210 RURAL LIFE IN CANADA 



done, and not according to field of labor. There is one 

 department of our work in which this is the case the 

 foreign field. We do not say Japan is a more impor- 

 tant field than Korea, India than China, and group 

 men accordingly. Yet we do say city and suburban 

 congregations are important, the hamlet unimportant; 

 and rate men's standing by such criteria. Even the 

 efficiency of the renowned pastor whose prosperous 

 cause scarce keeps pace with the suburb's growth may 

 conceivably be less than that of the unknown pastor 

 whose rural charge more than holds its relative place 

 among the institutions of the country community. But 

 let us disregard altogether this equation, and note only 

 that the solid achievements in world-service of country- 

 bred men constitute an historical vindication of the 

 worth of rural service which renders all other vindica- 

 tion superfluous. We make no special plea for the 

 country ministry ; we postulate equality in recognition 

 of worth in every field of service. Judged by present 

 standards Labrador would be rated an unimportant 

 field ; service, and not parish, is the ground upon which 

 Wilfred Grenfell is appraised among the King's 

 laborers. 



Coming now nearer the heart of our subject, we 

 discover that the Christian ministry in the country con- 

 stitutes to-day a call to men of the best type. Even 

 were country life to become a by-product of civiliza- 

 tion, successful Christian service there, judged from the 

 modern standpoint of the value of by-products, would 

 be of prime importance. Its presence or its absence 

 would still be the decisive factor in determining the 

 worth of Christianity to the world. But country life 

 is no mere by-product. President Butterfield, of 



