Maurice Mapleson Tries an Experiment.
FIVE or six weeks ago Maurice came to me in some excitement. "Mr.
Laicus," said he, "is it true that ten of you gentlemen have to
contribute thirty dollars a piece this year to make up my salary?"
"No," said I.
"Why, John," said Jennie.
"We didn't have to do it," I continued. But in point of fact we do
it."
"I don't like that," said he soberly. "If the church can't pay me
fifteen hundred dollars a year I do not want to receive it. I
thought the church was strong and well able to do all it professed
to do."
"My dear Mr. Mapleson," said I, "you attend to the spiritual
interests of the church and leave its finances to us. If we cannot
pay you all we have promised, we will come and beg off. Till then
you just take it for granted that it's all right."
Maurice shook his head.
"Why, my dear friend," said I, "how much do you suppose I pay for
pew rent?"
"I haven't the least idea," said he.
"Fifty dollars," said I. "That provides myself and wife and Harry
with a pew in church twice on the Sabbath if we want it. It pays for
Harry's Sabbath-school instruction and for your service as a pastor
to me and to mine. But we will make no account of that. Fifty
dollars a Sabbath is a dollar a week, fifty cents a service, twenty
cents a head. Harry half price, and the Sabbath-school, and the
prayer-meetings, and the pastoral work thrown in. It is cheaper than
any lecturer would give it to us, and a great deal better quality
too. My pew rent isn't what I pay for the support of the Gospel. It
is what I pay for my own spiritual bread and butter. It won't hurt
me, nor Deacon Goodsole, nor Mr. Wheaton, nor Mr. Gowett, nor any
one else on that list to contribute thirty dollars more for the
cause of Christ and the good of the community."
Maurice shook his head thoughtfully, but said nothing more about it
then, and the matter dropped.
The last week in December we have our annual meeting. It is
generally rather a stupid affair. The nine or ten gentlemen who
constitute the board of trustees meet in the capacity of an
ecclesiastical society. In the capacity of a board of trustees they
report to themselves in the capacity of a society. In the capacity
of a society they accept the report which they have presented in the
capacity of a board of trustees, and pass unanimously a resolution
of thanks to the board, i. e. themselves, for the efficient and
energetic manner in which they have discharged their duties. They
then ballot in a solemn manner for themselves for the ensuing year
and elect the ticket without opposition. And the annual meeting is
over.
But this year our annual meeting was a very different affair. The
Sabbath preceding, the parson preached a sermon on the text: "The
poor have the Gospel preached to them." In this sermon he advocated
a free-pew system. His arguments were not very fresh or new (there
is not much that is new to be said on the subject) till he came to
the close. Then he startled us all by making the following
proposition:
"The chief objection," said he, "to the free-pew system is the
question, 'Where shall the money come from?' From God, I answer. I
believe if we feed his poor, he will feed us. I, for one, am willing
to trust Him, at least for one year."
It slipped out very naturally, and there was a little laugh in the
congregation at the preacher's expense. But he was very much in
earnest.
"I propose to the society to throw open the doors of this church,
and declare all the pews free. Provide envelopes and papers, and
scatter them through the pews. Let each man write thereon what he is
willing to pay for the support of the Gospel, and whether he will
pay it weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-quarterly or annually. Give
these sealed envelopes to me. No one shall know what they contain
but myself and the treasurer. I will pay out of the proceeds all the
current expenses of the church, except the interest. Whatever
remains, I will take as my salary. The interest, the trustees will
provide out of the plate collections and with the aid of the ladies.
This is my proposition. Consider it seriously, earnestly,
prayerfully, and come together next Wednesday night to act
intelligently upon it."
I hardly think the minister's eloquence would have sufficed to carry
this plan, but the treasurer's balance-sheet helped his case
amazingly.
I supposed there would be a small deficit, but thought I knew it
could not be very great. But I had not reckoned on the genius for
incapacity which characterises church boards. To have the unusual
deficit, which was involved by the increase of the parson's salary,
provided for by a special subscription was more than they could
bear. They had regarded it as their duty, made plain by the example
of their predecessors in office for many years, to bring the church
in debt, and nobly had they fulfilled their duty. On the strength of
that extraordinary subscription they had rushed into extraordinary
expenditures with a looseness that was marvellous to behold.
Here is the annual exhibit as it appears in the treasurer's report:
BALANCE SHEET.
Cr.
Pew-rents
$1,250.00
Sunday Collections
325.25
Received by a Ladies' Fair
113.34
Special Subscription
300.00
$1,988.59
Dr.
Minister's Salary
$1,500.00
Organist (a new expenditure advocated by Mr. Wheaton because of the Special
Subscription), Six months' salary
100.00
Church Repairs, (a new fence and new blinds, &c., advocated by Mr. Wheaton
because of the Special Subscription)
134.75
Reed Organ for the Sabbath-School (advocated by Mr. Wheaton because of the
Special Subscription)
150.00
Interest on Mortgage
315.00
Sexton
200.00
Fire, lights and incidentals
225.00
Commission for collecting pew-rents
55.75
$2,680.50
1,988.59
Deficit
$691.91
Of course, the minister's salary was behind; and, of course, the
minister was behind to the grocer, and the baker, and the butcher,
and the dry-goods dealer; and, of course, everybody felt blue. There
was a good deal of informal discussion before the parson's
proposition was taken up. Mr. Hardcap wanted to decrease the
minister's salary. Mr. Wheaton wanted to raise the pew rents. Mr.
