A fine example of what may be done in the way of denominational comity when a really Christian spirit prevails was shownin this field, and it did much to make the work of the Larger Parish possible. In Benzonia there was a small Methodist organization, in addition to the Congregational Church that had existed for thirty years, but it never got a very strong foothold, and finally it was evident to all that it was not needed. Five miles away there was another Methodist church at Champion Hill, that was really within the territory of the Larger Parish. In an adjoining county the Congregationalists had two churches of about the same grade, and surrounded by the work of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The representatives of the two denominations got together, canvassed the whole matter thoroughly, and were able to come to a unanimous and cordial decision that was satisfactory to both sides. The Methodist Episcopal Church in Benzonia was dropped, and the Champion Hill Church became Congregational.And the two Congregational churches in the adjoining county became Methodist, thus leaving a clear field in each county for each denomination, much to the advantage of both. It is understood that no work is to be undertaken by either denomination in the territory thus surrendered.
It was comparatively easy to work the matter through with the officials, but there was some doubt whether the churches themselves could be brought to consent to a change. They were visited by two representatives, one from each denomination, the whole matter was fully explained, showing how much better the work could be cared for under the new arrangement, and, though there was some reluctance on the part of some who were strongly attached to their old church associations, most of the members accepted the situation and cheerfully made the change. After trying it for a year they all seemed well satisfied withtheir new relations, and new life and vigor has come into all the work.
The property interests involved in the exchange were adjusted in a very happy way. All the four churches had houses of worship, and some of them had parsonages. A commission was appointed to appraise the property, consisting of two members each from the Congregational and Methodist Churches of Traverse City. They went together, examined all the holdings and brought in a report. The two Methodist men thought the Congregationalists ought to give two hundred and fifty dollars to boot. The two Congregational men thought the Methodists ought to give two hundred and fifty dollars. So they agreed to trade even, and all parties were satisfied. This gives the Congregationalists undisputed jurisdiction throughout all the territory of the Larger Parish. In all that region they are without competition, withthe exception of a small Disciple church in one corner of the field, which divides up the work of one neighborhood to its great disadvantage. There are a good many Methodist people living within the bounds of the Larger Parish, but most of them are allying themselves with the church that is doing the work, and the same is true of the Congregationalists. They are now well satisfied with the arrangement.
So we may trace the steps by which the vision became reality. The work has been a gradual development from the very first, one step leading to another, often with no more light than was sufficient for the single step.
Practicalmethods that can be successfully worked constitute the great need in any enterprise. The real measure of the value of any plan or scheme is found in what it accomplishes. It may look well—the vision may be enticing—but will it really do the business? If, after a fair trial, achievements sufficient to justify the effort do not appear, the scheme, the method, the vision, however promising it may have seemed, must be discarded. A mill that does not turn out lumber soon goes upon the junk heap. So a plan that does not bring results will soon be relegated to the limbo of unpractical and useless things. Of course it requires time fairly to test a plan, an enterprise, or a method. Animportant experiment cannot be finished in a day. But after three years it is time to look for some proofs of success. What have we to show after working three years that will justify the methods that have been used? What methods have been employed? How have they worked, and what have they accomplished?
Nothing has been finished. The work is a growth, and is still in the process of development. We are all the while finding something more to do for the people, and larger possibilities of service are opening up before us continually. But it may be said to have passed beyond the experimental stage. Nobody looks upon it any longer as simply an experiment. It is a practical plan in successful operation. The church has come to have a well-defined policy. The people have accepted the idea of the Larger Parish and are coöperating heartily in carrying it out. The work has been organized inrespect to various community human interests, and is moving on with a fair degree of satisfaction. We are now in a position to deliversomegoods—at least enough to prove that we are working a practical scheme; enough, as we believe, to be a sure prophecy of greater results in the future.
