Now tell me, was Oberlin--remember he is only a hundred years away from our time--temperamental and absurdly heroic? Was the nineteenth-century wolf any less tender with the nineteenth-century flock than the first-century wolf with the first-century flock? Is the modern “world-the-flesh-and-the-devil” just a bugaboo to frighten children? Is modern sin a whiter stain on the soul and more easily washed out than in any previous century? It would take a braver man than I am to champion modern life to such lengths. These 30,000 runaway American preachers,--they all have good reasons for running. As alibis go, they are perfect--humanly speaking. I have often heard the recital: “Easier life for the wife,” “education for the children,” “an American standard of living,” “congenial parish,” “books,” “travel,” “art,” “greater opportunity for service.” Just such reasons as bankers, clerks, teachers, merchants give for their economic movements--to better themselves, following the law of hire. And nobody protests; for nobody is in a position to protest, as the law of hire seems to regulate the life of all. The protest--the only great protest--comes everlastingly up from the first century: “A certain scribe came, and said unto Him, Master, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest. And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.” _The Plight of Him Who Stays_ The preacher that sticks by the farm community takes pot-luck with the farmer himself; and the socio-economic plight of the farmer has had front-page head-lines since the time of President Theodore Roosevelt. To-day, in the time of President Calvin Coolidge, those head-lines have become bigger and blacker. The farmer’s dollar, meanwhile, has become small and weak. His taxes have risen overnight like a spring freshet. His debts stare him in the face. His children are forsaking him for the high wages and high life of the city. He cannot pay the wages of labor in competition with automobile factories.