Strange as it may seem, after the disappointment of last year, I am in the city of Kingston (the "Limestone city" of Ontario) and the pastor of the very church which last year I accepted and did not receive. Why? I cannot tell. But I am glad, although my gladness has been tempered by the experience which was somewhat tantalising. I think I shall be more ready to "rejoice in hope" and to be "patient in tribulation".
We receive welcome at the railway station by a group representing the church, and are escorted in carriages to our new home, where tea is provided, and where we have more introductions.
It is the time of the midweek service, so we proceed through a few streets to our Church, a church which was once suburban, and therefore small, but which has lately found itself in the city, for the city is growing.
The word has evidently gone abroad that the "new minister" has arrived and the attendance at this first midweek service is large enough to bear discounting, lest hereafter we fall to writing hard things against ourselves and against our people. When the service is over, we have the privilege of a summer evening walk in the realm of a University City, whose atmosphere bathed by the verdant perfumes of many parks and gardens, and whose military garrisoned shore is washed by the blue St Lawrence, where quietness, order, and intelligence are wrought into its fabric. Our children are overjoyed and are looking with expectancy to the possibility of higher education. It is a restful, comforting evening.
When Sabbath evening comes our church is filled, for there are many in every place who wish to "hear some new thing" or at least a new voice. However these intimations, as the weeks pass along, seem to assure us of a permanent interest, and our church soon bids comers to come early.
One has to learn that he belongs to the city and not exclusively to a church, and we have reason to be grateful that the city takes us to its heart. And thus it is that for my second Sunday afternoon I am invited to address an open air meeting for evangelism in Macdonald Park. There is a large gathering representative of various denominations, and I thus receive my introduction to open air work. I am not the only speaker:- a young man fellows me with such fluency and fulness of the Spirit, that I am led to make enquiries, visit him in his employment as a dry-goods salesman, make the discovery that he is a native of Copperhouse in Cornwall, that before coming to Canada he was under examination for the ministry, and finally pressing upon him the advisability of his returning to clerical service, to which advice he ultimately yielded. Thus by the grace of God do I so soon gather my first fruit in this charming vineyard.
This is a city of many, and substantially-built churches. The Anglican and Roman Catholic Cathedrals hold high their heads in dignified and quiet seclusiveness. As I am regarded as a "Dissenter", I am naturally outside their pale, and I cheerfully accept this situation without any fretfulness, and I work in that part of my Master's vineyard where opportunity offers. But I have one friend in this city who has been interested in my work for many years, Miss Dora Allan, of most saintly character, too blind to be able to read, who goes about the city, systematically visiting and addressing all manner of ecclesiastical gatherings where "the Spirit of the dear Lord is", and it is my precious privilege now to have her co-operation.
My own church gives me plenty to do, yet a busy man who is willing can always squeeze his timetable a bit, and so it is that the Chairman of the District calls me to his splendid congregation, when he has to be away on official duty. Then the "Mother" church makes inroad on my time, and a maiden member of this church meets me on the street and fences me into an alcove, while she exhorts me to be sure and give the people in her church "sound teaching about the Bible". (She is herself a most pronounced advocate of Modernism.) Three other churches of this denomination likewise claim services. So in turn come forward three Congregational churches, and one Presbyterian, with the Young Men's Christian Association committee meetings to be attended, and lastly there are the interesting services in the Asylum for the Insane. Here I have a wide field for endeavour and apparent goodwill on all sides.
How do I supply my services in my absences? The Lord graciously brought to my help the Professor of Latin in Queens University. He was a Cornish man, of the name of Pyke, from Oxford; he is a special importation to fill this particular Chair. He has been a lay preacher in England, and has endeavoured to be useful in that way in this Canadian city. He has preached in my church in my presence and I have not forgotten his powerful, pictorial, and evangelical presentation of Gideon, with his paltry instruments of war and a handful of men in reliance upon God. For some reason, I have not learned the Professor is unacceptable in the other churches, although he brings credentials from the Wesleyan Church in England; but this is a case of loss and gain, the gain being mine. And this is so in a financial sense also, for the learned man comes to my home after every "pay day" and puts "one tenth" on the mantle-piece "to be used in the Lord's work". I am honored by such help.
