Here is the annual exhibit as it appears in the treasurer’s report: 

Balance sheet. 
Cr. 
Pew-rents
$1,250.00
Sunday Collections
325.25
Received by a Ladies’ Fair
113.34
Special Subscription
300.00

$1,988.59

Dr. Minister’s Salary $1,500.00 Organist (a new expenditure advocated by Mr. Wheaton because of the Special Subscription), Six months’ salary 100.00 Church Repairs, (a new fence and new blinds, &c., advocated by Mr. Wheaton because of the Special Subscription) 134.75 Reed Organ for the Sabbath-School (advocated by Mr. Wheaton because of the Special Subscription) 150.00 Interest on Mortgage 315.00 Sexton 200.00 Fire, lights and incidentals 225.00 Commission for collecting pew-rents 55.75

$2,680.50

1,988.59 Deficit $691.91

Of course, the minister’s salary was behind; and, of course, the minister was behind to the grocer, and the baker, and the butcher, and the dry-goods dealer; and, of course, everybody felt blue.  There was a good deal of informal discussion before the parson’s proposition was taken up.  Mr. Hardcap wanted to decrease the minister’s salary.  Mr. Wheaton wanted to raise the pew rents.  Mr. Leacock thought Mr. Wheaton could afford to give up his mortgage on the church.  Mr. Line proposed to take up a subscription, pay the balance off on the spot, and begin the new year afresh.  Mr. Gazbag thought it ought to be left to the ladies to clear off the debt with a concert or something of that sort.  Mr. Cerulian thought (though he said it very quietly) that if we had a minister who could draw better, we shouldn’t have any difficulty.

The parson kept his own counsel till these various plans had been, one after another, proposed and abandoned.  Then he again proposed his own.

“I do not want,” he said, “any more salary than this church and congregation can well afford to give.  I am willing if it is poor to share its poverty.  I believe if it is prosperous it will be willing to share with me its prosperity.  I have studied this matter a good deal; I believe the pew rent system to be thoroughly bad.  It excludes the poor.  What is more to the purpose it excludes those whom we most need to reach.  The men who most need the Gospel will not pay for it.  The law of supply and demand does not apply.  No man pays a pew rent who does not already at least respect religion, if he does not personally practise it.  The influence within the church of selling the Gospel in open market is as deadly as its influence without.  It creates a caste system.  Practically our pews are classified.  We have a parquette, a dress circle, a family circle, and an amphitheatre.  The rich and poor do not meet together.  We are not one in Christ Jesus.  Moreover I believe it to be as bad financially as it is morally.  When an American makes a bargain he wants to make a good one.  What he buys he wants to get as cheap as his neighbor.  If you rent your pews, every renter