h between individuals of the class, and between farmers and
the dwellers in the town and city.

These social needs are in some degree met by the farmers' organizations,
by the rural and agricultural schools, and by the development of new
means of communication. There is a host of minor agencies. In other
chapters I have tried to show how these various institutions are
endeavoring to meet these rural needs. So important are these factors of
rural life that we may now raise the question, What should be the
relation of the rural church to these needs and to the agencies designed
to meet them? In dealing with this phase of the subject, we may best
speak of the church most frequently in terms of the pastor, for reasons
that may appear as we go on.

There are three things the country pastor may do in order to bring his
church into vital contact with these great sociological movements. Of
course he _may_ ignore them, but that is church suicide. (1) He may
recognize them. This means first of all to understand them, to
appreciate their influence. There is a law of the division of labor that
applies to institutions as well as to individuals. This law helps us to
understand how such institutions as the Grange and farmers' institutes
are doing a work that the church cannot do. They are doing a work that
needs doing. They are serving human need. No pastor can afford to ignore
them, much less in sneer at them as unclean; he may well apply the
lesson of Peter's vision, and accept them as ministers of the kingdom.
(2) He may encourage and stimulate them. The rural pastor may throw
himself into the van of those who strive for better farming, for a
quicker social life, for more adequate educational facilities. He can
well take up the role of promoter--a promoter of righteousness and peace
through so-called secular means. Thus shall he perform the highest
function of the prophet--to spiritualize and glorify the common. But the
rural pastor can go even farther. (3) He may co-operate with them. He
may thus assist in uniting with the church all of those other agencies
that make for rural progress, and thus secure a "federation," if not "of
the world," at least of all the forces that are helping to solve the
farm problem; and he may thus found a "parliament," if not "of man," at
least of all who believe that the rural question is worth solving and
that no one movement is sufficient to solve it.

We come now to the most practical part of our