The REriRED MINISTER HIS CLAIM INHERENT. FOREMOST, SUPREME OSEPH B. HINGELEY BV 4382 .H5 Hingeley, Joseph Beaumont, 1856-1929. The retired minister THE RETIRED MINISTER. nsfe JUN ?.8 1915 ^-r. HIS CLAIM INHERENT, FOREMOST, SUPREME £^CIML5S "^ JOSEPH B. HINGELEY THE ABINGDON PRESS NEW YORK CINCINNATI Copyright Privileges Relinquished in the interest of Publicity JOSEPH B. HINGELEY Price, SI. 00 net; postage, 15 cents. Address orders to the BOARD OF CONFERENCE CLAIMANTS 1018 South Wabash Ave., Chicago, 111. Orders filled also by THE ABINGDON PRESS 150 Fifth Ave., New York THE METHODIST BOOK CONCERN and its DEPOSITORIES; and by DENOMINATIONAL PUBLISHING HOUSES and BOOK DEALERS generally TO MY FATHER THE REV. EZRA HINGELEY, D.D. 1825-1894 ^ •••••• • •••• ••, 1 Efje Cfjurtrsi Wi^\) for tf)e Vttum^ \ ^oiccb Op iSiJSljop (©uaplc i I iWap tije fjeat not be too great for tfjem. nor tf)e : 1 tointer too colli, because of tije eternal ssummer in tljeir fjeartJS. : • •••• • • • • 1 VL^t ii : Unpacking : 1 (2^lb '^:i-'«r : • i Circuit • babble i 1 JaiDer pagfl; 1 • •••• 1 •••• * 1 • 1 • 1 ^¥ VJT 1 t Vt\)t Betireb Jflinigter ?|i£f Claim 3nl}erent, jForemos^t, Supreme. *3 fjabe fousfjt a goob figljt, 3 fjabe finisiljeb mp cour£ie, 3 Ijabe feept tlje Jfaitfj/* FOREWORD The supremacy of the claim of the Veteran Preacher is being recognized by all the Churches. The new adjectives applied to the claim are significant : "Inherent/' "Foremost/' "Supreme." The General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1908 declared the claim of the Retired Minister to be ''inherent/' The Presbyterian Church in 1909 adopted Dr. A. T. Pier- son's word and declared that the claim was ''-foremost." The N'ational Convention of Laymen held in Indianapolis in 1913 called it "the supreme claim of the Retired Veterans." The Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church in ses- sion at Washington, D. C, on October 29, 1914, demanded that the Supreme claim should he given the Supreme Place, and closed their Address and Appeal to the Church as follows : "We pledge ourselves and, as far as we may, pledge the whole Church to full and loyal cooperation to bring in this new and better day for the Church we love and the men we honor." This book contains addresses made at the Inauguration Convention by men to whom the Churches have committed this great Cause, as well as by other leaders whose hearts are full of affection for Retired Ministers and whose minds and hands are employed in seeing that the Veteran Clergyman comes to his own. As you read you will discover enthusiasm, optimism and a resolve that aged ministers of the Gospel shall not be pro- vided for as objects of charity; but that the laymen of the Churches in whose service they have wrought, shall fulfill the promise of a comfortable support made to them when they took their ordination vows, and shall "see them through." We are under special obligation to distinguished leaders of great Churches, and representatives of great business cor- porations whose illuminating articles give breadth and inter- est to this book by informing us as to what other institutions are doing to provide for the faithful and aged. Especially 6 FOREWORD are we indebted to the Rev. Alfred J. P. McClure, D.D., of the Episcopal Cliureh, the Rev. William II. Foulkes, D.D., of the Rreslnterian Church, the liev. Samuel Lane Loomis, D.D. and the Rev. W. A. Rice, 1 ).!)., of the Congregational Church, the Rev. J. R. Stewart, D.D., of the Methodist Epis- copal Church, South, the Rev. W. B. Matteson of the Baptist Church, the Rev. Henry H. Sweets of the Southern Presby- terian Church, the Rev. Denis Wortman, D.D. of the Re- formed (Dutch) Church, the Rev. W. R. Warren, D.D., of the Disciples of Christ and to the many other, contributors, ministers and laymen, whose labors have made this book possible. In the name of the Retired Ministers we extend our grate- ful thanks to Charles Scribner's Sons, The Continent, The Altemus Co. and others, who permit the use of copyright matter; and to men of large affairs like Mr. Renner of the Pennsylvania Lines, Mr. Pew of the Youngstown Steel Company, Mr. Campl)ell of South Bend, Judge Oliver H. Horton of Chicago, and others Avho have rendered valuable service. Their willingness to share their time and labors in such a Cause is an indication of the hold which the retire- ment competency idea has upon the business world. The Rev. J. Clayton Youker reported the several addresses and assisted in the preparation of the book, and the Rev. M. E. Snyder, Ph.D., and the Rev. Charles R. Oaten, secretaries, rendered valuable and distinguished service. We have added chapters which have appeared in the columns of the ''Veteran Preacher" and in Church periodi- cals; also music and poetry and statistics, with the intention of making this book a Compendium to which the laity and ministry may turn for information as to the Cause of the Retired Minister. The Abingdon Press has given to this book a printed form worthy of its subject matter ; for we expect that "The Retired Minister" will be welcomed to the shelves of ministers' libraries and to the homes of Christian people. Joseph B. Hingeley. Evanston, Illinois. CONTENTS PART I. THE CLAIM INHERENT CHAPTER I. THE MERITS OF THE CASE PAGE 1. The Task Golden Quayle 13 2. Paving the Last Mile Keeney 19 3. Road of the Loving Heart Welch 27 4. Love's Recompense Fanny Crosby ... 29 5. A Retiring Competency and the Call TO Preach Birney 31 6. A Retiring Competency and IVIinis- TERiAL Efficiency McConnell 39 7. Savings vs. Efficiency Van Cleve 43 8. Debt of the Nation to the Ministry. . . . Lidstone 53 9. The Pastor's Family Stone 61 10. Why a Service Pension? Miller 67 11. A Dependable Pension Campbell 79 12. The Church's Obligation Sweets 85 13. The Shepherd Who Watched Page 89 14. Should Ministers Marry? Harland 103 15. Not Charity but Justice Cooke Ill 16. Stop! Look! Listen! Hingeley 117 CHAPTER II. OLD AGE PAGE 1. Give Them the Flowers Now 124 2. Some Advantages of Growing Old Thomas 125 3. Seven Ages of a Minister Tipple 131 4. The Senior Retired Minister 134 5. Does the Ministry Pay? Higgins 135 6. The Old Man and the Child Tiplady 139 7. William's Superannuation Harris 143 8 CONTENTS PART II. THE CLAIM FOREMOST CHAPTER I. THE CHURCH'S PROGRAM PAGE 1. The Foremost Claim Pierson 149 2. The Protestant Episcopal Church McClure 151 3. The Presbyterian Church Foulkes 165 4. The Presbyterian Church (Southern) . . Sweets 175 5. The Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Stewart 183 6. The Baptist Church Matteson 195 7. The Congregational Program Rice 205 8. The Congregational Church Loomis 207 9. Disciples of Christ Warren 213 10. The Reformed (Dutch) Church Wortman 219 11. The Methodist Episcopal Church Hingeley 225 CHAPTER 11. THE PROGRAM OF BUSINESS page 1. The Pennsylvania Lines Renner 233 2. Railroad Pension Systems — Table Foulkes 238 3. The Chicago & Northwestern Railroad 239 4. Industrial Pension Systems Foulkes 240 5. What Corporations are Doing Pew 241 6. The First National Bank, Chicago 244 7. Teachers' Retirement, New York City . Hartwell 247 8. Teachers' Pension Funds — Table Foulkes. 249 9. Old- Age, Mothers' and Government Pensions Applegate 251 10. Two Workmen: Likeness and Contrast 258 CHAPTER HI. POST-MORTEM DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH page 1. Influence Made Immortal Warren 262 2. Wills Horton 263 3. "Safe" and "Sound" Wills Remsen 274 4. Form and Application Blank for Life Annuity Bonds 277 5. Banker Oliver's Investment 279 6. List of Annual Conference Organizations 289 COXTENTS 9 PART III. THE CLAIM SUPREME CHAPTER I. EPISCOPAL LEADERSHIP AND CONFERENCE PAGE 1. The Bishops' Address and Appeal 295 2. Episcopal Addresses to General Conferences 301 3. Voices Silent but Persuasive 303 4. The Episcopal Round Robin 305 5. The Inauguration Conference 315 6. Building on a Good Foundation Cranston 321 7. A Conquering Campaign Berry 325 8. We Shall Win McDowell 329 9. Greetings to the Convention Anderson 333 10. Response Van Cleve 335 CHAPTER 11. THE 1915 CAMPAIGN PAGE 1. History of the Campaign Hingeley. . . . ....339 2. Some New Things ....344 3. Approaching a Crisis Transue .... ....349 4. German Conferences Mulfinger. . . ....351 5. Ein Wohlverdienter Lohn Loeppert. . . . ....355 6. Swedish Conferences Young ....359 7. VoR Gjeld til de Udtjente Predikanter Madscn ....361 8 Colored Conferences Dean ....363 9. Cooperation — The Bishops Neely ....365 10. Cooperation — District Superintendents Parkin ....367 11. Cooperation — Conference Organiza- 1 « tions Morse 369 T^ Conference Leadership Slease Hingeley . . . 375 13. The Campaign Program ....379 14. The Campaign Cooperative, Intensive, Extensive Dorion ....383 15. Official Family — Round Robin: Publishing Agents ....388 Editors ....389 Corresponding Secretaries ....396 16. "Why Don't You Speak for Yourself?" ....402 17. We'll Do It! Oldham ....403 10 CONTENTS CHAPTER III. AGENCIES PAGE 1. The Book Concern Mairis 409 2. The Chartered Fund Hitchcock 413 3. Annual Conference Endowments Greenfield 415 4. Contributions from Pastoral Charges.. Clemans 421 5. Board of Conference Claimants Hamilton 425 6. Veterans of the Cross Fellowship Cooper 429 CHAPTER IV. HISTORICAL page 1. Aged Pastors Must be Provided For. . . Echman 436 2. Veterans' Rank and Rights Restored . . Keeney 437 3. Early Methodist Stewardship Calkins 445 4. Cooper and Dickins Kranlz 451 5. John Street Church Johnston 455 6. St. George's Church Hughes 461 7. Deferred Payments Watson 467 8. Disciplinary Provisions 470 PART IV. THE CLAIM ILLUSTRATED CHAPTER I. SCRIPTURAL TREATMENT PAGE 1. Helpful Homiletic Hints Sweets 479 2. Modern Psalms '. . . Foulkes 501 CHAPTER II. STORY AND SONG page 1. The Happy Man Collins 505 2. Old Preacher's Soliloquy Brown 515 3. Our Veterans Greenfield 526 4. The Light Brigade Kipling 528 5. Veterans! Hough 530 6. Different Ways We Treat Them Welch 531 7. The Circuit Preacher Townsend 533 8. Quitting Too Soon Guardian 534 9. Wanted — A Minister's Wife 536 10. A Strong Church Matteson 537 11. Miscellaneous 539 12. Proceedings Washington Convention. . . Snyder 553 13. A Summary Hingeley 568 14. Music 572 15. Index 577 A RETIRING COMPETENCY FOR THE RETIRED MINISTER PART I THE CLAIM INHERENT UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES The Church's Recognition that the Right to a Comfortable Support Inheres in the Gospel Ministry, is Justified by the Character of the Ministry, the Demands Made on it, and the Service it Renders; and calls for an adequate Retiring Competency for the Old Age of Ministers of Christ. CHAPTER I. THE MERITS OF THE CASE PAGE 1. The Task Golden Qumjle 13 Lost Magic IS 2. Paving the Last Mile Keeney 19 Old Age. Longfellow 26 3. Road of the Loving Heart Welch 27 An Old Minister. McCoy 28 4. Love's Recompense Fanny Cro.shy ... 29 5. A Retiring Competency and the Call to Preach Blrney 31 A Pastor. HoUand 37 A Riper Youth 38 A Rain of Roses. Lorrman 38 6. A Retiring Competency and Minis- terial Efficiency McConnell 39 7. Savings vs. Efficiency Van Cleve 43 8. Debt of the Nation to the Ministry. . . . Lidstone 53 9. The Pastor's Family Stone 61 Army Chaplains 66 10. Why a Service Pension? Miller 67 Requisites of a Preacher. Ken 78 11. A Dependable Pension Campbell 79 12. The Church's Obligation Sweets 85 13. The Shepherd Who Watched Page 89 The Village Clergyman. Goldsmith. . 