Harlow S. Mills

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The conviction became strong that, if the village church would fulfil its [Pg 23] 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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? ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Some ministers look upon their churches as their field rather than their force—a field to be cultivated rather than a force of workers [Pg 21] 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. ”

“ 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 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 [Pg 112] 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 [Pg 8] 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 [Pg 126] enthusiasm. The world is waiting to see them move forward in a determined and consecrated effort to reduce the vision to reality. ”

“ 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 [Pg 117] 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. ”