Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1875-05-09
MAKING RELIGION PAY.
The Pecuniary Relations Of Pastor
and Flock.

The Pecuniary Relations Of Pastor
and Flock.
st. Louis Globe.
A new and striking element has been
introduced into the relations Of pastor
and flock by the action Of q congrega-
ton of fashionable religionists In
Washington. The Reverned Byron
Sunderland is Chaplain of the Senate,
and as somebody has got 20 be Chap
lain, we do not know why he should not
have the place as well as any one else.
There is a flavor Of dignity and states
manship IN the sound Of his name,
and If the Senators WHO listen to
his able and eloquent ~invocatiens
during the week, want a rest
on Sundays, they are not compelled to
attend his dominica ministrations in
the church over which he presides. As
Chaplain he receives the modest emolu-
ment of 500 per annum, and as his
official duty consists Of a prayer at the
opening Of each days session, when
ever he feels like it, it comes to about
a dollar a minute for each minute Of
active service. 1t is said that when
important political measures are i'm
pending he Is prone to use an udue IN
huence IN soliciting assistance from
Heaven to secure the success of his
party,a but even if this is true. we have
no doubt that Sunderland makes as
fair a Chaplainas the Senateis hkelyto
get.
As a pastor, however, his paths do
not lie amid such pleasant places. He
Is not only the leader of souls, but he
is the responsible manager of a pecuni-
airy investment Of several hundred
thousand dollars, in the shape Of a
b~rown-stone church, with a ConfectiOn-
ery-Gothic steeple, and his congrega-
ton look to him to keep their value of
the investment up TO par. 1t is no
small wonder that the clergyman should
have experienced some d~ificultyin car
rylng IN what the play-bills would call
a dual representation, although some
slight surprise may be expressed at the
fTanknCss with which his congregation
have ayowed their recognition Of his
cOntrasted duties. 1t ought not to be
a dlscredit to a clergyman that he is
not a sharp trader or shTewd business
manager, and if the Assistant Pastor
Of Plymouth Church had been able to
show, during his recent crOss-examina-
ton, that he had merely proven his IN
fitness for commercial life by his re-
peated bankruptcies, he would in no
way have derOgated from his fitness for
his present position. One need not be
a professed believer IN revelation, or a
dIigent student Of the Scriptures, to
know that the talent for mCney-making
does not rankhigh amOngthe Christian
virtues, and that the Bible contains no
precept to make money-hOnestly if
you can
Yet the congregation who listened TO
Mr.. Sunderland's exposition Of the
Scriptures, while they have found no
fault with his doctrine, his learning or
his pastoral mInistration. have taken a
very characteristic way Of ~censuring
him for his lack of success as a re-
ligiOus impressari0. The quarrel has
been brewing for some time, and we
have occasionally published stray
notes Of its progress. The pecUniary
problem was to keep a paying class of
patrons constantly in attendance, and
IN endeavOTing 10 do this Mr.. Sun
derland came 70 signal grief. We do
not remember whether his Offense con-
sisted IN an undue recognition Of his
devotion to the civil rights bill, by per-
hitting the iniqUity Of allowing his
colored brethren to offer up prayers in
his church. or whether he incurred the
censure Of inconsistency by excluding
them; but, at any rate, there has been
Of late a sad falling of IN receipts;
many Of the old members have slipped
out, and the cost of running the
church falls heavily on those who re-
main; they do not ike the prospect,
they blame the manager, and as an ex-
preston Of their censure they have
locked his salary.
The question Of a minister's salary
is at all times a delicate one, and it is
hard for a daily paper to treat of it
without seeming to fall into that dis
respect for religion in which no daily
paper would wantonly indulge. But
whatever circumstances may be allowed
to influence the fixing Of the amount,
there are certain other circumstances
which ought 10 be vigorously excluded
from such a consideration. To court
martial a minister, and condemn him
70 deprivation of two months pay, is a
proceeding in which religion does not
enter at all; and to adjust the salary of
a minister according to the fluctuations
Of his popularity, removes the question
still further from any contact with re-
igio1. The best thing this congrega-
ton can do is TO advertise for a minis
ter who will undertake to run the
Church for a percentage Of the gross
receipts. Then there would be no mis-
understanding either their motives OF
their methods, and their pastor would
know lust what he might expect. But
without such IN agreement, deliberate
y entered into bef0Sehand, 1t must be
"A staggerer to the ordinary pastor to
find out that a failure to keep up the
pecuniary receipts means a reduction
N his pay, as it Is certainly somewhat
startling to the Christian world to hear
such an action avowed and such a rea-
son given for it.