ld have to be raised by the
stronger churches in the district to accomplish this result; but in the
very first year only $1,000 of this sum was actually required. As soon as
the movement was made public, many of the weaker churches developed
courage and grit enough to raise their own pastor's salary to a
respectable figure, and maintained their self-respect. Other churches are
expected to do the same next year.

At the writer's urgent suggestion, in a public address last fall, a
Michigan church, paying its minister only $350 a year, raised the salary
to $800 and secured a bright young college graduate as pastor. They now
report that it is just as easy to finance the church on the present
self-respecting basis as it was to run a cheap church last year!

9. _A Liberal Financial Policy_

This reminds us very forcibly that one factor essential to country church
success is a liberal financial policy. In the smaller country churches we
seldom find any business policy, and no plan at all for the future. The
most common method is the annual subscription paper, with special
subscriptions for repairs or emergencies. The motive is apparently strict
economy rather than efficiency. It never pays to run a cheap church, for
it cheapens the whole enterprise. More and more the weekly-payment pledge
system is coming into use and with it a careful planning of the budget at
the beginning of the year, guided by an earnest purpose to keep the church
business-like, the minister promptly paid, the property well in repair and
the enterprise spiritually successful. Often the new consecration of the
pocket-book has been the first symptom of a thorough-going revival.

10. _Adequate Equipment_

A large proportion of country churches are simply one-room buildings. This
explains many failures. In order to serve the community at all adequately,
the church must have social rooms for a variety of neighborhood purposes,
and it must make provision for its Sunday school. About four-fifths of the
boys and girls in the Sunday schools of America live in the rural
districts. They should be given good rooms. Without an effective building
for social and educational purposes,--a parish house or at least a
vestry,--the country church is seriously handicapped. With a good
equipment the church often becomes the social center for the whole
neighborhood.

11. _A Masculine Lay Leadership Developed and Trained_

It takes more than a minister to make a churc