The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-07-10
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

It usually starts off in June and Is | largely attended by country pastors, though sprinkling of the city ministers are always on hand to take the course. The coming together of preachers from all parts of the state has proved to be great thing for cementing the city and I the country.
 1 Owing to the war and the need of many of the country preachers to make a crop the usual preachers school was l. called off this year, as 1t was thought by many to be wiser to conserve the food crops than to devote the time to cultural improvement
 The school has brought out much that and their pastors. As Is well known, many country preachers do not receive enough from the churches to support them, and have to farm to make a living. In a number of instances churches have sent their pastors to Pelham and worked their crops for them during their ab- sence.
 
 Last year preacher from north Ala banla on hisNway down to the school stopped off afid worked week In the field alongside one of his deacons for sl a day. and then put aside his hoe and took up his books and made fine rec ord. And what he did others are doing. Last summer I went down to Pelham and spent the entire time with the men who had come together to sit at the feet of the great seminary professors and noted lecturers from Alabama and other states They have an opportunity to come in contact with the picked men of the denomination.
 A great majority of the men are mar ried and have families and a number of children and camp out on the mountain side. While the women do the cooking, the men help in many ways, and most of the wives attend the lectures and the classes, and in this way the pastors and pastors wives are growing in knowledge side by side.
 
 I am sure that I never spent a happier or more profitable month than the one put in with men and women who were really making sacrifices to become more useful in the Masters vineyard. soon found out that the country pastors knew a lot that their city brethren needed to know and vice versa. It didn't take long for the city and the country to come to- gether for fellowship and a sympathetic study of one another's problems.
 thing the country preachers soon learned was that the great scholars from their colleges and seminaries were hum ble, devout, and approachable men. It was a common sight to see two country preachers challenge two seminary profes- sors to game of horseshoes, and both sides would shuck their coats and go at it.
 It was no unusual sight to see the head of one of the leading institutions call to some country brother and start out over the hills for stroll You can rest as sured that after an hours tramp each came to understand the others trials bet. ter and after the walk parted with kind- Her feelings. Just what the preachers are doing at Pelham is what the AkE business men must do if they ever ex- pect the farmers to lay down their preju- dices against the town. The work of the committees sent out by the food con- servation campaign is a move in the right direction.
 am afraid the country preacher and his work has never been fully appre- ciated. know he has never been ade- quately paid for his services. It's high time that we begin to take off our hats to the band of consecrated men who out in the country day by day are standing for righteousness and striving to preserve the best things in the life of the nation.
 Yes, I know the city pastor and the pressing burdens under which he stag gers, but just now I am thinking of the hundreds of quiet, self-sacrificing coun- try preachers, many of whom work six days in the week and preach for almost nothing on Sunday in order to keep re- ligion alive in their communities know among them heroes by the score who are doing missionary work just as taxing as that done by many on foreign shores Now a word to a lot of you fellows who came from the country and made your pile in town. I want you to recall the old country church. I want you to try and live over in memory the days you spent in attendance upon it's meetings. I graveyard. Many like you have moved away and the old church house is neg lected. It needs painting, or new roof, or windows, and the fence around the graveyard is falling down. Don't wait to study about 1t, but let the first good i'm pulse govern yo% and send check to help put things'in order. Do it in memorIy of happy days, do it for His sake.
 
 ] Yes, the school of the prophets at Pcl- ham is doing a good work. It's one of I the best laboratories I know for taking l out the selfish kinks that get into all of our lives in the rush of our twentieth 1 century life It teaches friendliness. All of us need to take postgraduate course in neighborliness Let's cultivate the get-together- r-spirit here in Birmingham What say you?
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