1C2 14. Should Ministers Marry? Harland 103 National Monuments. Van Dyke. . .110 15. Not Charity but Justice Cooke Ill Why Don't You Speak for Yourself?. 116 16. Stop! Look! Listen! Hingeley 1 17 Veterans of the Cross. Cooper 122 THE TASK GOLDEN BISHOP WILLIAM A. QUAYLE, D.D., LL.D. It is lovely to be at the vortex of things. It is rather radiant to be at the center of the storm ; and I confess in the privacy of this presence that I fellowship with Brother Berry in his delight in magnitudes. Looking After Our Immortality To get hold of a thing that is big enough to get hold of us is magnificent. To go winking and blinking around about little business is not worth the winks and the blinks; but to get hold of a sea and tuck your fingers into its mane, and see the thing leap and want to be riderless, and for you to sit and ride it to the shore, 0 that is worth while. It is worth while to be in a great Church with a great God steering to a great eternity; and the thing I think of pretty often is : Who is going to keep us to our immortality ? Wlio is going to keep us to our bigness? Who is going to look after our vastnesses? Who is going to tell us with insist- ent voice that we are sublime ? Who is going to tell us that death does not count any, if we live a right life? Who is going to point the finger at the majesty we are and the majesty we are to be? Who is going to help us look after our immortality? There are many who will help us to look after our mor- tality: the grocer will help us, and the doctor will help us, and the shoe merchant will help us, and the railroad man will help us, and the statesman will help us, and the edu- cator will help us, and the college will help us; but who is going to help us look after the Godward ? Who is going to help us look after our everlastingness ? Answer: The preacher is going to help us; he is the man that keeps tune with the infinite; he is the man who, though he may not 13 14 THE RETIRED MINISTER spell the best and though he may not be edueated the most, has heard in his own heart the deathless music, and pitches the tune. What people need is the tune of their everlasting- ness. I remember so many times when people would say to me, "Preach on the things of the day; preach on the things that people are thinking about during the week" ; but I never did, because they thought about those things themselves and did not need to have me help them. But on Sunday I began to take up the harp of life and smite upon some of the strings with what little might I knew, and began to make men dream of deathlessness ; and then men got religion. The thing we are after is to get hold of our own souls; to know that life leads us so long a distance, that the run is so very far, so very expeditious, and so very glorious. 0 my heart, canst thou take to the race ? 0 my heart, canst thou make the run ? 0 my heart, Avho is going to get thee to the summit of the sky, and 0 my heart, who is going to get thee back behind the stars, and 0 my heart, who is going to get thee over where the angels stay, and 0 my heart who is going to get thee where Christ walks the road every day and bringeth a morning to every shadowy night? Who is going to get thee there? And the answer is: The preacher is going to help us, and so the preacher is the most manifest majesty of all men. The Preachers I think of the funny men I have had preach to me, and I remember how they did tear the beautiful garment of dramatic expression into small ribbons and did not care about the ribbons at all; and I remember when 1 heard them fall on the "whoms" and the "whos,'^ and all the ridiculosities of speech; yet I remember some of those men, who could not get it arranged whether they should say "who" or "whom," who brought you up until you fell on the outstretched Hand, and caught the foot of the cross of God. I would not say that I like people to be ungrammatical, but I would rather hear vsome people who are ungrammatical and divine, than hear other people who are grammatical and utterly human. The preacher that came over to me and said, "Billy, you belong with Jesus," that is the fellow. He was a kind of a farmer fellow, and he grew all crops but hair, and he wore THE TASK GOLDEN 15 farmer clothes, and spoke about farming and sowing; and he said that there was a sower wlio went out to sow, and there was a great harvest; and everyl)ody paid heed. And then he came and put his hand on my shoukler and said, "Billy, God wants you to be one of His farmers," and I came up the aisle of the schoolhouse, not to the chancel — there wasn't any — there wasn't anything but a dictionary in the schoolhouse, so I came up and bowed at the dictionary; and, 0 me, the wind was wild that night, it was as stormy as on the wide sea, the storm that beat upon that prairie school- house; the wind had its chance, and blew like it did on the Sea of Galilee ; and Christ came over and said, "Boy, what do you want down here ?" and I said, "I want Thee, 0 Christ." And He said, "I have come." Oh, people, there isn't anybody who ever drew breath, that knew how to draw the bow of steel and aim the arrow of strange words, golden and beautiful, who can use words beautiful enough for the preachers of God; and though they had small salaries and large families and few belongings and scant wealth, they had God. In their dreams they talked about God. Said an old preacher, in my hearing at a Con- ference, "Brother Quayle, I am so old, and have no business to be here; I have been superannuated for years, and I can- not preach; and 0," he said — and his voice was as wistful as a mother's calling the name of her dead daughter; if you have ever heard that you will never forget it — "'Brother Quayle, sometimes in my sleep in the night I awaken myself from my slumber because I dream I am preaching." Thanks be to God for the preachers who thought so little of themselves because they thought so much of Christ! Thank God for the preachers who had not more sense than to go around visiting everybody, and did not know that any- l)ody was lowly, did not know that there were lowly people in the world, but thought that there were only high people in the world because Christ died for them, and said to every one, "Brother, Christ spoke your name in my ear; and He said, ^He knew you all ; come on over, come on over !' " A Task Worth While Brother Cranston, I think it is perfectly beautiful to con- sider this last thing which we have tackled. We have tackled 16 THE RETIRED MINISTER everything we could think of, and something else. If there is anything we have not tackled I wonder what on earth it is. We take a collection for every sort of thing, and even for the folk that represent the illimitableness of the unknown we take a collection. Preachers take all the collections for everybody else, but never take a collection for themselves. They have been so busy caring for other people they forgot themselves. I think that is the greatest credential a Meth- odist preacher ever had : He was busy at the Task Golden. An old man who had whiskers long enough to anchor by put both hands into his whiskers and said, "Brother Quayle, I have been preaching sixty odd years, and for over fifty-eight years I never came home but a woman I loved met me at the door ; and now," he said, with a great gasp and sob, "no- body meets me at the door"; and he said, "Brother Quayle, I did not have enough money to pay for her funeral; but if I had all the money that the churches I have served owed me and did not pay me, I would have ten thousand dollars, plus." 0 Church of the living God, we have got to be honest ; we have got to be square for tlie sake of ordinary virtue, but 0, we have got to do the square thing ! At a certain foreign-speaking Conference I was guest in a certain preacher's house. I felt that it was an im- position; and after a moment I said, "Living is up, politi- cians notwithstanding to the contrary; let me go." "No, you must stay here," he said; "my wife is the daughter of a Methodist preacher, and she says you have to stay here." So I said, "What your wife says stands; I will stay," and soon we were talking about her father, the preacher, and about her mother, the preacheress, and she said this thing which I thought was sweet. She said that her mother was dying with inflammatory rheumatism, and they moved her from room to room downstairs, and the pain was so terrible she could not stay in one room long, and they moved her around so tenderly, and she said, "One day mother said, 'Take me upstairs.^ And the preacher said, *Why, mother, sweetheart, we cannot take you upstairs; the doctor says the least jar might send the rheumatism to your heart.' She said, 'Take me upstairs.' " Women do not consider what the doctors say nor what the preachers say; when they want to do a thing that is the thing they want to do. The father THE TASK GOLDEN 17 said to the daughter, "You speak to your mother"; and the daughter said, "Mother, we cannot take you up"; and not any of them would touch her to take her up; so, being a woman, she went upstairs. The husband and the daughter came tag- ging after and said, "Mother, you will die on the stairs"; and she panted away on the stairs, but never turned back — did a woman ever turn back when she had set her heart, on going? Finally she got upstairs, and went into a little room that had only one window; and they expostulated, "What makes you go into the poorest room in the house?" And she smiled. It transpired that the next day was Sunday, and it transpired that that little window looked straight into the back of the church and through that church up to the pulpit, and so that when she was lying in bed, propped up on the pillows, and her husband came into the pulpit on Sun- day morning, she could see him. And she had climbed the stairs in jeopardy of her life that she might see her husband climb into the pulpit and stand behind the holy desk and open the Holy Book ; and she lay there smiling, and the next day she was in the kingdom of God. 0 Church of our supreme love, watch your minister climb into the pulpit and open the Holy Book ! 0 Methodist Church, climb the stairs and watch your preacher preach, because, peradventure, he will open the truth of God so that mortality shall be swallowed up of life, and things little shall look large, and the glory of God shall come upon the heart. I think the Methodist Church is going to love its preacher in the pulpit out loud so he will know that somebody is hungry to see him and hungry to hear him and hungry to love him; and by and by, when he is clean tired out, will give him a chance to rest, and say to him, "Beloved, sit down and rest a while, until you get so rested up that you can climb the stairs yourself and land at the top in the arms of God." William A. Quayle. St. Paul, Minn. The Preacher's Call "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach." — Isa. 61. 1. "Unto me is this grace given that I should preach." — Eph. 3. 8. 