0 1 THE C HURCH THE THC FARMERS THE custodians OF THE NATIONS MORALITY cooperation of church school and cress press Evant lal to community building by peter radord radford lecturer Lc national farmer farmers union the church the press and the school form a triple alliance of progress that guides the destin of every commin ity state and nation without them civilization would wither and die dle and through them life may attain ite its great eat blessing power poser and knowledge the farmere of thie this nation are greatly indebted to thie this social triumvirate for their uplifting influence and on behalf of the american merican 4 plowmen I 1 want to thank those engaged in these high a blass tor for their able and efficient s and I 1 shall offer off er to the press a series of articles artl clea on cooperation between these important influence and find the farmer farmers in the hope of in creating creasing the em efficiency clency of all by mu understanding and organized sed ef tort fort we will sill take up first the rural church the farmer farmers are great church build en erg the american farmer Is I 1 the greatest church builder the world has ever known he Is the custodian of the nation nations morality upon his shoulders rests the ark of the covenant and be he ie Is more responsive to religious in fluentes luen fluen cea ces than any other class of citizenship iz the farmers of this nation have built ebur churches ches at a cost of and the annual con tribu tion of the nation toward all church institutions approximates per annum the farmers of the ted states build 22 churches per pier day there are rural church corn com muni cants on the farm and 61 per ent of the total membership of all ail zhur hurches ches reside in the country the farm ie Is the powerhouse of all progress rocress and the birthplace of all that Is noble the garden of eden was in the country and the man who would get et close lose c to god must first get gel close to nature the functions of a rural church if it the rural churches today are am go ng to render a service which this age lalands lAn ands there must be operation cooperation co duperat ion the religious social and eco comic life of the community the church to attain Us its fullest mess ire of success must enrich the lives of t the people in the community it jerves serves it must build character c ar acter devel op thought and increase the enc tency of human life it must serve the social business add intellectual as well as the spiritual and an moral rido oldo of life if religion does not make a man more ei cli pable more useful and more just what good if ir it we want a practical religion one we can live by and farm by as well as die dle by fewer and beep batter churche churches assed Is that rurel community which h bas but one claie of worship while competition Is the life of trade it Is death to tuc tle rural church and moral starvation to the community petty sectarianism Is a a that blights the life and the church dice saps tae tile vitality of many corn com m inck an over churched comman ity la Is a crime against religion a seri sert ou handicap to society and a useless tax upon agriculture while denominations are essential and church pride commendable the high teaching of fat universal christianity must prevail if the rural ruml church Is to tufail its mission to agriculture we frequently have three or 1 four our churches in a R community coment anity which is not able to adequately upp art rt due ono small congregations attend services sar vices once a month and all fall to perform the religious functions of the community the division of religious forces and the breaking tre aking into fragments of moral efforts Is little less than calamity and defeats the very purpose they seek to promote the evils of too many churches can be by cooperation the I 1 todil 1 and economic life of a rum rural community coa are respective units and cannot be successfully divided by de lines and the churches can call only occupy this important field by cooperation and ordination coordination co the efficient country church will serve its community by lead ing in all ail worthy efforts at community In bu illIng in uniting the tho people in all operative cooperative co endeavors for the genera welfare of the community and in alu using a nal love for country life and loyalty ty lo 10 the country home and these results can boniv be b 0 successfully luef accomplished by the tte united effort of the press the school the church and organ lied farmers