Lord's Acres

To aid debt-ridden churches in his locality, a devout Methodist last week put forward a bit of oldtime religion. John O. Mullins, of Wesley, Iowa offered 100 bushels of seed corn free to farmers who would undertake to plant it on "God's acres," give the crop to God's uses. Worth $700, the seed corn would be distributed in 7-pound packages, each of which would plant one acre, produce 50 bushels--at 75-c- per bushel, a total of some $30,000.

From the earliest times, not only Jewish but pagan husbandmen tithed (gave a tenth of) their produce to their gods--by way of the priests. Since Anglo-Saxon times the Church of England has been partially supported by arbitrary tithes, now gradually being liquidated. "God's acres" stem from such tithing. For eight years a systematized form of tithing, the Lord's Acre Plan, has flourished under the guidance of the Farmers' Federation of North Carolina. Its director is a Northern Presbyterian, Rev. Dumont Clarke, onetime Y. M. C. A. man in India, onetime religious director at Lawrenceville School.

Probably the only U. S. farmers' co-operative which maintains an active religious department, the federation, under the presidency of devout James G. K. McClure Jr., has been well pleased with results of the Lord's Acre Plan, has furnished information concerning it to churchmen in 40 States. Some 325 North Carolina churches, of eleven denominations, employ it. The largest, a Baptist church in Hendersonville, received $2,352 last year from 40-odd acres planted to corn, sweet potatoes, cabbages, etc. Rev. B. M. Strickland (Baptist) reported that since his people have taken up the Lord's Acre Plan he has performed more baptisms. Said he: "The work of the Lord's Acre makes good churches better churches, and good people better people. It also makes good churches out of dull ones."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.