First, I will speak of some methods used and some things done that show religious advance. This must be the crucial test of any church work. It must be work for the kingdom of God. It must bring people into harmony with God and his truth, it must line them up on the side of Jesus Christ, or it cannot be said to be successful, however many other desirable things it may accomplish. It is not easy to tabulate spiritual results. Any showing that can be made on paper may be more than the truth or less than the truth. Reports of organizationsand methods and activities may be misleading. The most that they can do is to approximate the truth. And yet, that is the only way we have of reporting spiritual results. The results of religious work must appear in the lives of the people, in the Christian sentiment of the community, in the upward trend of all things that make for righteousness and for the establishment and prevalence of the kingdom of God. These things cannot be definitely reported, but some things can be mentioned that will indicate progress.
The work has been fairly well organized throughout the whole parish and is moving steadily forward in definite directions. There are now twelve points where regular Sunday services are held in this territory, which comprises one whole township and portions of five others. These services are held in one church, six chapels, four schoolhouses, and one private home. Otherpoints are asking for services, but with our present force no more work can be undertaken. These preaching points are so arranged that no family, with the exception of a few who live in one remote corner of the parish, need go more than a mile and a half to find a place of worship. The aggregate attendance on these services will average not far from six hundred, in a population of twenty-five hundred—about one fourth of the inhabitants of the parish being present with some degree of regularity.
There are four organized churches in the parish, at Benzonia, Grace, Champion Hill, and Eden. Their combined membership is about four hundred. When the church was organized at Eden last year, thirty members were dismissed from the Benzonia Church to enter the new organization. They had long been connected with the Benzonia Church, and it was withsome reluctance that they severed their connection with the mother church. They wished in some way to retain a relation to the church that had for them so many tender associations. So they decided that of their five trustees, two should be chosen from the old central church. The two churches at Grace and Champion Hill are likely to follow suite. In that case, we shall have a group of four churches, organically related, standing together to do the work of the Larger Parish. The trustees of the local church will attend to all ordinary matters, but will feel free to call in the other two trustees to consult with them in things of special importance. The trustees from the central church will, of course, feel a special responsibility for the welfare of the branch church with which they are connected. This arrangement will unify all the religious activities of the parish, and bind them up together in one organicrelation. And the churches that enter into the arrangement will surrender none of their independence as Congregational churches. They will still be absolutely free to control their own affairs. It is understood that the office of the trustees from the central church is largely advisory. While this is something new in Congregationalism, it promises to work well, and if it does, it will be its own sufficient justification.
Ten Sunday-schools are maintained within the parish, with a combined membership of about six hundred. Most of the schools are self-sustaining, and are well able to carry on their own work without outside help, but some are conducted by helpers who go out from the central church. The schools at Benzonia and Eden are well graded, and are conducted according to the up-to-date methods. The Benzonia school has an average attendance of more than one hundred and fifty, and the music is led bya large orchestra. The Eden school has graduated two classes in teacher-training, and the third one, with seventeen members, is now at work. The Home Department is maintained, and much is made of the Cradle Roll. Conventions in connection with the schools in the two adjoining townships are held once a quarter, and they are doing much to unite the Sunday-school interests in this region and to promote team work.
The clerical force that carries on the work throughout the parish is composed of the pastor and his two assistants. The pastor preaches twice on Sunday, in the church at Benzonia in the morning, and in the chapel at Beulah, half a mile distant, in the evening. Each of the assistants preaches three times, traveling from twelve to twenty miles in reaching their appointments. The Larger Parish naturally divides itself into three parts: the North Parish, with twochurches, and two out-stations, served by Mr. Caldwell; the South Parish, with one church and five out-stations, served by Mr. Huck; and Benzonia and Beulah in between, served by the pastor, who also has the oversight of the whole field.
The three pastors usually get together on Mondays, talk over the work, compare sermons and discuss them, and spend part of the day in the most delightful fellowship. They make frequent exchanges, taking each other’s work for a Sunday, thus giving the people a change, and themselves some variety of experience, and promoting acquaintance and fellowship throughout the whole parish. This is a most profitable combination. The older pastor helps the younger men with his wider experience, and “the boys” put new life and fresh spirits into the heart of the “older man.” Two men, if they are congenial and can work harmoniously together, are worth morethan double the value of one man. And three men, joining their forces, increase their efficiency in geometrical ratio. Many a minister who works away in isolation and discouragement would have new heart and courage for his difficult task, if he might be closely associated with one or two congenial and kindred spirits. That is one of the advantages of the Larger Parish Plan—it makes such association and combination possible.
