Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 October 1901 — Increasing Church Funds. [ARTICLE]

Increasing Church Funds.

Clergymen in charge of small and poor congregations frequently find themselves hampered by want of funds with which to carry on their work, but it is doubtful if even a frontier missionary, who is generally acknowledged to be the most hampered of American ministers, would adopt the method for increasing his resources which an English parson Is reported to have pursued. This clergyman is in charge of a church at Millwall and Is quoted as offering to give any West End church a thorough spring cleaning, the payment to go to his own church funds. In his letter announcing his offer the clergyman says, according to a paragraph in a Scottish journal, “With the practical experience I have acquired I can now beeswax and polish a floor, or varnish floors with anybody, and my wife Is Al at painting and decorating.” The wives of some American clergymen, particularly In frontier stations, could and do tell tales of hardship and trial, but It is safe to assume that no matter how low the church treasury might be they would hardly be expected to aid in its replenishing by hiring out to do church cleaning, even if it were simply “painting and decorating,” and not the regular scrub work.— Brooklyn Eagle.