Produced by Tom Roch, Carla Foust, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images produced by Core Historical Literature in Agriculture (CHLA), Cornell University) Transcriber's note Minor punctuation errors have been changed without notice. Printer errors have been changed and are listed at the end. All other inconsistencies are as in the original. THE EVOLUTION OF THE COUNTRY COMMUNITY THE EVOLUTION OF THE COUNTRY COMMUNITY A STUDY IN RELIGIOUS SOCIOLOGY BY WARREN H. WILSON THE PILGRIM PRESS BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO _Copyright, 1912_, BY LUTHER H. CARY THE PILGRIM PRESS BOSTON TO MISS ANNA B. TAFT WHO FOUND THE WAY OF RURAL LEADERSHIP IN SERVICE ON THE NEGLECTED BORDERS OF NEW ENGLAND TOWNS PREFACE The significance of the most significant things is rarely seized at the moment of their appearance. Years or generations afterwards hindsight discovers what foresight could not see. It is possible, I fear it is even probable, that earnest and intelligent leaders of organized religious activity, like thousands of the rank and file in parish work, will not immediately see the bearings and realize the full importance of the ideas and the purposes that are clearly set forth in this new and original book by my friend and sometime student, Dr. Warren H. Wilson. That fact will in no wise prevent or even delay the work which these ideas and purposes are mapping out and pushing to realization. The Protestant churches have completed one full and rounded period of their existence. The age of theology in which they played a conspicuous part has passed away, never to return. The world has entered into the full swing of the age of science and practical achievement. What the work, the usefulness, and the destiny of the Protestant churches shall henceforth be will depend entirely upon their own vision, their common sense, and their adaptability to a new order of things. Embodying as they do resources, organization, the devotion and the energy of earnest minds, they are in a position to achieve results of wellnigh incalculable value if they apply themselves diligently and wisely to the task of holding communities and individuals up to the high standard of that "Good Life" which the most gifted social philosopher of all ages told us, more than two thousand years ago, is the object for which social activities and institutions exist.