Leacock thought Mr. Wheaton could afford to give up his mortgage on
the church. Mr. Line proposed to take up a subscription, pay the
balance off on the spot, and begin the new year afresh. Mr. Gazbag
thought it ought to be left to the ladies to clear off the debt with
a concert or something of that sort. Mr. Cerulian thought (though he
said it very quietly) that if we had a minister who could draw
better, we shouldn't have any difficulty.
The parson kept his own counsel till these various plans had been,
one after another, proposed and abandoned. Then he again proposed
his own.
"I do not want," he said, "any more salary than this church and
congregation can well afford to give. I am willing if it is poor to
share its poverty. I believe if it is prosperous it will be willing
to share with me its prosperity. I have studied this matter a good
deal; I believe the pew rent system to be thoroughly bad. It
excludes the poor. What is more to the purpose it excludes those
whom we most need to reach. The men who most need the Gospel will
not pay for it. The law of supply and demand does not apply. No man
pays a pew rent who does not already at least respect religion, if
he does not personally practise it. The influence within the church
of selling the Gospel in open market is as deadly as its influence
without. It creates a caste system. Practically our pews are
classified. We have a parquette, a dress circle, a family circle,
and an amphitheatre. The rich and poor do not meet together. We are
not one in Christ Jesus. Moreover I believe it to be as bad
financially as it is morally. When an American makes a bargain he
wants to make a good one. What he buys he wants to get as cheap as
his neighbor. If you rent your pews, every renter expects to get his
seat at the lowest rates. But Americans are liberal in giving. If
they contributed to the support of the Gospel, if what they gave the
church was a free gift, I believe they would give with a free hand.
At all events I would like to try the experiment. It can be no worse
than it has been this year. The trustees can have no difficulty in
raising interest money from the plate collections and a special
subscription. There can be no injustice in requiring them to secure
a special fund for any special expenditures. And all the other
expenditures I will provide for myself out of the free gifts of the
congregation. I am willing to run all the risks. It may do good. It
can do the church no harm."
A long discussion followed this proposal.
Mr. Wheaton was at first utterly opposed to the plan. He thought it
was tempting Providence to make no more adequate provision for our
debts. Six of us quietly agreed to assume the mortgage debt, that is
to say to insure him that the plate collections and the ladies
together would pay the interest promptly. That changed his view. He
said that if the minister had a mind to risk his salary on such a
crazy scheme, very well. And at the last he voted for it.
Mr. Hardcap thought it was a first-rate plan. It was noticed
afterward that he moved from a plain seat in the gallery to a
cushioned and carpeted seat in the center aisle. Whether he paid any
more contribution than he had before paid of pew rent, nobody but
the parson knows. But nobody suspects him of doing so.
Mrs. Potiphar thought it was horrid. What was to prevent any common,
low-born fellow, any carpenter's son, right from his shop, coming
and sitting right alongside her Lillian? She couldn't sanction such
communist notions in the church.
Deacon Goodsole warmly favored the minister's idea-was its most
earnest advocate, and was the man who first started the plan for
buying Mr. Wheaton's acquiescence.
Mr. Line hadn't a great deal of faith in it. This was not the way
the church used to raise money when he was a boy. Still, he wanted
to support the minister, and he wanted to have the poor reached, and
he hadn't anything to say against it.
Squire Rawlins said, "Go ahead. The minister takes all the risk,
don't you see? He's a big fool in my opinion. But there's no law
agin a man makin' a fool of himself, ef he wants ter."
Miss Moore organized that very night a double force to carry the
plan into effect. One was a ladies' society to pay the interest; the
other was a band of workers, young men and young women, to go out on
Sunday afternoons and invite the people who now do not go anywhere
to church, to come to ours.
On the final vote the plan was carried without a dissenting voice. I
beg Mrs. Potiphar's pardon. Her voice was heard in very decided
dissent as the meeting broke up. But as the ladies do not vote in
the Calvary Presbyterian Church, her protest did not prevent the
vote from being unanimous.
Maurice Mapleson is sanguine of results, I am not. I am afraid he
will come out bankrupt himself at the end of the year. I wanted to
raise a special subscription quietly to ensure his salary. But he
would not hear of it. He replied to my suggestion, "I said I would
trust the Lord, and I will. If you want to add to your envelope
contribution, very well. But I do not want any more than that will
give me."
But one thing I notice and record here. Our congregation have
increased from ten to twenty per cent. Miss Moore's invitations have
met with far greater success than I anticipated. I never could get
any of the boys from the Mill village to come to church at all
regularly under the old system. When this change was made I gave
notice of it, and now over half my Bible-class are in the
congregation. But I can get no intimation from Maurice how the plan
is prospering financially. All he will say is, "We shall all know at
the close of the year."