STIRRED TO THE BOTTOM

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 20, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 12.

STIRRED TO THE BOTTOM

We copy from the Congregationalist a similar story:—

“STIRRED TO THE BOTTOM.”

A pastor of a church in one of the pleasant country towns of New York has lived on a pinching salary for four years. Not many Sabbaths ago, when the chronic pinch had made the sore places too hard to bear any longer, he stated the case fully from the pulpit, compared his means of livelihood with that of his average parishioners, and showed that he was working on little more than half pay, and was hampered in his work among them by poverty.

This fair statement indorsed by the known economy, and faithful, loving ministry of the pastor, had its effect, and bore fruits as follows:

A leading man in the church and the community, a well-to-do farmer, remarked to some friends, “What an eloquent sermon! There is no getting away from it. We have not done our duty. That sermon stirred me as I never was stirred before—stirred me to the bottom.”

It was suggested that a subscription be started, and the impressed brother be invited to head it. He took the paper, took time to weigh well what he was doing, and put down opposite his name—twenty cents! Starting out with this beginning, in the course of a few days, the deacons brought to the pastor, as compensation for the unpaid half service of four years, a purse of fifteen dollars!—Am. Missionary.