18 THE RETIRED MINISTER LOST MAGIC The Bells of Louvain, cast a century ago by the famous molder, Van Den Steyn, had long since lost their sweetness, before they were destroyed in the ruined Belgian city. Sadly he shook his frosted head, Listening and leaning on his cane. "Nay, I am like the bells," he said, "Cast by the molder of Louvain," Often you've read of their mystic powers, Floating o'er Flanders' dull lagoons; How they would hold the lazy hours Meshed in a net of golden tunes! Never such bells as those were heard Echoing over the sluggish tide: Now like a storm crash, now like a bird. Flinging the carillons far and wide. There in Louvain they swing to-day. Up in the turrets where long they've swung; But the rare cunning of yore, they say. Somehow has dropped from the brazen tongue. Over them shines the same pale sky. Under them stretch the same lagoons; Out from the belfries, birdlike, fly. As from a nest, the same sweet tunes. Ever the same, and yet we know None are entranced these later times Just as the listeners long ago Were with the wonder of their chimes. Something elusive, as viewless air, Something we cannot understand Strangely has vanished of the rare Skill of the molder's master hand. So when you plead that life is still Full as of old with tingling joy. That I may hear its music thrill Just as I heard it when a boy, All I can say is: "Youth has passed; Master of magic falls and swells. Bearing away the cunning cast Into the molding of the bells." PAVING THE LAST MILE FOR THE ITINERANT THE REV. FREDERICK T. KEENEY, D.D. President Permanent Fund Commission Central New York Conference God has a care for preachers. He has a special care, I think, for all whom He calls to special tasks of holy service. It began long ago, as is shown by the provision which He made for the Levites. They had no land, as had the others; but they had what was better than land, a place in the hearts of the people. God cared so much for them that He counted the neglect of the Levite as one of the chief sins of Israel. When the Israelite withheld his support, God withheld His crops, but when he cared for the Levite, God filled his granaries. The provision for the Levite's need was by divine appointment; and to it was ever linked a promise. The statute ran : "The Levite and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, which are within thy gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hand which thou doest." If you would know God's richest blessing, give heart-room to the stranger, the fatherless, the widow, the Levite and the prophet. Until the Most High revokes His promise, no man is poorer for sharing the best he has with those who are the subjects of God's special care ; to this the Shunnamite woman and the widow of Zarephath bear testimony. The same truth is emphasized in the New Testament. Christ, the Good Shepherd, had special promises and tender messages for those whom He called to represent Him as under-shepherds of the flock. They came closer to His heart than did any others, and were more often in His prayers. They, too, had neither lands nor houses. They were to go forth without scrip or purse. There was need of neither, for Christ had provided for them a richer legacy — the hearts of those to whom they ministered. You might have thought them poor, but they were not. It might have seemed that they 19 20 THE RETIEED MIXISTER were having a hard time; but it was a triumphant journey all the way. True, there was many a paradox. Tliey, like Paul, were sorrowful, yet always rejoicing ; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing all things; unknown, and yet well known; dying, yet very much alive; chastened, but not killed. God's ministers in every centur}^ have been in this ^^apos- tolic succession." Xo life has more of paradoxes than that of the Methodist itinerant. There are the hard places, and there are the Mountains of Transfiguration; there are days of humiliation and defeat, and days of victory; there are days when one might wish to die, and there are days when one might wish to live a thousand years. There are joy-days enough, so that I ask no one to shed tears or to give a feather's weight of sympathy to the Methodist itinerant until he comes to the last mile. Then, if you can lighten the load a bit or help pave the way, you are doing .a service so Christlike that angels well might covet the task. I speak of the last mile out of the fulness of an overflowing heart. I entered the Methodist itinerancy when I was two months and thirteen days old. I have lived under a parsonage roof through all the intervening years. Sometimes the roof has leaked, but more often not. Sometimes it was so low that there was not much room between one's head and the rafters; but usually it was high enough. Sometimes father's purse was so thin that one did not need an X-ray to see through it; but usually there was a ham or a spare rib hanging in the wood- house. Sometimes the boys used to plague me because the knees of my trousers were patched; and said that the reason lay in the fact that my father made me pray so much that I wore them through prematurely; but I was always sure of at least one pair of pants, so long as father had some old trousers which could be made over, and mother did not lose her skill with the needle. Father and I began preaching in 1863, when the price of everything was high, except the price of preaching. That was kept down to a strictly gold standard throughout the Civil War. During the first year of father's ministry he was the junior preacher on a large circuit. The Conference Minutes for that year report the salary received by both min- isters as $200, with a donation of $260; but the Minutes PAVING THE LAST MILE 21 do not tell how this sum was divided. Inasmuch, however, as the senior minister had five children, and years of experi- ence, while my father had only a pair of twin baby boys, it is fair to assume that the junior preacher had the smaller share. In those days farmers were coining gold from the war prices, while from his meager income father was paying twenty dollars a ton for hay to feed his horse ; for the itiner- ant who did not have a good horse was always sul)jeet to censure. The following year the Minutes are more definite, and disclose the fact that father received $1G3 salary and a donation of $214:. But he preached five years before his salary and donation combined reached $500; as did many another itinerant who is now, staff in hand, wearily marching the last mile. Father was a revival preacher and pastor of the old type who took God at His word, and who never knew that the fight was either long or hard until after the victory was won. Like many another, he could preach, exhort and pray until the morning, without weariness, if there was a seeking soul at the altar to be "prayed through." During the first winter of his ministry he held revival services continuously for five months at the various appointments on the circuit, and preached every night, without once undressing for a night's rest. For mother was not strong. My twin brother and I, less than a year of age, were companions in sorroAV as in joy. If one cried, the other invariably joined him in vocal sym- pathy. During the day mother would care for us and look after the house, while father prepared for the evening service and made necessary calls. After his return from the evening service late at night, mother, worn with the day's work, re- tired; and father secured such rest as he might while lying upon the couch, ready to put wood on the fire frequently, to keep the old parsonage warm for the babies, and to care for them as occasion might require. When we slept well, he slept also ; but if either of us awoke there was sure to be a wakeful company of three. I once asked him: "Father, would you enlist in the itinerancy over again, if the years were rolled back and you had the chance to begin again? Would you leave the old homestead, where four generations of our kin- dred have been born, and become a Methodist minister, moving here and there at the will of the Bishop and the peo- 22 THE RETIRED MINISTER pie, and be glad to go, in the consciousness that God had called you to the ministry?" Then my father, four-score years old and helpless with paralysis, from the wheeled chair where he had been enthroned for five years made answer: "Fred, I would not wait a second to decide. I would rather spend my life as a Methodist minister than be a king." That day I realized, as I had never done before, that I had royal blood coursing through my veins. I grant that it is not easy for a man with a heart to be moved every year or two or three, as these Veterans had to be under the time limit; or as pastors even now have to do all too frequently. It isn't easy to pull the heart up by the roots and transplant it to new soil, to say good-by to tried old friends, and look strangers in the face on the first Sunday after Conference knowing that if you learn to love them, some day you must say good-by to them also and move on. This is not a pleasant experience for a man with a heart; and the minister who has not a heart had better dig ditches than attempt to preach. But, nevertheless, there are so many compensations; so many good people whom the itiner- ant comes to know, so many hearts and homes open to take him in, so many precious promises, tested under a great variety of circumstances, that I ask no sympathy for the Methodist itinerant until he comes to the last mile. It is then that he needs heartening, and in most cases his purse needs to feel the touch of silver. If one could always remain the pastor of one congregation he would have both love and coin sufficient to pave the last mile of the journey. He and the people would grow old together, and his gray hairs and advancing years would come on so silently as scarcely to be noticeable. Those whom he had led to Christ would not forget him; those whom he had joined in matrimony would remember him; and the children whom he had baptized would grow up ready to share with him, as long as they had aught to share with any one. But most men in the Methodist ranks come to retirement as the pastor of some little church where they have been known but a brief time. In their prime they may have served strong Churches. But the fever of haste is upon us, and the activi- ties of Church life are so many, that the old man finds it difficult to keep the pace, and he has to ask for lighter work. PAVING THE LAST MILE 23 Often on the smaller charge, where the later years find him, he is not welcome. The church had asked the Bishop for a young man; and when a preacher nearing retirement was sent, though rich in both experience and years, it was but a scanty welcome that awaited him. In a year or two the people decide that they must have a change ; and the Bishop is compelled to tell him that no charge wants him, and that nothing remains for him but retirement. It is then that I have seen the Veterans hurry out of the Conference room to hide their tears; and when their eyes were dry, I have known that their hearts were weeping. It is then that I pray God and the Church, in their pity for the preacher, to lighten the load and help pave the last mile of the way. Did you ever hear an old preacher say that he wanted to "die in the harness" ? I have heard it from the lips of scores. Do you know what he means? He means that some day he would like to bring a gosj^el message to some waiting congre- gation, look once more into their faces and feel the thrill of rapture coming back from their countenances, quickening his heart beat; at the close of the service