Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1895-08-08
PAY OF THE CLERGY.



Not Always Financially Profitable TO Joia
the Church.
The question Of clergymen's com
pensation is again under discussion in
both the religions and secular press
An influential journal OF the former
class asserts with degree OF conf
dence indicative of firm belief, that
ministers of the Gospel are not. as
rule. paid for their work as well as
men in other professions of equal abil-
ity and education. In our opinion,
this is an erroneous conclusions; for.
while it is true that clergymen do not
acquire great wealth as do q few OF
the most successful lawyers and sur
geons. it is equally true that they are
spared the hard initiatory struggle nm
der which thousands of young lawyers
and doctors sink ont of sight-the
struggle from which comparatively few
emerge to enter on a really prosperous
career.
The supply of lawyers and doctors is
always in excess of the demand. IT
their business were equally divided all
would be poor. As it is, few-a very
small minority-get on well in life,
while the majority of those who enter
these professions with high hopes are
doomed to disappointment. Many of
them abandon their chosen career and
seek fortune in other fields. Thou
sands of men who have been educated
for the law or the medical profession
are in trade, in railroading. and in the
insurance business, and many of these
are successful. They did not fail in
their profession because of unfitness.
but because of lack of opportunity.
Men who started in with them and had
no better equipment than they had
have won great prizes. They hap
pened to take the tide at the food. and
it led on to fortune.
The demand for c1ergymen is in ex-
cess of the supply. The young minis
ter on graduating from the theological
school has no fight with poverty, no
hard struggle for his daily bread while
trying to get foothold. He does not
hang out his sign and wait through
years of perjury for patrons. On the
contrary, he steps from the seminary
to the pulpit, into an honored profess
sion and an assured subsistence. He
has degree of sympathy and respect
that does not come to the young law
yer or doctor.
The men and the women, the old and
the young of his congregation take de-
light in promoting his enjoyment. The
mere fact of being q lawyer or a doc
tor is not in itself a passport to the
best society. But the fact of being a
clergyman, of occupying pulpit.
opens every door in the parish.
The young minister is q well
come guest at every Preside. and
he is more likely to be sur
feited with kindness than to suffer from
neglect. OF course, salaries vary. but
they are seldom too low to afford q
comfortable maintenance, and, in many
instances. they are sufficient for luxu-
rious living. There are, too, the
chances of calls from small to great
churches, from poor to rich parishes.
All things considered, the most i'm
viting field for the young men of this
country to-day is the pulpit. and the
fact that this profession is not crowded
is due to the consciousness of our
young men. They have SO high a re-
spect for the sacred calling, so lofty an
appreciation of its duties and RESPONSE
bilities. that they decline to enter it
without a conviction that duty lies in
that direction belief that by SO doing
they will be able to do more good in
the world than they can in any other
profession.-Washing Post.