SMALLER LIVINGS IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
[To THE EDITOR or THE "SPECTATOR.] Si,—For many years I was a member of the Home Mission Board of our little Scottish United Presbyterian Church. We dealt with this very question of "Smaller Livings." The result is that now the minimum stipend is £184, and a manse. We do not depend on large subscriptions, but on the pence' and shillings of the great mass of the people. We trust to living men and women. To create a huge endowment fund' for the Church of England will be a huge blunder. England should be organised by men like our Home Secretary into dis- tricts of manageable size, and each congregation should have lady collectors, who month by month will call on every house- hold and gather the free-will offerings,—the pence of the poor. Let that be done, and the Church will show to the world the power it possesses, now altogether unused. The collectors, the congregations, and the whole Church wilit receive blessing. The smaller livings can in this way be sup- plemented, congregations encouraged, and hundreds of minis- ters' families be freed from a load of care. We have not, it is true, much to boast of in 2184 and a manse as a minimure,.. but year by year we improve a little. Our Church is very poo in many districts ; the Church of England is rich and libeal and full of life. Let this plan be tried,
and the result will
astonish and delight all the friends of the Church. 'Fere le. in Scotland a growing love for the Church of Enghe- ttP foreign scholars ; We-
owe much—I had almost said everything—to he
and we rejoice in the missionary zeal and noble If-sacrifice.
of those who, in miserable city lanes, as field, face all danger to carry the Gospel to ths,'074; abolished
to make this,
I wish to see the cruel poverty of the minister:
by the strong supporting the weak, I vera suggestion.—I am, Sir, &c., A UNITED PRESITBRIAN ELMER.
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