The economic pinch has left its marks upon his social life. Many of his old neighbors have sold their farms and moved away. Some have left their farms in the hands of tenants who are robbing the land of its fertility. Community spirit has vanished. The old forms of recreation have lapsed with the passing of the settled population. No new forms have taken their place except in the towns, and these are usually of a character that would not be tolerated in the country. Smith’s boy is waiting his first opportunity to get off the farm. His has been a life of all work and no play, and while it has not exactly made him a dull boy, it has made him hate farming. Smith’s wife is leading the life of a drudge, and she swears her daughters are not going to live on the farm if she can help it. With the stagnation in social life has come stagnation in moral and religious life, for morals do not flourish in a stagnant community. Yes, Smith needs help. He needs to know how to farm more scientifically. He needs a better income. He needs to know how to organize with his fellow farmers to protect themselves against the inroads of the middlemen and the tenants. He needs better markets for his crops and better transportation facilities to those markets. He needs a school for his children that will give them as good an education as they would get in any city school, a school that will instill in them a love of the country, a knowledge of farming and an appreciation of its economic significance. He needs more recreation facilities for the whole family. He needs a handier kitchen for his wife and daughter and many more opportunities for them to broaden their lives and enrich their minds in literary and social activities. The question is, Should the church give it? Should it go to Farmer Smith and say: “Smith, I am a bit ashamed of myself; I have not been doing for you what I ought. I have been preaching about Elysian fields and allowing the riches of bluegrass, corn and wheat fields to be squandered with prodigal hand; I have been trying to pave your road to Glory Land, but I have paid no attention to your road to the nearest market; I have talked about mansions in the skies and cared little about the buildings in which you and your family must spend your lives here and now; I have been teaching your children God’s word in the Bible, but I have left his word in the rivers and the hills, in the grass and the trees, without prophet, witness, or defender.