initial commit of ebook 32703HEADmain

20 files changed, 7611 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/32703-8.txt b/32703-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..541cb5d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/32703-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,2518 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Making of a Country Parish, by Harlow S.
+(Harlow Spencer) Mills
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Making of a Country Parish
+
+
+Author: Harlow S. (Harlow Spencer) Mills
+
+
+
+Release Date: June 5, 2010  [eBook #32703]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAKING OF A COUNTRY PARISH***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Tom Roch and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made
+available by Core Historical Literature of Agriculture (CHLA), Albert R.
+Mann Library, Cornell University (http://chla.library.cornell.edu/) and
+Internet Archive/American Libraries
+(http://www.archive.org/details/americana)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 32703-h.htm or 32703-h.zip:
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32703/32703-h/32703-h.htm)
+      or
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32703/32703-h.zip)
+
+
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive/American Libraries. See
+      http://www.archive.org/details/makingofcountryp00mill
+      or
+      Core Historical Literature of Agriculture (CHLA),
+      Albert R. Mann Library, Cornell University
+      http://chla.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=chla;idno=2750849
+
+
+
+
+
+THE MAKING OF A
+COUNTRY PARISH
+
+      *      *      *      *      *
+
+LIBRARY OF CHRISTIAN PROGRESS
+
+_Volumes Issued_
+
+The Church a Community Force. _By Worth M. Tippy_
+
+The Church at the Center. _By Warren H. Wilson_
+
+The Making of a Country Parish. _By Harlow S. Mills_
+
+
+_Cloth, 50 Cents, Prepaid_
+
+
+ADDITIONAL VOLUMES TO BE ISSUED
+
+      *      *      *      *      *
+
+
+[Illustration: FROM BEULAH TO BENZONIA]
+
+
+THE MAKING OF A COUNTRY PARISH
+
+A STORY
+
+by
+
+HARLOW S. MILLS
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+New York
+Missionary Education Movement of the
+United States and Canada
+1914
+
+Copyright, 1914, by
+Missionary Education Movement
+of the United States and Canada
+
+
+
+
+  TO THE REV. AND MRS. F. A. NOBLE, D.D.,
+  WHO MADE THE SUMMER OF NINETEEN
+  HUNDRED AND THIRTEEN MEMORABLE
+  IN THE LARGER BENZONIA PARISH BY
+  THEIR PRESENCE, AND BY THEIR
+  KINDLY AND HELPFUL INTEREST IN ITS
+  WORK, AND TO WHOM THIS STORY
+  OWES ITS SUGGESTION AND INSPIRATION,
+  IT IS MOST GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  CHAPTER                                           PAGE
+
+  FOREWORD BY NEWELL DWIGHT HILLIS                    ix
+
+  INTRODUCTION                                      xiii
+
+  KEY TO MAP                                        xvii
+
+  DESCRIPTION OF THE MAP                           xviii
+
+  I THE HISTORICAL SETTING OF THE STORY                1
+
+  II SOME CONVICTIONS OUT OF WHICH THE VISION CAME    12
+
+  III HOW THE VISION CAME                             25
+
+  IV HOW THE VISION BECAME A REALITY                  36
+
+  V THE METHODS OF THE LARGER PARISH                  59
+
+  VI THINGS YET TO BE DONE                            97
+
+  VII SOME RESULTANT CONCLUSIONS                     113
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+                                                    PAGE
+
+  FROM BEULAH TO BENZONIA                   Frontispiece
+
+  MAP SHOWING THE LARGER PARISH                      xvi
+
+  CRYSTAL LAKE AND BEULAH FROM BENZONIA               10
+
+  THE PLATT LAKE CHAPEL                               72
+
+  THE BENZONIA CHURCH                                104
+
+
+
+
+FOREWORD
+
+
+For many years lovers of the republic have been warning our people as to
+the perils of modern city life. In 1800 one person out of thirteen lived
+in the city; to-day nearly every other citizen lives in a large town, or a
+great city. The city is the home of wealth, commerce, and finance; the
+home of music, art, and eloquence. Once each year all the great leaders
+come for a stay, long or short, to the metropolis. The birds leave the
+desert to seek the oasis, with its palm trees and springs of water. Young
+men, for two generations, have been deserting the farm and the village, to
+make their home in the great city. Many unexpected perils have sprung up
+from this massing of population. Among these dangers are the tenements,
+saloon, gambling houses, dens of vice, the tendency to anarchy, incident
+to the contrast between the palaces on the avenues and the rookeries on
+the Bowery. Insane people, defective children, men and women wrecked
+through drink and drugs, are some of the incidental results of congested
+populations. Innumerable addresses have been given upon the perils of the
+city life, and innumerable pamphlets and books have been published filled
+with warnings and black with alarm. The inevitable result is that the
+attention of the people has been focalized upon the manufacturing towns
+and the large cities.
+
+Now comes the Rev. Harlow S. Mills, with his study of the rural
+population. With the wisdom made possible by twenty years of first-hand
+knowledge he sets forth the influence of the country upon the large town
+and city. He tells us that the country has furnished the leaders for the
+people. It is in the country that the boy has his opportunity of brooding
+and reading and reflecting, while in solitude he develops his own gift
+and grows great. The Church has learned to depend upon the country for its
+theological students, as well as for its best students of law and
+medicine. But of late the country church has suffered grievously through
+the pull of the city upon its best young men and women. The inevitable
+result has been that as the city church has waxed the country church has
+waned in wealth, numbers, and influence. Many things have occurred during
+the past twenty years that are calculated to stir the note of fear, lest
+the life and institutions of the republic, rooted in the country, should
+slowly starve. One of the problems of the hour has been the rejuvenation
+of the country Sunday-school and the country church.
+
+Leaders of the past generation have struggled often in vain with this
+problem. Twenty years ago, the Rev. Harlow S. Mills, a friend of my
+boyhood, took a country church in northwestern Michigan, and started in to
+develop the same community spirit among the people who lived in widely
+separated school districts that the student finds developed in the wards
+of a great city. The story of these twenty years is full of fascination to
+all lovers of their fellow men and of the Christian Church. Mr. Mills has
+made some important discoveries and established certain mother principles
+that should be of invaluable service to the one half of our people living
+in small towns and rural districts. I believe this author and lover of his
+fellows has grown the good seed that ultimately will sow the continent
+with bread.
+
+NEWELL DWIGHT HILLIS.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+The rapid growth of our cities and towns during the last quarter of a
+century has brought us face to face with a serious problem. The religious
+and social conditions that have arisen give occasion for grave
+apprehensions, and have been subjects of careful thought. The City Problem
+has been widely discussed. Much thought and effort have been expended in
+its solution, and, while progress has been made and the outlook is
+hopeful, the end is not yet. Within recent years another problem has
+arisen which is scarcely less serious than that which the city presents,
+and that is the Country Problem. There are two reasons why this has not
+attracted special attention until quite lately. First, the city problem
+has been so serious and so acute that it has occupied the public mind to
+the exclusion of conditions in the country. And, in the second place,
+those conditions have increased in seriousness so rapidly in recent years
+and their demand for attention and careful consideration has become so
+insistent and imperious that it can no longer be disregarded. No
+thoughtful person can now blink the fact that there is a country problem,
+that it is equal in seriousness to the city problem, and that the two are
+so intimately related that neither of them can be solved by itself alone.
+They stand or fall together.
+
+I have no theory to present, nor any philosophy to exploit. I have no
+patent way of solving either the city or the country problem. I have only
+a story to tell of some things that have been done that may point the way
+toward a solution of the country problem. It is the simple account of an
+experiment in the work of religious and social welfare that promises to be
+successful. The parish that is spoken of may be regarded as an experiment
+station, and this story is only the account of the working out of certain
+methods. It will be enough if the story shall prove to be some small
+contribution to the solution of the important and difficult country
+problem.
+
+One of the greatest difficulties I had in writing this story was with
+myself. Some of the experiences were so purely personal that I hesitated
+to speak of them and I shrank from the so frequent use of the personal
+pronouns. In the first draft of the story I resorted to all manner of
+circumlocution to avoid their use, but I found it difficult to adopt any
+consistent form and the result was to weaken the impression. So, acting on
+the advice of able and judicious critics, I concluded to tell the story in
+the simplest and most direct way.
+
+H. S. MILLS.
+
+BENZONIA, MICHIGAN,
+
+_August 15, 1914_.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: MAP SHOWING THE LARGER PARISH
+
+(WEST HALF OF BENZIE COUNTY, MICHIGAN)]
+
+
+KEY TO MAP
+
+1. Benzonia Village, Benzonia Township. Church Organization, Church
+Building. Morning Service every Sunday. Sunday School, Christian Endeavor
+Society, Woman's Missionary Society, Weekly Prayer Meeting, Ladies' Aid
+Society.
+
+2. Beulah Village, Benzonia Township. Chapel. Evening Service every
+Sunday, Sunday School, Ladies' Aid Society.
+
+3. Eden, Benzonia Township. Church Organization, Schoolhouse (Chapel,
+1914). Evening Service every Sunday, Sunday School, Christian Endeavor
+Society, Weekly Prayer Meeting, Neighborhood Club, Ladies' Social Circle.
+
+4. Champion Hill, Homestead Township. Church Organization, Chapel. Morning
+Service every Sunday, Christian Endeavor Society.
+
+5. Platt Lake, Benzonia Township. Chapel. Afternoon Service on alternate
+Sundays. Ladies' Aid Society.
+
+6. North Crystal, Benzonia Township. Private Home (Chapel, 1914).
+Afternoon Service on alternate Sundays, Sunday School, Ladies' Aid
+Society.
+
+7. Grace, Gilmore Township. Church Organization, Chapel. Morning Service
+every Sunday, Sunday School, Neighborhood Club, Ladies' Aid Society.
+
+8. Demerley, Joyfield Township. Schoolhouse. Afternoon Service on
+alternate Sundays, Sunday School.
+
+9. South Chapel, Benzonia Township. Chapel. Evening Service on alternate
+Sundays, Sunday School.
+
+10. East Joyfield, Joyfield Township. Chapel. Evening Service on alternate
+Sundays, Sunday School.
+
+11. Liberty Union, Benzonia Township. Schoolhouse. Afternoon Service on
+alternate Sundays, Neighborhood Club.
+
+12. South Elberta, Gilmore Township. Schoolhouse. Sunday School.
+
+
+DESCRIPTION OF THE MAP
+
+In order that the term, "The Larger Parish," the name by which the work of
+this story has come to be familiarly known, may be understood, some
+description of its geography and topography as represented on the
+accompanying map, may be necessary.
+
+The Larger Benzonia Parish is situated in Benzie County, Michigan, eight
+miles from Lake Michigan and at the east end of Crystal Lake, one of the
+most beautiful small lakes in the state. Benzonia-Beulah, the twin
+villages which are at the center of the Larger Parish, are on the Ann
+Arbor Railroad, which extends diagonally through the state from Toledo,
+Ohio, to Frankfort on Lake Michigan. The Larger Parish includes Benzonia
+Township and portions of Lake, Homestead, Joyfield, Gilmore, and Crystal
+Lake Townships. It divides itself into three sub-parishes: the North
+Parish, with two churches, Champion Hill and Eden, and two out-stations,
+North Crystal and Platt Lake; the South Parish, with one church, Grace,
+and five out-stations, South Chapel, Demerley, East Joyfield, Liberty
+Union, and South Elberta; while between these is the Central Parish, with
+Benzonia on the hilltop and Beulah in the valley, half a mile distant.
+
+The map represents the western half of Benzie County, and the various
+churches, chapels, and other out-stations are designated.
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+THE HISTORICAL SETTING OF THE STORY
+
+
+The story of New England with the Pilgrims left out could be neither
+understood nor appreciated. We must know something about those sturdy,
+conscientious men and women who became exiles and crossed the stormy
+Atlantic that they might have "freedom to worship God." We must understand
+something about the barren and the wintry coast that received them,
+something of their struggles and sufferings, their aims and aspirations,
+if we would know the history of that civilization that they founded, or
+get a true conception of the experiment in democracy that they so
+successfully wrought out.
+
+The story that is about to be told had its Pilgrims. To leave them out
+would be to spoil the story. It cannot be understood without knowing
+something of their heroic spirit, their sincere devotion, and the manner
+in which they permanently impressed their ideas and their personality upon
+the community which they founded and the institutions which they planted.
+Some account of its historical setting will be necessary in order to make
+this story of country evangelization complete.
+
+The half century between 1825 and 1875 witnessed the most remarkable
+educational movement that our country has ever seen. It was the era of
+college planting. During that period a line of Christian colleges was
+projected from New York to California, many of which have been developed
+and stand to-day as monuments to the zeal and foresight of that remarkable
+generation of nation builders. The value of their work, and its influence
+for good upon the people and the institutions of the most populous, the
+wealthiest, and the most influential section of our country cannot be
+estimated.
+
+In 1858 a company of people from northern Ohio, who had lighted their
+torch of religious and educational enthusiasm at the flame of Oberlin,
+came into the vast wilderness of northern Michigan with the purpose of
+planting there Christian institutions. They were high-minded, sturdy
+people, with strong religious convictions. The Pilgrims did not bring to
+the New England coast a truer motive or a purer purpose. They were willing
+to put into the enterprise their lives and their fortunes. They stamped
+the new community that they founded with the impress of their ideals, and
+that stamp has persisted.
+
+These modern Pilgrims repeated with some modification the experiences of
+their New England prototypes. After a long and stormy voyage on the Great
+Lakes they landed in the late autumn on an inhospitable coast, built them
+some rough shanties that their descendants would not consider worthy to
+shelter their cattle, and there they passed a severe winter. They explored
+the northwestern Michigan woods, and finally, with a strange indifference
+to the importance of a railway to the development of a town, they lighted
+upon a level plateau on the top of a high hill, two hundred feet above the
+placid waters of beautiful Lake Crystal, and eight miles from Lake
+Michigan, and there they pitched their tents. Like Abraham, their first
+work after entering the Promised Land was to build an altar to Jehovah,
+and like him and their New England ancestors, they built it on the highest
+elevation that they could find. One of the first things they did was to
+select a site for a church and for a school, and, standing under the tall
+maples and beeches, with hymn and prayer, to dedicate that high hilltop to
+the cause of Christian education.
+
+The church that they planted, the first in all the Grand Traverse region,
+celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of its organization in 1910. It has
+now a membership of about three hundred, and is the center of the
+religious and social life, not only of the immediate community but also of
+the territory known as "The Larger Parish," twelve miles long and ten
+miles wide. It has been the mother of churches, and now stands encircled
+by a number of younger organizations that are growing strong and sturdy
+under its cherishing influence.
+
+Benzonia, the village that they founded, never became the populous center
+that they hoped it would be. There are now but about four hundred people
+living on the hilltop, and nearly as many more in the village of Beulah,
+which, at the bottom of the hill nestles around the head of the Lake, half
+a mile away. The two villages of Benzonia and Beulah form one corporation,
+and contain together about seven hundred inhabitants. The school which
+they established is still doing business, though not exactly in the way
+that they anticipated. They thought to repeat the history of Oberlin by
+planting in the woods of northern Michigan an institution of learning such
+as the fathers planted in northern Ohio. But the conditions were very
+dissimilar. Oberlin was in the zone of quick settlement. Cities and towns
+soon sprang up all about it, and it became in a few years the center of a
+large population. But the northern Michigan region developed very slowly
+and it was a long time before there were enough people to maintain a
+college or to justify its presence. But from the first there was in
+operation a school of high order, and it performed a splendid service in
+those early years, doing the educational work for all that region, and
+supplying teachers for the public schools throughout a wide territory. It
+is now conducted as an Academy and is doing an excellent work, sending
+forth each year large classes of young people well prepared to enter any
+college or university in the country. The Academy has been maintained very
+largely by the gifts and sacrifices of the people of the community, and is
+an important factor of the work that is being wrought out in "The Larger
+Parish."
+
+The people of this community are unusually homogeneous. There are no Roman
+Catholics, few foreigners, and no colored people. They are hardworking and
+industrious, none of them possessing large wealth, and none of them being
+very poor. All are compelled to toil for their daily bread. There, if
+anywhere, it is possible to live "the simple life," and in such healthful
+conditions the community life has developed. Though the presence of the
+Academy has been a means of culture and the center and inspirations of
+literary life, it is by no means true that all the people in the wide
+parish are well educated. A few miles from the village primitive and
+pioneer conditions are found, and there is no lack of genuine missionary
+ground.
+
+The social life of this community is very satisfactory. There are no
+classes or cliques. The people mingle together freely on a common basis,
+and exemplify to an unusual degree the principle of brotherhood. There has
+never been a saloon in the community, and the people are for the most part
+steady-going and law-abiding. They are loyal to their home institutions,
+crowding the church on Sunday and taking a lively interest in all things
+that pertain to the welfare of the village and the surrounding country.
+They are dependent upon themselves for literary and musical
+entertainments--no shows or moving picture combinations ever come that
+way. But a good lecture course is maintained, and there are frequent
+musical and literary entertainments by the Academy and high school and by
+the people of the town; so there is no lack of the means of recreation,
+and that of a high order and of a helpful character.
+
+At the west end of Crystal Lake, eight miles distant, on a beautiful tract
+of land with frontage on Lake Michigan, as well as on Crystal Lake, are
+the grounds of the Frankfort Congregational Summer Assembly. The location
+is superb, and it is rapidly becoming a favorite summer resort, attracting
+people even from New England and from the Pacific coast. The relation
+between Benzonia and the summer assembly is very close. It is easily
+accessible by frequent boats. Every year they have "Benzonia Day," when
+the Assembly adjourns to the beautiful campus on the hilltop, enjoying a
+dinner together under the trees and a well-arranged program of speeches
+and music. The residents of the surrounding country come in crowds to
+these outdoor festivals and they are eagerly anticipated by all. They
+afford a fine opportunity for the people of the vicinage to meet in
+friendly intercourse those who come from distant parts of the country to
+enjoy the cool breezes and the woods and lakes of the northern Michigan
+regions, and they are appreciated by all. Sometimes the Assembly is the
+host, and the people of Benzonia are the guests. During the summer the
+leading ministers of the country are frequently in the Benzonia pulpit,
+and so the people, though living quite remote from the great centers, and
+not given to much travel, have the privilege of hearing the most noted
+speakers, and thus come in touch with the good things that are being said
+and done in the wider world.
+
+The Academy and summer Assembly are closely related to the work of the
+Larger Benzonia Parish. While this work has not been dependent upon them,
+their presence and influence have been a great stimulus and
+encouragement, and they have added strength and stability to the movement.
+
+Thus briefly is sketched the setting of the story that will be told in the
+succeeding chapters.
+
+
+[Illustration: CRYSTAL LAKE AND BEULAH FROM BENZONIA]
+
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+SOME CONVICTIONS OUT OF WHICH THE VISION CAME
+
+
+A conviction is a great thing. It is the egg out of which all great
+enterprises are hatched. Almost everything that is worth while was once
+wrapped up in a conviction. Abraham had a conviction that he ought to obey
+God's leading. He took his journey to the "land that he knew not of," and
+we have as the result the Hebrew race, and all that has come out of it for
+the world.
+
+The vision of which I am telling the story was at first only a conviction.
+There were a few things of which I had become certain. Just how the
+conviction seized me I hardly know, but I like to think that it came from
+the same source from which Abraham's conviction came, and that thought
+has made me confident in following this guiding gleam.
+
+1. I became convinced that the real object of the Church is to _serve_ the
+people, and that its claim for support should rest upon the same ground
+upon which every other institution bases its claim for support--that it
+gives value received. That has not always been the idea of church people.
+They have considered the Church as a divine institution, and that because
+of its divine origin and sacred character it can properly demand respect
+and support. There was a time in the not very distant past when the
+ministers of the Church, as its representatives, might demand reverence
+and respect because of the position they occupied. There was much of
+reverence and regard for "the cloth." But those days are past. Now the
+Church is valued only for what it does. If it does nothing, it need no
+longer look for respectful recognition. If it makes no contribution to
+the community whose value can be seen and appreciated, it cannot expect
+support or favorable regard. People do not care very much for clerical
+dignity in these days. They are not asking what place a man occupies, or
+what kind of clothes he wears, but what he does for the community. Is he
+rendering valuable service? They are quite ready to pay for service that
+is of real worth, but for dignity and traditionary sanctity they have
+slight regard.
+
+There are some who seem to think that the Church makes good by building
+_itself_ up--that if it becomes strong as an institution, if it flourishes
+in its outward aspects, it justifies its existence. They are well
+satisfied if it increases in numbers, if it erects splendid and beautiful
+buildings, if it contributes substantially to the glory of the
+denomination to which it belongs, whether it really serves the people or
+not. But it can never answer the ends of its existence by simply building
+itself up as an institution. There have been periods in the history of the
+Church when it was very strong as an organization, but very weak as an
+element of helpfulness in the lives of the people. Fine buildings and
+stately ritual and high social standing can never satisfy the great
+Founder of the Church. Jesus said, "The Son of man came not to be
+ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many."
+He sent his Church on the same errand. Unless it is doing the thing for
+which it was sent it has no justification for its existence. It is here to
+serve, to help the people. In-so-far as it actually does serve it may
+claim and expect love, recognition, and support--but no further. This
+became one of my strong convictions.
+
+2. I also became convinced that the Church, if it makes good must serve
+_all_ the people. The impression has sometimes prevailed that the Church
+is for good people, for those who are respectable. It has been thought of,
+and sometimes it has thought of itself, as under obligations to minister
+to the religious people of the community, or to those who can be induced
+to become religious. There is a large class of people who are not
+religiously inclined and who have no affiliation with the Church, and who,
+perhaps, are not likely to have, for whom it has not been thought to be
+responsible. In almost every parish, or within reach of it, there are
+numbers of people who are not touched by the Church, and who are not
+considered to be material for the Church to work upon. Some are outside of
+its influence because they live so far away that they cannot easily be
+reached. Some because of their character and standing in society are
+considered beyond its pale. What would be the effect if a company of women
+from the street should come into one of our beautiful and respectable
+churches for a few Sunday mornings? How would they be received? Would the
+ushers show them comfortable seats? Would they be welcome in the pews of
+the good people who have come together to worship God? And yet, the great
+Head of the Church came "to seek and to save that which was lost." He did
+not shun such people or banish them from his presence. He was "a friend of
+publicans and sinners," and brought down upon himself serious criticism
+because he did not discriminate more carefully in the matter of his
+associates. The Church should have the spirit of the Master, and, wherever
+there is a man, woman, or child, there is one in whom the Church should be
+interested, and whom it should seek to serve, whatever may be his
+character, his condition, or his standing socially. It became one of my
+strong convictions that the Church has a definite mission to every person
+within the possible range of its influence, and out of that conviction
+came the vision.
+
+3. It also became plain that if the Church would fulfil its mission it
+must serve _all_ the interests of the people. I was brought up with the
+idea that its mission was largely, if not exclusively, spiritual. Its
+chief and almost only concern was the soul of the individual man. It was
+thought that a man has a soul, and that that soul was in peril. His _soul_
+must be saved--that was the important thing. It was of small consequence
+that the man himself went to the dogs, if only his soul was saved. The man
+was forgotten in anxiety for his soul. We were the victims of a false
+psychology; as if a man and his soul could be separated--as if there could
+be any such thing as simply saving the soul of a man! We have come to see
+that a man, though composed of many parts, is a unit. He is not put
+together mechanically, so that one part may be taken and treated and the
+other parts ignored. He is not built in separate compartments, his soul in
+one, and his body in another. Christianity is not dealing with souls
+alone. It is dealing with men, and we are becoming interested in all that
+makes a man a man. The conviction became strong that the Church should
+have something to say and something to do with everything that goes to
+make up the life of the man; that it should make itself felt as an
+influence in his business, his education, his recreation, his home life,
+as well as in his so-called religious exercises; that it should be a force
+with him on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday as well as on Sunday. In
+other words, the line that has been supposed to separate the sacred from
+the secular must be obliterated, and every common thing must become
+sacred. It was seen that everything that has a rightful place in the life
+of a man should be the concern of the Church, and that whatever cannot be
+brought into harmony with the Church and its principles has no proper
+place in the real life of a man.
+
+4. The conviction became strong that the village church, if it would
+fulfil its mission, must be responsible for _country evangelization_. It
+must reach out into all the surrounding neighborhoods, and touch the
+people in a vital way for many miles around. In the popular conception the
+influence of the church has been contracted and narrowed till it does not
+include half the territory nor half the people embraced in its
+responsibility. Many ministers are content to tramp around in the narrow
+confines of their own village, with an occasional excursion into the
+country, while there are scores of families living a little more remote
+for whom they are attempting nothing. Some ministers look upon their
+churches as their field rather than their force--a field to be cultivated
+rather than a force of workers to be led out into the widestretching
+fields that lie beyond. This is a serious mistake. Such a limited
+conception of the extent of its work and such an inadequate idea of its
+real responsibility and of its best opportunity will certainly condemn a
+church to comparative uselessness, and in the end to failure. When all the
+village churches get the vision and see their work in its fulness, the
+country problem will be solved.
+
+Country evangelization belongs primarily and practically to the village
+church. The village church is the only one that can really take it up and
+deal with it in a successful way. It is in the power of the churches in
+the villages and small towns to change the whole aspect of things in the
+country, religiously, morally, and socially.
+
+For some years the pastor and church of this story had been trying to do
+something for the outlying regions, but they had not grasped the idea that
+all the people for many miles around who were not cared for by some other
+church were in their parish--that for them they were responsible and to
+them they had a mission. They began to see that they were not doing half
+the work they might do and ought to do; that there were scores of
+families, and hundreds of people, to whom the church was nothing, who
+should be made to feel its force in a stimulating and uplifting way. They
+began to feel the pressure of that obligation that had rested on them all
+along, and of which they had been unconscious or unheedful. The voice of
+God began to sound plainly in their ears, "Go ye forth into these ripe
+harvest-fields, and gather sheaves for the Master." The conviction became
+so strong that they ought to take up the wider work, and the duty grew to
+be so plain that they wondered that they had not seen it long before.
