d the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood
of man as the norm of human relationships, and who thought man's
relation to man should be the expression of his loyalty to their common
Father, will ever furnish the strongest spiritual dynamic for the best
community life, for the whole community movement is but one means toward
the realization of His ideal of the Kingdom of God on earth. Indeed so
keen a mind as the late Professor Josiah Royce has interpreted the
spirit of the early church and the ultimate aim of Christianity as that
of "the beloved community."[52] Though it may require new equipment and
new methods to meet the changed conditions of modern life, the mission
of religion to interpret the highest values of life will ever make it
the motive force of community life, the heart of the community. As Dr.
E. DeS. Brunner has well said, "The aim of the country church movement
is not to substitute anything for the Gospel. It is to assist in
expressing the best religion of the ages in terms of the best spirit of
the age."[53]

FOOTNOTES:

[51] "The Evolution of the Country Community," p. 63. Boston, The
Pilgrim Press, 1912.

[52] Cf. "The Problem of Christianity."

[53] "The Country Church in the New World Order," p. 39.

CHAPTER XII

THE COMMUNITY'S HEALTH

In the early days in which the country was but sparsely settled,
sickness, except for epidemics of such diseases as smallpox and yellow
fever, was regarded as an individual affair. In recent years
bacteriology and medical science have revealed the causes of many
diseases and the manner in which they are spread. With a denser
population and with more frequent contacts as a result of better
transportation, the possibility of contagion has very largely increased
and we now appreciate that the health of the family--even of the rural
family--cannot be maintained without attention to the health of the
community as a whole. Good health has become a responsibility of the
community.

The rapid growth of cities in the last fifty years has forced them to
take measures for the preservation of health, and public health
administration has become a distinct branch of medical science. It is
the health problems which have arisen in the congested sections of our
large cities, and those which are due to a sedentary life or to
unhealthful conditions of certain trades and industries, which have
incited the discoveries of medical science and which have created a new
at