The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1911-04-13

pension system operative il the COM
merciai and industrial world.
Verify. "the children Of this world
are In their generation, wiser than the
children Of light" A crisis has been
reached in the church. There is at
present great dearth in ministerial
supply--a deplorable shortage In can
didates for the Protestant ministry.
The proportion Of students in our col
leges who are studying FOR the min
lstry was never SO small che failure
OF the majority OF churches to provide
comfortable support durlag active
service, and fair approximation al
lowance in old age is largely respon-
sible for this condition.
With the true minister the work and
not the pay is the important consid-
Grafton, yet nevertheless men cannot
be expected to consecrate their lives
to church work when such consacra-
ton makes II impossible for them TO
i've and maintain and provide for
those dependent upon them as do other
people in their station in life.
The modern minister can no longer
pc q medicant without scrip or shoes
The man who gives his whole life
to the christian ministry should be
free from care as to temporal things.
This is his due. That is the divine
pian
The remuneration Of the majority of
ministers does not at all compare with
that of other professions. nor with the
wages of skilled artisans, and in
large number Of cases is lower than
that of ordinary laborers. This fact
accounts, in a large measure, for the
present lack of recruits for the min
istry among young men,
In leading article in The Christian
Advocate of Aug is, 1910, the state
ment is made that within half days
ride of New York city there are (not
few charges) where the pastors SAL
airy, reckoning in parsonage rent and
all fees, applied to the support Of his
family, amounts to only SO per cent of
what the same township pays per cap
ita for the support of the same num-
Der of paupers.
The Pittsburg Gazette Times says
editorially: 1T is rather a disconcert-
ing fact that whereas Americans are
proverbially generous, so many are pc
nurious in the matter of pastors SAL
airy. The effect of that is to discour-
age young men whose natural bent is
toward the ministry, and the conse-
quence Is that in every denomination
there Is a deplorable shortage of can
didates for the ministry The respon-
sfbility for this state of affairs lies UP,
on the church members of course. In
the congregational church in ten
years there has been an actual de-
cline of 10 per cent in the average of
pastors salaries"
In an article in The Western Chris
tian Advocate we read: You doubt
less are well aware of the grave di-
lemma the church is at present facing
in the scarcity of worthy young men
to enter the ranks of the ministry.
Year after year the situation becomes
more serious. The fact confronts the
church that unless the drift is check
! ed Methodism, as well as other de-
nominations, will be materially GRIN
pied in leadership. There is no need
denying that the chief cause of this
condition is financial.
| Young men of ability will more and
more hesitate to choose for their life
work profession that gives no guar
antee of adequate compensation, when
so many avenues of useful activity are
lying open before them. The question
| of a living is as serious to the minis
tiers as to any other professional man.
and these are not to be condemned for
hesitating to serve the church under
/ present conditions"
! Nobody says in these DAYS that men
go into the ministry for the money
there is in 1t. They go because they
are called.
They are under divine compulsion
like him who said. "'Woe is me If /
preach not the gospel" 1t is more
true today than ever before that when
a man enters the christian ministry
1 he commits himself to a life of sacri-
flee If not to a life of poverty.
/ Ministers do not care to accumulate
fortunes, but they very naturally do
desire the assurance that they shall
not come to poverty in their old age.
and that those dependent upon them
shall not be paperized by their de-
/ cease.
Young men called to preach are
not refusing to heed the call because
they disbelieve in the providence Of
/ God, but for the reason that they do
not believe in providence as it is prac-
ticed by the churches.
When admitted to membership in an
annual conference the Methodist
church demands of every man a vow
to the effect that he will devote him.
! self wholly to the work Of the minis-
| try. At that instant. then and there,
our church assumes the obligation of
providing him a Comfortable support, :"
the assumption being that so long as
he is able to serve he will be given
work which will furnish him a living,
| and when ineapacitated he shall re-
ceive such percuniary help as he may
need to maintain him in comfort. How
does this mutual agreement work out
| In practice?
| 1t is a demonstrable fact that fully
80 per cent of the Protestant clergy
| find 1t impossible to make adequate
financial provision for old age.
In the Methodist Episcopal church
we have 1928 conference claimants,
only 261 of whom receive more than
$500 per year; 4,47s of them less than
$500 yearly; 1898 less than 500, and