+
+5. The conviction became strong that, if the village church would fulfil
+its mission, it must be a community church. I used to think that the
+church had simply to do with individuals; that its work was to reach out
+here and there, to get hold of this one and that one, and that there its
+work terminated. Society was thought of as a heap of sand, and not as an
+organism. Man was considered in himself alone, and not in his relations,
+and so he was misunderstood, for nothing can be truly and fully known
+except in its relations. But it has become plain that this exclusively
+individualistic conception was a mistake; that there is such a thing as
+community life, the life that all the people have in common; that men are
+bound up together by common interests; that they are members one of
+another; that "none of us liveth to himself, and none dieth to himself."
+The conviction became strong that the church should take account of this
+community life of which the individual is a part; that it should concern
+itself not only for men, but for _man_; that it should serve the whole
+community, and that nothing should be foreign to the church or ignored by
+it that in any way concerns the common life of the people.
+
+This conviction did not detract from my estimate of the importance of the
+spiritual, or of the individual. I still regarded the spiritual part of a
+man as his most essential part. It was still plain that we have to deal
+with men as individuals, but I recognized them also in their organic
+relation to the whole life of the community. Not only were the men's souls
+to be saved, but the _men_ themselves were to be saved. Not only were the
+_men_ to be saved and lifted up to a better life, but the _whole
+community_ was to be saved, and the community life was to be uplifted and
+placed on a higher plane.
+
+Out of these convictions, which grew more and more positive, came the
+vision whose fulfilment is the subject of this story.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+HOW THE VISION CAME
+
+
+The genesis of a vision is always interesting, though often obscure. On
+one day a certain side of life is a blank. There is no outlook, no hint of
+the coming brightness. On another day that side of life is made all
+radiant and glorious by a vision, clear and definite, that beckons on to
+future achievement. Sometimes it comes suddenly, like Peter's vision when
+he was upon the housetop in Joppa; and sometimes it dawns gradually, and
+little by little paints itself in beautiful colors upon the sky of one's
+inner consciousness. As remarked in a previous chapter, a conviction is
+the egg from which the vision comes; but the egg is only dead and formless
+matter until it is brooded over and warmed into life. So a conviction may
+be strong and positive, but it may exist for a long time, formless,
+lifeless, and useless, until it is quickened into vitality by the brooding
+spirit of a man, and thus becomes an active and inspiring force. So it may
+be profitable and necessary to the proper understanding of this story to
+tell how the vision came.
+
+For fifteen years I had been working away in my country parish. They had
+been happy years of glad, harmonious work. I was satisfied with my job.
+Though remote from the great centers of population, in a small village,
+and with people of very modest means, that restless feeling that spoils
+the peace and mars the work of so many ministers had been absent. My
+people were of the strong and sturdy sort, faithful and appreciative
+beyond many, ready to coöperate in carrying out any plans of work that the
+pastor might propose. They were splendid followers, responding quickly to
+all my suggestions. There was a good understanding between myself and the
+people.
+
+I was called to pass through deep affliction. My home was broken up by a
+sudden stroke and I was left alone. Into the dark valley of sorrow my
+people accompanied me as far as they were able to go, and the effect
+seemed to be to unite us with bonds that were very strong and tender.
+Every home in all the parish was mine. All the children belonged to me.
+There was a chair for me at every fireside and a plate at every table.
+
+But as the years went by there came some tempting opportunities to engage
+in work elsewhere. I was not without my ambitions and aspirations. I
+wanted to fill out the full measure of my ability and do my best work. And
+when some opportunities came that made the little country parish seem by
+comparison rather small and meager, I was not altogether proof against
+them. To become assistant pastor in a famous church in a large city--to
+take up the work of general missionary for a whole state seemed to promise
+fields of usefulness so rich and large that they made a strong appeal to
+the best there was in me, and perhaps also to the worst. I spent some
+weeks and months in considering these propositions and finally turned them
+down. I could not bring myself to sever my connection with those to whom I
+had been so long and so closely related. The personal tie was too strong
+and I decided to remain with my people.
+
+With the decision came a thorough heart-searching. It marked a
+turning-point in my spiritual history. I was impressed with the thought
+that if it was God's will that I should remain in my present work, it must
+be for a special purpose. Things could not be in the future as they had
+been in the past. It would be criminal to turn down a larger work for one
+that was small unless there were good and sufficient reasons for doing
+so. If it was the Lord's will that I should remain in that country parish,
+there must be some work there that it was worth while for me to do, some
+work that in a proper degree, at least, would approach in importance the
+large proposition made by the city and the state. What was the work? Was
+there anything to be done among those hills and in those rapidly
+disappearing forests that could fire a man's ambitions and satisfy his
+high aspirations?
+
+Just here the vision came. At first a whole township was revealed as a
+possible parish, with every family tributary to the church, and the church
+performing a valuable ministry for them all. The vision expanded until it
+took in another township, and parts of three or four more. It became plain
+that almost half a county was tributary to the church, that five hundred
+families and twenty-five hundred people were waiting for its ministry. It
+dawned upon my mental vision that I was called upon to be the pastor of
+all these people, for five or six miles in every direction, that the
+Benzonia church was responsible for them all, that they had a right to
+look to us for service and help, and that if we failed to give it we
+should be unfaithful to our Master and recreant to our trust. Then I said:
+"Here is something worth doing. Here may be wrought out an experiment in
+country evangelization and rural betterment that may help to arrest the
+downward trend that has become so alarming in these latter days. It was
+for this that God has kept me here. If I can make this vision a reality, I
+need not pine for a larger field. If I can help others to see the vision,
+and inspire them with enthusiasm to make it real in larger fields than
+mine, and in many parts of our country, I shall never regret that I stayed
+by the stuff." The vision came as a compensation. It was the reward that
+God gave for following his leading along those ways where natural
+inclinations would not have disposed me to go. God wants us to do our best
+and largest work. He never calls us to a smaller work. If he bids us walk
+along a humble path and go in an obscure way, we shall find our true
+life-work there.
+
+The church had for many years been much interested in both home and
+foreign missions. I preached frequently upon the subject, and kept it
+constantly before the people. Regular collections were taken for
+missionary objects, and the Every Member Canvass plan had long been in
+operation. The response was always general and liberal. In fact, those who
+were well acquainted with the churches of the state have often said that
+in proportion to its resources, its gifts were larger than those of any
+other church. Not only did they give money, but they also gave their sons
+and daughters to carry the gospel to less favored regions. Many of the
+young women of the church had gone to teach in home mission schools. And
+there came a beautiful summer Sabbath when a favorite niece, brought up in
+my home, and an active and useful member of the church, beloved by all,
+with solemn services in the little church on the hilltop was consecrated
+to the foreign work and sent forth with the prayers and blessings of all
+the people to represent them among the awakening millions of China.
+
+As I was sitting in my study one day pondering upon these things, the
+absurdity of the situation came over me all at once. "Here we are
+gathering money to send our sons and daughters to the distant parts of the
+earth, but we are doing absolutely nothing for scores of families that are
+almost within the sound of our church-bell. We feel some responsibility
+for the millions of people of other lands whom we have never seen, and
+never shall see, but we have not felt very much responsibility for those
+who are separated from us by only a few miles. We are anxious to give the
+gospel to the colored people, the Chinese, and to those of alien races;
+but we have felt no such anxiety for those of our own race who are not so
+very far away. There are many families and hundreds of people within five
+or six miles of our church that are practically without the gospel, as
+truly as are the Chinese or the South Sea Islanders. We have made no
+systematic effort to interest them in these things. We have given them no
+reason to believe that we are drawn out toward them with Christlike
+motives. Surely there must be something wrong in our calculations." Then I
+heard the Master say, "These ye ought to have done, and not to have left
+the other undone."
+
+And then came the vision of "The Larger Parish." I saw the church
+reaching out its hand and touching tenderly but effectively all the people
+in the surrounding country. I saw the church feeling some responsibility
+for every family, and counting them all as within the bounds of its
+parish. I saw every family in all that wide region as tributary to the
+church. I saw the church making systematic plans to carry the gospel to
+all these outlying neighborhoods. I began to think of all those people as
+my parishioners as truly as were those who lived near the church and were
+members of it. And so the vision dawned upon me of the Larger Parish. In
+my own mind I annexed all the surrounding country and began to make plans
+for the evangelization and helping of all the people who dwelt therein. So
+under the stimulus of foreign missions the vision came of the work that
+should be done and could be done nearer home.
+
+And it may be well to add that since the work of the Larger Parish began,
+the contributions to foreign missions have more than doubled. There are
+those all over this wide territory who knew little and cared less about
+missions three years ago, but who now are eager to make some contribution
+to the support of the missionary in China, half of whose salary our Church
+is pledged to provide.
+
+And so the vision came, from above as all good visions do, but it came
+while walking in the pathway of duty, in the unfolding of a larger
+experience. He who follows the dawning light will see the vision.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+HOW THE VISION BECAME A REALITY
+
+
+The chief value of visions is in their fulfilment. A visionary man is one
+who sees but does not do. He has revelations of splendid possibilities,
+but they do not materialize. The sky of his inner consciousness is all
+painted over with beautiful pictures, but those designs never get on the
+canvas or into the marble or find their fulfilment in flesh and blood. The
+most elaborate plans and specifications will not shelter a family nor
+constitute a home. They must be embodied in brick and stone and timber in
+order to make them valuable. Only the concreting of ideals can save the
+vision-gazer from becoming a visionary.
+
+It is always interesting and instructive to trace the process by which a
+vision is made real. Often the pathway to the goal is obscure, difficult,
+and tedious, but it is worth while to follow it. This chapter will be an
+endeavor to trace the process by which the vision of the Larger Parish
+became a reality.
+
+I had a clear apprehension of two things--the work to be done, and the
+instrument by which it must be accomplished; but just how the instrument
+was to accomplish the work was not so evident. Here was the church, and
+here were the people; but how could they be brought together to their
+mutual advantage? I had been a very busy man for years. My time had been
+fully occupied and I had not supposed it possible to take more work. How
+was I to multiply my activities many fold and still be efficient? The
+church had been active and aggressive. It had been doing large things. In
+the opinion of some it had been straining itself beyond reasonable limits
+in carrying on its work. How could it quadruple the size of its parish by
+annexing all the territory within a radius of five miles in every
+direction, and increase its constituency several times over. Would it not
+be swamped by its acquisitions? Would it not be overwhelmed by the number
+and greatness of its obligations and responsibilities? It had not
+adequately ministered to all the people in its smaller parish. How would
+it be when its boundaries were so greatly increased?
+
+These and many other doubtful questions presented themselves, and the
+answers were not at hand. But there were the outlying neighborhoods;
+without consulting them I had annexed them to my parish. There was the
+church; without asking its consent, in my own mind I had multiplied its
+work and increased its burdens many fold. I had a task with the people to
+make them willing to be annexed; with the church, to lead it to accept
+its heavier burdens and its larger responsibilities; and a still greater
+task to bring the church and the people into such relations that the work
+should be accomplished. How did I go about my task?
+
+1. The first thing to be done was to make a survey of the field. I began
+to think of all the twenty-five hundred people in this Larger Parish as
+belonging to me. I felt a measure of responsibility for them all. We, as a
+church and pastor, must do something for them all, and in order to do it,
+we must know them all. So I started out to visit all the families in this
+wide territory. Many of them, of course, I knew already. But many that
+were more remote I had not touched closely, though in my fifteen years'
+pastorate there were few who had not some acquaintance with me. I tramped
+around over the whole parish, living with the people, often being absent
+from my home for two or three days at a time, until there was scarcely a
+home in all that region in which I was a stranger. This was most
+delightful and rewarding work. There was a welcome for me everywhere.
+Almost without exception the people seemed pleased to come in touch with
+the representative of the church. Weary of body, but glad of heart, I laid
+myself down at night under the shelter of some hospitable farmer's roof
+after having spent the evening in friendly conversation with him and his
+family. Such an opportunity to get up close to people is worth a score of
+sermons.
+
+This visiting tour occupied many weeks--in fact a large part of the autumn
+months was spent in this way, and in many desirable things more was
+accomplished in those three months than had been done in the fifteen
+previous years. I came to know the outside people as I had never known
+them before. My touch with them was warmer and closer. I came to think of
+them in a different way. My interest in them was more definite and more
+intelligent. I came to understand the field--to know its extent, its
+difficulties, and its encouragements--and so I was prepared to grapple
+with the task God had given me.
+
+The effect upon myself of these tours among the people was most salutary.
+Aside from the information that I gained, there was an even greater gain
+in sympathy, in understanding, and in the inspiration and enthusiasm that
+came into my own soul. I usually made these apostolic tours on foot. I
+would start out in the morning with my staff in hand with a general route
+previously marked out. If I saw a man plowing in the field, I would sit
+down with him on the plow-beam while his horses were resting, and have a
+good talk about his farm, his home, the matters of interest in the
+community, and there was almost always a good opportunity to get in a few
+words about the things of the Kingdom. Then at the dinner or the supper
+hour, when all the family were together, there was a chance to get into
+the home life, and to be for the time a part of the family circle. I found
+that when I met the people, not as a minister, but as a man and a friend,
+there was always a hearty and a glad response, and it was easy to secure a
+sympathetic hearing for my projects and plans. There was much gained in
+establishing such close relations with the people. Without such a basis,
+the work of the larger parish could hardly have been successfully carried
+on.
+
+2. My task with the church, in bringing it to get my point of view, to see
+the vision as I saw it, and to coöperate in making it a reality, was not
+difficult. They were ready for the larger work--at least, they were ready
+to be made ready. All they needed was light and leading. This I undertook
+to give. I told them my vision of the Larger Parish. I held it up before
+them continually, preaching it on the Sabbath, and talking about it in
+the prayer-meeting. I described the situation as it had been revealed to
+me in my apostolic tramps. From week to week I could see the kindling
+flame of enthusiasm in the congregation. There was evidently a rising tide
+of interest in the wider work. The people began to see the reasonableness
+of it. They began to feel some sense of responsibility for it, some joy
+and hope as the possibility of doing it began to dawn upon them.
+
+I believe that the rank and file of our churches are more ready to march
+forth to larger service than most of us have thought. There is really more
+willingness to take up new tasks and to engage in aggressive enterprises
+than they have had credit for. The people want something to do. They want
+a work that is worth while. Many churches are languishing for a job which
+they may apprehend and accept--for something large enough and difficult
+enough to challenge their powers and kindle their enthusiasm. And when a
+proposition is made to them that seems sane and sensible, when they can
+have confidence in their leaders, they are generally ready to fall in line
+and to march forward with firm and steady tread. That was the case with
+this particular church, and they have stood behind the work of the Larger
+Parish from the first in solid phalanx. There have been no kickers, no
+knockers. In all this work I have had the satisfaction of knowing that the
+people were with me. They have been helpers all the way and not hinderers.
+
+3. But how should we begin? How can we move out into this Larger Parish
+and get hold of this greater work? In some way we must be something to all
+these people. We must find a way by which the church may make itself felt
+as a force in all these five hundred homes. But how? Well, I began to
+hold services in the schoolhouses around. I could at least hold one
+meeting a week in these out-stations in addition to my regular duties.
+That seemed a very small beginning, but it was a beginning. It was the
+entering wedge to the larger work that followed. On Wednesday nights some
+of my people would take me to these more distant points, where I was
+almost invariably greeted by a good and attentive congregation. I had no
+conveyance of my own, and of this I was glad, for it gave an excuse to
+call upon my people for transportation, and gave them a chance to have a
+part in the work; for I considered that the success of the work depended,
+not so much upon what I did or said, as upon the attitude that the people
+of the church took toward it. And the presence of the men with me in these
+services greatly increased the effectiveness of the efforts. I was a
+preacher and I was simply "on my job." _They_ represented the church and
+proclaimed to the people in the outlying regions its attitude toward them.
+In some of the neighborhoods there were no schoolhouses, and the services
+were held in private homes. In this simple way the work began to grow.
+
+4. At first I had no definite thought of how the work would develop. I
+simply started out to do what I could for the people in this wide
+territory. But it soon became evident that one man would not be able to do
+all the work that was opening up before me. The need of a helper began to
+press heavily, but the possibility of securing one had not yet dawned upon
+me. The General Missionary of the state became interested in the work, and
+he was the first one to suggest that an Assistant might be secured. This
+put new hope and courage into my heart. The matter was brought to the
+attention of the Superintendent of the state, and he consulted with his
+Advisory Committee. He came upon the ground, and after making a thorough
+investigation, agreed with the General Missionary that a helper was
+necessary. He thought that the work proposed was legitimate home
+missionary work, that the best way to evangelize the whole country is for
+each village church to reach out into the country around as far as
+possible, until village with village should touch hands over a region that
+is adequately supplied with gospel privileges.
+
+The result was that a proposition was made by the Superintendent to the
+church. It was substantially this: that we should take into the Parish
+Grace Church, a small Congregational organization four miles distant from
+Benzonia, which had been moribund for a long time, with no regular
+services for a number of years. The Home Missionary Society would make a
+grant of one hundred dollars if Grace Church would raise one hundred and
+fifty dollars. It was understood that the Benzonia Church would raise the
+other two hundred and fifty dollars that should make out the Assistant's
+salary. This should be the contribution of the Benzonia Church to the Home
+Missionary Society, but should be returned to the Benzonia field to be
+spent in the development of the Larger Parish. This proposition was
+brought before the church at a regular meeting, and by a unanimous vote it
+was accepted, and so the church in a formal and positive way committed
+itself to the work of the Larger Parish.
+
+The pastor wishes to make grateful acknowledgment of the part that the
+state officers of the Congregational Conference have had in developing the
+Larger Parish. Without their coöperation it could never have been brought
+to its present stage of development. With clear foresight and generous
+contributions they have fostered the work, and the success of the
+experiment is largely due to their sympathetic interest, and their wise
+and helpful efforts. They have regarded it as the demonstration of a
+method of dealing with the country problem that may, if it proves
+successful, find wide application throughout the state, and they have been
+glad to give it their fostering influence and their substantial aid. It is
+possible that the "Larger Parish Plan" may furnish a most effective method
+of home missionary activity.
+
+5. But the next thing was to find the man who, for a salary of five
+hundred dollars, was willing to undertake the work of tramping over three
+townships, and of becoming the under pastor of twenty-five hundred people.
+The Larger Parish was still unorganized. It was still a rather indefinite
+and unrealized vision. It was clear that in some way gospel work must be
+inaugurated in all that wide territory; but just what form it would take
+was not yet so clear. The Assistant must be a man of initiative and
+executive ability. He must be able to strike out on new lines and to walk
+in untried paths. There would be plenty of hard work, much need of tact
+and wisdom, and the absolute demand for consecration. With these
+aggressive qualities he must also be able to act under the direction of
+another, and to carry on this work in harmony with the pastor of the
+church.
+
+This would seem to be a rare combination, and the task of finding
+a man who would fit into this rather peculiar place seemed very
+great--especially so, since a mistake or failure at the beginning of the
+work might put it back indefinitely, or spoil it entirely. But with
+unexpected promptness the very man was found who most fully met the need.
+He had finished a high school course, had taught two terms in a country
+school, had spent some time in the lumber and construction camps of the
+northern Michigan and Wisconsin woods. He had had a wide and a varied
+experience for one so young in almost everything except Christian work and
+preaching. In this he was a novice. None of us--not even he himself--knew
+what he could do. He had but one sermon to start with and all his powers
+were untried.
+
+I made out a schedule of appointments for him. At first there were seven
+neighborhoods where he was to hold services, preaching at the Grace Church
+every Sunday morning, and at the other places as often as he could get
+around. His regular program on Sunday was three sermons, a tramp of from
+twelve to twenty miles, with such occasional "lifts" as he might from time
+to time receive. Several days of each week he spent among the people,
+sharing their hospitality, and entering into their life. For two and a
+half years he lived this strenuous life, organizing the work along various
+lines, reducing the chaos to order, getting close to the people, and
+making a large and warm place for himself and his work through all the
+wide Parish. He made good, and at the end of that time he was in demand as
+student pastor in more than one college town, and went to pursue his
+college course, paying his expenses by giving his services as assistant
+pastor in a large college church.
+
+As the work developed and the boundaries of the Larger Parish have
+extended it was found necessary to employ a second Assistant, and three
+men found more work to do than they could fully cover. The relations
+between the pastor and his two helpers are very close and happy.
+
+6. Of significant importance are some achievements in denominational
+comity that have greatly helped the work of the Larger Parish. I had
+observed that in many parts of our country zeal for the denomination had
+outrun love for the Kingdom, and I despaired of doing such a work as
+ought to be done in the region round about, unless there could be some new
+alinement of the Christian forces. In many places churches have been
+multiplied to the great detriment of the cause which they are supposed to
+represent.
+
+It is true that some portions of our cities are overchurched, but the evil
+of it is not so much felt because of the unlimited material to work upon.
+It is in the country and in the small towns and villages that the greatest
+harm is done. There is many a country neighborhood where one church would
+thrive and be a great blessing; but two churches spoil the community
+completely, so far as the interests of the Kingdom are concerned.
+Oftentimes, too many churches are worse than too few. If there are no
+churches, there is a chance for some one to come in and start a successful
+work. But if there are too many, the forces are so divided that none of
+them can do a vigorous work, they all live at "a poor dying rate," an
+unholy competition is almost unavoidable, and by their fruitless struggle
+they defeat the very object for which they exist. A minister who had
+recently gone to a new field replied to the inquiry, how he was getting
+on: "I am doing very well now. I only have two churches to contend against
+in my new field. I had three before." The people of the world, looking at
+the situation of the overchurched community, regard it with contempt, it
+is so illogical and unreasonable. This evil is recognized by all, and will
+not much longer be tolerated by those who are sincerely interested in the
+progress of the Kingdom. In fact, there is a strong movement in these days
+toward a better state of things.
+
+A fine example of what may be done in the way of denominational comity
+when a really Christian spirit prevails was shown in 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 with their 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, with the 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.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+THE METHODS OF THE LARGER PARISH
+
+
+Practical methods 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. An important 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 in respect to various community human interests, and is moving
+on with a fair degree of satisfaction. We are now in a position to deliver
+_some_ goods--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.
+
+
+I. RELIGIOUS AND EVANGELISTIC PROGRESS
+
+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 organizations and 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. Other points 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 with some
+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 organic relation. 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 by a 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 two churches, 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 more than 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 Benzonia church, 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 gone steadily 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 instance the 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 given to the work in Platt Lake. At this
+point no regular religious services had ever been held until the movement
+of the Larger Parish began.
+
+
+[Illustration: 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 was found 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 such an 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
+than any 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 parish
+assembled, 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 method of 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.
+
+
+II. COMMUNITY UPLIFT AND SOCIAL BETTERMENT
+
+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 the _whole
+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 should concern 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 on under 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 a barn, 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 the Holy
+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 from the 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.
+Thorough preparations 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
+festivals were 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-day sports. 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 proved to 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 and illustrated, 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 purifying of 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.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+THINGS YET TO BE DONE
+
+
+Their name 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 be content 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 the
+_result_ of 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 if the 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 to undertake 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 tribute for 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 reasonably call 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 in his 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.
+
+
+[Illustration: THE BENZONIA CHURCH]
+
+
+This community spirit needs to be carefully cultivated, and that work has
+been going on in the Larger Parish. The community spirit has been growing.
+The people are more interested in one another and in those things that are
+undertaken for the public good than they formerly were. But there is still
+much to be done in this respect. Not all the people are yet able to look
+over the narrow boundaries of their own possessions and see their
+neighbors' needs. Not all grasp the idea of the solidarity of society. But
+this spirit is growing and there will be larger fruitage in the coming
+days.
+
+4. There needs to be more team work among the people, more coöperation in
+carrying out the schemes that are for the public good. When all the people
+take hold together, there is scarcely anything that needs to be done that
+cannot be accomplished. A single individual is comparatively powerless,
+but a common movement in any community is bound to succeed. One of the
+foremost services to any community is to unite its forces and bring the
+people to work together heartily and enthusiastically in some good cause.
+
+The work of the Larger Parish has been useful in this direction. The Team
+Work Committees of the neighborhood clubs have this for their object--to
+lead out in anything in which it is desirable for the people to move
+together. It is easier to bring the people to unite their efforts now than
+it was three years ago, but much more remains to be done. The goal has not
+yet been reached. The effective team work that we have seen is a prophecy
+of that completer coöperation in all good things that we hope and expect
+to see in the coming days.
+
+5. In some way more variety should be brought into the lives of country
+people. Farm life should become one of the most attractive and interesting
+spheres of activity. Its freedom, its independence, its close contact
+with nature, should give to it for multitudes a compelling charm. It would
+seem that a strong current of human interest could be made to flow from
+the crowded and unwholesome conditions of the city to the open country,
+where the fresh breezes play and the flowers bloom. At present it is not
+so. The stream flows in the opposite direction and every year the city
+swallows up much of the best blood of the country. It is the city that
+attracts, and the country that repels. This can be explained very largely
+by the isolated and monotonous character of country life.
+
+The only way by which this movement can be checked or reversed is to give
+more variety to rural life; to break up its monotony and to introduce into
+it those intellectual and social pleasures and employments that are a
+necessary part of a healthful and contented life. Young people crave
+variety, they must get together, they must have some kind of amusements,
+some form of recreation. If they cannot find it on the farm, they will go
+to the city where it is supplied in lavish abundance but often in
+objectionable forms.
