s just
entering into the day of cash. The period of barter is over. The farmer
therefore needs in his ethical and his religious training, to have
definite culture as a philanthropist. The future of the farm-hand in
America is still very hopeful. The tenant farmer expects to be an owner.
The farmer's son believes himself to have a future. These hopes from
earliest years should be disciplined by the practise of giving. For this
end the church is a rarely well fitted means. The financial system of
the church must be made democratic. The custom of renting pews belonged
in the land-farmer period. The writer does not suggest that it be
abolished because it can often serve a more democratic purpose in its
mature forms under careful supervision than any substitute, but it is
all important that the country church be a training-school in the
consecration of money to the uses of the community and of the kingdom of
God.

For the average countryman the kingdom of God should be embodied in the
country community. This is not to say that his vision should be narrow.
On the contrary his vision is often of the spread-eagle sort. He
overlooks the opportunities for benevolence which are near at hand. He
believes in foreign missions sometimes, and contributes impulsively to
the support of men in China who are paid a better salary than the pastor
in his own community. He applauds the gifts of millionaires and of city
people generally to hospitals, but he ignores the ravages of disease in
his own community. The divine imperative is that the country community
be first organized, by those who live there, for local well-being. For
this, contributions of money are necessary and they must be made by all
in the community.

The question has been raised frequently whether an endowment is not
necessary for the country church. The writer began his ministry in a
country church which was generously endowed. He still believes in the
value of endowment for some country communities. Ex-President Eliot of
Harvard recently commended the principle of endowment to the New England
Country Church Association, as a solution of the rural problem.
President Butterfield of Massachusetts Agricultural College has
emphasized the same principle. It is quite likely that in the Eastern
States where the country community has been depleted by the departure of
an extraordinary number of families and individuals, an endowment would
be of value for the country church. One mus