In the autumn of 1912 the pastor was impressed with the thought that the special emphasis for that year should be placed on the evangelistic phase of the work. Thirteen weeks in all were spent in holding special services at six different points. Two ministers from neighboring parishes assisted. Much use was made of the stereopticon. In the out-stations the preaching was done by the pastors in turn, and there was thorough personal work.Good results came from these meetings. A large number decided to begin the Christian life. About sixty new members were received into the Benzonia church, and as many more into the other churches in the parish. Not all of those received were converted in the special meetings. Thirty of those who came into the Eden church were dismissed from the Benzonia church, and some others came by letter. One of the results of these special meetings was the organization of the Eden church. The hearts of the people were drawn together, the religious interest was quickened throughout the whole territory, and the idea of the Larger Parish came to be more generally accepted.
Eden is a country neighborhood three miles north of Benzonia. The people are thrifty farmers and fruit raisers, and about a dozen families living there had for many years been connected with the Benzoniachurch, and were among its most faithful supporters. For twenty-five or thirty years a Sunday-school had been maintained in that community—one of the best country schools in the state. A young people’s society and a weekly prayer-meeting had also been kept up for a long time. The special meetings were held in the schoolhouse in the month of February, amid the stormiest weather of the winter. But nothing could keep the people away. There was a deep interest, and a number of positive conversions. It was thought best to organize a church. Thirty members were dismissed from the Benzonia church to enter into the new organization and it started with fifty charter members. Practically all the religious elements of the community came together in the new church and it was launched with much rejoicing and enthusiasm. Under the efficient leadership of the assistant pastor, it has gonesteadily forward, and though the meetings held are in a schoolhouse that is most inconvenient and inadequate for their needs, they are as dignified and churchly as many that are conducted in more appropriate surroundings. There is a full service of readings, responses, well-prepared music by a faithful choir, and the presence and power of God’s Spirit is often strikingly manifest in the services. The recognition services of the Eden church were most impressive. The schoolhouse was crowded to its utmost capacity. Nearly fifty stood up together and entered into covenant relations, a large number receiving the rite of baptism. The communion service conducted by the pastor was especially solemn and tender, and those present will long remember the influences of that hour.
In a number of cases the services have been held in schoolhouses that are inconvenient and inadequate, and in one instancethe only place where the meetings could be held was a private home. A movement is on foot to supply these places with chapels that will meet the needs of the community. Last summer a neat chapel was built at Platt Lake. There is no schoolhouse in that community. The children are taken in a bus to the Honor school, and there was no settled meeting-place for more than two years, the services being held in turn from house to house. Platt Lake is somewhat of a summer resort, and the visiting people gave substantial help in the construction of the chapel. It is a convenient little building, well furnished, with organ and stove contributed by the Benzonia church. There being no ecclesiastical organization in the place, the title of the building is vested in the Michigan State Conference, with the understanding that when a church is formed it shall be deeded back. Since the erection of the chapel a fresh impetus has been givento the work in Platt Lake. At this point no regular religious services had ever been held until the movement of the Larger Parish began.
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THE PLATT LAKE CHAPEL
A Typical Preaching Place in the Larger Parish
The Eden church planned to erect a new building in the summer of 1914, in the form of a comfortable chapel with basement rooms for social purposes. Early in the spring of 1913 the farmers set apart a certain portion of their land, the products of which should be given for a chapel fund. About fifteen farmers entered into this arrangement, the children also setting hens and cultivating garden patches for the same purpose. On Thanksgiving night of that year they had a special service at the schoolhouse to bring in the returns. A neat model of a church was made for the occasion and placed on the desk, and after an interesting program the people filed past the desk and dropped into the model church the proceeds of their summer’s toil. It wasfound to contain more than two hundred and fifty dollars—a good starter for the new building. Though the resources of the community are limited, they are all working together with such industry and enthusiasm that it is probable that they will soon have a pleasant and convenient church home.
