ity. Our rural population
is confronted with a form of Christianity which does not civilize. Since
the corruption of the best thing is the worst thing, it may be fairly
stated that Christianity is receiving an unfair treatment in a
professedly Christian country from a professedly Christian people.

(3) Funds being inadequate to support country churches, and men
qualified to fill them being few even if funds were at hand, there
follows as a necessity the _employment of unqualified men_ to fill
vacancies. So pressing is the need for preachers that in many cases any
kind of men rather than no men at all seems to be the best that can be
done. Hence some men accept appointments for what they can get out of
them. Fitness in any form is out of the question in many of these
appointments. The country churches have therefore become the dumping
ground where pastors sink or swim. There too may be found a host of
immoral preachers. This fact in itself creates a prejudice in the minds
of a class of preachers against accepting country appointments. It is
only the few who are strongly imbued with a missionary spirit that are
willing to labor and lift up the standard in the interest of God and
fallen humanity. One of the surest ways of breaking down this prejudice
is for the churches to send some of their best men to country churches
and provide for their support. Missionary societies aiming at best
results send some of their best men as pioneers and bishops to the
heathen. It is only by a selective method of appointing men to our
country churches that these places can be reclaimed from heathenism and
immorality. It is only then that the "wilderness and the solitary place
shall be glad, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose."

III. THE NEGRO MINISTRY.

One of the defects of the Negro Church is the defect in the culture of
its ministry. In spite of all that has been said and done to create
prejudice against the higher education of the Negro, statistics have
failed everywhere to show that our schools have turned out a large
percentage of College or University graduates. There are a few College
or University graduates in the ranks of our ministry. A larger
percentage has failed even to get through a High School course. The
defect in scholarship and culture constitutes a grave problem in our
church life. The leader of a people must be a man of broad culture, wide
sympathies, and in touch with all the varied interests of t