pray with some seeker at the altar, and then lie down to sleep and wake up in glory. If ministers had their way there would never be a Retired Preacher. But God knows that we younger men need these old heroes to cheer us on and pray us through and hold u]) our hands, and knowing this. He sometimes delays their coronation. Did you read that poem, inspired by the life of Amzi Smith, a Newark Conference pastor, who went home to glory after forty-three years' service on little country charges in Northern New Jersey? The son of another preacher paid tribute to his memory in words that might be written of many a hero in any Conference : "Six hundred dollars was the most he earned In any year, so far as I'm aware; For two and forty years he lived on that, Or less. Riches unsearchable he preached. And drew this pittance for his household's needs. And yet he seemed to think it was enough. I do not know that ever he complained. Perhaps it was enough, for he was fed And clothed. His wife, the boys and girls, the horse, All had enough. He had his work to do, And did it faithfully, as unto God. 24 THE RETIRED MINISTER And where he labored hungry hearts were blest, Sinners became good men. The village smiled Where Amzi Smith abode. As God blessed Obed-Edom and his house The while the ark was there, so did He bless The towns and fields and hamlets where this man Dwelt, with God's glory in his humble soul. O God, let not that race of giants die; Give us more men like them, old-fashioned, brave, True to the truth; men that have made the Church Mighty, and glad, and songful in the past." "When these noble spirits come to the last mile, we are less ihan men, less than Christians, less than followers of John Wesley, if we do not pave it with our prayers, and with onr love and gifts. When God calls men, and sets them apart as watchmen upon the walls of Zion, His call is for life. He wants no divided life nor service; and the Church wants no pastor whose one business is not to preach the gospel. If the minister gives himself wholly to the Church for his whole life, the Church is in honor bound to provide for him; not only during the years of his active service, but also when he is too old and feeble to work. Suj)port for the last mile is as imperative as for the first. God might never have laid this honor and responsibility on the Church. He might have sent ravens to provide for His ministry as He did for Elijah. Ho might have sent angels to preach the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ. But He knew that men were better. I do not plead at this time for larger salaries, although in many cases they are pitifully small. Most churches mean to be generous, and to pay their pastor according to their ability and the light they have. But in some places the light is ex- ceedingly dim. In too many cases the support promised is not paid. Throughout the entire denomination the defi- ciencies during the last fifty years total $5,000,000, and they have fallen upon the men who could least afford to bear them. With a given salary, a minister cannot save as much as other men on the same income. No matter how small his salary may be, he must dress neatly and well, for no church wishes a "seedy" looking pastor. He must have a larger library than most men in his congregation ; he must take more periodicals; he must travel more extensively; he must attend PAVING THE LAST MILE 25 more conventions ; he must be interested in every organization in his church, and be a contributor to each one. Sometimes by his own generosity he must shame wealthy and stingy lay- men into giving. When Syracuse University was founded pastors who were receiving only $500 subscribed $500; and others on a salary of $1,000 subscribed $1,000 ; and they paid seven per cent interest until they could pay the principal. Often the little that the minister has saved disappears through poor investments before he reaches the last mile ; this is not strange. He does not have enough to invest to really learn how to invest, and often he secures his experience at the cost of his savings. He is honest himself and thinks that other people are, until he learns that much advice concerning in- vestments is not devoid of self-interest. The nightmare of a preacher's dreams, whether waking or sleeping, is to provide for his loved ones and himself for the last mile. The Church has been slow to recognize the fact that when the preacher comes to the last mile she should not treat him as a pauper but as a pensioner. She should not wound his spirit and break his heart by a dole of charity; but should count it a high honor and a joyous privilege to help make his last mile the brightest and the best. I am glad that we live at a time of enlarging vision, when the last mile of the itinerant's journey is appealing strongly to the Church; and when the men whose prayers and faith made possible the prosperity of the present, shall not only know that God has not forgotten them, but that the Church does not forget. The dawning of this new day for the Conference Claimant has been long delayed, but the sun is now up and is hastening toward the meridian. In the Central New York Conference it required twenty-four years to add $1,300 to the Permanent Fund for Conference Claimants. But during the last decade the funds have leaped from $17,000 to $200,000; and the slogan now is, "Three hundred thousand dollars by Octo- ber 1, 1915." A mighty impulse was given to the movement four years ago when the son of one of our retired ministers presented the Conference with $50,000 in honor of his father and mother, who had spent their lives serving the smaller churches of the Conference. Had the father preached one hundred years the total salary received by him would not have exceeded the amount which his generous son gave in a 26 THE RETIEED MINISTER single year. And, thank God, Methodism has many sons who are rich not only in gold but richer still in love for the Church, who wilf help pave with their gold the highway on which the itinerant travels his last mile. Methodism is rich to-day, not alone in gold, bnt also in the lives of those whom God has called into her ministry, and in the memories that linger, like a golden halo, about the lives of those whom He has promoted to the Church Triumphant. No Annual Conference is without its heroic Veterans, who opened the way for us younger men to come into the Conference and share their honors; men who built the churches where we preach and the parsonages where we live ; who led our fathers and mothers to Christ, and taught them the alphabet of prayer. We will not forget. The Church will not forget. God helping us, we will free the itinerant's last mile from anxious care, and so pave it with love as to make it the best mile of the entire journey, as he mounts up the steeps toward the city with sure foundations. Syracuse, N. Y. Frederick T. Keeney. OLD AGE Henry Wausworth Longfellow It is too late! Oh! nothing is too late. Till the tired heart shall cease to palpitate, Cato learned Greek at eighty; Sophocles Wrote his grand "(Edipus," and Simonides Bore off the prize of verse from his compeers, When each had numbered four score years; And Theophrastus at four score years and ten Had but begun his "Characters of Men." Chaucer at Woodstock, with the nightingales, At sixty wrote "The Canterbury Tales." Goethe, at Thelmar, toiling to the last Completed "Faust" when eighty years were past. What then! Shall we sit idly down and say, The night has come; it is no longer day? The night has not yet come; we are not quite Cut off from labor by the failing light; Something remains for us to do, or dare Even the oldest trees some fruit may bear; For age is opportunity no less Than youth itself, though in another dress; The sk^ is filled with stars invisible by day. Fast as the evening twilight fades away. THE ROAD OF THE LOVING HEART MILDRED WELCH That it was they called it, the simple, Samoaii Islanders, who built the road for their friend, Kobert Louis Stevenson, "a name that brings us, as it were, a breeze blowing ot! the shores of youth/' The road was cut through the brush with much labor and toil, that, unhindered, the beloved story-teller might come and go between his house in the woods and the beach. Along that road there came at sunset all his '^friendly helpers in a foreign isle,'' to join with him and his family in the simj^le evening worship that bound all hearts together beneath the peace of his roof. Fame, honor, wealth, and the love of unnumbered hearts, followed him. He, at least, could say that life had given him what he asked : ^'That he might awake each day with morn- ing face and morning heart, eager to labor, eager to be happy if happiness should be his portion; and if the day were marked for sorrow, strong to endure it." The day came at last when the Samoan chiefs carried him out by the Eoad of the Loving Heart to the crest of the hill that looks ever to the restless sea, and the storm-swept reefs, and there they laid him to rest, and on the stone they graved his own sunny-hearted words: "Glad did I live and gladly die And I laid me down with a will. Home is the sailor, home from sea, And the hunter, home from the hill." The Road of the Loving Heart — how good it is that it was granted to one man, at least, to go home that way. Do we ever think of a (dass of men, whom we send to their Father's House by the Eoad of the Sorrowful Way? Men who, though lacking the special genius of Robert Louis 27 28 THE RETIRED MINISTER Stevenson, lack nothing of his courage, his patience, his sunny-hearted sacrifices. Instead of fame, wealth, honor, they have long years in destitute home mission fields, long watches by the bed of the sick and the side of the dying, long rides in heat of summer and storm of winter. Have you ever seen them — that thin- ning line of old ministers, their shoulders stooped, their hair white, their eyes dimmed, their faces marred with others' sor- rows ? One of them went home not long ago by the Road of the Sorrowful Way. When he died, many articles were written about him and his praises were sounded far and wide, but while he lived, he was in abject poverty and sometimes in humiliating need. "I am sorry," he wrote, when he acknowledged the receipt of a pittance from the Relief Fund, "to have caused so much trouble, and ere another collection comes around I will be where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest." Soon after the old Minister entered in "where beyond the voices there is peace." The days slip by and our old ministers are going home. We choose the path they tread. Shall it be the Road of the Sorrowful Way, or do they enter that land where none shall say: "I am old," by the Road of the Loving Heart? AN OLD MINISTER Samuel McCoy In hours when I review that one dear life — The life of that one Man whom most I owe — And ponder whether rich or vain his strife, His toil repaid with bitter wage or no, Day hardly softened, though it be near done, I cry in pity. Yet the westering sun, With glory not of earth, lights up his face, And heaven hallows him as who has won His earthly fight, far beyond power to trace My helpless love; and peace rests in his eyes, And God's high calling is his matchless prize. FANNY CROSBY'S OFFERING FANNY CROSBY 94 Years Young LOVE'S EECOMPENSE AN APPEAL IN BEHALF OF RETIRED