The Professor gets into bad grace with certain in the University because of his outspoken Fundamentalism, and I also fall under the same ban. A bulletin board of the leading newspaper appears on the Main street, announcing to the public that I have taken up the Professor's cause and come to his defence. Other ministers consider "discretion" manifested in silence. The Professor's resignation is demanded by certain in the University, and I become virtually his lawyer, interviewing the Principal and writing to the Chancellor. It all seems to be in vain, and the friend is compelled to surrender his position and return to England; and I have lost a valuable ally. However it is good to be on the losing side when that side is right; and right ultimately wins.
The financial situation has to be considered carefully in my church. "What shall the Minister's salary be?" was debated among officials of the church for weeks before I heard anything of it. It is a question which I have always avoided. Except to give information to the people, as Nehemiah did to the Persian monarch. I prefer, like him, to take my cause in prayer to God. What He thinks it right for me to have, I must manage to carry on with. In our present case my predecessor, who was himself and wife only, received a salary far below the standard set by the Great Council of the Church. I did not know how I could do with that, but I am here and I have said nothing about it to any one. All of my men, save one, are employees on relatively small salaries; that one is a manufacturer on his own account. He has approached me privately to know what I am expecting, and I have told him that we will follow the lines laid down by the Church.
And now the evening has arrived for "the business meeting". The men are lying in a friendly "caucus" on the church lawn when I arrive, and their conversation is unknown to me. Our meeting in the church quickly gets to the crucial point. "How much are you asking, Brother?" the Treasurer asks. "That" I reply "is largely for you to determine". "How much did we pay last year?" asks the manufacturing member. "We managed" answers the Treasurer "to make up Six Hundred Dollars, but it was hard work, and the ladies had to turn in and help". "And that was the best you had ever done?" queried the manufacturer. "Yes". "And how much did I give you towards that?" "Well, you promised Eight, and made it up to Twelve Dollars". "And how much did you give the year before?" "Four Hundred and Fifty". And you thought that that was all that you could do?" "Yes". "And I helped you how much?" "You gave us Six Dollars, and we were thankful". "And when the minister came you thought you could pay him only Three Hundred, and I encouraged you to make it up to Four Hundred?" "Yes." "Well, what does our Discipline say about this matter?" So I have read to the members the statement that "the minimum salary shall not be less than Seven Hundred and Fifty Dollars". That is a bolt from the blue, and a shock to the nerves. When the Treasurer recovered himself he said:- "Well, I move that we pay our minister, this year Seven Hundred and Fifty Dollars, if we can raise it".
This is my opportunity and responsibility. "I do not think, Brethren" I say, "that I can consistently put that motion. It is hypothetical, and your discipline is positive. It says shall; I will rather put my situation before you. If you are in doubt, I prefer to relieve you of a definite promise. With the understanding that you will do your best in educating your people as to our needs, I am willing to accept just what is placed on the collection plates". A smile of relief passes around the room.
Then Mr Manufacturer springs to his feet -- he is an active, wiry man, and a great smoker-- "I will make a Motion, brethren, I move that we give our minister a Thousand Dollars this year, and you can put me down for One Hundred of it. One of you second this if you dare". "I will second it" said Mr Doubting Treasurer, and the motion is carried unanimously.
Now it is my opportunity to thank one and all for the exercise of faith, and a determination to grow, but my purpose being as previously expressed, I too will exercise faith in humanity, and in God, and I will content myself with what is placed on the collection plates.
Now the year is ended, and I have received Nine Hundred and Forty Dollars from a congregation that never before contributed more than Six Hundred. Moreover, throughout the year there has been no financial appeal made from the pulpit, nor has the minister, at any business meeting, taken the matter up with the officials. It is my first financial lesson in city work, and I have learned that faith in the faithfulness of God will carry Christian workers over difficulties with far better spirit than will the many efforts to "raise" money, and thereby commercialise the church and soil the Christian temper.
