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Show "."Tle'raiiJt and file of the:lerry of tie tJUblUhed Church art the.hajiest worked -and the poo rut paid set of men la the kingdom. - I doubt whether thers la anywhere tor Ihe world a wealthier weal-thier or mors generoua laity than the Church of England laity. It subscribes willingly and overwhelmingly to everything every-thing that Is churchy, to schools, tnie-slon tnie-slon halls, church benevolent societies, all forms of clerical philanthropic work, and of. parochial endeavor.- The statistics statis-tics for a record , year showed that tha sums . subscribed " by churchmen amounted to 290,000. or. It we Include In-clude the donations and subscriptions to horns and foreign missions. ' to $33,-200.000. $33,-200.000. That is truly magnificent It la equal to over If from every household house-hold la the kingdom; It exceeds ths sums raised by tithes plus tha total Income) In-come) that accrues from all tha church property In the country. But very ot-tls ot-tls of It finds Its way to tha clergy themselves. Ths total Income of ths 14.000 Incumbent Is only $17,400,000. or rather less than aa averags of $1250 a year apiec. I need hardly say thst thers are thousands of clergy who fall miserably below this average. Fifteen hundred livings are worth less than $500 a year, and four thousand seven-hundred seven-hundred livings are worth less thaa $1000 a year. In ths year of Queen Victoria's Vic-toria's Diamond Jubilee a fund was instituted to. raise the income of the poorest living to $1000. To do that It Is said that Something like, $2,000,000 per annum Is required. Ths actual amount subscribed is somewhere between $S0,-000 $S0,-000 and $75,000 a year. Such figures tell a deplorable tale; all the . more deplorable de-plorable because It Is unnecessary-Sydney unnecessary-Sydney Brooks. In Harper's Weekly. |