The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1876-09-07
Pay the Preacher.

AS the hard lines of business depres-
sion begin to draw harder and closer
upon the different avocations of men,
there is necessarily falling off in the
voluntary offerings for benevolent and
religious purposes. This is due partly
to the diminished ability Of people,
especially the laboring classes, to con-
tribute of their means to the support
of church and benevolent Organiza-
tiOns. 1t is also due in some degree
to that perversity of human nature
which is disposed to croak and makes
excuse of the stringent times to econo-
mise where economy is not necessary,
and especially to cut off the list of
voluntary offerings. The latter class
often comprises people in comfortable
circumstances whom depression in
business does not affect as it does
others less favorably situated. They
take advantage of the known unfavor-
able condition of things to preach the
necessity of retrenchment and turn
deaf ear to laudable objects which
ought to he sustained now as much as
ever.
Perhaps no voluntary organization
having the moral and spiritual we'll
being of mankind in view feels the de-
preston more than the church. In
this country where church and state
are separate, the maintenance of
church work is almost entirely depen-
dent upon the voluntary contributions
of the people. Hardly anyone denies
the usefulness of church societies in
promoting the moral health Of commu-
mites. Abolish the churches and
schools Of this country and the Nation
would relapse into semi-barbarism and
the grand old Republic would go to
pieces. Hence whether we look at the
question in politico-ecOnomic light
or from considerations of morality and
spiritual advancement, the church, as
whole, is most important factor in
the prosperity of the country. This
being the case, it ought to be sustained
in dull times as well as flush times.
The soul is no respecter of time or
business standing in its necessities.
The well-being of the community de-
mands that our schools, churches and
benevolent societies should be sus-
tanned at all times, as much as any
other feature Of society as constituted
in this country, and the very fact that
there is a tendency among people,
growing out of their necessities, or
their disposition to croak, to neglect
or reduce their offerings to such organ
izations, should stimulate the friends
of humanity and social order to re-
newed efforts to keep all the machin-
cry moving.
No class of workers, perhaps, will
find it more difficult to obtain the re-
Enumeration justly due them than min
listers of the Gospel. No class is more
worthy of a liberal support than the
pastors and Christian workers in the
churches, because they administer to
mans higher nature and are the in
strumentafities for accomplishing a
greater and nobler work than any
other class. We pay our butcher,
baker, tailor, grocer, and all with
whom we have dealing, and think we
obtain an equivalent, but it is too
often the case that when economy is
forced upon us, or we delude ourselves
with a complaining belief that it is,
the first move is to cut off the spiritual
supplies, reserying to the last any di-
intuition Of our expenditures for tenn
poral purposes. This is not only a
mistaken view Of duty and privilege,
but inevitably works hardship among
those whose calling and labors entitle
them to more generous treatment.
The thoughtful, wholesouled man will
lop off a few luxuries first before he
begins to cut down his pastors salary
and his contributions to the various
departments of Christian work and be-
nevolent enterprises. - Burlington
Haa0k-Eye.