MINISTERS There is a work of love and duty That devolves upon us all. There is a tender, pleading message. And its tones like music fall: Help our weary Veteran Preachers, Scatter roses o'er their way: Rally round them, hasten quickly^ Not to-morrow, but to-day. From the well of deep affection Jslow their hearts with gladness fill. Do not wait their names to honor, Till the pulse of life is still. Break the box of alabaster. Pour its oil upon them now. Make their dwelling bright and happy, Wreathe in smiles each furrowed brow. They have borne the royal standard Of our Master and our Lord. From the time of early manhood They have preached His Holy Word. But their strength has lost its vigor. And their cheek its youthful glow; For the frost of age has touched them And their locks are white as snow. Watchman on the walls of Zion Though their feet no more will stand, From the top of Pisgah's mountain Faith beholds the promised land. Soon triumphant like an army Marching through the realms above. They will shout the grand old story, Robed in white and crowned with love. (Copyright 1909, by Biglow & Main.) 29 30 THE RETIRED MIN^ISTER Fanny J. Crosby — blind, bowed with age, but yet clear of mind — gave expression to the following rich sentiment at her home in Bridgeport, Conn., on her ninety-fourth birthday: "As for my age, it doesn't seem to me that I am in the nineties, and I attribute my good health and long life to the fact that I never let anything trouble me, and to my implicit faith, my im- plicit trust in my heavenly Father's goodness. If I didn't get the thing I wanted to-day, well, I'd get it to-morrow; if not then, I realized that it wasn't good for me to have it. Everybody is born for something, has a talent for something, and with a little patience will find his or her place in the world. You will conquer only by love. Love is the great engine which is going to reform the world." Blind, we call her? She reverses the declaration of the Lord addressed to the Pharisees — she not having eyes, seeth. What a remarkable life she has lived ! We cannot hope to have her with us long; but her philosophy of sunshine, of trust, of love, will abide as long as hearts are hungry and men seek the truth. Frances Ridley Havergal's question and answer give the larger meaning of the life of our Sweet Singer : "How can she sing in the dark like this? What is her fountain of light and bliss? O, her heart can see, her heart can see! And its sight is strong and swift and free!" When we planned our program in behalf of the old preach- ers we wrote to her, asking for a song, and were told "that she would be pleased to write a hymn for so worthy a cause." We assured her that such a service would be greatly appreciated, especially by the Retired Ministers, the widows and orphans, and in due time received the following letter: Bridgeport, Conn., August 24, 1909. Dear Dr. Hingeley: I trust you will allow me to substitute a poem for the song I promised you. It seemed to me that I could better present a plea in a poem to be read than in a song. I have written the same and enclose it herewith. Could I voice my inmost thoughts in words I am sure the appeal would touch every member of the Church. I pray that what I have written will touch many. Sincerely, Fanny J. Crosby. A RETIRING COMPETENCY AND THE CALL TO PREACH THE REV. L. J. BIRNEY, D.D. Dean Boston University School of Theology The strongest appeal made to strong men is not that of the sovereignty of God, but of the dependence of God. The amazing extent to which God has made Himself dependent upon men for the consummation of His plans captures the loyalty of great souls. The revelation of divine dependence grows with every new discernment of the laws that control the moral elevation of life. Every point of contact between divine and human life reveals it. We desire to speak of one of the most significant of these; the point at which God endeavors to lift a life into the prophetic character and func- tion. The Call The very existence of the apostolic order, as inseparable from the whole plan of redemption, vividly reveals how God must wait upon the aid of man in seeking highest ends. He can make mountains and moons without him, but without him He cannot morally change the humblest countryside. The call- ing of the twelve is the symbol of a perpetual process. But the divine dependence is not seen best in the fact that He must call prophets, but rather in the countless human elements and influences upon which the effectiveness of that call depends. A recent writer on the call to preach says that one characteristic of the call to the ministry is that it is always effective, that everyone whom God would call to preach will eventually preach. That is not true. One wonders if the writer ever mingled closely with men. It would be as reasonable to say that no one ever enters the ministry except those really chosen of God ; a claim whicli with difficulty would win the assent of the Pew. This very hour there are hundreds of men, busy in trade and profession, whom God intended for the ministry and wlio would have 31 33 THE RETIEED MINISTER wrought mightily as prophets of the Most High. That this is true is witnessed by the repentant confession of many; though not less sad is the fact that others will be unconscious of it to the end of the day. For God's call to the ministry comes more often in the still small voice, which may be lost in the din of world voices, than in earthquake or fire ; and, as the Christian ideal becomes more dominant and universal, the still voice becomes more and more, and the earthquake less and less, the means divinely used. A very large percentage of the most effective prophets of our time received no irre- sistible call, but a quiet conviction in an open mind that life would mean most for God and humanity if spent in the min- istry. The Call Obscured Among the influences which tend to obscure the call, what of the meager and pitiful provision for the closing years? And at once we say, and with emphasis, that the young man to whom the call comes with clear and unmistakable convic- tion, who seeing the meager income that makes saving almost impossible, and years of probable penury at the close, and be- cause of that alone turns back to this present world as Demas did, is no better than Demas was. In him is no stuff of which heroes are made, and the loss is not great. We doubt indeed if there are many whom God has called and chosen, and in whose souls that call rings clear, who are turned back by the threatening lion of want. But whenever that does occur, the Church will share the guilt. For a great Church like ours has no moral right thus to create a purely artificial and wholly unnecessary hardship. It is vastly different from the hard- ships and the perils that face the pioneer, or the missionary to a savage people who are ruled by savage ideals. That kind of hardship is as inseparable from the process of human redemp- tion as was the cross. But the suffering of which we speak comes from those who have accepted all the vast benefits of the gospel truth, who do understand its message of love. It originates in the ingratitude and selfishness of those who have received that message; and it falls heavily upon the life of those whose feet, now weary, were once beautiful upon the mountains, as they brought the glad tidings of peace. The burden falls upon them on account of the neglect of a great THE CALL TO PREACH 33 Church, which has power with ease to lift the last burden from the last years of the last man who has labored long and well in the great world task. The Church must share the guilt of the man whose unwillingness to bear the fruits of her negli- gence closes his eyes in disobedience to the heavenly vision. But the greatest loss is not among those in whom the call has matured to unmistakable conviction. The real mischief is done long before the call is realized, and in a far more insinu- ating, subtle and effective way. It is done by seriously prejudicing the mind of the youth of the Church against a calling which the Church permits to be surrounded too often l)y an air of pauperism and want. Every call to preach has a psychological background, upon which the call is dependent to an undreamed-of extent. Ninety-five per cent of those who have heard and heeded the call to preach spent their child- hood and youth in an atmosphere where the ministry was honored and that call not opposed. Upon that background God is largely dependent for His ministry. That law works as readily in the opposite direction. The influences that tend to make the ministry unattractive to youth, lowering its dignity and strength, tend to make a mental background against which it is exceeding difficult for the Holy Spirit to place His call with power; just as the attitude of a home in opposition to the Church or to the Christian life creates in the cliild of the home a mental attitude through which it is vastly more difficult for the Spirit to bring conviction. Prejudicing Youth Among the influences that create early j)rejudice against the highest of all callings, the failure of the Church to give that calling a self-respecting freedom from the fear of want is by no means the least. I will never be able to eradicate the im- pression made upon my mind by the annual presentation of the "worn-out preachers^ cause," as it was then called, and by two or three examples of aged need and dependence, creating as they did not only a sense of pity, but as in every healthy lad, a sense of injustice and revolt. The heroism and sacrifice called for in the life and work of a minister appeal to the soul of the normal lad. These need never be minimized. But to place tlie minister in the position of a suppliant, a beggar, and a dependent disgusts the normal youth, and all unconsciously 34 THE RETIRED MINISTER lays a foundation of opposition to influences human and divine that would lead him to choose tliat work. The Churrli of Christ has no moral ri<;lit to allow the greatest calliii.i;- (iod ever permits meji to enter, to he com- promised in tlie minds ajul liearts of the youth of the Cliurch just at the time when ideals are taking their deepest root, when aml)itions are shaping, and just at the time when the dignity and strength of a life work makes its strongest appeal. Prejudice the mind of the boy at that age and we add inex- pressibly to the difficulty with which the Spirit of God will reach him for the ministry. Not the veteran worn with the toil of the years, who thrills his heart like the uncertain steps of an old soldier, but the position of mendicancy in which the man who has bravely done his work is placed — that is what helps to close the heart of many a youth against the Spirit's voice. The Lure of Other Calltxgs The dignity and importance of the ministry suffer further, in comparison with the substantial appeal made to the youth of the Church, by other callings, and the community attitude toward these. The teaching profession is being more and more placed upon a basis of ample provision for the final years, not as a charity but as a just compensation for service rendered the community. Its importance to society and its essential greatness are thereby attested. The ministry is far more fundamental to world uplift, but the present provision of the Church for the man who