+
+It has been the object of the work of the Larger Parish to supply this
+need of country life. It has provided and promoted frequent opportunities
+for the people to come together in a social way. The Sunday services
+established in so many places have not only served as opportunities of
+worship, but also of neighborly intercourse and of the interchange of
+friendly greetings. The neighborhood clubs have been a kind of social and
+literary clearing-house for the community, affording many a pleasant and
+profitable evening and providing something wholesome to think of and to
+plan for during the day. The Ladies' Aid Societies have brought the women
+together, in projects and accomplishments of common interest, relieving
+the weeks of monotonous toil with forms of coöperative fellowship. Much
+more needs to be done to impart interest and attraction to life in the
+country, and it is something to which the Church, in its desire to
+minister to the whole man, may very appropriately give its thought and
+effort.
+
+6. Machinery seems to be a necessity in all kinds of work. Nothing can be
+done without a method, an organization, a machine--some kind of an
+instrument to facilitate the process. But the machine is never properly an
+end in itself. Sometimes it is made an end, but no farmer could be
+satisfied with a reaper that did not cut the grain, however beautiful and
+well-made it might be or however smoothly it might run. Nevertheless some
+churches seem to be satisfied with the smooth running of the machinery,
+even though the results of it all are very meager.
+
+The primary object of the work of the Larger Parish is to help the people
+and to serve them in a religious and social way, not to promote a
+denomination, to build up a church, to perfect an organization, or to
+construct or to operate machinery of any kind. But in order to help the
+people and serve their best interests efficiently, some machinery, some
+organization, is necessary. Our thought is to supply it when the necessity
+comes, but not before. When it is needed it must be invented or
+discovered, or in some way brought into the service. Certain methods have
+been introduced. There have been employed some forms of organization, some
+machinery has been set in operation. Some things we have tried, that did
+not work satisfactorily and they had to be discarded. Some of the methods
+that seem to be successful at present may not always continue to work so
+well, and they will have to be exchanged for others. We must ever keep in
+view the prime object for which we are working--to serve the people and
+to uplift the community life--and to that object we must adapt our methods
+and adjust our machinery.
+
+If we do the work that needs to be done in the coming days we shall need a
+true and unwavering purpose, a clear eye to discern the situation, a calm
+and correct judgment to fit the method to the work, and above all, the
+constant leading of the Holy Spirit. The Larger Parish is not a method, or
+organization, or machine, that one can secure and put in operation and
+then the work is done. It is a vision--an ideal--that must be a living
+reality in the soul, and then must be wrought out in actual life in the
+best way possible.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+SOME RESULTANT CONCLUSIONS
+
+
+This story began with "Some Convictions." It ends with "Some Conclusions."
+There has been an attempt to tell how a vision became a reality. The
+vision originated in convictions. The conclusions have come from the
+realization of the vision.
+
+There are a few things that may be stated with confidence as the result of
+the three years' work in translating the vision into the fact of the
+Larger Parish. The mention of some of them will round out the story.
+
+1. The village church, if it would do its proper work, must belong to the
+people and be in close touch with them. It must minister in some way to
+all the people and be a force in the life of all the people. Churches
+like individuals are known to have certain characteristics, to possess
+certain temperaments. Some are aristocratic and exclusive. They gather to
+themselves a number of select families who have common tastes and are
+congenial with one another. They have good times together, and within that
+narrow circle there is a delightful social life. Those few people are well
+trained, and well instructed in the facts and principles of religion as
+they are understood by them. But they do not seem to get hold of the idea
+that the church is for all the people; that as Jesus conceived it it is
+essentially democratic. They have no sense of obligation for the community
+at large, and make no effort to affect it as a whole and to lift it up to
+a higher level.
+
+The village church that would do its work must be democratic and must have
+a community consciousness. It must belong to the people--be in close
+touch with those of each and every class.
+
+2. The village church, if it would do its proper work, must recognize its
+obligation to minister in some way to the religious and social needs of
+the people in the outlying country districts. The village should not be
+its parish, but rather its base of operations, from which it goes forth to
+all the wide-stretching territory that lies beyond.
+
+3. The church which has this vision, which recognizes this obligation and
+seeks to discharge it, will find some way of doing it. The work within the
+towns and villages is often great and difficult. Many churches have failed
+to reach all the people within the sound of their church-bell, and there
+is much work at their very doors that they have not yet accomplished.
+Shall they reach out and extend their parish threefold, and multiply their
+duties and obligations many times? If they do not do all that ought to be
+done in their smaller parish, shall they increase its boundaries and
+assume greater obligations? Yes. That is what many churches are
+languishing for--a bigger job, something that it is worth while to do;
+something that will challenge all their powers and awaken to enthusiasm
+their sleeping energies.
+
+4. The only village church that will continue to abide in strength and
+vigor in the future years will be the church that is all buttressed about
+by a strong and vigorous country work. It must be done as a means of
+self-preservation. The village churches are as much in danger of losing
+their lives as the country churches are. The church that confines its
+efforts within the village boundaries is sure to languish and dwindle and
+after a while it will give up the ghost, as it ought to do. As the city is
+fed from the towns and villages, so the towns and villages are fed from
+the country. If the work goes down in the towns and villages, it will be
+felt in the city, and if it loses its hold in the country, it will soon
+lose its grip upon the villages and towns. The country needs the work of
+the Larger Parish, and it will perish without it. But the village church
+needs to do the work even more, and unless it takes it up with vigor it is
+doomed.
+
+5. When the churches come to be more interested in the promotion of the
+Kingdom than they are in the promotion of their own particular
+denomination, they will begin to have that prosperity which only those can
+have who are really doing the Lord's work. The chief hindrance to the work
+of the churches is often the churches themselves. One of the greatest
+needs of the villages and rural regions is fewer churches.
+
+If in each small village there was a single church in which all the
+Christians of the community could unite, they could easily organize the
+work in all the surrounding country and carry it on successfully. But
+where there are a number of churches they are in the way of each other and
+effectually prevent any widespread and efficient work. Still, even in that
+unfortunate condition, something may be done in a systematic way to help
+the rural regions. Why cannot the representatives of the various churches
+get together, make a united survey of the country for miles in every
+direction, become fully acquainted with the situation and conditions, and
+seeing clearly what needs to be done, divide the territory up between
+them, giving each church its own particular field, and allowing it to
+arrange for its cultivation in its own way? I believe that some such
+arrangement is feasible when it is the Kingdom that the churches are
+chiefly interested to promote, instead of the particular denomination to
+which they happen to belong.
+
+6. When all the religious forces in any community can combine and work
+together, all the work that needs to be done in the community can be done,
+and there will be no lack of resources to carry it on with vigor and
+success. In almost every community there are Christians enough, and there
+is money enough, for the work, if only they can be assembled and utilized.
+But when they are scattered about, lying around lose and uncombined, or
+when they are organized into competing camps, they are useless for any
+purpose of aggressive and effective work. It isn't the poverty of the
+people that stands in the way, or the small number of professing
+Christians. It is the lack of team work, the lack of coöperation, that
+constitutes the weakness of the cause. No work can be done in the country
+that is at all effective without this coöperation and combination. With
+it, all the work that needs to be done, can be done.
+
+7. The church that sees the vision and with faith and courage undertakes
+to make it a reality, will be prospered. Perhaps the experience of the
+Benzonia church may be cited as proof of this. Situated in a small
+village, composed of people of meager means, in a country that has not
+even yet emerged from pioneer conditions, it had for many years carried on
+its work only with much sacrifice and careful economy. Three years ago, by
+a unanimous vote, it formally adopted the policy of reaching out and
+annexing all the territory within a radius of five miles in every
+direction, thus greatly increasing its obligations and more than doubling
+its annual budget of expenses. There was some questioning as to how it
+could be done, but, without waiting for clearer light, it moved forward
+unanimously to the enlarged work.
+
+What do we find to be the result of the three years? They have been the
+three most prosperous years of the church's history. Two men have been
+added to the clerical force. The expenses of the church have been met, and
+the bills have been paid when they were due. The contributions for home
+and foreign missions have more than doubled. More members have been
+received than during any other similar period. There has been perfect
+harmony and the people have been glad and happy in their common work. Ten
+places of worship have been established in the country around where
+regular services are held. The people in these neighborhoods attend their
+own services and do not come into the village church as some of them
+formerly did. The present arrangement does not tend to build up a large
+central congregation, but has the opposite effect. Thirty former central
+members have become part of a newly formed church three miles away. There
+has been no great increase in the population, either of the village or of
+the country around. But the congregations and the Sunday-schools were
+never so large as they have been during this period. It has been found
+impossible to accommodate all those who wished to worship with the church,
+or properly to care for those attending the Sunday-school. A larger
+building became an actual necessity, and in the summer of 1913 an addition
+was made, increasing the seating capacity of the building by one third,
+and providing a number of rooms for Sunday-school and social purpose. Can
+we doubt that the blessing of God will attend any church that sees the
+vision, and with faith and courage and sacrifice gives itself to the work
+of making it a reality?
+
+8. When all the ministers and all the churches catch the vision of the
+Larger Parish and address themselves to the work of making it a reality,
+the rural regions will be rehabilitated, religiously, morally, and
+socially, and a splendid impulse will be given to the work throughout the
+whole country. If some practical plan can be adopted by the village
+churches for extension work, the whole aspect of the country situation may
+be quickly changed. The people, both in the villages and in the open
+country, are more ready for some such movement than has been supposed.
+Would not the Larger Parish idea as set forth in this story furnish a good
+working plan for such a movement?
+
+No man can have very much enthusiasm in a task that does not challenge all
+his powers and bring them into action--neither can a church. With the
+village churches it is a case of self-preservation as well as outreaching
+service. They must do this work or die. They will not long survive the
+spiritual declension of the country. The country and the village stand or
+fall together. Their fortunes are united. They must help each other up
+into a better life or they will sink into a like economic, social, and
+spiritual stagnation and death. The plan of the wider parish, or some
+better plan, if it is wisely and vigorously worked, will secure both to
+the village and the country communities their rightful heritage of
+spiritual and social strength and usefulness.
+
+9. Nearly all the Christian denominations have their home missionary
+boards or societies whose functions it is to help sustain gospel work in
+needy places and to organize and cherish churches on the frontier and in
+destitute places. The frontier lines are not so extensive as they once
+were, but the desolate places are almost as numerous as ever, and they are
+in the very heart of our most highly developed civilization. In fact, they
+lie all about our churches, often almost within the sound of the
+church-bell. It is often too expensive to sustain a minister and maintain
+regular services in all these places and so they are left without gospel
+privileges. If they can be grouped about a village church as a center, and
+if the church can be the base of operations from which the work is carried
+on in all these outlying regions; if through the aid of the home
+missionary boards a sufficient clerical force can be maintained to carry
+on the wide work, will not such a course be a practical, a successful, and
+an economical method of accomplishing home mission work?
+
+God is waiting to give the vision to those who are ready to receive it.
+The country in its great need and desolation is waiting for the help which
+the village churches can give to them. I believe the home missionary
+societies and boards are ready to coöperate in some such plan for the
+uplifting and the evangelization of the country districts. The village
+churches themselves are waiting for the wider work to quicken their waning
+life, and to kindle their dying enthusiasm. The world is waiting to see
+them move forward in a determined and consecrated effort to reduce the
+vision to reality. God is waiting to pour out his Spirit in abundant
+blessing upon the churches that have enough faith and courage to undertake
+the work.
+
+I believe that the fulfilment of all this is not far in the future, and if
+this story of the Larger Parish shall contribute even in a small degree to
+this result, the teller will be amply repaid for his attempt to picture
+the new path along which God has led him.
+
+  "Move to the fore.
+  God himself waits, and must wait, till thou come,
+  Men are God's prophets though ages lie dumb.
+  Halts the Christ-Kingdom, with conquest so near?
+  Thou art the cause, then, thou man at the rear.
+  Move to the fore."
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAKING OF A COUNTRY PARISH***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 32703-8.txt or 32703-8.zip *******
+
+
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/2/7/0/32703
+
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://www.gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
diff --git a/32703-8.zip b/32703-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..33e0382
--- /dev/null
+++ b/32703-8.zip
diff --git a/32703-h.zip b/32703-h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b1ef93d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/32703-h.zip
diff --git a/32703-h/32703-h.htm b/32703-h/32703-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6b56c0f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/32703-h/32703-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,2559 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+<head>
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" />
+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Making of a Country Parish, by Harlow S. (Harlow Spencer) Mills</title>
+    <style type="text/css">
+
+    p {margin-top: .75em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+
+    h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {text-align: center; clear: both;}
+
+    hr {width: 33%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; clear: both;}
+
+    table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;}
+
+    body {margin-left: 12%; margin-right: 12%;}
+
+    .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right; font-style: normal;}
+
+    .poem {margin-left:15%; margin-right:15%;}
+
+    .right {text-align: right;}
+    .center {text-align: center;}
+    .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;}
+    .smcaplc {text-transform: lowercase; font-variant: small-caps;}
+
+    .caption {text-transform: lowercase; font-variant: small-caps; text-align: center;}
+
+    .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;}
+
+    p.dropcap:first-letter{float: left; padding-right: 3px; font-size: 250%; line-height: 83%; width:auto;}
+    .caps {text-transform:uppercase;}
+
+    a:link {color:#0000ff; text-decoration:none}
+    a:visited {color:#6633cc; text-decoration:none}
+
+    hr.full { width: 100%;
+              margin-top: 3em;
+              margin-bottom: 0em;
+              margin-left: auto;
+              margin-right: auto;
+              height: 4px;
+              border-width: 4px 0 0 0; /* remove all borders except the top one */
+              border-style: solid;
+              border-color: #000000;
+              clear: both; }
+    pre      {font-size: 85%;}
+    </style>
+</head>
+<body>
+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Making of a Country Parish, by Harlow S.
+(Harlow Spencer) Mills</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: The Making of a Country Parish</p>
+<p>Author: Harlow S. (Harlow Spencer) Mills</p>
+<p>Release Date: June 5, 2010  [eBook #32703]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAKING OF A COUNTRY PARISH***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h4>E-text prepared by Tom Roch<br />
+    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (<a href="http://www.pgdp.net/c/">http://www.pgdp.net</a>)<br />
+    from page images generously made available by<br />
+    Core Historical Literature of Agriculture (CHLA),<br />
+    Albert R. Mann Library, Cornell University<br />
+    (<a href="http://chla.library.cornell.edu/">http://chla.library.cornell.edu/</a>)<br />
+    and<br />
+    Internet Archive/American Libraries<br />
+    (<a href="http://www.archive.org/details/americana">http://www.archive.org/details/americana</a>)</h4>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<table border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;" cellpadding="10">
+  <tr>
+    <td valign="top">
+      Note:
+    </td>
+    <td>
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive/American Libraries. See
+      <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/makingofcountryp00mill">
+      http://www.archive.org/details/makingofcountryp00mill</a>
+      <br />
+      or<br />
+      Core Historical Literature of Agriculture (CHLA),
+      Albert R. Mann Library, Cornell University
+      <a href="http://chla.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=chla;idno=2750849">
+      http://chla.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=chla;idno=2750849</a>
+	</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="volumes">
+<tr><td align="center" valign="middle"><img src="images/world.jpg" alt="" /></td>
+<td align="center"><big>LIBRARY<br />OF CHRISTIAN PROGRESS</big></td><td align="center" valign="middle"><img src="images/world.jpg" alt="" /></td></tr></table>
+
+<p class="center"><i>Volumes Issued</i></p>
+<p class="center">The Church a Community Force. <i>By Worth M. Tippy</i></p>
+<p class="center">The Church at the Center. <i>By Warren H. Wilson</i></p>
+<p class="center">The Making of a Country Parish. <i>By Harlow S. Mills</i></p>
+<p class="center"><br /><i>Cloth, 50 Cents, Prepaid</i></p>
+<p class="center"><br /><span class="smcaplc">ADDITIONAL VOLUMES TO BE ISSUED</span></p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p><a name="front" id="front"></a>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/front.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">FROM BEULAH TO BENZONIA</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>THE MAKING OF A<br />
+COUNTRY PARISH</h2>
+<h3>A STORY</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h4>BY</h4>
+<h3>HARLOW S. MILLS</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/title.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center"><span class="smcaplc">NEW YORK</span><br />
+Missionary Education Movement of the<br />
+United States and Canada<br />
+1914</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">Copyright, 1914, by<br />
+<span class="smcaplc">MISSIONARY EDUCATION MOVEMENT</span><br />
+<span class="smcaplc">OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA</span></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center"><span class="smcaplc">TO THE REV. AND MRS. F. A. NOBLE, D.D.,</span><br />
+<span class="smcaplc">WHO MADE THE SUMMER OF NINETEEN</span><br />
+<span class="smcaplc">HUNDRED AND THIRTEEN MEMORABLE</span><br />
+<span class="smcaplc">IN THE LARGER BENZONIA PARISH BY</span><br />
+<span class="smcaplc">THEIR PRESENCE, AND BY THEIR</span><br />
+<span class="smcaplc">KINDLY AND HELPFUL INTEREST IN ITS</span><br />
+<span class="smcaplc">WORK, AND TO WHOM THIS STORY</span><br />
+<span class="smcaplc">OWES ITS SUGGESTION AND INSPIRATION,</span><br />
+<span class="smcaplc">IT IS MOST GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED.</span></p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span></p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="contents">
+<tr><td colspan="2" align="left"><span class="smcaplc">CHAPTER</span></td><td align="right"><span class="smcaplc">PAGE</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td><span class="smcap">Foreword by Newell Dwight Hillis</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_ix">ix</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td><span class="smcap">Introduction</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_xiii">xiii</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td><span class="smcap">Key to Map</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_xvii">xvii</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td><span class="smcap">Description of the Map</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_xviii">xviii</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#I">I</a></td><td><span class="smcap">The Historical Setting of the Story</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#II">II</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Some Convictions Out of Which the Vision Came</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_12">12</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#III">III</a></td><td><span class="smcap">How the Vision Came</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_25">25</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#IV">IV</a></td><td><span class="smcap">How the Vision Became a Reality</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_36">36</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#V">V</a></td><td><span class="smcap">The Methods of the Larger Parish</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_59">59</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#VI">VI</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Things Yet to be Done</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_97">97</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#VII">VII</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Some Resultant Conclusions</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_113">113</a></td></tr></table>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span></p>
+<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="xyz">
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td align="right"><span class="smcaplc">PAGE</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">From Beulah to Benzonia</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#front">Frontispiece</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Map Showing the Larger Parish</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_xvi">xvi</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Crystal Lake and Beulah from Benzonia</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_11">10</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">The Platt Lake Chapel</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_73">72</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">The Benzonia Church</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_105">104</a></td></tr></table>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span></p>
+<h2>FOREWORD</h2>
+
+<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">For</span> many years lovers of the republic have been warning our people as to
+the perils of modern city life. In 1800 one person out of thirteen lived
+in the city; to-day nearly every other citizen lives in a large town, or a
+great city. The city is the home of wealth, commerce, and finance; the
+home of music, art, and eloquence. Once each year all the great leaders
+come for a stay, long or short, to the metropolis. The birds leave the
+desert to seek the oasis, with its palm trees and springs of water. Young
+men, for two generations, have been deserting the farm and the village, to
+make their home in the great city. Many unexpected perils have sprung up
+from this massing of population. Among these dangers are the tenements,
+saloon, gambling houses, dens of vice, the tendency to anarchy, incident
+to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</a></span> the contrast between the palaces on the avenues and the rookeries on
+the Bowery. Insane people, defective children, men and women wrecked
+through drink and drugs, are some of the incidental results of congested
+populations. Innumerable addresses have been given upon the perils of the
+city life, and innumerable pamphlets and books have been published filled
+with warnings and black with alarm. The inevitable result is that the
+attention of the people has been focalized upon the manufacturing towns
+and the large cities.</p>
+
+<p>Now comes the Rev. Harlow S. Mills, with his study of the rural
+population. With the wisdom made possible by twenty years of first-hand
+knowledge he sets forth the influence of the country upon the large town
+and city. He tells us that the country has furnished the leaders for the
+people. It is in the country that the boy has his opportunity of brooding
+and reading and reflecting,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[Pg xi]</a></span> while in solitude he develops his own gift
+and grows great. The Church has learned to depend upon the country for its
+theological students, as well as for its best students of law and
+medicine. But of late the country church has suffered grievously through
+the pull of the city upon its best young men and women. The inevitable
+result has been that as the city church has waxed the country church has
+waned in wealth, numbers, and influence. Many things have occurred during
+the past twenty years that are calculated to stir the note of fear, lest
+the life and institutions of the republic, rooted in the country, should
+slowly starve. One of the problems of the hour has been the rejuvenation
+of the country Sunday-school and the country church.</p>
+
+<p>Leaders of the past generation have struggled often in vain with this
+problem. Twenty years ago, the Rev. Harlow S.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[Pg xii]</a></span> Mills, a friend of my
+boyhood, took a country church in northwestern Michigan, and started in to
+develop the same community spirit among the people who lived in widely
+separated school districts that the student finds developed in the wards
+of a great city. The story of these twenty years is full of fascination to
+all lovers of their fellow men and of the Christian Church. Mr. Mills has
+made some important discoveries and established certain mother principles
+that should be of invaluable service to the one half of our people living
+in small towns and rural districts. I believe this author and lover of his
+fellows has grown the good seed that ultimately will sow the continent
+with bread.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Newell Dwight Hillis.</span></p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[Pg xiii]</a></span></p>
+<h2>INTRODUCTION</h2>
+
+<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">The</span> rapid growth of our cities and towns during the last quarter of a
+century has brought us face to face with a serious problem. The religious
+and social conditions that have arisen give occasion for grave
+apprehensions, and have been subjects of careful thought. The City Problem
+has been widely discussed. Much thought and effort have been expended in
+its solution, and, while progress has been made and the outlook is
+hopeful, the end is not yet. Within recent years another problem has
+arisen which is scarcely less serious than that which the city presents,
+and that is the Country Problem. There are two reasons why this has not
+attracted special attention until quite lately. First, the city problem
+has been so serious and so acute that it has occupied the public mind to
+the exclusion<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[Pg xiv]</a></span> of conditions in the country. And, in the second place,
+those conditions have increased in seriousness so rapidly in recent years
+and their demand for attention and careful consideration has become so
+insistent and imperious that it can no longer be disregarded. No
+thoughtful person can now blink the fact that there is a country problem,
+that it is equal in seriousness to the city problem, and that the two are
+so intimately related that neither of them can be solved by itself alone.
+They stand or fall together.</p>
+
+<p>I have no theory to present, nor any philosophy to exploit. I have no
+patent way of solving either the city or the country problem. I have only
+a story to tell of some things that have been done that may point the way
+toward a solution of the country problem. It is the simple account of an
+experiment in the work of religious and social welfare that promises to be
+successful.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">[Pg xv]</a></span> The parish that is spoken of may be regarded as an experiment
+station, and this story is only the account of the working out of certain
+methods. It will be enough if the story shall prove to be some small
+contribution to the solution of the important and difficult country
+problem.</p>
+
+<p>One of the greatest difficulties I had in writing this story was with
+myself. Some of the experiences were so purely personal that I hesitated
+to speak of them and I shrank from the so frequent use of the personal
+pronouns. In the first draft of the story I resorted to all manner of
+circumlocution to avoid their use, but I found it difficult to adopt any
+consistent form and the result was to weaken the impression. So, acting on
+the advice of able and judicious critics, I concluded to tell the story in
+the simplest and most direct way.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">H. S. Mills.</span></p>
+
+<p><small><span class="smcap">Benzonia, Michigan</span>,</small><br />
+<small><i>August</i> 15, 1914.</small></p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xvi" id="Page_xvi">[Pg xvi]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i0015tmb.jpg" alt="" /><br />
+<a href="images/i0015.jpg"><small>Larger Image</small></a></div>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xvii" id="Page_xvii">[Pg xvii]</a></span></p>
+<p class="center">KEY TO MAP</p>
+
+<p>1. Benzonia Village, Benzonia Township. Church Organization, Church
+Building. Morning Service every Sunday. Sunday School, Christian Endeavor
+Society, Woman&#8217;s Missionary Society, Weekly Prayer Meeting, Ladies&#8217; Aid
+Society.</p>
+
+<p>2. Beulah Village, Benzonia Township. Chapel. Evening Service every
+Sunday, Sunday School, Ladies&#8217; Aid Society.</p>
+
+<p>3. Eden, Benzonia Township. Church Organization, Schoolhouse (Chapel,
+1914). Evening Service every Sunday, Sunday School, Christian Endeavor
+Society, Weekly Prayer Meeting, Neighborhood Club, Ladies&#8217; Social Circle.</p>
+
+<p>4. Champion Hill, Homestead Township. Church Organization, Chapel. Morning
+Service every Sunday, Christian Endeavor Society.</p>
+
+<p>5. Platt Lake, Benzonia Township. Chapel. Afternoon Service on alternate
+Sundays. Ladies&#8217; Aid Society.</p>
+
+<p>6. North Crystal, Benzonia Township. Private Home (Chapel, 1914).
