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A well qualified minister has spent about nine years in preparation for his work, and very likely all his patrimony and more too; and yet, some expect him to throw in all this as of no ac count, and to labor for a bare subsistence for the time being, and even for much less than that sometimes. He must not lay up any thing against a time of need, as men of other professions do, and as his people do; that would be quite too much. He must not expect anything to aid him in the education of his children, or in preparing them for business and usefulness; a thing which he, as well as every other parent, is bound to do. However laborious he may be, he must expect simply a present subsistence, and that with great care and economy; and when his health fails, or age and infirmity prevent his further labors, he must make the best of it, and come upon the charity of his friends, or of the Christian public.

I know cases of this kind-they are no fiction. But this is doing great wrong and injustice to the faithful ministers of Christ. They have the same right and duty to make suitable provision for their families and for future necessities, which men in other professions and occupations have. Because they are ministers, this does not annihilate their obligations and duties as Christian parents and heads of families. Many feel the embarrassing condition in which the ministry places them in this respect, and are leaving it and engaging in other kindred and in remoter occupa tions, to relieve themselves from the embarrassment. Many young men of much promise of superior natural endowments and ardent piety, who would gladly enter the ministry, are prevented from so doing on this very account: and they do right, in the circumstances of the case. For it would be throwing most of them into such straitened circumstances as would cramp their efforts and greatly curtail their usefulness. They are therefore satisfied that they can exert a wider influence upon the kingdom of Christ by engaging in some other occupation.

A few weeks since, I noticed in a western Presbyterian paper an article exactly in point, headed, "Retiring from the Ministry." The editor says that on visiting a Methodist Conference a few months before, he was struck with the large proportion of young men in the ranks of its itinerant ministry. This fact he thinks in part accounted for, in an article written by one of their ministers who had been an itinerant for more than twenty years.

"The unnecessary privations and sufferings of our preachers, even in the service of of old and wealthy societies, is now operating to thin out and reduce our ministerial ranks. Many are absolutely driven out by poverty; many are disgusted by the cold indifference of the churches they serve, and retire in disaffection; many being worn out personally, or having families in feebleness, are compelled to leave. And what is more and alarmingly common--the very best portion of our ministry, with expensive

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or feeble families, are finding sufficient excuse to accept what are E being continually offered to them-presidencies, professorships, principalships, editorships, agencies, etc."

On this extract the editor thus comments :----"The process here described is not confined entirely to the Methodist Church. Other denominations are feeling its influence. Any Church which does not provide an adequate support for its ministers and their families, is drying up its own life's blood by the process; and it will see and feel the effect when it is probably too late to Tremedy the evil. An unsupported ministry must necessarily become a secular one, and to that degree an inefficient one. At the time when men are prepared, by their age and experience, to become efficient, they find their families growing so upon their hands that they must turn aside from their direct work to procure a support for them; and thus the Church is deprived of their labors and loses far more than she gains by the process of starving them."

I would only add,--that such is the fact in more than one or two denominations may easily be seen, if any one will take the trouble carefully to look into our large cities and towns-not to say the smaller ones and accurately note the number of ministers, in the vigor of life, and well qualified for their work, who have become editors, publishers, book-keepers, merchants, farmers, school teachers, agents, secular and religious, or have entered into other occupations still. Most of them would greatly prefer to labor in the ministry, if they could so abide, and receive the necessary support.

To withhold a comfortable and liberal support from the Christian ministry, dishonors Christ. To disobey his laws, on this subject as well as any other, always dishonors him; just as it dishonors God to disobey him, and as children dishonor their parents by disobeying them. The laws which Christ has given on this subject are just and right in themselves, and indispensable to the well-being of the Christian ministry and the church of God; and to disobey them, is casting reproach upon the Lawgiver-upon his wisdom, his justice, or his benevolence. He has given himself to die for them, that he might redeem them from the just desert of their sins; and yet they love the world so much more than they do their Lord and Saviour, that they cast his laws behind their backs. What dishonor is thus done to the Redeemer!

III. The good of the people and the prosperity of religion require that ministers should receive such a support as has been specified.

People are apt to place little value on that which costs them little or nothing. If they have to make great effort, and practice great self-denial, in order to secure the able and faithful preaching of the Gospel, they will prize it the more, and it will do them

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the more good. The very effort will weaken their love of the world and strengthen their love to Christ and his cause, and the souls of men. When they give only what they can just as well as not, and often very much less than that, it contracts their minds, hardens their hearts, and renders them more worldly and selfish; thus presenting to every benevolent and holy mind an object painful to behold. But self-denial and liberality in giving for the support of the Gospel, wakes up a religious interest among a people and prepares the way for religion to prosper as it otherwise would not. A general and needful effort of this kind serves to strengthen and invigorate the Christian graces of a whole church.

Yesterday, I took up a religious paper which fell in my way, and saw an article, headed, "Feeble Churches." It stated that a church in a small New England village, which had long felt it self unable to give a competent support to its pastor, had recently been divided. A portion of its members had gone and built another house of worship a mile or two distant, which cost four thousand dollars, and a parsonage which cost two thousand; and the two churches now give their pastors a salary, one of seven hundred dollars, and the other eight hundred-considerably more than double the amount, besides the expenditure in buildings, which they had unitedly felt themselves able to give to their pastor. This fact is an illustration of the evident truth, that, generally in matters of this kind, ability is willingness; and of the Latin maxim, "they can, because they think they can"-a state of mind which it is very important should more frequently be prevalent.

