Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 September 1884 — Burdette’s Wisdom. [ARTICLE]

Burdette’s Wisdom.

My son, when yon hear a man growling because Moody gets S2OO a week for preaching Christianity, yon will perceive that he never worries because Ingersoll gets S2OO a night for preaching atheism. Yon will observe that the man who is unutterably shocked because Francis Murphy is paid $l5O a week for temperance work seems to think it all right when the barkeeper takes in twice as much money in a single day. The laborer is worthy of his hire, my boy, and he is just as worthy of it in the pulpit as he is upon the stump. Is the man who is honestly trying to save your immortal soul worth less than the man who is only trying his level best to go to Congress. Isn’t Moody doing as good work as Ingersoll? Isn’t John B. Gongh as much a friend to humanity and society as the bartender? Do you want to get all the good in the world for nothing, so that you may be able to pay a high price for the bad? Bemember, my boy, the good things of this world are always the cheapest. Spring water costs less than com whisky; a box of cigars will buy two or three Bibles; a gallon of old brandy costs more than a barrel of flour; a “fullhand” at poker costs a man more in twenty minutes than his church subscription amounts to in three years; a State election costs more than a revival of religion; yon can sleep in a church every Sunday morning for nothing, if you are mean enough to beat your lodging in that way, but a nap in a Pullman costs yon $2 every time; 50 cents for the circus and a penny for the little ones tq put in the missionary box; $1 for the theater, and a pair of old trousers frayed at the ends, baggy at the knees, and utterly busted as to the dome, to the flood sufferers; the danoing lady who tries to wear the skirt of her dress under her arms and the waist around her knees and kicks her slipper clear over the orchestra chairs every night gets S6OO a week, and the city missionary gets SSOO a year; the horserace scoops in $2,000 the first day, and the church fair lasts a week, works twenty-five or thirty of the best women in America nearly to death, and comes out S4O in debt. Why, my boy, if you find yourself sneering or scoffing because once in a while you hear of a preacher getting a liyjng, or even a luxurious salary, or a temperance worker making money, go out in the dark and feel ashamed of yourself, and, if you don’t feel above kicking a mean man, kick yourself. Precious little, does religion and charity cost the old world, my boy, and when the money it does get is flung into its face, like a bone to a dog, the donor is not benefited by the gift, and thfe receiver is not, and certainly should not, be grateful. It is insulted.—Burlington Hawkeye.