+Afternoon Service on alternate Sundays, Sunday School, Ladies&#8217; Aid
+Society.</p>
+
+<p>7. Grace, Gilmore Township. Church Organization, Chapel. Morning Service
+every Sunday, Sunday School, Neighborhood Club, Ladies&#8217; Aid Society.</p>
+
+<p>8. Demerley, Joyfield Township. Schoolhouse. Afternoon Service on
+alternate Sundays, Sunday School.</p>
+
+<p>9. South Chapel, Benzonia Township. Chapel. Evening Service on alternate
+Sundays, Sunday School.</p>
+
+<p>10. East Joyfield, Joyfield Township. Chapel. Evening Service on alternate
+Sundays, Sunday School.</p>
+
+<p>11. Liberty Union, Benzonia Township. Schoolhouse. Afternoon Service on
+alternate Sundays, Neighborhood Club.</p>
+
+<p>12. South Elberta, Gilmore Township. Schoolhouse. Sunday School.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xviii" id="Page_xviii">[Pg xviii]</a></span></p>
+<p class="center">DESCRIPTION OF THE MAP</p>
+
+<p>In order that the term, &#8220;The Larger Parish,&#8221; the name by which the work of
+this story has come to be familiarly known, may be understood, some
+description of its geography and topography as represented on the
+accompanying map, may be necessary.</p>
+
+<p>The Larger Benzonia Parish is situated in Benzie County, Michigan, eight
+miles from Lake Michigan and at the east end of Crystal Lake, one of the
+most beautiful small lakes in the state. Benzonia-Beulah, the twin
+villages which are at the center of the Larger Parish, are on the Ann
+Arbor Railroad, which extends diagonally through the state from Toledo,
+Ohio, to Frankfort on Lake Michigan. The Larger Parish includes Benzonia
+Township and portions of Lake, Homestead, Joyfield, Gilmore, and Crystal
+Lake Townships. It divides itself into three sub-parishes: the North
+Parish, with two churches, Champion Hill and Eden, and two out-stations,
+North Crystal and Platt Lake; the South Parish, with one church, Grace,
+and five out-stations, South Chapel, Demerley, East Joyfield, Liberty
+Union, and South Elberta; while between these is the Central Parish, with
+Benzonia on the hilltop and Beulah in the valley, half a mile distant.</p>
+
+<p>The map represents the western half of Benzie County, and the various
+churches, chapels, and other out-stations are designated.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="I" id="I"></a>I</h2>
+<h3>THE HISTORICAL SETTING OF THE STORY</h3>
+
+<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">The</span> story of New England with the Pilgrims left out could be neither
+understood nor appreciated. We must know something about those sturdy,
+conscientious men and women who became exiles and crossed the stormy
+Atlantic that they might have &#8220;freedom to worship God.&#8221; We must understand
+something about the barren and the wintry coast that received them,
+something of their struggles and sufferings, their aims and aspirations,
+if we would know the history of that civilization that they founded, or
+get a true conception of the experiment in democracy that they so
+successfully wrought out.</p>
+
+<p>The story that is about to be told had its Pilgrims. To leave them out
+would be to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> spoil the story. It cannot be understood without knowing
+something of their heroic spirit, their sincere devotion, and the manner
+in which they permanently impressed their ideas and their personality upon
+the community which they founded and the institutions which they planted.
+Some account of its historical setting will be necessary in order to make
+this story of country evangelization complete.</p>
+
+<p>The half century between 1825 and 1875 witnessed the most remarkable
+educational movement that our country has ever seen. It was the era of
+college planting. During that period a line of Christian colleges was
+projected from New York to California, many of which have been developed
+and stand to-day as monuments to the zeal and foresight of that remarkable
+generation of nation builders. The value of their work, and its influence
+for good upon the people and the institutions of the most populous,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> the
+wealthiest, and the most influential section of our country cannot be
+estimated.</p>
+
+<p>In 1858 a company of people from northern Ohio, who had lighted their
+torch of religious and educational enthusiasm at the flame of Oberlin,
+came into the vast wilderness of northern Michigan with the purpose of
+planting there Christian institutions. They were high-minded, sturdy
+people, with strong religious convictions. The Pilgrims did not bring to
+the New England coast a truer motive or a purer purpose. They were willing
+to put into the enterprise their lives and their fortunes. They stamped
+the new community that they founded with the impress of their ideals, and
+that stamp has persisted.</p>
+
+<p>These modern Pilgrims repeated with some modification the experiences of
+their New England prototypes. After a long and stormy voyage on the Great
+Lakes they landed in the late autumn on an inhospitable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> coast, built them
+some rough shanties that their descendants would not consider worthy to
+shelter their cattle, and there they passed a severe winter. They explored
+the northwestern Michigan woods, and finally, with a strange indifference
+to the importance of a railway to the development of a town, they lighted
+upon a level plateau on the top of a high hill, two hundred feet above the
+placid waters of beautiful Lake Crystal, and eight miles from Lake
+Michigan, and there they pitched their tents. Like Abraham, their first
+work after entering the Promised Land was to build an altar to Jehovah,
+and like him and their New England ancestors, they built it on the highest
+elevation that they could find. One of the first things they did was to
+select a site for a church and for a school, and, standing under the tall
+maples and beeches, with hymn and prayer, to dedicate that high hilltop to
+the cause of Christian education.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span>The church that they planted, the first in all the Grand Traverse region,
+celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of its organization in 1910. It has
+now a membership of about three hundred, and is the center of the
+religious and social life, not only of the immediate community but also of
+the territory known as &#8220;The Larger Parish,&#8221; twelve miles long and ten
+miles wide. It has been the mother of churches, and now stands encircled
+by a number of younger organizations that are growing strong and sturdy
+under its cherishing influence.</p>
+
+<p>Benzonia, the village that they founded, never became the populous center
+that they hoped it would be. There are now but about four hundred people
+living on the hilltop, and nearly as many more in the village of Beulah,
+which, at the bottom of the hill nestles around the head of the Lake, half
+a mile away. The two villages of Benzonia and Beulah form one corporation,
+and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> contain together about seven hundred inhabitants. The school which
+they established is still doing business, though not exactly in the way
+that they anticipated. They thought to repeat the history of Oberlin by
+planting in the woods of northern Michigan an institution of learning such
+as the fathers planted in northern Ohio. But the conditions were very
+dissimilar. Oberlin was in the zone of quick settlement. Cities and towns
+soon sprang up all about it, and it became in a few years the center of a
+large population. But the northern Michigan region developed very slowly
+and it was a long time before there were enough people to maintain a
+college or to justify its presence. But from the first there was in
+operation a school of high order, and it performed a splendid service in
+those early years, doing the educational work for all that region, and
+supplying teachers for the public schools throughout a wide territory.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> It
+is now conducted as an Academy and is doing an excellent work, sending
+forth each year large classes of young people well prepared to enter any
+college or university in the country. The Academy has been maintained very
+largely by the gifts and sacrifices of the people of the community, and is
+an important factor of the work that is being wrought out in &#8220;The Larger
+Parish.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The people of this community are unusually homogeneous. There are no Roman
+Catholics, few foreigners, and no colored people. They are hardworking and
+industrious, none of them possessing large wealth, and none of them being
+very poor. All are compelled to toil for their daily bread. There, if
+anywhere, it is possible to live &#8220;the simple life,&#8221; and in such healthful
+conditions the community life has developed. Though the presence of the
+Academy has been a means of culture and the center and inspirations of
+literary life, it is by no means<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> true that all the people in the wide
+parish are well educated. A few miles from the village primitive and
+pioneer conditions are found, and there is no lack of genuine missionary
+ground.</p>
+
+<p>The social life of this community is very satisfactory. There are no
+classes or cliques. The people mingle together freely on a common basis,
+and exemplify to an unusual degree the principle of brotherhood. There has
+never been a saloon in the community, and the people are for the most part
+steady-going and law-abiding. They are loyal to their home institutions,
+crowding the church on Sunday and taking a lively interest in all things
+that pertain to the welfare of the village and the surrounding country.
+They are dependent upon themselves for literary and musical
+entertainments&mdash;no shows or moving picture combinations ever come that
+way. But a good lecture course is maintained, and there are frequent
+musical<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> and literary entertainments by the Academy and high school and by
+the people of the town; so there is no lack of the means of recreation,
+and that of a high order and of a helpful character.</p>
+
+<p>At the west end of Crystal Lake, eight miles distant, on a beautiful tract
+of land with frontage on Lake Michigan, as well as on Crystal Lake, are
+the grounds of the Frankfort Congregational Summer Assembly. The location
+is superb, and it is rapidly becoming a favorite summer resort, attracting
+people even from New England and from the Pacific coast. The relation
+between Benzonia and the summer assembly is very close. It is easily
+accessible by frequent boats. Every year they have &#8220;Benzonia Day,&#8221; when
+the Assembly adjourns to the beautiful campus on the hilltop, enjoying a
+dinner together under the trees and a well-arranged program of speeches
+and music. The residents of the surrounding<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> country come in crowds to
+these outdoor festivals and they are eagerly anticipated by all. They
+afford a fine opportunity for the people of the vicinage to meet in
+friendly intercourse those who come from distant parts of the country to
+enjoy the cool breezes and the woods and lakes of the northern Michigan
+regions, and they are appreciated by all. Sometimes the Assembly is the
+host, and the people of Benzonia are the guests. During the summer the
+leading ministers of the country are frequently in the Benzonia pulpit,
+and so the people, though living quite remote from the great centers, and
+not given to much travel, have the privilege of hearing the most noted
+speakers, and thus come in touch with the good things that are being said
+and done in the wider world.</p>
+
+<p>The Academy and summer Assembly are closely related to the work of the
+Larger Benzonia Parish. While this work has not been dependent upon them,
+their presence <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>and influence have been a great stimulus and
+encouragement, and they have added strength and stability to the movement.</p>
+
+<p>Thus briefly is sketched the setting of the story that will be told in the
+succeeding chapters.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i0028tmb.jpg" alt="" /><br />
+<a href="images/i0028.jpg"><small>Larger Image</small></a></div>
+<p class="caption">CRYSTAL LAKE AND BEULAH FROM BENZONIA</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II</h2>
+<h3>SOME CONVICTIONS OUT OF WHICH THE VISION CAME</h3>
+
+<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">A conviction</span> is a great thing. It is the egg out of which all great
+enterprises are hatched. Almost everything that is worth while was once
+wrapped up in a conviction. Abraham had a conviction that he ought to obey
+God&#8217;s leading. He took his journey to the &#8220;land that he knew not of,&#8221; and
+we have as the result the Hebrew race, and all that has come out of it for
+the world.</p>
+
+<p>The vision of which I am telling the story was at first only a conviction.
+There were a few things of which I had become certain. Just how the
+conviction seized me I hardly know, but I like to think that it came from
+the same source from which Abraham&#8217;s conviction came, and that thought
+has<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> made me confident in following this guiding gleam.</p>
+
+<p>1. I became convinced that the real object of the Church is to <i>serve</i> the
+people, and that its claim for support should rest upon the same ground
+upon which every other institution bases its claim for support&mdash;that it
+gives value received. That has not always been the idea of church people.
+They have considered the Church as a divine institution, and that because
+of its divine origin and sacred character it can properly demand respect
+and support. There was a time in the not very distant past when the
+ministers of the Church, as its representatives, might demand reverence
+and respect because of the position they occupied. There was much of
+reverence and regard for &#8220;the cloth.&#8221; But those days are past. Now the
+Church is valued only for what it does. If it does nothing, it need no
+longer look for respectful recognition.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> If it makes no contribution to
+the community whose value can be seen and appreciated, it cannot expect
+support or favorable regard. People do not care very much for clerical
+dignity in these days. They are not asking what place a man occupies, or
+what kind of clothes he wears, but what he does for the community. Is he
+rendering valuable service? They are quite ready to pay for service that
+is of real worth, but for dignity and traditionary sanctity they have
+slight regard.</p>
+
+<p>There are some who seem to think that the Church makes good by building
+<i>itself</i> up&mdash;that if it becomes strong as an institution, if it flourishes
+in its outward aspects, it justifies its existence. They are well
+satisfied if it increases in numbers, if it erects splendid and beautiful
+buildings, if it contributes substantially to the glory of the
+denomination to which it belongs, whether it really serves the people or
+not. But it can<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> never answer the ends of its existence by simply building
+itself up as an institution. There have been periods in the history of the
+Church when it was very strong as an organization, but very weak as an
+element of helpfulness in the lives of the people. Fine buildings and
+stately ritual and high social standing can never satisfy the great
+Founder of the Church. Jesus said, &#8220;The Son of man came not to be
+ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.&#8221;
+He sent his Church on the same errand. Unless it is doing the thing for
+which it was sent it has no justification for its existence. It is here to
+serve, to help the people. In-so-far as it actually does serve it may
+claim and expect love, recognition, and support&mdash;but no further. This
+became one of my strong convictions.</p>
+
+<p>2. I also became convinced that the Church, if it makes good must serve
+<i>all</i> the people. The impression has sometimes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> prevailed that the Church
+is for good people, for those who are respectable. It has been thought of,
+and sometimes it has thought of itself, as under obligations to minister
+to the religious people of the community, or to those who can be induced
+to become religious. There is a large class of people who are not
+religiously inclined and who have no affiliation with the Church, and who,
+perhaps, are not likely to have, for whom it has not been thought to be
+responsible. In almost every parish, or within reach of it, there are
+numbers of people who are not touched by the Church, and who are not
+considered to be material for the Church to work upon. Some are outside of
+its influence because they live so far away that they cannot easily be
+reached. Some because of their character and standing in society are
+considered beyond its pale. What would be the effect if a company of women
+from the street should come into one of our beautiful<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> and respectable
+churches for a few Sunday mornings? How would they be received? Would the
+ushers show them comfortable seats? Would they be welcome in the pews of
+the good people who have come together to worship God? And yet, the great
+Head of the Church came &#8220;to seek and to save that which was lost.&#8221; He did
+not shun such people or banish them from his presence. He was &#8220;a friend of
+publicans and sinners,&#8221; and brought down upon himself serious criticism
+because he did not discriminate more carefully in the matter of his
+associates. The Church should have the spirit of the Master, and, wherever
+there is a man, woman, or child, there is one in whom the Church should be
+interested, and whom it should seek to serve, whatever may be his
+character, his condition, or his standing socially. It became one of my
+strong convictions that the Church has a definite mission to every person
+within the possible<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> range of its influence, and out of that conviction
+came the vision.</p>
+
+<p>3. It also became plain that if the Church would fulfil its mission it
+must serve <i>all</i> the interests of the people. I was brought up with the
+idea that its mission was largely, if not exclusively, spiritual. Its
+chief and almost only concern was the soul of the individual man. It was
+thought that a man has a soul, and that that soul was in peril. His <i>soul</i>
+must be saved&mdash;that was the important thing. It was of small consequence
+that the man himself went to the dogs, if only his soul was saved. The man
+was forgotten in anxiety for his soul. We were the victims of a false
+psychology; as if a man and his soul could be separated&mdash;as if there could
+be any such thing as simply saving the soul of a man! We have come to see
+that a man, though composed of many parts, is a unit. He is not put
+together mechanically, so that one part may be taken<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> and treated and the
+other parts ignored. He is not built in separate compartments, his soul in
+one, and his body in another. Christianity is not dealing with souls
+alone. It is dealing with men, and we are becoming interested in all that
+makes a man a man. The conviction became strong that the Church should
+have something to say and something to do with everything that goes to
+make up the life of the man; that it should make itself felt as an
+influence in his business, his education, his recreation, his home life,
+as well as in his so-called religious exercises; that it should be a force
+with him on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday as well as on Sunday. In
+other words, the line that has been supposed to separate the sacred from
+the secular must be obliterated, and every common thing must become
+sacred. It was seen that everything that has a rightful place in the life
+of a man should be the concern of the Church, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> that whatever cannot be
+brought into harmony with the Church and its principles has no proper
+place in the real life of a man.</p>
+
+<p>4. The conviction became strong that the village church, if it would
+fulfil its mission, must be responsible for <i>country evangelization</i>. It
+must reach out into all the surrounding neighborhoods, and touch the
+people in a vital way for many miles around. In the popular conception the
+influence of the church has been contracted and narrowed till it does not
+include half the territory nor half the people embraced in its
+responsibility. Many ministers are content to tramp around in the narrow
+confines of their own village, with an occasional excursion into the
+country, while there are scores of families living a little more remote
+for whom they are attempting nothing. Some ministers look upon their
+churches as their field rather than their force&mdash;a field to be cultivated
+rather than a force of workers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> to be led out into the widestretching
+fields that lie beyond. This is a serious mistake. Such a limited
+conception of the extent of its work and such an inadequate idea of its
+real responsibility and of its best opportunity will certainly condemn a
+church to comparative uselessness, and in the end to failure. When all the
+village churches get the vision and see their work in its fulness, the
+country problem will be solved.</p>
+
+<p>Country evangelization belongs primarily and practically to the village
+church. The village church is the only one that can really take it up and
+deal with it in a successful way. It is in the power of the churches in
+the villages and small towns to change the whole aspect of things in the
+country, religiously, morally, and socially.</p>
+
+<p>For some years the pastor and church of this story had been trying to do
+something for the outlying regions, but they had not grasped the idea that
+all the people for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> many miles around who were not cared for by some other
+church were in their parish&mdash;that for them they were responsible and to
+them they had a mission. They began to see that they were not doing half
+the work they might do and ought to do; that there were scores of
+families, and hundreds of people, to whom the church was nothing, who
+should be made to feel its force in a stimulating and uplifting way. They
+began to feel the pressure of that obligation that had rested on them all
+along, and of which they had been unconscious or unheedful. The voice of
+God began to sound plainly in their ears, &#8220;Go ye forth into these ripe
+harvest-fields, and gather sheaves for the Master.&#8221; The conviction became
+so strong that they ought to take up the wider work, and the duty grew to
+be so plain that they wondered that they had not seen it long before.</p>
+
+<p>5. The conviction became strong that, if the village church would fulfil
+its <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>mission, it must be a community church. I used to think that the
+church had simply to do with individuals; that its work was to reach out
+here and there, to get hold of this one and that one, and that there its
+work terminated. Society was thought of as a heap of sand, and not as an
+organism. Man was considered in himself alone, and not in his relations,
+and so he was misunderstood, for nothing can be truly and fully known
+except in its relations. But it has become plain that this exclusively
+individualistic conception was a mistake; that there is such a thing as
+community life, the life that all the people have in common; that men are
+bound up together by common interests; that they are members one of
+another; that &#8220;none of us liveth to himself, and none dieth to himself.&#8221;
+The conviction became strong that the church should take account of this
+community life of which the individual is a part; that it should concern<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>
+itself not only for men, but for <i>man</i>; that it should serve the whole
+community, and that nothing should be foreign to the church or ignored by
+it that in any way concerns the common life of the people.</p>
+
+<p>This conviction did not detract from my estimate of the importance of the
+spiritual, or of the individual. I still regarded the spiritual part of a
+man as his most essential part. It was still plain that we have to deal
+with men as individuals, but I recognized them also in their organic
+relation to the whole life of the community. Not only were the men&#8217;s souls
+to be saved, but the <i>men</i> themselves were to be saved. Not only were the
+<i>men</i> to be saved and lifted up to a better life, but the <i>whole
+community</i> was to be saved, and the community life was to be uplifted and
+placed on a higher plane.</p>
+
+<p>Out of these convictions, which grew more and more positive, came the
+vision whose fulfilment is the subject of this story.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>III</h2>
+<h3>HOW THE VISION CAME</h3>
+
+<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">The</span> genesis of a vision is always interesting, though often obscure. On
+one day a certain side of life is a blank. There is no outlook, no hint of
+the coming brightness. On another day that side of life is made all
+radiant and glorious by a vision, clear and definite, that beckons on to
+future achievement. Sometimes it comes suddenly, like Peter&#8217;s vision when
+he was upon the housetop in Joppa; and sometimes it dawns gradually, and
+little by little paints itself in beautiful colors upon the sky of one&#8217;s
+inner consciousness. As remarked in a previous chapter, a conviction is
+the egg from which the vision comes; but the egg is only dead and formless
+matter until it is brooded over and warmed into life. So a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> conviction may
+be strong and positive, but it may exist for a long time, formless,
+lifeless, and useless, until it is quickened into vitality by the brooding
+spirit of a man, and thus becomes an active and inspiring force. So it may
+be profitable and necessary to the proper understanding of this story to
+tell how the vision came.</p>
+
+<p>For fifteen years I had been working away in my country parish. They had
+been happy years of glad, harmonious work. I was satisfied with my job.
+Though remote from the great centers of population, in a small village,
+and with people of very modest means, that restless feeling that spoils
+the peace and mars the work of so many ministers had been absent. My
+people were of the strong and sturdy sort, faithful and appreciative
+beyond many, ready to co&ouml;perate in carrying out any plans of work that the
+pastor might propose. They were splendid followers, responding quickly to
+all my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> suggestions. There was a good understanding between myself and the
+people.</p>
+
+<p>I was called to pass through deep affliction. My home was broken up by a
+sudden stroke and I was left alone. Into the dark valley of sorrow my
+people accompanied me as far as they were able to go, and the effect
+seemed to be to unite us with bonds that were very strong and tender.
+Every home in all the parish was mine. All the children belonged to me.
+There was a chair for me at every fireside and a plate at every table.</p>
+
+<p>But as the years went by there came some tempting opportunities to engage
+in work elsewhere. I was not without my ambitions and aspirations. I
+wanted to fill out the full measure of my ability and do my best work. And
+when some opportunities came that made the little country parish seem by
+comparison rather small and meager, I was not altogether proof against
+them. To become<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> assistant pastor in a famous church in a large city&mdash;to
+take up the work of general missionary for a whole state seemed to promise
+fields of usefulness so rich and large that they made a strong appeal to
+the best there was in me, and perhaps also to the worst. I spent some
+weeks and months in considering these propositions and finally turned them
+down. I could not bring myself to sever my connection with those to whom I
+had been so long and so closely related. The personal tie was too strong
+and I decided to remain with my people.</p>
+
+<p>With the decision came a thorough heart-searching. It marked a
+turning-point in my spiritual history. I was impressed with the thought
+that if it was God&#8217;s will that I should remain in my present work, it must
+be for a special purpose. Things could not be in the future as they had
+been in the past. It would be criminal to turn down a larger work for one
+that was small unless there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> were good and sufficient reasons for doing
+so. If it was the Lord&#8217;s will that I should remain in that country parish,
+there must be some work there that it was worth while for me to do, some
+work that in a proper degree, at least, would approach in importance the
+large proposition made by the city and the state. What was the work? Was
+there anything to be done among those hills and in those rapidly
+disappearing forests that could fire a man&#8217;s ambitions and satisfy his
+high aspirations?</p>
+
+<p>Just here the vision came. At first a whole township was revealed as a
+possible parish, with every family tributary to the church, and the church
+performing a valuable ministry for them all. The vision expanded until it
+took in another township, and parts of three or four more. It became plain
+that almost half a county was tributary to the church, that five hundred
+families and twenty-five hundred people were waiting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> for its ministry. It
+dawned upon my mental vision that I was called upon to be the pastor of
+all these people, for five or six miles in every direction, that the
+Benzonia church was responsible for them all, that they had a right to
+look to us for service and help, and that if we failed to give it we
+should be unfaithful to our Master and recreant to our trust. Then I said:
+&#8220;Here is something worth doing. Here may be wrought out an experiment in
+country evangelization and rural betterment that may help to arrest the
+downward trend that has become so alarming in these latter days. It was
+for this that God has kept me here. If I can make this vision a reality, I
+need not pine for a larger field. If I can help others to see the vision,
+and inspire them with enthusiasm to make it real in larger fields than
+mine, and in many parts of our country, I shall never regret that I stayed
+by the stuff.&#8221; The vision came<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> as a compensation. It was the reward that
+God gave for following his leading along those ways where natural
+inclinations would not have disposed me to go. God wants us to do our best
+and largest work. He never calls us to a smaller work. If he bids us walk
+along a humble path and go in an obscure way, we shall find our true
+life-work there.</p>
+
+<p>The church had for many years been much interested in both home and
+foreign missions. I preached frequently upon the subject, and kept it
+constantly before the people. Regular collections were taken for
+missionary objects, and the Every Member Canvass plan had long been in
+operation. The response was always general and liberal. In fact, those who
+were well acquainted with the churches of the state have often said that
+in proportion to its resources, its gifts were larger than those of any
+other church. Not only did they give money,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> but they also gave their sons
+and daughters to carry the gospel to less favored regions. Many of the
+young women of the church had gone to teach in home mission schools. And
+there came a beautiful summer Sabbath when a favorite niece, brought up in
+my home, and an active and useful member of the church, beloved by all,
+with solemn services in the little church on the hilltop was consecrated
+to the foreign work and sent forth with the prayers and blessings of all
+the people to represent them among the awakening millions of China.</p>
+
+<p>As I was sitting in my study one day pondering upon these things, the
+absurdity of the situation came over me all at once. &#8220;Here we are
+gathering money to send our sons and daughters to the distant parts of the
+earth, but we are doing absolutely nothing for scores of families that are
+almost within the sound of our church-bell. We feel some responsibility
+for the millions of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> people of other lands whom we have never seen, and
+never shall see, but we have not felt very much responsibility for those
+who are separated from us by only a few miles. We are anxious to give the
+gospel to the colored people, the Chinese, and to those of alien races;
+but we have felt no such anxiety for those of our own race who are not so
+very far away. There are many families and hundreds of people within five
+or six miles of our church that are practically without the gospel, as
+truly as are the Chinese or the South Sea Islanders. We have made no
+systematic effort to interest them in these things. We have given them no
+reason to believe that we are drawn out toward them with Christlike
+motives. Surely there must be something wrong in our calculations.&#8221; Then I
+heard the Master say, &#8220;These ye ought to have done, and not to have left
+the other undone.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>And then came the vision of &#8220;The Larger<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> Parish.&#8221; I saw the church
+reaching out its hand and touching tenderly but effectively all the people
+in the surrounding country. I saw the church feeling some responsibility
+for every family, and counting them all as within the bounds of its
+parish. I saw every family in all that wide region as tributary to the
+church. I saw the church making systematic plans to carry the gospel to
+all these outlying neighborhoods. I began to think of all those people as
+my parishioners as truly as were those who lived near the church and were
+members of it. And so the vision dawned upon me of the Larger Parish. In
+my own mind I annexed all the surrounding country and began to make plans
+for the evangelization and helping of all the people who dwelt therein. So
+under the stimulus of foreign missions the vision came of the work that
+should be done and could be done nearer home.</p>
+
+<p>And it may be well to add that since the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> work of the Larger Parish began,
+the contributions to foreign missions have more than doubled. There are
+those all over this wide territory who knew little and cared less about
+missions three years ago, but who now are eager to make some contribution
+to the support of the missionary in China, half of whose salary our Church
+is pledged to provide.</p>
+
+<p>And so the vision came, from above as all good visions do, but it came
+while walking in the pathway of duty, in the unfolding of a larger
+experience. He who follows the dawning light will see the vision.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV</h2>
+<h3>HOW THE VISION BECAME A REALITY</h3>
+
+<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">The</span> chief value of visions is in their fulfilment. A visionary man is one
+who sees but does not do. He has revelations of splendid possibilities,
+but they do not materialize. The sky of his inner consciousness is all
+painted over with beautiful pictures, but those designs never get on the
+canvas or into the marble or find their fulfilment in flesh and blood. The
+most elaborate plans and specifications will not shelter a family nor
+constitute a home. They must be embodied in brick and stone and timber in
+order to make them valuable. Only the concreting of ideals can save the
+vision-gazer from becoming a visionary.</p>
+
+<p>It is always interesting and instructive to trace the process by which a
+vision is made<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> real. Often the pathway to the goal is obscure, difficult,
+and tedious, but it is worth while to follow it. This chapter will be an
+endeavor to trace the process by which the vision of the Larger Parish
+became a reality.</p>
+
+<p>I had a clear apprehension of two things&mdash;the work to be done, and the
+instrument by which it must be accomplished; but just how the instrument
+was to accomplish the work was not so evident. Here was the church, and
+here were the people; but how could they be brought together to their
+mutual advantage? I had been a very busy man for years. My time had been
+fully occupied and I had not supposed it possible to take more work. How
+was I to multiply my activities many fold and still be efficient? The
+church had been active and aggressive. It had been doing large things. In
+the opinion of some it had been straining itself beyond reasonable limits
+in carrying<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> on its work. How could it quadruple the size of its parish by
+annexing all the territory within a radius of five miles in every
+direction, and increase its constituency several times over. Would it not
+be swamped by its acquisitions? Would it not be overwhelmed by the number
+and greatness of its obligations and responsibilities? It had not
+adequately ministered to all the people in its smaller parish. How would
+it be when its boundaries were so greatly increased?</p>
+
+<p>These and many other doubtful questions presented themselves, and the
+answers were not at hand. But there were the outlying neighborhoods;
+without consulting them I had annexed them to my parish. There was the
+church; without asking its consent, in my own mind I had multiplied its
+work and increased its burdens many fold. I had a task with the people to
+make them willing to be annexed; with the church, to lead it to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> accept
+its heavier burdens and its larger responsibilities; and a still greater
+task to bring the church and the people into such relations that the work
+should be accomplished. How did I go about my task?</p>
+
+<p>1. The first thing to be done was to make a survey of the field. I began
+to think of all the twenty-five hundred people in this Larger Parish as
+belonging to me. I felt a measure of responsibility for them all. We, as a
+church and pastor, must do something for them all, and in order to do it,
+we must know them all. So I started out to visit all the families in this
+wide territory. Many of them, of course, I knew already. But many that
+were more remote I had not touched closely, though in my fifteen years&#8217;
+pastorate there were few who had not some acquaintance with me. I tramped
+around over the whole parish, living with the people, often being absent
+from my home for two or three days at a time, until there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> was scarcely a
+home in all that region in which I was a stranger. This was most
+delightful and rewarding work. There was a welcome for me everywhere.
