214 RURAL LIFE IN CANADA 



many other agencies have begun a crusade for a better 

 rural economy. Modern progress helps it forward 

 with the rural telephone and mail delivery ; the Domin- 

 ion and Provincial Governments are seeking means of 

 fostering it; the educational forces are contributing 

 richly; even the railway companies are sending out 

 their Better Farming Specials. The moments of the 

 movement are agricultural science, vocational education, 

 farmers' co-operation, supervised recreation, community 

 organization. That crusade needs the Christian Church 

 at its very heart if it is to be spared the blight of 

 materialism. Frederick Almy, Secretary of the Char- 

 ity Organization Soi'i'ity of America, says: " The social 

 gospel is being preached from every sort of pulpit, the 

 stage, the pages of the novel, the magazine ; until it is 

 a wonder that the public will stand so much of it. 

 There are signs of a reaction, and I fear for the future 

 unless social work becomes less utilitarian. It is 

 attacking those old enemies of mankind, ignorance and 

 disease, with such sledge-hammer blows that they are 

 weakening visibly. But its agencies are too material, 

 and social work needs unspeakably the inspiration and 

 the interpretation of its message which the church alone 

 can give. ... Its success depends upon whether it 

 can get itself adopted by the church in every hamlet 

 and cross-roads. ... If through this alliance the 

 modern social movement with its gospel of adequate 

 opportunity sweeps the country, it will mean such an 

 uplift for neglected humanity as will go far toward 

 social reconstruction." 



Gentlemen, there is in that a proffered alliance, a task 

 in leadership to stir the pulses of the best. And if the 

 movement beckons, still more does its outcome. That I 