At North Crystal where there is a flourishing Sunday-school and where the services are held in a private home, the people are working hard to build a little chapel. Here too the resorters, who have their cottages along the shore of Crystal Lake, are very helpful. In the summer the meetings are held under the trees, and large crowds come together to hear the gospel and to join in the songs. The Ladies’ Aid Society is working hard and considerable progress has been made in collecting a chapel fund. Poverty of resources can hardly prevent the accomplishment of suchan enterprise when all the people unite in the effort so heartily and with such a willingness to make sacrifices for the desired end. The church at Benzonia has also been building an addition to its house of worship, adding one hundred sittings and numerous rooms for the accommodation of the Sunday-school and social work. One would have been considered rash indeed who should have prophesied beforehand that in two years in this community of limited resources so large a sum could be raised for the purpose of providing accommodations for the worship of God and for community and social work.
If the amount of money that people are willing to give for religious purposes is an index of their interest in the Kingdom, one must conclude that there has been a very significant revival in that respect throughout the Larger Parish. More means for carrying on the work are now in sight thanany one would have supposed it possible to raise three years ago.
The salaries paid the pastor and his two assistants are two and a half times as much as was paid to the pastor alone before the wider work was undertaken. This, however, is made possible only through the help of the Home Missionary Society. The contributions for home and foreign missions have more than doubled during this period, and the number of contributors has increased more than twofold. If there was any hesitation about undertaking the wider work on account of the increased financial obligation involved, experience has shown that it was unnecessary. More than twice as much money is raised on the whole field now than was the case before the wider work began, and it comes with just as little effort. Nobody now objects to the work on financial grounds. It has paid for itself in every way.
This experience leads me to believe that on almost every field there are resources sufficient for carrying on all the work that needs to be done there, if only they can be reached, and I am also convinced that an active, aggressive program will be much more successful in developing the resources than a timid and conservative effort can ever be.
In order to promote unity and fellowship throughout the whole parish, occasional meetings designed to bring all the people together are held with very good results. Two or three times during the year all the services in the various points are omitted and the people come together on the beautiful campus on the Benzonia hilltop and spend the day in worship and in social intercourse. The services are held in the shade of the great beech and maple trees that crown the summit of the hill. There is a large choir and orchestra to lead the music,some noted speaker from abroad preaches the sermon, and the congregation of four or five hundred is as devout and attentive as can be found in any church building. At the close of the service they assemble in groups to eat the lunch which they have brought, the coffee being furnished by the Benzonia people, and they spend two hours in delightful social intercourse, many old friends and neighbors meeting there who might not otherwise see each other for years. In the afternoon a platform meeting is held with a number of speakers, and as the sun is sinking low in the west the people disperse and go quietly to their homes, with a larger outlook, a quickened community consciousness, and a fuller appreciation of the work of the Larger Parish. Last year we had on one Sabbath “Larger Parish Sunday School Rally.” Posters announcing the meeting had been previously circulated. All the ten schools of the parishassembled, holding in the morning such a service as I have described, having dinner together, and in the afternoon occurred the Children’s Day services, with exercises by the various schools and an address by John E. Gunckel, the famous Toledo newsboy man. These Larger Parish rallies have proved to be a valuable feature of the work and are anticipated with pleasure by all the people.
I wonder if any pastor ever felt entirely satisfied with the results of his work? I certainly do not. I have fallen far short of my ideal. In looking back I see failures enough to keep me humble and mistake enough to make me cautious. The numbers that have not been reached are so great that the thought of them mingles much of sadness with the gladness for those who have come into the Kingdom. I am thankful for the results that can be reported, and I consider them sufficient to justify the methodof the Larger Parish. If the method had been more efficiently worked there would have been more to show. My hope is that some one may make a better use of it and that such results may be evident that the Larger Parish method will come into general operation, and that it may play a large part in the spiritual and social rehabilitation of the rural regions.