+Almost without exception the people seemed pleased to come in touch with
+the representative of the church. Weary of body, but glad of heart, I laid
+myself down at night under the shelter of some hospitable farmer&#8217;s roof
+after having spent the evening in friendly conversation with him and his
+family. Such an opportunity to get up close to people is worth a score of
+sermons.</p>
+
+<p>This visiting tour occupied many weeks&mdash;in fact a large part of the autumn
+months was spent in this way, and in many desirable things more was
+accomplished in those three months than had been done in the fifteen
+previous years. I came to know the outside people as I had never known
+them before. My touch with them was warmer and closer. I came to think of
+them in a different way.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> My interest in them was more definite and more
+intelligent. I came to understand the field&mdash;to know its extent, its
+difficulties, and its encouragements&mdash;and so I was prepared to grapple
+with the task God had given me.</p>
+
+<p>The effect upon myself of these tours among the people was most salutary.
+Aside from the information that I gained, there was an even greater gain
+in sympathy, in understanding, and in the inspiration and enthusiasm that
+came into my own soul. I usually made these apostolic tours on foot. I
+would start out in the morning with my staff in hand with a general route
+previously marked out. If I saw a man plowing in the field, I would sit
+down with him on the plow-beam while his horses were resting, and have a
+good talk about his farm, his home, the matters of interest in the
+community, and there was almost always a good opportunity to get in a few
+words about the things of the Kingdom. Then at the dinner<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> or the supper
+hour, when all the family were together, there was a chance to get into
+the home life, and to be for the time a part of the family circle. I found
+that when I met the people, not as a minister, but as a man and a friend,
+there was always a hearty and a glad response, and it was easy to secure a
+sympathetic hearing for my projects and plans. There was much gained in
+establishing such close relations with the people. Without such a basis,
+the work of the larger parish could hardly have been successfully carried
+on.</p>
+
+<p>2. My task with the church, in bringing it to get my point of view, to see
+the vision as I saw it, and to co&ouml;perate in making it a reality, was not
+difficult. They were ready for the larger work&mdash;at least, they were ready
+to be made ready. All they needed was light and leading. This I undertook
+to give. I told them my vision of the Larger Parish. I held it up before
+them<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> continually, preaching it on the Sabbath, and talking about it in
+the prayer-meeting. I described the situation as it had been revealed to
+me in my apostolic tramps. From week to week I could see the kindling
+flame of enthusiasm in the congregation. There was evidently a rising tide
+of interest in the wider work. The people began to see the reasonableness
+of it. They began to feel some sense of responsibility for it, some joy
+and hope as the possibility of doing it began to dawn upon them.</p>
+
+<p>I believe that the rank and file of our churches are more ready to march
+forth to larger service than most of us have thought. There is really more
+willingness to take up new tasks and to engage in aggressive enterprises
+than they have had credit for. The people want something to do. They want
+a work that is worth while. Many churches are languishing for a job which
+they may apprehend and accept&mdash;for something large<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> enough and difficult
+enough to challenge their powers and kindle their enthusiasm. And when a
+proposition is made to them that seems sane and sensible, when they can
+have confidence in their leaders, they are generally ready to fall in line
+and to march forward with firm and steady tread. That was the case with
+this particular church, and they have stood behind the work of the Larger
+Parish from the first in solid phalanx. There have been no kickers, no
+knockers. In all this work I have had the satisfaction of knowing that the
+people were with me. They have been helpers all the way and not hinderers.</p>
+
+<p>3. But how should we begin? How can we move out into this Larger Parish
+and get hold of this greater work? In some way we must be something to all
+these people. We must find a way by which the church may make itself felt
+as a force in all these five hundred homes. But how? Well, I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> began to
+hold services in the schoolhouses around. I could at least hold one
+meeting a week in these out-stations in addition to my regular duties.
+That seemed a very small beginning, but it was a beginning. It was the
+entering wedge to the larger work that followed. On Wednesday nights some
+of my people would take me to these more distant points, where I was
+almost invariably greeted by a good and attentive congregation. I had no
+conveyance of my own, and of this I was glad, for it gave an excuse to
+call upon my people for transportation, and gave them a chance to have a
+part in the work; for I considered that the success of the work depended,
+not so much upon what I did or said, as upon the attitude that the people
+of the church took toward it. And the presence of the men with me in these
+services greatly increased the effectiveness of the efforts. I was a
+preacher and I was simply &#8220;on my job.&#8221; <i>They</i> represented<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> the church and
+proclaimed to the people in the outlying regions its attitude toward them.
+In some of the neighborhoods there were no schoolhouses, and the services
+were held in private homes. In this simple way the work began to grow.</p>
+
+<p>4. At first I had no definite thought of how the work would develop. I
+simply started out to do what I could for the people in this wide
+territory. But it soon became evident that one man would not be able to do
+all the work that was opening up before me. The need of a helper began to
+press heavily, but the possibility of securing one had not yet dawned upon
+me. The General Missionary of the state became interested in the work, and
+he was the first one to suggest that an Assistant might be secured. This
+put new hope and courage into my heart. The matter was brought to the
+attention of the Superintendent of the state, and he consulted with his
+Advisory Committee.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> He came upon the ground, and after making a thorough
+investigation, agreed with the General Missionary that a helper was
+necessary. He thought that the work proposed was legitimate home
+missionary work, that the best way to evangelize the whole country is for
+each village church to reach out into the country around as far as
+possible, until village with village should touch hands over a region that
+is adequately supplied with gospel privileges.</p>
+
+<p>The result was that a proposition was made by the Superintendent to the
+church. It was substantially this: that we should take into the Parish
+Grace Church, a small Congregational organization four miles distant from
+Benzonia, which had been moribund for a long time, with no regular
+services for a number of years. The Home Missionary Society would make a
+grant of one hundred dollars if Grace Church would raise one hundred and
+fifty dollars. It was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> understood that the Benzonia Church would raise the
+other two hundred and fifty dollars that should make out the Assistant&#8217;s
+salary. This should be the contribution of the Benzonia Church to the Home
+Missionary Society, but should be returned to the Benzonia field to be
+spent in the development of the Larger Parish. This proposition was
+brought before the church at a regular meeting, and by a unanimous vote it
+was accepted, and so the church in a formal and positive way committed
+itself to the work of the Larger Parish.</p>
+
+<p>The pastor wishes to make grateful acknowledgment of the part that the
+state officers of the Congregational Conference have had in developing the
+Larger Parish. Without their co&ouml;peration it could never have been brought
+to its present stage of development. With clear foresight and generous
+contributions they have fostered the work, and the success of the
+experiment is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> largely due to their sympathetic interest, and their wise
+and helpful efforts. They have regarded it as the demonstration of a
+method of dealing with the country problem that may, if it proves
+successful, find wide application throughout the state, and they have been
+glad to give it their fostering influence and their substantial aid. It is
+possible that the &#8220;Larger Parish Plan&#8221; may furnish a most effective method
+of home missionary activity.</p>
+
+<p>5. But the next thing was to find the man who, for a salary of five
+hundred dollars, was willing to undertake the work of tramping over three
+townships, and of becoming the under pastor of twenty-five hundred people.
+The Larger Parish was still unorganized. It was still a rather indefinite
+and unrealized vision. It was clear that in some way gospel work must be
+inaugurated in all that wide territory; but just what form it would take
+was not yet so clear. The Assistant<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> must be a man of initiative and
+executive ability. He must be able to strike out on new lines and to walk
+in untried paths. There would be plenty of hard work, much need of tact
+and wisdom, and the absolute demand for consecration. With these
+aggressive qualities he must also be able to act under the direction of
+another, and to carry on this work in harmony with the pastor of the
+church.</p>
+
+<p>This would seem to be a rare combination, and the task of finding a man
+who would fit into this rather peculiar place seemed very
+great&mdash;especially so, since a mistake or failure at the beginning of the
+work might put it back indefinitely, or spoil it entirely. But with
+unexpected promptness the very man was found who most fully met the need.
+He had finished a high school course, had taught two terms in a country
+school, had spent some time in the lumber and construction camps of the
+northern<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> Michigan and Wisconsin woods. He had had a wide and a varied
+experience for one so young in almost everything except Christian work and
+preaching. In this he was a novice. None of us&mdash;not even he himself&mdash;knew
+what he could do. He had but one sermon to start with and all his powers
+were untried.</p>
+
+<p>I made out a schedule of appointments for him. At first there were seven
+neighborhoods where he was to hold services, preaching at the Grace Church
+every Sunday morning, and at the other places as often as he could get
+around. His regular program on Sunday was three sermons, a tramp of from
+twelve to twenty miles, with such occasional &#8220;lifts&#8221; as he might from time
+to time receive. Several days of each week he spent among the people,
+sharing their hospitality, and entering into their life. For two and a
+half years he lived this strenuous life, organizing the work along various
+lines, reducing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> the chaos to order, getting close to the people, and
+making a large and warm place for himself and his work through all the
+wide Parish. He made good, and at the end of that time he was in demand as
+student pastor in more than one college town, and went to pursue his
+college course, paying his expenses by giving his services as assistant
+pastor in a large college church.</p>
+
+<p>As the work developed and the boundaries of the Larger Parish have
+extended it was found necessary to employ a second Assistant, and three
+men found more work to do than they could fully cover. The relations
+between the pastor and his two helpers are very close and happy.</p>
+
+<p>6. Of significant importance are some achievements in denominational
+comity that have greatly helped the work of the Larger Parish. I had
+observed that in many parts of our country zeal for the denomination had
+outrun love for the Kingdom,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> and I despaired of doing such a work as
+ought to be done in the region round about, unless there could be some new
+alinement of the Christian forces. In many places churches have been
+multiplied to the great detriment of the cause which they are supposed to
+represent.</p>
+
+<p>It is true that some portions of our cities are overchurched, but the evil
+of it is not so much felt because of the unlimited material to work upon.
+It is in the country and in the small towns and villages that the greatest
+harm is done. There is many a country neighborhood where one church would
+thrive and be a great blessing; but two churches spoil the community
+completely, so far as the interests of the Kingdom are concerned.
+Oftentimes, too many churches are worse than too few. If there are no
+churches, there is a chance for some one to come in and start a successful
+work. But if there are too many, the forces are so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> divided that none of
+them can do a vigorous work, they all live at &#8220;a poor dying rate,&#8221; an
+unholy competition is almost unavoidable, and by their fruitless struggle
+they defeat the very object for which they exist. A minister who had
+recently gone to a new field replied to the inquiry, how he was getting
+on: &#8220;I am doing very well now. I only have two churches to contend against
+in my new field. I had three before.&#8221; The people of the world, looking at
+the situation of the overchurched community, regard it with contempt, it
+is so illogical and unreasonable. This evil is recognized by all, and will
+not much longer be tolerated by those who are sincerely interested in the
+progress of the Kingdom. In fact, there is a strong movement in these days
+toward a better state of things.</p>
+
+<p>A fine example of what may be done in the way of denominational comity
+when a really Christian spirit prevails was shown<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> in 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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> 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.</p>
+
+<p>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 with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> their new relations, and new life and
+vigor has come into all the work.</p>
+
+<p>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, with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> the 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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>V</h2>
+<h3>THE METHODS OF THE LARGER PARISH</h3>
+
+<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">Practical</span> methods 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&mdash;the vision may
+be enticing&mdash;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. An<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> important 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?</p>
+
+<p>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 co&ouml;perating heartily in carrying it out. The work has been
+organized in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> respect to various community human interests, and is moving
+on with a fair degree of satisfaction. We are now in a position to deliver
+<i>some</i> goods&mdash;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.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h4>I. <span class="smcap">Religious and Evangelistic Progress</span></h4>
+
+<p>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 organizations<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> and 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.</p>
+
+<p>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. Other<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> points 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&mdash;about one fourth
+of the inhabitants of the parish being present with some degree of
+regularity.</p>
+
+<p>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 with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> some
+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 organic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> relation. 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.</p>
+
+<p>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 by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> a 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.</p>
+
+<p>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 two<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> churches, 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.</p>
+
+<p>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&#8217;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 &#8220;the
+boys&#8221; put new life and fresh spirits into the heart of the &#8220;older man.&#8221;
+Two men, if they are congenial and can work harmoniously together, are
+worth more<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> than 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&mdash;it makes such association and combination possible.</p>
+
+<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>
+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.</p>
+
+<p>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 Benzonia<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> church, and
+were among its most faithful supporters. For twenty-five or thirty years a
+Sunday-school had been maintained in that community&mdash;one of the best
+country schools in the state. A young people&#8217;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 gone<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> steadily 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&#8217;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.</p>
+
+<p>In a number of cases the services have been held in schoolhouses that are
+inconvenient and inadequate, and in one instance<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> the 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 given <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>to the work in Platt Lake. At this
+point no regular religious services had ever been held until the movement
+of the Larger Parish began.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i0091tmb.jpg" alt="" /><br />
+<a href="images/i0091.jpg"><small>Larger Image</small></a></div>
+<p class="caption">THE PLATT LAKE CHAPEL</p>
+<p class="center">A Typical Preaching Place in the Larger Parish</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>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&#8217;s
+toil. It was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> found to contain more than two hundred and fifty dollars&mdash;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.</p>
+
+<p>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&#8217; 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 such<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> an 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.</p>
+
+<p>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
+than<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> any one would have supposed it possible to raise three years ago.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>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.</p>
+
+<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> 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 &#8220;Larger Parish Sunday School Rally.&#8221; Posters announcing the
+meeting had been previously circulated. All the ten schools of the parish<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>
+assembled, holding in the morning such a service as I have described,
+having dinner together, and in the afternoon occurred the Children&#8217;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.</p>
+
+<p>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 method<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> of 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.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h4><span class="smcap">II. Community Uplift and Social Betterment</span></h4>
+
+<p>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 the <i>whole
+man</i>; 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 should<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> concern 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.</p>
+
+<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>
+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.</p>
+
+<p>1. Neighborhood Clubs have been formed in some of the out-stations whose
+function it is to provide for these social necessities. The name,
+&#8220;Neighborhood Club&#8221; 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 on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> under 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 co&ouml;perate, 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.</p>
+
+<p>Not long ago one of the neighborhood clubs spent the day in helping to
+raise a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> barn, 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.</p>
+
+<p>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 the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> Holy
+Land. The principal of the Academy talked about &#8220;The Farm and the School.&#8221;
+A doctor from a neighboring town spoke about &#8220;Farm Sanitation,&#8221; and an
+expert horticulturist about &#8220;Better Orchards.&#8221; A layman spoke about &#8220;Some
+Legal Principles That Should be Generally Known.&#8221; 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 &#8220;The Pilgrims,&#8221; with a varied and
+interesting program. Another to &#8220;Abraham Lincoln,&#8221; another to &#8220;Michigan,&#8221;
+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 from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> the 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.</p>
+
+<p>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.
+Thorough<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> preparations 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&#8217;clock a religious service was held in the hall and the
+pastor preached a Thanksgiving sermon to a large and attentive
+congregation.</p>
+
+<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> When all had satisfied the wants of
+the &#8220;inner man,&#8221; there were supplies enough left to feed another crowd
+almost as great, so lavish are the country folk in their hospitality.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the tables could be cleared away and the people could get
+seated the evening&#8217;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
+festivals<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> were 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.</p>
+
+<p>3. On a snowy Saturday the men of East Joyfield, under the lead of the
+assistant pastor, arranged &#8220;A Community Rabbit Hunt.&#8221; 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 &#8220;cotton tails&#8221; rewarded their efforts. They were distributed
+among fifteen families, who were to prepare them with other good things
+for a &#8220;Rabbit Social&#8221; 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 &#8220;cotton tails&#8221;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> 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.</p>
+
+<p>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-day<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> sports. 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.</p>
+
+<p>Ladies&#8217; 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.</p>
+
+<p>5. One more way of working has proved<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> to 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&mdash;usually a column and a half&mdash;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. &#8220;How to Keep One&#8217;s Religion and
+Make It Pay,&#8221; &#8220;The Back Yard,&#8221; &#8220;The Test of the Summer Time,&#8221; &#8220;The Man You
+Happen to Meet,&#8221; &#8220;The Utility of the Yell,&#8221; &#8220;The Wedding Bells and Funeral
+Knells,&#8221; &#8220;Dr.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> Charles M. Sheldon and His Ideas of an Educated Man,&#8221; &#8220;Be a
+Columbus,&#8221; &#8220;The Keen Zest of Living.&#8221; 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&#8217;s Column is eagerly looked for
+and widely read.</p>
+
+<p>This suggests the question whether in the past the pastors of our churches
+have sufficiently appreciated the value of printer&#8217;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.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>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. &#8220;The
+Panama Canal&#8221; was thus presented and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> illustrated, and &#8220;The Other Wise
+Man.&#8221; Some lectures by the pastor&mdash;&#8220;On Horseback through the Holy Land,&#8221;
+&#8220;A Week in and about Jerusalem,&#8221; &#8220;Three Months on an Ocean Steamer&#8221;&mdash;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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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 purifying<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> of 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 co&ouml;perate and promptly available for practical
+work.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI</h2>
+<h3>THINGS YET TO BE DONE</h3>
+
+<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">Their</span> name 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. &#8220;Nothing that has life is ever
+finished.&#8221; 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 be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> content 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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> 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&#8217;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&#8217;s
+concern. Community work can never take the place of the work of God&#8217;s
+Spirit in the individual life. To be permanently valuable it must be the
+<i>result</i> of 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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> not in a narrow sense, but in the large, rich meaning of that
+word which the teaching of Jesus gives it.</p>
+
+<p>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 if<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> the 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&mdash;to make it our central aim and
+our uppermost thought.</p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;they are not yet
+quite ready to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> undertake 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.</p>
+
+<p>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 tribute<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> for 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, &#8220;Oh, another preacher! Well, I suppose they all have to be
+supported.&#8221; And he was not the first representative of the Church that has
+met with such an indignity.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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 reasonably<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> call 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&mdash;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.</p>
+
+<p>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 in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> his 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&#8217;s work, and
+fill a man&#8217;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.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i0124tmb.jpg" alt="" /><br />
+<a href="images/i0124.jpg"><small>Larger Image</small></a></div>
+<p class="caption">THE BENZONIA CHURCH</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>This community spirit needs to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> carefully cultivated, and that work has
+been going on in the Larger Parish. The community spirit has been growing.
+The people are more interested in one another and in those things that are
+undertaken for the public good than they formerly were. But there is still
+much to be done in this respect. Not all the people are yet able to look
+over the narrow boundaries of their own possessions and see their
+neighbors&#8217; needs. Not all grasp the idea of the solidarity of society. But
+this spirit is growing and there will be larger fruitage in the coming
+days.</p>
+
+<p>4. There needs to be more team work among the people, more co&ouml;peration in
+carrying out the schemes that are for the public good. When all the people
+take hold together, there is scarcely anything that needs to be done that
+cannot be accomplished. A single individual is comparatively powerless,
+but a common movement in any community is bound to succeed. One<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> of the
+foremost services to any community is to unite its forces and bring the
+people to work together heartily and enthusiastically in some good cause.</p>
+
+<p>The work of the Larger Parish has been useful in this direction. The Team
+Work Committees of the neighborhood clubs have this for their object&mdash;to
+lead out in anything in which it is desirable for the people to move
+together. It is easier to bring the people to unite their efforts now than
+it was three years ago, but much more remains to be done. The goal has not
+yet been reached. The effective team work that we have seen is a prophecy
+of that completer co&ouml;peration in all good things that we hope and expect
+to see in the coming days.</p>
+
+<p>5. In some way more variety should be brought into the lives of country
+people. Farm life should become one of the most attractive and interesting
+spheres of activity. Its freedom, its independence, its close<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> contact
+with nature, should give to it for multitudes a compelling charm. It would
+seem that a strong current of human interest could be made to flow from
+the crowded and unwholesome conditions of the city to the open country,
+where the fresh breezes play and the flowers bloom. At present it is not
+so. The stream flows in the opposite direction and every year the city
+swallows up much of the best blood of the country. It is the city that
+attracts, and the country that repels. This can be explained very largely
+by the isolated and monotonous character of country life.</p>
+
+<p>The only way by which this movement can be checked or reversed is to give
+more variety to rural life; to break up its monotony and to introduce into
+it those intellectual and social pleasures and employments that are a
+necessary part of a healthful and contented life. Young people crave
+variety, they must get together,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> they must have some kind of amusements,
+some form of recreation. If they cannot find it on the farm, they will go
+to the city where it is supplied in lavish abundance but often in
+objectionable forms.</p>
+
+<p>It has been the object of the work of the Larger Parish to supply this
+need of country life. It has provided and promoted frequent opportunities
+for the people to come together in a social way. The Sunday services
+established in so many places have not only served as opportunities of
+worship, but also of neighborly intercourse and of the interchange of
+friendly greetings. The neighborhood clubs have been a kind of social and
+literary clearing-house for the community, affording many a pleasant and
+profitable evening and providing something wholesome to think of and to
+plan for during the day. The Ladies&#8217; Aid Societies have brought the women
+together, in projects and accomplishments of common interest,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> relieving
+the weeks of monotonous toil with forms of co&ouml;perative fellowship. Much
+more needs to be done to impart interest and attraction to life in the
+country, and it is something to which the Church, in its desire to
+minister to the whole man, may very appropriately give its thought and
+effort.</p>
+
+<p>6. Machinery seems to be a necessity in all kinds of work. Nothing can be
+done without a method, an organization, a machine&mdash;some kind of an
+instrument to facilitate the process. But the machine is never properly an
+end in itself. Sometimes it is made an end, but no farmer could be
+satisfied with a reaper that did not cut the grain, however beautiful and
+well-made it might be or however smoothly it might run. Nevertheless some
+churches seem to be satisfied with the smooth running of the machinery,
+even though the results of it all are very meager.</p>
+
+<p>The primary object of the work of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> Larger Parish is to help the people
+and to serve them in a religious and social way, not to promote a
+denomination, to build up a church, to perfect an organization, or to
+construct or to operate machinery of any kind. But in order to help the
+people and serve their best interests efficiently, some machinery, some
+organization, is necessary. Our thought is to supply it when the necessity
+comes, but not before. When it is needed it must be invented or
+discovered, or in some way brought into the service. Certain methods have
+been introduced. There have been employed some forms of organization, some
+machinery has been set in operation. Some things we have tried, that did
+not work satisfactorily and they had to be discarded. Some of the methods
+that seem to be successful at present may not always continue to work so
+well, and they will have to be exchanged for others. We must ever keep in
+view the prime<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> object for which we are working&mdash;to serve the people and
+to uplift the community life&mdash;and to that object we must adapt our methods
+and adjust our machinery.</p>
+
+<p>If we do the work that needs to be done in the coming days we shall need a
+true and unwavering purpose, a clear eye to discern the situation, a calm
+and correct judgment to fit the method to the work, and above all, the
+constant leading of the Holy Spirit. The Larger Parish is not a method, or
+organization, or machine, that one can secure and put in operation and
+then the work is done. It is a vision&mdash;an ideal&mdash;that must be a living
+reality in the soul, and then must be wrought out in actual life in the
+best way possible.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII</h2>
+<h3>SOME RESULTANT CONCLUSIONS</h3>
+
+<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">This</span> story began with &#8220;Some Convictions.&#8221; It ends with &#8220;Some Conclusions.&#8221;
+There has been an attempt to tell how a vision became a reality. The
+vision originated in convictions. The conclusions have come from the
+realization of the vision.</p>
+
+<p>There are a few things that may be stated with confidence as the result of
+the three years&#8217; work in translating the vision into the fact of the
+Larger Parish. The mention of some of them will round out the story.</p>
+
+<p>1. The village church, if it would do its proper work, must belong to the
+people and be in close touch with them. It must minister in some way to
+all the people and be a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> force in the life of all the people. Churches
+like individuals are known to have certain characteristics, to possess
+certain temperaments. Some are aristocratic and exclusive. They gather to
+themselves a number of select families who have common tastes and are
+congenial with one another. They have good times together, and within that
+narrow circle there is a delightful social life. Those few people are well
+trained, and well instructed in the facts and principles of religion as
+they are understood by them. But they do not seem to get hold of the idea
+that the church is for all the people; that as Jesus conceived it it is
+essentially democratic. They have no sense of obligation for the community
+at large, and make no effort to affect it as a whole and to lift it up to
+a higher level.</p>
+
+<p>The village church that would do its work must be democratic and must have
+a community consciousness. It must belong<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> to the people&mdash;be in close
+touch with those of each and every class.</p>
+
+<p>2. The village church, if it would do its proper work, must recognize its
+obligation to minister in some way to the religious and social needs of
+the people in the outlying country districts. The village should not be
+its parish, but rather its base of operations, from which it goes forth to
+all the wide-stretching territory that lies beyond.</p>
+
+<p>3. The church which has this vision, which recognizes this obligation and
+seeks to discharge it, will find some way of doing it. The work within the
+towns and villages is often great and difficult. Many churches have failed
+to reach all the people within the sound of their church-bell, and there
+is much work at their very doors that they have not yet accomplished.
