THE COUNTRY CHURCH 425 



tian leader and his family ; and the result is that the church de- 

 clines and then dies. In fact, the churches in the towns of the 

 corn belt are largely built up by the removal of members of 

 country churches to the towns. 



The farms are becoming larger, and the population of the rural 

 community smaller and more unstable because of tenantry. The 

 population remaining is divided up into various denominations 

 and sects through difference of opinion about church government 

 and baptism and other things, the inheritance of a past genera- 

 tion. 



There are two remedies for this condition, one industrial and 

 the other spiritual. Neither is capable of instant application, but 

 each is certainly applicable in the somewhat distant future. The 

 first is such a system of leasing as will make the tenant a reason- 

 ably permanent citizen in the community, in other words, longer 

 leases. Tenancy is not in itself an evil, but uncertainty of tenure 

 and short leases are evils that vex humanity. We cannot expect 

 to see a prosperous rural church until the tenant can make some 

 arrangement with his landlord by which he can stay on the same 

 farm indefinitely, take root in the community, become an active 

 member of the church, and make of his children real members of 

 the Sunday-school and rural school. Economic causes themselves 

 will force upon the landowner this system of longer leases. The 

 constant decrease of soil fertility through the bad farming of 

 the short-lease tenant and the fact now becoming evident that it 

 it more profitable to the enterprising farmer to rent land than 

 to own it, must work for the greater permanency of the tenant. 

 The first will wipe out speculation and reduce land values in the 

 richer sections until it will be possible for the tenant by renting 

 land to become the owner of the land. This will give us a stable 

 population and greatly increase the efficiency of the rural church. 



The second remedy is in the change of view of the Christian 

 ideal. We must now get back to the original Christian idea: that 

 salvation is for every man and for every part of the man body, 

 soul, and spirit; that it involves loving "thy neighbor as thy- 

 self," and cooperation in every good work instead of competition. 

 A church united on the fundamentals, and with a reasonably per- 

 manent tenure of lands by ownership or lease, will enable us in 

 time to build up a civilization on the prairies and the cleared 