One of the convictions out of which the vision came that led to the work of the Larger Parish was that the Church should minister to thewhole man; that nothing that goes to make a man a full-rounded man, or that has a legitimate place in his life should be ignored by the Church; that it should have something to say and something to do with his social nature as well as his religious nature; that it shouldconcern itself with the affairs of the community and be an element of uplifting power in the community life. Following this conviction, it was quite natural that, when the work of the Larger Parish was undertaken, considerable attention should be paid to that part of the life of the people that is often thought to lie outside of the distinctive realm of religion. The effort has been made to help the people in a social way and to make their recreations healthful and wholesome, to stimulate and guide them in their intellectual life, and by these broader aims to minister to all their needs. It may be profitable to show how the methods used in the work of the Larger Parish have contributed to these ends.
Recognizing the tendency of country life to isolation and extreme individualism and the danger of its becoming barren and monotonous, we have thought it important to provide for social and literary functions,and for wholesome recreation and healthful pleasures. This was thought desirable, not only for the young people, but for all the people, and we have sought to bring together in these activities the old and the young, and the children as well. It has been our effort to make all our out-stations, where services are held, social centers, and to encourage frequent meetings of the people where they might mingle together in a free and friendly manner. The people have responded to these efforts and have appreciated very much the opportunities that have been afforded them in this direction.
1. Neighborhood Clubs have been formed in some of the out-stations whose function it is to provide for these social necessities. The name, “Neighborhood Club” quite well defines their object. They are to serve as social centers. There is a simple constitution and by-laws, and the usual officers. But the work is carried onunder the direction of three committees in three departments. First, there is a Social Committee, whose business it is to arrange for picnics, parties, sociables, excursions, etc. Then there is a Literary Committee that provides for literary entertainments, lectures, debates, and the like. After that comes the Team Work Committee, which leads out in any movement in which the people need to coöperate, such as helping an unfortunate neighbor to harvest his crops, planting trees by the roadside, plowing out the roads in winter, or mending a bad place in the highway. Often many kindly deeds are omitted, and many desirable things for a community are left undone, not because the people are selfish, or wanting in public spirit, but for lack of leading. There is no one to lead out in such things, and so they are neglected.
Not long ago one of the neighborhood clubs spent the day in helping to raise abarn, having a dinner together and enjoying a jolly social time. One of the clubs offered a prize for rat-killing, getting out some posters that were a curiosity. From time to time various matters of local interest are taken up and discussed by the club, and considerable talent in debate has been developed in unexpected places. Occasionally the various neighborhood clubs get together for a day of sports and recreation. They have in the forenoon games and contests, then a picnic dinner, followed by a program of music and addresses. These gatherings promote neighborliness and afford the farmers and their wives and children a little break in the monotony of their toilsome lives.
The first winter a lecture course was organized, consisting of five or six numbers, mostly by home talent. All these lectures were given before the various clubs. The pastor gave an account of his travels in theHoly Land. The principal of the Academy talked about “The Farm and the School.” A doctor from a neighboring town spoke about “Farm Sanitation,” and an expert horticulturist about “Better Orchards.” A layman spoke about “Some Legal Principles That Should be Generally Known.” Much interest was taken in these lectures, and the people turned out well to hear them. The next winter the clubs arranged their own programs and carried on a lively and interesting campaign. One of the clubs had a series of Special Topic nights. One night was devoted to “The Pilgrims,” with a varied and interesting program. Another to “Abraham Lincoln,” another to “Michigan,” with a program full of information, historical, statistical, and otherwise, about the state of which the community was a part. One of the clubs organized and maintained an Old Fashioned Singing School under an instructor fromthe village, that was a fair success. These neighborhood clubs have proved to be very popular and very valuable, and it would seem that they are well adapted to almost any country community, taking the place of the old lyceums and literary societies of a former generation that did so much to sharpen the wits, inform the minds, and increase the friendliness of those who went before us.
2. In some of the neighborhoods where it has not yet been thought best to organize clubs, some attention has been paid to this side of life and some provision made for social diversions. During Thanksgiving week, festivals were held in three different places that were very successful and profitable. The description of one of them will be typical. Three communities, East Joyfield, Demerley, and the South Chapel, united in holding a festival in the Joyfield Town Hall on Thanksgiving Day. Thoroughpreparations had been made. Various committees were appointed, the teachers in the four school districts included in that territory trained the children, a program of games and sports and contests was arranged, and all the people took much interest in getting ready for the event. At three o’clock a religious service was held in the hall and the pastor preached a Thanksgiving sermon to a large and attentive congregation.
