In contrast to these conditions the instance of Du Page Church at Plainfield, Illinois, of which Rev. Matthew B. McNutt was recently the minister, exhibits the power of a country church to make itself the center of a whole community. This church, which in a year became famous throughout the land, has earned its repute by ten years of devoted service of its minister and the growing affection and union of its people. The church serves so well the social needs of the community that a social hall once popular has been closed and three granges in succession have attempted to organize in the community and have failed. Yet Du Page Church is passionately devotional and intensely missionary. Its social life is but a legitimate expression of its community sense. The minister and his people have had the power to see and to inspire a common life among the people in the countryside. This chapter has been intended as a definition of the country community. Its radius is the team haul, because the horse has been the means of transportation in the country. The community is the round of life in which the individual in the country passes his days: it is his larger home. The definition of this greater household of the country must be flexible, but however it be defined, it is the characteristic unit of social organization among country people. The map of the United States outside the great cities is made up of little societies bordering sharply upon one another, differing from one another socially and religiously. These little societies are the proper fields in which the life of the church and the school is lived. Of these small societies the church and the school are the expressions. In church and school the country community has its highest life. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 24: The author expresses his indebtedness for this definition to Dr. Willet M. Hays of the Department of Agriculture at Washington.] [Footnote 25: Quaker Hill, by Warren H. Wilson.] [Footnote 26: Professor C. J. Galpin of University of Wisconsin has done precise work of great value, in defining the country community, as it centers in the village. See his pamphlet, "A Method of Making a Social Survey of the Rural Community," a bulletin of the Agricultural Experiment Station of the University of Wisconsin.] [Footnote 27: "The American Rural School," by Harold W. Foght.] [Footnote 28: "The Country Town," by Wilbert L. Anderson, D.D.] VIII THE MARGIN OF THE COMMUNITY The change of ethical consciousness among church people in recent years takes the form of a transference of interest from the individual to the community. The literature of religious and ethical thought is full of appeal to "serve the community." The working out of any religious or ethical force in modern society is guided by the closely compacted and highly organic character of present-day social life.