Page 51 - History of UB Church by A. Funkhouser Ver 1
P. 51
CHAPTER XIII
THE CHURCH IN RECENT TIMES
It is now a little more than a half-century since the close of the great American war. To the
Church of the United Brethren this has been an epoch of expansion.
If two lines be drawn from Philadelphia, one to the northwest corner of the state of Washington,
the other to the southwest corner of California, the space between will nearly coincide with the
territory covered by the church. The old population to the east, northeast, and southeast is of non-
German origin, and no effort has been made to introduce United Brethrenism in that section. The
space within the angle at the apex is where the Church arose. Until a time quite recent, the
movement of the American people has been almost exclusively westward. Except in a very slight
degree the membership has not migrated into New Jersey, New York, or New England, and not in
numbers sufficient to found churches. Neither has the Church ever been introduced into the
plantation region of the South, although a reflex wave of settlement of recent date has placed a
few congregations in that part of Virginia east of the Blue Ridge. But descendants of the original
United Brethren have moved westward very numerously, and in doing so have established new
conferences all the way to the Pacific shore.
As has been pointed out elsewhere in this volume, it was once the general opinion among the
Brethren that preaching could be done by men who made no preparation for it and who gained
their livelihood at something else. The laity listened, but did nothing toward the support of the
preacher except to feed him and his horse when he came around. This was doing no more than
they would have done for a stranger. At length there was a rising demand for a change, and the
time came when it had to be reckoned with.
"No wonder the transition to a paid ministry was slow and hard. The people themselves made
money very slowly, and it was their idea that if the preacher had enough to eke out an existence,
he was abundantly supplied. So the idea has grown slowly that the minister should be made
comfortable with a support sufficient to enable him to equip himself and do the best work possible,
and that this support is his of right. Unfortunately, the idea does not yet prevail among us that it is
not the minister's business to see after the collection of his own support, and that it is the privilege
and duty of the laity to see that the minister, who is the servant of all, be given this support
promptly."
As to how the church of to-day compares with that of 1850, a correspondent expresses the
following opinion, which may be colored by the pessimism that is liable to accompany old age:
"Three log buildings were owned by the Church, which elsewhere worshiped in schoolhouses and
private homes. There are now twelve good churches and a half-interest in four or five others. The
increase in membership is 300 to 400, but no greater than the increase in population. The circuit
covered what is now embraced in three circuits, a part of another, and also a station. Piety will
have to be discounted fifty per cent."
The first church paper was the "Mountain Messenger," appearing at Hagerstown, Maryland, in
1833, and edited by W. R. Rhinehart. Next year he sold out his equipment and moved to Circleville,
Ohio, where he began editing the "Religious Telescope," the circulation of which was about 1200
copies. In 1845 David Edwards was conducting the paper on a salary of $350 a year and his house
rent. He wrote editorials on national peace, and against slavery, secret orders, liquor, and tobacco.
The church publishing house begun here in a very modest way in 1834, was moved twenty years
later to Dayton, Ohio, and has since developed into one of the most complete establishment of its
kind in the Union.
A church paper to represent the Virginia Conference was agitated as early as 1847. By a vote of
18 to 4, it was resolved, "that this conference, from the fact that the Religious Telescope, our
church paper, is calculated to hinder, rather than promote, the church within the bounds of our
conference, in consequence of its containing abolition matters from time to time, take into
consideration the propriety of publishing within its own borders, a religious paper for its own
benefit." The following year it was resolved, "that we regard ourselves as having been
misrepresented in the columns of the Telescope during the past year." The evidences quoted were
Chapter XIII 51 The Church in Recent
Times
THE CHURCH IN RECENT TIMES
It is now a little more than a half-century since the close of the great American war. To the
Church of the United Brethren this has been an epoch of expansion.
If two lines be drawn from Philadelphia, one to the northwest corner of the state of Washington,
the other to the southwest corner of California, the space between will nearly coincide with the
territory covered by the church. The old population to the east, northeast, and southeast is of non-
German origin, and no effort has been made to introduce United Brethrenism in that section. The
space within the angle at the apex is where the Church arose. Until a time quite recent, the
movement of the American people has been almost exclusively westward. Except in a very slight
degree the membership has not migrated into New Jersey, New York, or New England, and not in
numbers sufficient to found churches. Neither has the Church ever been introduced into the
plantation region of the South, although a reflex wave of settlement of recent date has placed a
few congregations in that part of Virginia east of the Blue Ridge. But descendants of the original
United Brethren have moved westward very numerously, and in doing so have established new
conferences all the way to the Pacific shore.
As has been pointed out elsewhere in this volume, it was once the general opinion among the
Brethren that preaching could be done by men who made no preparation for it and who gained
their livelihood at something else. The laity listened, but did nothing toward the support of the
preacher except to feed him and his horse when he came around. This was doing no more than
they would have done for a stranger. At length there was a rising demand for a change, and the
time came when it had to be reckoned with.
"No wonder the transition to a paid ministry was slow and hard. The people themselves made
money very slowly, and it was their idea that if the preacher had enough to eke out an existence,
he was abundantly supplied. So the idea has grown slowly that the minister should be made
comfortable with a support sufficient to enable him to equip himself and do the best work possible,
and that this support is his of right. Unfortunately, the idea does not yet prevail among us that it is
not the minister's business to see after the collection of his own support, and that it is the privilege
and duty of the laity to see that the minister, who is the servant of all, be given this support
promptly."
As to how the church of to-day compares with that of 1850, a correspondent expresses the
following opinion, which may be colored by the pessimism that is liable to accompany old age:
"Three log buildings were owned by the Church, which elsewhere worshiped in schoolhouses and
private homes. There are now twelve good churches and a half-interest in four or five others. The
increase in membership is 300 to 400, but no greater than the increase in population. The circuit
covered what is now embraced in three circuits, a part of another, and also a station. Piety will
have to be discounted fifty per cent."
The first church paper was the "Mountain Messenger," appearing at Hagerstown, Maryland, in
1833, and edited by W. R. Rhinehart. Next year he sold out his equipment and moved to Circleville,
Ohio, where he began editing the "Religious Telescope," the circulation of which was about 1200
copies. In 1845 David Edwards was conducting the paper on a salary of $350 a year and his house
rent. He wrote editorials on national peace, and against slavery, secret orders, liquor, and tobacco.
The church publishing house begun here in a very modest way in 1834, was moved twenty years
later to Dayton, Ohio, and has since developed into one of the most complete establishment of its
kind in the Union.
A church paper to represent the Virginia Conference was agitated as early as 1847. By a vote of
18 to 4, it was resolved, "that this conference, from the fact that the Religious Telescope, our
church paper, is calculated to hinder, rather than promote, the church within the bounds of our
conference, in consequence of its containing abolition matters from time to time, take into
consideration the propriety of publishing within its own borders, a religious paper for its own
benefit." The following year it was resolved, "that we regard ourselves as having been
misrepresented in the columns of the Telescope during the past year." The evidences quoted were
Chapter XIII 51 The Church in Recent
Times
