Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1916-08-17
A Working ProgramFor The
Country Church.
RepOrt of Committee on Sum-
mary at the Country Life
Conference.

Conference.
The third Country Life Conference
came to close Friday, August 4th after
the most successful session it has ever
held. The good fellowship was enhanc-
ed this wear by series of games and
athletic events led by F. B. Freeman OF
the Y. M. c. A.
The attendance reached the hundred
mark making it the largest conference
of it's kind in the United States. The
speakers pronounced it the best in pro-
gram and in spirit that they had ever at
tended. DR.. H. J. Patterson was reflect
ed President and a permanent organ'za-
ton effected.
Your Committee on Summary feels the
utter mpossibility of crystallZlng, IN a
few sentences, the message OF the rlch
program which it has been our rare privi-
eye to enjoy during these three days
The true Summary will, we trust, be
given in messages to our people during
the coming year, messages inspired by
the Mount in-top Vision. We beg leave,
however, to ask for emphasis of the
following points which stand out in re-
view of our Conference Program;
Cd The making of the church to be,
in very real sense, 1.-THE Soul OF the
Community, vitality related to its every
activity.
(2) The effort, not primarily to get
the people into the church, but to get
our religion of Christ into our Community;
the activity of the church in carrying the
gospel to the people.
(3) The development of hearty
spirit of cooperation between the people
of the Community and among the several
Churches of the Community.
ca The encouragement of scientific
methods of farming and of better meth
dds of labor. The holding of Rural Life
Institutes in all rural communities. The
embracing of the splendid opportunity,
offered by the Extension Department of
the Maryland Agricultural College, for CO.
operation, not only in the work of such
institutes, but wins the individual farm
er on his farm.
o. The improvement of the condi-
ton of the home life, so that the young
men and women of the country may not
be alienated from the farm by the barren
ness and unattractiveness of it's life but
choose to remain upon it because it offers
a life so attractive and wholesome that
the city cannot compete with it.
CO. The equally honorable position
that play occupies in the economy OF
nature and of grace and the consequent
invaluable contributions that inteligently
directed recreation may be made to yield
to the physical moral and spiritual we'll
being, alike of the child, the adult and
the community.
(O The Importance of providing,
through various organizations for the
direction of energy and initiative of the
boy during the critical years of indoles-
canoe.
(8) The Importance of the Sunday
School as the Avenue thru which the
church exercises her teaching functions
the heed of proper grading, adapted to
local conditions, and of teachers trained
for efficient work,
(9) The need of consolidation of the
rural schools; the provision of Teach
erage'; the adoption of the teaching tt
the needs of the scholars: a curriculum
that consists of branches that will make
the pupils intelligent about the life they
live and fit them for the work by which
they gain livelihood at the same time
giving them that cultural training which
will enable them to change their sphere
of activity to any form of service fol
which they show ability or inclination.
Q0) The introduction of business eff
cheney into church finances; the annual
every-member canvass; with the weekly
subscription of current expenses and of
missions and the use of the Duplex En-
velope, suppanted in such way a
the conditions in each congregation may
require. We recomend such public
tabuation of the weekly RECEIPT of the
subscriptions as suggested by Rev. G. c
McLeon.
QD Increasing sensitive to the man
fold evils of divided Christendom
whose i'll effects are especially manifest
in the country, their union in all goot
works is peculiarly necessary and ought
to be particularly easy, and concious OF
the over-churched conditions of innumer'
able communities, we express our earnest
longing, not only for hearty cooperation