The Holly chieftain., 1920-04-08
YET MANY PREACHERS
ARE VERY POORLY PAID
Less Able Men in Other Pursuits
Have Long Since Been Granted
Salary Increases to Meet Advanc-
ing Living Costs.


paid as the Gospel ministry.
How many of us who sit comfort
ably in our seats in church and
listen to the words uttered by the
man in the pulpit ever distress
ourselves with thought of the self
denial, the sacrifices, the actual pri-
vatiOns which that man must en-
dure to appear before us even de-
Gently clothed?
We know what we pay him for
his work. We know what food
costs today, we know what clothing
costs, and we know what it costs to
maintain a home for our families.
We know that from the man in the
pulpit we are demanding and re-
ceiving the greatest service man
can render to man, yet to him we
grudgingly offer pittance, miser-
ly stippened, out of which we ex-
pect him to supply all OF his bod
lily wants, while he ministers to
our spiritual needs
The minister of the Gospel today
must have learning and culture. He
must pass through q long period
of special and expensive training.
He must have qualities of heart
and mind far superior to those re-
qlired for success in other learned
calings. Yet there is not one of the
trained professions that does not
far exceed the ministry in financial
returns. 1t has been asserted that
the average salary of ministers in
the United States would scarcely
pass thousand dollars year-a
sum for below what is earned by
unframed labor.
When men in other pursuits re-
paratiOn have been granted higher
pay 20 meet the increased cost OF
living, the pay of the preacher in
most cases remains unchanged.
The Gospel command: Let him
that is taught in the Word minist-
er unto him that teacheth," has
been ignored as if it were never
utter ed. The young man who hears
and heeds the call to the ministry
is applauded. He is encouraged to
give his time and talent to OBJ
struse study. There is virtual
promise given to him that he will,
in the course of time, be given a
charge and salary that will en-
able him to comfortably maintain
himself and the family he is taught
he should also support.
What chilling disillusionment
must come to him later as he strug
giles thrOug8, lie Cr :hc niggardly
income provided by too many con.
grcgations. To what d"slerat' OK
pedients must his wife and child
rem resort that they may be cloth
ed so as not bring reproach upon
the husband and father and the
congregation. What rigid economy
what distressing self-denial to keep
a home together, to keep food on
the table, to meet the thousand
and one monetary demands of mod
ern life, increased by the minister's
standing in a community.
Perhaps the Lord did send ravens
to feed Elijah in the old days, the
Lord today expects His people to
feed the teachers of His word and
to do it better than the ravens
did. The laborer is worthy of his
hire under the most ordinary con-
ditions and the laborer in Gods
vineyard is worthy of great deal
more. Somebody has said If we
can save the soul of America the
body, politics and social, will take
care of itself. In the evangelicaliza-
tion Of the world lies the worlds
safety.
Religion is as vital to humanity
as is food-the starved soul grows
more wolfish than the starved
body. Religion is the true antidOte
for the mental poison that the
world absorbed.
To preserve religion, to strength
en- its power over evil, its teachers,
its ministers, must not only have a
sufficiency to meet their physical
needs, but should have an abund-
ance to leave them free for the
great battles. It is high time we
all paused to thing of high cruelty
we are mistreating the men who
are striving to lift humanity out
of the material depths to the spiri-
ual heights.
1t is high time that every man
who attend a church should re-
member the salary increases he re.
ceived and give some of it to his
minister. Every man who goes to
church should sit down and figure
the percentage of increase that has
been added to his income and feel
that he is under obligation to see
that his minister's salary Is in.
creased in the same ratio.
1t is high time that the world
should recognize Is substntial