This
is the time of year when the itinerant Methodist preacher turns his eyes
wistfully to the new charge to which conference has appointed him, and he
wearily sings as he packs up his lares and penates,
“No foot of land do I
possess’
No cottage in this wilderness,
A poor, wayfaring man.”
That was probably true of the old-time
itinerant, but things have changed and brightened in the last half century. Now
and then we read of country congregations not paying their preacher even the
meager salary that a niggardly board of stewards allotted him, and indeed there
were some such complaints from the late Toronto and Hamilton conferences, but
take it by and large the average preacher fares about as well as the average
man who sits in the pews. To the credit of our own pews in Hamilton, it is a
rare event when the preacher has to go to conference without his full salary,
and occasionally a purse of gold added or a set of silver for Mrs. Preacher.
Hamilton has always been a paradise for Methodist preachers, and indeed this
may be truly said of all denominations, for once they get acquainted with the
people, it is hard for them to leave when the allotted time has come, or when
the Lord calls them to a higher salary. Once a Presbyterian preachers gets
safely anchored in a Hamilton pulpit, it is a rare thing for a resignation to
be handed in, and if one listens to the siren voice of some distant church, his
heart turns back to the good old friends of yore, and he wonders why he was
ever deluded into listening to a call. Good Dr. Lyle came here when he was a
young man, served his church for nearly forty years, and then retired, and like
the ancient tribe of Indians who, footsore and weary, saw the promised land
when they crossed into Alabama, and said “Here I rest!”
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In the general shake up at the late
Hamilton conference, this city was slated for a number of changes. Ministers
who had served for the full term of four years were sent to other churches, and
in their places have come men new to the people. It has been one round of
welcoming the coming and speeding the parting preachers and their families. And
judging from the complimentary resolutions and the gifts of cash, gold and
silverware, the congregations expressed in a tangible way their regret at the
breaking of the tie that bound preacher and people so closely together for four
years. There is one thing to be said in favor of the itinerant system of the
Methodist, that while the people sorrow at the parting from the old preacher,
there are ready to extend the welcoming hand to the coming one, and are loyal
to him during his pastorate. The Methodist preachers as a general thing fare
well in Hamilton, for the salaries are generous and are promptly paid. In the
olden time, when Hamilton only had three churches, and the contributions for
ministerial support were equally divided so that each preacher got about $600
for his year’s work. Nowadays, the three oldest churches are paying good
salaries and the other eight or ten ranges from $1,200 to $1,000.
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One of the great issues this year in
Hamilton was the closing of the four year term of Dr. Smith, pastor of
Centenary church, who has gone to Montreal. Probably there is no man in the
Canadian conference that ranks higher as a student, scholar and pulpit orator
than Dr. Smith, and it was unfortunate for Centenary that the limit came too
soon. Plain and simple in his manner, Dr. Smith won not only the love and
reverence of his own immediate church, but also the respect of those on the
outside who had the pleasure of being brought into contact with him. This was
his second pastorate in Centenary, and in the eight years he lived her, he
became so attached to the people that he has determined, when his Montreal
pastorate has ended, to return, adopting the motto of the Indians when they saw
the placid waters of Alabama, “Here will I rest.” Dr. Smith’s sermons were not
only literary gems of prose and poetry, but the deep earnestness of the
Christian preacher made the Sunday messages something to think over during the
rest of the day. For nearly forty years, his life has been devoted to the
ministry, and they have been years of earnest, profitable work to the
congregations to whom he has ministered. Hamilton will welcome his return four
years hence, and in the meantime, pray that his labors in Montreal will be so
pleasant to him as they will be profitable to his congregation.
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The month of June has made some
reputation in the past as being the month of flowers and sunshine and matrimony
of wedding bells and wedded belles, and as the genial Mr. Bumble aptly
expressed in one of Dickens’ charming stories, the month “ ‘lining hearts and ‘ousekeepings.”
True in its name as the flowery month of June, never have the roses been
brighter or fuller of perfume and so prolific, for even though it was one of
tears and cold blasts yet nature made up for some of the discomfort by
beautiful foliage of trees and the greenness of lawns and shrubbery. Whatever
castle building the young people indulged in about matrimony, their ideals must
have been rudely shattered when they listened to the moanings and groanings of
mother and father at the cost of coal and the keeping up of furnace fires at a
season when the sun should be doing its best to make everything bright and
warm. Then the high cost of living was another bugbear to the prospective
investment in a marriage license and the raising of a fee to add to the
minister’s salary so that he could hike off to Muskoka to recuperate for the
fall campaign against the sins of the world. Fancy a June wedding with the
bride wrapped in furs. Yet withal, Hamilton had its fair share of June brides,
and though house rent and the necessary comforts of life may come in a little
high, the young people will not worry but make the best of the happy life on
which they have entered.