While the ladies were preparing the supper, the program of sports, a part of which had been previously given in a large barn near by, was finished on the lawn. Various races were run and stunts of different kinds were performed, including a tug of war and wrestling matches, that took up the time till the call to supper came. Two long tables extending the whole length of the hall were filled twice, not less than one hundred and fifty sitting down to a sumptuous feast.When all had satisfied the wants of the “inner man,” there were supplies enough left to feed another crowd almost as great, so lavish are the country folk in their hospitality.
As soon as the tables could be cleared away and the people could get seated the evening’s entertainment began. The hall was crowded to its utmost capacity, the people were jammed in like sardines in a box, and some could not find entrance, but the utmost good nature prevailed, and they sat, not patiently, but delightedly, through a program of recitations, dialogs, songs, and like exercises given by the children occupying two full hours. Then came the distributing of the prizes to the winners in the games, and the happy crowd dispersed, feeling more kindly toward each other and realizing more fully the joy of neighborliness because they had come together in their Thanksgiving festival. Similar festivalswere held at Grace the day before, and at Liberty Union the day after. They were all conceived and carried out by Mr. Huck, the assistant pastor, just from England, thus proving his efficiency and his adaptability.
3. On a snowy Saturday the men of East Joyfield, under the lead of the assistant pastor, arranged “A Community Rabbit Hunt.” They met with their guns and went in pairs in different directions, scouring the woods and the fields in search of game. They were measurably successful, and a heap of forty-five “cotton tails” rewarded their efforts. They were distributed among fifteen families, who were to prepare them with other good things for a “Rabbit Social” on the next Tuesday night at the chapel. Though the night was stormy, the chapel was well filled, there was a fine program of music and games, and then a feast of rabbit pie that was appetizing and abundant. So the “cotton tails”served the community better by being eaten themselves than they would if they had been left to eat the bark from the young fruit trees on the surrounding farms.
4. Since the pursuit of athletics has so large a place in the minds of the young people in these days, it has been thought worth while to do something in this field. One of the assistant pastors having had some training when in school organized Athletic Clubs among the boys and young men in six or seven different neighborhoods. These clubs met from time to time for practise. They were combined into an Athletic League for the whole parish and occasionally held Field Days. They would come together on the Academy campus at Benzonia and spend the day in sports and games and contests in which a previously prepared schedule of events was carried on. There were junior contests for the boys and the girls too had a part in the last field-daysports. Occasionally they have a banquet with toasts and an opportunity for social intercourse. These athletic clubs have not only done much to encourage clean and healthful sports, but they have given the assistant pastor large influence over the young people, and most of them are noticeably regular in their attendance on the services he conducts on the Sabbath.
Ladies’ Aid Societies are organized in the various neighborhoods and they bring together in a social way, not only the ladies, but also the men in the winter season, who then find time to enjoy the good dinner that the ladies provide and to spend part of the day in social intercourse. These Aid Societies are ready to take hold in a helpful way of any enterprise that is for the good of the community, and any enterprise to which they devote themselves is bound to go.
5. One more way of working has provedto be valuable, and well worth while. Like nearly all small towns, we have a weekly newspaper which finds its way into most of the homes of the parish. The pastor and the editor work together in the effort to make it an organ of helpful power in the community life. For the past three years I have had each week a column—usually a column and a half—in this paper. It is my regular Monday forenoon work to write that column. I put into it whatever I think will be useful to the people, bringing them many a message that would hardly come appropriately into the pulpit, and reaching in that way many whom I would not often come in touch with otherwise. The themes are various, a few may serve as specimens. “How to Keep One’s Religion and Make It Pay,” “The Back Yard,” “The Test of the Summer Time,” “The Man You Happen to Meet,” “The Utility of the Yell,” “The Wedding Bells and Funeral Knells,” “Dr.Charles M. Sheldon and His Ideas of an Educated Man,” “Be a Columbus,” “The Keen Zest of Living.” Any local topic of general interest is taken up and discussed, and the activities of the church and the social and literary doings in the various out-stations are brought before the people. So they are kept constantly aware that something is going on that is worth while throughout the parish, and I have an opportunity to keep my ideas before the whole parish. This I consider one of my most valuable ways of working, and I find that the Pastor’s Column is eagerly looked for and widely read.
