Putnam County herald. (Cookeville, Tenn.) 1903-1922, 1916-03-09
THE IDEAL RURAL
COMMUNITY

NONAUAOlNAAA
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No one who has any proper regard
for himself and his family desires TO
live in community wnere there are
no schools and churches. Schools
and churches, therefore, are the very
foundation and hub of all rural COM
munity life. The head of the school
and the church are the teacher and
the preacher. The constituent parts
of the community is complete in the
homes and the people; that is, the
the necessary constituent parts of the
ideal community are the nhurch, the
school, the pastor, the teacher, the
people, and their homes. This much
is easy to see and understand. The
conclusion is also clear that in order
to attain the ideal in rural communi-
ty life, each, constituent part of the
community must be maintained at the
very highest degree of efficiency and
perfection. In other words, in order
to attain to that standard of perfec-
ton in rural life which we term the
ideal, the community must have an
ideal church, an ideal school, an
ideal pastor, an ideal teacher. an ideal
people, and ideal homes. How to ap-
proach this ideal is the problem OF
rural life. Between the ideal and
conditions as they actually are in
most rural communities is a vast
range of effort and experiment and
differences in opinion. Like the SEN
timent of the popular song sung by
the British soldier boys at the front,
it is long, long way to the ideal;
we may, and most likely will never
attain to it; but we can approach it.
The question and the problem of the
day is. how? The answer is found,
in our opinion, embodied in two words
cooperation and equipment Let
US examine the relationship between
cooperation and equipment, and
The Ideal Church
Of course we would not take the
position that cooperation and equip
ment are all that are necessary to con-
stitute an ideal church, viewed es-
pecially from denominational stand
point. The first thing necessary from
that standpoint is that it be founded
upon principles of truth as contained
in the Bible. But assuming that the
church of any particular community
is sound in doctrine, we are ready to
study the relationship ext ting be-
tween the ideal church and that of
cooperation and equipment.
What we mean by church equip.
ment is the comfort, convenience and
beauty of its house of worship. All
three are essential to its prpoer work
and unquestionably add to the proper
spirit Of the membership. Assuming,
as we must in order to approach the
ideal in the community, that the
homes of the community are all more
or less comfortable, convenient, ami
beautiful, we can imagine the feelings
that must come over the people a.
they feel the change of atmosphere
from a comfortable, convenient, and
beautiful home to that of an uncom-
Portable, inconvenient, and unattract-
i've church house. The bad effect Of
this contrast will be especially notice.
al lie among the young, but it will al
80 be felt by the older folks. Beau
tiful, convenient, and comfortable
church houses are necessity in our
effort to approach the ideal in the
community life. The influence of the
proper equipment of the church win
not only be felt in the church Life, but
1t will be felt throughout the commul-
ity life. AS ideal church life is nec-
essary to ideal community life, prop
er church equipment is essential to
the ideal community
The church is not an ideal church,
however, until 1t has real cooperation,
that is, team work. What is the usc
Of putting two. four, or eight horses
to a load unless they all pull? One
horse can pull more than two horses,
II the two horses do not pull togeth-
or. Pulling together is what we call
team work, cooperation. 1t is the
Same as to churches. They have
loads to pull. The Lord did not es-
tablish his church for ornamental
purposes. but to do something usefuy,
to evangelise the world. and to pro-
mote righteousness. The ideal church
has cooperation and takes pride in
the size Of the load It pulls-for the
Masters sake. The simple meaning
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