Just at this angle, may I record how I became the possessor of my first bit of Canadian real estate? I do not regard it as a sin that a Christian Minister should own something of this world, although it sounds religiously exalting to say:- "No foot of land do I possess, No cottage in this wilderness". If "the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein", I do not see why we Christians should let the devil or his friends have all of the possession. But this my aside.
As I have arrived in the collegiate city, I am quite of the mind of the Apostle Paul:- "I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content". But one who is leading a militant army must suffer a glorious discontent. Duty must make its strong demand as against comfort or convenience. Thus I was not long in my new charge until I considered that one of the possible duties of a four-year pastorate might be the acquisition of a parsonage for the church.
An ample and beautifully situated property was available, but my people had no money to buy with. I had one-sixth of the price. A brother minister proposed to loan me what was necessary. By paying all cash there was a reduction in price of thirteen per cent and the interest on the loan was but four per cent. I therefore assumed all responsibility, intending that by the time of my fourth year, a subscription list would be circulated and the property would be transferred to the Trustee Board of the Church. In this respect my good intentions were frustrated for I found myself suddenly and without warning removed from the charge, and I became what I had always, with certain socialistic ideas, regarded as an undesirable party, namely, a landlord.
My year is ending, and the biggest statistical report ever coming up from this charge is ready. It has been a year of city influence as much as of the parish. There seems to have been aroused a great spiritual interest. It looks as if next year the city would break out into revival. Our own church has been so constantly filled that it is an open secret that an addition must be built. There seems however to be a fly in the ointment. That fine house, facing a park, and having on its frontage English poplars, apple, cherry and pear trees, with a generous variety of smaller fruits, has provoked somebody's jealousy. It is detectable; yet only one little sentence has been said. A "dreamer" is still unpopular.
Conference meets in Ottawa, and my Manufacturing Friend, knowing something that I do not, proposes to attend, though without a delegate's position, and he proposes to travel by night and occupy a "sleeper", moreover he takes me into the same comfort and pays my way. What does it all mean? For a week he tries to find out, but without success. The last morning of the Conference has come. It is ten o'clock, and the Secretary of the Stationing Committee appears on the platform, and a very solemn silence falls upon the assembly. The reading of the Stations may not be appealed against in this gathering. How many hearts will feel heavy and broken! Kingston District is read; it is my District and my name is not in it. Brethren sitting near me whisper enquiringly and sympathetically "What is the matter?" Who knows? The reading goes on through ten other Districts, and my name is in none of them. My nerves! I who had thought myself exalted unto heaven, am thrust down to the last District in the roll, and to the last place in the District. I must be a troublesome bit of clay that the potter has to handle me in such manner, until I am "bruised and mangled", moulded and remoulded.
And now of all places -- I am designated to a French Canadian town of seven thousand population with seven hundred non-Roman Catholics, and these with their many indifferentials divided between two churches.
Why this change? Many years have elapsed since that action, but I have gained no clue as to why. Kingston did not let the matter pass lightly. During the next two weeks three petitions were put into circulation, one among the membership of the church, one among the members of the congregation, that is the adherents, and a third one among the downtown business men. A public meeting was called, and as the new President was stationed in this city he was invited. He heard everything -- the petitions, the public testimonies of sturdy men, but he remained adamant, and merely said "If our foresight could be as good as our hindsight, how differently might we act". That was a platitude that committed no one.
What should I do? If I failed to go to my appointment the penalty was to be dropped in silence, and this after twenty-three years of service. A Presbyterian Church in the city, being without a pastor, gave me an invitation with a stated good salary, and a Professor of the University put a Ten Dollar Bill into my pocket with instructions to travel over to the Moderator of the Presbytery and secure his sanction to the "call". He however turned the matter down, by saying that no minister could be taken on unless he had the testimonials from his church. So my way was blocked, and to save the future of my children, and with a rebellious heart, I was obliged to shoulder arms and go eastward two hundred miles; for why, I could not tell.
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