WE have lately been reflecting upon an opportunity for doing great good perfectly within our reach, to which many are paying but little attention. Who among our brethren are thinking how many humble, unassuming and comparatively obscure men we have, who are actually doing a great work, and not only doing it at their own charges, but doing it without thanks or even credit from their brethren? While we are paying much attention to a few men of popularity, influence and fame, we are overlooking a large number of the best, truest, most self-sacrificing men the Lord has given us. These, too, are the men who are doing the main body of the work, and they are the main supports of the cause. They are men of good sense, piety and devotion; men of excellent character, an honor to the cause and a credit to the brotherhood, who are penetrating the private neighborhoods, preaching in private houses, school houses, barns, shops, and open groves, and bringing thousands to the fold every year; and in the place of the brethren making any arrangement to support them, or even saying anything to encourage them, they are saying discouraging things of them, such as that “they can’t preach”—“they are little preachers,” etc., etc.
Now, we desire to hear of some old church, where wealth abounds, instead of monopolizing money and talent in preaching in their midst, where probably they can do but little good, making arrangements outside to sustain some good man, such as we have described, to visit those by-ways all through the land, where most numbers may be converted and the work of the Lord greatly extended. We have the men to do this work, good men, men in whom we have all confidence, who desire to do this work, and are doing it measurably without charge. These men do not desire large wages for their work. Indeed, they have shown, in many instances, that they will work on, pay or no pay. But they could do vastly more if they were supported. Now, the idea of our fixing our eye upon a few talented men, paying them large salaries, and wholly neglecting these, is manifestly wrong. It is sinful. We saw six or eight preachers such as we allude to, together in Mexico, Missouri,—and we find them in every community, and we vouch for the fact, that more than one-half of all the accessions reported are from men of this description.
We live in a time when humble men and good men are overlooked; when working men are forgotten and neglected; and we desire to make a plea in behalf of these. They are the men who are willing to go into all the highways and by-places—to preach in the private house, the school house, the barn, the shop or the grove. A large proportion of all the work that has been done is the result of the sacrifices, labors and toils of this class of men. They are the men that will now do the work, do it well, and with less expense than any others. There are hundreds of men of this description that have never received one hundred dollars in a year for all their hard labor. We have in our mind several of this class, who have brought into the fold large numbers every year, and have received for their labor comparatively nothing. Will not the brethren make arrangements to do something for these brethren? They are willing to go among the poor, the destitute, and preach to them the unsearchable riches of Christ.
If those who have means to expend for the cause, will look to this class of men and to their work and aid them, they will do one hundred per cent. more with their means than is generally the case. These will go where another class of men will not go, and do a work that another class of men will not do, and yet a work every way as important to the conversion of the world. Send these men all through the land, and convert the country, and then we can easily convert the city. We have a large number of this class of men who can be employed for two, three and four hundred dollars a year, to preach a great portion of their time, and they are the only men who can and will penetrate all the nooks and corners of the land. The Lord help us to appreciate these good men, and see that they are aided in their labors of love and work of faith.