+Shall they reach out and extend their parish threefold, and multiply their
+duties and obligations many times? If they do not do all that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> ought to be
+done in their smaller parish, shall they increase its boundaries and
+assume greater obligations? Yes. That is what many churches are
+languishing for&mdash;a bigger job, something that it is worth while to do;
+something that will challenge all their powers and awaken to enthusiasm
+their sleeping energies.</p>
+
+<p>4. The only village church that will continue to abide in strength and
+vigor in the future years will be the church that is all buttressed about
+by a strong and vigorous country work. It must be done as a means of
+self-preservation. The village churches are as much in danger of losing
+their lives as the country churches are. The church that confines its
+efforts within the village boundaries is sure to languish and dwindle and
+after a while it will give up the ghost, as it ought to do. As the city is
+fed from the towns and villages, so the towns and villages are fed from
+the country. If the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> work goes down in the towns and villages, it will be
+felt in the city, and if it loses its hold in the country, it will soon
+lose its grip upon the villages and towns. The country needs the work of
+the Larger Parish, and it will perish without it. But the village church
+needs to do the work even more, and unless it takes it up with vigor it is
+doomed.</p>
+
+<p>5. When the churches come to be more interested in the promotion of the
+Kingdom than they are in the promotion of their own particular
+denomination, they will begin to have that prosperity which only those can
+have who are really doing the Lord&#8217;s work. The chief hindrance to the work
+of the churches is often the churches themselves. One of the greatest
+needs of the villages and rural regions is fewer churches.</p>
+
+<p>If in each small village there was a single church in which all the
+Christians of the community could unite, they could easily<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> organize the
+work in all the surrounding country and carry it on successfully. But
+where there are a number of churches they are in the way of each other and
+effectually prevent any widespread and efficient work. Still, even in that
+unfortunate condition, something may be done in a systematic way to help
+the rural regions. Why cannot the representatives of the various churches
+get together, make a united survey of the country for miles in every
+direction, become fully acquainted with the situation and conditions, and
+seeing clearly what needs to be done, divide the territory up between
+them, giving each church its own particular field, and allowing it to
+arrange for its cultivation in its own way? I believe that some such
+arrangement is feasible when it is the Kingdom that the churches are
+chiefly interested to promote, instead of the particular denomination to
+which they happen to belong.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>6. When all the religious forces in any community can combine and work
+together, all the work that needs to be done in the community can be done,
+and there will be no lack of resources to carry it on with vigor and
+success. In almost every community there are Christians enough, and there
+is money enough, for the work, if only they can be assembled and utilized.
+But when they are scattered about, lying around lose and uncombined, or
+when they are organized into competing camps, they are useless for any
+purpose of aggressive and effective work. It isn&#8217;t the poverty of the
+people that stands in the way, or the small number of professing
+Christians. It is the lack of team work, the lack of co&ouml;peration, that
+constitutes the weakness of the cause. No work can be done in the country
+that is at all effective without this co&ouml;peration and combination. With
+it, all the work that needs to be done, can be done.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>7. The church that sees the vision and with faith and courage undertakes
+to make it a reality, will be prospered. Perhaps the experience of the
+Benzonia church may be cited as proof of this. Situated in a small
+village, composed of people of meager means, in a country that has not
+even yet emerged from pioneer conditions, it had for many years carried on
+its work only with much sacrifice and careful economy. Three years ago, by
+a unanimous vote, it formally adopted the policy of reaching out and
+annexing all the territory within a radius of five miles in every
+direction, thus greatly increasing its obligations and more than doubling
+its annual budget of expenses. There was some questioning as to how it
+could be done, but, without waiting for clearer light, it moved forward
+unanimously to the enlarged work.</p>
+
+<p>What do we find to be the result of the three years? They have been the
+three<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> most prosperous years of the church&#8217;s history. Two men have been
+added to the clerical force. The expenses of the church have been met, and
+the bills have been paid when they were due. The contributions for home
+and foreign missions have more than doubled. More members have been
+received than during any other similar period. There has been perfect
+harmony and the people have been glad and happy in their common work. Ten
+places of worship have been established in the country around where
+regular services are held. The people in these neighborhoods attend their
+own services and do not come into the village church as some of them
+formerly did. The present arrangement does not tend to build up a large
+central congregation, but has the opposite effect. Thirty former central
+members have become part of a newly formed church three miles away. There
+has been no great increase in the population,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> either of the village or of
+the country around. But the congregations and the Sunday-schools were
+never so large as they have been during this period. It has been found
+impossible to accommodate all those who wished to worship with the church,
+or properly to care for those attending the Sunday-school. A larger
+building became an actual necessity, and in the summer of 1913 an addition
+was made, increasing the seating capacity of the building by one third,
+and providing a number of rooms for Sunday-school and social purpose. Can
+we doubt that the blessing of God will attend any church that sees the
+vision, and with faith and courage and sacrifice gives itself to the work
+of making it a reality?</p>
+
+<p>8. When all the ministers and all the churches catch the vision of the
+Larger Parish and address themselves to the work of making it a reality,
+the rural regions will be rehabilitated, religiously, morally, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>
+socially, and a splendid impulse will be given to the work throughout the
+whole country. If some practical plan can be adopted by the village
+churches for extension work, the whole aspect of the country situation may
+be quickly changed. The people, both in the villages and in the open
+country, are more ready for some such movement than has been supposed.
+Would not the Larger Parish idea as set forth in this story furnish a good
+working plan for such a movement?</p>
+
+<p>No man can have very much enthusiasm in a task that does not challenge all
+his powers and bring them into action&mdash;neither can a church. With the
+village churches it is a case of self-preservation as well as outreaching
+service. They must do this work or die. They will not long survive the
+spiritual declension of the country. The country and the village stand or
+fall together. Their fortunes are united. They must help<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> each other up
+into a better life or they will sink into a like economic, social, and
+spiritual stagnation and death. The plan of the wider parish, or some
+better plan, if it is wisely and vigorously worked, will secure both to
+the village and the country communities their rightful heritage of
+spiritual and social strength and usefulness.</p>
+
+<p>9. Nearly all the Christian denominations have their home missionary
+boards or societies whose functions it is to help sustain gospel work in
+needy places and to organize and cherish churches on the frontier and in
+destitute places. The frontier lines are not so extensive as they once
+were, but the desolate places are almost as numerous as ever, and they are
+in the very heart of our most highly developed civilization. In fact, they
+lie all about our churches, often almost within the sound of the
+church-bell. It is often too expensive to sustain a minister and maintain
+regular services in all these places<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> and so they are left without gospel
+privileges. If they can be grouped about a village church as a center, and
+if the church can be the base of operations from which the work is carried
+on in all these outlying regions; if through the aid of the home
+missionary boards a sufficient clerical force can be maintained to carry
+on the wide work, will not such a course be a practical, a successful, and
+an economical method of accomplishing home mission work?</p>
+
+<p>God is waiting to give the vision to those who are ready to receive it.
+The country in its great need and desolation is waiting for the help which
+the village churches can give to them. I believe the home missionary
+societies and boards are ready to co&ouml;perate in some such plan for the
+uplifting and the evangelization of the country districts. The village
+churches themselves are waiting for the wider work to quicken their waning
+life, and to kindle their dying<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> enthusiasm. The world is waiting to see
+them move forward in a determined and consecrated effort to reduce the
+vision to reality. God is waiting to pour out his Spirit in abundant
+blessing upon the churches that have enough faith and courage to undertake
+the work.</p>
+
+<p>I believe that the fulfilment of all this is not far in the future, and if
+this story of the Larger Parish shall contribute even in a small degree to
+this result, the teller will be amply repaid for his attempt to picture
+the new path along which God has led him.</p>
+
+<p class="poem">&#8220;Move to the fore.<br />
+God himself waits, and must wait, till thou come,<br />
+Men are God&#8217;s prophets though ages lie dumb.<br />
+Halts the Christ-Kingdom, with conquest so near?<br />
+Thou art the cause, then, thou man at the rear.<br />
+Move to the fore.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAKING OF A COUNTRY PARISH***</p>
+<p>******* This file should be named 32703-h.txt or 32703-h.zip *******</p>
+<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br />
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/2/7/0/32703">http://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/7/0/32703</a></p>
+<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.</p>
+
+<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.</p>
+
+
+
+<pre>
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/license">http://www.gutenberg.org/license)</a>.
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS,' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's
+eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII,
+compressed (zipped), HTML and others.
+
+Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over
+the old filename and etext number.  The replaced older file is renamed.
+VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving
+new filenames and etext numbers.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org">http://www.gutenberg.org</a>
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000,
+are filed in directories based on their release date.  If you want to
+download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular
+search system you may utilize the following addresses and just
+download by the etext year.
+
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext06/">http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext06/</a>
+
+    (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99,
+     98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90)
+
+EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are
+filed in a different way.  The year of a release date is no longer part
+of the directory path.  The path is based on the etext number (which is
+identical to the filename).  The path to the file is made up of single
+digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename.  For
+example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at:
+
+http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/0/2/3/10234
+
+or filename 24689 would be found at:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/6/8/24689
+
+An alternative method of locating eBooks:
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL">http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL</a>
+
+*** END: FULL LICENSE ***
+</pre>
+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/32703-h/images/front.jpg b/32703-h/images/front.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..41264eb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/32703-h/images/front.jpg
diff --git a/32703-h/images/i0015.jpg b/32703-h/images/i0015.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e9a2233
--- /dev/null
+++ b/32703-h/images/i0015.jpg
diff --git a/32703-h/images/i0015tmb.jpg b/32703-h/images/i0015tmb.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c2fc128
--- /dev/null
+++ b/32703-h/images/i0015tmb.jpg
diff --git a/32703-h/images/i0028.jpg b/32703-h/images/i0028.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3ef06cb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/32703-h/images/i0028.jpg
diff --git a/32703-h/images/i0028tmb.jpg b/32703-h/images/i0028tmb.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fdc9243
--- /dev/null
+++ b/32703-h/images/i0028tmb.jpg
diff --git a/32703-h/images/i0091.jpg b/32703-h/images/i0091.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..95dba4d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/32703-h/images/i0091.jpg
diff --git a/32703-h/images/i0091tmb.jpg b/32703-h/images/i0091tmb.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..29910ca
--- /dev/null
+++ b/32703-h/images/i0091tmb.jpg
diff --git a/32703-h/images/i0124.jpg b/32703-h/images/i0124.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c1ca197
--- /dev/null
+++ b/32703-h/images/i0124.jpg
diff --git a/32703-h/images/i0124tmb.jpg b/32703-h/images/i0124tmb.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6d5af6a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/32703-h/images/i0124tmb.jpg
diff --git a/32703-h/images/title.jpg b/32703-h/images/title.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7f52b74
--- /dev/null
+++ b/32703-h/images/title.jpg
diff --git a/32703-h/images/world.jpg b/32703-h/images/world.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ce832d3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/32703-h/images/world.jpg
diff --git a/32703.txt b/32703.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a7abc50
--- /dev/null
+++ b/32703.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,2518 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Making of a Country Parish, by Harlow S.
+(Harlow Spencer) Mills
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Making of a Country Parish
+
+
+Author: Harlow S. (Harlow Spencer) Mills
+
+
+
+Release Date: June 5, 2010  [eBook #32703]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAKING OF A COUNTRY PARISH***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Tom Roch and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made
+available by Core Historical Literature of Agriculture (CHLA), Albert R.
+Mann Library, Cornell University (http://chla.library.cornell.edu/) and
+Internet Archive/American Libraries
+(http://www.archive.org/details/americana)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 32703-h.htm or 32703-h.zip:
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32703/32703-h/32703-h.htm)
+      or
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32703/32703-h.zip)
+
+
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive/American Libraries. See
+      http://www.archive.org/details/makingofcountryp00mill
+      or
+      Core Historical Literature of Agriculture (CHLA),
+      Albert R. Mann Library, Cornell University
+      http://chla.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=chla;idno=2750849
+
+
+
+
+
+THE MAKING OF A
+COUNTRY PARISH
+
+      *      *      *      *      *
+
+LIBRARY OF CHRISTIAN PROGRESS
+
+_Volumes Issued_
+
+The Church a Community Force. _By Worth M. Tippy_
+
+The Church at the Center. _By Warren H. Wilson_
+
+The Making of a Country Parish. _By Harlow S. Mills_
+
+
+_Cloth, 50 Cents, Prepaid_
+
+
+ADDITIONAL VOLUMES TO BE ISSUED
+
+      *      *      *      *      *
+
+
+[Illustration: FROM BEULAH TO BENZONIA]
+
+
+THE MAKING OF A COUNTRY PARISH
+
+A STORY
+
+by
+
+HARLOW S. MILLS
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+New York
+Missionary Education Movement of the
+United States and Canada
+1914
+
+Copyright, 1914, by
+Missionary Education Movement
+of the United States and Canada
+
+
+
+
+  TO THE REV. AND MRS. F. A. NOBLE, D.D.,
+  WHO MADE THE SUMMER OF NINETEEN
+  HUNDRED AND THIRTEEN MEMORABLE
+  IN THE LARGER BENZONIA PARISH BY
+  THEIR PRESENCE, AND BY THEIR
+  KINDLY AND HELPFUL INTEREST IN ITS
+  WORK, AND TO WHOM THIS STORY
+  OWES ITS SUGGESTION AND INSPIRATION,
+  IT IS MOST GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  CHAPTER                                           PAGE
+
+  FOREWORD BY NEWELL DWIGHT HILLIS                    ix
+
+  INTRODUCTION                                      xiii
+
+  KEY TO MAP                                        xvii
+
+  DESCRIPTION OF THE MAP                           xviii
+
+  I THE HISTORICAL SETTING OF THE STORY                1
+
+  II SOME CONVICTIONS OUT OF WHICH THE VISION CAME    12
+
+  III HOW THE VISION CAME                             25
+
+  IV HOW THE VISION BECAME A REALITY                  36
+
+  V THE METHODS OF THE LARGER PARISH                  59
+
+  VI THINGS YET TO BE DONE                            97
+
+  VII SOME RESULTANT CONCLUSIONS                     113
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+                                                    PAGE
+
+  FROM BEULAH TO BENZONIA                   Frontispiece
+
+  MAP SHOWING THE LARGER PARISH                      xvi
+
+  CRYSTAL LAKE AND BEULAH FROM BENZONIA               10
+
+  THE PLATT LAKE CHAPEL                               72
+
+  THE BENZONIA CHURCH                                104
+
+
+
+
+FOREWORD
+
+
+For many years lovers of the republic have been warning our people as to
+the perils of modern city life. In 1800 one person out of thirteen lived
+in the city; to-day nearly every other citizen lives in a large town, or a
+great city. The city is the home of wealth, commerce, and finance; the
+home of music, art, and eloquence. Once each year all the great leaders
+come for a stay, long or short, to the metropolis. The birds leave the
+desert to seek the oasis, with its palm trees and springs of water. Young
+men, for two generations, have been deserting the farm and the village, to
+make their home in the great city. Many unexpected perils have sprung up
+from this massing of population. Among these dangers are the tenements,
+saloon, gambling houses, dens of vice, the tendency to anarchy, incident
+to the contrast between the palaces on the avenues and the rookeries on
+the Bowery. Insane people, defective children, men and women wrecked
+through drink and drugs, are some of the incidental results of congested
+populations. Innumerable addresses have been given upon the perils of the
+city life, and innumerable pamphlets and books have been published filled
+with warnings and black with alarm. The inevitable result is that the
+attention of the people has been focalized upon the manufacturing towns
+and the large cities.
+
+Now comes the Rev. Harlow S. Mills, with his study of the rural
+population. With the wisdom made possible by twenty years of first-hand
+knowledge he sets forth the influence of the country upon the large town
+and city. He tells us that the country has furnished the leaders for the
+people. It is in the country that the boy has his opportunity of brooding
+and reading and reflecting, while in solitude he develops his own gift
+and grows great. The Church has learned to depend upon the country for its
+theological students, as well as for its best students of law and
+medicine. But of late the country church has suffered grievously through
+the pull of the city upon its best young men and women. The inevitable
+result has been that as the city church has waxed the country church has
+waned in wealth, numbers, and influence. Many things have occurred during
+the past twenty years that are calculated to stir the note of fear, lest
+the life and institutions of the republic, rooted in the country, should
+slowly starve. One of the problems of the hour has been the rejuvenation
+of the country Sunday-school and the country church.
+
+Leaders of the past generation have struggled often in vain with this
+problem. Twenty years ago, the Rev. Harlow S. Mills, a friend of my
+boyhood, took a country church in northwestern Michigan, and started in to
+develop the same community spirit among the people who lived in widely
+separated school districts that the student finds developed in the wards
+of a great city. The story of these twenty years is full of fascination to
+all lovers of their fellow men and of the Christian Church. Mr. Mills has
+made some important discoveries and established certain mother principles
+that should be of invaluable service to the one half of our people living
+in small towns and rural districts. I believe this author and lover of his
+fellows has grown the good seed that ultimately will sow the continent
+with bread.
+
+NEWELL DWIGHT HILLIS.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+The rapid growth of our cities and towns during the last quarter of a
+century has brought us face to face with a serious problem. The religious
+and social conditions that have arisen give occasion for grave
+apprehensions, and have been subjects of careful thought. The City Problem
+has been widely discussed. Much thought and effort have been expended in
+its solution, and, while progress has been made and the outlook is
+hopeful, the end is not yet. Within recent years another problem has
+arisen which is scarcely less serious than that which the city presents,
+and that is the Country Problem. There are two reasons why this has not
+attracted special attention until quite lately. First, the city problem
+has been so serious and so acute that it has occupied the public mind to
+the exclusion of conditions in the country. And, in the second place,
+those conditions have increased in seriousness so rapidly in recent years
+and their demand for attention and careful consideration has become so
+insistent and imperious that it can no longer be disregarded. No
+thoughtful person can now blink the fact that there is a country problem,
+that it is equal in seriousness to the city problem, and that the two are
+so intimately related that neither of them can be solved by itself alone.
+They stand or fall together.
+
+I have no theory to present, nor any philosophy to exploit. I have no
+patent way of solving either the city or the country problem. I have only
+a story to tell of some things that have been done that may point the way
+toward a solution of the country problem. It is the simple account of an
+experiment in the work of religious and social welfare that promises to be
+successful. The parish that is spoken of may be regarded as an experiment
+station, and this story is only the account of the working out of certain
+methods. It will be enough if the story shall prove to be some small
+contribution to the solution of the important and difficult country
+problem.
+
+One of the greatest difficulties I had in writing this story was with
+myself. Some of the experiences were so purely personal that I hesitated
+to speak of them and I shrank from the so frequent use of the personal
+pronouns. In the first draft of the story I resorted to all manner of
+circumlocution to avoid their use, but I found it difficult to adopt any
+consistent form and the result was to weaken the impression. So, acting on
+the advice of able and judicious critics, I concluded to tell the story in
+the simplest and most direct way.
+
+H. S. MILLS.
+
+BENZONIA, MICHIGAN,
+
+_August 15, 1914_.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: MAP SHOWING THE LARGER PARISH
+
+(WEST HALF OF BENZIE COUNTY, MICHIGAN)]
+
+
+KEY TO MAP
+
+1. Benzonia Village, Benzonia Township. Church Organization, Church
+Building. Morning Service every Sunday. Sunday School, Christian Endeavor
+Society, Woman's Missionary Society, Weekly Prayer Meeting, Ladies' Aid
+Society.
+
+2. Beulah Village, Benzonia Township. Chapel. Evening Service every
+Sunday, Sunday School, Ladies' Aid Society.
+
+3. Eden, Benzonia Township. Church Organization, Schoolhouse (Chapel,
+1914). Evening Service every Sunday, Sunday School, Christian Endeavor
+Society, Weekly Prayer Meeting, Neighborhood Club, Ladies' Social Circle.
+
+4. Champion Hill, Homestead Township. Church Organization, Chapel. Morning
+Service every Sunday, Christian Endeavor Society.
+
+5. Platt Lake, Benzonia Township. Chapel. Afternoon Service on alternate
+Sundays. Ladies' Aid Society.
+
+6. North Crystal, Benzonia Township. Private Home (Chapel, 1914).
+Afternoon Service on alternate Sundays, Sunday School, Ladies' Aid
+Society.
+
+7. Grace, Gilmore Township. Church Organization, Chapel. Morning Service
+every Sunday, Sunday School, Neighborhood Club, Ladies' Aid Society.
+
+8. Demerley, Joyfield Township. Schoolhouse. Afternoon Service on
+alternate Sundays, Sunday School.
+
+9. South Chapel, Benzonia Township. Chapel. Evening Service on alternate
+Sundays, Sunday School.
+
+10. East Joyfield, Joyfield Township. Chapel. Evening Service on alternate
+Sundays, Sunday School.
+
+11. Liberty Union, Benzonia Township. Schoolhouse. Afternoon Service on
+alternate Sundays, Neighborhood Club.
+
+12. South Elberta, Gilmore Township. Schoolhouse. Sunday School.
+
+
+DESCRIPTION OF THE MAP
+
+In order that the term, "The Larger Parish," the name by which the work of
+this story has come to be familiarly known, may be understood, some
+description of its geography and topography as represented on the
+accompanying map, may be necessary.
+
+The Larger Benzonia Parish is situated in Benzie County, Michigan, eight
+miles from Lake Michigan and at the east end of Crystal Lake, one of the
+most beautiful small lakes in the state. Benzonia-Beulah, the twin
+villages which are at the center of the Larger Parish, are on the Ann
+Arbor Railroad, which extends diagonally through the state from Toledo,
+Ohio, to Frankfort on Lake Michigan. The Larger Parish includes Benzonia
+Township and portions of Lake, Homestead, Joyfield, Gilmore, and Crystal
+Lake Townships. It divides itself into three sub-parishes: the North
+Parish, with two churches, Champion Hill and Eden, and two out-stations,
+North Crystal and Platt Lake; the South Parish, with one church, Grace,
+and five out-stations, South Chapel, Demerley, East Joyfield, Liberty
+Union, and South Elberta; while between these is the Central Parish, with
+Benzonia on the hilltop and Beulah in the valley, half a mile distant.
+
+The map represents the western half of Benzie County, and the various
+churches, chapels, and other out-stations are designated.
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+THE HISTORICAL SETTING OF THE STORY
+
+
+The story of New England with the Pilgrims left out could be neither
+understood nor appreciated. We must know something about those sturdy,
+conscientious men and women who became exiles and crossed the stormy
+Atlantic that they might have "freedom to worship God." We must understand
+something about the barren and the wintry coast that received them,
+something of their struggles and sufferings, their aims and aspirations,
+if we would know the history of that civilization that they founded, or
+get a true conception of the experiment in democracy that they so
+successfully wrought out.