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Through the kindness of an old
Hamiltonian, we have before us a copy of the Weekly Advertiser, printed in
Dundas, Scotland, January 16, 1801, more than 112 years ago. The old paper is
in an excellent state of preservation, and the presswork shows as clearly as
when it came off the hand press. To an old printer, such papers are a treasure
for it carries him back in memory to the old hand press and the glue and
molasses roller. The first machine press the writer saw was in the Spectator
office in 1851, and he had then five year’s experience as a roller boy in the
Montreal Herald, the London Free Press and the London Prototype. It took quite
a while to get advanced to a “case” in those days. Boys had to begin at the
roller and learn the printing business from the ground up. But why become
garrulous at the sight of an old newspaper that was printed thirty-three years
before we were born? The Dundas Advertiser had evidently been passing through
the deep waters of affliction, for the number before us was the resurrected
issue after two years of suspension. Businessmen in those days had not got in
the habit of advertising therefore the publisher had only the subscription list
to depend upon to pay expenses. The editor’s prospectus stated that in the Advertiser
“will be given a faithful and accurate account of the most material occurrences,
foreign and domestic; and as it is meant to be the vehicle of any party
politics, facts will appear as they are, leaving its readers to make their own comments. A
provincial paper, in the editor’s view, is calculated for local utility rather
than for political discussions.” The newspaper makers of the present day might
profit by the old Scotch editor’s way of viewing things. The copy before us is
filled principally with foreign news and the arrival and departure of sailing
vessels.
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Evidently salt was a scarce and
valuable commodity, for it required a permit from the right honorable the Lord
Commissioner of His Majesty’s treasury to get a supply for domestic purposes
and for the curing of fish. For every cran of herrings of 4 gallons, 65 pounds
of salt was allowed, for every barrel of pickerel or mackerel of 50 gallons, 95
pounds of salt. Times must have been bad, for at the place called the Herring
Fishery, a public soup kitchen was opened for the distribution of soup and
bread to hundreds of poor families. “The soup is excellent, such for taste and
cleanliness as would not disgrace the table of any of the subscribers, although
it costs the fund little more than 2 ½ the Scotch pint.”
At Herring Fishery, “the bounty of
Providence has been most amply displayed in the amazing schoal of excellent
herrings which have taken shelter in our river and has opened a source of
industry and wealth to hundreds who from the decline of our trade were likely
to become destitute for want of employment. Nearly one thousand crans of
herring have been taken within one week, which has been sold for nearly as many
pounds, and as the shoal seems to be stationary, it is hoped that it will be an
increasing trade these many weeks. Herrings were today selling at 15s the cran.
We fear a scarcity of salt and purchasers.”
To supply the people in the
neighboring town with cheaper food, the farmers in the parish of Kilmannock
were called to attend a meeting of the magistrates and the deacons of the incorporations
to consult about measures for supplying the town with a sufficient quantity of
meat, which is to be paid by the town treasurer.” The Scotch had hard time a
hundred years ago.
Here is an item that may be of value
even in these days of prosperity in Hamilton when the price of food has got up
so high that it is beyond the reach of some : “it is an important circumstance
to be remembered, not only in the present time of scarcity, but on the return
of that plenty to which we may, with the blessing of Providence, look forward,
that one pound of rice is equal, in effect, to eight pounds of flour.”
In the parish of old Monkland, there
are comparatively few persons on poor roll, which is chiefly owing to the
laudable scheme of having boxes of funds at every public work. Some boys, in
imitation of what they had heard from their fathers entered into an agreement
to contribute something every Saturday night. Being young and earning no wages,
they gave everyone a pin; and after a short time, they sold the pins, and when
they began to work, they allowed two, and at last three, once per month. They are
now in a situation to afford relief such as may need it.” This is a suggestion
to the boys of the present day.
Substantially the above covers all the
best news items in the Advertiser. By proclamation of the king, a day was set
apart for a general fast. “Taking into our most serious consideration the heavy
judgments with which Almighty God is pleased to visit the inequities of this
land, by grievous scarcity and dearth of divers articles of sustenance and necessaries
of life.” It was decreed that throughout the kingdom of Scotland the people may
humble themselves in order to get pardon for their sins – in order to get a
square meal.
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