This suggests the question whether in the past the pastors of our churches have sufficiently appreciated the value of printer’s ink as an adjunct in carrying on religious and community work. If the pastor can speak through the press as well as the pulpit, he is duplicating his influence.
6. The Benzonia Christian Endeavor Society purchased a stereopticon for use in the Larger Parish. It was equipped with electrical apparatus to be used in the villages, and with acetylene light for the schoolhouses and country places where there was no electric current. It could be easily carried from place to place, and became a very practical and useful instrument in the work. Slides on various subjects were easily obtained, and the effect of lectures and talks was greatly increased. The people in these days want to see things as well as to hear about them, and the sight helps out the hearing. They never get tired of looking at good pictures. It became easy with the help of the lantern to provide an interesting and profitable evening entertainment, and the people showed their appreciation by their presence in large numbers and their careful attention. “The Panama Canal” was thus presented andillustrated, and “The Other Wise Man.” Some lectures by the pastor—“On Horseback through the Holy Land,” “A Week in and about Jerusalem,” “Three Months on an Ocean Steamer”—were made more vivid and attractive by views from photographs taken on a foreign trip. In many ways the stereopticon has proved a valuable acquisition, and especially in a country parish can it be used with great profit and satisfaction.
7. In a local option campaign the influence of the Larger Parish made itself felt in an effective way for the banishment of the saloon. Debates were arranged on the question in the neighborhood clubs.
The pastors preached on the subject and made addresses at the meetings held throughout the county. One of the assistant pastors gave valuable service on the Central Committee. In all such movements that have for their object the purifyingof the community and the establishment of righteousness the forces that are active in the Larger Parish are lined up on the right side, ready to coöperate and promptly available for practical work.
An Every Member Canvass for home and foreign missions is carried on throughout the whole parish. Each year a letter is prepared, giving briefly the progress of the work for the year past and setting forth its present condition. These letters are sent by mail to nearly all the families in the parish, with small collection envelopes for the different members of the household, with the request that they bring the offerings to their accustomed places of worship. The children as well as the older people are encouraged to bring in their offerings, and we have found this an effective way of cultivating in them the spirit of benevolence. There is much gain in leading them to feel that they have a part in the work.
Theirname is legion. Everything is to be done. Only a beginning has been made. Nothing is finished. What has been accomplished is only a prophecy of the larger and completer work that lies before us in the future. Religious and community work is not mechanical. You cannot finish it up and store it away as the carpenter finishes a box, or the housewife a garment. Life is a development, a growth, and those who deal with life must always be content with beginnings. “Nothing that has life is ever finished.” Life in its larger unfolding and its fuller meaning must always be in the future. A life that is finished and complete would better end, and a community that has reached perfection should be translated to another sphere. We must ever becontent to spend our labor upon beginnings, thankful for such fruitage as may appear from time to time. The real ingathering must always be in the future. What has been accomplished in the Larger Parish gives us confidence in the methods employed, and encourages us to expect larger things from the better and completer application of those and similar methods in the days to come.
In may be well to mention some of the things that have not as yet been fully done, but that we hope to see accomplished in the Larger Parish in the future.
1. The first and most important aim of this work, and of all church work, is to bring people into the kingdom of God. All social and community work must be subordinate to this and lead up to it. The Church must be something more than a social settlement. I still hold to the old-fashioned idea that men need to be saved,and that the only salvation that there can be for them is found in loyalty to Jesus Christ. While this salvation is a matter of the spirit, affecting one’s standing with God and his relation to the great eternal realities, it also affects his standing with men and his relation to society. And here comes in all the humanitarian and community work that is a legitimate and important part of the church’s concern. Community work can never take the place of the work of God’s Spirit in the individual life. To be permanently valuable it must be theresultof that work. The kingdom of God embraces the complete ideal, and if we can induce men to live according to the principles of that kingdom, careful attention will be paid to all the work that needs to be done for the community. Therefore the work of the Larger Parish is primarily, though not exclusively, evangelistic. We are trying to lead men to become Christians,not in a narrow sense, but in the large, rich meaning of that word which the teaching of Jesus gives it.