+
+The story that is about to be told had its Pilgrims. To leave them out
+would be to spoil the story. It cannot be understood without knowing
+something of their heroic spirit, their sincere devotion, and the manner
+in which they permanently impressed their ideas and their personality upon
+the community which they founded and the institutions which they planted.
+Some account of its historical setting will be necessary in order to make
+this story of country evangelization complete.
+
+The half century between 1825 and 1875 witnessed the most remarkable
+educational movement that our country has ever seen. It was the era of
+college planting. During that period a line of Christian colleges was
+projected from New York to California, many of which have been developed
+and stand to-day as monuments to the zeal and foresight of that remarkable
+generation of nation builders. The value of their work, and its influence
+for good upon the people and the institutions of the most populous, the
+wealthiest, and the most influential section of our country cannot be
+estimated.
+
+In 1858 a company of people from northern Ohio, who had lighted their
+torch of religious and educational enthusiasm at the flame of Oberlin,
+came into the vast wilderness of northern Michigan with the purpose of
+planting there Christian institutions. They were high-minded, sturdy
+people, with strong religious convictions. The Pilgrims did not bring to
+the New England coast a truer motive or a purer purpose. They were willing
+to put into the enterprise their lives and their fortunes. They stamped
+the new community that they founded with the impress of their ideals, and
+that stamp has persisted.
+
+These modern Pilgrims repeated with some modification the experiences of
+their New England prototypes. After a long and stormy voyage on the Great
+Lakes they landed in the late autumn on an inhospitable coast, built them
+some rough shanties that their descendants would not consider worthy to
+shelter their cattle, and there they passed a severe winter. They explored
+the northwestern Michigan woods, and finally, with a strange indifference
+to the importance of a railway to the development of a town, they lighted
+upon a level plateau on the top of a high hill, two hundred feet above the
+placid waters of beautiful Lake Crystal, and eight miles from Lake
+Michigan, and there they pitched their tents. Like Abraham, their first
+work after entering the Promised Land was to build an altar to Jehovah,
+and like him and their New England ancestors, they built it on the highest
+elevation that they could find. One of the first things they did was to
+select a site for a church and for a school, and, standing under the tall
+maples and beeches, with hymn and prayer, to dedicate that high hilltop to
+the cause of Christian education.
+
+The church that they planted, the first in all the Grand Traverse region,
+celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of its organization in 1910. It has
+now a membership of about three hundred, and is the center of the
+religious and social life, not only of the immediate community but also of
+the territory known as "The Larger Parish," twelve miles long and ten
+miles wide. It has been the mother of churches, and now stands encircled
+by a number of younger organizations that are growing strong and sturdy
+under its cherishing influence.
+
+Benzonia, the village that they founded, never became the populous center
+that they hoped it would be. There are now but about four hundred people
+living on the hilltop, and nearly as many more in the village of Beulah,
+which, at the bottom of the hill nestles around the head of the Lake, half
+a mile away. The two villages of Benzonia and Beulah form one corporation,
+and contain together about seven hundred inhabitants. The school which
+they established is still doing business, though not exactly in the way
+that they anticipated. They thought to repeat the history of Oberlin by
+planting in the woods of northern Michigan an institution of learning such
+as the fathers planted in northern Ohio. But the conditions were very
+dissimilar. Oberlin was in the zone of quick settlement. Cities and towns
+soon sprang up all about it, and it became in a few years the center of a
+large population. But the northern Michigan region developed very slowly
+and it was a long time before there were enough people to maintain a
+college or to justify its presence. But from the first there was in
+operation a school of high order, and it performed a splendid service in
+those early years, doing the educational work for all that region, and
+supplying teachers for the public schools throughout a wide territory. It
+is now conducted as an Academy and is doing an excellent work, sending
+forth each year large classes of young people well prepared to enter any
+college or university in the country. The Academy has been maintained very
+largely by the gifts and sacrifices of the people of the community, and is
+an important factor of the work that is being wrought out in "The Larger
+Parish."
+
+The people of this community are unusually homogeneous. There are no Roman
+Catholics, few foreigners, and no colored people. They are hardworking and
+industrious, none of them possessing large wealth, and none of them being
+very poor. All are compelled to toil for their daily bread. There, if
+anywhere, it is possible to live "the simple life," and in such healthful
+conditions the community life has developed. Though the presence of the
+Academy has been a means of culture and the center and inspirations of
+literary life, it is by no means true that all the people in the wide
+parish are well educated. A few miles from the village primitive and
+pioneer conditions are found, and there is no lack of genuine missionary
+ground.
+
+The social life of this community is very satisfactory. There are no
+classes or cliques. The people mingle together freely on a common basis,
+and exemplify to an unusual degree the principle of brotherhood. There has
+never been a saloon in the community, and the people are for the most part
+steady-going and law-abiding. They are loyal to their home institutions,
+crowding the church on Sunday and taking a lively interest in all things
+that pertain to the welfare of the village and the surrounding country.
+They are dependent upon themselves for literary and musical
+entertainments--no shows or moving picture combinations ever come that
+way. But a good lecture course is maintained, and there are frequent
+musical and literary entertainments by the Academy and high school and by
+the people of the town; so there is no lack of the means of recreation,
+and that of a high order and of a helpful character.
+
+At the west end of Crystal Lake, eight miles distant, on a beautiful tract
+of land with frontage on Lake Michigan, as well as on Crystal Lake, are
+the grounds of the Frankfort Congregational Summer Assembly. The location
+is superb, and it is rapidly becoming a favorite summer resort, attracting
+people even from New England and from the Pacific coast. The relation
+between Benzonia and the summer assembly is very close. It is easily
+accessible by frequent boats. Every year they have "Benzonia Day," when
+the Assembly adjourns to the beautiful campus on the hilltop, enjoying a
+dinner together under the trees and a well-arranged program of speeches
+and music. The residents of the surrounding country come in crowds to
+these outdoor festivals and they are eagerly anticipated by all. They
+afford a fine opportunity for the people of the vicinage to meet in
+friendly intercourse those who come from distant parts of the country to
+enjoy the cool breezes and the woods and lakes of the northern Michigan
+regions, and they are appreciated by all. Sometimes the Assembly is the
+host, and the people of Benzonia are the guests. During the summer the
+leading ministers of the country are frequently in the Benzonia pulpit,
+and so the people, though living quite remote from the great centers, and
+not given to much travel, have the privilege of hearing the most noted
+speakers, and thus come in touch with the good things that are being said
+and done in the wider world.
+
+The Academy and summer Assembly are closely related to the work of the
+Larger Benzonia Parish. While this work has not been dependent upon them,
+their presence and influence have been a great stimulus and
+encouragement, and they have added strength and stability to the movement.
+
+Thus briefly is sketched the setting of the story that will be told in the
+succeeding chapters.
+
+
+[Illustration: CRYSTAL LAKE AND BEULAH FROM BENZONIA]
+
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+SOME CONVICTIONS OUT OF WHICH THE VISION CAME
+
+
+A conviction is a great thing. It is the egg out of which all great
+enterprises are hatched. Almost everything that is worth while was once
+wrapped up in a conviction. Abraham had a conviction that he ought to obey
+God's leading. He took his journey to the "land that he knew not of," and
+we have as the result the Hebrew race, and all that has come out of it for
+the world.
+
+The vision of which I am telling the story was at first only a conviction.
+There were a few things of which I had become certain. Just how the
+conviction seized me I hardly know, but I like to think that it came from
+the same source from which Abraham's conviction came, and that thought
+has made me confident in following this guiding gleam.
+
+1. I became convinced that the real object of the Church is to _serve_ the
+people, and that its claim for support should rest upon the same ground
+upon which every other institution bases its claim for support--that it
+gives value received. That has not always been the idea of church people.
+They have considered the Church as a divine institution, and that because
+of its divine origin and sacred character it can properly demand respect
+and support. There was a time in the not very distant past when the
+ministers of the Church, as its representatives, might demand reverence
+and respect because of the position they occupied. There was much of
+reverence and regard for "the cloth." But those days are past. Now the
+Church is valued only for what it does. If it does nothing, it need no
+longer look for respectful recognition. If it makes no contribution to
+the community whose value can be seen and appreciated, it cannot expect
+support or favorable regard. People do not care very much for clerical
+dignity in these days. They are not asking what place a man occupies, or
+what kind of clothes he wears, but what he does for the community. Is he
+rendering valuable service? They are quite ready to pay for service that
+is of real worth, but for dignity and traditionary sanctity they have
+slight regard.
+
+There are some who seem to think that the Church makes good by building
+_itself_ up--that if it becomes strong as an institution, if it flourishes
+in its outward aspects, it justifies its existence. They are well
+satisfied if it increases in numbers, if it erects splendid and beautiful
+buildings, if it contributes substantially to the glory of the
+denomination to which it belongs, whether it really serves the people or
+not. But it can never answer the ends of its existence by simply building
+itself up as an institution. There have been periods in the history of the
+Church when it was very strong as an organization, but very weak as an
+element of helpfulness in the lives of the people. Fine buildings and
+stately ritual and high social standing can never satisfy the great
+Founder of the Church. Jesus said, "The Son of man came not to be
+ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many."
+He sent his Church on the same errand. Unless it is doing the thing for
+which it was sent it has no justification for its existence. It is here to
+serve, to help the people. In-so-far as it actually does serve it may
+claim and expect love, recognition, and support--but no further. This
+became one of my strong convictions.
+
+2. I also became convinced that the Church, if it makes good must serve
+_all_ the people. The impression has sometimes prevailed that the Church
+is for good people, for those who are respectable. It has been thought of,
+and sometimes it has thought of itself, as under obligations to minister
+to the religious people of the community, or to those who can be induced
+to become religious. There is a large class of people who are not
+religiously inclined and who have no affiliation with the Church, and who,
+perhaps, are not likely to have, for whom it has not been thought to be
+responsible. In almost every parish, or within reach of it, there are
+numbers of people who are not touched by the Church, and who are not
+considered to be material for the Church to work upon. Some are outside of
+its influence because they live so far away that they cannot easily be
+reached. Some because of their character and standing in society are
+considered beyond its pale. What would be the effect if a company of women
+from the street should come into one of our beautiful and respectable
+churches for a few Sunday mornings? How would they be received? Would the
+ushers show them comfortable seats? Would they be welcome in the pews of
+the good people who have come together to worship God? And yet, the great
+Head of the Church came "to seek and to save that which was lost." He did
+not shun such people or banish them from his presence. He was "a friend of
+publicans and sinners," and brought down upon himself serious criticism
+because he did not discriminate more carefully in the matter of his
+associates. The Church should have the spirit of the Master, and, wherever
+there is a man, woman, or child, there is one in whom the Church should be
+interested, and whom it should seek to serve, whatever may be his
+character, his condition, or his standing socially. It became one of my
+strong convictions that the Church has a definite mission to every person
+within the possible range of its influence, and out of that conviction
+came the vision.
+
+3. It also became plain that if the Church would fulfil its mission it
+must serve _all_ the interests of the people. I was brought up with the
+idea that its mission was largely, if not exclusively, spiritual. Its
+chief and almost only concern was the soul of the individual man. It was
+thought that a man has a soul, and that that soul was in peril. His _soul_
+must be saved--that was the important thing. It was of small consequence
+that the man himself went to the dogs, if only his soul was saved. The man
+was forgotten in anxiety for his soul. We were the victims of a false
+psychology; as if a man and his soul could be separated--as if there could
+be any such thing as simply saving the soul of a man! We have come to see
+that a man, though composed of many parts, is a unit. He is not put
+together mechanically, so that one part may be taken and treated and the
+other parts ignored. He is not built in separate compartments, his soul in
+one, and his body in another. Christianity is not dealing with souls
+alone. It is dealing with men, and we are becoming interested in all that
+makes a man a man. The conviction became strong that the Church should
+have something to say and something to do with everything that goes to
+make up the life of the man; that it should make itself felt as an
+influence in his business, his education, his recreation, his home life,
+as well as in his so-called religious exercises; that it should be a force
+with him on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday as well as on Sunday. In
+other words, the line that has been supposed to separate the sacred from
+the secular must be obliterated, and every common thing must become
+sacred. It was seen that everything that has a rightful place in the life
+of a man should be the concern of the Church, and that whatever cannot be
+brought into harmony with the Church and its principles has no proper
+place in the real life of a man.
+
+4. The conviction became strong that the village church, if it would
+fulfil its mission, must be responsible for _country evangelization_. It
+must reach out into all the surrounding neighborhoods, and touch the
+people in a vital way for many miles around. In the popular conception the
+influence of the church has been contracted and narrowed till it does not
+include half the territory nor half the people embraced in its
+responsibility. Many ministers are content to tramp around in the narrow
+confines of their own village, with an occasional excursion into the
+country, while there are scores of families living a little more remote
+for whom they are attempting nothing. Some ministers look upon their
+churches as their field rather than their force--a field to be cultivated
+rather than a force of workers to be led out into the widestretching
+fields that lie beyond. This is a serious mistake. Such a limited
+conception of the extent of its work and such an inadequate idea of its
+real responsibility and of its best opportunity will certainly condemn a
+church to comparative uselessness, and in the end to failure. When all the
+village churches get the vision and see their work in its fulness, the
+country problem will be solved.
+
+Country evangelization belongs primarily and practically to the village
+church. The village church is the only one that can really take it up and
+deal with it in a successful way. It is in the power of the churches in
+the villages and small towns to change the whole aspect of things in the
+country, religiously, morally, and socially.
+
+For some years the pastor and church of this story had been trying to do
+something for the outlying regions, but they had not grasped the idea that
+all the people for many miles around who were not cared for by some other
+church were in their parish--that for them they were responsible and to
+them they had a mission. They began to see that they were not doing half
+the work they might do and ought to do; that there were scores of
+families, and hundreds of people, to whom the church was nothing, who
+should be made to feel its force in a stimulating and uplifting way. They
+began to feel the pressure of that obligation that had rested on them all
+along, and of which they had been unconscious or unheedful. The voice of
+God began to sound plainly in their ears, "Go ye forth into these ripe
+harvest-fields, and gather sheaves for the Master." The conviction became
+so strong that they ought to take up the wider work, and the duty grew to
+be so plain that they wondered that they had not seen it long before.
+
+5. The conviction became strong that, if the village church would fulfil
+its mission, it must be a community church. I used to think that the
+church had simply to do with individuals; that its work was to reach out
+here and there, to get hold of this one and that one, and that there its
+work terminated. Society was thought of as a heap of sand, and not as an
+organism. Man was considered in himself alone, and not in his relations,
+and so he was misunderstood, for nothing can be truly and fully known
+except in its relations. But it has become plain that this exclusively
+individualistic conception was a mistake; that there is such a thing as
+community life, the life that all the people have in common; that men are
+bound up together by common interests; that they are members one of
+another; that "none of us liveth to himself, and none dieth to himself."
+The conviction became strong that the church should take account of this
+community life of which the individual is a part; that it should concern
+itself not only for men, but for _man_; that it should serve the whole
+community, and that nothing should be foreign to the church or ignored by
+it that in any way concerns the common life of the people.
+
+This conviction did not detract from my estimate of the importance of the
+spiritual, or of the individual. I still regarded the spiritual part of a
+man as his most essential part. It was still plain that we have to deal
+with men as individuals, but I recognized them also in their organic
+relation to the whole life of the community. Not only were the men's souls
+to be saved, but the _men_ themselves were to be saved. Not only were the
+_men_ to be saved and lifted up to a better life, but the _whole
+community_ was to be saved, and the community life was to be uplifted and
+placed on a higher plane.
+
+Out of these convictions, which grew more and more positive, came the
+vision whose fulfilment is the subject of this story.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+HOW THE VISION CAME
+
+
+The genesis of a vision is always interesting, though often obscure. On
+one day a certain side of life is a blank. There is no outlook, no hint of
+the coming brightness. On another day that side of life is made all
+radiant and glorious by a vision, clear and definite, that beckons on to
+future achievement. Sometimes it comes suddenly, like Peter's vision when
+he was upon the housetop in Joppa; and sometimes it dawns gradually, and
+little by little paints itself in beautiful colors upon the sky of one's
+inner consciousness. As remarked in a previous chapter, a conviction is
+the egg from which the vision comes; but the egg is only dead and formless
+matter until it is brooded over and warmed into life. So a conviction may
+be strong and positive, but it may exist for a long time, formless,
+lifeless, and useless, until it is quickened into vitality by the brooding
+spirit of a man, and thus becomes an active and inspiring force. So it may
+be profitable and necessary to the proper understanding of this story to
+tell how the vision came.
+
+For fifteen years I had been working away in my country parish. They had
+been happy years of glad, harmonious work. I was satisfied with my job.
+Though remote from the great centers of population, in a small village,
+and with people of very modest means, that restless feeling that spoils
+the peace and mars the work of so many ministers had been absent. My
+people were of the strong and sturdy sort, faithful and appreciative
+beyond many, ready to cooperate in carrying out any plans of work that the
+pastor might propose. They were splendid followers, responding quickly to
+all my suggestions. There was a good understanding between myself and the
+people.
+
+I was called to pass through deep affliction. My home was broken up by a
+sudden stroke and I was left alone. Into the dark valley of sorrow my
+people accompanied me as far as they were able to go, and the effect
+seemed to be to unite us with bonds that were very strong and tender.
+Every home in all the parish was mine. All the children belonged to me.
+There was a chair for me at every fireside and a plate at every table.
+
+But as the years went by there came some tempting opportunities to engage
+in work elsewhere. I was not without my ambitions and aspirations. I
+wanted to fill out the full measure of my ability and do my best work. And
+when some opportunities came that made the little country parish seem by
+comparison rather small and meager, I was not altogether proof against
+them. To become assistant pastor in a famous church in a large city--to
+take up the work of general missionary for a whole state seemed to promise
+fields of usefulness so rich and large that they made a strong appeal to
+the best there was in me, and perhaps also to the worst. I spent some
+weeks and months in considering these propositions and finally turned them
+down. I could not bring myself to sever my connection with those to whom I
+had been so long and so closely related. The personal tie was too strong
+and I decided to remain with my people.
+
+With the decision came a thorough heart-searching. It marked a
+turning-point in my spiritual history. I was impressed with the thought
+that if it was God's will that I should remain in my present work, it must
+be for a special purpose. Things could not be in the future as they had
+been in the past. It would be criminal to turn down a larger work for one
+that was small unless there were good and sufficient reasons for doing
+so. If it was the Lord's will that I should remain in that country parish,
+there must be some work there that it was worth while for me to do, some
+work that in a proper degree, at least, would approach in importance the
+large proposition made by the city and the state. What was the work? Was
+there anything to be done among those hills and in those rapidly
+disappearing forests that could fire a man's ambitions and satisfy his
+high aspirations?
+
+Just here the vision came. At first a whole township was revealed as a
+possible parish, with every family tributary to the church, and the church
+performing a valuable ministry for them all. The vision expanded until it
+took in another township, and parts of three or four more. It became plain
+that almost half a county was tributary to the church, that five hundred
+families and twenty-five hundred people were waiting for its ministry. It
+dawned upon my mental vision that I was called upon to be the pastor of
+all these people, for five or six miles in every direction, that the
+Benzonia church was responsible for them all, that they had a right to
+look to us for service and help, and that if we failed to give it we
+should be unfaithful to our Master and recreant to our trust. Then I said:
+"Here is something worth doing. Here may be wrought out an experiment in
+country evangelization and rural betterment that may help to arrest the
+downward trend that has become so alarming in these latter days. It was
+for this that God has kept me here. If I can make this vision a reality, I
+need not pine for a larger field. If I can help others to see the vision,
+and inspire them with enthusiasm to make it real in larger fields than
+mine, and in many parts of our country, I shall never regret that I stayed
+by the stuff." The vision came as a compensation. It was the reward that
+God gave for following his leading along those ways where natural
+inclinations would not have disposed me to go. God wants us to do our best
+and largest work. He never calls us to a smaller work. If he bids us walk
+along a humble path and go in an obscure way, we shall find our true
+life-work there.
+
+The church had for many years been much interested in both home and
+foreign missions. I preached frequently upon the subject, and kept it
+constantly before the people. Regular collections were taken for
+missionary objects, and the Every Member Canvass plan had long been in
+operation. The response was always general and liberal. In fact, those who
+were well acquainted with the churches of the state have often said that
+in proportion to its resources, its gifts were larger than those of any
+other church. Not only did they give money, but they also gave their sons
+and daughters to carry the gospel to less favored regions. Many of the
+young women of the church had gone to teach in home mission schools. And
+there came a beautiful summer Sabbath when a favorite niece, brought up in
+my home, and an active and useful member of the church, beloved by all,
+with solemn services in the little church on the hilltop was consecrated
+to the foreign work and sent forth with the prayers and blessings of all
+the people to represent them among the awakening millions of China.
+
+As I was sitting in my study one day pondering upon these things, the
+absurdity of the situation came over me all at once. "Here we are
+gathering money to send our sons and daughters to the distant parts of the
+earth, but we are doing absolutely nothing for scores of families that are
+almost within the sound of our church-bell. We feel some responsibility
+for the millions of people of other lands whom we have never seen, and
+never shall see, but we have not felt very much responsibility for those
+who are separated from us by only a few miles. We are anxious to give the
+gospel to the colored people, the Chinese, and to those of alien races;
+but we have felt no such anxiety for those of our own race who are not so
+very far away. There are many families and hundreds of people within five
+or six miles of our church that are practically without the gospel, as
+truly as are the Chinese or the South Sea Islanders. We have made no
+systematic effort to interest them in these things. We have given them no
+reason to believe that we are drawn out toward them with Christlike
+motives. Surely there must be something wrong in our calculations." Then I
+heard the Master say, "These ye ought to have done, and not to have left
+the other undone."
+
+And then came the vision of "The Larger Parish." I saw the church
+reaching out its hand and touching tenderly but effectively all the people
+in the surrounding country. I saw the church feeling some responsibility
+for every family, and counting them all as within the bounds of its
+parish. I saw every family in all that wide region as tributary to the
+church. I saw the church making systematic plans to carry the gospel to
+all these outlying neighborhoods. I began to think of all those people as
+my parishioners as truly as were those who lived near the church and were
+members of it. And so the vision dawned upon me of the Larger Parish. In
+my own mind I annexed all the surrounding country and began to make plans
+for the evangelization and helping of all the people who dwelt therein. So
+under the stimulus of foreign missions the vision came of the work that
+should be done and could be done nearer home.
+
+And it may be well to add that since the work of the Larger Parish began,
+the contributions to foreign missions have more than doubled. There are
+those all over this wide territory who knew little and cared less about
+missions three years ago, but who now are eager to make some contribution
+to the support of the missionary in China, half of whose salary our Church
+is pledged to provide.
+
+And so the vision came, from above as all good visions do, but it came
+while walking in the pathway of duty, in the unfolding of a larger
+experience. He who follows the dawning light will see the vision.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+HOW THE VISION BECAME A REALITY
+
+
+The chief value of visions is in their fulfilment. A visionary man is one
+who sees but does not do. He has revelations of splendid possibilities,
+but they do not materialize. The sky of his inner consciousness is all
+painted over with beautiful pictures, but those designs never get on the
+canvas or into the marble or find their fulfilment in flesh and blood. The
+most elaborate plans and specifications will not shelter a family nor
+constitute a home. They must be embodied in brick and stone and timber in
+order to make them valuable. Only the concreting of ideals can save the
+vision-gazer from becoming a visionary.
+
+It is always interesting and instructive to trace the process by which a
+vision is made real. Often the pathway to the goal is obscure, difficult,
+and tedious, but it is worth while to follow it. This chapter will be an
+endeavor to trace the process by which the vision of the Larger Parish
+became a reality.
+
+I had a clear apprehension of two things--the work to be done, and the
+instrument by which it must be accomplished; but just how the instrument
+was to accomplish the work was not so evident. Here was the church, and
+here were the people; but how could they be brought together to their
+mutual advantage? I had been a very busy man for years. My time had been
+fully occupied and I had not supposed it possible to take more work. How
+was I to multiply my activities many fold and still be efficient? The
+church had been active and aggressive. It had been doing large things. In
+the opinion of some it had been straining itself beyond reasonable limits
+in carrying on its work. How could it quadruple the size of its parish by
+annexing all the territory within a radius of five miles in every
+direction, and increase its constituency several times over. Would it not
+be swamped by its acquisitions? Would it not be overwhelmed by the number
+and greatness of its obligations and responsibilities? It had not
+adequately ministered to all the people in its smaller parish. How would
+it be when its boundaries were so greatly increased?
+
+These and many other doubtful questions presented themselves, and the
+answers were not at hand. But there were the outlying neighborhoods;
+without consulting them I had annexed them to my parish. There was the
+church; without asking its consent, in my own mind I had multiplied its
+work and increased its burdens many fold. I had a task with the people to
+make them willing to be annexed; with the church, to lead it to accept
+its heavier burdens and its larger responsibilities; and a still greater
+task to bring the church and the people into such relations that the work
+should be accomplished. How did I go about my task?
+
+1. The first thing to be done was to make a survey of the field. I began
+to think of all the twenty-five hundred people in this Larger Parish as
+belonging to me. I felt a measure of responsibility for them all. We, as a
+church and pastor, must do something for them all, and in order to do it,
+we must know them all. So I started out to visit all the families in this
+wide territory. Many of them, of course, I knew already. But many that
+were more remote I had not touched closely, though in my fifteen years'
+pastorate there were few who had not some acquaintance with me. I tramped
+around over the whole parish, living with the people, often being absent
+from my home for two or three days at a time, until there was scarcely a
+home in all that region in which I was a stranger. This was most
+delightful and rewarding work. There was a welcome for me everywhere.
+Almost without exception the people seemed pleased to come in touch with
+the representative of the church. Weary of body, but glad of heart, I laid
+myself down at night under the shelter of some hospitable farmer's roof
+after having spent the evening in friendly conversation with him and his
+family. Such an opportunity to get up close to people is worth a score of
+sermons.
