174 RURAL LIFE IN CANADA 



tation of the church to her task throughout the country, 

 calls for the setting free of efficiency unencumbered by 

 the brakes of denominational rivalry. In communities 

 where different denominations became established half 

 a century ago, where commodious church buildings 

 were erected forty years ago, designed to accommo- 

 date larger congregations than then existed, where 

 depletion of population commenced thirty years ago 

 and has already carried off one-third of the population 

 for which those churches were built, as imperative a 

 situation is found as any demanding co-operation in the 

 home mission field. 



And the logic of the situation points to organic union. 

 There appears no practical reason why the Presbyterian 

 Church in Canada and the Presbyterian Church in the 

 United States should unite organically. Their duty 

 might be to federate for the solution of similar prob- 

 lems. But where several churches serve one community, 

 where their work interlaces, organic union, if possible, 

 is the rational course. As well divide our school work 

 sectarianly and hope to have it efficient; as well have 

 three competing schools in each hamlet; as well have 

 Children in the open country pass by a school or two in 

 order to attend that of their grandfather's preference, 

 and expect a scholarly community, with education effi- 

 ciently applied to life, as hope for the best results reli- 

 giously in serving our farmers' homes by our divided 

 church life. 



Some fear that the absence of competition would 

 lessen the church's activity. One of the most fruitful 

 of modern conceptions is that of the efficiency engineer. 

 He examines the expenditure of labor in a trade that 

 of the bricklayer, for instance, and points out how by 

 different movements of the hand and trowel labor may 



