CHAPTER XV 



THE COUNTRY CHURCH 



TEN YEARS IN A COUNTRY CHURCH * 



MATTHEW B. MC NUTT 



THE simple story of a decade of ministerial work, such as the 

 magazine has requested me to write, is this : 



One cold Saturday morning in February, 1900, a seminary 

 fellow-studenj; chanced to meet me. 



"Hello, Mac," he said, "don't you want to preach to-morrow, 

 thirty miles out of Chicago? I have two appointments." 



I told him that I would go. I boarded the first train and 

 landed about noon in Naperville, 111. I was met at the station 

 by an old gentleman whom I took to be a farmer. I was right, 

 and he informed me that his church was six miles in the coun- 

 try. This was rather unwelcome news, for the day was dis- 

 agreeable and I was not clad for such a drive ; but I was treated 

 to a good dinner and we made the venture. The good roads at- 

 tracted my attention at once, and my farmer friend told me 

 that all the roads were thus paved with gravel. And such 

 splendid farm-buildings as we passed I had never before seen 

 on my travels. "We saw horses and cattle that looked as if they 

 had just come from a state fair. My expectations had risen high 

 at what I had observed and I was eager to see that country 

 church. 



At last it hove in sight a very plain structure, built half a 

 century before, with a single room and with surroundings that 

 gave a stranger the impression that the church was the last 

 thing in the community to receive any consideration. It was 

 altogether incommensurate with its thrifty surroundings. The 

 fences about the manse and church-lots had toppled over, and 

 the old horse-sheds were an eye-sore to every passerby. The 



i Adapted from World's Work, 21 : 13761-13766, December, 1910. 



411 



