laws are concerned, and the more voluntary the better; but at the same time it should be recollected that " God ordained that they who preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel." No sum is named, but the obligation is enforced. Hence when Christ sent forth his disciples on their errand of mercy, he would not have them provide either gold, or silver, or brass for their journey, because he says, "the workman is worthy of his meat." "Let him that is taught in the word, communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things." This is the rule prescribed by Infinite Wisdom, and it is never observed without resulting in mutual blessings.

But it is said, that Paul refused to make the Gospel charge. able to the people. So he did, at least on one occasion; and the answer to the objection derived from his conduct in this instance, is furnished by the very epistle which records the fact. By reading the whole account, it will be found that it was not very creditable to the Corinthian church, to suffer such a man as Paul to minister to his necessities by the toil of his own hands. Why would he not be paid for his services? Simply because by so doing he would give occasion for triumph to those false teachers that had crept in to blast his fair reputation, and undermine his influence. This his noble soul would avoid; but at the same time presents from other churches were grateful to his heart. The things which were thus sent him he calls “an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God."

If a people really love the Gospel, and are unable to contribute a proper support for it, then let the minister teach a school, or work a farm, or engage in any other honest and honourable employment, rather than abandon his post. Such cases may exist. But in ninety-nine instances out of a hundred, if the ordinances of the Gospel are not cheerfully supported, it is because these ordinances are not duly valued.

On this point conscientious men can scarcely be at a loss. According to the principles of the Bible, every faithful minister of the Gospel ought to be comfortably supported, because, for services rendered, he is fairly entitled to such support. No matter what his private resources are, or the generosity of a few particular friends; this should not be taken into the account at all. The people who enjoy his labours are bound by every consideration of justice, and every principle of the word of God, to place him in circumstances of comfort and competency. They ought not to see him consuming his own patrimony, while toiling for their good. This is never dreamt of in any other department of life. You never think of asking a merchant to abate the price of his

commodities, because he happens to have: vate fortune, wnich raises him above the necessity of securing the profits of trade. Physicians do not give their services gratuitously because they are men of wealth. The claims of a minister to his salary arise from his having well and truly earned it, and for the congregation to keep it back, on any such pretence, is an act of palpable injustice.

Ministers occupy a very responsible situation among their people, and one to which they trust they have been divinely called, as was Aaron. The duties expected from them are many and arduous, while the support given them, scarcely meets their present wants. As for making provision for time to come, it is out of the question. For their wives and children, when death shall remove them, they have little to confide in, besides the promise of Him, who has kindly styled himself" the Father of the fatherless, and the Judge of the widow in his holy habitation."

As husbands and fathers this is to them a tender subject. The prospect for themselves of a destitute old age, encompassed with infirmities, and laid aside by the very people who stood by them through all the dew of their youth, and all the ripeness of their manhood, is trying enough fully to tax their faith and patience. But this is not their worst difficulty. After telling their people that "if any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an infidel," they are forced to become examples of the very thing they conA straitened income, and the prejudices of society, compel them to this course. Let the anticipated pressure upon those, who may soon be known as their widows and orphans, be ever so severe, all they can do in most cases is to point them to the unfailing resources of God's everlasting

covenant.

This is a topic on which it is extremely painful to dwell. Suffice it to say, God takes the part of his ministers in this matter. His word is full and clear, and none will go astray who are willing to walk in the light of the Lord. In the next place it may be remarked,

III. THAT THE PEOPLE ARE TAKING THE READY WAY TO BENEFIT THEMSELVES, WHEN THEY LIBERALLY SUPPORT THEIR MINISTER.

Men cannot "sin against the Lord, without wronging their own souls." The evil of withholding more than is meet from the pastor, is sure sooner or later to recoil. with

tremendous effect, upon the heads of the flock. This is a never-failing result. It would be almost a miracle if a scanty salary, slowly and irregularly paid, did not in a little time ead to leanness and poverty of pulpit ministrations. Às a general fact this will be so, while human nature continues what it now is. Ministers have flesh as well as spirit, and it is impossible for them to give themselves to their work, that their "profiting may appear to all men," unless they are relieved from worldly care.

This is a point which the people, for their own sakes, should consider well. There are few congregations so small as not to need the full employment of the time, talent, and thought of their pastor. They can afford no better than he can, to have his mind harassed with anxious cares to make his income hold out, or his hands occupied in supplying their lack of service. Whenever such a state of things exists, the people are as great sufferers as the minister. In no way can they bring a more grievous blight upon their churches, than by placing the man, who serves at their altar, under the necessity of dividing his time between the field and the pulpit. This is not the way to fill a house with serious and attentive hearers. It is not thus that they can expect to secure sermons full of "thoughts that glow, and words that burn.'

