Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1886-07-02
RrADJusrMENr IN THE CHURCH
TO suit the Needs of Country Towns.


before the recent American Church Con
grcss at Cleveland, OhO
The needs of country towns demanding
reimbursement in the church are chiefly
from two causes. Modern social changes
have produced some of them, and others
arise from misrepresentation of the coun-
try town and its religious needs on the one
hand, and on the other from misconcep
ton of her own institutions by the church
itself. The wording Of my subject pre-
clIides the necessity of any reference in
this paper to the need of more efforts of
the kind we now have, as the emphasis is
upon readjustment and snail speak of
existing needs without regard to the par
tcular time of their orlglu. This subject
is so great for the time allotted me That
have resolved to bring forward three or
four considerations in "A line of study ana
treatment which seem most likely to yield
the best results.
/. All effort at reimbursement in the
church life of country towns should begin
with II comprehensive knowledge OF the
facts as they now are
The insignillcance of the little country
towns is forgotten the moment we con
slider them in the egate. Upon add
ing up the figures OF the last census ma
that nearly Il per cent of all the people IN
the United States 1--we in towns having
less than 1900 Inhabitants in the entire
township. But this includes the south
and the western frontier. Let me, then,
take the II northern states east of the MIS-
sissppi river. These states contained in
1850 little over one-half the population
of the entire country, and is the region OF
great cities and large towns. But even
here 81 per cent of the 2jOOO,OOO lived IN
towns of less than 1000 inhabitants. There
were more people in these IL states living
in townships of less than 20OO inhabitants
/ than there were in all the towns of 1000
and upwards, including all the cities, and
| this by Il round million. That is to say,
/ there were about l,0OO0OO of people in
/ Towns OF less than 2OOO In New England
there were 100000 or 30 per cent Of the
| whole population in New York the pro-
| portion is about one-third, or more than
/ the entire population of New \ Ork city {;
/ in PENNSYLVANIA | estimate it at fully two
/ tifths in Ohio the actual figures make il
/ over ne-halt and the estimate for India
/ ma is twothirds, and for Illinois nearly
/ three-tilths. 1t has been said that we seek
/ men and not acres, and 50 must aim at
/ the centres in the great cities But the
men are on the acres. The cities draw
largely from the rural districts Even in
these II thickly settled states the majority
are on the acres and in the little villages
OF less than 2OO0 as soon as we 90 west of
. PENNSYLVANIA. And there We're nearly
five millions in the smallest sized towns |
have named east of ONO III lNNO.
secondly, ! suggest that the ideals OF the
church be examined for the sake of amOre
exact grasp of them. Among these are
the opinions, more or less common, that
the church is designed 20 be one body and
/ not many that Its standard of efficiency
/ Is reached only when tins becomes true
practically if not formally ; that It's true
aim il to establish the kingdom of God in
and through Christ on this earth that it
seeks to recover the entire life of all men
TO its divine ends and that 1t thus aims
at the most comprehensive social rs well
as individual cOnquests. These are the
/ pustulates of many Christians in their
work. But notifications or theories con
Trajectory to them exist and control much
action.
3. ACCOMPLISHMENTS in the church in rural
towns should proceed upon knowlege of
the sociological structure Of these com
/ munities and its significance to practical
/ Christianity. This course is necessary to
a real understanding of the facts. Prac-
teal Christianity does not in these days
| overlook the economic, intellectual and
/ ethical condition of people. And II can
not afford TO ignore their social state gen
orally
The reimbursement of the church in coun-
try towns must take the measurements of
this new and vet ever old society with the
best Instruments science puts into its
hands.
1t must attend to another thing-the
presence of the family and its relative
place in rural life. The family is every
where found in the country town and on the
whole is more nearly its old and seeming
~ abiding self than any other social III
stitutiOn. For after all its surrender of it,
earlier functions to the industrial system
of the times, to the school, the churcl
and the state, and its consequent loss OF
recognized function and possibly actua
decline of power, the family is eVerywher,
. on the ground and less changed than any
other social institution IN country lite.
/ 4. The church should examine her owl
= organization from this same point of view
! If she has not comprehended the sOcia
a order of her field it may also be true tina
she has not understood the social struc
n ture and Limitation of The institution
a which has been her great instrument-th
: local church. This has not been studied
- in comparison with other social institu
n tons with the light of the discoveries o
/ the last 20 years.
G The differentlaulng process of Protes
n tant theology and polity has gone on unit
we now hear a cry for relief, though tn
: movements have wrought out the separa
4 ton of church and state and led to large
e views of our common faiths. And tn
: demands or common humanity for praC
n teal work enforce the appeal for bette
organization. Refrigeration is the Nee
o of the times.
e But to meet this need we have the II
/ Vered but tos>iliZed ecclesiastical nstitu
n ton of tie early Christian centuries. bon
= roWed largely from the Jewish Synagogu
e and the Greek assembly or perhap, charit
able associations of early times, but ful
n of serious defects when applied to rur,
o societies. This form of the early churcl
n il suCiOlogicallY sound when tested for tn
e work of a new faith in a dcnsely Lpula
Y ted civilization which necessarily work
from centres outward into regions OF com