has given his life to it does not certify that fact to the youth of the Church. A provision which secures the comfort of the minister in the years when his strength has been spent, and secures it on a basis of self- respect, will more convincingly evaluate to the rising genera- tion the dignity of apostleship than any eloquence poured out to establish its greatness. One of the first duties of the Christian lapnan is to place the ministry upon a basis that will say, not in word but in sub- stantial fact, to every youth seeking the place in which to invest his life, "Here is a task we hold to be above every task in dignity of its o\^^l and in the significance of its results. If God will let you enter it. His Church will see to it that your every care and energy may be spent for His Kingdom THE CALL TO PKEACII 35 and not in anxious solicitation concerning the years ahead." The Minister's Hearthstone There is another word that must not he left unsaid. Every minister has sacred right to the hearthstone and the dear faces around it. That he may come near the heart of the race, love and home are God's sweet gifts to him. While no woman is worthy a place at the side of God's chosen prophet, who is not willing to suffer with him to the end, if need be, yet no man is w^orthy either to be the prophet of God, an example to the people, or the husband of a noble woman, who is willing to see her suffer. And in many a brave young man's heart there is at this point a moral struggle that breaks up the very deeps of his life. As fine and sweet a bit of unheralded heroism as I know is where two souls, in the face of promised worldly comfort and plenty in other tasks, and with examples of aged penury for the prophet, go out together accepting if need be the latter rather than lose the heavenly vision. But the Methodist Episcopal Church has no moral right to darken that sacred experience in the life of God's chosen prophet by the cloud of fear and apprehension for the future; no moral right to place in the path at that holy moment the terrific temptation to retreat by creating a struggle between love and duty. As clear and as definite as is God's call to the two who stand thus at the altar to go forth, even at the risk of want, is God's call to the great and wealthy Church to whose service they consecrate their lives, to see to it that there shall be no want to fear, and that such a struggle shall be forever un- necessary, EuRAL Ministry The call to certain specific types of ministry, of greatest importance, is seriously affected by the failure of the Cliurch to provide amply for the final years. The rural ministry is the very hope of the Ciiurch and indeed of Christian civiliza- tion. Three fourths of the leaders of all the great professions and industries were born and reared in the rural sections. A very large percentage of the urban Church membership came from rural churches and received their first religious impressions there ; and over 80 per cent of our whole Methodist membership is now in the country and the lesser cities. That 36 THE EETIEED MIXISTEE field under modern conditions and with modern methods is becoming increasingly attractive. It is imperative that there be raised up a trained rural ministry which shall volunteer for life work in that vast and important field. This the schools of theology are endeavoring to do. Few things will help more efi'ectively to create such a ministry than will the assurance that when work is done there shall be no wolf at the door. Ministerial support in the rural work must in the nature of the case continue to be small, and little or nothing can be laid by. Much of the eagerness to pass from the country to the city pastorate originates in the desire to pro- vide for the future. Better far that the Church provide for the future and send a host of strong, well-trained men to perform that most significant of tasks. City Problems This is not less true of the pioneer sections where vast harvest fields will wave white for the reaper in the not dis- tant future if the planting is done before the tares have choked the ready and fertile soil. Numberless villages are springing out of the earth at the touch of the magic wand of "profit," centers of coming empires. To-day is the critical time which will decide the type of their coming civilization. To-day is the time when they should receive the indelible stamp of Christian ideals, which will only be given by the man sent of God and the Church. It is a heroic task, done in a noble fashion by our fathers in the faith. But the con- ditions that face the prophet to-day are vastly different from those under which our fathers toiled. It is an age which not only lifts the standard of comfort and respectability and decency far higher, but likewise an age when the purchasing power of the ministers^ pittance is far less than it was then. God would call to that heroic task some of the most virile and stalwart youth in the Church. It will help Him beyond estimate, if His Church will stand with Him and pledge these modern pioneers that their faithful toil of to-day in those fields of meager remuneration will lay up for them treasures on earth as well as in heaven, which the Church will give to them in the years of rest and setting sun. All we have said of these two special forms of the ministry is equally THE CALL TO PREACH 37 true of the ministry whose gigantic task it is to evangelize the vast multitudes from foreign shores. Even though it were true that none whom God nuiy call would hesitate because of the Church's failure to provide, yet the Church has no moral right to capitalize devotion to duty. Yonder across their early teens comes shouting and glad a mighty company whose faces are beautiful with hope. With them comes One upon whom all hopes depend, lie is choosing as he walks with them, with voice so still they scarce can hear it, choosing those who are to go forth w^ith Him to the conquest of the world. And as He chooses, I think I hear Him say to His Church in a voice that has accent of command, "See to it, 0 Church of Mine, that these I choose may go with me in a devotion undivided, a consecration untormented by fears of the future, for it is because of my faitli in my Cliurch that I bid them ^Come with me, and be not anxious for to-morrow.' " Boston, Mass. L. J. Birney. A PASTOR Dr. John G. Holland He knows but Jesus Christ, the crucified. Ah, little recks the worldling of the worth Of such a man as this upon the earth! Who gives himself — his all — to make men wise In doctrines which his life exemplifies. The years pass on, and a great multitude Still find in him a character whose light Shines round him like a candle in the night; And recognize a presence so benign. That to the godless even it seems divine. He bears his people's love within his heart. And envies no man, whatsoe'er his part. His church's record grows, and grows again. With names of saintly women-folks and men. And many a worldling, many a wayward youth, He counts among the trophies of his truth. O, happy man! There is no man like thee. Worn out in service of humanity. And dead at last, 'mid universal tears. Thy name a fragrance in the speaker's breath, And thy divine example life in death. J 38 THE RETIRED MINISTER "A RIPER, :M0RE TRANSCENDENT YOUTH" Just sixty-two? Then trim thy light, And get thy jewels all reset; 'Tis past meridian, but still bright, And lacks some hours of sunset yet. At sixty-two Be strong and true, Scour off thy rust, and shine anew. 'Tis yet high day; thy staff resume, And fight fresh battles for the truth; For what is age but youth's full bloom, A riper, more transcendent youth? A wedge of gold Is never old; Streams broader grow as downward rolled. At sixty-two life is begun; At seventy-three begin once more; Fly swiftly as you near the sun. And brighter shine at eighty-one. At ninety-five. Should you arrive. Still wait on God, and work and thrive. Keep thy locks wet with morning dew, And freely let thy graces flow; For life well spent is ever new, And years anointed younger grow. So work away. Be young for aye. From sunset, breaking unto day. A RAIN OF THE ROSES Robert Lorrmat"^ "It isn't raining rain to me. It's raining daffodils; In every dimpled drop I see Wild flowers on the hills. The clouds of gray engulf the day And overwhelm the town; It isn't raining rain to me. It's raining roses down. "It isn't raining rain to me, But fields of clover bloom, Where every buccaneering bee. May find a bed and room; A health unto the happy, A fig to him who frets. It isn't raining rain to me. It's raining violets." A RETIRING COMPETENCY AND MINISTERIAL EFFICIENCY BISHOP FRANCIS J. McCONNELL, D.D., LL.D. I was very much impressed once when I heard Dr. Hingeley say that he thought the emphasis on the old preacher as a subject for benevolence had been overdone, and I was very much pleased when in the Veteran Preaclier he quoted a remark of a Bishop to the effect that he had never known of a Ketired Minister of the Gospel starving to death. I am glad that the accent is being placed at another point. As a matter of fact, when you look up the history of the Church not any of them liave starved to death. They have been pretty well taken care of, but it has not been done in a systematic way, nor according to a regular plan; and we have begun to place the accent on inherent right and justice under the compelling motive of gratitude. For myself, I am not so very much impressed when a man says, "We must make some kind of a retiring fund in order to make the proper appeal to young men." There is some- thing in it, perliaps, but if that is what young men are think- ing of they are not exactly of the type that have gone before them. I can see force in the argument that we are in line with the great social movement. In these days we are insisting more and more that organizations of all kinds shall prepare for and anticipate the needs of the old age of those who serve in the day of their strength. But it seems to me there is one line of argument in these days that we cannot sufficiently stress, important as the other lines may be, and that is the need of making the present ministry more effective. Old Age Investments There are some things of a very simple kind that, as far as my limited observation goes, do cut into the effectiveness of ^lethodist ministers, and one thing is the temptation to 39 40 THE RETIEED MIXISTER make some kind of an mvestment out of their limited sal- aries, that will surely provide for old age. One picture in my mind here to-night is the picture of a Methodist Bishop, not now living, who once, when I was a good deal younger than I now am, came to me to consult about his finances. He said, "If you had any money to invest how would you go about it?" I was a good deal in the position of a colored brother who was asked to change a ten-dollar bill, who said, "I cannot change the bill, boss, but I thanks you for the compliment.'