Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-12-01
The Minister.

One tnlng In Wnlcn the people OF
our country could do themselves more
credit IL they would, is their attitude
to ministers of the gospel of all de-
nominations.
We have In mind not the nom
church membership. but more par
ticularly the church membership. and
we think It needs to be told a little
something.
We do not concede that ministers
work for money or temporal reward
in the same sense as do men Of other
occupations: but we do know that the
requirements of ministers are not very
different from other men. They have
to be clothed and fed. and they need
money for the hundred and one things
hat have become absolutely necessary
under modern conditions.
or course, ministers receive sala-
ries, and many people hold that they
should be content with their pay. with
which doctrine Wa agree. provided the
pay Is at all adequate, but that Is not
the point at which we are now driv-
ing
Ministers have many expenses Of
which the people take little account.
Few of them are promised salaries
more than sufficient for ordinary needs
and many Of them do not receive all
of the salaries that are promised.
1t is a fact that ministers have
many extraordinary expenses that dc
not fall on other people, and one Of
them Is the entertainment Of visitors
whom it is proper and logical for
them to entertain, but whose enter
tainmcnt means expense.
Then again, in the case Of sickness
or death, whether the subject be a
church member or not, the minister
must visit him or her and must con-
duct the funeral Visits and funerals
often cost money for buggy hire or
lister has to pay the bill out of. his
pocket, but seldom is there anything
said about reimbursement, and from
the nature Of his work, his creed and
the teachings Of his faith he never
says a word.
Often ministers accept invitations
and go to distant points to preach,
paying their own expenses, and come
away without having received hint
of an offer from the people by whom
he had been invited, to help bear the
expense. ,
OF course 1t is not to be limited
hat there is going to be any strike
or anything like that unless people
begin to take a different view Of this
whole matter, for there have always
been good. consecrated men to do the
work of the Master, and there will al
ways be such men; but 1t does seem to
us that it Is about time that the whole
puolic. including church membership
and non-church membership, begin
to look at this matter differently.
In the case of most of us II we
should ask a professional service of
a member of any other profession. we
would naturally assume that We were
expected to pay. We would find that
If we did not mention the little mat
ter OF compensation the other fellow
would. If we ask a minister what he
charges we know full well that he is
going to tell us nothing" and there
fore when we ask him such question
we are self-confessed hypocrites. The
way to do 1t is TO recognize that the
minister is entitled to pay for extra
services Of whatever nature-that he
is certainly entitled to reimbursement
of moneys that he has paid out on ac-
count of such things as have been
indicated, and we should make the
actual tender Of an amount sufficient
20 square the matter.