The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1915-12-15
PRESIDENT ON WORK
OF COUNTRY CHURCH
says Worlds advance Is by spiritual
NcanS--t'o-Operati Needed In All
Things-one Thing to Organize. But
Quite Different TO FIJI Organization
With Iife.


Hikht President Wilson addressed the
/ church conference in session here.
! The President said In part:
Il want you tounderstand that | am
( here simply because | wanted to show
/ my profound interest in the subject
1 which you have been considering. and
not BECAUSE | thought ! had anything
original To contribute TO your thought.
But ! think as we have witnessed
the processes Of our civilization in
recent gears We have more and more
realized how much less our life CEN
ters upon country districts, how
. much more upon crowded cities. There
will be time when America will be
chara cter!sticaliy rural; when practi-
cally al her strength was drawn from
quiet countrysides where lie ran
upon established lines and where
men and women and children We're ia =
n4iiiaY with each other in n long es
"a blished neigbhorho0d But our
rural districts are not now Just what
4 they Heed 20 he and have partaken
IN recent years something. of the
fluidity that has characterized our
general life. that We have again
aud again beer. called upon from one
point Of view to another to study
the reVitalization Of ne countryside.
Work in Country Churches.
There was time no longer ago
than the youth of my own father,
for example when pastors found some
OF their most vital work In country
churches | remember my dear father
used 10 ride from church to church in
thiClly populated country region and
minister to several churches with a
sense Of ministcring to the most vital
! interests Of the part of the country
4 in which he lived After all the most
vitaiizing thing in all the world is
i Christianity.
i The world has advanced. advanced
TN what we regard as real civiliza =
! ton, not by material, but by Spiritual
! means And one nation ia distin-
! guished from another, nation by its
| ideals. not Ivy It's possessions. BY
what il believes in, by what it lives
! by, by what it intends, By the visions
which its young men dream and by
! the achievements which its men OF
! maturity attempt SO that each ma
/ ton exalts. when its writes it's poetry
/ or writes it's memoirs the character
OF it's people, and Of those who spring
from the loins Of It's people.
There is an old antithesis on which
do not care Ia dwell because there
4. not a great deal 10 be gotten from
dwelling on it. between life and doc
| trine, There IL no real antithesis q
| man lives az he believes he ought &c
/ live. or as he believes that il Is OF
| advantage to live He lives upon a
| doetrine-upop principle-upon al
ideal; sometimes q very low principle
sometimes a very exalted principle.
Il used to be told when was a
Youth that come OF the old casuaIist,
reduced all sin To egotisYn. And.
have thought as / have watched tbs
career OF some individuals. that tilt
analysisi had some vital point to Ii
The Egotist.
An egotist liz man who has go
the whole perspective OF life wrong
He concefves of himself as the centel
: OF affairs, even az effects the province
j. OF God He has not related himsei
TO the great forces which dominat,
him with the rest of us. and. there
fore, has set up a little kingdom nj
his own. in which he reigns with un
honorad soyerajgntV
And SO there are some men wht
set up, individual advantages AS tn,
tprinciples-the decline Of their life
: and 1.-Two generally q iife that leads Il
ali sorts Of shfpwrect Whatever ou
doctrine be our life is conformed t,
It. but what | want TO speak of i
: not the contrast between doctrine ant
4 life but the relations Of doctrine INT,
life
. AFTER all Christianity f. not I'm
por,ant to us because if is a vita
BODY Of conceptions regarding mar
and God. but because il ia a vital bod
of conceptions. which can be trans
. lated into life for us. life in thi
world and a life still great T in tn
next and except as Christisnit,
changes and inspires life il has faile,
OF its mission That is what Chris
came into the world for. to save on
spirits. and you cannot have you
g spirit altered without havin. your hf
. altered. When | think Of the rura
, church. therefore. | wonder how ia
/, the rural church ia vitaIizing the live
.. of the community in which it exists
! We have had great deal to say re
Gently, and ii has been very profita hi
!, said, about the school az q social cen
ter, by which is meant the schoo
. house "a a social center, about makini
the house, which. in the day tim
Is used for the children. place which
: their parents may use III the evening
and at other ,iisengaged times for tn
meetings OF the community where the
, talk about il with the utmost free