish, who 

 will seek to know something about the problems of the 

 farm, in addition to all his theological training, has a rare 

 opportunity. 



In what does thejcampaign for rural progress consist? In 

 the first place, we must understand what we are "driving 

 at." All of us, whether we are in the church, the grange, 

 the board of agriculture, the college, or are "just farmers," 

 must understand that the goal of rural progress is not merely 

 business success to the individual farmer, not merely the in- 

 dustrial prosperity of the business, not merely a better rural 



