The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-10-01
A Mistake and Its Correction.

"A ulStuke
The church at Greedy Gap was weak,
ready to expire, financially. 1t had an
excellent pastor, an active Sunday
school. and its social and religious meet
ings were well attended,: but the people
had such a natural adherence of col
lections and subscription lists that its
financial affairs were allowed to fall
into most deplorable condition. 1t was
thought best at the organization of the
church to adopt the voluntary system,
and so perfectly satisfactory to the
pockets of the people was this, and so
thoroughly voluntary had the system
become, that no one ever dreamed that
he was under the slightest obligation to
contribute anything to support the pas
tor; indeed, it was considered an insult
to ask such a thing. A few leading
families had walked up sufficiently to see
that there would be lawful times if the
pastor did not let his salary be reduced
still more" but the majority of the So
ciety slept soundly, and let the church
take care of itself. Deacon Holding
ton, who heretofore had taken such
matters rather indifferently, except that
he paid ten dollars year, was APP
pointed delegate to convention called
for the purpose of discussing the ques-
ton of pastoral support. He had come
to the meeting reluctantly, for he
looked upon such subjects as utterly in
compatible with true piety to such an
extent, that when his pastor preached
once on Christian giving, at the begin
ming of the second head he took his hat
and walked home. At the convention,
boWauar no tho viawc aypraccaJ ,uora
very general and quite moderate, he
became considerably exercised between
the opposing thoughts of a worldly, and
consequently a lazy, ministry and
starving church, and this led him to
think of the little church at Greedy Gap
of which he was member. At recess
he spoke TO fellow-deacon with whom
he had become acquainted in regard to
the new subject of church finance. 81
always thought that it savored too much
of worldliness to trouble ones self with
temporal things in the church, and l
think the rest of our people are of the
same opinion "And that's why your
church is going down. replied Deacon
Wright. But, Brother Wright, do
you not think that God will take care of
his own Zion without mans poor SER
yices?" Indeed, | think no such
thing" replied Deacon Wright very
promptly; Il don't think the Lord will
sweep the floor, and knde the fires,
and purchase the coal and light, and
ring the bell, and pay for groceries to
feed the pastors family-no, nor you
don't think it either!" "Dear brother"
said Deacon Holdington, being shocked
with what seemed to him bordering on
irreverence, " l thought the Lord would
take care of his own cause DID he not
commanded the ravens and the widow to
feed him!" "Well, then, we have
made mistake; we have always thrown
the burden on the Lord, and prayed to
him" "To save you the trouble of
collecting the pastors salary, and so it
has never been collected, and your
church is going down." said Mr..
Wright, interruptingly. Mr.. Holding
ton bowed his head, while tear stood
in his eye, for he meant to be gOdly
man, and thought he loved the cause of
religion dearly. "What then, are we
to do?" he asked, despairingly. 81
can tell you what ne did," said Mr..
Wright, and we were in as bad con-
dition as you are in, some years ago.
We called young man then, promising
and pledging ourselves to pay him the
sum of one thousand dollars in quar-
terly payments. | am ashamed to say
that we never paid the thousand dollars,
and we never made one quarterly pay
ment according to the agreement, not
for ten years. Did we deal honestly
with him?" Deacon Holdington shook
his head, and Mr.. Wright continued
"Our people thought as your people do,
that : in some way or other the Lord
would provide and they were glad to
know that so bountiful provider would
kindly save their pockets, and so left
the PASTORS support almost entirely to
the Lord. A few members consider
ately handed in their subscriptions
promptly, but the majority paid just
what they pleased, always months be-
hind time, and many paid nothing at
all. The pastor had to depend on tri-
tles for his support. We pulled down
his salary from a thousand to eight hun
dred when he got married.; next we re-
duced it to six hundred; and after three
or four children were born, we cut it
down to five hundred, and still we were
far behind, because the chief support
ers reduced their subscriptions in pro-
portion: even then he received this
miserable support in driblets of a few
dollars at time. When we got very
far behind, we had to get upa festival
or supper to raise the back salary,
and so we pinched along. Yes, we had
trustees, a whole board of them. They
usually met once year, asked each
other how much the Indebtedness
was, then made hasty run around tc
few families, got discouraged ant
stopped Some gave them their sub
scriptions, others promised well, bu
paid nothing, others again flew into {
passion, charged somebody with fraut
and-got out of paying anything. Thus
the church was going down, not bu
that there was large congregation o
well-to-do people who supported severa
millners, dress-makers and tailors, anC
who enjoyed good sermons wonderfully
and thought highly of the pastor and hi