OCR Text |
Show 'tuc niinAi Wit iiusskl uH linen THE FARMERS THE CUSTODIANS , OF THE NATION'S MORALITY. I ! Co-operation of Church, School and Press Essential to Community Building. By Peter Radford Lecturer National Farmers' Union. The church, the press and the school form a triple alliance of progress that guides the destiny of every community, commun-ity, stare and nation. W ithout them civilization would wither and die and through them life may attain its greatest great-est blessing, power and knowledge. The farmers of this nation are greatly indebted to this social triumvirate for their uplifting influence, and on behalf of the American plowmen I want to thank those engaged in these high callings for their able and efficient service, and I shall offer to the press a series of articles on co-operation between these important influences and the farmers in the hope of in-I in-I creasing the eiiicieacy of all by mu-j mu-j tual understanding and organized effort. ef-fort. We will take up, lirst, the rural church. The Farmers Are Great Church Build ers. The American farmer is the greatest church builder the world has ever known. He is the custodian of the nation's morality; upon his shoulders rests the "ark of the covenant" and he is more responsive to religious influences in-fluences than any other class of citizenship. cit-izenship. The farmers of this nation have built 120,000 churches at a cost of $750,000,000, and the annual contribution contribu-tion of the nation toward all church institutions approximates $200,000,000 per annum. The farmers of the United Uni-ted States build 22 churches per day. There are 20,000,000 rural church communicants com-municants on the farm, and 54 per cent of the total membership of all churches reside in the country. The farm is the power-house of all progress and the birthplace of all that is noble. The Garden of Eden was in the country and the man who would get close to God must first get close to nature. The Functions of a Rural Church. If the rural churches today are going go-ing to render a service w hich this age demands, there must be co-operation between the religious, social and economic eco-nomic life of the community. The church to attain its fullest measure meas-ure of success must enrich the Uvea of the people in the community it serves; it must build character; develop devel-op thought and increase the efficiency of human life. It must serve the social, so-cial, busiress and intellectual, as well as the spiritual and moral side of life. If religion does not make a man more capable, more useful and more just, what good is it? We want a practical religion, one we can live by and farm by, as well as die by. Fewer and Better Churches. Elessed is that rural community which has but one place of worship. While competition is the life of trade, it is death to the rural church and morai starvation to the community. Petty sectarianism is a scourge that blights the life, and the church prejudice preju-dice saps the vitality, of many communities. com-munities. An over-churched community commun-ity is a crime against religion, a serious seri-ous handicap to society and a useless tax upon agriculture. While denominations are essential and church pride commendable, the high teaching of universal Christianity must prevail if the rural church is to fulfill its mission to agriculture. We frequently have three or four churches in a community which is not able to adequately support one Sijj.al) congregations attend services once a month and all fail to perform the religious re-ligious functions of the community. The division of religious forces and the breaking into fragments of moral efforts is ofttimes little less than a calamity and defeats the very purpose they seek to promote. The evils of too many churches can be minimized by co-operation. The social and economic life of a rural community are respective units and cannot be successfully divided by denominational de-nominational lines, and the churches can cnly occupy this important field by co-operation and co-ordination. The efficient country church will definitely serve its community by leading lead-ing in all worthy efforts at community building. In uniting the "people in all co-operative endeavors for the general gen-eral welfare of the community and in arousing a real love for country life ' and loyalty to the country home and these results can only be successfully ! accomplished by the .united effort of the press, the school the church and organized farmers |