"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.
This was Mr. Elder's first effort to obtain a subscription for paying
off the minister's debt. It quite disheartened him. He had intended
making three calls on his way to his store that morning, for the
purpose of trying to raise something for Mr. Malcolm; but he felt so
discouraged by the reception he had met with from Mr. Larkin, that he
passed on without doing so. Near his store was a carriage repository.
The owner of it put his hand upon his shoulder as he was going by, and
said, "Just step in, I want to show you something beautiful."
Mr. Elder went in, and was shown a very handsome and fashionably-made
carriage, with all the modern improvements.
"This is something very elegant, certainly. Who is it for?"
"One of the members of your church."
"Ah?"
"Yes. It is for Larkin."
"Indeed! How much does it cost him?"
"Eight hundred dollars."
"He ought to have a fine pair of horses for so fine a carriage."
"And so he has. He bought a noble span, last week, for a thousand
dollars."
Mr. Elder said what he could in praise of the elegant carriage; but he
couldn't say much, for he had no heart to do so. He felt worse than
ever about the deficiency in Mr. Malcolm's salary. On the next day he
was in better spirits, and called in upon one of the members of the
church, as he passed to his store. He stated his errand, and received
this reply--
"I'll tell you what, Mr. Elder, I am of Larkin's opinion in this
matter. If our minister agreed to come for four hundred dollars, he
should stick to his contract. He's no business to go in debt, and then
call upon us to get him out of his difficulties. It isn't the clean
thing. I don't mind a few dollars any more than you do; but I like
principle. I like to see all men, especially ministers, stick to their
text. Malcolm knew before he came here what we could afford to give
him, and if he couldn't live upon that, he had no business to come.
That's what I think of it, and I always speak out my mind plainly."
Mr. Elder made no more begging calls on that day. But he tried it again
on the next, and found that Larkin had been over the ground before him,
and said so much about "the imposition of the thing," that he could do
little or nothing. There was a speciousness about Larkin's manner of
alluding to the subject, that carried people away with him;
particularly as what he said favoured their inclination to keep a tight
hold on their purse-strings. He was piqued with Elder, and this set him
to talking, and doing more mischief than he thought for.
The Rev. Mr. Malcolm was a man of about thirty years of age. He had
taken orders a couple of years previous to the date of his call to the
parish where he now preached. At the time of doing so, he was engaged
in teaching a school; from which he received a very comfortable income.
The bishop who ordained him recommended the parish at C--, when Mr.
Pelton left there, to apply for Mr. Malcolm; which was done. The latter
was an honest, conscientious man, and sincere in his desire to do good
in the sacred office to which he believed himself called. When the
invitation to settle at C-- came, he left home and visited the parish,
in order that he might determine whether it was his duty to go there or
not. On his return, his wife inquired, with a good deal of interest,
how he liked the place, and if he thought he would go there.
"I think I shall accept the call," said he. This was not spoken with
much warmth.
"Don't you like the people?" inquired Mrs. Malcolm.
"Yes; as far as I saw them, they were very pleasant, good sort of
people. But the salary is entirely too small."
"How much?"
"Four hundred dollars a year, and the parsonage--a little affair, that
would rent for about a hundred dollars."
"We can't live on that," said Mrs. Malcolm, in a disappointed tone; "it
is out of the question."
"No, certainly not. But I am assured that at least seven or eight
hundred will be made up during the year. This has always been done for
Mr. Pelton and will be done for me, if I accept the call."
"That might do, if we practised close economy. But why do they not make
the salary seven or eight hundred dollars at once? It would be just the
same to them, and make the minister feel a great deal more independent."
"True; but we must let people do things in their own way. We can live
on seven hundred dollars, and I therefore think it my duty to give up
my school, and accept the call."
"No one, certainly, can charge you with sordid views in doing so, for
your school yields you now over a thousand dollars, and is increasing."
"I will try and keep my mind free from all thought of what people may
say or think," returned Mr. Malcolm, "and endeavour to do right for the
sake of right."
