The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-11-29

regards the real reason TOT the OFlB4n of the new ministerial bureau, tt Is clear that 1t does not owe either its exist ence or continuance wholly to dlsiuter- eSted beneyolence and good will 10 all men, On the contrary, it is clearly the outcome of more or less friction among ministers and of more or less practical ecclesiastical politics, For that reason the pending proposition to place our churches under Its super vision and to tax them for its support can hardly be called g wise one, It's wisdom is also more than questionable on the ground of certain expense but doubtful utllity,
 The usual charges for services by pri- vate ministerial bureaus have been as follows, viz; One dollar per annum for registration, ten per cent. of amount received for single Sunday appoint ments, and one per cent of salary for the first year of permanent engage ments The ministers usually pay these charges; the churches seldom volun- teer to pay anything; if any of them ever do the minister is thereby relieved.
 The income of the bureau therefore always depends on the amount of act- ual service rendered to the ministers in the way of calls to preach and settle supplemented by insignificant amounts from registration fees. The chief value of the registration fee lies in the fact that it serves to keep the registration list in a normal state and prevents it from becoming dropsical like the regis tration list of the Massachusetts B, of P. S., which contains ASA names, when only eighty-seven of that number re- way of professional employment If that is not dropsical, what is? It's dropsical nature becomes still more amazing when we note the fact that only twenty-one ministers out of the entire ASA registered secured permanent employment through the efforts of lthe board!
 The following claim has been widely published by our religious press in the interest of the new board, viz, "Of all the calls given not less than half have been to those recommended from this office" I leave the others more inter- ested in the matter than am to recon cile this claim with the official report for the churches of Massachusetts, ac- cording to which 109 pastoral changes were effected in the Congregational churches of that State during the year 1894.
 This leaves me to the item of ex- pense to churches or ministers, which ever has to bear the burden.
 Had the old ministers bureau in Bos- ton been permitted to place everyone of these 109 ministers, what would have been the amount of its bill for the ser vice? Assuming the average salary for the whole 109 to be $1,200 for each mine ister, then the amount of its bill would have been s1,30S. What was the bill of the new board for registering ASA min- lsters and aiding 21 of them to secure pastorates and S7 of them to secure an opportunity to supply once? We were told at the conference that this amount of service cost the churches of Massa- chusetts upward of 5000.
 According to official report 58 pastor al changes were made among the 30e Congregational churches of Connecticut during the year 1894. The total salary paid by those 58 churches was $51, ,753 an average of a little more than s892 for each church. Two of those churches paid an aggregate salary of $8,500. Ii we omit those two from our calculation the average salary paid by the remain Ing 56 churches was only a little over S772. Had the New Haven bureau been permitted to place every one of those 5G ministers in the state of Connecticut its total revenue from that service would have been only s432, including expenses.
 If it were permitted to place only the same proportionate number of them that the Massachusetts board of pastor al supply was permitted to place of the lo9 in that State its entire revenue from that source, including expenses would have been only $S5. Registration fees, and the usual percentage on SUD- ply appointments, would carry it lit tie over $10O, including expenses, but not very much.
 This showing of the case, which is true to the letter, ought to correct the utterly absurd prevailing impression that ministerial bureaus conducted or the percentage plan are money-making concerns. It ought also to satisfy every intelligent person that it would not bt wise move for the Congregations churches of Connecticut to be placed under the Massachusetts bureau, and tc be taxed at the rate of per cent, pei member annually for its support.
 The value of the official services oi that board to our churches in Connecti. cut would be a difficult thing to ascer. tain. Possibly it might be great, ane possibly it might be nil.
 But notwithstanding all, a good in. termediary between pastorless churches and available, worthy ministers is very much needed. T.