Fig. 29. Environment often makes the man.
The church, as well as the farm house, is or should be the home of the farmer; but the church, like the individual, may become proud, in which case the old meeting-house is demolished and replaced by a modern new one, which may serve for a time to stimulate laggards and appear to take the place of changed purposes in life. But the debt saddled on the congregation tends to drive the church-goers to the rear seats and eventually out of doors. I have sometimes thought that a country church could not well be too small. Man is a gregarious animal, and does not enjoy church-going when the seats are but partially occupied.
Fig. 30. Buried in trees. The opposite extreme from [Fig. 26].
The plain, substantial stone church shown in [Fig. 31] is located in a sparsely settled district on the windy prairies of Kansas. It is certainly most appropriate and fits its environment; all it lacks to make it beautiful is a suitable setting of trees and shrubbery. It would then serve as a reminder of “God’s first temple not made with hands,” and not of one made with a jig-saw.
Fig. 31. A plain, substantial stone church.
“It is a plain, rugged, austere structure, like the men who built it, and any proposal to modernize it would be received with disfavor; for it means more to the people than merely a church building—it is a sacred possession that is a part of their life,” and it is an appropriate monument to the sturdy religious character of the pioneers who stood in the forefront as a wall guarding human rights and liberties in those stormy days of the past. The country church should be as truly a part of the farm structure as are the house and barn, located on land held in fee simple.
