Paying The Minister
by
“MONEY, money, money! That’s the everlasting cry! I’ll give up my pew. I won’t go to church. I’ll stay at home and read the Bible. Not that I care for a few dollars more than I do for the dust that blows in the wind; but this selling of salvation for gold disgusts me. I’m sick to death of it!”
“But hear, first, Mr. Larkin, what we want money for,” said Mr. Elder, one of the vestrymen of the church to which the former belonged. “You know that our minister’s salary is very small; in fact, entirely insufficient for the maintenance of his family. He has, as might be supposed, fallen into debt, and we are making an effort to raise a sufficient sum to relieve him from his unpleasant embarrassment.”
“But what business has he to go in debt, Mr. Elder? He knows the amount of his income, and, as an honest man, should not let his expenses exceed it.”
“But you know as well as I do that he cannot live on four hundred dollars a year.”
“I don’t know any such thing, friend Elder. But I do know, that there are hundreds and thousands who live on much less, and save a little into the bargain. That, however, is neither here nor there. Four hundred dollars a year is all this parish can afford to pay a minister, and that Mr. Malcolm was distinctly told before he came. If he could not live on the salary offered, why did he come? Mr. Pelton never received more.”
“Beg your pardon, Mr. Larkin. Mr. Pelton never received less than seven hundred dollars a year. There were always extra subscriptions made for him.”
“I never gave any thing more than my regular subscription and pew-rent.”
“It is more than I can say, then. In presents of one kind and another and in money it never cost me less than from fifty to seventy-five dollars a year extra. Having been in the vestry for the last ten years, I happen to know that there was always something to make up at the end of the year, and it generally came out of the pockets of a few.”
“Well, it isn’t right, that is all I have to say,” returned Mr. Larkin. “A minister has no business to saddle himself upon a congregation in that way for less than his real weight. It’s an imposition, and one that I am not going to stand. I’m opposed to all these forced levies, from principle.”
“I rather think the first error is on the side of the congregation,” said Mr. Elder. “I think they are not only to blame, but really dishonest, in fixing upon a sum for the support of a minister that is plainly inadequate to his maintenance. Here, in our parish, for instance, a thousand dollars might be paid to a minister with the greatest ease in the world, and no one be oppressed by his subscription. And yet, we are very content and self-complacent in our niggardly tender of four hundred dollars.”
“A thousand dollars! I don’t believe any minister ought to receive such a salary. I have no notion of tempting, by inducements like that, money-lovers into the sacred office.”
“Pardon me, Mr. Larkin, but how much does it cost you to live? Not less than two thousand five hundred dollars a year, I presume.”
“But I don’t put my expenses alongside of the minister’s. I can afford to spend all that it costs me. I have honestly made what I possess, and have a right to enjoy it.”
“I didn’t question that, Mr. Larkin. I only turned your thoughts in this direction, that you might realize in your own mind how hard it must be for a man with a family of three children, just the number that you have, to live on four hundred dollars a year.”
But the allusion to matters personal to Mr. Larkin gave that gentleman a fine opportunity to feel offended; which he did not fail to embrace, and thus close the interview.