CHAPTER XX

A    MINISTER    FROM    ABROAD : 1876-1882

"What is the result of my ministry amongst you? I am not careful for you
to answer in respect to external things. A growing congregation, an extending
interest, a public reputation—these are small matters compared with the effect of
that ministry in your hearts and lives."—Llewelyn D. Bevan, Pastoral Letter,
1878.

"Moreover, concerning a stranger that is not of thy people Israel, but cometh
out of a far country, for thy name's sake."—1 Kings 8 : 41.

UNTIL 1876, the Brick Church had owned no
parsonage, nor had it felt the need of one
until the more frequent changes in the pas¬
torate, combined with the increased difficulty of ob¬
taining a residence in the neighborhood of the
church, brought the matter into special prominence.
At the initiation of Mr. Morgan, at this time presi¬
dent of the board of trustees—"Governor" Morgan,
as he was always called*—an opportunity to secure
No. 14 East Thirty-seventh Street was improved,
and the house, "together with the mirrors, console
tables, gas fixtures, and white patent shades," was
purchased for $35,100. The furnishings increased
this outlay by about $5,000, and the entire sum was
borrowed by the trustees, largely by a mortgage on
the property. This added nothing, however, to the
annual burden of the church, since the pastor's salary
would, of course, be proportionately reduced, f while

* He had held that office in New York State for two terms, beginning
in 1858.

t From $8,000 to $6,000.

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