New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-01-22
CyECKlEy. AND ms BROTHERS.

good many criticisms neither temperate
nor just, have been called ont from the
secular press during the last few weeks by
the death in Canada of n clergyman named
Chccklcy. Our readers doubtless know the
circumstances. The mans salary, a paltry
pttancc at lest, was not half paid to him !;
there were five children and their mother TO
support the family lived literally on bread
Ior months The father being Il clergyman,
and therefore prohibited from earning their
living outside OF his pulpit, and gentleman,
and therefore too proud TO beg, gave his
SHIRE Of the scanty rations to the others
until one day he quietly lay down and died
from starvation.
Now, ii would not be easy perhaps, to find
i'll this couutIy an exactly parallel case 10 this
one food i too cheap, for one reason, and
CONGREGATIONS concern them ,clycs too anXiJu-y
with the affairs OF their pastors 10 let them
Dir uninterrupted, for another. But occasional
gimpSC4 Of the financial system in use in the
churches are equally astounding to practical
outsiders. For example, III one Of the most
ppWcrlu! RELIGIONS bodies there l. 4 lund set
apart for the maintenance of aged and de
crcpit mini>ter:-a fund which is invariably
spoken of rs an aims. In another dcnOmiua-
ton two months ago, there might have been
found on the luXuIously- cushioned pcwS Of
the stately churches appeals for donations Of
clothing, bedding, etc new or half-wOrn, for
the use of the families of poor clergy men in
the church and letters were published from
the former recipients of this sort of bounty
full of fearful gratitude for the half-WOm
CLOTHES winch evidently had come SO Oppor-
timely to cover shlVcring bodies.
Now, secular newspapers have nothing to 80
with the doctrines Of religious denominations;
neither is it their place to pronounce judg-
mcnt on the abstract right or wrong Of the
dealings between the men in the pulpit and
those IN the peWs but they do have the right to
an opinion on the common sense and policy of
these dealings. Worse policy, We imagine,
could hardly he devised than for an 0rganiza-
ton which requires the best work from the
best class OF men to paupeiize them at the
outset. An unmarried man, possibly, may be
80 possessed by divine zeal that he can preach
with feryOr when his stomach is empty and
hi body half clothcd but II il Is his wife and
children who are hungry and cold, it is not
likely he can put them ont of his mind
enough to lead the souls of others TO holy
raptures of devotion. He is not worth the
name of man if he can do it. If each diff
itrcnt congregation IN the sccs acted a. IN
independent body III business matters. this
criticism would he impossible; but each sect
forms great financial corporation, and ii is
the salaries paid by these corporations, rs a
whole, wnIch are so mlseIably deficient. The
contrast Is significant between the magnificent
temples of the seabOard cities and the mis-
sionaly on the frontiers with his pittance of
$500 per annum. The Church delights to
call itself an army; what would be thought
OF the policy in real army of spending NIL
lions on barracks for idle home guards, and
sending Out few starving, shiyerIng men to
meet the foe? The ill effects of such
course are seen in the West in the desertiOn of
many able men from the ministry into the
ranks of politicians, lawyers and farmers.
one of two things Is necessary. Either let
TIE minister. a. in the first days of the Church
and in one or two Sects nowadays support
himself by other means, preaching as the spirit
moves him, or let his salary be sufficient to
relieve him from the inccSSan, carking care FOR
his family, which must hinder his usefulness,
if it does not, as III poor Checkey's case,
shorten his life.