+
+This visiting tour occupied many weeks--in fact a large part of the autumn
+months was spent in this way, and in many desirable things more was
+accomplished in those three months than had been done in the fifteen
+previous years. I came to know the outside people as I had never known
+them before. My touch with them was warmer and closer. I came to think of
+them in a different way. My interest in them was more definite and more
+intelligent. I came to understand the field--to know its extent, its
+difficulties, and its encouragements--and so I was prepared to grapple
+with the task God had given me.
+
+The effect upon myself of these tours among the people was most salutary.
+Aside from the information that I gained, there was an even greater gain
+in sympathy, in understanding, and in the inspiration and enthusiasm that
+came into my own soul. I usually made these apostolic tours on foot. I
+would start out in the morning with my staff in hand with a general route
+previously marked out. If I saw a man plowing in the field, I would sit
+down with him on the plow-beam while his horses were resting, and have a
+good talk about his farm, his home, the matters of interest in the
+community, and there was almost always a good opportunity to get in a few
+words about the things of the Kingdom. Then at the dinner or the supper
+hour, when all the family were together, there was a chance to get into
+the home life, and to be for the time a part of the family circle. I found
+that when I met the people, not as a minister, but as a man and a friend,
+there was always a hearty and a glad response, and it was easy to secure a
+sympathetic hearing for my projects and plans. There was much gained in
+establishing such close relations with the people. Without such a basis,
+the work of the larger parish could hardly have been successfully carried
+on.
+
+2. My task with the church, in bringing it to get my point of view, to see
+the vision as I saw it, and to cooperate in making it a reality, was not
+difficult. They were ready for the larger work--at least, they were ready
+to be made ready. All they needed was light and leading. This I undertook
+to give. I told them my vision of the Larger Parish. I held it up before
+them continually, preaching it on the Sabbath, and talking about it in
+the prayer-meeting. I described the situation as it had been revealed to
+me in my apostolic tramps. From week to week I could see the kindling
+flame of enthusiasm in the congregation. There was evidently a rising tide
+of interest in the wider work. The people began to see the reasonableness
+of it. They began to feel some sense of responsibility for it, some joy
+and hope as the possibility of doing it began to dawn upon them.
+
+I believe that the rank and file of our churches are more ready to march
+forth to larger service than most of us have thought. There is really more
+willingness to take up new tasks and to engage in aggressive enterprises
+than they have had credit for. The people want something to do. They want
+a work that is worth while. Many churches are languishing for a job which
+they may apprehend and accept--for something large enough and difficult
+enough to challenge their powers and kindle their enthusiasm. And when a
+proposition is made to them that seems sane and sensible, when they can
+have confidence in their leaders, they are generally ready to fall in line
+and to march forward with firm and steady tread. That was the case with
+this particular church, and they have stood behind the work of the Larger
+Parish from the first in solid phalanx. There have been no kickers, no
+knockers. In all this work I have had the satisfaction of knowing that the
+people were with me. They have been helpers all the way and not hinderers.
+
+3. But how should we begin? How can we move out into this Larger Parish
+and get hold of this greater work? In some way we must be something to all
+these people. We must find a way by which the church may make itself felt
+as a force in all these five hundred homes. But how? Well, I began to
+hold services in the schoolhouses around. I could at least hold one
+meeting a week in these out-stations in addition to my regular duties.
+That seemed a very small beginning, but it was a beginning. It was the
+entering wedge to the larger work that followed. On Wednesday nights some
+of my people would take me to these more distant points, where I was
+almost invariably greeted by a good and attentive congregation. I had no
+conveyance of my own, and of this I was glad, for it gave an excuse to
+call upon my people for transportation, and gave them a chance to have a
+part in the work; for I considered that the success of the work depended,
+not so much upon what I did or said, as upon the attitude that the people
+of the church took toward it. And the presence of the men with me in these
+services greatly increased the effectiveness of the efforts. I was a
+preacher and I was simply "on my job." _They_ represented the church and
+proclaimed to the people in the outlying regions its attitude toward them.
+In some of the neighborhoods there were no schoolhouses, and the services
+were held in private homes. In this simple way the work began to grow.
+
+4. At first I had no definite thought of how the work would develop. I
+simply started out to do what I could for the people in this wide
+territory. But it soon became evident that one man would not be able to do
+all the work that was opening up before me. The need of a helper began to
+press heavily, but the possibility of securing one had not yet dawned upon
+me. The General Missionary of the state became interested in the work, and
+he was the first one to suggest that an Assistant might be secured. This
+put new hope and courage into my heart. The matter was brought to the
+attention of the Superintendent of the state, and he consulted with his
+Advisory Committee. He came upon the ground, and after making a thorough
+investigation, agreed with the General Missionary that a helper was
+necessary. He thought that the work proposed was legitimate home
+missionary work, that the best way to evangelize the whole country is for
+each village church to reach out into the country around as far as
+possible, until village with village should touch hands over a region that
+is adequately supplied with gospel privileges.
+
+The result was that a proposition was made by the Superintendent to the
+church. It was substantially this: that we should take into the Parish
+Grace Church, a small Congregational organization four miles distant from
+Benzonia, which had been moribund for a long time, with no regular
+services for a number of years. The Home Missionary Society would make a
+grant of one hundred dollars if Grace Church would raise one hundred and
+fifty dollars. It was understood that the Benzonia Church would raise the
+other two hundred and fifty dollars that should make out the Assistant's
+salary. This should be the contribution of the Benzonia Church to the Home
+Missionary Society, but should be returned to the Benzonia field to be
+spent in the development of the Larger Parish. This proposition was
+brought before the church at a regular meeting, and by a unanimous vote it
+was accepted, and so the church in a formal and positive way committed
+itself to the work of the Larger Parish.
+
+The pastor wishes to make grateful acknowledgment of the part that the
+state officers of the Congregational Conference have had in developing the
+Larger Parish. Without their cooperation it could never have been brought
+to its present stage of development. With clear foresight and generous
+contributions they have fostered the work, and the success of the
+experiment is largely due to their sympathetic interest, and their wise
+and helpful efforts. They have regarded it as the demonstration of a
+method of dealing with the country problem that may, if it proves
+successful, find wide application throughout the state, and they have been
+glad to give it their fostering influence and their substantial aid. It is
+possible that the "Larger Parish Plan" may furnish a most effective method
+of home missionary activity.
+
+5. But the next thing was to find the man who, for a salary of five
+hundred dollars, was willing to undertake the work of tramping over three
+townships, and of becoming the under pastor of twenty-five hundred people.
+The Larger Parish was still unorganized. It was still a rather indefinite
+and unrealized vision. It was clear that in some way gospel work must be
+inaugurated in all that wide territory; but just what form it would take
+was not yet so clear. The Assistant must be a man of initiative and
+executive ability. He must be able to strike out on new lines and to walk
+in untried paths. There would be plenty of hard work, much need of tact
+and wisdom, and the absolute demand for consecration. With these
+aggressive qualities he must also be able to act under the direction of
+another, and to carry on this work in harmony with the pastor of the
+church.
+
+This would seem to be a rare combination, and the task of finding
+a man who would fit into this rather peculiar place seemed very
+great--especially so, since a mistake or failure at the beginning of the
+work might put it back indefinitely, or spoil it entirely. But with
+unexpected promptness the very man was found who most fully met the need.
+He had finished a high school course, had taught two terms in a country
+school, had spent some time in the lumber and construction camps of the
+northern Michigan and Wisconsin woods. He had had a wide and a varied
+experience for one so young in almost everything except Christian work and
+preaching. In this he was a novice. None of us--not even he himself--knew
+what he could do. He had but one sermon to start with and all his powers
+were untried.
+
+I made out a schedule of appointments for him. At first there were seven
+neighborhoods where he was to hold services, preaching at the Grace Church
+every Sunday morning, and at the other places as often as he could get
+around. His regular program on Sunday was three sermons, a tramp of from
+twelve to twenty miles, with such occasional "lifts" as he might from time
+to time receive. Several days of each week he spent among the people,
+sharing their hospitality, and entering into their life. For two and a
+half years he lived this strenuous life, organizing the work along various
+lines, reducing the chaos to order, getting close to the people, and
+making a large and warm place for himself and his work through all the
+wide Parish. He made good, and at the end of that time he was in demand as
+student pastor in more than one college town, and went to pursue his
+college course, paying his expenses by giving his services as assistant
+pastor in a large college church.
+
+As the work developed and the boundaries of the Larger Parish have
+extended it was found necessary to employ a second Assistant, and three
+men found more work to do than they could fully cover. The relations
+between the pastor and his two helpers are very close and happy.
+
+6. Of significant importance are some achievements in denominational
+comity that have greatly helped the work of the Larger Parish. I had
+observed that in many parts of our country zeal for the denomination had
+outrun love for the Kingdom, and I despaired of doing such a work as
+ought to be done in the region round about, unless there could be some new
+alinement of the Christian forces. In many places churches have been
+multiplied to the great detriment of the cause which they are supposed to
+represent.
+
+It is true that some portions of our cities are overchurched, but the evil
+of it is not so much felt because of the unlimited material to work upon.
+It is in the country and in the small towns and villages that the greatest
+harm is done. There is many a country neighborhood where one church would
+thrive and be a great blessing; but two churches spoil the community
+completely, so far as the interests of the Kingdom are concerned.
+Oftentimes, too many churches are worse than too few. If there are no
+churches, there is a chance for some one to come in and start a successful
+work. But if there are too many, the forces are so divided that none of
+them can do a vigorous work, they all live at "a poor dying rate," an
+unholy competition is almost unavoidable, and by their fruitless struggle
+they defeat the very object for which they exist. A minister who had
+recently gone to a new field replied to the inquiry, how he was getting
+on: "I am doing very well now. I only have two churches to contend against
+in my new field. I had three before." The people of the world, looking at
+the situation of the overchurched community, regard it with contempt, it
+is so illogical and unreasonable. This evil is recognized by all, and will
+not much longer be tolerated by those who are sincerely interested in the
+progress of the Kingdom. In fact, there is a strong movement in these days
+toward a better state of things.
+
+A fine example of what may be done in the way of denominational comity
+when a really Christian spirit prevails was shown in 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 with their 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, with the 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.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+THE METHODS OF THE LARGER PARISH
+
+
+Practical methods 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. An important 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 cooperating heartily in carrying it out. The work has been
+organized in respect to various community human interests, and is moving
+on with a fair degree of satisfaction. We are now in a position to deliver
+_some_ goods--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.
+
+
+I. RELIGIOUS AND EVANGELISTIC PROGRESS
+
+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 organizations and 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. Other points 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 with some
+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 organic relation. 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 by a 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 two churches, 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 more than 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 Benzonia church, 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 gone steadily 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 instance the 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 given to the work in Platt Lake. At this
+point no regular religious services had ever been held until the movement
+of the Larger Parish began.
+
+
+[Illustration: 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 was found 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 such an 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
+than any 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 parish
+assembled, 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 method of 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.
+
+
+II. COMMUNITY UPLIFT AND SOCIAL BETTERMENT
+
+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 the _whole
+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 should concern 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 on under 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 cooperate, 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 a barn, 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 the Holy
+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 from the 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.
+Thorough preparations 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
+festivals were 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-day sports. 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 proved to 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 and illustrated, 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 purifying of 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 cooperate 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.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+THINGS YET TO BE DONE
+
+
+Their name 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 be content 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 the
+_result_ of 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 if the 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 to undertake 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 tribute for 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 reasonably call 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 in his 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.
+
+
+[Illustration: THE BENZONIA CHURCH]
+
+
+This community spirit needs to be carefully cultivated, and that work has
+been going on in the Larger Parish. The community spirit has been growing.
+The people are more interested in one another and in those things that are
+undertaken for the public good than they formerly were. But there is still
+much to be done in this respect. Not all the people are yet able to look
+over the narrow boundaries of their own possessions and see their
+neighbors' needs. Not all grasp the idea of the solidarity of society. But
+this spirit is growing and there will be larger fruitage in the coming
+days.
+
+4. There needs to be more team work among the people, more cooperation in
+carrying out the schemes that are for the public good. When all the people
+take hold together, there is scarcely anything that needs to be done that
+cannot be accomplished. A single individual is comparatively powerless,
+but a common movement in any community is bound to succeed. One of the
+foremost services to any community is to unite its forces and bring the
+people to work together heartily and enthusiastically in some good cause.
+
+The work of the Larger Parish has been useful in this direction. The Team
+Work Committees of the neighborhood clubs have this for their object--to
+lead out in anything in which it is desirable for the people to move
+together. It is easier to bring the people to unite their efforts now than
+it was three years ago, but much more remains to be done. The goal has not
+yet been reached. The effective team work that we have seen is a prophecy
+of that completer cooperation in all good things that we hope and expect
+to see in the coming days.
+
+5. In some way more variety should be brought into the lives of country
+people. Farm life should become one of the most attractive and interesting
+spheres of activity. Its freedom, its independence, its close contact
+with nature, should give to it for multitudes a compelling charm. It would
+seem that a strong current of human interest could be made to flow from
+the crowded and unwholesome conditions of the city to the open country,
+where the fresh breezes play and the flowers bloom. At present it is not
+so. The stream flows in the opposite direction and every year the city
+swallows up much of the best blood of the country. It is the city that
+attracts, and the country that repels. This can be explained very largely
+by the isolated and monotonous character of country life.
+
+The only way by which this movement can be checked or reversed is to give
+more variety to rural life; to break up its monotony and to introduce into
+it those intellectual and social pleasures and employments that are a
+necessary part of a healthful and contented life. Young people crave
+variety, they must get together, they must have some kind of amusements,
+some form of recreation. If they cannot find it on the farm, they will go
+to the city where it is supplied in lavish abundance but often in
+objectionable forms.
+
+It has been the object of the work of the Larger Parish to supply this
+need of country life. It has provided and promoted frequent opportunities
+for the people to come together in a social way. The Sunday services
+established in so many places have not only served as opportunities of
+worship, but also of neighborly intercourse and of the interchange of
+friendly greetings. The neighborhood clubs have been a kind of social and
+literary clearing-house for the community, affording many a pleasant and
+profitable evening and providing something wholesome to think of and to
+plan for during the day. The Ladies' Aid Societies have brought the women
+together, in projects and accomplishments of common interest, relieving
+the weeks of monotonous toil with forms of cooperative fellowship. Much
+more needs to be done to impart interest and attraction to life in the
+country, and it is something to which the Church, in its desire to
+minister to the whole man, may very appropriately give its thought and
+effort.
+
+6. Machinery seems to be a necessity in all kinds of work. Nothing can be
+done without a method, an organization, a machine--some kind of an
+instrument to facilitate the process. But the machine is never properly an
+end in itself. Sometimes it is made an end, but no farmer could be
+satisfied with a reaper that did not cut the grain, however beautiful and
+well-made it might be or however smoothly it might run. Nevertheless some
+churches seem to be satisfied with the smooth running of the machinery,
+even though the results of it all are very meager.
+
+The primary object of the work of the Larger Parish is to help the people
+and to serve them in a religious and social way, not to promote a
+denomination, to build up a church, to perfect an organization, or to
+construct or to operate machinery of any kind. But in order to help the
+people and serve their best interests efficiently, some machinery, some
+organization, is necessary. Our thought is to supply it when the necessity
+comes, but not before. When it is needed it must be invented or
+discovered, or in some way brought into the service. Certain methods have
+been introduced. There have been employed some forms of organization, some
+machinery has been set in operation. Some things we have tried, that did
+not work satisfactorily and they had to be discarded. Some of the methods
+that seem to be successful at present may not always continue to work so
+well, and they will have to be exchanged for others. We must ever keep in
+view the prime object for which we are working--to serve the people and
+to uplift the community life--and to that object we must adapt our methods
+and adjust our machinery.
+
+If we do the work that needs to be done in the coming days we shall need a
+true and unwavering purpose, a clear eye to discern the situation, a calm
+and correct judgment to fit the method to the work, and above all, the
+constant leading of the Holy Spirit. The Larger Parish is not a method, or
+organization, or machine, that one can secure and put in operation and
+then the work is done. It is a vision--an ideal--that must be a living
+reality in the soul, and then must be wrought out in actual life in the
+best way possible.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+SOME RESULTANT CONCLUSIONS
+
+
+This story began with "Some Convictions." It ends with "Some Conclusions."
+There has been an attempt to tell how a vision became a reality. The
+vision originated in convictions. The conclusions have come from the
+realization of the vision.
+
+There are a few things that may be stated with confidence as the result of
+the three years' work in translating the vision into the fact of the
+Larger Parish. The mention of some of them will round out the story.
+
+1. The village church, if it would do its proper work, must belong to the
+people and be in close touch with them. It must minister in some way to
+all the people and be a force in the life of all the people. Churches
+like individuals are known to have certain characteristics, to possess
+certain temperaments. Some are aristocratic and exclusive. They gather to
+themselves a number of select families who have common tastes and are
+congenial with one another. They have good times together, and within that
+narrow circle there is a delightful social life. Those few people are well
+trained, and well instructed in the facts and principles of religion as
+they are understood by them. But they do not seem to get hold of the idea
+that the church is for all the people; that as Jesus conceived it it is
+essentially democratic. They have no sense of obligation for the community
+at large, and make no effort to affect it as a whole and to lift it up to
+a higher level.
+
+The village church that would do its work must be democratic and must have
+a community consciousness. It must belong to the people--be in close
+touch with those of each and every class.
+
+2. The village church, if it would do its proper work, must recognize its
+obligation to minister in some way to the religious and social needs of
+the people in the outlying country districts. The village should not be
+its parish, but rather its base of operations, from which it goes forth to
+all the wide-stretching territory that lies beyond.
+
+3. The church which has this vision, which recognizes this obligation and
+seeks to discharge it, will find some way of doing it. The work within the
+towns and villages is often great and difficult. Many churches have failed
+to reach all the people within the sound of their church-bell, and there
+is much work at their very doors that they have not yet accomplished.
+Shall they reach out and extend their parish threefold, and multiply their
+duties and obligations many times? If they do not do all that ought to be
+done in their smaller parish, shall they increase its boundaries and
+assume greater obligations? Yes. That is what many churches are
+languishing for--a bigger job, something that it is worth while to do;
+something that will challenge all their powers and awaken to enthusiasm
+their sleeping energies.
+
+4. The only village church that will continue to abide in strength and
+vigor in the future years will be the church that is all buttressed about
+by a strong and vigorous country work. It must be done as a means of
+self-preservation. The village churches are as much in danger of losing
+their lives as the country churches are. The church that confines its
+efforts within the village boundaries is sure to languish and dwindle and
+after a while it will give up the ghost, as it ought to do. As the city is
+fed from the towns and villages, so the towns and villages are fed from
+the country. If the work goes down in the towns and villages, it will be
+felt in the city, and if it loses its hold in the country, it will soon
+lose its grip upon the villages and towns. The country needs the work of
+the Larger Parish, and it will perish without it. But the village church
+needs to do the work even more, and unless it takes it up with vigor it is
+doomed.
+
+5. When the churches come to be more interested in the promotion of the
+Kingdom than they are in the promotion of their own particular
+denomination, they will begin to have that prosperity which only those can
+have who are really doing the Lord's work. The chief hindrance to the work
+of the churches is often the churches themselves. One of the greatest
+needs of the villages and rural regions is fewer churches.
+
+If in each small village there was a single church in which all the
+Christians of the community could unite, they could easily organize the
+work in all the surrounding country and carry it on successfully. But
+where there are a number of churches they are in the way of each other and
+effectually prevent any widespread and efficient work. Still, even in that
+unfortunate condition, something may be done in a systematic way to help
+the rural regions. Why cannot the representatives of the various churches
+get together, make a united survey of the country for miles in every
+direction, become fully acquainted with the situation and conditions, and
+seeing clearly what needs to be done, divide the territory up between
+them, giving each church its own particular field, and allowing it to
+arrange for its cultivation in its own way? I believe that some such
+arrangement is feasible when it is the Kingdom that the churches are
+chiefly interested to promote, instead of the particular denomination to
+which they happen to belong.
+
+6. When all the religious forces in any community can combine and work
+together, all the work that needs to be done in the community can be done,
+and there will be no lack of resources to carry it on with vigor and
+success. In almost every community there are Christians enough, and there
+is money enough, for the work, if only they can be assembled and utilized.
+But when they are scattered about, lying around lose and uncombined, or
+when they are organized into competing camps, they are useless for any
+purpose of aggressive and effective work. It isn't the poverty of the
+people that stands in the way, or the small number of professing
+Christians. It is the lack of team work, the lack of cooperation, that
+constitutes the weakness of the cause. No work can be done in the country
+that is at all effective without this cooperation and combination. With
+it, all the work that needs to be done, can be done.
+
+7. The church that sees the vision and with faith and courage undertakes
+to make it a reality, will be prospered. Perhaps the experience of the
+Benzonia church may be cited as proof of this. Situated in a small
+village, composed of people of meager means, in a country that has not
+even yet emerged from pioneer conditions, it had for many years carried on
+its work only with much sacrifice and careful economy. Three years ago, by
+a unanimous vote, it formally adopted the policy of reaching out and
+annexing all the territory within a radius of five miles in every
+direction, thus greatly increasing its obligations and more than doubling
+its annual budget of expenses. There was some questioning as to how it
+could be done, but, without waiting for clearer light, it moved forward
+unanimously to the enlarged work.
+
+What do we find to be the result of the three years? They have been the
+three most prosperous years of the church's history. Two men have been
+added to the clerical force. The expenses of the church have been met, and
+the bills have been paid when they were due. The contributions for home
+and foreign missions have more than doubled. More members have been
+received than during any other similar period. There has been perfect
+harmony and the people have been glad and happy in their common work. Ten
+places of worship have been established in the country around where
+regular services are held. The people in these neighborhoods attend their
+own services and do not come into the village church as some of them
+formerly did. The present arrangement does not tend to build up a large
+central congregation, but has the opposite effect. Thirty former central
+members have become part of a newly formed church three miles away. There
+has been no great increase in the population, either of the village or of
+the country around. But the congregations and the Sunday-schools were
+never so large as they have been during this period. It has been found
+impossible to accommodate all those who wished to worship with the church,
+or properly to care for those attending the Sunday-school. A larger
+building became an actual necessity, and in the summer of 1913 an addition
+was made, increasing the seating capacity of the building by one third,
+and providing a number of rooms for Sunday-school and social purpose. Can
+we doubt that the blessing of God will attend any church that sees the
+vision, and with faith and courage and sacrifice gives itself to the work
+of making it a reality?
+
+8. When all the ministers and all the churches catch the vision of the
+Larger Parish and address themselves to the work of making it a reality,
+the rural regions will be rehabilitated, religiously, morally, and
+socially, and a splendid impulse will be given to the work throughout the
+whole country. If some practical plan can be adopted by the village
+churches for extension work, the whole aspect of the country situation may
+be quickly changed. The people, both in the villages and in the open
+country, are more ready for some such movement than has been supposed.
+Would not the Larger Parish idea as set forth in this story furnish a good
+working plan for such a movement?
+
+No man can have very much enthusiasm in a task that does not challenge all
+his powers and bring them into action--neither can a church. With the
+village churches it is a case of self-preservation as well as outreaching
+service. They must do this work or die. They will not long survive the
+spiritual declension of the country. The country and the village stand or
+fall together. Their fortunes are united. They must help each other up
+into a better life or they will sink into a like economic, social, and
+spiritual stagnation and death. The plan of the wider parish, or some
+better plan, if it is wisely and vigorously worked, will secure both to
+the village and the country communities their rightful heritage of
+spiritual and social strength and usefulness.
+
+9. Nearly all the Christian denominations have their home missionary
+boards or societies whose functions it is to help sustain gospel work in
+needy places and to organize and cherish churches on the frontier and in
+destitute places. The frontier lines are not so extensive as they once
+were, but the desolate places are almost as numerous as ever, and they are
+in the very heart of our most highly developed civilization. In fact, they
+lie all about our churches, often almost within the sound of the
+church-bell. It is often too expensive to sustain a minister and maintain
+regular services in all these places and so they are left without gospel
+privileges. If they can be grouped about a village church as a center, and
+if the church can be the base of operations from which the work is carried
+on in all these outlying regions; if through the aid of the home
+missionary boards a sufficient clerical force can be maintained to carry
+on the wide work, will not such a course be a practical, a successful, and
+an economical method of accomplishing home mission work?
+
+God is waiting to give the vision to those who are ready to receive it.
+The country in its great need and desolation is waiting for the help which
+the village churches can give to them. I believe the home missionary
+societies and boards are ready to cooperate in some such plan for the
+uplifting and the evangelization of the country districts. The village
+churches themselves are waiting for the wider work to quicken their waning
+life, and to kindle their dying enthusiasm. The world is waiting to see
+them move forward in a determined and consecrated effort to reduce the
+vision to reality. God is waiting to pour out his Spirit in abundant
+blessing upon the churches that have enough faith and courage to undertake
+the work.
+
+I believe that the fulfilment of all this is not far in the future, and if
+this story of the Larger Parish shall contribute even in a small degree to
+this result, the teller will be amply repaid for his attempt to picture
+the new path along which God has led him.
+
+  "Move to the fore.
+  God himself waits, and must wait, till thou come,
+  Men are God's prophets though ages lie dumb.
+  Halts the Christ-Kingdom, with conquest so near?
+  Thou art the cause, then, thou man at the rear.
+  Move to the fore."
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAKING OF A COUNTRY PARISH***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 32703.txt or 32703.zip *******
+
+
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/2/7/0/32703
+
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://www.gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
diff --git a/32703.zip b/32703.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..661f9dd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/32703.zip
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a105d3d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #32703 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/32703)