The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1897-10-07
How to Build up Country Churches.
Rev. Theodore L. Cuyler, D. D.

hoV. 1IoOuOr6 II. Cuyl6r, ". u.
How to bring the masses in our large
towns within ear-shot of the Gospel, is
one of the most constantly threshed ques-
lions of the day. But the percentage of
attendance upon places of Sunday wor-
ship in the rural districts shows a lament
able falling off during the last fifty years.
The statistics published by DR.. Josiah
Strong of the Evangelical Alliance, and
other high authorities, prove this sad
fact. The farming population of New
England, of New York, of New Jersey,
and of the Northern States generally 1--WE
cannot speak as intelligently in regard to
the South used to be church going pop
ulation. At present an immense proper
ton of the people on farms and in the
small hamlets seldom enter the house of
God. Their Sabbaths are spent in sitting
idly about their dwellings, or strolling in
their fields, or in visiting neighbors, or in
too many cases, in some form of amuse-
ment. The excuse that their hard work dur
ing the week necesstates entire bodily rest
on the Lords Day was not made by their
forefathers in past generations; and, as a
matter of fact, the jewellers in the rural
districts for half of the year have more
leisure and less toll than tie jewellers in
the cities.
This subject is one of vital Importance;
it touches the religious life, the con-
science life, of the nation. Rapidly as
the cities grow, the majority of the Amer
lean people live in what may be called
rural population be reached? How can the
non church goers be brought to the houses
of worship? How can the country churches
no filled mo tho oara1aSS and
unconverted class be brought under the
reach and power of a living Gospel?
The first answer to these questions con-
Germs the country ministers. Here, for
example, is a Christian minister who has
accepted the charge of rural parish. His
first business is-Or should be-to find out
who live in that parish, and that he can
| only do by going among the people
thoroughly. A missionary to China does
not wait for the Chinese to come to him
he goes after them. An ambassador of
Jesus Christ to the residents of a rural
region is under the same obligation to 90
after those residents, rich or poor, high
or humble. He ought to know just where
every family within the reasonable bounds
of his parish stands, and this he can only
do by proper personal inquiry. When he
ascertains that any particular family be-
longs regularly to some other congrega-
ton, he has nothing further to do with
them. He is shepherd, but not sheep
stealer. When he comes upon family
or an individual who does not attend upon
any place of divine worship, his first duty
undoubtedly is to use every possible IN
tluence to bring that family or that per
son to the church in which he breaches
He is not set to work for salary, but to
tr0tch for souls. Every human soul that
he can reach he is bound to reach 1t is
not enough TO extend cordial invitation
to non church goers. TO call at a farm
house or at the dwelling of some humble
| day laborer and ask the inmates to attend
| his church may prove a bootless business.
or, i'll some cases, be regarded as a
piece of clerical "electioneeling " He
| should, first of all, become acquainted
with the family or the person; he should
interest himself in them, and seek to win
t .eir personal regard. A minister can dc
very little good to those who do not like
him, and none at all to those who will not
listen to him. His first aim should be tC
win hearts. If there is sickness in the
house, let him sympsthize with and dc
what he can for the sufferers; if there is
trouble let him turn comforter; if there are
hold of them The chief power OF every
genuine minister of Jesus Christ is heart
poocer; that was our Divine Masters real
power, after all. When a minister has
won hold on the hearts of any house
hold, he can bring them to listen to the
Gospel message intrusted to him. Con
gregatlons are built up externally by
thorough pastoral visitation and personal
effort; they are built up internally by
faithful, fearless, loving setting forth OF
God S glorious Word. Dr. Chalmers of
Scotland was the most colossal minister
OF Christ during the first third of this
| century; and about the most memorable
sentence he ever uttered was that ''e
house going minister makes a church
going people, 1t is my intensely earnest
conviction that the foremost duty OF
every ordained preacher is not merely to
prepare sermons, but to be a shepherd OF
souls, and especially of every soul that is
outside Of the fold of Christ Every sue
cessful rural pastor will say amen tc
this declaration.
The responsibility for this lamentably
increasing neglect of all religious ordi-
nances in the rural communities may rest
in part upon the ministry it also rests, in
part, upon 1.-THE officers and members of
many of the churches. The personal and
social relations of people in the country
are very different from those of residents
in the large cities. Every farmer is apt
to know every other farmer; every mer.
chant knows his customers, and the hum
! blest day-aborer is not a stranger to his
neighbor This personal acquaintance in
community is an immense advantage in
creating church life; it more than com
pensates for the distances between resi-
dences or from a house of worship. II
the hearts of rural Christians are up to
blood heat, their opportunities for per-
sOnal efforts for the conversion and fol-
quickenng the spiritual life of their
neighbors, are far greater than those of
Christians in the great towns. Personal
acquaintance affords religious opportun-
ity and creates religious responsibility.
Then, also, the dwellers in the country
have not the thousand thing; to absorb
their time and attention that the resi-
dents of cities have. My own early life
was spent in a farming region, and the
last forty five years of it in a great city:
and from my own observation | am per
suaded that it is easier to cultivate a
strong spiritual life in the country than it
is the towns | recall now rural church
in my native region to which the farmers
came for miles around, unhindered bv the
deepest mud in March or the deepest
SpoNs il, I Two caruioas "a, AZ