The White Pine news. [volume] (Ely, Nev.) 1906-1910, 1909-09-23

A strange thing eve in theis day
of empty pews, has occurred IN a
fashionable suburb Of Cincinnati.
The vacation habit, of course, was at
the bottom of a situation resulting
in a sermon delivered, in a church,
to one man. The Rev. DR.. Dickerson
is rector Of the Episcople church at
that place. In his absence, Rev. DR..
King has been secured to supply the
pulpit. Through some inadvertence,
notice of this arrangement had not
been given, and on Sunday morning
there was no audience to greet the
preacher. Even the vestrymen, who
must have been awair of the sub
stitution, failed to appear, and the
sexton seems to have disappeared
after opening the church. Only DR..
King and the organist, John w. Hill,
could have answered to their names
at rool sail, had one been made.
1t was an embarrassing situation,
but DR. King, who had no doubt been
employed to preach a sermon for a
stipulated sum, must have conclud-
ed that he could not get he money If
he failed o do the work. II he had
been acting under advice of coun-
SELF. he could not have taken a wiser
course than the one he took with
out consulting a lawyer. ~Instructing
the organist to proceed with the
usual musical preliminaries, he fol-
ollowed them with such devotianal
afterward launched into the sermon
he had prepared himself to oliver.
1t 81 the testimony of Mr.. Hill that
it was the best sermon he ever listen
ed to. 1t is possible that MI. Hill
may have appreciated it lore be-
cause he had a monopoly of it. But
it is possible also that the reverend
speaker, in resentment of the strange
and unusual conditions under which
it raj delivered, may have thrown
into it a fiery zeal to illuminate it,
and to make it glow for the melting
of hearts. At any rate the heart of
Hill, the only heart in reach melted.
At the conclusion of the service, when
it was time to make the usual col
lection, Hill felt his full responsible
ty and rose to meet it. Feeling, no
doubt, that such a speaker should not
be insulted by the average contribu-
ton of a Sunday worship, he played
the offering and took up the collec-
ton, depositing a S. bill OF the plate
as he laid it in front of the altar.
MR. Hills appreciation of the SER
mon needs no higher demonstration.
Dr.. King may congratulate himself
on having impressed an audience
nrafarnJ1u than nrnonhnr ornr
impressed an audience before. No
preacher before him has moved every
man in his audience to such gener-
osity. He is also to be ~congratula-
ted upon having saved his case, legal
ly. He has fulfilled his contract. The
vestrymen must now fulfill theirs,
and it is possible, if not probable,
that his preaching moved his audi
ence to as large a contribution to-
ward the payment of his fee as it
would have done if the audience had
been larger. 1t is even possible that
the offering was as large on that
Sabbath as on the average Sabbath in
that congregation. At any rate, the
vestrymen atre in for the Doctors fee.
And he has we'll earned 1t. He has
earned it in a better way than that
minister in the far north of Scotland
who on a very stormy Sunday found
but one man in the audience. He
proposed that the sermon should be
dispenced with. mae, nae," said the
canny Scot. "Ye're weel paid fer t."
That sermon was delivered under
duress, as it were. DR.. Kings was
not. He spoke as an act of grace,
but he is sure of his money.