THE COUNTRY CHURCH 433 



organization or person whose business it is to know about it. 

 Consequently decadence and degeneration may go on in an exten- 

 sive territory without any responsible body or responsible person 

 becoming aware of it. The defectiveness of the organization of 

 the church, as a whole, therefore, demands our serious considera- 

 tion and the application of a remedy. On the other hand the 

 promise in a movement such as is now on foot under the auspices 

 of the Ohio Rural Life Association and its Committee on Inter- 

 church Cooperation is a cause for congratulation. It may be pre- 

 sumed that in some areas conditions existing to-day would never 

 have come to pass had the church, itself, as a whole, been aware 

 of what was going on. 



Areas of the most pronounced ecclesiastical decline and moral 

 degeneration are found in some of the eastern, southeastern and 

 southern counties. A striking illustration of the failure of our 

 present church organization appears in one of these southern 

 counties. The aim of the typical and most influential religious 

 leaders in this county is to stir up an emotional excitement with- 

 out regard to its effect upon character. These religious leaders 

 apparently are not conscious of an ethical end. By the use of 

 music well adapted to the end sought, by adaptation of the voice, 

 sometimes even by the use of the hypnotic eye and suggestion of 

 emotional experience to be expected, an excitement is produced 

 which is accepted as a substitute for the more worthy aims of 

 religion. They report additions to the membership of the 

 churches and even the organization and building of churches. 

 The so-called evangelist at the end of a period of protracted meet- 

 ings leaves the locality having accomplished no good thing. He 

 returns period after period, season after season, year after year 

 and the same activities are repeated. This has displaced a more 

 wholesome type of church life with disastrous results to the com- 

 munity. For at least fifteen years this type of religion has been 

 gaining in popular favor, while it is displacing other forms of 

 religious activities. 



In the year 1883 there were 96 churches in this county. In the 

 following thirty years there were 1,500 religious revivals or on an 

 average fifty each year. During that period there was a decline 

 of no less than five hundred in the membership of the churches, 

 while thirty-four churches were abandoned ; the production of 



