n he had stated the case and the
reasons why this large owner should give to the country church on his
acres, the man promptly said, "You have stated what I never before
realized and I will give you a contribution of one hundred dollars per
year for that church until you hear from me to the contrary."

In contrast to this there is in Central Illinois a large estate of five
thousand acres. The owner lives in a distant city and his son tills the
land. It is known among the neighbors that the son has orders to oppose
all improvements of churches and of schools, "because there is no money
for us in the church or the school."

It is useless to complain of the position in which a man is. The
minister's duty is to utilize him in his own status and to enable him to
practise the virtues which are open to him. The retired farmer can
become an active and devoted evangelist, preacher or organizer. He
should be made a leader in the intellectual development of the farmer's
problem of the region. He has leisure and intelligence and is often a
devout man. It is the business of the minister to transform this into
religious and social efficiency. The temperance movement in the Middle
West has had generous and devoted support from the retired farmers
living in the towns. The families of these one time farmers are seeking
after culture. The literary and aesthetic aspects of the community can
well be committed to members of these families. Their value for the
community is probably in these directions. Above all it is the business
of the minister to sympathize with the life they are living and to
enable them to live it to the highest advantage.

The energies of the church should be devoted to the tenant farmer. Of
this more will be said in another place. He also must be treated in
sympathy with his social and economic experience and the religious
service rendered to him must be the complete betterment of his life as
he is trying to live it. He is not a sinner because he is a tenant and
what he does as a tenant is therefore not a misdemeanor, but a normal
reaction upon life. The church can help him in purging his life from the
iniquities peculiar to a tenant and a dependent. The noblest motives
must be brought out and the life he is to live should be given its own
ideals.

Above all the period of exploitation must be understood by the teacher
and the preacher to be a preparation, a transition through which country
people are coming to org