The wife of the Rev. Mr. Malcolm fully sympathized with her husband in
his wish to enter upon the duties of his sacred calling, and was ready
to make any sacrifice that could be made in order to see him in the
position he so much desired to occupy. She did not, therefore, make any
objection to giving up their pleasant home and sufficient income, but
went with him cheerfully to C--, and there made every effort to reduce
all their expenses to their reduced means of living.
It is a much easier thing to increase our expenses than to reduce them.
We get used to a certain free way of living, and it is one of the most
difficult things in the world to give up this little luxury, and that
pleasant indulgence, and come right down to the meagre necessaries of
life. This fact was soon apparent to Mr. and Mrs. Malcolm; but they
were in earnest in what they were about, and practised the required
self-denial. Their expenses were kept within the limits of seven
hundred dollars, the lowest sum that had been named.
At the end of the first three months, one hundred dollars were paid to
the minister. When he gave up his school, he sold it out to a person
who wished to succeed him, for two hundred dollars. The expense of
removing to C--, and living there for three months, had quite exhausted
this sum. Mr. Malcolm paid away his last dollar before the quarter's
salary was due, and was forced to let his bread-bill and his meat-bill
run on for a couple of weeks; these were paid the moment he received
his salary.
"I don't like these bills at all," said he to his wife, after they were
paid. "A minister should never owe a dollar; it does him no good. Above
all things, his mind should live in a region above the anxieties that a
deficient income and consequent debt always occasion. We must husband
what we have, and make it go as far as possible."
By the end of two months, the hundred dollars were all expended; but
not a word had been said about the additional three or four hundred
that had been promised, or that Mr. Malcolm fully believed had been
promised. Bills had now to be run up with the baker, grocer, and
butcher, which amounted to nearly fifty dollars when the next quarter's
salary was paid.
Mr. Malcolm did not doubt but the additional amount promised when he
consented to accept the call would be made up; still he could not help
feeling troubled. If things went on as they were going, by the end of
the year he would be in debt at least two hundred dollars; and, of all
things in the world, he had a horror of debt.
During this time, he was in familiar intercourse with the principal
members of his church, and especially with the leading vestrymen who
held out inducements to him beyond the fixed salary; but no allusion
was made to the subject, and he had too much delicacy to introduce it.
At last, matters approached a climax. The minister was about two
hundred dollars in debt, and bills were presented almost every week,
and their settlement politely urged. This was a condition of things not
to be endured by a man of Mr. Malcolm's high sense of right and
peculiar delicacy of feeling. At length, after lying awake for half of
the night, thinking over what was to be done, he came to the reluctant
conclusion that it was his imperative duty to those he owed, to mention
the necessities of his case to the vestry, and learn from them, without
further delay, whether he had any thing beyond the four hundred dollars
to expect.
The hardest task Mr. Malcolm had ever performed was now before him, and
he shrunk from it with painful reluctance. But the path of duty was
plain, and he was not a man to hold back when he saw his way clear. If
there had been any hesitation, an imperative dun received before he sat
down to breakfast, and another before nine o'clock, would have
effectually dispelled it.
Mr. Malcolm went to the store of Mr. Elder, one of the vestrymen, and
found him quite busy with customers. He waited for half an hour for him
to be disengaged, and then went out, saying, as he passed him at the
counter, that he would call in again.
"Oh, dear!" he murmured to himself, with a long-drawn sigh, as he
emerged upon the street, "is not this humiliating? If I had engaged for
only four hundred dollars a year, I would have lived on bread and water
rather than have exceeded my income; but at least seven hundred were
promised. It was, however, an informal promise; and I was wrong,
perhaps, in trusting to any thing so unsettled as this. Of course, it
will be paid to me when I make known my present situation; but the
doing of that I shrink from."
"Mr. T-- was here again for his bill," were the first words that saluted
the ears of the minister when he returned home.
"What did you say to him?" he asked.
"I told him that you would settle it very soon. He said he hoped you
would, for he wanted money badly, and it had been running for some
time."
"He was rude, then!"
"A little so," replied the wife, in a meek voice.
Mr. Malcolm paced the floor with rapid steps; he felt deeply disturbed.