During the three years that we have in review there have been some such results. A goodly number have decided to begin the Christian life and have taken their places in the ranks of the followers of Jesus Christ. We are thankful that the army of the Lord has received so many new recruits. But there are many more who are not as yet willing to enlist. The number of those who are still outside the ranks is greater than of those who are marching under the banner of the visible Church. Much remains to be done in this direction. The work is far from being complete in this its most vital and important aspect. We have only made a beginning. It will not be finished until every person in all the wide parish is openly and positively arrayed on the side of Christ. At the present rate of progress it looks as ifthe Church had work laid out for it for a long time to come. It is not in danger of soon running out of material. There is a great work yet to be done in the way of bringing men into the kingdom of God. We hope to keep that always in view—to make it our central aim and our uppermost thought.
2. There needs to be created in the hearts of the people more respect for the Church, a better understanding of its mission, and a fuller appreciation of its work. Many people have mistaken ideas of the Church, and therefore fail to appreciate its work or its purpose. Some regard it simply as a venerable institution that has long had a place in human society. In former times it has done an important work, and still has its value. It is to be honored for its record and still encouraged in a mild and patronizing way. They would not banish the Church—they are not yet quite ready toundertake to conduct human society without it. They tolerate it and perhaps support it in a half-hearted way, but they do not regard it as absolutely essential or its work as vitally important. They do not understand the Church. The Church may be in some measure to blame for this. It has not always understood itself. Its conception of its own mission has been small, narrow, and inadequate, and it was inevitable that no truer or larger impression could be made upon the community. When the Church undertakes to do all for which it is responsible and prosecutes it with the vigor and earnestness that it deserves, the people will begin to understand it better and to appreciate more fully its mission.
Many people regard the Church as an institution to be supported. In common thought this institution, for some reason that may not always appear, has assumed the right to lay the community under tributefor support. Some accept this traditional idea without thinking much about it, while others are in revolt against it. One of the assistant pastors was calling at a house for the first time. The master of the house, when he was introduced, said, “Oh, another preacher! Well, I suppose they all have to be supported.” And he was not the first representative of the Church that has met with such an indignity.
Here again the Church may be at least partially to blame. It has too often regarded its office as that of preying upon the community as well as praying for it. It has not always been careful to give value received.
It is our purpose to make the Church a necessity in the community. Its good works, its efficiency as an element of power in everything that is for the improvement and uplifting of the people, should be so great and so evident that no one can reasonablycall them in question. That is one of the things that needs to be done, and that by the method of the Larger Parish we hope to accomplish. We propose that the Church shall have such a spirit of helpfulness, that it shall be so wise and practical in laying out its work, so energetic and aggressive in prosecuting it, that all shall recognize it as a potent and most blessed force—an institution that they gladly support because of its practical value. Some progress has been made in this direction. The Church has gained immensely in the respect of the people since it began the work of the Larger Parish. The people can see that it is really doing something.
3. There needs to be created a stronger and more universal community spirit. The tendency in the country toward isolation and independence is especially strong. Each farmer is separate from every other. He lives alone, somewhat like a baron inhis castle in old feudal times, sufficient for himself, without much necessity of borrowing, or thought of lending. Living in such conditions it is quite natural that he should grow selfish, and should come to think largely if not exclusively of his own individual interests. He is in danger of overlooking the fact that society is an organism, and he is a part of it; that he has duties and obligations to the general public; that his life cannot be complete if it is lived alone; that he owes something to the community at large, and that he must get something from it if he would really be a man, do a man’s work, and fill a man’s place. He must come to see that the public good means private advantage, and that when he cuts himself off from others and thinks only of his own individual interests he is following a foolish and suicidal policy.