The average salary paid the pastors in 1906 was $379.45, including house rent and special gifts. Three of the charges went to between $800 and $900; one paid from $600 to $650, and eight others over $500 each. The presiding elders averaged $563.97. For all purposes $50,589.49 was collected. These figures show that in spite of the adverse circumstances with which we have had to battle for the last half century, real progress has been made. But more ought to be done in the next fifteen years than has been accomplished in the last fifty. Some portions of the State are becoming immensely wealthy through the oil and mining industries. Our people are sharing in the general prosperity, and many of them are growing rich. The commercial possibilities of the State are great and promising as its hidden treasures are brought to the surface, and put on the world’s market. The work of the present ministry is to broaden the benefactions of our membership by teaching them the true meaning of Christian stewardship and the obligations which it imposes. In proportion as this is done, salaries will be increased more and more, the offerings to the various benevolent societies multiplied, and larger sums provided for Otterbein University and Union Biblical Seminary. There is quite a stretch of time between the penning of these lines and the day I started for my first circuit. Thirty-seven years is a good while. My experiences have been numerous and varied. The way at times has been rough, the tasks difficult, and the responsibilities great, but, after all, if I had my life to live over _I should spend it in the gospel ministry, and start again in West Virginia_.