The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1889-03-14
The Need of South Carolina rresby.ery.

An Evangelist is the need. Is that need
felt. This question will be answered at the
approaching meeting at Edgefeld On the
18th of April. Before an Evangelist can be
put in the field salary is needed. Will
that need be met, This question, we hope,
will be answered afirmatively at the meet
ing referred to above.
The evangelist field in South Carolina
Presbytery has not been occupied by
regular evangelist for several years. The
way has been etfectually blocked by the
want of the material support of an evangel-
list. The salary question has been the
principal difficulty, and when that ques.
tion is fully met the man will be found
and tho work begun.
The territory is large, embracing. seven
square miles. In this immense field there
are only ffty-one Presbyterian churches
about one church to every ninety square
miles. In one county there is not Pres
| byterian church, in second only one, and
in third only three-thus giving US more
than thousand square miles in three
counties alone, unoccupied with Presbyte-
| rianism.
New railroads are being built through
sections of this evangelistic field and new
towns are springing up, and communities
| hitherto remote are made easily accessible,
and here and there can be found nucleus
of q church. But who can look after and
! develop such points into church but an
evangelist, whose duty will be to 60 from
place to place preaching the Gospel by the
authority and under the control Of the
court appointing him7
Now, can this need of South Carolina
Presbytery be met? To meet it I am not
authorized to say how much money would
| have to be raised-not more perhaps than
thousand dollars. To say that fifteen
pastors, with frty-one churches and over
three thousand communicants can't raise
that amount is to utter what no one will
accept as true. It would cost each member
33f cents annually, and that is less per
month than the cost Of an old fashion pos
tage stamp.
But some, perhaps many, are not able to
/ give anything for this work. Probably
there are sons of the Presbyterian church
i within the bounds of South Carolina Pres
| bytery whom God has blessed with much
| of the good things of this life who would
readily and cheerfully pledge themselves
/ to pay each one-tenth or one.twentieth Of
the needed sum.
Surely out of these three thousand men,
bers there can be found one hundred per-
j SONS who will contribute on an average
ten dollars annually to the support of an
evangelist Certainly there are many who
will gladly aid what they can in this work,
if the opportunity is offered them.
The Executive Committee projected q
j plan for raising the money which seems
feasible, and which received the endorse
ment of the Presbytery at It's last meeting.
Each minister is asked to canvass his con.
/. gregation and solicit, from such persons as
he thinks likely to give individual sub
scription to the salary of the evangelist, to
be paid annually as long as he is in the
field. These are personal gifts and not
to effect the different causes embraced in
the Assemblys scheme.
We have been asked by the executive
committee to call the attention Of pastors
to this mt,tter ,sand to urge them to make
an effort to be ready to report at the next
meeting of tha Presbytery. The time il
short. What is done must be done soon.
w. T. MATTHEW'S,
Chairman of Committee.