Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1920-04-09

ton in the open
country is wellnigh impossible.
Moreover ii the landowners them
selves are restless and on the move,
selling cut before fairly getting rooted
i'll one locality, it will be found diff
cult to maintain a farmers church. The
conditions that lead to cOntented
and prosperous family life in one
locality are especially favorable as an
economic and social foundation for
this type of farmers church.
Better Agriculture Helps Church.
Ii purely agricultural policies and
activities are sufficiently developed by
local secular agencies, the country
church will be relieved from RESPONSE
blllty for promoting directly any mea-
sures looking toward local agricultural
development; however, in some instan-
ceS the country church and it's leaders
may as an act of self-preservatiOn ne
compelled temporarily to promote agri-
cultural ideals in the community as
an economic basis for prosperous
church. In like manner, the country
church will interest itself in educa-
tional ideals as a protective and de-
fenSive measure, if the general educa-
tionai creed of the parish is at low
tide.
Church Help to Better Farming.
Stability of the family group upon
the farm in q single neighbOrhOOd
decade after decade is condition IA
vorable to the development of a strong
agricultural system. Here is where the
country church, especially when at its
best, renders an ineStimable service 10
agriculture. Built upon the family as
an institution, the church ties family
to family and creates q strong bond of
locality which tends to hold the family
tree when once rooted in the soil.
All the precepts of morality constant.
ly inculcated by the church, moreover,
strengthen the habits of life and
thought upon which the unremitting
toll of farm labor depends for success.
Private morality, taught and preached
in the country church, is an undOubted
force making for physical health and
stamina. The progress of agriculture
is bound up with an uncOntaminated
human stock which so far as authority
goes finds its most signal champion
in the church. In Il district without Il
thriving church, lower land values
record the fear that there is some dan
ger to family life and human stamina
from a loose code Of private morality.
Church Plays important Part In
Farmers Life.
The problems relating to land and
country life-prOblems of soil main
tenance, farm management, land ten
ure, wage lab0r-are at bottom moral
in their nature. These problems gain
Il wider and stronger appeal by re
statement and discussion from the
rOlnt Of View of religion and the
church. The country church by it's in
sistence upon justice and goodwill in
all the relations of farmers with their
tion in which family life develops
fair measure of content.
Hope, optimism, the silver lining to
every cloud, form an aspect of church
doctrine which no other agency has
so consistently presented. In the midst
of a hard, grinding. occupation, filled
with tyrannic necessities, the gracious
interpretations of life through the ru-
raj church bring constant spiritual re-
cuperation for the community from
its ills, naenaces, disasters and defeats
This realization of safety in the tur-
moil of work and disappointment is
an achievement of community value.