STUDENTS AM) THE RUKAL PROBLEM 213 



community itself. Here is a class larger in numbers 

 than any other, professional or mercantile or industrial, 

 larger than all other classes taken together; a class 

 engaged in the most necessary of all callings that of 

 providing the people's daily bread ; a class more depend- 

 ent upon itself alone for all the possibilities of attain- 

 ment and satisfaction in life than is any other class. 

 This class is in danger of failing to provide itself with 

 leaders through whom to exert its influence in the con- 

 trol of national affairs, to say nothing of guidance in 

 local matters ; in danger of viewing its own calling with 

 disdain and fleeing from its environment in disgust. 

 The chief call, along this line of risk of failure, is a 

 call to uphold the finest Christian civilization in the 

 country for the rural community's own sake. 



Flowers of Thy heart, O God, are they.* 



And shall they who stand, a wall of fire, around their 

 much-loved land fail, and you take not heed ? Shall 

 they cease to march in the van in physical vigor, in 

 material advance, in intellectual power, in social pro- 

 gress, in moral strength, or in spiritual life, and no 

 clarion call be heard therein by the very strongest men 

 who enter the ministry? 



But the call for the best comes still more definitely 

 through possibilities of achievement. In the city you 

 may minister to a limited number of the leaders of 

 to-day. In the country you may call forth the empire- 

 builders and founders of the kingdom of many to-mor- 

 rows. And in the country itself great events are at 

 hand. The Country Life Movement itself calls for 

 you. It is evident that our agricultural colleges and 



* Ebenezer Elliott, Hymn, " God Save the People." 



