The Spectator., 1915-06-29
MISSION 0F THE
 RURAL CHURCH
SHOULD BE UNIVERSITY OF RE-
 LiGioUS LEARNING.
Duty of Christianity to Evanoslize the
 World.
By Rev. Jno. A. Rice, Q. Q. Pastor St John M. k. Church. South.
 St Louis, Mo

By Rev. Jno. A. Rice, Q. Q.
 Pastor St. John M. E Church. South.
 St. Louis. Mo.
 Some years ago. the question was asked What is e college? The at- tempt to answer 1t shook the educa- tional world in America from center to circumference. Another question Is now beginning to be asked: What is church? Without undertaking to give a definition of it, let me ask. in this initial paper, what the church lis for? The New Testament reveals three distinct tasks to which 1t is committed
 First, that of evangelization. The church is divinely commissioned to reach for the lowest and the least man in the least land and offer him sonship to the Eternal God; offer him . divine power. which lifts him out of the bog and places him upon the highest levels of human life. where God and the soul are in fellowship. This alone were an immense priv. ilege.
 Teaching the Art of Living.
 The church is commissioned also to teach and train those who are rich with its eyangelistic message. The term, Religious Education, has come 10 mean specific thing in our country, namely, the training of the
 tv~ deep matters which pertain to the art Of living. l am not now speaking of the work of education in schools. colleges and universities, but the work of education at our doors. in the con, gregation. Every agency in reach this important mission. Indeed. the local church could be made sort Of university for ail the people, in which the simple. pracbcal arts and virtues of everyday life should be taught and enforced Only recently has this special phase of the churchs work re- ceived anything like adequate atten- tion. The New Testament word for 1t is Publication.
 School of Religion Needed.
 Of course the Sunday School is the center for all this work. although the activities of the church should extend through the entire week and the, Sun day School should cease to be SO named It should be called the School of Religion or the Church School or something else that indicates 1t to be an alltheweek activity. During this time various and sundry clubs, classes, musical organizations, culture courses, as we'll as distinctly religious meetings, should be held. Thickly settled neigh borhoods, as we shall see, offer fine opportunities for the development Of things spiritual.
 The third task to which the church is committed is that of Christianizing the social order; that of infusing the spirit of Jesus into every nook and corner of eur life. Nothing Is foreign to the interest ot the church.
 Nelghboriy Love Essentlai.
 If religion pervades and colors the whole life then ours is serious busi- ness for it will let no corner of the world escape it's influence. The sooner we learn that Christianity is not . thing to be practiced in q corner the better for the world. The question of the eighteenth century. touching Chris tianity, was, Can it be made to square with the human reason? Of the nine 'teenth, Can 1t be made to square with the results of scientific research? Of the twentieth, What can it do? We must learn to enforce not only love of God, whom we cannot see. but love to our neighbors, with whom we are living in constant contact. Neither without the other is Christianity whatever else 1t may be. Everything that interests his neighbors must interest him. if he Is a genuine follower of the Christ
 1t is the mission of the church-the rural as we'll as the city-to evange- lize the whole world, to train to the highest degree of efficiency those whom 1t .evangelizes and to seek to make the spirit of Jesus the absolute rule in all human relations.