Broadway Pastor

How much money does a clergyman need, for reading out the gospel and mumbling the creed? He lives at home and he doesn't pay rent--if he gets a plugged nickel, he's a very lucky gent.

--Miner's Song.

The embittered author of this rhyme, like many another ignorant layman who would share his point of view, was totally at fault. The physician, after his long and arduous apprenticeship, receives high wages if he attains competence. The lawyer, the merchant, even the thief, is re- compensed for the lean years of his schooling by large profits in his prime. The clergyman, also, must undergo an intensive theological training before he receives a degree; afterward his education is still gradual and hard. Then, even if he has reached rare proficiency, his financial recognition is far less than that of an able dentist, is comparable to that of a high-grade mechanic.

Rev. Charles E. Jefferson has said that it took him 25 years to master the important detail of "pulpit technique," which, in the recent poll conducted by the Christian Century, caused him to be listed among the 25 most able U. S. preachers. This technique consists of a manner as far removed from oratory as it is from the garbled sensationalism of street corner evangelists. Dr. Jefferson speaks to his large audiences quietly, in the tone of courteous, dignified, lucid and friendly conversation. He does so in the Broadway Tabernacle, Manhattan, a church situated on the boundary of that bright, dangerous region in which ignorant and reckless ladies derive a huge profit from services best left undescribed, in which thieves and theatre managers flourish.

Last week the trustees of the Broadway Tabernacle offered to increase by $2,500 Dr. Jefferson's yearly salary of $10,000, thereby making him the highest paid U. S. Congregationalist minister.-- At the annual church dinner, the Rev. Dr. Charles Edward Jefferson, whose ability is the result of many years of intelligent effort, refused to have his salary raised. Said he: ". . . My needs are simple and the present salary is enough to care for them despite the increased cost of living during 30 years. I have never wanted more than a Ford."

Those who found this explanation difficult to understand would have been able to enlighten themselves by perusing the current issue of the Christian Century, wherein Dr. Jefferson discoursed on "Why I Have Found Life Worth Living." Said he: "I came into the world with an indestructible liking for work. This impulse in me to work shows no signs of abating. I have always loved work more than play. ... It is only when I am tremendously busy that my happiness mounts to rapture. And so when I look forward to heaven, it is to me a place of work."

*The Rev. Harry Pinneo Dewey, Plymouth Church, Minneapolis, has $12,000 per year. Dr. S. Parkes Cadman, Central Church, Brooklyn, gets $12,000 a year, and perhaps as much again for daily column writing.