p. 6 | The Price of Funeral Sermons by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 17, 1907

The Price of Funeral Sermons

By Editor

We have it on the authority of the editor of the Independent, of Liberal, Kan. (September 20), that—the preachers at Coffeyville, Kan., held a meeting recently, and organized a union for the purpose of fixing a uniform price for preaching funeral sermons. The charge will hereafter be five dollars for all who are not members of any one of the churches of the town, in which case it is presumed that his particular pastor will be allowed to take the job for whatever he can get.

It is hardly supposable that any of these ministers would refuse to preach the funeral sermon of one who could not pay the price, though the editor of the Independent professes to believe they would. Nevertheless, the organization and the setting of a definite price for performing the last services for the dead smacks strongly of the spirit of commercialism that is characteristic of this generation, and has given occasion to the enemies of the gospel to blaspheme. Christ sent out his disciples without purse or scrip, and gave them no authority to levy a tax upon any class, living or dead. They were to take no anxious thought concerning their living, much less to make definite provision for adding to their “purse” through the death of their parishioners. There is a very long step between the two attitudes. The Christian is sure of his way and his influence only when he is following Christ closely—very closely.