Stinginess and Christianity.
Alas, that any newspaper should have to chronicle such a happening as one in Oklahoma, an account of which I once saw!
A certain church owed its pastor back salary to the amount of $40. During five months the church had paid him only $16. Thereupon the minister sold the church building in order to get what was due him. Workmen came prepared to move the building. In ten minutes a crowd of a hundred men, women, and children surrounded the workmen, and soon a fight was in progress. The sheriff and his deputies were hastily called, and they restored peace, placing guards around the building.
A fine addition that to the Acts of the Apostles!
It is only a sample of what stinginess brings about in a church, or anywhere else. Doubtless that newspaper report was exaggerated; there may have been "nothing in it." Nevertheless, it is impossible to exaggerate the misery and shame that are caused by stinginess, and right in Christian churches, too. The salaries paid to ministers, on the average, are so low as to bring the blush of shame to the cheek of any honest Christian. They are so low that if the ministers should start in to collect what is due them by the law of God, a large part of the church buildings of the country would be sold at auction.
A man is not converted till his purse is converted.