An hour afterwards, he entered the store of Mr. Elder, and found the
owner disengaged. He did not linger in preliminaries, but approached
the subject thus:--
"You remember, Mr. Elder, that in the interview I had with you and two
of the vestry previous to my accepting the call of this parish, you
stated that my income would not be limited to the four hundred dollars
named as the minister's salary, which I then told you was a smaller sum
than I could possibly live upon?"
Mr. Elder exhibited a momentary confusion when the minister said this;
but he immediately replied--"Yes, I believe something was said on that
subject, though I have not thought of it since. We always had to make
up something for Mr. Pelton, and I suppose we must do the same for you,
if it is necessary. Do you find your salary inadequate?"
"Entirely so; and I knew it would be inadequate from the first. It is
impossible for me to support my family on four hundred dollars; and had
I not been assured that at least three or four hundred dollars extra
would be made up during the year, I never would have dreamed of
accepting the call. It has been a principle with me not to go in debt;
and since I have been a man, I have not, until this time, owed a
dollar; and should not have owed it now, had I received, since I have
resided in C-- the income I fully expected."
Mr. Malcolm spoke with warmth, for he felt some risings of the natural
man at the indifference with which a promise of so much consequence to
him had been disregarded.
"How much do you owe?" inquired the vestryman.
"About two hundred dollars."
"Indeed! so much?"
A bitter remark arose to the minister's lips, but he forced himself to
keep silence. He was a man, with all the natural feelings of a man.
"Well, I suppose we must make it for you somehow," said Mr. Elder, the
tone in which he spoke showing that the subject worried him. "Are any
of the demands on you pressing?" he inquired, after a pause.
"All of them are pressing," replied the minister. "I am dunned every
day."
"Indeed! That's bad!" returned Mr. Elder, speaking with more real
kindness and sympathy than at first. "I am sorry you have been
permitted to get into so unpleasant a situation."
"It certainly is very unpleasant, and entirely destroys my peace. Were
I not thus unhappily situated, I should not have said a word to you on
the subject of my salary."
"Don't let it distress you so much, Mr. Malcolm. I will see that the
amount you need is at once made up."
The minister returned home, disturbed, mortified, and humiliated.
"If this is the way they pay their minister," he remarked to his wife,
after relating to her what had happened, "it is the last year that I
shall enjoy the benefits of their peculiar system. But little good will
my preaching or that of any one else do them, while they disregard the
first and plainest principles of honesty. There is no lack of ability
to give a minister the support he needs; and the withholding of that
support, or the supplying of it by constraint, shows a moral obtuseness
that argues but poorly for their love of any thing but themselves. I
believe that the labourer is worthy of his hire; that when men build a
church and call a minister for their own spiritual good, they are bound
to supply his natural wants; and that, if they fail to do so, it is a
sign to the minister that he ought to leave them. Some may call this a
selfish doctrine, and unworthy of a minister of God; but I believe it
to be the true doctrine, and shall act up to it. It does men no good to
let them quietly go on, year after year, starving their ministers,
while they have abundant means to make them comfortable. If they prize
their wealth higher than they do spiritual riches, it is but casting
pearls before swine to scatter even the most brilliant gems of wisdom
before them; and in this unprofitable task I am the last man to engage.
I gave up all hope of worldly good, in order to preach the everlasting
gospel for the salvation of men. In order to do this successfully, my
mind must be kept free from the depressing cares of life, and there
must be something reciprocal in those to whom I minister in heavenly
things. If this be not the case, all my labour will be in vain."
On the next day, as the minister was walking down the street, he met
Mr. Larkin. The allusion to this gentleman's personal matters, which
the vestryman had made, still caused him to feel sore; it touched him
in a vulnerable part. He had been talking quite freely, since then, to
every member of the church he happened to meet about the coolness with
which Mr. Malcolm, after running himself in debt, a thing he had no
business to do, called upon the church to raise him more money. He for
one he said, was not going to stand any such nonsense, and he hoped
every member of the church would as firmly set his face against all
such impositions. If they were to pay off this debt, they would have
another twice as large to settle in a few months. It was the principle
of the thing he went against; not that he cared about a few dollars. As
soon as Mr. Larkin saw the minister a little ahead of him, he
determined to give him a piece of his mind. So when they paused, face
to face, and while their hands were locked in a friendly clasp, he
said--
"Look here, friend Malcolm, I have got something against you; and as I
am an independent plain-spoken man, you must not be offended with me
for telling you my mind freely."