^ I felt a good deal like that when talking to this venerable Bishop, and said this perfectly commonplace thing, "If I had money to invest I w^ould put it in sure bonds, yielding four or four and a half per cent, and if I could get five per cent, I would take that." There is some- thing pathetic in the picture of that man saying, "I do not dare to do that. I do not care to have my wife thrown on the generosity of the Church w^hen I am gone, and I have to take some risk; so my money is in stocks." If we could gather before us the Methodist ministers who have tried to make investments in order to care for their old age, we would find a great host; and may be I am touching a tender spot to-night; but really this thing, insignificant as it may appear at first glance, does cut into the effectiveness of ministers. They do make investments. Some smooth man tells them all is right, and the first thing they know everything is gone. If that does not cut into the effectiveness of a Methodist minister I do not know what will. I have a book at home that tells how to promote certain speculative enterprises. I did not get it because I desired hints in that direction. It tells what classes of persons to send circulars to, and it groups ministers in two classes. It says that in some denominations the preachers receive larger salaries than in the others, and — I use its language — it tells how to get at the "easy marks." In the first group are the Presbyterians and the Episcopalians, and in the second group are the Methodists and Baptists. They put us in the second class because we do not have large sums of money to invest, not because we are any the less eager to invest. It is appar- ently an insignificant thing, but, nevertheless, one of the best ways to increase the effectiveness of a Methodist minister is to give him no excuse to worry about investments, MINISTERIAL EFFICIENCY 41 Giving All to the Work There is another duty that occurs to me, and it has nothing to do with the benevolent phases of the problem but only with the effectiveness of the present ministry, and that is the doing of all we can to keep the ministers from getting into outside enterprises, and to keep them where they will be giv- ing all their thought as well as their time to the service of the kingdom of God. Another man comes to my mind who graduated from an Eastern university and afterwards went into the ministry, and took the very largest appointments in a great Conference in the Central West, and was really a great man until he began to get interested in all manner of side enterprises. I remember that at one time he had man- aged to get together a great deal of money, and went into a farming enterprise, investing all his money in what Dr. Borden P. Bowne used to call ^^the inhabitants of the sty." After he had invested all his money in them, forgetful of the fact of their liability to infirmities, one night they woke up squealing, and two or three days afterward ceased to squeal, and all his money and the money of several other preachers had gone. They were doing what the Bishop said he had to do — they had been taking risks. Soon things were made uncomfortable for him in his Conference. That man to-day, with a long and successful career in the pastorate behind him, is selling odds and ends in a Western city. I would not say that his Avorry over the future had everything to do with this, but it grew from that start. If we wish to keep men down to the right kind of preach- ing, let their minds have nothing to do with worry for the future ; and if we wish to keep men to a bold utterance, make it possible for them to keep these things out of mind. When men go into the Methodist ministry they know that they will not receive such salaries as other men receive, and that they will not retire on a large pension, but if you make it sure that they need not worry about the future it will all come back in the effectiveness with which they work. A certain great military hero was sent to do a singularly hazardous piece of work. He came back alive, and somebody, anxious to know the thrill he had, asked what his feelings were as he went forward to that fearfully hazardous task. lie re- 42 THE EETIRED MINISTER plied that ^'the greatest feeling of satisfaction I had was the knowledge that in case I went down, I had the future arranged for, so far as my own private affairs Avere con- cerned, and that the government of the United States would care for those dependent upon me. These were the things in my mind as I went into that place of danger." MiA^isTERiAL Boldness "Wendell Phillips was once asked what he thought of the ministry. He said, "I think the ministry is ill prepared in one way. The ministers ought to be so provided for that they will have no thought concerning financial worry. A minister ought to be a man for whom in that sense of the word some- body will provide, so he can speak the truth with the utmost boldness, without any fear of consequences." In these days, when men have to rol)uke evils and to deal faithfully with those committed to their care, at least this much of certainty ought to be in their minds, that if they will stand like prophets of the living God and speak forth words of prophecy, they need not worry concerning the future. We are to follow in John Wesley's footsteps and be men of one work, and if we lose a certain boldness and begin to care for the things of this life, a large part of the effectiveness of the ministry of the present day to the present generation will be gone. I am glad that we are getting the emphasis off poverty and are ceasing to talk of the hardships of the older ministers, and are placing the Veterans' Cause on a systematic basis and getting down to the fact that what we are after all along the line is an effective ministry. We are beginning to get hold of the young because we know how much depends upon them, and we are training them from the start; and we try to get hold of the young men and to train them from the start for an educated ministry, and we are doing this other thing, not merely because of the justice of so doing, but for the prac- tical success of the ministry in this day of the world, and to make it a more effective instrument, so that Methodist preachers can give themselves whole-heartedly to the entire work to which they are sent, by being relieved of care for their future old age. Denver, Colo. Francis J. McConnell. SAVING vs. EFFICIENCY THE REV. J. W. VAN CLEVE, D.D. Vice-President Board of Conference Claimants Large Salaries or Pensions. The words which form the title of this paper define a real and vital issue. In the matter of caring for Eetired Ministers we are shut up to a choice between two possible solutions. One is to pay the preacher a salary with a liberal surplus above living expenses and then leave him to his own devices. Whether he shall spend his old age in comfort or in penury is to depend wholly upon his own frugality and wisdom. If he fails to save his money and to keep it^ then he is to be left to suffer the consequences of his neglect, precisely as other shiftless people do. This policy makes a fine superficial show of wisdom and justice, of the distinctively worldly type, but from the higher view- point it discloses discouraging gaps. The alternative is to pay the minister a fair working salary, while he is fit for work, and to encourage him to spend his salary for his equipment and development by providing a comfortable pension for his failing years. It is almost the reverse of the other plan in that it makes the future of the minister depend wholly upon his ministerial service. Combination Policy Fallacious. The time-worn policy of trying to combine these two into a scheme which offers neither sufficient savings nor sufficient Church support, and pieces out a little savings from a slender salary, with a little giving from the Church later on, cannot be accepted as a real solution. It is a perpetual temporizing without either a rational basis or an adequate result. No solution can be acceptable or final, which does not, in its general outlines, commend itself to tlie men who are most deeply and directly concerned in it as just and equal. No such conviction of 43 44 THE RETIRED MTXISTER su])stantial justice can ever be produced by this policy of patchwork. The very attempt to administer such a policy involves us in immediate perplexity over questions concerning relative economic deservings — questions that will not be pushed aside, but which cannot well be answered. The Question of Fkugaltty. Should the man who has neglected to save money receive for that reason a larger allow- ance, so that he may live as comfortably as his more frugal brother? If we have supplied a man with an income that would enable him to save, and have done this in order that he might save, ought he not to be required to save or be pen- alized for his failure so to do? Should not the frugal man profit by his frugality ? If they are to receive an equal allow- ance, shall it be large enough to provide a reasonable degree of comfort for the improvident man, or just enough to afford a bare subsistence for the man who has lived frugally? If the former of these standards is adopted, then, in a way, we shall be paying both men twice, when one of them does not need it; if we adopt the latter we shall have the unedifying spectacle of an old Methodist preacher in want, a thing which we never shall be able to justify to the world. If the question of relative frugality and wastefulness is to be considered, how shall it be determined? If a man were to ignore the needs of his own kin — parents, brothers, sisters — because they were not of his immediate household, we would hardly commend him for his prudence; and yet on just such prudence might depend the margin between a surplus and a bare balancing of receipts and expenditures. Sometimes a large factor in what passes for economy and thrift is a species of shrewd bargaining which at least contributes nothing to ministerial efficiency. Furthermore, the temptation to cross the line be- tween a fair bargain, and what is popularly known as a ^^great bargain" is not always resisted. Ministers with a little sur- plus cash have been known to take advantage of the necessities of the unfortunate in ways, that, while technically honest, were nevertheless calculated to cast a lasting shadow of re- proach upon the Church and the ministry. Again, what calls itself by the name of economy may be a lack of liberality. No small hindrance to the benevolent work of the Church has come from the penuriousness of well-to-do preachers. The matter of frugality is far from being as simple as it looks. SAVING VS. EFFICIENCY 45 How will it be possible among so many factors to decide whether a man is to be accounted as frugal or as something less commendable ? Every man is convinced that he has used all possible diligence and frugality, and will feel that he has been unjustly dealt with unless treated accordingly. The Question" of Salaries. It is the same issue which ap- pears in the question, "Ought not the man who has received a smaller salary to be correspondingly favored in the dis- tribution to Conference Claimants?" The minister who has received $1,500 ought to have saved more, and should therefore be less needy, and receive a smaller allotment than the one who has never received more than $1,000. This also is only a superficial securing of justice. Differences in salary may count for something, but often they do not. Always they count for less than is popularly supposed, and they are by no means conclusive in individual cases. Size of income is only one factor in making up the account. The situations which offer the larger salaries usually impose a higher standard