example in urban life of what should be done for rural life. Its noble aim, broad social view, and excellent methods must be kept in mind by one who would ameliorate the growing isolation of the rural community. However, if there is a group of persons, a family, or an individual voluntarily seeking to live where there seems to be great need, there will be found in the rural districts wonderful opportunities, by close study of local conditions, to take the initiative in unifying the social life and in helping it to attain its sixfold interests.
Another method that has just recently been introduced into the rural community is the "institutional church." Like the social settlement, its original home is in the city, where it is successfully combating the problem of congestion. According to the platform of the Open and Institutional Church League, its aim is as follows:
Inasmuch as Christ came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, the open and institutional church, filled and moved by his spirit of ministering love, seeks to become the center and source of all beneficent and philanthropic effort, and to take the leading part in every movement that has for its end the alleviation of human suffering, the elevation of man, and the betterment of the world. Thus the open and institutional church aims to save all men and all of the man by all means, abolishing so far as possible the distinctions between the religious and the secular, and sanctifying all days and all means to the great end of saving the world for Christ.
It is apparent from this platform that the institutional church is scientifically based on a broad study of world and social conditions and of local conditions and needs. It aims to adapt itself to its environment, fashioning its methods according to the peculiar conditions of the community in which it is situated. There is, however, the same objection to transplanting the institutional church in the country as there is to the social settlement. The social structures of the city and country are vastly different. Their problems are diametrically opposite in nature. It needs great hordes of people to run the machinery of the institutional church as it now exists. It takes great extremes of social life to furnish it inspiration and opportunity. It is fed by the lack of home life which is so characteristic of the city with its teeming tenements, its large restaurant population, and its luxurious hotels thronged with homeless millionaires.