"The truth never offends me, Mr. Larkin," said the minister, with a
smile. "I am not faultless, though willing to correct my faults when I
see them."
"Very well." Mr. Larkin spoke in a resolute voice, and seemed to feel
pleasure rather than pain in what he was doing. "In the first place,
then, I am sorry to find that you possess one very bad fault, common to
most ministers, and that is, a disposition to live beyond your means,
and then come down upon the parish to pay your debts."
The blood came rushing to the face of the minister, which his monitor
took to be the plainest kind of evidence that he had hit the nail fully
upon the head. He went on more confidently.
"Now, this, Mr. Malcolm, I consider to be very wrong--very wrong,
indeed!--and especially so in a young minister in his first year, and
in his first parish. If such things are in the green tree, what are we
to expect in the dry? You accepted our call, and were plainly informed
that the salary would be four hundred dollars and rent free. Upon this
our former minister had lived quite comfortably. If you thought the
salary too little, you should not have accepted the call--accepting it,
you should have lived upon it, if you had lived on bread and water."
Mr. Larkin paused. The minister stood with his eyes cast upon the
pavement, but made no answer. Mr. Larkin resumed--
"It is such things as this that bring scandal upon the church, and
drive right thinking men out of it. It isn't that I value a few dollars
more than I do the wind; but I like to see principle; and hate all
imposition. You are a young man, Mr. Malcolm, and I speak thus plainly
to you for your good. I hope you will not feel offended."
Mr. Larkin paused, thinking, perhaps, that he had said enough. The
minister's eyes were still upon the pavement, from which he lifted them
as soon as his monitor was done speaking. The flush had left his
cheeks, that were now pale.
"I thank you for your honesty in speaking so plainly, and will try to
profit by what you have told me," said he, calmly. "The best of us are
liable to err."
There was something in the words, voice, and manner of the minister
that Mr. Larkin did not clearly comprehend. He had spoken harshly, and,
he now felt, with some rudeness; but, while there was nothing in the
air with which his reproof was received that evidenced the conviction
of error there was no resentment. A moment before, he felt like a
superior severely reprimanding an inferior; but now he stood in the
presence of one whose calmness and dignity oppressed him. He was about
commencing a confused apology for his apparent harshness, when Mr.
Malcolm bowed and passed on.
Larkin did not feel very comfortable as he walked away. He soon more
than half repented of what he had done, and before night, by way of
atonement for his error, called upon Mr. Elder, and handed him a check
for twenty-five dollars, to help pay off the minister's debt. So much
for the principle concerned.
On the next Sabbath, to his great surprise, when the text was
announced, it was in the following unexpected words--
"Owe no man any thing."
The sermon was didactive and narrative. In the didactic portion, the
minister was exceedingly close in laying down the principles of honesty
in all transactions between man and man, and showed that for a man to
live beyond his known income, when that was sufficient to supply his
actual wants, was dishonest. Then he gave sundry examples of very
common but dishonest practices in those who withhold from others what
is justly their due, and concluded this portion of his discourse, by
plainly stating the glaring dishonesty of which too many congregations
were guilty, in owing their ministers the difference between their
regular and fixed income, and what they actually needed for their
comfortable support and freedom from care. This, he said, was but a
poor commentary upon their love for the church, and showed too plainly
its sordid and selfish quality.
This was felt by many to be quite too pointed and out of place; and for
a young man, like him, very bold and immodest. One member took out his
box and struck the lid a smart, emphatic rap before taking a pinch of
snuff,--another coughed--and three or four of the older ones gave
several loud "a-h-h-hems!" Throughout the church there was an uneasy
movement. But soon all was still again, for the minister had commenced
the narrative of something which he said had occurred in a parish at no
great distance. For a narrative, introduced in a sermon, all ears are
open.
