Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 8.djvu/836

 8l6 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

have locked the doors of many of their churches. " It is a pathetic sight," says an investigator of this section, "to see a church, firm in its aim and ideals, yet gradually decaying because its best blood is going to the cities ; but it is more pathetic to see churches that have locked their doors, not because there was no one to attend, but because no one would attend." Such churches are growing more numerous every day in communities invaded by foreign immigrants who care more for their European customs than for the Puritan traditions of the church.

So we witness in our rural communities a vast destitution of religion. We hear annually long reports of dead and dying churches ; we behold churches barely alive, with no settled pas- tors ; we see churches having settled pastors giving their entire strength in a mere fight for existence, and having no money or energy left for community interests and philanthropy. Thus the conception of the church in the rural districts has come to be something to be kept in existence rather than something to be kept on the increase ; something to be ministered unto rather than something to minister; something to be built up out of the community rather than something to build up the community out of it; "a humble pensioner upon the people, hat in hand, begging for support, rather than a divine institution which is to bestow upon men the gift of God in Jesus Christ."

With the redemptive power of the church practically nil, her message forgotten and marred, the spiritual condition of the community falls correspondingly lower. The other- spiritual forces of the home, school, vocation, and social life lose their incentive to struggle and sacrifice. And with no broad, rich social life, no general intellectual activity, no religious inspira- tion, no initiative to political self-consciousness and community action, life in the rural districts tends toward idleness, vulgarity, animality, and drunkenness. Such is the problem of the rural community, with its highest factor for good an object for apology and pity.

II.

It is now essential, having stood face to face with the prob- lem demanding solution, to get a clear vision of the end of