The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-05-15
SATURDAY, MAY IS, 1859.
orJEIDS or USEFULNESS" I"

"A
Eniscopol churches i'm our city collections to
aid the family of the late Rev. George Dur
borrow. minister of good standing who was
recentlv deceased. Mr. Durborow died literally
penniess, leaving a widow and six children.
For twenty years he had been faithful Chris
tian a devoted pastor, and an exemplary man.
He had fulfilled his mission in our city with the
utmost fervor, and yet after all these years of
service he died destitute. This circumstance, so
yividly called before the public has directed in
uuiry to the inadequacy of the salaries of certain
clergymen, and as u consequence to the cXor
bitant receipts of certain others and the people
are asking whether it is just to those who claim
to be laborers in the Lords vineyard that one
equally faithful should starye and the other be
clothed sumptuously in purple and fine linen
little examination will convince any
one that the whole practice of
salaries as at present conducted is at
variance with the theory of usefulness" which
the clergy claim to be the basis of their actions.
The doctrine so firmly adhered by the gentle
men of the cloth is ths:-"That they are called by
the Lord to labor for the salvation of souls, and
that wherever their usefulness is greatest there
is the place to which it is their duty and their
pleasure to CO." If they be all colaborers, why
should some who are the most faithful, the most
self-sacri6cing, the most useful, be the worst
paid2 Why should Mr.. Durborrow have his feet
blistered from walking among the poor and be
in need of shoes, while the Rev. DR.. This or the
Rev. DIR. That can be sent abroad because he has
n dizziness of the brain from eating too much
turtle soup at dinner? These are common sense
questions, and questions, too, which common-sense
people are asking themselves. 1t may be said
that the purpe-and-fine-linen clergy have more
ability than their more industrious brethren,
and that therefore they should be better paid.
If that be the basis of argument, well and good.
The pulpit, then, is nothing but a market
for the sale of talent; it is profession
to which men resort to get a living. 1t is, like
the bar, a battle of ability, in which he who has
the most receives the most money We are
ready to accept of this view of the situation.
But if you compete, gentlemen of the cloth, with
the lawyer, the doctor, or the editor, do not
claim in the race for wealth, the superior mo-
tive of being led by usefulness If you will
consent to be considered like other mortals
working for living, we are ready to admit you
to the competition of intellect, but we are not
willing that when you draw your $4,000 per
annum you should thank God you are not rs
other men are" and tell us that your $4,000
come from your field of usefulness" and
our $4,000 from secular gain. If you come down
you do, remember that it is cant and hypocrisy
to talk about "fields of usefulness" As well
might the California miner, when he leaves for
a richer digging" explain his action on the
ground of usefulness"
Now the conduct of the various churches of
nearly all denominations in their starvation diet
to some and their partiality to others of their
Clergymen, has given a good foundation to the
view of the ministry being business. When
churches seek to buy ministers from other
churches by Offering higher salaries and when
ministers are ready to be bought, why should it
be called a lack of charity for people to say that
brains in the pulpit, like brains at the bar, can
be got by the highest bidder? There are, thank
God! in the Church some good men,
who, with an eye single to their Masters SER
vice, will conscentously labor in His cause
through veal or wOe-men who seek the poor
and needy, who receive the 5000 a year paid
them, and work with all their energy-men who
count nothing as gain, if it weighs against duty.
AL honor to such. They are the ten righteous
men who save our modern Sodom /;
they are the living examples who
keep alive the public faith in the
great truths of Christianity: and it is
to them that the people owe the fact that we do
not retrograde towards barbarism. To them we
plain of the faults which exist in our churches.
If it were not for them, all the world would call
the ministry profession and business. That
they do so in many cases, and that there is ground
for such a Judgment is shown bya recent example
minister in Washington was called to a neigh
boring city. lie wrote in reply expressing his
Willingness to change his field of usefulness" "
provided that the salary should be $45OO he
should have a newly furnished parsonage, rent
free and be allowed six weeks recess in the sum-
mer for recreation. He still remains in Wash
ington the flock not caring to WOO such fasti-
dious pastor. Now had this gentleman, in act
ing. as he did stated frankly that he was
a man of business and would go to the
place that paid him best, we would have
known how he STOOD and might have respected
his frankness. But when he puts his action
on the score of doing more good in the $450(
place than he did in the $4,000, he acts the hypo
crite and disgraces the cloth. Like the Deputy
Shepherd in "Pickwick," while all things il
vanity. vet the least vanity is little brandy
with warm water and three Jumps of white
sugar" so with our Washington divine the
least of the vanties of life is the house, salary
and vacation, and these he is willing to indulge
in. Such men are doing the greatest harm to the
cause of religion; they are keeping back those
who would otherwise come forward and join tho
church; they are stumbling-blocks in the way o.
tbe sinner The system which will tolerate
much less encourage, such a class OF men is {
public wrong, and should be denounced. Rathel
than have il. we would prefer to have the Quaker
system of no paid preachers. Better to have
consistent action and eXtempore sermons than
rhetoric and glaring inconsistency.