A little reflection can scarcely fail to set this point in its true light. How is a minister to feed his people with knowledge and understanding, if his mind is occupied to any great extent, in providing for the wants of his household? How can he calmly and quietly sit down to the composition of a sermon, if pursued to his retirement with the thought of debts which he has no ability to liquidate? How is it possible for him to come fresh and vigorous into the pulpit, after having been exhausted through the week with the care of a school, or the toil of a farm? In a word, how can he prove himself a "workman that needs not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth," if all the while pressed with pecuniary embarrassments? No man of ordinary character can help being crushed by a load like this. Now and then he may rouse himself to something like an effort, but after all it is the effort of a jaded and prostrate mind.

The responsibilities, it is granted, are mutual. It is not desired that the people should let their ministers off with the discharge of half duty. Support them generously, and then be not afraid to make them feel that they are expected to visit the sick, attend the evening meetings, and be ready to come before the people on the Sabbath with well digested

and instructive discourses. Nothing is asked for an indolent or secular ministry. If the people be punctual and honourable themselves, so that their pastor shall have no excuse for "buying and selling and getting gain," they may then boldly advance their claim to the very best services he has it in his power to render. But they should not be surprised if a deficiency on their part, should beget a deficiency on his part also. However good a man he is, he cannot have much heart to labour for a people who seem to set so small a value on the Gospel that they consider every dollar as good as lost that goes for its support.

Look at a single case. Here is a minister, whose preparatory course of eight or ten years' study exhausted, and more than exhausted all his own resources. He entered upon his work with a fixed determination to give such attendance to reading and study as should make him a "scribe well instructed in the things of the kingdom," and an apt teacher of its great mysteries. But he found no parish library provided to his hand. Instead of numerous and well-selected volumes to store his mind with rich and varied thought, and to stimulate him to strike out new trains of thought himself, by exhibiting before him the efforts of the mighty dead, all the books he has are scarcely enough to fill a man's arms. Under these circumstances what can he do. After a few ineffectual efforts he sinks into despondency, and so far from aspiring to any thing like extensive influence and usefulness in the church of God, he becomes content barely to meet the engagements of the week as they arrive. This is all he is able to accomplish. To expect more from him is to demand the full tale of brick, while no straw is provided.

But how cheering is the influence of a generous provision upon the feelings of a young minister. Even the Apostle Paul himself was animated by tokens of kindness from his Christian friends. His language is, "I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again. Not because I desire a gift, but I desire fruit that may abound to your account." Such things are of less value in themselves, than as a means of binding pastor and flock together, and keeping up a circulation of good feeling between them. The giver here is benefitted as much as the receiver.

Kindness to ministers was one of the bright traits in the character of the well beloved Gaius. No one can doubt that his own soul was refreshed as often as he lodged these strangers, or washed their feet, or relieved their afflictions; and the fact is mentioned to his lasting honour. Wherever the good men went, who had been warmed at his fire-side,

or fed at his table, they gladly bore witness of his charity before the church.

But mark some of the evils of an opposite course. Many a faithful minister of Christ has been compelled, by dire necessity, to tear himself away from a people among whom he had otherwise fair prospects of being useful, because he could not endure the pecuniary embarrassments which he saw beginning to thicken around him. Much of the sin and the calamity of short sermons is to be traced to this cause. Twenty-six ministers were compelled to remove in eight years from a single Presbytery, within the bounds of one Synod for want of adequate support. Nor is this the worst of the evils. In another Presbytery but few pastors can be found, who have not been driven to some worldly avocation as an auxiliary in providing for the wants of their families.

All can see how such a system of penuriousness must work. The minister is weighed down to the dust with the thought that his people cannot have any proper sense of the value of religious ordinances, or they would not be so backward to sustain them. This cuts the sinews of all exertion, and forces him to "hang his harp upon the willows." Nor can the congregation feel any better. Besides putting in jeopardy any little church property they may be possessed of, they subject themselves to constant alarm whenever a pulpit in the neighbourhood becomes vacant. As their minister might so justly leave them, they naturally enough suppose that he will soon do so. This keeps up a never fail ing feeling of disquietude between him and his flock, which renders him as unfit for his work, as it does them to be benefitted by his work.

Or if such a result does not follow, the pastor soon becomes as worldly as his flock. Contracted feelings on their part, force him into a sort of saving system, which enables him to make money without much salary, and the congregation is pleased to compound, by consenting to take up with meager services, on condition that they come cheap. It is grievous to say that many a minister, in this way, becomes a kind of miser. Instead of an open, generous heart, always finding it "more blessed to give than to receive," he is driven to form the same close, calculating habits as prevail among his people. Soon he is more known as a farmer, a silk grower, or a cotton planter, than as a pastor. Worldliness in the people begets worldliness in the priest, and all settle down together into a state of spiritual apathy not less ruinous and desolating than the plagues of Egypt.

To every congregation it may be said: for your own up.

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