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If the feeble church I am now addressing were to declare itself free and independent of all foreign aid, -Home Missionary Society and everything else, and its members were to give, each one, according to the ability which God has given him, and no more, they might themselves provide an ample support for a ister; and the effort would greatly enlarge their hearts, wake up an interest in favor of the Gospel which will not otherwise be felt, and might result in filling your house with hearers on whom the Spirit of God might be poured out, till the church should be greatly enlarged, strengthened, and built up in the faith and in practical godliness.

All this might be accomplished, I doubt not, if each one of you practically considered himself as "a steward of God," entrusted with his Lord's goods that he may use them in building up his kingdom, according to his will, and as circumstances require. In that case, several of you probably might give for the support of the Gospel among you, without depriving you of a single personal or domestic comfort, from one to two hundred dollars each in a year, and others less, in proportion to their ability; and thus the object be accomplished at once. Brethren, try it-try it.

If you hesitate respecting it, go and ask your Lord if he would be displeased, should you give two or three times as much of his goods for the support of the Gospel, as you do now; and whether he prefers that you should hoard them up for your own use, or to swell your bequests. Be conscientious in the matter, and see what answer you will get.

But some persons may have been so long in the habit of giving 25 a certain amount, as their proportion of the sum you have thought proper to raise for the support of the Gospel, that they think it would require too much effort and self-denial to increase that amount very much. Besides, they wish to have the sum raised by the people so small, that the latter may be induced to exercise : their benevolence, as is meet, in giving something to charitable objects; leaving the minister to supply the deficiency in the provision for his support, in some other way. I confess this looks a little like "robbing Peter to pay Paul." Instead of this, let people provide, justly and liberally, for the support of the Gospel among themselves; and if this should call for the exercise of self-denial, on account of their former habits of giving, the effort will impart to them moral strength, and they will have more ability to contribute to benevolent objects; and thus it will do them the more good. In that case, some may not be able to accumulate quite as much every year, and add it to their estates; though the difference will scarcely be perceptible; and then they would honor Christ and their Christian profession far more.

But how can it be done? I will suppose that, besides the profits of your farm or of your business, you have money at interest, on bond and mortgage perhaps-five hundred dollars here, one thousand there, five thousand there, and the like. Perhaps some one may wish to take up his mortgage, about this time, -I know nothing about it,--and you hardly know where to put the money for safe and profitable investment. Put it in here-for the service of the church of Christ and it will be the most safe and profitable investment you can have. You now get only seven per cent. interest; and what is that to a steward of Jesus Christ, going to give account of his stewardship to his Lord? Invest it where it will tell on the interests of his kingdom, and it may yield you an hundred fold in this present life, and in the world to come life everlasting. Can you do better than that?

But perhaps you cannot give much now, because you are husbanding your property and letting it accumulate so as to give it to the Lord in your last Will and Testament: as some others have done. Yes, and when they died, a long list of their bequests was published in the papers, sounding very large. Mr. died last week, and left the following bequests to religious and benevolent objects. So many thousand dollars to the American Bible Society; so many thousand to the American Tract Society; so many thousand to the American Home Mis

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sionary Society; so many thousand to Foreign Missions, the Education Society, the Orphan Asylum, and some others, not wholly forgetting the church of which he was a member. This is very well, at last, but he might have done much better. And what an impression did it all make on intelligent men who knew him and his manner of life? Why, they said, in substancethis man kept his money very close, so long as he had any use for it; he was hard in his dealings with others; he thought it not necessary for ministers to have much salary, or to lay up any thing for the necessities of the future; he kept his property as long as he could, and when he must leave it, he gave it to the Lord! to whom it belonged before. Does the intelligent Christian community honor such a man as an exemplary, consistent Christian? By no means. But let the Christian who holds a considerable amount of the Lord's property, in trust, use it, while he lives, in promoting the best interests of Christ's kingdom, and when he dies dispose aright of what may remain; and the whole community will honor him in life, and after he is dead his name will be held in precious and lasting remembrance.

I remember a case exactly in point. Several years ago there lived in New England a rich man, but without any family of his own. In point of wealth, he was far superior to any man in the place; but was hard in his dealings, would grind the face of the poor, and did as little as possible for the interests of religion or the benefit of the town where he lived. In his will, he gave most of his estate for the establishment of a philanthropic institution of a peculiar type, in another and larger town, by means of which his name would be handed down to posterity. A few months after his death, one of his neighbors said to me: "I thought as I was standing by the side of Mr.'s coffin, There, you cannot carry your money away with you, and you cannot occupy any more ground now than the rest of us." " I do not say that this feeling was right; but you see the effect of such a course of "withholding more than is meet." Had that man, while he lived, made a liberal use of his property for the benefit of the church, of society, and of the suffering poor and needy around him, the whole population would have flocked around his coffin, men, women and children, and the big tear falling down their cheek would have testified how deeply they felt that they had lost a friend. I ought to say a word respecting Christ's estimate of men's giving according to their ability; as expressed in the case of the rich men and the poor widow, who cast money into the treasury of the Lord. The rich cast in of their abundance; the poor widow cast in "two mites," each about one-third of a cent, or two-thirds of a cent in the whole; and yet Christ declared that this poor widow, according to his view of the case, had contributed more than all the rich put together. They had exercised no self-denial, but had given only a part of what they could spare