The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-08-31
PAYING FOR BLESSINGS.
Peculiar Ideas of Value of Benefit,
Cherished by some People.

Cherished by Some People.
look.
In 1887 a young lady was rescued from
drowning at Ocean Grove by one Of the
life guards at the risk of his own life. She
was an orphan. but her wealthy uncle. with
whose family she was summering there,
looked up the man who had saved the life
of his loved niece and gave him a quarter.
One of our Indiana preachers regularly
supplies a western Pennsylvania church
during summer vacations, and he enjoys
telling how. after one preaching service
there, a lady came to him 10 acknowledge
a blessing. ''Oh." she said, Il never can
tell you how much you have done for my
home. Last summer my husband, who be-
fore had been sinful and neglectful of his
family, was converted under one of your
sermons and the last year has been, in
consequence, a happy one-the first happy
year or our married life, and l want you TO
accept a small token of my gratitude"
When he opened the envelope she handed
him he found it contained a quarter.
Ben Potter, a Connecticut friend of mine,
had a higher estimate of the value of bless
ings. When his brother Asa. his insepara-
bic companion for fifty years, was killed
by a locomotive he said to me with tears
In his eyes, and he was really heart-broken,
L WOuiun l nave ndQ Inal ndppen Tor %.
How in contrast to these incidents are
the following: Last week we were reading
IN the papers of a woman in New York
city whose physician successfully removed
from the end of her beautiful nose a dis
hguring wart that had given her annoyance
all her life, and did Ii so well as TO leave
no scar. She gave him a thousand dollars,
and no doubt felt she was paying him
poorly for that relief from a notifying
nuisance.
A deacon in my Connecticut church
| heard an evangelist nrQonh In nlr IN anfinC
house five times and felt that he was better
Tor IT and his life was going TO be more
beautiful as a result of it. and he gave him
SNU down, and. think, a great deal later.
Most people seem TO think that all bless
ings are worthy TO be paid for but spiritual
blessings.
The old slogan, "Salvation's free" has
cheapened all things spiritual in the esti-
nation OF the average person. Groceries
ought to be paid for. of course, and dry
goods. Even Intellectual pleasures and
mental culture are worth money. But when
1t comes TO spiritual blessings people are
grateful for them; their hearts burn within
them, and an ineXpressible joy fills them;
they have meat to eat that the world knows
not of, but as for him who brings them
the blessing, why, let him be satisfied with
thanks. If he expects aught else he is
mercenary and grasping. He is IAN hire
ling"
Oh, how many pastors there are who have
brought to the homes of scores and hun
dreds of people blessings by the side of
which the wealth of the whole world is
small; hayward sons restored to virtue,
inbruted husbands made gentle. wilful
daughters made tractable and considerate,
and innumerable such blessings are tracea-
bic to their influences, and the recipients
of them subscribe 81 to the pastors salary
for the ensuing year, and grumble if more
Is asked. 1t looks to me like rank ingrati-
tude.
L wish people were all like a man who
attended Just one service in my church and
at the close Of it insisted on giving the
preacher a dollar-not much, but he felt
that he had received a dollars worth OF
blessing Why, If that man had been con-
verted at that service, or had seen his wife
or son or daughter there led into the king
dom, L suppose he would have felt like Civ
ing half his possessions to the agent who
brought the blessing, or the church through
which 1T came. He was a laboring man,
or, perhaps. he would have felt he must
pay the preacher SIS or $50 for the blessing
he received at that service.
There is a woman of large means in Con
nectiout who attended but one service dur
ing my pastorate there-a woman who lived
In another town, and has sent the preacher
OF that sermon checks and presents aggre-
eating several hundred dollars in value
her estimate of the value of the comfort
and help that she received from that SER
mon and three or four conversations whose
aim was her spiritual growth.
A lecturer can be secured for less thar
$40 a night and they average about SIS, and
yet the average pastor is as bright as the
average lecturer and puts as much scholar
ship and helpful instruction into each OF
his hundred sermons a year as the lecturer
does into his lectures. An ignorant person
attending church regularly and listening
attentively TO the carefully prepared ser
mons of his pastor in a few years will have
received a liberal education. 1 have in
mind instances of such education.
Our churches are not generous enough
toward their pastors. 1 Nave no doubt il
is because they are thOughtleSS rather thar
because they are mean, but such thought
lessness is not far removed from meanness
When pastors doing faithful work tell me
that they can't afford to go to the state
convention, and can't afford to buy this
and that needed book, when they have be-
slowed priceless blessings on their flock,
feel justified in expressing Indignation.