The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1913-07-12
THE COUNTRY CHURCH
Its Part in Shaping Careers OF
Young Citizens.

Middlebury, July lO.-The third
day of the rural life conference
opened Wednesday morning with an
address by Prof. r. ]. Sprague, lead
er of the conference, on "The Prob
lem of the Country Church" Econo-
mic changes that have taken place
in some parts of New England are
among the causes of rural church de-
cline. Other contributing causes of
decline are changes in views of re-
ligion and its importance in life;
the loss of leading spirits the
change in regard to the worth of
the church, for people take religious
life less seriously today than for
merly, the tendency to work less for
the individual and more for the sal
walton of the whole community, and
the inability of the church to adapt
itself and its mission to the church
es of the times. Preachers have a
tendency to hang around the borders
of old civilization and not see the
currents which are changing condi-
tons they do not see the reyolu-
ton of the present day but 90 back
to David's time Many places are
over-churched and the sooner some
churches are abandoned the better
The church is struggling to save it's
own life. 1t should live to serve the
community. In rural places the
church should undertake a multiple
ity of activities in order to fulfill it's
mission in the community. Such
work requires a big man at the head
of the church organization, an organ
izer and executive as well as preach
err. 1t requires stronger men to be
successful in country communities
than is city churches. They must
be both theologians and sociologists
well versed in the countrymans
necessities. Professor Sprague clos
ed his address with reference to
two types of communities where the
church has solved its mission in the
town, one in New Hampshire and
the other in Pennsylvania.
The Rev. A. p. Pratt, secretary of
the lnter-Church Federation of Yer
mont, followed with a paper in THE
Church and the Boy" The speaker
said
- desire to state the outset my
belief that the churc trough the
pastor, has a l,rs-r ,pportunity for
shaping the life c the boys of the
parish than an, 7Aer agency unless
it be the home. ana too frequently
the church has been obliged to I'M
lertake to do what home and par
ents have neglected to do in this re-
gard. The so-called boy problem is
bigger affair than most people
take it to be, and involves institu-
tons and environments and persons
quite as much as it does the boy.
The boy situation as such cannot be
entirely detached from the general
social question. American conditions
have produced the American boy.
Psychologists generally agree that
boy life readily divides itself into at
least three periods. infancy, child.
hood and boyhood and adolescence.
This latter is divided into three
stages, The first stage or eark
adolescence is the time of rapid and
uneven growth and the awakening
OF religious feeling. The boys are
hero worshippers. They seem to de-
velop herding instinct and organize
This is the stage of the gang. the
clnb, our set and our crowd This
is the part of the boys life which is
the chief concern to educators and
which should be OF the greatest con
Germ to the community and TO The
church, for these are the molding
years.
THE home and the school and the
church are the three fundamental in
sutuuons which make for promi-
hence of national life. No two are
more vitality dependent upon each
other than the church and the home.
FOR the work of the church and the
pastor compliments that of the
home. The work for which the
church stands must be done largely
IN connection with the home. for il
is generally expected that the
church is largely dependent upon
the home for any recruits. since il
is the home boy who is generally
found inside of the church. The
church to reach the non-church boy
may employ various agencies but
nothing will prove more effective
than the boy already interested. In
the Bible school the hero worship-
ping boy should be put close IN
some vigorous athletic young man
and the aim of the boys club must
be to give the boy something def.
mite TO think about The age of the
religious awakening is generally nj.
teen and this is the age when the
pastor should see to it that he be.
comes a friend to the boy and he
himself ought to be a director or a
guarding spirit Of every boys organi.
cation"
DIR. Pratt then referred TO the popA
ular organizations for boys naming
the Boys Brigade. the knights of
King Arthur, and the Boy Scouts
as being of great service to bows in
this country and in Europe or
these three he placed the greater
stress upon the Boy Scout move
ment because of its ready adaptj.
blllty to the work and problems in
rural communities. This movement
is for the training and disciplining
or boys and NAV cover sly or of,rht