by highly-paid local secretaries, but by enlisting and training
volunteer service; not by patronage and coddling but by arousing and
directing the boy's own active interests; always remembering that by the
grace of God the redemptive forces in each community must be the resident
forces.

It is good policy to make the county the geographical unit of this
effective work. The county is the social unit politically, industrially,
commercially; it should also be the unit of religious endeavor,
particularly in rural sections. A county-wide campaign for righteousness
under the direction of a trained Association Secretary, usually a college
trained man and an expert in rural life, is a great thing for any county.
Every rural county in the land ought to be organized speedily to get the
benefit of this business-like modern plan of Christian service. The
difficulty is to discover, enlist and train the necessary leaders.

_A Campaign of Rural Leadership_

It is doubtful if there is any organization working for the betterment of
rural life which has a better chance to serve the interests of the whole
countryside to-day than the Rural Young Men's Christian Association. It
represents a united Christendom, being representative of all the churches
and their right arm in social service. In a county where there may be
twenty-nine varieties of churches, few of them strong enough for any
aggressive work, and most of them mutually jealous and suspicious, the
Rural Association Secretary comes in as a neutral, is soon welcome in
churches of every name and gradually gains great influence. He is possibly
a better trained man than most pastors in the county, and as he quietly
develops his work they discover that he is a man who knows rural life,
keeps abreast of the best agricultural science, is an expert in rural
sociology and in the psychology of adolescence. He rapidly gathers the
facts about the history and the present needs of the different townships
in the county and constructs a policy for developing a finer local life,
not only among the boys but the entire community.

If he stays long enough in the place, and is a man of the right sort, he
speedily grows into a position of recognized leadership, gaining the
confidence of the working farmers as a man of good sense, and of the
professional men because he understands scientifically the underlying
needs of the locality. Quite likely he is able to bring the ministers
together in a county