The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-12-06
THE COUNTRY MINISTER.
Are the Foundations of His Faith
 Shifting Beneath His Feet?

1 <AHe the FOundRG1OnS or His Faith Shifting Beneath His Feet?
 To the Editor of The sun-Sir: In view of the changes in scriptura1 in
 depreciation that are being suggested
 quite frequently in these days by con-
 ferences and societies of learned men " ho are presumed to know what they are talking about, it occurs to me that
 the time is ripe for a country minis ters' forward movement
 we have been buSi1y engaged in financing propagandas in behalf of
 men and religion that we have quite
 overlooked the country minister who
 the rural free delivery routes on a sal ary of $450 a year.
 In these days the minister of a small
 proxima tely. what to expect. His path is full of pitfalls. His life is one of perHs and rude surprises. While
 Stretching out his hands for the an- cjent donation his foothold is threat
 ened by the shifting foundations of his
 faltn. He goes to bed when the days spirit by the comforting thought of
 everlasting flames for the wicked; he
 arises in the morning to discover that
 ished overnight by learned confer ence that has no need for it.
 The country minister is a martyr. IS g1ven stone; as an old fashioned Christian he asks for a tangible hell
 of ire and birthstone and is given a state of mind as a human being he asks for a payment on his back salary and is given a second hand overcoat
 and a pair of fur nittens. Truly his l1t IS not a. bed of roses, But it is not the lack of worldly prosperity that turns his hair prematurely gray: 1t is the haunting fear that without a mo
 ment'e warning the foundations of his faith may be kicked from beneath his feet
 Consider his plight In the morning
 11
 patch; in the kitchen his wife is busy over the washtub; on the table are the remnants of the last donation; sand behind the woodshed, while an other, the oldest, is trudging along on his way to the little schoolhouse down
 We see him again at night. The days work is done and wife and chil- dren have gone to bed. He is alone in the sitting room reading the Good Book Reverently he turns it's pages: he reaches the sixteenth chapter of Luke and his face reflects the spiritual ecstacy that thrills him.
 The parable of Lazarus and the rich man!
 Here is justice. stern and terrible justice for the man who on earth was always clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day, and justice for the poor beggar who was in the thought of the rich man in tor seeing the poor man in glory. He again with infinite satisfaction
 We see him once more on the follow ing day as the family gathers about reading the weekly paper that has just been delivered by the rural mail car- rier. Suddenly the boy utters a pecu- inquiries his father anxioasly., t.oh. pa,' replies Calvin. gulping audibly, there ain't no hell: they've cut it out!'
 The blow falls like a thunderbolt from a clear sky. No hell! He cannot grasp the hideous import of the words. No hell! And he has preached it for twenty years, found in it a solace for the worlds injustice. E'sensed" it a | thousand times in his bitter experi- l ences.
 It is too much for him to bear He l gropes his way into the sitting room, ! where he can be alone with his grief. l man. Life has lost its zest. His spirit l Is broken. and soon it is whispered that his salary is to be reduced be- cause he no longer breaches with his l old time fire and vigor.
 You may compel country minister | to mortgage his household goods to | buy the necessities of life; you may | put him out in the road. bag and bag gage, for non-payment of rent; you | may refuse to help him give decent | diphtheria lays hold upon his family and all these things he will endure | with Christian fortitude. But when you rob him of his hell you break his spirit, you kill the hope that makes his life bearable. you strike a fatal blow | at his sense of justice beyond the grave For the country minister is a | rugged character; his life is full of hardships and stern, privations, and he demands an orthodoxy that is some what in accord with his environment The pink tea variety may do for the snug soothsayers who with half closed eyes that turn neither to the right nor \ %~ rn{r T1s ousines. but it will never satisfy the lowly apostle of the wrath to come who tackles the Devil wherever ana whenever he meets him without regard to consequences.
 Albany. December 3.