Very deliberately and very minutely did Mr. Malcolm give the leading
facts which we have already placed before the reader, even down to the
sound lecture he had received from Mr. Larkin, and then closed his
sermon, after a few words of application, with a firm repetition of his
text:
"My brethren, 'Owe no man any thing.'"
Of course, there was a buzzing in the hive after this. One made
inquiries of another, and it was soon pretty well understood
throughout, that seven or eight hundred dollars had actually been
promised to the minister instead of the four, which all were very
content that he should receive, thinking little and caring little
whether he lived well or ill upon it. But who was it that had rated him
so soundly? That was the next question. But nobody knew. Some of those
most familiar with Mr. Malcolm boldly asked him the question, but he
declined giving an answer. Poor Mr. Larkin trembled but the minister
kept his own counsel.
On the Tuesday following this pointed discourse, Mr. Malcolm received
his last quarter's salary four weeks in advance, and three hundred
dollars besides. Two hundred of this had been loaned by Mr. Larkin
until such time as it could be collected.
At the next meeting of the vestry, the resignation of Mr. Malcolm as
minister of the parish was received. Before acting upon it, a
church-meeting was called, at which it was unanimously voted to double
the ministers salary. That is, make it eight hundred. Much was said in
his favour as a man of fine talents and sincere piety. In fact, the
congregation generally had become much attached to him, and could not
bear to think of his leaving them. Money was no consideration now.
The vote of the meeting was conveyed to Mr. Malcolm. He expressed his
thanks for the liberal offer, but again declined remaining. Another
church-meeting was called, and a thousand dollars unhesitatingly named
as the minister's salary, if he would stay. Many doubled their
subscriptions, and said that, if necessary, they would quadruple them.
When Mr. Malcolm determined to leave C--, he had no parish in view; but
he did not think it would be useful for him to remain. Nor had he any
in view when he declined accepting the offer of eight hundred dollars.
But it was different when the offer of a thousand dollars came, for
then he held in his hand a call to a neighbouring parish, where the
salary was the same.
The committee to wait upon him, and urge him to accept the still better
terms offered, was composed of Messrs. Elder, Larkin, and three others
among the oldest and most influential members. He answered their
renewed application by handing them the letter he had just received. It
was read aloud.
"If money is any object, Mr. Malcolm," said Larkin, promptly, "you need
not leave us. Twelve hundred can be as easily made up to you as a
thousand."
The minister was slightly disturbed at this. He replied in a low,
unsteady voice:
"Money has no influence with me in this matter. All I ask is a
comfortable maintenance for my family. This, your first offer of eight
hundred dollars would have given; but I declined it, with no other
place in view, because I thought it best for both you and me that we
should separate. I have tried only to look to the good of the church in
my decisions, and I will still endeavour to keep that end before my
eyes."
"Have you accepted the call?" asked Mr. Elder.
"No, I have but just received it!"
"Have you positively determined that you will not remain with us?"
"I should not like to say positively."
"Very well. Now, let me say that the desire to have you remain is
general, and that the few who have the management of the church
affairs, and not the many who make up the congregation, are to blame
for previously existing wrongs and errors. From the many comes a strong
desire to have you stay. They say that your ministrations have been of
great spiritual benefit to them, and that if you go away, they will
suffer loss. Under these circumstances, Mr. Malcolm, are you willing to
break your present connection?"
"Give me a few hours to reflect," replied the minister, a good deal
affected by this unlooked-for appeal. "I wish to do right; and in doing
it, am ready to cut off the right hand and pluck out the right eye. As
Heaven is my witness, I set before me no earthly reward. If I do
consent to remain, I will not receive more than your first offer of
eight hundred dollars, for on that I can live comfortably."
When the committee again waited on Mr. Malcolm, to receive his answer,
it was in the affirmative; but he was decided in his resolution not to
receive more than eight hundred dollars. But the congregation was just
as much decided on the other side, and although only two hundred
dollars a quarter were paid to their minister by the treasurer, more
than fifty dollars flowed in to him during the same period in presents
of one useful thing and another, from friends known and unknown.
The parish of C-- had quite reformed its mode of paying the minister.