of living; the size of a salary cannot be con- sidered wholly apart from the number of people it is to sup- port; the variant of perquisites evades all calculations, some- times being a negligible quantity and sometimes a noticeable addition to the income ; a family handicapped by the frequent or continuous illness of some of its members is not on equal terms with one in which health is practically unbroken ; some men have a positive genius for attracting gifts and donations outside of the salary, which is lacking in other men who are equally good and efficient. These considerations are quite enough to show how indefinite and unsatisfactory must be any distribution which can be made under this patchwork combination of personal savings and Church contributions. Deserving or Necessities. Further confusion and dif- ficulty are introduced into the problems by the commingling of deservings and necessities. Neither under this plan can be entirely left out of the accounting. The plan rests upon the assumption that the minister has earned a life-time support, a part of which is still due and unpaid. The only tangible evidence that he has not received it is the fact that he does not have it. This fixes as the actual basis of his claim, not his past services or his past receivings but his present poverty. No matter how we try to disguise it^ this scheme makes the 46 THE EETIRED MINISTER Retired ^linister an object of the charity of the Church. It will be difficult, if not impossible, to obtain an adequate sup- port upon such a plea. Men do not feel toward their charities the compelling sense of obligation which binds them to the payment of their debts. Furthermore, we shall not be able to secure for any man, however worthy, who is an object of charity the respect which is freely accorded the man who lives upon an income which is justly and securely his own. Under such a system, the preacher must not only expose his poverty, but he must justify it in order to establish his claim to support. Before the equity of his claim can be fully recognized, he must set at rest all the questions heretofore enumerated, which relate to the wise and frugal use of his money. They may not be asked explicitly and officially, but they will be implied in the minds of his brethren, and cannot be ignored by those who are to adjust his claim. In some way or other it will be inquired whether or not he is really poor and in need; how poor he is, and how he came to be so poor. This system converts what ought to be a Roll of Honor into something not far from a roll of dishonor. It tends to defeat itself by weakening the incentive to save. It is a policy which never arrives anywhere. Instead of solving the problem it effectually blocks the w^ay to a solution. One of the two propositions already stated must be definitely adopted and definitely worked out in order that we may have a consistent policy that we can follow to the end. An" Expensive Policy. I present the proposition to solve the problem by paying such salaries as will afford a good margin for savings, because sometimes it seems to be offered in all seriousness by men who are sincere and liberal. Too often it is offered by men w^ho show no disposition to provide the liberal salary required. The emphasis seems to be on the savings and not on the salaries, as if the end really sought were to get rid of responsibility for the support of Retired Ministers. No thoughtful man offers this plan as a measure of economy. It is the most expensive proposition ever pro- pounded, if it is to be made genuinely effective. A salary which, by pinching economy under favoral)le conditions, will yield some little savings for a very frugal man is not enough. For this plan a salary must be paid which will permit the ordinary man without cutting his living expense below the SAYING VS. EFFICIENCY 47 level of efficiency to lay up enough to keep him in comfort after his working days are over. If the minister has saved enoug]i to keep liim in eomfort then it is hecause the amount over and above a comfortahle living has been paid him l)y the Church. It is held in his own name as his own possession and at his death passes to his heirs. In this way the Church loses all further henefit from it, and must immediately begin to provide a like sum for the man who follows him. If the Church either as an organization, or by its individual mem- bers, holds this sum in its own possession, paying the income of it to the Eetired Minister, then at his death it may begin to use the same funds for the support of another man. Embarrassing Gaps. This proposition is not only ex- pensive but displays embarrassing gaps. It misses the case of the man wdio lacks the gift to save. Such a man is not to be reproached for his deficiency in this respect any more than is the man who lacks eloquence to be reproached for his defi- ciency. In spite of admonitions and reproaches some men seem never to acquire the gift of acquiring. Other men are the victims of persistent or repeated misfortunes which make savings impossible. If a policy were possible which would leave each man to care for himself with his own savings, it w^ould simply condemn all men in these two classes to inevi- table want. In spite of its outward show of justice, we some- how cannot help feeling that for a Methodist preacher, who has been a faithful servant of God and of the people, to be in want for the ordinary comforts of life, or to spend his last days in a poorhouse, or to be placed in the position of becom- ing a dependent upon charity, would be an unseemly thing. The Efficiency Test. But pass by these considerations and put the issue betw^een these two policies squarely upon the point of efficiency. I quote from an article relative to teachers' pensions, con- tributed to the Outlook by Martha Bensley Bruere. We need scarcely do more than substitute "preacher" for "teacher'^ in order to make the article serve the j^urpose of this discussion, for the principle is identical and the facts parallel. Teaching Efficiency Marred. "I have before me the family budgets of a series of high school teachers and college professors, men on salaries ranging from $1,200 to $4,000 a year, and living across the country from Maine to California. 48 THE RETIEED MINISTER In every case but one it is easy to see how old age and the fear of it is like a paralyzing hand to mar the efficiency of their homes. The fear of the future drives these men to save as the only way to provide for the future, and tends to reduce below the efficiency line the amount of money they are at liberty to spend on their homes and their professional equipment/^ Two items from the budget of a high school teacher receiv- ing a salary of $1,800 a year are Insurance $140, Savings Bank $325. These represent the drain on the family income in order to provide for the future. The insurance is a slight defense for the family in case of death of the bread-winner, and would probably yield scarcely enough to provide a home. The bank item represents a provision for old age none too large for its purpose. If it were to continue for thirty years, with no draft for sickness, non-employment, accident or other emergency, it would scarcely amount to more than enough to provide an income of $400 a year. Over against these items put the following from the same budget: "Food, $180; Papers, Magazines, etc., $7; Vacation, $50.^^ From the letter of a professor's wife which accompanied her budget the following excerpts are taken : "You will see from this schedule that it is absolutely neces- sary that I should do all my work, including my laundering. Trying to put our children through Eastern Colleges was too much for some of us, for I have been under a severe mental strain, and our daughter has been in a sanitarium for months because of a nervous break-down.^^ "After my husband out- lives his usefulness he and I will have to live on $250 a year." The writer of the article asked the head of a great school system this question: "If you knew that you would have a pension for your old age, and that your family would be pro- vided for if you died, would it make any difference in your work?" His answer was, "It would make me thirty — no, forty — per cent more efficient right now. The thought of what might happen to them, if I were scrapped, is a ball and chain on my foot holding me back from no end of things I might and ought to do." Dr. Henry D. Pritchctt is quoted as saying: "A large proportion of the teachers in American Universities are engaged in turning the grindstone of some outside employment with one hand while they carry on the work of teaching with the other." SAVING VS. EFFICIENCY 49 Ont. Exceptio^^ The one exception found by the writer of the article, in which efficiency was not being paralyzed by fear of the future, or fettered by the struggle to save, was that of a teacher receiving only a moderate salary who was entitled to a competent pension, with a half allowance for his mfe in case of his death, so that he was perfectly free to invest the whole of his salary in equipment and development. Preachers and Teachers. Every consideration which this article advances relative to the efficiency of teachers applies to the minister with equal or even greater force. The average salary of the teachers of the country is slightly in advance of that of the ministers. Proportionally a larger number of teachers are unmarried than of ministers; while the longer vacation of the teacher offers an economic oppor- tunity which the minister does not have ; but nevertheless the whole relation between savings and efficiency for the minister is fairly set forth in these extracts. Efficiency Waste. Their first suggestion is, that it is not wise to raise the issue, much less to force the issue, between the hoarding of money for future necessity and its use for present efficiency. If we leave a man to depend upon his savings for his comfort in retirement, inevitably we raise this issue. No one really expects the salaries of the rank and file of the ministers to be raised to such a figure as will enable them to provide for all reasonable demands for ministerial equipment, and at the same time to lay up a sum that will enable them to secure their future beyond peradventure. There will be a constant tendency to pare down investment in efficiency to the lowest possible limit in order to allow increased invest- ment in savings. The loss in efficiency which results from the diversion of money to the savings account is only a part of the loss. There is a savings policy which involves a certain efficiency waste. I do not unclervalue or oppose economy. A wise and well-directed economy is in itself a wholesome exer- cise. But it must have behind it not the lash of a motive which is a consumer of nerve force, but the exhilarating push of a motive which of itself is an inspiration. An economy over-driven by the fear of want is likely to waste over savings, time and energy that ought to be expended in production. In the period of my ministerial apprenticeship a young man came to my study with the familiar hard-luck story, "Out 50 THE T?ETIEED MTNISTEE of money and out of work." His immediate needs were met. He claimed to l)e a carpenter, and I persuaded a good-natured contractor to <;'\\e him a jol). A few days later I asked him about tiie youn