Church Economics [pp. 325-338]

THE PRINCE TON RE VIEW.
precarious in this regard, that its means commonly depend on
fluctuating collections. How much trial gentle, refined, and
reticent women have suffered in this way it is not difficult to
imagine.
There is no practical difficulty in the way of a great church
founding a Widows' Fund under any name that seems fit, to
which every young minister may be enjoined to contribute a
large sum in the first year of his pastorate, and a small annual
subscription during his life, from the proceeds of which an annuity may be paid his widow, if in God's providence he should
leave a widow, during her life, and his children until they have
reached the years of self-support. Such a fund would in time
be the recipient of donations and bequests; but apart from this
it would become at an early period adequate to the securing of
bereaved families from dependence, and of maintaining in the
minds of the bereaved the sense of self-respect and assured
freedom from want. The payment of a large sum in the outset is practicable, because, ordinarily, a young minister is then
unmarried, and can easily live on less than at a later time. Nor
would it be an evil if in many cases he had to defer the joys and
cares of a household owing to this very obligation. By the time
he could prudently become the head of a house he would have
acquired some degree of that practical knowledge of the world
and of life's details which one does not secure commonly in a
seminary. If it be alleged that some ministers do not marry or
leave dependants, then on this plan they contribute so much to
the comfort and advantage of their brethren in their peace of
mind, and in the provision for their children. This membership,
not being dependent on a particular congregation, nor a continued large payment, would be easily kept up; and it would
be no slight relief to many a hard-worked Christian lady to
know that if God took her husband, she would not have the
cross of want added to the sorrow of widowhood.
JOHN HALL.