The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1891-01-10
PAY YOUR PREACHER.
Advice Given and Joke Told by DIR. a.
+. Dickinson.

f. Dickinson.
At the recent installation of Rev. Josep
S. Felix as pastor Of the First Baptis
Church in Lynchburg, Va, Rev. DIR. A. +
Dickinson, editor of the Religious Herald
made the following characteristic address
II will begin by saying that have tn
easy place on this program. There is n,
need for me to tell yoU how to treat you
pastor. You know hoao better than cal
tell you, and there is nothing left Inc bu
to say amen to all that has been said in al
these recognition services. And can say
it with full heart, and do say it-Amen
glory, haLelqyah, bless the Lord! If there
were any need for me to speak to thi:
church, l will tell you some of the things
would say. | would begin just where DR.
Frost closed his eloquent address. He
closed with urging upon the new pastor the
Importance of prayer. You, brethren, need
to pray for the pastor quite as much as he
needs to pray for you. II the Apostle Paul
needed the prayers of the Christians of his
day, how much more does brother Felix
need your prayers? Your prayerful SYM
pathy will go far towards deciding the
question of success or failureiu his ministry
here in Lynchburg. Pray for him every
day and often many times a day. Pray for
him for your own sake, as well as for his
sake. Every word he speaks willcome with
added power to your hearts if you pray for
him.
PAYING AND PRAYING
are very closely allied, and of course you
will pay your preacher as well as pray for
him. Pay him promptly and pay him
generously. A preacher always feels bet
ter and breaches better when he has some
money in his pocket. A preacher can
make money do immense good. As he
goes around among his people he finds
many place where he can put few dol
lars where it will do vast good. Here and
there in the homes of the poor he can
leave dollar as well as prayer Then,
toe, the agents for good causes come to
him as they do not to you, and in many
ways it will be good thing for him to
respond favorably to many of these almost
numberless applications for money; but
how can he do this unless you pay him
generously? In order that this may be
done, eue,y member Of the church ought TO
pay his part and her part to the pastors
salary; even if one is so poor that he is on
the poor find and supported by the
church, he ought to pay something to the
pastors salary. You ought to pay whether
you like the pastor or not. The church
contracts with the pastor, and you as
member are a party to the contract, and
you have no right to refuse to pay your
part whatever may be your personal re-
lations to the pastor. 1t will not do for
one or two to bear this burden. Why, if
brother Ford or brother Hurt were to offer
to pay the salary of the pastor it would be
ruinous to accept the offer In little
time there would be no church to preach
to, for it would be dead church.
BOOM YOUR PASTOR.
"AnQther thing. Do not fail to tall up
your pastor. I came up from Richmond
with man who was booming place in
Southwest Virginia. He told me that
when his company got possession of that
section of land it was not worth five dol
lars aR acre, but that now it brings more
than FIVE hundred dollars an acre, and he
says it has all been done by talking it up.
They have not put pound of iron ore or
a shovel of coal into the hill, they have
simply emphasized the good points of the
land and that has doomed the price; and
so it is with pastor. You can boon, him
or you can run him down and ont. Some
people do one way and some others do the
other way. HoU aoiW do tie right aCqy.
"This new pastor is not going to please
everybody; if so, he will be the first pas
tor that ever did it. He will not say yes
and no to every question you put to him.
He isgoing to say what he thinks and he
will stick to it until you convince him that
he is wrong. There is nothing that more
becomes a pastor than a backbone. He
must take his position on one question and
another, and often he must hold to it with
out even giving his reasons. He must some
times consent to be misunderstood and
misrepreseRed to secure the greatest good.
As general thing he should, like his
Master, answer not word to his critics,
but sometimes, like that Master, he may
rightly turn on his adversary with plain
and whitening rebuke.
DIR. DIcKINsoN's JOKE.
~ have heard of an-instance in which
pastor was greatly worried by a deacon
who was cruelty attacking him, greatly to
the injury of the church. The pastor took
this deacon aside and asked him: DO you
know what the d. d. at the end of my
name stands for? 2 "For Doctor of Diyin-
ity, l suppose, replied the deacon, very
meekly. mo, sir, answered the pastor,
my D. d. stands for death to deacoas, and
if you do not stop this war upon me 1 will
have you put out It is said that that
deacon gave no further trouble. You have
the best of deacons here, and there is no
danger of local application of this story,
/ give it merely as illustrating how well it
is for pastors TO magnify their office, and
at times to try heroic remedies upon the